Shadow Slave

As they moved deeper and deeper into the flooded temple, Sunny couldn't help but think about the eerie story told by the ancient murals. It seemed as though he had learned something important…

But, of course, there were a dozen questions for every answer he had received. Like always.

'Divine, unholy…'

Knowing that the very fabric of the world was like a cage for the abyssal void that dwelled beneath made him feel uneasy — understandably so. However, Sunny did not dwell on that fact for too long. There was no point, anyway. Matters like these were too distant and inconceivable for a mere mortal to think about. Even if the seals created by the gods were slowly crumbling, what was a human like him supposed to do? Even if Sunny was a Sovereign, he would have been like an ant compared to the powers involved in this process. The seals had existed for eons, anyway. Despite their supposed weakened state, they would keep existing for just as long. By the time the void broke free of its prison and destroyed everything, he would be long dead, with not even dust left of his bones.

…Probably.

In any case, he was more interested in something else. The true source of the Corruption… Sunny had a vague suspicion that it was the void before, but now, he was almost certain.

'How does it work, though?'

Age of Chaos, the gods had been born, waged war against the elder abyssal beings, and eventually defeated them, thus creating the world. What followed was the Age of Heroes. Noctis and the other Chain Lords had been born during that period. Back then, at the

Nightmare Creatures already existed back then, when the gods were alive and the seals of the void were

'Huh…'

gods did not imprison all of the void and

came to exist in the newly created world. Noctis had told him once that the gods and the daemons fought side by side as allies in the battles of the ancient past… therefore, it was easy to conclude that the

once, at the dawn of time, and that its blood seeped into the ground, becoming true darkness. The place where the creature fell was now known as the Hollow Mountains, beneath which lay the darkness of the Underworld. That creature had to have been a void being. That proved that at least some of them had walked the world of the gods

The gods… he had thought once that they were simply divine titans. Now, however, Sunny was inclined to believe that the gods were beyond Ranks and Classes altogether. Similarly, void creatures would not have been unholy titans — just like the gods, they had to have been creatures of an entirely different

These abyssal horrors were beings from before time, space, death, and every other law that comprised the fabric of reality. These existences were completely alien to the reality familiar to Sunny... opposed to it,

one thing about creatures of great power, it was that they exerted influence on the world. Saints and powerful Masters had a mystical presence to them. Nightmare Creatures of higher Classes spread their influence across

exert on a world that was inherently alien to their nature? Would

a beat. Was that... was that the true nature of the Corruption? Was it a rot caused

why the creatures infected by that rot possessed an insatiable desire to destroy those who were not. Why they all seemed mad, revolting, and alien… appallingly wrong in some strange and sinister way. The divine and

I feel like I'm not far

the abominations, and the ruined realm of dreams and nightmares — suddenly made much more sense. It was not understanding, exactly. The conclusions Sunny made were too vast and had too many consequences to be understood in just a few minutes. But the feeling of it all