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."

him, unamused. Then, he turned to the bow of the ship

"At least there's spectacle."

paid it no

"Uh-huh..."

dismissed the Dawn Shard and

'Crap!'

Breaker shudder as a violent wave hit it

we are

grown bleak and restless. A vast and ancient shadow was

...

I'll handle things

Sunny

into the cold

the moving vessel. Enormous, ancient, and harrowing...

'A Tyrant?'

figure grew indistinct, surrounded by

the maw of a furious sea serpent emerged from the darkness, bellowing in rage as it shot into

The Great River stirred.

huffed, red drops falling from his hair. He was drenched in

was a sizable sack in his hands. That sack was actually Ananke's Mantle - which was resistant to water -

two sizable Transcendent soul

checked on them, then looked around the

it? I mean... why did I

torn apart, and burned to ashes - resembled a weird mix between humans and sea creatures. They had humanoid torsos with pale skin, while their legs were replaced by long, powerful black

both repulsive and

fragments. Even better, there are plenty of soul shards to be harvested in addition to the ones I

a huge, nasty Corrupted Monster... it seemed that

'Waste of essence.'

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

moment, suddenly stunned by how odd the situation