Shadow Slave

The delivery did not go smoothly. Sunny, Kai… and Mordret, of all people… remained on the stern of the ship for more or less the entire time, waiting for the results. Sunny at least had a task to keep him occupied — guiding the Chain Breaker across the black void was not very difficult, but it still required attention.

Mordret did not seem to care that much, but Kai was extremely concerned. He paced nervously, sometimes glancing down, but then hurriedly turning his gaze away.

It was a bit strange. All three of them could learn exactly what was going on — Sunny thanks to his shadows, Mordret through the reflections, and Kai due to his Awakened Ability. However, none of them made use of that opportunity, preferring to remain in the dark about what was happening below deck.

It was not like they did not receive any signs, though.

The Chain Breaker seemed to tremble from time to time, and Effie's voice eventually reached their ears, penetrating the impregnable wood the enchanted ship was built from.

Hearing the barrage of curses pouring out of her mouth, Sunny was a bit reassured. Things could not be going too terrible, considering that she had enough energy for such eloquence.

…At the same time, he felt his ears slowly turning numb. Some of those words, he did not even know. Others seemed familiar, but used in an entirely new context. Even after growing up in the outskirts, he was on the verge of blushing a little..

'Really… is there a need to be so descriptive? She has been chewed on by all kinds of Nightmare Creatures. How bad can the pain be?'

Nevertheless, the process continued for many hours. After a while, Effie's voice grew tired, and his expression grew dim.

It was taking too long.

Even without being able to precisely measure time, Sunny knew that Effie had been in labor for longer than usual. It has already been a full day, at least, and there seemed to be no end to it.

Nephis, Cassie, and Jet were with her, handling the process. They would have called upon him and Kai if they needed help, but none of them had appeared from below the deck. Sunny was growing more and more uneasy, and Kai was entirely beyond himself, by then.

"Should we… do something?"

Sunny looked at him somberly.

do. Calm down. Neph is

hesitated for a while, then

hard not to

harder not to feel burdened by the uncertainty of the future. They were going into battle very soon… the timing of it all was extremely unfortunate. Disastrous,

starting with the dire necessity that had forced them to enter the Seed,

situation was right here

because doing so would lessen their chances of prevailing in Verge, even, but simply because he knew that getting rid of the bastard would not be that

he moved the

slowly passed. The intensity of Effie's labor only grew, while at

something that felt

finally heard

loud sound of

he stood, looking completely exhausted. It was as if it was him who had given birth to a

Sunny knew how

hear a child's cry in the black emptiness of the Tomb of Ariel. A pure sound like that did not belong in this dreadful place… it

at the same time,

poured his essence into the runic circle and slowly brought the

hovered in the dark abyss, unmoving, the leaves of the sacred tree emanating a beautiful

for a while, then took a deep

exhausted to think straight,

"I'll go check."

to one of the cabins. In front of it, the air was heavy with the scent of blood. A radiant memory

his steps, she turned her head

his heart beating

is