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

heard that the government barely gave people time to evacuate this

Sunny shrugged.

"Near, yes."

stared at him,

believe the quality of the haptic interfaces these days… I mean, you don't have to if you don't want

and let

I didn't

of times, then looked at him with

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

hand

I know. Anyway, I'll go

more like an uninvited housemate… alone in the living room, Sunny went away and prepared an ice bath for

the initial shock, a pleasant numbness

if I am mostly black and purple? Gee,

wait for his body to heal itself. That was going

Wasn't that the dream?

check on how much he had gained

thought for a few moments, then reached for

extent of the damage

low

"Oh for Spell's sake…"

***