712 Leaving the Sanctuary

A few days passed.

The Sanctuary stood empty and silent. The beautiful garden was devoid of its usual liveliness, and the winds howled as they passed through the ring of giant menhirs. Here and there, mundane things left behind by the people that had departed in a hurry lay, forlorn and forgotten. No one was ever going to return for them.

Sunny had never seen the Sanctuary this desolate and hollow… not in the future and not now, in the distant past. The sight of it was sad and eerie.

He had spent these days training tirelessly and learning to control his new body. This latest transformation had not been as fundamental as becoming a demon after living his whole life as a human, so his progress was swift. More than that, mastery of Shadow Dance made Sunny especially attuned to his physicality and change.

In truth, he did not need a whole week to achieve the goal. But practicing with Saint reminded him of the simpler times, and so, helped him prepare himself for the battle ahead mentally.

…On one of the last nights he had to spend in peace, Sunny woke up suddenly, thinking that he had heard a distant scream. Had he really, or was it just a vestige of a dream?

He sat up and glanced into the window, a deep scowl appearing on his face.

'What dream, you fool? Awakened don't dream…'

But who could have screamed in the Sanctuary? There were only two people left here. Sunny himself…

And Noctis.

He hesitated for a moment, and then stood up, summoning the Puppeteer's Shroud. After thinking for a bit, he also summoned the Cruel Sight, wrapped his shadows around himself, and walked outside.

The full moon shone in the night sky, drowning the world in ghostly blue light. Guided by it, Sunny walked across the empty garden and approached the residence of the sorcerer, where the immortal had disappeared to days earlier and never came back out.

The door stood open, and the Sailor Dolls guarded it silently, their wooden faces devoid of any sign of worry.

Passing between them, Sunny entered the residence and studied the familiar chamber. It had changed slightly… the stone floor was even more broken and littered with deep cracks, the piles of shards had grown taller.

However, there were no tremors running through it from time to time anymore, as if whatever it was that had hidden beneath had either died, fallen into a slumber, or gone elsewhere.

Noctis was in the middle of the room, sitting on a pile of rubble with a pained look on his face. The sorcerer looked… unwell.

His skin was deathly pale, with dark circles under his eyes. His lustrous hair had grown dull and was disheveled. Even his elegant garments, which had always been flashy and immaculate, were now wrinkled and in disarray.

What's more, Sunny could have sworn that there… that there was something moving beneath the sorcerer's skin. It appeared for a moment, and then was gone, making him unsure if he had seen it or just imagined the whole thing.

Noticing his presence, Noctis slowly turned his head and smiled weakly.

"Ah… Sunless. You are just in time. How do I look?"

Sunny stared at him for a moment, and then said:

"You look like crap."

The sorcerer blinked a couple of times, then threw a hurt look at him.

"No, not me, you idiot! How does he look?"

With that, Noctis gestured at a Sailor Doll that stood motionlessly a few steps away.

Sunny had grown so accustomed to the silent mannequins that he did not pay the doll any attention after registering its presence and position. Now, he took a closer look and raised his eyebrows, confused by what he saw.

The Sailor Doll was about the same height as Noctis, dressed in his best silks, and wearing a gorgeous black wig. It stared senselessly in front of itself and held a glass of wine.

He titled his head, opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.

"...What the hell?"

The sorcerer shrugged.

"Well, we are going to unexpectedly attack the Ivory City, are we not? Surely, the other Chain Lords would notice if I suddenly disappear from the Sanctuary… so, I prepared this doll to make it seem like I'm still here!"

He smiled proudly and looked at Sunny with a glint in his eyes.

Sunny covered his face with a palm for a moment.

"Do you really think that this… thing… will fool anyone? Have you lost your mind? I mean, lost it even more?"

Noctis glanced at him in confusion, and then laughed.

"Oh, I forgot the last touch…"

With that, he raised his hands and clapped them a couple of times. A moment later…

There were two sorcerers in the chamber, one sitting on the pile of rubble, the other standing a few meters away and staring at Sunny with an obnoxious smile. Even though he knew that the second one was just a Sailor Doll, he couldn't tell the difference.

"How about now?"

Sunny gulped.

"Yeah… it looks fine."

The Sailor Doll remained motionless for a bit, then raised the glass of wine to its lips, pretending to drink. The likeness was uncanny… but more than that, Sunny could feel that the real enchantment went much deeper than just looks. He could actually feel a suffocating presence radiating from the mannequin, similar to what he had felt on the Iron Hand island from Noctis himself.

Looking beneath the surface of the Sailor Doll, he was stunned to see something that looked exactly like a Transcendent soul core burning in its chest. Sunny slowly inhaled.

If Cassie were to look at the mannequin, would she have seen an Aspect Name and a list of Attributes?

"...Better than fine. It is very convincing."

Noctis grinned, then rose to his feet with a grimace. Once again, it seemed as if something moved under his skin… but a second later, he seemed fine.

"Good. Well then… one last thing left to do before we leave. Follow me."

Sunny threw one last look at the broken floor of the stone chamber, and then turned around.

He knew that he would never return here again.

Together, the two of them entered the garden and walked across it. Sunny did not know where Noctis was leading him, but felt that it was important. One of the Sailor Dolls followed them, carrying something heavy.

As they walked, the sorcerer suddenly spoke:

"I thought a lot about what you have told me, Sunless. About wanting to return home."

Sunny glanced at him with surprise, but did not say anything.

Noctis remained silent for a few moments, and then said in a wistful tone:

"I used to have a home too, you know? A long time ago. There was a beautiful temple where my siblings and I grew up, being taught by priests and priestesses. It was surrounded by a vast forest where we played and hunted. There was a lake where we caught fish and swam to escape the summer's heat, without a care in the world."

The smile slowly disappeared from his face, and his eyes shone softly, reflecting the pale moonlight.

"...I returned to that place some time ago. Ah, but it was not... it changed. The temple lay in ruins, the forest had been chopped down. The lake had dried up. Everything felt unfamiliar and strange, like a distant dream. And for a moment, I felt as if my whole life was just a dream that I have dreamt... and maybe was dreaming still."

He paused, sighed heavily, then suddenly smiled and looked at Sunny.

"But hey, by then, I already had this. This sanctuary that I have built with my own two hands, the people that I saved, the land that I tried to protect, the duty I made mine to uphold… this was my home."

He inhaled deeply and looked around, enjoying the sight of the Sanctuary…

Sunny suddenly realized that the sorcerer was, perhaps, seeing it for the last time.

His face grew heavy.

After a few moments, Noctis said:

"What I am trying to say, Sunless, is that you don't need to belong somewhere, or to something. You just need to make something belong to you. That is how you can find home…"

The sorcerer hesitated, and then added with a proud look on his face:

"...I mean it as a metaphor, of course."

Sunny looked at him for a long time, then smiled.

"That was a great metaphor."

Noctis grinned.

"It was, wasn't it? Well, why wouldn't it be? I am the most learned man in all of the Kingdom of Hope, after all!"

At that moment, they passed between the menhirs and approached the edge of the island, where the ugly monstrosities that Noctis had called statues of him stood. There were fourteen of them, each at least twice as tall as Sunny and cut of solid marble. He had not looked at the fruits of the sorcerer's labor after that first time, and was momentarily disturbed.

If the first statue could have been remotely called an image of a person, the rest of them, without of doubt, resembled terrifying abominations much more. They were giant and heavy, with talons, claws, fangs, spikes, and horns that made Sunny's own look pathetic in comparison. The giant gargoyles looked frightening, unsightly, ferocious...

And each had mighty stone wings.

Surrounded by monuments of harrowing creatures, he suddenly felt small and weak.

Feeling uneasy, Sunny glanced at Noctis and asked:

"These are… statues of you?"

The sorcerer laughed.

"Oh… well… I might have lied a little. These were never meant to look like me."

With that, a Sailor Doll silently appeared from the darkness, carrying a heavy box that was wrapped in thick, heavy chains.

As soon as Sunny saw the box, he felt his heart turn cold, and muffled whispers invade his ears. Involuntarily, he took a step back.

"What… the hell… is in that thing?"

Noctis calmly took the box, which trembled slightly, as if something inside was trying to break free. At the same time, Sunny thought that he noticed a movement under the sorcerer's skin.

The immortal grimaced, and then said:

"...Souls. A few especially vile souls that I have collected across the centuries."

Sunny scowled, gripping the Cruel Sight tighter.

"And what, exactly, are you planning to do with these souls?"

Noctis glanced at him, smiled, and then easily tore the heavy chains keeping the box shut.

"What else? I am going to create a few little helpers for you and your strange friends. What, were you really going to take on the armies of the Ivory City and the Red Colosseum all by yourself? By the Moon, Sunless… I do trust in your abilities, but what would people say if I turned out to be the only Chain Lord without an army? How would that look? Ah, no, such an embarrassment would simply not do…"

With that, he opened the box, his eyes shining with cold moonlight.

…And in the next moment, the fourteen terrifying stone beasts suddenly moved.