Shadow Slave

As it turned out, there were two other Sleepers somewhere out there, hiding under the roots of a dead tree in the Hollows. They were well outside the Shadow Realm's Fragment and inside the bones of the colossal skeleton, which made the potential rescue... problematic.

In fact, it was miraculous that they had survived for so long.

Too miraculous, maybe.

While the Fire Keepers were calming the dirty teenager and giving him food, Sunny stared at him coldly. He had already studied the Sleeper's soul, making sure that he was indeed a Dormant human. But why were Nephis and her people so careless?

He glanced at her, then asked, his voice emotionless:

"How do you know that he's not one of Skinwalker's vessels?"

Nephis, who was standing a few steps away from the Sleeper, shrugged:

"If he was an abomination, my flames would have burned him, not healed him."

Sunny raised an eyebrow. It made sense... her soul was immune to Corruption, so the flames of her soul did not tolerate it. Granted, Nephis had not yet mastered that aspect of her powers to such a degree in the past.

‘Alright, he's not Skinwalker.’

That didn't mean that the sleeper was harmless, though. He could still be a body Mordret decided to wear... granted, that was very improbable. It would be exceedingly hard to find a Sleeper just a few days after the winter solstice, let alone drag one to Godgrave. And while Mordret was powerful, it would be harder still to traverse Godgrave in a Dormant body, even for him.

So why was this Sleeper so strange?

Sunny walked forward, and although he did not say anything, the Fire Keepers instinctively parted before him. The Sleeper looked up, his eyes suddenly widening in fear.

"Uh... m-my lord..."

Stopping in front of the teenager, Sunny looked down without saying a word.

'How strange.'

Even though he could see the dirty young man, he could not sense him. It was as though there was no one there - there was no scent, no presence, not even a shadow he could perceive.

Was that why he had not sensed what Saint was carrying until she was already in the temple?

his mouth twisted

"Is that your Aspect?"

Sleeper flinched,

lord... I am not good at anything except for hiding. But hiding...

Sunny tilted his head.

‘What a powerful Aspect.’

to fool the senses of a Saint. Perhaps it wasn't completely unreasonable for the

of his could somewhat explain how the Sleeper managed to survive a

"What is your name?"

The young man shivered.

it's Ray,

a bit, then

not to kill

mouth hanging open, Sunny walked away. As he did, the Fire Keepers gave him a few dirty looks and returned to trying

utterly invalidated by a few words from the

at him and raised

kill Sleepers often, Lord

remember how many Sleepers he had killed, In

"Not often"

face her and asked in the same

about you, Lady

changing the tople to

my warriors... can we rescue the other two Sleepers from the Hollows? That is not the mission entrusted to me by Clan Valor, but still. If it is possible, I would like to save

hesitated for

it's possible. But your people... skilled as they are, there is no guarantee that all of them or any of them - will survive

She nodded simply.

that is what we'll do. If you are

her silently, pretending to

Braving a Death Zone for a couple of insignificant Sleepers... wouldn't it be a shame if someone as illustrious as

She smiled faintly,

if you wish. Secondly, aren't you being a little hypocritical, Lord Shadow? No one forced you to rescue the Sleepers last year, and yet you did. Not only that, but you even escorted them all the way to the territory of Clan Song. So, please forgive me... but I know that you are not as heartless as you want to

‘Am i, really?’

deciding to act more tyrannical in the