Shadow Slave

"Night&Gale representative agency publishes an official statement: popular idol and fashion icon, Night, is NOT the controversial Dreamscape sensation, nor has he ever participated in any scandalous activities under the alias Mongrel…"

Sunny read the latest news title on the screen of his communicator and covered his face with a hand.

'Oh, gods…'

How did poor Kai end up being involved in this mess? Had the world gone completely insane?!

He stared at the message icon at the bottom of the screen nervously, half-expecting to receive an angry message from his friend. Or was it up to Sunny to apologize in advance? Kai had seen him purchasing the Mantle of the Underworld, after all. Even though the onyx armor did not look the same as it had before being repaired and turning from pure stone to the strange stonelike metal, there was a possibility that he would recognize it…

'Ugh. Why is life so hard?'

Sunny shook his head resentfully and stared at the ceiling.

...And then there was the issue of Rain.

Sunny had watched her walk home through the eyes of the shadow, and was once again consumed by uncertainty. Did he need to intervene? What was the best way to help her? Did she even require his help?

There was no easy answer to any of these questions.

He turned off the communicator, sat in the darkness for a while, then stood up and went to the kitchen. Retrieving all the things that could spoil quickly from the ruined refrigerator, Sunny cooked himself a decadent dinner and ate in tense silence.

'...To hell with this. I'll deal with all these problems after returning from the Shipwreck Island… it shouldn't take me that long to reach it, investigate, and come back anyway. A week at most…'

Why waste time on all this nonsense when there was a treasure waiting for him in the Dream Realm?

Sunny had already retrieved all the pertinent information he could find from the Academy database. All Awakened had some level of access to the base of shared knowledge about the Dream Realm and the Nightmare Creatures, and due to his position as the research assistant assigned to the Wilderness Survival faculty, he had more than most.

It wasn't really enough to venture on such a dangerous expedition, but at least gave him a basic understanding of what to expect. The rest he was going to have to learn from the people in the Sanctuary who had actual experience of traversing those parts of the Chained Isles.

And then, there was also Cassie… she could help him even more.

With a dark grimace, Sunny washed the plates, spent a few moments admiring their design and craftsmanship, then went about preparing himself for a long stay in the Dream Realm.

Soon, he entered the basement, activated the maximum level of security measures, and climbed into the steel coffin of the sleeping pod.

As the lid of the sarcophagus closed, he sighed and thought:

'One week… I bet everyone will forget all about this Mongrel idiocy in a week…'

His gloomy shadow dejectedly shook its head.

***

It took Sunny a whole day to talk to everyone he needed to talk to and gather enough information about the Shipwreck Island and the routes he could take to reach it.

As it turned out, the journey promised to be even more perilous than he had expected. Awakened did not usually go that far into the wilderness of the Chained Isles alone, and even established cohorts were reluctant to venture this close to the Tear.

The Nightmare Creatures out there were ferocious and powerful, and the islands themselves presented more danger than here on the edges of the region.

...Those people did not have his Aspect, though. Sunny did not consider himself to be more powerful than a full cohort of experienced Awakened would be, but his powers were tailored perfectly for scouting, traversal, and escape. Even if he was going to find himself facing against an overwhelming foe, he was reasonably certain of his ability to at least run away.

Plus, he had Saint. The taciturn demon was worth half a cohort alone and by herself.

As the sun was crawling down from the heights of the Sky Above, he found himself in his room, studying the makeshift map of the Chained Isles. On it, Sunny had marked the potential routes to the Shipwreck Isles, as well as known dangers he would face on the way.

Of course, such a map was not completely reliable. Nightmare Creatures tended to migrate and travel between islands to escape the Crushing… but the really terrifying ones tended to stay put.

Even taking into account that some of the places he wanted to go through could turn out to be inaccessible due to entering the ascent phase, Sunny was more or less sure that he could reach the Shipwreck Island in three to four days while remaining comparatively safe.

…With one exception.

No matter how he looked at it, he was going to have to traverse an island known among the inhabitants of the Sanctuary as the Reckoning.

Not much was known about that place except for the fact that several cohorts lost members there, while others had not come back at all. Apparently, the creature that inhabited the island was especially twisted and deadly, and was capable of messing with a person's sight.

No one really knew what it was, however. All that Sunny was able to find out was that the creature was most likely not Corrupted. People were under the impression that it was of the Fallen rank, but had different opinions on what its Class was, exactly. It didn't seem to be a Tyrant, at least.

'I can fight perfectly well even if it plays tricks with my sight. And it's not like I have to defeat it… or even fight it, really. I can just slip past and be on my way…'

With a sigh, he rolled the map up and placed it in his pack. There was already a bit of food and a few supplies for a prolonged journey there. Sunny couldn't take too much with him, since there was a rather small limit on the weight of things he could pull with himself into the shadows.

He could also only do so with inanimate objects… at least for now. He had no idea if that was going to change in the future.

Finally, he opened his chest and took out the fang he had retrieved from the dead Chain Worm on the Iron Hand Island.

Sunny stared at the fang for a long time, a dark expression on his face.

Cassie was going to visit the Sanctuary soon… with this thing and her affinity to revelations, Sunny could make his expedition much safer, not to mention increase his chances of actually discovering the treasure.

…Or he could avoid having to ask her for help and take much more risk, with no guarantee of success.

After a while, Sunny threw the fang back into the chest and closed the lid.

'I'd rather die, honestly.'

With a grim smile, he locked the chest, picked up his pack, and headed to the exit.

As the sun rolled into the dark embrace of the Sky Below and disappeared, he left the safety of the Sanctuary behind, approached the edge of the island, and jumped toward one of the heavenly chains.