Shadow Slave

A long time ago... Sunny had made a promise to himself. A promise to come back and destroy the Soul Devouring Tree one day.

Now, many years later, he was here to fulfill that promise.

He had been descending into the colossal crater for a while, but now that its heart was behind him, the ground was slowly starting to slope upward. Sunny rode Nightmare with a cold expression on his face, holding the ghostly torch in his hand.

The light of the eerie flame reflected from the polished surface of his armor and danced wildly in his onyx eyes.

It took some time to traverse the crater, but eventually, Sunny saw it.

The branches of a great tree covering the black sky.

A faint smile appeared on his lips.

'It lives.‘

He had a feeling that it would.

Sunny... had changed greatly since leaving the Ashen Barrow.

The Soul Devourer had changed, as well.

The insidious fiend had already been enormous back then, but now, it had grown even taller, reaching into the black sky with its obsidian branches.

This tree towered above the sea of ashen dust like a majestic mountain. Its bark was as black as the lightless sky, while its leaves were as red as blood... of course, Sunny could not really see color in the darkness. But he remembered their crimson splendor vividly. The crimson crown of the magnificent tree had used to cover the Ashen Barrow in its shade, but it was much richer and more expansive now, reaching far into the crater.

'That thing... has evolved.‘

Sunny sighed.

It was understandable. Since the Soul Devourer had managed to survive the rays or the annihilating sun, it would have been left with no competitor on the Forgotten Shore. The Crimson Terror was gone, and so was the Dark Sea. The other powerful abominations, like the Lord of the Dead, had been slain by the Sleepers of the Dark City.

The insidious fiend growing on the Ashen Barrow would have used the vacuum to enhance its power.

Sunny shifted his gaze, looking beneath the obsidian bark.

Then, a sad chuckle escaped from his lips.

'A Fallen Terror...‘

He was more or less sure that the Soul Devourer had been an Awakened Terror before. It seemed to have risen to a higher Rank... or rather, fell to a lower one? Sunny wasn't sure what the correct wording would be for a Nightmare Creature.

He did feel a certain sense of... disappointment, though.

terrified of that thing once. But now, it

Nightmare, Sunny landed on the ground, then walked up the slope of

the Ashen Barrow, he must have looked like a small mote of light in the ocean

been illuminated by the pale flame, but his presence drowned the area in deathly cold. Outside the small circle of

inescapable.

leaves of the magnificent tree rustle in the wind, their

as though the rustling

away! Don't

alarm, Sunny stepped through the shadows and appeared on the Ashen

an insidious influence trying to subtly

tree

and benevolent, and its

'Huh...‘

the Soul Tree were indeed sweet. More importantly, they were quite useful... each contained a

collect the fruits and keep the Soul Tree intact. Otherwise, there would never

shook off the mental hex. It

by five shadows, and the measure of protection against mental attack it provided him with could not even be compared to that

the

to save itself... were a bit pitiful,

hex, the leaves rustled again, this time full of panic.

— new thralls to replace

branches. Sunny would not have been

have avoided this place because she had no means of protecting herself against the hex back

come from the coral labyrinth, and were therefore merely

was his

hands rose from the darkness. They grabbed onto the thralls, onyx claws sinking into their flesh. The next moment, the air was filled with the smell of blood. lіght\nоvel\cаve~c`о/m. The massacre was harrowing and thorough, the silence broken by howls

not

he reached the trunk of the

branches were swaying,

placed one hand on the obsidian bark and closed

essence into the eerie torch. Opening his eyes, Sunny sighed...

chose the wrong person

he walked back to watch

The view was breathtaking.

blooming with smoldering embers. Soon, the fire reached the leaves and exploded, spreading across

was dispelled by the colossal

sounds. The roaring of the fire, the hiss of leaves being turned to ash, the cracking of dying wood- All of them fused into a chilling litany of pain, as if ten

It was... incredibly disturbing.

if he was really

screamed for a long, long