Shadow Slave

After welcoming the Fire Keepers for a few short days, the Nameless Temple had grown silent once again.

However, the silence was not going to last long.

Soon enough, the dark realm that Sunny had built in the heart of Godgrave would become a hive of activity. Due to the deal he had made with Morgan, his Citadel was to be made into a secondary staging ground for the Sword Army during the war. A relatively small, but elite contingent would be stationed here, using the temple as their operation base.

But the peace and quiet would be gone long before that.

After all, the soldiers had to live somewhere. They needed beds, places to cook and consume food, storage space to keep a large amount of supplies, an infirmary... and so on. All of these things had to be built before the war started.

There were so many things that went into waging a war. A military conflict between Awakened was different in many ways, but still fundamentally similar to any other war in human history - it demanded an unfathomable amount of logistical preparations.

Sunny felt dejected.

It had taken him a lot of effort to restore the Nameless Temple to its present state. Now, however, it would be turned into an actual Citadel - a place that existed to serve as a safe haven for the people in the Dream Realm. There would be a small army of workers coming here to perform all the laborious tasks soon.

Which was not a bad thing.

However, he had grown used to the peaceful silence.

Todady, there were only two humans under the roof of the ancient temple. One of them was Sunny himself. The other was Cassie, who had arrived as the Seneschal of the Great Clan Valor to assess the state of the Citadel and collect all the necessary information to launch the construction.

At least that was the official reason.

Sunny had thought that Nephis would come personally. He was a little relieved that she was not here - his mind was burning in anticipation of their upcoming date, so seeing her before that would have been somewhat embarrassing.

It was nice to see Cassie outside the context of their deal, as well.

"...The temple itself must be off-limits to the soldiers, unless it is to use the Gateway. Of course, they can retreat inside if we are under attack, and the outer perimeter is breached. Even then, I will not allow them to venture into the inner sanctum and the underground level."

Cassie turned her head slightly.

"There is an underground level?"

Sunny smiled.

"Don't pretend you don't know. Nephis saw it, which means that you saw it, too."

The young woman coughed in embarrassment.

"Right... sorry. It's a habit of mind to act appropriately oblivious. Otherwise, people get uncomfortable around me."

spared her a long

it was only the two of them in the temple, Sunny had dismissed Weaver's Mask. It felt strange, to walk around with a bare face as the Lord of Shadows... even if Cassie could not see

He shook his head.

who knows the extent of your abilities and the depth of your

knows me better than you, now. There is really no other person either of

She smiled faintly.

keep that in

a few moments, then led

all the necessary facilities around it. My Shadows will help protect the perimeter. You should know how powerful they are... the base will be very safe, all things

She shook her head.

you are expected to participate in

contemplated for a

"You are right."

the inevitable war... realm war... so casually. And yet,

delicate

you think stands

her head

Swords will arrive to Godgrave before

hesitated for

Song Domain is... unpredictable. There seems to be no reason for them to be eager to fight this war - if anything, they should be scrambling to avoid it due to how disadvantaged they are - and yet, they

expression darkened

clearly in contact with Prince Mordret. Perhaps they have brokered some kind of deal behind the scenes. There are other possibilities, as well. But at

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"It doesn't?"

for a moment, then said

will win the war.

He laughed.

on Nephis achieving Supremacy without the help of the Spell? And there is no

faced him and

along the way.

hesitated a little, then added in

not entirely

led her back

"It's not?"

woman lingered with the answer. Eventually, she said in a

the most. Sorry... I haven't revealed that secret

a

about the future from my visions. That version of me must have known that there would be a war, and that

her words