Shadow Slave

The three of them entered the Sanctuary, crossed the beautiful garden, and entered the sorcerer's residence through a familiar wooden door, Effie still sitting on Sunny's shoulders with a curious expression on her childish face.

The rooms within, however, had changed since the last time Sunny had seen them.

The luxurious furniture was gone, as well as beautiful decorations covering the walls. Instead, all that met them was barren stone, with a few broken Sailor Dolls laying on it, their limbs disassembled and laid out around the bodies like macabre pieces of art.

The floor of the whole central chamber was covered by a circle made out of a myriad of runes, powerful currents of soul essence flowing through it and dissipating into the ancient stones. Noctis was sitting in the center of the circle, his eyes closed. Without the familiar carefree smile, his beautiful face seemed ominous and strangely terrifying.

Hearing their footsteps, the sorcerer slowly exhaled. The crushing flood of essence slowly thinned, and then dissipated, retreating back into his body. He turned his head slightly and opened his eyes, which shone in the darkness for a moment, as though full of pale moonlight.

Then, they slowly turned human again, and Noctis smiled, returning to his usual laidback persona so suddenly that it seemed almost disturbing.

"Ah, Sunless, my friend! You are back! Sit down, have a drink… welcome!"

He stood up and outstretched a hand, as if trying to gesture at a set of comfortable seats. Then, a surprised expression appeared on the Transcendent's face, and he looked around the empty hall with a bit of confusion.

"Oh, right… I've been remodelling…"

Noctis sighed, then clapped his hands together.

"Well, no matter. Dolls! Bring my guests something to drink! They must be parched after their journey!"

His voice echoed around the residence… however, nothing happened.

He hesitated, then glanced at the broken mannequins lying on the floor and awkwardly shifted his feet.

"Ah. How unfortunate."

The sorcerer shook his head, then shrugged and looked at the three of them with a smile:

"Anyway... welcome!"

He tilted his head and stared at Effie, then blinked a couple of times.

"Ah, you have brought a ch—child with you. How curious. It doesn't bite, does it?"

Suny frowned, but before he could speak, Effie blurted with feigned outrage:

"I am not a child! I am twelve! Uh, almost."

at her with

"...It speaks. How bizarre."

slowly inhaled, then said

She is the friend I have

his face. He stared at Effie some

of your friends is a cripple you randomly stumbled upon in my Sanctuary, and the other one is

Sunny nodded grimly.

his chin, and then cautiously

you did not just invent having friends? To make me value our own beautiful friendship more, perhaps? If so, let me assure you! I value it a great deal already! There's no need for you to feel insecure just because you are not as

teeth and then

invent them! Are you sure that you really want

raised his eyebrows with a sincere

"Well, of course…"

stared at him for a

a small child. We are humans from a distant future whose souls were sent here by a nearly all-mighty entity known as the Nightmare Spell, after the gods had died and this whole world had been destroyed. Oh, and this place? It is not real! You

sorcerer looked at him with wide eyes. Then, he sighed, shook his

stupid lies to mock me.

pursed his lips and turned

it all went well, then? Since you are in the company of a new friend, you must have successfully

flinched, then cleared his throat and remained silent for a couple of seconds. Finally, he said in

not exactly. We did retrieve Effie and the knife,

looked at him with

"But what?"

Sunny coughed.

sort of… destroyed the chalice and killed

stared at him in

"...You did what?!"

strained his vocal cords to

no other choice. The Maidens were willing to give us a chance to earn the right to take the Glass Knife away,

them with wide eyes, his face turning deathly pale. He swayed a little,

manage to kill them?! What about their Transcendent sect leader… did you

other

the Red Sect, died like two hundred years ago. There were

blinked a couple of

really? Huh. So she just went and

Did that fool... did he really forget that real people had a habit of dying from time to time, unlike

himself. No, that was not right. Noctis was no fool, he just enjoyed playing one. There was no chance that the immortal would not have known whether or not there were Transcendents living in his territory. Which could only mean one

a step forward