Shadow Slave

Sunny left the old woman alone and returned to where Nephis was resting, full of thought. He had not received all the answers he wanted from Ananke, but at the same time, he learned a lot... maybe even too much.

'Ah, I don't know.'

There was too much information, all of it fragmented, ambiguous, and confusing. Not only that, but he was not even sure that it could be trusted.

In any case, many mysteries he had never hoped to solve were resolved now. Like the destruction of the Forgotten Shore - it had become collateral damage in the war between the daemons and the gods. Or the identity of the nameless prisoner of the ruined cathedral - it was one of the first two apostles chosen by Weaver to tend to and spread the Nightmare Spell... whoever these apostles had been.

Sunny even had more context for why the followers of War God had been destroying the temples of Shadow God in his First Nightmare, and what empire Auro of the Nine was a soldier of.

Still... he had even more questions now.

Like always.

'...My head hurts.'

He was saying these words a lot in this Nightmare.

Sunny sighed, then looked at Nephis.

"What do you think?"

With how obsessed she was with destroying the Spell, the revelations about its origin and presumed purpose had to have shaken her... and maybe even her conviction.

But Nephis simply shrugged.

"Makes sense."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Huh?"

She looked at him and remained silent for a moment.

the Nightmare Spell has a purpose, and that its purpose is tied

calm face.

that doesn't

looked at

own. Salvation? Future? To me, it sounds like the Spell was designed to destroy countless futures for the sake of a future that Weaver envisioned, and

of Ananke. Luckily,

Nephis gritted her teeth.

burglar comes into your home, kills your family, and takes everything you have from you... does it really matter if the burglar intends to use the spoils for a noble cause? Would you

Sunny sighed.

could see

"I guess it depends."

looked at

"Depends? On what?"

a few moments,

have spread to the waking world eventually, even without the Spell, or not? Things like

stared at him for a while, then turned away with a

argument was reasonable... but humans

an entire neighborhood, he would have

River. Eventually, it was Nephis who broke the silence.

curious about something else,

at her and raised

"What?"

She frowned slightly.

Ariel and lost contact with the outside world? How did the war escalate

glinted with

play in the conclusion of the war? How has it grown to its current

he

by both sides, Weaver disappeared. No one knew where Weaver went and what they did... until it was

eyes, Nephis

responsible for the devastation of our world, but also for the destruction of the Dream

a while, his expression