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Chapter 1648: Lost in Reflection
Shadow Slave

A torrent of shadows flowed into the corridor, submerging it in total darkness. The light of the glowing gemstones was swallowed and disappeared without trace, turning them bleak and lifeless.

Sunny had summoned a swarm of vast and ancient shadows to do the job. These old shadows were unfathomable - it would have taken an equally potent source of light to dispel them. The gemstones had been created from the mind of the Demon of Imagination, true... perhaps they would have chased away the darkness if the shadows were alone.

But they were in the presence of their Lord, and that alone made them much more tyrannical.

A few moments later, a long stretch of the corridor had turned completely lightless. The infinity mirror of its walls was now dull and empty. Nothing reflected on their dim surface, and no reflection haunted the hidden sanctum.

Sunny let out a quiet sigh.

'Who knew that I would use this trick today?’

What he had done was not pure improvisation. Instead, it was one of the methods he had contemplated when thinking about how to deal with Mordret,

Cassle seemed impressed.

"These shadows... obey you?"

Sunny shrugged.

"If I treat them nicely."

Wild shadows were like that. Most were devoted to Sunny, but some were obstinate and willful. The former would obey him out of affection or reverence, but the latter needed to be coaxed and enticed.

"Let's go."

The two of them returned to the corridor. It seemed much smaller without the countless reflections stretching endlessly into the ghostly distance. Claustrophobic, even - still, Sunny felt much more at ease now than he had before.

Cassie suddenly spoke, drawing his attention:

"Are we going left again?"

Sunny smiled.

"That is a good question!

"No... let's try right this time."

They turned right and started walking at a measured pace. The shadows moved with them, keeping the corridor dark both ahead and behind. Just like that, Sunny and Cassie advanced forward for a while,

Then, they encountered an intersection. A similar corridor crossed the one they had been traversing, and so, Sunny had another choice to make.

He frowned slightly and decided to turn right again. The second corridor had a slight bend to it, as well, so it was Impossible to see far ahead... some time later, there was another intersection.

And then another, and another.

Some Intersections formed four paths, some only three... there were even bizarre ones that had six, seven, or eight turns. There were dead ends, as well, and corridors that led to one of the crossroads Sunny and Cassie had already passed. The corridors themselves weren't straight, either, bending and twisting at unexpected angles.

It was a mirror labyrinth.

After a while, Sunny sighed and stopped, covering his face with a palm.

In front of them was an open door leading to a small stone chamber. The same chamber they had left behind.

"Have you noticed it?"

Cassie's voice was calm.

He lingered for a while, then nodded.DissCoover pdated novels on n(o)v.e/lbin(.)co

"Yeah. Damn it."

Sunny had been counting his steps this whole time. It was hard to keep track because of how convoluted the maze of mirrors was, but he was certain of it they had walked more in each direction than the width of the mountain was.

Which meant that the labyrinth was not beholden to the size of the mountain. It could be endless, for all Sunny knew.

Shaking his head, he leaned on the wall and summoned the Endless Spring. Drinking deeply from the beautiful glass bottle, he then handed it to Cassle.

The young woman took the Memory and frowned for a moment. Then, forgetting the meaning that it held, she brought it to her lips and then returned it to Sunny.

"We can try again."

He hesitated for a bit, then slowly shook his head.

"No. We've been here for too long already. There is still some time before sunrise, but I won't be able to solve this maze quickly. This... is going to be a long project."

Cassie raised an eyebrow.

"We have only agreed that I will bring you inside the castle once."

Sunny smiled.

"Yes. And I have only promised to show you one of my memories. Surely, you want to see more... and I want to explore this place more. It works out perfectly, does it not? We can meet once a month, during the full moon. This way, both of us will slowly gain the knowledge we desire."

She hesitated.

"I don't know how long I'll remain in Bastion, though. Maybe there is something else you want?"

His smile turned a little darker.

"There are many things I want, Saint Cassia. But this is the deal I am offering."

Cassie frowned, remained silent for a few moments, then nodded.

"Fine. I will guide you inside the castle once again, next month. In exchange for another memory."

Sunny dismissed the Endless Spring and suppressed a chuckle.

"Why did she put on a show if we both knew that she would agree?"

"It's a date, then."

He froze for a moment, then added hurriedly:

"No, wait. It's not a date. I misspoke. It's a... well... an arrangement. You know what I mean."

Cassie observed him with a hint of amusement, then shrugged.

"As you wish. Now... I think it's time for me to receive my payment."

Sunny sighed. He had not been looking forward to this part...

"Fine. We have a bit of time left, so let's do it here."

As long as he returned to the lake before sunrise, there was no safer place in Bastion than this labyrinth, Here, they were hidden from the King's gaze, and no one would disturb them.

'I still hate it!

Sunny led Cassie into the stone chamber, called the shadows back into the lantern, and closed the door

Then, he sat on the floor, cross-legged. Cassie sat down in front of him and calmly looked him in the eyes, her back perfectly straight.

"One memory. Of your choosing."

Sunny nodded slowly.

She took a deep breath.

"Then think about what you want me to see."

He did.

The bitter cold. The dim twilight. The cracking of ice as he broke through it and climbed onto the desolate shore... the dark storm of seething emotions raging in his hollow heart...

Cassie's beautiful blue eyes suddenly glistened, pulling him into their depths, changing...

And in the next moment, Sunny gasped.

Shadow Slave
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  1. Offline
    Pro100zver25
    + 31 ⋅ 0 -
    1649: Memory of Ice.

    A cold ocean washed the shore of a desolate land, its waves frozen and unmoving. The empty sky seemed dim and uncaring, the sun hidden behind a somber veil. The land itself was silent and forlorn, its lifeless expanse buried in snow.

    Not far from the shore, the layer of ice shackling of the ocean suddenly fractured and exploded, revealing the restless surface of the dark water. A pale hand rose above the edge and dug into the ice with crushing force. A moment later, a gaunt young man climbed from the cold water, stepping on the frozen waves with a chilling expression on his sunken, alabaster face.

    His appearance was both tantalizing and frightening. The young man only wore the tattered remains of a military bodysuit, which was mostly gone. His fair skin was as white as snow, marred by countless gruesome, but eerily bloodless wounds. His eyes, on the contrary, were as dark as the depths of a lightless abyss. The black silk of his wet hair moved slightly in the frigid wind.

    He looked like the wretched corpse of a drowned deity that had crawled out of a frozen hell.

    His slender torso was mostly bare, revealing an intricate tattoo of a coiling serpent that covered most of his arms, chest, and back. The dark serpent was so lifelike that it almost seemed like its onyx scales were moving under the young man's skin.

    Sunny remained motionless for a while, looking at the desolate landscape in front of him. Then, he took a step forward.

    Finally, after so much time had passed, he was back at the Antarctic Center.

    He had returned to Falcon Scott.

    When he took the second step, his gruesomely torn skin was already healing. When he took the third, the intricate plates of a battered onyx armor covered his mangled body, shielding it from the cold and wind.

    «It looks the same.»

    After the Third Nightmare, when all was said and done, Sunny had returned to the Northern Quadrant among the refugees. He spent some time there, taking care of unfinished business — not that there was a lot for him to do after being erased from the world. Meeting Rain was the very last thing he did. Then, untethered from everything and everyone, he set his sights back on Antarctica.

    Crossing the ocean alone had not been easy. Turning into the Onyx Serpent, Sunny dove into the lightless depths, where the darkness nurtured his soul and was rich in spirit essence. Sadly, even empowered by Soul Weave, he could not maintain such an enormous Shell constantly.

    But, luckily, there was no shortage of unimaginable horrors populating the oceans of the waking world.

    Sunny used the [Serpentine Steel] Ability of the Soul Serpent to augment his fangs, and fought the harrowing depth dwellers to replenish his essence through its [Soul Reaver] Ability, which allowed Serpent to absorb and transfer a portion of soul essence of all beings slain by it in the Soul Weapon or the Soul Beast forms.

    Staying in the Shell for such a long time was potentially dangerous now that Sunny did not possess a True Name, but the Onyx Serpent form was one of the few that he could assume without the risk of losing himself — perhaps it was because he knew it so well, or perhaps it was because he shared a kinship with serpentine creatures as an inheritor of Shadow God.

    It had taken Sunny weeks to reach Antarctica. And those weeks… had been a cold and dreadful nightmare. Out there in the dark depths of the ocean, he had faced horrors so hideous and dire that no words were enough to describe them. He killed some, and escaped from others. His body had been torn and broken, but in the end, he survived.

    The very idea of crossing the ocean alone had seemed preposterous before, but now that Sunny was a Transcendent Terror, he somehow made it a reality.

    The cold darkness currently reigning over his soul was much more terrible than the ocean, anyway, Now that Sunny had left everything behind… his mental state was far from ideal. The pain and anguish had turned into dark anger, and the anger was seething and boiling, refusing to be contained or controlled.

    In this world, there was no place for Sunny anymore, and nothing left for him to do.

    Except to pay his debts.

    And the first score he needed to settle was with the Winter Beast.

    …Walking across the frozen waves, Sunny reached the shore of the Antarctic Center and looked around without expression. His eyes were like two pools of darkness, full of cold, ruthless killing intent and murderous resentment.

    Some distance away, the port fortress of Falcon Scott lay in ruins, half-buried in snow. The city itself was frozen above it, standing silently on the tall cliffs. The buildings were encased in ice, and so were the remains of the millions of people that had been killed by the Winter Beast just before the end of the long, dreadful night.

    Sunny stared at the cliffs for some time, then turned his gaze away. He wasn't quite ready to enter the city yet.

    He spent several hours roaming the shore aimlessly, as if looking for something. The frigid cold was absolutely lethal, but Sunny paid it no attention. His shadow sense spread far and wide, enveloping a vast area of the desolate land.

    «Where is it… where is it…»

    In the end, he stopped and stared at the ground silently, Finally, there was a hint of emotion on his face. Sunny raised a trembling hand and covered his eyes, a brittle smile twisting his lips.

    He couldn't find it. The grave where he had buried his soldiers… he had not been quite in right mind back then, and the terrain had been changed a lot by the snow and Ice. So, he simply did not know where the resting place of Belle, Dorn, and Samara was anymore.

    «Ah… damn it…»

    A stifled sound escaped from his mouth, and then, Sunny angrily struck the rusted remains of a broken MWP that lay nearby, covered with snow.

    There was a thunderous boom, and the massive machine exploded. Jagged pieces of alloy shot into the distance like deadly shrapnel, while its torso was sent flying. It collided against the cliffs a hundred or so meters away, causing an entire section of the cliffside to fracture and collapse in an avalanche of shattered rocks.

    Unfazed, Sunny raised his head to the sky and let out a distorted scream, then looked down, his eyes boiling with dark fury.

    «Kill it… I will rip that thing apart…»

    Gritting his teeth, he breathed in the cold air of Antarctica and headed for the ruins of the city.
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    1. Offline
      Pro100zver25
      + 32 ⋅ 1 -
      1650: Frozen City.

      Sunny did not know what he expected to see in Falcon Scott. He didn't even know why he felt compelled to enter it… and yet, he did enter it, walking along the silent streets with a distant expression on his pale face. He came here precisely because he didn't want to, reluctant see the monument to his failure. He owed to himself, and to those people whom he had failed to protect, to witness their final resting place in all its horrid glory.

      Perhaps it was simply because now that no one remembered him, Sunny wanted to at least remember himself. Even the things he would have wanted to forget.

      The city was pretty much exactly like he had imagined.

      It was a frozen graveyard. The fatal cold of the Winter Beast's blizzard had killed everyone in what seemed like mere moments. The corpses were hidden inside the buildings or buried under snow, so the city seemed utterly empty.

      They had not suffered, at least…

      Some buildings had collapsed in the past months under the weight of the ice. Others stood like colossal gravestones… or frigid mausoleums, maybe, for those who had perished inside. Strangely enough, no Nightmare Creatures seemed to have entered the city to feast on the corpses. It was as though the Winter Beast had marked this place as its territory.

      Sunny passed a few familiar structures… the barracks where the Irregulars had been stationed, the government compound, the dormitory tower where Beth and Professor Obel had lived. His mind was flooded with memories, which only made his mental state deteriorate further.

      It was a strange thing, to be alone.

      Now that Sunny was alone, erased from existence, he felt no compulsion to control his emotions or maintain the illusion of normalcy. There was no one to witness him fall apart, anyway, and nobody to get the wrong impression of him. There were no tethers connecting him to the world, yes… but, as it turned out, those same tethers had been like supports that held his mind together.

      He must have looked quite disturbing from the side.

      Only now that Sunny was truly and utterly alone did he realize how much of his habits and behavior had been dictated by the need to blend in with his environment… with human society. Now, he didn't have to bother with maintaining acceptable expressions, keeping improper feelings from his gaze, and saying the right words.

      Or saying anything at all, really.

      «Maybe I should do all these things, anyway.»

      He suspected that giving in to this utter freedom would make him slip into some sort of derangement eventually, but couldn't bother to care.

      Finally, he reached the crumbled remains of the city wall and spent some time gazing at the snowy field beyond.

      Climbing over the wreckage, Sunny jumped down, turned his body light enough to walk on the snow, and left the ghost of Falcon Scott behind.

      This was probably the last time he would ever see It. But that… was fine.

      It was for the best, really.

      Some time later, he reached the place where the last soldiers of the First Evacuation Army had died, killed by the deathly cold of the unnatural snowstorm. Their frozen figures were still there, those closest laying on the ground, those who had endured longer frozen like ice sculptures.

      His motionless face seemed frozen, too.

      He spent a while among them, looking at the horizon. The Winter Beast had retreated into the heart of the landmass, but the signs of its passage remained. Today, Antarctica looked much more like it had once, frigid and encased in ice. It was darkly fitting.

      Sunny was still consumed by his thoughts when something moved under the snow, and a hideous creature lunged at him from below. He did not move, but shadows around him stirred and shot forward with incredible speed, catching the abomination in the air.

      A moment later, It was gruesomely torn apart, a rain of hot blood falling on Sunny like crimson dew.

      His expression didn't change, but his eyes gleamed darkly.

      «Strange!»

      It was still strange, to kill a Nightmare Creature and not here the familiar voice of the Spell announce its Rank, Class, and name.

      The snow all around him moved and exploded, dozens of grotesque bodies rushing to rip him to shreds. There was a whole swarm of abominations here… Sunny finally moved, a sinister smile contorting his face.

      He was so fast that it almost seemed as if he simply disappeared in one place and appeared in the other. There was no weapon in his hand, and no need for one, either. The gauntlets of the Onyx Mantle were more than enough.

      Falling into the savage battle style of the Barrow Wraiths, Sunny crushed the skull of one of the abominations with his bare fist. A split second later, he was near another, piercing its chest with his hand and crushing its heart. In a blink of an eye, he was already somewhere else, brutally tearing a monster's jaws apart.

      Sunny fought ruthlessly and methodically, destroying the Nightmare Creatures in the most swift and brutal fashion… no, it couldn't even be called a fight. He wasn't a fighter right now — he was a butcher, or a ruthless executioner at best.

      It took him no more than twelve seconds to obliterate the entire swarm. By the time he was done, the blood covering his onyx armor had already turned to ice.

      The Nightmare Creatures were dead… but not all of them.

      He had left one alive.

      Now, the massive beast was writhing on the snow, struggling to burrow into it as shadows held it in place. There was no escape from Sunny, but the abomination was still desperately trying to run away.

      Turning his head, Sunny studied the ugly creature and then took a step toward it.

      «Where are you going? Who allowed you to leave?»

      Approaching the abomination, he crouched beside it and stared into its frenzied eyes with a smile.

      The creature's terrifying maw was less than a meter away from his face, but Sunny didn't care.

      «You chose a wrong day to exist, wretch. Ah, but it's for the best. It's exactly what I need!»

      He outstretched one hand, sensing the Soul Serpent slither forth. Soon, a torrent of darkness flowed from his fingers onto the snow, forming into a massive Shadow.

      That Shadow was not a great serpent, however. Instead, it took the form of a towering creature that had two stumpy legs, an emaciated, hunched torso and disproportionately long, multi-jointed hands two of them, each ending with a set of horrifying bone claws, and another two, these ones shorter, ending with almost human-like fingers.

      Its body was covered in ragged inky-black fur, and there were five glossy black eyes on its head. Beneath them, a terrible maw crowding with razor-sharp teeth was half-open, as though in anticipation. Viscous drool was running down the creature's chin and dripping into the snow.

      The most unnerving part, though, were the strange shapes endlessly moving, worm-like, under the creature's skin.

      It was the Mountain King. Or rather, a version of the Mountain King that looked as if it had been dipped into a pool of liquid darkness.

      Sunny's cold smile widened a little, his dark eyes gleaming with sinister will.

      «Go on. This one will be the first.»

      Serpent took a heavy step forward and grabbed the struggling abomination with its powerful hand. Then, one of the worm-like larvae moving under his skin crawled from under his claws and burrowed into the monster's flesh.

      The Nightmare Creature froze for a moment, and then let out a chilling wail.

      A moment later, its body contorted in a terrible convulsion.

      Sunny grinned darkly.

      «…But not the last, No, not at all.»
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      1. Offline
        Verdant
        + 4 ⋅ 0 -
        Спасибо тебе, прекрасный человек!!!!!
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      2. Online Offline
        Kiber
        + 4 ⋅ 0 -
        Наконец-то Горный король был воплощён в реальность, сколько же мы ждали этого момента...
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      3. Offline
        BlankDjinn
        + 8 ⋅ 0 -
        Thank you as always :)

        … damn Sunny went dark and crazy not like normal crazy but like damn serial killer crazy 😅 this is definitely a more dangerous Sunny then ever before
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  2. Offline
    Verdant
    + 5 ⋅ 0 -
    New chapters uploaded!
    On webnovel
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    1. Offline
      ArMiks
      + 3 ⋅ 0 -
      Really? Still no notif from discord tho
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      1. Offline
        Verdant
        + 4 ⋅ 0 -
        Don't know about discord, but chapters 1650 and 1651 were uploaded 20-something min ago whoknows
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        1. Offline
          ArMiks
          + 2 ⋅ 0 -
          Huh, i always thought discord got updated first, lol
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  3. Offline
    Red_skin001
    + 5 ⋅ 0 -
    This is not a good place to start piling chapters but I'm gonna do it😂might be back later for the next two chapter though💔😂
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  4. Offline
    KingAbused
    + 12 ⋅ 0 -
    And in the next moment, Sunny gasped.


    bro about to get mind f#cked ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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  5. Offline
    SrgtLock
    + 9 ⋅ 0 -
    I don’t trust Cassie taking just one memory to peruse.
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  6. Offline
    Gerhman_Sparrow23
    + 4 ⋅ 0 -
    Nooo! I caught up at one of the worst possible moments forwhat
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    1. Offline
      BlankDjinn
      + 0 ⋅ 0 -
      Yep yep that’s how it goes you can never catch up at a good spot especially with this novel since G3 is so obsessed with cliffhangers I love it though!!!
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      1. Offline
        Gerhman_Sparrow23
        + 0 ⋅ 0 -
        Can't agree more gloom
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    Ninjamaster98
    + 0 ⋅ 0 -
    Someone please give me some novels recommendations I’m in a novel slump rn 😔. Anything like this or lotm would be good. Tbh I’m open to most reccomendations.
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    1. Offline
      Vernaidia
      + 3 ⋅ 0 -
      i like Supreme Magus, been reading since it had like 400 chaps. i do like it very much welldone
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      1. Offline
        MamaMia
        + 4 ⋅ 0 -
        The whole Magic Academy Arc in Supreme Magus is one of the best Magic Academy Arc I've ever read in a novel or manga
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          REN・DOVERঐ
          + 0 ⋅ 0 -
          I agree with this 1000% but my gripe with it is that the author is stretching the novel way too long. A lot of things still don't add up and I'm really sure we're not near the end.
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          1. Offline
            Vernaidia
            + 2 ⋅ 0 -
            i would guess we are about 60% of the way there,
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            1. Offline
              REN・DOVERঐ
              + 3 ⋅ 0 -
              Yeah true. I just want that damned tree dead
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              1. Offline
                Vernaidia
                + 3 ⋅ 0 -
                oh for sure for sure, tree f#cker is long overdue
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            oliloc
            + 3 ⋅ 0 -
            i had to drop it after a while because it started to get way too obvious how the author is stalling. stalling with the plot, stalling with the character and relationship development. you can call it stalling or just bad writing and im inclining on the latter. also at some point it started to get not really realistic how the protagonist was acting, not consistent or just randomized, just to further stretch the plot points.

            but then i found this novel and it was everything Supreme Magus wasn't, and im happy with it ever since. it's still one of the best novels till around 2/3rds of it. it was downhill for me after that.
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    2. Offline
      Red_skin001
      + 1 ⋅ 0 -
      My Vampire System is a good one
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      1. Offline
        Red_skin001
        + 2 ⋅ 0 -
        And it's complete too. I assure you zero regrets on that one. I'm doing a second read🙂
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        Ninjamaster98
        + 0 ⋅ 0 -
        Yeah I read part of it but then never finished cuz I had caught up back then. I'll definitely finish it.
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  8. Offline
    Magnumbest
    + 3 ⋅ 0 -
    Just a theory, but maybe the "real world" isn't real, I remember they saying something about the higher your level more harder is to go to the Real world, maybe earth is a creation to divide monsters and humans, maybe that's why don't have any humans in the Dream realm, and the spell is a tool to help humans overcome the monsters and take the original world back (dream realm).
    Idk, I just read this for too many time without a break, I'm losing my sanity lol.
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      Unknown.
      + 2 ⋅ 0 -
      I remember Sunny coming to a realization in the recent nightmare after that the 7 gods had 7 realms, each spanning galaxies if not the entire universe. He concluded that the last 7th forgotten god - the dream god's realm was the dream realm, and that it was weird, corrupted & devouring the other realms because its god had also been corrupted by the void.
      (And he suspected that the waking world he lived in was the realm of the war god, i don't remember why he concluded that though)
      I doubt this big of a revelation is a red herring so unfortunately I think you theory about the worlds might be wrong.
      But idk about the purpose of the spell though, from what I can guess its purpose might be to spread the lineage and belief of gods, maybe strengthening their lineage in the process due to faith(cause gods didn't want daemons to be worshiped, maybe due to shame or maybe cause faith produces power idk); So that when the corrupted nightmare god awakens, there will be divine beings on par with gods to counter him & the void. But if that is true Sunny would be a candidate for the succession of two gods(shadow cause divine aspect and dream cause of forbidden lineage), unless he manages to do something about it. There might only be 3 ppl with divine aspects, but maybe by ascending without the nightmare spell will give Sunny the expertise to let others upgrade their aspects or something cause I don't think anything below the best will suffice to repel & contain such terrible beings, not to mention rewrite the laws of the realms to make them perfect, after all they're only imperfect due to the dream god being left trapped within the void.

      Also the people ascending the ranks might have less access to the waking world to motivate them to seek nightmares to grow, or maybe simply because the weaver knew that the other realms would eventually get entirely devoured and would have an influx of nightmare creatures impossible for most to fight against, so the increasing difficulty to get back to the realms might be to save and guide stronger people to adapt to live in the dream realm, cause at least in there things will change less.
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        Guru
        + 0 ⋅ 0 -
        Perfect world is opposite of progress and freedom which sunny values so much
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    HeikyZX
    + 7 ⋅ 0 -
    I need Cassie's POV ASAP, it is too much hype for a single ship!!!
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      MefetraN7
      + 4 ⋅ 0 -
      Нет никакого флирта, кэсси лишь использовала свою способность через глаза
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    Kiber
    + 4 ⋅ 0 -
    Я надеюсь нам покажут прошедшие события от лица Кэсси, это будет так круто hokage
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