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.

his misadventures from almost the very start of it all, 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 a powerful Memory could not keep up with the progress of its

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

alive… were going to have to clean up the remaining Sailor Dolls should the beasts regain their courage after the Corrupted Monster's death, but he

been called Solvane for a bit, then walked over and stood above him silently, looking away in her usual indifferent

a while, not even summoning the runes to take a look at his

happened, numerous questions

the cargo hold of the ancient ship was just too

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

from, in the first place? And why was it so similar to

no answers, one thought

Saint… I killed a

had described Solvane as a Transcendent human, which was what Saints were really called. Sunny knew it to

short, but not even in his wildest dreams had Sunny ever considered being able to kill a Saint… at least not at his

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 than any beast or monster could ever hope to be. Only a devil of the same Rank, or maybe

yet, Sunny had killed

a Corrupted Monster, with

technically, it was Saint who had delivered the strike… but it didn't

is definitely something that no

then grimaced from pain, and finally summoned the

was check his fragments.

Shadow Fragments: [1958/2000].

and a monster two Ranks above him gave twelve more fragments — four from the Saint, and eight from the Wormvine. Sunny sighed, lamenting the unfairness of his Aspect for the

at the end of the list. He held his breath

Memory: [Undying Chain.]