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."

what he told them. Then, she lingered for a

share everything we learned about the Nightmare while we were apart. The more information we

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

I will begin,

really were. And who could blame them?

for a few moments, and then

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 Transcendent

bloody war against Solvane's cult. To soldiers of the Ivory City, her name must have been

Sunny's face grew dark.

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

a

in that purgatory. Of course, I would have succumbed to my wounds very fast if it wasn't for my partner, a captive young man from the Ivory City… 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 week. Still, our days were numbered,

the terrible scar on his

to trick our Ascended jailer into chopping my head off. Free of

taking a sip of tea, spat

"...What?!"

the process of choking on a pastry. Her eyes,

Sunny chuckled.

killed her once. She had been serving as the host body for a Corrupted Monster the Fire Keepers and I had slain in the Dream Realm to capture the wreck of Noctis's flying ship. That was where I received an enchanted armor that allows its wearer to stay alive for as long as they

to swallow her pastry and glanced

me he's lying,

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

"Crazy bastard… he's crazy!"

Sunny shrugged nonchalantly.

even the craziest part. Anyway, Elyas and I almost managed to escape the Red

black