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.'

like that, Sunny

After a while...

finally reached

Even though the situation was more than a little ominous,

about, to have

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 obliterated siege

To his surprise...

capital did not look

signs of destruction here and there, with a few buildings having collapsed... but Valor's stronghold seemed to have sustained the worst damage. Most of the city was still intact, and there were crowds

this scene, two details attracted

shaking him to the

first one was near the center of the city, where a large park sprawled. There... a giant Gate pierced the sky, dwarfing the tallest building in the siege capital. It was

'Here, too? But why...'

noticed that there was something strange about

was entirely,

But this one was different. ŽĘXØŞ. Not only did Sunny not

could see to the

of the Gate, a beautiful lake

It was Bastion.

still struggling to comprehend that stunning sight when he noticed something else.

He shuddered.

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

into the waking world. Therefore, anyone trying to pass through a Gate from

how could countless refugees be passing

it even a Nightmare Gate? Or something

answers to these questions were, perhaps, connected to the second detail