Chapter 80: —A long way to go

In Bastion, the vast royal hall possessed an empty throne.

Yet, if a discerning eye were to look closer, it would notice a door standing open on its immediate right, almost tucked into the corner against the adjacent wall.

Stepping through it and following the long spiral staircase leading to the top of the highest tower would bring one to a workshop where the steady sound of a hammer striking iron could be heard echoing through the stone.

Tlin! Tlin! Tlin!

The relentless, rhythmic noise repeated day and night—a testament to the unwavering dedication of its master craftsman.

Anvil. The King of Swords.

Tlin! Tlin! Tlin!

Only, his hands were not holding a hammer to forge upon an anvil. He had grown long tired of building new swords. What use would they be to him now? Instead, the tools he gripped were a small mallet striking an iron chisel, carving away at wood to create a magnificent sculpture of a swan with vast birch wings and a slender beak.

Tlin! Tlin! Tlin…

At a certain point, sensing a new presence in his private laboratory, Anvil halted his work. Turning around, he beheld the figure of the man he despised most in this world.

”Erik.”

”Vale.”

The two greeted each other with stern, utterly indifferent expressions. Two Monarchs. Two Sovereigns.

”Why are you here, Broken Sword?” Iron Heart asked with a heavy sigh, lowering his tools.

Broken Sword did not answer immediately. His silver eyes swept first over the floor, which was littered with finely crafted swords left there to gather dust and rust, before finally coming to rest on an old anvil whose flame had recently been extinguished. Atop it lay syringes and instruments used for administering tranquilizers and narcotics.

Studying the forge and taking in his fellow blacksmith’s wrinkled face and the massive bags beneath his eyes, the current patriarch of the Immortal Flame Clan finally spoke:

”I am here to talk about my daughter, Nephis, and the proposed marriage between the Immortal Flame and the Han Li Clan. As previously communicated, the wedding will take place as soon as she returns from her first expedition into the Dream Realm. Exactly as agreed.”

Hearing this, Anvil’s expression did not change. He remained as impassive as ever—almost bored.

”And?” he asked, raising a thick eyebrow. “You should be discussing these matters with my brother Madoc. He’s the one who handles clan affairs.”

With that, he turned back to resume carving his sculpture.

Tlin! Tlin! Tlin!

”If you’re finished, make yourself scarce. I don’t have time for you.”

Broken Sword did not move a muscle, merely staring at the imposing back of the man he once thought was his friend—or so he had believed.

”I kept my word regarding our agreement. I trust you won’t eat yours,” he said before turning on his heel and walking away.

”Yes! Yes, yes,” the King of Swords replied with a dismissive wave of his hand, shooing him off.

“And close the door on your way out! You’re letting the draft in.”

Thus, Broken Sword departed, leaving Anvil entirely alone. Just as he had been for all these past years.

***

In Ravenheart, standing before a closed window in one of the highest towers of the Jade Palace and staring through the glass at the citadel below, was a young woman on the cusp of womanhood, with long, soft black hair and dark eyes.

Rain stared out at the streets of her adoptive mother’s realm, her red-rimmed eyes wet with tears, her breathing broken by quiet sobs.

More than two months had passed since she last saw Nephis, her best friend. The immense joy she had felt when she returned from her First Nightmare with a True Name still lingered in her heart. Yet, out there, Nephis was gone. Alone. Lost. Somewhere in the Dream Realm.

”I’m weak…”

Rain murmured to herself, the bitter truth striking even harder, dealing a heavy blow to her heart.

The reason she was crying wasn’t just because of Nephis’s absence, but because she lacked the power to bring her back—her and her sister Seishan, the lost princess of Clan Song.

And so Rain remained there. Alone. Weeping silently for a helplessness that wasn’t her fault.

Then, something soft and heavy pressed against her shoulders, and a pair of hands gently wrapped her in a warm embrace, pulling her back to reality and snapping her out of her solitary thoughts.

”Rain…” a warm, melodic, and pleasing voice called out to her.

”Big Sis Moonveil,” Rain muttered, bringing a hand to her face to wipe away her tears as she recognized her sister by the familiar, comforting weight pressing against her back.

Turning, she looked up into the angelic face and pristine white hair of her adoptive sister. Beside Moonveil, she also saw the others—Silent Stalker, Eunbin, Revel, Hell, and Lonesome Howl.

”Were you crying over Seishan’s disappearance again, or was it for Nephie this time?”

Beastmaster asked, stepping closer and patting her head with maternal affection.

”Yes,” Rain nodded, still sobbing as she held tighter to her sister’s embrace. She didn’t bother explaining further, as the reason felt foolish to say aloud.

After all, what sense did it make to feel guilty for lacking the strength to rescue a loved one who was still alive—let alone two? Yet, though they shared no blood, her sisters understood.

”Well, don’t be. It’s not your fault, and we understand completely what you’re going through,” Eunbin added, gently placing a hand on Rain’s right cheek to brush away a warm tear tracing down her gorgeous face. “So don’t cry. And if you really must, save it for your future fiancé so he’ll be forced to comfort you.”

”Mhm! Alright,” Rain nodded with a watery smile, pulling Beastmaster into a warm hug and feeling a little better.

She rested her head against her sister’s generous chest.

”Pfft!” Silent Stalker scoffed, watching the scene from where she stood leaning against the wall with folded arms. “As if any bastard out there is actually worthy of our precious little sister.”

”Yeah, exactly. Any guy like that had better think twice before laying a hand on our little Rainy,” Lonesome Howl chimed in, cracking her knuckles with a malicious smile.

Hearing them, Rain looked up and pouted. “Sisters, if you act like this, I’m never going to find myself a boyfriend.”

Revel nodded in approval. “Better that way. No one is ever taking you away. All this nonsense about a ‘prince charming’ from the romance novels I gave you hasn’t done you any favors. But don’t worry, it’s mostly Hell’s fault for putting those ideas in—Hell?”

The Dark Dancer cut herself off abruptly, turning to look at the sister she had just addressed. At the same time, all the other Blood Sisters in the room froze, staring at Deathsinger with sudden, creeping terror as they noticed the wide, manic grin curling her delicate lips. Her eyes were a bit too bright, practically feverish with wild delight.

“Hell? Is everything alright?” Eunbin asked, while Moonveil and Rain instinctively hid behind her skirts in fright.

Deathsinger looked at her sisters one by one, her smile never faltering. Finally, she spoke:

”Oh, don’t mind me. I just had a new vision.”

”What kind of vision?” Lonesome Howl asked, earning sharp, warning glares from the others telling her to shut up.

”Nothing much,” Hell replied smoothly. “Just… my dark prince has finally arrived. And this time, unlike all the others, I’m going to get my seed.”

She said this while staring at a precise spot on the wall where none of her sisters were standing, as if gazing far beyond the stone. Toward an audience of spectators visible only to her.

With that, she turned and walked away, leaving the room in a gloomy, chilling silence.

The other Blood Sisters didn’t know whether to fear for the poor man’s fate, or to be relieved that, for once, one of her prophecies hadn’t started with the announcement that everyone was going to die.

***

[Your Memory has been destroyed.]

“Shit!”

A hoarse voice, dripping with unbridled rage, echoed across a dead, silent desert of golden sand that stretched infinitely into the horizon. The sun hung high like a blazing medal in a scorching, arid sky. Far in the distance loomed a colossal black pyramid—yet no matter how long one trekked toward it, the obsidian monument never seemed to get a single step closer.

The voice belonged to a young man whose body was blackened and charred like a corpse, both of his arms brutally severed at the shoulders. He looked like a reanimated ghoul, left with nothing but his legs and a gaunt, skeletal face. Lacking eyelids, he couldn’t even close his eyes, forced to stare down at the burning sand to escape the blinding glare of the sun.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Jayden screamed his agony into the empty sky as loud as his dry throat allowed, making his way forward and finally resting on the bark of a tree.

The Memory he had just consumed was called [Second Chance]. It was a single-use Memory—a golden coin inscribed with the symbol of a new life—that allowed its bearer to escape certain death by instantly teleporting them far away and stanching fatal wounds. The catch was that the arrival point was a complete unknown; he could have ended up anywhere in the Dream Realm.

Everything was surrendered to the fickle whims of Fate.

Furthermore, while it kept him from bleeding out, it didn’t regenerate severed limbs or heal severe, long-term trauma. It simply maintained a flicker of life in its master, completely indifferent to the lethality of the location it dropped him in.

“Shit!!! What was the point of robbing my own family’s vault if I didn’t even get a single decent Memory for a situation like this?!”

His sole remaining eye had long lost its warm amber glow, replaced by a sickly, glowing radioactive blood-red.

Jayden didn’t know what enraged him more:

The realization that the Mind Hex of the Soul-Devouring Tree had not only enslaved his mind, but had completely overwritten the [Seed of Doubt] he had painstakingly implanted into Changing Star, utterly ruining his revenge…

Or the fact that he was now an armless cripple, forced to lean against the trunk of a strange tree in the middle of a boundless desert, waiting to die like the pathetic insect he had been reduced to.

“At least I managed to stab that bastard who had his Echo tie me up like a pig—that Everlasting Gloom. Served him right! Ahahah!”

Jayden laughed in dark satisfaction, his parched throat burning since he hadn’t tasted water in weeks.

Fortunately, right here in this barren waste, he had stumbled upon a tiny oasis with a small spring of drinkable water.

“I hope that tentacled abomination devoured them both—him and that filthy whore, Changing Star!”

The bitter echo of his voice died out in the dry, oppressive heat. The trunk of the tree he was resting against had an unnaturally silver bark, and even its leaves possessed a strange, ominous sheen.

“Now… how am I going to get my revenge on the rest of them?”

Markus. Yukino. The entire Aegis Rose Clan—his own blood.

His list was still long. Jayden had zero intention of dying here. In fact, the thought of giving up didn’t even cross his mind for a fraction of a second.

Even now, with his physical strength at its absolute limit and his shadow teetering on the edge of the realm of death, his sick, twisted obsession to survive and conquer burned hotter than ever.

His Flaw, [Tyrant’s Ego], was a raging torch that refused to flicker, fade, or be snuffed out. It was destined to burn forever.

“Muhaha…”

Without him even realizing it, his cracked lips curled into a manic, vile grin.

“Ahahah!”

Jayden gave in to wild laughter, his mind drifting into delusional fantasies of his enemies’ mutilated corpses lying at his feet while he sat omnipotent upon the throne of the world.

“Ahahahah!”

Jayden’s life wasn’t going to end here. It couldn’t end here!

“Ahahahahah!”

He wanted to be greedy—to take everything he desired without ever asking for permission.

“Ahahahahahah!”

He wanted to be selfish—to carve his own path without giving a damn about anyone else.

“Ahahahahahahah!”

He wanted to be prideful—to do whatever pleased him without answering to a single soul.

“Ahahahahahahahah!”

This was his will.

These were his desires.

These were his ambitions.

“Well, well… look what we have here. Who would have ever thought Ariel’s little beast would have an offspring?”

A sudden, booming voice shattered his manic celebration.

Jayden whipped his head around in alarm, frantically scanning his surroundings as best as he could, but all he saw was a single, rag-clad skeleton hanging from the branches of the very tree he was resting against. It was staring down at him with a sly, sinister grin.

The hollow, empty sockets where its eyes had once been seemed to glint with an eerie, dark light.

“Pleasure to meet you, child of Ariel’s little beast,” the skeleton spoke, its jaw clacking softly. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Azarax, the Plague of Steel, King of Kings, Conqueror of a Myriad Thrones. Set me free! In return… I will make the entire world bow at your feet!”

***

“Mh… mmh…”

The ghost of the soft, distant crashing of waves echoed in his mind early in the morning.

A gentle breeze brushed against the sharp features of his face. Sunny slowly stirred awake, cradled in a deeply comforting sensation of warmth, with something far softer than rubber or down serving as a pillow for his back.

His body felt as solid and unyielding as stone. His muscles didn’t ache in the slightest, yet the echo of the previous night’s trauma and the chaotic imagery of his desperate struggle in the abyssal depths of the water flickered through his mind. Still enveloped in a haze, Sunny opened his eyes.

“Mh!”

The pale sun of the Forgotten Shore was already at its zenith. Its rays struck his dark irises directly, restless shadows swirling within his eyes.

Sunny immediately shut his eyes and turned his head away, attempting to raise a hand to shield his face, only to find himself completely unable to move his arms.

“What—”

Looking down as his vision finally came into focus, he was met with the breathtaking sight of two young women wrapped securely against him beneath the luxurious blanket of a vibrant red color.

Sunny quickly realized that the two were Nephis and Cassie, the blanket enveloping them was the heavy fabric of his [Crimson Cloak], and the gentle, radiating warmth surrounding them came from their naked bodies pressed close together beneath the cloth to keep warm.

He froze for a moment, simply staring at them, utterly enchanted by the sight of both girls anchored to his sides with their arms wrapped securely around his waist, their serene faces resting against his chest. Their gorgeous hair—a brilliant contrast of silver and gold—was scattered wildly across him. Traces of dried tears lined their cheeks, their lips glinted softly in the light, and the rhythmic rise and fall of their chests matched his breath in perfect synchronization.

A delicate harmony of quiet passion and relief.

‘Where is Thene?’

Sunny suddenly wondered. Looking around and seeing no sign of her, a tiny, terrifying prickle of dread began to bloom in his chest. But as soon as he summoned his runes…

—

Shadows: [Myriad Shade], [Soul Serpent], [Carapace Centurion].

—

He let out a long, quiet sigh of relief he hadn’t realized he was holding. Myriad Shade was fine; she had simply returned to his Soul Sea to rest and recover.

“Mmh…”

A soft, melodic murmur as delicate as the chime of a silver bell pulled him back from his thoughts.

Sunny looked to his right, where he saw Cassie stretch, nuzzling deeper into his chest. The velvety smooth warmth of her skin against his sent a pleasant shiver through him.

The blind seer sat up slightly, rubbing an arm over her eyes to brush away the lingering haze of sleep, followed by a long, slow yawn that was almost painfully adorable to watch.

“Yaaawn…”

Meanwhile, on his left, Nephis did the same, slowly stirring.

“Good morning,” Sunny greeted them softly, leaning back with his arms finally freed to rest behind his head.

A relieved, self-satisfied grin spread across his face.

“Sunny?!”

The moment the familiar, gentle sound of his voice reached their ears, both the seer and Changing Star whipped their heads toward him in deep concern.

“Yep, that’s me. Did you two sleep well? Because I assure you, up until today, no woman has ever complained about lying on me.”

<>

‘And good morning to you, my dear Jiminy Cricket.’

Before he could say another word, both girls threw themselves over him.

“SUNNY!”

Nephis and Cassie tackled him at once, burying him in a desperate, overwhelming embrace filled with all the love and relief in their hearts. They paid no mind to their clothes—which had been set aside to dry—ignored their bare skin pressed against his, and disregarded any lingering soreness from the night before.

Sunny didn’t offer any more sarcastic remarks. He simply opened his arms, welcoming them into his chest, and smiled.

He let his companions release all the pent-up grief and terror they had been holding back while weeping for his survival, their warm tears soaking his skin. Their touch was soft and soothing, and the comforting swell in his chest ignited a warm, fierce ember beneath his navel—but more than anything, it filled him with hope.

A quiet hope that this sweet, peaceful moment could last forever.

“Look,” Sunny whispered after a long while, gesturing forward.

Far off in the distance, towering over the horizon, the Bright Castle rose in all its ancient, magnificent glory.

To them, it surely looked like a symbol of hope. To him, that fortress was where the real hell truly began.

[End of Part One: Through the Maze.]

—–

Dear fellow readers, RicothePencil reporting in.

As I mentioned in my second SS fanfiction, “No Rest for the Wicked,” I’ll be taking a break after this chapter simply because—because I need one!

This was the last chapter I had in reserve before hitting the pause button on my writing.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the story so far; I can promise you that things are going to get very exciting in the second part—stay tuned!

If there are any typos or alike, please let me know.

Thanks for reading, see you next chapter!

Read also:

–Shadow Slave: No Rest for the Wicked;

–Shadow Slave: Corrupted files.