Shadow Slave

1416 Invisible Scars

As Nightmare carried him away from the graveyard of horrors, Sunny managed to regain some of his composure. By then, they were moving deeper inland, following the light of the sacred staff. Effie was supposed to be at the end of that light.

As time passed, he couldn't help but think back to the Hollow Butterfly.

The Great Monster must have landed on the hidden island a long time ago — but also only a few hours ago — to lay eggs. Then, it was caught in the time loop and somehow ended up with its soul destroyed.

Sunny had never heard about a Nightmare Creature becoming Hollow, but it was not impossible. The question was… how had it happened?

The obvious answer was that the gargantuan creature had been attacked by someone who could destroy souls. When a soul was destroyed, the body usually died with it… but on rare occasions, it survived. That was how Hollow humans appeared, so the same thing could have happened to this Great Monster.

There certainly could be a creature capable of shattering souls on this hellish island… and powerful enough to slay a Great Monster. In fact, Sunny did not even need to ponder long to think of one.

Wasn't Undying Slaughter a perfect candidate?

Killing a Great Monster was all but a hopeless endeavor for the members of the cohort, but to the mist wraith, it would be no different from what facing Carapace Centurions had been for the Sleepers of the Forgotten Shore.

Fatally dangerous, but not at all impossible.

There could be more soul breakers on Wind Flower, as well.

That said…

Somehow, Sunny did not think that that was what had happened.

Not because he didn't think that Undying Slaughter was incapable of slaying the Dark Butterfly, but because he didn't think that she was capable of doing so without leaving any trace of the battle.

The Dark Butterfly was a Great Monster, and as such, it possessed two Corruption Cores. That meant that the Defiled wraith had to deliver at least two blows to its soul in order to destroy it. Would the aerial horror have remained idle while it was being killed?

been attacked, the whole place would have been turned upside down with one flip of its

bones surrounding

almost

Great Monster had simply ceased to be,

went for the revolting

'How could it be?'

a cold shiver run

make this conclusion… but he felt that

of the time

Sunny

be able to endure before turning into a drooling fool. The answer was… quite a lot. But there was no question that

on Wind Flower, his mental state would inevitably deteriorate. Although his flesh was miraculously restored every time he

What about spiritual scars?

that they could be damaged. They could also be healed, and possessed the ability to slowly mend themselves, just like flesh

was a limit to how much punishment souls

to happen to his soul after he spent a long time being killed and reborn in the

going to

a year, or a few years, or a few hundred years. Or

soul

loop and kept his memories after returning to the past. As far as he knew, no one except him bore the mental scars of the

their souls weren't, at least not

Dark Butterfly had landed on Wind Flower countless years ago… maybe even the

I have to be

a Great Monster — a creature with a soul infinitely more vast and potent than his — had been made Hollow by the time loop, then

the repeating time, but deep down inside, Sunny was consoled by the thought that his failures would be erased,

another, and

he was most

even when it repeated itself, living beings were not meant to

to make