Shadow Slave

Here and there, the two connected ships were already catching on fire, their sails burning in the dim red darkness of the night sky like funeral pyres for the warriors dying by his hand.

…And then, suddenly, there was no one left for him to kill.

Dismissing the Broken Oath, Sunny groaned and leaned heavily on the Cruel Sight. His breath was labored and rugged, and the Mantle of the Underworld was covered by countless scratches. Beneath the onyx armor, his body was bruised and battered, with several shallow wounds seeping with blood where the enemy blades or Aspect Abilities had found their way through the cracks.

Sunny gritted his teeth.

'How many ships did I take out? Three… four? No… five…'

He looked around, trying to ascertain the situation.

The others had done well, too. Together with the gargoyles, the cohort had managed to destroy…

His eyes widened.

…Almost half of the enemy fleet was gone. Dozens of ships were obliterated, thousands of brave warriors killed. A lion's share of that had been done by Cassie and the Sailor Dolls, as well as the gargoyles, but still…

Sunny drew in a hoarse breath.

'When… when did we become so scary?'

The thought of being the big dreadful threat, for once, was refreshing… and yet, his excitement was shortlived.

No matter how powerful the cohort had become and how well they had planned the battle, it was still not enough.

By now, the tide of it was already shifting, their temporary success waning with each second.

Sunny, Effie, and Kai had exhausted most of their essence. The Soul Serpent was mere moments away from losing its ability to assume the form of other shadows. Saint and Nightmare were faring better than the rest of them, but they, too, seemed to be slowing down, more and more injuries accumulating on the black body of the fearsome steed, its taciturn rider moving with visible strain.

Much worse than that, the sorcerer's ship was playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with Sun Prince. Guided by Cassie's hand, the vessel was still in one piece, but it was unclear how long she would be able to outrun death. Without her presence on the battlefield, the rate at which the enemy ships were being destroyed diminished drastically, and each had more freedom to move and attack.

And the gargoyles… were no more.

Most of them were destroyed by the steel colossus, some were overpowered and shattered by the Ascended warriors of the defending fleet. The few that remained were struggling, caught in enchanted chain nets and moments from being obliterated.

The blood moon still shone with crimson radiance, as though the eclipse had no intention of ever ending, and there was no sign of Noctis. There was no sign of Solvane, too, which meant that the sorcerer was still alive, at least.

The only indication that the two immortal Transcendents were out there, somewhere, locked in a vicious fight, were the loud rattling of the heavenly chains and sudden quakes that run through one island after another. The islands swayed as pieces of them crumbled into the Sky Below.

Hoping that Noctis would arrive and save them all like a god out of the machine was pointless. Hoping for anything was pointless… they were here to release Hope from her shackles, after all, and not the other way around.

The situation was about to turn really, really bad for the cohort, and there was no way Sunny could think of to change it.

'No… no problem. I'll just go and destroy five more ships… somehow. And then five more…'

Falling down, he dove into the shadows and stepped through them, wasting some of his last essence to appear on a different ship.

Sunny might have been tired, but the battle went on. The world did not care about his exhaustion.

It only cared about one thing…

Sunny had to fight, or die.

***

On a different vessel, Effie stared at the broken remains of the runic spear in her hand for a short moment, then let out an infuriated shout and bashed the attacking enemy with what was left of its shaft, using it as a club to shatter his leg.

The Dusk Shard was growing heavy in her hand, and she had no essence left to spare to activate the [Indomitable] enchantment and change its weight. Because of that, Effie was a split second too slow, and a sharp blade passed beneath the shield to slash her across the shoulder.

…This time, the blade did not bounce off the girl's skin, and instead sliced it apart. Drops of blood fell down to the slick deck.

High above, Kai barely dodged an enemy arrow and reached toward his quiver, only to find it empty. Gritting his teeth, he dashed to the side, caught another arrow out of the air, then instantly nocked his on the string of his bow and sent it flying back at the archer, hitting the man in the eye.

His essence was nearly gone, as well, and he had already lost too much blood to the Blood Arrow. Mundane ones were all he could use… and now, he had none left.

A few moments later, the man in a charred wooden mask crashed into the deck of the ship a few steps away from Effie and spun, summoning a sharp saber. He was prepared to cover the young girl's back to his last breath, if need be.

…And some distance away, Cassie finally failed to dodge one of the monstrous javelins completely. It streaked across the deck of the graceful ship, turning the massive siege engine on its bow into a cloud of splinters, tearing out a part of the hull, and obliterating a dozen Sailor Dolls along with it.

The young woman paled at the sounds of carnage, then hesitated for a few long moments.

Then, a resolute expression appeared on her beautiful face.

With a steady hand, she pushed one of the oars all the way down.

Following her command, the ancient vessel abandoned the border between the two skies and started climbing up.

Higher, higher, and then higher still.

As if trying to reach the crimson moon itself.