Shadow Slave

The Sanctuary was slowly waking up. Now that the sun had risen, groups of Awakened were preparing to venture outside, while those who had stuff to do in the Citadel itself were going about their business. A few of them greeted Sunny as he walked toward the Altar Island.

By now, he should have been able to return to the real world. After everything he had discovered during the night, there was a flame burning inside his chest that demanded action. His eyes gleamed when he thought about the mysterious treasure hidden somewhere out there, in the darkness.

But although Sunny was a very rapacious person, he knew how to keep his avarice in check… well, most of the time.

'Shipwreck Island…'

Sunny had never been that far away from the Sanctuary, but he had heard about that deadly place.

The Shipwreck Island was situated almost at the center of the Chained Isles, far removed from both human CItadels. The Nightmare Creatures there were especially ferocious, and the islands themselves were far more bizarre and dangerous than those closer to the edges of the region.

If one could somehow survive the Crushing and look upon the Chained Isles from above, they would see that there was a vast empty space at the very heart of this shattered land. Some people assumed that this was where the Ivory Tower had once been chained, before all seven of its anchors were broken. After that, the islands bordering the Tear slowly fell into the Sky Below one after another, making it grow wider and wider.

The hole at the heart of the Chained Isles was slowly expanding, and one day, thousands of years from now, it was probably going to devour the whole region.

…But Sunny had no interest in that remote future.

What concerned him right now was that the Shipwreck Island was on the very edge of the Tear, and as such, presented a lot of danger for a young Awakened like him. If Sunny wanted to venture out that far, he would have to study and thoroughly prepare for a long and perilous expedition.

And in the meantime, he had to hurry to the real world.

Even though he felt the call of treasure with every fiber of his being, desperate to reduce the gap between himself and Nephis, the things he had to do back in reality were… crucial.

It's nothing serious,

at the obsidian dagger suspiciously, then

no reason

***

steel sarcophagus silently opened, letting out beams of light and clouds of cool mist. Sunny yawned and climbed out

if he just had a long, perfectly comfortable sleep — not at all like

I call

he had ever made. Not counting the Mantle of the Underworld,

Sunny walked over to the kitchen, glanced at the broken remains of his fridge with a bit of shame, and retrieved a few ingredients

sent the happy shadow outside to observe the

eggs, real lettuce and tomatoes, real bread, real bacon, real coffee, real juice… it took him just a few minutes to cook himself

a dining table that was too large for one person, he placed his

he didn't really know what else to do with that thing. Usually, people of his age would have an active presence on the network and feeds breaking with all kinds of news, events, and videos, but Sunny had almost no digital presence whatsoever. Nor did he want to have

resources and services, of course, and many of the things on the network had once been the stuff of his dreams: the unlimited amount of games, books, shows, and entertainment of all sorts was on the tip

into any of them. Right now, he had too much to do, and his dreams were filled with only clangor

'Maybe one day…'

quickly sketch and describe the coin he had found... keeping

were preparing to face the new day. The sun was rising above the giant city, and crowds of people were on their way

spot on the porch of his new home and observed the quiet street from its shelter. It saw a few PTVs drive by, humming slowly as they rolled

it was time for the students in

observed these children through the shadow,