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.

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

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,

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

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

at the quickly disintegrating corpse of the person who had once been called Solvane for a bit, then walked over and stood above him silently, looking away

summoning the runes to take a look at his new Memory. Slowly, his exhaustion diminished, and he could think

numerous questions inevitably assaulted

happened in the cargo hold of the ancient

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

first place? And why was it so similar to the obsidian one that lay on the altar in the Sanctuary

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

Saint… I killed a

what Saints were really called. Sunny knew it to be true, but still couldn't quite believe

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.

of the same Rank as 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 Rank,

Sunny

killed a Corrupted Monster, with the

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

no one

grimaced from pain, and finally summoned the

his fragments. The

Shadow Fragments: [1958/2000].

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

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

Memory: [Undying Chain.]