Fate’s Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

'Seriously, what is my luck?'

When him and Seele had ran into the jungle, avoiding the countless predators that fought to survive in the harsh process of natural selection, he hadn't been watching his footing. While Seele was battling against Nightmare Creatures ahead of them, he had tripped on a protruding root.

Once he hit the ground, a thorny vine suddenly slithered around his neck. It dug into his skin, pulling him into the air with drastic force as his veins were cut open.

Fortunately, he didn't bleed. [Blood Weave] ensured that.

He had to use the Midnight Shard to cut the vine off, but had dropped it after he was slammed into a tree. In less than a second, multiple Nightmare Creatures had lunged at him, fighting with an unintelligent harmony.

Sunny wondered if they were being controlled by an external force…

Anyways, he had quickly summoned the Moonlight Shard before stabbing the closest Nightmare Creature in the skull. After that… his perception suddenly changed. He forgot everything around him, and only kept two goals in his mind.

'Kill your enemy. Prevent yourself from being killed.'

It was almost like he had retrieved a missing piece of himself. His mind was constantly processing the concept of murder — to murder his foes, and to not be murdered himself.

Everything had felt like a puzzle. At that moment, he had inserted the final piece, allowing him to fight with frightening clarity. He had to figure out how to avoid their attacks while in midair, controlling them despite his precarious situation.

It was as if he was both the puppeteer and the puppet, controlling himself and the abominations around him. As a result, his only injury was the mark on his neck from when he was grabbed by the living vine.

At the same time, he had used the power of Destruction, using it to easily dispatch the opposition.

The power truly seemed to stem from the Gloomy shadow, which meant that his Aspect seemed to have some synergy with the Paths. However, he didn't think he had a way to wield the Trailblaze in combat, which caused him to wonder if this was only a one-off thing…

Despite the fact that both him and Seele were unharmed, a feeling of unease creeped into his heart.

'Are they controlled by a Tyrant?'

Considering the fact that the Nightmare Creatures seemed more focused on killing outsiders granted some credibility to this theory. A Nightmare Creature that was a Tyrant or higher would be able to control the abominations. When the jungle wasn't disturbed, the beasts were allowed to kill each other, as they would have no other source of sustenance.

What truly worried him however, was that if the Nightmare Creatures were under another's command, their leader would have to be at the Corrupted Rank. And that would only be the best case scenario.

A Corrupted abomination would be equal to a Saint, who have Transcendent souls. However, not all Saints could boast that they had defeated a Corrupted Tyrant. It would only be worse if the threat was a Great abomination… but he doubted that such a being would be on the Chained Isles.

For mere Awakened like Seele and himself, such a threat would most likely spell out their deaths.

Sunny's thoughts trailed off for a second, before he suddenly scowled.

A shadow as approaching them from the sky. Based off of the fact that the shadow was getting larger, it must have been descending at an extraordinary pace. He sent the Haughty shadow forward by a few meters, making sure that it kept moving ahead as Sunny himself did.

After a few seconds, Sunny called out to Seele, who looked at him with crimson eyes.

"Keep going in that direction. I'll meet up with you once I'm done with this wretch."

She seemed confused, but nonetheless nodded her head. Naturally, she wouldn't be as aware of her surroundings as Sunny himself was.

Sunny recalled Saint; the stalwart warrior rose from the Haughty shadow as she held out her hand. He sent all three of his shadows to augment the statue, giving it quadruple her original strength.

Sunny watched as Seele sprinted ahead, agile in her steps as she avoided the roots and vines that attempted to grasp her…

Sunny's eyes widened.

He had thought that the creatures within the jungle were controlled by a Nightmare Creature of a higher Rank and Class: at least a Corrupted Tyrant. What Sunny didn't account for, was that the Nightmare Creature controlling them was right under his feet all along.

The jungle was a Nightmare Creature. A Corrupted Titan that relied on it's thralls to kill anyone that decided to essentially intrude it's body. Sunny and Seele were foreign diseases, and the Nightmare Creatures populating the jungle were antibodies, tasked with purging the invaders.

The island was hardly explored, which meant that the true nature of the jungle wasn't known to those that came: either because they escaped as soon as possible, or couldn't leave alive.

…No, the jungle itself wasn't the Nightmare Creature. If it was, how had he used Shadow Step on the tree trunk that the ape had swung on him? The being that controlled both the jungle and all the life that lives in it must encompass the entire island, so what could it be?

Sunny had no time to ponder about the true nature of the jungle as he stepped on Saint's hand. The stone knight tensed, preparing to throw her master with the strength of four of herself. Turning the Soul Serpent from a tattoo to a fearsome onyx odachi, Sunny also tensed as he prepared to be rocketed.

'Congratulations Serpent. You are about to get your first kill.'

Despite the fact that the Shadow was only of the Dormant Rank, his other weapons did not have as much range as the long odachi. In fact, they were all much more suitable for a close-range brawl. Just in case he didn't get sent directly at the flying Nightmare Creature, he needed to be able to at least injure it.

If he can do that, then the flying creature will come plummeting right down.

A second after that thought, Sunny rocketed into the air.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!'

Lamenting his choice of using this idiotic plan, Sunny hoped that he wouldn't end up falling off the island. His eyes darted across the open sky, searching for the Nightmare Creature that had tried to attack them.

'…Damn.'

They were small, feathered creatures that resembled birds to an astonishing degree. Despite their small size, their beaks were o her than Sunny was tall, giving them the ability to completely impale him if he got too close. The sounds of their wings vibrated through the air, creating an almost intolerable sound.

Which was bound to happen, as Sunny rapidly flew towards the birds. He had thought that he was dealing with a single Nightmare Creature, not a swarm of predatory birds!

'I knew that this was a bad idea!'

Forgetting that he had created this plan himself, Sunny summoned the Dark Wing as white sparks surrounded his back. The cloak that allowed Sunny to glide slowly formed itself on his back…

…But it did not appear fast enough.

The bird's beaks stabbed into his body, mainly in the joints of the Mantle of the Underworld. Sunny screamed as his arm was completely pierced near the elbow; a long beak poking out of both sides of the limb, ending with a small feathery creature on one end.

He tilted his head as one of the birds zoomed right past his cheek, drawing blood as it scraped by. If he hadn't moved, that would have went straight through his eye.

A single miscalculation could be deadly. The assumption of a large shadow being a single enemy led Sunny to believe that he was going to simply maim a Nightmare Creature, bring it down to the ground before killing it. Instead, he was completely surrounded as he was stabbed and pecked, losing bits and pieces of his flesh.

Sunny could hardly move, wincing as they clamped down on his limbs with their massive drill-like beaks. Pain coursed through him, making him yelp at the feeling of his body getting slowly torn apart.

However, as his pain started to become unbearable, another feeling started to rise within him. It burned through his veins, intoxicated his mind, and willed his body. It felt similar to the feeling when the energy of Destruction violently flowed through him, but much more raw and intense.

It wasn't mystical in nature. Instead, it was a feeling that Sunny held within him all along.

Hate.

A bird attempted to prod at his head, aiming for his face as it fluttered at terrifying speeds toward him. Unnoticeable, Sunny had slightly opened his mouth, moving his head back slightly.

Right before the bird had stabbed into his face, Sunny widened his mouth before clamping down on it's beak with his teeth. The Nightmare Creature was stuck, having lost it's only weapon to his jaw.

Moving his right arm — which was being clamped down on and pierced through by birds — Sunny reached out to the trapped abomination. Wrapping the gauntlet of the mantle around it's ring body, Sunny squeezed.

[You have defeated a Fallen Beast, Bonepecker.]

A sickening squelch was heard as Sunny spat out the beak in his mouth. The birds started to move in disarray, having previously been moving in harmony with each other as they suspended his body. Now however, they started to flutter in random directions, without any rhyme or rhythm.

'Did they communicate with their wings?'

The wings had made an intolerable sound, filling the sky with a rapid hum. If the birds were communicating in such a way, then that meant that Sunny had effectively broken their ways of doing so by killing one of them.

Having gained more freedom of movement with his arms, he attempted to crush another one of the birds.

'…No good.'

His arms weren't moving as much as he liked. However, that did not mean that he was out of options.

Moving his head towards one of the impaled birds, Sunny opened his mouth. Placing it just beneath his teeth, he chomped down on the bird.

[You have defeated a Fallen Beast, Bonepecker.]

'Disgusting.'

Sunny reluctantly repeated the process of biting down on the impaled birds. The one's that haven't yet done so practically ignored him, flying off in random directions. One by one, his teeth were stained by the blood and guts stored within their tiny bodies.

Sunny wanted to throw up. The taste of Nightmare Creatures was only good when they were cooked, and it heavily depended on which one was eaten. The raw flesh of these corrupted birds was not something that Sunny wanted to eat, so he spat them out immediately.

Even worse, feathers kept getting stuck in his teeth!

Just as he was about to pass out from the pain, the remaining birds couldn't keep him held up anymore. They plummeted to the ground, falling at speeds that would kill the average Awakened.

Normally, Sunny could have used Shadow Step to survive, but he couldn't do so when in contact with a living creature. Currently, he still had a few surviving birds attached to him, meaning that he couldn't enter the shadows right when he made contact with the ground.

Sunny was going to die.

'At least these little bastards are going to die with me.'

A bloody smile reformed his face. Feathers were all over his body — mostly around his mouth. The sight was equally horrific as it was laughable. To die due to such a small mistake…

He thought about any other ways to survive. Even if he summoned Saint, her body was made of stone. It might hurt him even more than landing on the wet soil of the jungle. If he used the Prowling Thorn as a grappling hook, he would end up ripping off his arm. The Dark Wing had been dismissed, but even if he had summoned it, he wasn't in a good enough position to glide with it.

'Huh. I guess that's it.'

Sunny wondered who or what he should curse first. Seele, who had asked him to take her here? Tyris, who had tasked him to familiarize Seele with the area? Or maybe it was St****, who he had taken the place of out of some strange sense of pity and responsibility.

…What was he thinking about again?

His eyes started to shut as he slowly forgot about the pain ailing him. In a second, he would make contact with the floor, shattering multiple bones in his body as the soil absorbed his blood.

At least, he should have.

Instead, he fell on… something he didn't recognize. It was like two branches had broke his fall, cradling him as he slowly went into a deep sleep.

A voice resounded.

"You cannot die yet. I still have uses for you."

***

Seele(?) sat in the flower field, Sunny lying on the floor — he was unconscious, having been pierced by multiple strange birds. Their bodies were small, yet their beaks were large, causing her to wonder how they were able to fly.

Sunny didn't bleed. However, she still bandaged his wounds by tearing off small pieces of the garment Memory she had. It would take a while to fix, but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make.

Seele(?) supposed that it was something like an investment, except that she didn't actually lose anything. The Memory would repair itself on it's own once she sent it back to her soul sea. In fact, she would have done so already if Seele hadn't vehemently rejected her.

[What if he wakes up while you're naked! That's my body, you know?!]

'As if he has any interest in a malnourished brat.'

Considering the living conditions in the Underworld, Seele(?)'s ribs were pretty visible. It wasn't to the point where she was actually malnourished, but it was obvious that she didn't eat much.

Actually, she was quite well-fed compared to the rest of the Underworld; mostly because of how often she would be gifted small amounts of food as thanks for protecting them.

Neither Seele nor Seele(?) were one to reject free food.

Sunny rolled over, mumbling something in his sleep. Seele(?) stared at him for a moment, before leaning forward. The boy must have been delirious from the pain…

[What are you doing?]

'What if he's saying something interesting? I know you're curious too.'

At Seele's silence, Seele(?) moved her ear closer to Sunny's head.

"…Fly… Wolfie stole… the trashcan… not… me… please don't set… me… ablaze…"

His mumbling turned incoherent, before suddenly making sense again.

"Hey… El… stop copying me… you raccoon!"

Sunny's face twitched, suddenly becoming more somber.

"It's my fault… you should… leave…"

…He started to snore loudly. If the Nightmare Creatures didn't seem to avoid this place like the plague, he would have certainly attracted the whole island!

'…Did you get any of that?'

[Eh… it was probably just a normal dream. Random things happen all the time in your imagination.]

Seele(?) shrugged. It didn't matter what dreams Sunny had. Her only purpose was to protect Seele, and he would certainly help in serving her role…

[…Why are you blocking your thoughts?]

Seele(?) smiled.

'Just testing something.'