Shadow Slave

He hesitated for a few moments, not sure how to answer. As seconds passed by, the silence between them grew tense, full of untold meaning.

Finally, Nephis blinked and looked away, staring at the corpse of the Crimson Terror. Her sword hand trembling slightly.

"...Killed it? Yes… I did. Got lucky, I guess…"

After a while, she added in a quiet voice:

"It was just a fake star, in the end."

Sunny smiled slightly, but his eyes remained cold.

"Lucky… I know a thing or two about being lucky, Neph. A creature like this would not have died just because of bad luck."

She remained silent for a bit, then sighed and looked down.

"It was evolving… trying to become a titan. The burden of transformation made it vulnerable. I just happened to attack while the Terror was at its weakest. That's why it died…"

'Evolving… into a titan?'

Noticing a surprised expression on his face, Changing Star grimaced and pointed to the artificial sun.

"Have you not thought about what we have done?"

Sunny looked up, at the radiant sphere of light, and frowned.

In all the chaos, he had indeed forgotten to consider the full scale of what had transpired after the battle, as well as the reasons for and consequences of it.

Come to think of it… why would the light of the artificial sun destroy the souls of every living creature it touched? It had not been like this before the fall of the ancient civilization, for many generations, at least.

But then, the Vessel had become corrupted and turned into a Nightmare Creature. The Terror. And at the same time, the seals imprisoning the curse of the all-consuming darkness had been destroyed, letting it free.

…So, in fact, the corrupted sun had never existed without the dark sea keeping it company.

Until today.

Sunny had always thought that the sun was restraining the dark sea. Could it be… that it had always been restrained by the darkness, as well?

And when he banished the ancient curse and locked it underground… the sun was finally liberated from its shackles. That's why its light suddenly changed, turning into the annihilating white radiance.

It had become free to do whatever it wanted.

But there was something else…

his eyes

reaches everywhere. So… as we were fighting our way through the tower… most of the living creatures on the Forgotten Shore had been wiped out. All that death, all those countless souls… guided into the Spire by the Labyrinth, like a colossal hecatomb, to fuel the evolution

a coincidence, most likely. Sunny had not forgotten the thoughtful look on her face as Neph had peered

Nightmare Creatures must have survived… those who were lucky enough to hide from the deadly sunlight in time, or were powerful enough to resist

push the Crimson Terror to the next step of its evolution… devolution? Whatever it was that happened to Nightmare Creatures as they grew more powerful. Not that Sunny knew anything about this matters — but if anything could cause something like that, then the evisceration of an entire region of the Dream

dead, and its corrupting influence was gone,

couldn't be that

shuddered again. Another slab of stone broke off from the floor of the chamber and

noticed that the artificial sun looked not as bright as it had just

no vessel to channel soul

Nephis suddenly spoke, her voice hoarse and

to

shifted and looked down through the chasm

the vast balcony and the shimmering ring of the Gateway on it. Somehow, its shine seemed… weaker. The balcony, however, was empty. There were no humans there, and

"Everyone has escaped."

as if with relief. After a

"What about Caster?"

shrugged. When he spoke,

"...I killed him."

a long time. Then, she

"So that's why…"

a bitter laugh escaped

raised her hands and pressed them against her face, as if overwhelmed by some deep, dark emotion. After a few seconds, her muffled

shouldn't have killed

Sunny snarled.

"Yeah? Why, exactly?"

slowly lowered her hands and

you checked

and looked at

did. There's a new one there. Soul

Star stared into the distance and

"Yeah. Same for me."

his eyebrow and asked,

what it

a while, and then turned her head

you not figured

He shrugged.

was a bit preoccupied. Why? What is

at the walls of the

to collect soul essence and funnel it into the artificial sun. However… it can't function without one small, but crucial gear. A human to serve as the fulcrum of all that power, the conduit for all

then, in a much quieter voice, she