Shadow Slave

“Lost from Light, I command you to die!” The words that would have filled Sunny with terror once now filled his heart with hope. They thundered from the sky, slamming into the Vile Thieving Bird a split second before it lunged at Sunny in a hurricane of black feathers.

This was the gamble he staked his life on… the fact that even if the Thieving Bird was not a Shadow Slave, it had stolen the fate of one, and was therefore fated to be beholden to the same bond.

If Sunny was wrong, they would die.

If he was correct, however, and fate was a blade that cut both ways, then they would gain a vital advantage in the fight against the Cursed Terror.

He did not know what that advantage would entail — whether the Thieving Bird would truly drop dead or become more susceptible to being killed — but he knew that having stolen his Fated Attribute, it was prone to finding itself in improbable situations. There was a simple reason he was willing to bet his life on the outcome of Nephis calling out his lost True Name.

It was that between the Thieving Bird killing both of them and them killing the Thieving Bird, the latter was infinitely more improbable.

‘Come on!’

As Sunny rushed forward as a river of shadows and the Thieving Bird was preparing to rip him apart — probably to add his blood, bones, flesh, mind, spirit, and soul to its collection of Weaver memorabilia —a cold wind blew across the Estuary Lake.

And then, the Thieving Bird stumbled.

It lost its balance for a moment, shaking its horrid head in apparent confusion. Something was different about it now — something imperceptible, but quite easily felt.

Sunny could feel it, indeed…

Hearing Neph’s command, the Vile Thieving Bird did not die, and neither did it offer its neck to be killed. The absolute power of Shadow Bond did not seem to be absolute when it came to the loathsome Cursed Terror.

But it wasn’t non-existent, either.

Perhaps the Thieving Bird was simply weakened instead of being killed due to its tenuous connection to the fate of being Lost from Light. Perhaps it fell under the effect of the command to die, but managed to resist it — was actively resisting it — due to the fact that it only possessed his fate, not personified it.

But it was weakened, nonetheless. The insurmountable ocean of its terrifying Will receded, becoming smaller and more shallow — still far greater than his, but not quite as overwhelming.

In his mind, Sunny grinned viciously when his perilous theory had turned out to be true.

That was all he needed…

A chance.

A fighting chance against the creature that even the gods had failed to eradicate.

‘Kill!’

That was the only thought that remained in Sunny’s mind.

The Thieving Bird was already weakened by the need to resist the fate of being bonded to Changing Star of the Immortal Flame clan. But that was not everything Sunny had in store for it.

In the next moment, before the loathsome Terror had an opportunity to come to terms with its new condition, Sunny unleashed the [Weakening Curse], using all seven links of the Curse to sap its power.

Usually, there would be little difference between using his shadows to augment himself or to weaken a single enemy. Things were different now, however, because Sunny was not fighting alone. If he had empowered himself, only he would have benefited from that augmentation — but with their common enemy weakened, both Sunny and Nephis could exploit its diminished state.

However, that wasn’t all either.

Just a split second after Sunny enveloped the Thieving Bird in [Shadow Flame] to weaken it from a distance, Ananke unleashed her powers as well. Now that she had assumed her Transcendent form, the blessing she was usually able to grant had become a curse. And she placed that curse on the Vile Thieving Bird, weakening it even further.

The malediction of Changing Star, the hex of the Lord of Shadows, and the curse of Ananke of Weave…

Restrained by three Supremes, the Thieving Bird let out a disgruntled caw.

And by then, Sunny and Nephis were already upon it.

The three weakening curses had not only diminished the power of the Cursed Terror, but also cost it the initiative.

So instead of being pierced by the harrowing talons once more, Sunny was the one who gave the Thieving Bird no chance to react this time.

Rising from the flowing darkness as a Shadow Colossus, he grasped the hilt of his great odachi with both hands and delivered a devastating downward slash.

One hand pushing, one hand pulling…

Just like Nephis had taught him on the Forgotten Shore.

This was the very same cut he had practiced thousands of times during their journey through the Crimson Labyrinth — the very first step he had taken as a swordsman.

At the same exact moment as the black blade of his gargantuan odachi fell down, akin to a wall of darkness, a radiant plane of pure white light plummeted from the sky — it was the Blessing severing the world to cleave the Vile Thieving Bird apart. The loathsome Terror pierced Sunny with a frenzied gaze and then shrieked, making his vision blur.

Its wings rose to meet the two obliterating strikes.

‘I…’

The next thing Sunny registered was seeing Serpent flying into the sky, a net of cracks covering its serpentine blade. The great odachi spanned dozens of meters in length, and yet it was spinning like a feather, soaring higher and higher as it bled darkness.

It took him a moment to register that both arms of his Shell had been torn off at the elbow.

The force of the impact had been so dire that it severely wounded Serpent and completely obliterated his hands and forearms… leaving only a shallow wound on the Thieving Bird’s wing.

On the other side of the odious Terror, the light of the Blessing was suffocated and extinguished, barely scorching a few feathers and leaving a small burn on the other wing.

Sent staggering back, Sunny balanced himself and glanced at the Thieving Bird in grim silence.

A heavy feeling settled in his heart.

He cursed quietly.

And then lunged forward, creating new arms for his Shell from the shadows.

“I’ll still kill you… just you wait…”