Shadow Slave

"You are wasting your time."

"You will definitely fail."

"Just give up. You know you're not smart enough to accomplish anything worthwhile."

"Do you really want to make the woman holding your leash stronger? How foul."

"Your collection of failures just keeps growing, huh?"

Ignoring the Sin of Solace, Sunny leaned against Ananke's ketch as he studied the Dawn Shard. His shadow hands continued to weave strings of essence. His concentration remained unbroken.

He even welcomed the derisive comments. The more the hateful wraith berated him, the more Sunny felt like he was on the right track. The Sin of Solace would not have bothered to interfere if there was no chance of success, after all - it was not in his nature to bet against Sunny when there were no stakes.

"What, you are ignoring me now? Or have you forgotten how to speak?"

Sunny threw a calm glance at the apparition, then turned back to the Crown of Dawn.

"We'll speak when you tell me how you knew about the Mad Prince."

The Sin of Solace scoffed.

"Gods. Why do I even bother? I am sick of this tired routine!"

He laughed bitterly, then added in a resigned tone:

"But there's nothing else to do. How boring."

The Chain Breaker was swaying gently underneath them. Saint was standing guard at the bow, Fiend and Nightmare were guarding the sacred tree, and Nephis was at the stern, steering the ship.

The seven suns had already descended into the depths of the Great River, and the deck was illuminated by a scattering of lanterns. The water glowed softly, diluting the impenetrable darkness of the night with ghostly opalescence.

Sunny smiled faintly.

"...Find a hobby."

Sin of Solace stared at him, unamused. Then, he turned to the bow of the ship and

"At least there's spectacle."

it

"Uh-huh..."

hurriedly dismissed the Dawn Shard and jumped to

'Crap!'

Chain Breaker shudder as a violent

we are

grown bleak and restless. A vast and ancient shadow was rising from the depths, surrounded

...

handle things

Sunny ran past

over the railing without ever slowing down. A moment later, he plunged into the cold water, rushing to meet the horror that

moving vessel. Enormous, ancient, and harrowing... Sunny felt hundreds of eyes

'A Tyrant?'

grew indistinct, surrounded by

darkness, bellowing in rage as it

The Great River stirred.

huffed, red drops falling from his hair.

was actually Ananke's Mantle - which was resistant to water - its sleeves tied in

sizable Transcendent soul

them, then looked around the

did I even wash it? I mean... why did I even

was littered with corpses. The creatures that had died here - cut, torn apart, and burned to ashes - resembled a weird mix between humans and sea creatures. They

both repulsive

a few shadow fragments. Even better, there are plenty of soul shards to be harvested in

It was just a huge, nasty Corrupted Monster... it seemed that these Drowned Outcasts were not its minions. Instead, the smaller creatures appeared to have herded the enormous monstrosity, using it to attack

'Waste of essence.'

Nimble Catch and the Sin of Solace to cut the depth dweller

suddenly stunned by how odd the situation