Shadow Slave

Sunny remained silent for as long as he could, until, finally, the Flaw forced him to give an answer.

He looked grimly at Noctis, and then said — or rather, thought — hoarsely:

"...Maybe he just wanted to see you suffer."

Noctis laughed brightly, then nodded.

"Oh, indeed! Maybe you are right. Gods can be very cruel, sometimes. After all, they are much more ancient and vast than kindness and compassion. Or, maybe, it is not really our lives that keep the Demon bound, but instead our will and desire to keep her imprisoned. Or maybe it is a test of our conviction… that is what the Sun Lord believes, at least. Or maybe… maybe he actually hoped that we would free her. Who knows?"

He smiled, then sighed, and finally added:

"...If mortals like us could know the will of gods, then we'd be gods instead."

After that, a somber silence settled over the deck of the flying ship.

Sunny stared at the delicious food in front of him, realizing that he had lost all his appetite.

Hope… the Demon of Desire…

How terrifying she was.

Slowly, several things that had seemed random and meaningless fell into place.

The jubilant crowd in the bloodsoaked Red Colosseum, the perverse conviction of beautiful Solvane, the harrowing torture of the Sun Prince, the madness that burned in the eyes of the black steed… all of it was the result of her harrowing power.

Hope held domain over desire, after all. And with that power, she had reached through the tiny cracks in her prison, and drove a whole realm utterly insane, turning it into a ghastly, hideous, demented hell. Every aspiration, every desire, every dream, every hope were twisted, set aflame, and turned into a weapon. An insidious, invisible weapon that struck at human hearts and minds from within.

No one was immune to her power. Neither mundane humans nor Awakened... not even Saints. Those who were closed and those who were far, all fell victim to the daemon's curse.

And what was her own hope? What was the Demon of Desire yearning for?

Well, that was easy…

Hope wanted to be free.

…Just like Sunny wanted to be free, really.

She was driving her jailers mad, so that they would destroy each other. And from the looks of it, her curse was working all too well. Solvane was seeking out death, the two Transcendents of the Ivory City seemed to be on the verge of fratricide, and Noctis was planning to kill them all.

The One in the North… Sunny didn't know about the last Chain Lord, but from the little bits of what the sorcerer had said, she was not in her right mind, either.

Suddenly, he remembered the sight of the time running in reverse that he had witnessed at the very start of the Nightmare. The Ivory Tower had descended from the sky, and the burned wasteland around it had turned into a beautiful white city.

…Which meant that one day, perhaps soon, the Ivory City would be burned to the ground, and Hope's prison would then break off its seven chains and rise above the Chained Isles.

And then, the Crushing would be created, somehow.

A cold, dire feeling grasped his two hearts.

'Oh, no…'

Suddenly, Sunny came to a harrowing realization. His eyes widened, and he glanced at Noctis with fear.

This… this was the conflict they — he, Cassie, Effie, Kai, and Mordret — had to resolve to conquer the Nightmare. They had to either help this mad sorcerer free the terrifying Demon, or make sure that she would never escape.

The five of them were pitted against the five immortal Saints.

A barely audible groan escaped from his lips.

'How is this possible… what happened to the Spell always being fair? How the hell can this be fair?!'

Another revelation suddenly appeared in his mind. Those words Aidre had said before accepting Solvane's challenge… the gratitude she expressed… had Solvane really eradicated the blessed of Heart God to punish Aidre for her heresy?

Or had the beautiful warrior known all along what would happen if one of the Chain Lords was killed, and doomed all of the remaining immortals, including herself, to a fate worse than death — to a slow and inevitable descent into madness, followed by eventual destruction? All in order to free Hope from her prison, and herself from eternal life?

If so, she had indeed been the bravest of them all… and also the most hateful.

...Or admirable, depending on how one looked at it.

But that didn't really matter.

Sunny grasped the emerald amulet and channeled a somber thought, which came out in a hoarse voice.

There was one thing that he still couldn't understand.

"The obsidian knife that I carry… the one that you lost… how were you going to kill the other Chain Lords without it, and without the knowledge about the glass knife that I received from the black steed?"

Noctis looked at him for a bit, then smiled darkly.

"Ah, that… the drastic thing I was about to do? Well… it was a really terrible choice. I am very glad that fate sent you to me when it did, Sunless!"

He chuckled.

"You see, Sunless… desire is a very powerful thing. In fact, it is perhaps the most powerful thing in the world. It is what the gods were born from, after all, in the endless, everchanging void of chaos. But there is one force more terrifying than desire. And that force is fate."

The sorcerer looked away with a distant expression.

"Even gods are afraid of fate, Sunless. So… I was going to make a deal with a certain creature. A harrowing, evil, and insidious monster. The vile Demon known as Weaver, who holds domain over fate. These knives can kill us because they hold the strings of our fates… so, if anyone can find a way to end our lives without the knives, it would be Weaver."

As Noctis mentioned Weaver's name, he shuddered, then forced out a pale smile.

"But… the Demon of Fate would have asked a terrible price of me, I'm sure. So, it is very fortunate that you came along! Just imagine… that fiend would have made me into something ugly, or even worse, poorly dressed. The horror!"

Noctis laughed and gave one of the Sailor Dolls a command to bring another amphora of wine.

He either didn't notice or pretended to overlook the sudden tension that appeared in Sunny's eyes.

'So… Noctis wanted to make a deal with Weaver to free Hope… and then, I suddenly appeared?'

A cold shiver suddenly ran down his spine.

'What, exactly, does that mean?'

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