Алтан Зүү

Sunny stared at the severed arm of an unknown deity, then at the harrowing, profane rot spreading from it. Then, he tiredly rubbed his face.

'...Why can't anything ever be easy?'

He was sure that his fate was somehow connected to that arm, which meant that he was going to have to get to it somehow. But Sunny was also sure that there weren't enough rewards in all of the universe to make him go anywhere near that rot, let alone touch something infected by it.

He had the feeling that this thing was way, way out of his league.

In fact, he suspected that a divine being had ruthlessly severed their own arm because even someone as powerful as that had no means to resist that spreading corruption.

What was Sunny supposed to do, then?

Well…

Trying to remain as far from the rot as possible, he studied it for a while before coming to a strange conclusion… or rather, a strange question.

If the corruption was so terrible, then why had it not spread through the entire tower? Why had it only managed to crawl a few meters out of the silver brazier, turning a small portion of the second level of the pagoda into its flesh?

'Scratch that. Why didn't the whole island become one giant chunk of rotten black... whatever the hell that thing is?'

The answer was not hard to guess. It was because the rot, just like everything else inside the tower, had been sealed away from time for thousands of years.

And now that Sunny had broken that seal…

His frown deepened as he glanced at the silver hearth that was overgrown and had become a part of the spreading rot.

Now, there were only two possibilities. Time was going to catch up to the devouring corruption, and it was either going to slowly consume everything… or starve and die.

Could that thing last for thousands of years with nothing to feed on except for cold stone? Did it need to feed on flesh and souls, or would anything do?

'...I guess I am going to find out.'

Keeping an eye on the patch of harrowing rot, Sunny tried to suppress his fear and took a step forward.

It didn't seem like the rot was spreading. At least not yet.

In any case, he wasn't going to get closer to it. But he also knew that if the worst happened, he had no tool at his disposal that would save him. If that thing began to grow, slowly spreading across the whole of the Obsidian Tower, and then across the whole island, Sunny was simply going to die. Probably jump down into nothingness to avoid becoming a part of that... thing.

There was nowhere else to retreat to in the Sky Below, after all. And he doubted that he would be able to find a second secret island out there in the void...

So, his only hope was to find something inside the pagoda to save him. He had to explore further…

Plus, there was a possibility that the rot would swiftly wither and die. Not that Sunny would bet on it.

Pressing his back against the cold obsidian, Sunny dismissed Saint and skirted around the outer wall of the great hall until he reached the staircase that led higher, to the third level. There, he summoned the taciturn demon again, hesitated for a bit, and then left one of his shadows to keep an eye on the devouring rot.

Feeling irrational panic at the thought of turning his back to the silver brazier, Sunny gritted his teeth, and then cautiously ascended the spiraling stairs.

As soon as the terrible thing disappeared from view, he let out a relieved sigh and realized that his entire body was covered in a cold sweat. Raising a trembling hand, Sunny wiped his face, and then continued to climb higher.

Saint being by his side gave him a little confidence, at least. The Shadow seemed absolutely unperturbed by the horrific visage they had left behind.

'...I bet fear can't even fit into that stone head of hers. Do Shadows have the ability to be afraid?'

He didn't know whether or not Saint could feel fear, but the gloomy shadow certainly could. In fact, behind its haughty exterior, it was rather cowardly. He was sure that the bastard would have been trembling all over if not for the fact that it was currently wrapped around his body.

Trying to distract himself with these thoughts, Sunny entered the third level of the Obsidian Tower… and froze, dumbfounded by what he saw there.

'I… I see. Wait, no. What the hell am I looking at?'

The chamber he found himself in was smaller than the previous three halls he had explored, mostly because the pagoda narrowed the higher it went, but also because the level was separated into several chambers.

And in that chamber in particular, dozens of porcelains arms floated in the air, each at a different level of being disassembled into tiny parts.

It was as though someone had stolen them from the pile of broken dolls in the basement of the Obsidian Tower and then brought them here to… to do what, exactly?

Sunny stared at the floating garden of disassembled arms, and then walked closer. He felt as though he was in some bizarre anatomy museum…

As it turns out, the porcelain dolls were much more complex than he had thought. In their disassembled state, their limbs showed how intricate the design was, and how many moving parts went into making each one as functional and articulated as that of a human. The joints, in particular, seemed like a marvel of engineering… not to mention the incredibly delicate weave of the diamond string beneath.

Even spelltech automatons could not boast of that level of ingenuity and intricacy.

But why were these arms brought here and taken apart? Who had done it? The Prince of the Underworld himself?

It didn't look like it… why would he need to study his abandoned creations?

It all became clearer when Sunny reached a stone pedestal standing at the far end of the chamber and saw a faint golden light emanating from a small object laying on it.

On the surface of the table were numerous parts that had been scavenged from the disassembled porcelain arms, several skeins of beautiful diamond string… and a long, narrow needle.

It was the needle that gave off a faint, weak radiance.

Sunny looked at the needle, then glanced at the floating porcelain arms, noting for the first time that each was missing a part or two.

Finally, different pieces of information connected in his mind, and he felt that he understood something about what had transpired in the Obsidian Tower.

Sometime after the Prince of the Underworld had left this hidden island, perhaps years, or perhaps thousands of years, an uninvited guest had snuck into the black pagoda like a thief, somehow getting past the closed gates without ever opening them or disturbing the seal that had been preserving this place from being ravaged by time.

That thief was a divine creature themselves… and also horribly wounded. One of their arms had been torn open and infected by the spreading rot that no one, not even a deity like them, could expel.

That was why the thief had severed their infected arm at the shoulder and tossed it into the divine flame that had been burning in the silver brazier on the second level, and then went down to the basement to collect limbs from the broken porcelain dolls. It was that deity that had circled the pile of them and left the footprints in the dust for Sunny to notice.

In the end, the thief ascended to the third floor and fashioned a new arm for themselves from the parts of the Prince's discarded mannequins… and then sewn it onto their body with the diamond strings threaded through a sharp needle.

…That was the needle Sunny was currently staring at, and the divine light on it was emanated by the remnant traces of the thief's blood still left on its surface.

But who was the thief? And why was Sunny connected to their severed arm by a golden String of Fate?

Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then reached for the needle… but suddenly froze.

The shadow left behind to monitor the harrowing rot had noticed something.

The black, ulcerous flesh… was changing.