Shadow Slave

With pretty much every muscle in his body sore, Sunny walked over to the girls and fell on the ground. After catching his breath, he looked at Cassia.

"Cassie? Do you feel better?"

Several seconds later, the blind girl slowly nodded.

'That's a relief.'

He shifted and hesitated for a bit. Cassia didn't look too well. Her face was still very pale, with a distant, dazed expression on it. Her body at least was no longer trembling. Sunny wasn't very good at talking to people, let alone placating them. He wasn't sure what to say.

He cast a gaze at Nephis and sighed inwardly. Who knew that one day he would turn out to be the most sociable person for as far as the eye could see? What a joke…

"Can I have some water?"

Cassie turned to him and scowled, as though confused by the question. Then, she suddenly gasped and opened her eyes wide.

"Oh! Oh, sorry. Yes, of course…"

She summoned the limitless water bottle and offered it to Sunny. He took it with a grateful smile and greedily drank a few gulps before giving the bottle to Nephis. Eventually, it returned to Cassie.

"You drink some too."

After she did, he awkwardly patted the blind girl on the shoulder.

"Everything seems to be fine now. Uh… did you dream of another vision? You can tell us. If you want."

Cassie hesitated for a bit before saying:

"I… don't know. Maybe it was just a nightmare."

Sunny and Nephis exchanged glances. They both doubted that what Cassie saw was a simple nightmare. After all, people usually did not dream in the Dream Realm. The blind girl, meanwhile, continued:

"I don't really remember. It's all in fragments."

Sunny carefully considered his words, not wanting to pressure Cassie too much.

"You can just tell us what you remember. Maybe we'll be able to make sense of it together."

Cassia sighed and tentatively nodded. After a long pause, she finally found the courage to speak:

"At first, I saw a… a boundless darkness locked behind seven seals. Something vast was churning in the darkness. I felt like if I directly saw it, I would lose my mind. As I watched, terrified, the seals broke one after another, until only one remained. And then that seal broke, too."

She trembled a little.

my mind shattered into a thousand shards, each shard reflecting its own image. Most of them were dark

Cassie fell silent, remembering.

blood flowing down its halls.

she looked up, her face full of

colossal, terrifying crimson spire. At its base, seven severed heads were guarding seven locks. And at the top, a… a dying angel was being consumed by hungry shadows. When I saw the angel bleed, I suddenly felt as though… as though something so precious that it can't be described with words was taken from

Her voice became quieter.

little remained of my sanity seemed to disappear. That was

she didn't show it. Sunny, however, was totally lost. He couldn't even begin to decipher the hidden meaning behind the vision… if it

fortress and even the direction in which it was situated. This time, however, her dream was disjointed, full of weird symbolism and vague, uncertain images, much more like a charlatan's prophecy than a

Finally, he sighed.

it actually was just a nightmare.

silently shook

the back of his

in the Dream Realm, but you do. Perhaps seeing a random nightmare once in a while

turned to him, a faint relief written on

"You really think so?"

to find the

not? It's a

he

dying angel being consumed by shadows… why does it sound so ominous? I should try and stay away from angels in the future. Gee, what has become of my life. A sentence like that doesn't even sound

they were finally ready

***

on the western edge of the stone platform, looking at the scavengers

always that

Nephis and shook

more. They seem to be almost done

all these beasts would be roaming the labyrinth, making it hard for the three Sleepers to make any progress. It would be best to leave today and put some distance

without scouting a path in advance, there was a chance of not making it

seemingly thinking

while,

spend another

mouth to offer his own opinion. However, a sudden commotion below

of broken coral, the carcass of the giant shark-like monster — the remaining half of it, to be precise

large, luminescent

Sunny's eyes widened.

"Are those…"

of two transcendent

Transcendent… two of them…

and precious transcendent soul shards were; fear because the giant shark

number of Awakened, could potentially destroy an entire city. Sunny belatedly realized that he was much closer to death on that first night than

"Should we…"