Shadow Slave

Landing on the deck of the enemy ship, Sunny swayed and caught himself, then stared somberly at the warriors of the Sun Legion, all of whom had already noticed his arrival.

Following the command of the captain, the swordsmen advanced in a loose, but orderly formation. Behind them, the archers drew their bows and aimed them at the towering devil, their eyes shining with faith and resolve.

…They did not get a chance to shoot, however.

A split second later, a ghastly abomination landed between them, its six front limbs and terrifying beak reaping half a dozen lives in an instant.

This was Sunny's signal to move.

He dashed toward the ranks of the advancing swordsman, and at the same time, the Soul Serpent attacked them from behind. The two cut through the defenders of the ship and met in the middle of its deck.

It was at that moment that the Shadow finally exhausted the last of its essence. The abominable form of the Spire Messenger suddenly lost its shape and crumbled into a tide of darkness, which then rushed toward Sunny.

A serpentine black odachi then appeared in his hands. Sunny dismissed his other weapons, leaving only the great blade to keep him company... and roared.

He was too low on essence to use any of their enchantments, anyway… but each kill of the odachi was going to return a portion of it into his cores. More than that, the Soul Serpent was not the only one who reunited with Sunny — the haughty shadow had returned, as well, and had already wrapped itself around his body, alleviating some of his exhaustion and gifting him with its strength.

Now, all Sunny had to do was fight and kill. With each of the enemies that fell, he was going to replenish more of his dwindling shadow essence, and that essence would then be used to kill more enemies and destroy more ships.

As long as he continued to kill, he would not have to stop. Unless he was killed himself, of course…

[Soul Reaver] was, indeed, an insidious Ability.

second before the avalanche of enemies descended

in shambles, with several sections of it shattered by the heavy bolts of the enemy ballistae. The powerful siege engine on its bow was gone, blown away by some terrible strike. There was a massive harpoon lodged in the vessel's side, with a piece of an enemy

on the deck, most of them

the pitiful state of the once-majestic ship, Sunny couldn't help but

Then, he frowned.

hell is she

was Cassie rising into the sky? Out there in the boundless vastness of the night, there was nothing to protect her from the ire of Sun Prince and the enemy ships. The winds were much stronger up there, and the air much thinner. It was very

must have known what she was doing… out of everyone he knew, he

had

worry for

of the great odachi, then slammed its hilt into another man's face, shook off the first corpse of the sword, and cut

hands and, using his body as a shield, barreled through the enemies, slashing left and right. The Mantle of

Sunny stumble and hiss. It was the captain of the vessel — the woman in bright armor stood among the slaughtered archers,

the attacking legionnaires… and then bent down, picking up a stray bolt

of the towering demon, the massive projectile

of the newly received essence into his muscles, Sunny grunted, and then tossed the

captain's eyes widened, but before she could even move, the improvised javelin struck her in the chest with the force of a

slain an

because he was

of his mouth

an Ascended,

***

of the ship, then rammed it into another vessel and slaughtered its defenders, as well. By then, the Mantle of the Underworld was full of cracks and gaps, and his battered body beneath