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.

caliber of enemies he was facing these

was that the effects of the poison did not seem to be growing stronger. Blood

battle was over. The plan worked, in the end, even if killing the Wormvine had turned out to be much more complicated than anyone would have thought. Still, somehow, Sunny had managed to achieve

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

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

take a look at his new Memory. Slowly, his exhaustion

numerous questions inevitably

happened in the cargo hold of the

as the host of the Wormvine? How had they survived for thousands of years? Why was Solvane immune

place? And why was it so similar to the obsidian one that lay on the

found no answers, one thought gradually encompassed

I

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

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 to level

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 also killed a Corrupted Monster, with

the strike… but it

definitely something that no one is going

grimaced from pain, and

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 Saint, and eight from

at the end of the list. He held his breath

Memory: [Undying Chain.]