Shadow Slave

Soon, the four of them were gathered in Sunny's room. There was plenty of food on the table, and a kettle of fragrant tea. They had a peaceful meal, avoiding discussing anything important… but soon, it was time to have a serious discussion.

None of the four seemed too excited about the idea, perhaps because doing so would mean revisiting their experiences in the Nightmare and opening up wounds that had barely any time to heal. There were a lot of invisible scars each of them was hiding... none of the four had survived these three months unscathed.

Effie looked at her empty plate for a few moments, and then sighed.

"Can't we just have a few days off before getting to work? The world won't collapse if we take a small vacation… uh, I think…"

Sunny glanced at his friends — the bruised girl, the cripple with a disfigured face, and a beautiful young woman whose empty eye sockets were covered by a black cloth — and slowly shook his head.

"If we do, Noctis might grow… impatient. I promised to give him an answer after I find my friends. He has already been gracious enough to abstain from killing me, putting my soul into a doll... or a mop... and ordering it to give him the knives. So, we better not linger."

Cassie turned her head slightly and asked, her deep, pleasant voice still sounding strange and unfamiliar:

"An answer? To what question?"

Sunny grimaced, then looked away.

"...Right. All of you must have already understood what the conflict of this Nightmare is. Hope, the Demon of Desire… Noctis is preparing to rebel against the will of the gods, kill the other immortals, and break her chains. And we have to either help him achieve his goal, or somehow prevent Hope from escaping. The former seems insane, but the latter… the latter seems impossible, considering that she is already able to influence the world from inside her prison."

He shivered, grew silent for a few moments, and then added:

"Each of the immortals represents — or rather, embodies — one of Hope's eternal shackles. They can only be destroyed by one of the Sun God's knives. I am in possession of two of the remaining four knives, Noctis knows where the third is being kept, and the fourth one is in the hands of Solvane, who will freely offer it to anyone who can grant her a worthy death. So… while his plan means going to war against three ancient Saints, it is not entirely crazy. Just… mostly so."

Sunny sighed, poured himself some tea, and concluded:

"So, we need to decide whether we want to help him in this craziness, or not."

Cassie nodded, seemingly not surprised by what he told them. Then, she lingered for a moment, and said:

"Then, first, we need to share everything we learned about the Nightmare while we were apart. The more information we possess, the better informed our decision will be."

Sunny took a sip of his tea and shrugged. That was what he wanted to do, as well. He studied the faces of his companions, and then gripped the emerald amulet tighter.

"In that case… I will begin, I guess."

Effie, Kai, and Cassie turned to him, trying not to show how curious they really were. And who could blame them? Out of the four, Sunny's situation was indeed the most… abnormal.

He hesitated for a few moments, and then spoke:

"As you might have noticed, the Spell sent me into the body of a demon… a shadow demon, to be precise. I found myself far to the west, in the territory of the followers of War. Even worse, just seconds after coming to my senses, I stumbled upon a beautiful woman wearing red. That woman… was Solvane, the Transcendent priestess of War God. She easily overpowered me, but decided to keep me alive."

Effie's eyes glistened when he mentioned Solvane. Kai, too, seemed to be shaken by that revelation… after all, he had been an officer of the army that was embroiled in a bloody war against Solvane's cult. To soldiers of the Ivory City, her name must have been synonymous with power, death, and horror. To them, Solvane was as much of a person as she was an ancient, terrifying myth.

Sunny's face grew dark.

"After that, I found myself in the Red Colosseum… an ancient theater built by Hope, which the Warmongers had turned into a perverse temple of slaughter. There were thousands of Nightmare Creatures locked in its dungeons, as well as a few unlucky humans. Every day, we were forced to kill each other. Those who survived received the dubious honor of fighting against the Warmongers themselves, and if we somehow prevailed… well, then we got to live another day, just to repeat the whole process come dawn."

He remained silent for a while, and then added:

"Two months… I spent two months in that purgatory. Of course, I would have succumbed to my wounds very fast if it wasn't for my partner, a captive young man from the Ivory City… Elyas. His healing Aspect kept me alive, and I kept him alive in the arena. Together, we endured the slaughter, day after day, week after week. Still, our days were numbered, so I kept searching for a way to escape. And after two months, I finally found it."

Sunny touched the terrible scar on his neck and grinned.

"Turns out, all I had to do was to trick our Ascended jailer into chopping my head off. Free of the collar, I killed him, and then got Elyas to attach my head back…"

Kai, who was in the middle of taking a sip of tea, spat it out.

"...What?!"

Effie only remained silent because she was in the process of choking on a pastry. Her eyes, however, were similarly wide. Even Cassie seemed stunned.

Sunny chuckled.

"Ah, you see. That Transcended priestess, Solvane… actually, I had already killed her once. She had been serving as the host body for a Corrupted Monster the Fire Keepers and I had slain in the Dream Realm to capture the wreck of Noctis's flying ship. That was where I received an enchanted armor that allows its wearer to stay alive for as long as they have essence… I also had means of regaining essence, and so, I was able to survive without a head long enough for Elyas to heal me."

Effie finally managed to swallow her pastry and glanced at Kai with wild eyes.

"Kai… tell me he's lying, please…"

The young man blinked a couple of times, then solemnly shook his head. The little girl swore, then mumbled in a small voice:

"Crazy bastard… he's crazy!"

Sunny shrugged nonchalantly.

"What? That wasn't even the craziest part. Anyway, Elyas and I almost managed to escape the Red Colosseum, but at the last moment, we were intercepted by Solvane… that cursed fiend."

The smile disappeared from his face, and his black eyes flashed with cold hatred for a moment.

"She… she killed Elyas, tore my heart out, and threw my body into the Sky Below. Luckily for me, this demon body has two hearts, which was why I didn't die immediately. Solvane either didn't know about that or did not care, thinking that the abyss would finish me off. But I survived and found my way back to the Isles, thanks to my Memories."

He sighed.

"...I survived, but was not in the best shape, either physically or mentally. My one remaining heart was not enough to keep this body going, so I was effectively dying, albeit slowly. I made my way south, planning to eventually reach our rendezvous point in the east. However, before I could, I stumbled upon Noctis on the Southern Island."

Sunny smiled bitterly.

"That mad bastard was very happy to see me. He thought that fate had brought us together… and who knows, maybe it did. We made a deal, he and I… Noctis would replace my missing heart, and I would learn the location of the Glass Knife from a Terror that resided in the nearby fortress. That Terror, you see, had belonged to one of the Chain Lords before… had belonged to the Shadow. So was there a better candidate to meet him than a shadow demon?"

He didn't speak for a while, then let out a heavy sigh.

pAn,Da-n0v e1,c,m "The problem was, the centuries of loneliness and being subjected to Hope's poison had driven the creature mad. So, it attacked me. That Terror had power over dreams and nightmares, and he subjected me to a few hundred of those. In each one, I was horribly tortured, experienced unimaginable sorrow, and was eventually killed. Luckily, I had forgotten most of those nightmares… yeah. Most of them…"

Sunny took a sip of tea, then shook his head.

"...Ah, anyway, eventually, I escaped from the nightmares as well, by breaking all of them, and then killed the Terror. Noctis replaced my heart, as he had promised, and brought me to the Sanctuary. Here, I met Kai, and we went to retrieve the Glass Knife — and Effie — from the Temple of the Chalice. And here we are."

He scratched the back of his head, and then added thoughtfully:

"Overall, I guess it could have been worse…"

Effie swore again, and then shoved another pastry into her mouth. She chewed furiously, and then hissed, sending crumbs flying across the table:

"...What the hell could have been worse than that?!"

Sunny stared at her for a moment, and shrugged.

"I don't know… I could have been sent into a body of a worm? Or even worse… a child…"

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