Shadow Slave

1518 Ruin

Standing on the crumbling wall of the floating fortress, Sunny saw the light grow dim above Twilight. For a moment, everything was still.

And then, the entire world was suddenly drowned in white radiance, blinding him.

Stunned, he raised a hand to cover his eyes and saw a pristine star ignite in the heart of the distant city. It swelled, growing into a massive sphere of furious flame.

Everything happened in an instant.

The buildings nearest to the white star simply dissolved in its pure light, evaporating. Those further away exploded into dust and were erased from existence by an obliterating shockwave. Those behind them were flattened and melted, turning to ash from the immolating heat.

A wave of incinerating fire, taller than the towering walls of the city, spread outward at lightning speed, consuming everything in its path — buildings, trees, cobblestones, even air itself… and all the tiny human figures flooding the crumbling streets.

Behind it, the furious star rose and deformed, slowly turning into a mushroom cloud of incandescent white flame. The pillar of fire supporting it dwarfed everything, reaching toward the sky.

'W—what…'

Even driven into madness by fury, he was momentarily paralyzed by the harrowing splendor of that inconceivable sight. Twilight... Twilight was being destroyed in front of his eyes.

…That was when the invisible shockwave reached the fortress, shattering its walls and throwing him down.

The deafening roar of the explosion came next, shaking the world.

Sunny plummeted from the broken wall and hit the cold stones with a sickening sound. Bouncing off the hard surface, he rolled and then instinctively covered his head with his hands. In the next moment, a rain of stone debris fell down, pummeling him like crushing hail.

'Who… who dares…'

of the blast, he screamed furiously and tried to stand up. Something hit him on the head, but Sunny did not care. Hunched, he rose from the

by flame? So what if

going to kill the hateful

it so

colossal pillar of flame had reached the heavens and collapsed on itself, torn apart by the wind. The furious light of the pure white star had dimmed and disappeared,

seven suns, turning the twilight of dawn

***

darkness remained. Even the air itself had been burned away by the inconceivable heat of the obliterating explosion, and so

radiant figure that stood amidst the destruction, surrounded by ash and ruins. It was slowly coalescing

single blemish on it, and her shining hair flowed like

pristine light reflected in the boiling water, creating a small island of light in the sea of searing darkness. Twilight was still and silent, with

were all gone, devoured by the merciless flames and turned to

battled against them

the

she was the only one left, the indestructible reflection of the sinister mirror fiend had nowhere to go but into the depths of

***

her was suffused with sunlight, and

if she was standing on a sea of golden

suns shone brightly

looked at

of one of her soul cores — the Terror Core — destroying itself before. But so many Defiled abominations had been consumed by the unleashed

seventh core was

The last core.

its creation had already passed, and

seven suns and gazed silently at the only spot of dirt and darkness in her perfectly radiant world. Out there, some distance away, a repulsive creature stood, staring at