Shadow Slave novel Chapter 127

Chapter 127 Abandon All Hope

...Shellshocked by her words, the three of them stared at the young woman with pale faces. Sunny felt something brittle and precious shattering in his heart, piercing it with an almost physical feeling of pain.

'No. No, it can't be.'

It just couldn't be true. How could… how could all of this have been for nothing?

How could all of his hopes, dreams and desires just be destroyed with a couple of words?

How was it possible?!

Somewhere beside him, Cassie suddenly said in a tiny voice:

"What do you mean, there is no Gateway?"

Effie shrugged.

"It's very simple, really. I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, but deep down inside you must have known already. Didn't you? The Forgotten Shore… it's not really a place where humans are supposed to survive. That's why you have never heard of anything like it in the school or the Academy."

Sunny's face got contorted with anger. Of course! Of course, the answer was always within his grasp. He was just too naive and foolish to grasp it.

The Dream Realm was vast and strange, with most of its regions barely explored by humans. However, there was at least a small amount of information available about them. Some were even fully under human control, with large Citadels like Bastion providing shelter to hundreds of thousands of Awakened.

And yet, when he had first come to the Forgotten Shore, Sunny didn't recognize any of the unique characteristics of this place. At the time, he had thought that his patchy education was to blame.

He should have realized the truth when neither Nephis nor Cassie managed to succeed where he had failed. Why would a region as unique as this one be utterly unknown? The most logical explanation would be that no one had ever returned from this deadly abyss to the real world to tell others about it.

What a fool he was! Just a few weeks in the comfortable life in the Academy, and he had completely forgotten that the world never played fair against people like him. The truth was always worse than his worst expectations, so why would this time be any different?

The world was a predator that always waited for an opportunity to devour you.

Why would he even expect anything else?

A familiar bitter taste appeared in his mouth.

Meanwhile, Effie continued in a gentle tone:

"Fifteen years ago or so, a group of powerful and desperate Sleepers managed to reach this city and claim the castle for themselves. Not because it had a Gateway, but because it was the only place that could keep them safe. At least for a while. Ever since then, a few lucky or resourceful people would find their way to the castle each solstice, only to get stuck here with the rest of us."

Nephis was sitting quietly, with only her clenched fists betraying the storm of emotions raging in her heart. Cassie was taking the news harder than both of them, though. After all, it was her vision that led them into this trap.

Her face was deathly pale, with an expression of pain and shock contorting its delicate lines. Closing her eyes, she whispered:

"But that's… that is not fair!"

Effie looked at her with pity. Then, she chuckled, smiled darkly and said:

"When was anything ever fair?"

…She was right, of course. Justice didn't really exist outside of the ethereal realm of human imagination. Sunny had learned that lesson a long, long time ago.