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.

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

for a moment, and then looked at the patch of shadows where Sunny was hiding, his mind full of vague

out, Sunless. It's

'What the hell...'

corporeal form and glanced at

The magical circle in the sorcerer's residence, the river of blood that Noctis had fed to the soil below, the cracks on the stone floor, the tremors that had

awoken Sunny

and stared at the sorcerer, a harrowing guess appearing in

movement under her skin grew stronger and more noticeable, she

this… thing?

Noctis smiled.

to summon your Abilities. My little pet is a

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 into proper shape. His torn cheek was already

his empty eye socket, slowly turning

leaned forward, and

that eventually birthed it was created when the ashes of the Heart Grove mixed with Aidre's blood. You remember Aidre, don't you Solvane? Well… allow

voice seethed with boundless rage

at the sorcerer with a

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

the sorcerer

appeared

a devious, patient… and ruthless vengeance

learn a thing or two

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. Another,

let

time…

and then