Shadow Slave

By the time Sunny flew close enough to distinguish the source of the white spark, it had already disappeared. However, finding the source was not too hard - there were not a lot of things that could be distinguished from the empty expanse of flowing water on the Great River, after all.

By then, it was already morning. The suns were slowly rising from below, and the world was enveloped in the dim glow of twilight. The soft radiance of the shimmering water had dissipated, making it easier for Sunny to see colors.

Hovering high above the current, he froze. There was a stunned expression on his face.

'...How is this possible?'

Far below him, a vast span of the Great River was painted red. Blood was clouding the clear water, and the polluted patch of it was at least half a dozen kilometers across. From high up, it looked as if a bloody flower was slowly blooming in the middle of the river.

At the center of the red patch... a familiar Great Monster was floating lifelessly, the silver bands encasing its neck broken and bent.

The black turtle was dead.

There was a vicious wound at the spot where its neck met its body. The wound was large enough to be a tunnel, with rivers of blood still flowing out of it into the water. The equally gruesome exit wound was all the way across the monster's massive body, just below one of its armored flippers.

Shaken, Sunny lingered for a while, and then looked down, at the spot where his pursuer was hiding beneath the water. At that moment, the azure serpent rose its head above the surface and stared at Sunny with mad fury burning in its cloudy eyes.

The Great Beast looked battered and maimed, with several huge chunks of flesh missing from its long neck... but it was undeniably alive.

He had thought once that the azure serpent was like a little snake in front of the colossal turtle. But from the looks of it, that little snake had managed to burrow into the body of the larger monster, tear it from the inside, and escape back into the river to catch up to Sunny.

old snake must be a queen... king?... of

He was slightly impressed.

disturbed. Being pursued by a Great Beast was already bad enough, but now that he knew that the azure serpent was a fearsome existence among

'Damnation...'

and the ancient leviathan stared at each other some more, and then he turned back to the island-sized corpse of the black

abominations, he had to admit that the source of the white spark had to be hidden somewhere on the dead turtle's shell.

while, not daring to descend yet. After thinking

itself around the arrow, drew the string, and released

moss covering the monster's shell. Piercing the layer of soft moss, it then hit the weathered black rock and splintered without leaving even a

was destroyed, but the shadow had already been transported

shivered, and then glanced at the sky with a resigned expression. His resentful gaze seemed to deal damage directly

Sunny shifted a little.

at? I have a very clear conscience! The clearest

Sin of Solace, who was standing by

go and explore. Then, he looked

black turtle's shell was indeed like an island. There were patches of moss covering the weathered rock, while the rock itself was rough and

what Sunny could tell, the Great Monster had been somehow fashioned with a battle armor of sublime silver in the past...

edges of the shell, the neck, the head, and the flippers were still encased in vast bands of the precious metal. The huge

abomination in detail right now, though. First, he wanted to find out where the white light

the shadow

a large patch of moss, there was a spot where it had been burned away, revealing the rock surface beneath. The rock itself was covered