Shadow Slave

Some time later, the six of the left the secluded ruin and made their way toward the Bright Castle. The Dark City was silent and bleak, its streets devoid of life and movement. Even the Nightmare Creatures seemed to remain hidden in the lairs today, as though the feeling the tension that hung in the air like a harbinger of a disastrous change.

A lonely star was about to ignite in the sky above the cursed city.

Nephis was the first one to walk under the marble arch and step on the road that led to the outer settlement. Her face was calm and motionless, any hint of emotion hidden behind her usual mask of indifference. It was as though she was returning home in triumph, not marching to her own execution.

There was a slightly distant look in her eyes.

Sunny abandoned his usual position at the back of the group and was now walking side by side with her. Maybe it was just a whim, but he felt unwilling to follow in her footsteps as he had always done before, from the first day they met.

As they ascended the tall hill, Changing Star suddenly asked:

"Sunny, do you remember your First Nightmare well?"

Her voice sounded relaxed and idle.

He cast a sideways glance at her and hesitated for a few moments. Then, he answered in an even tone:

"Like it was yesterday."

She smiled slightly.

"Was it hard?"

Slowly, a grin appeared on his face.

"Hard? No, not hard. Impossible. It was a ghastly, despicable, and torturous ordeal. Truly the stuff of nightmares. Calling it hard would be an injustice."

memories of the black mountain away and

"...What about yours?"

After

that bad,

stared at

something like that?

shook

I mean it. I didn't have to fight

Sunny blinked.

"Wait, seriously?"

smile appeared on

keeper. My family lived in a beautiful tower on the shore of a beautiful sea. Every morning, the warm sun rose from beyond the horizon, bathing the endless expanse of

He frowned.

what? A sea serpent destroyed the lighthouse? Some rotten horror rose from the

few moments passed before she

point of it, I think. My Nightmare... it was actually a paradise. It was everything I dreamed about when I was a little kid. Only much more

at her in utter shock. As he watched, the hint of sorrow disappeared from Neph's face, replaced

overcome. Impossible, even. Just like you said. Because all I had to do to conquer the Nightmare... all I had to do was to walk away and leave it all behind. Knowing that I could just stay there, in

for a

did you

heavy sigh escaped from Neph's lips. Her eyes grew

no matter how hard I looked, there wasn't any. Day after day, night after night… as time went by, it became harder and harder to force myself to continue searching. I grew accustomed to that bliss, that warm and beautiful life. And

tilted her head slightly and said, her tantalizing voice reaching the deepest, darkest parts of his

top of the lighthouse. You see, Sunny. You have to light yourself on fire... to rip the blessings of the fire. That was what my grandmother used

her face slowly turning pale, her eyes reflecting the terrible agony she felt. As her ivory skin continuously boiled, darkened, and then healed