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.

front of him, as far as the eye could see, was a vast expanse of clear, sparkling water. Gentle sunlight reflected from its surface,

firmament of the blue sky, seven suns were

of soft lilac. The colors of dawn slowly brightened as they gradually turned into a vast

horizon was at dawn, and the western horizon was at dusk. However, it was

a while, awed, then shifted slightly

but water. No sign of

considering that the only rising of the seven suns was to his right. It was

the strange, wondrous

me of

wondering. Then, he took

water... it reminded him of a Soul Sea. His own would have been similar, if he had radiant soul cores instead of

were still and unmoving. His Soul Sea was also

front of him seemed

Which posed a question...

hell am

There was no black pyramid, either. All Sunny could see was the bright water and the seven strange suns. It was a known fact that the sky, including the celestial bodies populating it, was not uniform across the different regions of the Dream Realm... still, he was pretty sure that he had never been anywhere near a place

there was definitely nothing like that within the

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

of Seed did

of the water to stand atop the wooden raft again. He

sight,

suddenly looked intently at the spot where the