601 Kingdom of Hope

Sunny dreamt of boundless blue skies.

Beneath them, a patchwork of islands floated in the air, laid on the backdrop of velvety darkness like a beautiful mosaic. Some islands were verdant and green, some were desolate and empty, and some were covered by ancient ruins, the weathered stones overgrown by moss.

All of them were bound by colossal iron chains that rattled loudly as the islands rose and fell, hovering above the abyss, a scattering of pale stars shining somewhere far, far below them. In the center of the mosaic, an ugly wound gaped, a vast tear in space where nothing but emptiness remained.

A lone island soared above that tear, seven torn chains hanging from its slopes, a beautiful white pagoda standing on its surface in a mantle of clouds.

Suddenly, the sun rolled backward, soon disappearing behind the eastern horizon. The skies darkened, and then were illuminated again as a radiant moon streaked across them, swift enough to turn into a blurry trail of light. A moment later, it was day again, and then, it was night once more.

The skies grew torn between light and darkness, time flowing in reverse with terrible speed. Sunny watched as the islands beneath him slowly changed their shapes, as ruins rose from the ground and assembled into unwavering structures, as the stars burning in the abyss grew brighter and brighter, new ones igniting each moment, until the whole void was suffused with a furious white light.

One after another, fallen islands rose from that annihilating light, the chains that had tethered them to the rest of the mosaic repairing themselves. Soon, the tear in its center was no more, and instead, a vast ashen wasteland of scorched isles appeared in its place. The Ivory Tower descended from high above, taking its place at the very heart of the wasteland.

An instant later, the ashes were no more, revealing a breathtaking aerial city that sprawled across dozens of islands, all of them connected to each other by arching bridges and overflowing aqueducts built out of pristine white stone, with vibrant flags fluttering in the wind and sparkling waterfalls flowing into the abyss below.

Slowly, Sunny's gaze was pulled west, toward the very edge of the Chained Isles. There, one of the Great Chains anchored them to the lands beyond, and a mighty fortress stood at the precipice, similar to the other border strongholds he had seen before. The island next to it resembled a vast stone bowl, with rows of seats cut into its weathered white slopes and a circular arena laying at its bottom, painted dull red.

And even further than that was an island with a strange river that flowed endlessly through it, forming a circle around an ancient statue of a beautiful woman wielding a spear in one hand, and gripping a beating human heart in the other, her nakedness covered only by a beast hide tied around her thighs, her face lost in the shadows.

That was the island where Sunny found himself.

...And of course, he was thrown straight into the damn river.

'G—goddammit! Why does this keep happening to me?!'

Sunny was so angry that he didn't even feel any panic, unlike the previous two times the Spell had decided to give him a cold and wet welcome — first on the Forgotten Shore, then at the Sanctuary of Noctis.

This time, at least, he had an idea of where he was, and in which direction to swim if he wanted to reach the surface.

Sunny strained his muscles to struggle against the strong current…

And finally realized that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

His body refused to listen… or rather, it did, but in a way that made no sense at all. His limbs didn't move as he willed them to, and instead of swimming, he simply thrashed around, submerging deeper and deeper into the cold, dark water. His senses were all messed up, too, so he couldn't even understand what had gone wrong.

'W—what the hell?!'

Now, Sunny finally was starting to panic a little.

This went way beyond what he had experienced in the First Nightmare. Back then, the body given to him by the Spell had felt almost the same as his own… this time, however, it was way too unfamiliar!

Was this what Master Jet had warned him about?

Sunny tried to keep calm and swim ashore, but moving through water, especially with such a strong current, was not an easy task. It required a lot of coordination and a fair bit of balance, which he simply lacked right now. No matter what he tried to do, his efforts only made things worse.

He fell deeper ad deeper into the river, drowning slowly.

His lungs were already starting to burn from the lack of oxygen… they also felt as weird as the rest of him. His vision was already darkening…

Sunny gritted his teeth, which suddenly sent a wave of pain through his mouth and jaw, and then stopped struggling, letting the current pull him down. Then, he concentrated on his shadow sense… and, as soon as his body struck the rocky bottom of the river, stepped through the shadows to appear near the stone statue.

Sunny fell into the grass. Coughing violently, he tried to suck in a breath of fresh air, only to find out that even that was a struggle. His lungs were refusing to work as they were supposed to, and even though he managed to inhale, it was still not enough to chase the sensation of suffocating away.

'What… is going on… damn it!'

Sunny sprawled on the ground and closed his eyes, cutting off all of his senses to concentrate on trying to take control of the mess of his new body.

'Don't think. Thinking will only make things worse. This thing has to have instincts… you now have them, too…'

He cleared his mind of any thoughts about breathing and oxygen, and soon, his instincts did, indeed, take over. It was like the story of a centipede that was asked how it walked, and fell down, unable to move. As soon as Sunny stopped thinking about inhaling, his body did so on its own.

Suddenly, his lungs were full of sweet air, and he was strong and vigorous once more.

'Oh, thank gods…'

Sunny did not move for a few moments, breathing deeply, and then tried to understand what type of a vessel, exactly, had the Spell chosen for him…

Before he could, however, a beautiful voice suddenly sounded above him, full of curiosity and amusement:

"What a strange thing you are…"

Sunny opened his eyes and struggled to rise to his feet, turning his head swiftly in the direction of the speaker.

When he did, he froze.

In front of him, kneeling near the statue, was perhaps the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had soft skin and a delicate, exquisite face, her chestnut hair streaming down her shoulders like lustrous silk. Her eyes were suffused with light and shone gently, like two silver stars.

Sunny had seen a lot of stunning beauties in his lifetime, but no one could even remotely compare to the quiet, breathtaking grace of this stranger. Just one look at her made his heart race, and his face flush. She was more like a fairy than a mere mortal…

And, maybe, she was.

The beautiful woman was wearing a simple red tunic that left her shoulders bare, and wielded no weapons. Despite that, her presence was vast and permeated the whole island. It was as though the blades of grass bent slightly to be closer to her, the rays of sunshine changed their path to caress her skin. As if she didn't exist in the world, but instead, the world existed around her.

And something... something about her felt strangely familiar.

Sunny opened his mouth, stunned, and said:

"Uh… greetings?"

…Or at least, he tried to. However, what came out of his mouth instead was a hoarse, bestial growl.

'What the…'

He tried to speak again, and once more, his mouth produced a low, threatening gnarl.

The woman frowned.

"One of Shadow God's creatures… how curious. I didn't know that there were any of you left here, in the Kingdom of Hope."

Sunny stared at her, dumbfounded. Then, he lowered his eyes and finally looked at himself.

'Oh… crap…'

Well, at least one of his desires had come true. Sunny wasn't short anymore. In fact, he was at least two meters tall.

The problem, however…

Was that he wasn't a human.

His skin was light grey, the color of stone. His legs were long and digitigrade, bending backward and ending with powerful, sharp claws. He had four arms, each longer and stronger than that of a human, and a long twisting tail. His face was like that of a demon, with sharp features and a mouth full of terrifying fangs. Two curved horns were growing from his forehead, and his hair was long, black, and coarse.

His eyes were fully black, with no irises and two vertical, furious pupils.

…What's worse, Sunny didn't seem to possess the vocal cords of a human.

He couldn't speak.

'Oh, crap!'

The beautiful woman looked at him, and smiled.

Her smile was dazzling and breathtaking, but made Sunny feel cold and scared, for some reason.

"You shouldn't have invaded my lands, little creature. But don't worry… I will gift you a death most glorious. This, I promise before the gods."

She rose, standing tall in front of the ancient statue.

"After all, I, Solvane, am nothing if not merciful…"