Shadow Slave

Laying on the soft grass, Sunny felt his body grow heavier, and heavier still. The island continued to rise into the sunlit sky, and with each minute, the crushing pressure became slightly more unbearable.

The ancient forest covering its surface bent, a rain of leaves falling to the ground. The mighty trees lowered their branches, almost as if trying to touch the ground. With a loud crack, a few weaker ones broke and plunged down, showering everything around with sharp splinters.

Sunny grimaced, feeling his whole body struggle under the strain. He could still move and breathe without too much trouble, at least… for now. Soon, the island would rise high enough to make any kind of movement almost impossible.

…And if he was especially unlucky, it would continue to ascend, eventually making it hard to even inhale. Hopefully, the chains would draw taut long before that.

The skies above the Chained Isles were beautiful, but also forbidden. Nothing could survive their crushing embrace — neither humans, nor Nightmare Creatures. Nor anything else…

Well, except for one thing.

Shifting his gaze, Sunny looked straight up and found the shape of the Ivory Tower drifting high above the world, wrapped in a veil of clouds.

The Ivory Tower was the only thing that seemed to be capable of withstanding the deadly pressure of the forbidden sky. It was a tall, magnificent pagoda built out of flawlessly white material that was neither stone nor wood. The island on which it stood was very small, barely wider than the base of the tower itself, and surrounded by drifting slabs of shattered marble.

Seven broken chains hung from the soil of the island, swaying as it moved.

The Ivory Tower was visible in the sky both during the day, bathed in sunlight, and at night, glowing beautifully with the reflected radiance of the moon. No one knew what the mysterious structure was and why it remained untouched by the obliterating force that destroyed everything else that dared to rise above the Chained Isles, since no one had ever managed to withstand the ever growing Crushing to get anywhere near it.

Many even believed it to be a mirage.

'Crap…'

getting stuck had finally reached the highest point of its ascent and shook violently as the chains connecting it to other isles

bones were not breaking under the assault of the Crushing, and he

second shadow around his body, but he didn't want

Speaking of the devil…

rider chose that exact moment to speak. His

Can you breathe

gritted his teeth and struggled to speak. In the end, all he could manage was an

rough, as far as Crushing goes. If we rose by another hundred meters, though,

'...Good to know.'

was regretting that they had not climbed on the griffin and dove into the

Isles was a dangerous place, and the Nightmare Creatures

the islands were much, much worse. Sunny had seen them from afar a couple of times, and the mere memory of those

they could have fought

have been better than

'Argh…'

even think properly because of how terrible the pressure of the boundless skies was. All he could do was suffer silently and stare at the Ivory

move, reluctant to get noticed

make it scream without rest for twenty-four hours straight… let's see

then awkwardly pretended to be interested in something else and

'Yeah, that's right...'

look in that direction, but it demanded too much effort. He didn't have to worry about being attacked by