Shadow Slave

Outside of the now-empty Temple of the Chalice, the dawn was slowly painting the world in a beautiful shade of lilac. Sunny was sitting on the ground, staring at a scarlet odachi and a spear with a blade etched with runes that lay on the ground in front of him.

Kai had dismissed his armor and was standing nearby, his wooden mask charred and blackened by the heat of the divine flames. His gaze was distant.

Effie was also close. She was standing in front of a pile of weapons, some of them whole, some broken and melted by the fire. Despite her exhaustion and injuries, the little girl, whose body was almost entirely covered by bruises and lacerations, was picking up one weapon after another, then thrusting them into the rocky ground with somber determination.

The graveyard of swords surrounding the temple was slowly growing, thanks to her efforts.

Sunny observed Effie for a while, then sighed. He did not see a lot of sense in leaving so many enchanted weapons behind, even if most of them were only equivalent to Awakened Memories. However, he was also not going to stop the girl from performing the wasteful ritual, as long as it gave her some closure… or whatever it was she was seeking by performing the strange burial.

It gave him food for thought, however.

In the future he knew, there was no such graveyard around the ruined Temple of the Chalice. Which meant that no one had done this last mercy for the War Maidens slaughtered in the great hall. Was that the reason they had turned into vengeful wraiths, perhaps?

…Maybe. Or maybe the swords had just been stolen or destroyed at some point later in time. He had not seen the rest of the graveyard in the future as well, after all.

So then… what, exactly, was the connection between the Nightmares and the Dream Realm?

Before, Sunny had been sure that Nightmares were simply recreations of the past. Now, however, he was not so certain. After all, the Temple of the Chalice was destroyed in the same exact manner as it had been in the future. Which meant that… he had always been the one to destroy it?

The Seed of Nightmare was a portal to the actual past?

Sunny scowled, then shook his head.

No, this didn't make any sense. If that was true, then too many things would have been changed in the waking world every time an Awakened conquered their Nightmare. The connection was too easy to spot… all he had to do was to go and carve his name into one of the menhirs of the Sanctuary, then check if it had actually appeared outside the Seed.

almost certainly simply recreations of the past of

Temple of the Chalice had ended up was too glaring to be natural. Logically, the appearance of Awakened from the Waking World should have changed the course of

could think of two explanations for that, one far

Sunny had thought of destroying the chalice because he

hard it was to change it, let alone escape its stranglehold completely. So what… what if fate had a pull on all things, had influence over all of existence, and pushed everything,

certain conclusion,

but the end would inevitably, and inescapably, be the same. That… that was a thought that terrified

be his sworn enemy, after all. And now,

expression, he glanced at Effie one more time, then rose from the ground and walked

breathing heavily, her little body seemingly on the verge of collapse. Nevertheless, she glanced at

"What are you doing?"

picked up another sword

sooner we are

hesitated for a bit, then turned away and nodded slowly. Together, they continued to bury the swords of

disappeared, joining the countless swords surrounding

not know if what they had done was going to change fate, even a little

ardently

***

A man in a wooden mask and with skin that resembled tree bark effortlessly landed

later, a towering four-armed demon climbed from beneath the island and joined him. However, that was

twelve years of age sitting on the shoulders of the demon, holding his horns with her little hands and swinging her

"Gee-up! Faster!"

Effie laugh, Sunny gritted his

you… stop swinging your legs? I am not a horse, damn

huntress did not listen, so he grabbed her legs with two