Shadow Slave

As Sunny slowly approached the main cargo hold, he felt doubt crawl into his mind.

What was he actually doing?

A battle between two Saints was no place for an Awakened, no matter how powerful he had grown after absorbing thousands of shadow fragments and forming the fourth core. The gap in power between Sunny and Solvane was just too vast… he had faced her twice in the past, and each time, the War Maiden crushed him without even putting any effort into her attacks.

The bitter taste of those defeats still lingered in his mouth.

…Especially of the second one, when he watched helplessly as she slaughtered Elyas in front of his eyes.

When he remembered that vile day, his pupils narrowed. An overwhelming feeling of hatred and anger drowned his mind, so scorching and consuming that Sunny was momentarily stunned by the intensity of it.

Every wound, every second of torturous pain, every night of quiet desperation he had experienced in the Red Colosseum rose from the depths of his memory, making him feel as if he was reliving all that torment. The memory of the burning Sacred Grove was there, too, as well as that of an old man crying as he cradled the dead body of his mother in his trembling arms.

And that of Elyas's bright eyes suddenly turning empty and hollow. The grief, shame, and fury of not having been able to keep his promise and save the young man…

Sunny tried to resist the hatred, but failed. It was just too vast, deep… and deserved.

Solvane had deserved his hatred.

She put him in a cage…

She tried to make him a slave.

Gritting his teeth and suppressing a bestial growl, Sunny continued to move forward.

'I'll make her pay... it is not impossible.'

he just needed to give Noctis an opportunity to defeat

not been able to

immortal Transcendent… but

turned into an incorporeal shadow, sliding

two Saints were entangled in a

***

of weapons. Neither had they assumed their Transformed forms, preferring to remain in the shape

failed

the immortals chose the most direct, intimate, and brutal form of combat — they were fighting with

enough to crush a mountain, sending

seemed to

face broken and missing an

looked more like a corpse than

yet, he was still

Sunny to discern anything, but he could still perceive the sorcerer deflecting some

Sometimes, he even succeeded.

…But mostly, he failed.

spilled, more bones were broken with a sickening crunch, and more of what made Noctis himself was destroyed. There was almost nothing left of the beautiful

on the other

red tunic flawlessly clean. The only indication that she had been locked in a furious fight

His thoughts darkened.

'Damnation…'

in the shadows, watching tensely and waiting for his chance to interfere. There had to be a chance, a single instance where a momentary delay in Solvane's onslaught would allow Noctis to

matter how long he waited and how

another blow, Noctis let out a terrible scream and fell to his knees, blood streaming

hair, jerking the sorcerer's head up so that his mangled face could

expression, she raised her bloodied fist to deliver the final blow and