Shadow Slave

Suddenly, Noctis seemed… different.

He was still beaten, mangled, and covered in blood, but the sorcerer's presence subtly changed. If before it was faint and weakening, now, it became brimming with power, potency, and free-flowing energy.

Vast, furious… unrestrained.

And suffused with madness.

Despite the fact that Noctis was on his knees and crippled, he suddenly seemed terrifying. The morbid grin on his torn and disfigured face seemed more menacing than pitiful now. His one remaining eye glistened, reflecting the distant light of the crimson moon.

It was as though something that had been suppressing the sorcerer's true power all this time finally set him free.

Noctis inhaled deeply, and at the same, Solvane suddenly swayed. The hand she had used to crush his ribcage was still pressed against her body, blood streaming down on the red tunic.

Her beautiful eyes widened.

And then…

Something moved under her skin, making the War Maiden let out a pained scream.

She staggered back and looked at the kneeling sorcerer with a pale face.

"What… what have you done to me?"

Noctis smiled. His voice sounded hoarse and full of unfathomable emotion when he spoke:

"What else? I have fulfilled your most ardent wish, Solvane. I… have defeated you."

She stared at him in shock, then suddenly shuddered and let out another tortured scream. As drops of blood flew out of her mouth, the beautiful Transcendent stumbled and fell to her knees. Her sublime face was deathly pale and contorted by a grimace of terrible pain.

that, their roles

a moment, and then looked at the patch of shadows

out, Sunless. It's safe

'What the hell...'

then assumed his corporeal

to make sense. The magical circle in the sorcerer's residence, the river of blood that Noctis had fed

that had awoken Sunny on his last night in

turned and stared at the sorcerer, a harrowing guess appearing in

still in the dark. As the ghastly movement under her skin grew stronger and

this… thing? My…

Noctis smiled.

your Abilities. My little pet is a bit hungry for soul essence, you see.

The terrible wounds covering it started to heal at an incredible pace. As Sunny watched, the bloody hole in the sorcerer's chest closed, his shattered ribs coalescing back

blood formed in his empty eye socket, slowly turning into

leaned forward,

very special creature… it is a vine that feeds on powerful souls. The profane seed that eventually birthed it was created when the ashes of

with boundless rage and

at the sorcerer with a complicated

capable of devouring Saints, from the ashes of the Sacred Grove and Aidre's blood. He had kept it in the ground beneath his residence for hundreds of years, nurturing the abomination by

and the trap for the person who had desecrated the Grove and killed its Lady. All this time, the sorcerer was restrained by having to suppress the creature and prevent it from

pale smile appeared on

ruthless vengeance Noctis had

or

at Noctis for a few moments, then bent in a violent convulsion, letting out a terrible shriek. The skin on her face broke, and a thin, worm-like vine appeared from beneath it, crawling forward through the blood.

then let out

all this time… I am defeated…

and then suddenly smiled