Shadow Slave

Neph’s skin swelled with a blinding radiance, and two gorgeous wings opened behind her. She soared into the crumbling sky of the Eternal City, rising to meet the titanic figure of the abhorrent Great Titan. It was as if a falling star was shooting from the ground to pierce its gigantic head, surrounded by a vast halo of pure light. Light and darkness clashed, and darkness parted to make way; illuminated by the passing of the Star of Ruin, countless raindrops glistened like precious jewels.

At the same time, a tide of shadows swallowed Sunny and surged, transforming into the Shadow Colossus. Jade Mantle encased him in a suit of fearsome black armor. He summoned Serpent, who turned into a tenebrous odachi that spanned no less than two hundred meters.

‘Dare I say that my height is of no issue...’

Sunny smiled.

His Shell was truly enormous... but it seemed tiny in front of the monstrous figure of the Flesh of Kanakht, barely reaching its knee. He could make it taller, but the amount of effort needed to maintain such an immense manifestation would grow exponentially, especially considering how intricate a proper Shell needed to be. So while this size was not his limit, it was the optimal choice.

‘Let’s fight a Titan.’

Sunny took a step forward.

At the same time, he activated the [Weakening Curse] enchantment of the Curse, with four links of his shadowbound Memory working in tandem to rob the Flesh of Kanakht of its strength.

The effect was both potent and instant, making the Great Titan stagger a little as it rose from the lake.

Nephis had almost reached it by then. However, instead of attacking straight away she circled the titanic Nightmare Creature, as if aiming to attack it from behind.

Although Titans were enormous, they were also relatively slow... or at least were supposed to be due to their unimaginable size. Nephis, on the contrary, was impossibly fast, so trying to circle the foe seemed like a good tactic.

However, in reality, the Flesh of Kanakht did not seem to care about where the attack came from. Its misshapen figure resembled a human, but did not behave like a human - as soon as Nephs drew close to the back of its head, countless tendrils of bleeding flesh shot from its shoulders like a slithering forest, threatening to pierce, envelop, and suffocate her.

But that was alright. Delivering a powerful blow was not the main purpose of her maneuver, anyway — the real purpose was simply to get behind the Flesh of Kanakht. Because now that Nephis was behind it, her blinding radiance cast the Titan’s shadow onto the Palace Island.

And there, Sunny reversed the grip on the hilt of his lethal odachi, then plunged it into that shadow to the hilt.

At the same time, the name of Kanakht thundered from the crumbling sky as Nephis called Fire and Destruction upon the Great Titan. Flying back from the forest of red tendrils, she brandished the Blessing and unleashed an enormous plume of flame from its blade. It was as if her sword suddenly extended to be hundreds of meters long, cutting cleanly through the creature’s neck.

The Flesh of Kanakht had been weakened. Then, Nephis and Sunny delivered simultaneous blows — Sunny targeted its soul, while Nephis targeted its corporeal vessel.

The Great Titan shuddered.

Its head started to fall, a charred chasm opening across its vast neck.

However, a moment later, countless ropes a flesh shot from the awful wound, breaching the chasm. They connected the head back to the neck, then tensed, pulling the severed parts back together. A moment later, the ghastly cut disappeared entirely, as if it had never existed at all.

The soul of the ghastly Nightmare Creature did not seem severely damaged, either — or possibly it had repaired itself in the blink of an eye, just like the body did.

Sunny grimaced.

‘This is going to be bad.’

A heartbeat later, the Flesh of Kanakht retaliated.

Moving with surprising speed, it leaned forward and slammed its ghastly fist into the ground, only missing Sunny by a hair’s breadth due to his rapid reaction. The entire island shuddered, the fractures scarring its surface growing wider.

At the same time, two more immense arms suddenly shot from its back in a torrent of blood, aiming to catch Nephis. The lake receded, then rushed back in a towering wave.

‘That was...’

Sunny was no more than a hundred meters away from the arm of the Great Titan, the enormous fist resting in a small crater — well within the striking distance of his odachi. He was already in the proper stance as well, so it would take him only a heartbeat to unleash a devastating slash.

‘...close.’

However, before Sunny could pat himself on the shoulder for skirting the obliterating blow, the flesh of the immense forearm squirmed, and countless tendrils shot from it toward him.

This time, there was no time to evade them.

High above, Nephis had become a radiant spirit. A powerful explosion rippled from he shining figure, tearing the two hands closing in on her to shreds.

But instead of being destroyed, new hands grew from the bleeding stumps, reaching toward her again.

At the same time, Sunny was enveloped by the red tendrils. They slithered across his armor, penetrating the seams between its parts. Two pierced the visor of his helmet, burrowing into the eyes of the Shadow Colossus Shell.

The damage they dealt was not really severe...

But something eerie happened then.

The flesh of the Great Titan did not simply stop at damaging the Shell. Instead, it grew, spreading through the Shell like countless tumors. The Shell, built in the image of a human body, became infected, compromised... and then transformed by the invading sickness.

‘D—damnation!’

Sunny barely had time to escape his own Shell.

Appearing out of the shadows hundreds of meters away, he threw a stunned look at the towering Shadow Colossus.

If it could be called that, still.

Enveloped and penetrated by the bleeding flesh, it looked no different from the titanic Nightmare Creature behind it. It had been infected by the Flesh of Kanakht... it had become the Flesh of Kanakht.

The red colossus shuddered, then took a step forward.

Then, another.

Then, it collided with the forearm of the Great Titan and was absorbed into it, becoming a part of the ghastly creature. Standing on the shattered ground of the Palace Island, Sunny shivered.

‘I can’t feel those shadows anymore.’

Only Serpent managed to escape, assuming his Soul Beast form and slithering away. Sunny’s Shell was truly and utterly gone.