Shadow Slave novel Chapter 650

Sunny remained silent for as long as he could, until, finally, the Flaw forced him to give an answer.

He looked grimly at Noctis, and then said — or rather, thought — hoarsely:

"...Maybe he just wanted to see you suffer."

Noctis laughed brightly, then nodded.

"Oh, indeed! Maybe you are right. Gods can be very cruel, sometimes. After all, they are much more ancient and vast than kindness and compassion. Or, maybe, it is not really our lives that keep the Demon bound, but instead our will and desire to keep her imprisoned. Or maybe it is a test of our conviction… that is what the Sun Lord believes, at least. Or maybe… maybe he actually hoped that we would free her. Who knows?" _{ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com}

He smiled, then sighed, and finally added:

"...If mortals like us could know the will of gods, then we'd be gods instead."

After that, a somber silence settled over the deck of the flying ship.

Sunny stared at the delicious food in front of him, realizing that he had lost all his appetite.

Hope… the Demon of Desire…

How terrifying she was.

Slowly, several things that had seemed random and meaningless fell into place.

The jubilant crowd in the bloodsoaked Red Colosseum, the perverse conviction of beautiful Solvane, the harrowing torture of the Sun Prince, the madness that burned in the eyes of the black steed… all of it was the result of her harrowing power.

Hope held domain over desire, after all. And with that power, she had reached through the tiny cracks in her prison, and drove a whole realm utterly insane, turning it into a ghastly, hideous, demented hell. Every aspiration, every desire, every dream, every hope were twisted, set aflame, and turned into a weapon. An insidious, invisible weapon that struck at human hearts and minds from within.

No one was immune to her power. Neither mundane humans nor Awakened... not even Saints. Those who were closed and those who were far, all fell victim to the daemon's curse.

And what was her own hope? What was the Demon of Desire yearning for?

Well, that was easy…

Hope wanted to be free.

…Just like Sunny wanted to be free, really.

She was driving her jailers mad, so that they would destroy each other. And from the looks of it, her curse was working all too well. Solvane was seeking out death, the two Transcendents of the Ivory City seemed to be on the verge of fratricide, and Noctis was planning to kill them all.

The One in the North… Sunny didn't know about the last Chain Lord, but from the little bits of what the sorcerer had said, she was not in her right mind, either.

Suddenly, he remembered the sight of the time running in reverse that he had witnessed at the very start of the Nightmare. The Ivory Tower had descended from the sky, and the burned wasteland around it had turned into a beautiful white city.

…Which meant that one day, perhaps soon, the Ivory City would be burned to the ground, and Hope's prison would then break off its seven chains and rise above the Chained Isles.

And then, the Crushing would be created, somehow.

A cold, dire feeling grasped his two hearts.

'Oh, no…'