Shadow Slave

By the middle of their second day of traveling through the Labyrinth atop the ancient colossus, an ominous dark line appeared on the horizon. With every minute, it slowly grew closer. Pretty soon, Sunny was able to tell that they were headed toward a vast mountain chain.

The mountains seemed to serve as a border between the Forgotten Shore and the rest of the Dream Realm. They were tall and jagged, piercing the skies like the fangs of a giant dragon. Their distant peaks were covered in pristine white snow and wrapped in a veil of mist that streamed into the ravines and onto the ridges below.

This was the place where the first lord of the Castle had disappeared all those years ago, as well as the goal of their own perilous journey.

As the stone giant came closer to the mountains, Sunny finally understood just how tall, magnificent, and imposing they were. Even the colossus himself looked like a tiny ant in front of these towering peaks. It was hard not to feel small and insignificant in their oppressive shadow.

Slowly, the terrain of the Labyrinth began to rise. The mounds of coral grew smaller, the distance between them increased, until finally there were as much black soil and stone outcroppings visible beneath as there were islands of vivid crimson. Finally, the blades of coral became scarce.

It was as though the Labyrinth was reluctant to approach the foothills of the misty mountains... or simply unable to.

As the gargantuan statue approached the border of the crimson forest, its steps slowed. The colossus seemed to be struggling to move any further. His body was slightly bent, as if he was fighting against strong wind or some invisible force that was relentlessly pulling him back into the Labyrinth.

Even his prodigious might was not enough to defeat the pull of the ancient curse.

Finally, the stone giant staggered and stopped.

This was the moment they were waiting for.

Caster, Effie and Nephis were already climbing down, while Sunny, Cassie and Kai stood at the edge of the circular platform.

Looking down, Sunny sighed and glanced at the charming archer.

"If this doesn't work, you're going to catch me, right?"

Kai raised his elegant eyebrows, then smile at him dazzlingly.

"Why, of course. It would be my pleasure!"

Sunny's eye twitched. Shaking his head, he summoned the Dark Wing and turned away. Immediately, a cloak in the shape of two transparent wings appeared on his back.

If there was one thing calming Sunny down, it was that his shadow was already on the ground. He had sent it down in advance to scout out the landing zone and make sure that nothing was waiting for the members of the cohort below.

The Stone Saint was now standing there, looking like a tiny black dot from the height of the ancient statue's neck.

'No sense in prolonging this.'

Gritting his teeth, Sunny commanded the Dark Wing to raise him above ground… and stepped into emptiness.

For a moment, he was consumed by primal fear. But then Sunny felt that instead of plummeting down to shatter on the rocks, his body was smoothly gliding through the air.

He was still losing altitude, but at a safe and pleasant pace. Two transparent wings had turned into a blur behind his back.

Actually, this feeling was… exhilarating.

Trying to keep a wide smile from appearing on his face, Sunny reminded himself how brittle his wings were and tried to control the direction of his descent.

All it took was a slight shift of his posture and a mental command to the Dark Wing. Soon, Sunny was gliding down in a wide spiral, enjoying the feeling of wind whistling in his ears.

'It's a shame that others can't experience this.'

Initially, he was planning to take Effie on the ride of her life. With Kai and Cassie carrying the other two members of the cohort, reaching the ground would have been really easy. However, after a little bit of experimentation, they had found out that Memories left behind by the terrible locusts couldn't carry too much weight.

Even supporting Sunny himself was already close to the Dark Wing's limit.

So he got to enjoy this pleasant feeling of weightlessness all by himself.

After a few minutes of smooth gliding, Sunny softly landed near the Stone Saint and looked up. Kai and Cassie were right behind him, and slightly above, already reaching the knees of the colossus, were the other three members of the cohort.

'...This Memory might be better than I gave it credit for. Still not usable in a battle, but very handy nevertheless.'

Soon, they were all reunited in the shadow of the ancient statue.

A few moments later, the colossus trembled. Slowly, it turned around and took a giant step. The ground trembled as his feet landed on it.

The six humans stood silently, watching the ancient statue walk away. It was heading east, moving parallel to the impregnable wall of the draconian mountains. Sunny suspected that the stone giant had walked all around the Forgotten Shore thousands of times, and now was at the start — or the end — of another loop.

The Stone Saint was watching the headless giant walk away, too. Sunny glanced at her, wondering once again if his Shadow felt something toward this enormous creature.

He got a strange sensation that she did.

However, it wasn't awe as Sunny had suspected. If anything, the hint of emotion hiding deep in the ruby eyes of the Stone Saint was that of… disdain.

'...Curious.'

Back at the ruined cathedral, Sunny had noticed that the Black Knight's armor bore a visible resemblance to that of his taciturn Shadow. However, it didn't seem as though both came from the same source. It was more like the armor of the Fallen Devil was derived from that of the living statues.

Almost as if someone had tried to replicate their armaments, but only managed to create a lesser facsimile.

Was the stone giant the same? A failed attempt at repeating the same miraculous act of creation that had put a spark of true life into the Stone Saint and her brethren?

There was no way to know. But still, Suny couldn't help but wonder…

Soon, the ground stopped trembling and the figure of the mechanically marching colossus disappeared into the grey fog. A few moments later, Nephis sighed at turned around to face the mountains.

It was time to find a place to spend the night.

Tomorrow morning, they were going to start their search for the lost expedition.