Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at the painfully familiar chest, his black eyes full of fright and venomous resentment. Of course, he had recognized it instantly. It was his old nemesis, the Mordant Mimic… the vile creature that had almost eaten him alive once, in the distant future.

Granted, he had ended up being the one to feast on the flesh of the abomination, instead. Which had been a traumatic experience in and of itself.

But who was to say that he would be able to kill the Fallen Devil again? Sure, Sunny was much stronger and more experienced now. He had more cores, thousands more shadow fragments reinforcing them, much better equipment, and inhabited the body of an actual demon. But there was also no Crushing in this era to help him hold the creature down while the Broken Oath did its job.

Thankfully, the bastard seemed to be behaving itself, maybe out of fear of its master. Actually…

Sunny looked closer and frowned, noticing that the chest had only three soul cores, none showing any sign of Corruption. They were bright and pristine, just like that of any other creature following the path of Ascension. However, they were also too dim to be of the Ascended Rank.

The Mimic was neither Fallen nor a Devil yet. It was simply an Awakened Demon masquerading as a treasure chest.

Which was a bit of an improvement, but still didn't really explain why Noctis was using a powerful demon as a piece of furniture.

'I guess the Mimic grew stronger sometime in the future… and was also Corrupted, somehow.'

Sunny relaxed a little, but then his scowl deepened.

While Noctis opened one of the other two chests and started enthusiastically rummaging through it, two thoughts entered Sunny's mind.

One was very simple…

'Coins!'

However, no matter how alluring the image of the miraculous coins was, the second thought took precedence:

'What… the hell?'

Those words Noctis had just said… weren't they mentioned in the description of the Covetous Coffer? Yes, they were! So Sunny was, and had always been, the pale friend mentioned in it?

'Huh?!'

How could the Spell have known that this exact scene would play out, all that time ago? Back then, Sunny had not even known about the existence of the Nightmare Seed in the Ivory Tower, let alone harbored any thoughts of entering it.

There were two possible answers, both of them equally unnerving.

One was that the Nightmare was not, in fact, a recreation of the past. Instead, it was just… just the past. The Spell knew what Noctis was going to say because this conversation had already happened thousands of years ago, and possessed the power to send people back through time.

Sunny wasn't quite ready to believe that, though. Things didn't really add up... if each Nightmare allowed Awakened to travel through time and return to the past, they would have been able to cause changes in the present through their actions. There had not been too many Nightmares conquered since the spell had appeared, but also not that few. Hundreds at least, and maybe even thousands...

So, he was more inclined to consider the other answer.

The second answer had to do with the nature of the Spell and the domain of its alleged creator. Weaver was called the Demon of Fate for a reason, after all. Their mask allowed Sunny to steal a glance at the tapestry of fate, and see the past, the present, and the future of everything, all at the same time. Just one split second of this terrible knowledge had almost driven him insane.

Perhaps the Spell, which was woven out of those very strings of fate, was able to perceive the depths of the tapestry as well, and hence knew that it was Sunny's fate to enter the Nightmare, meet Noctis, and have this conversation in the treasury of the flying ship.

...That possibility was, perhaps, even more frightening.

'Damnation, my head hurts.'

The mystery of the seemingly innocuous description of the Covetous Coffer had turned out to hold a key to a very important piece of the grand puzzle, one that was too important to be considered hastily. The whole nature of the world as Sunny knew it could be changed entirely depending on which answer was true. He was going to have to think about it more, and later, in excruciating detail.

And speaking of excruciating…

Sunny lingered, then glanced at Noctis, suddenly remembering all the torment he had gone through because of that shameless crook. He gritted his teeth, thinking of all the ways he would have made the bastard pay, if he could…

The crook in question, meanwhile, smiled widely as he pulled a sparkling emerald medallion out of the chest and threw it to Sunny.

"Aha! There you are... here, catch!"

Sunny caught the medallion and studied it with a dubious expression. There seemed to be an almost invisible, intricate string of runes carved into the precious stone...

"What is this crook planning now, I wonder? Ah, I wish I could rip his flimsy body into tiny pieces, and listen to him scream. I would have started with the fingers, I think, and worked my way up. One little piece at a time…"

Noctis stared at him with a strange expression, his face frozen.

Sunny frowned.

"Why is that idiot staring at me? Gods, what a lunatic. Huh? Wait a moment…"

He blinked.

"Why does it sound as if I'm speaking aloud? Damn, am I going crazy as well? Crazier, I mean."

The sorcerer cleared his throat, then cautiously hid his hands behind his back.

"Uh… yeah. That emerald trinket you are holding is a very rare and precious magical amulet. It can project someone's thoughts outward and vocalize them, turning thought into sound. So, uh… do stay away from my fingers, please. I am quite attached to them... unlike some people!"

Sunny paled.

"What?! No! He heard all that! Wait, crap… he heard that, too!"

He shuddered and hurriedly dropped the emerald amulet to the floor, then stared at it in abject horror.

Noctis smiled.

"Oh, Sunless… don't fret, my friend! I know it was just a bit of friendly teasing. I've heard way worse, anyway. You are actually a very restrained individual, as far as demons go."

He bent down, picked up the amulet, and offered it to Sunny with an innocent grin.

"So… how about we have a hearty meal and talk? There's so much we must speak about…"