Shadow Slave

Sunny remained silent for as long as he could, until, finally, the Flaw forced him to give an answer.

He looked grimly at Noctis, and then said — or rather, thought — hoarsely:

"...Maybe he just wanted to see you suffer."

Noctis laughed brightly, then nodded.

"Oh, indeed! Maybe you are right. Gods can be very cruel, sometimes. After all, they are much more ancient and vast than kindness and compassion. Or, maybe, it is not really our lives that keep the Demon bound, but instead our will and desire to keep her imprisoned. Or maybe it is a test of our conviction… that is what the Sun Lord believes, at least. Or maybe… maybe he actually hoped that we would free her. Who knows?"

He smiled, then sighed, and finally added:

"...If mortals like us could know the will of gods, then we'd be gods instead."

After that, a somber silence settled over the deck of the flying ship.

Sunny stared at the delicious food in front of him, realizing that he had lost all his appetite.

Hope… the Demon of Desire…

How terrifying she was.

Slowly, several things that had seemed random and meaningless fell into place.

The jubilant crowd in the bloodsoaked Red Colosseum, the perverse conviction of beautiful Solvane, the harrowing torture of the Sun Prince, the madness that burned in the eyes of the black steed… all of it was the result of her harrowing power.

her prison, and drove a whole realm utterly insane, turning it into a ghastly, hideous, demented hell. Every aspiration,

Saints. Those who were closed and those

what was her own hope? What was

Well, that was easy…

wanted to be

wanted to be free,

And from the looks of it, her curse was working all too well. Solvane was seeking out death, the two Transcendents of the Ivory City seemed to be on the verge of fratricide, and

from the little bits of what the sorcerer had

sight of the time running in reverse that he had witnessed at the very start of the Nightmare. The Ivory Tower had descended from the sky, and the burned wasteland around it had turned into a

City would be burned to the ground, and Hope's prison would then break off its seven chains and

the Crushing would be

cold, dire feeling grasped

'Oh, no…'

to a harrowing realization. His eyes widened, and he

Cassie, Effie, Kai, and Mordret — had to resolve to conquer the Nightmare.

five of them were pitted against the

barely audible groan escaped from his

is this possible… what happened to the Spell always being fair?

gratitude she expressed… had Solvane really

if one of the Chain Lords was killed, and doomed all of the remaining immortals, including herself, to a fate worse than death — to a slow and inevitable descent into madness, followed

had indeed been the bravest of them all… and also

admirable, depending on how one looked at

didn't

and channeled a somber

that he