Shadow Slave

The seven suns were shining in the azure sky.

Sunny was sitting close to the slope of the island, staring fixedly at the flowing water. His eyes were dark and tired. With the temporary camp destroyed, he felt strangely homeless. Much worse, neither he nor Nephis had managed to come up with a viable solution for their fatal problem.

They had considered many things.

Every Memory in their possession had been studied and examined, but none of them, nor any combination of them, revealed a way out of the perilous situation. The best they could hope for was prolonging their stay on the carapace of the Black Turtle, somewhat.

They could use the Dark Shaper to try and repair the cracks in the stone shell. There were other unreliable measures, as well… but that would just buy them a few more days, at most.

There were other Memories that they could use to try to escape. But attempting escape was tantamount to suicide. The Great Nightmare Creatures guarding both the water and the sky were not something they could outrun.

…Then, there were Sunny's Shadows.

He had once thought that Saint was their best hope of slaying the Azure Serpent. However, after witnessing the mad beast in battle, he didn't think that the taciturn knight could achieve such a feat anymore. Not only because she could not enter the water, but also because his plan to augment her with both the shadows and the white flames had been crushed.

Saint… could not receive the blessing of the fire. Or rather, she could not reap its full benefits.

The augmentation had worked perfectly fine in his basement before could not reap its full benefits.

The augmentation had worked perfectly fine in his basement before the Southern Campaign, but Saint underwent a fundamental transformation after that. She was now a Devil whose body and soul were infused with elemental darkness. And while true darkness somehow worked in tandem with Sunny's shadows, it refused to accept Neph's light.

Saint could either use one or the other. In any case, the result was not nearly as powerful as Sunny had imagined it to be.

They could bestow the power of shadow flame on his other Transcendent Devil, though. Sadly, Imp was not nearly as formidable of a warrior as Saint. On top of that… the little bastard was in a coma.

Or a food coma, at least.

goblin had finally stopped devouring the tarnished silver and fell into a deep slumber. Sunny had a hunch that after the great mass of mystical metal was fully digested, his gluttonous fiend would grow much stronger. But there was no telling how long it would take, so he

any case, Imp was of no help for

of them, but he was still an Awakened Terror. Even if the black stallion managed to unlock his Terror Ability, he was no match for

had no tools that could help them escape from the shell of the

was sitting on the cold stones and

was much less cloudy than it had been before. The vivid red color had receded, turning pale pink. The Black Turtle only had so much blood, after all, and by now, most of it had dissolved in the endless current of the

giant serpentine head rose from

Turtle, which had once seemed grand and indestructible, was

replaced by a bloody hole. Half of the terrifying fangs in its obliterating maw were either cracked or broken. Whole chunks

Serpent was undeterred. It was just the same. Its fury was the same, its hunger was the same, and its

stared at Sunny, and Sunny stared at the Great

a persistent

voice sounded grim and

a while, then

too. I know hunger,

dark smile appeared

shadows. I am the rightful heir of death and the bastard son of fate. Wherever I

slightly,

but it's too late

the Sin of Solace laughed

speech! What are you,

looked away and

leave the island. He had known it for a

to lie to himself anymore. Now, it was the time for

everything, she was still