416 Hanged Man

Sunny stared at the emptiness for some time, thinking.

His new weapon was an Ascended one of the fourth rank, which already made it much more formidable than anything else in his arsenal. It was adamantine and sharp as a razor, which would allow him to cut through Fallen creatures as if they were made of butter… well, not exactly, but rather close. Added to that were the considerable reach of its spear form and the incredible swiftness of its sword form.

But there was more.

The Cruel Sight was capable of augmenting its attacks with elemental damage. That meant that each wound Sunny would deliver to his enemies would be more dire… not only that, but the nature of the augmentation could be changed, which meant that if given enough time to prepare, he would be able to exploit the weaknesses of his opponents with the element they were most vulnerable to.

He just had to get himself wounded by that same element.

'Ouch...'

Everything that was worth it had to hurt a little. Sunny had learned it many years ago.

Speaking of which.

He sighed, then summoned the Cruel Sight and held it in his hands for a bit. Then, he stood up and walked toward the exit from the cave.

As the sound of the waterfall grew louder and louder, he prepared himself.

…A second later, Sunny entered the field of soul erosion emanated from Saint's armor. Instantly, he felt weak and in pain, as though the very essence of his self was being dissolved by a terrible force.

'Argh… curses!'

No matter how many times he was subjected to the effect of the Broken Oath, it was a vile feeling every time. The only good thing about it was that souls, just like bodies, could heal with time. And as long as he did not spend too much time being damaged by the evil Memory, he would be able to recover in a day or two.

Gritting his teeth, Sunny summoned the runes describing the Cruel Sight and simultaneously send essence into its silver blade, activating the [Dark Mirror] enchantment.

As his contorted face reflected in the polished silver of the elegant sword, nothing about it changed. However, the Cruel Sight suddenly seemed… different. As if an invisible, cold, and sharp aura surrounded its edges.

Sunny looked at the description of the [Dark Mirror]:

"Current Charge: Soul."

With a relieved sigh, he took a few steps back and escaped the radius of the Broken Oath. The sensation of his soul being slowly destroyed swiftly disappeared.

The runes, however, did not change.

Sunny had to feed the Memory with a small amount of shadow essence to activate the augmenting enchantment, but its blade would remain entwined with the element of his choice until he charged it with another.

A cruel smile appeared on his lips.

…Just like that, Sunny now possessed a weapon capable of dealing soul damage — the rarest and most insidious type of damage he knew of, one that very few beings out there had any resistance to.

In a span of one day, his lethality had grown manyfold.

Dismissing the somber sword, Sunny turned around and walked back into the cave.

"I guess I am the true harbinger of reckoning now…"

His gloomy shadow lingered for a bit, then scratched the back of its head.

For once, it had nothing to add.

***

Two days later, Sunny was finally approaching Shipwreck Island. Currently, he was on the neighboring one, hiding in the shadow of a collapsed stone tower that had long ago become overgrown with moss. Somewhere behind him, the body of a giant worm-like creature lay on the ground, its body sipping with foul black blood.

Sunny had spent a lot of essence jumping through shadows to avoid being devoured by that thing. No matter how many times he had pierced its flesh with his spear, the worm seemed to possess an almost endless amount of vitality. The fact that Sunny had no idea where any of the abomination's vital organs were only made the situation worse.

In the end, however, the Nightmare Creature had succumbed to the damage being continuously dealt to its soul. And now, it was dead.

…Swarms of smaller, but no less repulsive worms were already emerging from the ground to feast on its flesh. Sunny did not care — he had already retrieved the soul shard from the creature's body, and he surely had no plans of using the worm's meat as food.

And regardless, his attention was currently concentrated elsewhere.

'What… the hell…'

The Shipwreck Island was currently at the height of its ascent phase, and loomed high above in the sky. As the result, Sunny was able to see its underbelly, far away in the distance.

The downside of the island was shrouded in eternal shadow, and something vast and terrifying was moving in it. The inhabitants of the Dark Side were all powerful and unsightly, but the thing nesting under that one, in particular, was especially harrowing. Perhaps all islands this close to the Tear sheltered such horrors…

But even that was not the thing Sunny was looking it.

'I guess… I have my answer…'

A long time ago, one of the chains connected to Shipwreck Island had broken, and now hung down. Entangled in it, a giant iron corpse swayed slowly in the wind.

The creature resembled a man made entirely out of metal. The heavenly chain had coiled around one of his legs, so the giant hung with his head down, his face rusted and severely damaged. His powerful chest was caved in and shattered by some titanic blow, and one of his arms was torn away at the shoulder.

This was, without a doubt, the creature whose lost limb gave the name to the Iron Hand Island.

The dead giant swayed despondently in the wind, producing sounds of rusty metal scraping against the iron of the heavenly chain. Those sounds were loud enough to reach across the gap between two islands and be heard by Sunny in his hiding place.

Looking at that humbling sight, Sunny shivered.

'Who could have killed such a thing?'

Of course, there was no way to know. Just like always, finding one answer had immediately presented Sunny with a dozen new questions.

Nervously shifting his gaze between the hanged giant and the swarm of worms ravenously devouring their elder, Sunny remained hidden in the shadows and waited.

Soon, the rattling of chains announced that the Shipwreck Island was starting to descend.

Sunny tensed.

'It's time...'