Shadow Slave

Slowly walking away from the edge of the chasm, Sunny stopped opposite Nephis and looked at her.

In his dark eyes, there was nothing but coldness.

"Well… it's not like we didn't know for a long time that this would be how things end. Did we?"

She stared at him for a while, then smiled bitterly.

"...We did."

Indeed, they knew.

From that terrible day when Sunny had first understood the meaning behind Cassie's vision, he suspected that one day, in order to survive, he would have to kill Nephis.

This was the truth he had chosen to hide from, even if it meant losing his mind. The final and most unbearable reason for why he had spent months alone in the Dark City, hunting monsters and slowly turning into one of them.

How does one come to terms with the knowledge that, one day, they will have to kill the person they care for the most?

…Knowledge, indeed, was the heaviest thing in the world.

Back at the beginning of it all, far away from the Dark City, before they had even known that the Crimson Spire existed, Cassie had shared with them a terrible vision.

She said:

"At first, I saw a… a boundless darkness locked behind seven seals. Something vast was churning in the darkness. I felt like if I directly saw it, I would lose my mind. As I watched, terrified, the seals broke one after another, until only one remained. And then that seal broke, too."

Sun had gone mad, and the curse of the all-consuming darkness had escaped the prison created for it

the black skies, and under its light, the castle was suddenly consumed by fire, with rivers of blood flowing down its halls. I saw a corpse in a golden armor sitting on a throne; a woman with a bronze spear drowning in a tide of monsters; an archer trying to pierce

drowned the halls of the Bright Castle in blood to become its ruler, and then watched

armor was Gunlaug, who had died on his white

desperate archer were Effie and Kai, who had

spire. At its base, seven severed heads were guarding seven locks. And at the top, a… a dying angel was being consumed by hungry shadows. When I

giant statues, who stared at the Star

the prophecy… it wasn't that hard

precious thing that was going to be taken from Cassie, and Sunny was the hungry

It was their fate.

of my sanity seemed

the last thing Cassie

Nephis, Sunny sighed and

that this story won't have a happy ending. That there will be only

day

up

had given him hope, no matter how small. Hope that he was

preparing for this moment for a

technique, why he trained without rest, day and night, not sparing himself from the pain and hardship. If his only skill was one that she herself had taught him, what chance did he

of the Hunter's statue and spent a night alone there, steeling himself for the inevitable future.

of this that he had refused Changing Star's offer to heal him. How could he allow her to endure the terrible pain of the white

secret plans, remaining comfortable in his role as a hired mercenary. An outsider. He had known that, no matter what, they would end up here, in this moment, forced to fight each

terrifying enemy to fight