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 a lot to be desired. Sadly, even such a powerful Memory could not

the poison did not seem to be growing stronger.

the Wormvine had turned out to be much more complicated than anyone would have thought. Still, somehow, Sunny had managed

remaining Sailor Dolls should the

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

even summoning the runes to take a look at

that happened, numerous questions inevitably

in the cargo hold of the ancient ship was just

the Wormvine? How had they survived for thousands of years? Why was Solvane immune to divine flame and couldn't be harmed by the Cruel Sight, but succumbed to one strike of the wooden

so similar to

found no answers, one thought gradually

Saint… I

Solvane as a Transcendent human, which was what Saints were really

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 enough power

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 a powerful demon, could stand a chance in a battle

yet, Sunny

a Corrupted Monster, with

Saint who had delivered the strike… but it didn't matter. The result was the

no one is going to

grimaced from pain, and finally summoned the

was check his fragments. The number was just as he

Shadow Fragments: [1958/2000].

human and a monster two Ranks above him gave twelve more fragments — four from the

the end of the list. He

Memory: [Undying Chain.]