Shadow Slave

Sunny was done resting. He had not recovered from his wounds yet, but that did not matter… what mattered was finding his way back to Nephis and Ananke, who were somewhere out there right now, lost and alone.

How could he rest not knowing where they were, and what was happening to them? And there was the world beyond the Tomb of Ariel, too. Cassie, Rain, Effie, Jet, Kai, Aiko, and all the rest — he needed to return to them as well.

So, even though Sunny’s battered body protested, he fought against the exhaustion weighing it down and slowly sat up, wincing from the terrible pain.

He was still in rough form, but had healed enough to move freely… somewhat freely, at least.

It was not going to be pleasant, though. In fact, it was going to be torture…

Just as he thought about it, however, a soft radiance ignited under his skin, and his wounds began to heal much faster. A soothing warmth enveloped his shredded soul.

Sunny drew a shaky breath.

Vile, meanwhile, was startled by the sudden outpouring of light and jumped away, pointing at Sunny with a finger.

“Damn!”

Sunny could not help but chuckle.

It seemed that Nephis had discovered the Shadow Bond, as well. And she indeed could heal him from a distance, as if he were a member of her Domain.

‘…How nice.’

Supremes were incapable of being beholden to another Supreme by nature. Sunny was an exception to that rule due to Shadow Bond, however, which allowed him to reap the benefits of two Domains.

While his body and soul were being slowly mended by the miraculous flames, Sunny stared at the distant fissure, wondering how he was going to find their source… how he was going to find Nephis.

He could summon Weaver’s Mask and activate [Where is my eye?] again, tracing the String of Fate that connected them back to her. However, that enchantment consumed a dreadful amount of essence, and in his current state, Sunny would only be able to sustain it for a brief moment. One moment was not enough to navigate eternity, so…

It was another dead end.

‘What the hell am I supposed to do?’

He remained motionless for a while, trying to come up with a solution. No matter how he tried, however, nothing came to his mind — nothing that offered a reliable result, at least.

And Sunny really wanted to be certain before delving into the fissure. The price of failure was simply too high, this time. It was not even the threat of death… rather, it was a threat of something much worse than death. Of spending eons lost in time, slowly losing his mind and turning into something even Sunny would not recognize, let alone Nephis.

‘Curse it all.’

He grimaced.

Just when Sunny was considering whether he should plunge into the fissure anyway and spend an eternity trying to find his way back to his lover — quite like that damn Odysseus, the stories of whom had been following him like a stalker throughout the years — he suddenly felt something.

‘Huh?’

The sensation was faint, but persistent.

It was as if something was pulling him subtly on the wrist.

Looking down, Sunny raised his hand and studied it, trying to determine the source of the subtle sensation.

And there, in the soft radiance of Neph’s healing flames…

He saw a string of silver silk wrapped around his wrist, shimmering in the light. The thread was so thin that it cast no shadow and was all but invisible to the naked eye. There was an ethereal quality to it, as well, as if it were not entirely real.

But it was.

It extended from his wrist into the darkness, rising into the black abyss above and stretching in the direction where the fissure loomed in the distance.

Sunny stared at the string in confusion for a moment.

Then, his eyes widened a little.

“Ananke?”

Sunny sighed deeply, then let out a quiet laugh.

“Crap… I can’t believe it.”

It seemed that Ananke had connected a string of her mystical essence silk to him, back on the surface of the Estuary Lake. And now, that string was there to lead him through the maze of eternity, back to the beginning of it all.

Just like Ariadne’s string had led Theseus out of the Labyrinth.

Suddenly, Sunny did not feel tired anymore. Instead, he felt full of energy.

Looking at Vile, he smiled.

“Get your things, waif. We’re going home.”

The Thieving Bird’s spawn stared at him in confusion for a few seconds, then grinned.

“Crap!”

The corner of Sunny’s eye twitched.

He let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his face.

“Why is it only repeating the bad words? Just what kind… ah, never mind. I should probably start watching my tongue around the brat…”

A young and impressionable Devil like that could easily develop bad habits, after all.

‘Luckily, with a role model like me around, that thing is bound to grow up well.’

Nodding to himself, he gave Vile a benevolent smile.

The brat shivered and took a step back, for some reason.

…Soon enough, they were ready to leave the heart of the Stone Titan behind and delve into the maze of eternity… to return to the heart of the Stone Titan, far in the past. And while Sunny was preoccupied with thoughts of returning to Nephis, and of Nephis remembering him…

Unbeknownst to him, someone else was remembering him, as well.

Fate was a far greater force than time, after all. So when its tapestry was changed, the change was felt all across existence — even beyond the great walls of the Tomb of Ariel. By those who were sensitive to that, at least. Far away, on the Chained Isles, Cassie swayed, her remaining eye widening.

Inside her ruined mind, the great gaps that had been empty for numerous years…

Were suddenly not empty anymore.

And as the fog that had been permeating her mind cleared, the Spell whispered into her ear…