Shadow Slave

According to what the Sleeper had told them, his two friends were not very far from Sunny's territory — however, they were well beyond the reach of his Shadow Sense.

It had taken the youth two days of wandering to stumble upon the Fragment of the Shadow Realm, where he was picked up by Saint. The only reason he had survived such a journey across Godgrave was because Nephis and her people had burned away most of the Nightmare Creatures on the surface, clearing a path to the vicinity of the Nightmare Temple.

Sunny could traverse the distance a Sleeper could walk in two days in a couple steps, but using Shadow Step in such a manner was bound to consume a vast amount of essence, especially if he had to bring Nephis with him.

Transporting her and two more humans all the way back was out of the question — unless he wanted to find himself severely weakened in the middle of a Death Zone, not to mention sabotaging his other two avatars.

In short, he would rather move in a less wasteful manner.

Flying suited him fine.

As Nephis was summoning her beautiful wings, Sunny extended his shadow sense outward. He was cautious about exploring the abominable jungle — there were many Nightmare Creatures here who could feel his gaze, and were not shy about gazing back.

Soon, his expression darkened.

«We will proceed slowly.»

The white wings appeared in a gust of wind.

Illuminated by a soft radiance, Nephis raised her hands to tie her silver hair up. Stopping what she was doing, she raised an eyebrow and glanced at him, slightly confused.

«Haven't we decided to fly in order to save time?»

Sunny stared at her for a couple of moments, then slowly looked away.

«…Yes. but if something truly powerful notices us, we'll be stalled. Maybe even forced to escape. So, we will traverse a dozen kilometers or so at a time. I'll scout for danger when we stop.»

He pointed to one of the vine bridges stretching toward the dome of the Hollows.

«Head there first.»

nodded and bent her knees slightly. Then, she jumped powerfully, raising a gust of

canopy of red leaves

they did, countless gazes

«Not good…»

of appalling creatures suddenly rose from the jungle, moving to intercept them like a buzzing cloud. Each abomination resembled a mosquito,

out a

to have

black sword suddenly ignited with blinding white

the approaching swarm, causing a single radiant spark to glide above the jungle, seemingly carried by the

flame was born from it, enveloping the

not been immolated

shining with a pure white

a small sun… and if there was one thing that

abominations that had avoided the initial conflagration were swallowed by the flame,

the scene

«Damn.»

How convenient!

ways to deal with abominable giants and ferocious beasts. But these misbegotten pests had caused him so much grief in the past

Fire Keepers were living

or two later, they

once again, this time without

hideous primate monster plummeted down, crashing into the

to clear the wall of the living pillar of poisonous thorns. Then, she thrust her gauntlet into the moss to find a handheld. Half-standing and

form, landed on her

him briefly, but did not

shadow sense forward once more, sensing several truly powerful adversaries hiding under the thick canopy not too far away from their

already ascending the sky bridge, hidden from sight by the

and glided forward, taking a smooth turn