Shadow Slave

The grass covering the surface of the island moved, and strange shapes appeared from beneath it. Some were similar to each other, while some were not, but all shared the same deep emerald color. The shapes levitated upward, slowly coalescing together.

The creepy shadow observed the eerie event from the shade of a large boulder, darkly excited. Sunny only understood what it was so excited about when the boulder suddenly split open and fell apart, making way for another of the shapes… this one easily recognizable.

It was a massive emerald jawbone, similar to a human one in all aspects except for size.

…The creepy guy had always been strangely fascinated by dead things. No wonder he got fixated on a bunch of flying bones.

As Sunny watched, the emerald bones assembled into a towering human skeleton — very similar to the powerful abomination of the same kind Sunny had fought and destroyed in the Red Colosseum, but much larger and way more frightening.

The emerald skeleton stared north for a while, and then slowly headed toward the edge of the island, each of its steps making the ground shake.

At the same time, a loud rattle of the heavenly chain rolled through the two skies. Sunny was so used to hearing them that he didn't pay it any attention at first, but then, a deep frown appeared on his face.

Something… wasn't right. The rattling of the chain sounded different, somehow.

He lingered for a few moments, then silently dove into the shadows and glided to the northern slope of the flying isle.

As soon as Sunny saw the heavenly chain stretching far into the distance, his heart grew cold.

A terrifying abomination with a body that resembled a dirty mass of pitch-black tar was crawling underneath it, its back facing the Sky Below. Each second, a dozen tendrils of liquid darkness shot forward from the mass, sticking to the links of the giant chain and pulling the creature forward.

The monstrosity was at least twenty meters long and so heavy that the iron of the heavenly tether groaned under its weight.

'...What hellish nightmare is this?'

Sunny peered beneath the surface of the black tar creature and shuddered once he saw the taint of corruption that hid within its soul. The two hideous nodes of swirling darkness that spread cancerous veins through the body of the abomination were especially ripe and horrid, revealing its Rank.

'Corrupted… a Corrupted Monster.'

Earlier, when he had been passing the islands north of his current shelter, he had felt the shadow of a powerful fiend hiding beneath one of them. Who knew that the horror nesting on the Dark Side of the flying island would turn out to be equal to the harrowing Wormvine, and then decide to follow Sunny south on top of that?

As Sunny froze for a moment, a large boulder suddenly flew from the island and hit the massive body of the Black Tar fiend, sending ripples across its liquid flesh. The force of the impact was so great that a destructive shockwave spread in all directions, causing the heavenly chain to rattle even louder.

On the surface of the island, the towering emerald skeleton lowered its arms and stared at the invading horror, dark lights igniting in the pits of its empty eye sockets.

The boulder it had just thrown disappeared within the body of the Corrupted abomination, seemingly dealing it no damage. The creature simply continued crawling, its massive body surging forward like a black tide.

'I... I probably need to run…'

But before he could do anything, the advancing monster suddenly convulsed, and in the next second, dozens of sharp stone shards shot out of its flesh, each covered by fetid black liquid. Some rained on the emerald skeleton, and some hit the slopes of the island, causing large chunks of weathered stone to be turned into dust.

Sunny barely managed to dodge one of them, and stared with resentment at the small crater that appeared in place of his hiding place. Sure, he was an incorporeal shadow right now… but he would not make the mistake of assuming that a Corrupted abomination had no way of wounding him.

Who knew what this horror was capable of?

And just as this thought entered his mind, he noticed that there was a thin layer of black tar spread around the point of impact — and dozens of similar ones nearby. As he watched, the foul liquid started to move, coalescing into small dark blobs. Some of them began crawling up, toward the emerald skeleton…

But some froze for a moment, and then flowed toward him, as though sensing his location.

'Crap!'

Sunny hurriedly summoned back the creepy shadow and lunged away, gliding through the shadows as fast as he could. By the time he reached the bottom of the island, the Black Tar monster was already upon the skeleton.

Numerous tendrils of darkness shot forward, enveloping the towering abomination. Despite all its might, the emerald skeleton was instantly trapped and pulled inside the mass of liquid darkness. It struggled desperately, but to no avail — seconds later, its massive figure disappeared within the body of the Dark Side fiend without a trace.

'Now… just forget about me, hellspawn... I'm too small and inconsequential, anyway.'

Sunny was already on the southern slope of the island, rushing toward the other heavenly chain that led away from this damned place.

Somewhere above him, the giant mass of liquid darkness rippled, perhaps grinding the ancient emerald bones into dust…

And then, the Corrupted fiend suddenly surged forward with incredible speed, heading for the very same chain.

Or rather, for the swift shadow that hoped to use the chain to escape.

Luckily, Sunny reached it first.

He burst from the shadows, flying across the span of empty air, and landed on the surface of the heavenly tether in a roll. Without wasting a single moment, Sunny pushed himself off of the cold iron surface with all four arms, wrapped the shadows around his body, and ran.

As dull pain spread through his chest, the Mantle of the Underworld turned as light as a feather.

Just a few seconds later, the chain swayed wildly beneath his feet, announcing that the Black Tar monster had reached it, too.

'Curses!'

There were a few hundred meters of giant sunlit links in front of him, and only past that was the heavenly tether submerged into the darkness of the Sky Below and shrouded in shadows.

'I'll make it… surely, I will.'

Sunny growled, bared his fangs... and ran.