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.

admit that with the caliber of enemies he was facing these days, its protective qualities left a lot to be desired.

the poison did not seem to be growing stronger. Blood Weave had the situation under control, and he was bound to

Wormvine had turned out to be much more

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

who had once been called Solvane for a bit, then walked over and

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

happened, numerous questions inevitably assaulted his

had happened in the cargo hold of the ancient

ended up as the host of the Wormvine? How had they survived for thousands of years? Why

it so similar

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

I killed

what Saints were really called. Sunny knew it to be

able to kill a Saint… at least not

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

yet, Sunny had killed

a Corrupted Monster, with the

the strike… but it didn't matter.

no

chuckled, then grimaced from pain, and finally summoned the

check his fragments. The number was just as

Shadow Fragments: [1958/2000].

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

the end of the list. He held his breath

Memory: [Undying Chain.]