Shadow Slave

Sunny had a nightmare again. Waking up in cold sweat, he couldn't remember what he had dreamt about, but was momentarily paralyzed by an overwhelming feeling of a... dark, dreadful, devouring obsession.

His mental state must have suffered a greater blow than he had thought, for him to keep suffering from repeated nightmares. Well... that was not an unreasonable result, considering what had happened during the Battle of the Black Skull and after.

'I should summon Nightmare and let him guard my sleep. He can subjugate a few of these dreams, too.'

As soon as Sunny thought that, he felt that something was wrong.

'Wh...'

In the next moment, the raft beneath him lurched, and then, the calming murmur of the flowing water suddenly turned into a deafening roar.

Sunny was thrown off the cool wooden surface and tossed into the depths. Feeling water surge into his mouth and nose, he cursed, swiftly sensed the surrounding space, and tried to find the familiar piece of flotsam... it was his only refuge in the mist, after all.

The raft was a few meters above him. Struggling against the current, Sunny swam upward. There was something strange, though... the previously dark expanse of water around him was now suffused with light, and the higher he reached, the brighter it became.

Finally, Sunny breached the surface and shut his eyes tightly, blinded by sunlight.

The ever-present mist... was gone.

Pushing his body against the current, Sunny swam toward his reliable raft, climbed onto the slick wood, and coughed out a mouthful of water. Then, he brushed his wet hair back and tentatively opened his eyes.

After days spent in the twilight of the ghostly mist, it took them a few seconds to adjust to the brightness of the day. Slowly, a breathtaking vista revealed itself from white radiance.

Sunny gasped slightly.

vast expanse of clear, sparkling water. Gentle sunlight reflected from its surface, making the whole

above, in the great firmament of the blue sky,

brightened as they gradually turned into a vast expanse of vibrant blue right above Sunny. Far to his left, another sun was drowning in the bloodred water, turning the world into a conflagration of fiery crimson

was at dusk. However, it was the middle

for a while, awed, then shifted

- there was nothing but water. No sign of the mist remained, as if it

he chose to call north, considering that the only rising of the seven suns

time taking in the strange, wondrous landscape of the Nightmare

me of

moments, wondering. Then, he took a deep

expanse of clear water... it reminded him of a Soul Sea. His own

were still and unmoving. His Soul Sea was also infinitely smaller. There were other differences,

seemed too eerily

Which posed a question...

hell

strange suns. It was a known fact that the sky, including the celestial bodies populating it, was not uniform across the different regions of

there was definitely nothing like that within the

that the desert was still the bottom of a sea. However, even that would not explain the strangeness of the

of Seed

atop the wooden raft again.

sight,

silently, then suddenly looked intently at the spot where the apparition was