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.

stood up. Just like that, their roles were reversed. The War Maiden was on her knees, and Noctis was looming

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

out, Sunless. It's

'What the hell...'

few seconds, then assumed his corporeal form

things were clicking in place and starting to make sense. 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 been running through it from time

scream that had awoken Sunny on his last night

and stared at the sorcerer,

in the dark. As the ghastly movement under her skin

thing? My… my

Noctis smiled.

Yes, there is no point in trying to summon your Abilities. My little pet is a bit hungry for soul essence, you see. I've

to heal at an incredible pace. As Sunny watched, the bloody hole in the sorcerer's chest closed, his

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

step forward, leaned forward, and looked at Solvane. Then,

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

voice seethed with boundless rage

then glanced at the sorcerer with a complicated

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 essence and

this time, the sorcerer was restrained by having to suppress the creature and prevent it from devouring him from the inside. And when the monster finally found a new

pale smile appeared on

a devious, patient… and ruthless vengeance Noctis

could learn a thing or two from the unforgiving

convulsion, letting out a terrible shriek. The skin on her face broke,

let out

after all this time… I am

gritted her teeth, and then suddenly smiled