Shadow Slave

Sunny assumed his human form, standing on a twisting stalk of a giant vine side by side with Nephis.

Sunlight was streaming from above, illuminating her slender figure… his, however, was hidden in the deep shadows, almost imperceptible. If someone gazed upon them right now, it would have seemed as though she was observing the overgrown ruin alone.

The ruin was vast and sprawling, but most of it was swallowed by the jungle. Only a few crumbling stone edifices rose above the canopy, covered in red moss. It was hard to recognize them as man-made structures, but the Awakened were experts on all things having to do with ruins — the Dream Realm was littered with them, after all.

Nephis tilted her head a little.

«Ruins? I didn't know that humans once lived here, in Godgrave.»

Sunny remained silent for a few moments.

«…Godgrave was densely populated once, in fact. There was a fairly advanced civilization thriving here. The surface was just as deadly, and I can't say anything about the sea of ash below. But there are many ruined cities in the Hollows, some of them as large as the lesser population centers in the waking world.»

She glanced in his direction, seeing only the darkness.

«I didn't know that you have such a keen interest in ancient civilizations, Lord Shadow.»

He smiled.

«Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it in the future.»

His words vaguely hinted at a double meaning, but he didn't say anything else.

In any case, Nephis was right. Sunny did indeed have a keen interest in ancient civilizations — he always had, even back in the Dark City. Solving the mysteries of the past appealed to some hidden part of his heart.

The thrill and charm of exploring forgotten ruins was the closest thing Sunny had to a hobby… maybe, in a perfect world, it would have been one of his life's passions.

However, his interest in the ruins of Godgrave was special.

The dead civilizations of the Dream Realm had always been one and the same for him — the people were different, the histories were different, but they all belonged in the pages of the same book. After meeting Wind Flower in the Tomb of Ariel, though, Sunny learned that there were two entirely different kinds of ruins in the Dream Realm.

One kind belonged to the people who had lived in the mortal realms, and were destroyed by the war between the gods and the daemons, as well as its immediate outcome.

who had lived in the five divine realms, and

difference between the two

by the Nightmare Spell before their

of the Waking World —

in Godgrave belonged

Godgrave had once been

was what remained of the Sun God's world after it had been swallowed by the Dream Realm. The immolating white void hidden behind

Doom War. The gods were dead, the nightmares of the Forgotten God were slowly devouring the scattered lands, the Dream Realm was being born. But here, a thriving civilization survived and persisted, building populous cities in the bones of the

this civilization had been, with vast cities rising in the glowing jungle, great waterfalls pouring from above to create

sternum must have been the heartland of that civilization, with satellite kingdoms rising inside the ribs, and most remote

just like the people of the Twilight Sea, the inhabitants of Godgrave failed to meet its

gone. The world they had called home was now part of

that remained were these overgrown

the same emotion, even

be swallowed like this one, too? Would their people disappear like these people had, one day

sighed and sent his shadow

while, his

shadows around her grew darker, Nephis shifted and asked, her

«Are they dead?»

shook his head

news and a piece

a moment, then added

two Sleepers

looked at him

is the bad news,

sunlight reflecting from the surface of his onyx armor. The crack of his visor, though, still brimmed with

aren't the only

hell did that

Nightmare Creature. He had never seen or sensed abominations like these before, but simply from the depths of their

was… a lot of