Shadow Slave

The Church of the Moon stood empty, surrounded by an ominous atmosphere.

So were the headquarters of a rising battle sect in Ravenheart.

One of the meddling black market auctions ceased operation. A gang of dangerous smugglers vanished without a trace, leaving their ill-gotten gains behind. A fallen Legacy clan disappeared, its manor offering no clues to what fate had befallen the once-powerful family and its numerous retainers.

A considerable number of people were missing... but the world moved on.

Its steps were a little less confident, but the world moved on nonetheless.

Cassie was dedicating more and more of her time to cleansing the minds of the captured thralls. Sunny, meanwhile, was managing the isolation camp on the Forgotten Shore with Revel’s help.

Holding thousands of people captive was proving to be more of a headache than he had expected.

Things had gone well at the beginning — reasonably well, at least. The captives were confused and frightened, but if there was one thing people born in the era of the Nightmare Spell were good at, it was swiftly adapting to new circumstances even as the world was coming undone around them. The prisoners were unharmed and seemingly safe. There were no Nightmare Creatures howling behind the walls of their settlement, and no captors coming to threaten them. They had food, water, and shelter... and even if the darkness surrounding them was oppressive, the streets of the settlement were illuminated by bright lights.

The shades guarding them were eerie and disturbing, while the beautiful demon who had spoken to them — claiming to be a former princess of Song — was terrifying. Because of it, the prisoners were cautious and behaved themselves for the first few days.

It was after they had some time to come to terms with their new reality and regain their courage that the problems began. ’Curse those fools. I can’t believe it’

Sunny did not care too much about the captives attempting to destroy the shades or escape the camp, but sadly, they did not stop at that.

He had expected that the followers of Asterion would be safe on the Forgotten Shore, since there were no Nightmare Creatures here. However, he had not anticipated that the prisoners would become a danger to themselves.

In hindsight, he should have. The captives were all different people, after all, having come from all walks of life. Sunny had simply thought of them as potential thralls of Asterion, but while numerous of them were, they also retained a tainted version of their original personalities.

So, placed in an environment without familiar rules, numerous of them began misbehaving. Those who had been criminals in the outside world saw the rest of the prisoners as prey, and those of them who had harbored a perverse desire for power saw the lawlessness of the prison camp as a golden opportunity to elevate themselves by trampling other people.

Even though there was enough food for everyone, some attempted to monopolize its sources by force. others sought ways to control those around them by singling out unfortunate victims and playing insidious mind games.

It was a complete mess.

Sunny groaned.

”Fools! And I’m the biggest fool of all...”

He felt extremely indignant at the fact that the prisoners were refusing to play nice, but there was no time to voice his grievances. He had to deal with these shenanigans before someone was actually harmed.

Sunny could not establish a police force and a judicial system inside the prison camp, but he had his shades and Revel. So, in the end, he had to build an actual prison inside the settlement and lock the troublemakers up. The prison was pretty much the same as the rest of the dwellings, but less comfortable by design. And, of course, the inmates were not allowed to leave.

’This is just ridiculous. No, but really, how absurd is it to have to build a prison inside of a prison camp?’

After the captives learned that there were consequences for misbehaving, things settled down for a while.

But not for long.

Some of the prisoners were criminals, but they were a minority. Another thing Sunny had forgotten to take into account... was that most of the people he had kidnapped were zealots belonging to various cults.

A couple of weeks after the prison camp was established, Sunny was once again standing atop the wall of the Dark City with Revel, looking down.

There was a baffled expression on his face. ”W—what... what the hell are they doing?” Far below, on the main square of the prison settlement, hundreds of people were prostrating themselves on the ground while facing the Dark City.

Revel gave him an unamused look.

”They’re praying”

Sunny returned her stare with complete incomprehension.

”Praying? What are they praying to?”

She sighed.

”The Black Wall.”

’What! What is she saying?!’

He exhaled slowly, then rubbed his face. ”Since when do they worship the walls of the Dark City? No, how does i even make sense?”

Revel shrugged.

”How should I know? Since a few days ago?” She glanced down with a scowl.

”I guess it began with the cultists of the Moon. They were quite traumatized after finding themselves in a place where moonlight doesn’t reach... so, they decided that this is some kind of moonless purgatory. And since the only landmark they can see from the camp is this huge stone wall, they somehow developed a weird fixation on it. Eventually, they convinced themselves that paradise lies behind the wall, and only those worthy would be taken to the other side.”

Revel let out a contemptuous sigh.

”The belief swiftly spread among the members of different cults, as well — I guess people were desperate to believe anything in order to make sense of what had happened to them. Not like I gave them a perfectly reasonable explanation, right?! Ugh, people... in any case, it was a scene of rare unity... oh, but there was already a religious schism among them since then.”

She pointed to another group of people, who were kneeling with their backs to the wall.

”Those guys believe pretty much the same stuff, but they are convinced that it is hell that’s hidden behind the Wall, not paradise. Oh, and the weirdos at the edge of the square believe that they’re already in hell, so they’re busy performing selfless acts as penance. Very altruistic.”

Revel fell quiet, then added in an icy tone: ”And all of them are treating me as some kind of divine existence, be it a benevolent spirit or a sinister devil.”

Sunny let out a groan.

’How did this happen?’

No... it wasn’t the worst case scenario, yet. At least these fools were worshipping the walls of the Dark City and Revel. If they had began worshipping Sunny, he would have had to do something drastic in order to prevent Weaver’s lineage from acting up. Biting his lips, Sunny glanced at Revel.

”We... we’re not going to have to intervene in order to prevent religious strife, are we?”

Instead of answering, Revel simply gave him a dark look.

A couple of weeks later, she unceremoniously barged into the throne room of the Dark Castle and growled from the door:

”We have a problem!”

Sunny flinched on his throne.

’Another problem?!’

”W—what? What happened now? They’re not killing each other, I am keeping an eye out!”

Revel marched to the throne and glared at him from below.

Eventually, she spat:

”Killing each other? No. No, it’s the opposite! I have at least three dozen pregnant women in the camp!”

Sunny stared at her with wide eyes.

’Huh?’

One of his eyes twitched.

A few moments later, an exasperated voice boomed in the throne room of the Dark Castle, echoing in the darkness.

”You have WHAT?!”