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.

then dove into the iron surface of the chain. His body turned into an incorporeal shadow and merged

Below, he was

of shadows. He could swim through them for as long as he had essence to spare, safe from the terrible creatures that lived on the dark

through the darkness like a ghost. He went faster and then faster still, circling

shadows the moment the sunlight touched the iron chain once again and

soared above the floating island and then glided smoothly to its surface, landing on solid ground with a light

one where he had 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

avoided the Nightmare Creatures

one of those isles was home to a dreadful and utterly terrifying Corrupted Monster, so he was going to have to make a

and then jumped off the

into a shadow and rushed along the lengths of heavenly

was full of beautiful white flowers, while another hid a clear, tranquil lake. A few were covered by ash and flames, while

there was one thing that united all of them, it was that each was

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

safer side, as far as the Chained Isles went. Due to their proximity to the Sanctuary, they 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,