Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail-Chapter 455: Inked

The instant Sunny crossed the threshold of Phantylia’s jaws, the world changed.

The blinding blaze of amber light faded behind him as he plunged past rows of crystalline teeth that were already beginning to knit themselves back together. The wound Jing Yuan had carved through her jaw sealed rapidly, petals of living flesh sliding together like closing gates.

Sunny did not slow.

His momentum carried him straight down the burning corridor of her throat.

The Lance of Preservation roared in his hands.

He drove it forward with everything he had.

The weapon struck the back of Phantylia’s throat with a sound like a temple bell struck by a meteor. Amber fire detonated outward in a violent halo as the lance buried itself into the inner wall of her neck. Stored stress erupted from its length, turning the blade into a blazing spike of incandescent authority.

Sunny let go.

The lance remained lodged in place, vibrating violently as it drank in the resistance of her flesh.

Then gravity reclaimed him.

Sunny fell.

The inside of Phantylia was not like the inside of anything human.

There was no blood. No bile. No slick organic surfaces.

Instead, her interior resembled a cavern grown from impossible flora. Vast walls of pale flesh were layered with blooming lotus flowers that pulsed faintly with internal light. Petals opened and closed in slow, hypnotic rhythms. Veins of glowing energy — Destruction? — threaded through the surfaces like rivers of molten jade.

It was beautiful.

And profoundly wrong.

Sunny twisted in the air and landed hard on a sloping shelf of fibrous tissue, sliding several meters before catching himself against a thick cluster of flowering growths.

Above him, the lance still burned where it was lodged in the back of her throat, its amber glow illuminating the chamber like a miniature sun.

Phantylia realized what had happened.

The Supreme Titan convulsed.

The entire space around Sunny lurched violently as her colossal body jerked in rage. He was thrown sideways into a wall of flowering tissue, bones rattling as he struck.

The Preservation surrounding him dampened the worst of the impact — only leaving him with fractured bones and busted muscles. Still, the force was enough to remind him exactly what he had just done.

He was inside a Supreme Titan.

Sunny did not have the luxury of slowing down.

The chamber inside Phantylia’s throat twisted violently around him, living terrain folding and unfolding like a breathing labyrinth. The lotus-lined walls convulsed as the Supreme Titan reacted to the intruder burrowing through her body. Muscles contracted in titanic waves that threatened to grind him into paste, while entire shelves of pale organic growth sheared away and collapsed into the void below.

Sunny slid down one such collapsing ridge of fibrous tissue, boots scraping uselessly as gravity claimed him.

He let it.

The interior of her body opened beneath him into a plunging shaft of pale flesh and luminous veins. The glowing energy threaded through her insides like molten rivers, casting the entire descent in a surreal jade light. Blooming lotus flowers the size of chariots opened along the walls, their crystalline cores flashing as they prepared to fire.

Sunny tucked his body close and dropped faster.

Bolts of golden energy erupted from the flowers, lancing through the air behind him. The attacks carved glowing scars across the walls as they missed their target by meters. Phantylia was trying to kill him by attacking her own insides, a strategy that would have been absurd against any lesser creature but was merely inconvenient for something that could regenerate entire limbs in seconds.

Sunny slammed against the wall halfway down the shaft and bounced off it with a painful grunt, tumbling head over heels through the glowing void.

Then the shaft widened.

The violent constriction of muscle suddenly loosened, the terrain opening into a vast hollow chamber.

Sunny hit the ground hard.

The impact rattled his bones, but the Preservation lingering in his body dampened the worst of it. He rolled across the pale surface and came to a stop, pushing himself upright as quickly as possible.

For a moment, he simply stared.

Phantylia’s stomach was enormous.

It resembled a cathedral grown from living tissue. Towering walls of pale flesh rose hundreds of meters overhead, ribbed with glowing veins that pulsed with slow, deliberate rhythm. Vast clusters of lotus flowers clung to the interior surfaces like parasitic blossoms, their petals opening and closing as seomethinv(?) flowed through them.

The chamber was quiet compared to the chaos of her throat.

There was space here.

Plenty of space.

Sunny inhaled slowly.

Then he drove Hail Sorrow into the ground.

The sword plunged deep into the pale flesh of her stomach wall with a heavy, tearing sound. He put everything he had into the strike, muscles screaming as the blade sank deeper and deeper until only the hilt remained above the surface.

Hail Sorrow drank in his emotions.

The enchantment woven into the blade responded instantly.

Sunny’s turbulent state — fear, fury, exhilaration, and the raw manic intensity that had driven him to jump into the mouth of a Supreme Titan — surged through the weapon like fuel thrown into a furnace... and empowered him.

Sunny’s breathing grew heavier as the weapon amplified the storm already raging inside his mind. The sensation was intoxicating, like standing in the center of a thunderstorm and daring the lightning to strike.

Outside the Titan’s body, the battle continued.

He could feel it.

The vibrations rippled through the chamber as titanic forces clashed beyond the walls of flesh surrounding him. Every strike landed by Jing Yuan, every surge of draconic fury from Dan Heng, every calculated distortion of reality forced into place by Fu Xuan echoed through Phantylia’s enormous body.

The mind attack was working.

Hail Sorrow was forcing negative emotions directly into Phantylia’s consciousness. Rage, frustration, fear, doubt... the corrosive swarm of feelings that eroded clarity and turned careful thought into reckless violence.

Sunny grinned faintly.

With one hand still gripping the hilt of Hail Sorrow, he summoned the Shadow Lantern.

The Relic materialized beside him in a silent bloom of darkness.

Its lid cracked open.

Shadows spilled out.

They flowed across the floor like liquid night, spreading through the vast chamber and staining the pale organic surfaces with creeping darkness. Sunny could not manipulate the natural shadows cast within a living body. Those belonged to the caster.

But the shadows he brought with him?

Those were his.

The darkness spread rapidly, seeping into crevices and pooling along the walls of the stomach chamber.

Sunny raised his head.

Three shapes rose from the expanding sea of shadow.

Marble Saint emerged first, her towering armored form solidifying as the darkness condensed around her. She stood like a silent statue of war, already raising Morgan’s Warbow as the weapon formed in her hands.

Nightmare followed.

The dark destrier erupted from the shadow like a living storm of black flame, its curved horns gleaming as it stamped violently against the living floor.

Then came Serpent. Its serpentine form twisted and reshaped itself into a familiar silhouette.

War Maiden Hilde.

Or rather, her shadow.

Every detail was perfect — the armor, the stance, the predatory grace of a warrior who had once been terrifying even in life. But every color had been devoured by darkness, leaving only a flawless silhouette sculpted from pure black.

Serpent moved first.

The surrounding shadows poured into its body, strengthening it instantly. The creature absorbed the darkness saturating the chamber, its form growing faster and sharper as the environment fed it strength.

Sunny tossed a sword of shadows toward it without looking.

Serpent caught it in a single fluid motion.

Sunny grinned.

"Go wild."

They did.

Saint released the first shot.

Morgan’s Warbow thundered.

The arrow slammed into the wall of Phantylia’s stomach like a meteor strike, detonating in a violent eruption that sent shards of hardened tissue flying across the chamber. The impact carved a crater into the living wall before the damage began slowly knitting itself back together.

Nightmare charged next.

The destrier galloped across the stomach floor with reckless enthusiasm, horns lowered as it rammed the wall headfirst. The curved spikes punched into the flesh with brutal force before the creature ripped backward, tearing away a chunk of pale tissue with its teeth.

Serpent was already moving.

The shadow-warrior became a blur of black motion as it sprinted across the chamber walls. The darkness saturating the environment amplified its speed to terrifying levels. The blade Sunny had given it flashed again and again, carving deep gashes into the stomach lining as it raced along vertical surfaces like a phantom.

Meanwhile, Hail Sorrow continued to burn where it was embedded.

Sunny stepped back from the sword and extended his will.

The shadows surrounding him responded instantly.

Thousands of shadow spikes burst from the ground, stabbing violently into every direction at once. The jagged constructs hammered into the stomach walls in an endless barrage, tearing open wounds that immediately began trying to regenerate.

The chamber became a storm of destruction.

Saint fired again.

Nightmare tore through the floor like a rabid beast.

Serpent danced across the walls with lethal precision.

For a moment, the inside of Phantylia’s body looked like a battlefield consumed by darkness.

Sunny blinked.

Then he heard something.

"...food bad."

He froze.

Sunny turned his head slowly.

Nightmare was gnawing on another chunk of stomach lining with visible disappointment.

Sunny stared.

Silent Mist allowed communication with creatures that couldn’t normally speak human languages. He... hadn’t thought of talking to his Shadows, however.

Sunny filed that information away with growing interest.

He would absolutely be interrogating Nightmare later.

Unfortunately, their current efforts were accomplishing almost nothing.

Phantylia was a Supreme Titan.

The damage they were inflicting — impressive by most standards — barely registered against the scale of her existence. Her body regenerated almost as quickly as they destroyed it, the wounds knitting closed even as new ones were carved open.

Sunny already knew that would happen.

That had never been the goal.

He closed his eyes.

The chaos around him faded as he focused inward.

Beyond the Destruction his Shadows were causing, beyond the trembling walls of flesh and the constant tremors from the battle outside, Sunny listened to something deeper.

Phantylia’s shadow was enormous, vast, and endlessly deep. The only shadow he could think of that was more impressive... had been Hope, Daemon of Desire.

Sunny felt Phantylia’s shadow move.

That was the moment he had been waiting for.

His eyes snapped open.

Sunny dismissed all three Shadows instantly.

Saint, Nightmare, and Serpent dissolved back into darkness. The shadow spikes vanished. The Shadow Lantern snapped shut as he grabbed Hail Sorrow from the floor.

The blade tore free with a wet, ripping sound.

Then Sunny used Shadow Step.

He vanished.

A massive hand made from writhing roots and vines smashed through the chamber a fraction of a second later, stabbing violently into the place where he had been standing.

Phantylia had stabbed her own stomach.

The enormous limb punched through the chamber, tearing open a colossal wound in her body as it reached for him in blind fury.

Sunny reappeared outside her.

For a microscopic instant, the shadows he left within her tightened around the intruding limb. Her own arm became tangled within her own body.

Just long enough.

Sunny hit the ground in a roll, escaping the collapsing mass of roots as the battlefield outside exploded back into focus.

Dan Heng’s spear of lightning tore through the air like a living thing.

The bolt zigzagged violently as it traveled, twisting through the chaotic currents of lotuses surrounding Phantylia’s colossal body. For an instant it seemed as though the attack would simply strike through the opening in her abdomen and vanish somewhere within the vastness of her stolen flesh.

Instead, the lightning changed.

The moment it slipped into the torn cavity Sunny had opened, the spear condensed violently. Its blinding brilliance collapsed inward, folding over itself again and again until the violent electricity compressed into something dense and impossibly heavy.

Stone.

A massive boulder manifested inside Phantylia’s body.

The transformation was instantaneous and brutal. One moment her insides had been an endless labyrinth of blooming lotus tissue and glowing veins. The next, an enormous mass of solid rock erupted into existence within the center of her abdomen.

The effect was catastrophic.

Phantylia’s body convulsed as the boulder expanded against the confines of her stolen flesh. The Supreme Titan staggered midair, massive limbs jerking violently as the sudden intrusion tore apart organs that had never been meant to contain something so dense.

The stone continued to grow.

Cracks raced across its surface as more matter condensed into existence, forcing the mass outward with terrifying pressure. The cavernous spaces within her body collapsed beneath the strain as entire structures of Abundance-grown tissue ruptured under the expanding weight.

Lotus blossoms burst apart like fragile glass flowers.

Veins of golden blood snapped like overstrained cables.

The colossal form of Phantylia lurched as the internal Destruction rippled through her vessel. Her enormous body twisted against the sky, branches and roots thrashing wildly as she tried to stabilize herself.

Sunny saw the result immediately.

The vast reservoir of Essence fueling her regeneration flickered.

For the first time since the battle began, the monstrous Abundance sustaining her body faltered.

Her Soul Essence dropped sharply.

From two full Cores of power to barely one and a half.

The sudden loss of stability shattered the haze of blind fury clouding her mind. For a fleeting moment, clarity returned to the ancient Heliobus.

Phantylia’s eyes burned with sudden comprehension.

She understood what was happening.

And she reacted.

Her attention snapped toward Dan Heng.

The dragon still circled above the battlefield, three immense serpentine bodies twisting through the storm of petals and lightning that surrounded the collapsing Titan. His wings beat against the air as he prepared another attack, his scales reflecting flashes of lightning as Essence gathered around his claws.

Phantylia moved to stop him.

A pulse of invisible force gathered at the center of her being. The ability she had used countless times across her existence.

Her Terror Ability.

A power that bypassed armor, bypassed flesh, bypassed even mind or soul defenses. A direct assault upon the nerves of a victim’s body, frying them from within until the target collapsed into a twitching, broken mass.

Dan Heng would not survive it.

The energy began to surge outward.

Then Dan Heng flicked his wrist.

The motion was small, almost casual.

Yet the effect was immediate.

Phantylia felt something shift.

The Ability she had summoned vanished.

The connection between her will and the power she had commanded simply... disappeared, like a thread that had been cut in the instant before it could be pulled tight.

Her eyes widened.

Dan Heng’s own gaze had changed.

Something dark and alien stirred behind the calm intensity of his expression. The parasitic worm embedded within his soul twisted beneath his scales, its unnatural power reaching outward to grasp something that had never belonged to him.

He had stolen the ability.

The moment Phantylia realized this, the stolen Terror Ability erupted.

Invisible waves surged outward from Dan Heng’s body. The attack carried the exact same conceptual signature as the ability she had tried to use moments before — but now it was directed against her.

The effect was devastating.

Phantylia’s stolen body spasmed violently as the attack tore through the network of nerves that had formed within the Abundance-grown flesh. The massive Titan convulsed, her limbs jerking uncontrollably as the nerve pathways connecting her vessel were fried in an instant.

The pain was immense.

More importantly, the damage extended deeper.

The stolen body was only a vessel. Beneath it existed the true form of Phantylia — the ancient Heliobus spirit that had possessed this monstrous structure of flesh and plant matter.

Funnily enough, Heliobi wielded the perfect counter to their species. Outside of being an Emanator, Phantylia’s Abilities were identical to the rest of her kind — their Abilities revolved around nerves and the physical brain, not the metaphysical mind. Heliobi hide within the nervous system when taking over a body... which means they are vulnerable to their own powers.

The damage was small compared to what it had done to the Titan’s body, but even that slight injury was enough to trigger the endless cycle of regeneration that defined the Abundance.

Phantylia was forced to heal.

And healing cost Essence.

Her reserves dropped again.

The boulder inside her abdomen suddenly changed.

The enormous mass of stone liquefied in an instant.

What had been a solid structure collapsed into water — a truly absurd volume of it, compressed into a space far too small to contain it.

The pressure was catastrophic.

The water exploded outward.

It burst through the ruptured tissues of her abdomen with explosive force, blasting through the already-damaged internal structures of her vessel. The shockwave ripped through the interior of her body like a bomb detonating inside a cathedral, tearing apart everything in its path.

Lotus petals erupted from the gaping wound in a violent storm.

Chunks of flesh and twisted vines followed.

Phantylia screamed.

The sound echoed across the battlefield like the howl of a dying god.

Her Essence plummeted.

The once-overwhelming reservoir of life force sustaining her body was now bleeding away faster than she could replenish it.

For the briefest instant, the ancient Heliobus regained full clarity.

And she chose violence.

Sunny had only just landed after escaping from the cavity in her stomach when it happened.

A tendril of roots and vines erupted from Phantylia’s shattered body.

The attack was unbelievably fast.

The massive spike of living plant matter shot toward him with lethal precision, moving faster than Sunny’s exhausted body could possibly react.

For a split second, he saw nothing but the incoming point.

His mind calculated distances automatically.

There was no time to Shadow Step.

No time to dodge.

The spike would skewer him completely.

His draconian wing unfolded in front of him.

Jing Yuan moved first.

The transformed general lunged into the path of the attack without hesitation, his enormous body intercepting the incoming spike an instant before it could reach Sunny. The tendril punched straight through his side with a sickening sound, tearing through fur and muscle as it burst out the other side.

The force of the impact staggered the white tiger.

But the spike did not stop.

The momentum of the attack carried it forward, sliding through Jing Yuan’s body as though he were little more than a temporary obstacle.

The bloody tip continued racing toward Sunny.

Then, Fu Xuan moved.

The Master Diviner had been barely standing moments earlier. Blood soaked the front of her robes from wounds that would have killed almost anyone else on the battlefield.

Yet when the spike tore through Jing Yuan and continued toward Sunny, she stepped forward without hesitation.

The tendril pierced straight through her abdomen.

Her body jerked violently as the spike punched through her stomach and burst out her back in a spray of blood.

But Fu Xuan did not fall.

With her remaining arm, she grabbed the vine.

Her fingers clamped down around the living spike with desperate strength, muscles trembling as she fought to hold it in place despite the horrific wound through her body.

The vine kept moving.

The Abundance driving Phantylia’s vessel forced the tendril forward relentlessly, grinding against Fu Xuan’s grip as it struggled to continue its deadly trajectory.

Sunny finally moved.

Shadow Step activated with a violent twist of darkness.

He vanished an instant before the tip of the vine could reach him, reappearing several meters away as the spike tore free from Fu Xuan’s weakening grasp.

The battlefield spun around him.

For a brief moment he simply stared.

Jing Yuan’s tiger form writhed in the air above, blood pouring from the wound in his side where the vine had pierced straight through him. Fu Xuan stood below, barely upright with a massive spike of living wood protruding from her body.

Sunny looked upward.

Dan Heng was already looking back.

The three-headed dragon twisted through the storm-filled sky, battered wings beating heavily as blood streamed from dozens of injuries across his scales.

Their eyes met.

No words were exchanged.

None were necessary.

Dan Heng dove.

The dragon descended toward Phantylia like a falling comet, his massive body weaving through the chaotic barrage of attacks the wounded Titan hurled upward in desperation. Lightning flashed around him as he spiraled downward through the storm of roots and petals.

Then he struck.

All three draconic bodies slammed into Phantylia’s enormous form simultaneously.

Claws sank deep into the flesh of the Titan’s torso. Fangs tore into the plant-like structures forming her outer shell. One serpentine neck lunged forward and clamped its jaws directly over Phantylia’s face, locking down with relentless pressure.

The dragon did not release.

Phantylia shrieked in rage as she tried to tear him away.

Her roots lashed wildly through the air, smashing into Dan Heng’s massive body again and again. Each impact tore away scales and flesh, leaving deep wounds that bled freely as the dragon clung to her like a predator refusing to release its prey.

One of Dan Heng’s wings was torn completely from his body.

A second head was ripped away moments later as a barrage of vine-spikes punched through his neck.

Still, he held on.

His remaining jaws tightened around Phantylia’s face with unwavering determination.

Below them, Jing Yuan moved.

The general had reverted to his human form, but the vine that had pierced his side remained embedded deep within his body. Blood soaked his clothing as he raised a trembling hand toward the sky.

The Lightning Lord answered.

The colossal spirit of thunder descended with a deafening roar.

Its blade fell like divine judgment.

The strike slammed directly into Phantylia’s body.

The impact was catastrophic.

Lightning detonated across the battlefield in a blinding explosion, the immense power of the attack tearing through the Titan’s damaged vessel. The blast carved enormous trenches through her flesh while arcs of electricity ripped across the surrounding terrain.

Dan Heng was caught in the blast as well.

The dragon convulsed as lightning surged across his already-destroyed body, but he did not release his grip.

Phantylia’s vision was gone.

With one of Dan Heng’s heads clamped over her face, the Supreme Titan could see nothing.

Sunny moved.

He sprinted toward the towering form of the Titan.

The amber barrier surrounding him shattered as he activated the final enchantment of Silent Mist. The protective Preservation that had shielded his body throughout the battle dissolved instantly, abandoning every defensive property the armor possessed.

The effect was immediate.

Sunny felt naked.

Vulnerable.

Every instinct in his body screamed that he had just made an incredibly stupid decision.

But the black haze spreading across his gloves and sword told a different story.

[Ink Over] had activated.

The conceptual power stored within the armor poured into his weapon like liquid night, coating Hail Sorrow in a shroud of dark energy that twisted the air around it.

Sunny ran faster.

Phantylia felt the change immediately.

Even blinded, the ancient Heliobus sensed the surge of conceptual force gathering around Sunny’s weapon. She had seen fragments of his memories while probing his mind earlier in the battle.

She knew exactly what kind of person he was.

And she knew that individuals like him had a deeply irritating habit of changing the outcome of battles that should have been impossible to win.

She chose to eliminate him. Unlike Asat, she had no plans for the boy. Not after witnessing that Self-Annihilator...

Ignoring the dragon tearing apart her face, Phantylia unleashed a barrage of attacks outward in every direction. Countless tendrils erupted from her body, forming a massive net of roots and vines that expanded rapidly toward the charging figure below.

The attack would crush him completely.

Sunny raised his sword.

Then reality snapped.

The sound echoed across the battlefield like a breaking thread.

The snapping of fingers.

In the next instant, everything changed.

Dan Heng vanished from Phantylia’s face.

The net of roots that had been racing toward Sunny continued forward — but its target was gone.

Instead, the attack struck the dragon.

The massive body of Dan Heng reappeared directly in the path of the incoming assault, his already-destroyed form taking the full force of Phantylia’s counterattack. The roots slammed into him with brutal force, shredding scales and tearing through flesh as the dragon roared in pain.

Sunny stood on Phantylia’s nose.

Hail Sorrow was raised high above his head. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Below him, Phantylia’s eyes widened as she finally saw him.

Her gaze flicked past him for the briefest instant.

Fu Xuan stood several meters away, barely conscious.

Her remaining arm was raised.

Her fingers having already snapped.

"That... was... the last of my... Essence. If you fail... I’ll haunt you... in the Shadow Realm..."

Sunny swung.

The Lance of Preservation roared to life.

The weapon tore itself free from the back of Phantylia’s throat, releasing the enormous amount of stress it had accumulated while embedded within her body. The amber lance shot forward like a meteor, racing toward Sunny’s hand with unstoppable force.

The conceptual power of [Ink Over] guided it.

The lance pierced straight through Phantylia’s skull.

Sunny did not catch it.

Instead, he let the weapon rocket past him as he completed the swing of Hail Sorrow.

The blade carved downward through the center of her body.

Sunny fell.

He landed on the ground several seconds later, knees buckling as the last remnants of Ink Over dissipated from his weapon.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then a thin line of darkness appeared along Phantylia’s body.

The inky streak ran from the top of her skull all the way down to the base of her enormous form.

The line widened slowly.

Sunny had painted without a canvas.

Phantylia’s vessel split apart.

The colossal Titan slid into two separate halves that collapsed toward the ground in a storm of petals. The massive structure of flesh and vines dissolved almost immediately, the Abundance sustaining it collapsing as the body disintegrated into countless drifting lotus blossoms.

The battlefield fell silent.

A figure emerged from the storm of petals.

Phantylia’s true form hovered above the ground, her Heliobus body burning like a distorted star of emerald fire.

She laughed.

"Not bad, little Seed. But all I lost was a body stolen on a whim."

Sunny grinned.

"That’s great... marvelous, even! You haven’t satisfied me yet, you filthy broad!"

He laughed loudly, adrenaline still roaring through his veins.

"I’d recommend you watch your shadow, but it looks like some bitches don’t even get one. It’s almost pitiful."

Phantylia ignored him completely.

Her gaze drifted past Sunny toward the wounded figures behind him.

Jing Yuan knelt on the ground with two massive wounds torn through his abdomen, blood pooling beneath him. Fu Xuan remained standing only through sheer stubbornness, her body barely functioning after the injuries she had sustained.

Phantylia’s smile returned — not that anyone would see, considering her current state.

"General of The Hunt, Master Diviner... how much longer can you last? The Destruction of the Xianzhou... is nigh."

Then she turned.

Her blazing Heliobus form rose into the sky before vanishing into the distance, leaving behind only drifting lotus petals and the wreckage of a battlefield that had nearly consumed them all.

Fu Xuan swayed slightly where she stood. Blood ran down her chin as she muttered a few choice insults under her breath before coughing violently.

The battle was over.