Shadow Slave: Foreign shadow

​A starless black sky. An endless expanse of saltwater whose abyssal depths stretched far beyond the horizon. This was the Forgotten Shore—a cursed place where the sea ruled supreme during the freezing night. Only when day broke and a pale sun rose would the dark waters retreat, unveiling an endless labyrinth of crimson coral.

​It would have been a truly breathtaking sight, were it not for the creatures that inhabited it. Countless monsters and foul aberrations prowled this expanse in a perpetual, relentless hunt, eager to gorge themselves on the Children of Flame to satiate their own corrupted nature.

​”Aaargh... ow... fuck!”

​Right there, while the night was still young, atop a jagged, unforgiving reef—the solitary ounce of solid ground jutting out of this boundless sea—a pale young man with ink-black hair writhed on the bare rock, cursing and rolling around in agonizing pain from his crash landing.

​”A rock. An entire, cursed interdimensional sea to land in, and what do I hit? The only fucking reef for miles around... oh, Spell, you absolute son of a—”

​After spending an unreasonable amount of time hurling curses and sheer profanity at the wind, Sunny finally clutched his throbbing shoulder and pushed himself up, rising agonizingly slowly.

​Once on his feet, he pressed his fingers into his bruised left shoulder, carefully rotating his arm to make sure nothing was broken. Then, he looked around. And sighed.

​”The Forgotten Shore,” he muttered. He looked up at the pitch-black sky, finding not a single star, and then down at the oppressive, dark sea, unable to even begin guessing its borders. ”I finally made it.”

​> his Jiminy Cricket confirmed, standing casually on his shoulder. Today, his Flaw was sporting a bizarre orange raincoat worn right over its usual tuxedo.

​Ever since he had reincarnated as Sunless—the main character from his favorite web novel in his previous life—he had fully expected to end up here sooner or later. However, the vast chasm between expecting something and actually experiencing it was a lesson one could only truly grasp when it was branded onto their own skin.

​The absolute lack of stars robbed Sunny of any possible point of reference. The black sea that stretched out as far as the naked eye could see—and well beyond—combined with the tiny rocky island he had crashed onto, instilled an overwhelming, suffocating sense of isolation and imprisonment. As a Shadowspawn, he could see perfectly well in the dark. But in this specific scenario, the only real advantage that gave him was the ability to get a clear look at whichever corrupted abomination was about to devour him right before his untimely demise. Assuming, of course, the creature even gave him the time to look.

​The water was far too freezing to swim in, and any other potential resting spots were way beyond his line of sight. His only viable option was to hunker down, wait for dawn, and move during the day—praying all the while that the dark night ahead didn’t hold any nasty surprises in store for him.

​’Nothing I can do about it,’ Sunny concluded after a thorough, depressing analysis. ’I’ll have to spend the night here.’

​He wasn’t exactly thrilled by the idea.

Once his mind was made up, Sunny reached out and summoned [Hero’s Solace]. In a shower of white sparks, the delicate necklace with its emerald-green prism materialized in his palm. He slipped it over his neck, letting its soft, hopeful green light wash over him, immediately soothing his frayed nerves and calming his spirit. After that, he summoned the [Traveler’s Bag] to check his inventory.

​Splash. Splash.

​”Huh?”

​Suddenly, catching the distinct sound of water breaking in the distance, Sunny snapped his head up. Dropping the bag to the stone, he crept carefully toward the edge of the reef. Something—or someone—was swimming frantically toward him.

​It was a human being.

”Cassie!”

​The moment her name escaped his lips, without a second thought, Sunny threw himself into the sea, commanding his shadow to wrap around him. On the ground, Gloomy snapped into action, rising from the bare rock to shroud its master. Immediately, a dark, grim halo enveloped his body. Sunny felt the strength in his muscles double the exact moment his outstretched arms shattered the surface of the water.

​’Move! Move!’

​His muscles exploded with raw power. Fueled by a massive surge of adrenaline, Sunny swam at breakneck speed, rushing frantically toward Cassie. The vitality granted by his attributes, [The Heart] and [Shadowspawn], gave him an above-average resistance to cold temperatures, but not when his body was completely submerged in freezing water. Regardless, Sunny ignored the biting cold gnawing at his flesh and bones, propelling himself forward with wide, powerful strokes.

​Cassie was desperately trying to stay afloat, thrashing her hands wildly against the water. Her mind, gripped by sheer panic and the paralyzing shock of the sudden freezing bath, struggled to stay anchored to reality. Meanwhile, hundreds of meters behind her, Sunny’s Shadow Sense detected the rapid approach of a shark-like monster. A Corrupted Devil.

​”Help—glugh! Hel—glugh! Please, somebody hel—”

​’Shit, faster!’

​Sunny pushed his frantic strokes to the absolute limit. He was close enough now to hear the blind seer’s desperate cries for help. The sheer shock and the biting cold, combined with the terror induced by the blindness of her Flaw, were rapidly draining her energy. She was struggling more and more just to keep her head above the surface.

​Meanwhile, the aberration showed no signs of slowing down. Time was running out.

​”Hel... p... me...”

​Cassie could feel her strength abandoning her as her arms went limp against the water’s surface. The dark sea slowly crept over her face, dragging her downward. Her eyes grew heavy, her consciousness slowly slipping away, pulled toward the warm embrace of death.

​’Sunny,’ she thought, her mind drifting to him.

Cassie silently wished she could cling to his arms one last time, bury her face in his warm chest, and breathe in his sweet scent. A single tear escaped her blind eye, instantly dissolving into the saltwater.

​Then...

​Splash!

​”Gasp! Cough... cough...”

​”I’m here! Cas, we have to move! Now!”

​At the very last second, a hand reached her through the darkness, snatching her away from eternal rest and hauling her back to the surface. Cassie coughed violently, expelling the water from her lungs, as a strong arm wrapped securely around her naked body, pulling her toward the shore.

​’Shit! Shit! Shit!’

​Sunny gritted his teeth. He found himself forced to swim with only one arm, using the other to keep a tight, desperate hold on an exhausted Cassie as she thrashed weakly, trying to catch her breath.

​The miles separating them from the Corrupted Devil were rapidly shrinking into meters.

​’Shit! Shit!’

​Sunny swam as fast as humanly possible. Suddenly, an icy shiver of pure dread—different and far darker than the biting chill of the water—clouded his mind and crawled down his spine, making his breathing painfully heavy and sluggishly slowing his movements.

​In that precise moment, a dark, selfish thought—cruel as fate itself—forced its way into his mind: Leave her.

​It was a perfectly logical thought. She was dead weight; she was thrashing around; she was slowing him down.

​By abandoning her, she wouldn’t just serve as bait for the shark-like monster; she would buy him enough time to reach the reef while the aberration was busy feasting on her. By abandoning her, he would shed the extra weight, making it easier to swim, and he would move much faster.

​It made perfect sense. It was rational. Cruel, yes, but undeniably rational. It was the best choice he could make if he wanted to survive.

​...But Sunny didn’t do it.

​Gritting his teeth and clutching Cassie even tighter to his side, he pushed his nervous system to the absolute brink. With a newfound, desperate strength and a surge of energy he didn’t even know he possessed, Sunny let out a muffled roar under the water. He swam until the muscles in his arms and legs screamed in agony, a raging fire burning violently in his lungs.

​’To hell with it all!’

​Sunny refused to let her go.

Even if it was the most logical solution. Even if he had no obligation to save her. Even if no one—Gods or otherwise—would ever judge him for it, he simply refused to abandon Cassie to her fate.

​Why?

In a moment like this, with his own life hanging by a thread and death breathing right down his neck, there was no rational answer he could give.

​Love?

A sense of duty?

Pure, blind instinct?

​None of the above.

Sunny had simply said no.

Where his mind tried to betray him, his body—feeling the sheer fragility of her delicate form trapped in a cold, dark sea—point-blank refused to let go.

​Because even if no one else would judge him for it later, he would. Even if no one ever found out about his sin, he would remember it every single time he looked in the mirror from this day forward, for all eternity. The fear of that regret was his true motivation. And so, Sunny refused to let go of that feeling.

​As if rewarding him for his heroism, the emerald-green prism of [Hero’s Solace] emitted a faint, pulsing glow. It instantly brought clarity back to his clouded mind and dissolved the blinding dread. Sunny pushed even harder, holding onto Cassie—who was still coughing weakly, desperately trying to catch her breath—as if she were his own life.

​’Move! Fuck, MOVE!’

​Ten meters.

​Nine meters.

​Six.

​Three.

​Two.

​The rocky reef was still damn well too far away. Before Sunny could even realize it, the Corrupted Devil was already right upon them.