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.

and that its purpose is tied somehow to the destruction of the Dream

calm face. She seemed as composed

doesn't change anything for

at the

still hateful. It is still the cause of indescribable misery... that of countless people, and my 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 fuel it with the lives of those like

figure of Ananke. Luckily, it didn't seem like she

Nephis gritted her teeth.

takes everything you have from you... does it really matter if the burglar intends to use the spoils for a noble cause? Would you hate

Sunny sighed.

could see her point,

"I guess it depends."

looked at

"Depends? On what?"

few moments, collecting his

the waking world eventually, even without the Spell, or not? Things like that.

him for a while, then turned away with a

but humans weren't. That included him,

someone murdered Rain to save an entire neighborhood, he would

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

curious about

at her and raised an

"What?"

She frowned slightly.

and lost contact with the outside world? How did the war escalate even further? What could

glinted

role did the Spell play in the conclusion of the war? How has it grown to

chill as he remembered the

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

her eyes, Nephis looked at

you ever think that, maybe, the Nightmare Spell is not only responsible for the devastation of our world, but also for the

a while,