Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at Luster for a few moments, then sighed.

"What is wrong with that guy?"

The young man seemed unsure where to look. His startled gaze jumped between Sunny and Saint, full of confusion. Then, strange sparks ignited in his eyes.

"Ah, I see! So that is..."

Sunny did not let him finish.

"You are alive. Good. I take it that the swarm is dealt with..."

By that time, the other members of the cohort approached, as well, so it seemed that all of them had survived. They looked relatively unscathed, too... which couldn't be said about Sunny and Saint.

Both were in a rough shape, the taciturn demon worse off than he was. Nightmare was severely wounded, too, so Sunny had dismissed him. Now, the black steed was being nurtured back to health in the dark flames of Sunny's soul.

He could not let Saint go, though... not yet. He needed her strength to keep the convoy safe. If a Shadow sustained serious damage, it would enter a slumber once dismissed. That slumber would last until the damage was sufficiently repaired, which meant that Sunny would not be able to summon the sleeping Shadow for some time.

Since Saint's wounds, while plentiful, were not life-threatening, he hoped to find a different solution - one that would keep her by his side in the coming days.

...Luster was not the only one who stared at the graceful knight with curiosity. The other Irregulars seemed to have a lot of questions, as well. Some of them had known that their captain possessed a hidden ace, but none of them had seen her before.

Surprisingly, usually quiet Kim was the first one to ask:

"Captain, sir! Uh... who is that? Oh, sorry, ma'am... it is nice to meet you?"

Saint remained silent and indifferent, like always. Her aloofness seemed to give Kim pause. The timid girl looked at the demon awkwardly...

Sunny tilted his head a little and glanced at her with confusion.

'...Ma'am? What's up with that tone? And why do I feel that she's being more respectful to Saint than to me?'

Frowning slightly, he said:

"This is Saint. She is... an Echo, of sorts."

Luster's eyes turned into circles.

"Wha... A Saint?! Captain... you have a Saint as an Echo?"

Sunny grimaced as an especially strong pulse of pain rolled through his body, stifled a groan, and shook his head.

"What kind of idiot would believe something like that? Gods..."

"No... she is merely an Ascended Demon. She's just called Saint. In any case, Saint has been warding off a lot of threats before they had reached the convoy, but now, she'll be traveling with us for a bit. So... get used to it."

The Irregulars did not mind. His use of the world merely had not been entirely appropriate... and Ascended Demon was an Ascended Demon. Facing one would give most Masters a lot of trouble. Having such a powerful creature fighting on their side was an incredible boon, as far as the members of the cohort were concerned...

At that moment, Quentin suddenly spoke, his usually gallant voice sounding a bit haggard:

"Oh... I need to report something, Captain. We received a few Memories after wiping out the swarm, as usual. But, this time, there was something else."

He looked at Samara, and then, a whirlwind of sparks appeared around them.

Sunny blinked.

'Is that what I think it is...'

Soon, two shapes appeared from the storm of sparks. Both were monstrous in appearance, resembling nightmarish hounds. One was about the size of a large wolf, while the other was larger than a PTV. Black tongues hung from their ferocious maws, dripping with venom.

Quentin smiled brightly and patted the smaller monstrosity on the head.

"...We also received two Echoes. This one is Blackie, an Awakened Beast. The other one is an Ascended Monster, and... oh... I am actually not sure what Sam called it."

He glanced at the giant abomination, and then looked at Samara questioningly.

Her face remained as deadpan as ever. She remained silent for a few moments, and then uttered laconically:

"...Abomination."

Quentin cleared his throat.

"And the other one is called Abomination. We were bound to get an Echo sooner or later, of course, but two at the same time... isn't this great news, Captain?"

Sunny tried very hard to appear calm. His expression was perfectly composed.

'Are you... goddamn... kidding me?!'

What the hell? How could they get two whole Echoes, while he had not received even one after Nightmare, despite slaughtering literal thousands of enemies?!

What rotten luck was that?!

Suddenly, the Transcendent Memory he had received and could not wait to study did not seem as that much of a jackpot anymore.

A shaky smile appeared on Sunny's face.

"Yeah... great news, indeed."

He glanced at the two monstrous hounds - one small, the other one large - and swallowed his bitter envy. Then, Sunny turned to Quentin and said:

"In any case, I want you to see if you can use your Ability to heal... uh, repair... treat Saint. I do not know if it will work, but... do your best. We'll need her strength soon."

***

Sunny had a good reason to believe that Quentin's healing Aspect would be effective in helping Saint, at least to some degree.

The graceful knight was a strange creature. Her body was different from that of a human, or most Nightmare Creatures for that matter. It was not exactly made of flesh, but it was also not really stone. Instead, it was something in between, having characteristics of both.

Applications of modern medicine would obviously not work, since even the greatest surgeon would be utterly lost at what to do with Saint's mysterious anatomy. Healing Aspects might not be of any use, either, since most of them were aimed at mending flesh.

However, Quentin was a bit special in that regard.

His Ability was not actually to heal, but instead to restore. It was slower and less effective than more straightforward healing powers, but also more universal. Sunny had seen Quentin treat people, repair machine parts, and even mend cracks in the hull of a ship. In battle, he used that Ability to keep his armor from breaking apart no matter how much damage it sustained.

So... since the chivalrous healer could restore both living organisms and inanimate objects, was there anyone better suited to treat Saint, who seemed to be a bit of both?

That was what Sunny was thinking about as they walked through the snow, returning back to the convoy.

Luckily, his guess turned out to be correct. Although slowly, Saint's broken armor started to mend under Quentin's touch, and the flow of fine ruby dust that served her as blood was stemmed.

For now, she would still be able to help him defend the refugees.

...But how many battles like the one they had won today were there ahead?

How many would it take to kill them all?