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 continued slithering

After a while...

reached the

sky. Even though the situation was more than a little

a privilege many people never thought about, to

the top of the tall mound formed by the crater. Standing there, he looked around, at what he

To his surprise...

capital did not

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

Sunny assessed this scene, two details attracted his

him to the very

sprawled. There... a giant Gate pierced the sky, dwarfing the tallest building in the siege capital. It was like a

'Here, too? But why...'

noticed that there was something strange

entirely, utterly

nothing but vile darkness in their depths. But this one was different. ŽĘXØŞ. Not only did Sunny not feel an instinctive

see to

clearly visible through the fracture of the Gate, a beautiful lake sparkled

It was Bastion.

when he noticed something else. There was an orderly column of refugees slowly entering

He shuddered.

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

was not something one could enter. It was a door that only opened one way — from the Dream Realm into the waking world. Therefore, anyone trying to pass through a Gate from that side was destined to fail. More than that, approaching a Gate was lethal... Sunny had briefly brushed against one himself, in Falcon Scott, and it was a memory he did

how could countless refugees be passing

a Nightmare Gate? Or

perhaps, connected to the second detail Sunny