Shadow Slave

Standing on the great wall of the Dark City, Sunny gazed at the starless sky.

A vast black void loomed above the Forgotten Shore, endless in its dark eternity...

Today, a beautiful demon raced the winds across the black void, basking in its endless lightlessness.

Some time later, Revel landed on the parapet of the battlements near him. In her Transcendent form, the Dark Dancer was like a demoness sculpted out of pure darkness — her height had increased to nearly four meters, her raven hair seemed to have grown much longer, and two obsidian horns protruded from her head, curving slightly.

Two black leathery wings extended from her back, crowned with obsidian spikes... looking at those deadly talons, Sunny could not help but shiver while remembering the sensation of them piercing Saint’s flesh like it was paper.

Revel inhaled with full chest, then exhaled slowly and turned the gaze of her tenebrous eyes to him.

”It’s really true.’

She turned back to face the starless sky and sighed.

”A land without a sun...”

Sunny remained silent for a few moments, then smiled faintly.

”Technically, there used to be a sun here. But Nephis killed it.”

Revel did not respond, so he looked at her and asked:

”So? Do you like it here?”

She chuckled and remained silent.

After a while, though, she did speak:

”Like it? Yes. More than yes, really — it feels like this place and I were meant to be. Funny, isn’t it? Seishan spent a decade trying to escape from here, but here I am, happy to stay.”

Revel looked down.

”Few of us orphans have come this far. Some perished in the First Nightmare, some fell later on. And those who remain all bear their curses... their Flaws. Seishan’s Flaw might be the heaviest, but mine is the cruelest, I think.”

She looked at him.

“What about you, Lord of Shadows? How heavy is your Flaw?”

Sunny raised an eyebrow. Among the Awakened, asking about one’s Flaw was considered to be extremely rude. But then again, after witnessing Revel in her natural habitat, he would have to be a fool to expect grace and decorum from her.

He shrugged with a smile.

“It definitely shaped my life in ways I did not expect. All of it felt terribly unfair back then... but now, I think it was for the best.” Sunny looked at the vast expanse of the Forgotten Shore stretching in front of him. Revel studied him for a few moments, then asked:

“Do you like it here yourself?”

He chuckled.

”l like that this land offers me an inherent advantage over anyone who would try to invade it. I also like ruling over a land that failed to kill me... 1 am quite a spiteful person, you see. Being the Dark Lord of the Forgotten Shore brings me quite a lot of vindictive joy.”

With that, Sunny shook his head.

“Which is not to say that ruling the Forgotten Shore does not bring me a lot of headaches, as well. This place does not really make sense, after all. It is fine that there is no sun here, but how does the weather stay temperate without a sun? Hell if I know. Most of the water disappeared when the Dark Sea was sealed, so I need to procure it somehow...”

He pursed his lips.

“There’s some groundwater left, but it is too deep to dig wells. The whole place is basically a desert, which means that, in theory, nothing is stopping the Nightmare Desert from swallowing it. Should I be worried about desertification? Once again, no clue. There are more issues like that.” Sunny finally looked down, where an enclosed settlement had appeared beneath the wall of the Dark City. His expression became complicated.

“For now, we’ve been importing water and food supplies through a Dream Gate, but that is merely a temporary measure. I would like to make the Forgotten Shore self-sufficient, and on top of that, there won’t be a source of supplies on the other side of the Gate in the future. Because there won’t be a waking world in the future.”

The settlement had been built out of manifested shadows. It wasn’t anything special architecture-wise, but Sunny had at least made an effort to make the buildings look similar to those in the Dark City. His experience of creating shelters in Ariel’s Game had been of great help, so the result was decent.

Best of all, the shadows he manifested were durable enough to be a nearly indestructible obstacle for humans of the Awakened Rank. Considering that the settlement was meant to serve as a prison camp — or a quarantine facility, if he wanted to be glib about it — that was quite satisfactory.

Of course, there was a difference between creating a comfortable shelter for himself and Kai and building a settlement meant to house thousands of humans.

There had to be some kind of sewage system, for example. Trash had to be collected and disposed of, food had to be prepared and distributed, there had to be running water, and since he didn’t want the prisoners to die of boredom, there also had to be some forms of recreational pastime available — and much more.

Luckily, Sunny had already accumulated some relevant experience while arranging proper accommodations for the members of the Shadow Clan staying in the Dark City, albeit on a much smaller scale. So, he had managed to make the prison camp quite habitable.

Which did nothing to diminish its grim nature, of course.

‘I really feel like a villain these days.’ Looking down, Sunny sighed.

“Speaking of importing supplies, we need to source way more food and water now. It’s a good thing that our friends in the government know how to hide paper trails very well.”

Revel frowned.

”You managed to capture all these people without killing anyone — which is hard to believe, good job. But...”

She gave him a long stare.

”Now what?”

Sunny gave her a long look.

”Now we keep them here until the Dreamspawn is dealt with, while adding more.”

He did not know how long it would take for Asterion to be defeated.

Hopefully, he would not need to expand this settlement, though...