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."

stared at her with

"...It speaks. How bizarre."

slowly inhaled, then said

She is the friend I

sorcerer's polite smile remained glued to his face. He stared

uh… one of your friends is a cripple you randomly stumbled upon in my

Sunny nodded grimly.

his chin, and

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

teeth and then hissed

them! Are you sure that you really want to know the truth about me

a

"Well, of course…"

a few

and I are not actually a demon, a cripple, and 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 are not real, too.

looked at him with wide eyes. Then, he sighed, shook his head, and uttered in a

to mock me. If you don't want to tell me, you don't have

lips

of a new friend, you must have successfully infiltrated the Temple of the Chalice, found her, retrieved the Glass Knife,

flinched, then cleared his throat and remained silent for a

well, actually… not exactly. We did retrieve Effie and the knife,

at him with

"But what?"

Sunny coughed.

chalice and

at him in

"...You did what?!"

sighed, and then strained his vocal cords to

were left with no other choice. The Maidens were willing to give us a chance to earn the right to take the Glass

with wide eyes, his face turning

you mean, you killed all the Maidens?! How did you manage to kill them?! What about their Transcendent

of them looked at each other with confusion. Then,

the last Transcendent of the Red Sect, died like two hundred years ago.

a couple

really? Huh. So she just went and died?

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

There was no chance that the immortal would not have known whether or not there were Transcendents living in his territory. Which

a step forward and