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.

cold darkness

"Shall we start?"

went about loading the beautiful furniture made of pale polished wood

beautiful clothes were made from fine fabric and masterfully tailored... more than that, they had remained in pristine condition despite thousands of years of neglect. Sunny would be mad to leave behind

by 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 him. Eventually, he sighed and

Marvelous Mimic, he dismissed the Shadow and left the

to the great hall, the smile had disappeared from

of the nameless goddess

Nameless Sun, the Memory Nephis had received after slaying the Terror of the Crimson Spire, surfaced in his

things that were lost. Only when she lost that

a bit

his name erased from the

even a Terror,

Sunny turned into a Nightmare Creature, as well? What was it that he had not

gaze darkened, Sunny looked away from the statue and headed for the inner sanctum

he allowed it to take him to a winding staircase and descended underground. Deeper and deeper still, until

from the same metal that the armor of the Black Knight had been forged from stood Open, and two strange torches burned

absolute darkness, the pale light of

open door... was the solitary

its floor by the corpse that had

Dark City

deep breath, Sunny steeled his heart

shadows behind, concerned that the light of the strange torches would harm them. But now, he knew that the underground cell was designed to keep

There was only the broken runic circle, the

then turned his attention to the forbidden

were different from the script Nether had used, and much easier to translate. However, when

'What?‘

He didn‘t quite understand...

The runes read:

[Thus spoke Weaver

will open

And they did

doom and destruction upon

Now, in the ruins

Gods lay dead

the daemons have

The Forgotten One comes

Wide awake

To consume them].