Shadow Slave

The great hall of the Ivory Tower made Sunny shiver, just like the last time he had seen it. It was bathed in bright sunlight that poured through tall and narrow windows. A circle of chains lay in the middle of the hall that was the Gateway.

There was no one here, but Effie pulled Sunny to a staircase that led to the underground level of the tower. Its roots were deep, seemingly reaching into the very heart of the island. That stairwell spiraled along the outer wall of the pagoda, and there was a tapestry of beautiful carvings on the ivory stone. The carvings told the stories of the golden age of the Kingdom of Hope, long before it had been destroyed by the Lord of Light.

'Wait... I don't think there was a way down before? Was it hidden?'

Confused, Sunny silently followed Effie.

Eventually, the two of them reached a vast circular chamber at the bottom of the stairwell. Sunny had never been here before, but expected it to be similar to the lowest level of the Ebony Tower... and indeed, it was. However, it was also entirely different.

The duplicate tower created by Nether was full of darkness, and there was a ghastly mountain of discarded mannequins occupying the center of its underground level. This chamber, however, was suffused with light- There was a vast and inconceivably complicated runic circle carved into the floor of the chamber, and within it...

Sunny stared, not even noticing the two people studying the circle. His body shivered slightly.

"...Is that?"

Floating in the air at the center of the chamber was a rough, radiant crystal. It was larger than Sunny, and gave him a feeling of sublime, awesome, indescribable power. The crystal was like a miniature sun, flooding the underground hall with soft light. Reality itself seemed to ripple and shine around it.

It was like nothing Sunny had ever seen.

A familiar voice answered, pulling him out of his astonishment:

"Yes. From what we can tell... this is a Divine soul shard."

Sunny slowly turned his head and looked at Cassie, who was sitting in front of the runic circle, surrounded by notebooks, etchings, and writing implements. lіghtnоvеlсаvе.c͏o͏m. She was wearing simple jeans and a white t-shirt, her pale gold hair gathered in a messy knot bun.

Sunny lingered for a moment, not knowing what to say-

"A Divine..."

a

"Sunny!"

runic circle, near the tall ceiling

'Oh, no...'

Sunny could react, he was

You had

embrace and met his friend's

person. I only died once in the

stared at

explain to me

stood up, sighed, and massaged her knees. Then, she

glad that you are back too,

she took a few steps back and gestured

look at

white stone. The weave of runes was vast,

that

tilted his head a little. The runes... were very similar in style and shape to those of the Red Colosseum. Just looking at them reminded him of the harrowing months he had spent in the cage below the

'Hope's sorcery?' Cassie nodded.

left, and eventually unlocked the

Cassie shook her head.

than we thought. Well... Nephis will probably be able to explain it better. In any case, we quickly realized that these runes resembled the ones you had encountered in the ancient theater, so the Fire Keepers went on an expedition to the western edges of the Chained Isles. The Red Colosseum has long turned

'A ruin? Good...'

Kai nodded.

been helping her study the runic circle from time to time... a high vantage point helps see it in its entirety, and so on. We've made a little progress, even! Mostly because Cassie had spent a lot of time with Noctis and learned

She nodded.

of Desire's creations. There are many similarities. So, after months of study and comparisons, we managed to decipher a tiny portion of the circle. It is not much, but it did allow

just stared at her silently for a few

Then, he said: