Shadow Slave

Sunny left the cafe and caught a train to go visit Aiko. After that, he traveled to the Academy and said his goodbyes to Teacher Julius. The old man was a bit emotional to let him go, but did not try to dissuade his unruly pupil. Instead, he tried to offer encouragement.

"The Second Nightmare! Ptui! No student of mine can be killed by a mere Second Nightmare. Don't you dare put a stain on my reputation, Sunny my boy… you hear me?"

Finally, Sunny left the Sleeper compound and stood outside for a while, watching the setting sun. Then, he turned around and headed deeper into the Academy complex.

The room where Nephis slept did not change much. He replaced the flowers on one of the tables and sat down, looking at her pale and motionless face.

No matter how many times Sunny came here, seeing her… seeing her like this… brought a dull pain to his chest. The cauldron of emotions burning in his heart was too deep and seethed too furiously for him to understand it. Sunny was never good with emotions, after all.

There was resentment, longing, guilt, affection, fear… and hope.

Looking at the transparent lid of the sleeping pod, he sighed.

"Hey, Neph."

Just like before, this was the only thing he said out loud. He lingered for a bit, and then thought:

'You are still alive, out there somewhere. That is good. That… makes me happy. It really does. You know, right after everything happened, I wasn't sure if I wanted you to live. I thought that maybe it would be better for you to die. Sometimes, I did.'

Sunny lowered his head and closed his eyes tiredly.

'But after a while, as time passed, I... I started to miss you more than I wanted to be free of you. Maybe what Master Jet said is true… maybe no one is really ever free in this world. Maybe the only freedom there is is the freedom to choose your own chains.'

A dark smile appeared on his lips.

I had even less than that. Wouldn't you be angry to be dealt a hand like that? Because I am. I am so, so angry.

at the

strong enough to rip them apart. You want to destroy the Spell? Well,

laughed, his voice full of both mirth

Weaver did it, why can't I? And if Weaver created it, why can't you break it? If that is

then grew quiet again, his eyes full of

while, he

long time. So you… you take care of yourself, Neph. Don't disappoint me. I am counting on you to stay alive...

he sighed heavily, stood up, and left without looking

was finally time for him

***

Effie. He moved her pod into the underground dojo and installed it near his own. The two of them were most likely going to spend a long time in the Nightmare,

after coming back through the Gateway in Night Temple, but if things went wrong with the representatives of Valor, Effie was in charge of making the final preparations. He gave her

ran the diagnostic on the pod, made sure that it was functioning perfectly and could sustain his body

Master. If the former happened,

process would create a new one. So, maybe, it was more appropriate to say that Ascension allowed the spirit body to become corporeal. In any case, the

it would make her as strong and healthy as she was in the Dream Realm. Why many of

pod malfunctioned and thoroughly roasted Sunny's physical body

to his mortal shell. He didn't want any harm to come to it, if only out

sigh, he undressed, took one last glance at his spacious dojo, and climbed into the

from her wheelchair, strained to raise

"Sweet dreams!"

gluttonous huntress to not leave dirty dishes all over the

the metal sarcophagus started to move, his eyes closed, and he fell into