Shadow Slave

1524 Bitter, Sweet

By the time Sunny woke up, it was night.

Even this place of endless dawn had a night, just like the crimson expanse of eternal dusk had one. However, nights were short and fleeting at the edges of the Great River.

Before he knew it, the sevens suns were already rising again.

The world became painted by the soft colors of the breaking dawn.

With a sigh, Sunny rubbed his eyes and sat up.

He felt… strangely great. His body was in perfect shape because of Neph's healing flames, and his mental energy had been restored with the help of the Shroud of Dusk after having a good sleep.

Nightmare had also guarded his dreams, as well as the dreams of everyone else aboard the Chain Breaker. Here in the pyramid built by the Demon of Dread, that alone was more important than one would think.

'Great…'

Nevertheless, his good mood was diminished when he remembered what had transpired in Twilight.

'I... should probably be happy, right?'

Beyond himself, even.

of this Nightmare did not seem so distant as to be

That victory of theirs had been too perilous, almost turning into defeat. In fact, it should have been a defeat, if not for a

that… he was not

accomplished a few astonishing feats during the battle for Twilight, true — reaching the throne room of the Serpent King's palace, lifting the curse of frozen time, resisting the authority of the Dread Lord, fighting the Defiled Saint almost

boast that they were not only capable of transforming themselves akin to a Saint, but were also not limited to a single static form? Turning into

done yesterday, nobody else could have accomplished. And without him there, the cohort would have

And yet….

of the Crown of Twilight. Most of all, he had been defeated by his own lack of foresight and knowledge. He was only alive by

did not feel great

Sunny sighed.

can't win every

had long realized, after all, that his allies were a part of his power. So, their triumph was his triumph, just like his triumph would be theirs in turn. Still... Sunny couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed in himself. He had done remarkably well in this Nightmare up until yesterday. Experiencing a serious

there was the fact that Nephis had to resort to using Shadow Bond in order to make him come

did not know how to feel

harm. It might very well have saved the lives of his friends, too. In fact, if Sunny had been able to think at that moment, he would have asked Nephis to use her power over him to help him escape from the insidious effect of the [King's Resentment] himself. That would

humans were not logical

could not forget that moment. The horror of having his will violated in such a tyrannical fashion. The hopelessness he felt when his body and soul moved despite his wishes, refusing to obey him. Obeying someone else

memory was like a shadow that hung

Sunny shook his head and

later, his expression soured. He noticed a pair of hateful eyes glaring at him from a

are you? So, how