Shadow Slave

The breaking point of the battle happened when the massive body of the depth dweller finally collapsed into the boiling water. Many of the monstrous creature's limbs had been severed, its mantle of rotting seaweed had been devoured by flame, and the slithering mass of eels comprising its gaunt body had been charred, sliced open, and pierced through.

After a long and arduous fight, Nephis had finally killed the abominable giant.

By then, Sunny and his Shadows already sensed that the Drowned were wavering. Once Neph joined the fight against the demons, the scales swung in favor of the cohort drastically, and before too long, the last of the sinister creatures was slain.

Suddenly and without warning, the dark expanse of the flooded hall turned silent. The only thing Sunny could hear was the sound of water streaming through the cracks in the ceiling.

He looked up.

'This place is not going to collapse, is it?'

But then, suddenly, there was another sound. A ghastly, repulsive squelching of flesh being torn...

Spinning around, Sunny raised the Sin of Solace and prepared himself for the worst. But what he saw made his eyes narrow...

Having already climbed on top of the dead depth dweller, Fiend was enthusiastically tearing into the creature's repugnant flesh with his fangs. Feeling Sunny's gaze on him, the ogre looked up in confusion, as if trying to ask:

What?

Pieces of disgusting, fleshy meat were still hanging from his maw.

'T-this... this bastard! He almost gave me a heart attack!'

Not receiving an answer, the steel devil shrugged and continued ravenously devouring the dead abomination. He was practically beaming with delight.

Sunny let out a long sigh.

The rascal deserves

how Fiend had performed in the battle. It seemed that Sunny's efforts were paying off - the decision to only feed the gluttonous Shadow enchanted metals until his primary Attributes were set had turned him not only

from both armor plates and steel blades, with infernal flames enhancing both the former and the latter. The steel ogre did not even need to

'...He's so gluttonous, though.'

to eat to evolve once again. It was probably going to take veritable mountains of food. On the bright side, they never found themselves lacking

not sure that it's something to be

his other two Shadows and dismissed Nightmare after a moment of thought. Although his dreadful steed was not wounded seriously, there were some wounds on his sable

the two Echoes dissolved into a whirlwind of sparks - half of them white, half of them scarlet. The sybil seemed fine, but the blade mannequin was

dismissed Weaver's Mask and took a deep breath. The stale air of the underground

Masters were reunited on its

looked perfectly fine... well, of course she did. Any wound she had received would have been healed by the white flames long ago. In fact, that was one of the most frightening things about

she looked terribly drained and exhausted. The same power that healed her wounds and burned her enemies to ash subjected Nephis to unspeakable agony, which was why she only used her Aspect when there was no other

a few swift strikes

as though she would

Sunny was suddenly worried.

"Uh... are you alright?"

girl lingered for a few moments, then smiled

It's just that... remember the headache I told

He frowned.

Although it all happened terribly fast, she must have overused her Aspect Ability

Sunny shook his head.

in a single exchange. That was impressive. Since when

him

take it as a compliment? If you don't

laugh was bright and clear. She turned in the direction where the sybil had