Shadow Slave

The runes shimmered in the darkness, surrounded by still silence.

Hypnotized by them, Sunny read greedily:

Shadow: Nightmare.

Shadow Rank: Ascended.

Shadow Class: Terror.

Shadow Fragments: [0/300].

He had known what to expect, but seeing the word "Ascended" still filled him with excitement. At any other time, Sunny would have lingered, enjoying the view of the changed runes, but he was much more interested in something else right now.

His gaze slid lower.

Shadow Description: [This beautiful steed was tamed by the treacherous Lost From Light in the depths of a harrowing dream. The two Shadows battled across countless nightmares, shattering them all apart; neither was willing to give up, so in the end, the nightmares did.

Despite the excitement, memories of his dreadful battle with Nightmare made Sunny shiver.

Shadow Attributes: [Swift], [Dark Destrier], [Dreadlord], [Dreamwalker].

The Attributes were the same as before. His steed was swift, could travel through dreams, and grew stronger when feared or surrounded by shadows. Sunny's gaze finally settled on the string of runes that interested him the most...

Shadow Abilities: [Flowing Shadow], [Mantle of Fear], [Nightmare], [Dream Curse].

His eyes widened slightly.

The first two Abilities had not changed. [Flowing Shadow] allowed Nightmare to move through shadows with stunning speed, as well as become one of them. [Mantle of Fear] was a powerful mental attack that induced terror in those affected by it.

The second two Abilities, though... the runes describing them were different.

'It happened faster than I thought...'

The [Nightmare] Ability shared its name with the black stallion. At this moment, its description read:

and subjugate nightmares. The more nightmares serve it, the more powerful it grows, both inside and outside dreams. Dormant nightmares: 287 Awakened nightmares: 252 Ascended nightmares:

Sunny's eyes glinted darkly.

'It's a thousand.'

nature of the carriers of the Nightmare Spell, most of these dreams were also much more powerful than expected - to the point where his rise

even managed to find and defeat six nightmares belonging to Saints...

added a little to his power, just like

Much more importantly...

lightless before, were finally glowing with

army of a thousand nightmares, his Shadow was finally a true

heart, Sunny concentrated on the newly awakened runes

their souls in a labyrinth of nightmares. The souls destroyed within the nightmare maze feed the Shadow; the more

stared at the runes, suddenly chilled to

"How curious..."

shaken so much that he uttered

hoof! Uh... I'm sorry to say this, my lord... but you might

for a moment, then turned his head and stared at Cronos

'Right. He's still here.'

concentrated fully

referring to how similar an Ability of my steed is... to some other things. He

him with doubt, but Sunny

'Maze of nightmares...'

truly an insidious and dreadful Ability, one worthy of a Terror. Sunny could easily imagine the Dream Curse slowly spreading to swallow this entire city... people falling asleep one after another, until there was no one left awake. All of them dying, their

the

happened if he had broken down and given up? His soul would have been torn apart by the torment of

dream labyrinth... and the fact

all, Sunny had broken free of it by destroying each and every one of the dreadful dreams. It had not spread to all the Kingdom of Hope,

though, that reach would have become greater. Who knew how far the Dream Curse would be

cold. Why would he? The power of

the Spell used

'A lesser dream domain...'

like something he had encountered

other without the risk of injury. Awakened used the public arenas for training, but there were private ones established for the government forces and the Legacy clans, as

dream domain, as well? That would certainly make