Shadow Slave

Sunny was really beyond himself. A good armor was exactly what he needed… and what could be better than a Transcendent one? Most of the enemies he fought would not even be able to scratch it, let alone pierce it!

His smile turned a little bitter when he remembered receiving the Puppeteer's Shroud and imagining how he would be nearly invincible to all the dormant creatures trying to attack him come winter solstice.

Who knew that he would end up in a place where there was not even a single dormant bastard around? Not counting Sunny himself and all the other misfortunate Sleepers on the Forgotten Shore, of course.

Still, he would have died a hundred times if it hadn't been for the Puppeteer's Shroud. The Undying Chain was an undeniable improvement, so he had high hopes for it.

Moving his gaze lower, he read the armor's description:

Memory Description: [In a beautiful tower at the end of the world, desire was bound by seven brilliant shackles. She was meant to be chained there forever, and so her shackles were made eternal. Yet in the end, desire was unleashed upon the world. Her shackles were destroyed, and the will of the gods was broken.]

Sunny stared at the shimmering runes, wondering.

He knew that the Spell, for whatever reason, behaved strangely when speaking about daemons. In fact, he had never seen or heard it use that term, as though the word itself was somehow forbidden. Sunny only learned it from the writings left behind by the prisoner of the hidden cell beneath the ruined cathedral in the Dark City.

The closest the Spell had ever come to mentioning the word daemon was calling the Prince of the Underworld a prideful demon.

Yet, there was no doubt that the desire it spoke about here was a daemon… the Demon of Hope, who had been once chained in the Ivory Tower. Sunny had seen the place where she had been imprisoned himself, as well as the Seed of Nightmare growing from her broken shackles.

At first glance, the meaning of the description was rather obvious. Or at least it was to him, with how much he already knew.

But something told Sunny that it wasn't.

The thing that didn't seem to add up was the fact that he had received the Undying Chain for killing Solvane — or the Wormvine — both of whom had seemingly nothing to do with the description.

Unless he was thinking about it all wrong…

Wormvine was susceptible to fire, as well as other means of dealing damage powerful enough to wound the abomination's flesh. But Solvane… was not so simple. The Saint from whose flesh the terrible monster had been born seemed immune to any form of harm, including the immolating divine flame.

Almost as if Solvane was... immortal.

That would certainly explain how the poor Saint had survived thousands of years of harrowing torture after becoming Wormvine's host, and why the Memory Sunny received from their death had the epithet of Undying.

Was there a second, less literal meaning to the seven brilliant shackles mentioned in the description of the Undying Chain? Which, apparently, were made eternal…

Just like Solvane had been.

Sunny frowned.

just

theory was technically not impossible, the existence of the wooden knife went against it. What was that knife, and why had it killed Solvane when nothing else seemed to have been

perhaps, were an even

With a sigh, Sunny returned to the runes. Learning what his new armor could do was much more interesting than trying to guess at the ancient mysteries

Enchantments: [Chains of Longing], [Brilliant Will],

Enchantments Description: "This armor provides the wearer with high protection

Sunny blinked.

'What are the chances?'

the second-rarest form of protection, right after resistance to soul damage. And yet, this was the third armor-type Memory

his tendency to run into especially

connected to the imprisonment of Hope, whose powers had been most likely tied to mind manipulation, then having protection

of the Underworld, was also to be expected. The tier of a Memory seemed to dictate how many enchantments it could accommodate, and the Mantle, despite being of a

of the

Description: "This armor becomes stronger when worn by

Sunny grinned.

was an overall enhancement based on how high the wearer's divine affinity was. Which meant that a random Awakened

though? With his [Ember of Divinity], the augmentation would be enhanced threefold. It was a very

'This is great!'

his eyes fell on the third enchantment, though, he forgot all about his previous joy, intense as it

The runes read:

Enchantment Description: "The wearer can not

Sunny tilted his head.

'...What?'

even if he had just seen what terrible fate

Unlike [Chains of Longing] and [Radiant Will], [Undying] was an active one. And he was willing to bet that

just an Awakened, his reserves would probably only amount to one moment of

one moment of immortality was more than

'...If used wisely.'

this enchantment could save his life… but even more where using it would only amount to postponing his death by a fraction of

was an amazing,

extremely satisfied, Sunny stood

his golden Echo now felt inferior to the [Undying Chain]. The Bright Lord seemed so invincible and

was a