Shadow Slave

Sunny drove the sharp blade of his slaying Will through the Vile Thieving Bird’s eye, piercing its brain.

If Weaver could see it… they’d probably feel darkly amused by the morbid justice of that lethal blow. Sunny did not care about justice, though — and neither did he care about Weaver. All he cared about was making sure that the loathsome Terror died and regaining his fate.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, the Thieving Bird’s towering body shuddered, and its frenzied, demented gaze slowly grew cold. The burning madness was finally gone from its eyes, replaced by glassy emptiness.

It was dead.

Sunny swayed heavily, the last of his essence being consumed by the burden of sustaining the powerful enchantment of Weaver’s Mask. The boundless tapestry of broken fate disappeared, and the crushing pressure that had been tormenting his tired mind lifted. But he was still holding it in his grasp…

His fate.

He exhaled slowly, feeling something penetrating the very foundation of his being…

Something too vast to be perceived, too deep to be fathomed.

Something that came from outside, yet felt natural and familiar…

As if it was meant to be.

Sunny shuddered.

Before now, he had not even known… he could not even grasp how much he missed it.

Being himself.

Weaver’s Mask crumbled into a whirlwind of sparks, and he offered his face to the wind. A sigh that was full of quiet, indescribable relief escaped from his bloodied lips.

At the very core of his being, a familiar weight was taking root once again. It connected all of him into an unbroken whole, holding the distant parts of his vast self together like an anchor… or perhaps like a radiant beacon that shone in the boundless darkness.

‘Don’t… don’t relax just yet.’

Sunny tried to remind himself to stay vigilant, looking around with a somber expression.

It was only now that the battle was over that he noticed the details of where he was. It was the Estuary, yes — the outer shell of the Stone Titan’s heart. However, it looked very different from how it had been.

The ancient stone was weathered and worn down. Everywhere Sunny looked, deep fissures that had not been there before broke its black surface, nestling with deep darkness. It was as if the heart of the Estuary was broken and dead, shattered by the weight of eternity.

It felt… old.

Sunny knew where he was, but he did not know when he was. Something told him that he had ended up far, far in the future of the Tomb of Ariel… eons after the day they had fought the Thieving Bird on the surface of the Estuary Lake.

It occurred to him then that he would not be able to summon his Shadows. Dismissing a Shadow and calling it back could be done from virtually any distance… but what if what separated them was not space, but an endless amount of time? That… that was a different matter entirely. Sunny was completely alone, hopelessly lost in time, and on the threshold of death.

And he did not know what perils lurked in the vast abyss surrounding him. His immediate worry was the Vile Spawn… but there could be other threats, as well.

He inhaled deeply.

‘So, then, the first thing is..’

However, before he could finish the thought, a voice whispered into his ear.

A voice that made his hair stand on end.

[You have slain the Vile Thieving Bird.]

Sunny froze.

He shivered.

He gasped quietly…

Because the voice did not belong to him. The voice was vaguely familiar and soothing… but also chilling and terrifying. It was the voice of the Nightmare Spell. The Spell…

Sounded darkly amused.

It sounded pleased.

…Which was deeply disturbing.

[Welcome back to the Nightmare Spell, Lost from Light.]

[Your treachery truly knows no bounds.]

Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then cleared his throat.

“Well… thank you? It’s good to be back, I guess. I, uh… I missed you, too.”

There was a long stretch of silence, which made Sunny quite nervous.

The Spell did not know how to hold grudges, did it? It wasn’t like he had abandoned it on purpose.

It had all happened against his will, really! But even as Sunny was tense and unsure of what would happen next, he could not help but feel triumphant.

Because the Spell… it had called him by his name.

His True Name.

‘I am… a really am back, aren’t I?’

As Sunny staggered and sank to his knees, completely spent, the Nightmare Spell whispered into his ear once again.

[You have received a Memory.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

Sunny smiled weakly.

‘My shadow…’

It used to be that these words meant that he had gained a shadow fragment. But now that all seven of his cores were fully saturated, the Spell seemed to have used them to describe a new shade joining the Shadow Legion.

The Sacred shade of the Vile Thieving Bird. And a Memory!

A Sacred Memory, at that…

After all these years of not receiving rewards from the Spell, Sunny had almost forgotten the feeling.

It felt great.

It felt amazing!

His smile widened.

“That’s great. But, uh… you wouldn’t happen to have a backlog of rewards I have earned, would you? That’d be great, too. You know.”

Perhaps testing the Spell’s patience was unwise, but Sunny could not help himself. He might have been battered and bloodied, low on essence, and half-dead… but his greed was alive and well. In fact, it felt better than ever.

The Spell did not answer immediately. When it did, however…

There was a hint of ominous amusement in its voice, which sent a cold shiver running down Sunny’s spine.

It said:

[You have lost a Memory.]

Sunny blinked a couple of times.

“Huh?”

The voice of the Spell resounded in his ear once more:

[You have lost a Memory.]

[You have lost a Memory.]

[You have lost a shade.]

[You have lost a shade.]

[You have lost a shade…]

A choir of whispers exploded in his head, deafening him. The voice of the Spell thundered like the roar of a stormy sea, the same words repeating over and over again.

“Huh?!”

Sunny tried to jump to his feet, but failed and sprawled on the cold stones instead.

A groan escaped from his lips.

“What… what the hell do you mean?! What do you mean, I lost a Memory?!”

The Spell did not explain. It simply continued to speak, its voice echoing in his head like a deafening bell.

[You have lost a shade.]

[You have lost a Memory.]

[You have lost a shade.]

[…You have lost a Citadel.]

Sunny finally managed to stand up.

“What?!”

He froze, staring into the darkness with wide eyes.

And then, as if realizing something, he grabbed his head.

“The… the bird!”

That damn bird!

That vile, loathsome, despicable lunatic of a deranged deity!

“Why?!”

Why had he thought that allowing a shade of that wretched thing into his soul was a good idea?!

It was a damn Cursed Terror!

No, it was Sacred Terror now, once again… A shadow of one, at least.

…Had using Sunny to cleanse itself of the Corruption been its plan all along?

‘Who cares?!’

That was not important right now! Suddenly feeling light-headed, Sunny hurriedly dove into his Soul Sea.

But it was already too late.

The Vile Thieving Bird had already absconded, taking whatever it pleased with it. There was no trace of it — or of its ill-gotten gains — left.

Well… there was one trace.

So to speak.

As if to deliver Sunny one final blow, the Nightmare Spell whispered helpfully into his ear:

[You have gained a Shadow.]