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 caliber of enemies he was facing

poison did not

The plan worked, in the end, even if killing the Wormvine had turned out to be much more complicated than

they were still alive… were going to have to clean up the remaining Sailor Dolls should the

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

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

happened, numerous questions inevitably assaulted

in the cargo hold of

years? Why was Solvane immune to divine flame and couldn't be harmed by the Cruel Sight, but

was it so similar to

found no answers, one thought gradually encompassed all

Saint… I

human, which was what Saints were really called. Sunny knew it to be true, but still

himself short, but not even in his wildest dreams had Sunny ever considered being able to kill a Saint… at least not

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

Sunny had

Corrupted Monster,

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

no one

chuckled, then grimaced from pain, and finally summoned

his fragments. The number was

Shadow Fragments: [1958/2000].

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

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

Memory: [Undying Chain.]