Shadow Slave

Sunny dreamt of boundless blue skies.

Beneath them, a patchwork of islands floated in the air, laid on the backdrop of velvety darkness like a beautiful mosaic. Some islands were verdant and green, some were desolate and empty, and some were covered by ancient ruins, the weathered stones overgrown by moss.

All of them were bound by colossal iron chains that rattled loudly as the islands rose and fell, hovering above the abyss, a scattering of pale stars shining somewhere far, far below them. In the center of the mosaic, an ugly wound gaped, a vast tear in space where nothing but emptiness remained.

A lone island soared above that tear, seven torn chains hanging from its slopes, a beautiful white pagoda standing on its surface in a mantle of clouds.

Suddenly, the sun rolled backward, soon disappearing behind the eastern horizon. The skies darkened, and then were illuminated again as a radiant moon streaked across them, swift enough to turn into a blurry trail of light. A moment later, it was day again, and then, it was night once more.

The skies grew torn between light and darkness, time flowing in reverse with terrible speed. Sunny watched as the islands beneath him slowly changed their shapes, as ruins rose from the ground and assembled into unwavering structures, as the stars burning in the abyss grew brighter and brighter, new ones igniting each moment, until the whole void was suffused with a furious white light.

One after another, fallen islands rose from that annihilating light, the chains that had tethered them to the rest of the mosaic repairing themselves. Soon, the tear in its center was no more, and instead, a vast ashen wasteland of scorched isles appeared in its place. The Ivory Tower descended from high above, taking its place at the very heart of the wasteland.

An instant later, the ashes were no more, revealing a breathtaking aerial city that sprawled across dozens of islands, all of them connected to each other by arching bridges and overflowing aqueducts built out of pristine white stone, with vibrant flags fluttering in the wind and sparkling waterfalls flowing into the abyss below.

Slowly, Sunny's gaze was pulled west, toward the very edge of the Chained Isles. There, one of the Great Chains anchored them to the lands beyond, and a mighty fortress stood at the precipice, similar to the other border strongholds he had seen before. The island next to it resembled a vast stone bowl, with rows of seats cut into its weathered white slopes and a circular arena laying at its bottom, painted dull red.

And even further than that was an island with a strange river that flowed endlessly through it, forming a circle around an ancient statue of a beautiful woman wielding a spear in one hand, and gripping a beating human heart in the other, her nakedness covered only by a beast hide tied around her thighs, her face lost in the shadows.

That was the island where Sunny found himself.

...And of course, he was thrown straight into the damn river.

'G—goddammit! Why does this keep happening to me?!'

Sunny was so angry that he didn't even feel any panic, unlike the previous two times the Spell had decided to give him a cold and wet welcome — first on the Forgotten Shore, then at the Sanctuary of Noctis.

This time, at least, he had an idea of where he was, and in which direction to swim if he wanted to reach the surface.

Sunny strained his muscles to struggle against the strong current…

And finally realized that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

to, and instead of swimming, he simply

'W—what the hell?!'

starting to panic

he had experienced in the First Nightmare. Back then, the body given to him by the Spell had felt almost the same as his own… this time, however, it was

what Master Jet had warned him

ashore, but moving through water, especially with such a strong current, was not an easy task. It required a lot of coordination and a fair bit of balance, which he simply lacked right now. No

deeper into the

were already starting to burn from the lack of oxygen… they also felt as weird as the

stopped struggling, letting the current pull him down. Then, he concentrated on his shadow sense… and, as soon as his body struck the rocky bottom of the river, stepped

tried to suck in a breath of fresh air, only to find out that even that was a struggle. His lungs were refusing to work as they were

is going on… damn

all of his senses to

Thinking will only make things worse. This thing has

his instincts did, indeed, take over. It was like the story of a centipede that was asked how it walked, and fell down,

of sweet air, and he

'Oh, thank gods…'

for a few moments, breathing deeply, and then tried to understand what type of a vessel,

he could, however, a beautiful voice suddenly sounded above him, full of

strange thing

and struggled to rise to his feet, turning his head

he did,

perhaps the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had soft skin and a delicate, exquisite face, her chestnut hair streaming down her shoulders like lustrous silk.

of this stranger. Just one look at her made his heart race, and

And, maybe, she was.

though the blades of grass bent slightly to be closer to her, the rays of sunshine changed their path to caress her skin. As if

something about her

his mouth, stunned,

"Uh… greetings?"

what came out of his mouth

'What the…'