Shadow Slave

Sunny looked up, the radiance spilling from beneath his visor and illuminating the boundless darkness above. There, a vast expanse of tattered cloth seemed to be descending upon them, billowing in the wind.

Of course, it was not really a giant swath of fabric.

It was a Creature of Darkness he was familiar with — a Dark Drifter, like the ones who had tried to devour the shadow of Condemnation in the Realm of Death. Sunny did not know what would happen if the nebulous body of the Dark Drifter enveloped them, and he did not want to find out. Being spiritually digested by an eerie Nightmare Creature was not on his bucket list.

The peculiar flesh of the Creature of Darkness seemed to ripple and seethe when exposed to the light shining from within Sunny’s helmet, but it was not destroyed by it.

A moment later, however, a ray of blinding light that spanned hundreds of meters in length sliced through the Dark Drifter, drowning in the boundless darkness of its billowing body — that was Nephis channeling her flames through the Blessing. For a moment, it seemed that the light was swallowed by the darkness. But then, a thin cut appeared on the surface of the Dark Drifter, its body sliced apart.

Standing on Sunny’s shoulder, Nephis prepared to deliver a second blow.

Sunny, however, was a little preoccupied at the moment, so he could not pay attention to her every move.

While the Dark Drifter was threatening them from above, below, the black waters of the great subterranean river boiled and foamed. Enormous tentacles rose from the dark depths, wrapping themselves around Sunny’s arm and neck — there was a powerful Nightmare Creature attacking his titanic form from below.

‘Wow. Look at me.’

The scene reminded him of traveling across the Forgotten Shore atop the statue of the Builder. Back then, the walking colossus seemed too enormous to be real, like a mysterious deity. Now, Sunny was about the same size... and dealing with problems of the same magnitude, as well.

The shades of the Tainted Saints, who used his shoulders as battlements, unleashed a hail of ranged attacks at the sprawling tentacles of the depth dweller. Sunny, meanwhile, raised his other hand and tore into the spongy flesh with the claws of his armored gauntlet, trying to prevent the creature from shattering his neck.

The vambrace of his trapped arm was bending, a net of cracks snaking through its surface. Beneath it, Sunny’s forearm wasn’t doing much better — the creature wasn’t powerful enough to crush his bones, but it was close.

At the same time, it was expelling a river of corrosive venom that eroded his armor, seeped through its cracks, and burned through his stonelike flesh.

The agony was exquisite.

‘Saint... hurry up, please...’

Saint was nowhere to be seen. That was because just seconds earlier, she had increased her weight to its original crushing immensity and plunged into the water like a stone. Now, she was at the bottom of the river, searching for the source of the gargantuan tentacles to destroy it.

Sunny felt like his neck was about to snap by the time a powerful convulsion spread through the tentacles, and the Spell whispered into his ear:

[You have slain a Great Demon, Horror of the Lightless Current.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

His arm was a mangled mess by then. Almost at the same time, Neph finally managed to destroy the Dark Drifter — which had been only seconds away from enveloping Sunny like a colossal black shroud.

Sunny let out a relieved sigh.

The pain finally caught up with him then, making him grunt and stagger a little. Standing on his enormous shoulder, Nephis turned and glanced at a hill-sized helmet looming above her in the darkness. Although she could not see, its opposite side was corroded by acid and falling apart.

“Are you alright?”

Sunny turned his head to look at her. He could answer, but his voice was not exactly subtle in this form — it would spread far and wide, announcing their presence to all the horrors that dwelled in a vast area around them.

So, he simply shook his head.

This time, he had sustained a lot of damage. A moment later, Saint surfaced in the distance. She looked battered and in dire need of reprieve, as well — slaying the depths dweller must have released a lot of acid into the current, and since she was the one who had killed it, the acid damaged her armor extensively. It was as if Saint had taken a bath in a vat of it.

Sunny hesitated for a moment, then turned to study the shore.

At that moment, they were not too far from it. The water only reached up to his chest, while the center of the river was much, much deeper.

He studied the shore, illuminating its desolate landscape, and then pointed in the direction of a distant ruin.

There did not seem to be any more abominations lurking near the water, so Sunny wanted to rest and recover from the consequences of the battle. After Nephis nodded, he headed toward the shore.

Saint was already catching up, gliding across the surface of the river at dire speed. As she approached, the shades of the fallen Saints seemed to become more lively — if that word could be applied to the lifeless shadows of the dead — turning their heads in her direction.

Soon, Sunny climbed onto the dark stones and finally released the form of the Jade Titan, becoming human once again.

The shades spread across the nameless ruin, guarding its perimeter. He, meanwhile, dismissed the Jade Mantle and sat down on a large boulder with a tired sigh.

Nephis approached to take a look at his mangled arm. The damage looked ghastly, some of the deeper wounds revealing glimpses of bone, but it wasn’t bad enough for her to use her Aspect. Sunny possessed exceptional vitality, after all — given his Rank, his arm was going to heal on its own in no time.

Nevertheless, that was the third time he had been wounded since they reached the great river — which happened only a couple of days ago.

Ignoring the pain, Sunny sighed somberly and glanced at Nephis.

“We cannot continue this way. I think... it’s time to change our approach.”