Shadow Slave

In the past, it had taken the Dreamer Army many days of an arduous march to reach the Crimson Spire from the Dark City. Now, however, Sunny could traverse that distance in less than a minute.

He was not in a hurry to leave, though.

Leaving the towering mountain of rubble behind, he crossed the broken bridge and returned to the ashen wasteland. He remained motionless for a while, then sighed and leaned down to brush the dust off the old bones.

...In the end, it took him almost a week to find the remains of every Sleeper that had perished in the battle for the Crimson Spire. There were four hundred of them, after all, and he had to be careful not to damage the brittle bonds. So, it took some time.

He placed them together on the ground, and then used the jagged slabs of black stone from the ruins of the gargantuan tower to construct a stone barrow above the mass grave.

It was a little fitting, to lay these young men and women to rest under the broken remains of the Crimson Spire, which they had laid down their lives to conquer.

Sunny also collected the remains of every Nightmare Creature that had fallen in the battle, and piled them onto each other to the side of the barrow. The mountain of hideous bones towered above the stone grave, dwarfing it entirely in size... a poignant testament to how fearsome the Dreamers of the Dark City had been, and how valiantly they had fought.

He stood in front of the barrow for some time, and then sighed.

"We were tough bastards, weren't we? You guys... rest easy now. The others are doing well. Most of them still follow Nephis, but they are Masters now. The remaining Handmaidens will Ascend before too long, as well - Seishan is taking care of them. Oh, Effie and Kai are already Saints. There are a few independents like myself out there, too. We... we all escaped."

Sunny didn't know why he was saying that. His words rang hollow... he wasn't a big fan of speaking to the dead, to begin with. What was the point?

Shaking his head, he approached the barrow and carved a few runes into the surface of the black stone.

The runes read:

[Here lie those

Who extinguished the sun Dreamers of the Dark City

Sleep well

Your nightmare is over.]

the slab of black stone with a heavy heart, Sunny remained silent for a while, then sighed and

of ashen dust, he

sounded rough when he urged the stallion forward and

get out

***

man with alabaster skin and raven-black hair rode through the darkness on a tenebrous steed, his fearsome armor crafted from polished onyx. In front of him, a great

had reached

in the saddle, looking up at the towering wall. The city, which had been populated by dreadful abominations, was now peaceful and silent. He could not sense any movement

shadows and appeared on top of the wall. Gazing down, he saw a

Castle were covered in soot. The Sleepers

lighthouse, the half-collapsed library where he had once learned the truth of the Forgotten Shore, the plaza where Saint and

City where he had hunted. The places where he had ambushed abominations, the places where he had been ambushed by them. There were countless pieces of rubble here

Fallen Nightmare Creature had seemed like

from the great wall of the Dark City. The wind whistled in his ears for a few seconds, and then,

fuel her

reach there. More than that, the abominations populating the Dark

to

had made so much noise, nothing moved in the

was enveloping the whole city, but Sunny could not feel any motion

Onyx Mantle and ventured into

reminisced about the past wistfully. Here, he had rescued Kai from the well... here, he had learned from Effie how to kill a Blood

where he had hidden himself after the

'How nostalgic.’

Sunny knew why there were no Nightmare

wound, since their souls

'...Nephis.’

must have come here after escaping the Crimson Spire and hunted the remaining abominations down,