Shadow Slave

Sleeping in his own bed felt really great.

Sunny had had many beds throughout the years. He had one in his temporary room at the Academy, one in the bedroom of his house, the luxurious sleeping pod he had purchased after becoming an Awakened, a flimsy cot in the Sanctuary of Noctis, and even the wide sleeping shelf at the back of the Rhino, among others.

But out of all of them, this bed of pale polished wood, which had once belonged to the priestess of the ruined cathedral, held a special place in his heart.

Perhaps because this dark chamber was the first place he had considered home, and this bed was the first he had considered his.

Even though the time Sunny had spent living alone in the Dark City was one of the bleakest pages of his life, he remembered it with a special fondness.

Waking up pleasantly refreshed, he smiled, yawned, and climbed out of the bed.

Looking around the spacious chamber, Sunny remembered his days here. Things had been so simple back then...

He walked around for a while, briefly touching various pieces of furniture, and then stopped in front of a bare wall. There, countless scratches had been left by the tip of the Prowling Thorn, counting the days he had spent here.

Below them, the word "Sunless" was carved in the stone with two runes.

A sad smile appeared on Sunny's face.

Back then, he had wanted to leave proof of him having lived, struggled, and suffered in the Dark City on this stone wall. A mark of his existence.

Who knew that the mark he had left would become meaningless one day? His own actions made it so that nobody could remember him, even if he scratched his name into the stone a thousand times.

Sunny chuckled, then outstretched a hand and used his nail to leave one more scratch on the wall.

He had spent another day here, after all.

Then, he looked around, studying the interior of the dark chamber.

The thought of leaving it all behind once again made him sad.

But then...

Did he really have to leave it?

Slowly, a dark grin twisted his lips.

'Why don't I take it all with me? What a great idea!‘

He needed to decorate the Marvelous Mimic, anyway.

Summoning the Shadow, he commanded it to turn into an enormous wardrobe and opened its doors wide, paying no attention to the rows of terrifying fangs hidden behind them.

darkness of

"Shall we start?"

Sunny went about loading the beautiful furniture made of pale

n‘t even spare the garbs and vestments of the young priestess, which Effie had once mocked him about. These beautiful clothes were made from fine fabric and masterfully tailored... more than that, they had remained in

an extremely greedy thief. The greedy thief in question, meanwhile, looked at the intricately engraved stone walls, feeling regretful that he couldn't take the engravings with

doors of the Marvelous Mimic, he dismissed

time Sunny returned to the great hall, the

statue of the nameless goddess

Nephis had received after slaying the Terror of the Crimson Spire, surfaced in

for all the things that were lost. Only

he a bit

his name erased from

was even a Terror,

Creature, as well? What was it that he had not lost yet that kept his soul from blooming with the flowers of

the statue and headed for the inner sanctum of the

and descended underground. Deeper and deeper still,

of the Black Knight had been

shielded his eyes. After days spent in absolute darkness, the

the solitary cell where

left on its floor by the corpse that

come to the Dark City to read these

deep breath, Sunny steeled his heart

behind, concerned that the light of the strange torches would harm them. But now, he knew that the underground cell was designed to keep someone in, not

that there was a lot to study. There was only the broken runic circle, the dust that the

then turned his attention to the forbidden runes he had not been able

Nether had used, and much easier to translate. However, when Sunny read

'What?‘

He didn‘t quite understand...

The runes read:

[Thus spoke Weaver

will open the

And they did

and

Now, in the ruins

Gods lay dead

the daemons have

The Forgotten One comes

Wide awake

To consume them].