Shadow Slave

Even after everything the Thieving Bird had been subjected to — the three curses, the combined assault of two Supreme holders of Divine Aspects, the Death Will channeled through the Slaying Blade, the cleansing cruelty of Neph’s flame — it was still refusing to die.

Its vitality was simply too inexhaustible, and its determination to exist was too deep. Not even committing a blunder and stealing Sunny’s desire to kill it and his rationale for doing so — and therefore compromising its own desire to live and rationale for wanting to stay alive — managed to topple the Thieving Bird’s profane Will. It was still better off than Sunny.

It was wounded, it was hurt… it was on the threshold of facing death, even. But no matter what Sunny did, he simply could not push it over that threshold.

And he did not have a lot of time left to continue trying.

As the two of them barreled through the eerie chaos of the time storm, he could feel his soul nearing the point of no return. It had been damaged too severely, torn to shreds and mutilated beyond recognition — now, even Soul Weave was struggling to keep what little there was left of him together, and as the Vile Thieving Bird’s weakening attempts to kill him persisted, he groaned.

Sunny was in pain.

It was a pain so awful that most people would have chosen to die in order to escape it. Before, hatred and fury had sustained Sunny, helping him endure the agony — but now that the Thieving Bird stole his murderous wrath, nothing stood between him and the harrowing torment.

Sunny wanted to give up.

He had no reason not to, anymore… after all, his reason had been stolen by the Thieving Bird. Throughout the years, he had often survived purely out of spite — out of sheer unwillingness to give his enemies the satisfaction of watching him die. Sunny knew how to hold a grudge, and staying alive was one of the main requirements for making sure his enemies suffered the consequences of harming him.

But now that his spite had been stolen, and he felt nothing except cold detachment and exhaustion… how was he supposed to survive? What was he enduring all that awful suffering for?

For the first time in his life, Sunny found himself devoid of anger, malice, and ill intent. He was at peace.

And, ironically enough — or possibly fittingly enough — that peace was going to kill him.

‘No… that’s not right.’

Sunny suddenly realized that he was wrong. So what if he had no desire to kill the Vile Thieving Bird now? So what if he was not sustained by murderous spite anymore? There were innumerable other things that made him want to stay alive… Made him want to survive desperately. There was Nephis. There was Rain. There were his friends and companions… the members of the Shadow Clan that depended on him, and all of humanity that he had chosen to protect.

And so much more.

All these connections were important to him — were precious beyond compare. So, even if his reason to kill the Thieving Bird was gone, his reasons to survive were innumerable.

So, Sunny invented a new reason to kill the Vile Thieving Bird instead of those it had stolen.

It was his desire to return home. To meet all the people who were waiting for his return.

‘How do I get rid of that damned abomination, though?’

Sunny’s power was simply not enough to slay the Thieving Bird. No matter how close it was to death, the remaining distance could as well have been infinite.

At that moment, they broke through the wall of the storm.

The change was so abrupt that it dazed Sunny for a moment. The impenetrable darkness was replaced by the radiance of day, and the deafening howls of the wind were replaced by utter silence.

Below them, the surface of the Great River was like a giant mirror, with not a ripple on its still surface.

They had reached the eye of the storm. Something moved in Sunny’s mind.

For a moment, he saw their reflection traveling across the glass-like surface of the water far below. They were like a meteor of billowing in darkness, plummeting from the heavens in a mantle of ghostly smoke and black feathers.

The Vile Thieving Bird had failed to heal its damaged wing, so it couldn’t control its flight. In fact, they weren’t flying at all — they were falling, instead.

Sunny’s thoughts settled all of a sudden, and he moved with a sense of cold determination.

His serpentine form rippled, and great wings rose from his back, opening to slow down and guide their fall, turning it into a glide.

They moved above the glass-like water at awful speed, drops of profane ichor and divine blood falling into its like dark jewels. Sunny felt the Thieving Bird turn its head, aiming its awful beak at the very heart of his being.

But before it could deliver him the deadly wound, he finally let go of the loathsome Terror…

He set the Thieving Bird free.

And with all the strength left in his battered body, he pushed it down — toward the vast expanse of still, glass-like water below.

The Thieving Bird plummeted with a startled shriek.

Only it was already too late…

Because by then, it wasn’t they who were reflected on the surface of the Great River. Instead, a pale figure was moving across it with calamitous killing intent, shrouded in innumerable layers of fierce darkness. That rippling darkness was boundless and unfathomable, containing within itself an infinite number of choices.

The features of the dreadful figure were vague and obscured, and all Sunny could see was a pair of terrible wings, their feathers black like those of a raven. They spread, vast enough to devour the sky, and drowned the world in howling mist.

It was a reflection of Nether, the Demon of Choice.

A reflection of him moving across a battlefield of the war against the gods, his furious heart overflowing with killing intent. Simply catching a glimpse of that reflection had almost killed Sunny once.

He smiled darkly.

His own Death Will was not potent enough to kill the Vile Thieving Bird?

Well, then, why not borrow the murderous Will of someone far more powerful? Wounded and bleeding, the Thieving Bird struck the surface of the Great River and plunged into the reflection of the Demon of Destiny.

And as it did, the echo of Nether’s killing intent enveloped it like an annihilating crucible, adding to the fatal burden of deep wounds delivered to it by Sunny and Nephis.

Finally, the endless vitality of the Vile Thieving Bird… had reached its limit.