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 had a

forced out a

glad to see

hand and

you don't mind. I'll stay here

silently turned to the flood of monstrous creatures and strolled forward. Her steps

drop back to

good to

piece of rubble, Sunny used some of his last essence to send the Broken Oath to the taciturn Devil. Then, he commanded

knight swelled, becoming deeper and darker, surrounding her like a tenebrous mantle... which was all

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

dozen meters away from them, the Nightmare Creatures were being born from the revolting nothingness of the Gate. A flood of them rushed forward, chasing after

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

trying to embrace the broken, burning world. Darkness flowed from under her vambraces,

stone sword - it was whole once again, but utterly black in appearance. A feeling of dark, nebulous power radiated from its stygian blade. On her other hand, a round shield of stonelike metal appeared, its surface the same polished onyx

the enemy,

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

'D-damn...'

and mentally shaken to do anything, so he just sat on the ground, using

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 sword slicing

limbs, and

augmented by all four of Sunny's shadows. The Broken Oath received the same augmentation, seeping strength and vitality from her enemies. The graceful knight fought

abominations were not weak... it was she who was too strong, too fast, and too tyrannical. A simple evolution of