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

there 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 had the situation under control, and he was bound to feel

over. The plan worked, in the end, even if killing the Wormvine had turned out to be

remaining Sailor Dolls should the beasts regain their courage

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

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

questions inevitably

cargo hold of the ancient ship was just too

years? Why was Solvane immune to divine flame and couldn't

why was it so similar to the obsidian one that lay on the altar in the

Sunny considered all these questions and found no answers, one thought gradually encompassed all

Saint… I

a Transcendent human, which was what Saints were really called. Sunny knew it to be true, but still couldn't

was not 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

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

yet, Sunny

also killed a Corrupted Monster, with the same

the strike… but it didn't matter. The result was

is definitely something that no

then grimaced from pain,

first thing he did was check his fragments. The

Shadow Fragments: [1958/2000].

managed to kill a few Nightmare Creatures on the way to the Shipwreck Island, and killing a human 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 thousandth time, and looked at

the end of the list. He held his breath and

Memory: [Undying Chain.]