Shadow Slave novel Chapter 1802

The concept called "tether" by Masters and Saints was a mysterious, but simple thing. It was a sort of Imprint one could leave on the world by using their essence. The spot marked by the imprint was where one's soul was anchored to the world Masters could only imprint themselves on the waking world, but Saints could imprint themselves on the Dream Realm, as well.

In addition to that, the tethers placed by Saints were much more expansive and deeply rooted in the fabric of the realm than those placed by Masters. In fact, Sunny was quite certain that they were entirely different things - it was just that both served the same purpose, so humans just used the same word for both.

The reason why Transcendent tethers were so much more robust than the Ascended ones was because of the nature of Saints. The soul of a Saint was connected to the world, and so, it interacted with the world much closer.

For example, Saints could absorb spirit essence from their surroundings.

In rare cases, they could also pour their soul essence out into the world.

There was no need to mention how vital the former was, but the latter was more or less useless. The soul essence would swiftly dissipate if it wasn't poured into a special vessel - like a Memory, for example.

However, one time when pushing one's own essence onto the world was necessary was the process of creating a tether.

If manipulated in a special way, the essence would leave an Imprint on the area where it had been unleashed before dissipating. That imprint was the tether, and since it maintained a faint connection with the Saint's soul, it was possible to pull on the connection to step between realms and return to the place where one's soul was imprinted.

Only two tethers could exist at a time, one in each world. It was necessary to break the connection with the old one before creating a new one... well, in Sunny's case, each of his incarnations could place two of their own.

Regardless, that was what Sunny was doing now he was pushing his essence into the world and controlling its flow to create an imprint. The process took some time, and was quite arduous.

However, he was not doing it blindly.

Instead of allowing his essence to cover the area freely, he tried to concentrate all of it in an isolated spot. Namely... the Gateway of the ancient temple.

Soon, his tether started to take form.

And then, something unexpected happened.

There seemed to be a strange reaction between the Gateway and the forming tether. It was as if the two had been created to exist together all along - not only the strain on Sunny lessened significantly, as if the process had taken on a life of Its own, but he also felt as if the imprint was becoming deeper, and also different in some way.

At the same time, Sunny felt something changing within his soul.

It was as if a mystical bond was being established, connecting him to the ancient temple.

He... he felt very strange.

Diving into the Soul Sea, Sunny saw that the vast expanse of still water was still no more. Instead, it was surging, boiling almost, with great waves rolling on the dark surface.

As if someone had thrown a huge boulder into the black water, sending ripples spreading across the silent expanse of his soul.

'What...'

As Sunny watched, astounded, the water at the very heart of the Soul Sea suddenly foamed. _{fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm}

And then, a familiar black edifice rose from beneath the waves.

IA perfect replica of the nameless temple - how it had been before its roof collapsed, and its gates were broken - slowly rose from the lightless depths of his soul, bathing in the dark radiance of his six soul cores.

Soon enough, the surging waters calmed down, and the Soul Sea grew still and silent once more. It was as if nothing had happened.

Only... there was a great temple of black stone standing on the still water now.

Sunny stared at it with wide eyes.

‘…I'll be damned.’

That was... pretty cool.

He regretted not being connected to the Spell once more. Sunny could feel a deep connection to his newly claimed Citadel, but did not know what he could do with that connection, and what it was meant for. If he was still a carrier of the Spell, there would be hopeful runes to guide him to the necessary understanding, without a doubt.

But then again, the Spell did not even explain the enchantments of the Memories it created to most Awakened. Who knew how helpful it would have been in case of a Citadel?

Sunny knew that he would have to explore and investigate this matter personally.

Until then, however...

'What do I even do now?’

He had not been planning to come in possession of an unknown Citadel. Ruling one was not in his plans - right now, he was in the middle of traveling to Godgrave.

After hesitating for a while, Sunny sighed.

"Well, whatever. I can spend a few days here. Having a secret lair to return to wouldn't hurt, anyway.”

His original body was anchored in the Nameless Temple now. So, he had no choice but to consider it in his future plans.

There was one silver lining to the unexpected situation, though.

At least, Sunny wasn't homeless anymore.

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