Shadow Slave

Some time later, Sunny emerged from the ruins of the cathedral with a rucksack on his shoulder, took one last look back, and left.

Whatever his future was going to be, he doubted that he would come back here any time soon.

It was a bittersweet goodbye.

Cautiously walking through the familiar streets of the Dark City, where he knew every turn and every piece of rubble — in this district of it, at least — Sunny kept his guard up. Many things must have changed in the months he had been away traveling through the Labyrinth.

The Nightmare Creatures he knew and, more importantly, knew how to avoid might have wandered away or perished, and new horrors might have taken their place. He had to stay prudent and careful.

But still, his next and final goal was not that far away.

As he sneaked toward it, Sunny thought about the Weaver's Mask and the ways it could change his life. At first, he thought about simply never taking it off and walking around while delivering a deluge of lies. This way he would be safe from revealing his most guarded secret and becoming someone's slave, at least.

But after considering this seriously, he came to the conclusion that it was not the best decision in his current circumstances.

First of all, one couldn't be a part of any collective while lying all the time. Sunny had an unpleasant experience of being expelled from various groups for various reasons, and not being sincere and honest was one of the surest ways to make people want to avoid you at all cost… eventually, at least.

And no one was able to survive alone in the Dream Realm. Not in a way that a person would want to live, anyway.

a lot about this side of things,

— not when dealing with people that already knew him. Kai and Cassie

with him pretty quickly, too, simply because of how drastic the change in his behavior would be. Especially Nephis,

a lot of questions, and answering those questions — even with lies — would put him in

best, it would be able to help him avoid

anyone to know that he was in possession of that Memory at all. Sunny had

him. It would allow him to have a hidden persona that was in no way

effect, no one could know that the strange black wooden mask was connected to him, not even people whom he… somewhat…

for his own

such a

what type of treasure Sunny had somehow found this time was tempting enough to change his

Caster…

Sunny's face darkened.

at the start of their journey to the Hollow Mountains. Tomorrow, he was finally going to

chances of Sunny having to face Caster in

actually fight him. No matter how much progress he had made to get ready for the bloody conclusion of this disastrous chapter of his life, Caster was still not someone to be taken lightly. He was a tremendously deadly opponent just

that the Legacy had been

of his… what

came to shove. But the cost he would have to pay for that victory would be heavy... perhaps

shook his head and continued on his