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.'

was not seawater. It was freshwater. If Sunny was so inclined, he could open his mouth

'Huh.'

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 on the surface of the daemon's tomb must have sent quite a few of them flying far away

to stumble upon one. Just as expected, the Prince of Nothing had

maybe they had

maybe it was

In any case...

'Finally!'

and Sunny could breathe again. He could also see again, not that it was of any use - in any direction he looked, there was nothing but clear

turbulent one. Sunny felt himself being pulled

'Back to the surface.'

which the bubbles rose, and followed. This time, Sunny

Essence Pearl was held safely in

covered in thick fog and

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

be

But he did not.

Instead, Sunny felt... numb.

was in no way less of an ordeal than

since forever, Sunny suddenly felt utterly exhausted,

he slowly spun in the water, and eventually noticed an unclear shape swaying on the waves some distance away, hidden by the mist. With nothing better

and irregularly shaped, with jagged edges, like a broken fragment of a ship's hull. Most importantly, it was big enough for Sunny to climb on, with plenty of room

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

no sky, only

were

terribly hot anymore. That desert was a real

now inside the Third

an exceedingly bizarre one,

Nightmare was the Tomb of Ariel. Funnily enough, the cohort had failed to reach the real pyramid in the Dream Realm, but still ended up brushing against the illusory copy of

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

And lastly...

million challengers? What the hell

were not even a million Awakened in the

was the strangest

But Sunny...

was too tired to think about all

I'll start searching for the

slowly inhaled

***

was lulled to

no! Not again!

and cursed, feeling his wooden shelter lurch and almost capsize because of his sudden movement. The remnants

slightly, then grimaced

nightmares within a

anger, he stood up,

Curse

voice drowned in