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

'Huh.'

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 into

just happened to stumble upon one. Just as

had just

maybe it was

In any case...

'Finally!'

itself from sparks of ethereal light, and Sunny could breathe again. He could also see again, not

a current, too... a strong and turbulent one. Sunny felt himself being pulled

'Back to the surface.'

out a little, he watched the direction in which the bubbles rose, and followed. This time, Sunny did not have to panic and worry

was held safely in his

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 his shadow sense seemed to be dulled by

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

should be thankful,

But he did not.

Instead, Sunny felt... numb.

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 no Nightmare Creatures in the

Sunny suddenly felt utterly exhausted, deeply tired, drained

swaying on the waves some distance away, hidden by the mist. With nothing better to do, Sunny

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 ship's hull. Most importantly, it was

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

was no sky,

thoughts were slow and

was a real

now inside

bizarre one,

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

it was supposed to happen, so he had no idea where exactly he found

And lastly...

challengers? What the

There were not even a million Awakened in the

was the strangest

But Sunny...

to think about all that

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

he slowly inhaled and closed

***

lulled to sleep by the gentle swaying of the

no! Not

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

slightly, then grimaced and rubbed his

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

anger, he stood up, clenching his fists,

it! Curse

hoarse voice drowned in the