Shadow Slave

The ground shook, and some parts of the crater's slope collapsed. Sunny, who was standing on the edge of its mound, lost his balance and rolled down, dirt and pieces of debris raining on him from above.

'Ouch.'

Coming to a halt much further down the slope than he had been before, he could not see the Dream Gate and the King of Swords anymore. What he could see, however...

Was a towering pillar of white flame rising from the torn depths of the wide crater.

It moved and twisted, as if alive. As though a giant made from pure flame was stretching its shoulders after being trapped underground for a long time. For a moment, Sunny was entranced, thinking that he could make out the shape of a winged being woven from dancing flame, hidden in the depths of the incandescent pillar.

Then, the whirlwind of flame collapsed on itself, and slowly formed into a humanoid figure.

The radiant being looked like a beautiful, pure spirit of immaculate light, her graceful body contrasted against the dark soil of the deep crater. With wide wings spread behind her like a blinding mantle, she slowly glided down. The moment her feet touched the ground, it started to melt.

Slowly, the brilliance of her skin grew dimmer, and was then extinguished. Without the blinding light, Sunny could finally see who had just escaped the ruins.

Of course, he had already guessed who it was.

It was Nephis.

She looked just like the last time he had seen her... but also different.

Not only because the white metal of the Starlight Legion armor was torn and scorched, breached in half a dozen places...

And not only because her presence seemed to illuminate the world, so much stronger and tantalizing than it had been before.

And not even because she had grown even more beautiful after undergoing the rebirth of Transcendence.

No... it was because Nephis had wings.

A pair of white wings extended from her back, looking too majestic and pure to be a part of this mortal world.

Sunny stared, enthralled.

'...Partial transformation?'

spirit of light whose radiant body seemed to

after catching a

a Divine Aspect would be limited to enhancing one's might

for a few more moments, then

I can

For now...

to do something very

Namely, explain himself.

leaving his partner to

step out to

forward to

up and spent a moment evaluating his

after all. So... he was certain that he was now

it did not really

right now. Because Sunny was completely covered in

'Ah... curses...'

hastily rubbed his face, but only managed to spread the

'Goddammit.'

because that

and looked at him, her eyes shining with radiant white

then hesitated and took

had more than one reason to feel

Nephis and the consequences of the choice he had

also the reason he had

gone, and his [Fated] Attribute was also

What about Shadow Bond?

say, Nephis spoke in a calm,

"Stop."

a couple more steps

broken her promise once again and

he had not felt

'It's... it's...'