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?'

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 dawn of time, humans were not a dominant force in the world yet. Their nascent civilization was growing and spreading, but the continuation of its existence was not

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

'Huh…'

'I guess the gods did not imprison all of the

daemons fought side by side as allies in the battles of the ancient past… therefore, it was easy to conclude that the

dire battles at the dawn of the new world, resulting in these abyssal remnants being exterminated. Come to think of it, Nephis had told him that a terrible creature was slain by the gods 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

felt as though he was on the precipice of an important discovery. The gods… he had thought once that they were simply divine titans. Now, however, Sunny was inclined to believe that the gods were

importantly, they were simply different. These abyssal horrors were beings from before time, space, death, and every other law that comprised

Sunny knew one thing about creatures of great power, it was that they exerted influence on the world. Saints and powerful Masters had a mystical presence

would they exert on a world that was inherently alien to their nature? Would the fabric

his heart skipping a beat. Was that... was that the true nature of the Corruption? Was it a

seemed mad, revolting, and alien… appallingly wrong in some strange and sinister way. The divine and the unholy were inherently opposed to each other, after all. It was in their very

feel like I'm

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.