Shadow Slave

1522 Break of Dawn

Driven to madness by wrath, Sunny was forcing his mangled body to move. His mind was muddled by fury and pain, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stand up, for some reason.

An inferno of dark, malignant rage was consuming his aching heart.

'No, no, no!'

The dragon… the hateful worm… was laying dead on the wet stones, stolen from him. Silver blood was pouring from his opened maw and obliterated eye, slowly spreading across the ruined courtyard. If only there had been more time... if only no one had interfered in their fight... Sunny would have been able to slay the Dread Lord himself. He knew he would.

But the dragon was gone.

And now that he was gone, Sunny's suffocating fury needed a new target.

'Kill, kill them… kill them all… I'll kill them…'

He could sense several shapes through the shadows. The loathsome fly that had stolen his prey, the crippled fiend who had come from the water, and a macabre abomination that had been spawned by a tainted shard of the fiend's soul.

And the most odious of them all… a pale young man wearing a nebulous black mantle, who was looking at him mockingly with a derisive smile.

"Look at you, fool. Mad as a hatter. How pathetic… how familiar… how distasteful..."

Sunny growled.

The abomination was staggering toward him, piercing him with the demented gaze of its rotten eyes. Glass claws were growing from its stump, and twisted fangs were growing from its bloodied maw.

He grinned.

'Good, good…'

He couldn't stand up, for the moment, so the creature was graciously delivering itself to him. Sunny was going to enjoy tearing it apart.

But before he could, a slender rapier pierced the abomination's chest, and a radiant hand grasped its head. The creature glowed with incandescent light, being incinerated from within, and then shattered like a broken mirror.

He howled, his hoarse voice full of indescribable rage.

'No, no!'

they stole another

to kill them, rip them, savage them, break

and tried to push his mangled body up, someone approached and halted a mere step away. He looked up and saw a breathtaking young woman looking at him silently from above, her beautiful face devoid of emotion. Her silver hair was moving slightly in the wind, and radiant sparks were dancing in

"I'll… destroy you…"

apart, but his muddled mind failed to contain the intricate patterns of the manifested forms. The vicious shadow

studied him for a few moments, then kneeled and

touch made Sunny

have to… kill

visage of the smoke streaming from the abomination's burned eyes flashed in

than to see the young

that she spoke, her voice sounding both

"Sunny…"

strength, preparing to lunge at

"Dismiss your crown."

his entire being ignited with a harrowing fury. The thought of surrendering his crown filled Sunny with a boundless ocean

the rage he had felt toward the odious dragon, and vaster than even the hatred he

However…

voice

like the cold commands of the dragon, which had been oppressive and domineering to the point of being irresistible…

abyss between nearly

to the young woman's order, following it obediently, as if he had no will of his own. He felt broken and violated, which only

that, though, he still could not even attempt

'She… she ordered me.'

dissolved into

frenzied

Leaving behind only horror.

Confusion, too… and pain.

ignoring caught up with Sunny, making him shudder and let

consumed

hand resting on his head ignited with a soft glow, and its comforting warmth chased the pain away. A wave of cleansing white flame spread through his

relief it brought was

only added to

he was left laying on the ground, disoriented and feeling lost. Everything that had happened since he activated the [King's Resentment] enchantment of the Crown of Twilight

'...What happened?'

incredibly tired, but he forced himself to raise his

the Starlight Legion Armor, for some reason. Her striking grey eyes