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.'

so inclined, he could open his mouth and drink as much as he wanted.

'Huh.'

the Nightmare, he was now sure - the giant block of black stone was, in fact, one of the building blocks of the great

one. Just as expected, the Prince of Nothing had ulterior

they had

maybe it was

In any case...

'Finally!'

could also see again,

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

'Back to the surface.'

rose, and followed. This time, Sunny did not have to panic and worry about drowning, since he had come

Essence Pearl was held safely in

broke the 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, and even

that the mist seemed to be of a harmless, albeit somewhat mystical, kind.

be

But he did not.

Instead, Sunny felt... numb.

state of tension 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

time since forever, Sunny suddenly felt utterly exhausted, deeply tired, drained of all feelings, and

spun in the water, and eventually noticed an unclear shape swaying on the waves some distance away, hidden by the mist. With nothing better to do, Sunny started to swim in

of floating wood was flat and irregularly shaped, with jagged edges, like a broken

body out of the water, Sunny climbed onto the slightly curved wooden

sky, only swirling

were slow

least it's not so terribly hot anymore. That desert was a real nightmare. The Nightmare Desert... ah, what

inside

an exceedingly bizarre one, at

to reach the

flowing in reverse, as it was supposed to happen, so he had no idea where exactly he found

And lastly...

million challengers? What the

There were not even a million Awakened in the whole

the strangest

But Sunny...

was too tired to think about all that

area first. Then, I'll start searching for the

that, he slowly inhaled and

***

Sunny was lulled to sleep by

no! Not

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

shivered slightly, then grimaced and rubbed

within a Nightmare. What a great damn

consumed by anger, he stood up, clenching

it! Curse

hoarse voice drowned