Shadow Slave

Six days later, the cohort had almost reached the safe haven of the Citadel. The speed with which they traveled reduced significantly due to the heavy wounds the Fire Keepers had sustained, so all things considered, it was a very good result.

As days went by, their healer had continued tending to his companions, so by now, most had already recovered — except for those like Shakti with especially grave injuries, of course. Those would only be healed after they had returned to the real world and then came back. Even then, their physical bodies were going to sustain serious internal damage and require a prolonged period of treatment.

As the sun disappeared in the Sky Below, the cohort reluctantly made camp. From where they were now, only a handful of islands separated them from the Sanctuary. However, some of those islands were populated by Nightmare Creatures too dangerous to attempt traversing their hunting grounds, so the Fire Keepers were going to have to make a big detour.

Since traveling in the darkness was a big risk, they had no choice but to spend another night in the wilderness and continue their journey tomorrow.

Sunny didn't mind.

When everyone fell asleep, he quietly turned into a shadow and slid unseen between the lookouts. The darkness of the night might have been a threat to them, but to him, it was an ally.

For Sunny, it was time to hunt.

He had been venturing alone into the deadly expanse of the Chained Isles for the past five nights, and this one was not an exception.

During that time, Sunny had taken more risks than he usually would, challenging Nightmare Creatures that he had studied before, and those that he knew almost nothing about. Hunting the latter ones was a deadly endeavor, but with Saint's help, he managed to emerge victorious from each battle without sustaining too many wounds.

had also played a big part in his success, since even when Sunny received damage, it blocked most of it. Nothing had

chain, Sunny approached a neighboring island and soared into the sky, then crushed heavily to the ground. The silver blade of the Cruel Sight gleamed,

he just reached was descending, but still high enough for him to feel the remnant effects of the Crushing. Still, Sunny didn't care. Tonight, nothing

one step away

the island. He had been to

have been beautiful once, but now, it was warped and misshapen, its walls full of cracks and on the verge of collapsing. Sunny didn't know what purpose it had once served, and how it was destroyed, but had concluded many months ago that a terrible battle must have taken place inside the

in the central hall of the shattered building, where the stones were damaged and looked like melted wax. Its walls had collapsed outward, which told him that whatever force had devastated the structure had come from within, as opposed to from

of jagged rocks. The first ones were of the Awakened Rank, and resembled

of the Fallen Rank, and looked like beautiful specters. Beneath their eerie

only

had the ability to harm incorporeal

slits of his visor, and walked into the darkness that reigned between the ancient

***

[...Your shadow grows stronger.]

ghostly form of a beautiful young woman he had just pierced with the incandescent blade of his spear. Or rather, she had seemed beautiful before showing her true face — a twisted, terrifying maks of inhuman hatred and corruption, ancient madness burning in the dark, bottomless

anticipated, even if the [Ghost Blade] enchantment of the Cruel Sight allowed him to strike them down. Not only because their movements were fast and unpredictable, defying the logic of combat he was familiar with, but also because their attacks seemed to