Shadow Slave

Somewhat surprised, Sunny struggled to open his eyes. As his vision slowly focused, he saw Neph’s pale face looming above him. Her short silver hair was wet, sticking close to her skin.

She was standing on her knees beside his broken body, caressing his face with her hands. In her eyes, there was a strange expression.

It was as though she was frightened, but resigned to something.

Her pupils were wide and dark.

‘Wh—what?’

Greeting her teeth, Nephis moved her hands to his collapsed chest and pressed them lightly against it, causing a pulse of pain to radiate through Sunny’s body.

Then, a soft, radiant brilliance suddenly ignited beneath the skin of her palms, reflecting in her grey eyes like two dancing white sparks.

Almost immediately, Changing Star’s face contorted in a grimace of excruciating agony, and she let out a terrible, muffled scream.

Her skin became white as a sheet of paper, and as she bit her lower lip, drops of blood soon rolled to her chin.

As the radiance grew in intensity, Nephis shut her eyes tightly, tears streaming down her tortured, bloodless face.

Sunny, on the contrary, felt like he was in heaven. All pain disappeared from his body, replaced by gentle, all-encompassing warmth. He felt as though he was being cleansed by something pure and sacred.

By a white, pristine, purifying flame.

Under the influence of the flame, his dying body began to repair itself. His shattered bones were reassembled from the shards. His torn flesh regenerated and became whole again. His collapsed lungs and damaged heart were brought back to life and rejuvenated, instantly turning strong and healthy.

Suddenly, he could breathe again.

As his chest moved, drawing in a new breath, Nephis flinched away with a harrowing moan. The white radiance beneath her skin dimmed and disappeared, letting the darkness return to its rightful place.

Crawling away a few steps, Changing Star stopped, standing on her knees and hands, and violently vomited. Her whole body was shivering uncontrollably, as though on the verge of a seizure.

As the shivers died down, she slowly lowered herself to the ground and lay there motionlessly, catching the raindrops with her mouth.

Sunny, meanwhile, raised his hands and carefully explored his body.

To his surprise, nothing really hurt. It was as though he was never wounded in the first place, let alone almost died.

With the help of Nephis and her mysterious Aspect Ability, he was completely healed.

It was a miracle.

***

deep into the night. Sunny, Nephis and Cassie huddled together for warmth and slept as though they were dead, too tired to make

were to happen, the shadow would probably

it. They were just

the rest of the

carapace centurion and the scavengers,

group left the place of the battle, a dark spot appeared in the sky. Soon, it became larger and approached the cliffs, landing near

as the carapace monster. Its body was white as a corpse and muscular, like that of a lion. It had two mighty paws in the back and six in the front, protruding messily out of its wide chest. Each ended

flying monstrosity was covered in long black feathers, as well as its enormous wings. Its head resembled that

it grabbed a few scavenger carcasses with its paws and rose back into the air, creating a small hurricane with

cliffs and flew back the way

It was moving west.

the black dot as it

do you think that

After a few

“I have no idea.”

simply nodded and went about his business. He

and had a delicious, hefty breakfast. Then, stuffed, the three of them lied down and

sudden flood, climbing tall cliffs in the middle of a storm and battling an awakened monster —

Truth be told, he was feeling a

this was not his traumatic near-death experience, although it had a lot to do with it. The thing was that, after

the clarity he gained never

being. He felt as though his very way

act without hesitation. Many things that previously seemed obscure and frightening suddenly became

wasn’t there before. That inner understanding gave

at the end of the First Nightmare. He felt that he had made a big leap in his combat ability and overall

wondered if this was how Nephis

Mastery of the body, mastery of the mind.

from being a master. But it felt as though he was on the right

***

later, Sunny approached the western edge of the

her feet dangling over the edge.

her gaze, trying to

failed. Changing Star

feeling incredibly embarrassed. Finally, he

my life twice

him and turned

“I did.”