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…

to consider them, Sunny silently

were thirty-nine of

yet, there was not a single Echo he had received after slaughtering nearly

none at all. What is this,

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

a while, his expression

Priest, though. I would have made him into a Shadow... just to get a chance to

reading their names and descriptions. A few were good, and a couple was splendid. The rest, however, were worse than what he already had in his arsenal. Their only

give them away as sustenance for the taciturn demon. Instead, Sunny hesitated for a

weave, 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

finished the last of synthpaste tubes he had taken out of the Covetous Coffer, indifferently dropped them into the dark abyss of the Sky Below, and sent one of his shadows to scout out the situation

sun was rolling toward the horizon,

that he would have to

***

the next few days, Sunny traveled southeast, staying in the darkness of the Sky Below during the night, and finding shelter on the undersides of the floating island during the day. He

days, Sunny made several

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

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

sense. These lands were not 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

in the territory of the worshippers of War, which made it all but impossible to appear on the surface of the islands during the day, unnoticed. But the dark side wasn't completely