Shadow Slave

Blood Weave was slowly devouring the toxin, but Sunny still felt weak and feverish. Dismissing Saint, he walked around the cargo hold, getting used to the feel of the Undying Chain and looking around to see if there was something interesting laying around.

Like another chest full of Noctis coins, for example.

Sadly, he didn't find anything. Even if the cargo hold had once stored ancient curios and treasures, everything was destroyed by the vines and the brown moss over thousands of years.

However, he was pleasantly surprised to realize that the lusterless steel armor was not constricting his movements at all. It was really like a second layer of skin… perhaps if Sunny wasn't augmented by the shadow, the Undying Chain would have been cumbersome. But he was, and on top of that, there were almost two thousand shadow fragments stored in his two cores.

Even if an Awakened wasn't supposed to be able to wear the Transcendent armor effortlessly, Sunny had no such problem.

'Sweet…'

Finally, he limped over to the pile of dust that remained of Solvane and knelt beside it, then reached inside the ashes and retrieved the wooden knife.

Of course, Sunny had not forgotten about it.

To his disappointment, though, what he was holding in his hand was just the handle. The blade had splintered and broken off, and the wood seemed lifeless and dead.

It was already starting to rot, and even when Sunny looked beneath the surface of the strange knife, he didn't see anything… no spellweave, no brilliant radiance of a sea of soul essence, and no String of Fate folding endlessly on itself in a perfect circle.

The wooden knife was truly and utterly broken.

Almost as if it was created for a singular purpose, and had no reason to exist after fulfilling it.

Sunny looked at the knife with a thoughtful frown.

'Interesting…'

Was the wooden knife created specifically to bring death to the immortal Solvane? If so, were the obsidian knife in the Sanctuary of Noctis and the ivory knife in the Night Temple meant to end the lives of two other immortals?

Suddenly, he shivered.

folded on itself and creating a

had looked into the wooden knife before it was destroyed, would he have

tentative hint of understanding appeared

also suspected that the String of Fate

would have

that was somehow torn out of the tapestry of Fate and tied in an endless circle… would something like

so the shackles

done such

and imprisoned her in the Ivory Tower, certainly could. After all, he was not only the deity

at the remains of the wooden knife that were rotting and turning to dust in

he was holding a

used that weapon to kill an immortal created by a

the first time since Sunny had learned about the divinities of

***

by the Wormvine and climbed onto the ancient ship's hull. Hissing from pain, Sunny staggered a little,

was laying on its side, the wooden surface beneath his feet was inclined down and uneven. Almost inevitably, he lost his balance and

"...Ouch."

remained motionless for a while, then sighed and picked himself off the ground. Standing up, he

battlefield of an ancient war. Some of the trenches were empty, some were filled with massive stems of dead vines that protruded from the soil like rotting serpents. The air was filled

staff to support his weight, Sunny limped forward and soon found the ring

pale smile appeared

would you

to be all there. Granted, they looked incredibly exhausted,

their armor torn. Some were sitting with tired expressions on their faces, others lay on the ground, with only the movement of their chests betraying that

two of the bonfires and stopped, leaning

lingered on the delicate figure of a young woman with pale blond hair for a moment, and then turned

"...Sunny?"

glanced at Shakti, the Artisan girl, who was resting on the ground a few steps away

right arm was torn away, ending in a bloodied