Shadow Slave

Sunny died.

Being dead... wasn't too bad, all things considered.

More or less every bone in his body was shattered. His rib cage had caved in, and sharp bone fragments were piercing his lungs. His limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, and his skull had cracked. There was excruciating pain, but it went away almost immediately, since his spine was broken, and his spinal cord was severed.

Bone Weave had tempered his hones and made them incredibly durable, but everything had its limits. For Sunny, that limit had turned out to be being kicked by a literal mountain, apparently.

He could not see anything, because his eyes had burst, and could not hear anything, because his eardrums had ruptured. The world was dark and silent.

It was almost comfortable, if not for the terrible cold.

Sunny was very, very cold.

'Ah, damnation...'

Could he not just die in peace?

"...You really are a useless piece of outskirt trash."

Despite not being able to hear anything, he heard the cold, contemptuous voice. His own voice.

'Gods, can you shut the hell up?'

Sunny sent his shadow sense outward and found out that his broken body was laying on the very edge of the dark water, with icy waves washing his blood off the stone shore and licking his skin.

No wonder he felt cold.

Goliath was nowhere to be seen, but the weakening tremors that shook the world from time to time told him that the titan was walking away, heading inland. Unable to move, Sunny imagined letting out a sigh.

'...What luck.'

He might have died, but at least the giant had not stepped on him. His body had stopped just outside the dark waves after flying away and ricocheting off the concrete surface of the highway, too. Otherwise, to add insult to injury, he would have had to drown as well.

he had not... now, it was time to come back to

this is

but of course, such trivialities were not going to stop him. He had not spent most of the Antarctica campaign wearing the

as he had essence to spare, death was just a temporary condition for Sunny. It was no different from having his head cut off in the Red Colosseum, and he had survived that debacle

a few minutes was not going to save him, sadly. Back then, Sunny had been healed by Elyas before running out of essence...

through his essence,

I'll just help myself,

Sunny summoned the runes.

somehow. It was both strange and logical, explaining how

'Huh...'

Dying Wish in the list of his Memories, he concentrated on it and read the description of the Transcendent

"Those who witness the wielder of this Memory are compelled; friends to be inspired, foes to seek the wielder out. The power of

Death Charge: [1000/1000.]

coming to Antarctica. He had saturated the counter of the Dying Wish a long time ago by slaughtering countless Nightmare Creatures across

was finally time to use that hidden

fog enveloping his mind, Sunny activated

was

restored, his liquified eyes slowly started to coalesce

his spinal

"Argh! Crap!"

pain was back, sending him into a violent convulsion. Sunny bit his tongue hard enough to feel the salty taste of blood, but a moment later, that wound, too, was healed.

"C-curse it!"

good. Pain was good. Pain meant that he was alive, or at least coming back to live.

body back from being utterly devastated, but the process was not instantaneous. Even with

was no stranger

regained his vision. Rising his head weakly, Sunny looked at himself through the

his armor was shattered and mangled to the point of being unrecognizable. A few pieces of it were bent at sharp angles and pierced his flesh, slowing

was his body for a few moments, then

did

then disintegrated into a whirlwind of white sparks. The brilliant sparks danced around him for a few seconds,

familiar voice of the