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.

of that thing once. But now, it seemed

on the ground, then walked up the slope of the crater. The

light in the ocean of darkness... drawing closer and closer, growing

deathly cold. Outside the small circle of

inescapable.

leaves of the magnificent tree rustle in the wind, their murmur

was as though the rustling

Don't

Sunny stepped through the shadows

felt an insidious influence trying to subtly twist

tree was beautiful... the tree

benevolent,

'Huh...‘

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

he should collect the fruits and keep the Soul Tree intact. Otherwise,

subtly and shook off the mental hex. It was too easy to

time. But now, he was a Transcendent Terror. The Onyx Mantle was augmented by five shadows, and the measure of protection against mental attack it provided him with could not even be compared to that of the

of the Soul Devourer was quite

to save itself... were

leaves rustled again, this time full

Creatures — new thralls to replace Sunny,

survived the annihilating sun under its branches. Sunny would not have been surprised if these were all of them, really — every single creature that had avoided being consumed by the Crimson Terror, either through strength

had no means of protecting herself against the

of them had come from the coral labyrinth, and

it was his turn

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 of agony

calmly, not even sparing the dying abominations a

reached the trunk

the branches were swaying, their sound full

hand on the obsidian bark and closed his eyes for

torch. Opening his eyes, Sunny sighed... and set the magnificent tree

the wrong person to

he walked back to watch it

The view was breathtaking.

climbing the towering trunk. The obsidian bark cracked, blooming with smoldering embers. Soon, the fire reached the leaves and exploded, spreading across the

that happened, the darkness shrouding the Forgotten Shore was dispelled by the colossal ball of flame burning above

cacophony of 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 thousand souls were shrieking at the

It was... incredibly disturbing.

almost felt as if he was really hearing the ancient tree

a long, long