Shadow Slave

"...My Shadow?"

Sunny unlocked his eyes wide.

'Saint!'

It seemed that Saint had finished her evolution into a Devil ahead of schedule. All things considered, her timing was nothing short of impeccable.

Even in his disoriented state, Sunny knew that he could not ignore such luck.

As the first of the Nightmare Creatures emerged from the Gate, he abandoned his attempts to crawl forward and called upon his Shadow, instead.

The coldness of the polar night seemed to grow slightly darker. Then, an intricate sabaton forged out of black, stonelike metal stepped on the ground beside him.

Sunny weakly turned his head to look up at Saint, who was as aloof as ever.

His taciturn knight... had changed.

Initially, she had been roughly the same height as him, becoming taller after evolving into a Demon. Now, Saint towered above Sunny. Obscured by the beautiful onyx armor, the lines of her stone body were still slender and graceful... but at more than two meters of height, the fearsome Shadow seemed extremely imposing.

Her oppressive presence was worthy of a Devil.

The black armor itself had not changed much - it had always been a product of magnificent craftsmanship, and seemed even more superb and menacing now. However, Saint's skin, which had been grey like stone before, then white as alabaster, was now as smooth and black as polished onyx - at least what little of it could be seen through the slits of her visor.

The ruby jewels of her eyes burned with ominous crimson flames.

studied the vast rift of the Nightmare Gate indifferently, then glanced at Sunny. It almost seemed... as though she

forced out a weak

happened. I'm glad to see you,

hand and

with them, if you

the flood of

hand drop back to

it's good to

used some of his last essence to send the Broken Oath to the taciturn Devil. Then, he commanded all four of his shadows to abandon him and embrace Saint,

swelled, becoming deeper and darker, surrounding her

a hint of true, elemental darkness in that lightless glow. It

nothingness of the Gate. A flood of them rushed

and wielded weapons made of sharpened chitin, moving with astonishing speed and possessing dreadful might. As Sunny watched, one of the creatures easily threw

burning world. Darkness flowed

in appearance. A feeling of dark, nebulous power radiated from its stygian blade. On her other

enemy, Saint

rim of her shield twice with its blade, as if challenging the

'D-damn...'

sat on the ground, using a piece of rubble for support, and watched

dove into the mass of enemies as soon as the last of the soldiers ran past her. She collided against the arachnid warriors with her shield, sending a dozen of them stumbling to the ground, and then twisted into a whirlwind of annihilating darkness, her

severed limbs, and broken bodies covered

four of Sunny's shadows. The Broken Oath received the same augmentation, seeping strength and vitality from her enemies. The graceful knight fought with stunning clarity and sublime skill... and yet, that was not enough to explain why Saint was so

abominations were not weak... it was she who was too strong, too fast, and