Shadow Slave novel Chapter 3227

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.