Shadow Slave

Sunny slept for a long time, the exhaustion slowly leaving his battered body. After a while, though, his consciousness rose from the deepest layers of slumber, summoned back by pain and thirst. With a sigh, he turned to his other side and tried to go back to sleep. After a few more hours of tossing and turning, though, Sunny was finally awoken by the loud sound of something crashing to the floor.

'...What is Saint doing?'

He reluctantly opened his eyes and sat up.

As Sunny's weight shifted, the bed beneath him suddenly broke with a loud crack. He rolled onto the floor with a startled yelp.

"Huh?!"

Standing up, Sunny looked at the broken bed, then at the hall of the Obsidian Tower, which was now submerged in darkness. A bewildered expression appeared on his face.

The room he had entered before had gone through a dramatic transformation while he was asleep. The magical lanterns were now extinguished, and everything inside seemed dilapidated and decrepit, almost on the verge of crumbling to pieces.

The magnificent tools and implements had rusted through and deformed, the worktable had collapsed under its own weight — that was the sound which had awoken Sunny — the food he had enjoyed yesterday had turned to dust. The pristine condition of the hall was gone, and now it was full of darkness, debris, and dirt.

It was as though eons had passed since he fell asleep.

A cold feeling appeared in his chest.

'...Have I slept for a thousand years?!'

Remembering fairy tales where similar things often happened, Sunny felt a hint of horror, but then thought about it for a few moments and calmed down.

No, he had not… judging by how much shadow essence had accumulated in his cores, he slept for about twenty-four hours straight, which was a lot, but nowhere near a thousand years. Saint, who was keeping watch nearby, also didn't look as if she had been guarding him for a few centuries.

Instead, it was the pagoda itself that had aged. As if an invisible seal that had kept it untouched by the passage of time for all those thousands of years was now broken, and time was finally catching up with it.

was the most relentless

sighed with relief,

should have eaten more yesterday…

delicious

his head dejectedly, Sunny looked around, then accessed

already much better than they had been the day before. The burns were still rather painful, but within his capacity to endure without being slowed down in battle… too much. A couple more days of rest,

was really hungry,

going to

Moonlight Shard, Sunny gave Saint a command to follow,

***

level of the ancient pagoda. Some of the doors in the outer corridor had collapsed

were empty, suggesting that the master of the tower had moved away a long time ago, taking all the valuable things with him, while some contained weathered debris and dust. Sunny spent a lot

'...Such a shame.'

the thing that had pulled him toward this place, as well as — hopefully

being stuck on this island forever did not

now that there was

first level, Sunny decided to

the Obsidian Tower had six levels, which really surprised Sunny. He had expected there to be seven. However, after finding two stairwells — one stair leading up, the other down — he realized

and the Dream Realm had a tendency to be tied to the number seven… except the gods, of whom there

that's why they are called gods… no law can bind them. Not even

up, then looked down, and decided to explore the underground

ahead, he entered the spiraling staircase and descended into the depths of

level, the basement of the Obsidian

And in it…

Sunny recoiled.