Shadow Slave

Sunny was drowning in a sea of pain. His mind, what little of it was left, had become faint and fragile, ready to collapse at any moment. But it had not collapsed yet. Actually, there was a piece of good news, too. The fact that he was capable of feeling pain meant that he was still alive. The fact that he was still alive... meant that the Azure Serpent was dead. Otherwise, it would have finished Sunny off already.

'I... won...'

It was a small consolation. The pain was so unbearable that he almost wished for death. However, Sunny was too attached to life to throw it away - if there was the tiniest chance to survive, he was going to desperately cling to it with everything he had. Before, he would have done it simply out of spite... but now, there were things he cherished and goals he wished to achieve. He really wanted to live.

'What... the hell... is happening?'

It was hard to form legible thoughts, but he somehow managed to evaluate his current state. Overwhelming pain, the loss of all senses... he was in shock. He was in a pain shock due to his shadow incarnation receiving severe damage. His soul had been wounded terribly. Which meant... what? He didn't know. What was he supposed to do? Was there anything to do?

'Argh... it hurts...'

For now, Sunny decided to do his best to endure the pain and hold his crumbling mind together. It wasn't easy, or pleasant, or possible... but he persisted. He persisted with everything he had. And, after an eternity of torment, there was finally a change. Sunny seemed to regain his hearing. The first thing he heard was Neph's distorted cry:

"Sunny! Don't die! Please!"

He was strangely annoyed.

'Crap... that was an order, wasn't it?'

She broke her promise! Not that it could change anything... it would have been great if Nephis giving him an order to survive magically restored his body and healed his wounds. But Sunny had to be able to execute a command for Shadow Bond to compel him into action - or inaction. So, if Nephis suddenly decided to order him to go and bring her the moon one day, at most he would be forced to fruitlessly try his best.

he was already trying his

does

a compliment. Of course, he would do everything in his power to remain alive.

realized that his thoughts were becoming longer

'Something is changing...'

one after another. Hearing was first, followed by shadow sense, sense of touch, smell, taste, and finally sight. It was all a proper mess, though - his vision was blurry, and

too, this time

pain? I am a manifested shadow right now,

it was a phantom pain. Even though Sunny did not possess a human body at the moment, his mind was still that of a human. And when his mind perceived the dreadful damage done to his shadow body, it reacted the only way it knew

'Curses...'

and was startled by the fact that he had regained the ability to grit his teeth. Even more surprising was the fact that it was fangs and not teeth

lucid enough

waters of the Great River were suffused with a soft radiance, indicating that it was still night. More than that, he judged that less than a minute had passed since his

Great Beast could still be seen, barely, as it slowly sank into the depths of the river. The frightening silhouette of the ancient leviathan grew

respect, contempt, hatred, curiosity, suspicion... There

to understand what was happening around him. He perceived his long serpentine body, now mangled and savagely ripped apart. It

'The soul flame...'

he was floating lifelessly in the water, paralyzed by pain and on the verge of

must have retrieved