Shadow Slave

Chapter 3227 A Soul and a Shadow Walk Into a Bar

Smile of Heaven spent some time wandering the ruins of the overgrown city. It seemed like hundreds of years had passed since she was forced to encase herself inside the crystal for the second time... but to her, the bitter culmination of the battle for the city had happened mere minutes ago.

She had put on a brave face when parting with Shadow — but as soon as she made her way out of the enormous cavern, she nearly broke down. The weight of the truth crushed her like a gravestone, and she spent hours slumped on cold stone, struggling to breathe and drowning in tears.

That was when a stealthy Nightmare Creature attacked Smile of Heaven, catching her unaware, and was struck dead in the air by a black arrow.

That was how Smile of Heaven met Orphne — Slayer — for the first time. Of course, she did not know who Slayer was back then, but it wasn't difficult to figure out who had sent her.

‘Liar...’

Smile of Heaven smiled weakly through the tears.

Shadow pretended to be cold and unfeeling, as if human emotions were beneath him, but he still assigned her a bodyguard before diving into the Abyss... to seek his death, presumably.

With Orphne by her side, finding a way out of the Underworld had not been too difficult. If anything, it was easier than reaching the precipice of the Abyss — the sinister shadow had never promised not to kill anyone, after all. And unlike Shadow, she wasn't going to be convinced to spare someone either.

Traveling through the lower stratum of the Underworld, they eventually escaped into the unbearable heat of a vast desert. The desert was like a nightmare in and of itself, but they escaped its searing embrace as well.

Not long after that, they reached a realm where humans lived.

Smile of Heaven was not sure what to do. She knew that she had to conquer the Nightmare... but that was a tall task. Masters had been the strongest humans of the waking world when she entered the Seed, but in this Nightmare, she found herself hopelessly outclassed, weaker than a worm in the face of terrifying beings of the Age of Gods.

Even discovering the secrets of natural Transcendence and climbing to a higher Rank did not change the situation much — she ended up having to seal herself in stasis as a Transcendent, after all.

Then again, perhaps simply surviving was already an achievement.

It was no surprise. This Nightmare was meant for Supreme beings, and even then not all of them were guaranteed to stay alive.

So... Smile of Heaven did not count her chances of conquering the Nightmare high. She had to find out the core conflict of the Nightmare first, anyway — and at the moment, she had not the slightest clue. She did not even know where to start searching, since the world of this Nightmare was as vast as the true Dream Realm.

Smile of Heaven did not consider surrendering, though.

So what if she did not have any clues? She could find them.

More than that, there were other challengers beside her in the Nightmare now. Shadow was obviously one of them, even if she could not tell if he knew that he was.

‘Gods...'

Having confirmed that Shadow was from the waking world, Smile of Heaven felt both heartbroken and shocked. She was heartbroken because his existence proved that she had been stuck in this Nightmare for a long time — long enough for someone as powerful as him to be nurtured by humanity, at least. She was shocked because of how powerful he was, as well.

Shadow was not a deity, but he might as well have been. To Smile of Heaven, his powers seemed so terrifying as to be miraculous — she could not even begin to guess how they worked, what their limits were, and what kind of trump cards he was hiding.

To think that there were monsters like that wandering the waking world these days...

It was both sobering and reassuring.

In any case, if Shadow was here, there could be other challengers as well.

So, Smile of Heaven set two immediate goals for herself.

One was to search for clues about the pivotal conflict of the Nightmare; the other was to look for traces of other humans from the waking world.

At that time, the Age of Gods was long over, and the world was in the throes of the Age of Heroes. Humans had achieved many victories over the Nightmare Creatures, but not enough of them to make the mortal realms safe. Still, Smile of Heaven was not as powerless anymore — the world was not as dire anymore either, after all.

In fact, even though she had not been one of the frontline fighters of her cohort, she was still far more skilled and deadly than most Transcendent heroes of this forgotten era... if not all of them — simply by the virtue of faring from the dreadful, apocalyptic hellscape of the distant future.

Even if conquering the Nightmare still seemed like an impossible task, she was confident in her ability to achieve her two tasks, at least.

Especially considering that Orphne the Slayer, who had proved to be chillingly lethal, was following her like a shadow. However, Smile of Heaven had failed to account for one fatal variable.

Herself.

Her search had met obstacles from the very beginning — for no other reason than that she was not the kind of person who could pass by those who needed her help, even if they were mere phantoms conjured by the Spell.

Some would call it a weakness, and Smile of Heaven could even agree with them. Nevertheless, she knew that on the day she learned how to walk past human suffering with an indifferent heart, she would cease to be herself.

That day, she would take the first step on the long, irrevocable path to Corruption. So, her search for clues and other challengers was frequently derailed.

There were powerful Nightmare Creatures hunting down people of remote settlements. There were roaming Awakened who had chosen to seek greater power by slaughtering other humans. There was famine and natural disasters, there was conflict and strife...

In the end, Smile of Heaven found that she moved even slower than when she had been with Shadow and Noctis. At the same time, she was growing stronger, tempering herself against the myriad dangers of the never-ending Nightmare.

Years passed, and she wasn't any closer to achieving her goals than she had been after escaping the Underworld.

Then, a few years more.

By then, Smile of Heaven had become somewhat renowned in the mortal realms, joining the pantheon of famed heroes. She might have even become a bit too famous, which only meant that more people looked at her with hope and implored her to help. So... she helped.

Until she crashed into an obstacle that she failed to overcome.

The overgrown ruin of a once-thriving city was a poignant monument to her failure.

It was here that Smile of Heaven and Orphne attempted to repel a horde of Nightmare Creatures and the Corrupted Titan that herded it toward the city. In the end, the battle was lost, and she was driven into a corner.

At the last moment, Smile of Heaven gambled and placed herself into stasis once more.

It was a desperate move, since there was no guarantee that the Titan would not be able to destroy the crystal — just like Shadow had destroyed it once. Even if the enchantment held, there was no guarantee that Smile of Heaven would ever be able to escape it again.

Now that she did...

She felt disoriented.

‘How many years have passed?’

Judging by the state of the ruins, it had been a long time.

The Age of Heroes must have ended by now, which meant that...

Smile of Heavens tried to remember everything she knew about the history of the Dream Realm.

‘It should be the Imperial Era now.'

The War Empire had most likely already been established. In fact, it was probably quite developed now, sprawling across myriad realms.

It did not matter that much, though.

What mattered was that, all of a sudden, Smile of Heaven had found herself one step closer to achieving her two goals.

She had learned about two other challengers from the memory of Saint Cor — one was the mysterious Supreme who had sent him to find her, and the other... the other was Smile of Heaven's mysterious daughter, whom she had never met.

And at least one of them had to know what this strange Nightmare was about.

More than that, with the youngest descendant of the Immortal Flame clan here, Smile of Heaven did not even know what her ultimate goal was now. She had wanted to conquer the Nightmare for many reasons, but the most important of them was to meet her daughter.

Things were happening in the wrong order, making her feel confused.

‘The youngest descendant...’

Smile of Heaven froze suddenly.

‘Wait.'

Was her daughter even the youngest? According to Saint Cor, Smile of Heaven had been absent for at least thirty years. Who knew what had happened in that time?

‘I am... I am not a grandma now, am I?'

Her eyes widened.

Surely, not!

Smile of Heaven had not even known that she was pregnant when departing for America, so how could she suddenly become a grandmother?!

Covering her face with a palm, she took a deep breath.

‘No, what am I even thinking about? That's not important right now!'

She had to find the ruins of the First Kingdom and convince the mythical being, White Abyss, to travel to Ravenheart. Although mortal realms did not correlate to the map of the Dream Realm exactly right, they were situated in relatively the same directions. Combining what she knew of the Dream Realm with what she had learned during her time in the Nightmare...

'The holy city of the First Kingdom should be in one of the Death Zones west of Bastion, below Godgrave.'

Or rather, in one of the mortal realms that would be consumed by those Death Zones in the future.

Smile of Heaven, meanwhile, was currently in the far east.

There was a long road ahead of her... and she had to hurry.

'I'll have to avoid drawing the Empire's attention, as well.'

Getting entangled with the imperials would delay her too much.

With a sigh, Smile of Heaven released control of Slayer's body.

‘Sister Orphne...'

In the next moment, the body moved without her input.

The graceful figure of the malevolent shadow lost its form, expanding and transforming.

Soon, a magnificent black dragon soared into the sky.