Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail
Chapter 228: Terrifying Secrets

Chapter 228: Terrifying Secrets

On an especially large island under the Sky Above, one covered with emerald grass and moss-covered ruins, a frightening Nightmare Creature was stalking it’s prey.

It had four mighty paws, a lean body covered in black fur, and a wide maw full of sharp fangs. Above it, two furious red eyes burned with hatred and madness.

The abomination noiselessly moved through the tall grass, approaching the source of loud noise. A human’s voice was screaming, full of indignation:

"I’m right here! Come and get me, damned bastards! Curse you all!"

The creature snarled and prepared to jump.

...Before it could, however, a shadowy arrow fell from the sky and hit the abomination right in the eye, instantly killing it.

[You have slain a Fallen Beast, Black Ravager.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

Several hundred meters away, safely hidden in the shadows cast by a fragment of an ancient wall, Sunny lowered his bow and frowned.

The Happy shadow jumped up and down several times, then turned to him and applauded.

Sunny looked at it, his frown turning into a scowl.

"What do you mean, great shot? I was aiming for it’s leg, you idiot!"

Dejectedly shaking his head, he threw the bow on the ground and growled.

The few days prior, he had gained — and propmptly lost — Shadow God’s lineage, and Sunny’s mood was still in shambles.

He had considered the implications deeply after the fact; despite [Breach of Styx] supposedly allowing him to carry multiple lineages, [Blood Weave] had become extra gluttonous, consuming his inheritance right in front — or rather — inside him!

Blood Weave and Bone Weave had not changed in name, but became much more potent. Sunny was now much harder to break and kill. He probably couldn’t bleed to death even if he wanted to, and it would take a Saint to break his bones.

He also found that their were a few increases in his divinity, but it must have been so minor that [Essence of Divinity] deigned to stay the same.

He had come to the conclusion that Weaver’s forbidden lineage had always been waiting to devour another one. [The War] wasn’t consumed because it had come first, taking root within Sunny before Blood Weave came into the picture. Shadow God’s lineage, on the other hand, was treated as an invader.

So, the lineage that would have proven to be the most useful for Sunny’s Aspect, was now completely consumed by Weaver’s.

Maybe if Blood Weave was fully satiated, and he somehow got his hands on another Drop of Ichor, he could reclaim Shadow God’s lineage. Unfortunately, considering that it was the only lineage that was truly unaccounted for — unless there’s some secret Shadow Clan he didn’t know about — then the odds of that were low. In fact, Sunny’s Aspect Legacy may have been the only way to get Shadow’s lineage in the current era.

’Where would I even find something like that?’

Probably as a reward for killing some horrible abomination, no doubt. Maybe [Fated] will lead him to an Unholy Titan, and give him the lineage as a reward for slaying it!

’...Don’t get any ideas.’

Sunny looked at Morgan’s Warbow for a few moments, then dismissed it back to his Soul Sea. Using it out in the open wasn’t a great idea, considering it was a Memory that now officially belonged to Mongrel. Although, the only person who might have been aware that he had it was probably Morgan herself.

But he didn’t plan on taking any risks.

Commanding the Ordinary Rock to shut up, he picked it up from the ground, hid it on his belt, and walked over to the carcass of the Black Ravager.

The Haughty shadow turned it’s head and started to laugh in arrogance.

’This guy...’

Sunny rolled his eyes.

"Yes, we get it, you’re so badass... now come here and help!"

The shadow eagerly wrapped itself around the blade of the Prowling Thorn, which was then used to cut the tough hide of the dead Nightmare Creature.

Sunny swiftly fished out the Soul Shard and threw it to the Covetous Coffer, which hopped into the air and swallowed it with a metallic click. Usually, that would be it, but today Sunny needed to retrieve something else as well. Grimacing from time to time, he cut several large slabs of meat off the carcass, wrapped them, and threw the bundle over his shoulder.

"Should be enough... right?"

Finally done with the gruesome task, he stood up, picked up the Cruel Sight, and headed toward the southern edge of the large island.

This island was a bit special, and for a good reason.

Once Sunny reached it’s end, he saw a breathtaking sight.

Far away and below him, the scattering of floating isles was no more. Instead, solid ground stretched as far as the eye could see, covered by a patchwork of forests, meadows, marshes, rolling hills, and glistening ribbons of rushing rivers.

A dark, bottomless abyss stretched between the edge of the island and the rest of the Dream Realm, and those rivers fell into it, creating grandiose waterfalls.

Near to where he stood, a ruined fortress rose from the ground, and from it’s gates, a colossal iron chain — many times thicker than the giant chains connecting the isles together — extended into the abyss, connecting to the soil on the other side of the dark chasm.

This was one of the anchors of the Chained Isles, and the road by which Awakened traveled here from the lands to the south, which belonged to the Great Clan Valor... as much as anything could belong to humans in this realm of nightmares.

According to some rumors, their was a grandiose treasure hidden kilometers under the decrepit fortress, deep within the earth — something that would make even a Saint salivate. Unfortunately, there seemed to be something terrible below, either a Nightmare Creature or a dangerous mechanism to ward off invaders. Plenty of powerful individuals have entered over the centuries, and none came out.

There was something in there that could kill entire cohorts of Saints.

Sunny glanced at the sun, then got busy making a fire.

As a cautious individual, he was quite horrified.

But as an adventurer, he was a little intrigued.

Horrifyingly intrigued. He was beginning to believe that he didn’t know what’s good for himself.

After an hour or so, a single person’s shadow was felt approaching his location. Smiling, Sunny sent Saint to go and greet his first, and only, member of the illustrious Sunny Squad!