Shadow Slave

There was not much time to talk. If the Guardian of a Category Four Gate was really on their trail, then they needed to run.

Even if Nephis was wrong, the creature they had met was immeasurably strong. Considering its power and frightening level of intelligence, it had to be a Great Devil, at least. It was much more likely to be a Tyrant, or something even more terrifying.

Sunny had killed a Great Devil once... but that was not a real kill. The Spawn of the Vile Thieving Bird had been unborn, and weakened by thousands of years of neglect in the branches of the Soul Devouring Tree. More than that, Sunny had only survived that encounter because of his unique soul composition.

Only after meeting an actual Great Nightmare Creature did he realize how harrowing these beings truly were. The thing pretending to be Ascended Xu... was not even the real body of the abomination. Most likely, it was simply one of its manifestations.

But it had already been strong enough to shrug off all their attacks, severely wound Saint, and destroy a Transcendent Echo in mere seconds.

As for whether it was the Gate Guardian... logically speaking, that was impossible. Nightmare Creatures were compelled by the Seeds, unable to refuse their call. All they could do was be drawn by it and invade the waking world.

However, Sunny had already seen that the Great abominations were not as beholden to the rule of the Spell as the lesser creatures. One of them had actually used its power to forcefully widen the Nightmare Gate... if one of the Gate Guardians was capable of that, who was to say that a different one couldn't stay back to slaughter those humans who would flee to the Dream Realm?

'Hurry... we need to hurry...'

Mere minutes after Nephis regained consciousness, the four of them abandoned the ruined stone dome and ventured into the desert. For now, their destination was simple - they were fleeing in the direction opposite of where Master Xu had been seen last, as fast as they could.

As the four exhausted Masters fled across the desert, they learned about what had happened to Neph.

She had left the waking world soon after Sunny, and was drawn into the Nightmare Desert like the rest of them. Nephis fought against several Nightmare Creatures and eventually found another human - one of the Valor Ascended. Together, they sought and found a shelter to survive the approaching night.

There was something strange about that Ascended, though...

the man refused. His excuse was that she should save her essence for

he wanted to avoid touching her flames, which put her on

after the dead rose from the sand

thing was that... I don't think he wanted to kill

Jet, and Seishan looked at

Nephis frowned.

like he wanted to...

mouth twitched

and that gave me a chance to unleash all my flames. I guess desperation fueled them with enough strength to burn it... then, I woke up with the three

suffering from the terrible heat, but at the same time, he

it trying to... Corrupt

much about the Corruption. They just attributed the vile nature of the Nightmare Creatures to the Spell... but, really, the Corruption had existed long before

the ancient people had not used the term Nightmare Creatures - instead, they had simply called

the Unknown in ancient times, and then, Awakened fought against the Corrupted during the

ones who could be Corrupted, either.

'That is... troubling...'

troubled Sunny

had attacked Nephis were strangely insistent

be that the four of them had not really escaped the pursuit of the

in hopes that they would lead it to more

Sunny felt a shiver

around, taking in the immaculately white landscape of the desert, almost expecting

Master Xu was indeed following them, it