Shadow Slave

Suddenly, Noctis seemed… different.

He was still beaten, mangled, and covered in blood, but the sorcerer's presence subtly changed. If before it was faint and weakening, now, it became brimming with power, potency, and free-flowing energy.

Vast, furious… unrestrained.

And suffused with madness.

Despite the fact that Noctis was on his knees and crippled, he suddenly seemed terrifying. The morbid grin on his torn and disfigured face seemed more menacing than pitiful now. His one remaining eye glistened, reflecting the distant light of the crimson moon.

It was as though something that had been suppressing the sorcerer's true power all this time finally set him free.

Noctis inhaled deeply, and at the same, Solvane suddenly swayed. The hand she had used to crush his ribcage was still pressed against her body, blood streaming down on the red tunic.

Her beautiful eyes widened.

And then…

Something moved under her skin, making the War Maiden let out a pained scream.

She staggered back and looked at the kneeling sorcerer with a pale face.

"What… what have you done to me?"

Noctis smiled. His voice sounded hoarse and full of unfathomable emotion when he spoke:

"What else? I have fulfilled your most ardent wish, Solvane. I… have defeated you."

She stared at him in shock, then suddenly shuddered and let out another tortured scream. As drops of blood flew out of her mouth, the beautiful Transcendent stumbled and fell to her knees. Her sublime face was deathly pale and contorted by a grimace of terrible pain.

The sorcerer let out a croaking laugh and slowly stood up. Just like that, their roles were reversed. The War Maiden was on her knees, and Noctis was looming above her.

He lingered for a moment, and then looked at the patch of shadows where Sunny was hiding, his mind full of vague suspicion.

"You can come out, Sunless. It's safe now."

'What the hell...'

Sunny hesitated for a few seconds, then assumed his corporeal form and glanced at Solvane, his eyes burning with hatred.

Slowly, a few things were clicking in place and starting to make sense. The magical circle in the sorcerer's residence, the river of blood that Noctis had fed to the soil below, the cracks on the stone floor, the tremors that had been running through it from time to time…

Even the faint scream that had awoken Sunny on his last night in the Sanctuary.

He turned and stared at the sorcerer, a harrowing guess appearing in his mind.

Solvane, however, was still in the dark. As the ghastly movement under her skin grew stronger and more noticeable, she groaned:

"What… is… this… thing? My… my Aspect…"

Noctis smiled.

"Ah, you've noticed? Yes, there is no point in trying to summon your Abilities. My little pet is a bit hungry for soul essence, you see. I've been starving it for a few hundred years, after all."

As he spoke, his own essence flowed freely, coursing through his mangled body. The terrible wounds covering it started to heal at an incredible pace. As Sunny watched, the bloody hole in the sorcerer's chest closed, his shattered ribs coalescing back into proper shape. His torn cheek was already growing back together.

A clot of blood formed in his empty eye socket, slowly turning into a new eye.

Noctis took a step forward, leaned forward, and looked at Solvane. Then, he whispered:

"This pet of mine is a very special creature… it is a vine that feeds on powerful souls. The profane seed that eventually birthed it was created when the ashes of the Heart Grove mixed with Aidre's blood. You remember Aidre, don't you Solvane? Well… allow me to return her last gift to you!"

His voice seethed with boundless rage and sorrow.

Sunny frowned, then glanced at the sorcerer with a complicated expression.

So… Noctis had created Wormvine, a Corrupted Monster capable of devouring Saints, from the ashes of the Sacred Grove and Aidre's blood. He had kept it in the ground beneath his residence for hundreds of years, nurturing the abomination by feeding it his essence and blood.

And then, when the time came, he took it into himself, making his body both the bait and the trap for the person who had desecrated the Grove and killed its Lady. All this time, the sorcerer was restrained by having to suppress the creature and prevent it from devouring him from the inside. And when the monster finally found a new host... he was finally free to exert his full power.

A pale smile appeared on Sunny's face.

What a devious, patient… and ruthless vengeance Noctis had envisioned for Solvane!

He could learn a thing or two from the unforgiving sorcerer.

…The War Maiden looked at Noctis for a few moments, then bent in a violent convulsion, letting out a terrible shriek. The skin on her face broke, and a thin, worm-like vine appeared from beneath it, crawling forward through the blood. Another, thicker one, burst from her hand.

Solvane groaned, then let out a stifled chuckle.

"Ah… after all this time… I am defeated… by you?"

He gritted her teeth, and then suddenly smiled through the pain.

"Glory… to… the Beast!"

With that, the War Maiden struggled to move, and arduously reached forward with a trembling hand.

A knife carved out of a single piece of wood rested on her bloodied palm.

Noctis looked at her for a while, then silently took the knife and straightened, towering above the trembling, suffering woman. He remained motionless for a few moments, darkness veiling his face.

Sunny took a step forward, being strangled by hatred.

'No… no, not yet!'

Let her scream! Let her suffer more!

Let her suffer forever!

Killing Solvane was what they had planned… but now, looking at the beautiful, hateful priestess of War, he was unwilling to let her escape that easily! She had wanted this to happen all along! This was her true victory!

Sunny's ability to think clearly dissolved, consumed by fury. He had just enough of sense left to realize that this behavior was unnatural, that the intensity of his desire for revenge was unusual, even for someone as spiteful as him… but he did not care.

At that moment, the only thing he wanted was to see Solvane pay for what she had taken from him.

Noctis looked at the knife, his eyes full of darkness.

…And then threw it aside, lodging the wooden blade into the wall of the cargo hold.

When he spoke, his voice was trembling.

"You don't deserve to die. For what you did to us… you don't deserve to die, Solvane. You only deserve to live..."