Shadow Slave

Sitting on the floor of the cargo hold, with his back against the soft and spongy layer of rotting brown moss, Sunny bent down and spat a mouthful of blood. Breathing hoarsely, he stared at it for a moment, and then tiredly leaned back.

He did not feel too well.

[...Your shadow grows stronger.]

A bitter smile appeared on his face.

'What? Is that all?'

After all that had just happened, Sunny felt that he really deserved more.

This time, his hopes were not for naught.

The Spell remained silent for a bit, as though to torture him, and then added:

[You have received a Memory.]

'...Better.'

After that, he groaned and coughed some more blood.

All around Sunny, the brown moss was rotting, withering, and turning into dust. The same thing was happening to the vile mass of vines, albeit at a slower rate. Now that both the Corrupted Monster and its host were dead, the ancient wreck seemed to be cleansing itself.

He couldn't be bothered to pay attention to these changes, though, and was fully concentrated on his own miserable state.

Even though the whole battle took less than a minute, Sunny had sustained a lot of damage. His body was pierced and torn by the black thorns, and he had too much poison running through his veins. One of his ligaments seemed to be seriously torn, too, which brought him a lot of pain now that the adrenalin was starting to dissipate.

but Sunny had to reluctantly admit that with the caliber of enemies he was facing these days, its protective qualities left a lot to be desired. Sadly, even such

was one good thing about his condition, though, it was that the effects of the poison did not seem to be growing stronger. Blood Weave

battle was over. The plan worked, in the end, even if killing the Wormvine had turned out to be much more complicated than anyone would have thought. Still,

up the remaining Sailor Dolls should the beasts

stared at the quickly disintegrating corpse of the person who had once been called Solvane for a bit, then

the runes to take a look at his new Memory. Slowly, his exhaustion diminished, and

happened, numerous questions inevitably assaulted

cargo hold of the ancient

and how had they ended up as the host of the Wormvine? How had they survived for thousands of years? Why was Solvane immune to divine flame and couldn't be harmed by the Cruel Sight,

first place? And why was it so similar to

no answers, one

Saint… I killed

human, which was what Saints were really called. Sunny knew it to be

someone to sell himself short, but not even in his wildest dreams had Sunny ever considered being able to kill a Saint… at least not at his current Rank. Saints were simply creatures of another plane, unrivaled demigods with enough power

Rank as a Saint, and even possessed one more soul core… but there was no comparison. Due to their Aspects and nature, Transcendent humans were much more of a force to be reckoned with

Sunny

Corrupted Monster, with the same

Saint who had delivered the strike… but it

that no one

from pain, and finally summoned

did was check his fragments. The

Shadow Fragments: [1958/2000].

Ranks above him gave twelve more fragments — four from the Saint, and eight

runes appeared at the end of the list. He held his breath

Memory: [Undying Chain.]