Shadow Slave

Sunny had to destroy the Sin of Solace before the seeds of Corruption were planted into his soul. If he managed to destroy the wraith before that happened, the scheme the Mad Prince had concocted to come back to life would be thwarted, and Sunny would get to continue existing.

If he failed, the Mad Prince would return, consuming him in the process. 'That vile bastard...'

The sword wraith laughed as he watched him.

"My, oh my. You're not going to do something terrible to me, are you?" Sunny glanced at him darkly, then at the beautiful jian in his hand.

Placing the Guiding Light on the water, he wrapped all six of his shadows around him and grabbed the jade blade, using all his inhuman strength in an attempt to break it against his knee.

The Sin of Solace was not only incredibly resilient, but also incredibly sharp. Despite the Marble Shell, Sunny could not get a good hold of it without losing his fingers... and even if he could, his strength seemed insufficient to shatter the cursed sword.

Even though his muscles felt like they were on the verge of tearing, the jian only bent, but did not break. As soon as Sunny released it, the blade sprung back to its initial, perfectly straight form.

'Maybe... I should try to escape back under the gaze of the lake guardian...'

But no, that would only end in his demise. The Sin of Solace was a part of him, and now that the Estuary Key had been destroyed, the guardian would obliterate them both.

The wraith chuckled, observing his efforts with disdain.

"Pathetic."

Sunny abandoned his attempts to break the jade blade and straightened.

Then, he smiled.

So what if he wasn't strong enough to break the damned sword?

That whole performance was just to satiate his curiosity, anyway.

Before the sword wraith could say anything else, he released his shadows and tossed the beautiful jian away.

A moment later, a hand rose from one of the shadows, catching the cursed sword. Saint stepped out of it, holding it with indifferent grace.

As an Ascended, Sunny might not have been strong enough to shatter the Sin of Solace. But luckily, he had a Transcendent Devil at hand... two of them, even.

It would have been even easier to make Fiend eat the jade blade, but he was worried that the cursed thing would give the ravenous ogre indigestion. So, the job of destroying the sinister Memory fell to Saint.

As the six shadows wrapped themselves around the graceful knight, her ruby eyes blazed with crimson light. The wraith opened his eyes widely.

"Now, wait a second..."

or rather, incapable of perceiving him —Saint silently placed the flat of the jade blade against her greave, slowly raised her shield, and then struck

wind spread from the point of impact, and the

cracked, then exploded into shards of beautiful white jade, which dissipated into a whirlwind

ear, saying the same words for the second time

Memory has been

grimace appeared on his face. Losing Memories

the grimace on the face of the

"Argh! Aaah!"

screaming, and

moments, there was

the silence was broken by the sound of mocking

did nothing? I am perfectly fine. Who would

Sin of Solace straightened and stared at Sunny with a disdainful

did you really think that it would

silently, his face

shook his

a part of your mind, now. The cause

face, replaced by a

little bit dejected,

Sin of

spend time

opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something... some terrible truth that would drive Sunny mad and infect his

took a step forward, coming face-to-face with the startled wraith, and leaned forward

he whispered

Only two words.

first words he had spoken after saying farewell to Cassie at the shore of

They were:

"Be gone."

he said them, the world

eyes widened slightly —

"You..."

he was

if he had

gone, taking the forbidden knowledge of the Void, and all the memories of

the Mad Prince from ever being born

the curse that had plagued him since the early days of the Southern Campaign, Sunny closed his eyes for a moment, and then let