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.

with the caliber of enemies he was facing these

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 better

turned out to be much more complicated than anyone

up the remaining Sailor Dolls should the beasts regain their courage after the Corrupted Monster's death, but he

called Solvane for a bit, then walked over and stood above him silently,

not even summoning the runes to take a look at his new

questions inevitably

cargo hold of the

Why was Solvane immune to divine flame and

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

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

I killed a

was what Saints were really called. Sunny knew it

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

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

Sunny had

had also killed a Corrupted Monster, with the same

the strike… but it didn't matter. The

is definitely something that no one

then grimaced from pain, and finally

first thing he did was check his fragments.

Shadow Fragments: [1958/2000].

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

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

Memory: [Undying Chain.]