Shadow Slave

'Hope… herself…'

Sunny stared at the seven chains, finding new meaning in their cruel visage and the misshapen, torn remnants of the seven rune-inscribed shackles.

So the Sun God's ire had not been quelled by just destroying her kingdom. He had gone a step further, binding the Demon of Hope at the heart of her decimated domain… for how long?

And how had she escaped, in the end?

He tilted his head.

"So the Demon of Hope was chained here?"

Mordret answered with a hint of surprise in his voice:

"...You know of the daemons?"

A crooked smile appeared on Sunny's face.

"I do... a bit. Why wouldn't I? Although truth be told, there's not a lot of information about them, even among the Dream Realm researchers. So… the ruler that you had told me about was one of the daemons? A lesser deity?"

Mordret kept silent for a bit, then said dejectedly:

"Yes. I am not sure that those two words really go together, though. I also don't know what Hope had done to earn the wrath of the Lord of Light. However, I do know that these seven chains are what holding is the Chained Isles from falling into the Sky Below."

Sunny raised his eyebrows.

"What?"

The lost prince sighed.

are looking at their roots... or rather, there were only seven. Each of them had to be broken for the Ivory Tower to become untethered,

a bit, trying to correct the way he used to think about

back to the Seed of

guess it contains

Mordret answered succinctly:

"Correct."

but am I suicidal enough to go into the Second Nightmare alone? Whole cohorts of experienced Awakened routinely perish in their attempts to become Masters.

in the Dream Realm alone. She probably knew from

He scowled.

Gate in the real world

Mordret answered, his voice

time… maybe in a few years, or a decade. It

Sunny hesitated.

it can be

did not answer for a while, but

well as after. If the Seed is not found in time and a Gate opens, challengers can fight their way through and enter the Nightmare directly. The Gate also disrupts the anchors of those near it, so Masters and Saints that enter the Dream Realm will appear in the vicinity of the blooming Seed. After that,

He paused, then added:

are not found in time, because the Dream Realm is vast and only partially explored. That's why the Nightmare Creatures are

from the mass of shimmering darkness,

"Yeah? Why?"

out a heavy

as members of cohesive, experienced cohorts. Even then, many don't survive… most, even. But this Nightmare is actually far worse. Entering it

ears open, suddenly very

"Unless what?"

for

ivory knife. Only those who have shed blood on the altar and received the Memory of the knife

a couple of