Shadow Slave

The Sin of Solace

These words were clearly a part of the ghostly spellweave of the Estuary Key. Sunny stared at them intently, feeling a strange mix of confusion, curiosity... and dread.

What the hell was the meaning of this?

Shifting slightly, he looked at the sword wraith. The apparition stood in the shadows, wearing a bored and resentful expression. Sunny had grown so accustomed to the company of the Sin of Solace - first in the form of a disembodied voice, then of a vague figure, and finally of a perfect reflection of himself - that he rarely paid it much attention these days.

But the sword wraith was not at all benevolent or harmless. In fact, he was a sinister and insidious being, spawned from the whisper of a fearsome daemon and meant to drive the wielder of the sword mad.

The fact that Sunny still had his sanity intact... or rather, somewhat intact... was only due to his extraordinary mental resilience and resistance to mind attacks. Most humans would have already been turned into raving lunatics by the jade jian.

Sunny, though? Apart from looking like a madman from time to time due to an outwardly strange habit of talking to himself, he only found the presence of the Sin of Solace frustrating, nothing more.

'...Is there more to this damned curse?'

He knew that the apparition would never give an honest answer, but nevertheless asked:

"There's no reason your name would be etched into the weave of the Estuary Key, is there?"

The sword wraith gave him a disdainful look.

"I don't know. Maybe there is... you're the great sorcerer, so you tell me."

Sunny took a deep breath.

"You are keeping a lot of secrets these days, huh? Makes me wonder if I should just feed you to Nightmare. Better safe than sorry, that is what they say."

The Sin of Solace laughed.

not? You're going to die in this Nightmare, anyway. In fact, I encourage you to destroy me! Oh... do you think

He grinned.

Are you sure that destroying the sword will get rid of me? It might, it might... but then again, maybe it won't. Maybe the damage to your mind has already been

Sunny gritted his teeth.

Solace, and neither was he certain that doing so would banish the apparition. They were truly

get any information out

the Sin of Solace. One was to find the great sorcerer who had created the ominous Memory. The

with a somber

Sin of Solace

He suddenly felt cold.

that he had somehow come into possession of a Supreme Memory, Sunny made several theories about how it could have ended up in his Soul Sea. One of them was that the Soul Serpent had slain a

was Sunny himself who had created the Estuary Key far in the future

and knew that the name of the Sin of Solace was etched into the weave of the unexplainable Memory, a chilling suspicion was

slowly

Mad Prince. He must be the one who created the Estuary

these words made

to discard. Sunny had suspected that the mysterious Memory had been created by a future version of himself. He also suspected that the Mad Prince was

the future version of himself who had

ghostly strings of shadow essence, the unexplainable nature of the Key... and the

The answer is oblivion.

had to

who could create threads out of shadow

certain of

what exactly

really created the Estuary

things easier for the cohort. One adversary was already gone, after all. And it didn't even have to be just

other members had been sent directly to the heart of the Defilement, the city of Verge. The Mad Prince was the only one of the