Several days later, Sunny was sitting on a piece of broken furniture in the central hall of the first level of the Obsidian Tower. The Covetous Coffer stood near him, its lid open and its sharp teeth revealed.
He was holding the Cruel Sight in his hand. The silver blade of the somber spear was incandescent with white radiance, infused with divine flame.
âŚSunny was currently using said divine flame to roast a piece of repulsive, slightly rotten black meat. That was the last piece of mimicâs flesh he had stored inside the Coffer before taking a plunge into the ocean of merciless stars.
Saint was also nearby, staring into the distance with her usual cold indifference.
He glanced at her, then sighed.
âSorry that I havenât fed you in a while.â
The Shadow did not react to his words in any sort of way.
Sunny continued to talk, though, unbothered by the taciturn demonâs apparent lack of interest.
âHey, thatâs not true! It is not my fault. Blame my incredible luck, instead. What can I do, the Memories I find are just too incredible. How can I let you eat them⌠I canâtâŚâ
He grinned, then threw a dubious look at the sizzling black meat, and sighed.
âI guess itâs doneâŚâ
Dismissing the Cruel Sight, Sunny brought the meat to his mouth and took a bite out of it. As he chewed, an absolutely miserable expression appeared on his face.
ââŚAh, thatâs the stuff. I tell you, Saint, this meat absolutely delicious. I pity you, really, for being unable to taste this divine⌠oh damn it, how can anything be so vile!⌠this divine dish. Itâs the best devil steak you can possibly eat in a lifetime. Just a single bite⌠can really⌠change your lifeâŚâ
âFor the worst!â
At least chewing the damned thing was much easier now. Before the acquisition of Bone Weave, eating mimicâs meat felt like gnawing on an old leather boot. It felt pretty much the same now, but Sunnyâs teeth were different.
They were able to slice and cut through the tough meat of the devil with ease.
Plus, it wasnât raw. That was already a reason to celebrate.
Feeling his eyes tearing up from disgust, Sunny glanced at Saint and forced the smile to remain on his face.
âI see you are left speechless by my culinary skill. Fair, fairâŚâ
However, in the next moment, a voice suddenly resounded in the darkness of the Obsidian Tower:
ââŚYou actually survived!â
Sunny choked on a piece of the vile meat. For a second, he thought that his loyal Shadow had only been pretending to be mute all this time, instead simply choosing not to speak to himâŚ
But no, he recognized the voice.
Sadly, it wasnât SaintâŚ
It was Mordret. The Prince of Nothing was back.
âThank gods!â
Sunny had been burdened by being all alone on the dark island much more than he was willing to admit. Even though he didnât trust the mysterious voice, he felt relieved to hear it.
Swallowing the meat, he took a sip from the Endless Spring, then looked around the hall and said:
âAs you can see. Although, being the honest to a fault young man that I am, I have to admit that it wasnât easy⌠or pleasant. In fact, I can hardly believe that I survived myself.â
He glanced at his body, which was still in a rather sorry state. His burns were healing, but much slower than they would have usually healed. Even though the divine flame had not touched him directly, just the heat radiated by it was enough to leave long-lasting traces that even Blood Weave wasnât able to remove fast.
Mordret remained silent before speaking again, as he usually did. When his voice appeared, it was full of genuine surprise:
âYou really found the rift in the ocean of flames?â
Sunny shrugged.
âAs it turned out, I was more or less falling toward it the whole time. But even then, I almost burned to death trying to reach it. My most powerful Memories were heavily damaged, and I only survived thanks to a bit of luck.â
Which was technically true, although not nearly all of the truth.
The mysterious prince hesitated, then asked:
ââŚWhere are you now?â
Sunny tilted his head.
âHow much of my surroundings can he perceive, I wonder?â
The first thing that Mordret had ever said to him was ask why it was so dark, so he probably could see something, at least.
âCanât you see where I am?â
The voice answered, most likely honestly:
âI can see a big hall filled with ancient, broken things. That doesnât tell me a lot, though.â
âMakes senseâŚâ
Sunny nodded, feeling the pressure of the Flaw building up in his soul, demanding for him to deliver an answer.
He gestured at the interior of the Obsidian Tower.
âWell⌠beyond the false stars, the void continues for who knows how much further down. But some distance from the flames, there is actually a single island floating in the emptiness. There is a magnificent black pagoda on that island, which looks like the exact copy of the Ivory Tower. That is where I am right now, inside that pagoda.â
Then, Sunny scratched the back of his head, and added:
âBut anyway, how come I can still hear you? Havenât you told me that your voice would not reach beyond the stars?â
Mordret sighed.
âThat was what I thought. Luckily, I seem to have been wrong.â
After a short pause, he said in a strange tone:
âThe Ebony Tower⌠so it does exist.â
Sunny blinked.
âI guess itâs one way to call it?â
Then, however, a complicated expression appeared on his face:
âWait⌠you knew about it?â
The mysterious prince remained silent for a bit, then answered:
âThat is what I had been trying to find before⌠before I couldnât search anymore. There were some hints that a duplicate of the Ivory Tower exists somewhere in the Sky Below. I hoped to reach it.â
Sunny chose his next words cautiously:
âOh, really? What else do you know about that place?â
Mordret thought for a few moments, then answered wistfully:
âIt is said that a very powerful being came to this shattered land after it had been destroyed by the Lord of Light. Back then, the Sky Below was not as boundless, and there were much more fragments of divine flame still burning in its empty darkness. That being⌠wanted to harvest those flames.â
Suddenly, a lot of small details about the dark island and the Obsidian Tower became much clearer. Sunny already had suspicions about the true purpose of this place, but now, they were confirmed. The ruined machines outside the pagoda, the blackened worktable, the massive glass vessels covered with soot from the inside, the silver brazierâŚ
The Prince of the Underworld had not truly lived in the magnificent pagoda. It was not his home, just a station he had built in the ocean of flame â which had been much larger back then â to harvest some of the divine fire. Why he had need of it, Sunny did not know.
But he suspected that the prideful demon had either succeeded in his purpose or failed, and that was why he eventually left and sealed the Obsidian Tower, which then stood abandoned for thousands of years.
âŚAnd at some point during that time, another child of the -unknown- had come here for a short while, although their purpose was very different.
This revelation came and went. There was a question burning in his mind that had nothing to do with such distant past, instead.
It was much more pressing.
Sunny swallowed another piece of meat and asked casually:
âHarvest divine flames? Very interesting. Was that why you wanted to come here, too?â
Or had Mordret been after something else?
âŚWas after something else?
The lost prince laughed.
âNo, not really. In fact, I wasnât that interested in the Obsidian Tower itself, to begin with.â
Sunny frowned:
âWhy did you want to find it if you werenât interested in it?â
Mordret sighed.
After a long pause, he answered, his voice dark and full of suppressed emotion:
âWhat I was interested in was not the copy, but the original. The Ivory Tower. The two are supposed to be connected somehow. If one finds that connection⌠they might just be able to reach past the Crushing and step foot on the heavenly isleâŚâ