The three of them entered the Sanctuary, crossed the beautiful garden, and entered the sorcerer's residence through a familiar wooden door, Effie still sitting on Sunny's shoulders with a curious expression on her childish face.
The rooms within, however, had changed since the last time Sunny had seen them.
The luxurious furniture was gone, as well as beautiful decorations covering the walls. Instead, all that met them was barren stone, with a few broken Sailor Dolls laying on it, their limbs disassembled and laid out around the bodies like macabre pieces of art.
The floor of the whole central chamber was covered by a circle made out of a myriad of runes, powerful currents of soul essence flowing through it and dissipating into the ancient stones. Noctis was sitting in the center of the circle, his eyes closed. Without the familiar carefree smile, his beautiful face seemed ominous and strangely terrifying.
Hearing their footsteps, the sorcerer slowly exhaled. The crushing flood of essence slowly thinned, and then dissipated, retreating back into his body. He turned his head slightly and opened his eyes, which shone in the darkness for a moment, as though full of pale moonlight.
Then, they slowly turned human again, and Noctis smiled, returning to his usual laidback persona so suddenly that it seemed almost disturbing.
"Ah, Sunless, my friend! You are back! Sit down, have a drink… welcome!"
He stood up and outstretched a hand, as if trying to gesture at a set of comfortable seats. Then, a surprised expression appeared on the Transcendent's face, and he looked around the empty hall with a bit of confusion.
"Oh, right… I've been remodelling…"
Noctis sighed, then clapped his hands together.
"Well, no matter. Dolls! Bring my guests something to drink! They must be parched after their journey!"
His voice echoed around the residence… however, nothing happened.
He hesitated, then glanced at the broken mannequins lying on the floor and awkwardly shifted his feet.
"Ah. How unfortunate."
The sorcerer shook his head, then shrugged and looked at the three of them with a smile:
"Anyway... welcome!"
He tilted his head and stared at Effie, then blinked a couple of times.
"Ah, you have brought a ch—child with you. How curious. It doesn't bite, does it?"
Sunny frowned, but before he could speak, Effie blurted with feigned outrage:
"I am not a child! I am twelve! Uh, almost."
Noctis stared at her with doubt.
"...It speaks. How bizarre."
Sunny slowly inhaled, then said evenly:
"This child is called Effie. She is the friend I have told you about."
The sorcerer's polite smile remained glued to his face. He stared at Effie some more, then furtively glanced at Kai.
"So, uh… one of your friends is a cripple you randomly stumbled upon in my Sanctuary, and the other one is a small child?"
Sunny nodded grimly.
Noctis rubbed his chin, and then cautiously said:
"Sunless, uh… are you utterly sure that you did not just invent having friends? To make me value our own beautiful friendship more, perhaps? If so, let me assure you! I value it a great deal already! There's no need for you to feel insecure just because you are not as beautiful, wealthy, wise, generous, and delightful to be around as me!"
Sunny gritted his teeth and then hissed furiously:
"I am! Wait… I mean I am sure... that I did not invent them! Are you sure that you really want to know the truth about me and my friends?"
Noctis raised his eyebrows with a sincere look on his face.
"Well, of course…"
Sunny stared at him for a few moments, and then said:
"In that case. My friends and I are not actually a demon, a cripple, and a small child. We are humans from a distant future whose souls were sent here by a nearly all-mighty entity known as the Nightmare Spell, after the gods had died and this whole world had been destroyed. Oh, and this place? It is not real! You are not real, too.
All of it is just a complicated illusion created by the Spell to test us three… no, us five, actually. That's the honest truth."
The sorcerer looked at him with wide eyes. Then, he sighed, shook his head, and uttered in a hurt tone:
"Sunless… there's no need to weave such stupid lies to mock me. If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."
He pursed his lips and turned away.
"...So childish! I take it all went well, then? Since you are in the company of a new friend, you must have successfully infiltrated the Temple of the Chalice, found her, retrieved the Glass Knife, and fled before the War Maidens noticed?"
Sunny flinched, then cleared his throat and remained silent for a couple of seconds. Finally, he said in an even tone:
"Uh… well, actually… not exactly. We did retrieve Effie and the knife, but…"
Noctis looked at him with surprise:
"But what?"
Sunny coughed.
"We sort of… destroyed the chalice and killed all the War Maidens."
The sorcerer stared at him in shock.
"...You did what?!"
Kai sighed, and then strained his vocal cords to speak:
"We were left with no other choice. The Maidens were willing to give us a chance to earn the right to take the Glass Knife away, but they would have never let Effie go. That was a tenet of their sect. So… the sect had to go, instead."
Noctis stared at them with wide eyes, his face turning deathly pale. He swayed a little, and then yelped:
"But what do you mean, you killed all the Maidens?! How did you manage to kill them?! What about their Transcendent sect leader… did you kill her, too?!"
The three of them looked at each other with confusion. Then, Effie cautiously spoke up:
"Uh… the venerable foremother, who was the last Transcendent of the Red Sect, died like two hundred years ago. There were no other Transcendents among the Maidens since."
The sorcerer blinked a couple of times.
"Wait… really? Huh. So she just went and died? How… pedestrian."
Sunny stared at him, aghast. Did that fool... did he really forget that real people had a habit of dying from time to time, unlike his own immortal self? How insane could that charlatan really be?!
But then, he had to stop himself. No, that was not right. Noctis was no fool, he just enjoyed playing one. There was no chance that the immortal would not have known whether or not there were Transcendents living in his territory. Which could only mean one thing...
Sunny took a step forward and growled.
"Do not insult us! You knew perfectly well that there were no Transcendents in the Temple of the Chalice. And you also knew that you could have easily obliterated that whole place and taken the Glass Knife, if you wanted to. We three are formidable, as far as Awakened go, but not nearly as formidable to be able to do something that a Chain Lord would not have been able to."
He glared at the immortal and said, the emerald amulet almost cracking in his fist:
"So, Noctis, my friend… why don't you tell me the real reason for why you really sent me and Kai there instead of going yourself? And be very careful about what you say… because our beautiful friendship might depend on your answer!"
Noctis remained silent for a while, looking at him with an unreadable expression. Then, he sighed and waved a hand.
"...Alright, alright. If you want to be boring, I'll tell you the truth. No need to get angry."
He clapped his hands again, and the disassembled Sailor Dolls suddenly rose from the floor, their limbs flying up and connecting to the wooden torsos. Then, one of them disappeared for a moment and returned with a silver goblet full of fragrant wine, presenting it to the sorcerer with frightened reverence. The others backed away and froze, standing silently near the walls.
Noctis took the goblet, took a sip, and looked away with a somber expression on his exquisite face.
"Yes, it is true that I could have retrieved the knife, saved your friend, and destroyed the Temple of the Chalice myself. That would not have been too hard… with or without the Transcendent guarding it. However…"
He stared west, his eyes turning dark.
"...If I made such a move myself, the other four would have learned of it. Then, they would have understood why I made it, and what I am going to do next, as well. They will know my intentions eventually, of course… but now is not the time. Not yet. Revealing it all now would be troublesome."
Sunny scowled, then briefly glanced at Kai. The archer was looking west, too, his shoulders tense.
The Ivory City lay to the west. The Red Colosseum, too.
He hesitated, and then said in a grim tone:
"So you can't act openly out of the fear that the other Chain Lords will unite to attack you?"
Noctis turned to him and smiled.
"...Fear? No, nothing that whimsical. It is simply a matter of convenience. You see, until…"
Suddenly, the sorcerer grew silent. His face turned grave, and his eyes shined with a glint of distant moonlight.
…This time, it was not a performance. Sunny could feel that something had really gone wrong, because the whole room inexplicably changed, becoming much darker, colder, and full of dire tension.
Noctis slowly turned his head and whispered, his voice stunned and solemn:
"Something… something changed… no… no, it can't be…"
He looked toward the doors, and then added with a grim expression.
"We have another guest, I think. A messenger, from the north…"