Shadow Slave

Falling through the boundless blue skies with the wind whistling in his ears, Sunny threw his hands to the sides and summoned the Dark Wing. As the translucent Memory weaved itself from light behind his back, he shifted his weight and allowed the air resistance to push him off course, effectively turning left.

A few seconds after that, he activated the enchantment of his cloak and slowed down his fall, simultaneously turning the downward momentum into a forward push.

In these past two months, Sunny had become somewhat proficient in navigating the sky.

Cutting a smooth arc in the air, he swiftly approached one of the gargantuan chains connecting the Forest Island to another, flew above it for a few minutes, and landed nimbly on one of the massive links.

The giant chain swayed lightly beneath his feet. Somewhere behind him, it rose and merged with the soil of the island. In front of him, there was a vast expanse of empty heavens. Here on the border to the Sky Below, it was currently twilight. The chain stretched into the distance, disappearing into the darkness of the void a few hundred meters away.

As the Dark Wing turned from a blur back into a transparent cloak, Sunny sighed and walked forward. Each link of the heavenly chain was as wide as a road, so he didn't need to be afraid of falling off. Approaching the connection between two links, Sunny either jumped down or glided up to the next one.

Walking across the length of the chain that was drawn between the bottomless abyss below and the boundless sky above, he soon left the light of the sun behind and entered into the eternal darkness of the Below. Here, there was no wind and no sound, only silence. If not for the swaying of the chain, Sunny would have thought that he had entered a completely new world.

A myriad of ghostly lights were burning somewhere far below, pretending to be stars.

one was watching him, Sunny lingered for a few moments… and then dove into the iron surface of the chain. His

the Sky Below, he was in his natural element, after

darkness itself, but the chains were covered by an impenetrable veil of shadows. He could swim through them for as long as he had essence to

terrible speed, Sunny slid over the surface of the chain and flew through the darkness like a ghost. He went faster and then faster still, circling around the chain

to the next isle in mere minutes, he escaped from the shadows the moment the sunlight touched the iron chain once again and shot upward in a spin. The Dark Wing turned into a blur, pushing him even further

to its surface, landing on

fought the monstrous wolves. Instead of a forest of twisted trees, the isle was covered by jagged rocks, with an ancient ruin standing lonesomely in its center. Sunny had explored the massive structure already, and wasn't interested in

from one shadow to another, he avoided the Nightmare Creatures populating the island

only needed to cross two more isles to reach the Sanctuary. However, one of those isles was home to a dreadful and

looked at the sun, and then jumped off the edge

he traveled from one island to another for a few hours. When possible, Sunny turned into a shadow and rushed along

while another hid a clear, tranquil lake. A few were covered by ash and flames, while several

was one thing that united all of them,

home to swarms of monstrous, gluttonous ants. The grass covered the maws of giant abominations that hid beneath, waiting for prey to step into their trap. The vegetation was predatory and deadly if one wasn't careful to not get too close. The beautiful white flowers could put a person

were well explored, and anything dangerous enough to pose threat to the Citadel had long been destroyed by Saint Tyris herself. Sunny had been to these islands already,