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.

Nightmare Gate indifferently, then glanced at Sunny. It

out a

happened. I'm glad to see you,

trembling hand and pointed at

go deal with them, if you don't

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

his hand drop back to the

to

his back leaning against a piece of rubble, Sunny used some of his last essence to send the Broken Oath to the taciturn Devil. Then,

demonic knight swelled, becoming

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

the revolting nothingness of the Gate.

sharpened chitin, moving with astonishing speed and possessing dreadful might. As Sunny watched, one of

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

shape of a familiar 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 as the fearsome armor

enemy, Saint raised her

shield twice with its blade, as if challenging

'D-damn...'

shaken to do anything, so he just sat on the ground, using a piece of rubble for support, and

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

severed limbs, and broken bodies covered

was an Ascended Devil now, 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

strong, too fast, and too tyrannical. A simple evolution of one Class