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.'

For that reason, Sunny was mentally going over all the clever ways he had thought of to undermine her absolute authority as his master. There

why he had chosen to kill

but feel a

and moved slightly. Then, without being noticed by anyone,

A vast

the larger shadow, and then gave it a silent command. What

this a few times in the past, and each time was

prolonging his anxious anticipation, anyway. He had to see if Changing Star was still

himself

furious waves crashing against the cliffs far below. Some distance away, a tall and beautiful lighthouse stood, illuminating the absolute darkness

it for a while, and then nudged Nightmare to walk along the edge of the cliff. Sitting in the saddle, he rode the black steed and tried not to

and were always flowing, always changing. The more powerful a dreamer was, the

within them might not have been real, but by

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 strength depended

was very strong. So her nightmares were bound to

them changed. The dark shore and the lighthouse disappeared, and instead, the streets of a ruined city appeared from nowhere. With a bit of apprehension, Sunny recognized the familiar shapes of the stone buildings of

wide road was littered with burning debris, and a luxurious PTV lay overturned some distance away, its armored frame bent and riddled with holes. Blood was spilling on the melting asphalt from the shattered

and then jumped off Nightmare's back. After hesitating for a moment, he bent

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

a frown, he looked away and studied the surroundings. It did not take him long to notice a trail of