Shadow Slave

Eventually, the four of them were invited into the room where Nephis slept… this time on a hospital bed instead of inside of a closed coffin of a sleeping pod. The administrators of the Academy wanted to avoid any more damage, so asking the members of Changing Star's cohort for help was a logical step.

Seeing familiar faces first after waking up would probably calm her down. And if not… having four Masters at hand would be enough to deal with any unforeseen complications.

Most likely...

Sunny stood in the corner, looking at Nephis with a somber expression. Her pale face, her silver hair. For the past two years, he had often seen her through the transparent lid of the sleeping pod, bathed in its ghostly light. Now that she was out and returned to the real world, Changing Star seemed much more… material. And strangely vulnerable.

She was truly back.

He sighed.

Cassie was sitting on a chair beside the bed, while Effie and Kai were resting on a sofa. None of them knew when Neph was going to wake up, and they had already spent a couple hours waiting. Without having to discuss it, all four decided to stay quiet. So… by now, they were pretty bored.

Sunny, on the other hand, was filled with more and more tension.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

'This anticipation is killing me. It's pure torture.'

mentally going over all the clever ways he had thought of to undermine her absolute authority as his master. There were always ways... owning an unwilling slave was not an

one of the reasons why he had chosen to kill the Mirror Beast

Sunny could not help but

shook his head and moved slightly. Then, without being noticed by anyone, Sunny

their dark embrace, he hesitated for a few moments, and then called upon Nightmare. A vast shadow appeared near him, all around him… this was the dark destrier in his true, shapeless

larger shadow, and then gave it a silent

a few times in the past, and each time was

to Neph's dreams. There was no sense in prolonging his anxious anticipation, anyway. He had to see if Changing Star was still sane. He

found himself

was a vertical slope, with furious waves crashing against the cliffs far below. Some distance

cliff. Sitting in the saddle, he rode the black steed and tried not to look around

were a strange place. They did not adhere to the logic of the real world and were always flowing, always changing. The more powerful a dreamer was, the more solid

contained within them might not

wounded from his travels. If an Ascended dreamt of a powerful abomination, the dark destrier had to battle the abomination as if it was real. However, not only dreadful fiends posed a threat. His opponents were empowered by the dream itself, so their

strong. So her nightmares were bound to be terrible, as

from nowhere. With a bit of apprehension, Sunny recognized the familiar shapes of the stone buildings of the Dark City. However, they were simultaneously the alloy towers of the

littered with burning debris, and a luxurious PTV lay overturned some distance away, its armored frame bent and riddled with

Nightmare's back. After hesitating for a moment, he bent down

lacked faces, and instead looked like smooth-faced mannequins.

and studied the surroundings. It did not take him long to notice a