Shadow Slave

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”What the hell?!”

Sunny reached the edge of his makeshift raft and froze there, his fingers submerged in water. A perfect copy of him was standing motionlessly a few meters away, looking down with a mocking smile on his lips.

The pale face, the onyx eyes, the raven black hair... it was all the same. But the apparition was much more composed and full of malice than Sunny. There was a boundless ocean of madness hiding behind the cold darkness of its amused gaze.

For a moment, Sunny was convinced that one of Mordret’s Reflections had somehow found him within the mist. But the tone with which the apparition spoke was simply too familiar. With a shudder, he realized that this copy of him was the manifestation of the Sin of Solace.

However...

”Gods. You look so pathetic.”

’Yeah... that’s definitely that damned sword.’

But how could it be?

At first, Sunny had only heard indistinct whispers when holding the Sin of Solace. Later, he could clearly hear its voice. And later still, after Falcon Scott, a vague illusory figure would follow him around... now, however, that figure seemed perfectly real.

That was not the most frightening fact, though.

The most frightening thing was that Sunny did not have the Sin of Solace summoned. How could the spirit of the cursed sword be here, if the sword itself still rested within the still darkness of his soul?!

Suddenly, a chill ran down Sunny’s spine.

As if reading his mind, the Sin of Solace laughed.

”Ah, how fun. I’ll give you some credit, Lost from Light... you never fail to amuse, at least. What, are you afraid of me now?”

Sunny hated to admit it, but he was. He did not know what to expect from the cursed jian... it was tied to Ariel, after all, who was both the Demon of Dread and the architect of the harrowing pyramid of nightmares. Even if the Transcendent Memory only contained a facsimile of a distant whisper left behind by the ancient daemon, it was still an artifact of terrifying power.

He knew that power all too well. Sunny had slain many Corrupted Nightmare Creatures with its help, after all - some of whom he had no business being able to kill - and, as a result, was exposed to its destructive influence in turn. He had thought that he was handling the insidious influence of the Sin of Solace well...

But if he had, then why did the apparition feel more real than ever? How was it able to appear before him without him even holding the cursed sword?

Sunny remained silent for a while, then forced out a smile.

”Afraid of you? Nonsense! Of course not.”

The Sin of Solace tilted his head a little, studying Sunny with some interest.

”Oh... but I think you should.”

His voice sounded relaxed, but that only made the words more chilling to hear.

However, Sunny exhaled with relief.

”Well, why would I? You’re not real. Am I supposed to be frightened of every imaginary bastard? Life’s too short for that.”

The doll-like young man in front of him raised an eyebrow.

”Are you sure that I am not real?”

Sunny scoffed.

”I wasn’t before, but I am now. I suspected for a long time, of course, but since you were not annoying enough to waste my time on getting to the bottom of this, I chose to concentrate on other things. But hey, since it’s just the two of us now, let me clear a few things.”

He moved away from the edge of the makeshift raft and looked up at the Sin of Solace while still remaining in a sitting position.

”There’s no point in pretending to be something that you are not. And what you are not is a real being... no, you’re just a tiny, insignificant part of my mind that the enchantments of the Sin of Solace turned against me. How do I know? Well, you are a part of me, so you should already be aware.”

The apparition remained silent, looking at him with curiosity.

Sunny shook his head.

”I know because I can lie when I talk to you, and I also don’t have to answer all of your questions. That is only possible when I am talking to myself. You asked me if I was done feeling sorry for myself? I was not compelled to answer. You asked if I was afraid of you? For a moment or two, I was, and yet I was able to say that I wasn’t. So...”

He grimaced.

”Really, I should have realized it the first time you kept distracting me with annoying questions, and I told you to shut up instead of giving you a real answer. Ah... I feel ashamed that it took me so long.”

The Sin of Solace chuckled.

”Oh, but your Flaw is a subjective thing, isn’t it? Maybe you can lie to me not because I am a part of you, but simply because you believe that I am a part of you.”

Sunny smiled.

”Wouldn’t it be great, if my Flaw was so easy to deceive? No... that is not the case. Plus, I had no reason to believe that you weren’t an actual entity before. If anything, it would have been the other way around.”

The apparition remained motionless, staring at him with a bleak expression. Then, the spirit of the cursed sword... the small broken piece of Sunny’s own mind... sighed.

”Alright, you caught me. I am not real. Indeed, I am just a figment of your imagination.”

The Sin of Solace was quiet for a few moments, and then grinned.

”But, have you not considered... that, maybe, quarreling and conversing with a splintered piece of your own mind is a bit more frightening than being haunted by a cursed sword?”

He laughed.

”I mean, wouldn’t that mean that you have completely lost your mind? Lost from Light... damn lunatic... oh, this is simply wonderful!”

Sunny stared at the laughing copy of himself with a somber expression.

For once, he had nothing to say.

After a few long moments, he turned away and uttered through gritted teeth:

”...Shut up!”

The water was murmuring softly as the strong current pulled the makeshift raft forward. The mist was slowly growing less thick, but Sunny still couldn’t see or feel anything in it.

When he grew thirsty, he summoned the Endless Spring and drank from it, looking at the clear water around him with suspicion. When he got hungry, he summoned the Covetous Coffer and took out some rations from inside it.

’I should have stocked up before leaving the siege capital.’

To Sunny’s disappointment, his supplies were already running low. He had kept the Coffer well stocked while serving as an army scout, but after becoming an envoy to Clan Valor, there was no need to anymore. So, there had not been a lot of useful things left inside the bottomless chest at the start of the Nightmare.

It was hard to tell how much time had passed since Sunny entered the Nightmare, too. The dim twilight permeating the mist never grew brighter or darker. However, he felt as if it had not been more than a couple of days.

He had spent most of his time numbly staring at the wood grain of his makeshift raft. For some reason, it looked strangely familiar. The strange sense of familiarity was driving Sunny crazy...

But then again, perhaps it was the fact that he had gone crazy that caused the irrational sense of familiarity with a random piece of flotsam.

After all, there had to be a reason why the spirit of the Sin of Solace was suddenly much more clear, frighteningly real, and even able to appear without Sunny summoning the cursed sword. The less stable his mental state was, the more substantial the presence of the apparition was supposed to be.

Sunny did not feel particularly insane, just numb, heartbroken, and emotionally drained. However, which lunatic knew of their madness?

The Sin of Solace, meanwhile, was behaving rather strangely. Sunny was painfully aware of his many failures, so he had expected the apparition to barrage him with mockery and contempt. Did you want to protect the people of Antarctica? Did you think that your pathetic self was capable of protecting anything?

Stuff like that.

Hell... after that last conversation with Morgan, Sunny knew that the waking world was more or less doomed. He didn’t even know if Rain would be okay. The Sin of Solace could have used that fact to drive a nail into his heart, too.

But the cursed sword mostly remained silent.

At some point, Sunny glanced at the apparition, which was still standing in the spot where it first appeared, and raised an eyebrow:

”Hey... aren’t you going to mock me? Don’t you want to remind me how pitiful and pathetic I am?”

Sunny’s perfect copy stared at him for a few moments, then looked away with indifference.

”...That grew old ages ago. I can’t be bothered.”

Sunny frowned.

”Come to think of it... why is it that you haven’t moved a single centimeter in all this time?”

The Sin of Solace scoffed.

”Where am I supposed to go? This raft is not that large... well, I might as well stand on water, true. But why should I?”

Sunny studied him for a bit, then shook his head.

”No... I think you’re hiding something.”

His hallucination laughed.

”Oh, yeah? So, now you are paranoid, too?”

Instead of answering, Sunny rose from where he was sitting and took a step toward the Sin of Solace. His copy frowned.

”What do you think you’re...”

”Get lost.”

Sunny pushed the apparition aside, forcing it to take a step back and sway dangerously at the very edge of the makeshift raft, almost falling into the water.

The Sin of Solace cursed, but Sunny paid him no attention. Instead, he stared at the spot where the hallucination had been standing all this time.

’...Interesting.’

There, a single rune was roughly carved into the wood.