Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

Sunny slumped on the ground, summoned the Endless Spring, and greedily drank some water. Since his injuries were light... well, at least compared to those received by the Abyss Watchers... it was some time before the healer got to them. But, eventually, it was his turn to receive treatment.

The healer — a young man named Shim — was pale and exhausted, his Soul Essence clearly almost entirely depleted. Still, he managed to repair the ligament Sunny had torn while dodging the vines to a large extent. It hurt like hell, though.

With a dark expression, he summoned the runes and glanced at the painfully familiar string of them:

Shadow Fragments: [1958/3000].

He was a little over a thousand Fragments away from evolving into a Devil. This transformation was not only going to allow him to reinforce his body and reserves of Shadow Essence even further, but also reward Sunny with a third shadow. Having another invaluable helper would increase his power tremendously, making him capable of stacking three augmentations on top of each other, or spreading them over between his body, his Memories, and Saint.

To accumulate so many in only a couple months... that was an achievement worth celebrating. Very few Awakened ever fully saturated their Cores, and those who did usually spent long years slowly collecting soul shards of the Nightmare Creatures they killed. Decades, even... and that was for only one Core. Sunny could be proud of himself.

And yet, he didn’t feel happy.

Looking lower, he concentrated on another, much shorter cluster of runes.

Master: Fading Fyrefly

As soon as he did, new runes ignited in the air.

Rank: Ascended.

Class: Titan.

Soul Cores: [7/7].

Soul Shards: [26/7000].

AR-26710’s accumulation of Soul Shards was, frankly, ridiculous. Of course, that was going by the assumption she was killing Nightmare Creatures. Which could have been true — after all, unlike Sunny, she’d be able to grow stronger from absorbing Soul Shards that were of a lower Rank.

In reality, her speed must have been due to killing humans. When an Awakened killed one of their own, they recieved a percentage of the Soul Shards that they have absorbed.

It turned out being an intergalactic criminal had it’s benefits.

Dismissing the runes, he gritted his teeth and looked darkly at the desolate, hellish landscape of the Shipwreck Island.

’I have to get to that Seed... that is the only way...’

Compared to all other Awakened and their rate of growth, Sunny might have been a demon. But SAM... SAM was not even human. They have already formed all seven of their Cores, while Sunny didn’t even have four.

Through Ascending, even if he was still weaker, Sunny would at least be on the same playing field. Then, when they inevitably meet, no matter what happened, he would be prepared.

...His heavy thoughts were interrupted by the light sound of approaching steps. Looking up, Sunny saw Sparkle walking over to him with a wide grin on her face.

’Great. Just what I need...’

She stopped a couple of steps away and curiously tilted her head.

”Huh. You killed a Saint pretty easily. I guess it’s about time to send you into a Death Zone.”

Sunny froze, turned to look up at her, and squeaked out in a few octaves higher than normal:

”You knew...?”

She proudly nodded, completely unaware of his internal conflict as she said:

”Of course I did! Did you think I wasn’t aware of an immortal Saint hiding in the ship I wanted to rob? Let me tell you, a magician never performs unprepared!”

’Can I kill her?’

Probably not. Too many witnesses.

Sunny spoke through a clenched jaw.

”Yeah? Well, did you know that she wasn’t weak to fire? I had to kill her with a wooden knife.”

Sparkle shrugged.

”That’s what it’s for.”

Sunny palmed his face.

”So... now what?”

Sparkle turned to look at the wreck, a perpetual grin on her face.

”We’re going to be sticking around so we could repair this thing. It should only take a couple of weeks.”

Sunny thought to himself for a few moments. He had woken up in Herta’s space station back in May, and it was now August. Sparkle should be finished with repairing the ship before October, which will give them ample time to visit the Night Temple.

”When should we go to the Night Temple?”

Sparkle paused for a few moments, before asking:

”Hey, didn’t you hear?”

Sunny blinked.

”Hear what?”

Sparkle shook her head.

”Haven’t you at least noticed that there are less members of the White Feather clan in the Sanctuary?”

He blinked again.

”There are?”

How would she even know that? She was in the Desecrated Grove!

She hummed in realization.

”I guess they’re keeping it a secret. I only figured it out because I sent some guys to scout it out. Sky Tide is there to investigate, actually.”

...Why had he never heard of this?

”So, what is it? Spit it out!”

Sunny was beginning to get impatient.

Sparkle sent him a strange look.

”The Night Temple... has been wiped off the map.”