Shadow Slave

Sunny felt an echo of an old, mostly forgotten hatred.

It was the hatred he had felt when the truth of the Forgotten Shore was finally revealed to him. The seven heroes of that cursed land had performed a dreadful hecatomb to create a new sun and dispel the darkness — a bloody sacrifice to fuel their artificial god.

’It’s always the same revolting story.’

The heroes of the Forgotten Shore had sacrificed countless people to create the Nameless Sun. Thousands of years later, that sun became the Crimson Terror and consumed every living being on the Forgotten Shore to become an even greater horror.

Kanakht had wanted to consume his kingdom in order to become a god. And now, Asterion wanted to devour all of humanity for the same reason.

’Ah... I hate it!’

Back when Asterion had gotten himself trapped on the Moon, humanity had been incomparably weaker than it was today. There had been barely any Saints around, and very few Masters. The entire Awakened population of the waking world could be gathered in a single dormitory tower of NQSC... granted, those human hives were quite enormous.

The power of humanity had grown gradually over the decades, and then exploded in the wake of the Chain of Nightmares. By the time the Domain War happened, there were no fewer than a hundred Saints, thousands of Masters, and more than a million Awakened out there. These numbers continued to grow with startling speed after Nephis came to power — much faster than before the war, even, since her policy was more or less the opposite of what the original Sovereigns had enforced. She did not attempt to limit or control the number of Awakened and Masters challenging the Seeds of Nightmare.

Not only that, but she earnestly supported their pursuit of greater strength, encouraging as many people as possible to challenge the Spell. As a result, countless people had perished in the jaws of Nightmares... but the power of humanity had swelled greatly, as well.

Which meant that humanity had become powerful enough to satiate Asterion’s hunger. In fact, it was developing so swiftly that he had deemed it necessary to push forward the day of his return.

..That was most likely the reason why he had maimed Cassie instead of simply killing her — even if killing her would have been much simpler.

Because if she died, there would be one less Saint for him to use as fuel for his Apotheosis. And not just any Saint, at that — despite her unassuming ways, Cassie was one of the most powerful Transcendents in existence. In fact, one could argue that she was the most powerful.

’That wretched bastard...’

Having deduced the answer to the mystery that had been plaguing them for a long while — their enemy’s motive — Sunny felt dazed.

The Dreamspawn had always been a mysterious and sinister figure, so Sunny anticipated that his goals were far from benign. However, the idea of consuming all of mankind to fuel one’s Apotheosis was so preposterously wicked that it gave him pause.

‘He’s... he’s a damn cannibal.’

The god of cannibals, really.

But no, that was not an apt description. Asterion did not consider himself human, after all, so from his point of view, he would not be devouring beings of his own kind. He was not a cannibal...

He was just a monster.

Sunny shifted slightly, casting a somber gaze at Nephis. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to share his sudden discovery with her... but sadly, Cassie was unconscious, so they lost the familiar means of silent communication.

’Is there even a point of keeping quiet, though?’

Sunny had already been feeling apprehensive, but at that moment, he could not help but sense a cold shiver run down his spine.

’Damnation.’

He knew that Asterion could read people’s thoughts. There had to be some limit to that ability, but they did not know what that limit was. So, their minds could very well be like an open book to Asterion... even if Sunny doubted it.

The Dreamspawn could definitely glean at least some of their thoughts, but overcoming the mental defenses of two Supreme Titans had to be a challenge even for him.

Cursing quietly, Sunny divided his countless streams of consciousness into two. Then, he divided the multitude of these mental partitions by two several more times, until keeping them isolated from each other became a strain even for his deific mind. Finally, he hid his current train of thought in only one of these thousands of partitions, making it close to impossible to find.

Asterion spared him a curious glance, then turned back to Nephis.

”You asked what I want?”

He raised an eyebrow.

”Isn’t it obvious?”

Asterion looked around the Ivory Tower, then cast the gaze of his golden eyes at the two of them and grinned.

”Everything. I want everything”

He spread his arms, as if wanting to embrace the world.

”I want your Citadels. I want your soldiers. I want your people, too.”

”I can sense some of your true desires, as well. So... no. There will be no deal.”