Shadow Slave

Several hundred Sleepers stared at the disfigured body, horrified. Jubei's scale armor disappeared in a rain of light, leaving him dressed only in torn, bloodied rags. A surprised, dazed expression was still frozen on his face.

Awash in blood and broken, the man who had been proud and defiant just a minute ago was now nothing but a pathetic corpse. He was sprawled on the floor in a glistening crimson puddle, reminding everyone of one simple truth.

Never, ever dare to disobey Gunlaug, the Bright Lord.

Or you'll end up just the same.

Sunny was probably one of the only two people in the grand hall who wasn't looking at the corpse. Instead, he was looking at Harus.

Harus himself was staring at the wall, absolutely disinterested in the gruesome fruit of his dark labor.

'What else was I hoping for? Stupid. Hope… hope is a poison. It will only get you killed.'

Sunny knew all the facts, but only now had he finally understood how hopeless it was to even think about challenging the Golden Serpent.

Everything in the Dark City was designed to make him and his army invincible. That was how the damn hunchback had managed to defeat the experienced hunter from the outer settlement so easily, using nothing but his raw strength. He hadn't even had to show his Aspect Ability. Why was the divide in their physical prowess so vast?

That was because with every human in the Dark City possessing the same dormant core, there were only two things that could make someone more powerful than the rest: Soul Essence and Memories.

And both were monopolized by Gunlaug.

Only he possessed the manpower and knowledge to freely hunt in the Dark City. This way, he had become the only person with a reliable source of both Soul Shards and Memories in his possession.

Whatever crumbs the independent hunters were able to acquire would inevitably end up in his hands, too, because Gunlaug also controlled the primitive economy in this cursed place. By providing food and safety in exchange for the so-called "tribute", he made sure that all the resources would flow in only one direction.

Into his hands.

in turn would bring him more Soul Shards and Memories, which in turn would make his army stronger… and so forth. It was a simple, perfect, and harrowing cycle that made

between Gunlaug's forces and everyone else here was too wide to ever be bridged. Sunny had no doubt that most of the elite warriors of the Host had their cores

although few ever did. Advancing to the next rank removed that bottleneck and enhanced their bodies according to the saturation level of the core. But with no way to advance, people in the Dark City could only rely on the raw amount of Soul Essense

meant that within these ancient walls, sworn into servitude to a single man, there lived the most powerful group of Sleepers to ever exist in human

this was the man

a shudder, Sunny remembered Effie's words: "...no

dozens of skulls swinging

is she going to pull me into this time? I really have to persuade

knew how to give up. At least not when it came

'Curses!'

dark thoughts that he even neglected to listen to Gunlaug's farewell speech. He had the general idea of what kind of bullcrap

last one to leave. As soon as they were gone, the body of Jubei was unceremoniously dragged away, and a group of Handmaidens silently wiped the puddle of blood off the pristine

Sleepers was invited to return to their breakfast. As if

he glanced at the plates full of food

a first

***

Sunny had done nothing but frantically gather information. Knowing that he will be leaving the castle soon,

and Pathfinders, learning their tactics and secrets. He observed how Guards were trained. He learned which Artisans were important, and which were not. The only caste he tried

studied various engravings and stone carvings that

and Cassie once again appeared in the large hall with beautiful stained glass windows and

fact that there was nothing outside these gates but a dirty slum, Sunny felt

do people even want to live

finished this thought, Sunny realized that he didn't actually know what life in

it… how bad can it actually be? I guess they just never lived in

he walked toward the gates, but then stopped when someone called his