Shadow Slave

Sunny and Nephis scrambled in an attempt to find a hiding spot... but there was no need.

Their first thought was that the dreadful butterfly had won the battle against the Azure Serpent. If that was the case, then their fates would be sealed. However, a moment later, a deafening roar shook the world, pushing them to the ground.

Turning to the stormy waters of the Great River, they saw a familiar creature rising to the surface.

The serpent was looking the worse for wear, with countless deep lacerations covering its mighty body. Streams of scarlet blood were flowing down its azure scales, and its giant eyes seemed even more deranged than usual. Flames of indescribable, murderous malice were burning in their cloudy depths - but, for once, that malice was not directed at the two humans.

Instead, it was aimed at the battered butterfly.

Now that Sunny and Nephis had a few moments to observe the Great Monster in detail, they noticed that it was in a sorry state, too. One of its six legs was missing, and there was an ugly tear on one of its beautiful wings. Its body looked strangely disheveled, and although none of the white scales covering it were missing, many of them were covered with thin cracks.

The Great Monster was retreating.

Sunny froze, momentarily stunned. Even though he had hoped that the Azure Serpent would win the battle against the much stronger Nightmare Creature, he could not quite believe that it actually happened.

'Old snake... just what damned kind of abomination are you?'

It was already miraculous for a Great Beast to defeat a Great Monster. Two of them, though? While not impossible, it was certainly abnormal. Even if the monstrous butterfly was an aerial creature, and was thus at a disadvantage while fighting underwater, the tenacity of the Azure Serpent was confounding.

Sunny stared at the bloodied leviathan somberly. As if sensing his gaze, the serpent lowered its snout and glared back at him.

Crimson water was flowing out of its slightly opened maw.

He shivered.

'...It's no mere Beast.'

Indeed, he should have known. His luck wasn't good enough to stumble on just any Great Beast. No, it surely had to be some kind of unique and singular existence... a damn monarch among all Beasts. [Fated] wouldn't have it any other way.

Maybe it was no coincidence that the Azure Serpent had come from much further upstream than the other two abominations.

'Ah, curse it.'

Sunny felt conflicted. On the one hand, he should be ecstatic about the fact that the harrowing butterfly was retreating. On the other hand, the ancient river serpent seemed much more dangerous now.

The butterfly, meanwhile, was swiftly rising higher and higher.

...However, it didn't leave.

Instead of disappearing into the distance, the Great Monster turned into a black dot once again and started to slowly circle the island from above. It looked like the creature was not giving up on the carcass of the Black Turtle, just recovering its strength and biding its time to make another attempt.

into the water with an angry hiss. Soon, the

tumultuous water slowly

and Nephis stared at the vast expanse of

it seems we

She nodded slowly.

go find

a

'Huh?'

was she talking

"A pond? Why?"

at her in confusion,

think? We just took a bath in a river of blood. I want to wash myself, of

tilted his head, only now realizing how nasty

he was no

sly smile appeared on his lips. Suddenly

"Can I join?"

was already turning

own pond...

He laughed.

drown? Those fissures are very

Nephis scoffed.

meat out of that storage Memory first. It will be sad if it just disappears, after everything we went

singing a quiet melody as

he shook his head

care about the meat?

when the seven suns had already plunged into the water, Sunny and Nephis were back in their makeshift camp at the bottom of the

Chair and the Covetous Coffer, back to its usual size, were standing nearby. Neph's sleeping bag was laying on one side of the pit, while Sunny had gathered soft moss to serve as bedding on the other, using the Overpriced Saddle

he had devoured. Saint was standing guard above, and Nightmare was hiding

supper over the coals. Not only that, but she had also gone all out, for some reason, using an inventive mix of spices to thoroughly marinate the

their bodies, and were now preparing for sleep, feeling refreshed. Before that, however, they were going to finally

carcass of the Black Turtle they

meat on a plate and handed it to

you wait

felt warm and relaxed, so

"Sure."

a splinter of the synthetic firebrick they had used to light the fire, and thrust it into the meat. Then, she touched it with the

dish with