SHADOW SLAVE

Sitting on the floor of the cargo hold, with his back against the soft and spongy layer of rotting brown moss, Sunny bent down and spat a mouthful of blood. Breathing hoarsely, he stared at it for a moment, and then tiredly leaned back.

He did not feel too well.

[…Your shadow grows stronger.]

A bitter smile appeared on his face.

‘What? Is that all?’

After all that had just happened, Sunny felt that he really deserved more.

This time, his hopes were not for naught.

The Spell remained silent for a bit, as though to torture him, and then added:

[You have received a Memory.]

‘…Better.’

After that, he groaned and coughed some more blood.

All around Sunny, the brown moss was rotting, withering, and turning into dust. The same thing was happening to the vile mass of vines, albeit at a slower rate. Now that both the Corrupted Monster and its host were dead, the ancient wreck seemed to be cleansing itself.

He couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to these changes, though, and was fully concentrated on his own miserable state.

Even though the whole battle took less than a minute, Sunny had sustained a lot of damage. His body was pierced and torn by the black thorns, and he had too much poison running through his veins. One of his ligaments seemed to be seriously torn, too, which brought him a lot of pain now that the adrenalin was starting to dissipate.

The Puppeteer’s Shroud was a wonderful armor and accompanied him on his misadventures from almost the very start of it all, but Sunny had to reluctantly admit that with the caliber of enemies he was facing these days, its protective qualities left a lot to be desired. Sadly, even such a powerful Memory could not keep up with the progress of its master.

If there was one good thing about his condition, though, it was that the effects of the poison did not seem to be growing stronger. Blood Weave had the situation under control, and he was bound to feel better soon.

In any case, the battle was over. The plan worked, in the end, even if killing the Wormvine had turned out to be much more complicated than anyone would have thought. Still, somehow, Sunny had managed to achieve his goal.

The Fire Keepers… if they were still alive… were going to have to clean up the remaining Sailor Dolls should the beasts regain their courage after the Corrupted Monster’s death, but he couldn’t muster enough energy to care, at the moment.

Saint stared at the quickly disintegrating corpse of the person who had once been called Solvane for a bit, then walked over and stood above him silently, looking away in her usual indifferent manner.

Sunny rested for a while, not even summoning the runes to take a look at his new Memory. Slowly, his exhaustion diminished, and he could think clearly once again.

As that happened, numerous questions inevitably assaulted his mind.

What had happened in the cargo hold of the ancient ship was just too peculiar…

Who was Solvane, and how had they ended up as the host of the Wormvine? How had they survived for thousands of years? Why was Solvane immune to divine flame and couldn’t be harmed by the Cruel Sight, but succumbed to one strike of the wooden knife?

Where had that knife come from, in the first place? And why was it so similar to the obsidian one that lay on the altar in the Sanctuary of Noctis?

As Sunny considered all these questions and found no answers, one thought gradually encompassed all the others:

‘A Saint… I killed a Saint?’

The Spell had described Solvane as a Transcendent human, which was what Saints were really called. Sunny knew it to be true, but still couldn’t quite believe it.

He was not someone to sell himself short, but not even in his wildest dreams had Sunny ever considered being able to kill a Saint… at least not at his current Rank. Saints were simply creatures of another plane, unrivaled demigods with enough power to level entire cities.

Technically, a Corrupted Monster was of the same Rank as a Saint, and even possessed one more soul core… but there was no comparison. Due to their Aspects and nature, Transcendent humans were much more of a force to be reckoned with than any beast or monster could ever hope to be. Only a devil of the same Rank, or maybe a powerful demon, could stand a chance in a battle against them.

And yet, Sunny had killed one.

He had also killed a Corrupted Monster, with the same strike.

Well, technically, it was Saint who had delivered the strike… but it didn’t matter. The result was the same.

‘Now that is definitely something that no one is going to believe, huh?’

Sunny chuckled, then grimaced from pain, and finally summoned the runes.

The first thing he did was check his fragments. The number was just as he expected:

Shadow Fragments: [1958/2000].

He had managed to kill a few Nightmare Creatures on the way to the Shipwreck Island, and killing a human and a monster two Ranks above him gave twelve more fragments — four from the Saint, and eight from the Wormvine. Sunny sighed, lamenting the unfairness of his Aspect for the thousandth time, and looked at the list of his Memories.

New runes appeared at the end of the list. He held his breath and read:

Memory: [Undying Chain.]

Memory Rank: Transcendent.

His heart started to beat faster.

‘At long last!’

This was the first Transcendent Memory he had acquired… which was a very pleasant milestone. Granted, an Awakened like him was not even supposed to have Ascended Memories, let alone something one whole Rank higher.

But then, an average Awakened rarely had to fight things above their Rank, too.

Pleased, Sunny continued to read:

Memory Tier: III.

‘Huh?’

How was this possible? The Memory could have either come from the Wormvine, in which case it was supposed to be of the second tier, or from Solvane, in which case it was supposed to be of the first.

However, it seemed as though the Undying Chain had actually come from both of his kills, maybe because Solvane and the parasitic Wormvine were irrevocably connected. As such, it ended up being of the third tier!

Sunny had not even known that something like that was possible.

Even more pleased, he grinned in satisfaction and returned his attention to the runes:

Memory Type: Armor.

His eyes glistened.

“Now that… that’s what I’m talking about!”