Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2443

Chapter 2443 Summary of Everything

Sunny had spent more than a decade uncovering the dreadful secrets of the Dream Realm and slowly piecing together its truth. The road to the knowledge he now possessed had been paved with blood and smoldering ruins, and very few people — if any at all — knew as much as he did about the hidden nature of the world.

Which was not to say that others had not searched for the truth with just as much determination, and that no one else had a claim to the forbidden knowledge he harbored.

The late Sovereigns had known countless secrets, for example. There was Nephis, as well… she knew nearly as much as Sunny did, having spent the years they had been apart pursuing truths of her own. He did not have a monopoly on arcane knowledge, and neither did the world stand frozen while he was away.

It was just that Sunny had an overwhelming advantage when it came to solving the chilling mysteries of the past… or at least used to have. That advantage was his former innate Attribute, [Fated], which had put him on a collision course with Weaver and other main characters of the end of the world all those years ago.

However, Nephis had a great advantage of her own. That advantage… was Cassie. There was hardly a person in the world better suited to learning the lost and forgotten truths than her — so, Nephis and Cassie had learned quite a few of the same secrets Sunny had, in the years of his absence.

Later, the three of them put their knowledge together.

…Now, however, Sunny was once again far ahead.

Because this time, the secret he had learned was truly world-shattering.

It was a secret to end all secrets, as well as the answer to numerous mysteries that had been plaguing them for years.

So, Sunny told them everything he had learned in Ariel's Game.

How Weaver had challenged the Demon of Dread to a Death Game. Who the Nine were … how Weaver died for the first time by Orphne's hand. How she killed the Demon of Fate once again in the Shadow Realm, how the Nightmare Spell was completed by consuming the gods…

And why.

Of course, he could only tell them the truth without explaining how all of it related to him personally — Cassie had already deduced a lot about who Sunny was and had been from the gaps in her memory and the things she did not seem capable of remembering, while Nephis had her suspicions as well… but still, neither of them could retain the knowledge of what they had known about him in the past.

When he finished talking, a stunned silence reigned in the council chamber. A snowstorm was raging outside the window, obscuring the starlit sky… the chamber seemed darker than before, with shadows nestling in its corners, and no one dared to speak for a long while.

Eventually, it was Sunny himself who broke the silence.

"Aahh... I've been chasing this truth for so long, you know. It almost feels unreal, to finally know it all — well, most of it, at least. I… I don't quite know how to feel. But I do know that knowledge is the origin of all power. So, it feels like we have grown immensely more powerful despite remaining the same, I guess."

Cassie was frozen still, her expression distant. She seemed to be thinking about something feverishly, thousands of thoughts swarming behind her beautiful, unseeing eyes.

Sunny shuddered to imagine what was happening in the little, devious head of hers.

Nepis, meanwhile, was somber and focused, looking at Sunny with silent, but scathing intensity.

After a while, she inhaled slowly, and then spoke quietly:

"So… let me get this straight."

She stood up and walked to the window, watching the snowstorm rage behind the transparent crystal pane. Her voice sounded just as aloof as usual, but there was a wealth of hidden emotion in it now:

"A long time ago, at the dusk of the Golden Age, the gods had grown distant and indifferent, neglecting their duties… what people considered to be their duties, at least. In their neglectful absence, an empire founded by War God and presumably enjoying his patronage launched a series of bloody conquests, slowly spreading across the mortal realms like a plague. That conquest continued until they encountered a small, peaceful nation… a culture that worshiped no gods, but instead built temples to fate itself."

She turned and looked at Sunny with a frown.

"That culture was conquered and wiped out, but not before sending out nine fated heroes… or monsters, depending on how you look at it… on a quest to avenge their people. Avenge their people by slaying the gods."

Sunny nodded and continued:

"But how can mortals hope to defeat the gods? The Nine were no match for them, and so, they set out to ignite a war between the daemons and the gods, knowing that it would bring the Empire of War — and all of existence with it — to ruin. In that way, they became the architects of the doom that swallowed the world."

Nephis smiled darkly.

"Only there was one daemon who refused to participate in the Doom War. That daemon, in fact, knew what the Nine were trying to achieve all along, as well as that there would be no winner in the war… that everything would be destroyed by it, with only corpses left in its wake. So, that daemon devised a plan of their own, a plan to twist fate."

She inhaled deeply and finished in a cold, grim tone:

"Weaver created the Nightmare Spell, let it spread unnoticed among the desperate refugees of the end of days, and then manipulated one of the Nine into slaying them in the Shadow Realm, where the Void Gate stands — the Void Gate that had been opened by someone during the final battle of the Doom War. Weaver's death was a catalyst that completed the Spell, allowing it to consume both the gods and the daemons... and realize its true design."

Cassie finally stirred, tilting her head a little and whispering:

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