Shadow Slave

Sunny let out a long sigh and tossed the broken communicator away.

'I see.'

He felt a strange mix of profound relief and tense apprehension.

The reason for being relieved was obvious. Sunny did not know how many cycles it had taken them to conquer the Nightmare, but from what he had seen in the Estuary, it was at least thousands. Therefore, he had been secretly afraid to return to the waking world only to find out that humans there had gone extinct thousands of years ago.

That Rain, and everyone else he knew, were long gone.

Alternatively, the strange nature of the Great River could have resulted in them leaving the Nightmare in the time corresponding to where they were in relation to the Estuary — namely, in the Age of Gods. Which would have been terrible in its own right.

So, the fact that their Third Nightmare had taken no time at all, from the point of view of the waking world, was one of the best possible outcomes.

However...

It also meant that Sunny and the other members of the cohort had been sent to a continent where an unknown number of Great horrors were currently roaming freely.

Now that they were Saints... did they stand a chance in a battle against the terrifying creatures that had entered the waking world during the Battle of the Black Skull?

That was the reason Sunny felt tense.

'I wonder if we'll meet Skinwalker again...'

He smiled somberly, and then dissolved into shadows once more.

'At least I didn't miss years of Rain's life.'

that, Sunny

After a while...

reached

though the situation was more than a little ominous, he suddenly felt a strange

never thought about, to have a familiar sky above their

scaled the slope and escaped the embrace of shadows at the top of the tall mound formed by the crater. Standing there, he looked around, at what he had expected to be the ruins of an

To his surprise...

capital did not look particularly

signs of destruction here and there, with a few buildings having collapsed... but Valor's stronghold seemed to have sustained the worst damage.

Sunny assessed this scene, two details attracted

to the very

where a large park sprawled. There... a giant Gate pierced the sky, dwarfing the tallest building in the siege capital. It was like a vertical fracture in the

'Here, too? But why...'

was something strange about the giant

was entirely, utterly

darkness in their depths. But this one was different. ŽĘXØŞ. Not only

see to the other

a beautiful lake sparkled under bright sunlight. And from that lake... rose a magnificent

It was Bastion.

to comprehend that stunning sight when he noticed something else. There

He shuddered.

'That... that is impossible...'

one way — from the Dream Realm into the waking world. Therefore, anyone trying to pass through a Gate from that side was destined to

could countless refugees be passing through the strange Nightmare

even a Nightmare Gate? Or something

connected to the second detail Sunny had been