Chapter 601 - Kingdom of Hope (1/2)

Sunny dreamt of boundless blue skies

Beneath them, a patchwork of islands floated in the air, laid on the backdrop of velvety darkness like a beautiful reen, some were desolate and empty, and sorown by moss

All of them were bound by colossal iron chains that rattled loudly as the islands rose and fell, hovering above the abyss, a scattering of pale stars shi+ning somewhere far, far below theaped, a vast tear in space where nothing but emptiness remained

A lone island soared above that tear, seven torn chains hanging fro on its surface in a mantle of clouds

Suddenly, the sun rolled backward, soon disappearing behind the eastern horizon The skies darkened, and then were illuain as a radiant h to turn into a blurry trail of light A ht once ht and darkness, ti in reverse with terrible speed Sunny watched as the islands beneath hiround and asse in the abyss grew brighter and brighter, new ones igniting each moment, until the whole void was suffused with a furious white light

One after another, fallen islands rose froht, the chains that had tethered the themselves Soon, the tear in its center was no more, and instead, a vast ashen wasteland of scorched isles appeared in its place The Ivory Tower descended fro its place at the very heart of the wasteland

An instant later, the ashes were noaerial city that sprawled across dozens of islands, all of the aqueducts built out of pristine white stone, with vibrant flags fluttering in the wind and sparkling waterfalls flowing into the abyss below

Slowly, Sunny's gaze was pulled west, toward the very edge of the Chained Isles There, one of the Great Chains anchored thehty fortress stood at the precipice, siholds he had seen before The island next to it resembled a vast stone boith rows of seats cut into its weathered white slopes and a circular arena laying at its bottom, painted dull red

And even further than that was an island with a strange river that flowed endlessly through it, for a circle around an ancient statue of a beautiful wo human heart in the other, her nakedness covered only by a beast hide tied around her thighs, her face lost in the shadows

That was the island where Sunny found hiht into the damn river

'G—Godda to ry that he didn't even feel any panic, unlike the previous two tiive hiotten Shore, then at the Sanctuary of Noctis

This time, at least, he had an idea of where he was, and in which direction to swim if he wanted to reach the surface

Sunny strained hiscurrent…

And finally realized that so

His body refused to listen… or rather, it did, but in a way that made no sense at all His li, he si deeper and deeper into the cold, dark water His senses were all one wrong

'W—what the hell?!'

Now, Sunny finally was starting to panic a little

This ay beyond what he had experienced in the First Nightiven to him by the Spell had felt almost the same as his own… this time, however, it ay too unfamiliar!

Was this what Master Jet had warned him about?

Sunny tried to keep calh water, especially with such a strong current, was not an easy task It required a lot of coordination and a fair bit of balance, which he siht now No s worse

He fell deeper ad deeper into the river, drowning slowly

His lungs were already starting to burn froen… they also felt as weird as the rest of hiritted his teeth, which suddenly sent a wave of pain through histhe current pull him down Then, he concentrated on his shadow sense… and, as soon as his body struck the rocky bottoh the shadows to appear near the stone statue

Sunny fell into the grass Coughing violently, he tried to suck in a breath of fresh air, only to find out that even that was a struggle His lungs were refusing to work as they were supposed to, and even though he h to chase the sensation of suffocating away

'What… is going on… daround and closed his eyes, cutting off all of his senses to concentrate on trying to take control of thewill onlyhas to have instincts… you now have thehts about breathing and oxygen, and soon, his instincts did, indeed, take over It was like the story of a centipede that was asked hoalked, and fell down, unable to , his body did so on its own

Suddenly, his lungs were full of sweet air, and he was strong and vigorous once more

'Oh, thank Gods…'