Shadow Slave

He hesitated for a few moments, not sure how to answer. As seconds passed by, the silence between them grew tense, full of untold meaning.

Finally, Nephis blinked and looked away, staring at the corpse of the Crimson Terror. Her sword hand trembling slightly.

"...Killed it? Yes… I did. Got lucky, I guess…"

After a while, she added in a quiet voice:

"It was just a fake star, in the end."

Sunny smiled slightly, but his eyes remained cold.

"Lucky… I know a thing or two about being lucky, Neph. A creature like this would not have died just because of bad luck."

She remained silent for a bit, then sighed and looked down.

"It was evolving… trying to become a titan. The burden of transformation made it vulnerable. I just happened to attack while the Terror was at its weakest. That's why it died…"

'Evolving… into a titan?'

Noticing a surprised expression on his face, Changing Star grimaced and pointed to the artificial sun.

"Have you not thought about what we have done?"

Sunny looked up, at the radiant sphere of light, and frowned.

In all the chaos, he had indeed forgotten to consider the full scale of what had transpired after the battle, as well as the reasons for and consequences of it.

Come to think of it… why would the light of the artificial sun destroy the souls of every living creature it touched? It had not been like this before the fall of the ancient civilization, for many generations, at least.

But then, the Vessel had become corrupted and turned into a Nightmare Creature. The Terror. And at the same time, the seals imprisoning the curse of the all-consuming darkness had been destroyed, letting it free.

…So, in fact, the corrupted sun had never existed without the dark sea keeping it company.

Until today.

Sunny had always thought that the sun was restraining the dark sea. Could it be… that it had always been restrained by the darkness, as well?

And when he banished the ancient curse and locked it underground… the sun was finally liberated from its shackles. That's why its light suddenly changed, turning into the annihilating white radiance.

It had become free to do whatever it wanted.

But there was something else…

As his eyes widened, Nephis nodded.

"Yes. The artificial sun does not just illuminate the vicinity of the Crimson Spire. It illuminates the whole of the Forgotten Shore. Its light reaches everywhere. So… as we were fighting our way through the tower… most of the living creatures on the Forgotten Shore had been wiped out. All that death, all those countless souls… guided into the Spire by the Labyrinth, like a colossal hecatomb, to fuel the evolution of the Crimson Terror."

And Nephis just happened to attack while the Terror was in the throes of that terrifying transformation. Well… that wasn't a coincidence, most likely. Sunny had not forgotten the thoughtful look on her face as Neph had peered out of the gates of the Spire before giving the Dreamer Army the command to advance.

He shivered, only now realizing that this whole region of the Dream Realm was now almost completely empty of life. Only a few Nightmare Creatures must have survived… those who were lucky enough to hide from the deadly sunlight in time, or were powerful enough to resist it.

Such a boundless influx of souls would indeed be enough to push the Crimson Terror to the next step of its evolution… devolution? Whatever it was that happened to Nightmare Creatures as they grew more powerful. Not that Sunny knew anything about this matters — but if anything could cause something like that, then the evisceration of an entire region of the Dream Realm would certainly do the trick.

Now, however, the Terror was dead, and its corrupting influence was gone, turning the artificial sun back to its normal self.

It couldn't be that easy, though…

As if answering his thoughts, the Spire shuddered again. Another slab of stone broke off from the floor of the chamber and plunged down. Suddenly, the light of the sun grew a little bit dimmer.

Looking up, Sunny noticed that the artificial sun looked not as bright as it had just a few minutes ago. It was as though it was slowly dying.

…Was it dying? There was no vessel to channel soul essence into its furnace anymore, after all.

Interrupting his thoughts, Nephis suddenly spoke, her voice hoarse and tired:

"What happened to the others?"

Sunny shifted and looked down through the chasm in the chamber's floor.

Far below, he could see the vast balcony and the shimmering ring of the Gateway on it. Somehow, its shine seemed… weaker. The balcony, however, was empty. There were no humans there, and even the coral golems lay unmoving, their semblance of life snuffed out when the Terror died.

"Everyone has escaped."

Neph sighed slowly, as if with relief. After a long pause, she moved slightly and asked:

"What about Caster?"

Sunny glanced at her and shrugged. When he spoke, his voice was cold and indifferent:

"...I killed him."

Changing Star remained silent for a long time. Then, she whispered, seemingly addressing no one:

"So that's why…"

Suddenly, a bitter laugh escaped from her lips.

Nephis raised her hands and pressed them against her face, as if overwhelmed by some deep, dark emotion. After a few seconds, her muffled voice reached his ears:

"You shouldn't have killed him, Sunny…"

Sunny snarled.

"Yeah? Why, exactly?"

She remained motionless for a few seconds, and then slowly lowered her hands and put them on her knees. Her face was pale and bleak.

"Have you checked your Attributes?"

He nodded and looked at her with a curious expression.

"I did. There's a new one there. Soul Conduit."

Changing Star stared into the distance and nodded.

"Yeah. Same for me."

Sunny raised his eyebrow and asked, his voice calm and steady:

"Any idea what it means?"

She did not say anything for a while, and then turned her head to look at him.

"Have you not figured it out?"

He shrugged.

"I was a bit preoccupied. Why? What is it?"

Nephis sighed and looked at the walls of the chamber. Finally, she said:

"This whole tower is a giant soul machine. It was created to collect soul essence and funnel it into the artificial sun. However… it can't function without one small, but crucial gear. A human to serve as the fulcrum of all that power, the conduit for all those souls."

And then, in a much quieter voice, she added:

"...The vessel."

Sunny shuddered, then stared at the corpse of the repulsive creature. The previous vessel of the artificial sun.

Nephis had killed it, destroying a crucial part of the Spire's mechanism… and so, the Spire found it a replacement.

The two of them.

The only two humans left on the Forgotten Shore, conveniently hiding from the obliterating sun inside the ancient tower.

One would be tempted to say that it was fate…

"What does it mean for us, exactly? Are we going to turn into something… like that thing?"

Neph slowly shook her head.

"...Not yet. Not for a long time. The Terror had absorbed most of the souls it had reaped after the battle, and there's no one to make sacrifices to the sun now. The Labyrinth, too, is now dead."

Echoing her words, the Spire trembled once again, and somewhere down below, a deafening sound of crushing stone could be heard.

Sunny tilted his head.

"So what's the problem? Can't we just… get the hell out of here and never come back?"

Changing Star looked at him, her eyes full of cold, bitter emotion.

"You don't get it, do you?"

After that, she gritted her teeth and said:

"The Crimson Spire is a machine, and the Gateway is a part of that machine. The Spire can't function without a human serving as the Soul Conduit… and neither can the Gateway. There has to be a Vessel inside the tower for the Gateway to work."

She slowly rose to her feet, swayed slightly, and finally pierced him with a dark gaze.

"Which means that only one of us can escape."

Sunny stared at her for a few seconds, then looked down at the distant ring of the Gateway.

Finally, he turned back to Nephis and said:

"I don't suppose you'll stay behind and let me go?"

Changing Star looked at him, her striking grey eyes full of intensity and nascent white flames:

"...I was about to ask you the same."

Sunny lingered for a moment, then grinned.

"Not a chance."