Shadow Slave

Outside of the now-empty Temple of the Chalice, the dawn was slowly painting the world in a beautiful shade of lilac. Sunny was sitting on the ground, staring at a scarlet odachi and a spear with a blade etched with runes that lay on the ground in front of him.

Kai had dismissed his armor and was standing nearby, his wooden mask charred and blackened by the heat of the divine flames. His gaze was distant.

Effie was also close. She was standing in front of a pile of weapons, some of them whole, some broken and melted by the fire. Despite her exhaustion and injuries, the little girl, whose body was almost entirely covered by bruises and lacerations, was picking up one weapon after another, then thrusting them into the rocky ground with somber determination.

The graveyard of swords surrounding the temple was slowly growing, thanks to her efforts.

Sunny observed Effie for a while, then sighed. He did not see a lot of sense in leaving so many enchanted weapons behind, even if most of them were only equivalent to Awakened Memories. However, he was also not going to stop the girl from performing the wasteful ritual, as long as it gave her some closure… or whatever it was she was seeking by performing the strange burial.

It gave him food for thought, however.

In the future he knew, there was no such graveyard around the ruined Temple of the Chalice. Which meant that no one had done this last mercy for the War Maidens slaughtered in the great hall. Was that the reason they had turned into vengeful wraiths, perhaps?

…Maybe. Or maybe the swords had just been stolen or destroyed at some point later in time. He had not seen the rest of the graveyard in the future as well, after all.

So then… what, exactly, was the connection between the Nightmares and the Dream Realm?

Before, Sunny had been sure that Nightmares were simply recreations of the past. Now, however, he was not so certain. After all, the Temple of the Chalice was destroyed in the same exact manner as it had been in the future. Which meant that… he had always been the one to destroy it?

The Seed of Nightmare was a portal to the actual past?

Sunny scowled, then shook his head.

No, this didn't make any sense. If that was true, then too many things would have been changed in the waking world every time an Awakened conquered their Nightmare. The connection was too easy to spot… all he had to do was to go and carve his name into one of the menhirs of the Sanctuary, then check if it had actually appeared outside the Seed.

People weren't fools… they would have known, by now. Nightmares were almost certainly simply recreations of the past of the Dream Realm, and not the actual thing.

However, the coincidence of how the Temple of the Chalice had ended up was too glaring to be natural. Logically, the appearance of Awakened from the Waking World should have changed the course of events that had happened in the past completely. And yet, it had not… at least not yet.

He could think of two explanations for that, one far less frightening than the other.

The first explanation was that this was a simple case of his knowledge of the future informing his actions in the past. Sunny had thought of destroying the chalice because he had already seen it destroyed in the future, and so, the cycle had been complete without any ominous reasons. Just due to a logical connection.

The second explanation… was far more concerning, at least to Sunny. He knew more about fate than most people. He knew how hard it was to change it, let alone escape its stranglehold completely. So what… what if fate had a pull on all things, had influence over all of existence, and pushed everything, everywhere in a certain direction?

To a certain conclusion, no less.

If so, the details of what happened could potentially change, but the end would inevitably, and inescapably, be the same. That… that was a thought that terrified Sunny beyond belief.

He had proclaimed fate to be his sworn enemy, after all. And now, that enemy seemed for fearsome than ever.

...With a grim expression, he glanced at Effie one more time, then rose from the ground and walked over to the pile of weapons, picking one of them up and thrusting it into the ground.

The girl was breathing heavily, her little body seemingly on the verge of collapse. Nevertheless, she glanced at Sunny with a stubborn expression:

"What are you doing?"

Sunny picked up another sword and shrugged.

"...Helping. You must be hungry, are you not? The sooner we are done with this, the sooner you can eat. Everyone wins, no?"

Effie hesitated for a bit, then turned away and nodded slowly. Together, they continued to bury the swords of the Maidens in the rocky soil, with Kai soon joining them.

Before too long, the pile of weapons had disappeared, joining the countless swords surrounding the empty, silent temple.

Sunny did not know if what they had done was going to change fate, even a little bit.

But he hoped ardently that it would.

***

The next morning, the inhabitants of the Sanctuary saw a very peculiar thing. A man in a wooden mask and with skin that resembled tree bark effortlessly landed on the soft grass of the island, his tall figure covered by a fitting silk garment.

A moment later, a towering four-armed demon climbed from beneath the island and joined him. However, that was not all…

There was a scrawny girl of about eleven or twelve years of age sitting on the shoulders of the demon, holding his horns with her little hands and swinging her skinny legs wildly.

"Gee-up! Faster!"

Listening to Effie laugh, Sunny gritted his teeth, then said with irritation:

"Can you… stop swinging your legs? I am not a horse, damn it!"

The huntress did not listen, so he grabbed her legs with two of his four hands and held them in place.

…Which was not easy to do, considering the little girl's monstrous strength.

"Ouch! My bruises!"

Effie made a pitiful face and whimpered.

"Oh, no… please don't hurt me, Uncle Demon! I'll be good, I promise! I'll try to recover from the beatings faster… you don't need to get angry…"

As the people stared at the girl's terribly bruised body with dark expressions, then looked at Sunny angrily, he hissed:

"I didn't… she's not… you stop it right now, Effie! That is not funny!"

The little girl threw her head back and laughed again, then leaned down with a mischievous smile:

"Yes, of course! Whatever you say, Uncle!"

After that, she glanced at the tall menhirs of the Sanctuary and lingered for a few moments, then whispered quietly into his ear:

"...So, let me get this straight. Everyone in this Nightmare was driven insane by the Demon of Desire, and to conquer it, we need to set her free… with the help of a mad Transcendent sorcerer who wants to defy the gods, start a war against the other four Chain Lords, and kill them. And it was that guy, Noctis, who sent you to the Temple of the Chalice. He is the one we are here to see?"

Sunny looked forward with a dark expression on his bestial face, and then growled.

"More or less. We have a thing or two to discuss with him…"

He paused for a moment before adding, murderous flames igniting in his eyes:

"...because I am pretty sure that Noctis, that rotten bastard, has swindled me again!"