Shadow Slave: Purgatory

Sunny was drowning in his own blood for the second time but Sunny wasn't done yet. He had one final card to play.

He could feel the wraith's claws digging into his skin as it held his head in the sand, either attempting to suffocate him or crush his head—perhaps both. The memories he had summoned in return for the puppeteer's shroud and the ordinary rock finally wove themselves into existence in his hands.

A wave of nauseating energy pulsed outward, and just as Sunny predicted, the wraith released a bone-chilling screech. It leaped away from him as if burned.

With a wheeze, Sunny chuckled as he twirled a glimmering gem in his fingers.

The broken oath. It was a memory he had recently received from the lord golem, and it had the ability to erode the souls of any creature that dared to approach it, including the user.

Sunny was, incapable of beating this wraith in a straight hand-to-hand fight. He had learned and accepted this bitter truth ever since Nephis's collapse, so his only other way to win was mutual destruction. But in this case, Sunny's destruction would only come after the vile wraith's—of that, he was sure.

When Sunny fought, he had realized the deep connection the shadow shared with the soul. Each slash, each stab, each attack on his shadow body shredded his very soul and chipped away his shadow core. This was precisely the reason why Sunny was so fixated on battling the wraith as a shadow and inflicting more damage.

The broken oath's constant soul erosion exacerbated the damage both of them had accumulated over the course of their fight. But as a divine shadow with the spark of divinity, his soul was much stronger than that of the vile wraith. In other words, the creature would die due to the broken oath's enchantment and soul damage way before Sunny did.

Yes, despite everything, the wraith only needed to get close enough to finish Sunny off for the memory to be destroyed along with him. But the creature didn't know that, and it had already exhausted its reserve of arrows. If it was as intelligent as Sunny suspected, it wouldn't risk calling his bluff.

Sunny couldn't see or hear; he was too damaged for that. His senses were utterly decimated, and thinking became harder with each passing moment. Still, he could vaguely sense the vile wraith nearby with shadow sense, it stood just a few meters away from the broken oath's effect radius, its murderous intent radiating as it mulled over whether to kill him.

'Tough bastard.'

With a deep breath, he willed Gloomy into the broken oath. Augmented by his shadow, the broken oath's soul-eroding aura grew more ferocious. Sunny twitched, trying to minimize the pain from moving, but eventually he couldn't stop himself from convulsing violently. Tears rolled down his eyes, and when he opened his mouth to scream in agony, his severed vocal cords produced no sound.

It took everything Sunny had to remain conscious. Losing consciousness now, with the broken oath out and in his near-death state, meant certain death. He could only grit his teeth and endure.

After what felt like seconds or hours, Sunny felt the murderous intent retreat farther and farther away. With a soft sigh, he dismissed the broken oath, and despite his pain, a calm sense of relief settled over him.

He lay there in the black sands, unmoving, as his other summoned memory—the midnight shard—went into overdrive. The [Unbroken] enchantment flooded him with power, increasing the blood weave's effectiveness manifold.

His body was breaking down, and he was losing blood, at an alarming rate. But the blood weave fought, refusing to let him bleed.

It hurt so much! He was in so much pain. But despite the pain it was funny.

'That doesn't sound right. I should really reconsider my life choices.'

This situation reminded him of the time he had been gutted by the black knight and how he had been forced to lie there in the ditch waiting for death.

After everything he went through and how hard he worked, he was back at where he started.

All of this was so funny—with a wheeze, another disgusting chuckle was forced out of his lips.

His gurgling chuckle slowly grew to that of maddened laughter. Despite how much it hurt, he couldn't stop himself from laughing.

***

It had been days or weeks—Sunny couldn't keep track of time, or rather, he wouldn't have cared enough to in his current state. He lay in the same position immobile and crippled, having sustained devastating soul and physical damage. He had been riddled with arrows, his right leg broken, lungs punctured, abdomen maimed, throat slit, and vocal cords severed.

The blood weave had healed most of his wounds except his broken leg, and he had regained his vision a day ago. Throughout this time, Sunny hadn't gotten a wink of sleep.

He simply couldn't afford that luxury—he had to stay ready to summon the broken oath in case the ancient wraith decided to change its mind and finish him off.

And to add to everything else, he was very very hungry!

He would even settle for uncooked, raw monster meat—that's how desperate he had become. Since arriving in this wretched place, he hadn't eaten anything. If this continued for another week or two, he would die of hunger.

Sunny still suffered from the [Destined Death] enchantment. The pain from the blood weave trying to keep his broken body from dying had been enough to keep him lucid. When he returned to some semblance of normality without constant torturous pain, he would start craving death, and no doubt the attribute would eventually kill him. The wounds from arrows enchanted with destined death remained open—even blood weave failed to heal them.

If that wasn't problem enough, he had to worry about Nephis. Had she survived? Was she okay?

Involuntarily, a chuckle escaped his lips.

'In this state, I'm worried about her? The past me would probably sneer in disappointment.'

With a sigh, he looked around using Gloomy's pair of eyes. He saw nothing but an endless expanse of black sands and huge dunes. There was nothing. But he could tell that the ancient wraith was still somewhere close by, waiting for its chance.

It was quite demotivating to have an ancient, devious, and treacherous shadow constantly plotting your death.

In any case, he had to survive and find Nephis. He could dismiss Saint and order her to return. He hadn't been separated from her before, so he wasn't sure how long it would take for her to return.

Even if she could return in time to help him move around, should he dismiss her and summon her to him? After all, she was with Nephis—if hopefully Nephis had managed to stay alive, Saint was his only way to get back to her. But right now, he also desperately needed his Shadow's combat ability.

With his leg broken, he was incapable of defending himself.

'I could command Saint to lead Nephis to me.'

But would they reach him in time?

Hell, he didn't even know where he was in the desert. During his fight with the wraith, he had gotten carried away, and they had traversed multiple kilometers from their original battleground.

Sunny growled in frustration. Every direction he could brainstorm led to a dead end. He had been thoroughly beaten—all he could do was struggle in vain and wait for death like a cockroach that refused to die.

***

just finished my assembly finals. i can cook full-time for a few weeks .

and how was the ending? was it anticlimatic? if u feel that way im sorry, i really wanted the fight to end with logic instead of some ass pull. dw sunny isnt done with the wraith just yet.