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.

was a wonderful armor and accompanied him on 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

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

turned out to be much

if they were still 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 couldn't muster enough energy to care, at the

corpse of the person who had once been called Solvane for a bit, then walked over and

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

that happened, numerous questions inevitably

hold of the ancient ship

was Solvane, 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

in the first place? And why was it so similar

questions and found no answers, one thought gradually encompassed all

I killed a

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

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

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

yet, Sunny had killed

Corrupted Monster,

it was Saint who had delivered the strike…

is definitely something that no one is

grimaced from pain, and finally summoned

first thing he did was check his fragments. The number was just

Shadow Fragments: [1958/2000].

above him gave twelve more fragments —

at the end of the list. He held his breath and

Memory: [Undying Chain.]