Shadow Slave

As soon as Sunny shut the gate behind them, the terrifying roar that had been approaching was cut off. A few moments later, the tower seemed to shake a little, as if something had crashed into its walls.

However, apart from a little dust that fell from the ceiling, nothing happened. They seemed to be safe.

...From the threats outside, at least.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Sunny took a step back and looked around.

His eyes narrowed a little.

"Well, that... is unexpected."

He had wondered about what the interior of Aletheia's Tower would look like a lot. In his mind, there were two possibilities... either it would be perfectly preserved and full of tantalizing knowledge, or serve as the lair for the most harrowing abomination yet.

The truth was that it was both and neither at the same time.

From what Sunny could tell, the interior of the tower had once been austere, but elegant. None of that elegance remained, however - at some point, a dreadful Nightmare Creature had made its way inside.

He was currently staring at that Nightmare Creature.

Its torso was hanging from the ceiling, terribly mutilated and seeping with black blood. The creature's revolting skull was crushed, and one of its arms was severed at the elbow. A vast and utterly disgusting puddle of blood, viscera, and brain matter covered most of the floor.

Looking at the corpse of the gargantuan, vaguely humanoid creature, Sunny couldn't help but feel a sense of deep, primal terror.

Aletheia's Tower had indeed become the lair of a dreadful abomination...

However, the abomination was dead.

Cassie was observing the corpse, too. She seemed unnerved.

After hesitating for a few moments, the blind girl said quietly:

was

Sunny gulped.

our Third

was there something capable of mutilating a Great Tyrant to such a degree here, as

that damned

tower had been obliterated, turning into piles of

them still inside? It had to

why were the gates of the tower locked? Why was the enchantment

was it

the puddle of the Tyrant's blood, Sunny knelt and touched it.

"It's cold."

Had it been dead for as

He glanced at Cassie.

does your intuition

She frowned.

"...To flee."

blind girl sighed and

danger, somewhere above

his feet. He considered summoning Nightmare back, but then decided against it. The black steed would not be able to move freely in the

to him and Cassie to

I am not going to flee after dying so many damned

She nodded.

"I agree."

to stay away from the dreadful corpse, they found the stairs

and whatever it was that had killed it had mostly taken place on the higher floors. Sunny could tell just by looking up - starting from the second floor, there were

finally ending up hanging dead from the ceiling of the first one. Sadly, most

glanced at Cassie, then sighed and started climbing. The blind girl followed by holding the hilt of the Quiet Dancer, which gently lifted

destroyed portion of the tower before finally arriving at the second-to-last level. Here, a chunk of the floor still remained, leading to a

them... but he knew only the highest window of the tower