Shadow Slave

Sunny woke up from a nightmare where he was a shadow that had lost the will to live, who woke up from a nightmare where he was a prince being drowned in a fiery tomb of molten steel, who woke up from a nightmare where he was an old man dying as he held the body of his murdered mother, who woke up from a nightmare where he was a mortal watching his world being destroyed by a god.

Soon enough, Sunny found himself tied to a stake, with fire spreading through the pile of tinder beneath his bare feet as a crowd of people whom he had considered friends and neighbors watched with demented glee. All he could do was struggle desperately against his bonds and pray that the smoke would smother him before the flames reached his flesh…

But his prayers were not answered.

Screaming from inside the fire, he died.

…It was time to face a new day.

Sunny fought desperately as sharp fangs tore his flesh apart, as he was being eaten alive. But no matter how much he struggled, it was of no use. The monster was just too strong, and mad, and cruel.

And then, he died.

It was time to face a new day again.

Sunny drowned, a heavy chain tied around his legs.

Sunny bled to death on a battlefield, suffering from terrible thirst and too weak to move, hungry crows tearing at his face with sharp beaks.

Sunny watched his entire family be executed before being hanged from the walls of a somber fortress.

Thrown into the boundless darkness of the Sky Below by his heartless mother, Sunny died of hunger, thirst, and fear, too tired to scream or cry.

Sunny was killed and turned into a wooden doll by a vengeful sorcerer, and then killed again after an eternity of silent servitude, the doll burning to ashes as it fell into an ocean of white flames.

His heart was pierced with an obsidian knife on an altar made of pure darkness.

His body was cleaved apart by the blade of a giant warrior in a red tattered robe while the jubilant crowd cheered from the stone seats of an ancient theater.

…It was time to face a new day again.

The nightmares never ended, bleeding into one another. Each time, Sunny woke up sure that the agony he had experienced was just a harrowing dream. But very soon, his waking life would turn into pure horror itself.

And then, he would die.

And then, it would be time to face a new day again.

being mighty and weak, young and old, men and women, humans and beasts. Their end was always the same. Everywhere he went, everywhere he fled, no matter who he was,

everyone he met was

world was

he was slowly

had just dreamt of. Even though the horrors he had experienced

The terror.

chilling terror of waking up from a nightmare only to be thrust into a worse

two other things remained the same, as well. The pain in his chest, and

was a soldier in a war between the Ivory City and the Red Colosseum. Consumed by terror, he watched as a brilliant colossus made of lustrous steel stepped forward, making the whole island shake. A giant metal hand

the iron giant took

disappeared, replaced by a vast expanse of polished metal. The colossus brought his

Sunny died…

he woke up with a

to face a new

was

the trembling row of soldiers. Who would be mad enough to challenge the indestructible

Some said that they had been different and called by another name once, that they had been

he didn't

Sunny was alive, and as long as his father was alive, and his grandfather as well, the Warmongers had been the same. Bloodthirsty monsters

was raging far away from here. In the northern reaches of the Kingdom of Hope, people didn't have to worry

had their

the grasp of the nightmare, Sunny massaged his aching chest and rose. Today, his lady was going to meet with the emissaries of the Night Temple. It was a high honor, but also not without risk. As

my heart so much

he reached for

***

"No!"

young girl in a beautiful silk dress that was passed down to her from her mother, and for that reason a

of their party, chased them to the very edge of the island. Now, there

hooves were already ringing on the stones, growing

girl stared into the bottomless abyss, then turned to

what… what should

of maturity. Her eyes, usually so

then drew his sword and turned his back to

be afraid, my lady. I'm

knowing full well that it was a lie. He was just one man… he was not even an Awakened. What could a