Sunny almost managed to direct his endless fall toward the tiny gap between the remnant conflagrations of the divine flame, but on that incredible scale, even the smallest mistake was bound to take him many kilometers away from the goal.
…A mistake that he had inevitably made, since there were no lessons on navigating eternal voids, especially without any tools except for his own two eyes.
'Damn it!'
Right below him, swiftly approaching, was an ocean of obliterating light, heat, and fire.
The conflagrations themselves were rather small, no larger than a dozen meters in diameter, and chaotically scattered in the void at a considerable distance from one another. Each looked like a furious, undulant orb of dancing white flames.
The space between them, though, was not safe. It was permeated by immolating heat that nothing could withstand… at least nothing Sunny had at his disposal.
As the adamantine wood of the treasure chest started to slowly catch fire, he hesitated, then glanced at the empty darkness of the distant rift in the ocean of light. Whether by accident or by design, there was a point in the field of false stars where no conflagrations remained. A roughly circular breach was torn through them, promising him safe passage.
But how was he supposed to reach it?
If Sunny jumped off the plummeting chest right now, he would probably be able to glide all the way to the rift… the distance was just right. However, he was pretty sure that the Dark Wing would be instantly turned to ash by the terrible heat of the remnant vestiges of the divine flame.
Not to mention that he himself would probably get thoroughly cooked inside the Mantle of the Underworld if he remained corporeal for that long.
With a mental sigh, Sunny left the comforting embrace of the shadows.
A kneeling figure in an intricate onyx armor appeared on the lid of the smoldering treasure chest.
'Argh…'
Despite the protection of the [Stalwart] enchantment, the air he breathed in was thin and scoldingly hot. It almost felt as if he was inhaling fire. Other than that, however, the Mantle of the Underworld did a good job of keeping the heat at bay... and yet, Sunny could feel it starting to slowly get warmer. He didn't have a lot of time.
Standing up, he raised the dark longbow, nocked an arrow on its string, and gritted his teeth. Then, sending a thin trickle of essence into the muscles of his shoulder and back, he strained his body and drew the mighty bow.
…It felt as though he was lifting a mountain.
'...How the hell does Saint make it look easy?'
Feeling his muscles tremble, Sunny aimed toward the rift and hesitated for a second. After he did this, there would be no going back.
'What is there to go back to, fool? Aren't you sick of that damned chest?!'
Relaxing his hand, he let go of the string.
The black arrow shot into the darkness with incredible speed, instantly becoming illuminated by a blinding radiance. It was strange… the void was full of light now, but with nothing to reflect it, the Sky Below still appeared black and empty. Only when something entered the emptiness did the light become visible.
Sunny felt the chest sway, and struggled to keep his balance.
A couple of moments later, the fletching of the arrow suddenly caught fire and burned away. However, that didn't affect its flight too much. The arrow pierced the darkness and turned into a distant spark, covering almost an entire kilometer in just a few seconds. Then, however, it slowed down considerably, and its wooden shaft began to smolder.
It was time to move.
As Sunny felt flame licking his greaves, he held his breath… and used Shadow Step.
The arrow he had sent flying in the direction of the rift was wrapped into one of his shadows. As the shadow unfurled itself from the igniting shaft, Sunny shot out of it as if launched from a giant slingshot. As soon as he left the shadow, it instantly wrapped itself around his body, and then slid toward the quiver.
'Crap!'
Sunny found himself flying through the darkness with nothing to support or shield him from being directly exposed to the immolating radiance. The Mantle of the Underworld suddenly shone in the torrent of light, instantly growing considerably warmer. It wasn't burning his skin yet, but he suspected that there was not much time left before that happened.
Especially because his momentum was not only horizontal, but also vertical, and was becoming more so with each moment. He was still plummeting toward the ocean of flames, approaching it with terrifying speed.
The closer he got, the more obliterating the heat would become.
Twisting as he fell to orient himself in the void, Sunny nocked another arrow and drew the bow again. This time, it was considerably harder, since he had nothing to stand on and had to rely solely on the strength of his arms and shoulders.
Just in the few seconds it had taken him to draw the bow, the heat became much more destructive.
Another arrow flew into the darkness, and several seconds later, he used Shadow Step again, appearing almost two kilometers closer to the rift.
…It was still decently far away, though.
'Curses!'
Sunny flew through the obliterating darkness and struggled to nock another arrow. The glossy black surface of the Mantle of the Underworld was starting to glow, slowly turning incandescent. He was still fine inside, though. For now. If a little hot…
Another arrow disappeared into the darkness, and Sunny jumped through the shadows again.
This time, the jump devoured pretty much all of his remaining shadow essence. Whatever little there was left would not have been enough to repeat the process the fourth time.
However, maybe… just maybe… he wasn't going to have to.
After using Shadow Step three times in a row, and turning some of his vertical momentum into horizontal one with each jump, Sunny was now plummeting diagonally through the void, seemingly toward the very edge of the rift.
'I am going to make it… am I going to make it?'
Even if he would, it was going to be very, very close.
The string of the bow suddenly caught fire and broke with a loud ring. Dismissing the bow and the quiver, Sunny sent both of his shadows to reinforce the Mantle of the Underworld and threw his hands and legs to the sides. He was trying to create as much surface area as possible to utilize the resistance of the air in his favor.
He was well-versed in all kinds of falling and gliding thanks to using the Dark Wing so often, so this was not something new to him. Granted, he had never done it in a heavy armor.
Speaking of which…
Sunny hesitated, then directed some of his remaining essence into the Mantle of the Underworld to activate the [Feather of Truth] enchantment and make the armor as light as possible.
Then, all he could do was endure the growing heat and wait and watch as both the obliterating ocean of flames and the circle of saving darkness approached him at tremendous speed.
His life now depended solely on which of the two was going to swallow him first.
Chapter 442: Burning Heaven
Surrounded by a radiant halo, Sunny plummeted into the darkness. His breath was ragged and hoarse, and his eyes were blinded by the piercing shine of the immolating ocean of white flames beneath him.
Fearing that his eyes would be permanently blinded by it, he closed them, which helped a little.
'Hot… it's so hot…'
He was drawing closer and closer to the remains of the divine inferno, and as he did, the stonelike metal of the Mantle of the Underworld was growing hotter and hotter. Soon, its outer layer turned bright red. Then, it started to melt.
'Damn!'
Sunny directed more of his remaining essence through the coils of the Soul Serpent, activating the [Living Stone] enchantment of the Underworld armor.
As the onyx melted and cracked, causing him excruciating pain, the Mantle began to repair itself. Before anything could fully breach the surface of the incandescent onyx, the damage was undone.
…For now, the enchanted armor could heal itself faster than it was being destroyed. In large part due to being augmented by both of his shadows, perhaps.
Sunny encountered another problem, though.
It was getting harder and harder to breathe… not even because the air was scalding and hot, but because there was not enough of it.
Fire fed on oxygen, after all.
Luckily, Sunny was no stranger to being deprived of it. What's more, thanks to the Blood Weave, he could get by without breathing for much longer than most Awakened… and he suspected that he would have to do just that very soon.
Hopefully, he would be able to reach the rift shortly after that.
And speaking of the rift…
He carefully opened his eyes a little and glanced into the blinding inferno beneath, trying to judge whether or not he was going to make it. For now, it seemed that he would easily pass the field of fire and enter the dark emptiness… but that was just an illusion.
Sunny had to factor in that his forward momentum was constantly growing weaker, which meant that his trajectory would become more and more vertical the longer he fell through the searing abyss.
It was too hard to tell whether or not he was going to make it.
Gritting his teeth, he shifted his weight and lowered one hand, grabbing the hilt of the Cruel Sight. Then, he raised the silver blade to his chest, threw a cursory glance at his warped reflection, and activated the [Light Eater] enchantment of the somber sword.
Instantly, the mirror blade began to absorb the merciless light of the false stars, growing white-hot and incandescent. Sunny, however, found himself able to see once again. He even felt a little cooler, although it might have been just wishful thinking.
Surrounded by a strange bubble of darkness left behind by the devoured light, Sunny plummeted toward the obliterating stars.
'Almost! I'm almost there!'
By then, the conflagrations of the divine flame were so close that it seemed as though he could reach out and touch them. No matter how hard Sunny tried, he couldn't draw in even a little bit of air into his lungs. The rift was so close…
But in the end, it turned out to be just a little bit too far.
Sunny reached the very edge of the field of flames. He only had to fly past one last cluster of conflagrations. However, his fall took him straight into the embrace of fire instead.
Sunny would have screamed if there was any air in his lungs. Moving at a terrible speed, he pierced right through one of the seething orbs and emerged from the other side of it, wreathed in white flame. A terrible pain enveloped his whole being.
But it wasn't physical pain… it was the similar kind of pain he had experienced while using the Broken Oath, only magnified a hundredfold.
'...shadows... my shadows!'
His shadows were wrapped around the Mantle of the Underworld, and so, they had been badly damaged by the divine fire. The armor itself had caught aflame and was now quickly disintegrating. The fire was spreading, too, threatening to envelop him whole.
Half-blind from pain, Sunny did the only thing that could save him now — he dismissed the onyx armor. The Mantle of the Underworld fell into countless sparks of darkness, which then disappeared, causing the fire to be extinguished.
Naked and hurting, Sunny fell into the darkness and saw the Cruel Sight crack, the silver of its blade becoming dull and tarnished. Following an instinct, he activated the [Dark Mirror] enchantment, and then dismissed that Memory, too.
Finally, he wrapped the wounded shadows around himself and circulated what little shadow essence he had left through his entire body, spending all of it to make himself more resilient…
And then, he felt cool wind touch his blistering skin.
Sunny fought through the terrible pain and opened his eyes.
Behind him, there was a wall of ruthless radiance.
But in front of him, there was nothing but darkness.
…He had reached the rift.
***
'Hurts… everything hurts. Crap… this is so unfair!'
Sunny flew deeper into the rift, creating more distance between himself and the conflagrations of the divine flame. Of course, they were too close for him to feel comfortable. But at least he could breathe again, and wasn't being cooked alive.
Well… at least not very fast.
Before being badly hurt by the divine flame, Sunny had hoped that somehow, miraculously, he would turn out to be immune to it. He was technically a shadow of a Sun God's descendant, after all. Why wouldn't he be immune to the manifestation of his master's domain?
Well… his master's indirect ancestor's domain, to be precise.
Plus, he was not just any shadow, but a divine one left behind by Shadow God himself. Light and shadows were two sides of the same coin, weren't they?
As it turned out, the divine flame didn't care.
'Argh!'
Currently, Sunny was falling through the rift. He had reached its center and dove straight down, hoping to stay as far away from the surrounding stars as possible. It was as though there was a tunnel of empty darkness torn through the very heart of the field of flames, and he was following it down.
Down, down, down…
It was hard to even conceive of a world where he wasn't constantly falling down.
Now that he had no Mantle of the Underworld to protect him from the blaze, Sunny was suffering a lot. Rift or not, the air was still permeated by the unbearable heat. His skin was red, with patches of it blistering. Some of it was badly burned by his unfortunate clash with the divine flame and because he had not dismissed the burning Mantle of the Underworld fast enough.
It was not life-threatening, though.
…Yet.
'Come on! End, goddammit!'
But the field of flames showed no signs of ever ending.
Until it did.
After a while, when Sunny was on the verge of losing conscience from the constant heat, he noticed that the scattering of the immolating stars around him became a bit thinner.
And then, even more so.
And then, suddenly and without any warning, he fell out of the field of divine flame and found himself surrounded by nothing but blessed nothing once again.
…The radiant inferno was now above him, growing further away with each second. It looked as if…
As if heaven was on fire.
And beneath him…
Sunny looked down and shivered.
'What... how?'
His eyes widened in shock.
Chapter 443: Secrets of the Void
Out there in the empty darkness of the void… something even darker loomed, hidden from the radiant light of the ocean of flame above.
Sunny peered at the distant black silhouette and shivered.
'...What the hell? What is it doing here?'
Far below him, a small island cut from dark stone floated in the endless emptiness, surrounded by drifting slabs of shattered obsidian. A tall and magnificent pagoda stood in its center, built of a flawlessly black material that was neither wood nor stone. Its lusterless walls seemed to devour any light that touched them…
It was the perfect replica of the Ivory Tower... but at the same time its opposite. The two pagodas were so alike that for a moment, Sunny even thought that he had somehow found himself high up in the Sky Above.
But no.
The island that the Obsidian Tower stood upon was different. It was larger than the one every Awakened on the Chained Isles was used to observing in the skies, and had no broken chains hanging from its stone slopes. On its desolate surface, remains of mysterious structures could be seen, turned to ruin by the passage of time. Several obsidian pillars protruded horizontally from its edges, stretching into the empty void like strange wharves.
From high above, Sunny couldn't see much of the island in detail. But he was approaching it fast…
'...Crap!'
Too fast!
Sunny hesitated for a moment, then suppressed the desire to immediately summon the Dark Wing. The divine flames were still too close, and their heat could damage the fragile Memory. He had to wait for a bit… there was still time.
Even if it was going to run out pretty soon.
Sunny continued to fall, waiting. With every minute, the heat of the immolating stars dissipated a little. And with each minute, the dark island grew closer and closer.
Finally, knowing that there was no more time to waste, Sunny summoned the Dark Wing and commanded it to turn his fall into a glide. The dragonfly cloak turned into a blur behind his back… but it also began to produce thin wisps of smoke, threatening to catch aflame at any moment.
'Curses!'
Supported by the enchantment of the Dark Wing, Sunny's descent started to slow down little by little. His speed, however, was too great to be nullified in a single instant. It was dropping swiftly… but was it swift enough to prevent him from splattering all over the surface of the mysterious island?
And was the transparent cloak even going to endure for long enough?
Sunny cursed and trembled as he watched the Obsidian Tower approach.
'Here goes nothing! Damn!'
In the end, he still landed with enough speed to shatter all bones in his legs from the impact against the ground. At the last moment, however, Sunny turned into a shadow and dove into the deep darkness enveloping the island instead. Safely embraced by the shadows, he submerged himself into them, and finally allowed his mind to relax.
'Safe… I'm safe…'
…He was finally safe.
For a few seconds, at least.
***
Sunny was in a world of pain.
His shadow essence was running out, too.
Also, he had no idea what terrifying danger was waiting for him on the mysterious island that remained hidden in the deepest reaches of the Sky Below for thousands of years, nor what deadly secrets waited for him inside the Obsidian Tower.
…But for now, he did not care. All he cared about was that he was not falling anymore.
'Bliss… this is pure bliss!'
Floating in the dark embrace of shadows, Sunny couldn't get enough of the fact that, for the first time in almost a month, he was… stationary. He finally had solid ground under his feet again! Metaphorically speaking, of course.
In any case, it was such a beautiful feeling.
Sunny allowed himself to relax and rested for a bit, safely hidden in the deep dark shadows.
After a while, he sighed and forced himself to turn his attention to the outside world. Moving closer to the surface of the deep darkness that embraced him, Sunny cautiously took a look outside.
'...Huh?'
Strangely, what met him was complete and utter silence.
There were no Nightmare Creatures on the island, no abyssal horrors, no terrifying beings to devour him whole. Not even a single unholy titan slumbered nearby, ready to wake up at the slightest disturbance.
The island seemed… empty.
Which was very fortunate, considering that Sunny was running very low on shadow essence and was going to have to assume his physical form soon.
He hesitated for a few moments, then took stock of his equipment and himself.
His soul was seriously wounded, but not beyond its ability to heal itself… in time.
His body was not exactly whole, but in somewhat of a splendid shape, considering all that had happened. He even had all his limbs intact.
Both the Mantle of the Underworld and the Cruel Sight, as well as the Dark Wing and Saint's bow were heavily damaged. Luckily, none of these Memories were completely destroyed. It was going to take a long time before he could use them again, though. Days… maybe even weeks.
On the bright side, Saint herself had recovered from the wounds received on the Shipwreck Island ages ago. Sunny actually could have summoned her at any point during his journey through the Sky Below, but there was no real reason to. Plus, the treasure chest would not have accommodated both of them, especially considering how much the living statue weighed.
The [Dark Mirror] enchantment of the Cruel Sight now also had two elemental augmentations for Sunny to choose from. Its runes showed:
Current Charge: Divine Flame.
Latent Charges: Soul.
'Divine flame, huh…'
Well, if there was one benefit from being burned by the damn thing, it was that now he would be able to cause similar pain to others. So, it was totally worth it in the end... no doubt about it...
'I guess we will have to see.'
And lastly… Sunny was now completely sure that the thing on the other end of the golden String of Fate was the Obsidian Tower. His intuition was calm and silent. That told him that he had arrived at his destination.
Somewhere inside, a thing that was deeply connected to his fate waited.
Glancing at the magnificent silhouette of the black pagoda, Sunny sighed… and left the safety of the shadows, emerging from them to step onto the surface of the island that no other human had visited in thousands of years.
If ever…
Chapter 444: Obsidian Tower
Sunny stood naked on the rocky surface of the dark island. He grimaced and looked at his body, which was a map of burns — some more severe than others — then summoned the Puppeteer's Shroud.
Not wishing for the soft fabric to touch the worst of his wounds, he left it the way it had been during the latter stages of his journey through the Sky Below, with the leather elements gone and the upper garment undone and tied around his waist.
This time, his body was wrapped in shadows and appeared black, as if cut from the same obsidian that the dark island consisted of. The coils of the Soul Serpent seemed to shimmer as the essence flowed through them.
A moment later, Saint stepped from behind him and moved forward, summoning the Midnight Shard as she walked. Knowing how badly his soul was damaged, Sunny decided to keep the Broken Oath locked away for a while, so the Shadow was not surrounded by the destructive aura anymore.
He was also not in any shape to fight himself, at least not very effectively, and that was why the austere tachi was currently in the hands of the taciturn demon. If push came to shove, Sunny would either use the Moonlight Shard or command the Soul Serpent to assume the odachi form.
With a heavy sigh, he summoned the Endless Spring and greedily drank the cold water from it, then leaned forward and poured some on his head. After that, he finally felt like a human once again.
…All in all, things weren't that bad. He was alive and in one piece, suffering from neither thirst nor hunger.
Here on the dark island, the air was pleasantly warm. Bright stars burned in the empty void high above, making for a beautiful view. Right in front of them, the graceful silhouette of the Obsidian Tower rose from the ground like a black rift in reality.
It turned out to be much larger than Sunny had thought, but nowhere near the scale of the Crimson Spire. That cursed thing seemed to be too gargantuan to even exist, while the ancient pagoda was more or less fit to have been built for humans. Well… maybe for extremely tall humans. Or... tiny giants?
As Sunny studied the Obsidian Tower, Saint tilted her head and stared at the black pagoda, too, her ruby eyes reflecting some strange emotion. Was it… recognition?
Why would his Shadow recognize a tower hidden in the depths of the abyss below the Chained Islands?
'Strange…'
Sunny frowned, then dismissed the Endless Spring. He remained motionless for a few moments, then slowly headed toward the tall pagoda. Saint followed.
As they walked across the island, Sunny had time to look at the various ruins left on its surface.
It was hard to determine what they had been once, but Sunny got the feeling that he wasn't looking at the remains of buildings. More like… structures? Devices? Their purpose was now impossible to determine, but whatever it had been, he doubted that anyone could have ever lived inside.
The closest he could get to putting his feeling in words was that these ruins reminded him most of the bowels of the underground factory his mom had worked in when he was little. Even though the factory was much larger and built of alloy instead of cut blocks of obsidian, not to mention being much more advanced, the sensation was the same.
'...Just what was the purpose of this island? Who lived here? Who built that strange tower?'
The closer Sunny got to the Obsidian Tower, the more he was impressed by its graceful beauty. Even though the pagoda was hidden in the depths of the Sky Below, where very few creatures would have ever seen it, the unknown builder spent time to ensure that it replicated the magnificence of its Ivory counterpart perfectly.
It would have been breathtaking if it wasn't so… menacing.
Surrounded by nothing but emptiness and silence, the Obsidian Tower appeared ominous just by virtue of existing.
'I am not… not scared at all.'
He did, however, was thinking about one thing in particular…
Which tower was really the replica, and which one was the original?
The beautiful white pagoda that flowed high above the Chained Isles, or the menacing black one that hid in the darkness below?
Maybe he was going to find out…
Soon, Sunny and Saint approached the tall gates of the Obsidian Tower. Nothing attacked them, and no frightening sound came from inside, announcing that something that dwelled beyond the black gates was awakening in hunger. The pagoda was silent, just like the rest of the dark island.
The strange thing, though, was that Sunny could not feel any shadows on the other side of the massive door. Not because there weren't any, but because the walls of the tower seemed to shield the interior from his Shadow Sense.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
'I have never encountered anything like this before. Have I?'
He hesitated, then approached the black door, summoned the Moonlight Shard, and scratched its surface. A layer of black dust fell down, revealing a much harder, and even blacker surface beneath.
Sunny raised an eyebrow.
'...Soot?'
The entire pagoda was covered in a thick layer of soot. He stood motionlessly for a bit, trying to understand what meaning was there in this fact, then simply shrugged and studied the ancient gate.
The problem he was facing… was that the gate didn't have a handle to open. Neither did it have a keyhole, a bell to ring, or a knocker to announce his arrival.
'How the hell am I supposed to open it?'
Without Shadow Sense, he couldn't use Shadow Step to simply appear inside. So, for the moment, Sunny was stuck.
'It would be very, very funny to travel all this way only to find out that I can't open a damn door. Right?'
Slightly embarrassed, he looked at Saint and asked:
"Any ideas?"
He didn't really expect an answer from the taciturn demon, but to his surprise, the Shadow stared at him for a few moments, and then lowered her sword.
Then, she raised one hand and pointed to her eye.
Sunny observed all of that in complete bewilderment, then blinked a couple of times.
'Eye? What does she mean?'
Then, an idea came into his mind.
Turning back to the door, he put one hand on it, and then shifted his gaze in a similar manner he did when looking beneath the surface of Memories to look at their spellweave.
And there, beneath the obsidian surface of the tower's gate, he saw it.
A weave.
It wasn't the weave of ethereal threads he was used to seeing, though. Instead, it was a much cruder and more primitive version of it, created from very physical diamond strings that stretched beneath the stone surface, creating a beautiful, but simple pattern.
Sunny had only seen this type of weave one time before.
Inside Saint herself.
Back when she was just an Echo, he had noticed it hidden behind the radiant pattern of the spellweave. He had thought that it was what made the stone warriors alive, in the first place.
That it was created by the last child of the Unknown in the cavernous halls of his dark domain…
And that it might have been the precursor of the Spell itself, or maybe an imitation of it.
Was this tower built by the Lord of the Underworld too, then?
…Sunny hesitated for a moment, then moved his hand to a particularly bright nod of the diamond weave and sent a small amount of shadow essence into it.
For a moment, nothing happened.
And then, the gates of the Obsidian Tower opened.
Chapter 445: Respite
Visible only to Sunny, the diamond weave beneath the surface of the gate ignited with ghostly light. Almost immediately, a thin vertical crack appeared in the ancient stone.
Then, the gates silently opened, and a gust of wind hit Sunny in the back.
He took a few steps away, hiding behind Saint, and cautiously looked over her shoulder at the dark entrance.
Nothing was moving in the darkness. From what he could see, the interior of the Obsidian Tower seemed quite mundane. As soon as the gate opened, his Shadows Sense could finally penetrate the invisible barrier surrounding the graceful pagoda — it didn't detect any danger, as well.
It really did seem safe.
He waited for a few moments, then coughed and waved a hand in front of his face, trying to get the soot that had flown into the air away from it.
"Ah, well. Nothing to worry about, then. Let's go!"
Sunny glanced at Saint, lingered for a second, and added in a polite tone:
"...Oh, ladies first."
The taciturn demon turned her head slightly, stared at him with one ruby eye, then simply walked forward and stepped over the threshold of the ancient tower. Sunny waited for a few moments, and followed.
Tightly gripping the handle of the Moonlight Shard, he dove into the darkness that reigned behind the tall frame of the entrance, made a dozen steps forward, and found himself in a wide corridor that seemed to encircle the entire first level of the pagoda.
The corridor stretched both far to the left and to the right. Here and there, Sunny could see large doors leading to differently sized rooms that were situated in the direction of the tower's outer wall, all the way to the bends of the corridor. And right in front of him was an intricate wooden gate decorated with beautiful engravings.
Behind it was the central hall of the tower.
Sunny hesitated for a bit, then pushed the wooden gate, which opened easily and revealed a vast chamber on the other side.
'That smell…'
His eyes widened.
Behind the gate was a large hall with a very tall ceiling. As soon as the gate opened, glass lanterns ignited on its walls, filling the interior of the Obsidian Tower with ghostly blue light. There were various things in the hall, all of which demanded Sunny's attention.
There was a stand holding smith's tools and implements, all masterfully crafted from black obsidian and silver. A badly burned worktable with a scattering of beautiful soul crystals on its black surface. A stone wall with mysterious schematics cut into it, the cuts themselves so smooth and deep that he couldn't even begin to imagine what had left them behind, let alone what the schematics described.
There were strange devices forged from silver and black steel, some of which reminded him of astronomical instruments, but also very mundane things, like chairs, tables, and even something that resembled a very long bed.
All of it was perfectly preserved and immaculate, with not a speck of dust anywhere, cleaner than even his own house in the real world was… despite the thousands of years that must have passed since the Obsidian Tower was visited last.
It also all felt slightly… wrong. The sizes of everything were almost fit to be used by a human, but slightly different. The shapes of the handles of all the tools were slightly strange. The way the pieces of furniture and equipment were arranged in space filled him with a slight feeling of unease, even though he didn't know why.
…But Sunny did dwell on this for too long. Neither did his gaze linger on any of these items. His attention was pulled toward one specific place.
Not too far from him stood a simple wooden table. And on it… was all kinds of delicious food.
Juicy meat, freshly baked bread, succulent grapes, glass jars of exquisite wine, beautiful pots full of steaming tea, all of it waited for him, as if served only a few seconds ago.
Sunny's mouth watered.
'How is this possible? This has to be an illusion… right?'
Covered in layers of soot, sweat, and blood, he walked toward the table. His boots left black marks on the pristine floor of the hall. Arriving at his destination, Sunny reached out and grabbed a piece of bread with his dirty hand and greedily devoured it, then took one of the intricate silver goblets and filled it with wine.
The rest of the goblets clattered to the floor, thrown off the table by his careless movement.
Not paying it any attention, Sunny gulped down the sweet wine and laughed, sending breadcrumbs flying into the air.
"Ah… this is not bad, really…"
He would have preferred something without alcohol, but then again, this wine tasted so good...
There was a wide grin on Sunny's face, but also dirty traces left by tears. His shoulders trembled.
"This really hits the spot…"
He was aware of the fact that the food could have been full of poison, but didn't care too much. He was just too hungry, tired, and spent. His body and his soul both hurt too much. He was at his wits' end.
Refilling his goblet and grabbing a piece of perfectly roasted meat, he wandered away from the table and took another look at the large hall.
"There's no one here, right, Saint?"
The Shadow silently walked behind him, vigilantly looking around and keeping the Midnight Shard ready.
But there was nothing to use it against.
Sunny wandered for a minute or so, and eventually stopped near a large bed covered with black, lavish furs. Dropping the empty goblet on the floor, he hesitated a little… and then climbed into the furs.
'...Who's been sleeping in my bed?'
Sunny dismissed the Puppeteer's Shroud and lowered his heavy head onto a soft pillow.
He wanted to give Saint the command to stand guard, but there was no need. The taciturn demon was already doing exactly that…
Before Sunny could think about something else, the exhaustion of the past few weeks took over his mind, and, offering almost no resistance, it slipped easily into the embrace of darkness.
The first thing Sunny ended up doing after discovering the Obsidian Tower and finding his way inside… was falling on a bed and going to sleep.
He slept well.
Chapter 446: Relentless Destroyer
Sunny slept for a long time, the exhaustion slowly leaving his battered body. After a while, though, his consciousness rose from the deepest layers of slumber, summoned back by pain and thirst. With a sigh, he turned to his other side and tried to go back to sleep. After a few more hours of tossing and turning, though, Sunny was finally awoken by the loud sound of something crashing to the floor.
'...What is Saint doing?'
He reluctantly opened his eyes and sat up.
As Sunny's weight shifted, the bed beneath him suddenly broke with a loud crack. He rolled onto the floor with a startled yelp.
"Huh?!"
Standing up, Sunny looked at the broken bed, then at the hall of the Obsidian Tower, which was now submerged in darkness. A bewildered expression appeared on his face.
The room he had entered before had gone through a dramatic transformation while he was asleep. The magical lanterns were now extinguished, and everything inside seemed dilapidated and decrepit, almost on the verge of crumbling to pieces.
The magnificent tools and implements had rusted through and deformed, the worktable had collapsed under its own weight — that was the sound which had awoken Sunny — the food he had enjoyed yesterday had turned to dust. The pristine condition of the hall was gone, and now it was full of darkness, debris, and dirt.
It was as though eons had passed since he fell asleep.
A cold feeling appeared in his chest.
'...Have I slept for a thousand years?!'
Remembering fairy tales where similar things often happened, Sunny felt a hint of horror, but then thought about it for a few moments and calmed down.
No, he had not… judging by how much shadow essence had accumulated in his cores, he slept for about twenty-four hours straight, which was a lot, but nowhere near a thousand years. Saint, who was keeping watch nearby, also didn't look as if she had been guarding him for a few centuries.
Instead, it was the pagoda itself that had aged. As if an invisible seal that had kept it untouched by the passage of time for all those thousands of years was now broken, and time was finally catching up with it.
Time was the most relentless destroyer, after all.
Sunny sighed with relief, then grimaced.
'Curses! I should have eaten more yesterday… much, much more!'
All that delicious food, wasted!
Shaking his head dejectedly, Sunny looked around, then accessed his own state.
His wounds were already much better than they had been the day before. The burns were still rather painful, but within his capacity to endure without being slowed down in battle… too much. A couple more days of rest, and he would be close to being fully functional again.
He was really hungry, though.
But that was going to have to wait.
Summoning the Moonlight Shard, Sunny gave Saint a command to follow, and went to explore the Obsidian Tower.
***
It took Sunny about an hour to fully explore the first level of the ancient pagoda. Some of the doors in the outer corridor had collapsed and turned to dust, some remained standing and required him to use a tiny bit of shadow essence to unlock them.
Behind the doors were all kinds of rooms. Most of them were empty, suggesting that the master of the tower had moved away a long time ago, taking all the valuable things with him, while some contained weathered debris and dust. Sunny spent a lot of time trying to understand what all these things had once been, by the damage done by the accelerated time was too extensive to even guess.
'...Such a shame.'
Feeling strangely disappointed, Sunny decided that it was time to move on to other levels of the tower. He still had to find the thing that had pulled him toward this place, as well as — hopefully — some means of returning either to the Chained Isles or to the real world.
The idea of being stuck on this island forever did not seem very appealing.
Especially now that there was no food anywhere around...
Not finding anything interesting on the first level, Sunny decided to explore further.
From the outside, it had seemed as though the Obsidian Tower had six levels, which really surprised Sunny. He had expected there to be seven. However, after finding two stairwells — one stair leading up, the other down — he realized that there was an underground level, too, which explained this small discrepancy.
Everything having to do with the Spell and the Dream Realm had a tendency to be tied to the number seven… except the gods, of whom there had been only six.
'I guess that's why they are called gods… no law can bind them. Not even such a weird and random law as all things coming in sevens.'
Sunny looked up, then looked down, and decided to explore the underground level first.
Letting Saint go ahead, he entered the spiraling staircase and descended into the depths of the dark island.
Unlike the ground level, the basement of the Obsidian Tower turned out to be one giant hall.
And in it…
Sunny recoiled.
For a second, it seemed as though hundreds of dismembered corpses were piled at the center of the hall, forming a morbid hill. But as Sunny took a step back and instinctively raised the Moonlight Shard, he realized that he made a mistake.
The bodies piled in the center of the chamber were not that of people. Instead, they were… dolls.
Hundreds of broken porcelain dolls, each the size of a human, were discarded in the underground hall. Their fragile bodies were shattered and broken, laying there like abandoned toys. Some were missing limbs, some were left with gaping holes in their torsos. Some had long ago turned into piles of small fragments, with not even their faces remaining.
But those faces that did remain…
Sunny tilted his head, then glanced at Saint.
Every broken doll had the same face, or rather, all of their faces looked alike… as if they were all imperfect copies of the same original.
They had the same flawless, inhumanly beautiful features that Saint had, only the craftsmanship behind the faces of the broken dolls seemed much less refined, as though the sculptor had not yet perfected his skill when creating them.
There all looked like Saint's lesser siblings.
...If Sunny ever had doubts that the Obsidian Tower had once belonged to a certain Underworld Demon, now there were none. The last child of the Unknown had clearly spent some time here. Was probably the one who had created the black pagoda, in the first place, for some mysterious purpose Sunny couldn't even begin to guess.
Then, however, his attention was drawn to something else.
The floor of the vast hall was covered by a thick layer of dust, which should not have been disturbed in a few thousand years.
…But it had been.
A set of fleet footprints led all the way from the bottom of the stairs, where Sunny was standing, to the pile of broken dolls, circled it, and then mysteriously disappeared.
Sunny stared at it for a few moments, surprised.
'Someone… someone had entered the Obsidian tower before me."
Chapter 447: Primal Fear
Sunny stared at the footprints for some more, then frowned.
'How does this make any sense?'
The Obsidian Tower had been sealed before he opened its gates. After he did so, the magic that had preserved everything inside was dispelled, which meant that those doors had not been opened in thousands of years.
It wasn't that easy to gain entry into the pagoda, to begin with. Not even mentioning the fact that one had to travel through the Sky Below and find the only rift in the boundless ocean of divine flames, there was also the fact that the gate had to be open by pouring essence into the weave of diamond strings beneath its surface.
Sunny could only see the weave and understand its meaning a little because his eyes had been transformed by the drop of Weaver's blood. He assumed that there were other Awakened with similar abilities, but there had to be very, very few of them… and what were the chances that one would find their way to the dark island beyond the immolating sea of stars, which was hidden in the depths of this endless void?
And how would they enter the pagoda without causing its seal to break?
'Just who was it that snuck into the Obsidian Tower unseen? And when?'
It had to have happened long before today. Sunny knew for a fact that Saint would not have let anyone come and go without waking him up. Neither would his shadows: even when he slept, they were aware and vigilant.
So… it could have happened at any point in the thousands of years since the tower had been abandoned by its rightful owner.
For now, he had no answer.
Feeling a little apprehensive, Sunny approached the pile of broken dolls and studied them for some time. Saint came closer, too, and stared at them silently. Then, she poked one with the tip of the Midnight Shard and turned away indifferently, as if loosing all interest in the porcelain mannequins.
'...I guess she doesn't care too much about lesser versions of her.'
Saint repeatedly shown her disdain toward things that seemed to be replicas of her kind. It had been the same with the Black Knight, and even with the walking colossus of the Forgotten Shore. Sunny clearly remembered how unimpressed his Shadow had been with the awesome stone giant.
Turning away from the broken dolls, Sunny looked around and noticed that the walls of the chamber were lined with massive glass vessels. Some were whole and some were broken, but all were empty. The glass was black and opaque, covered with a thick layer of soot… from the inside.
'...Weird.'
Not finding anything else of interest on the underground level, he returned to where he had started and rested for a while, drinking water from the Endless Spring and trying to suppress his hunger.
'This place is so… eerie.'
It was, indeed. The black tower stood at the edge of an endless void of darkness, empty and abandoned, with everything inside of it made out of nothing by an inhuman mind. It was not a very welcoming place... at least not for humans. Sunny stared at the ancient walls that surrounded him, and wondered about the secrets of the past.
After a while, he stood up and cautiously headed for the second level of the great pagoda.
…As soon as Sunny set foot on it, though, he instantly felt that something was very, very wrong there.
The feeling of deep, subtle, primordial terror he suddenly experienced was unlike anything he had known before… with the exception, perhaps, of those few moments back on the Forgotten Shore when the walking colossus had lifted the giant three-eyed skull from the depths of the dark sea.
But here, this feeling was even more dire, even more invasive.
'What… what is this…'
Just like the underground level, this one consisted of only one great hall. The black walls rose high into the darkness, creating a magnificent and solemn atmosphere. At the center of it, cut into the obsidian floor, was a massive silver brazier. And in it…
Sunny shuddered and took a step back.
Something was… growing from the brazier, spreading outward like a vile kind of rot. It had infected the very stone of the ancient tower, turning it into a semblance of repulsive, black, pulsating flesh. The silver brazier was infected by the terrifying growth, too, its metal somehow becoming a part of it. It seemed as if everything would become absorbed and transformed by the spreading corruption as long as it was touched by the harrowing growth… entire worlds would be devoured by it, perhaps, if given chance.
The thing slowly spreading from the ancient brazier felt like… pure evil.
Sunny shivered, gave Saint a signal to stay back, and shifted his gaze slightly. He was looking past spreading black flesh, at the source of this harrowing infection.
At the very center of the brazier, blackened by the flames that must have raged in it once, lay a severed human arm. Well… it resembled that of a human, at least.
The arm was much longer than it should have been, and the hand had seven fingers that ended with sharp claws. The rot seemed to be spreading from a terrible torn wound on the forearm, to the charred and emaciated flesh, and then outward, to everything else around it.
Despite the repugnant state of the severed arm, the cut that separated it at the shoulder seemed clean and perfectly smooth, as if delivered by a steady and unfaltering blade.
But Sunny was more affected in something else.
A deep frown appeared on his face when he noticed it…
In his mind's eye, the vile arm was radiating a blindingly bright, overwhelming, beautiful golden radiance.
It was awash in the light of divinity.
A frightening thought appeared in Sunny's head.
'Can... can it be?'
In front of him, stricken by the harrowing rot, was... a severed arm of a deity.
...It was also the reason why fate had brought him to this lost and forgotten corner of the abyss.
Chapter 448: Golden Needle
Sunny stared at the severed arm of an unknown deity, then at the harrowing, profane rot spreading from it. Then, he tiredly rubbed his face.
'...Why can't anything ever be easy?'
He was sure that his fate was somehow connected to that arm, which meant that he was going to have to get to it somehow. But Sunny was also sure that there weren't enough rewards in all of the universe to make him go anywhere near that rot, let alone touch something infected by it.
He had the feeling that this thing was way, way out of his league.
In fact, he suspected that a divine being had ruthlessly severed their own arm because even someone as powerful as that had no means to resist that spreading corruption.
What was Sunny supposed to do, then?
Well…
Trying to remain as far from the rot as possible, he studied it for a while before coming to a strange conclusion… or rather, a strange question.
If the corruption was so terrible, then why had it not spread through the entire tower? Why had it only managed to crawl a few meters out of the silver brazier, turning a small portion of the second level of the pagoda into its flesh?
'Scratch that. Why didn't the whole island become one giant chunk of rotten black... whatever the hell that thing is?'
The answer was not hard to guess. It was because the rot, just like everything else inside the tower, had been sealed away from time for thousands of years.
And now that Sunny had broken that seal…
His frown deepened as he glanced at the silver hearth that was overgrown and had become a part of the spreading rot.
Now, there were only two possibilities. Time was going to catch up to the devouring corruption, and it was either going to slowly consume everything… or starve and die.
Could that thing last for thousands of years with nothing to feed on except for cold stone? Did it need to feed on flesh and souls, or would anything do?
'...I guess I am going to find out.'
Keeping an eye on the patch of harrowing rot, Sunny tried to suppress his fear and took a step forward.
It didn't seem like the rot was spreading. At least not yet.
In any case, he wasn't going to get closer to it. But he also knew that if the worst happened, he had no tool at his disposal that would save him. If that thing began to grow, slowly spreading across the whole of the Obsidian Tower, and then across the whole island, Sunny was simply going to die. Probably jump down into nothingness to avoid becoming a part of that... thing.
There was nowhere else to retreat to in the Sky Below, after all. And he doubted that he would be able to find a second secret island out there in the void...
So, his only hope was to find something inside the pagoda to save him. He had to explore further…
Plus, there was a possibility that the rot would swiftly wither and die. Not that Sunny would bet on it.
Pressing his back against the cold obsidian, Sunny dismissed Saint and skirted around the outer wall of the great hall until he reached the staircase that led higher, to the third level. There, he summoned the taciturn demon again, hesitated for a bit, and then left one of his shadows to keep an eye on the devouring rot.
Feeling irrational panic at the thought of turning his back to the silver brazier, Sunny gritted his teeth, and then cautiously ascended the spiraling stairs.
As soon as the terrible thing disappeared from view, he let out a relieved sigh and realized that his entire body was covered in a cold sweat. Raising a trembling hand, Sunny wiped his face, and then continued to climb higher.
Saint being by his side gave him a little confidence, at least. The Shadow seemed absolutely unperturbed by the horrific visage they had left behind.
'...I bet fear can't even fit into that stone head of hers. Do Shadows have the ability to be afraid?'
He didn't know whether or not Saint could feel fear, but the gloomy shadow certainly could. In fact, behind its haughty exterior, it was rather cowardly. He was sure that the bastard would have been trembling all over if not for the fact that it was currently wrapped around his body.
Trying to distract himself with these thoughts, Sunny entered the third level of the Obsidian Tower… and froze, dumbfounded by what he saw there.
'I… I see. Wait, no. What the hell am I looking at?'
The chamber he found himself in was smaller than the previous three halls he had explored — mostly because the pagoda narrowed the higher it went, but also because the level was separated into several chambers.
And in that chamber in particular, dozens of porcelains arms floated in the air, each at a different level of being disassembled into tiny parts.
It was as though someone had stolen them from the pile of broken dolls in the basement of the Obsidian Tower and then brought them here to… to do what, exactly?
Sunny stared at the floating garden of disassembled arms, and then walked closer. He felt as though he was in some bizarre anatomy museum…
As it turns out, the porcelain dolls were much more complex than he had thought. In their disassembled state, their limbs showed how intricate the design was, and how many moving parts went into making each one as functional and articulated as that of a human. The joints, in particular, seemed like a marvel of engineering… not to mention the incredibly delicate weave of the diamond string beneath.
Even spelltech automatons could not boast of that level of ingenuity and intricacy.
But why were these arms brought here and taken apart? Who had done it? The Prince of the Underworld himself?
It didn't look like it… why would he need to study his abandoned creations?
It all became clearer when Sunny reached a stone pedestal standing at the far end of the chamber and saw a faint golden light emanating from a small object laying on it.
On the surface of the table were numerous parts that had been scavenged from the disassembled porcelain arms, several skeins of beautiful diamond string… and a long, narrow needle.
It was the needle that gave off a faint, weak radiance.
Sunny looked at the needle, then glanced at the floating porcelain arms, noting for the first time that each was missing a part or two.
Finally, different pieces of information connected in his mind, and he felt that he understood something about what had transpired in the Obsidian Tower.
Sometime after the Prince of the Underworld had left this hidden island — perhaps years, or perhaps thousands of years — an uninvited guest had snuck into the black pagoda like a thief, somehow getting past the closed gates without ever opening them or disturbing the seal that had been preserving this place from being ravaged by time.
That thief was a divine creature themselves… and also horribly wounded. One of their arms had been torn open and infected by the spreading rot that no one, not even a deity like them, could expel.
That was why the thief had severed their infected arm at the shoulder and tossed it into the divine flame that had been burning in the silver brazier on the second level, and then went down to the basement to collect limbs from the broken porcelain dolls. It was that deity that had circled the pile of them and left the footprints in the dust for Sunny to notice.
In the end, the thief ascended to the third floor and fashioned a new arm for themselves from the parts of the Prince's discarded mannequins… and then sewn it onto their body with the diamond strings threaded through a sharp needle.
…That was the needle Sunny was currently staring at, and the divine light on it was emanated by the remnant traces of the thief's blood still left on its surface.
But who was the thief? And why was Sunny connected to their severed arm by a golden String of Fate?
Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then reached for the needle… but suddenly froze.
The shadow left behind to monitor the harrowing rot had noticed something.
The black, ulcerous flesh… was changing.
Chapter 449: Thousand Years of Hunger
'Here we go…'
Sunny faced the stairwell and stood motionless, looking at the black rot through his trembling shadow. Sensing something, Saint turned around, too. The tip of her sword hesitantly rose into the air.
The next few moments were going to decide whether he was going to live or die... or maybe be condemned to a fate much worse than death.
One level lower, the harrowing corruption that had been spreading from the severed arm of a deity was moving. The black ulcerous flesh was rising and falling, as if in the throes of… death? Or transformation?
Sunny gritted his teeth, waited for a second…
And then breathed out with immeasurable relief.
'Dying… it's dying.'
It felt as though he had been sentenced to execution, only for a pardon to arrive at the last possible moment, when the rope was already pressing on his neck.
Indeed, the terrifying rot was withering. As thousands of years that passed since it was locked in the Obsidian Tower caught up with it, the devouring corruption appeared to be dying of starvation. The stone surface assimilated into it convulsed and wriggled, as if consumed by pain. The silver brazier was melting.
The growths of the bulbous black flesh were slowly receding, their color turning ashen. The process was slow, but at the edges of the patch of corruption, the rot was already turning into… into wisps of darkness, which then disappeared without a trace.
As tension left Sunny's body, he couldn't help but sway a little.
'Good… something has gone my way, at last.'
Before, he had been considering his options and finding no possible way to escape from the rot if it was to start spreading.
He had considered trying to damage it with Broken Oath, but doubted that anything the Awakened Memory could do would work, considering that even the original owner of the seven-fingered hand resorted to severing their limb completely instead of trying to destroy the spreading corruption.
He had also entertained the idea of using the Cruel Sight, which was now infused with divine flame. But something told Sunny that the massive brazier where the rot had taken root had once been full of it, too… that was apparent from how charred the severed arm of the transient deity was.
If even thousands of years of burning in annihilating divine flame couldn't destroy or stop the black rot, then what hope did he have?
In the end, though, the corruption had destroyed itself. Neither divine flame nor an actual deity had been able to damage the black rot, but its hunger — and the relentless nature of time — were.
'Thank gods…'
Sunny inhaled deeply and tiredly closed his eyes.
The corruption was slowly dying, pieces of it slowly disappearing, bit after bit. All that was left behind were the damaged stone and the memory of primal horror.
He grimaced.
'But also, damn the gods! Why would they allow for such a thing to exist…'
Shaking his head, Sunny wiped the sweat off his face, then turned around and walked back to the stone pedestal.
Reaching with one hand, he picked up the long, sharp needle and stared at it for some time.
The needle seemed to have been made out of polished iron, but due to the traces of divine blood absorbed by it, the cold metal had assumed a feint golden shine. Sunny looked at it for a long time, trying to understand if this was a mundane item or some mystical artifact.
In the end, he had to admit that he had no clue.
The needle did not turn into a Memory like Weaver's Mask had. He didn't see any spellweave inside of it, either. However, the needle also didn't feel like a simple object. It was… strange.
He thought for a bit, then summoned the Covetous Coffer and carefully placed the needle inside. The skeins of diamond string also went in, easily disappearing into the gluttonous box.
'I will have time to study it later…'
With that, Sunny hesitated for a bit, then reluctantly headed back toward the second level of the great pagoda.
He was going to watch the harrowing rot die, and then try to approach the severed hand of the mysterious deity.
***
Some time later, Sunny was sitting on the lowest step of the stairs leading to the great hall, staring at the massive brazier in its center.
What was left of it, to be precise.
The devouring corruption took its sweet time dying. Even the hunger of thousands of years could not destroy it so easily, it seemed. The black flesh writhed and pulsated, disappearing little by little.
Several times, veins of rot tried to spread outward, clearly sensing the presence of a living being nearby and lusting to absorb it… him. But the profane infestation was too weak to overcome the entropic power of starvation.
The silver brazier, which had long ago become a part of the horrid corruption, melted and fell apart, then disappeared into wisps of pure darkness. Soon, it was clear that the rot was not long for this world.
All that remained from its vile flesh were a few growths infused into the severed arm itself.
Staring at the disintegrating rot, Sunny felt both deep, primal terror and a strange compulsion to try and damage it a little in hopes of being credited for the kill by the Spell.
Who knew what reward he would receive?
But in the end, Sunny remained still.
Firstly, because he wasn't even sure that the corruption would be acknowledged by the Spell as a creature. He didn't really know if that thing was… alive, for the lack of a better word. If it was an entity, a process, or a manifestation of some profane law that he didn't know of.
Secondly, because he was absolutely unwilling to approach the rot, even now that it was dying. He wasn't even willing to let his Memories get anywhere near it. The Memories were connected to his soul, after all. Who knew if that thing was capable of spreading to a Memory, and then to his very soul through the invisible link?
So, Sunny simply sat silently and waited.
After a while, the corruption finally died.
The charred flesh of the severed arm became ashen, crumbled into dust, and finally disappeared in wisps of deep, impenetrable darkness.
All that remained was the empty hall, the patch of mangled obsidian in its center… a single piece of pristine alabaster bone shining with blinding gold radiance.
A sole phalanx of a finger.
Sunny waited for a few minutes, gathering his courage, then sighed and stood up. He glanced at the small bone, scowled, and walked toward it.
…It was time to see what fate had in store for him.
Chapter 450: Alabaster Phalanx
Sunny stepped into the patch of mangled obsidian and slowly approached the alabaster phalanx, then kneeled beside it and lingered, studying its golden shine.
He was trying to determine if any sign of the harrowing rot remained, but also felt pulled toward the radiant bone and found it hard to look away.
'All of this insanity, just for that little piece of bone. What secrets does it hold?'
He hesitated for a moment, then reached down and picked up the phalanx.
Sunny had instinctively expected it to crumble into a torrent of white sparks and hear the Spell proclaim that he had acquired a new Memory, just like what had happened with Weaver's Mask… that Memory being, perhaps, another Drop of Ichor.
But nothing of the sort happened.
The bone felt cold and smooth to the touch. There was still marrow inside, wet and infused with bright golden radiance. Sunny tilted his head, stumped. What was he supposed to do now?
In hindsight, the fact that the phalanx was not going to turn into a Memory was rather sensible… obvious, even. After all, Memories were simply copies of real items recreated by the Spell, just like Echoes were copies of actual creatures — or items conjured by it from scratch following some unknown principle.
This, however… this was the real deal.
The alabaster bone had nothing to do with the Spell. It wasn't a recreation, it was… the original.
Sunny frowned, feeling unsure about how he was supposed to proceed.
Then, a certain scene suddenly appeared in his mind. Back in the ruined cathedral of the Dark City, Saint stood above the rusted remains of the Black Knight, holding a black gem in her hand. With a hint of some dark emotion burning in her ruby eyes, she raised the gem to her mouth, and bit into it.
Before he could fully process the implications of this image, Sunny followed a strange instinct. Without allowing himself time to think about it, he opened his mouth, put the phalanx inside… and swallowed it.
'What?!'
He blinked a couple of times.
'What did I just do?!'
Sunny stared at his empty hand, in which a divine bone had been just a few seconds ago, with wide eyes.
And then… it was as though a furious fire ignited in his chest.
'Crap!'
***
Sunny tumbled to the floor, feeling a harrowing pain permeate his entire being. It was the unbearable agony he knew and remembered all too well… the feeling of his very nature being forcibly changed into something that it was never meant to be. That nothing was ever meant to be…
Or maybe simply not allowed to.
It was the opposite of the euphoric sense of rebirth the Awakened experienced after completing the First Nightmare or returning from the Dream Realm for the first time... the feeling of your whole body being torn apart and reassembled, only to be torn apart once more.
"Argh! Here… here we go again!"
The torturous suffering he was experiencing was very similar to what he had gone through after consuming the drop of Weaver's blood. Back then, it had felt as though every muscle, every fiber, every molecule in his body were destroyed and recreated over and over again, becoming slightly different with each time. The agony had been especially excruciating when it came to his eyes, which had felt as though two white-hot rods were inserted into them…
This time was different.
The pain was concentrated in his spine, in his bones, in the marrow permeating them. His fingers in particular felt as though there was molten, incandescent, liquid metal flowing through them.
Sunny shrieked.
"Damn it! God damn it! Damn it all!"
It hurt so much…
However, the torture did not last as long as it had back in the branches of the Soul Devouring Tree. After a few more minutes of it, Sunny felt the Blood Weave suddenly come alive and rush through his veins, absorbing the harrowing heat and then carrying it to every cell of his body. Slowly but surely, the pain lessened.
But the process of transformation continued.
Sunny sprawled on the floor, covered in sweat and breathing heavily. He could feel himself changing… it was a strange and extremely unpleasant sensation, one suffused with a feeling of profound wrongness, but not as devastatingly excruciating as it had been just a few seconds ago.
"Hell, that was... rough."
His voice was hoarse and creaky.
Sunny glanced to the side and noticed Saint, who was standing silently above him and looking away with cold indifference.
'Such heartlessness! No sympathy at all…'
At least the happy shadow seemed very concerned about him… or itself. It was pacing nervously, turning to Sunny from time to time and timidly offering its encouragement.
The gloomy shadow was currently wrapped around his body, so it couldn't offer any feedback. He had no doubt that it would have just mocked him, anyway.
'That jolly guy is… really irritating! I would rather be mocked, curse it all!'
Gritting his teeth, Sunny closed his eyes and endured the unpleasant feeling of his body being demolished and reconstructed as best as he could.
After a long while — which felt like an eternity — it was all finally over.
A deep feeling of relief spread through Sunny's body. It felt… more solid, somehow. Strong, firm…
Resilient.
'Just what have I…'
The voice of the Spell suddenly thundered in the solemn dark hall, interrupting his thoughts.
Was he imagining it, or had there been a note of dark excitement in it?
It said:
[One of your Attributes has evolved.]
[You have acquired a new Attribute.]
'You don't say!'
Sunny struggled to sit up, and then hurriedly summoned the runes.
'What… what have I done to myself this time?'
The runes shimmered in the air in front of him, and Sunny quickly looked at the cluster describing his Attributes.
Attributes: [Fated], [Ember of Divinity]...
'Wait… ember?'
This was new. He concentrated on the [Ember of Divinity] and studied the string of runes:
Attribute Description: [Deep within your soul, an ember of divinity shines, almost ready to erupt into a radiant flame.]
'Huh… so I have an even higher affinity to divinity now. Makes sense…'
He had just swallowed a phalanx of an actual deity, after all...
Impatient, Sunny turned back to the list of Attributes, where three more remained. The first two he knew all too well…
[Child of Shadows], [Blood Weave].
But the third one was new. At the very end of the list, several new runes appeared. Sunny held his breath, and read:
Attribute: [Bone Weave].