Shadow Slave

The gargantuan beasts pulled the armored wagons across Godgrave, traveling with daunting speed. Here on the Road of Shadows, the caravan could allow itself to move quite fast without compromising its safety — once they reached the Glass Hell, however, they would have to slow down to avoid being ambushed by Nightmare Creatures.

Not that no Nightmare Creature attacked the wagons before they left Godgrave. Rain had proven her worth in these few fierce skirmishes — being able to see in the dark, she could usually notice the enemy from a great distance.

Then, it was just a matter of drawing her bow, taking aim, and sinking a luminous arrow into their hide. Illuminated by a blinding radiance in the depths of darkness, the Nightmare Creatures were revealed to the entire caravan long before they could launch an attack.

So, dealing with them became much easier. Spared from having to spill their blood by Rain’s arrows, the guards swiftly grew fond of her. Just a few days later, she was everyone’s favorite person... well, except for the seasoned Awakened warrior who had spoken about the Dreamspawn. Rain kept a distance from him, and he seemed indifferent toward her, as well.

The man had not spoken about Asterion since that first time. The rest of the guards, however, still teased him about it from time to time. They did not treat the name of the supposed Supreme with any kind of reverence, and seemed amused by the idea instead.

It was to the point that an imaginary Sovereign by the name of Asterion became a running joke among the guards stationed on the head wagon — and as they were rotated to safer sections of the caravan, that joke spread to its very tail as well.

Rain did not like hearing that joke at all. Soon enough, they reached the end of the Road of Shadows and crossed to the humerus of the titanic skeleton. As they descended from the height of Godgrave and reached the bridge connecting the humerus to the radius, a beautiful vista of the Glass Hell revealed itself far below them.

The Glass Hell looked... quite like the name suggested.

It was a vast plain made entirely out of glass. There were tall ridges and deep crevasses scattered across its polished surface here and there, but by and large, this region of the Dream Realm was flat and smooth, ignited by the sunlight that reflected from the surface of the glass like a river of molten gold.

The transparent glass reminded one of ice and vast glaciers, summoning memories of winter and refreshing cold. But actually, the Glass Hell was like a sweltering oven — that was because the glass absorbed the heat of the sun throughout the day, then radiated it outward during the night. Worse than that, there were countless focus points scattered across the plain, acting as lenses.

If one was not careful, they could be burned to death by focused sunlight, blinded by its radiance, or simply suffocated by the heat. However, that was not why this region of the Dream Realm was called the Glass Hell. The real reason lay beneath the surface of the glass, in the transparent depths of the region.

There, myriad tunnels could be seen stretching far into the darkness. And sometimes, one could just barely discern the shapes of transparent creatures scurrying along those tunnels like glass ghosts.

That was because this entire region of the Dream Realm was one enormous hive, populated by a great swarm of peculiar Nightmare Creatures. The abominations were insect-like in nature and possessed transparent bodies that made them difficult to detect.

Their scythes and mandibles, however, were as sharp as razors.

Worse than that, they moved underground and could burst from the glass anywhere on the plain, either in small hunting groups that dragged unfortunate prey into the depths of the Hive, or as great hordes that poured onto the surface and devoured everything in their path.

Needless to say, surviving in the Glass Hell was not an easy task.

Humanity still conquered it, though — or at least its surface.

The jagged black wall of the Hollow Mountains rose from the ground far in the north, while the sole Citadel in the region was located closer to its southern boundary. That Citadel was called the Red Hill, and that was where the merchant caravan was headed.

”Ah.”

Taking off his helmet, Pill smiled and raised his head to bask in the sunlight. Despite the dangerous nature of the region, the caravan guards were still happy to escape Godgrave, where the very sky was a deadly threat.

”Isn’t it nice to see the sun, Rani?”

He looked at Rain and chuckled.

“Cherish the feeling. You’ll be missing the Road of Shadows once we reach the plain and feel the heat.”

Rain simply pointed to a piece of polished volcanic glass hanging on a leather cord around her neck — the Memory that her brother had creatively called the [Piéce de Résistance].

”This charm keeps me cool. How else do you think I survived in Godgrave?”

Pill gave the charm an envious look and mumbled in a wistful tone:

“I should get myself one of those...”

Not all Awakened had vast arsenals of Memories — in fact, most only had a few. A charm like that was a real luxury.

The caravan crossed the bridge and descended toward the Glass Hell. As they did, the temperature of the air grew steadily until Rain found herself feeding the Piece de Résistance a bit of essence to keep herself from sweating.

Pill wasn’t that fortunate.

Hiding in the shadow of the battlement, he looked up at Rain and forced out a smile.

All around them, the Glass Hell was shining like an ocean of molten gold.

“It’s noon. The heat is at its worst at noon... things will be better once the sun moves on. A little better, at least. Angles and reflections, or some such.”

Rain nodded, looking over the glowing plain somberly. All around her, the guards were pulling makeshift goggles from their armor and putting them on. Some looked like pieces of wood with narrow horizontal slits, others looked like pinhole glasses — things that one would use to protect their eyes from snow blindness, more or less.

”Ah, yes.”

Pill put on a pair of goggles, as well.

“You should wear something to protect your eyes from the glare, Rani. Otherwise, you’ll go blind. Uh... I’m sure somebody has a spare pair. I can ask around.”

Rain smiled.

“No need”

She summoned the Bag of Withholding and pulled a pair of fashionable luxury brand sunglasses out of it. Putting them on, she grinned.

”Always come prepared, you know?”

The sunglasses were actually a prank among the members of the Shadow Clan, who at some point had developed a habit of gifting each other absolutely useless items when meeting each other on the Forgotten Shore. Sunglasses and sunscreen were the most popular gifts, and Rain had half a dozen pairs by now. This particular one had been gifted to her by Tamar.

Pill chuckled.

“I see you’re doing well for yourself, Rani... I’m glad.”

She did not respond, though.

Instead, she turned and stared into the ocean of molten gold intently, then swiftly pulled an arrow out of her quiver and nocked it on the string of her bow.