460 Fight or Flight

Sunny remained in the Hall of Chains for a while, looking at the Seed of Nightmare and the shimmering darkness that suffused it.

Then, he walked outside. Full of thought, Sunny passed between the jaws of the dead dragon and slowly headed toward the lake. There, he sat on the stone bench and stared at the water with a dark expression on his face. The wind lightly caressed his face and his pale skin, soothing the few remaining burns that he had received in the Sky Below.

Saint stood silently by his side, her graceful onyx figure reflecting in the clear waters of the lake.

A heavy sigh escaped from his lips.

'...I am almost home.'

More than a month ago, he had ventured on an expedition to explore the Shipwreck Island and search for clues about the whereabouts of the treasure left behind by mysterious Noctis. He had only planned to be gone for a week.

He had found the treasure, but also fought and defeated two devils: one Fallen, and one Ascended, receiving two powerful Memories in the process. After that, he gazed at the tapestry of Fate through the eyes of a divine mask, and plunged into an endless abyss.

He spent several weeks plummeting through a sea of nothingness, only to be met by an ocean of flames in its depths. On the other side of the fire was a black tower built by an ancient demon, and in it was a severed hand of a deity, consumed by a terrible rot. There, Sunny swallowed a phalanx bone of Weaver, and received the second part of their lineage.

After that, he used divine flames to open a portal between the dark void and the sunlit heavens, and found the seven chains that a god had once used to bind Desire, the daemon of Hope.

And somewhere along the way, he met a lost soul who called himself Mordred, the Prince of Nothing… a disembodied voice that came out of nowhere, and helped him along the way.

Now, Sunny just had to do one last thing… either plunge into a deadly Nightmare, or off the edge of the Ivory Island, to be met with the obliterating fury of the Crushing.

With a heavy sigh, he turned around and stared at the white bones of the great beast that had wrapped its mighty body around the base of Hope's beautiful tower once, thousands of years ago, before succumbing to death.

"...Let's get this show on the road, I guess."

***

Some time later, Sunny was leaning on the wall of the Ivory Tower. He was in a tight spot between the tail of the dead dragon and the white surface of the great pagoda, with Saint standing near him, her weapons dismissed.

With a crooked smile, Sunny wrapped the two shadows around his body and circulated shadow essence through the coils of the Soul Serpent, preparing for what was about to come.

Then, he looked at the taciturn stone demon and raised his eyebrows.

"What are you waiting for? Push!"

Saint gave him an indifferent look, then took a step forward, placed her hand on the surface of the massive bone in front of her, and pushed with all her demonic strength. Her feet sunk into the soil by a few centimeters, but the ancient bone did not move.

…Until Sunny joined his Shadow, that was.

Pressing his shoulder against the adamantine white surface, he poured shadow essence into his muscles, and pushed, too. Although it felt as though the strain was going to kill him, the bone finally gave.

One of the massive vertebrae comprising the dead dragon's tail rolled over, separating from the rest.

"Come on! Keep at it!"

…Of course, Sunny was not going to challenge a Second Nightmare alone. What was he, crazy? Well, maybe he was a little. But being suicidal was not a part of his very mild, borderline charming craziness.

Instead, he was going to throw a piece of the dead dragon's tail off the edge of the Ivory Island and ride it all the way down to the ground, hoping that it would survive the onslaught of the Crushing.

If a dragon couldn't, then what could?

"Put your back into it!"

Saint didn't really need his encouragement… or advice… so Sunny was mostly shouting for his own benefit, since producing loud noises seemed to help him cope with the strain of trying to push the ancient bone, for some reason.

Luckily, now that it had been dislodged, the process became easier.

Together, they slowly moved the massive vertebra past the gazebo containing the inactive portal, then past the grove of ancient trees, and finally to the very edge of the island.

There, Sunny stopped for a moment and tried to catch his breath. Then, he cautiously looked down.

That… was a mistake.

If before the colorful mosaic of the flying islands far below was simply a breathtaking sight, now that he had to actually jump down, it made Sunny dizzy and frightened out of his wits.

"Uh…"

But it was too late to change his mind.

...Wasn't it?

Gritting his teeth, Sunny tried not to think about the inconceivable height and climbed inside the vertebra, which, of course, was hollow at the center. There was just enough space there to fit his body, and that was the reason why he had chosen this particular one, in the first place.

He lingered for a long time, trying to gather his courage.

'Maybe it's not too late... maybe I should just enter the Seed. What's the big deal, anyway? It's... it's just a Second Nightmare.'

But no, there was no way back. He simply had to do it.

Inhaling deeply, Sunny held his breath for a moment, and then screamed in a small voice:

"Saint! Push it over!"

Outside the massive vertebra, the taciturn demon stared at the surface of the ancient bone for a moment.

And then... gave it a devastating kick.

As the tail bone of the dragon plunged off the edge of the Ivory Island, giving Sunny a serious rattle, he yelped, dismissed Saint, and dissolved into the shadow that dwelt in the hollow space inside the vertebra.

Of course, he wasn't going to try and survived the Crushing in his physical form… he just needed a large enough shadow to hide in. As long as the dragon bone endured, the shadow would too, and he would be safe.

…If it endured.

For a couple of seconds, everything seemed fine, but then the vertebra left the bubble of safety surrounding the heavenly island, and suddenly… an inconceivable pressure struck it from all sides like a hammer of a wrathful god, making the porcelain bone produce terrifying cracking noises.

Once again, Sunny was plummeting with terrible speed through the sky. Only this time, the vehicle he had chosen to transport him was even stranger, as well as spinning like crazy, with the wind roaring deafeningly all around. Luckily, he couldn't get sick as a shadow… otherwise, his already empty stomach would have become emptier.

'Curses! Don't break, you damn bone!'

The vertebra of the dead dragon was cracking and slowly breaking apart… but, miraculously, still holding together.

At this height, the Crushing was deadly enough to pulverize the flesh of a Saint — a bona fide demi-god — into a bloody paste. Maybe even a big, red cloud. But the adamantine dragonbone was only now beginning to slowly crumble apart.

Once the process started, though, it became unstoppable.

Sunny panicked as he watched wides crack appear on the white surface all around him. Then, a piece of the bone flew away, letting in a chaotic flood of light. Cursing, he shifted away from the breach, but seconds later, another appeared, and then another. The size of the shadow he could hide in was growing smaller and smaller.

'Crap!'

Soon, there were more holes and cracks in the bone than he could count.

And then... it crumbled completely.

At the last second, Sunny slid onto the biggest remaining slab of the ancient vertebra, and then went into a crazy dance, shifting from one side of it to another as the fragment spun and exposed different parts of it to the sunlight.

Small pieces broke off from it, and then, the fragment itself cracked, too.

'Argh!'

Finally, the piece of the adamantine vertebrae disintegrated into a rain of splinters that were too small to fit Sunny into their shadows. With nowhere else to hide, he was thrown out into the physical world, his body instantly becoming the victim of the bone-breaking force of the Crushing.

…Luckily, his bones were now much more robust than before.

And the Crushing was already not as irrevocably obliterating as it had been higher up.

As a loud scream escaped from Sunny's mouth, he continued to fall, feeling his body go through a cruel meatgrinder. But with the help of two shadows and a generous outpour of shadow essence, it wasn't enough to kill him, or even seriously wound him. It was simply painful, damaging, and unpleasant.

The tail bone of the dead dragon had carried him down for long enough to go through the worst layers of the Crushing.

Now, all he had to do was stick the landing.

With a suppressed groan, Sunny struggled to control his fall and finally managed to stabilize his body, preventing it from spinning madly.

The Chained Isles were now much, much closer than they had been before.

In fact, he could even recognize a few nearest ones.

'Don't you dare miss, you pale bastard!'

He really, really didn't want to repeat the whole damned process again.

Summoning the Dark Wing, Sunny waited for a second for the dragonfly cloak to activate its enchantment, and then slowly started to turn his fall into a glide.

A single thought rang in his mind:

'I made it… I actually made it… crap, I really did!'

***

Some time later, a figure of a young man fell from the skies and nimbly landed on the index finger of the giant iron hand that lay in the center of a peaceful, quiet island. The young man looked a bit strange… he was naked above the waist, with several half-healed burns covering his pale skin, and a menacing, intricate tattoo of a coiling black serpent covering his arms, as well as a large part of his torso.

His black hair was wild and disheveled, and his dark eyes seemed a little crazy.

Sunny swayed a little, caught his balance…

...And turned to a group of Awakened who were sitting around a dancing campfire, staring at him with their mouths wide open.

A bright smile appeared on his face.

"Ah! Good day to you, fellow humans. Say…"

As mad intensity appeared in his eyes, Sunny licked his lips and asked hoarsely:

"...Is that food I see roasting over your fire?"