Shadow Slave

It only took Sunny a split second to register every minute detail of his surroundings. The world was drowning in the soft embrace of the night, shrouded by encroaching darkness. The warmth of the dying summer had already surrendered to the cool indifference of the fall. The stars were nearly invisible, having retreated from the stark radiance of electric lights.

A silver moon was climbing the velvet expanse of the dark sky.

The lamps that were supposed to illuminate the desolate street had all been extinguished, but it was bathed in moonlight.

The residences here were small and clinging to each other with no space between - a far cry from the spacious homes in more affluent districts, but still a step above standard family units in residential towers. They were the kind of homes that families of modest standing could sometimes afford if they lived diligently and budgeted their incomes wisely.

One of these cozy homes was a ruin now, revealing its decimated interior through a shattered wall. A red trail led from it to the middle of the road, where Cassie was laying motionlessly, awash in blood. She was still breathing, and her shadow was still that of a living being... but, for some reason, her wounds were not healing, as if Nephis could not reach her with the soothing blessing of her flames.

A middle-aged woman with blonde hair and a lovely kind of beauty that felt familiar enough to draw a connection was kneeling in the puddle of blood near her, a strangely blissful smile playing on her lips.

And behind them...

Sunny let out a quiet hiss.

A towering Dream Gate had just sliced the fabric of the black sky like a razor-sharp blade, biting into the surface of the road and hungrily drinking in the moonlight. Inside it, a darkness far more terrifying than the night hid like a predator.

That hungry abyss felt both boundless and insatiable - enough so that, for a moment, Sunny could not tell if he was looking at a Nightmare Gate instead.

A tall man with tan skin and black hair was standing in front of the Gate. For a moment, he cast a gaze of his glistening golden eyes at Sunny and smiled slightly.

Then, with a small bow, he took a step back and disappeared into the Gate.

It happened so fast that Sunny could not do anything, leaving him to seethe with a dark, murderous fury. His killing intent was so overwhelming that the grass around him withered, and the trees lost their yellowing leaves.

At that moment, he knew that the man with golden eyes was none other than Asterion, the Dreamspawn, in the flesh.

That bastard had escaped the Moon, after all.

Sunny stared at the abyssal Dream Gate for a moment, then slowly tore his gaze away and looked at Cassie.

So many things were happening at the same time, but this one was the most important. Taking one step, he appeared near her unconscious form and kneeled. Reaching forward, Sunny carefully turned her over and assessed her wounds.

His breath caught for a moment.

Cassie’s body was bloodied and battered, littered with cuts and lacerations. These wounds alone were not enough to kill a Saint, but... what shocked him was how terribly she was maimed, with one eye missing and the entire left side of her face covered in blood.

A painful mix of fury and powerlessness grasped his heart.

’There’s... no time for that!’

There was no time for sentiment, indeed. Asterion had just revealed himself, and on top of that, he opened a Dream Gate in the middle of NQSC. That alone was enough to inform humanity that there was an unknown Supreme out there somewhere, but Sunny already knew that it was only half of the problem.

The Dreamspawn could have retreated to anywhere in the Dream Realm, making the task of finding him again all but impossible.

And yet, Sunny already knew exactly where he had gone.

”This is not good... not good at all...”

Just a minute before, his incarnation in Bastion was following Nephis as she commanded the Fire Keepers to take the Chain Breaker to Rivergate. The flying ship rose from the placid lake of the Ivory Island and plummeted toward the Castle, where Effie was already donning her armor and retrieving her spear.

”Should one of us go with her?”

Sunny sounded uncharacteristically unsure of himself. That was because even while one of his incarnations was searching NQSC for Cassie’s familiar shadow, he was questioning his every thought and decision. Who knew which ones had already been tampered with by Asterion?

Nephis gave him a short look.

”Effie is more than capable enough to handle that threat. Don’t overthink it... The Dreamspawn did mess with our minds, but he is not powerful enough to enthrall a Supreme Titan. Now that we know what to look out for, further manipulation would be difficult.”

Sunny grimaced.

Difficult did not mean impossible.

The Madness of Kanakht had failed to consume Neph’s mind, and Asterion was probably not going to succeed either. Granted, his power seemed to be subtler and more insidious - more akin to Nightmare’s Dream Curse than anything, accumulating slowly as it poisoned its victims.

Sunny and Nephis both knew his name, which meant that they were already carriers of the idea of Asterion. However, that did not mean that he could control them... at best, he could attempt a subtle manipulation or compel them to say his name aloud without noticing it.

Asterion had already tried to launch a full-scale mental assault on both Nephis and Sunny, and all that bought him was a few dozen seconds of disorientation. The nature of his powers also meant that such an attack would be less effective the second time around... hopefully... so there was no reason to worry too much.

About this facet of the threat posed by the Dreamspawn, at least.

”What is the situation?”

Without Cassie, their fastest means of receiving important information was gone. The familiar means of communicating with the members of the cohort were gone, as well. There were alternatives, of course, but none were as swift or efficient.

It was no surprise that Sunny and Nephis had grown dependent on the quiet and unassuming blind seer.

In her echoing absence, Sunny’s seven incarnations scattered across the world were the closest there was to a replacement.

As Nephis walked toward the balcony, summoning her armor and the Blessing, he followed with a hard expression.

”I am dealing with the Echoes in the prison camp as we speak. That one is easy enough. Morgan had blocked the crack in the slope of the volcano, and Kai is directing the consequent measures. There would be no damage done to Ravenheart. We will have to hear more about the minor attacks in other areas, but for now, everything seems to be under control.”

Nephis’s brow creased slightly.

”What about Cassie?”

Sunny lingered for a moment.

”Cassie...”

He narrowed his eyes, then let out a relieved sigh.

”Found her. She’s... wounded, but alive. The man who attacked her...”

Sunny did not get the chance to finish the sentence, though.

Because just then, Asterion had opened his Dream Gate.

Its entrance opened on a desolate street in NQSC. While its exit...

As Nephis stepped out onto the balcony of the Ivory Tower, she could see the exit perfectly well.

Asterion’s Dream Gate was there, below them.

Towering above the Mirror Lake in the heart of Bastion.