Shadow Slave

The hidden passage led Sunny underground, twisting and turning through the mass of stone. Despite the fact that he had been cautiously walking forward for a few minutes now, Sunny felt that he was still beneath the cathedral. In fact, by his estimation, he was approaching its center.

And indeed, right beneath the spot where the statue of the goddess should have been, the narrow passage opened into a larger room. In it, a deep well leading even further down was situated, with a winding staircase spiraling down into the darkness.

Sunny frowned.

'What is it with this place and creepy dark wells?'

Going further down was going to place him dangerously close to the catacombs. He knew all to well what kind of danger that would pose — the last time Sunny had ventured into the maze of ancient tunnels below the city, he barely escaped alive.

After hesitating for a while, he stepped onto the staircase and began descending. Deep, ancient shadows surrounded Sunny, giving him a little comfort.

At least he was among his kin.

After a minute or so of walking down the stairwell, Sunny entered a large chamber that seemed to be carved into the bedrock, as opposed to being constructed by human hand. On the other side of it, a large door forged from black steel stood, illuminated by two burning torches.

Two thoughts entered Sunny's mind simultaneously.

The first one was that the metal from which the monolithic door was made looked eerily familiar. It was the same dark, lusterless, impenetrable alloy that the Black Knight had been made of.

The second thought was even more disturbing.

'...How come those torches are still burning?'

been aflame for

the torches looked very strange. They seemed to be producing light, but it was pale

of the movements of the fire, they were supposed to be dancing on the floor. But instead, the shadows were absolutely

shadow did not protest — in fact, it was visibly relieved. Taking a few exaggerated steps back, it merged with the

door and lowered the Midnight Shard into

…But nothing attacked him.

a sudden shill that run through Sunny's body when he had entered the

are definitely some sort of a protective charm. I am almost sure

ask himself, though, was this — were the torches meant to keep something from entering the space that hid behind

meant

there was only one way to

crazy. But in fact, it was not. He had not come into this underground chamber just because of

to study the black door was

a mere manifestation of his subconscious. It had turned out to be correct one too many

had consumed

day, he was able to sense the presence of divinity. And sometimes, he was even drawn to it — like he was drawn to this cathedral and to the mysterious key that lay buried in the body of the Lord of the Dead.

Sunny felt that he was about to find out

capable of. There were

that after he had been changed by the ichor, that Attribute was slightly enhanced, giving him the ability to sense subtle tremors that ran through the strings of fate from time to time — the strings that were,

eyes and his close relationship with those strings gave Sunny

enough to guide him to this door and make