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.'

he could open his mouth and drink as

'Huh.'

of black stone was, in fact, one of the building blocks of the great pyramid. The unimaginable blow

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

maybe they had

it

In any case...

'Finally!'

Pearl finished weaving itself from sparks of ethereal light, and Sunny could breathe again. He could also see again, not that it was of any use

a strong and turbulent one. Sunny felt himself being pulled

'Back to the surface.'

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

Essence Pearl was held safely in his

looked around and frowned. Everything was covered in thick fog and suffused with somber twilight. He couldn't see far, and even his shadow sense seemed to

harmless, albeit somewhat mystical,

should be thankful,

But he did not.

Instead, Sunny felt... numb.

a constant 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

since forever, Sunny suddenly felt utterly exhausted, deeply tired, drained

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

water. The piece of floating wood was flat and irregularly shaped, with jagged edges, like a broken fragment of a ship's hull.

onto the slightly curved wooden raft and sprawled on it,

was no sky, only

thoughts were slow

desert was a real nightmare.

inside

an exceedingly bizarre

cohort had failed to reach the real pyramid in the Dream Realm, but still ended up brushing against the illusory

so he

And lastly...

challengers? What the hell

million Awakened in the whole world, let alone anywhere near

was the strangest

But Sunny...

to think about all that right

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

inhaled and closed his

***

Sunny was lulled to sleep by the gentle swaying of

no! Not

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

then grimaced

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

consumed by anger, he stood up, clenching his

it! Curse

voice drowned in