Shadow Slave

Sunny woke up from a nightmare where he was a shadow that had lost the will to live, who woke up from a nightmare where he was a prince being drowned in a fiery tomb of molten steel, who woke up from a nightmare where he was an old man dying as he held the body of his murdered mother, who woke up from a nightmare where he was a mortal watching his world being destroyed by a god.

Soon enough, Sunny found himself tied to a stake, with fire spreading through the pile of tinder beneath his bare feet as a crowd of people whom he had considered friends and neighbors watched with demented glee. All he could do was struggle desperately against his bonds and pray that the smoke would smother him before the flames reached his flesh…

But his prayers were not answered.

Screaming from inside the fire, he died.

…It was time to face a new day.

Sunny fought desperately as sharp fangs tore his flesh apart, as he was being eaten alive. But no matter how much he struggled, it was of no use. The monster was just too strong, and mad, and cruel.

And then, he died.

It was time to face a new day again.

Sunny drowned, a heavy chain tied around his legs.

Sunny bled to death on a battlefield, suffering from terrible thirst and too weak to move, hungry crows tearing at his face with sharp beaks.

Sunny watched his entire family be executed before being hanged from the walls of a somber fortress.

Thrown into the boundless darkness of the Sky Below by his heartless mother, Sunny died of hunger, thirst, and fear, too tired to scream or cry.

Sunny was killed and turned into a wooden doll by a vengeful sorcerer, and then killed again after an eternity of silent servitude, the doll burning to ashes as it fell into an ocean of white flames.

His heart was pierced with an obsidian knife on an altar made of pure darkness.

His body was cleaved apart by the blade of a giant warrior in a red tattered robe while the jubilant crowd cheered from the stone seats of an ancient theater.

…It was time to face a new day again.

The nightmares never ended, bleeding into one another. Each time, Sunny woke up sure that the agony he had experienced was just a harrowing dream. But very soon, his waking life would turn into pure horror itself.

And then, he would die.

And then, it would be time to face a new day again.

of being mighty and weak, young and old, men and women, humans and beasts. Their end was always the same. Everywhere he went,

It was as though everyone he met was infected

world

he was slowly going mad,

he found that waking up was getting harder and harder. Sometimes, he failed to differentiate which of his lives was real, and which ones he had just dreamt of. Even though the horrors he had experienced seemed like a nightmare, their weight accumulated, slowly breaking his spirit apart. His faces changed, his memories changed, but

The terror.

chilling terror of waking up from a nightmare only to be thrust into

in his chest, and the spheres of light that he saw from time to time burning inside someone's

Consumed by terror, he watched as a brilliant colossus made of lustrous steel stepped forward, making the

the iron giant took

replaced by a vast expanse of polished metal. The colossus brought his

Sunny died…

woke up with

time to face

was

steel giant advancing toward the trembling row of

and called by another

he didn't really

long as Sunny was alive, and as long as his father was alive, and

of the Kingdom of Hope, people didn't have to worry about the madness of the followers of War, and the misguided righteousness of the followers

they had their own

the nightmare, Sunny massaged his aching chest and rose. Today, his lady was going to meet with the emissaries of the Night Temple. It was a high honor, but also not without risk. As a knight tasked with protecting her, Sunny had to be

my heart so much

reached for his

***

"No!"

in a beautiful silk dress that was passed down to her from her mother, and for that reason a little bit too long for

the very edge of the island. Now,

them, steel hooves were already ringing on the stones, growing closer

abyss,

what… what should

and pale, not yet touched by the sharpness of maturity. Her eyes, usually

hesitated, then drew his sword and turned

afraid, my lady. I'm with

said those empty words, knowing full well that it was a lie. He was just one man… he was not