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.

a croaking laugh and slowly stood up. Just like that, their roles were reversed. The War Maiden was on

patch of shadows where Sunny was hiding,

can come out, Sunless. It's safe

'What the hell...'

assumed his corporeal form and glanced at

the river of blood that Noctis had fed to the

had awoken Sunny on his last night in the

and stared at the sorcerer,

in the dark. As the ghastly movement under

thing? My…

Noctis smiled.

summon your Abilities. My little pet is a bit hungry for soul essence, you see. I've been starving it for a few hundred years, after

freely, coursing through his mangled body. 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

in his empty eye socket, slowly turning into a new

forward, and looked at Solvane.

birthed it was created when the ashes of the

with boundless rage and

the sorcerer with

created Wormvine, a Corrupted Monster 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 feeding it his

took it into himself, making his body both the bait 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

appeared on

patient… and ruthless vengeance

thing or

on her face broke, and a thin,

then let out

this time… I am

teeth, and then suddenly smiled