Shadow Slave

Sunny remained motionless for a while, then shifted his gaze, moving it to the very end of the field of shimmering runes. Soon, Neph's description appeared before him. He lingered for a few moments, and then read:

…Soul Fragments: [2478/4000].

The corner of his mouth twitched.

'Of course. She is in a hell of her own, after all…'

The gap between them had diminished, but barely. He was still behind… still lacking…

But she was alive, at least. And fighting with all her strength to return.

If Neph refused to give up, then he would have to persevere, too.

With a sigh, Sunny turned away and looked back to his runes, finding the list of his Memories and Echoes. His eyes suddenly gleamed, but then grew dark and slightly despondent.

'What the hell… how is this even possible…'

Among the names of his Memories, dozens of new ones shimmered in the darkness. It seemed that the Spell continued to reward him even while their connection was obstructed by the sorceries of Hope. It sort of made sense… the fact that Sunny had not been able to communicate with the Spell did not mean that it had not continued to watch his every step.

He was inside one of its Nightmares, after all. Which created a swarm of questions on its own…

caring to consider them, Sunny silently

there were thirty-nine

a single Echo he had received after slaughtering nearly a thousand Nightmare Creatures.

sense… none at

had been incredible, while his luck when it came to Echoes had been beyond terrible. He should have received four

the darkness for a while, his

a pity that I did not receive an Echo of the Red Priest, though. I would have

A few were good, and a couple was splendid. The rest, however, were

sustenance for the taciturn demon. Instead,

one that he would be able to study and experiment with while not fearing to damage or destroy an actually valuable instrument. He would be able to use Weaver's needle now, too, instead of cutting his fingers on the ethereal, but perfectly sharp

with that decision, Sunny finished the last of synthpaste tubes he had taken out of the Covetous Coffer, indifferently dropped them into the dark abyss

sun was rolling toward the horizon,

would have

***

darkness of the Sky Below during the night, and finding shelter on the undersides of the floating island during the day. He was still weak because of his injuries and had to make frequent

course of these days, Sunny made several stunning

As it turned out, there were far fewer Nightmare Creatures populating the Kingdom of Hope in this era than there were in the future. That included the harrowing abominations that dwelled on the dark side of

the isles far easier for him. Of course, there were still some monstrosities hiding in the darkness, but not nearly

completely devastated yet, and there were plenty of humans living on the levitating islands. It was because of them and their efforts that the population of Nightmare Creatures was so low. It was also the reason why it took Solvane and her zealots a full decade or more to gather enough abominations to hold the

inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hope. He was still in the territory of the worshippers of War, which