Shadow Slave

Noctis gazed at the Demon of Fate, his grin shining with a hidden abyss of barely contained madness.

His voice, once cheerful and pleasant, turned hoarse and low now.

“I wanted to ask your help with slaughtering all the Chain Lords, breaking the shackles Sun God had forged, and unleashing Hope upon the world. I wanted to ask your help with plunging this abominable land into the darkness burning below it, even if it brings all other lands to ruin. I wanted to ask you to help me break the will of the gods... I had to be satisfied with only this little, since the gods themselves cannot be broken.”

Noctis laughed.

”In short, I wanted to ask you to help me die.”

He looked at the diamond sickle that lay on the stone before him, smeared in blood. His grin dimmed slowly, replaced by exhaustion.

“Well, something like that, anyway. Ah... I am tired, Weaver. I am tired of guarding Hope, from being driven mad by Hope, and from not knowing what my duty is. It was all so clear all those years ago, when the Lord of Light entrusted us with this task. But I’ve been having doubts.”

Noctis sighed and looked at her with a pale smile.

”If he truly wanted us to keep Hope shackled... why did he give us the keys to open her chains?”

His head dropped, and a whisper escaped from his twisted lips:

“Perhaps what he really wanted was for us to release her, all along. What marvelous cruelty that would have been... don’t you think, Weaver?”

She studied the tired man in front of her for a while.

“Even I do not presume to know the mind of the gods. Mercy, cruelty, love, indifference... the gods are too vast and too great to contain only one emotion, bear only one desire, and harbor only one intent.”

She smiled coldly in the darkness.

“Ah, but I can tell you this, Beast of Twilight. You truly are far too arrogant for a mortal man. Did you really think that seven Transcendent men can contain a daemon? Did you really think that seven human lives are enough to bind the Demon of Desire? Fool... it was your endless desire to keep her bound that had built the walls of her prison and became her chains, not your unending lives.”

She leaned forward slightly, studying his pale visage with a hint of a strange, unexplainable emotion.

”But now you desire for me to help you bring those walls down? You offer me your worthless heart and beg me to help you defy the gods? Do you even know what you are asking of me, Beast of Twilight?”

Noctis looked at her with a somber expression.

He remained silent for a while, frowned, then grumbled in a hurt tone:

“Hey. Countless women and more than a few men have fathomed the depths of despair while trying fruitlessly to pursue my heart, you know? It might not have struck your fancy, Weaver, but how can you call it worthless? My heart is quite lovely, if I do say so myself... in fact, I dare say it’s the loveliest heart in all of...”

She let out a chilling laugh, making him fall silent.

“In all of Kingdom of Hope? You only see what your burden allows you to see, Beast of Twilight. This land, these chains, and the quiet despair of those who naively surrendered their deaths. You only think about what the liberation of Hope will mean to you, and only fear the desires that consume mortal men. But my burden is far greater, and therefore, I see far more. I see it all”

Noctis smiled crookedly.

“And what do you see, Weaver?”

She smiled ominously, obscured by darkness.

”I see a beginning. A beginning of the end...” The end was inevitable, though. So, her actions did not matter too much, in the end... at best, she would hasten the inevitable instead of becoming the cause of it.

..That was what she told Noctis, at least. “Will you help me, Weaver? I’ve spent so many years searching for the keys — the Ivory Knife, the Obsidian Knife. But they always elude me. So, I am willing to pay any price. You... are my only hope now, Weaver.” Noctis studied the terrifying darkness, then smiled with mischief.

“Oh, but then again, you have already given me an answer, haven’t you? After all, the great Demon of Fate would have known my request all along. Therefore, you would not have answered my call only to refuse me.” She studied him, as well.

‘That swindler...’

Her voice was mocking and cold:

“What can you give me if you’re intending to die? Do not think me a fool, Beast of Twilight. Do not hope that death will let you escape a debt owed to the Demon of Fate.” She pointed at him with a clawed finger. “Yes, I shall help you break the chains of Hope. Yes, I shall help you defy the will of the gods. But the price I demand is your life, not your death. Even if you long for the mercy of death, I will curse you to live. I will curse you to live, to hope... and to serve me. You and the one in the north both.”

Noctis shivered.

”Well... now, wait a minute...”

But she did not wait.

A fearsome black mask covered her face once again as the clouds receded, washing the world in the silver light of the full moon. Letting out a sigh, she looked up, into the harrowing eternity of fate shining above them.

The Crimson Beast of Twilight was an eerie existence. He was a man whose fate had been plucked from the great tapestry by a god and twisted in on itself, becoming a seamless loop.

So, she reached into the endless infinity of radiant strings and grasped one of them tightly, making all of existence shudder. ”W-wait... what are you...”

Baring her teeth, she pulled the String of Fate down, feeling it bite into her fingers. As drops of golden ichor fell to the ground, she bore the weight of eternity. She moved infinity with nothing but the strength of her arm and the force of her Will, changing the shape of existence forever.

The ethereal thread she had pulled down entered Noctis, piercing his chest — where a new heart was already beating weakly, now imbued with a new fate.

She did not break the will of Sun God. Instead, she simply made it so that what Sun God willed did not matter anymore.

Only the will of the Demon of Fate mattered.

“B—by the moon...”

She laughed.

“Beast of Twilight, do not call upon the moon. That is not your name anymore, and you do not belong to the gods anymore. You belong to me now... now, you shall only call the name of Weaver.”