Shadow Slave

Sunny dreamt of a black pyramid.

Somber and wreathed in darkness, it rose from a sea of flawlessly white sand like a towering mountain. Its slopes were like vast plains, and its sharp peak was like a spear that pierced the heavens. Outlined against the backdrop of the starlit sky, the pyramid was like a black rift in the fabric of the world.

Its edifice was built from millions of colossal stone blocks. Each block was darker than the darkness itself and perfectly aligned, leaving no gaps between them. And each of them... each...

Sunny felt a cold terror grip his heart.

Each of the stone blocks... was a Seed of Nightmare. There were millions of them, some already in bloom, some still waiting for their turn to blossom. At the base of the pyramid, the Nightmares were shallow and weak. Higher, they were harrowing and unfathomable. And higher still...

The slope of the colossal pyramid was broken and covered in cracks, with many blocks either shattered into dismal dust or missing. Four vast scars were tainting its immaculate surface, as if some unholy beast had torn through the eternal stone with titanic claws.

Above the scars was a narrow capstone.

But Sunny... he was not someone who could gaze upon it.

The moment he did, his soul convulsed in agony, and his consciousness shattered.

The time reversed its flow, but then stuttered and froze.

The time warped and screamed.

The silhouette of the black pyramid exploded into a myriad of lightless shards.

And then, Sunny was no more.

There was the sound of wind whistling in his ears.

He was falling.

Coming to his senses, still disoriented, he sighed.

'Here we go again...'

Before doing anything else, Sunny summoned the Essence Pearl...

The next moment, he hit the water.

'Ha! I just knew this would happen!'

Instead of thrashing wildly, he let his body sink and waited for the breathing Memory to manifest itself. At the same time, Sunny extended his shadow sense outward and tried to understand the nature of his surroundings.

...Water. Nothing but water.

'Well, that's strange. Wasn't I in the desert just a few moments ago?'

They entered the Nightmare through a giant block of black stone that lay between the dunes, half-buried in the sand. Since the Seed was in the desert, the Nightmare was also supposed to take place in the desert... unless the Spell had sent them in a past so distant that the desert itself did not exist yet, hidden at the bottom of a sea.

The thing, though, was that...

'That's... very strange.'

around him was not seawater. It was freshwater. If Sunny was so inclined, he could open his mouth and drink as much as he

'Huh.'

was certain. Sunny had already guessed it before, but after witnessing the Tomb of Ariel in the vision at the start of the Nightmare, he was now sure - the giant block of black stone was, in fact, one of the building blocks of the great pyramid. The unimaginable blow that had left four scars

had just happened to stumble upon one. Just

maybe they had just gotten

it was

In any case...

'Finally!'

also see again, not that

strong and turbulent one. Sunny felt himself being pulled

'Back to the surface.'

a little, he watched the direction in which the bubbles rose, and followed. This time, Sunny did not

Essence Pearl was held

surface of the water. Sunny looked around and frowned. Everything was covered in thick fog and suffused with somber twilight. He couldn't see far,

one consolation, it was that the mist seemed to be of a harmless, albeit somewhat mystical, kind. It was not the harrowing fog of the Hollow Mountains or

be thankful, I

But he did not.

Instead, Sunny felt... numb.

ordeal than the Nightmare Desert, but for now, at least, Sunny was safe - there were no Nightmare

so, able to relax for the first time since forever, Sunny suddenly felt utterly exhausted, deeply tired, drained of all feelings,

the water, and eventually noticed an unclear shape swaying on the waves some distance away,

of wood resting on the water. The piece of floating wood was flat and irregularly shaped, with jagged edges, like a broken fragment of a ship's hull. Most importantly, it was big

out of the water, Sunny climbed onto the slightly curved wooden raft and sprawled on it,

sky,

were slow and

anymore. That desert was a real nightmare. The Nightmare Desert... ah,

inside the Third

bizarre

Tomb of Ariel. Funnily enough, the cohort had failed to reach the real pyramid in the Dream Realm, but

well. Sunny had not seen the time flowing in reverse, as it was supposed to happen, so he had no idea where exactly he found himself, and

And lastly...

million challengers? What the hell was

Spell malfunctioned? There were not even a million Awakened in the whole world, let alone anywhere

was the

But Sunny...

think about all

going to have to explore the area first. Then, I'll start

inhaled and

***

later, Sunny was lulled to sleep by the

Not again!

capsize because of his sudden movement. The remnants of a dire nightmare were already disappearing from his memory, leaving behind only the

shivered slightly, then grimaced and rubbed his

having nightmares within a Nightmare. What a great damn start

stood up, clenching his fists, and

it! Curse

voice drowned in