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."

her a

strange, to walk around with a bare face as the Lord of Shadows... even if Cassie could not see his expression, only

He shook his head.

abilities and the depth of your foresight better than

knows me better than you, now. There is really no

She smiled faintly.

that in

few moments, then

the temple is mostly cleared of Nightmare Creatures. There will be no problem building barracks and all the necessary facilities around it. My Shadows

She shook her head.

After all, you are expected to participate in the battles

contemplated for a moment,

"You are right."

discussing the inevitable war... realm war... so

delicate face, he

do you think stands the better chance

tilted her head a

King of Swords will arrive to

for a

be scrambling to avoid it due to how disadvantaged they are - and yet, they are as eager as the rulers of the Sword Domain. Which means that they

expression darkened a

they have brokered some kind of deal behind

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"It doesn't?"

remained silent for a moment, then

neither Song nor Valor will win the

He laughed.

However, isn't the whole thing predicated on Nephis achieving Supremacy without the help of the Spell? And there is no saying if she will, least of all if she'll

faced him

step along the way. Yet, here we

hesitated a little, then added in a quieter

not entirely

sighed, then led her back into

"It's not?"

woman lingered with the answer. Eventually, she said

who came back from the Tomb of Ariel - all have strange gaps in our memory. But my memory has been affected the most. Sorry... I haven't revealed that secret to anyone before you, Sunny, and it's not easy to admit. My memory

took a deep

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

her words