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!'

stole another from him! Thieves,

them, rip them, savage

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

"I'll… destroy you…"

the shadows to rip the young woman's body apart, but his muddled mind failed to contain

moments, then kneeled and put a hand on his

touch made

to… kill

of the smoke streaming from the abomination's burned eyes flashed in his mind and disappeared, drowning in the sea of

somehow… even though Sunny wanted nothing more than to see the

she spoke, her voice sounding both strange and

"Sunny…"

gathered his strength, preparing

"Dismiss your crown."

being ignited with a harrowing fury. The thought of surrendering his crown filled Sunny with a boundless ocean of frenzied wrath, deep and dark

was far more scorching than the rage he had felt toward the odious dragon, and vaster than even the hatred he felt

However…

voice of

had been oppressive and domineering to the point of being irresistible… but

was a boundless abyss between nearly

felt his very soul respond to the young woman's order, following it obediently, as if he had no will of

though, he still could not even attempt

'She… she ordered me.'

Twilight dissolved into a

Sunny's frenzied wrath disappeared as

Leaving behind only horror.

Confusion, too… and pain.

had been ignoring caught up with Sunny, making him

was consumed by

with a soft glow, and its comforting warmth chased the pain away. A wave of cleansing white flame spread through his body, mending his broken flesh

sense of relief

added

that had happened since he activated the [King's

'...What happened?'

but he forced himself to

of him… wearing the Starlight Legion Armor, for some reason. Her striking grey eyes