Shadow Slave

By the time Sunny limped back to his house, the news of the Gate opening in a prestigious district of the city was all over the network. Luckily, the school Rain attended was situated really far away from where both of them lived — none of the mayhem had reached the terrace neighborhood, leaving it as quiet and peaceful as ever.

It was a bit strange, to see that nothing had changed here despite the fact that mere tens of minutes of riding the train away, the bodies of numerous Nightmare Creatures littered the ground. Life simply went on.

Well, it wasn't really that surprising. If people reacted strongly to every instance of a Gate appearing, nothing would ever get done, and everyone would live every day of their lives in fear. So, those not affected by the disaster directly did not allow it to disrupt their moods or routines.

People could get accustomed to anything, even the constant possibility of terrifying monsters suddenly coming out of an infernal rift in reality on their street. As long as important parts of city infrastructure weren't damaged, no one was going to care that much. And even if they were, citizens knew how to adapt — public transport would be rerouted, power outages would be dealt with by switching to autonomous generators or simply using candles, and so on.

The Gate was contained, the impact area was already being cleaned by the government workers. When tomorrow came, the cafe Sunny had visited would be open again, as if nothing happened. Life would return to normal.

...And those who had experienced the terror of the Gate firsthand would go on, silently bearing an invisible scar on their heart. But that was alright, too. Collecting scars was something that everyone who lived in this world had to do as they matured. This was the reality of the Nightmare Spell.

'Why am I suddenly in a philosophical mood?'

Sunny shook his head, then scoffed and opened the door of his home.

Effie was in the living room, taking advantage of the state-of-the-art entertainment system Sunny had bought and paid for. When she saw him, a surprised expression appeared on her face.

"Gods, what happened to you? Did a piano fall on your head?"

'What a strange question…'

Sunny sighed, then glanced at her arkly.

"No. A Gate fell on my head… sort of. Damned thing opened right near a cafe I sometimes visit. They sell incredible pastries, so… good news is, I managed to finish my pastry! Before getting the hell out."

gave him a shocked

that mess? I heard that the government barely

Sunny shrugged.

"Near, yes."

woman stared at him, then

the entertainment system, maybe? You won't believe the quality of the haptic interfaces these days… I mean, you don't have to

gritted his teeth and let out

didn't get anything,

blinked a couple of times, then looked at him with a bit

no need to get emotional. There's no shame in avoiding such fights. Everyone

waved a hand

Anyway, I'll go take

in the living room, Sunny

a pleasant numbness enveloped him. Sunny glanced at the tapestry of bruises covering his

am mostly black and purple? Gee,

his eyes and relaxed, enjoying the ice bath. None of his wounds were serious enough to really worry about, so he just had to wait for his body to heal itself. That was going to take a

Wasn't that the dream?

on how

thought for a few moments, then reached for

the extent

few moments later, a low groan

"Oh for Spell's sake…"

***