Shadow Slave

Sunny rushed to the Glass Hell as soon as the news of what had transpired there reached them. Of course, it was already too late...

Red Hill was gone.

Half of the Longing Domain was already gone. Both on Earth and in the Dream Realm, the authority of the Immortal Flame was quickly collapsing. The plague had consumed every human city, rampaging across the population — by now, it was not even clear if the followers of Asterion were the minority.

What was clear, however, was that things would only turn worse in the future.

Soon enough, the Hunger Domain was going to devour the Longing Domain completely... like what had already happened in the Glass Hell.

Red Hill was the first human city to fall into the Dreamspawn’s hands entirely, but it wasn’t going to be the last. Nephis and Sunny were losing the bet Asterion had offered them — in fact, the bet was as good as lost. They were utterly defeated in the war of ideas.

Well, naturally they were. After all, the bastard was cheating from the very start. The war of ideas? Fighting to secure the support of the public?

What was the point if the adversary could freely manipulate human minds?

Truth did not matter. Facts did not matter. One’s views and ability to communicate those views did not matter, either. All that mattered was how susceptible one was to the eerie influence of Asterion, the descendant of Heart God — the god of souls, emotions, and hunger.

And since Asterion was Supreme, there were few beings in the world who could resist his insidious Aspect.

...Sunny and Nephis had anticipated this result, though. They had realized how the war of ideas was going to end early on. That was why they had been searching for a way to cheat, as well — for a way to seal Asterion without slaughtering every person who knew of his existence, and who thus carried the idea of him in their minds. So, they had never really intended to win his bet.

They had just been buying time until a solution was found.

And in the end, they did find it.

Cassie had found it, to be precise.

It was just that the way to cheat Asterion out of consuming all humanity was no less difficult, and in many ways far more dangerous than waging an all-out war on him. It was also not something that they could make happen immediately.

So, although losing an entire city to the Hunger Domain — complete with its Citadel and Transcendent ruler — was a heavy blow, Sunny had not been too concerned about Red Hill. Its fall into the hands of the Dreamspawn was not the reason why he had hurried here from Ravenheart, traversing the Moonriver Plains and Godgrave at a dire speed.

The reason was entirely different.

‘By the gods...’

Standing on a radiant glass plain, with not a shadow in sight, Sunny glanced ahead in stunned, appalled silence.

The human city known as Red Hill had undergone a profound transformation since his last visit.

First of all, there seemed to be two identical cities and two identical Citadels standing on the glass plain now... that, of course, was merely an illusion.

In truth, a colossal Dream Gate towered on the plain behind the city. Its surface was like a flawless mirror, and so, a perfect copy of the city was reflected in it.

In the reflection and in reality both, the city was full of people.

It was full of enormous, hideous Nightmare Creatures as well.

A vast ocean of them flooded the streets, spilling on the plain beyond. The view of the boundless horde of powerful abominations, with humans peacefully moving between them, was both eerie and chilling. Looking at them, Sunny could not help but scowl and grit his teeth.

‘That damn psychopath...’

Of course, he knew that the millions of people and the myriad of Nightmare Creatures were, in fact, a single person. They were all vessels of Mordret, the King of Nothing.

‘He killed them all.’

Sunny closed his eyes, a pained grimace contorting his face.

A city full of people was gone in an instant, many lives snuffed out by the will of a sinister Supreme.

He had not witnessed a slaughter on that scale since Antarctica.

‘Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

A murderous anger ignited in his soul for a moment.

It was as if they did not already have enough problems dealing with Asterion. Now, Mordret just had to go and throw his hat in the ring, too.

The sun was setting, and the entire glass plain was shining like an ocean of molten gold. Out there in the distance, the vessels of Mordret were busy moving in and about Red Hill. Sunny could sense their shadow ahead of him... and below him, too.

He glanced down.

Despite the fact that the glass plain looked tranquil, there was a harrowing slaughter boiling under its surface. The vessels of Mordret flooded the tunnels of the Hive, waging a bloody war on the abominations that dwelled in its depths.

Some Nightmare Creatures were killed and harvested for meat and soul shards, the rest were taken by the King of Nothing and became conduits of his fragmented soul themselves.

As Sunny stared into the depths of shining glass, his reflection stared back at him.

It smiled.

”Welcome, Lord of Shadows!”

Sunny stared at his own reflection, feeling a strong impulse to shatter the glass plain and erase it.

The only thing that stopped him was the knowledge that if he did, there would be a thousand reflections smiling at him from the shards.

Taking a deep breath, he held himself back and hissed:

“What did you do, you demented psycho?” His reflection lingered for a few seconds, and then chuckled.

”Why, I simply was tired of being homeless. So, I made myself a home.”

It grinned.

“It’s only fair that an honorable king like myself builds himself a castle, isn’t it? People might call me Mordret of Nowhere, but living without a single Citadel to my name did not suit my fancy. So, I endeavored to correct that injustice.”

The reflection pretended to look around, taking in the vista of the endless glass plain.

“This place suits me wonderfully. Yes, it is quite fitting indeed. Don’t you agree?”