Shadow Slave

Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie spent a while resting on the dais of the flooded hall. They were surrounded by the stench of blood and death, but none of them minded. It was too familiar of a smell, after all - most Awakened would not lose appetite because of it.

The three of them needed to refuel their exhausted bodies, regardless. Without speaking much, they consumed a hearty meal and spent some time catching their breaths. There was mental fatigue to deal with, as well - the mind was not as quick to recover from the strain of the battle as the body.

Sunny, it seemed, was in better shape than Nephis and Cassie. After spending some time in a comfortable daze, his thoughts started to wander. Curious, he checked his runes.

'...No luck.'

Despite the large number of enemies he and his Shadows had slaughtered, there were no new Memories, not to mention Echoes. Sunny was not too discouraged, though - mostly because his shadow fragment counter was showing [1944/5000].

'I've... earned almost five hundred fragments in a single battle.'

That was a truly stunning amount. Sunny struggled to remember if he had ever earned that much, that fast... considering that the Nightmare promised to be quite intense from this point onward, there was a good chance that he would emerge from it as a Terror. Just six battles of similar scope would do the trick.

Of course, it was uncertain if he would survive the Nightmare at all. Still... every fragment he absorbed made him a tiny bit stronger. So, earning hundreds of them in the span of a few minutes was a boon.

After a while, the three of them reluctantly got to work. By then, Fiend was mostly done with devouring the gargantuan corpse of the depth dweller - once again, Sunny was flabbergasted by how much meat could fit inside the gluttonous Shadow's bottomless belly. The monstrous abomination had been at least ten times larger than the steel devil, and yet, there was barely anything left of it.

'...Does he have some sort of an endless spatial storage instead of a stomach?'

Shaking his head, Sunny called both Fiend and Saint over. Then, the five of them started the gruesome job of recovering the soul shards from the Drowned.

After a while, they were back on the dais, sitting on the cold stones. All three humans had a somewhat strange look on their faces, their eyes reflecting the beautiful glow of a sizable pile of radiant crystals that lay between them. Unable to control himself, Sunny trembled.

'So... so... so much money!'

There were no less than three hundred Transcended soul shards in the pile. Three hundred! In the waking world, they would have sold for enough money to buy the entire terrace district where his home was located. Even then, he would be left with enough credits to... to...

'What do I even spend it on?'

Sunny lingered for a few moments, then scratched his head.

seems too

Nephis turned to him. After a few moments of

a bit

were equally enormous. It took a lot of resources to maintain an army of Awakened and keep a

the mesmerizing pile of

why

silent for a while, then said in a stifled

time's a wastin'. Come on,

gave him

"Huh?"

swallowed his tears and

saturated her core, so you're the only one who can make use

remained silent for a few

depth dweller and a dozen Drowned. You

He shrugged.

you a Titan, the better. I already received my share of fragments, anyway... plus, we're in the same boat. Quite literally. You said it yourself, too - individual strength is not all that. If there's anything we can

Nephis. Her gaze did not move, but her

crushed the soul shard. A stream of white sparks then entered her body, surrounding it

it dimmed, Nephis picked up another shard and absorbed it, as well. One, two, three,

bitter envy from showing on his face, Sunny observed the process from the sidelines. Belatedly, he realized that absorbing hundreds of shards

simply stared at the soft radiance surrounding Neph's

quiet sigh

'Pretty...'

Then, Sunny coughed.

can there be a prettier sight?! Too bad it's going to

to look away, he glanced at Cassie. The blind girl seemed to have regained some of her liveliness, but she still looked unsteady. He summoned the Endless Spring and offered it

her Aspect Abilities were

Calling out to her, he gently

"Here. Drink some water."