Shadow Slave novel Chapter 367

Chapter 367 Fog of Time

Sunny brought the book back to the table and sat down, looking at the plain cover with a complicated expression.

Of course, he knew a few things about the Immortal Flame clan. Everybody did, considering how prominent the achievements of its members were — even though Sunny missed out on receiving a proper education, the legendary figures of Changing Star's father and grandfather had long ago found their way from the pages of history into the popular culture.

Their names were pretty much synonymous with heroism and the indomitable nature of the human spirit, famously painted with a tinge of tragedy.

Immortal Flame was the first Awakened to become a Master, and Broken Sword, his son-in-law, was the first Master to become a Saint. Of course, they had not done so alone — each had a group of powerful companions to share the burden of challenging the Spell. So, a more proper statement would have been that they were the leaders of the first cohorts to conquer the Second and Third Nightmares.

However, the names of their comrades were not as well known. Sunny was sure that kids learned about them in school, but a street rat like him only had a general impression of who they were. Mostly, he just remembered that some of them would go on to establish the great clans.

But that was the thing about heroes. Suny had once told Effie that one had to die to become a hero, and that was not a joke. A person could possess renown and respect for achieving something incredible, but it was the act of making the ultimate sacrifice that elevated one to heroic status.

That's why the Immortal Flame clan was revered much more than the other great clans — not only because the leaders of those cohorts came from it, but also because it had a tragic end.

…Or had it? If Nephis did manage to return to the real world, the fame of her clan would burn bright once again, perhaps even brighter than ever before. The survivors of the Dreamer Army already treated her like a deity...

With a sudden frown, Sunny awkwardly opened the book and started reading. Accustomed to reading off a screen, he struggled for a bit with the printed text, but then quickly got used to it and engrossed himself in the illustrious history of the famed clan. _{freēwēbnovel.com}

The first part was dedicated to Immortal Flame himself, and although it was interesting, there was not a lot of information there that Sunny could use. He already knew that Neph's grandfather had been among the first wave of people infected by the Nightmare Spell, and that he fought against the Nightmare Creatures during the initial mayhem that followed its appearance.

Back then, millions of people were suddenly thrust into the First Nightmares and died, resulting in millions of Nightmare Creatures entering the real world. Of course, almost all of them were only of the Dormant rank, but even that turned out to be too much for the armies of the already reeling humanity to handle. Whole nations were destroyed, and for a while, the planet was submerged into absolute chaos.

It was only thanks to people like Immortal Flame — who had not earned his True Name yet back then, of course — that the situation changed. There were those who had survived the First Nightmare, then entered the Dream Realm and carved their path to Gateways. After returning to the real world, they united and fought back against the tide of Nightmare Creatures, eventually establishing a new world order.

The one that existed to this day.

'They were tough, tough people.'

Becoming an Awakened was hard enough even today, with all the accumulated knowledge about the Spell being freely accessible to everyone. Back when it first appeared, people like Immortal Flame didn't know anything. They didn't know what an Aspect was, how many ranks and classes of the Nightmare Creatures were there, what they meant, what the Memories and Echoes were, what a Gateway was...

Most important of all, they didn't even know if saving humanity was even possible.

And yet, somehow, they learned and fought back. Sunny couldn't imagine how dark and hellish that time must have been. Truly, they deserved his respect.

…But, sadly, they didn't deserve his time. At least not now. He had much more pressing things on his plate, so Sunny just skimmed through the pages describing Immortal Flame's life, his eventual triumph over the Second Nightmare, and heroic death.

The legendary Master died defending the evacuating cities from the onslaught of terrible creatures that entered the real world through a Category Five Gate. That happened just a year or so before Sunny was born, and had cost humanity an entire continent.

It was also the event that led to Neph's mother becoming Hollow, although that tragedy was not described in the book in great detail. All that was said about it was that Smile of Heaven died during the disaster while protecting civilians.