Shadow Slave

“Aaaargh…”

Sprawled on the ground and holding his head with both hands, Sunny let out a tortured groan.

‘What the hell… what the actual hell… no, but what the hell, really?!’

It seemed that in his feverish desire to regain his fate and be remembered by the world, Sunny had forgotten one vital detail — he had forgotten what it meant to be Fated.

It only took a few moments of having regained the [Fated] Attribute, and Sunny had already been robbed blind by a deranged god.

What kind of crap was that?!

Sunny groaned again.

But no matter how much he wanted to deny reality, there was no denying the fact that he had been had. The Vile Thieving Bird seemed to have planned to use him in order to cleanse itself of Corruption… and after accomplishing its goal, the damn thing vanished into the night, taking a good chunk of Sunny’s possessions with it.

It was sort of brilliant, if he thought about it. Death was a weapon against Corruption, after all; having been cleansed, the shadows of those who died traveled to the Shadow Realm, where they were destroyed by its merciless laws or preyed upon by the awful beings that dwelled in the darkness.

There was only one exception to that rule, as far as Sunny knew — being killed by him. So, after getting itself killed by him, the Vile Thieving Bird — its shade, at least — gingerly made its way into his Soul Sea. There, it somehow made itself into a Shadow Creature… and escaped.

Sunny was baffled. He had not anticipated that. Although he should have, in hindsight. It was just that very few shades had ever given him trouble. There was the shadow of Condemnation, whom he had not been quite able to control… and there was Slayer, too, who had to be bribed with blood and only later came around to acting like a proper Shadow.

The Wolf, Abundance, Puppeteer — none of his Sacred shades had disobeyed him before, so Sunny did not even consider that the Vile Thieving Bird would be different. Or maybe he had, and the loathsome creature stole that thought out of his head. In any case…

‘The gal of that damned thing.’

The Vile Thieving Bird had not only broken out of a Nightmare, bringing itself back to life, but also immediately proceeded to escape the Corruption by dying — only to escape death, as well.

If there was a greater escape artist in the world, Sunny did not know of them.

And now, there was a deranged Sacred Terror loose somewhere out there, in the Dream Realm. Sunny had no doubt that the Vile Thieving Bird would make it out of the Tomb of Ariel, somehow, and even if he did not know what era would have the misfortune of welcoming that scoundrel back… he had a feeling that numerous powerful beings would have an awful headache sooner or later.

Including himself. In fact, Sunny had an ominous feeling that he would suffer more headaches than most… because it seemed like the Vile Thieving Bird’s tastes had changed when it became a Shadow Creature.

Otherwise, why would it steal so many of his dark and dim possessions? Remembering all the things he had lost, Sunny couldn’t help but groan again.

The damage… was substantial.

It was tragic, really.

The first thing Sunny had seen when he dove into his Soul Sea was that there were fewer shades there than he remembered. The Vile Thieving Bird had not taken them all, instead picking and choosing the ones it liked…

It had expensive tastes, though.

Many shades Sunny had collected over long years of bloodshed, across many battlefields, were gone. The Rat King, Defiled Seeker of Truth… and many more. Thousands of them, if not tens of thousands. Also, he vaguely remembered hearing that one of his shades had been destroyed, not lost.

So… it seemed like the Vile Thieving Bird ate Abundance.

It must have been truly delighted to find such a fat, delectable worm in his soul…

‘Goddamn thief.’

Sunny gritted his teeth.

The shades were not the only thing the loathsome Terror had helped itself to. Some of Sunny’s Memories were missing as well. [Handy Bracelet], [Quintessence Pearl], [Definitely Not Me]… it even stole Nightmare’s overpriced saddle, for some reason!

What hurt the most, however, was that the damn bird had taken Sunny’s chair. The [Shadow Chair] was gone, which dealt Sunny a heavy blow.

‘Noctis gave me that chair, damn it…’

Well, it was more like Sunny had taken one of the eccentric sorcerer’s lavish chairs without asking. But still…

He loved that chair!

‘Curse that vile bird!’

Sunny ground his teeth, infuriated.

And then, there was the disappearance of his Citadel.

He had ruled two Citadels. The Vile Thieving Bird left the Nameless Temple untouched — possibly the Guardian scared it away — but it took the Citadel Sunny had conquered in the Burned Forest. Its replica was gone from Sunny’s Soul Sea now.

In fact, everything about it was gone. Sunny could not even remember what it had looked like or where it was located. It was like the war against the Black Millipedes had never happened at all.

He did not know how that was possible, but suspected that his precious Citadel was being converted into one of the Vile Thieving Bird’s nests at the moment.

‘Fine, take it! I had no use for that Citadel, anyway!’

It is not like it had been meant to become the staging ground for further conquest of the Burned Forest… not at all!

So who was the fool now?!

Sunny closed his eyes with an exasperated sigh.

What frustrated him the most…

Was the fact that the Vile Thieving Bird had stolen something else from him.

It had stolen the poignant moment of reclaiming his fate. Sunny had been waiting to regain what he had lost for so long. He had braved the Nightmare Desert and the Tomb of Ariel, challenged a Cursed Terror in battle, all in order to gain back the right to call himself Lost from Light once more. And just as he had been basking in the bittersweet feeling of becoming himself again, just as he allowed himself to imagine what it would feel like, to be remembered by the people he cherished…

He was hit in the face with the infuriating crisis of having his soul bulglarized by a dead deity.

Now, every time he remembered the moment he became Fated again, he would have to remember being robbed by a loathsome bird.

Sunny could not help but let out a low growl.

“That hateful, odious, vile bird!”

In response, there was the sound of rustling fabric, and a friendly voice resounded from above him.

“Vile!”

Sunny opened his eyes and glanced up. Right… and there was that thing, as well. His new Shadow — the devil child left in his care by its deadbeat mom.

It was the Vile Spawn.