Shadow Slave

Sunny brought the book back to the table and sat down, looking at the plain cover with a complicated expression.

Of course, he knew a few things about the Immortal Flame clan. Everybody did, considering how prominent the achievements of its members were — even though Sunny missed out on receiving a proper education, the legendary figures of Changing Star's father and grandfather had long ago found their way from the pages of history into the popular culture.

Their names were pretty much synonymous with heroism and the indomitable nature of the human spirit, famously painted with a tinge of tragedy.

Immortal Flame was the first Awakened to become a Master, and Broken Sword, his son-in-law, was the first Master to become a Saint. Of course, they had not done so alone — each had a group of powerful companions to share the burden of challenging the Spell. So, a more proper statement would have been that they were the leaders of the first cohorts to conquer the Second and Third Nightmares.

However, the names of their comrades were not as well known. Sunny was sure that kids learned about them in school, but a street rat like him only had a general impression of who they were. Mostly, he just remembered that some of them would go on to establish the great clans.

But that was the thing about heroes. Suny had once told Effie that one had to die to become a hero, and that was not a joke. A person could possess renown and respect for achieving something incredible, but it was the act of making the ultimate sacrifice that elevated one to heroic status.

That's why the Immortal Flame clan was revered much more than the other great clans — not only because the leaders of those cohorts came from it, but also because it had a tragic end.

…Or had it? If Nephis did manage to return to the real world, the fame of her clan would burn bright once again, perhaps even brighter than ever before. The survivors of the Dreamer Army already treated her like a deity...

With a sudden frown, Sunny awkwardly opened the book and started reading. Accustomed to reading off a screen, he struggled for a bit with the printed text, but then quickly got used to it and engrossed himself in the illustrious history of the famed clan.

The first part was dedicated to Immortal Flame himself, and although it was interesting, there was not a lot of information there that Sunny could use. He already knew that Neph's grandfather had been among the first wave of people infected by the Nightmare Spell, and that he fought against the Nightmare Creatures during the initial mayhem that followed its appearance.

Back then, millions of people were suddenly thrust into the First Nightmares and died, resulting in millions of Nightmare Creatures entering the real world. Of course, almost all of them were only of the Dormant rank, but even that turned out to be too much for the armies of the already reeling humanity to handle. Whole nations were destroyed, and for a while, the planet was submerged into absolute chaos.

It was only thanks to people like Immortal Flame — who had not earned his True Name yet back then, of course — that the situation changed. There were those who had survived the First Nightmare, then entered the Dream Realm and carved their path to Gateways. After returning to the real world, they united and fought back against the tide of Nightmare Creatures, eventually establishing a new world order.

The one that existed to this day.

'They were tough, tough people.'

Becoming an Awakened was hard enough even today, with all the accumulated knowledge about the Spell being freely accessible to everyone. Back when it first appeared, people like Immortal Flame didn't know anything. They didn't know what an Aspect was, how many ranks and classes of the Nightmare Creatures were there, what they meant, what the Memories and Echoes were, what a Gateway was...

Most important of all, they didn't even know if saving humanity was even possible.

And yet, somehow, they learned and fought back. Sunny couldn't imagine how dark and hellish that time must have been. Truly, they deserved his respect.

…But, sadly, they didn't deserve his time. At least not now. He had much more pressing things on his plate, so Sunny just skimmed through the pages describing Immortal Flame's life, his eventual triumph over the Second Nightmare, and heroic death.

The legendary Master died defending the evacuating cities from the onslaught of terrible creatures that entered the real world through a Category Five Gate. That happened just a year or so before Sunny was born, and had cost humanity an entire continent.

It was also the event that led to Neph's mother becoming Hollow, although that tragedy was not described in the book in great detail. All that was said about it was that Smile of Heaven died during the disaster while protecting civilians.

Sunny sighed, then concentrated on reading about Broken Sword.

Neph's father was not a Legacy by birth. In fact, he came from a very humble background, and rose from absolute obscurity to the very pinnacle of prominence thanks only to his talent and battle genius. He was a pauper who had won the heart of a princess and became the heir of the most venerated clan in human history.

The narrative of the book framed the history in a way that suggested that Broken Sword had been heartbroken by the death of his wife, and that it was this loss that drove him to rise even higher and challenge the Third Nightmare. Miraculously, Broken Sword succeeded, becoming the first Saint.

There was no happy end to his story, though. Just a few years later, he perished in the Dream Realm while exploring a region that would later be categorized as a Death Zone.

The book ended with a long-winded tribute to the two legendary heroes and an explanation of how important their contributions were to the survival and future prosperity of the human race.

Sunny closed the book and shook his head.

'...What a load of crap.'

He might not have been educated, but like most people in the outskirts, Sunny had the instinctive skill of recognizing propaganda and reading between the lines of official statements. And this was what the book was — an embellished, partially fictional version of events that the government liked to feed to people. The truth was hard to come by.

There were several things about the supposed history of the Immortal Flame clan that didn't make a lot of sense to Sunny.

The first one was the circumstances of Smile of Heaven's tragic death. On paper, everything seemed fine, but Sunny knew that she was not, in fact, dead — not in the traditional sense of the word, at least. She was Hollow.

But how could she become Hollow? According to the book, at that point in time, Broken Sword had already become a Master. The two of them were partners both in life and in battle, leading their cohort together. That would suggest that Smile of Heaven was a Master, too.

But Masters traveled to the Dream Realm physically as opposed to in spirit, like Sleepers and Awakened did. There would have been no soulless body left behind if she had died there, so… how was it possible?

'The timeline doesn't add up...'

The second questionable point was Broken Sword's own death. Saints were extremely powerful beings, and killing one was not an easy task. Even when met with an overwhelming foe, a Saint should have been able to at least escape.

Saints simply did not die unless they had a reason to stand their ground and fight to the last breath. The only creatures that could kill them instantly were too powerful and rare to stumble on one randomly, even when exploring an unknown region of the Dream Realm.

Would Broken Sword have been so reckless and stubborn, knowing that he had a daughter who needed his care and protection? The legendary swordsman didn't strike Sunny as someone who would allow himself to die easily… unless some other forces were involved.

And finally, there were the other members of his cohort.

Sunny whispered their names:

"Broken Sword, Smile of Heaven, Asterion, Ki Song, Anvil of the Valor clan."

Asterion, Ki Song, Anvil of Valor…

'Aster, Song, Vale?'