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.

***

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

happen, the shadow

be it. They were just too

the night

carapace centurion and the scavengers, collected the two soul shards and moved to

turned out, they were right. Not long after the group left the place of the battle, a dark spot appeared in the sky. Soon, it became larger and approached the cliffs, landing near the corpse of the

white as a corpse and muscular,

black feathers, as well as its enormous wings. Its head resembled that of a raven, with large round

the dead centurion, easily breaking its carapace apart with its talons and beak. Then, satisfied, it grabbed a few

cliffs and flew back the way

It was moving west.

it disappeared

do you think that thing

the sky. After

“I have no idea.”

simply nodded and went about his business. He still had

centurion’s meat and had a delicious, hefty breakfast. Then, stuffed, the three of them

in the middle of a storm

Truth be told, he was feeling

thing was that, after the unexpected epiphany he had while trying to fight against the deathly mind fog, Sunny felt

clarity he gained never

very way of

able to think much faster and act without hesitation. Many things that previously seemed obscure and frightening suddenly

discovered an underlying order to the world that wasn’t there before. That inner understanding gave him an advantage that was hard to explain with

sense, this change was even more profound than the transformation of his body at the end of the First Nightmare. He felt that he had made a big

sky, Sunny wondered if this was how Nephis always

of the body, mastery of

still far away from being a master. But it felt as though he was

***

approached the

sitting there, her feet dangling over the edge. She was looking west, lost in

followed her gaze, trying to

he failed. Changing

incredibly embarrassed. Finally, he gathered

my

him and turned

“I did.”