Chapter 443 Secrets of the Voidfɾēewebnσveℓ.com
Out there in the empty darkness of the void… something even darker loomed, hidden from the radiant light of the ocean of flame above.
Sunny peered at the distant black silhouette and shivered.
'...What the hell? What is it doing here?'
Far below him, a small island cut from dark stone floated in the endless emptiness, surrounded by drifting slabs of shattered obsidian. A tall and magnificent pagoda stood in its center, built of a flawlessly black material that was neither wood nor stone. Its lusterless walls seemed to devour any light that touched them…
It was the perfect replica of the Ivory Tower... but at the same time its opposite. The two pagodas were so alike that for a moment, Sunny even thought that he had somehow found himself high up in the Sky Above.
But no.
The island that the Obsidian Tower stood upon was different. It was larger than the one every Awakened on the Chained Isles was used to observing in the skies, and had no broken chains hanging from its stone slopes. On its desolate surface, remains of mysterious structures could be seen, turned to ruin by the passage of time. Several obsidian pillars protruded horizontally from its edges, stretching into the empty void like strange wharves.
From high above, Sunny couldn't see much of the island in detail. But he was approaching it fast…
'...Crap!'
Too fast!
Sunny hesitated for a moment, then suppressed the desire to immediately summon the Dark Wing. The divine flames were still too close, and their heat could damage the fragile Memory. He had to wait for a bit… there was still time.
Even if it was going to run out pretty soon.
Sunny continued to fall, waiting. With every minute, the heat of the immolating stars dissipated a little. And with each minute, the dark island grew closer and closer.
Finally, knowing that there was no more time to waste, Sunny summoned the Dark Wing and commanded it to turn his fall into a glide. The dragonfly cloak turned into a blur behind his back… but it also began to produce thin wisps of smoke, threatening to catch aflame at any moment.
'Curses!'
Supported by the enchantment of the Dark Wing, Sunny's descent started to slow down little by little. His speed, however, was too great to be nullified in a single instant. It was dropping swiftly… but was it swift enough to prevent him from splattering all over the surface of the mysterious island?
And was the transparent cloak even going to endure for long enough?
Sunny cursed and trembled as he watched the Obsidian Tower approach.
'Here goes nothing! Damn!'
In the end, he still landed with enough speed to shatter all bones in his legs from the impact against the ground. At the last moment, however, Sunny turned into a shadow and dove into the deep darkness enveloping the island instead. Safely embraced by the shadows, he submerged himself into them, and finally allowed his mind to relax.
'Safe… I'm safe…'
…He was finally safe.
For a few seconds, at least.
***
Sunny was in a world of pain.
His shadow essence was running out, too.
Also, he had no idea what terrifying danger was waiting for him on the mysterious island that remained hidden in the deepest reaches of the Sky Below for thousands of years, nor what deadly secrets waited for him inside the Obsidian Tower.
…But for now, he did not care. All he cared about was that he was not falling anymore.
'Bliss… this is pure bliss!'
Floating in the dark embrace of shadows, Sunny couldn't get enough of the fact that, for the first time in almost a month, he was… stationary. He finally had solid ground under his feet again! Metaphorically speaking, of course.
In any case, it was such a beautiful feeling.
Sunny allowed himself to relax and rested for a bit, safely hidden in the deep dark shadows.
After a while, he sighed and forced himself to turn his attention to the outside world. Moving closer to the surface of the deep darkness that embraced him, Sunny cautiously took a look outside.
'...Huh?'
Strangely, what met him was complete and utter silence.
There were no Nightmare Creatures on the island, no abyssal horrors, no terrifying beings to devour him whole. Not even a single unholy titan slumbered nearby, ready to wake up at the slightest disturbance.
The island seemed… empty.
Which was very fortunate, considering that Sunny was running very low on shadow essence and was going to have to assume his physical form soon.
He hesitated for a few moments, then took stock of his equipment and himself.
His soul was seriously wounded, but not beyond its ability to heal itself… in time.
His body was not exactly whole, but in somewhat of a splendid shape, considering all that had happened. He even had all his limbs intact.
Both the Mantle of the Underworld and the Cruel Sight, as well as the Dark Wing and Saint's bow were heavily damaged. Luckily, none of these Memories were completely destroyed. It was going to take a long time before he could use them again, though. Days… maybe even weeks.freёwebnoѵel.com
On the bright side, Saint herself had recovered from the wounds received on the Shipwreck Island ages ago. Sunny actually could have summoned her at any point during his journey through the Sky Below, but there was no real reason to. Plus, the treasure chest would not have accommodated both of them, especially considering how much the living statue weighed.
The [Dark Mirror] enchantment of the Cruel Sight now also had two elemental augmentations for Sunny to choose from. Its runes showed:
Current Charge: Divine Flame.
Latent Charges: Soul.
'Divine flame, huh…'
Well, if there was one benefit from being burned by the damn thing, it was that now he would be able to cause similar pain to others. So, it was totally worth it in the end... no doubt about it...
'I guess we will have to see.'
And lastly… Sunny was now completely sure that the thing on the other end of the golden String of Fate was the Obsidian Tower. His intuition was calm and silent. That told him that he had arrived at his destination.
Somewhere inside, a thing that was deeply connected to his fate waited.
Glancing at the magnificent silhouette of the black pagoda, Sunny sighed… and left the safety of the shadows, emerging from them to step onto the surface of the island that no other human had visited in thousands of years.
If ever…
Chapter 444 Obsidian Tower
Sunny stood naked on the rocky surface of the dark island. He grimaced and looked at his body, which was a map of burns — some more severe than others — then summoned the Puppeteer's Shroud.
Not wishing for the soft fabric to touch the worst of his wounds, he left it the way it had been during the latter stages of his journey through the Sky Below, with the leather elements gone and the upper garment undone and tied around his waist.
This time, his body was wrapped in shadows and appeared black, as if cut from the same obsidian that the dark island consisted of. The coils of the Soul Serpent seemed to shimmer as the essence flowed through them.
A moment later, Saint stepped from behind him and moved forward, summoning the Midnight Shard as she walked. Knowing how badly his soul was damaged, Sunny decided to keep the Broken Oath locked away for a while, so the Shadow was not surrounded by the destructive aura anymore.
He was also not in any shape to fight himself, at least not very effectively, and that was why the austere tachi was currently in the hands of the taciturn demon. If push came to shove, Sunny would either use the Moonlight Shard or command the Soul Serpent to assume the odachi form.
With a heavy sigh, he summoned the Endless Spring and greedily drank the cold water from it, then leaned forward and poured some on his head. After that, he finally felt like a human once again.
…All in all, things weren't that bad. He was alive and in one piece, suffering from neither thirst nor hunger.
Here on the dark island, the air was pleasantly warm. Bright stars burned in the empty void high above, making for a beautiful view. Right in front of them, the graceful silhouette of the Obsidian Tower rose from the ground like a black rift in reality.
It turned out to be much larger than Sunny had thought, but nowhere near the scale of the Crimson Spire. That cursed thing seemed to be too gargantuan to even exist, while the ancient pagoda was more or less fit to have been built for humans. Well… maybe for extremely tall humans. Or... tiny giants?
As Sunny studied the Obsidian Tower, Saint tilted her head and stared at the black pagoda, too, her ruby eyes reflecting some strange emotion. Was it… recognition?
Why would his Shadow recognize a tower hidden in the depths of the abyss below the Chained Islands?
'Strange…'
Sunny frowned, then dismissed the Endless Spring. He remained motionless for a few moments, then slowly headed toward the tall pagoda. Saint followed.
As they walked across the island, Sunny had time to look at the various ruins left on its surface.
It was hard to determine what they had been once, but Sunny got the feeling that he wasn't looking at the remains of buildings. More like… structures? Devices? Their purpose was now impossible to determine, but whatever it had been, he doubted that anyone could have ever lived inside.
The closest he could get to putting his feeling in words was that these ruins reminded him most of the bowels of the underground factory his mom had worked in when he was little. Even though the factory was much larger and built of alloy instead of cut blocks of obsidian, not to mention being much more advanced, the sensation was the same.
'...Just what was the purpose of this island? Who lived here? Who built that strange tower?'
The closer Sunny got to the Obsidian Tower, the more he was impressed by its graceful beauty. Even though the pagoda was hidden in the depths of the Sky Below, where very few creatures would have ever seen it, the unknown builder spent time to ensure that it replicated the magnificence of its Ivory counterpart perfectly.ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
It would have been breathtaking if it wasn't so… menacing.
Surrounded by nothing but emptiness and silence, the Obsidian Tower appeared ominous just by virtue of existing.
'I am not… not scared at all.'
He did, however, was thinking about one thing in particular…
Which tower was really the replica, and which one was the original?
The beautiful white pagoda that flowed high above the Chained Isles, or the menacing black one that hid in the darkness below?
Maybe he was going to find out…
Soon, Sunny and Saint approached the tall gates of the Obsidian Tower. Nothing attacked them, and no frightening sound came from inside, announcing that something that dwelled beyond the black gates was awakening in hunger. The pagoda was silent, just like the rest of the dark island.
The strange thing, though, was that Sunny could not feel any shadows on the other side of the massive door. Not because there weren't any, but because the walls of the tower seemed to shield the interior from his Shadow Sense.
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
'I have never encountered anything like this before. Have I?'
He hesitated, then approached the black door, summoned the Moonlight Shard, and scratched its surface. A layer of black dust fell down, revealing a much harder, and even blacker surface beneath.
Sunny raised an eyebrow.
'...Soot?'
The entire pagoda was covered in a thick layer of soot. He stood motionlessly for a bit, trying to understand what meaning was there in this fact, then simply shrugged and studied the ancient gate.
The problem he was facing… was that the gate didn't have a handle to open. Neither did it have a keyhole, a bell to ring, or a knocker to announce his arrival.
'How the hell am I supposed to open it?'
Without Shadow Sense, he couldn't use Shadow Step to simply appear inside. So, for the moment, Sunny was stuck.
'It would be very, very funny to travel all this way only to find out that I can't open a damn door. Right?'
Slightly embarrassed, he looked at Saint and asked:
"Any ideas?"
He didn't really expect an answer from the taciturn demon, but to his surprise, the Shadow stared at him for a few moments, and then lowered her sword.freёwebnovel.com
Then, she raised one hand and pointed to her eye.
Sunny observed all of that in complete bewilderment, then blinked a couple of times.
'Eye? What does she mean?'
Then, an idea came into his mind.
Turning back to the door, he put one hand on it, and then shifted his gaze in a similar manner he did when looking beneath the surface of Memories to look at their spellweave.
And there, beneath the obsidian surface of the tower's gate, he saw it.
A weave.
It wasn't the weave of ethereal threads he was used to seeing, though. Instead, it was a much cruder and more primitive version of it, created from very physical diamond strings that stretched beneath the stone surface, creating a beautiful, but simple pattern.
Sunny had only seen this type of weave one time before.
Inside Saint herself.
Back when she was just an Echo, he had noticed it hidden behind the radiant pattern of the spellweave. He had thought that it was what made the stone warriors alive, in the first place.
That it was created by the last child of the Unknown in the cavernous halls of his dark domain…
And that it might have been the precursor of the Spell itself, or maybe an imitation of it.
Was this tower built by the Lord of the Underworld too, then?
…Sunny hesitated for a moment, then moved his hand to a particularly bright nod of the diamond weave and sent a small amount of shadow essence into it.
For a moment, nothing happened.
And then, the gates of the Obsidian Tower opened.