Shadow Slave

A cold ocean washed the shore of a desolate land, its waves frozen and unmoving. The empty sky seemed dim and uncaring, the sun hidden behind a somber veil. The land itself was silent and forlorn, its lifeless expanse buried in snow.

Not far from the shore, the layer of ice shackling of the ocean suddenly fractured and exploded, revealing the restless surface of the dark water. A pale hand rose above the edge and dug into the ice with crushing force. A moment later, a gaunt young man climbed from the cold water, stepping on the frozen waves with a chilling expression on his sunken, alabaster face.

His appearance was both tantalizing and frightening. The young man only wore the tattered remains of a military bodysuit, which was mostly gone. His fair skin was as white as snow, marred by countless gruesome, but eerily bloodless wounds. His eyes, on the contrary, were as dark as the depths of a lightless abyss. The black silk of his wet hair moved slightly in the frigid wind.

He looked like the wretched corpse of a drowned deity that had crawled out of a frozen hell.

His slender torso was mostly bare, revealing an intricate tattoo of a coiling serpent that covered most of his arms, chest, and back. The dark serpent was so lifelike that it almost seemed like its onyx scales were moving under the young man's skin.

Sunny remained motionless for a while, looking at the desolate landscape in front of him. Then, he took a step forward.

Finally, after so much time had passed, he was back at the Antarctic Center.

He had returned to Falcon Scott.

When he took the second step, his gruesomely torn skin was already healing. When he took the third, the intricate plates of a battered onyx armor covered his mangled body, shielding it from the cold and wind.

«It looks the same.»

unfinished business — not that there was a lot for him to do after being erased from the world. Meeting Rain was the very last thing he did.

darkness nurtured his soul and was rich in spirit essence.

shortage of unimaginable horrors populating the oceans of

replenish his essence through its [Soul Reaver] Ability, which allowed Serpent to absorb and transfer a portion of soul essence of all beings slain by it in the Soul Weapon or the Soul

now that Sunny did not possess a True Name, but the Onyx Serpent form was one of the few that he could assume without the risk of losing himself — perhaps it was because he

Antarctica. And those weeks… had been a cold and dreadful nightmare. Out there in the dark depths of the ocean, he had faced horrors so hideous and dire that no words

crossing the ocean alone had seemed preposterous before, but now that Sunny was a Transcendent

left everything behind… his mental state was far from ideal. The pain and anguish had turned into dark anger, and the

for Sunny anymore, and nothing left for him to

pay

he needed to settle

waves, Sunny reached the shore of the Antarctic Center and looked around without expression. His eyes were like two pools of darkness,

The city itself was frozen above it, standing silently on the tall cliffs. The buildings were encased in ice, and so were the remains of the millions

some time, then turned his gaze away. He wasn't quite ready

but Sunny paid it no attention. His shadow sense spread