Shadow Slave

The flying ship soared through the darkness, descending deeper and deeper into the empty void. After Saint Tyris had left, nothing much happened for a long time.

They were surrounded by nothing, and nothing bothered them.

This was the oppressive nothingness that Sunny was familiar with all too well.

However, now, things were different. The first time he had fallen into the Sky Below, he was alone and desperate, without any way to escape and no certainty of what awaited him below. This time, he was surrounded by people, knew where he was going, and that they would be able to turn back at any point, if need be.

Not to mention that Sunny had a whole ship to explore, as opposed to plummeting down atop the corpse of a dead devil.

The ancient vessel was not giant, but large enough to make their journey rather comfortable.

There was an upper deck, the main cargo hold, the lower deck stretching from the bow to the middle point of the ship, the auxiliary cargo holds beneath it, and various compartments near the stern, including living quarters for the crew, two separate mess decks, a spacious captain's cabin, several smaller cabins that seemed as though they were meant for either guests or officers, a large war room, and a few service compartments.

Currently, there were less than thirty people on board, so there was more than enough space for everyone. In fact, the vessel seemed rather empty and rough around the edges — the members of Cassie's cohort and other Fire Keepers that joined them to assist in the repairs had done a splendid job of restoring the flying ship's overall integrity, but had had no time to work on its interior.

A few essential facilities had been haphazardly outfitted with everything necessary to barely function, but most of the compartments still required a lot of work. There was no furniture of any kind except for some crude tables, chairs, and flimsy hammocks, and most of the vessel looked empty and barebones. It was a far cry from how luxurious it must have been furnished, outfitted, and decorated once, in the ancient past.

He had a whole cabin to himself, and the cargo hold was stocked with enough food and

would, and instead swayed gently from time to time,

that moved partially due to sorcery, the sapling of a sacred tree growing around its mast serving as the source of it, and partially due to the wind. The Fire Keepers seemed more or less capable of

the result, their descent into the abyss was swift,

wounds, restoring his strength, and resting. He slept a lot and ate as much as he could, knowing that the Second Nightmare was going to test the limits of his endurance. He had to

other each of his thoughts and decisions, trying to learn from his mistakes. The

that month — information about the Awakened of higher Ranks, Anvil of Valor,

shadows that dwelled in his Soul Sea were not there just for decoration, after all. He had always suspected that there was a purpose to them, but never

was supposed to do with them. No matter what he tried after the battle with Mordret, the shadows refused to react. They just stood in their usual spots, silent and lifeless just like before, as if pretending that nothing had

he

the end, Sunny had to accept the fact that the mystery of the

had learned that his soul had a fearsome defense system against those who would try to

useless process, really, since he

joined him, too, working

Awakened now, possessed new Abilities, and had improved in their understanding of combat, technique, and skill. They needed to find new and better ways of enhancing each other's strengths and shielding

much harder than they had remembered. None of them was really a natural leader, let alone one as talented and gifted in the art of battle as