453 Shrine of Stars

Sunny remained silent for a while, thinking feverishly.

A bridge between the two towers…

That was his chance to escape this dismal place and return to the real world!

...The problem was, he had no clue what this connection Mordret had told him about was. However, he had an idea.

In the past several days, Sunny had explored the rest of the Obsidian… of the Ebony Tower. He had made a couple of fascinating discoveries, but most of it was now full of nothing except dust and rubble. Pretty much everything inside the pagoda disintegrated due to the onslaught of time after he had opened its gates.

The most promising and mysterious of his finds, though, was situated on the last level of the tower, in a small circular hall that housed nothing except for a graceful stone arch, which stood lonesomely in its center and looked like a misplaced, empty doorframe.

The most intriguing part about the arch was that it was surrounded by a circle of runes… almost like the Gateway in the Crimson Spire had been.

In fact, that was what Sunny assumed it to be — an inactive Gateway. For that reason, he had spent these days trying to find a way to activate it. He had poured shadow essence into the arch itself, as well as every corner of the hall. He had studied the unfamiliar runes, hoping to either find a way to translate them or maybe discover a place where they had been damaged, thus rendering the arch useless.

But nothing had worked… yet.

The information provided by Mordret instantly changed his perception of the arch, though. If what the lost prince had told him was true, then maybe it wasn't a Gateway to the real world. Maybe it was an entrance to the magical bridge connecting the Ebony Tower to its Ivory counterpart.

Still... how was he supposed to make the damn thing work?

With a deep scowl appeared on his face, Sunny asked:

"If this place is really connected to the Ivory Tower… then how would one go about using that connection? Do you have any ideas? There is something that looks like a portal here, but it doesn't work. I tried to open it a hundred times, to no avail."

Mordret thought for a bit, then said uncertainly:

"Have you tried saturating it with essence?"

Sunny grimaced.

"Of course! What am I, a fool? That was the first thing I attempted."

He hesitate for a few moments, then voiced something that had been keeping him worried for a while:

"Maybe… maybe it requires some sort of a key to be opened?"

The voice remained silent for a long time. Then, Mordret said:

"No, I don't think so."

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Why?"

The lost prince answered casually:

"Because only doors that can be kicked open require locks and keys. The master of this place wasn't someone who needed such things to keep uninvited guests away."

'Huh… makes sense, I guess. He seems to know a lot about the Prince of the Underworld, though. I thought knowledge of daemons was really scarce…'

Sunny sighed.

"So, how do I activate the connection then?"

Mordret considered the question for a second or two, the said with a hint of doubt in his voice:

"The creator of the Ebony Tower was a builder of things. A genius artifex, but also of practical sort… from what little knowledge of him remains. He would have probably used whatever was at hand, and went for the simplest solution. Builders don't like overcomplicated things, after all."

Sunny considered his words.

'The simplest solution…'

A seed of an idea appeared in his mind.

With a thoughtful expression, he took another bite out of the piece of meat and chewed it thoroughly.

The lost prince politely remained silent while Sunny ate. After a while, however, he suddenly spoke:

"Oh, by the way. I don't want to worry you, Sunless… but there seems to be a powerful Nightmare Creature standing right behind you…"

Sunny almost choked again. If not for the fact that he was looking both forward and back at the same time with the help of the shadows, he would have jumped and summoned the Cruel Sight immediately. But he knew that there was no one behind him. Except for Saint…

He swallowed the foul meat, then smiled weekly.

"Curses, you almost gave me a heart attack! That's... that's not a Nightmare Creature. Can't you differentiate a real demon from an Echo?"

Mordret remained silent for a bit, then said with amusement:

"She is your Echo? Fascinating…"

Sunny frowned:

"What's so fascinating about it?"

However, there was no answer. The mysterious prince was gone once again, disappearing as suddenly as he had appeared. Usually, Sunny was irritated by this annoying habit of his, but this time...

…This time, he was glad.

Sunny couldn't wait to go back to the sixth level, but didn't want Mordret to see what he had found on the level before.

He still didn't trust the lost prince… even though Mordret had been nothing but helpful up until now. Extremely so, in fact. Sunny didn't know if he would have even been alive without his guidance.

'Later… if I manage to return to the Sanctuary in one piece, I'll start trusting him then. A little. Maybe…'

Finishing up his meal — the last he was going to have in a while — Sunny stood up, stretched, and headed toward the stairs.

***

After he had received the Bone Weave and rested, Sunny explored the rest of the third level of the Ebony Tower. However, he had not found anything of note there. He also had not discovered any more traces left behind by Weaver, which disappointed him a great deal.

The fourth level, however… was much more interesting.

The central hall of it was fashioned into a vast, somber shrine. At the center of it stood an altar cut from a single slab of black onyx, and behind it was an incredibly beautiful statue of a young woman dressed in a flowing tunic, her face obscured by a veil. The young woman was holding a star in one hand, and a bolt of lightning in the other.

…Sunny was pretty sure that she was none other than Storm God, also known as the Goddess of Black Skies. Deity of the oceans, of the depths, darkness, stars, travel, guidance, and disaster.

Which was really interesting.

Why would the Prince of the Underworld build a shrine to his sworn enemy at the very heart of the Ebony Tower?

Their relationship, it seemed, was not as simple as Sunny had thought.

He had been much more interested in the altar itself, though. After finding the shrine, Sunny had tried to place magical coins on the onyx surface, and even spilled a bit of his blood on it.

But this time, the gods had not answered. The coins, too, simply remained laying on the altar instead of turning into shadow essence.

It seemed that the altar was not mystical at all. In fact, as far as altars went, this one appeared to be quite mundane. Sunny had quickly lost interest and continued exploring the great pagoda.

And he had not been disappointed by that decision.

Because there was something very, very important on the fifth level of the Ebony Tower…