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Chapter 1 Nightmare Begins
A frail-looking young man with pale skin and dark circles under his eyes was sitting on a rusty bench across from the police station. He was cradling a cup of coffee in his hands — not the cheap synthetic type slum rats like him had access to, but the real deal. This cup of plant-based coffee, usually available only to higher rank citizens, had cost most of his savings. But on this particular day, Sunny decided to pamper himself.
After all, his life was coming to an end.
Enjoying the warmth of the luxurious drink, he raised the cup and savored the aroma. Then, tentatively, he took a small sip… and immediately grimaced.
"Ah! So bitter!"
Giving the cup of coffee an intense look, Sunny sighed and forced himself to drink some more. Bitter or not, he was determined to get his money's worth — taste buds be d.a.m.ned.
"I should have bought a piece of real meat instead. Who knew actual coffee is so disgusting? Well. It's going to keep me awake, at least."
He stared into the distance, dozing off, and then slapped himself in the face to wake up.
"Tsk. What a rip-off."
Shaking his head and cursing, Sunny finished the coffee and stood up. Rich people living in this part of the city were rushing past the small park on their way to work, staring at him with strange expressions. Looking haggard in his cheap clothes and from the lack of sleep, unhealthily thin and pale, Sunny was indeed out of his place here. Also, everyone seemed so tall. Watching them with a bit of envy, he tossed the cup into a garbage bin.
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"I guess that's what three full meals a day would do to you."
The cup missed the bin by a wide margin and fell on the ground. Sunny rolled his eyes in exasperation, walked over and picked it up before carefully putting it in the trash. Then, with a slight grin, he crossed the street and entered the police station.
Inside, a tired-looking officer gave him a quick glance and frowned with obvious distaste.
"Are you lost, boy?"
Sunny looked around with curiosity, noting reinforced armor plates on the walls and poorly hidden turret nests in the ceiling. The officer, too, looked scruffy and mean. At least police stations remained the same wherever you go.
"Hey! I'm talking to you!"
Sunny cleared his throat.
"Uh, no."
Then he scratched the back of his head and added:
"As demanded by the Third Special Directive, I am here to surrender myself as a carrier of the Nightmare Spell."
The officer's expression instantly changed from irritated to wary. He looked the young man over once again, this time with piercing intensity.
"Are you sure you are infected? When did you start showing symptoms?"
Sunny shrugged.
"A week ago?"
The officer became visibly paler.
"s.h.i.t."
Then, with a hurried motion, he pressed a b.u.t.ton on his terminal and bellowed:
"Attention! Code Black in the lobby! I repeat! CODE BLACK!"
\*\*\*
The Nightmare Spell first appeared in the world a few decades ago. Back then, the planet was just starting to recover from a series of devastating natural disasters and subsequent resource wars.
At first, the emergence of a new disease that caused millions of people to complain about constant fatigue and sleepiness did not attract a lot of attention. But when they started to fall into an unnatural slumber, with no sign of waking up even days later, governments finally panicked. Of course, by then it was already too late — not that an early response could have made any difference.
When the infected started dying in their sleep, their dead bodies turning into monsters, no one was ready. Nightmare Creatures quickly overwhelmed national militaries, plunging the world into complete chaos.
No one knew what the Spell was, what powers it possessed, and how to fight it.
In the end, it was the Awakened — those who survived the first trials of the Spell and came back alive — who put a stop to its rampage. Armed with miraculous abilities earned in their Nightmares, they restored peace and created a semblance of a new order.
Of course, it was only the first of the catastrophes brought upon by the Spell. But as far as Sunny was concerned, none of it had anything to do with him — not until a few days ago, that is, when he first started having trouble with staying awake.
For an average person, being chosen by the Spell was as much of a risk as an opportunity. Kids learned survival skills and fighting techniques in school, on the off chance of being infected. Well-to-do families hired private tutors to train their children in all sorts of martial arts. Those from the Awakened clans even had access to powerful legacies, wielding inherited Memories and Echoes in their first visit to the Dream Realm.
The richer your family was, the better your chances of surviving and becoming an Awakened were.
But for Sunny, who had no family to speak of and spent most of his time scrounging for food instead of going to school, being chosen by the Spell presented no opportunity at all. To him, it was basically a death sentence.
\*\*\*
A few minutes later, Sunny was yawning while several policemen were busy putting him in restraints. Soon he was fastened into a bulky chair that looked like a weird mix between a hospital bed and a torture device. The room they were in was situated in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the police station, with thick armored walls and a formidable-looking vault door. Other officers were standing near the walls, with automatic rifles in their hands and grim expressions on their faces.
Sunny did not particularly care about them. The only thing he could think about was how much he wanted to sleep.
Finally, the vault door opened, and a gray-haired policeman walked in. He had a seasoned face and stern eyes, looking like someone who had seen a lot of terrible things in his life. After checking the restraints, the policeman glanced quickly on his wrist.w.a.tch and then turned to Sunny:
"What's your name, kid?"
Sunny blinked a few times, trying to concentrate, then shifted uncomfortably.
"Sunless."
The old policeman raised an eyebrow.
"Sunless? That's a strange name."
Sunny tried to shrug, but found himself unable to move.
"What's so strange about it? At least I have a name. Back in the outskirts, not everyone even gets one."
After another yawn, he added:
"It's because I was born during a solar eclipse. My mom had a poetic soul, you see."
That's why he got this weird-a.s.s name and his little sister was called Rain… back when she still lived with them, at least. Whether it was the result of poetic imagination or simple laziness, he did not know.
The old policeman grunted.
"Do you want me to contact your family?"
Sunny simply shook his head.
"There's no one. Don't bother."
For a second, there was a dark look on the policeman's face. Then his expression turned serious.
"Alright, Sunless. How long can you stay awake?"
"Uh… not long."
The policeman sighed.
"Then we don't have time for the full procedure. Try to resist for as long as you can and listen to me very carefully. Okay?"
Not waiting for a response, he added:
"How much do you know about the Nightmare Spell?"
Sunny gave him a questioning look.
"As much as anyone, I guess? Who doesn't know about the Spell?"
"Not the fancy stuff you see in dramas and hear in the propaganda broadcasts. I mean how much do you really know?"
That was a hard question to answer.
"Don't I just go into the Dream Realm, kill a few monsters to complete the First Nightmare, receive magic powers and become an Awakened?"
The old policeman shook his head.
"Listen carefully. Once you fall asleep, you will be transported inside your First Nightmare. Nightmares are trials created by the Spell. Once inside, you will meet monsters, sure, but you will also meet people. Remember: they are not real. They're just illusions conjured up to test you."
"How do you know?"
The policeman just stared at him.
"I mean, no one understands what the Spell is and how it works, right? So how do you know that they're not real?"
"You might have to kill them, kid. So do yourself a favor and just think about them as illusions."
"Oh."
The old policeman waited for a second, then nodded and continued.
"A lot of things about the First Nightmare depend on luck. Generally, it shouldn't be overwhelmingly hard. The situation you're in, the tools you have at your disposal and the creatures you have to defeat should be within the range of your abilities, at least. After all, the Spell sets up trials, not executions. You're a bit disadvantaged due to… well… your circ.u.mstances. But kids from the outskirts are tough. Don't give up on yourself just yet."
"Uh-uh."
Sunny was getting more and more sleepy. It was becoming hard to follow the conversation.
"About those "magic powers" you mentioned… you will indeed receive them if you survive until the end of the Nightmare. What those powers will be, exactly, depends on your natural affinity as well what you do during the trial. But some of it will be at your disposal right from the start…"
The voice of the old policeman sounded more and more distant. Sunny's eyelids were so heavy that he was struggling to keep his eyes open.
"Remember: the first thing you must do once inside the Nightmare is to check your Attributes and your Aspect. If you get a combat-oriented Aspect, something like a Swordsman or an Archer, things will be easier. If it is reinforced by a physical Attribute, then that's even better. Combat Aspects are the most common, so the probability of receiving one is high."
The armored room was growing dimmer.
"If you're unlucky and your Aspect has nothing to do with combat, don't despair. Sorcery and utility Aspects are useful in their own ways, you'll just have to be smart about it. There are really no useless Aspects. Well, almost. So just do anything in your power to survive."
"If you survive, you will be halfway to becoming an Awakened. But if you die, you'll open a gate for a Nightmare Creature to appear in the real world. Which means that my colleagues and I will have to deal with it. So… please don't die, Sunless."
Already half-asleep, Sunny felt a bit touched by the policeman's words.
"Or, at least, try to not die right away. The nearest Awakened won't be able to get here for a few hours, so we would really appreciate it if you don't make us fight that thing ourselves…"
'What?'
With that last thought, Sunny finally slipped into a deep slumber.
Everything became black.
And then, in the darkness, a faintly familiar voice rang:
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
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2
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Chapter 2 Slave Caravan
Sunny dreamt of a mountain.
Jagged and lonesome, it dwarfed other peaks of the mountain chain, cutting the night sky with its sharp edges. A radiant moon bathed its slopes in the ghostly, pale light.
On one of the slopes, the remnants of an old road stubbornly clung to the rocks. Here and there, weathered paved stones could be seen through the snow. To the right side of the road, a sheer cliff face rose as an impregnable wall. To the left, a silent black sea of nothingness indicated an endless fall. Strong winds crashed into the mountain over and over again, screaming in powerless rage.
Suddenly, the moon fell over the horizon. The sun rose from the west, streaked across the sky and disappeared in the east. Snowflakes jumped from the ground and returned into the embrace of clouds. Sunny realized that he was seeing the flow of time in reverse.
In an instant, hundreds of years flew by. The snow retreated, baring the old road. Cold shivers ran down Sunny's back as he noticed human bones littering the ground. A moment later, the bones were gone, and in their place, a slave caravan appeared, moving backwards down the mountain in the clamor of chains.
Time slowed, stopped, and then resumed its usual pace.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
'What… what the h.e.l.l is this?'
Step. Step. Another step.
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A dull ache was radiating through Sunny's bleeding feet as he was shivering from cold. His threadbare tunic was nearly useless against the biting wind. His wrists were the main source of agony: badly hurt by the iron shackles, they sent a sharp pang of pain every time the freezing metal touched his broken skin.
'What kind of a situation is this?!'
Sunny looked up and down, noticing a long chain winding up the road, with dozens and dozens of hollow-eyed people — slaves just like him — shackled to it at small intervals. Ahead of him, a man with broad shoulders and a bloodied back was walking with a measured gait. Behind him, a shifty-looking guy with quick, desperate eyes was quietly cursing under his breath in a language that Sunny did not know, but somehow still understood. From time to time, armed hors.e.m.e.n in ancient-style armor would pa.s.s by, giving the slaves menacing looks.
However you judged it, things were really bad.
Sunny was more bewildered than panicked. True, these circ.u.mstances were not like what the First Nightmares were supposed to be. Usually, freshly chosen aspirants would find themselves in a scenario that presented them with a fair amount of agency: they would become members of privileged or warrior casts, with plenty of access to necessary weapons to at least try to tackle any conflict.
Starting out as a powerless slave, shackled and already half-dead, was as far from being ideal as one could imagine.
However, the Spell was as much about challenge as it was about balance. As the old policeman said, it created trials, not executions. So Sunny was pretty sure that, to counter this abysmal start, it would reward him with something good. A powerful Aspect, at least.
'Let's see… how do I do this?'
Remembering popular webtoons he read as a child, Sunny concentrated and thought about words like "status", "myself" and "information". Indeed, as soon as he focused, shimmering runes appeared in the air in front of him. Once again, although he did not know this ancient alphabet, the meaning behind it was somehow clear.
He quickly found the rune describing his Aspect… and, finally, lost his composure.
'What?! What the actual f.u.c.k?!'
\*\*\*
Name: Sunless.
True Name: —
Rank: Aspirant.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Memories: —
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Fated], [Mark of Divinity], [Child of Shadows].
Aspect: [Temple Slave].
Aspect Description: [Slave is a useless wretch with no skills or abilities worth a mention. A temple slave is just the same, except much rarer.]
Speechless, Sunny stared at the runes, trying to convince himself that he was maybe just seeing things. Surely, he couldn't be that unlucky… right?
'No useless Aspects my a.s.s!'
As soon as this thought appeared in his mind, he lost the rhythm of his steps and stumbled, pulling the chain down with his weight. Immediately, the shifty guy behind him screamed:
"Wh.o.r.e's b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Watch where you're going!"
Sunny hurriedly dismissed the runes, which were only visible to him, and tried to recover his balance. A moment later, he was once again walking steadily — however, not before inadvertently pulling on the chain one more time.
"You little s.h.i.t! I'm going to kill you!"
The broad-shouldered man in front of Sunny chuckled without turning his head.
"Why bother? The weakling will be dead by sunrise anyway. The mountain will kill him."
A few seconds later, he added:
"It'll kill you and me, too. Just a bit later. I really don't know what the Imperials are thinking, forcing us into this cold."
The shifty guy gasped.
"Speak for yourself, fool! I'm planning to survive!"
Sunny silently shook his head and concentrated on not falling again.
'What a charming pair.'
Suddenly, a third voice joined the conversation from somewhere further back. This one sounded gentle and intelligent.
"This mountain pa.s.s is usually much warmer this time of year. We just had really bad luck. Also, I would advise you against harming this boy."
"Why is that?"
Sunny turned his head slightly, listening.
"Haven't you seen the markings on his skin? He is not like us, who fell into slavery due to debts, crimes or misfortune. He was born a slave. A temple slave, to be precise. Not long ago, the Imperials destroyed the last temple of the Shadow G.o.d. I suspect that this is how the boy ended up here."
The broad-shouldered man cast a look back.
"So what? Why should we be afraid of a half-forgotten, weakling G.o.d? He couldn't even save his own temples."
"The Empire is protected by the mighty War G.o.d. Of course they're not afraid to burn down a few temples. But we here are not protected by anything or anyone. Do you really want to risk angering a G.o.d?"
The broad-shouldered man grunted, not willing to answer.
Their conversation was stopped by a young soldier riding a beautiful, white horse. Clad in a simple leather cuira.s.s, armed with a spear and a short sword, he looked dignified and n.o.ble. To Sunny's irritation, the a.s.shole was really pretty, too. If this was a historical drama, the soldier would definitely be a male lead.
"What is going on here?"
There was no particular menace in his voice, even something resembling concern.
When everyone hesitated, the gentle-voiced slave answered:
"It's nothing, sir. We are just all tired and cold. Especially our young friend over there. This journey is truly too hard for someone that young."
The soldier looked at Sunny with pity.
'What are you looking at? You're not much older than me!' Sunny thought.
Of course, he didn't say anything out loud.
The soldier sighed and took a flask from his belt before extending it to Sunny.
"Bear with it a little more, child. We will stop for the night soon. For now, here, drink some water."
'Child? Child?!'
Due to his thin body and small stature, both caused by malnourishment, Sunny was often mistaken for someone younger. Usually, he didn't hesitate to use it to his advantage, but now, for some reason, being called a child really irked him.
Still, he was really thirsty.
He was just about to take the flask when a whip cracked in the air, and suddenly Sunny was in a world of pain. He stumbled, once again pulling on the chain and causing the shifty slave behind him to curse.
Another soldier, this one older and angrier, stopped his horse a few steps back. The whip that sliced the back of Sunny's tunic open and drew blood belonged to him. Without even glancing at the slaves, the older soldier pierced his younger colleague with a disdainful glare.
"What do you think you're doing?"
The young soldier's face darkened.
"I was just giving this boy some water."
"He'll receive water with the rest of them once we camp!"
"But…"
"Shut your mouth! These slaves are not your friends. Understood? They're not even people. Treat them like people and they'll begin imagining things."
The young soldier looked at Sunny, then lowered his head and put the flask back on his belt.
"Don't let me catch you making friends with slaves again, newbie. Or next time it will be your back tasting my whip!"
As if to ill.u.s.trate his intention, the older soldier cracked his whip in the air and rode past them, radiating threat and anger. Sunny watched him go with well-concealed malice.
'I don't know how, but I will watch you die first.'
Then he turned his head and glanced in the direction of the younger soldier, who was falling behind with his head still lowered.
'And you, second.'
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3
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Chapter 3 The Strings Of Fate
For a few minutes after that, Sunny was in a dark mood. But then he pulled himself out of it and inhaled deeply, trying to enjoy the fresh air. Indeed, air like that was hard to come by in the real world: micro dust and other pollutants made it rough and unpleasant, not to mention the general stench of the outskirts. In the better parts of the city, sophisticated filtration systems worked diligently — however, filtrated air tasted sterile and stagnant. Only the very rich had access to truly pleasant breathing.
And here he was, able to enjoy an unlimited amount of pristine, delicious air like a second-generation chaebol.
'Truly, being chosen by the Spell has its benefits.'
If only there was no dreadful cold, his feet did not ache, and his wrists and back were not in agony!
The slave caravan slowly dragged itself up the mountain, with more and more slaves stumbling and periodically falling to the ground. A couple of times, those who could not walk anymore were taken off the chain and unceremoniously tossed off the road, down into the abyss that loomed to the left of it. Sunny watched them fall with a bit of compa.s.sion.
'Poor fellows. Rest in peace, you pitiful souls.'
All in all, he was in good spirits.
It was a bit strange to feel good amidst this disaster of a Nightmare, but, thankfully, Sunny had time to prepare himself for this eventuality. When the symptoms of the Spell first appeared, he did not handle it well. Dying before you even turn seventeen was not something one could easily cope with.
But, in the end, it only took Sunny several days to come to terms with it. After visiting his parents' makeshift resting place — well, actually, since he was too poor to afford even the cheapest slot in the remembrance facility, it was just two lines carved into an old tree — and adding a third line for himself, Sunny suddenly became relaxed and carefree.
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After all, he didn't have to worry about earning money, finding food, protecting himself and planning for the future anymore. Once the worst that could happen had already happened, what else was there to fear?
So, becoming a slave and slowly freezing to death was not that much of a shock.
Besides, he knew that cold would not kill him — simply because he had already seen what fate was awaiting the caravan further up the mountain. The picture of piled bones littering the ground was still fresh in his mind. Most likely, it was a pack of monsters that were going to do the caravan in… and by the look of it, the attack was going to take place in a matter of hours, not days.
So he still had a chance.
Using the opportunity, Sunny decided to take another look at his status and summoned the runes again. The last time he was too outraged by the Aspect and didn't study the Attributes well. While not as important as one's Aspect, the Attributes were often the deciding factor between life and death. They represented one's natural traits and affinities, sometimes even providing pa.s.sive abilities and effects.
[Fated] Attribute Description: "The strings of fate wrap tightly around you. Unlikely events, both good and bad, are drawn by your presence. There are those who are blessed, and there are those who are cursed… but rarely both."
[Mark of Divinity] Attribute Description: "You bear a faint scent of divinity, as though someone briefly touched by it once, a long time ago."
[Child of Shadows] Attribute Description: "Shadows recognize you as one of their own."
'Hmmm… Interesting.'
Sunny quickly recognized the first attribute, [Fated], as the main culprit of his predicament. At first glance, it seemed to indicate that he was destined for a certain fate — to die miserably and vanish without a trace, for example. But after reading the description, he realized that being fated actually just meant that improbable things had a higher chance of occurring when he was around.
'I guess this is how I managed to receive one of the super rare useless Aspects — and a weird variant of it, at that!'
If [Fated] was his innate Attribute, then the other two came from the [Temple Slave] Aspect. [Mark of Divinity] was more a less straightforward — it was supposed to allow pa.s.sage into certain sacred places inside the Dream Realm and enhance several types of sorcery. Since there were no sacred places in sight and Sunny's Aspect had nothing to do with sorcery, it was useless, too.
[Child of Shadows] was a stranger one. He had never heard of it and had no idea what it was supposed to do — at least not until the sun hid behind the mountain and the sky began to darken. To his surprise, Sunny found himself able to see perfectly in the darkness, as though it was still as bright as day. This ability alone was nothing to scoff at, and it was quite possible that shadows would reward him with some other, yet unknown, gifts.
'Finally something good. I wonder if…'
"Stop the caravan! Prepare to camp!"
Following the head soldier's order, the slaves stopped and fell to the ground, shivering and exhausted. The small clearing where the road widened was somewhat protected from the wind by a protruding ma.s.s of rock, but it was still too cold to rest with ease.
The soldiers got busy herding the slaves into a tight circle, forcing them to share warmth, and lighting up a large bonfire in the center of the camp — although not before tending to their horses. The heavy wagon carrying food, water and other cargo, to which the main chain was firmly affixed, was pushed forward to block the wind. While looking around, Sunny noticed the young soldier from before watching the mountain with a complicated look on his face.
'What a weirdo.'
Soon, the bonfire was blazing. The stronger slaves tried to find their way closer to the fire, while the weaker ones, like Sunny, were forced to sit at the outer end of the circle, with their backs freezing in the cold. Of course, any movement was enc.u.mbered by the fact that they were still shackled to the chain. That's why the familiar broad-shouldered slave ended up just where he started despite all of his efforts to get closer to the flame.
"d.a.m.n Imperials!" he hissed, clearly irritated.
The soldiers walked among the slaves, giving them water and food. Sunny, just like everybody else, received a few sips of icy water and a small piece of rock-hard, moldy bread. Despite its unappetizing look, he forced himself to eat the whole thing, just to be left as hungry as he was before.
By the looks of it, he wasn't the only one.
The shifty slave that had been walking behind him looked around in anguish.
"By all the G.o.ds, they used to feed me better even in the dungeons!"
He spat on the ground, desperate.
"And most of us innocent men in the dungeon were there waiting to visit the gallows, too!"
A few steps away from them, where the paved road ended and sharp rocks began, a scattering of bright-red berries were growing from the snow. Sunny had noticed them before, cl.u.s.tering here and there along the road, and even noted how pretty those resilient things looked contrasted against the white. The shifty slave's eyes glistened as he tried to crawl towards the berries on all fours.
"I would advise against eating those, friend."
It was the gentle-voiced slave again. Sunny turned around and finally saw him in the flesh for the first time. It was a tall man in his forties, lean and strangely handsome, with a dignified look of a scholar. How a man such as him ended up a slave was a mystery. Yet there he was.
"You and your advice again! What?! Why?!"
The scholar smiled apologetically.
"These berries are called Bloodbane. They grow in the places where human blood was spilled. That's why there's always a lot of them along the slave trade routes."
"So what?"
The older man sighed.
"Bloodbane is poisonous. A few berries might be enough to kill an adult man."
"Curses!"
The shifty slave flinched back and glared at the scholar.
Sunny did not pay them a lot of attention.
Because, while looking around, he finally recognized the site of the camp as the place where, in his vision at the start of the Nightmare, the bones of the slaves were buried under the snow. And he was willing to bet that whatever it was that killed them all was going to happen soon.
As if to answer his thoughts, a thundering noise rang from above.
And in the next second, something ma.s.sive came crashing from the sky…
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4
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Chapter 4 Mountain King
Turning in the direction of the thundering noise, many slaves rose their heads — only to see rocks and heavy shards of ice raining on them from above. They instantly panicked, lurching away in a cacophony of screams. Shadows happily danced on black stones as, entangled by the thick chain, those slaves fell to the ground and pulled others with them.
Sunny was one of the few that remained upright, mostly because he was ready for something like this to happen. Calm and collected, he gazed at the night sky, his Attribute-enhanced eyes piercing the darkness, and took one measured step back. In the next second, a piece of ice the size of a man's torso hit the ground right in front of him and exploded, showering everything around with sharp shards.
Others weren't that quick. As ice and stones continued to rain, many were wounded, and a few even lost their lives. Agonizing wails filled the air.
"On your feet, fools! Get to the wall!"
The veteran soldier — the one who had whipped Sunny a few hours before — was shouting angrily, trying to get the slaves to move towards the relative safety of the mountain slope. However, before anyone could heed his command, something ma.s.sive came crashing down, sending a tremor through the stones beneath their feet. It fell right between the caravan and the mountain wall, plunging everything into silence for a few seconds.
At first, it looked like a lump of dirty snow, roughly round in shape and as tall as a mounted horseman. However, once the creature unfurled its long limbs and rose, it towered over the stone platform like a nightmarish omen of death.
'That thing must be at least four meters tall,' Sunny thought, a bit stunned.
The creature had two stumpy legs, an emaciated, hunched torso and disproportionately long, multijointed hands — two of them, each ending with a set of horrifying bone claws, and another two, these ones shorter, ending with almost human-like fingers. The thing that at first glance looked like dirty snow turned out to be its fur, yellowish-grey and ragged, thick enough to stop arrows and swords.
On its head, five milky, white eyes regarded the slaves with insect-like indifference. Beneath them, a terrible maw crowding with razor-sharp teeth was half-open, as though in antic.i.p.ation. Viscous drool was running down the creature's chin and dripping into the snow.
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What unnerved Sunny the most, though, were the strange shapes endlessly moving, worm-like, under the creature's skin. He could see them clearly because, unfortunately, he was one of those unlucky souls closest to the monstrosity, getting a nauseating first-row view.
'Well, that is just… too much,' he thought, stupefied.
As soon as Sunny finished that thought, all h.e.l.l broke loose. The creature moved, slashing its claws in his general direction. But Sunny was one step ahead: without wasting a single moment, he jumped sideways — as far as the chain allowed — conveniently placing the broad-shouldered slave between himself and the monster.
His quick reaction saved his life, as those sharp claws, each as long as a sword, sliced through the broad-shouldered man a fraction of a second later and sent streams of blood flying through the air. Drenched in the hot liquid, Sunny hit the ground, and his fellow slave — now simply a corpse — fell on him from above.
'd.a.m.n! Why are you so heavy!'
Temporarily blinded, Sunny heard a chilling howl and felt an enormous shadow pa.s.sing over him. Immediately after, a deafening chorus of screams filled the night. Not paying it any attention, he tried to roll the corpse to the side, but was stopped by a forceful lurch of the chain that twisted his wrists and filled his mind with white-hot pain. Disoriented, he felt himself being dragged a few steps, but then the chain suddenly slackened, and he was able to control his hands again.
'See, things could have been worse…'
Putting his palms against the dead man's chest, he pushed with all the strength he had. The heavy corpse stubbornly resisted all his attempts, but then finally fell sideways, setting Sunny free. However, he didn't get to celebrate this newly found freedom, as his blood suddenly turned to ice.
Because at that moment, with his palms still pressed against the broad-shouldered slave's bleeding body, he clearly felt something wriggling under the dead man's skin.
'You just had to think about how things could get worse, right, you idiot?' he thought, and then flinched back.
Pushing the corpse with his legs, Sunny crawled as far away from it as he could — which was about a meter and a half, thanks to the ever-present chain. He quickly glanced around, noticing a ma.s.s of dancing shadows and the silhouette of the monster rampaging amidst the screaming slaves on the opposite end of the stone platform. Then he concentrated on the dead body, which was starting to convulse with growing violence.
On the opposite side of the corpse, the shifty slave was looking at it with slackened jaw and a horrified expression on his face. Sunny waved to get his attention.
"What are you staring at?! Move away from it!"
The shifty slave tried, but immediately fell down. The chain was twisted between the three of them, pinned down under by the broad-shouldered man's weight.
Sunny clenched his teeth.
Right under his eyes, the corpse was going through a nightmare-inducing metamorphose. Strange bone growths pierced its skin, extending like spikes. The muscles bulged and wriggled, as though trying to change shape. The fingernails were turning into sharp claws; the face cracked and split, bearing open a twisted mouth with one too many rows of bloodied, needle-like fangs.
'This is not right.'
Sunny twitched, feeling a strong urge to empty his stomach.
"Th— the chain!"
The scholarly slave was just a few steps behind the shifty one, pointing at his shackles with a face as pale as a ghost. That remark was far from helpful, but given the circ.u.mstances, his shock was understandable. Being shackled was bad enough, but being shackled to such horror was truly unfair.
But Sunny's conclusion that things weren't right did not come from self-pity. He just meant that this whole situation was literally not right: the Spell, mysterious as it was, had its own set of rules. There were rules for what type of creatures could appear in any given Nightmare, too.
Nightmare Creatures had their own hierarchy: from mindless Beasts to Monsters, followed by Demons, Devils, Tyrants, Terrors and, finally, mythical t.i.tans, also known as Calamities. The First Nightmare was almost always populated by beasts and monsters, rarely with a demon mixed in. And Sunny had never, ever heard about anything stronger than a single devil appearing in it.
However, the creature had clearly just created a lesser version of itself — an ability that belonged exclusively to tyrants, the sovereigns of the Nightmare Spell, and those above them.
What was this tyrant even doing in a First Nightmare?
How powerful was that d.a.m.n [Fated] attribute?!
But there was no time to ponder.
Unfair or not, there was only one person now who could save Sunny — himself.
The broad-shouldered man — what was left of him — slowly rose, his mouth producing strange clicking noises. Without giving him time to fully come to his senses, Sunny cursed and jumped forward, grabbing onto the length of the slackened chain.
One arm of the monster, now fully equipped with five jagged claws, shot forward to meet him, but Sunny sidestepped it with one calculated movement.
What save his skin this time was not quick reaction, but simple presence of mind. Sunny might not have learned any fancy combat techniques, since his childhood was spent on the streets instead of a school. But the streets, too, were a kind of teacher. He had spent his whole life fighting for survival, quite often literally. That experience allowed him to keep a cool head on his shoulders in the midst of any conflict.
So instead of freezing or being consumed by fear and doubt, Sunny just acted.
Stepping close, he threw the chain around the monster's shoulders and pulled, pinning its hands to its body. Before the creature, still slow and groggy from its transformation, could properly react, Sunny wrapped the chain around it several times, barely saving his face from being bitten off by the creature's terrifying maw.
The good thing was, the monster couldn't move its hands now.
The bad thing was, the length of the chain he used to immobilize it was gone, leaving almost no distance between them.
"You two!" Sunny screamed, addressing his two fellow slaves. "Pull on that chain as though your lives depend on it!"
Because they were.
The shifty slave and the scholar gaped at him and then, understanding what he was thinking, started to move. Grabbing the chain from the opposite directions, they pulled as hard as they could, tightening its grip on the monster and not letting it shake loose.
'Great!' Sunny thought.
The monster bulged its muscles, trying to break free. The chain creaked, caught on the bone spikes, as though slowly breaking apart.
'Not so great!'
Without wasting any more time, he threw his hands in the air and caught the creature's neck with the short, thinner chain connecting his shackles together. Then he circled the monster with a quick step and pulled, ending up back to back with it — as far away from its maw as he could.
Sunny knew that he wasn't strong enough to strangle a man with his bare hands — let alone a weird, terrifying mutant like the one trying to eat him. But now, using his own back as a lever and the weight of his whole body to pull the shackles down, he at least stood a chance.
He pulled down with all his might, feeling the monster's body pressing against him, bone spikes brushing against his skin. The monster continued to struggle, clicking loudly and trying to break the chain tying him down apart.
Now it was just a question of what would break first — the chain or the monster itself.
'Die! Die, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!'
Sweat and blood were rolling down Sunny's face as he was pulling, and pulling, and pulling down with as much force as he could muster.
Every second felt like an eternity. His strength and stamina — what little he had to begin with — were quickly running out. His wounded back, wrists, and muscles pierced by the bone spikes were in agony.
And then, finally, Sunny felt the monster's body go limp.
A moment later, a faintly familiar voice rang in the air.
It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.
[You have slain a dormant beast, Mountain King's Larva.]
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5
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Chapter 5 Broken Chains
[You have slain a dormant beast, Mountain King's Larva.]
Sunny fell to his knees, breathless. His whole body felt as though it just went through a meat grinder: even large amounts of adrenalin could not wash away all the pain and exhaustion. And yet, he was exhilarated. The satisfaction of killing the larva was so vast that he even forgot to be disappointed about not receiving a Memory — the special item tied to a Dream Realm inhabitant's essence, which was sometimes awarded by the Spell to the triumphant Awakened.
A magic sword or a suit of armor would have come in handy right about now. d.a.m.n, he would even settle for a warm coat.
'Three seconds. You can rest for three more seconds,' Sunny thought.
After all, the nightmare was far from over.
A few moments later, he forced himself to come back to his senses and looked around, trying to ascertain the situation.
The larva was dead, which was great. However, he was still tied to it by the d.a.m.n chain — the shifty slave and the scholar, both pale as death, were busy untangling it to buy the three of them at least some freedom of movement.
Further away, torn bodies and pieces of flesh were lying on the ground. Many slaves were killed. A few had somehow managed to escape and were now running away.
'Fools. They're dooming themselves.'
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The chain, as it turns out, was at some point broken in two — that's why it suddenly slackened when Sunny was being dragged by the ma.s.s of panicking slaves. If their shackles had a less sophisticated locking mechanism, he could have tried to free himself now. However, each pair was fixed to a specific link: without unlocking them, no one was going anywhere.
The tyrant — Mountain King, presumably — was hidden from sight by the bright glow of the bonfire. However, Sunny could feel its movements due to the subtle tremors spreading through the stones, as well as the desperate screams of those slaves who were yet to perish. An angry below or two could also be heard, indicating that some of the soldiers were still alive, desperately trying to fight the monstrosity off.
What pulled his attention the most, though, was the fact that several of the maimed bodies were starting to move.
'More larvae?'
His eyes widened.
One after another, four more corpses slowly rose to their feet. Each beast looked as disgusting as the first one had, and not a bit less deadly. The nearest was mere meters away from Sunny.
'd.a.m.n it all!' he thought.
And then, weakly: 'I want to wake up.'
As strange clicking filled the air, one of the beasts turned its head toward the three slaves and gnashed its fangs. Shifty fell on his a.s.s, whispering a prayer, while Scholar just froze in place. Sunny's eyes darted to the ground, trying to find something to use as a weapon. But there was not a single thing he could use: full of vitriol, he simply wrapped a length of chain around the knuckles and raised his fists.
'Come at me, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!'
The larva dashed forward with incredible speed in a flurry of claws, fangs, and terror. Sunny had less than a second to react; however, before he could do anything, a nimble figure moved past him, and a sharp sword flashed in the air. The monster, beheaded with one strike, fell gracelessly onto the ground.
Sunny blinked.
'What was that?'
Dumbfounded, he slowly turned his head and looked to his left. Standing there with a valorous expression was the handsome young soldier who had once offered him water. He looked calm and collected, if a little grim. There was not a speck of dirt or blood on his leather armor.
'He is. Awesome,' Sunny thought before catching himself.
'Poser! I mean he's a poser!'
With a short nod, the soldier moved forward to face the remaining three larvae. But after taking a few steps, he suddenly turned around and gave Sunny a long look. Then, with one swift motion, the young warrior took something from his belt and threw it to Sunny.
'Save yourself!'
With that, he was gone to fight the monsters.
Sunny reflexively caught the item and watched the soldier go. Then he lowered his gaze and studied the thing clutched tightly in his hand.
It was a short and narrow iron rod with a straight bend on its end.
'A key. It's a key.'
His heart began to beat faster.
'It's the key to the shackles!'
With one last glance at the fierce battle starting between the young soldier and the larvae, Sunny dropped on one knee and began to maneuver the shackles, trying to get his hand into a suitable position to insert the key. It took him a few tries to understand how the unfamiliar lock worked, but then, finally, there was a satisfying click, and he was suddenly free.
The cold wind caressed his bloodied wrists. Sunny rubbed them and smiled with a dark gleam in his eyes.
'Just you wait now.'
For a moment, visions of violence and revenge filled his head.
"Boy! Over here!"
Shifty was waving his hands in the air, trying to get his attention. Sunny briefly considered just leaving him to die, but then decided against it. There was strength in numbers.
Plus, despite Shifty's previous threats to kill him and overall unpleasantness, Sunny would have felt bad leaving a fellow slave in chains — especially since freeing him would not cost anything.
He hurried over to the other two slaves and quickly unlocked their shackles. As soon as Shifty was free, he pushed Sunny away and did a little dance, laughing like a maniac.
"Ah! Free at last! G.o.ds must be smiling upon us!"
Scholar was more reserved. He squeezed Sunny's shoulder in grat.i.tude and smiled weakly, casting a tense look in the direction of the ensuing fight.
Two of the three larvae were already dead; the third one was missing an arm but still trying to tear its opponent apart. The young soldier danced around it, moving with a graceful fluidity of a natural-born warrior.
"What are you waiting for?! Run!"
Shifty made a move to run away, but was stopped by Scholar.
"My friend, I would…"
"If you say "advise" again, I swear to G.o.ds, I will bash your head open!"
The two slaves looked at each other with open animosity. A moment later, Scholar lowered his eyes and sighed.
"If we run away now, we will surely die."
"Why?!"
The older slave simply pointed at the tall bonfire.
"Because without that fire, we will freeze to death before the night is over. Until the sun rises, running away is suicide."
Sunny did not say anything, knowing that Scholar was right. Actually, he realized it right after strangling the larva. No matter how terrible Mountain King was, the bonfire was still their only lifeline in this frozen h.e.l.l.
It was just as what the broad-shouldered slave, may he rest in peace, had said. There was no need for anyone to kill them, because the mountain itself would do it if given a chance.
"So what?! I prefer freezing to death than being eaten by that monster anyway! Not to mention… ugh… turning into one of those things."
Shifty was pretending to be brave, but there was no conviction in his voice. He glanced at the darkness surrounding the stone platform and shivered before taking a small step back.
At this point, the third larva was long dead, and the young soldier was nowhere to be seen. He had probably gone to join the fight at the other side of the bonfire — leaving the three slaves alone at the mountainside part of the stone platform.
Scholar cleared his throat.
"The monster might be satiated with those it had already slain. It might be defeated or driven away by the Imperials. In any case, if we stay here, we have a chance to survive, however small. But if we run away, our doom will be certain."
"So what do we do?"
Unlike Scholar, Sunny was sure that Mountain King would not be satisfied with killing just most of the slaves. Neither did he believe that a bunch of mortals would really be able to defeat it.
Even if they were not normal people but Awakened, a fight with a tyrant was not something one could easily survive, let alone win.
But if he wanted to live, he had to get rid of that thing somehow.
"Let's go take a look."
Shifty looked at him as though seeing a lunatic.
"Are you insane? You want to get closer to that beast?!"
Sunny stared at him blankly, then shrugged and headed in the direction of the rampaging monster.
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6
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Chapter 6 Confronting The Tyrant
Sunny was off to face against a Nightmare Creature. And not any creature, at that, but one of the fifth category — a dreaded, fearsome tyrant. The odds of survival were so low that anyone would have laughed in his face if he were to ever suggest attempting to fight it. If they weren't an Awakened two or three ranks above the creature, of course.
Which Sunny certainly wasn't.
And yet, he had to deal with this Mountain King somehow to avoid an even more miserable death. The ridiculous degree to which the odds were stacked against him from the very beginning of this delayed execution had gotten old a long time ago, so he didn't have any more energy to think about it. What was there to fear, after all? He was already as good as dead. It's not like he could get any deader.
So why worry?
On the other side of the bonfire, things were turning from bad to worse. Most of the slaves were already dead. A few soldiers were still desperately trying to fight the monster, but it was clear that they weren't going to last long. Right in front of Sunny's eyes, the tyrant picked up a dead slave, dragging the chain up with him, and opened its terrifying maw wide. With one crushing bite, the slave's body was torn in half, leaving only bloodied stumps inside the shackles.
Mountain King's five indifferent, milky eyes stared into the distance as he chewed, streams of blood flowing down its chin.
Seeing that the creature's upper arms were busy, one of the soldiers screamed and lunged forward, brandishing his long spear. Without turning its head, the tyrant extended one of its shorter lower arms, caught the soldier's head in an iron grip and squeezed, crushing the poor man's skull like a soap bubble. A moment later, the headless body was tossed over the cliff and disappeared into the abyss below.
Shifty doubled over, puking his guts out. Then he shakily rose to his feet and glared at Sunny.
"Well? We've taken a look, now what?"
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Sunny did not answer, pensively observing the tyrant with his head slightly tilted to one side. Shifty stared at him some more, then turned to Scholar.
"I'm telling you, old man, the boy is sick in the head. How the h.e.l.l can he be so calm?!"
"Shhhh! Lower your voice, fool!"
Blood drained from Shifty's face as he slapped himself, covering his mouth with both hands. Then he cast a fearful look in the direction of the tyrant.
Luckily, the abomination was too busy feasting on the slaves — lucky ones who were already dead and unlucky ones who were still alive — to pay them any attention. Shifty slowly exhaled.
Sunny was preoccupied with thinking, measuring his chances of survival.
'How do I get rid of that thing?'
He didn't have any special powers, nor did he have an army ready to bury the tyrant under a mountain of bodies. He didn't even have a weapon to at least scratch the d.a.m.n b.a.s.t.a.r.d.
Sunny moved his gaze and looked past the creature, into the endless darkness of the moonless sky. As he was watching the night, a bright flash streaked in the air and collided with one of the tyrant's arms, bursting into a rain of sparks. The young soldier — Sunny's heroic liberator — had just tossed a burning piece of wood at the monster and was now defiantly raising his sword.
"Face me, devil!"
'A distraction! Just what I needed!'
Because there was no way for Sunny to kill the Mountain King with his own two hands, he had decided to enlist some help. A human wouldn't be up to the task, so instead, he was planning to use a force of nature.
'Since I can't do the b.a.s.t.a.r.d in myself, let's make gravity do it for me.'
He was in the middle of thinking over the details of the plan when the young hero's foolish bravado presented an opportunity. Now everything depended on how long the pompous idiot would manage to stay alive.
"Come with me!" Sunny said as he started running toward the far end of the stone platform, where the heavy wagon was perched dangerously close to the edge of the cliff.
Shifty and Scholar shared a dubious look, but then followed, perhaps confusing his calmness with confidence, or maybe divine inspiration. After all, it was a widely known fact that crazy people were often favored by the G.o.ds.
Behind them, Hero nimbly ducked under the tyrant's claws, slashing it with the sword. The sharp edge slid ineffectively across the dirty fur, not living even a scratch on the creature's flash. In the next second, the tyrant moved with frightening speed, throwing all four of his hands in the direction of its new, irritating foe.
But Sunny had no way of knowing. He was running with all his speed, getting closer and closer to the wagon. Once there, he hurriedly looked around, checking if there were any larvae close by, and moved to its rear wheels.
The wagon was left at the upper end of the stone platform, where it narrowed and turned back into the road. It was turned sideways to block the wind, with its front facing the mountain wall and its back facing the cliff. There were two large wooden wedges placed under the rear wheels to prevent the wagon from rolling backward. Sunny turned to his companions and pointed at the wedges.
"When I tell you, remove both of them. Then push. Understand?"
"What? Why?"
Shifty stared at him with a dumbfounded expression on his face. Scholar just looked at the wedges, and then at the tyrant.
Hero, miraculously, was still alive. He was weaving between the creature's limbs, always just half a second away from being completely eviscerated. From time to time, his sword flashed in the air, but to no avail: Mountain King's fur was too thick, and his skin too tough to be harmed by mundane weapons. There was a hint of apprehension on the young warrior's face.
All the other soldiers, as far as Sunny could see, were already dead. So he really needed that one to live a little bit longer.
'Don't die yet!' he thought.
To Shifty, he simply said:
"You'll see."
The next moment, Sunny was running again, trying to follow the chain from the brace where it was affixed to the wagon. The thing he was searching for was hard to notice due to all the bodies, blood and viscera littering the stone platform, but for once, luck was on his side. A short amount of time later, he had found what he needed — the torn end of the chain.
Finding the nearest set of shackles, complete with a horribly disfigured body of a slave locked in them, Sunny plopped down on his knees and started to fumble with the key.
There was a m.u.f.fled scream, and with a sideways glance, he noticed Hero flying through the air, finally caught by one of the tyrant's strikes. Incredibly, the young soldier managed to land on his feet, sliding several meters across the stones. All of his limbs were still in place; there were no terrible wounds on his body, either. Without skipping a bit, Hero rolled forward, picking up his sword from where it fell on the ground, and then rolled once more, this time sideways, narrowly avoiding a heavy stomp from the creature's foot.
"Rolling?! Who the h.e.l.l rolls around in this situation?!"
Without any more time to waste, Sunny finally managed to unlock the shackles. Shaking the dead slave out of them, he then promptly locked them once again, this time around the chain itself — ending up with a makeshift slipknot and a loop.
Now everything depended on his resolve, hand-to-eye coordination… and luck.
Turning to Shifty and Scholar, who were still waiting by the wagon, he screamed:
"Now!"
Then, picking up a sizable length of chain, Sunny stood up and faced the tyrant.
Hero spared him half a glance. His eyes lingered on the chain for a moment and then quickly followed it to the wagon. Then, without showing a hint of emotion, the young warrior doubled his efforts, drawing the creature's attention away from Sunny.
'So he's smart, too? What a scam!'
Clearing his head of all unnecessary thoughts, Sunny concentrated on the weight of the chain in his hands, the distance between him and the tyrant, and his target.
Time seemed to slow down a bit.
'Please, don't miss!'
Gathering all of his strength, Sunny spun and threw the chain in the air, as though a fisherman casting his net. The loop opened as it flew, closing in on the position of the fight between Hero and the tyrant.
Sunny's plan was to place the loop on the ground close enough to them that, once one of the tyrant's feet landed in the trap, he could pull on the chain and tighten it around the monster's ankle.
But his plan… failed spectacularly.
Which is to say, it was literally a spectacle.
In the last moment, Mountain King suddenly flinched back, and instead of falling on the ground, the chain loop landed perfectly around its neck. A second later it tightened, acting as an iron noose.
Sunny froze for a moment, not believing his eyes. And then clenched his fists, holding himself back from triumphantly shaking them in the air.
'YES!' he screamed inwardly.
Moments later, the wagon would roll off the cliff, pulling the tyrant down with it. Sunny looked back to make sure, and instantly turned even paler than he usually was.
Shifty and Scholar did manage to remove the wedges from under the wagon's wheels and were now desperately pushing it to the edge of the road. However, the wagon was rolling slowly… very slowly. Much slower than Sunny had antic.i.p.ated.
He turned to the tyrant, panicking. The creature, surprised by the sudden weight pressing down on its neck, was already raising its hands to tear the chain apart.
Sunny's eyes widened.
In the next second, Hero crashed into one of the tyrant's legs, throwing it off balance — and buying them some time. Sunny was already running to the wagon, cursing loudly in his mind. Reaching it, he threw himself onto the damp wood alongside Shifty and Scholar, pushing with all the strength left in his rather small, but terribly beaten and enormously exhausted body.
'Roll! Roll, you creaky piece of s.h.i.t!'
The wagon sped up a little, but was still rather slow in reaching the cliff's edge.
At the same time, the tyrant finally managed to get a hold of the chain tied around its neck, ready to free itself.
Now whether they lived or not was just a question of which thing would happen first.
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7
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Chapter 7 Three Slaves And A Hero
'Roll, you creaky piece of s.h.i.t!'
Sunny pressed himself against the wagon, pushing with all he had. Four powerful oxen that used to pull it were now dead, and instead of them, three tired slaves were trying to do the job. Even with the slope of the road helping them, the speed of the wagon was agonizingly slow. The tyrant, in comparison, was moving much faster.
Pushing Hero back with a deadly swipe of his lower arms, he raised the other two to its neck and tried to grab the chain that was wrapped around it like a noose. However, this time Mountain King's fearsome physique turned into a disadvantage: its long, terrifying bone claws were perfect for tearing flesh apart, but they weren't the best tool for precise manipulations. It took the tyrant some time to get a hold of the chain without slicing its own neck open.
By then, the wagon was nearly at the edge of the cliff.
'Come on! Just a little bit more!'
What followed happened very quickly. The wagon's rear wheels finally slid from the road, hanging over the dark, seemingly bottomless pit beneath. The creature turned, staring expressionlessly at the three slaves with its five milky, dead eyes. The wagon careened, throwing Shifty and Scholar off their feet, and then froze, balanced precariously on its middle axis.
Sunny was the only one left standing. He cast a last glance at the towering monster, and then slammed his shoulder into the front of the wagon, putting all of his weight behind it.
The wagon finally lost its balance and rolled over the edge, sc.r.a.ping its underside deafeningly against the jagged rocks. Sunny fell forward and landed on his knees, narrowly saving himself from tumbling down the cliff with it. Turning his head to the tyrant, he gave it a wicked smile.
Mountain King made a move to lunge at the scrawny slave, but it was already too late. A moment later, the chain on his neck drew tight, and he was yanked back with tremendous force, flying over the edge of the cliff like a rag doll. The creature fell into the darkness silently, as though refusing to believe that it was defeated by a tiny human.
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'Go and die, b.a.s.t.a.r.d.' Sunny thought.
Then he took one deep, ragged breath and dropped to the ground, utterly exhausted.
'Is this it? Did I pa.s.s the trial?'
He rested on the cold stones, staring at the night sky, and waited for that faintly familiar, but elusive voice to announce his victory. But instead of that, wave after wave of pain that he had earlier chosen to ignore finally started to catch up with his abused body.
Sunny groaned, feeling hurt all over. The skin on his back, slashed by a slaver's whip and pierced by the bone spikes of a newborn larva, especially, was in agony. He was also starting to shiver, once again consumed by the dreadful cold.
'I guess not.'
His thoughts were slow and muddy.
'What else am I supposed to do?'
A dark figure appeared above him. It was Hero, looking calm and as handsome as ever. There were dirt and scratches on his armor, but otherwise, the young soldier appeared to be fine. He extended one arm to Sunny.
"Stand up. You'll freeze to death."
Sunny sighed, accepting that his First Nightmare was not over. Then he clenched his teeth and slowly rose to his feet, ignoring Hero's helping hand.
Around them, there was a scene of utter carnage. Except for the three slaves and Hero, every member of the caravan was dead. Their bodies were littering the ground, horribly maimed or torn into pieces. Here and there, a repulsive carca.s.s of a larva could be seen. Shadows cast by the bonfire were dancing happily across the stone platform, seemingly unperturbed by this morbid view.
Sunny was also too tired to care.
Shifty and Scholar were already up, looking at Hero with weary apprehension. With or without shackles, they were still slaves, and he was still a slave driver. Noticing their tense gazes, the soldier sighed.
"Come closer to the fire, all of you. We need to warm ourselves and discuss what to do next."
Without waiting for their response, Hero turned around and walked away. After hesitating for a few moments, the slaves followed.
A bit of time later, the four of them were seated around the bonfire, soaking up pleasant heat. Shifty and Scholar were close to each other, maintaining a safe distance from Hero. Sunny sat apart from everyone — not because he had a specific reason to distrust one more than the others, but simply because he didn't like people in general.
Growing up, Sunny was always a misfit. It's not that he had never tried to become close with someone, it's just that he seemed to lack the ability. Like there was an invisible wall between him and other people. If he had to put it in words, Sunny would say that he was born without a small, but important gear in his brain that everyone else seemed to possess.
As a result, he was often baffled and stumped by human behavior, and his attempts to imitate it, however diligent, inevitably fell flat. This strangeness made others uncomfortable. In short, he was a bit different — and if there was one thing people hated, it was those different from them.
Over time, Sunny simply learned to avoid getting too close to anyone and settled comfortably into his outcast role. This habit served him well, since it not only made him self-reliant, but also saved him from being stabbed in the back by shady characters on multiple occasions.
That's why he was not thrilled to share the rest of this Nightmare with three strangers. Instead of trying to start a conversation, Sunny sat quietly by himself, lost in thoughts.
After a few minutes, Hero's voice finally broke the silence:
"Once the sun rises, we will gather whatever food and water we can find and go back down the mountain."
Shifty gave him a defiant look.
"Why should we go back? To be put in chains again?"
The young soldier sighed.
"We can go our separate ways once we leave the mountains. But until then, I'm still responsible for your lives. We can't continue up the road since the way over the mountain pa.s.s is long and arduous. Without the supplies that were stored on the wagon, your chances of making it are not high. That's why going back is our best hope."
Scholar opened his mouth, planning to say something, but then thought better of it and remained silent. Shifty cursed, seemingly convinced by Hero's rational words.
"We can't go down."
All three of them turned to Sunny, surprised to hear his voice.
Shifty barked a laugh and glanced at the soldier.
"Don't listen to him, your lordship. This boy is, uh, touched by the G.o.ds. He's crazy, is what I'm trying to say."
Hero frowned, looking at the slaves.
"The two of you are only alive thanks to this child's bravery. Aren't you ashamed to badmouth him so?"
Shifty shrugged, showing that he wasn't ashamed at all. The young soldier shook his head.
"I for one would like to hear his reasoning. Tell me, why can't we go down?"
Sunny shifted, uncomfortable in the center of everyone's attention.
"Because the monster isn't dead."
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8
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Chapter 8 Nothing At All
"Because the monster isn't dead."
These ominous words hung in the silence. Three pairs of eyes widened, staring right at Sunny.
"Why do you say that?"
After thinking about it, Sunny came to the conclusion that the tyrant was, indeed, still alive. His reasoning was pretty straightforward: he did not hear the Spell congratulating him on slaying the creature after it fell off the cliff. Which meant that it was not slain.
But he couldn't explain that to his companions.
He pointed up.
"The monster jumped from an incredible height to land on this platform. Yet it wasn't harmed at all. Why would it be killed by falling off the platform?"
Neither Hero nor the slaves could find a flaw in his argument.
Sunny continued.
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"Which means that it's still alive, somewhere down the mountain. So by going back, we will be delivering ourselves into its maw."
Shifty cursed loudly and crawled closer to the bonfire, staring into the darkness with terror in his eyes. Scholar rubbed his temples, mumbling:
"Of course. Why didn't I realize myself?"
Hero was the most stoic of the three. After thinking it over, he nodded.
"Then we go up and over the mountain pa.s.s. But that's not all…"
He glanced in the direction where the tyrant had fallen.
"If the monster is still alive, there is a high possibility that it will return here, and then pursue us. Which means that time is of the essence. We will need to move as soon as the sun rises."
He gestured to the torn bodies littering the platform.
"We can't allow ourselves to rest the whole night anymore. We need to gather supplies now. If there was a chance, I would have liked to give these people at least a humble burial after gathering all that we can from then, but alas, fate has decided otherwise."
Hero rose to his feet and brandished a sharp knife. Shifty tensed up and watched the blade carefully, but then relaxed, seeing that the young soldier showed no sign of aggression.
"Food, water, warm clothes, firewood. That is what we need to find. Let us split up and accomplish one task each."
Then he pointed at himself with the tip of the knife.
"I will carve the oxen carca.s.ses to get us some meat."
Scholar looked around the stone platform — most of it drowning in deep shadows — and grimaced.
"I'll look for firewood."
Shifty also glanced left and right, with a strange gleam in his eyes.
"Then I'll go find us something warm to wear."
Sunny was the last one left. Hero gave him a long look.
"Most of our water was stored on the wagon. But each of my fallen brothers was carrying a flagon. Gather as many as you can find."
\*\*\*
Sometime later, far enough from the bonfire to be hidden in the shadows, Sunny was looking for dead soldiers with half a dozen flagons already weighing him down. Shivering in the cold, he finally stumbled on the last broken body clad in leather armor.
The old veteran — the one who had whipped him for trying to accept Hero's flask — was badly injured and dying, but, miraculously, still clinging to life. Horrible wounds were covering his chest and stomach, and he was clearly in a lot of pain.
His time was running out.
Sunny knelt beside the dying soldier and looked him over, searching for the man's flagon.
'What irony,' he thought.
The older man tried to focus his eyes on Sunny and weakly moved his hand, reaching for something. Sunny looked down and noticed a shattered sword lying on the ground not far from them. Curious, he picked it up.
"Are you looking for this? Why? Are you guys like Vikings, longing to die with a weapon in your hands?"
The dying soldier didn't answer, watching the young slave with some unknown, intense emotion in his eyes.
Sunny sighed.
"Well, it might as well do. After all, I promised to watch you die."
With that, he leaned forward and slit the old man's throat with the sharp edge of his broken blade, then threw it away. The soldier twitched, drowning in his own blood. The expression in his eyes changed — was it grat.i.tude? Or hatred? Sunny did not know.
Illusion or not, it was his first time killing a human. Sunny expected to feel guilt or fear, but actually, there was nothing at all. It seemed that, for better or worse, his cruel upbringing in the real world had prepared him for this moment well.
He sat quietly near the old man, keeping him company on this last journey.
After a while, the Spell's voice came whispering into his ear:
[You have slain a dormant human, name unknown.]
Sunny flinched.
'Oh, right. Killing people is also an achievement, as far as the Spell is concerned. They don't usually show this in webtoons and dramas.'
He registered that fact and put it away. But, as it turned out, the Spell wasn't done speaking.
[You have received a Memory…]
Sunny froze, opening his eyes wide.
'Yes! Come on, give me something good!'
Memories could be anything, from weapons to enchanted items. One received from a dormant-rank enemy wouldn't be too powerful, but it was still a boon: weightless and undetectable, able to be summoned from nothingness with a simple thought, a Memory was incredibly useful. What's more, unlike corporeal things, he would be able to bring it back with him to the real world. The advantage of having something like that back in the outskirts was hard to overestimate.
'A weapon! Give me a sword!'
[... received a Memory: Silver Bell.]
Sunny sighed, disappointed.
'Well, with my luck, what was I expecting?'
Still, this thing was worth investigating. Maybe it had a powerful enchantment, like being able to send out destructive sonic waves or repelling incoming projectiles.
Sunny summoned the runes and concentrated on the words "Silver Bell". Immediately, an image of a small bell appeared in front of his eyes, with a short string of text below.
[Silver Bell: a small memento of a long-lost home, which once brought its owner comfort and joy. Its clear ringing can be heard from miles away.]
'What a piece of c.r.a.p,' Sunny thought, dejected.
His first Memory turned out to be pretty much useless… like everything else he possessed. He was almost starting to see a theme in how the Spell was treating him.
'No matter.'
Sunny dismissed the runes and then got busy removing the dead man's fur cloak and warm, st.u.r.dy leather boots. As an officer, the quality of these clothes was a notch above those of the simple soldiers. After putting them on, the young slave finally felt warm for the first time since the Nightmare began — not considering the short time he had spent near the bonfire.
'Perfect,' he thought.
The cloak was a bit bloodied, but then again, so was Sunny.
He looked around, easily piercing the veil of darkness with his tenebrous eyes. Hero and Scholar were still in the middle of their tasks. Shifty was supposed to be looking for winter clothes, but was greedily pulling rings off the dead men's fingers instead. Unseen to them, Sunny hesitated, considering if he had really thought things through well.
His companions were unreliable. The future was too uncertain. Even the requirements of pa.s.sing the Nightmare remained a mystery. Any decision he could make would have been a gamble, at best.
Still, he had to make some if he wanted to survive.
Not wasting any more time thinking, Sunny picked up the flagons and sighed.
\*\*\*
They spent the rest of the night seating with their backs against the bonfire, staring fearfully into the night. Despite the exhaustion, no one could sleep. The possibility of the tyrant coming back to finish the four survivors off was too frightening.
Only Hero seemed to be fine, calmly sharpening his sword in the bright light of the dancing flames.
The sound of the whetstone sc.r.a.ping against the blade was somehow comforting.
At the break of dawn, when the sun had lazily begun to warm up the air, they loaded themselves with all the supplies they'd managed to gather and set out into the cold.
Sunny looked back, taking in the sight of the stone platform for the last time. He had managed to get past the place where the slave caravan was supposed to perish. What was going to happen next? No one could tell.
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9
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Chapter 9 Wishful Thinking
There was a problem.
They were planning to follow the road up to the mountain pa.s.s and then over it, getting as far away from the scene of the ma.s.sacre as they could before the night came. However, the road was no more.
At some point during the last months, or maybe even just yesterday, a terrible rockfall occurred, obliterating whole segments of the narrow roadway and making its other parts untraversable. Sunny stood on the precipice of a vast chasm, looking down with no particular expression on his face.
"What do we do now?"
Scholar's voice was m.u.f.fled by the collar of his scavenged fur cloak. His follower, Shifty, angrily looked around. His gaze stopped at Sunny — a suitable victim to vent his frustration.
"I'll tell you what we need to do! Get rid of some dead weight!"
He eyed Sunny's fine boots and turned to Hero:
"Listen, your lordship. The boy is too weak. He is slowing us down! Plus, he's weird. Doesn't he give you the creeps?"
The young soldier answered with a judgemental frown, but Shifty wasn't done.
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"Look! Look how he's glaring at me! I swear to G.o.ds, ever since he joined the caravan, nothing had gone right. Maybe the old man was right: the boy is cursed by the Shadow G.o.d!"
Sunny struggled to not roll his eyes. It was true that he was unlucky: however, the whole truth was opposite to what Shifty was trying to insinuate. It was not that he had attracted misfortune to the slave caravan; on the contrary, it was because the caravan was doomed to begin with that he had ended up here.
Scholar cleared his throat:
"But I've never said that…"
"Whatever! Shouldn't we get rid of him just in case?! He can't go on for much longer anyway!"
Scholar gave Sunny a strange look. Perhaps Sunny was getting paranoid, but there seemed to be a bit of calculating coldness in the older slave's eyes. Finally, Scholar shook his head.
"Don't be too hasty, my friend. The boy might prove useful later on."
"But…"
Hero finally spoke, putting an end to their quarrel.
"We're not going to leave anyone behind. As for how much longer he'll be able to endure — just worry about yourself."
Shifty clenched his teeth, but then just waved a hand.
"Fine. So what do we do then?"
The four of them looked at the broken road, then down the slope of the mountain, and finally up, where a sheer cliff wall was broken apart by the falling rocks. After a bit of silence, Scholar finally spoke:
"Actually, in the old days, there used to be a path leading to the peak of the mountain. It was sometimes used by pilgrims. Later, the Empire had widened parts of the path and built a proper road on top of it — now leading to the mountain pa.s.s instead of the peak, of course."
He looked up.
"The remnants of the original path should still be somewhere above us. If we reach it, we should be able to find our way back to the undamaged section of the road."
Everyone followed his gaze, shifting uncomfortably at the prospect of climbing the treacherous slope. Except for Hero, of course, who remained as calm as a saint.
Due to the rockfall, the slope wasn't an almost vertical wall anymore, but still, the incline was quite sharp.
Shifty was the first one to speak:
"Climb that? Are you insane?"
Scholar helplessly shrugged.
"Do you have a better idea?"
No one did. After a bit of preparation, they began the ascent. Shifty and Scholar stubbornly carried the weapons they had picked up off the dead soldier's bodies, but Sunny, with some regret, decided to leave his newfound short sword behind. He knew that this climb was going to test the limits of their endurance.
The sword might not have seemed to be that heavy right now, but every extra gram of weight was bound to feel like a ton all too soon. As the weakest member of the group, he was already struggling to keep up, so there wasn't a lot of choice. Shedding a few kilograms of iron was the right thing to do.
Walking up the mountain road with the weight of the supplies on his shoulders was already hard enough, but climbing up the mountain itself turned out to be pure torture. Just half an hour later, he felt like his muscles were going to melt, with his lungs on the verge of imploding.
Clenching his teeth, Sunny continued to move forward and up. He had to constantly remind himself to watch his footing, too. On this unstable, icy slope one misstep was enough to send a man tumbling down to his death.
'Just think about something pleasant,' he thought.
But what happy thoughts could he summon?
Failing to come up with something else, Sunny began to imagine what reward he was going to receive at the end of this trial. The boon of the First Nightmare was the most important thing given to an Awakened by the Spell.
Sure, later trials could provide them with more abilities and vastly improve their power. But it was this first one that determined what role an Awakened would be able to play, how great their potential would be, and what price they would have to pay… not to mention giving them the necessary tools to survive and grow in the Dream Realm.
The main benefit of the First Nightmare's Boon was simple, yet possibly the most important: after completing their trial, Aspirants were bestowed with the ability to perceive, and interact with, Soul Cores. Soul Cores were the basis of one's rank and power. The stronger your Core was, the greater your might would grow.
The same went for Nightmare Creatures, with a deadly caveat that, unlike humans, they could possess multiple cores — a lowly beast had just one, but a tyrant like Mountain King had five. Coincidentally, the only way to improve your Soul Core was to consume Soul Shards scavenged from the corpses of other Dream Realm inhabitants.
That's why Awakened went out of their way to battle powerful Nightmare Creatures despite the risk of death.
The second benefit was less straightforward, but nevertheless vital. After completing the First Nightmare, Aspirants were elevated to the rank of Dreamers — colloquially known as Sleepers — and gained access to the Dream Realm itself. They would enter it on the first winter solstice after pa.s.sing the trial and remain there until an exit was found, thus becoming fully Awakened. That time between finishing the First Nightmare and entering the Dream Realm was very important, as it was the last chance to train and prepare yourself a person would receive.
In Sunny's case, that time was only about a month, which was as bad as it gets.
And then there was the final benefit, unique to every Aspirant pa.s.sing the trial… the first Aspect Ability.
This was the "magic power" that elevated Awakened above mundane humans. Aspect Abilities were diverse, unique, and powerful. Some could be categorized into types — like combat, sorcery and utility — but some were simply beyond imagination. Armed with the power of their Abilities, Awakened had been able to save the world from the flood of Nightmare Creatures.
However, that power came with a catch. With their first Ability, every Awakened also received a Flaw, sometimes called the counter. These Flaws were as diverse as Abilities, ranging from comparatively harmless to crippling, or, in some cases, even fatal.
'I wonder what type of Ability a temple slave would get,' Sunny thought, not too optimistic about his prospects. 'The choice of Flaws, on the other hand, seems to be almost limitless. Let's hope my Aspect will evolve at the end of this fiasco. Or, even better, change completely.'
If the Aspirant performed especially well, there was a chance of his given Aspect going through an early evolution. Aspects, just like Soul Cores, had ranks based on potential power and rarity. The lowest rank was called Dormant, followed by Awakened, Ascended, Transcendent, Supreme, Sacred and Divine — although no one has ever seen the last one.
'With the amount of c.r.a.p it had put me through, the Spell — if it has any conscience — has to give me at least an Awakened Aspect. Right? Or maybe even an Ascended one!'
Finally, there was a tiny possibility of receiving a True Name — something like an honorary t.i.tle bestowed by the Spell to its favorite Awakened. The name itself had no benefit, but every famous Awakened seemed to have one. It was considered to be the highest mark of excellence. However, the number of people who had managed to get a True Name during their First Nightmare was so small that Sunny didn't even bother thinking about it.
'Who needs excellence? Give me power!'
He cursed, feeling that this attempt at wishful thinking had only made him more depressed and angry.
'Maybe I'm allergic to dreaming.'
An allergy like that would be truly ironic, considering that he was destined to spend half of his remaining life in the Dream Realm — if he even survives long enough to get there, that is.
However, Sunny's mental escapade was not completely useless. Looking up from the slippery rocks under his feet, he noticed that the sun was already considerably lower. Come to think of it, the air also seemed to be much colder.
'At least it helped me pa.s.s the time,' Sunny thought.
The night was approaching.
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10
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Chapter 10 First Man Down
By the time they decided to stop, Sunny was on the verge of fainting. After hours and hours of traversing the rough mountain slope, his body was almost at its limit. However, to everyone's surprise, Shifty seemed to be doing even worse than him.
The roguish slave's eyes were muddy and unfocused, aimlessly wandering around. His breath was ragged and shallow, as though something was exerting pressure on his lungs. He looked feverish and unwell.
As soon as Hero found a suitable place for a camp, Shifty simply collapsed on the ground. The most unnerving part about all of this was the lack of angry cursing that they had already gotten used to. The slave lay silent and motionless, with only movements of his chest betraying that he was still alive. Several moments later, he uncorked his flagon with a shaky hand and greedily drank a few large gulps.
"Conserve your water," Hero said, a hint of concern somehow finding its way into his usually stoic voice.
Disregarding these words, Shifty drank more, emptying the flagon completely.
Scholar didn't look much better than him. The arduous climb took a heavy toll on the older slave. Despite the unbearable cold, he was sweaty, with bloodshot eyes and a grim expression on his face.
Being the weakest of the three, Sunny had somehow managed to endure the best.
"Can't we just melt the snow once there's no more water?"
Hero gave Scholar a complicated look.
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"There might come a time when we won't be able to make a fire, as to not attract unwanted attention."
No one commented, knowing perfectly well whose attention they had to avoid. The memory of Mountain King's horror was still fresh in their minds.
Luckily, today Hero had managed to find a natural alcove in the mountain wall, perched precariously behind a narrow ledge. The fire was well hidden by the rocks, allowing them to enjoy its warmth without the fear of being noticed. No one was in the mood to talk, so they just roasted slices of oxen meat above the flames and ate in silence.
By the time the skies had turned completely black, Shifty and Scholar were already asleep, lost in the thrall of their own nightmares. Hero took out his sword and moved to the edge of the rock outcropping.
"Try to rest, as well. I'll take the first watch."
Sunny gave him a nod and lay down near the fire, dead tired. Falling asleep inside a dream was a new experience for him, but, unexpectedly, it turned out to be quite mundane. As soon as his head touched the ground, his consciousness slipped into darkness.
After what felt like only a second, someone had gently shaken him awake. Groggy and disoriented, Sunny blinked a few times, finally noticing Hero hovering above him.
"These two didn't look too well, so it's better to give them some time to recover. Don't let the flames go out and wake us up once the sun starts to rise. Or if… if the beast appears."
Sunny silently rose and changed places with Hero, who added a couple of logs into the fire and was soon fast asleep.
For a few hours, he was on his own.
The skies were black, with dim stars and a sharp crescent of the newborn moon. However, its light was not enough to pierce the darkness that enveloped the mountain. Only Sunny's eyes seemed to be able to do so.
He sat quietly, looking down the way they came. Despite the fact that they had managed to climb quite high during the previous day, he could still see the distant ribbon of the road. He could even trace it back to the stone platform where the fight with the tyrant had taken place.
The tiny dots littering the stones were the dead bodies of the slaves.
As he was watching them, a dark figure slowly crawled on the platform from beneath the cliff. It stayed motionless for a while and then moved forward, sc.r.a.ping its claws against the ground. Every time a claw hit one of the bodies, the tyrant would grab and bring it to its maw.
The wind brought the m.u.f.fled sounds of crunching bones to Sunny's ears. He flinched, accidentally pushing a small rock off the ledge. It fell, hit the slope and then rolled down, causing a few more to follow.
The noise of these falling rocks sounded like thunder in the silent night.
Far below, the tyrant suddenly turned its head, looking directly at Sunny.
Sunny froze, petrified. He was scared to make even the tiniest sound. For a while, he even forgot to breathe. The tyrant was staring directly at him, not doing anything.
A few torturous seconds pa.s.sed, each feeling like an eternity. Then the tyrant calmly turned away and continued to devour dead slaves, as though he had not seen Sunny at all.
'It's blind,' Sunny suddenly understood.
He inhaled, watching Mountain King with widened eyes. It was true. The creature could not see.
Looking back at everything that had happened earlier, he grew more and more certain of his guess. Those milky, expressionless eyes. Come to think of it, he never saw the tyrant moving them at all. And back when Sunny was pushing the wagon off the cliff, the tyrant only reacted after the wagon's had started to fall, sc.r.a.ping loudly against the rocks.
Of course! It was all making sense now.
\*\*\*
At the break of dawn, Sunny had woken the others up. Hero had hoped that a full night's rest would do Shifty and Scholar some good, but his hopes were crushed. Somehow, the two slaves looked even worse than before. It was as though yesterday's climb had overstrained Scholar too much.
However, Shifty's condition could not be explained by simple overexertion. He was deadly pale and shaky, with half-conscious eyes and a lost look on his face.
"What's wrong with him?"
Scholar, who himself was not doing very well, helplessly shook his head.
"It might be the mountain sickness. It affects different people differently."
His voice sounded raspy and weak.
"I'm fine, a.s.sholes. Get out of my face."
Shifty had trouble forming full sentences, but still insisted that he was alright.
Hero frowned and then took most of the supplies the defiant slave was supposed to carry before adding them to his own load. After hesitating a little, he gave some to Sunny, too.
"Did anything happen while we were asleep?"
Sunny stared at him for a few seconds.
"The monster ate the dead."
The young soldier's frown deepened.
"How do you know?"
"I heard it."
Hero moved to the edge and looked down, trying to make out the distant stone platform. After a minute or so, he clenched his jaw, showing signs of uncertainty for the first time.
"Then we'll have to move faster. If the creature is finished with all the bodies, it will come for us next. We need to find that old path before nightfall."
Frightened and dejected, they set out again and continued to climb. Sunny was slowly dying under the weight of the added load. Thankfully, Shifty and Scholar had already drunk most of the water, lightening it a little.
'This is h.e.l.l,' he thought.
They climbed higher, and higher, and higher. The sun was climbing with them, slowly approaching the zenith. There was no talking, no laughs, only strained breathing. Each of the four survivors was concentrated on his own steps and footing.
However, Shifty was falling farther and farther behind. His strength was abandoning him.
And then, at some point, Sunny heard a desperate scream. Turning around, he only had time to see a panic-stricken face. Then Shifty fell backward, his foot slipping on an ice-covered rock. He hit the ground hard and rolled down, still trying to grab onto something.
But it was too late.
Frozen in place and powerless, they could only watch as his body tumbled down the slope, leaving b.l.o.o.d.y marks on the rocks. With each second, Shifty looked less like a man and more like a rag doll.
A handful of moments later, he finally came to a halt, hitting the top of a large, protruding stone in a pile of broken flesh.
Shifty was dead.
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11
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Chapter 11 Crossroads
The three of them stood motionless, looking down in uneasy silence. What happened to Shifty didn't come as a shock, but it was still a hard thing to digest. An ominous feeling settled in their hearts — seeing the broken body of their companion, it was too easy to imagine one of them sharing the same fate.
No one knew what to say.
After a minute or so, Scholar finally sighed.
"It's a good thing that you took most of the supplies he had been carrying."
'A bit heartless, but not wrong,' Sunny thought, giving the older slave a careful look.
Scholar frowned, realizing that his mask of a kind-hearted gentleman had slipped for a second, and hurriedly added in a somber tone:
"May you rest in peace, my friend."
'Wow. What a performance.'
Actually, Sunny had not believed in his benevolent act for a second. Every kid from the outskirts knew that people who acted kind for no reason were the ones to be most wary of. They were either fools or monsters. Scholar didn't seem like a fool, so Sunny became cautious of him from the moment they met.
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He got this far by being a mistrustful cynic, and there was no reason to change now.
"We have to go." Hero said, casting one last look down.
His voice was even, but Sunny could feel a well of emotion behind it. He just couldn't tell what that emotion was.
Scholar sighed and turned away, too. Sunny stared at the bloodied rocks for a few more seconds.
'Why do I feel so guilty?' he thought, bewildered by this unexpected reaction. 'He got what he deserved.'
A little unsettled, Sunny turned around and followed his two remaining companions.
Just like that, they left Shifty behind and continued to climb.
At this alt.i.tude, traversing the mountain was getting harder and harder. The wind was slamming into them with enough force to throw a person off-balance if they were not careful, making every step seem like a gamble. The air was becoming too thin to breathe. Due to the lack of oxygen, Sunny was starting to feel dizzy and nauseated.
It was as though they were all slowly suffocating.
Alt.i.tude sickness was not something one could overcome with effort. It was subtle and overbearing at the same time, affecting the strong and the weak with no regard to their fitness and endurance. If his luck was bad, an elite athlete could succ.u.mb to it faster than a random pa.s.serby.
It was just a question of your body's innate apt.i.tude and adaptability. Lucky ones were able to get over it after experiencing mild symptoms. The others were sometimes crippled for days or weeks, suffering from all kinds of torturous side effects. Some even died.
As though all that wasn't bad enough, it was getting colder, too. The warm clothes and fur weren't enough to keep the chill at bay anymore. Sunny felt simultaneously feverish and freezing, cursing every decision he had made in his life to end up here, on the endless icy slope.
This mountain was not a place for humans.
And yet they had to go on.
A few hours pa.s.sed. Despite everything, the three survivors continued to struggle forward, slowly moving higher and higher. Wherever that old path Scholar had talked about was, by now, it couldn't have been far. At least that's what Sunny was hoping for.
But at some point, he started to doubt if the path even existed. Maybe the older slave lied. Maybe the path was long ago destroyed by ravages of time. Maybe they had already missed it without even noticing.
Just as he was about to fall into despair, they finally found it.
It was weathered and narrow, barely enough for two people to walk side by side. The path wasn't paved, but rather cut from the black rock by some unknown tool or magic, winding its way up the mountain like a tail of a sleeping dragon. Here and there, it was hidden beneath the snow. But most importantly, it was flat. Sunny had never been that happy to see something flat in his life.
Without saying a word, Scholar dropped his rucksack and sat down. He was deathly pale, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Despite that, there was a slight grin on his face.
"Told you."
Hero gave him a nod and looked around. A few seconds later, he turned back to the triumphant slave:
"Stand up. It's not time to rest yet."
Scholar blinked a few times, then glanced at him with pleading eyes.
"Just… just give me a few minutes."
The young soldier was going to retort, but Sunny suddenly put a hand on his shoulder. Hero turned to face him.
"What is it?"
"It's gone."
"What is gone?"
Sunny gestured down, back the way they came.
"Shifty's body. It's gone."
Hero stared at him for a few moments, clearly failing to understand what Sunny was trying to say.
'Oh, right. They don't know that Shifty's name is Shifty. Ahem. Awkward.'
He wanted to explain, but both Scholar and Hero seemed to have grasped his meaning. Simultaneously, they moved to the edge of the stone path and looked down, trying to spot the place where Shifty had met his end.
Indeed, the splattering of blood could still be seen on the jagged rocks, but the corpse itself was nowhere to be found.
Scholar flinched back and crawled as far away from the edge as he could. The young soldier also backed away, instinctively grabbing the handle of his sword. The three of them exchanged tense looks, clearly understanding the implication of Shifty's disappearance.
"It's the monster," Scholar said, even paler than before. "It's following us."
Hero gritted his teeth.
"You are right. And if it is that close, we will inevitably be forced to fight it soon."
The idea of fighting the tyrant was as frightening as it was preposterous. He might as well have said that they will all be dead soon. The truth of it was painfully clear to both Sunny and Scholar.
But the older slave, surprisingly, did not look panicked. Instead, he lowered his gaze and quietly said:
"Not necessarily."
Hero and Sunny turned to him, all ears. The young soldier raised an eyebrow.
"Explain?"
'Here it comes.'
Scholar sighed.
"The beast had traced us this far in just a day. That means that there are two most probable possibilities. Either it is smart enough to realize where we are going, or it is following the scent of blood."
After a bit of thinking, Hero nodded, agreeing with this logic. The older slave smiled slightly and continued.
"Whether it is one or another, we can throw him off our trail and buy some time."
"How do we do that?"
Despite the urgency in Hero's voice, Scholar hesitated and remained silent.
"Why are you not answering? Speak!"
The older slave sighed again and slowly, as though against his will, answered. Sunny was waiting for this moment for a while now.
"We'll just have to… make the boy bleed. Drag him down the path, then leave him there as bait and go up instead. His sacrifice will save our lives."
'Right on time.'
If Sunny wasn't mad — and scared witless, of course — he would have smiled. His judgment, it seems, was eerily on point. Affirmation was always nice… but not in the situation where being right also meant potentially being used as monster bait.
He remembered the words Scholar had spoken back when Shifty was campaigning to have Sunny killed — "Don't be too hasty, my friend. The boy might prove useful later on." These words, which had sounded benevolent then, now turned out to hide a much more sinister meaning.
'What a b.a.s.t.a.r.d!'
Now it all depended on whether or not Hero would decide to follow through with Scholar's plan.
The young soldier blinked, astonished.
"What do you mean, make him bleed?"
Scholar shook his head.
"It's simple, really. If the monster knows where we are going, we have no choice but to abandon our plans to reach the mountain pa.s.s and go over the peak of the mountain instead. If the monster is following the scent of blood, we have to use one of us as bait to mislead it."
He paused.
"Only by leaving a bleeding man further down the path can we reliably avoid the pursuit no matter how it is tracking us."
Hero stood motionless, his eyes jumping between Scholar and Sunny. After a few seconds, he asked:
"How can you bring yourself to propose something so vile?"
The older slave masterfully pretended to look aggrieved and somber.
"Of course, it pains me! But if we do nothing, all three of us will die. This way, at least, the boy's death will save two lives. The G.o.ds will reward him for his sacrifice!"
'Gee, what a silver tongue. I'm almost convinced myself.'
The young soldier opened his mouth, then closed it again, hesitating.
Sunny was silently watching the other two survivors, measuring his chances of coming on top in a fight. Scholar was already halfway to being a corpse, so overpowering him would not be a problem. Hero, however… Hero presented an obstacle.
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12
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Chapter 12 The Smell Of Blood
Right now, that obstacle was looking down, avoiding Sunny's gaze. His hand was resting on the sword handle. As always, the young slave had no idea about what was going on inside Hero's perfectly shaped head.
The uncertainty was making him nervous.
Finally, after some time had pa.s.sed, the soldier spoke:
"I have only one question."
Both Sunny and Scholar stared at him while holding their breaths.
"Yes?"
"You said that one of us must be sacrificed to save the other two. Why him? From what I see, you are far closer to the grave."
'A great question! I was just about to ask it myself.'
Sunny turned to the older slave, trying very hard to suppress a mocking grin. But to his dismay, Scholar had an answer ready.
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"Before the first attack, he was already bleeding because of your senior's whip. During the attack, he was drenched in the blood of a fellow slave. His cloak, too, was soaked in it when the previous owner died. The boy already reeks of blood. Keeping him alive will put us in danger. That's why he is the best choice."
The grin died before reaching Sunny's face.
'Curse you and your big brain!'
Scholar's reasoning was appallingly solid. Hero listened, his expression growing darker with each word. Finally, he looked at Sunny, a dangerous light shining in his eyes.
"That is true."
Sunny felt his mouth getting dry. Cold sweat was running down his spine. He tensed, ready to act…
But at that moment, Hero smiled.
"Your logic is almost una.s.sailable," he said, unsheathing the sword. "However, you failed to account for one thing."
Scholar raised an eyebrow, trying to hide his own nervousness.
"What might that be?"
The young soldier turned to face him, the smile disappearing from his face. Now, he was radiating thick, practically palpable killing intent.
"It's that I know who you are, Your Grace. I also know what you've done, and how you ended up a salve. Just one of the revolting crimes you have committed would be enough to make me want to kill you. So if there is someone among us who deserves to be sacrificed… it's you."
Scholar's eyes widened.
"But… but the smell of blood!"
"Don't worry about it. I'll make you bleed enough to overpower whatever residual scent the boy carries."
It all happened so fast that Sunny barely had time to react. Hero lunged forward with a speed that seemed almost inhuman. A moment later, Scholar was shrieking on the ground, his leg broken with one strike from the flat side of the young soldier's sword. Not giving him an opportunity to recover, Hero stomped on his other leg, and a sickening sound of shattering bones could be clearly heard. The shriek turned into a sobbing howl.
Just like that, Scholar was done for.
The brutality of Hero's actions was in such stark contrast with his usually graceful demeanor that Sunny felt blood turning to ice in his veins. This was… scary.
The soldier gave him a calm look and said in a placid tone:
"Wait for me here."
Then he grabbed the older slave and dragged him down the path, soon disappearing behind a rock outcropping. After a few minutes, terrible screams could be heard echoing through the wind.
Sunny was left alone, trembling.
'c.r.a.p! This is… this is too much!'
He still couldn't believe how sudden Scholar's demise came to be. And how ruthless it was.
Some time later, Hero was back, acting as though nothing had happened. But it was exactly that normalcy that unnerved Sunny the most.
After sorting through the contents of Scholar's rucksack and throwing most of the firewood out, the young soldier put it over his shoulder and nonchalantly turned to the young slave:
"Let's go. We need to hurry."
Not knowing what to say, Sunny gave him a nod and headed forward.
Now there were only two of them left.
It was sort of stupid, but Sunny suddenly felt lonesome.
Walking on the stone path was much easier than scaling the mountain wall. He even had time for unnecessary thoughts. A strange feeling of melancholy descended on Sunny… somehow, he began to feel that the end of this nightmare, whatever it might be, was not far off now.
They walked in silence for some time before Hero spoke.
"Don't feel guilty about what happened. It's not your fault. The decision was mine, and mine alone."
The young soldier was a few steps ahead, so Sunny couldn't see his face.
"Besides, if you knew this man's sins… actually, it's better that you don't. Just trust me when I say that killing him was an act of justice."
'I wonder which one of us feels guilty.'
These people… always trying to rationalize their actions, always desperate to maintain an illusion of righteousness even while doing most foul things. Sunny hated the hypocrisy.
Not getting an answer, Hero chuckled.
"You don't like to talk, do you? Well, fair enough. Silence is gold."
They didn't speak again after that, each preoccupied with their own thoughts.
The sun was setting, painting the world into a million shades of crimson. This high up, the air was clean and crisp, pierced by streams of scarlet light. Below them, a sea of maroon clouds was slowly rolling past the mountain. The stars and the moon had begun to reveal themselves in the vermillion sky.
It was quite beautiful.
However, Sunny could only think about how cold it was going to be once the sun fully disappears.
Before that happened, Hero had found them a shelter. Not far from the path, hidden behind some tall rocks, was a narrow crevice that extended into the slope of the mountain. Happy to be safe from the piercing wind, they explored the crevice and ended up in a small, well-concealed cave.
Sunny made a move to unbundle some firewood, but Hero stopped him with a shake of his head.
"Today we will camp without making a fire. The beast is too close."
Camping without the warm flames to keep them company was not going to be pleasant, but at least they weren't going to freeze to death inside the cave. In any case, the alternative was too frightening.
Sunny sat down, putting his back against the cave's wall. Hero settled opposite of him, looking downcast and thoughtful.
He was obviously in a strange mood. If nothing else, it was apparent from the fact that today, for the first time, the young soldier had failed to care for his sword after making camp.
Soon, the sun was gone, and their small cave became completely dark. Sunny, of course, could still see perfectly well; Hero, on the other hand, was now completely blind.
In the darkness, his handsome face looked n.o.ble and, for some reason, sorrowful. Sunny studied it, not willing to fall asleep.
After a while, Hero suddenly spoke in a quiet voice:
"You know, it's strange. Usually, I can feel someone's presence even in absolute darkness. But with you, there's nothing. It's like you are just one of the shadows."
With only silence to answer him, he smiled.
"Are you asleep?"
The question echoed in the darkness. Sunny, who had never spoken with Hero unless there was an urgent need to, and even then only using a few words at best, felt like there was a strange intimacy between them now. That's why he decided to talk. Maybe the darkness gave him courage.
Besides, there was an occasion.
"Why? Are you waiting for me to fall asleep before you kill me? Or will you do it in the morning?"
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13
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Chapter 13 Moment Of Truth
The smile froze on Hero's face. He lowered his head, as though in shame. After a minute or so pa.s.sed, shrouded in heavy silence, he finally answered.
"Yes. I thought that if I do it when you sleep, you won't have to suffer."
Unseen to him, a bitter grin appeared on Sunny's face.
A long sigh escaped from the young soldier's lips. He rested his back against the cave's wall, still not looking up.
"I don't expect you to forgive me. This sin, too, will be mine to bear. But, please, if you can… find it in your heart to understand. If things were different, I would have gladly faced that monster to let you escape. But my life… does not belong to me alone. There is an unencompa.s.sable duty I am sworn to fulfill. Until it's done, I cannot allow myself to die."
Sunny laughed.
"You people… Look at you! Planning to kill me and still insisting on having a good excuse. How very convenient! I really hate hypocrites like you the most. Why don't you be honest for once? Don't give me that c.r.a.p... just say it! I'm going to kill you because it's easy. I'm going to kill you because I want to survive."
Hero closed his eyes, his face full of sadness.
"I'm sorry. I knew you wouldn't be able to understand."
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"What's there to understand?"
Sunny leaned forward, anger coursing through his veins.
"Tell me. Why do I have to die?"
The young soldier finally looked up. Even though he couldn't see in the dark, he turned his face in the direction of Sunny's voice.
"That man was a villain… but he was also right. The scent of blood is too heavy on you. It will attract the beast."
"You can just let me go, you know. We'll part ways. After that whether or not the monster finds me won't be your problem."
Hero shook his head.
"Dying in that creature's maw… is too cruel a fate. It's better if I do it myself. You are my responsibility, after all."
"How n.o.ble of you."
Sunny leaned back, dejected. After a short while, he quietly said:
"You know… when I just came here, I was ready to die. After all, in this whole world — two worlds, actually — there's not a single soul who cares whether I live or die. When I'm gone, no one will be sad. No one will even remember that I existed."
There was a forlorn look on his face. A moment later, however, it was gone, replaced by mirth.
"But then I changed my mind. Somewhere along the way, I decided to survive. I must survive, no matter what."
Hero gave him a thoughtful look.
"To live a life worth remembering?"
Sunny grinned. A dark gleam appeared in his eyes.
"No. To spite you all."
The young soldier was silent for a few moments, then nodded, accepting this answer. He rose to his feet.
"Don't worry. I'll make it quick."
"Aren't you overly confident? What makes you think you'll be able to kill me? Maybe I'll kill you instead."
Hero shook his head.
"I doubt that."
… But in the next second, he staggered and fell on one knee. The young man's face turned deathly pale, and with a pained groan, he suddenly vomited blood.
A satisfied smile appeared on Sunny's face.
"Finally."
\*\*\*
"Finally."
Hero was standing on his knees, the lower part of his face covered in blood. Astonished, he was staring at his hands, trying to understand what had happened to him.
"What… what magic is this?"
With wide eyes and a pale face, he turned to Sunny.
"Was… was that thief right? Did you put the curse of the Shadow G.o.d on us?"
Sunny sighed.
"I wish that I had the ability to throw divine curses around, but no. To tell you the truth, I don't have any abilities at all."
"Then.. how?"
The young slave shrugged.
"That's why I poisoned you all."
Hero flinched, trying to comprehend his words.
"What?"
"After the tyrant first attacked, you send me to search for water. While gathering flagons from the dead soldiers, I squeezed Bloodbane juice into each one — except my own, of course. Not enough to taste it, but enough to slowly kill anyone who would drink from them."
The soldier gritted his teeth, struggling through pain. A sudden realization appeared on his face.
"So that's why… the other two were in such bad shape."
Sunny nodded.
"Shifty drank the most, so his condition worsened the fastest. Scholar was also not long for this world, but you finished him off before the poison could. Yourself, however… it was as though Bloodbane had no effect on you at all. I was really starting to get worried."
Hero's face darkened.
"I see… I understand."
He thought about something, then looked at Sunny with surprise.
"But… but back then you didn't know… that we will turn on you."
Sunny just laughed.
"Oh, please. It was obvious. Shifty was the kind of man who would kill for a pair of boots. Scholar was like a wolf in sheep's clothing. People are selfish and cruel in the best of situations — was I supposed to believe that those two weren't going to do something terrible to me when faced with certain death?"
Hero spat more blood.
"Then… what about me?"
"You?" A disdainful expression appeared on Sunny's face. "You are the worst of them."
"Why?"
Sunny looked at him and leaned forward.
"I might have not learned much in my short life, but I do know one thing," he said, all traces of humor gone from his voice.
Now there was only cold, callous contempt. Sunny's face hardened as he spat:
"There is nothing more pathetic than a slave who begins to trust his slaver."
Hearing these words, Hero lowered his head.
"I see."
Then, suddenly, he laughed.
"You… you are a wicked little s.h.i.t, aren't you?"
Sunny rolled his eyes.
"There's no need to be rude."
But Hero wasn't listening to him.
"Good. This is good. My conscience will be clearer."
The young slave sighed in irritation.
"What are you mumbling about? Just die already."
Hero chuckled and suddenly pierced him with a stare. Somehow, he didn't look so sick anymore.
"You see, that plan would have worked if I was a normal human. But, alas, my Soul Core has Awakened long ago. I've slain countless enemies and absorbed their power. Bloodbane poison, unpleasant as it might be, can never kill me."
'c.r.a.p!'
Sunny turned around and tried to run away, but it was already too late. Something hit him in the back, sending his body crashing into the rock wall. With a scream, he felt a sharp pain piercing his left side. Rolling out of the cave, Sunny clutched his chest, scrambled back onto his feet and ran, trying to escape the narrow crevice.
He managed to reach the old path, finally being able to see the stars and the pale moon shining brightly in the night sky. But it was as far as he was able to get.
"Stop."
As the cold voice sounded behind him, Sunny froze. If Hero really had an Awakened Soul Core, he had no chances of getting away from him. In a fight, he had no chances at all.
"Turn around."
The young slave obediently turned, holding his hands up. He looked at Hero, who was wiping the blood off his face with a displeased look in his eyes. The two of them stared at each other, shivering in the murderous cold.
"Was it worth it? No matter. Despite it all, I will be true to my promise. I'll make it quick."
The soldier unsheathed his sword.
"Do you have any last words?"
Sunny did not answer.
However, a small silver bell suddenly appeared in his hand.
Hero frowned.
"Where were you hiding that thing?"
Sunny shook the bell. A beautiful, clear ringing sound flowed over the mountain, filling the night with an enchanting melody.
"What are you doing?! Stop!"
The young slave dutifully stopped.
"What was…"
Right under Hero's bewildered eyes, the silver bell disappeared into thin air. He looked at Sunny, stumped and suspicious.
"Tell me! What did you just do?"
But Sunny didn't answer. In fact, he hadn't said a single word ever since escaping the cave. Right now, he wasn't even breathing.
Hero, on the other hand, continued to speak.
"Tell me right now or you will regret it."
He scowled.
"Why are you not saying anything?"
The shivering boy just stared at him, completely silent.
No… he was staring into the darkness behind him.
Hero's eyes widened.
"What…"
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14
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Chapter 14 Child Of Shadows
Sunny had no choice but to resort to one last, desperate gamble.
He had no chance against the enemy in a direct confrontation, at least not without an advantage. Bloodbane poison was supposed to be his hidden card, but turned out to be nearly useless. Being able to see in the dark did not help that much, too: somehow, Hero was able to perceive their surroundings even without any light.
Whether he was using his sense of hearing or some magical ability, Sunny did not know — not that it mattered now that they had left the cave and were standing under the moonlit sky.
Now he had only one advantage left. The fact that he knew that the tyrant was blind, and Hero did not. Acting on that knowledge, however, was easier said than done.
But what else could he do?
That's why he tried to stay as quiet as possible and rang the silver bell. If the description did not lie, its ringing could be heard from miles away. Surely, the tyrant was going to hear it, too.
Now Sunny only had to stay silent, stall for time and hope that the monster would come. As he did so, Hero's bewilderment slowly turned into anger.
"Tell me right now or you will regret it."
His voice was quite threatening, but still, the young slave did not answer. He just shivered in the cold and tried not to moan despite the pulsing pain in his chest.
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"Why are you not answering?"
But Sunny did not dare to answer. He held his breath and watched, horrified, as the familiar colossal figure appeared behind Hero. His lungs were on fire, and his heart was beating like crazy. It was beating so loud that he was even afraid that the blind tyrant would hear it.
But, of course, it couldn't be louder than Hero's voice, who was still talking, turning himself into the only source of noise on this mountain.
At the last second, a hint of understanding appeared in the young soldier's eyes. He began to turn around, his sword rising with lightning speed.
But it was too late.
A ma.s.sive hand appeared from the darkness and caught him into an iron grip. The bone claws sc.r.a.ped against the armor, pulling it apart. Mountain King dragged Hero back, paying little attention to the sword biting into its wrist. Viscous saliva was streaming from its opened maw.
Petrified by fear, Sunny slowly turned his back to them and took a couple of steps up the old, winding path. Then he darted away, running as fast as he could.
Behind him, a desperate scream tore apart the silent night. Then a hungry roar followed. It seemed that Hero wasn't going down without a fight, even though his fate was already sealed.
But Sunny didn't care. He was running away, climbing higher and higher.
"I'm sorry, Hero," he thought. "I did say that I will watch you die… but, as you know, I am a liar. So go and die on your own…"
\*\*\*
A lonesome dark mountain stood tall against the raging winds.
Jagged and proud, it dwarfed other peaks of the mountain chain, cutting the night sky with its sharp edges. A radiant moon bathed its slopes in the ghostly light.
Under that light, a young man with pale skin and black hair reached the peak of the mountain. However, his looks didn't match the magnificence of the scene: wounded and staggering, he looked pathetic and weak.
The young man looked like a walking corpse.
His coa.r.s.e tunic and cloak were torn and smeared with blood. His sunken eyes were cloudy and lifeless. His body was bruised, beaten and cut. There were specks of b.l.o.o.d.y foam on his lips.
He was hunched over, cradling the left side of his chest. Each step caused him to moan, ragged breath barely escaping through gritted teeth.
Sunny was hurting all over. But most of all, he was cold.
So, so cold.
He just wanted to lie down in the snow and fall asleep.
But instead, he continued walking. Because he believed that the Nightmare will be over once he reaches the peak.
Step. Step. Another step.
Finally, he had made it.
At the highest point of the mountain, a vast expanse of flat rock was covered with snow. In the center of it, illuminated by moonlight, stood a magnificent temple. Its colossal columns and walls were cut from black marble, with exquisite reliefs decorating the stygian pediment and broad frieze. Beautiful and awesome, it looked like a palace of a dark G.o.d.
At least it did once. Now, the temple was in ruins: fractures and cracks marred the black stones, parts of the roof had collapsed, letting in ice and snow. It's tall gates were broken, as if smashed into pieces by a hand of a giant.
Still, Sunny was satisfied.
"Found you," he said in a hoa.r.s.e voice.
Gathering the last of his strength, the young slave slowly limped in the direction of the ruined temple. His thoughts were muddled and confused.
'See this, Hero?' he thought, forgetting for a second that Hero was already dead. 'I've made it. You were strong and ruthless, and I was weak and timid. Yet now you are a corpse, and I am still alive. Isn't it funny?'
He stumbled and groaned, feeling the edges of his broken ribs cutting deeper into his lungs. Blood was dripping from his mouth. Dead or not, Hero had gotten him good with that single strike.
'Actually, it's not. What do any of you even know about being ruthless? Poor fools. In the world where I come from, people had thousands of years to turn cruelty into an art. And as someone on the receiving end of all that cruelty… don't you think I would know more about being vicious than you ever could?'
He was getting closer to the temple.
'Truth be told, you never stood a chance… wait. What was I thinking about?'
A moment later, he had already forgotten. There was only pain, the dark temple, and the overpowering desire to sleep.
'Don't fall for it. It's just hypothermia. If you fall asleep, you'll die.'
Finally, Sunny reached the steps of the black temple. He started to climb them, not noticing thousands of bones that were scattered around. These bones once belonged to humans and monsters both. All of them were killed by the invisible guardians still lingering around the temple.
As Sunny was climbing the steps, one of the shapeless guardians approached him. It was ready to snuff out the spark of life that was burning weakly in the defiler's chest, but then stopped, sensing a faint, strangely familiar scent coming from his soul. The scent of divinity. Sorrowful and lonesome, the guardian moved aside, letting Sunny pa.s.s.
Oblivious, he entered the temple.
Sunny found himself in a grandiose hall. Cascades of moonlight were falling through the holes in the partially collapsed roof. Deep shadows were surrounding these circles of silver light, not daring to touch them. The floor was covered in snow and ice.
At the far end of the hall, a large altar was cut from a single piece of black marble. It was the only thing inside the temple untouched by snow. Forgetting why he came here, Sunny headed for the altar.
He just wanted to sleep.
The altar was dry, clean, and as wide as a bed. Sunny climbed on it and lay down.
It seemed like he was going to die.
He was okay with it.
Sunny tried to close his eyes, but was stopped by a sudden noise coming from the direction of the temple's entrance. He turned his head to look, not even a little bit curious. What he saw would have sent chills running down his spine if he wasn't so cold, tired and indifferent.
Mountain King was standing there, looking at him with its five blind eyes. He was still ma.s.sive, terrifying and revolting. Worm-like shapes were still moving frantically under its skin. It was sniffing the air, salivating.
Then it opened its maw and moved forward, slowly approaching the altar.
'What an ugly b.a.s.t.a.r.d,' Sunny thought and suddenly clutched his chest, convulsing in a fit of torturous coughing.
b.l.o.o.d.y foam flew from his mouth and fell on the altar. However, the black marble soon absorbed it.
A second later, it was as pristine as it was before.
The tyrant was just about to reach Sunny. It was already stretching its hands to grab him.
'I guess this is the end,' he thought, resigned to his fate.
But at the last second, suddenly, the voice of the Spell resounded in the dark temple.
[You have offered yourself as a sacrifice to the G.o.ds.]
[The G.o.ds are dead, and can not hear you.]
[You soul bears the mark of divinity.]
[You are a temple slave.]
[Shadow G.o.d stirs in his eternal slumber.]
[He sends a blessing from beyond the grave.]
[Child of Shadows, receive your blessing!]
Under Sunny's astonished eyes, the shadows crowding the great hall suddenly moved, as though coming alive. Tentacles of darkness surged forward, entangling Mountain King's arms and legs. The mighty tyrant struggled, trying to get free.
But how could it resist the power of a G.o.d?
The shadows dragged Mountain King back, pulling in different directions. The tyrant opened its maw, and a furious howl escaped it.
The next second, its body ruptured, torn apart into pieces.
Blood, viscera and severed limbs fell on the floor in a crimson torrent. Just like that, the horrible creature was dead.
Sunny blinked.
Once again, he was alone in the ruined temple. The great hall was dark and silent.
And then the Spell whispered:
[You have slain an awakened tyrant, Mountain King.]
[Wake up, Sunless! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal…]
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15
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Chapter 15 Shadow Slave
[Prepare for appraisal…]
Sunny found himself in a s.p.a.ce between dream and reality. It was an endless black void illuminated by a myriad of stars. Between those stars, countless strings of silver light were woven into a beautiful and inconceivably complex net, forming various nexuses and constellations. It was truly breathtaking.
Somehow, Sunny understood that he was seeing the inner workings of the Nightmare Spell. He also couldn't help but think that it looked a lot like the celestial equivalent of a neural network. If so… was the Spell alive?
This was a question that countless people had been asking themselves for the past few decades. The best answer they had come up with was that there was no way to know. The Spell was neither alive nor dead; neither sentient nor mindless.
It was more of a function than a creature.
But Sunny was in no mood to ponder philosophical questions. He was eagerly awaiting his boon.
The Spell was still appraising his performance. However, the first reward had nothing to do with it.
[You have received a Memory: Puppeteer's Shroud]
'Yes!'
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Sunny felt incredibly elated. He was almost ready to do a happy dance. That Memory belonged to Mountain King, who was an awakened tyrant — which meant that the Memory itself was of the Awakened rank. Getting it was a stroke of incredible luck!
There were seven ranks to everything in the Spell. These ranks were, in order of growing power: Dormant, Awakened, Ascended, Transcendent, Supreme, Sacred and Divine (with the exclusion of Nightmare Creatures, who were ranked as Dormant, Awakened, Fallen, Corrupted, Great, Cursed and Unholy).
From the Spell's point of view, Sunny was a dormant human. Having a Memory of a higher rank than his own soul core would be of great help once he enters the Dream Realm. The power gap between different ranks simply could not be overestimated.
He wanted to take a look at the Puppeteer's Shroud, but there was no more time. The Spell was done with its appraisal.
Here in the void, its voice didn't sound subtle and familiar anymore. Rather, it seemed like the universe itself was speaking. Sunny held his breath, listening.
[Aspirant! Your trial is over.]
[A nameless slave ascended the Black Mountain. Both heroes and monsters fell by his hand. Unbroken, he entered the ruined temple of a long-forgotten G.o.d and spilled his blood on the sacred altar. The G.o.ds were dead, and yet they listened.]
[You have defeated a dormant beast: Mountain King's Larva.]
[You have defeated three dormant humans, names unknown.]
[You have defeated an awakened human: Auro of the Nine.]
[You have defeated an awakened tyrant: Mountain King.]
[You have received the Shadow G.o.d's blessing.]
[You have achieved the impossible!]
[Final appraisal: glorious. Your treachery truly knows no bounds.]
That final part was not really necessary, as far as Sunny was concerned, but he was still pretty satisfied with the praise from the Spell. He felt like his chances of evolving his Aspect to an Awakened, or even Ascended one were pretty high.
His overall power was still dependent on the rank of his soul core, which would remain dormant until much later, but the rank of the Aspect itself would do wonders for his overall potential.
[Dreamer Sunless, receive your boon!]
He was an Aspirant no more. Sunny grinned.
[You have been bestowed a True Name: Lost from Light.]
His jaw dropped. A true name! He had received a true name! Never in his wildest dreams did Sunny dream of becoming one of the chosen few to accomplish such feat — and in his very first Nightmare to boot! Not even all of the Saints could boast of having one. He was an elite now, a bonafide cream of the crop! He was going to be rich!
But the rewards kept coming.
[Your Aspect is ready to evolve. Evolve Aspect?]
'What kind of a question is that?!'
Sunny crossed his fingers and said "yes".
[Dormant Aspect Temple Slave is evolving…]
[New Aspect acquired.]
[Aspect Rank: Divine.]
Sunny fell over.
[Aspect Name: Shadow Slave.]
\*\*\*
'Divine… it's Divine.'
Sunny was standing on his knees, stupefied. The shock was so great that for a second there he lost all control over his limbs and fell.
'It said "divine"... right?'
He raised a trembling hand and rubbed his eyes, making sure that he was awake. Or rather conscious, since, technically, he was still sleeping in the underground vault of the police station.
Confused by all this terminology, Sunny silently summoned the runes and found the lines describing his aspect.
Aspect: [Shadow Slave].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Description: [You are a miraculous shadow left behind by a dead G.o.d. As a divine shadow, you possess plenty of strange and wondrous powers. However, your existence is empty and lonesome; you mourn the pa.s.sing of your former master and long to find a new one.]
Innate Ability: [Shadow Bond].
Ability Description: [Find a worthy master and let them know your True Name. Once they recite it out loud, you will be bound to their will, unable to disobey any command. It is improper for a shadow, let alone a divine one, to walk around without a master.]
That was… a lot to digest.
First of all, Sunny felt his heart beating faster. He heard it right! All the suffering and horror he had experienced in the First Nightmare paid off in the end. A divine Aspect, he had received a divine Aspect! Anything above Awakened was rare and immensely valuable!
People with Ascended Aspects were rare enough to be fought over by various factions. The factions themselves were built around singular powerhouses with Transcendent or Supreme Aspects. And he had never, ever heard of anyone acquiring a Divine one. Never!
Anything with the "divine" prefix was so hard to find that it mostly lived in the realm of myths and legends. After all, the human race had not reached that high yet; it was only slightly more than a decade since humans managed to finally conquer the Third Nightmare and receive the ability to evolve their cores to Transcendent rank.
As Transcendents — or Saints, as they were called in the real world — powerful Awakened ruled over the Dream Realm, but even they did not dare to face Nightmare Creatures of higher ranks. Subsequently, there were not a lot of Memories and Echoes of Supreme rank around, let alone Sacred… or Divine. The same went for Aspects.
And yet Sunny just got one!
He grinned, driven half-mad by joy and arrogance. However, his jubilation was a little muddied. After all, there was that weird innate ability. Of course, he had no intention of becoming someone's magical slave, with no free will of his own. To h.e.l.l with that!
But it wasn't that bad. All he had to do to avoid that fate was to conceal his True Name. No one except for him could see his status. That meant that Sunny just had to keep his mouth shut, and no one will know that he even had one.
It meant giving up on all the benefits that someone who was bestowed a True Name after the First Nightmare was ent.i.tled to, but it all paled in comparison with a Divine Aspect.
'Not a problem,' Sunny thought with a smirk.
If the Spell had the ability to laugh, it would surely do so after hearing his thoughts. However, it didn't. Instead, it began to speak again:
[The First Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers…]
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16
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Chapter 16 Rebirth
Sunny felt something waking up inside of him. With a startled cry, he clutched his chest and stared into the darkness, trying to understand what was happening. The feeling was not painful or unpleasant, yet it was like nothing he had ever experienced. It was as though his soul was being shaken awake, infused with strange new energy.
However, that energy did not come from some outside source. Rather, it was coming from within, as though it had always been there, sleeping.
The energy filled every fiber of his being. Sunny felt his emotions becoming clearer and sharper. Then, his body began to change, too. He felt as though a miniature star was burning in the center of his chest: waves of heat were radiating from it, slowly reaching his stomach and shoulders, then his arms and legs, then his hands and feet.
Under that heat, his bones, muscles, organs and blood vessels were being rebuilt and revitalized. Sunny felt like he was being reborn. He was becoming stronger, faster, healthier.
It was euphoric.
With each second, his transformation was becoming more profound. New confidence settled in Sunny's heart. He was not a weak, frail street kid anymore. He was not as vulnerable against anyone who would wish to bully him as he was in the past.
With his powers awakened and his will tempered by the horrors of the First Nightmare, he was now someone you would not want to cross.
After some time had pa.s.sed, the star burning in his chest finally cooled down. The heat was replaced with a soothing coldness. That coldness washed over Sunny's body, taking away all the aches and discomforts that had been acc.u.mulated there over the years. Then it moved up, reaching his brain and, finally, his eyes.
His vision strangely doubled.
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He could still see the void populated by an endless pattern of stars. But he could also see something different.
A silent, calm dark sea illuminated by a lonely black sun.
From his previous knowledge, Sunny knew that this was his so-called Sea of Soul. But he also knew that it was supposed to look quite different.
For starters, it was supposed to be much more lively. The star hanging above — the visual representation of his soul core — was supposed to be burning with bright light, filling the Soul Sea with a warm, blinding shining.
However, Sunny's soul was dark and lightless.
'That's strange.'
He took a look at the black sun. At a closer examination, it actually turned out to be transparent. It's just that with no other major source of light around, the star had appeared to be as dark as its surroundings.
Also, no one wa.s.s supposed to be here except for him. It was his soul, after all! But Sunny had a nagging feeling that somewhere just beyond the periphery of his vision, hidden in the darkness, shapeless forms were constantly moving. No matter how he turned his head, he couldn't catch a clear glimpse of them. And yet the feeling would not go away.
Not wishing to waste any more time on this right now, Sunny turned back to the black sun and finally spotted two spheres of light orbiting around it, as though caught in the soul core's gravity well. A subtle smile appeared on his face.
These were his Memories: Silver Bell and Pupetter's Shroud. Later, there would be dozens of such spheres here. If he was lucky, he would even acquire an Echo or two!
The Spell's voice suddenly pulled him out of the Sea of Soul.
[Awakening Aspect Ability…]
'This is it. The moment of truth,' Sunny thought.
Divine Aspect or not, his immediate future still depended on the first Aspect Ability he would receive. His role in the Dream Realm would be based on its characteristics. If it was a combat ability, he would be most useful on the frontlines of the b.l.o.o.d.y battles against the Nightmare Creatures. If it was tied to sorcery, he would likely become a powerful, but fragile ranged fighter.
If it was something having to do with utility, he would be a vitally important part of the behind-the-scenes workings of the Dream Realm. Utility Abilities were also extremely valued in the real world, where Awakened performed many tasks that kept it going.
If he was lucky, he could even become a healer. Healers were very rare, and as such, sought-after specialists.
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Shadow Control.]
Sunny hurriedly summoned the runes. He wanted to go to the description of his new ability right away, but then decided to give his overall information a look first.
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Lost from Light.
Rank: Dreamer.
Shadow Core: Dormant.
Shadow Fragments: [12/1000].
'What? What is that?'
Where the rank of his soul core was supposed to be written, a mysterious "Shadow Core" appeared instead. Sunny looked at it, blinking. He had never heard of anyone having a different kind of core before. Was he that unique?
This enigmatic shadow core would certainly explain why his Sea of Soul looked so strange. And also… He moved his eyes down, noticing the "Shadow Fragments" counter. Usually, there was supposed to be an indicator of the number of soul shards consumed. However, it was nowhere to be seen.
'Do I… do I actually have a completely different progression path than all Awakened?'
The idea was as exciting as it was frightening. Not having to fight for resources with anybody else was an incredible advantage. Most of the human society in the Dream Realm was built around the acquisition of soul shards. If he had no need to gather them to evolve… not only would he be able to become more powerful with incredible speed, he would also be completely self-sufficient.
On the other hand, he had no idea how to acquire these shadow fragments. However, he had gotten twelve of them somehow already: so whatever it was that he had to do, he had already done it in the First Nightmare.
'I'll have to explore this carefully.'
Satisfied with this decision, Sunny continued to study the runes.
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud].
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Fated], [Mark of Divinity], [Child of Shadows].
Aspect: [Shadow Slave].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Abilities: [Shadow Control].
Aspect Ability Description: [Your shadow is more independent than most. It is an invaluable helper.]
'What is that supposed to mean?'
Sunny held his breath and began to read the description again, but at that moment, a new set of runes appeared just below it. Simultaneously, the Spell's voice resounded in the black void.
[All power has a price.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
[Your Flaw is: …]
Sunny read the runes, and his eyes widened in horror.
'Oh, no. No, no, no...'
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17
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Chapter 17 Three Simple Words
He closed his eyes, then opened them again, hoping that the runes would disappear.
'Please, be gone! Please!'
But the runes were still there, shining slightly, as though mocking him.
Flaw: [Clear Conscience].
Flaw Description: [You cannot lie.]
Sunny stared at these three simple words, feeling like there was a bottomless abyss opening right beneath his feet. The Spell, which was usually frivolous with its descriptions, decided to be straight and on point this time. There were only three words. They left him no room to maneuver.
'Can't lie. I can't lie? Me? How am I supposed to live if I can't lie?!'
Sunny's very survival was predicated on his ability to deceive and outsmart other people. Even the Spell itself congratulated him on his treachery! Without the ability to lie, he wouldn't be able to achieve anything.
Not to mention…
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His heart suddenly felt as though it was about to stop.
If he could only tell the truth, how was he supposed to hide his True Name? Wouldn't anyone be able to turn him into an obedient slave by simply asking a couple of innocent questions?
"Sh…"
Sunny was about to scream and curse, but at that moment, the Spell spoke again.
[Wake up, Lost from Light!]
The black void spun and disappeared.
\*\*\*
Sunny opened his eyes.
The armored ceiling of the police station's vault hang above him. No one would call its aesthetics beautiful, but to him, it was the most majestic sight. Only now did he realize how much he had missed the real world.
It was safe and familiar. There were no monsters or slavers… well, at least officially. There was no constant fear of torturous death.
It was home.
In addition, Sunny felt incredible. The cold that had crept deep into his bones during the Nightmare was gone, taking with it all the pain that his wounded body had been enduring day after day. His feet and wrists were not in agony, his back had forgotten the bite of the whip, and he could even breathe without feeling the sharp edges of his broken ribs cutting deeper and deeper into his lungs.
What a blessing!
The sudden disappearance of pain, coupled with the new vitality that permeated his body, almost made Sunny cry.
'I really survived.'
He slowly looked down and then froze, breathless.
On a cheap plastic chair placed beside his reinforced medical bed sat the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
She had short, raven-black hair and icy blue eyes. Her flawless skin was smooth, supple and as white as snow. Actually, this was Sunny's first time meeting someone as pale as he himself was. However, while Sunny's pallor looked strange and unhealthy, the beautiful stranger was nothing short of striking.
The woman seemed to be in her late twenties. She was wearing a dark blue uniform with silver epaulets and black leather boots. The jacket of her uniform was casually unb.u.t.toned, revealing a black tank top beneath.
Currently, she was stretching her arms above her head, clearly bored and sleepy. The gesture forced the thin fabric to tighten, provocatively accentuating her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
Mesmerized, Sunny almost missed the fact that there was a shoulder insignia on the woman's left sleeve. There were three stars on it.
'Three stars, huh,' he thought, distracted. 'Three stars means an Ascended… huh… yeah. Wait. An Ascended?!'
But before Sunny could fully digest the meaning of this word, he realized that the woman was staring at him, too.
"What are you looking at?" she said, not a gram of humor in her voice.
Sunny blinked a couple of times, embarra.s.sed, and quickly came up with an excuse. Then he opened his mouth and answered:
"Your b.r.e.a.s.t.s."
A second later, his eye widened in absolute horror.
Because he wasn't planning to say those words at all! His mouth moved on its own!
A wave of terror suddenly drowned his mind.
The woman slowly smiled with a dangerous gleam in her eyes. Then, without any warning, she moved her hand and slapped Sunny across the face.
Sunny whole body was turned around. If it wasn't for the restraints holding him in place, he would have probably flown off the bed. For a moment, he even saw stars.
But it could still be considered getting off lightly. An Ascended, the woman was an Ascended! She could have torn his head clean off with a flick of a finger. Why did he have to offend someone so powerful, of all people?!
Meanwhile, the woman cleared her throat and crossed her arms.
"Are you awake now?"
Sunny held his numb cheek and carefully nodded.
"Good. Let me give you a piece of advice: don't just say anything that comes to your mind. Especially to girls. It's not like you haven't seen a girl before, right?"
'Say "Thank you! I definitely will not!"' Sunny thought.
But instead, his mouth moved on its own, and he said:
"I've seen plenty... but no one as beautiful as you."
Then he flinched back, his face as red as a lobster.
The woman stared at him for a few seconds and then burst into laughter.
"I see you haven't met a lot of Awakened then. By Awakened standards, I'm below average."
Sunny glanced at her with doubt.
The woman shook her head.
"As your soul core develops, the body gets rid of all its imperfections. So it's hard to find an unattractive Awakened, especially among the stronger ones. Live long enough, and you might just become a flower boy yourself."
Then she gave him a thorough look and added:
"Well… maybe. In any case, since you're awake — welcome back to the land of the living. Congratulations on surviving your First Nightmare, Sleeper Sunless."
\*\*\*
Sleeper Sunless.
That was how people would address him now, at least in the short span of days until the winter solstice — after that, he would either return from the Dream Realm as an Awakened or not return at all.
It felt strange to have a t.i.tle put before his name. In the past, Sunny was rarely even addressed by name. People mostly called him things like "boy", "punk", "brat" or "hey, you!". But now he even had a t.i.tle.
Sleeper Sunless…
Actually, the correct term was "Dreamer". But humans had their own set of words for those infected by the Nightmare Spell. Carriers who had just finished their First Nightmare were called Sleepers because of how they interacted with the Spell.
Basically, once his spirit enters the Spell, his body was going to fall into slumber. That slumber would continue for days, weeks, or even months — however long it takes him to escape the Dream Realm. Hence the term "Sleeper".
Once he escapes and becomes an Awakened, he would live his life normally during the day and return to the Dream Realm every time he falls asleep. The Awakened were called the same by the Spell and the humans. That word was also sometimes used as a general term for all carriers.
Then, if he were to decide to enter a Second Nightmare and managed to survive, he would become an Ascended — people called them Masters. Masters could enter and exit the Dream Realm as they wished. Some even chose to never come back there at all. More than that, they traveled between the worlds physically, not just in spirit.
And then, above the Masters, there were Saints — those who had conquered the Third Nightmare and earned the right to call themselves Transcendent. They were as powerful as demi-G.o.ds, and even more rare. Not only could they travel between the real world and the Dream Realm, but they could also take others with them.
But coming back to Masters…
The beautiful woman stood up and approached the reinforced medical bed. With practiced moves, she began to undo the restraint holding Sunny in place.
"I am Ascended Jet. You can call me Master Jet. These past three days, I was on watch duty due to your Nightmare."
'Right… before I fell asleep, the policeman told me that an Awakened would arrive in a few hours to monitor my condition. To kill the Nightmare Creature if… if I die and let it through.'
Sunny was unwilling to open his mouth, terrified that all sorts of truths would come spilling out. But there were things he simply had to know.
"Master Jet? I have a question."
"Go on."
"Why would a Master be put on watch duty? Isn't it… below your pay grade?"
Jet gave him a dark look.
"You're smarter than you seem. Recently, there was a lot of Gates opening in this sector. Most of the local Awakened are either wounded or occupied with the clean-up. Or dead. It's always like that close to the winter solstice."
She opened the final restraint and took a step back.
"Plus, there's not a lot of Awakened who, like me, directly work for the government. It's by far the least lucrative or glorious carrier one of us can choose. Would you abandon wealth and fame to work abysmal hours and risk your life, fuelled only by altruism and sense of duty?"
Sunny wanted to say something flattering. Instead, he looked Master Jet right in the eyes and smirked.
"Of course not. I'm not an idiot!"
'd.a.m.n this d.a.m.n Flaw! d.a.m.n!'
She stared at him with a humorless expression. Sunny thought that he was going to get slapped again.
But instead, Jet smiled.
"See, I was right. You really are smart."
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18
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Chapter 18 Absence Of Light
Sunny was enjoying a hot shower. After their short conversation, Master Jet had sent him to clean himself, saying that he "reeked of Nightmare". The unnatural slumber of the Spell would slow down the body's metabolism, and the medical apparatus he had been strapped into was supposed to take care of the rest, but he was still asleep for three whole days.
Even if only psychological, the scent of bloodshed and despair lingered around him.
'Ah, I'm in heaven,' Sunny thought, willing himself to temporarily forget about the looming disaster of the Flaw.
He was alone in the police station's showers, relaxing under the streams of hot water. After a bit of time had pa.s.sed, Sunny reluctantly turned the tap off and walked over to the towel rack. Coincidentally, he saw himself reflecting in the mirror.
The changes in his physique were subtle, but noticeable. His pale skin seemed a little healthier, his muscles a bit more p.r.o.nounced. He looked slender and lean instead of emaciated and frail, as he did before. There was a slight l.u.s.ter to his dark hair and a shine to his eyes.
However, he was still rather diminutive. Not exactly a picture of masculine handsomeness, to say the least.
'Flower boy, huh?' Sunny thought, full of bitterness.
Then he suddenly froze, noticing something strange. As he was looking at himself in the mirror, the reflection of his shadow seemed to move. It was as though the shadow lowered its head and quietly facepalmed.
Sunny quickly turned around, piercing his shadow with a nervous look. However, everything seemed normal. The shadow was doing exactly what it was supposed to do, repeating his every motion.
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"I clearly saw you move," he said, feeling a bit strange. "You have just moved on your own, right?!"
Sunny glared at the shadow, which obediently glared back.
"Did you move or not?"
The shadow enthusiastically shook its head.
'What the?!'
"What do you mean, "no"?! You've just moved your head! Do you think I'm a fool?"
The shadow seemed to think for a bit and then shrugged.
Sunny was left with his mouth agape.
"Your shadow is more independent than most. It is an invaluable helper," he muttered finally.
Right. This was how the Spell had described his Aspect Ability.
But what exactly could his shadow do?
He decided to experiment a little.
"Hey, you. Tell me what you can do."
The shadow was silent and motionless.
'Right. It doesn't have vocal cords.'
As though that made any sense! Shadows were not supposed to have muscles either, and yet it knew how to move.
"Uh… show me?"
No reaction. It seems the shadow was content pretending to be an ordinary, lifeless blob of darkness.
Sunny sighed.
'I'm doing this wrong.'
Independent or not, the shadow was still a part of him. It was a manifestation of his Aspect Ability. So instead of asking the shadow, he really should have been asking himself.
"Not going to talk, are you?"
Sunny closed his eyes and directed his perception within, exploring himself for the first time since returning to the real world. He felt the beating of his heart, the steady rising of his chest, the slight chill of the shower room. He heard droplets of water falling on the tiled floor. Felt the movement of filtered air against his skin.
And there, on the verge of his consciousness, something new.
A completely new sense.
Sunny concentrated on it, and suddenly a whole other world opened to him. It was hard to describe with words, just like one would have trouble explaining how hearing or touch feels.
It was as though he could communicate with vast forms that crowded around him and receive an understanding of both their own shape and the surrounding s.p.a.ce, guided by the different degrees of pressure they exerted on his mind and each other.
That understanding came naturally and instantaneously, like an instinct.
These forms were shadows. And among them, one — not the largest one, but the deepest — didn't feel like an external ent.i.ty. It was like a part of his soul.
Once Sunny grasped the feeling of it, he could sense the shadow just like he sensed his limbs. The only thing was that his limbs were made out of flesh, and the shadow was made from the absence of light.
Sunny opened his eyes and looked at the shadow. Then, with a thought, he willed it to raise an arm.
The shadow raised an arm.
He willed it to sit, stand, turn around, kick. Then he willed it to change shape, turning into a circle, then a line, then a monster. And finally, back to his own silhouette. The shadow was mercurial and fluid, like water. The only constant was its size.
"Ha! How about that?"
The shadow pouted, then reluctantly raised its thumbs.
"But how are you useful?"
He willed the shadow to strike the towel rack. It obediently moved and delivered a powerful kick. Of course, since it was just a shadow, its leg pa.s.sed over the towels harmlessly, not even causing them to sway a little.
"Is that… all you can do?"
In his mind, the image of shadow tentacles tearing the mighty tyrant into little pieces cracked and shattered mercilessly. It seemed he would not be competing with Shadow G.o.d any time soon.
How regretful.
The shadow looked at him with disdain. Then it shrugged and stopped moving altogether, clearly offended.
Sunny sighed and took a towel off the rack.
"Alright. I will explore it later."
\*\*\*
A few minutes after that, he was wearing a clean police-issued tracksuit and heading for the cafeteria. Master Jet was waiting for him at one of the tables, with two trays full of steaming synthetic food in front of her.
"Help yourself."
Sunny glanced at the cheap gruel, which was not so different from the stuff he used to consume in the outskirts, and sighed. Somehow, he had expected his first meal after becoming a Sleeper to be more lavish.
Still, it was food.
He sat down and began to wolf down the gruel ravenously. He was very, very hungry.
In the process, his thoughts began to wander. Sunny stole a glance at Jet and wondered. The Spell told him to find a master, and the next thing he knew there was a woman calling herself Master right in front of him. He tried to imagine being an obedient slave to someone like her.
Weird thoughts started to appear in his mind…
'You know what, Sunny,' he thought with dark irony. 'Knowing your luck, this would be a perfect moment for her to ask…'
"What are you thinking about?"
Sunny choked on the gruel. He felt his mouth beginning to open, and put all of his will into staying silent. A second pa.s.sed without him saying anything. Then a weird pressure appeared in his mind, which soon turned into blinding pain. He endured it for a couple more seconds before giving up.
"I was thinking that it would be a perfect moment for you to ask me about what I am thinking," he finally said.
Jet gave him a weird look.
"Alright. Are you almost finished with your food?"
Sunny nodded.
"Then I'll begin. As per protocol, I am obligated to inform you of a few things. It is mostly a formality. First of all, concerning your Nightmare…"
She glanced at him and sighed.
"You are ent.i.tled to receive free psychological counseling. No matter what traumatic experience you have encountered, there is no shame in asking for help. Your mind is as important as your body — it's only right to keep it healthy. Are you interested?"
Sunny shook his head. Jet shrugged and continued:
"As you wish. You can also talk to me. Was it very hard?"
How could he answer?
"It was simultaneously much worse than I expected and exactly as bad as I expected."
She nodded, satisfied with that explanation.
"That's a good att.i.tude. I won't pry any further. Us outskirt rats are way more resilient than people think."
Sunny looked at her in surprise.
"Master Jet… you grew up in the outskirts?"
She grinned.
"What? You can't tell because of my exquisite manners and polished exterior?"
He blinked a couple of times, surprised.
"I couldn't tell at all."
After thinking for a while, he added:
"Are there a lot of people like us among the Awakened?"
Jet's smile disappeared.
"No. There's not. In fact, they can be counted on one hand."
As expected. Odds were really stacked against people like them. That made the three stars on Jet's insignia even more exceptional.
'One day, I'll be a Master too.'
If she can do it, why can't I?
"So… what happens now? What else are you obligated to tell me?"
Sunny had no idea what he was supposed to do after leaving the police station. The winter solstice was just several weeks away.
Jet leaned back and answered:
"That's basically it. There are some additional hoops to jump through, mostly having to do with your family, but… well. I've read your file, so I know it doesn't apply. The only thing left is to decide how you will be preparing for your first journey into the Dream Realm."
She looked at her communicator and grimaced.
"I must stay, your luck is exceptionally bad. There's not a lot of time at all. First of all: you are free to do what you want. No one is forcing you to make a certain decision. That is to say, you can choose to prepare on your own, or not prepare at all. Party until the lights go out."
Sunny was not very well versed in partying.
"However, I would advise against that. As a Sleeper, you are also ent.i.tled to enroll in the Awakened Academy. You'll be provided with food, lodging and a wide choice of preparatory cla.s.ses. This late into the year, you won't be able to learn a lot. But it's better than nothing."
She was silent for a few seconds, then added:
"More importantly, you will get acquainted with most of the people who will enter the Dream Realm with you. Some of them might become your companions for life."
'And some may end up trying to end that life once we're inside the Spell,' Sunny added, reading between the lines of what Master Jet had said.
"So, what do you say? Do you want me to take you to the Academy?"
Sunny thought about it. Strangely, his Flaw was silent, not forcing him to answer one way or the other.
'Is it because I haven't made up my mind yet?'
Finally, he looked down, at his empty tray, and made a decision.
Free lodging and food, you say?
"Yeah. I want to go to the Academy."
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19
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Chapter 19 Crossing The Bridge
Sunny was standing in front of the ma.s.sive, seemingly indestructible red gates of the Awakened Academy. The Academy was, in fact, a city within the city. It was built like a fortress, with a high wall made of hard alloy, deep moat and numerous large-caliber turrets which were placed in certain positions to create a deadly air-suppression dome. No Nightmare Creature, not even colossal t.i.tans, were supposed to be able to break through its defenses.
It was a legendary place. Actually, many of the most popular webtoons, youth dramas and novels took place right behind that wall. Adventures, rivalries and romantic entanglements of the young Awakened heroes were the mainstream theme of modern entertainment. Never in his wildest dreams did Sunny imagine actually becoming one of these heroes.
Of course, how things really were differed a lot from how it was portrayed in the media. More than that, he had only four weeks to spend here before venturing into the Dream Realm. Even if he wanted to, there was not enough time for any type of entanglement. And he definitely did not want to.
He had to learn how to survive, not waste time on such nonsense!
The snow was slowly falling to the ground. It was cold and silent in front of the Academy gates. Except for Sunny, there was only one other person — another new Sleeper, if he had to guess.
It was a tall, slender girl of around his age, with clear grey eyes and a detached look on her face. She had strange, silver-white hair that was cut short and neatly parted to the side. Just like him, she was dressed in a police-issued tracksuit and had no personal belongings with her. On her head, there was a pair of old-fashioned headphones. She was calmly listening to music while they waited.
There was a certain vibe to the silver-haired girl. It was sort of… as though she was apart from the world. She looked confident and self-sufficient, but also a bit lonely.
Sunny wasn't going to start a conversation. Who knew what kind of situation he would put himself in due to that d.a.m.n Flaw? It was better to keep to himself.
He glanced at the girl and sighed.
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'I wonder what Flaw does she have?'
Finally, the gates began to open. The giant, ridiculously thick sheet of reinforced metal slowly descended, creating a long bridge. Sunny looked ahead with grim determination.
Master Jet's parting words echoed in his mind.
\*\*\*
On their drive to the Academy, Sunny didn't speak much, looking at the sights of the city that were flying past the window of Jet's personal transport vehicle. Actually, it was his first time sitting in a PTV: most people in the city couldn't even dream about getting a license and purchasing a vehicle like that, having to do with public transportation.
He had ridden in the back of a police cruiser once or twice, but that was a completely different experience.
At some point, Master Jet looked at him and said:
"Since we both come from the outskirts, I'll give you three pieces of advice. Whether you listen to me or not is your business."
Sunny turned his head, waiting.
"First: once you're registered in the Academy, they'll offer you psychological counseling again. There will also be a valuable reward for sharing your experiences in the Nightmare and the details of your Appraisal. You'll be able to receive a soul shard, maybe even several of them."
He frowned.
"Are you trying to convince me to visit a psychiatrist again?"
Jet shook her head.
"No. I'm telling you to refuse."
Surprised, Sunny raised his eyebrows.
"Why?"
There was a pause before she answered.
"You're too green to understand, but out there in the Dream Realm, Nightmare Creatures are not the only danger. Once you grow powerful enough, humans will become an equal threat. The less they know about your Aspect, the better."
So that's how it is.
"The easiest way to defeat a powerful Awakened is to use their Flaw. That's why young fools in the Academy are encouraged in various ways to share the details of their Aspects. I'm not saying that the government will leak your information, but once two people know a secret, it's no longer a secret. And there's a lot of people working for the government."
That made a lot of sense.
"Thank you, Master Jet."
She gave him a nod.
"Second: there will be a lot of courses to choose from. All types of combat training, deep dives into Nightmare Creature categories and vulnerabilities, basics of various types of sorcery, artifact study and so on."
Sunny gulped. Actually, he was already agonizing about what weapon to train with. Four weeks was not enough to master a weapon, but at least he would have a basic understanding of it.
"Disregard all of that. The only course you have time to attend is Wilderness Survival."
He blinked.
"What?"
Jet glanced at him.
"It's different for city kids, who learn all sorts of useful things in school and from their tutors. But we don't have that advantage, do we? What was the biggest threat to your life during the Nightmare?"
Sunny thought about it. On the surface, the most dangerous thing he faced was the tyrant, followed by Hero… Auro of the Nine. But actually, what almost killed him in the end was…
"The cold."
Jet smiled.
"Smart. You only know how to survive in the city. But the Dream Realm is mostly made of wilderness. Do you know how to make a fire? How to procure food? How to find safe shelter? No. Fighting monsters is important, but it'll be useless if you die of hunger or exposure to the elements. Trust me. I've learned it the hard way."
Sunny nodded, angry at himself. It was so obvious, yet he never even thought about these seemingly simple things. He was blinded by his past habits and experience.
Human brains were like that: once accustomed to a certain way of living, it was hard to see past the already familiar routines. It was lazy thinking at its worst.
At that point, Master Jet had stopped the car and opened the door, getting out. Sunny followed her and was momentarily stunned, staring at the colossal metal gates in front of them.
This was… the famous Awakened Academy.
After a few seconds, he shook off his amazement and turned to his senior.
"This is as far as I go," she said, looking cheerlessly at the walls of the Academy. "I've already notified them. Someone will come fetch you in a while."
There was something dark in the depths of her icy blue eyes. Sunny suddenly felt a cold feeling spreading through his body.
"What's the third advice?"
Master Jet glanced at him, then sighed.
"Remember: no one can survive in the Dream Realm alone. That's not an opinion, that's a fact. Try to get along with your peers, even if they don't treat you well. It might save your life."
Then she suddenly smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
"You've done well to survive until now. Make sure to keep yourself alive in the future, too."
Then she got back into her PTV and drove off. Just like that, she was gone.
\*\*\*
The end of the metal bridge hit the special grooves in the ground and stopped moving after a set of loud clicks. Sunny looked ahead, wondering what kind of life he was going to be living in the next four weeks.
Keep your Flaw and Aspect secret, learn to survive in the wilderness, be nice to other Sleepers. It didn't sound too hard.
But, for some reason, he was sure that these weeks were going to be as challenging as his First Nightmare. Or maybe even worse.
Seemingly free of such concerns, the silver-haired girl walked forward and stepped on the bridge.
Sunny sighed and reluctantly followed.
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20
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Chapter 20 Outcast Once Again
The Sleeper part of the compound was relatively small and situated in the southern part of the Academy, surrounded on all sides by training fields and parks.
It was a low, modern building constructed with reinforced materials. Like the majority of buildings in the Academy, most of it was hidden below the ground, leaving only a couple of floors above it. With its white, pristine alloy walls and wide windows, it must have looked beautiful in the summer, contrasted against all the greenery around.
Inside, the building was s.p.a.cious and well-lit. Sunny and the silver-haired girl were taken to a large hall where a hundred or so of young men and women — Sleepers of the same unfortunate timing as the two of them — were already waiting for the beginning of the induction ceremony. Most of them were nervous, tense and excited.
Logistics of the Academy were a constant headache for the administrators since the rate at which the Spell infected people was always chaotic. There was no way to orderly structure for batches of Sleepers to undergo any type of standardized education on a shared schedule: some of them had a full year to prepare for the Dream Realm, some only months, some even mere days.
That's why these induction ceremonies were held each month at the beginning of the year and then every week once the winter solstice began to loom near. Some of the Sleepers in the hall had to wait days to be inducted, while Sunny had lucked out and was delivered to the Academy just hours before the scheduled event.
Once inside the hall, he understood two things.
Firstly, everyone was well-dressed and in possession of a suitcase, a duffel bag, or at least a backpack carrying their personal belongings. They were obviously coming prepared, most likely from home, sent off by their families. So Sunny and the silver-haired girl, who came empty-handed and wearing simple police-issued clothes, were not a norm like he had a.s.sumed, but actually an eye-catching anomaly.
'Right. That makes sense.'
Secondly, Master Jet was not being overly humble when she called herself below average by Awakened standards. Even though these young people were just starting their paths as Awakened, their looks were dazzling. Everyone was handsome, beautiful and radiated health.
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He swallowed.
'Still, I feel like none of them compare. She might not be as perfectly shaped, but… I don't know… she has a presence. It's like shadows become deeper and the temperature drops by a couple of degrees when she's in a room.'
Was this the difference between a Sleeper and a Master?
But all of these thoughts were just him trying to postpone the inevitable. Sunny already knew that he was in for a wild ride.
Because he could not lie, and all of these excited youths, regardless of their clothes, gender and looks, wanted to do one thing.
Talk.
Every one of them wanted to talk with fellow Sleepers. They wanted to discuss their Nightmares, their future journey into the Dream Realm, and everything in between. They wanted to ask questions. They wanted to be asked questions. They wanted to discuss something important or just chit-chat about stupid things.
Everyone wanted to share.
'It's a nightmare!' Sunny moaned, disturbed and fearful. 'I'm doomed!'
Then, with a bit of grim determination, he gritted his teeth and slowly exhaled.
'Just think about it as a continuation of your trial. You survived the black mountain, so you can survive this, too.'
He had faced heroes, villains, monsters and even G.o.ds. Was he going to be afraid of a bunch of teenagers?
…He might have underestimated how scary teenagers can be.
In half an hour, pretty much everyone in the room hated his guts.
After a short series of conversations, Sunny had acquired a reputation of an obnoxious, foul-mouthed pervert. This reputation was quickly solidified. He was slapped a few times and even punched once. He also discovered a couple of new things about his true self — namely, that deep down inside he was apparently rude, arrogant, and more than a little bit l.u.s.tful.
The conversations went something like this:
"Look at all these young people. How many do you think will return from the Dream Realm? How many will perish? What do you think our own chances of survival are?"
"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that a pompous fool like you will die first!"
Or:
"I even received an armor-type Memory in my Nightmare. It's an enchanted robe. Would you like to see?"
"Actually, I would prefer to see you without a robe…"
Or:
"Then those lowlifes began to rob the bodies. It was disgusting! They even took their shoes! What kind of degenerate would take a dead man's shoes?"
"I once killed a man and took his boots. They were nice boots."
"... What? You killed someone just for a pair of boots?"
"Of course not! There were other reasons. I also took his cloak."
Once again an outcast, Sunny was eventually left alone. People seemed to be avoiding him. Unperturbed, he found a quiet corner and stood there, glad that no one wanted to talk to him anymore. His face hurt, and there was blood dripping from his nose. Being ostracised from a group was nothing new, but it still stung.
However, he was smiling.
Because in the process of turning the whole batch of Sleepers against himself, Sunny had discovered something vital.
He learned how to control his Flaw.
Once asked a question, he could not keep quiet. He also couldn't lie. However, after a lot of experimentation, Sunny had found out that with a bit of practice, he could influence the exact way the truth eventually came out.
It was like this: after receiving a question, his mind automatically produced a truthful answer. After that, the Flaw would force him to say that answer aloud. Refusal to speak would result in the buildup of pressure, then piercing pain. The longer he kept quiet, the worse the pain would become. Eventually, he would have to surrender and reveal the truth.
However, in these moments between receiving the question and surrendering to the pain, the actual wording of the answer could be changed. The more it strayed from the initial thought, the more resistance he would meet — once again in the form of pressure, then pain. It still had to be truthful, but it didn't have to be so stark.
For example, if Master Jet were to catch him staring again and ask what he was looking at, instead of embarra.s.sing himself Sunny would have been able to endure a bit of pain and simply say "You."
That would still be the truth, however, the result would be entirely different.
Hidden in the corner, Sunny grinned as he observed the Sleepers.
'This is good. This is great. This is something I can work with!'
After all, one didn't have to lie to deceive a person. Sometimes, truth was the best material for creating deceit.
\*\*\*
If used with a certain devious type of intelligence, truth could be as misleading as lies. For example, in one of his previous conversations, Sunny had confessed that he had once stolen boots from a dead man. The other guy was horrified and asked if he had really killed someone just for a pair of boots. The answer the Flaw forced him to give was that there were other reasons and that he had also taken the man's cloak.
The true reason for killing the veteran slaver was that he had whipped Sunny a few hours prior. Besides, he was already dying. The cloak had nothing to do with the killing itself. However, the wording of the answer created an impression that it did.
Thus, two truthful statements, when put together, created an effect akin to a lie.
This was just a simple example. With a lot of effort and intense thinking, Sunny could create other types of manipulative truths. It was going to be extremely difficult and risky, but it could be done.
He just needed a bit of luck.
It was time to put his theory to practice.
Sunny didn't forget what his main goal was — to make sure that no one ever finds out his True Name. To achieve that, he had to create an impression that he was the most pathetic, weak person in this whole building. Someone who would never receive a positive appraisal, let alone a divine Aspect and a True Name.
However, since this would be a lie, he couldn't just go and say it.
So how was he to convince everyone that he definitely did not have a powerful Aspect and an impressive record with the Spell?
His eyes fell on a particular group of Sleepers. There were five or six of them, gathered around a tall, confident young man.
The young man had brown hair and a gentle, handsome face. His eyes were green, with a hint of friendly humor. His posture, figure and attentive gaze betrayed someone who went through extensive training. Everything about the young man screamed of n.o.bility and strength.
Just at that moment, one of his companions was saying with a tone of amazement:
"Ascended? You have received an Ascended Aspect? What… what was your Appraisal?!"
The young man smiled humbly.
"Oh. It was "excellent."
Sunny stopped in front of the group, as though by accident. After hearing the young man's answer, he frowned and looked at him with disdain.
Then, with a voice full of utter bewilderment, Sunny said:
"Ascended, excellent? That's it? What's the big deal?"
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21
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Chapter 21 First Performance
His words hung in silence. The Sleepers looked at Sunny with a hilarious a.s.sortment of emotions, ranging from bewilderment to shock. The young man with humorous eyes just smiled politely.
To be honest, getting an Ascended Aspect during the First Nightmare was extremely rare. He was certainly someone special, maybe even outstanding. Actually, despite their apparent differences, the young man somehow reminded Sunny of Hero… Auro of the Nine.
There was a special type of calculating coldness hidden deep inside their eyes. He had encountered such people before, mostly among the veterans of various street gangs in the outskirts.
They simply called this type of coldness "murder math". Basically, it was a habit experienced fighters developed — no matter where they were and what mood they were in, there was always a sober part of their minds constantly calculating the most efficient way of killing the person in front of them, just in case such need arises.
'Ugh. Why do I have to antagonize someone like that, of all people?'
But Sunny really had no grounds to complain. After all, he brought this on himself.
After a few seconds, one of the young man's companions finally blinked and said:
"Uh… friend, you must not know a lot about the Spell. Caster's results are truly remarkable."
Then, with a furtive glance at the remarkable Caster, he added:
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"He is a Legacy, after all."
An actual, living and breathing descendent of an Awakened clan? Sunny reevaluated his opinion of the humorous young man. Legacies were known to be trained for their eventual entrance into the Spell from the moment they could walk. For them, being infected was a certainty instead of a possibility.
They were extremely formidable people.
'Just great!' he thought bitterly and made his frown deepen.
"Are you trying to pull a prank on me? You call this remarkable?!"
The bewilderment in the eyes of these Sleepers was slowly being replaced by hostility.
"Listen, friend. If you don't think that an Ascended Aspect is remarkable, then please share with us your own amazing results! What, pray tell, was your Appraisal?"
Caster himself was still keeping quiet and smiling. However, his defenders were growing restless.
This was exactly what Sunny wanted to happen. He smiled with utter contempt.
"I would let you know… my Appraisal was, uh, it was "glorious"! Yes, glorious. And the Aspect I acquired was of the Divine rank."
After that, he received a number of strange looks. No one had ever received a Divine Aspect before; so, of course, they were starting to think that he was a lunatic. But there was still a sliver of doubt… maybe that strange guy was a descendant of a powerful clan? A peerless prodigy? Maybe his Appraisal was, indeed, glorious…
Sunny had to dispel that tiny bit of doubt.
"Mind you, I'm not some lofty Legacy. Pfft! I'm from the outskirts. I've never even received combat training. All that training and he only got an "excellent"? What did he do during the Nightmare, pick his nose the whole time?"
The expressions of all the Sleepers that were listening to his bragging instantly changed. An outskirt rat with no training… yeah, sure. Who was he trying to fool?
Finally, with the same polite smile, Caster spoke:
"Glorious? That is interesting. Would you mind telling us what were your achievements in the Nightmare?"
Sunny grinned.
"Sure, no problem! First of all, I killed an… uh… an awakened tyrant."
Every "uh" cost him a couple of moments of intense pain, but he didn't let it show on his face. His expression was nothing but smug and confrontational.
The mere mention of a tyrant, let alone an awakened one, made a couple of Sleepers smile with ridicule.
"Oh, really? How did you kill it?"
An arrogant look appeared on Sunny's face.
"How? Let me tell you, I didn't even have to lift a finger. I just spat, and it was torn to pieces!"
Which was true. Sunny had spat a mouthful of blood on the altar, and as the result, Mountain King was ruthlessly dismembered by Shadow G.o.d.
Someone openly laughed.
"This guy is either insane or purposefully messing with us. Listen here, shorty. Have some decency, okay? Who would believe such a lie?"
Sunny was genuinely angry. He wanted to retort, saying that he wasn't short. But he couldn't.
Because that would be a lie, d.a.m.n it!
So, instead, he just gritted his teeth and said with a voice full of outrage:
"I can't answer that, because it's not a lie!"
"Are you really insisting that you had killed an awakened tyrant — a tyrant! — and with a bit of spit no less?"
Sunny knitted his brows.
"That's the truth!"
More laughter followed.
"Crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
"He actually believes in his own c.r.a.p!"
"Insane, he's insane…"
Unexpectedly, Caster stopped his companions.
"Guys."
After the laughter quieted down, he asked in a friendly manner:
"What else did you achieve?"
What? That wasn't enough? Sunny raised his chin.
"Let me think… Oh! I also killed an awakened swordsman."
"Really? How did you do that?
Acting as though he was a little bit embarra.s.sed, Sunny looked down.
"That… actually, that time I had to lift a finger. I even had to shake it a couple of times. That was enough to kill him, though."
He was holding the Silver Bell between his fingers, which led to Hero being attacked and eventually killed by the tyrant. So, technically, all his statements were true.
"What a crackpot!"
"Ha! Can you believe this idiot?!"
"Poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Not only is he weak, he's also lost it…"
Caster gave his companions a long look and then turned to Sunny.
"Anything else?"
Sunny blinked. Time for the finishing touch…
"Something else? Uh… Well. Oh, right! I communicated with a bunch of G.o.ds, even though they were all dead. I made one of them wake up. He gave me a blessing! I was blessed by a G.o.d, do you all understand?!"
The Sleepers were silently shaking their heads or looking at him with pity. Caster sighed.
"I see. Well, in comparison to your achievements, mine do look rather average. Thank you for sharing with us. I hope you'll be as successful once we enter the Dream Realm."
Sunny smiled with a look of smug superiority on his face.
"You better believe it!"
With that, he turned around and walked away.
'Ah. That's a job well done.'
He was pretty sure that after this performance, no one would ever believe that he actually had some kind of a powerful Aspect or did anything worthy of notice during the Nightmare. He only told them the truth, and yet managed to make everyone believe in the opposite of the truth.
Such an incredible feeling.
What did they think of him now? They thought that he was weak, grew up without any education in the outskirts, and had no training. More than that, he was apparently either insane or incredibly stupid. His temper was terrible.
Truly pathetic and pitiful fellow.
Now, whenever he was asked about his Aspect, he could just honestly say that it was of the Divine rank, and be laughed at. People would rather believe that the Spell had ceased to exist than that he was someone noteworthy. He could even scream about his accomplishments from the roof, and no one would believe him.
Subsequently, no one would ever suspect that he had a True Name.
'Just you wait, fools. One day I'll be the one laughing.'
As Sunny was walking away, he heard one of the Sleepers talking to Caster:
"Why didn't you put that lunatic in his place? He has belittled you!"
After a short pause, Caster answered. His voice sounded low and mellow.
"Poor kid must have lost his mind in the Nightmare. It often happens. He'll most likely die soon, so being kind is the least I can do…"
The corner of Sunny's mouth twitched.
'What a nice guy.'
He knew that Caster's words were based on a false a.s.sumption, but, for some reason, still felt a cold chill running up his spine.
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22
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Chapter 22 Corpse Corner
Satisfied with his performance, Sunny walked back to the deserted corner of the hall. He felt people looking at him with mockery, contempt and pity. No one seemed to be willing to stay close to him. It was just as well: he didn't want to be bothered anyway.
Still, weren't their reactions a bit exaggerated? It's not like he was carrying an infectious disease. Well, except for the Spell. But it wasn't really a disease, which everyone here should have known already.
Finally, he extricated himself from the crowd and reached the corner. For some reason, Sleepers were unwilling to approach it: currently, there was only one girl sitting quietly on the bench. Sunny gave her a look.
The quiet girl was delicate, demure and very pretty. Her clothes were tidy and neat. They weren't very expensive, but still rather tasteful. With her pale blond hair, big blue eyes and exquisite face, she looked like a beautiful porcelain doll.
She was subtly breathtaking.
However, there was something wrong with her. Sunny frowned, trying to understand what exactly about the girl made him uncomfortable. After a while, he realized that her empty, expressionless stare was reminding him of Mountain King.
Startled, Sunny understood that the girl was blind. It took him a couple of seconds to compose himself.
'What a shame.'
A bit disheartened, he carefully sat on the opposite end of the bench.
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The girl wouldn't have survived the First Nightmare if she had been blind prior to entering the Spell. Which meant that she lost her sight as the result of the Appraisal.
It was her Flaw.
Suddenly, Sunny felt very apprehensive. A cold sensation spread through his chest.
'And I thought my Flaw was bad.'
No matter what Aspect Ability the blind girl had received in exchange for her sight, it was effectively a death sentence. A blind person had no chances of surviving in the Dream Realm, at least not with a dormant core. In some sense, the girl was already dead.
She was effectively a walking corpse.
Feeling extremely disturbed, Sunny turned away and studied the crowd of Sleepers. Now he understood why people were trying to avoid this corner: the girl was surrounded by an invisible, but almost palpable aura of death.
Sleepers usually weren't very superst.i.tious, but anyone would feel uncomfortable in her company.
Armed with this knowledge, Sunny suddenly saw a pattern in how the young people in the hall were grouped. Instinctively, they all tried to stand close to those of their own circ.u.mstance.
At the far end of the hall, closest to the stage, were one or two small groups. People in these groups were distinct from the rest of Sleepers. They were all confident, calm and had an air of readiness. These were the Legacies: they were trained for the Spell since birth and had the highest chances of survival. Caster especially stood out from the rest.
Next to them was a larger number of expensively dressed young people. They were lively and excited, and only a little nervous. They were the scions of rich and high-ranking citizens. Their training was pretty good since such families had ample funds to hire private tutors — even Awakened ones. Their chances of survival weren't bad.
Then there was the largest part of the crowd, which consisted of kids from middle-cla.s.s families. They might not have had the privilege of training under Awakened tutors, but their education wasn't bad. The government spent a lot of effort to put all the necessary knowledge and skills into the school curriculum, preparing potential Sleepers in advance.
Some of them might have received additional training in private. To survive, these Sleepers would need to put in a valiant effort, and also have a bit of luck. But it wasn't improbable. Consequently, they were tense and nervous.
And lastly, there was Sunny and the blind girl. The corpses. From the point of view of other Sleepers in the hall, their chances of survival were close to zero.
'How charming.'
This was how the young Sleepers had subconsciously divided themselves. The only exception from this rule was the silver-haired girl, who stood alone and apart from everyone, seemingly indifferent to tension and nervousness that permeated the air. She was leaning against a wall with her eyes closed, still listening to music.
But regardless of their group and level of training, everyone was already tired of waiting.
'When will the d.a.m.n induction ceremony start?' Sunny thought, irritated.
As though answering his thoughts, a tall man in a dark blue uniform appeared on the stage. Not only was he tall, he was actually almost a giant. Sunny even wondered if the man's mother had sinned with a bear…
Of course, it was impossible — bears had gone extinct long before the Spell even appeared. But he once saw pictures in a book, and they looked sort of similar.
'A bear-like Nightmare Creature, then.'
The giant man had wide shoulders, an athletic build and a gorgeous brown beard. His eyes were calm and serious. After reaching the center of the stage, he gave Sleepers a long look. When his gaze reached the deserted corner, Sunny suddenly felt nervous.
'Uh… I sure hope he doesn't have a telepathic Ability. Otherwise, he might separate me from a limb or two on behalf of his mother.'
The man didn't pay Sunny a lot of attention and returned his gaze to the front rows of the crowd. Finally, he said in a deep, reverberating voice:
"I am Awakened Rock. Sleepers, welcome to the Academy."
Everyone listened without making a sound.
"In less than a month, you will be summoned to the Dream Realm. Some of you might think that you are well prepared. You're wrong. The Spell is merciless and cunning. The moment Awakened begin to think too much of themselves, they die. I've seen countless Sleepers like you lose their lives. I've also seen experienced Masters lose theirs. Even Saints are not a.s.sured to survive."
'Thanks for the encouragement,' Sunny thought sarcastically.
"In the following four weeks, we will do everything in our power to increase your chances of survival. You will receive training from the best instructors in the world. However, don't be misled by their fame: in the end, whether you return from the Dream Realm alive depends only on one person — you. The responsibility to survive is yours, and yours alone. "
Except for the Legacies, Sleepers were looking at each other with growing fear in their eyes. Awakened Rock continued:
"You are not children anymore. It's a shame, because you ought to be. But the Spell has decided otherwise. You have been to the First Nightmare, so you already know what it's like. Your parents, your teachers and your friends can't help you anymore…"
'Haven't had any of those in a long time.'
While listening to Rock's speech, Sunny couldn't help but feel a little excluded. It was all old news to him. However, he understood the instructor's purpose: he had to make young Sleepers afraid, because fear was the only thing that would keep them alive.
Finally, the speech got to the important part. Awakened Rock paused, giving kids listening to him a few moments to digest his words. Then, with a short nod, he continued:
"Now we will talk about the difference between Nightmares and the Dream Realm…"
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