Shadow Slave

Held in the ancient statue's hand was a gargantuan skull that looked almost like that of a human, but simultaneously vastly different.

Apart from the size, the shape of it was all wrong. If Sunny had to describe what exactly was different about it, he would have trouble putting it into words, but everything about the skull screamed of wrongness, malignity, and evil.

The vile aura it radiated was almost palpable to the touch. Sunny suddenly felt nauseous and weak, as if just looking at the gargantuan skull was seeping the life out of him.

This sensation was somewhat similar to that he had experienced when trying to read the runes describing the Unknown, only magnified by a thousand times.

…The most prominent and obvious difference, though, was that the gargantuan skull had three eye sockets instead of two, the third one situated above the other ones, right in the middle of its forehead. Its canines were also more prominent and heavy than that of a human.

The lower jaw of the skull was missing, and it was from there that the seven gigantic tentacles protruded. Surprisingly, looking at the tentacles themselves did not have the same sickening effect on Sunny.

With a sense of dark astonishment, he realized that the horror of the depths was using the terrible skull as a shell, hiding inside of it like a weak and vulnerable sea creature would… only, of course, nothing weak or vulnerable would have ever survived the corruption of these ancient bones. In fact, he could see the black oily flash bulging from the dark chasms of the skull's three cavernous eye sockets.

In a flash of lightning, Sunny noticed that the tentacles were moving, coiling themselves around the arm of the stone colossus. Three of them were heavily damaged, but the remaining four were still full of unimaginable power.

Their combined strength was more than enough to shatter the ancient stone.

Despite the fact that his arm was already starting to crack, the colossus seemed indifferent to the devastating embrace of the abyssal creature.

'What… what is he doing?!'

As if answering his question, the dark sea suddenly surged and split apart, releasing the stone giant's other arm from its cold depths. With rivers of black water streaming from it, the hand of the colossus slowly rose, reaching all the way into the raging skies.

The hurricane winds broke against it, powerless to move the arm of the colossus even by a centimeter.

The hammer gripped in his hand was suddenly enveloped in a ghostly blue glow.

…No, it wasn't really a glow. In were arcs of electricity running all over its surface. They were the harbingers of…

Sunny's eyes widened.

In the next moment, a bolt of lightning connected the hammer to the skies. And then another, and another. Dozens of lightnings landed on the stone hammer in short succession, the roar of thunder almost shattering the whole world.

Enveloped in the raging shroud of electricity, the ancient stone heated and turned incandescently bright, emanating a furious orange glow.

For a moment, everything was still.

And then, with the same calm indifference, the colossus brought his burning hammer down and delivered a devastating blow to the abhorrent skull. The beak of the hammer easily shattered the ancient bone and sank deep into the flesh of the horror hiding within.

Sunny stared, paralyzed by awe.

But in the next moment, he was thrown back by a terrible, ear-piercing, cacophonous wail. That wail was like nothing that a living being should ever have been able to produce, and much louder than even the deafening thunder tearing the raging skies. It came from the dweller of the depth, whose body was deeply wounded by the stone colossus.

Peering at it, Sunny saw a vast wave of dark blood gush from the terrible wound delivered to the abyssal creature. No… not blood. It was something different.

What flowed from the body of the horror of the depths was nothing but pure darkness.

…And the wall of it was heading right for them.

Suddenly, Sunny was overwhelmed by a sense of mortal danger.

'W—what…'

To the rest of the cohort, the darkness spilling from the terror's body must have looked no different from the tenebrous mass of storm clouds that surrounded them, the black surface of the sea, or even the fetid blood of the giant locusts that they had slain earlier.

But Sunny, who could see through any shadow, knew instantly that it was not the same. Because his gaze could not penetrate the lightless, undulating surface of it at all.

Somehow, he was certain that if that darkness touched their bodies, all of them would be done for, doomed to a fate a hundred times worse than death.

The kind of fate he couldn't even conceive of, let alone imagine.

Twisting his body, Sunny opened his mouth and screamed as loud as he could:

"Neph! Light!"

There was no more than a second left before the wave of darkness washed over them. If Changing Star was late even by a moment or wasted time thinking over his words and deciding whether she should listen to him…

But she didn't.

As soon as Nephis heard the unreserved panic in Sunny's voice, she instantly summoned her flames and channeled them into her sword.

A blinding white radiance suddenly enveloped the cohort, pushing the blackness of the storm away. When the wave of true darkness that flowed from the abyssal creature's wound touched the pure light, it simply… ceased to exist, disappearing like a vestige of nightmare in the brightness of the day.

Sunny exhaled and fell to the stones, drained of all strength.

Glancing forward, he saw the ancient colossus remove his hammer and indifferently drop the harrowing giant skull back into the surging waters of the cursed sea. The black tentacles weakly convulsed and unwrapped themselves from his arm, disappearing into the waves a few moments later.

…Without paying them any attention, the ancient statue lowered the hammer and continued its march south.

It was as if nothing had happened.

Sunny gritted his teeth and gathered whatever endurance he had left to grab onto the Stone Saint once again.

The storm was still not over.

However, somehow, it didn't seem as frightening and dangerous anymore.

Indeed, nothing else happened to them. Hours later, the raging winds grew weaker, and the torrent of rain slowly turned into a light drizzle.

The veil of tenebrous clouds was slowly torn apart, and the rays of sunshine shone through the tears.

The storm was over.

Lying on the cold stone surface, Sunny stared at the sky and grimaced.

'Comparatively safe my ass...'