Above and Beyond

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.

…Sunny was currently using said divine flame to roast a piece of repulsive, slightly rotten black meat. That was the last piece of mimic's 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.

"Sorry that I haven't fed you in a while."

The Shadow did not react to his words in any sort of way.

Sunny continued to talk, though, unbothered by the taciturn demon's apparent lack of interest.

"Hey, that's 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 can't..."

He grinned, then threw a dubious look at the sizzling black meat, and sighed.

"I guess it's done…"

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.

"...Ah, that's 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. It's the best devil steak you can possibly eat in a lifetime. Just a single bite… can really… change your life…"

'For the worst!'

At least chewing the damned thing was much easier now. Before the acquisition of Bone Weave, eating mimic's meat felt like gnawing on an old leather boot. It felt pretty much the same now, but Sunny's teeth were different.

They were able to slice and cut through the tough meat of the devil with ease.

Plus, it wasn't 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.

"I see you are left speechless by my culinary skill. Fair, fair…"

However, in the next moment, a voice suddenly resounded in the darkness of the Obsidian Tower:

"...You actually survived!"

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 him…

But no, he recognized the voice.

Sadly, it wasn't Saint...

It was Mordret. The Prince of Nothing was back.

'Thank gods!'

Sunny had been burdened by being all alone on the dark island much more than he was willing to admit. Even though he didn't 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:

"As you can see. Although, being the honest to a fault young man that I am, I have to admit that it wasn't easy… or pleasant. In fact, I can hardly believe that I survived myself."

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 wasn't able to remove fast.

Mordret remained silent before speaking again, as he usually did. When his voice appeared, it was full of genuine surprise:

"You really found the rift in the ocean of flames?"

Sunny shrugged.

"As 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."

Which was technically true, although not nearly all of the truth.

The mysterious prince hesitated, then asked:

"...Where are you now?"

Sunny tilted his head.

'How much of my surroundings can he perceive, I wonder?'

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.

"Can't you see where I am?"

The voice answered, most likely honestly:

"I can see a big hall filled with ancient, broken things. That doesn't tell me a lot, though."

'Makes sense…'

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.

"Well… 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."

Then, Sunny scratched the back of his head, and added:

"But anyway, how come I can still hear you? Haven't you told me that your voice would not reach beyond the stars?"

Mordret sighed.

"That was what I thought. Luckily, I seem to have been wrong."

After a short pause, he said in a strange tone:

"The Ebony Tower… so it does exist."

Sunny blinked.

'I guess it's one way to call it?'

Then, however, a complicated expression appeared on his face:

"Wait... you knew about it?"

The mysterious prince remained silent for a bit, then answered:

"That is what I had been trying to find before… before I couldn't search anymore. There were some hints that a duplicate of the Ivory Tower exists somewhere in the Sky Below. I hoped to reach it."

Sunny chose his next words cautiously:

"Oh, really? What else do you know about that place?"

Mordret thought for a few moments, then answered wistfully:

"It 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."

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 brazier…

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 — which had been much larger back then — 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.

…And 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:

"Harvest divine flames? Very interesting. Was that why you wanted to come here, too?"

Or had Mordret been after something else?

…Was after something else?

The lost prince laughed.

"No, not really. In fact, I wasn't that interested in the Obsidian Tower itself, to begin with."

Sunny frowned:

"Why did you want to find it if you weren't interested in it?"

Mordret sighed.

After a long pause, he answered, his voice dark and full of suppressed emotion:

"What 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 isle…"