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.

king?... of Beasts.

He was slightly impressed.

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

'Damnation...'

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

that he saw the result of the battle between the two great abominations, he had to admit that the source of the white spark

the Great Monster for a while, not daring to descend yet. After thinking for a

he ordered one of his shadows to wrap itself around the arrow, drew the string, and released

arrow shot through the air and struck the green moss covering the monster's shell. Piercing the layer of soft moss, it then hit

arrow was destroyed, but the shadow had already been transported on

guy looked around, shivered, and then glanced at the sky with a resigned expression. His resentful gaze seemed to

Sunny shifted a little.

you staring at? I have a very clear conscience!

of Solace, who was standing

to go and explore. Then,

like an island. There were patches of moss covering the weathered rock, while the rock

Great Monster had been somehow fashioned with a battle armor of sublime silver in the past... perhaps thousands of years ago. Now, the

was gone, at least on the surface - only the edges of the shell, the neck, the head, and the flippers were still

want to study the nature of the dead abomination in detail right now, though. First, he wanted to find out where the white light

shadow noticed

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