"Lord!"
Sevras glanced upwards at the young man who had entered the hall. The knight who usually reported to him had recently gone missing, and this was his replacement.
"Speak."
The young man bowed before rapidly saying:
"Knight Cirn has been found!"
Sevras' eyes widened.
"What?"
He had considered the man as good as dead, but he had been found?
"Where? How?"
"He… he appears to have been buried in the rubble, lord! Witnesses say he was spotted climbing out with a confused expression!"
The man was sweating nervously as he yelled his report.
"The rest of the missing Awakened have been found in similar places as well, lord! All of them were either found asleep in the rubble or had climbed out not knowing where they were!"
Sevras' gritted his teeth.
'What are you planning, wretch?'
A deep seated suspicion gnawed at the back of his mind, telling him to verify the situation himself.
"Where are they now?"
"Follow me, my lord. We have gathered them near the hospital."
Sevras nodded, briskly walking forward.
Of the Awakened that had been captured, seven of them had been Awakened, two of them Ascended, and two of them mundane. No one had a clue of why these people were taken in particular, as there had been no noticeable pattern.
Sevras' frown deepened.
***
"Do any of them have any recollection of what happened?"
Sevras glanced at his twin brother, having received the same report as him. Both of them had arrived at the same time and were now looking closely as the people who had been previously missing looked around with dazed expressions.
"None. They were going about their lives and suddenly it was three days later."
Sevras clicked his tongue.
"Just what is the meaning of this?"
"There are several possibilities."
Sevras and Semos turned around in surprise as a voice came from behind them.
"Lady Aidre."
Aidre nodded at their greeting, a downcast expression on her face.
"Are you well? You… nevermind. What are the possibilities?"
Aidre had not spoken for several days now, having gone unresponsive back when Noctis had been expelled from the city. The twins were both worried and afraid.
"On the day of the attack, Noctis and I had a couple theories. One was that he was collecting sacrifices for some terrible ritual, and seeing as they're all still alive, no such ritual has taken place."
Sevras gritted his teeth, suspicion clawing at the back of his mind. A small voice in his mind was telling him that some part of this was a trap, and that he should kill those eleven people before it was too late.
"You had a couple theories. What's the other one?"
"The other one is that those are Shadow's 'vessels'."
Sevras' frown deepened, and Semos' eyes widened.
"Vessels..? You mean?"
"Yes. It is possible that they were taken, just like Shadow. My Aspect isn't giving me anything, but it didn't give me anything when we faced Shadow either. Clearly, his methods evade any sort of scrying. Be sure these people are watched very closely."
And with those ominous words, Aidre turned and left.
In truth, Aidre was supposed to stick close to them, but recently… they had grown wary of her. She had been acting strange ever since Solvane's death, and neither of the two could make any sense of it.
Watching her emerald dress vanish behind the stone wall of a nearby building, Sevras turned away.
'Maybe…'
The paranoia gnawing at his mind continued to grow, and grow, and grow…
'Maybe it would be better if you just died.'
It was a shame he didn't have the iron knife.
***
'That's done.'
Having just witnessed the interaction between Aidre and the twin rulers of the city, Sunny was quite pleased. Aidre suspecting that the eleven people he had kidnapped were actually his vessels was… a pleasant surprise.
'Wasn't really what I was going for, but that works… even better than my other idea, actually.'
The original plan had just been for them to have no idea what the purpose of the kidnapping was, and for it to be something that weighed down on the back of their minds… But if they suspected that those people were possessed by him, but just couldn't quite prove it… there was more room for deception. If he tricked Sevras' into killing his own people, it could drive him even further into madness than he already was. From the short interactions he had managed to eavesdrop from the man, Sunny suspected that his plan was working. Everyday, his voice was getting warier and warier, his words sharper and sharper. His brother seemed to have noticed as well, having grown noticeably more fearful of his own brother.
Sunny couldn't bring himself to smile.
This sort of thing… it was distasteful, it was scummy, but… it was working. He was just a Master, how was he supposed to take on several immortal Saints? He had to use strategy and cunning. Sure, he had Serpent, but the Chain Lords had already displayed methods capable of taking down even a Supreme Shadow. He couldn't simply rely on Serpent to win. He needed to use everything at his disposal.
'Still, just what was the Spell thinking?'
This was supposed to be a trial made for Awakened, and yet the Nightmare had locked him into a mortal conflict between six immortal Transcendents right from the start.
He sighed.
'Well, no fooling you I suppose.'
He had thought he had prepared well. He had thought he was being smart, planning on Ascending mid-Nightmare.
But the Spell had seen through it all, and had put him in a trial worthy of him. It wasn't quite on the level of a Third Nightmare, but the enemies he had to face certainly were.
'All this and I won't even become a Transcendent? Ah, what a travesty.'
Still, the words the Spell had said to him when he had entered the Nightmare weighed heavily in the back of his mind.
'Welcome back…'
Just what had it meant by that?
His first thought had been it knew it was the second time he had entered the Nightmare, but how could it have known? He had travelled through time to a time where he had not even Awakened yet. How did the Spell already know he had entered the Nightmare once before?
Perhaps it simply had access to his memory. Perhaps it was something the Spell only said to people who entered Nightmares alone.
Perhaps his regression had always been within the purview of the Nightmare Spell, but he'd rather not think about that.
'I'll figure it out someday.'
Actually, he had the perfect person right in front of him to answer any questions he had…
"Lady Hope, what do you think about what happened to me at the Tomb of Ariel?"
Hope gave him a cursory glance before lowering her head slightly, seemingly in thought.
"It is certainly a strange thing. The causality of it…"
"How so? Would something like that even be possible to recreate normally?"
Hope shook her head.
"I doubt it. Most likely, such an event was only possible because the gods are dead. The Nightmare Spell likely has a large role in it as well."
Sunny took a deep breath.
"What about the future I came from? Do you think that still exists?"
Hope looked at him for a while, silent.
"No. Most likely not."
Sunny let out the breath he was holding, a cold feeling in his chest.
'Ha… look at me. I've already come to terms with it, but hearing it like this… still hurts.'
He had already accepted in his heart that there was no going back, yet Hope's words still pierced his heart.
"Then, what do you think happened to it?"
Hope's wings rustled.
"I do not know. But the gods only created one timeline."
Her head turned away from him slightly.
"Your world is gone. Overwritten, as if it had never existed."
Sunny said nothing, his expression downcast.
After a while, he spoke in a self-deprecating manner.
"So the only proof my time ever existed is me and my memories? Hah…"
Hope shook her head.
"Not just you."
Sunny looked up at her.
"Not just me? Ah, right… that damn bird probably came back with me. I'll settle the score with it one day."
Neither of them said anything after that, the conversation over.
"...I'm going to sleep."
***
Sunny looked around.
'I'm dreaming.'
It was a disorienting thing, to realise that the world around him was fake. Only now that he had realised it was a dream did he notice how off everything there was.
And as if on queue, a voice boomed from somewhere, its sound comforting in this strange world.
"Youngest, do you remember where we left off?"
"Yeah…"
Curiously, Hope's voice felt a little more real this time around.
***
Noctis stared at the moon, silently thinking.
'Ah, that bastard…'
After being banished from the Ivory City, he had returned home, only to find thousands upon thousands of people now living here within a small settlement.
After Aranea's death, the north was left without its ruler, causing many of its residents to flee in fear of the Hollow Mountains. A wise choice, in his opinion.
Having just returned today, he had silently entered his own quarters, no one daring to stop him.
'Did he really have to steal all the good wine? And my chair?'
The two sailor dolls he had left to guard the place were kowtowing at his feet, begging for mercy.
"I assigned you with one simple task, and you failed that?"
He had never expected them to catch Shadow sneaking around, but that didn't mean he was just going to let them off.
Noctis sighed, shifting his vision from the moon to the statue of his grandmother.
'Aranea, was this truly the right choice?'
Back then, when she had first received the vision of Shadow's death, he had been right with her at the time, and she had given him very clear instructions.
Leave her be. Leave the knife at his temple. Join Sevras at the Ivory City.
'Were her visions wrong? Manipulated?'
Noctis had done all those things, and yet everything was still going wrong. Perhaps he was foolish to trust an oracle.
After he had arrived at the Ivory City, he'd asked Aidre to create a realistic double for him so he could prowl the area around the city in hopes of finding Shadow, and he did, but the fiend still got away.
After that, they had managed to land a severe blow on the impostor, but it still seemed for naught. He continued to escape their grasp by a hair's breadth, over and over again.
'Bastard should be thanking the gods it was daytime…'
Back then, within Nether's Tower, he had a strong feeling that they'd missed something. Yet, try as he might, he couldn't find anything at the time. His Flaw restricted him and Aspect quite severely, even his beastly senses couldn't find the vile Shadow. For that, they'd lost Solvane. Not that he really cared about that.
'Thank goodness it wasn't Aidre…'
Really, the moment they had left the two of them alone, Solvane had tried to kill her… what was wrong with that maniac?
He sighed.
He could only hope she remained safe. It was out of his hands now.
After all, Aranea had told him. Everything was going to be fine.
And just because Sevras had kicked him out, he wouldn't give up on his efforts of locating the mark he had placed on Shadow either. Having left the ruby knife in his temple, he still decided to leave a trap out, so using a couple tricks he had made it so the knife would only appear under a full moon. Using a component of the temple, he had made it so that anyone who took the knife would be marked by the moon, giving him the ability to locate them with a short ritual.
Somewhere out there, the mark of the moon was buried within the skin of Shadow's hand.
***
Sunny slept for a long while.
Weeks had passed, with him only waking up to check on his shadows and to clean himself.
Despite his ascended physique, the constant state of stillness was starting to take its toll. Dull aches and tight muscles annoyed him as he walked around, unkempt hair falling over his face.
But still, he was happy.
"That will be all for your lessons on runes, youngest."
Sunny bowed with a wide smile.
"Thank you, Lady Hope."
Although he still felt like there was much to touch upon, Hope had decided he was now good enough at the runic language to stop.
Really… he had spent months in his dreams at this point. The world around him felt a little unreal.
Checking on the lazy shadow, he saw Sevras in his usual position, standing completely still as he watched over the city with a heavy gaze.
"Now, for your next lesson-"
"W-Wait! Please, wait first, Lady Hope…"
Hope looked at him.
"Why?"
Sunny scratched the back of his head.
"...I'm hungry. Please let me take a short break."
Hope nodded, relenting.
…And behind Sevras, the lazy shadow began manifesting itself.
A long tendril of shadow reached out and... knocked over a potted plant.
"..!"
Sevras whipped around, panic and fear in his eyes.
Looking around the room, he saw nothing.
"Semos!"
Dashing out of the room, he called for his brother to unleash his Aspect, suspecting that there was a transient shadow hiding within the room.
Sharing a meal with Hope, Sunny listened to their yelling with an amused expression. His shadow sense was obliterated a moment later, the surrounding area filled with diffused light. Still, he was not worried. He suspected that Semos was not actually a sensor, and the diffused light was simply a skill he had developed to find any hidden shadows. All he needed to do was hide inside a wall and wait him out.
"There's nothing here, brother."
Semos' expression was sorrowful as he watched his brother's eyes dart around madly.
"And I'm telling you there is."
Of course, Semos was no fool. The possibility of Shadow being here was high.
But he was tired. Tired of having a target on his back. Tired of knowing someone was out for his life at all times.
If only Noctis were still here, perhaps he could ask him to remove his memories of it.
"Brother, we should rest. You've been staring at the cities for weeks now."
"I won't rest until he's dead. You should do the same."
Semos was silent for a moment.
"Lady Aidre hasn't spoken since Noctis left, brother."
Sevras did not respond. He had already known.
"What will we do?"
Sevras did not respond.
"What can we even do? He has the advantage. If we don't find him before he strikes, we may as well commit suicide now."
Sevras turned to his brother.
"Are you suggesting we run, Semos?"
The Sun Prince sighed.
"I'm just saying we should con-"
"And abandon this city? The one we've spent our lives protecting? The one the Lord of Light helped us build?"
Semos met his brother's eyes. They were full of madness, of hate, of paranoia.
"...Nevermind."
Semos turned and left, leaving Sevras to watch over the city once more.
***
Sunny held his chin, listening intently.
'Seems it's working.'
Their madness was progressing far slower than he had hoped, but he was glad that his plan was at least a success.
Sighing, he massaged his eyes. Or the sockets, at least.
'This feels wrong.'
It probably was. He wanted to tell himself he didn't care, but he couldn't. Although he did care... he wasn't going to stop.
There was no going back. No peace to be made. Their feud would only end when one side was obliterated.
He had entered the Nightmare with many grand plans on how to move forward, but… to think it would end up like this again, fighting to the death.
'Ah, what else is new? I'm always fighting something to the death.'
Be it humans or monsters, someone would always end up dead whenever he fought.
Perhaps it was simply within his nature, be it as a person or as a Divine Shadow.
"Have you rested enough, youngest?"
Hope pulled him out of his thoughts, staring patiently.
"I have."
It was a little strange, to need rest after sleeping for that long.
"Then come here."
Sunny stepped close.
Hope looked him up and down.
"Your Shadow Step could use some work."
"Wha-... Actually, I know. Is that what's next?"
Hope reached an arm down.
"No."
"Then..?"
Her nails brushed against his shadow, causing Sunny to shudder slightly.
"It is a skill restricted mostly to higher beings, but it is not impossible to learn for someone like you."
Sunny swallowed nervously.
'Can she just say what it is already?!'
"You will learn how to store things within your Soul Sea."
Sunny paused.
"Ah."
That was it? He was a little disappointed.
Hope tilted her head.
"Are you not happy?"
Sunny shook his head rapidly.
"Nono, I am! It's just that… I can already sort of do that with the Covetous Coffer, so I don't know if there's that many ways I can even apply this sort of skill."
A resounded across the hall, which Sunny could've sworn sounded like Hope sighing.
"Youngest, you still have much to learn."
Hope's wings rustled.
"What do you think separates the gods from other divine beings?"
"The gods?"
Sunny stopped to think.
"Well, the gods were born from the void, right? So maybe they had some sort of power nothing else had?"
"No."
Hope placed a finger on his forehead.
"It is because they created the world."
Subtle tremors ran through Sunny's spirit, and he saw visions of how the world looked right after its creation, at the dawn of the Age of Gods.
"The other divine beings… they are great and powerful too, but they still only exist within the world the gods created."
The vision shifted, displaying still images of the gods fighting alongside other terrifying beings. Thankfully, Hope did not include a vision of the void being they were fighting.
"So if you want to become a god…"
Seven suns appeared within his vision. A Soul Sea.
"You must create a world."
The vision shifted downwards, showing a sprawling mass of islands floating above a void of nothing, all connected through seven heavenly chains. The Chained Isles, Hope's Kingdom.
But then, a colossal pillar of flame appeared, fracturing the region in its entirety.
"But do not misunderstand, creating a world is just a part of true power. You must be able to defend it too."
Within the vision, Sunny saw a radiant being rising to face the Sun God. Despite it only being an illusion, Sunny still felt his emotions surge at the sight of it.
"But as you already know, I failed."
The fight ended startlingly fast, and the vision ended.
"Destroying a world is simple, Sunless. Anyone can destroy a world. It is creating one that will separate you from the rest."
Sunny was silent for a moment from the sheer awe of what had just occurred.
And yet, he still wasn't satisfied.
"But, Lady Hope… I don't want to be like the gods."
After everything he had heard about them, they sounded like quite a crappy bunch. Even if they were alive today, he would not worship them… Although if they were alive today he'd probably be by the Shadow God's side as one of his helpers.
Still, the gods were beings he would like to emulate, but not become.
After all, the gods had still failed.
"Good answer, youngest."
Hope nodded her head.
"The gods still died, so you should not aim to become like them."
The finger placed on his forehead moved.
Instead, a palm was placed on top of his head, ruffling his hair.
"You must aim to be better."
Sunny did not react, having already expected her to say such a thing.
Eventually though, he sighed.
"Okay, I think understand now, Lady Hope. I will learn it. But what does being able to put things in my Soul Sea have to do with that?"
'Ah, I never even wanted to enter the Third Nightmare to become a Saint, and now a daemon is telling me to become greater than the gods…'
What had his life become? He never would have expected anything like this, really.
"You will understand someday. Take something from the Covetous Coffer. Something that will fit in your hand."
Sunny nodded, grabbing a scrunched up ball of synthetic paper that he had discarded, him having accidentally torn it from writing too fast back in the Ebony Tower.
"Try to put it in your Soul Sea."
Sunny awkwardly sat still for a moment, trying to think of a way to do it.
He tried absorbing it into himself, but obviously that didn't work.
He tried manifesting the happy shadow to consume, that didn't work.
He tried moving the paper's shadow into his own, but that didn't work.
Sunny stopped, trying to think of something.
'What was it that Hope had said earlier?'
He had been terribly distracted with the visions she had shown him just now, so he had almost forgotten.
'She said… my Shadow Step needs work?'
Nodding to himself, Sunny clutched the paper and dove into the shadows.
Sinking into the world of darkness, Sunny felt for the paper within his hand.
Like him, the paper had turned into a shadow, swirling around like liquid darkness. He tried to pull the shadow into himself, using his shadow form as a gateway to his soul.
Sadly, even after trying for a while, nothing seemed to work.
Emerging from the shadows, Sunny sighed.
"I don't seem to know how to do it, Lady Hope."
Hope nodded, not even a little disappointed.
"That is to be expected. It would have been a skill you learned naturally once you became a Supreme. An Ascended would naturally struggle to learn it."
'S-Supreme? What is she making me do?'
Sunny swallowed hard.
"Then, how am I supposed to do it, Lady Hope?"
"Did I not say I was going to teach you?"
Sunny blinked.
'Oh yeah… she did say that.'
He had been so immersed in trying to do it on his own that he had almost forgotten Hope was one who was going to teach him in the first place.
Sunny tossed her the paper.
"Then, if you could show me…"
Hope held the paper for a while, looking at it.
"Ah, did I not mention it before? These chains restrict things from entering and exiting my soul, so I cannot show you it myself."
Sunny's mouth hung open.
"...No, you didn't mention that."
Hope nodded.
"So be it. This will likely take some time, but I will guide you through it."
Sunny inwardly sighed.
'This is gonna take forever, isn't it?'
All good things did.