Shadow Slave

After drinking her fill, Nephis sat silently on the edge of the pool for a while, staring into the distance.

Her eyes, however, were moving, as if reading an invisible book that floated in the air above the calm waters.

Some time later, a pale shadow of a smile touched her lips.

'That guy… he did something crazy again, didn't he?'

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

'How is he so fast…'

In the past months… years, lifetimes?... spent traversing the Dream Realm, surrounded by nothing except for pain and bloodshed, Nephis had started doubting the memories of her previous life. Sometimes, all of it seemed like something that she had simply imagined… a bittersweet dream she had invented to escape from the horrors of the real world. This world.

The world of neverending nightmares.

The change of the runes describing Sunny was the only connection she had left to the actual reality. Perhaps, it was the only thing keeping her sane.

...Even if the things she saw in the shimmering runes were sometimes hard to believe.

The impossible Lineage that should not have existed, the divine Memory of the seventh Rank, the strange essence of his soul, the true nature of the taciturn stone demon… and of course, of his Flaw.

It seemed that Sunny had much more secrets than Nephis had suspected. With that knowledge, many things made much more sense now… but at the same time, many others seemed much more incredible.

Well, it was not like she didn't have secrets of her own.

And anyway, it was all in the past.

Everything was in the past.

All that remained was the future.

...She did hope that he was doing well, though, out there in the real world. With Cassie...

cruelly

one

oh my. Am I

to wrestle free of the large silver

calm expression, no emotion reflecting in her

first skeleton

have you committed, girl, to be cast into this hell alive?

she opened her mouth and said hoarsely, in a voice of a person who had almost forgotten how to

language do

The skeleton laughed.

only language there is in this place, of course. Why? Do you

a long

seek a way back to the waking world. Do you know how

skeleton stared at her with

world? What

his voice

daemon on this

skull a

case, you will not find guides better than the two

stared at them for a while, then turned

don't need two guides. Which one should

to free himself again, and

Azarax the Mighty, the Plague of Steel, King of Kings, conqueror of a hundred thrones! Choose me, nephilim! I will guide you to the shores of

a glance, then said to the other

"...What about you?"

answered in

am no

a bit. Finally,

are… the two of you… nailed to this

skeleton who had

into the great war, slaughtered a myriad of souls,

her gaze to the other