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

out a

I'm glad to see

he raised a trembling hand and pointed at

you don't

for a moment, then silently turned to the flood of monstrous creatures and

hand drop back to the

to have

to sit, 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, he commanded all four of his shadows to abandon him

radiance. The shadows around the demonic knight swelled, becoming deeper and darker, surrounding her like a tenebrous

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

from them, the Nightmare Creatures were being born from the revolting nothingness of

their inhuman faces brimming with black eyes and jagged mandibles. They wore carapace armor and wielded weapons made of sharpened chitin, moving with astonishing speed and possessing dreadful might. As Sunny watched, one of the

world. Darkness flowed from under her vambraces, over her palms, and

darkness formed into the shape of a familiar stone sword - it was whole once again, but utterly black in appearance. A feeling of dark, nebulous

toward the enemy, Saint

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

'D-damn...'

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

warriors with her shield, sending a dozen of them stumbling to the ground, and then twisted into

severed limbs, and broken bodies covered

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 knight fought with stunning clarity and sublime skill... and yet, that was not enough to explain why Saint was so

fast,