Shadow Slave novel Chapter 3001

The world had moved on...

And it was still in motion.

The world was rolling down a steep slope. It moved slowly at first, but as the wheels of history gained momentum, things changed. Time seemed to flow faster and faster, endlessly accelerating.

By now, it felt like the world was barreling forward at a frightening speed, impossible to slow down and out of control.

Not even those who ruled it could stop the inevitable — all they could do was try to steer the world in the least damaging direction, hoping that something would change before it reached the end of the road.

Before it fell into the bottomless abyss that waited at the end of the slope.

Change and hope... in the face of apocalypse, the two became synonymous, shining a light upon the dark expanse of the ominous future.

A year had passed since the Dreamspawn Plague had been purged from the world. Fifty-seven years had come and gone since the Nightmare Spell descended upon the world, and the end was closer than ever before. The Dream Realm was said to have begun consuming Earth, and even if people could not observe the destruction of their world yet, they could already feel the consequences.

Beyond that...

Humanity was recovering from a devastating loss. Years of memories were gone, plunging countless people into confusion and uncertainty. The shock of this collective amnesia was hard to describe with words, let alone cope with. Needless to say, myriad problems and conflicts had emerged as a result.

For example...

On a bright day soon after the disaster, a woman named Beth had glanced at a stack of papers handed to her with a dazed expression. Her hair gathered in a messy bun, her eyes bloodshot from the lack of sleep.

She rubbed her face.

“So you're telling me that I successfully reinvented electricity? Built a hydroelectric power station in the Dream Realm? Lit the entire Bastion?”

“Yes. You should recognize your own handwriting, no? These are your own notes documenting the entire process.”

Beth glanced at the gallant man who had handed her the papers — the infamously dreamy Master Quentin.

“Right. And... you are also claiming that we are lovers now?”

He nodded silently, then smiled.

Beth sighed deeply and glanced away to hide her blushing cheeks.

“Damn. No, but... go me! I guess?”

Or...

In a different part of the Dream World, Awakened Yutra was nursing a toddler while his wife was staring at them with glistening eyes.

“He's ours? Our son?”

Yutra chuckled.

“Naturally. Whose else would he be? Just look at that nose... that's your nose!”

He shook his head.

“Life sure is funny, though. I remember having this exact conversation, only it was you insisting that the cute rascal was mine...”

Conversations like that had happened all over the world.

Of course, not all of them were happy.

In fact, most of them weren't.

Humanity had endured a lot in the years that were gone now, after all. The conquest of new territories in the Dream Realm, the war campaign against the Skinwalker, the partial loss of the Eastern Quadrant, the rise of the King of Nothing, the war between him and the Human Domain...

There were countless Gates that had opened in the waking world, as well, bringing an ocean of Nightmare Creatures with them. Many lives had been lost trying to contain the swelling tide of abominations, and people had to mourn these losses all over again.

But no matter how deep the wounds of those who had forgotten were, those few who remembered were equally scarred. Seishan, Morgan, Kai, Effie, and the rest of them — they still remembered what the Dreamspawn had done to them, as well as what he had made them do. And even if the cruelties that had been perpetrated or endured by them were the result of mental manipulation, the memories of experiencing that nightmare were real.

But the world was moving on.

The world was in motion, and the pressure of the present left humanity no time to wallow in the forgotten past.

Especially because of what awaited them in the future.

The official explanation for the calamity that befell humanity was that a Nightmare Creature of a High Rank had infected the world with a mental hex, and that the memories of mankind had to be cleansed in order to destroy that hex.

The sun still rose every morning, and the Immortal Flame still burned. Changing Star was still ruling humanity from her radiant throne, and if she said that the Nightmare Creature had been dealt with, that they had to continue living, then that was what they had to do.

It was a woman known as Ananke, who was a native of the Dream Realm. She wasn't alone, either, ruling over a small nation of people who descended from the survivors of ancient calamities.

These strangers, who called themselves the River People, had established an alliance with Changing Star and joined humanity in the task of preparing for the apocalypse. While their number was not significant enough to move the scales of history, the foreign knowledge and skills they had brought were a priceless boon.

With their help, the initiative to build floating cities in the Stormsea, which had stagnated for a while, was finally moving along... and progressing at incredible speed, at that.

That alone relieved a great amount of pressure on humanity, which was desperate to bring as many settlers to the Dream Realm as possible — it was not an exaggeration to say that the population capacity of human territories in the dire new world was going to increase by a third in the span of a few short years because of the transformation happening to the Citadels of the Stormsea.

All thanks to Ananke of Weave and the River People.

But even more importantly than that...

The world had been shaken to the core when the rulers of the Human Domain bestowed the knowledge of natural Awakening on their people.

It was too incredible to believe, and yet, it was true — the River People were a living testament that the natural Awakening was possible, and as it turned out, Changing Star and Song of the Fallen had been developing a set of techniques to allow all people to attempt becoming Awakened for a long while.

Now, these techniques had finally been perfected and made public, freely available to everyone who wanted to gain power... as opposed to being fervently guarded by those who already possessed it.

The natural Awakening was less assured than conquering a Nightmare, but it was much safer, as well. And even if it was a slow and uncertain process, it gave everyone, not only those chosen by the Nightmare Spell, a chance to become stronger.

All people now had a chance to Awaken without risking their lives in the First Nightmare, and even if they ultimately failed, the process itself was beneficial to their bodies and souls. Awakened could attempt to become Masters without sacrificing countless lives to the Second Nightmare, as well.

This news shook the very foundation of everything humans thought they knew. It gave people a sense that they, too, could survive the apocalypse.

But those who already possessed great power knew that everything they had done was not enough to stop the world from falling into the abyss... because all their accomplishments and all their strength were insignificant in the face of the approaching calamity.

So, they felt far more urgency to grow stronger than those who possessed no strength at all.

'Nothing ever changes.'

Sunny sighed.

He had desperately chased strength as a young man, but now that he was older and already a demigod... he was still desperately trying to become stronger. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Life was far more pleasant now, at least.