Shadow Slave

What they were trying to do did, indeed, seem a little crazy. There were two great abominations fighting on one side of the Black Turtle, and Nephis wanted to dive into the water on the other side to steal some of the turtle's meat.

Because she was hungry.

But, of course, it was really not that unhinged of a plan. She had not suggested it out of a burning desire to satiate her belly - rather, it was out of necessity. The longer they were to go hungry, the weaker they would become. The weaker they became, the slimmer their chances of survival would be.

Neither Nephis nor Sunny knew if they would get a better chance to harvest the Black Turtle's meat than now, when the Azure Serpent was distracted. In fact, they did not even know if they would live long enough to enjoy the fruits of this perilous decision.

If the monstrous butterfly won, they would probably die soon. But there was nothing they could really do about that... so, the only thing they could do was prepare for the other outcome to the best of their ability.

Grimacing, Sunny looked away and shook Imp off his thigh.

"Curses..."

Then, he gritted his teeth and started climbing out of the fissure.

'Hungry... she's hungry... hungry, is she?! Just... just what sin did I commit in my past life to be cursed with all these gluttonous women?!'

Oblivious to his heartfelt plea, Nephis followed.

It took Sunny just a few moments to scale the vertical slope of the deep fissure and climb onto the quaking surface of the dark island. It was shaking and swaying, pushed by the harrowing fury of the unseen battle that was happening below the waves.

vast shadow crawled from the darkness to take the shape of a tenebrous steed. Neph arrived

the fissure, since he

and then broke into a sprint without having to say anything. Their goal was the end of

Serpent had broken through the Great Monster's silver armor and burrowed into its flesh, leaving behind a gaping wound. Since the scales of the creature were all but impervious, the meat could only be harvested from

they were nearing the point where the shell of the Black Turtle started to slope down at a steep angle, Sunny sighed and dismissed the Shroud of Dusk. Left in just his underwear, he ignored Neph's strange gaze and summoned the Nimble Catch and the Essence

traded a couple of Memories just for such an occasion from the House of

for a moment, then looked

"Oh."

weaving itself from the sparks of light, Sunny threw a glance at his body and frowned a little. He had always been lean, and while his muscles simply refused to gain bulk, they had been

He had lost a lot of weight during the hellish journey through the Nightmare Desert

would start to devour itself

physique, but for Sunny, who

need to

fisherman's net covered his pale skin, he noticed that Nephis was giving him a sideways glance again,

Slightly confused, he said:

"Summon that..."

say anything. The familiar golden rope was already manifesting

but they didn't have to be stupid about it. If something happened, Sunny could swiftly pull them away through the shadows - however, finding a proper shadow to dive into was hard underwater. And since the Great River was in the throes of the battle between the Azure Serpent and the monstrous butterfly, its current could

it around his left wrist while she tied

Sunny stared at them in confusion for a moment before realizing that their function had