Shadow Slave

Soon, the four of them were gathered in Sunny's room. There was plenty of food on the table, and a kettle of fragrant tea. They had a peaceful meal, avoiding discussing anything important… but soon, it was time to have a serious discussion.

None of the four seemed too excited about the idea, perhaps because doing so would mean revisiting their experiences in the Nightmare and opening up wounds that had barely any time to heal. There were a lot of invisible scars each of them was hiding... none of the four had survived these three months unscathed.

Effie looked at her empty plate for a few moments, and then sighed.

"Can't we just have a few days off before getting to work? The world won't collapse if we take a small vacation… uh, I think…"

Sunny glanced at his friends — the bruised girl, the cripple with a disfigured face, and a beautiful young woman whose empty eye sockets were covered by a black cloth — and slowly shook his head.

"If we do, Noctis might grow… impatient. I promised to give him an answer after I find my friends. He has already been gracious enough to abstain from killing me, putting my soul into a doll... or a mop... and ordering it to give him the knives. So, we better not linger."

Cassie turned her head slightly and asked, her deep, pleasant voice still sounding strange and unfamiliar:

"An answer? To what question?"

Sunny grimaced, then looked away.

"...Right. All of you must have already understood what the conflict of this Nightmare is. Hope, the Demon of Desire… Noctis is preparing to rebel against the will of the gods, kill the other immortals, and break her chains. And we have to either help him achieve his goal, or somehow prevent Hope from escaping. The former seems insane, but the latter… the latter seems impossible, considering that she is already able to influence the world from inside her prison."

He shivered, grew silent for a few moments, and then added:

"Each of the immortals represents — or rather, embodies — one of Hope's eternal shackles. They can only be destroyed by one of the Sun God's knives. I am in possession of two of the remaining four knives, Noctis knows where the third is being kept, and the fourth one is in the hands of Solvane, who will freely offer it to anyone who can grant her a worthy death. So… while his plan means going to war against three ancient Saints, it is not entirely crazy. Just… mostly so."

Sunny sighed, poured himself some tea, and concluded:

"So, we need to decide whether we want to help him in this craziness, or not."

by what he told them. Then, she

about the Nightmare while we were apart. The more information we possess, the better

what he wanted to do, as well. He studied the faces of his

that case… I will begin,

and Cassie turned to him, trying not to show how curious they really were. And who could blame them? Out of

a few moments, and

you might have noticed, the Spell sent me into the body of a demon… a shadow demon, to be precise. I found myself far to the west, in the territory of the followers of War. Even worse, just seconds after coming to my senses, I stumbled upon a beautiful woman wearing red. That woman… was Solvane, the

a bloody war against Solvane's cult. To soldiers

Sunny's face grew dark.

ancient theater built by Hope, which the Warmongers had turned into a perverse temple of slaughter. There were thousands of Nightmare Creatures locked in its dungeons, as well as a few unlucky humans. Every day, we were forced to kill each other. Those who survived received the dubious honor of

a while, and then

Elyas. His healing Aspect kept me alive, and I kept him alive in the arena. Together, we endured the slaughter, day after day, week after

terrible scar on his neck and

head off. Free of

taking a sip of tea, spat it

"...What?!"

process of choking on a pastry. Her eyes, however, were similarly wide. Even

Sunny chuckled.

Noctis's flying ship. That was where I received an enchanted armor

managed to swallow her pastry

tell me he's

blinked a couple of times, then solemnly shook his head. The little girl swore, then

"Crazy bastard… he's crazy!"

Sunny shrugged nonchalantly.

That wasn't even the craziest part. Anyway, Elyas and I almost managed to escape the Red Colosseum,

disappeared from his face, and his black eyes flashed with cold hatred for