Shadow Slave

Asterion leaned back, his hands still folded neatly on his knee. His pleasant smile seemed almost friendly.

Looking at the champions of the Human Domain, he said in an easy tone:

“The world has changed so much in my absence. I was born and raised here in the Dream Realm, you know? I only made my way to the Waking World after becoming an Awakened. America and Antarctica still belonged to humans back then, while the Dream Realm was largely unexplored and terrifying, with only tens of thousands of Awakened clinging to life behind the walls of their Citadels. There were no Saints, no Supremes... no Domains.”

He sighed.

“Both worlds have changed so much that they are almost unrecognizable. The Waking World seems to be breathing its last. The Dream Realm, meanwhile, has become home to hundreds of millions of people. There are thriving cities here now, roads that span the deadly wilderness to connect them, vast fields of arable land, and street lamps. Gods, who could ever imagine that this murderous world would look like that one day?”

Asterion stared into the distance for a few moments, a hint of wonder glistening in his golden eyes. Then, he smiled faintly and shifted his gaze to the people gathered in the spacious hall.

“And how has it all become possible? How do mundane people survive in the Dream Realm without being culled by the First Nightmare? Its Seeds have already planted into their souls, after all. Why don’t those Seeds bloom? Why, it’s because they are being suppressed by the Will of a Sovereign... with the help of the Citadels created by the Nightmare Spell.”

His smile dimmed.

”So, what would happen if the Sovereigns whose Will prevented hundreds of millions of people from being culled were suddenly slain?”

The champions of the Human Domain stared at him in silence. Some were still brimming with hostility, but the others were rattled as the understanding dawned upon them. Some looked stunned and appalled. Asterion sighed and looked at Nephis somberly.

“They would be thrown into the First Nightmare almost immediately. A slaughter on an unimaginable scale would take place — worse than the Chain of Nightmares, and worse even than the calamity that destroyed America. Only the elders of the First Generation can imagine such a harrowing culling. They know its horror well because they already witnessed it once, after all. Of course, this time, it would not be caused by the descent of the Nightmare Spell. This genocide would be entirely man-made.”

His eyes hardened.

”Or rather, it would have been entirely man-made. It would have been perpetrated by none other than your benevolent and merciful goddess, Star of Ruin.”

A crooked smile suddenly twisted his lips as he glanced at the champions of the Human Domain.

“Naturally, that did not happen. It did not happen because she attained Supremacy without the help of the Nightmare Spell... at the last possible moment, by some miracle. She also happened to have won the trust and loyalty of you all, the Saints who controlled the Citadels of the warring Domains. How fortunate! But make no mistake — that outcome was far from likely. And yet, she still aimed her sword at the Sovereigns.”

Asterion studied their expressions, his eyes gleaming with amusement.

”Quite an appalling truth, is it not? Ah, but most of you knew it already, of course. However, you were also under the impression that she acted out of desperation — that she couldn’t stay still and silent after seeing the two great armies face the threat of extinction. But knowing that it was all a carefully planned, callous, and premeditated performance makes one see her actions under a different light, doesn’t it? She knew the price of her failure, yes. But she knew the dire price of her triumph, as well.’

He regarded the champions of the Human Domain coldly.

”The truth of the matter is that your goddess ruthlessly gambled with the lives of hundreds of millions of people to pursue her personal goals. She manipulated and misled you to pursue those same goals, as well. She happened to win... but what if she didn’t? What if she won’t? What else has she lied about, and how many lives will she gamble away next time?”

A dead silence settled in the hall once again. The gathered guests aimed their gazes at Nephis, who remained silent and calm throughout Asterion’s long tirade. Some of them seemed anxious and tense, while the others were simply confused. A few did not seem bothered by what they had heard at all, and a few more looked appalled and outraged.

Almost all of them were at least a little bit shaken, though.

After all, the image of Changing Star they had held in their minds — and their hearts — was crumbling right in front of their eyes. Or, rather, transforming. Changing into something new and unknown — perhaps darker and more frightening than what it had been, or perhaps more brilliant and fearsome.

Whatever the case, the unknown had always been what people feared the most.

Nephis sighed and met their gazes without looking away. She smiled faintly.

“I see that many of you look troubled. However, out there in Godgrave, when your own lives were at risk... I don’t remember any of you feeling torn about my decision to stop the Sovereigns — even if you knew the possible consequences of that decision all along. None of you attempted to come to their help and stop me, that’s for sure. Despite all the lives that were supposedly at stake.”

As a few of the guests looked away in shame, she chuckled quietly.

”But it doesn’t matter. Because all of it is a moot point.”

Turning to look at Asterion, she spoke in a placid tone:

”You accuse me of gambling with human lives... and I can even understand how it could look that way, from your cowardly point of view. But I never did such a thing. I never risked the lives of those people. After all, I knew with absolute certainty that I would win — that I would attain Supremacy and cut the Sovereigns down, becoming the master of all the Citadels that belonged to their Domains.”

Asterion chuckled.

”Oh? Such a bold claim. However, I do wonder... how could you have known that?”

Nephis tilted her head a little, looking at him curiously.

When the silence stretched so long that it seemed to ring like a drawn bowstring, she finally said in an even tone:

“Because that was my will. So, naturally, there could have been no other outcome.”