Shadow Slave

Soon enough, Sunny and his companions descended to the floor of the throne room. Mordret walked down the stone steps leading to the gallery, as well, wiping blood off his hands.

They met under the throne of Mirage, where Saint was still standing still, absorbing tendrils of white mist that stretched toward her from the corpses littering the floor.

Mordret’s stylish viridian suit did not look much better than the tattered raincoat the Other Mordret was wearing by then — that only made them look more alike. Sunny did not have the time to ponder how they managed to look unmistakably distinct despite being exactly the same, though.

He frowned, noticing that there was something wrong with Saint.

As more and more nothingness entered her body, her impassive expression seemed to be turning a little strained. It was as if she was struggling with something — at some point, she even grimaced and gritted her teeth, a subtle crease appearing on her brow.

She did not seem to be wounded or in pain, so...

‘I think I know what is happening’

Sunny did not exactly have proof to support his suspicion, but he felt that Saint... was nearing an evolution, or perhaps even suppressing it on purpose. Before, she used to gain shadow fragments by consuming Memories — later, after he lost connection to the Spell, that avenue of growth vanished. She had only received fragments once since that day... after killing one of Mordret’s Reflections. At least Sunny thought that she did.

Slaying the Others in Mirage City must have finally allowed her to reach the limit — and now, she was on the verge of ascending to either a new Rank or a new Class. It was just that Saint was resisting the evolution, unwilling to leave Sunny in times of need. Whether she was doing it consciously or unconsciously, he did not know.

This was the good news. The bad news, meanwhile...

”He’s not here.’

Morgan’s voice sounded concerned.

There was indeed no trace of Madoc in the throne room. He had not perished in the throne room, either — the corpses of the mercenaries did not dissolve into white mist completely yet, and his body was not among them.

Sunny frowned.

”We must have dealt with most, if not all, of his minions. So where is he? Has he fled deep into the castle?”

What was the point of forcing the mercenaries to take a last stand here if Madoc himself had not been protected by them?

Mirage Castle was vast, so searching it from top to bottom was going to take a lot of time — time they did not necessarily have, both because of Castellan’s probable reaction to Saint breaking the rules of Mirage City and because Madoc could slip away and escape while they were searching.

“Where would he go? Any ideas?”

Effie shrugged. Morgan frowned and shook her head. Mordret scratched the tip of his nose.

“Ah, I must admit that I am not entirely sure.’

At that moment, the Other Mordret said in a tentative tone:

”Actually, I might have an idea.”

They all glanced at him, causing him to cough a couple of times.

After staying silent for a bit, he pointed to the wall of the throne room opposite the gate.

”| was personally involved in the Mirage Museum project, so I am somewhat familiar with the layout here. That small door over there leads to a spiral staircase, and that staircase leads all the way to the roof of the Castle’s highest tower. We wanted to create an observation platform there, for the visitors of the museum to enjoy the view of the city across the lake.” ℞𝖆𝐍Ꝋ𝔟ЁṤ

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

“So? Why would Madoc flee to the roof of that tower’? It’s not like he can escape from there, and I am pretty sure that he is not going to jump.”

The Other Mordret sighed.

“Sadly, the observation platform had to be scrapped, in the end, because the tower is really very high, and we couldn’t figure out a way to fit an elevator anywhere while preserving the historical interiors of the Castle at the same time. So... we built a helipad on the roof, instead.”

Sunny blinked a few times.

“I see. I can’t help but ask, though...”

He raised an eyebrow.

“What the hell is a helipad?”

The Other Mordret seemed a little confused by the question.

“Well... it’s a landing area for a helicopter.’

Sunny gave him a deadpan look.

“What the hell is a helicopter?”

The Other Mordrert seemed both confused and a little embarrassed now.

”Oh. A helicopter is a kind of flying vehicle. People use it sometimes to reach distant areas, or simply to save time... it’s handy to have one or two on standby.”

He glanced up and contemplated something for a few seconds.

”The weather is not at all fit for flying, but it would not be impossible either”

Sunny frowned.

‘A flying vehicle?’

There were not a lot of those in the real world, for various reasons — not the least of which was the fact that winged Nightmare Creatures were a death sentence for anyone foolish enough to entrust their life to a fragile alloy construct.

Even land and water vehicles were difficult to protect in the world of the Nightmare Spell, and those could be weighed down by an almost limitless amount of armor. Plus, the passengers would not plummet to their deaths if such vehicles sustained a little damage.

There was also the fact that terrible things happened to people who got too close to space. Sunny had learned that fact from Jet a long time ago, and back then, neither of them had known the reason. Now, he knew that it was because of the Nightmare Gate hidden on the dark side of the Moon, and the creature guarding it.

In any case, the idea of a flying vehicle was somewhat alien to Sunny. He was accustomed to seeing Saints, dragons, and all kinds of horrors fly, but not machines. He was currently in a world different from his own, though.

“Wait, so you are saying... that Madoc can just fly away if he reaches that helipad?”

The Other Mordret offered him a smile.

”It is just a guess. Personally, I would avoid climbing into a helicopter during a rainstorm.’

Sunny did not respond, because he was already running toward the small door the Other Mordret had pointed out.

“Hurry, damn it!”

Climbing to the top of the great tower of Mirage Castle was a torturous affair, but they did make it in time.

Diving into the rain, with the dark sky above him, Sunny saw the world turn white from a flash of lightning.

And in that white light, he finally laid his eyes on Madoc.