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.

on itself and creating a perfect

it was

of understanding appeared in his

He also suspected that the String of Fate would not

have

the tapestry of Fate and tied in an endless circle…

shackles

have done such

the answer was rather obvious. The Lord of Light, Sun God, who had destroyed Hope's kingdom and imprisoned her in the Ivory Tower, certainly could. After all, he was not only the deity of flame and light, but also of passion,

wooden knife that were rotting and

he was right, then he was holding a

to kill an immortal created by a

the first time since Sunny had learned about the divinities of the

***

time later, he jumped through the breach created by the Wormvine and climbed onto the ancient ship's hull. Hissing from pain, Sunny staggered a little, then limped toward where

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

"...Ouch."

the ground. Standing up, he studied the desolate

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

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

pale smile appeared on his

what would you know…

seemed to be all there. Granted, they looked incredibly exhausted, battered, and injured

covered in blood, dirt, and soot, 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 they were alive. Only the steadfast young man who had wielded a short spear and a heavy shield in battle — the healer of the cohort — was up and

bonfires and stopped,

young woman with pale blond hair

"...Sunny?"

the Artisan girl, who was resting on the ground a few steps away from

a corpse. Her armor was almost destroyed, revealing deep lacerations on her tanned skin, and her face was dirty and pale from blood loss. What's worse, her right arm was torn away, ending in a bloodied bandage near the elbow... such a wound