Shadow Slave

'So, they are finally starting to move...'

Sunny let out a quiet sigh. Things were progressing according to his calculations, but at the same time, he felt that it was sometimes unpleasant to be right.

Many things had changed since Antarctica. But many things were also the same.

The balance of power was entirely different, for example.

Sunny had been born at the time when the three Great Clans were in charge of humanity, so for the longest time, he simply assumed that that was the natural order of things. But actually, although some Legacy Clans had always been more prominent than the others, the three great families — Valor, Song, and Night — only rose to their exalted status shortly before he was born.

And now, the status quo had changed again. Even though there were still nominally three Great Clans, in practice, only two remained. The House of Night had lost its competitive edge for a multitude of reasons, the main being that it lacked a Sovereign.

Without a Sovereign, the masters of the Stormsea could not bring millions of mundane humans into their area of influence and develop their Citadels into prosperous cities. They could not keep up with the exploding number of Awakened, Masters, and Saints the other two Great Clans now commanded, either.

In short, the House of Night had been relegated to the role of a supporting player in the great game between Valor and Song.

The role of the government was not the same, either. Now that the Sovereigns had revealed themselves and the exodus of humanity from the waking world had quietly begun, the writing was on the wall. As the force mainly responsible for maintaining the cradle of humanity, the government had no choice but to become obsolete.

Perhaps it was not going to happen in a decade, or even several decades, but their days were numbered. Unless the government changed, that was.

And so, it was changing, slowly developing its presence in the Dream Realm. Strangely enough, despite the bleak future, the government's power had actually grown in recent years. Although there were not a lot of Saints in its employ, three of those Saints belonged to the highest tier of Transcendents. There were countless Awakened and a large number of Masters remaining loyal to the army, as well.

So, the government had actually shortened the gap and was now almost as powerful as the House of Night.

It was nowhere near the two nascent kingdoms of the Dream Realm, though.

And those kingdoms — Sword Domain, and Song Domain — had changed the least.

not being fought in the open, but it had never ended. The only thing preventing it from progressing to direct conflict was that the two

Yet.

they were separated by a perilously dangerous Death Zone. That Death Zone

Citadel, right in the middle of this exceedingly important strategic region. And where his third avatar was currently hunting down anything stupid

His thinking was simple...

to put himself in an advantageous position for when the war inevitably

he realized that he didn't want to observe the end of the world, and the birth of

to be right in the middle of everything, shaping the outcome to fit his will, and achieving

Well, anyway...

was keeping an eye on Rain and cautiously exploring the hidden side of Ravenheart. This Sunny, meanwhile, was

occasionally feeding gluttonous

Sunless. Can

from his

certainly can,

a

it sounds like something an eighth-grader

stared at her with

name your

Effie flinched.

Ling! It's the name that belonged to a dear friend of

and turned back

mom, you see, had

for a moment, and

school. So I wouldn't even know

***