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 freshwater. If Sunny was so inclined, he could open

'Huh.'

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.

Just as

maybe they had just

maybe it

In any case...

'Finally!'

finished weaving itself from sparks of ethereal light, and Sunny could breathe again. He could also see

a strong and turbulent one. Sunny felt himself being pulled by it, unable to

'Back to the surface.'

which the bubbles rose, and followed. This time, Sunny did not have to panic and worry

Essence Pearl was held safely

head 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

harmless, albeit somewhat mystical, kind. It was not the harrowing fog of the Hollow Mountains

should be

But he did not.

Instead, Sunny felt... numb.

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

to relax for the first time since forever, Sunny suddenly

swaying on the waves some distance

minute later, he reached a large piece 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

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

no sky, only

were

That desert was a real nightmare.

now inside the Third

exceedingly bizarre one, at

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

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 to do

And lastly...

million challengers? What

not even a million Awakened in the whole world, let alone anywhere near the Nightmare

the

But Sunny...

too tired to think

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

he slowly inhaled and

***

later, Sunny was lulled to sleep by the gentle swaying

no! Not again!

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

shivered slightly, then grimaced and rubbed

the hell... now I'm having nightmares within a Nightmare.

by anger, he stood up,

Curse

hoarse voice drowned in the