Shadow Slave

The world had moved on…

And it was still in motion.

The world was rolling down a steep slope. It moved slowly at first, but as the wheels of history gained momentum, things changed. Time seemed to flow faster and faster, endlessly accelerating.

By now, it felt like the world was barreling forward at a frightening speed, impossible to slow down and out of control.

Not even those who ruled it could stop the inevitable — all they could do was try to steer the world in the least damaging direction, hoping that something would change before it reached the end of the road.

Before it fell into the bottomless abyss that waited at the end of the slope.

Change and hope… in the face of apocalypse, the two became synonymous, shining a light upon the dark expanse of the ominous future.

A year had passed since the Dreamspawn Plague had been purged from the world. Fifty-seven years had come and gone since the Nightmare Spell descended upon the world, and the end was closer than ever before. The Dream Realm was said to have begun consuming Earth, and even if people could not observe the destruction of their world yet, they could already feel the consequences.

Beyond that…

Humanity was recovering from a devastating loss. Years of memories were gone, plunging countless people into confusion and uncertainty. The shock of this collective amnesia was hard to describe with words, let alone cope with. Needless to say, myriad problems and conflicts had emerged as a result.

For example…

On a bright day soon after the disaster, a woman named Beth had glanced at a stack of papers handed to her with a dazed expression. Her hair gathered in a messy bun, her eyes bloodshot from the lack of sleep.

She rubbed her face.

“So you’re telling me that I successfully reinvented electricity? Built a hydroelectric power station in the Dream Realm? Lit the entire Bastion?”

“Yes. You should recognize your own handwriting, no? These are your own notes documenting the entire process.”

Beth glanced at the gallant man who had handed her the papers — the infamously dreamy Master Quentin.

“Right. And… you are also claiming that we are lovers now?”

He nodded silently, then smiled.

Beth sighed deeply and glanced away to hide her blushing cheeks.

“Damn. No, but… go me! I guess?”

Or…

In a different part of the Dream World, Awakened Yutra was nursing a toddler while his wife was staring at them with glistening eyes.

“He’s ours? Our son?”

Yutra chuckled.

“Naturally. Whose else would he be? Just look at that nose… that’s your nose!”

He shook his head.

“Life sure is funny, though. I remember having this exact conversation, only it was you insisting that the cute rascal was mine…”

Conversations like that had happened all over the world.

Of course, not all of them were happy.

In fact, most of them weren’t.

Humanity had endured a lot in the years that were gone now, after all. The conquest of new territories in the Dream Realm, the war campaign against the Skinwalker, the partial loss of the Eastern Quadrant, the rise of the King of Nothing, the war between him and the Human Domain…

There were countless Gates that had opened in the waking world, as well, bringing an ocean of Nightmare Creatures with them. Many lives had been lost trying to contain the swelling tide of abominations, and people had to mourn these losses all over again.

But no matter how deep the wounds of those who had forgotten were, those few who remembered were equally scarred. Seishan, Morgan, Kai, Effie, and the rest of them — they still remembered what the Dreamspawn had done to them, as well as what he had made them do. And even if the cruelties that had been perpetrated or endured by them were the result of mental manipulation, the memories of experiencing that nightmare were real.

But the world was moving on.

The world was in motion, and the pressure of the present left humanity no time to wallow in the forgotten past.

Especially because of what awaited them in the future.

The official explanation for the calamity that befell humanity was that a Nightmare Creature of a High Rank had infected the world with a mental hex, and that the memories of mankind had to be cleansed in order to destroy that hex.

The sun still rose every morning, and the Immortal Flame still burned. Changing Star was still ruling humanity from her radiant throne, and if she said that the Nightmare Creature had been dealt with, that they had to continue living, then that was what they had to do.

It was not like people had another choice. An official memorial day was established to honor the forgotten — those whose lives had been swallowed by oblivion. The first Remembrance Day was celebrated in a solemn atmosphere on the first anniversary of the calamity, giving those who had lost something a bitter kind of closure, while those who had gained something precious were reminded to appreciate what they had.

The world had been changed by the disaster, and it was changing still.

The changes were staggering.

The Dream Realm was in the throes of a global crisis. The war between the Human Domain and the King of Nothing, which had apparently taken place during the Forgotten Years, had rewritten the geography of both the East and the West.

In the East, the devastation of the Black Mountains and the resulting floods had disturbed the Nightmare Creatures populating the surrounding regions. In the West, the River of Tears had changed course, completely reshaping the balance that had existed for thousands of years in its basin.

New horrors were emerging from the lands that had been hidden in the dark depths of the great river once, while the old ones were forced to abandon their territories to seek new hunting grounds.

As a result, the abominations everywhere were migrating, flowing toward the Citadel Cities. The battles to protect them had become both fiercer and more frequent, while traveling between Citadels was more hazardous now.

Humanity had been at war to expand its territories and prepare for the arrival of the settlers from the waking world, but now, it was at war to keep its lands.

The subjugation campaigns had been suspended during the clash between the Human Domain and the King of Nothing, and now, they were simply over — the soldiers were desperately needed all across the Dream Realm simply to hold on to the human-controlled regions.

The waking world wasn’t faring any better, either. In fact, it felt like it was swiftly approaching the moment of complete collapse.

All across the three remaining Quadrants, the frequency and the Category of the emerging Gates were increasing. Hordes of Nightmare Creatures poured into the desolate wastelands of Earth and congregated toward its megacities, threatening to overwhelm their defenders. Nightmare Gates were opening within the cities, as well, doubling the difficulty of keeping the population safe.

But perhaps even worse than the tide of abominations was the damage those Gates were dealing to the technological infrastructure of humanity. Even if the Nightmare Creatures who had emerged from the Gate were eliminated, and the Gate itself sealed behind a containment dome, the interference of the Call still persisted, disrupting all the technical systems in a wide area around it.

And with the number of active Gates constantly increasing, the areas of disruption constantly grew, overlapping with each other and taking entire swathes of city infrastructure out of commission. Humanity was resisting that harmful process, of course. The Gates negatively affecting the most vital hubs were prioritized when sending Awakened to challenge Nightmares, and breakthroughs achieved by the scientists working on adapting human technology to the Dream Realm were swiftly reverse-engineered to improve the situation on Earth, as well…

But it was not enough. The progress was woefully insufficient to contend against the spreading Nightmare, and so, the waking world was slowly sliding into a state of emergency.

The billions of people still populating it were anxious and suffering under immense pressure, of course. Nobody knew if there would be a place for them in the Dream Realm, since sustaining such an enormous population there was beyond the capability of the Human Domain at the moment.

A tense mood suffused the struggling cities of Earth.

But there were positive changes that had happened during and since the Forgotten Years, as well.

There were more Awakened, Ascended, and Saints among humans now than ever before, and more still were emerging every month, as if all of humanity was rallied by the approaching end.

There was a new Supreme to guard it, as well — Song of the Fallen, the trusted aide of Lady Changing Star, was rumored to have attained Supremacy during the Forgotten Years. She did not build herself a throne and preferred to stay away from the public eye, but people still felt safer knowing that two Sovereigns were now watching over them. …And that these two Sovereigns were companions who shared trust and friendship, as opposed to envy and hostility like the previous ones had.

That wasn’t all, either — in fact, there was a third Supreme allied with the Human Domain. And the identity of that Supreme was the most wondrous one of all.

It was a woman known as Ananke, who was a native of the Dream Realm. She wasn’t alone, either, ruling over a small nation of people who descended from the survivors of ancient calamities.

These strangers, who called themselves the River People, had established an alliance with Changing Star and joined humanity in the task of preparing for the apocalypse. While their number was not significant enough to move the scales of history, the foreign knowledge and skills they had brought were a priceless boon.

With their help, the initiative to build floating cities in the Stormsea, which had stagnated for a while, was finally moving along… and progressing at incredible speed, at that.

That alone relieved a great amount of pressure on humanity, which was desperate to bring as many settlers to the Dream Realm as possible — it was not an exaggeration to say that the population capacity of human territories in the dire new world was going to increase by a third in the span of a few short years because of the transformation happening to the Citadels of the Stormsea.

All thanks to Ananke of Weave and the River People.

But even more importantly than that…

The world had been shaken to the core when the rulers of the Human Domain bestowed the knowledge of natural Awakening on their people.

It was too incredible to believe, and yet, it was true — the River People were a living testament that the natural Awakening was possible, and as it turned out, Changing Star and Song of the Fallen had been developing a set of techniques to allow all people to attempt becoming Awakened for a long while.

Now, these techniques had finally been perfected and made public, freely available to everyone who wanted to gain power… as opposed to being fervently guarded by those who already possessed it.

The natural Awakening was less assured than conquering a Nightmare, but it was much safer, as well. And even if it was a slow and uncertain process, it gave everyone, not only those chosen by the Nightmare Spell, a chance to become stronger.

All people now had a chance to Awaken without risking their lives in the First Nightmare, and even if they ultimately failed, the process itself was beneficial to their bodies and souls. Awakened could attempt to become Masters without sacrificing countless lives to the Second Nightmare, as well.

This news shook the very foundation of everything humans thought they knew. It gave people a sense that they, too, could survive the apocalypse.

But those who already possessed great power knew that everything they had done was not enough to stop the world from falling into the abyss… because all their accomplishments and all their strength were insignificant in the face of the approaching calamity.

So, they felt far more urgency to grow stronger than those who possessed no strength at all.

‘Nothing ever changes.’

Sunny sighed.

He had desperately chased strength as a young man, but now that he was older and already a demigod… he was still desperately trying to become stronger.

Life was far more pleasant now, at least.