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.

roles were reversed. The War Maiden was on her knees,

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

come out,

'What the hell...'

few seconds, then assumed his corporeal form and

blood that Noctis had fed to the soil below, the cracks on the stone floor, the tremors that had been

scream that had awoken Sunny on his last night in

the sorcerer, a harrowing guess

however, was still in the dark. As the ghastly movement under her skin grew stronger and more noticeable,

thing? My…

Noctis smiled.

My little pet is a bit hungry for soul essence, you see. I've been starving

flowed 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

clot of blood formed in his empty eye socket, slowly turning into

leaned forward,

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

voice seethed with boundless

at the sorcerer with

ashes of the Sacred Grove and Aidre's blood. He had kept it in the ground beneath his residence for hundreds of years,

the Grove and killed its Lady. All this time, the sorcerer was restrained by having to

pale smile appeared on

ruthless vengeance Noctis

a thing or two from

a terrible shriek. The skin on her face broke, and a thin, worm-like vine appeared from

then let out a stifled

after all this time… I

then suddenly