Shadow Slave

Sunny spent some time staring at the pile of books in front of him with a dark expression. After a while, he sighed heavily.

So, there were hidden forces out there that exerted influence over the entire human race. The authority was as invisible as it was frightening. And now, he knew their names. The Sovereigns were at least as powerful as the government, or maybe even more so.

The exact relationship between these two hegemonic powers — one official, the other secretive — was not clear, but for now, knowing the full extent of the authority resting in the hands of the Sovereigns was not that important.

However, it was important to know that the world was not at all as he had imagined. It was much more dangerous.

Why?

Because if there was one thing that all wielders of authority shared, it was the animosity toward others encroaching on their power. That was just human nature — among the strong, only one entity could be the strongest. And so, that entity was always apprehensive of others growing stronger.

Bosses of criminal gangs in the outskirts were always paranoid of their lieutenants usurping them, and tended to violently get rid of those who were too successful. In the Dark City, Gunlaug reigned with an iron fist, destroying anyone who dared to be strong without submitting to his rule.

And Sovereigns would be much the same.

Since Sunny was already powerful beyond reason, for a person of his age at least, and had an even more frightening potential, the Sovereigns would never allow him to exist outside their control.

Luckily, they did not know the true extent of his strength yet.

But since his main goal was to become stronger — as strong as he possibly could, as fast as he possibly could, to not fall behind Nephis — that… was going to be a problem.

some things about the Awakened society became

Sunny had learned that Master Jet had no chance of ever becoming a Saint. Apparently, one had to have a team of outstanding companions and a lot of support to attempt conquering the Third Nightmare, and she lacked both

anything having to do with higher Ranks. And

Jet were being suppressed from growing more powerful because they didn't serve one of the

it… I hate it so

conjecture. And yet, one thing was certain: the choice presented to him by

the government, and independence. He was deciding between entering into the service to the

was strained even further by his connection to

'...Damnation!'

sigh, Sunny stared at the bookshelves surrounding him, and then stood up. He had to get a few more books to

he tiredly put the last

absorbed a lot of knowledge about the current geography and situation of the Dream Realm, a seed of a plan began to form in his mind. However, he still needed more information. He wouldn't be able to

he would have to

nevertheless, was a bit

Ki Song, and

clan, he was mentioned many times in the texts describing the human expansion into the northern territories of the Dream Realm, as well as the history of Bastion — one of the three central human Citadels in the Dream Realm. In fact, he had apparently been responsible for

'Strong...'

disappeared. There was no mention of his death, but the reigns of clan Valor were now in the

a great one. The stronghold of clan Song, Ravenheart, was the second major human settlement in the Dream Realm. Its sphere of influence was separated from the other two territories by

she rarely appeared in public. She was known as a benevolent and charitable person, but that was pretty much all the information he could find. It seemed that it was her adoptive daughters who mostly acted on her behalf. Seishan was one of them, although she was trapped on the Forgotten Shore for too long to be mentioned

Asterion… he was the most mysterious of the three. No one seemed to know where he came from and where he went after the Broken Sword's cohort was disbanded. In fact, there was