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.'

the worst. 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 were

had chosen to kill the Mirror Beast instead of subjugating it,

Sunny could not help but feel a hint of

slightly. Then, without being noticed by anyone, Sunny silently merged

called upon Nightmare. A vast shadow appeared near him, all around him…

by the larger shadow, and then gave it

past, and each time was as strange. It was a bit like traveling to the Dream Realm, but

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

found himself on a

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

the cliff. Sitting in the saddle, he rode the black

real world and were always flowing,

contained within them might not have been real, but by invading this subliminal space, the uninvited guests had

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

nightmares were bound to

around 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

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

the PTV and then jumped off Nightmare's back. After hesitating for a moment, he bent down and looked inside the

faces, and instead looked like

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