Opening his eyes, Sydra finds himself in a dark room, restrained by black chains. "You desire help?" A deep voice asks, the sound of someone walking coming from behind Sydra. "What are you willing to sacrifice for my help?" It asks, the shadow of a man appearing beneath Sydra's feet.
Tugging at the chains, Sydra attempts to see who is talking to him, "Who are you, and why have you chained me up?" Sydra asks, craning his neck as far as it can go.
"I am someone from beyond the edge, as well as the person who gave you the Vortex Lightning, but I am not the one who placed these chains on you, that was yourself," The man says, lifting one of the chains binding Sydra in the air.
'Someone from beyond the edge? Does he mean the edge of the world?" Sydra wonders, giving up from trying to break free of the chains for now. "What do you mean, I placed these chains on myself, I have no memory of that?" Sydra asks, feeling the man drop the chain.
The man walks around the room, allowing Sydra to get a clear look at him or at least the parts that aren't covered by swirling black shadows. The man's face is covered by an obsidian mask, showing only his eyes, which are darker than the room itself. Squatting down, the man places his gloved hand on Sydra's shoulder, his eyes sending shivers through Sydra's soul.
"Tell me, what are you willing to sacrifice for more power?" the man asks, "I can give it to you, but I need something in return,"
"How do I know that the power you give me will even be worth a sacrifice?" Sydra asks, watching the man stand back up and clap his hands twice.
"Why don't I just show you, it might help you come to a decision," He says, a black hole forming in the air behind him. Peering through the hole, Sydra sees himself laying on the ground, the golden lightning still slamming into his back. Stepping through the black hole, the man appears above Sydra's body, standing calmly inside the cascading lightning.
Pointing his finger to the sky, a black vortex shoots out of it and enters the golden clouds. Swirling within the clouds, the black vortex grows larger as it devours the lightning before it can fully condense. As more and more of the lightning is absorbed, the valley becomes dimmer as the sheep's fleece loses its golden sheen. With each passing second, the sheep become weaker, until they have no more strength to stand.
'Wait, if this continues the sheep will die,' Sydra thinks, watching as the man looks back at Sydra, his eyes gleaming with murderous intent. "Stop, you've shown me enough!" Sydra yells, hoping the man will listen to him.
Sighing, the man releases the vortex, leaving the sheep on the verge of death, and slips back through the black hole. Before the man closes the hole behind him, Sydra watches as the tiny sheep falls from the sky, its limp body bouncing across the ground.
Looking at Sydra with anticipation, the man briskly crosses the room, shaking Sydra with both his hands. "You see, just one small action from me, and all those sheep were already on the verge of death," he says, his voice shaking from excitement.
Curling his lip in disgust, Sydra turns away from the man, "I did see that, and I can safely say that I will never accept your help," Sydra says, watching as the man's shoulders slump and he steps back.
"You won't huh... That's too bad." The man says, walking around Sydra, "But you don't really have a choice, you see. After all, you and I are already one, and sooner or later, you will use my powers,"
Stopping behind Sydra, the man runs his finger down the scar on Sydra's back. "Every time you use your lightning, I will grow stronger, and these chains will grow weaker until they eventually break," he says, "Once that day comes I, the Edge Vortex, will take full control of your body, and send everyone you care for to the depths of the Underworld,".
Before Sydra can answer he feels intense fatigue wash over his body, and his eyes shut once more. A few minutes later, Sydra feels a stinging sensation appear on both his cheeks and the sound of someone clapping repeatedly. His eyes fluttering open, Sydra watches as Cidre slaps his face back and forth.
"Stop! He's awake!" Robert yells, noticing Sydra's eyes became red as he glares at Cidre.
Freezing with his hand in the air, Cidre looks down at Sydra, "Oh, I guess you're right," he says, standing back up, and dusting off his pants. Standing up, Sydra looks around the valley, noticing that most of the sheep are still laying on the ground.
"What happened to all the sheep?" He asks, turning to look at the others in confusion.
"We were wondering the same thing," Robert says, "All we know is that you were pushed to the ground, and the next second a shadow was standing above you, its finger pointed towards the sky,"
Glancing up, Sydra sees that the golden clouds above the valley have dispersed, and the tiny sheep is laying a few meters off to the side. Walking over to the sheep, Sydra bends down to check if it's still alive. Feeling a faint heartbeat coming from the sheep, Sydra stands up and tries to remember what happened after he blacked out.
"It feels like I was dreaming of something important, but as soon as I woke up, my memories of it faded away," Sydra says, turning to look at the others. Rubbing his head, Sydra feels a faint heat radiating off the ring on his finger.
Glancing at it, Sydra notices that the ring seems darker than before, and the hourglass on the top seems different as well. 'That's odd, I feel a faint trace of darkness coming from the ring,' Sydra thinks, before scanning the rest of the valley.
"By the way, Sydra, what was the reason for trying to capture one of these Divine Cloud Sheep anyway?" Erich asks, stepping over one of the sheep.
Unable to remember what happened, Sydra sighs and pulls out a needle, "There is a potion that can be made with their blood, but you can only use a drop or people wouldn't be able to handle it," he says while injecting the needle and drawing a bit of blood from the tiny sheep.
Once he was done, Sydra sent the to Ned, who was working inside the room below the palace. 'There, that should do it,' Sydra thinks, walking over to the group. "The sheep look like they are in the process of recovering from whatever happened, so they should be fine if we head back to the town now,"
Pulling out his map, Sydra leads the group back to the town, where people are setting up decorations. However, even though the surroundings are starting to look festive, the mood around the town is anything but that.
"Mom, why does everyone look so sad while we set up our decorations?" A little boy asks, tugging on his mother's shirt. When the mother turns around, the little boy notices tears running down her face and becomes quiet.
Going through the town, the group overhears more conversations like this. It turns out that this time of year used to be a special time for the people on the island, but that turned to dread as it became the symbol of the pirate's approach.
Shaking with rage at the unjust treatment of the island's inhabitants, Sydra pulls the others off into an alleyway. "We are going to do something about the pirates, and free this island of their fear," Sydra says, the group nodding in agreement.
"They should be arriving in two days, so we don't have much time to prepare an ambush," Robert says, "Should we get some of the town people to help?"
Glancing out of the alleyway, Sydra studies the people walking around. "No, it doesn't look like there is anyone strong on this island, so it would be better to leave them out of this," he says, motioning for the group to leave the alleyway and head back to the boat.
Reaching the harbor, Cidre notices something is off, "Hey, do you guys remember seeing that ship before?" He asks, pointing towards a ship that was a hundred meters away. The ship was long and black, and although the sails were tattered, it was moving at a rapid pace.
"The Wither Pirates?! Why are they here early?" Someone yells, causing the people in the town to begin panicking. Within seconds, everyone had left the streets, and disappeared into their homes.
"Crap, we need to hide our boat and disappear," Sydra says, rushing to put the boat into his Arbor Sanctum. As his hands land on the ship, the sound of a cannon firing comes from the pirate ship, and a canon ball tears through Sydra's ship.
"Dang it, I wasn't fast enough," Sydra says, his ship disappearing, allowing him to see the Pirate's ship barreling down towards him, another cannon's muzzle flassing.