Shadow Slave

Some time later, all five members of the cohort finally found themselves alone. The Fire Keepers were still around, but decided to give their leaders some much-needed privacy. As the result, only Nephis, Sunny, Cassie, Effie, and Kai remained in a spacious hospital room.

Changing Star was standing by the window, looking at the peaceful landscape of the Academy ground with a strange, still expression. She seemed to have regressed to her old self, which had trouble communicating emotions and interacting with people. For that reason, it was hard to understand what she was thinking about.

The others gave her some space. Despite the fact that Nephis was standing right in front of them, it was not too easy to come to terms with the fact that she was actually, truly back. They were still struggling to get used to this new reality, but a warm wave of relief and happiness was slowly rising in their hearts.

Sunny was no different. It was just that his joy was somewhat overshadowed by a contradicting feeling of unease and apprehension.

Finally, Nephis sighed and turned around. A pale smile appeared on her face.

"You… you are all Masters. I did not expect that."

Effie, who was sitting comfortably on a cushy chair with her legs stretched, laughed.

"You're one to talk!"

Neph studied the four of them, then let out a slow sigh.

even know if all of you managed to survive. I… I hoped, of course. So I am very glad to see that you did. And

Kai's face. He remained silent for a bit, remembering

we had each other to lean on in our darkest moments. But you… you were completely

away

wasn't really

over to the hospital bed and sat down,

The Crimson Terror was in its most vulnerable state when I reached the top of the Spire. Unrestrained by the dark sea, she had absorbed countless souls and was in the middle of an

too much on that part of her story. She also

soon followed. I barely escaped the debris. The artificial sun of the Forgotten Shore was extinguished, as well, submerging it into absolute darkness. The labyrinth itself perished, too, the crimson coral turning grey and slowly crumbling to dust. With no sea, no sun, and most Nightmare Creatures eradicated by the culling, it became a lightless and

She sighed.

traveled back to the Dark City and spent some time there, hunting down the remaining abominations and preparing for a long journey. With the help of the Dawn Shard and the Nameless Sun, many powerful Nightmare Creatures fell to my blade. For a while, I entertained the idea of trying to cross the Hollow Mountains, but eventually had to abandon it. Nothing but

a moment, then continued in a

deadly mountain chain stretched further than Ravenheart in the west. There was no passage there. Going north meant moving further away from human Citadels. So, it only left east. There was a chance that the Hollow Mountains were not as tall and unassailable there, or even that there was an end to them somewhere in those unexplored regions. It was only a chance, but it was all that I had. So, I left the Dark City and retraced the steps of the journey

promise to come back and destroy the damned tree… granted, he had no plans of returning to the Forgotten

to exact his revenge on

Star, meanwhile,