Chapter 3003: The Returned |
Sunny felt a chill running down his spine when he imagined Aiko barging into Revel's chambers and finding him there.
Luckily, that did not happen...
Because Revel unceremoniously pushed him out into the corridor, slamming the door behind him with a resounding bang.
So, he was caught in the corridor instead.
‘Damnation!’
Sunny regained his balance and slowly looked up.
Aiko was there, floating about a meter above the floor. Looking down at him and smiling sweetly.
“Hey, boss."
Sunny sighed.
"Oh, yeah... hey, boss."
A low voice resounded from behind Aiko, making Sunny sigh once more and look even higher.
The reason why the resident Shadow Fairy was floating high above the floor these days was standing behind her, staring at Sunny with a guarded expression. It was a giant of a man... no, a mountain of a man... whose prodigious height could only be compared to his imposing width.
It was Stev — the Sleeper who had been in charge of the Memory arsenal of the Bright Castle once, serving Gunlaug.
The same Stev who had been killed during the siege of the Crimson Spire.
Seeing him out and about, unmistakably alive, was just as weird for Sunny as seeing Sunny rule the Forgotten Shore must have been for Stev.
‘Is he really alive, though?"
And was Stev really... Stev?
Cassie's Supreme Ability was truly mysterious — bordering on ineffable, even, emanating a subtle scent of divinity. Summoning things she remembered into reality could only be described as miraculous.
And those things weren't simply manifestations of mental images stored in her memory. They weren't illusions or cheap phantoms — once summoned, they were real.
Take the giant man in front of Sunny, for example. He was not merely a facsimile acting out the role of a person who had been Stev, no different from an Echo. Instead, he had a sense of self, carried the memories of the true Stev, and had as much free will as any other human.
He also possessed a soul, a true shadow, could command his Aspect, and was recognized by the Spell as one of its carriers.
If there was one difference between ordinary living beings and those manifested by Cassie, it was that the latter simply vanished after being destroyed, leaving no trace of themselves in the world — not even their shades. Apart from that, though, they were ostensibly real.
Which did not mean that they were the original.
But if they were a flawless copy of the original, then was there really a difference?
‘Hell if I know.’
Sunny did not know if that mattered, either. What mattered was that all the Sleepers Cassie had met in the Dark City — more than a thousand of them — were alive once again.
Granted, they weren't Sleepers anymore. Soon after Cassie summoned them back to the world of the living from beyond the grave, they all tethered themselves to various Citadels in the Dream Realm and became Awakened.
In fact, a few were already Masters, having conquered the Second Nightmare soon after returning from beyond.
With that, Cassie had mostly exhausted the limits of her Supreme Ability.
She could not manifest any more Supreme beings, since that spot was already taken by herself. The Dreamers of the Dark City accounted for all the Dormant and Awakened memories she could summon, constantly drawing on her essence at the same rate as it was replenished. She could still call upon a small number of Transcendent items or beings, and as for Ascended...
According to Cassie, she could indefinitely sustain the manifestation of forty-nine Masters. Only a handful of people she had summoned Ascended so far, so there was still plenty of room for others to grow — seven of them could even become Saints without overwhelming her Aspect.
And by the time more of the former Dreamers of the Dark City were ready to challenge the Second or Third Nightmares, her Domain would have grown stronger, granting her more spirit essence and therefore greater capacity to manifest living beings of all Ranks.
That was the plan, at least.
Sunny stared at Stev darkly, prompting the giant man to shift in discomfort.
"What? Why are you looking at me like this... boss?"
Sunny remained silent for a short while, then shook his head.
"It's because my feelings are hurt."
He threw his hands into the air.
“All the trouble I went to! Collecting every single bone, building a gorgeous grave for you guys... I even wrote such a beautiful, poignant epitaph! How do you think I feel now that you are walking around, brazenly alive? All my efforts were wasted!"
Stev coughed awkwardly.
"Well, uh... thank you? For your efforts."
He paused for a moment before adding politely:
"I am sure that it is a very nice grave. I should really visit sometime."
Sunny waved a hand.
“Ah, forget it..."
His tone was disheartened.
Cassie gave the people she had brought back from the dead free choice of what to do with their lives. They were not beholden to her — or to anyone, really — so they could do whatever they wished.
Not that coming back to life after a decade of being dead was an easy thing, especially since many of them had spent years lost on the Forgotten Shore before dying in the shadow of the Crimson Spire.
The world had changed in their absence. In fact, it was almost unrecognizable now... the world was ending, for one, and the woman who had led them into the final battle — or war responsible for their deaths prior to that — ruled it.
Some of the Dreamers of the Dark City, like Gunlaug, had gone missing more than twenty years ago. The people whom they had known were now gone or unfamiliar... some were welcomed back, some found their old homes empty and destroyed.
Like Caster — the heir of the Han Li clan was back, but the Han Li clan itself did not exist anymore. Seeing him again had felt very strange for Sunny, especially because Caster was still a teenager, while Sunny himself was now twenty-nine.
The only thing stranger was to see Harper, the young man whom Sunny had killed once, get reunited with his family.
Cassie said that she had chosen to bring the Dreamers of the Dark City back because of their potential, but from what Sunny knew, Harper — and a few others like him — were not in a hurry to realize that potential. In fact, they never wanted to experience anything like the violence and bloodshed they had experienced on the Forgotten Shore ever again.
Most of the former Dreamers, though, were quite motivated.
They had scattered in every direction, quickly making names for themselves. Gunlaug was in the Stormsea now, helping the River People build floating cities. Caster was retained by a Legacy Clan ruling one of the Citadel Cities in the basin of the River of Tears. Gemma and Kido were in Ravenheart, the latter working under Saint Bliss to hasten the agricultural development of the Dream Realm.
Dozens of the former Handmaidens joined Seishan and their sisters in Ravenheart, as well. More than a few of the people Cassie had brought back to life stayed behind to serve as her personal assistants...
But most of them joined the Fire Keepers. It was ironic, really. The original Fire Keepers — those of them who had survived Godgrave — were all gone now, having split into six cohorts to challenge six Nightmare Seeds and become Saints. The Awakened who had been recruited by the Fire Keepers after the war, meanwhile, had all forgotten becoming members of Changing Star's personal guard.
So, the veterans of the Forgotten Shore Cassie had manifested were like the second generation of the Fire Keepers, taking the place of their former comrades while the first generation was away.
Sunny gave Stev a long look.
...None of them was as crazy as this guy, though, who had gone right back to the Forgotten Shore and was now a member of the Shadow Clan, working under Aiko in the Dark Castle.
Sunny shook his head.
‘What a lunatic!"
Why was he constantly surrounded by crazy people?
“Well, anyway. What do you want, Aiko? I was very busy, you know!"
Busy destroying Revel's supply of junk food...
Aiko stared at Sunny for a long while, making him feel unnerved.
And then...
He suddenly found himself in a tight embrace.
“I love you, boss!"
Sunny's blood turned cold.
His hair stood on end.
‘W-what...'
"W—what?! What are you planning?!"
He looked down, and at the exact same moment, Aiko looked up, gracing him with a brilliant smile.
"I really do! Today is the Remembrance Day, is it not? So I just wanted to thank you!"
Frozen by fear, Sunny nodded slowly.
"Yes! It is! So what?"
Was he seeing things, or were her eyes glistening with tears?
No, they really were!
Aiko's voice trembled.
“What do you mean, so what? Boss... do you know how beautiful it is, to be the only person who remembers every scientific advancement, societal trend, and business development that has happened since the Godgrave War — while all your competitors don't?"
She hugged him tighter and beamed.
"Forget war profiteering, boss! Forget colonialism!"
Aiko let out a dreamy sigh.
"Insider trading! That's the way..."
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