Shadow Slave novel Chapter 752

After the Seed of Nightmare had been destroyed, something unexpected happened. A Gateway took its place, turning the Ivory Tower into a Citadel.

At the same time, the Dream Realm anchors of the cohort members shifted, becoming tied to it. Masters did not have to travel to another world every time they slept, but they still needed a Gateway to return to reality. Changing an anchor was as easy as making use of another Gateway, but there lay the problem.

The only way to leave their new Citadel was to either brave the Crushing, somehow, or to go through the portal to the Ebony Tower and rise from the depths of the Sky Below on the flying ship.

While that made the Ivory Tower incredibly safe, it also meant that there were no Nightmare Creatures around for them to hunt. There was no point for Sunny to go to the Dream Realm at all, especially after he had explored Hope's former prison, finding nothing of particular interest inside.

...It also meant that Mordret was most likely tied to the same Gateway. However, the Prince of Nothing had never shown himself. Either he had found a way to change his anchor, or he had chosen to remain in the waking world as well.

In any case, there was no safe way for Sunny to collect shadow fragments in the Dream Realm. He was also cut from his main source of Memories, which he had hoped to put on sale through the Emporium.

At first, Sunny was very unhappy with this situation. He was both much stronger and still far behind Nephis in terms of raw power. Even though there was a vast gap of two Ranks between them now, his soul lusted to grow even more.

He could never have enough strength, never be powerful enough to protect himself and those he cared about from the vicissitudes of life. He was still too weak to challenge fate.

…But after a few days of peaceful life in the waking world, Sunny had started to slowly change his mind.

In the past three years, his power had grown tremendously, and at a breakneck pace. While that was extremely beneficial overall, there was a negative side to such speed.

His foundation had turned unstable. He had been so preoccupied with gaining more power, more strength, deeper insight, greater understanding… that he had not spent enough time actually assimilating all these gains into a coherent whole. Internalizing and absorbing all the lessons he had learned into his very bones was very important, yet he had neglected it for the lack of time and opportunity.

He needed time to truly make the vast power he had won his own.

Additionally, there was something else that concerned Sunny. His... mental state.

Ever since he had been infected by the Nightmare Spell at sixteen, his psyche had been subjected — sometimes by the circumstances and sometimes through his own volition — to incredible abuse. Sunny prided himself on the fact that he never broke, no matter what ghastly horror and gruesome agony he had to endure.

And there had been plenty.

However, he also never forgot the conversation he had with Master Jet on the way to Shadow Blade Kurt's execution. He knew that Awakened, no matter how great and powerful they seemed, were also the most likely to crack. The nightmares they brought back from the Dream Realm haunted them, and many succumbed to the relentless strain.

Sunny had been gutted, beheaded, and burned. He had watched friends die or be left behind. The amount of torturous pain he had gone through could only compare to the amount of mental anguish he had experienced. The Red Colosseum, the nightmares, and all the rest… it was enough to crush a dozen people. And yet, he still stood tall.

But for how long?

While Sunny considered himself to be a resilient person, maybe even incredibly so, he was not prideful enough to think that he was better than every over human out there. Would his soul and mind continue to remain strong if he continued to carelessly abuse them, or would small cracks appear on their surfaces?

Maybe there were countless cracks on them, already.

…In the end, he had decided that taking a break to consolidate his foundation and give his mind time to heal was worth it. The situation with clan Valor, while unpleasant, was not critical. It just demanded time and caution. Slowly but surely, the sides were going to come to an understanding and find a compromise through negotiations.

As Masters of considerable renown, Sunny and Cassie had enough influence and weight to reach a favorable outcome in these negotiations, especially because fifty of the most promising Awakened of their generation were following Song of the Fallen.

He was going to use the time before that happened to his benefit.

So, although the past six months had not exactly been exciting for Sunny, they had been very fruitful.

He had spent a lot of time practicing his combat skills and Shadow Dance, properly assimilating everything that he had learned to elevate his mastery of battle to a new level. He also had to relearn a lot of things to adjust to his new power as a Master, and adjust all his techniques to this new incredible reality.