Shadow Slave

Sunny looked at the ceiling, extending his shadow sense upward. At the same time, he allowed his mind to drift back to the very end of the Nightmare.

...And what a Nightmare it had been.

Sunny did not know how long he had spent wandering the dreadful currents of the Great River, trying to escape the Tomb of Ariel. The last cycle had taken... how long was it? Close to a year? And that was only his subjective time. For some people, like Cassie and Mordret, it had lasted for much longer.

But that was only the final of the countless cycles. So, he could not even guess how long of a journey it had been.

What he did know, however, was that it ended in the very heart of the Estuary, past the silent lake where Ariel's heretical testament had been inscribed. Near the forgotten grave of the Demon of Oblivion...

Where a Cursed Terror had been waiting for him, hidden in the darkness.

That Terror...

Sunny was more or less sure who it was.

'The loathsome Thieving Bird, hated both by the gods and the beings of the Void...'

It was the thieving miscreant who had stolen the Weaver's eyes, and whose spawn he had slain on the Forgotten Shore, thus receiving the [Drop of Ichor] and Weaver's lineage.

That single event had started the chain of falling dominoes that intertwined his fate with the nebulous Demon, as well as the rest of the daemons and the dead gods.

Wasn't it very ironic, then, that the Thieving Bird would be the one to break that fate?

And Sunny... was pretty sure that that was exactly what the vile thing had done.

The moment the Thieving Bird's talons plunged into his chest, he felt it taking something from his soul. But then... he vaguely sensed it taking something else, from somewhere that lay even deeper.

Sunny felt somehow different, in addition to all the changes caused by the Transcendence. It was as though a burden he did not even know he was carrying

the Vile Thieving Bird stolen... his

the Estuary to come true. It would

it mean, exactly,

it even work? Did he lose the

Nightmare Spell as a result of losing his fate... would his mystical connection to Nephis

he would find out

is certain,

had not ended at just the right moment, he would have certainly been killed. Sunny could justifiably be proud of his power and prowess, but he was a mere ant in front of a Cursed Terror... and a very special Cursed Terror at that. If even Weaver had fallen

in the burial chamber? Why did it enter the Tomb of Ariel? And

been able to steal from the Demon of Fate, so bypassing a guardian

for the other

of the [Drop of Ichor] said that

it was connected to

probably taken his body and soul, as well, given the chance. He had inherited three parts of Weaver's lineage,

the Nightmare ending just at the right moment simple luck, or the last gift from

know. Nor

Attribute, he would rather

'Let's go.'

his shadow sense as far as he could — which was much further than before, now that he was a Saint. Sadly, all he could feel was a mess of compressed concrete and alloy for dozens of meters above. That was only logical, considering that Valor's stronghold in Antarctica

was, more or less,

'Figures...'

reason to worry. Sunny could not simply use Shadow Step to reach the surface, but he was more than strong enough to burrow through the ruins — mundane concrete and

was a simpler

moment, then dismissed his avatars and wrapped the shadows around his body. Then,