Shadow Slave: Endless Souls

Sunny was standing in front of the massive, seemingly indestructible red gates of the Awakened Academy. The Academy was, in fact, a city within the city. It was built like a fortress, with a high wall made of hard alloy, a deep moat, and numerous large-caliber turrets which were placed in certain positions to create a deadly air-suppression dome. No Nightmare Creature, not even colossal titans, was supposed to be able to break through its defenses.

It was a legendary place. Actually, many of the most popular webtoons, youth dramas, and novels took place right behind that wall. Adventures, rivalries, and romantic entanglements of the young Awakened heroes were the mainstream themes of modern entertainment. Never in his wildest dreams did Sunny imagine actually becoming one of these heroes.

Of course, how things really were differed a lot from how it was portrayed in the media. More than that, he had only four weeks to spend here before venturing into the Dream Realm. Even if he wanted to, there was not enough time for any type of entanglement. And he definitely did not want to.

He had to learn how to survive, not waste time on such nonsense!

The snow was slowly falling to the ground. It was cold and silent in front of the Academy gates. Except for Sunny, there was Edward with his expressionless face, Master Jet asked him if he wanted to meet his parents but he refused outright. It seems like he and his parents aren't exactly on the best terms. Of course, there was another Sleeper he didn't know about. Probably new Sleeper just like them that finished their First Nightmare.

It was a tall, slender girl around his age, with clear grey eyes and a detached look on her face. She had strange, silver-white hair that was cut short and neatly parted to the side. Just like him, she was dressed in a police-issued tracksuit and had no personal belongings with her. On her head, there was a pair of old-fashioned headphones. She was calmly listening to music while they waited.

There was a certain vibe to the silver-haired girl. It was sort of… as though she was apart from the world. She looked confident and self-sufficient, but also a bit lonely.

The feeling she gives is similar yet completely different from the one given by Edward. His was one that he is not part of this world so he expel the world around him giving him an uncanny valley effect. If you don't pay attention he won't reveal himself intentionally as if the world around him intentionally hides him. Sunny's best guess is that Edward's Aspect is probably stealth-related. Still, his eyes were the same empty black abyss like two pupils.

Sunny wasn't going to start a conversation. Who knew what kind of situation he would put himself in due to that damn Flaw? It was better to keep to himself.

He glanced at the girl and sighed. If possible he doesn't wanna make eye contact with Edward.

'I wonder what Flaw does she have?'

Finally, the gates began to open. The giant, ridiculously thick sheet of reinforced metal slowly descended, creating a long bridge. Sunny looked ahead with grim determination.

He then remembered Master Jet's advice which was basically those three: Keep your Flaw and Aspect secret, learn to survive in the wilderness, and be nice to other Sleepers. It didn't sound too hard.

The end of the metal bridge hit the special grooves in the ground and stopped moving after a set of loud clicks. Sunny looked ahead, wondering what kind of life he was going to be living in the next four weeks.

This was the human territory in the waking world so it should be way safer than his First Nightmare. But, for some reason, he was sure that these weeks were going to be as challenging as his First Nightmare. Or maybe even worse.

Seemingly free of such concerns, the silver-haired girl and deep black-eyed young man walked forward and stepped onto the bridge.

Sunny sighed and reluctantly followed.

***

The Sleeper part of the compound was relatively small and situated in the southern part of the Academy, surrounded on all sides by training fields and parks.

It was a low, modern building constructed with reinforced materials. Like the majority of buildings in the Academy, most of it was hidden below the ground, leaving only a couple of floors above it. With its white, pristine alloy walls and wide windows, it must have looked beautiful in the summer, contrasted against all the greenery around.

Inside, the building was spacious and well-lit. Sunny, Edward, and the silver-haired girl were taken to a large hall where a hundred or so young men and women — Sleepers of the same unfortunate timing as the three of them — were already waiting for the beginning of the induction ceremony. Most of them were nervous, tense, and excited.

Logistics of the Academy were a constant headache for the administrators since the rate at which the Spell infected people was always chaotic. There was no way to orderly structure for batches of Sleepers to undergo any type of standardized education on a shared schedule: some of them had a full year to prepare for the Dream Realm, some only months, some even mere days.

That's why these induction ceremonies were held each month at the beginning of the year and then every week once the winter solstice began to loom near. Some of the Sleepers in the hall had to wait days to be inducted, while Sunny had lucked out and was delivered to the Academy just hours before the scheduled event.

Once inside the hall, he understood two things.

Firstly, everyone was well-dressed and in possession of a suitcase, a duffel bag, or at least a backpack carrying their personal belongings. They were obviously coming prepared, most likely from home, sent off by their families. So Sunny, Edward, and the silver-haired girl, who came empty-handed and wearing simple police-issued clothes, were not a norm like he had assumed, but actually an eye-catching anomaly.

Making them the prime target of excited youths, regardless of their clothes, gender, and looks, who wanted to do one thing.

Talk.

Every one of them wanted to talk with fellow Sleepers. They wanted to discuss their Nightmares, their future journey into the Dream Realm, and everything in between. They wanted to ask questions. They wanted to be asked questions. They wanted to discuss something important or just chit-chat about stupid things.

Everyone wanted to share.

Even Edward's aura which makes him almost invisible to others didn't save him from them. It is effect can be said almost reversed for some reason more and more teenagers flocked toward him.

Even after half an hour of talking, there were still few people around him.

Most of the conversations were short because once they looked at him eye to eye most ended it abruptly as if scared of him. He also swears those teenagers read a little too many webtoons because the reputation he gained during those short half-hours was quite something.

The few things his ear caught while eavesdropping on their conversation were:

"Do you see the guy there? I heard he is from a secret legacy clan that specially trains skilled assassins. Don't you feel his strange dark aura?"

"I heard he killed awakened that was looking after him as soon he returned from his First Nightmare."

"It's said he is a successor of some really well-hidden criminal syndicate."

And nonsense keeps going on. Almost made him want to cough blood because of how ridiculous these rumors were. You guys were too afraid to talk with him, now you guys are even ruining his reputation. But in the end, Edward didn't care about his reputation at the academy too much.

As long those rumors didn't spread to the ridiculous level and cause him trouble later on on a much greater scale. He just now planted a flag, didn't he?

***

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