Shadow Slave

In the morning, the island shook again. Sunny opened his eyes and reached through the shadow sense, checking in on Saint. Since the taciturn knight was standing calmly above the fissure, he relaxed and yawned with great satisfaction.

He felt incredibly refreshed.

The dark island was in one piece, and nothing was pouncing to kill them. Life was great.

He sat up, leaned on the slope of the fissure, then rubbed his eyes and looked around. Nephis was already up, doing light stretches a few meters away. Sunny watched her for a few moments, then forced himself to avert his gaze.

The sound of her even, yet fragile voice resounding from the darkness still echoed in his ears.

Neph's Second Nightmare... was different from his own, just like her First Nightmare had been. She had not battled immortal Saints to free an imprisoned daemon from divine chains. Instead, she had tried to save a small group of pitiful and forlorn creatures, only to watch them all die.

Nephis had been the last one standing on the Forgotten Shore, and after traveling alone through the purgatory of the Nightmare Desert, she built a tiny community amidst the cold darkness, only to watch it be destroyed.

She had been so strong, but the Nightmare made her weak. She had been so proud, but the Nightmare made her beg for mercy on her knees. He wasn't sure he could imagine how painful it was for her, to sacrifice the two things that were at the core of her sense of self.

Yes, Neph had not slain impossibly powerful enemies with her radiant sword in the Nightmare... but, for her, wielding a sword against an overwhelming foe was not something to be feared.

Maybe that was why the Spell always tried to break her in some other, more cruel way.

Sunny looked down at the weathered surface of the black rock.

'The Spell... I wonder...'

How had the Spell appraised Neph's performance in the Second Nightmare?

Sunny was not sure, but he had an inkling that the appraisal was exceedingly high. If his theory was right, that was, and the appraisal depended on how much the challenger had changed the flow of fate. In that regard...

He suspected that what Nephis had done was miraculous. She had wanted to change the fates of the forsaken creatures living in the darkness at the bottom of the Underwold.

task, she

succeeded in

that had

by her words? By her

Had the creature of darkness been

the heart of an abyssal being powerful enough to be a horror in the Underworld had been changed, even ever so slightly, then Sunny could not really imagine what ripples that change could cause in

Spell could have appraised Neph's performance

that was

its carriers had different criteria for success, after all. The Spell might be

to stare at the

Nephis seemed much more... mellow than before. But her resolve to kill the Sovereigns and destroy the Spell also seemed

things about her past words and

I going to

who was oblivious to his thoughts, with a complicated

more thing he had

Neph's Aspect, Light

was banished and doomed to exist in the darkness.

Spell had presented her with in the Second

as a result was called

Longing, yearning, desire... wish...

longing to destroy the Spell that burned like fire in Neph's

before, but now, Sunny saw it in a new light. It had seemed like a rather useless

However...

Corruption, then wasn't it actually the most broken and unbelievably

all, even Weaver had to sever their arm when it got infected with the Corruption. Not only was the great and

was

importantly, what was she

meanwhile, finished her stretching exercises, pulled the fastened

Nephis smiled.