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.

shape of a tenebrous steed. Neph arrived

relative safety of the fissure, since he was of no use

at each other, and then broke into a sprint without having to say anything. Their goal was the end of the island beneath which the Black Turtle's enormous head was floating in the

leaving behind a gaping wound.

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

traded a couple of Memories just for such

lingered for a

"Oh."

He had always been lean, and while his muscles simply refused to gain bulk, they had been like

a lot of weight during the hellish journey through the Nightmare Desert and the days of hunger on the carcass of the Black Turtle. His body was all skin and muscle,

would start to

strived for such a physique, but for Sunny, who had grown up

really need to get that

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

Slightly confused, he said:

"Summon that..."

have to say anything. The familiar golden rope was already manifesting in

monster's meat, 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 golden rope, and he hastily tied it

into two silver anklets. Sunny stared at them in confusion for a moment before realizing