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."

mad, and the curse of the

Only this time, it was at night. There was a lonely star burning in 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

who had drowned the halls of the Bright Castle in blood to

golden armor was Gunlaug, who had died

were Effie and Kai, who had almost perished fighting against the nightmare horde during the

guarding seven locks. And at the top, a… a dying angel was being consumed by hungry shadows. When I saw the angel bleed, I suddenly felt as though… as though something so precious that it can't be described with words was

severed heads guarding seven locks were the heads of the giant statues, who stared at

of the prophecy… it wasn't

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

It was their fate.

little remained of my

last thing Cassie

Nephis, Sunny

ending. That there will be

were the words he said on the day Neph had asked him

up as

was the word that had given him hope, no matter how small.

hope, Sunny had been preparing for this moment for a

without rest, day

had climbed to the highest point of the Hunter's statue and spent a night alone there, steeling himself for the inevitable future. Forcing himself to accept the terrible truth that,

had refused Changing Star's offer to heal him. How could he allow her to endure the terrible pain of the white flames, knowing that she would be suffering for the sake of her future

as a hired mercenary. An outsider. He had known that, no matter what, they would end up here, in this moment, forced

a terrifying enemy to fight against. He knew it better