Shadow Slave

The nest was spherical in shape, with a round hole at the center of it. Usually, such a nest would be made out of grass and twigs, but this one was constructed from the branches of the great tree, each at least as thick as a man's arm. These branches were twisted and interwoven together in a chaotic pattern, creating gapless, onyx-black walls.

Sunny had never seen anything like it. Birds were a rare sight in the real world, let alone giant ones. The size of the entrance into the nest was large enough for a small truck to pass through. The nest itself was several times bigger.

'Wow.'

For a second, he felt a sense of fear, afraid that the giant bird was somewhere near. But then his fears disappeared.

The nest looked… abandoned. It was ancient and empty, some of its parts already on the verge of collapse. It was as though thousands of years had passed since anyone had been in this hidden, secretive place. The air was filled with the feeling of lonesomeness and desolation.

'Makes sense. If I barely managed to pass through the leaves, how would a giant monster do it without leaving a giant hole in the barrier?'

Sunny hesitated, caution and curiosity wrestling against each other inside his heart. On one hand, exploring ancient nests was not the best of ideas anywhere, let alone inside the Dream Realm. It posed great risks.

On the other hand, it also could lead to a great reward. Plus… wasn't it just too damn interesting?

In the end, Sunny decided to climb inside the nest to satiate his curiosity. He had convinced himself that it was safe following an unexpected train of thought. In his warped state of mind, Sunny was convinced that the Soul Tree was a great and benevolent being, one that protected them from the terrible threats hiding in the outside world.

If so, how could anything having to do with the great tree be unsafe?

Moving closer to the entrance of the nest, he balanced on the edge of the branch and tried to look inside. However, he wasn't tall enough to see anything except for the inner side of the nest's roof. Since his position was pretty precarious, Sunny decided not to delay the inevitable and jumped, throwing himself up and over the lip of the entrance.

A moment later, he landed on a soft surface. The lower part of the nest was covered in a thick cushion of white, silky spiderwebs. Time had made them brittle and pliable like sand. There was so much spiderweb around that, for a moment, Sunny thought that he had fallen into a giant white cocoon.

no, it was just

center of it,

Sunny blinked.

ancient egg that was as tall as he

around. But no, the giant nest was empty and silent, with not even

'How… fascinating.'

no one except for him had ever seen, filled him with a deep sense of wonder and satisfaction. He had never known that there was such a side

check this

surface of the egg was colored in various shades of grey,

put his hand on the surface of the egg. Immediately, he felt a

was warm to the

'Is it… still alive?'

core. It was as though the egg was… was trying to steal his

also capable of

Sunny knew, he was the only existence in two worlds without an actual soul core. He had the mysterious Shadow Core instead. That's why his life force had

'Phew. That was close.'

egg, Sunny thought

spawn was also a being of considerable strength. However, due to some unknown reason, that being had not been able to hatch and

unfortunate fool came close enough to feed it with soul essence and give it

a fool. Wait… uh… maybe I

been very strange lately. He couldn't quite explain some of them, including this latest one. It was as

smarter than

incredible discovery. He found an