Shadow Slave

As Sunny walked in circles, drawing near to the center of the mosaic, he saw the depiction of various deeds that the Starlight Legion had achieved.

The warriors led by the seven heroes were truly a fearsome force. Forged and tempered by the relentless malice of their dark world and the unassailable will of their leaders, they drowned the Forgotten Shore in the blood of the cursed creatures.

Even though many of them had turned into monsters themselves — especially those who had allowed themselves to falter in their conviction — the rest continued on, unbroken.

Sunny couldn't tell how powerful exactly the members of the legion were, but from some clues of their battles, he guessed that they were at approximately the same level as the Awakened of his own world, at least at the beginning. With time, however, it seemed as though the warriors of the cursed land had grown much stronger.

If most of the creatures they were fighting were of the Corrupted rank, then that would put the Legion far above the humans back in the real world. Sunny wasn't sure if the seven heroes and their soldiers were carriers of the Nightmare Spell, though, and if the same hierarchy of power could be applied to them.

Eventually, the surviving humans migrated to the shore of the colossal impact crater and built an impregnable wall around their new city. This endeavor alone was so arduous and ambitious that he couldn't help but feel a sense of awe.

Sunny slowed his steps.

On the images in front of him, the construction of the Crimson Spire… no, it wasn't crimson yet back then… had begun. The cyclopean tower was built west of the city, reaching high into the sky like an axis of the world.

Like a stairwell that was designed to allow humans to touch the heavens.

This was what he was truly interested in. Sunny wanted to know what happened in the Spire, how the artificial sun was created, and how the darkness that consumed this land was turned into a transient black sea.

What he saw next made him falter, and then close his eyes with an expression of deep, exhausted resentment.

of the Forgotten

and the civilians from the city, men and women,

held a weapon

what

grasped his heart. Sunny didn't even know why he felt this way. It was not like he knew anything about the seven heroes, really. But at some point, maybe because he needed to believe that

...What a foolish thought.

of all people should have known

"Curse you all."

tall hills made of dead bodies surrounded the Spire. Tens of thousands of people had been slaughtered, their blood flowing like rivers toward the dark tower. On top

slaughterers turned their weapons on

knew, a tiny

Sunny grimaced in disgust.

is how you decided to bring back the light? You sick

of glowing crimson light moved above them and entered it from seven directions. These streams represented the soul essence of numerous humans

theirs wasn't the most terrible

the center of the Spire, a lone human figure was drawn, convulsing in harrowing agony as the raging storm of soul energy entered her body. The conflux of all that power, the sacrificial vessel meant to be its

recognized that figure, too. To him, the features

was the same face as that of the nameless goddess whose statue stood in

pure and white. It rose to

darkness retreated underground, where it was locked behind seven seals that were