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.'

cool water around him was not seawater. It was freshwater. If Sunny was so inclined, he could

'Huh.'

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 on the surface of the

Mordret had just happened to stumble upon one. Just as

they had just gotten

it was

In any case...

'Finally!'

breathe again. He could also see again, not that it was of any use - in any direction he looked, there

was a current, too... a strong and turbulent one.

'Back to the surface.'

and followed. This time, Sunny did not have to panic and worry about

Pearl was held

later, his head broke the surface of the water. Sunny looked around and frowned. Everything was covered in thick fog and

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

should be

But he did not.

Instead, Sunny felt... numb.

since the start of the Battle of the Black Skull. The Third Nightmare was in no way less of an ordeal than the Nightmare Desert, but for now, at least, Sunny was safe - there were no Nightmare

the first time since forever, Sunny

the waves some distance away, hidden by the mist. With nothing better

irregularly shaped, with jagged edges, like a broken

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

sky,

were slow

was a real nightmare. The Nightmare Desert... ah, what a fitting

inside the

an exceedingly bizarre one,

Ariel. Funnily enough, the cohort had failed to reach the real pyramid in the Dream Realm, but still ended up

the Nightmare was highly unusual, as 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 had no hint of what he needed

And lastly...

What

There were not even a million Awakened in the whole world,

was the

But Sunny...

think

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

he slowly inhaled and closed his

***

few moments later, Sunny was lulled to sleep

no! Not

up with a yell and cursed, feeling his wooden shelter lurch and almost capsize because of his sudden movement. The remnants of a dire nightmare were already disappearing from his memory, leaving behind only the

grimaced and rubbed

a Nightmare. What a

stood

it! Curse

drowned in the