After quite some time, a strange sight could be seen.
In a shadow covered land, with ground that looked like a mix of gold dust and grey sand.
A boy with pale skin and a weathered skeleton were walking at a leisurely pace.
"This is what people call the Forgotten Shore, it was given that name from the memories and the remnants of writings found here."
Eurys looked around as they walked, his skull had no expression. Nut Sunny knew he was very bored over the last few thousand years, so he must have been curious what had happend to the world.
"I do not remember this place, I have been to many places so that is saying something."
Sunny just nodded.
"Like I said, the dream realm, which I assume to be Dream God's Realm has been 'eating' the other divine realms. In my world, which is called Earth, a few years from now there will be a surge of Nightmare Gates and soon after the Dream Realm will eat the first recorded piece of Earth."
Eurys seemed to be confused about something, so Sunny asked.
"What's on your mind?"
Eurys just looked at him.
"Well, I was wondering why the realms seem to be merging. As far as I know, that should be impossible. That would be like building seven houses and throwing them at each other trying to make a mansion."
Sunny chuckled at the example.
"Well, that's why the dream realm is so fragmented. I assume you know about the hollow mountains and where you are in relation to the tree."
Eurys tilted his skull.
"While I don't know what the hollow mountains are, based on the name I can tell you mean Nether's Chain."
Sunny looked at him.
"Is it a massive mountain chain covered in mist that is the physical manifestation of nothingness?"
Eurys laughed.
"Yes, that is exactly what Nether's Chain looks like."
Sunny smiled.
'So that's what the hollow mountains real name is.'
"What about the desert, what is its real name. People just called it the Nightmare Desert because of how they reached it. They used Nightmare gates by the way."
Eurys laughed again.
"I've never heard a better name for that dreadful place, and sorry to disappoint but it has no real name. It was simply called the Golden Desert."
Eurys looked back at Sunny and asked.
"What is a Nightmare gate?"
Sunny just gave him a puzzled stare.
"I thought you would already know based on how you helped nephis find a seed, but I will tell you anyway."
After taking a second to think over his wordings he spoke.
"A Nightmare Gate forms from Nightmare seeds that fully mature. A Nightmare seed is something that I assume to be produced from important or traumatic events in the Dream Realm."
After taking a breath, he continued.
"They take place in the past, most are while the Gods and Deamons are alive. I assume they are made by the nightmare spell, but nobody actually knows, not even me. But if you live through the Nightmare and conclude whatever event you are tasked to complete you will be appraised by the spell."
Eurys asked.
"Has Weaver's little spell really become so powerful?"
Sunny chuckled.
"Yea, it is basically the only God left. The Shadow God, and Dream God still live. Well, Dream God sleeps in the void, while shadow is in some type of eternal slumber, but you get the picture."
As Eurys heard about Shadow God, his skull looked down.
'I hope he does not get mad that his heir let me off that tree.'
Eurys would not admit it out loud, but he was secretly saying sorry to Shadow right now.
"But Nightmare's take on many different types and have many different conflicts to solve."
As Sunny thought about it, he suddenly became curios if Eurys had ever met some people he had met during his nightmares. Well, excluding Auro of course.
"Actually, speaking of nightmares. In my first nightmare, the one that made me a dormant from a normal human I met someone I'm sure you know."
Eurys looked at him with curious, no existent eyes.
"I was sent into the body of a poor Temple Slave, we were walking up a black mountain covered in snow. Due to being disoriented I fell, because of the commotion a guard came over and offered me water."
Eurys seemed to know what was about to happen next as he clicked his jaw.
"Before I could even think of grabbing the water skin, I was whipped for just existing. At that moment I decided that both of them would die by my hand. Well, we were ambushed by a nasty Awakened Tyrant named Mountain King."
This time Eurys seemed to actually know what he was talking about as he laughed.
"Well, the guard that whipped me was wounded so I slit his throat as he died. Got a shiny bell for it too. The other took far longer to kill because he was awakened and the poison from the blood bane was too weak to really harm him."
Sunny just sighed as he remembered the feeling of his ribs poking his lungs.
"Well, he figured out what was happening and broke my ribs. So, I rang the dinner bell literally."
Pausing long enough to laugh, he continued.
"Mountain King was blind, so it easily heard the bell and attacked the gaurd from behind. Safe to say it ripped him limb from limb. At the end of the nightmare the kill was given to me, all the other Humans were just called Dormant Humans."
Sunny turned his head to look Eurys in the skull.
"The guard was actually given a name, it was Auro of the Nine."
At that moment Eurys began to laugh hysterically.
"Ahh, this is too good. That stick in the mud was killed by a normal boy as an awakened. How did he ever become a Divine, no really, how did that guy live past apotheosis!"
As he laughed, he added.
"If I ever see him again in the shadow realm, I am going to rub this in his face so hard! You have no idea just how funny this is, the strongest man in history defeated by a Temple Slave."
He began to laugh even louder, and Sunny just smirked at him.
After a few minutes, Eurys started to regain himself, so Sunny continued to ask.
"I have met a few other people that I want to know if you have heard of, well two really."
Eurys stifled his laughs and asked.
"Yes, ask away. After all you have told me I would be more than glad to answer your questions, well if they are reasonable."
Sunny nodded.
"The first question is if you have ever been inside the real Tomb of Ariel."
Eurys nodded.
"Yes, I was invited shortly before the war began. Ariel was a very mild mannered Daemon so he had at least the barest minimum of decorum."
Sunny just smiled.
"Did you ever meet a girl in the Tomb named Ananke?"
Eurys looked at him and nodded.
"I have met a girl by that name, she was around twelve when I visited and was to become an underling of the priestess of the Nightmare Spell."
Sunny smiled.
"I don't know much about her other than the short time we spent together, so I only wanted to ask if she seemed happy."
As Eurys looked at Sunny, the image of a small girl with clear blue eyes and black hair smiling with obnoxiously cute dimples on her cheeks, and asking him question after question about the outside world came to his mind.
If Eurys could have smiled, he would have.
"Yes, she was very happy. She always used to ask me about the outside world, eventually I was forced to leave the tomb due to the war, and well you know the rest."
Sunny smiled a brilliant smile and nodded.
They both walked in silence while Sunny digested his answer, but before too long he asked another question.
"What about a child of Beast God, his name was Noctis. He was one of the immortal shackles of Hope. I met him in my second nightmare, in that nightmare we fought together to free hope from her prison. That is how I met her."
Eurys suddenly seemed stiff.
"Yes, I have met that wretch too, although I do not think of him fondly. And did you say you met hope? How hot was she, I heard her beauty was so heavenly that every being both male and female lusted after her."
Sunny just shot him a weird look.
"She was alright I guess, I was too busy falling on my knees trying to not go crazy from her powers to do anything but ask why she was imprisoned."
Eurys laughed.
"I guess that is to be expected from a stranger, of course she would not lift her influence from your mind."
Sunny just nodded, then he asked.
"You called Noctis a wretch and said you did not think of him fondly, what happened for you to feel that way?"
Eurys lifted his hand and touched his side.
"It happened after I became a Supreme, I was traversing the Fragments of Hopes kingdom looking for signs of hope. It was my mission to find signs of her and return to Nether's Chain to inform the Deamons."
After a long sigh, he spoke again.
"Little did I know that I would run into a Spirit on my little expedition. When he appeared, I tried to defend myself, but his will just rendered my defenses useless and he left me a deep scar on my side and a warning."
Eurys ground his jaw as he spat.
"He told me to never return to Hope's kingdom while smelling of War. The only reason I smelled of war was because I had been slaughtering her children for the last two and a half centuries."
After letting out a scoff.
"One of Beast God's could not even tell the difference between a child of War, and someone bathed in their blood. What a rookie."
Eurys was... pouting.
Sunny just laughed at his reacting and spoke.
"Alright well that is all I really wanted to know regarding the thing that happend in my nightmares. But my next question is how you are gonna help me leave this place."
Sunny sighed as he fell onto the dust in a sitting position.
"For reference, I cannot go north due to a region from Heart Gods Realm being there. It is filled with Corrupted Demons and higher which is beyond me currently."
After a brief pause, he began to draw in the sand.
"To the west of here is an unknown region of the Dream Realm, but due to just that, the fact it is unknown tells me that nobody has ever returned from there."
As he drew a rough map of his current knowledge, he kept speaking.
"To the east is the Golden Dessert, and to the south is Nether's Chain. All of these places are too much for me at the current point in time. Just so you know, last time you lead Nephis into Nether's Chain to a nightmare seed."
After a second of silence Eurys clicked his jaw and asked.
"What exactly would a Nightmare Seed look like. Maybe a giant, glaring rift in the fabric of reality. Possibly coated in the smell of Weaver?"
Sunny gave him a direct look.
"I have no idea how a Nightmare Seed smells, but it looks like a black rift. I have only ever seen a total of two seeds before, and I did not have even close to high enough understanding of things like the fabric of reality to know if it was affected."
Eurys just nodded.
"Well, if you thought that I led her to a specific place you would be wrong. But I do know how I found a Nightmare seed for her to enter."
Sunny looked at him with genuine curiosity.
Eurys chuckled at the look.
"I might have had my soul destroyed and many of my powers removed, but there are some things that I did not lose. My senses are one of them."
Eurys became a little more serious as he spoke.
"When I was on the tree I did not feel anything out of the ordinary, and even after I was so focused on you and your stories that I did not pay much attention to around me."
Eurys leaned back as his bones creaked.
"Now that I have sat down, and you have asked me for a way to leave this place, I expanded my senses."
Eurys eye sockets seemed to darken.
"I can feel hundreds of rifts in reality all around us, most are from the Dessert but there are around a dozen that I can feel that come from other directions."
Sunny looked at him with a serious expression, then he gestured at the rough map.
"I don't need exact locations yet, I have you to lead me there, but general areas are welcome. If you know the category, tell me."
Eurys seemed confused so Sunny quickly clarified.
"Nightmare seeds have categories, I am looking for a Category two seed, anything higher than that and I will be unable to complete the nightmare, anything less than that and I will not be able to enter."
Eurys seemed to focus for a second before he started to mark on the map, as he started to mark in the sand he spoke.
"There are only three that feel weak enough to be of the second category. Seeing as how it is supposed to make you into and Ascended, these are most likely what you are looking for."
Once he was done speaking, Sunny looked around the map.
One mark was in the Hollow Mountains, or Nether's Chain. Another was far to the northwest near the start of the burned forest and clearly outside of the forgotten shore.
The last one was directly in the center of a giant circle that Sunny had drawn on the map.
Eurys had drawn a circle directly in the center of the crater, right were an Angel or Nephilim had once landed.
'Well, it looks like the destination is decided.'
Sunny glanced at Eury's and pointed at the mark.
"This is our destination."
Eurys looked at him and nodded.
"It is the closest, and you are already familiar with the history of this place. Since the Nightmares take place in the past it is a good choice."
Sunny nodded.
"Well, I guess you don't get to die until I make it to the seed of nightmare."
Eurys laughed.
"I can't wait!"
~~~
In the academy compound, a tall girl walked through the pathways making her way to the academy wide cafeteria.
To her side a petite girl with pale golden hair and unseeing blue eyes walked.
They were chatting about menial things on their way.
Of course, these girls were Nephis and Cassie.
They had stayed together at the Awakened academy for the last ten months due to the great clans and their possible hostility.
Nephis had sold her manor and now lived in an on campus rental house.
It was not very large, but it suited them very well. Cassie had stayed with her instead of her parents due to their bond.
Well, and the fact that Cassie was blind and required help with things in both the waking world and the dream realm.
They usually stayed in the academy during the day just lazing around their home, but three times a week a certain girl would come over to train. At night they would sleep and join with the rest of the cohort and the Fire Keepers.
Nephis, Cassie, Effie, and Kai had all decided to stay together and anchored themselves at The Sanctuary of Noctis for obvious reasons.
The Fire Keepers had followed suit and had anchored themselves to the same Citadel.
However, today they were not going to just laze around and keep each other company.
Today, Effie and Kai had come to visit. They saw each other almost every time they went to the dream realm, but over the last month they had both been gone quite a bit.
Mostly because Effie was tasked with exploring and island on the far western parts of the Isles, and Kai had gone with her.
They had returned a few hours ago and returned to Waking World. So, when Nephis and Cassie heard they were back, they called and decided to meet up.
Of course, Effie had decided to meet them in the cafeteria.
Nephis and Cassie had not asked them, nor had Effie or Kai told them. But Nephis and Cassie both believed there was something going on between the two.
Soon, they were in a familiar building filled with the smell of food.
Usually, Nephis would cook her and Cassie's meals, but she did not have enough ingredients to satiate the gluttonous huntress, so the cafeteria would have to work.
As Nephis's eyes scanned the crowd, she saw a familiar woman in a wheelchair wave at her.
With a smile she made her way to their table, Cassie followed with her hand on Nephis's shoulder.
As they arrived to the table, Kai stood.
"Hey Nephis. Hi Cassie."
"Hey Princess. How are you doing Cassie?"
Nephis and Cassie nodded as they sat.
Cassie was the first to speak.
"Hey guys, I am doing pretty well."
"Good morning Effie, good morning Kai."
As they exchanged pleasantries Effie called for an automated server.
"How did your expedition go?"
Cassie was curious of their findings, she had been asked to scry the giant Red Colosseum but she had only been there for a few hours and was in the company of the only saint on the Chained Isles.
She did not know why, and her ability did not seem to work on whatever it was they wanted her to see.
Effie was the one to answer.
"It was really boring, the actual arena is cleared and the only nightmare creatures we killed were the ones that wondered out of the underbelly of the Coliseum."
Kai laughed little.
"She is right, other than the occasional fight it was a lot of writing and combining segments of the massive runic enchantment. Most of it was damaged but we were able to get a good portion on paper."
Effie flinched at the word paper. It seemed she had been forced to use her mind for once, and she did not like that.
Nephis smirked as Cassie chuckled.
"So, they wanted to know about the Runic Enchantment?"
Kai nodded.
"They wanted to see if they could replicate it for some reason. As far as we can tell, it is just a massive shield. It was probably used to protect the audience, at least that was what we gathered from the undamaged sections."
Cassie asked.
"When did you learn Runic Language?"
Kai became a little pink and lowered his head.
"It was after we returned to the waking world, I remembered Sunny saying he studied Runic Language in the academy. I thought it would be nice to do the same. I even got the same teacher as him."
Nephis and Cassie seemed to dim at the mention of Sunny.
Kai noticed this and tried to salvage the mood.
"He is a very excentric man, his name is Julius. He is a very good teacher when it comes to the things he loves. Which is basically anything dream realm, or history in general."
Effie giggled next to him.
"Kai came back talking about him every day, I have not attended a single class and could tell you the basics of most Runic Languages."
Cassie smiled as she lightly elbowed Nephis.
Nephis did not miss the wording either.
'Came back huh. Sound like they are living together.'
As a small smile appeared on her lips, she suddenly felt the erge to tease the huntress for a change.
However, as she opened her mouth to speak, the sudden sound of alarms blared throughout the entire academy.
"WARNING!"
"AN UNIDENTIFIED NIGHTMARE CREATURE HAS APPEARED IN THE SLEEPER COMPOUND!"
"ALL AWAKENED PERSONEL, REPORT!"
The warning sent a ripple through the crowd.
As everyone stood to leave the cafeteria all for different reasons, the cohort exchanged looks.
Effie was unable to fight in her current state and needed someone to take her away from here, so Cassie stood and began to push her wheelchair in the opposite direction.
Nephis and Kai nodded to each other and began to make their way to the sleeper building.
Nephis's speed was faster than what most awakened could ever dream of, and Kai flew just a few steps behind.
As they both came through the massive entrance into the large reception hall, they saw over three dozen Awakened all standing in formation.
As they arrived the finals orders were being barked.
"The target is on Sub-Level 19, both first response units are currently MIA and are not responding on comms!"
"Once we enter the elevator summon lighting memories, the only report we have it that the power is out on the lower floors!"
Nephis felt a cold sweat on her brow.
She was not scared for herself, but Sunny was sleeping defenseless on the level.
When she looked toward Kai, it was clear he was thinking the same way.
Just then the captains nodded to each other and yelled.
"Forward!"
The three cohorts began to quickly make their way to the elevator insuring there were no unseen threats.
Once they were all on the elevator, it began to descend.
Everyone who had a memory lantern or light producing memory began to summon it.
Nephis did not need a lantern because she could become a source of light at any second.
Beside her Kai summoned his memory lantern and a familiar Falcata.
Nephis summoned her new armor and sword, the armor was a Transcendent memory of the first tier called the Undying Chain and was probably the best thing in her entire arsenal.
She had gotten it when her and Cassie had cleared an old ship of a nasty vine monster.
Cassie was trying to return it to its original state, and currently a good chunk of the fire keepers was on the island trying to repair the ship.
Her sword was an Ascended memory of the third tier.
It was not her favorite sword, but it suited her current power level a little better than her trusty Dream Blade.
Soon enough they were on a large Sub-level of the sleeper complex. It had roughly two hundred rooms across the floor and was defended by auto turrets which were currently raining bullets into the darkness.
They all seemed to track an unseen enemy, but one by one the sound of bending and tearing metal was heard and the turrets ceased their onslaught.
After the third turret fell, the first awakened was close enough to see the culprit.
Right there in front of him was...nothing.
It simply looked like the shadows had struck the turret down.
This was closer to the truth than they thought.
Suddenly the man that had arrived first was folded like a sheet of paper, his groan of pain was muffled by the sound of his bones snapping under the force of the blow.
He simply hurtled back into the crowd, before crashing into multiple of the awakened behind him.
Then all hell broke loose.
The sounds of blows landing and shrieks of pain rang through the floor as the teams of awakened tried to just see their attacker.
One after another, the awakened fell to an unseen enemy.
Until a bright white radiance filled the entire room.
Nephis had used her flames to illuminate the area, people could not fight an enemy they could not see.
Almost as soon as the unnatural darkness receded, they all saw a figure shrouded in an unnatural dark haze moving with blinding speed... strait for their new source of light.
It did not take it even a second before it descended apon Nephis, all she saw was a black line flying at her as she rose her sword into a block.
However, when the weapon of the attacker met her sword, the blade of her sword parted like water before whatever was swinging at her.
Suddenly, she felt like something cold was encroaching on her soul.
However just before the attack landed the figure ceased movement.
Instantly the unnatural darkness disappeared, the lights of the room blinked back on, and they all saw their attacker for the first time.
Amid their formation, a short figure dressed in demonic black armor holding a pitch-black sword stood.
His figure radiated a sense of cold death.
When they saw it the shivered, random people felt the need to get on their knees and beg for mercy.
Unknown to them, only people with divine affiliation felt this way.
Some even got onto the ground and prostrated themselves.
Nephis felt an overwhelming urge to worship the being in front of her, yet the cold blade inches from her neck prevented her from bowing herself at its feet.
This all happend in an instant, and the second the figure stopped a raspy voice rang from its helmet.
"Ne-Nephis?"
Then it collapsed to the floor.
Its full plate armor did not disappear. It seemed to retreat under the skin of the attacker while its sword fell onto the ground and turned intangible.
They all watched as is slithered into his shadow, the moment it did. The feeling of death lessened.
The cold grip of death was released off their hearts, and they got their first good look at the perpetrator.
On the floor lay a pale young man, his skin was not just pale it seemed to be made of pure white marble without a single imperfection.
His hair was pitch black almost the same color as his sword, but what made them pause was the basic uniform sleepers are given before they go to the dream realm.
This boy was a recently returned Sleeper.
They all looked incredibly confused by what had just happend.
Nephis immediately broke out of her reverie and yelled.
"Whoever has comms with upstairs call for the doctors and personal! Another survivor of the Forgotten Shore has returned!"
~~~
In a waiting room on the ground floor of the hospital complex, Nephis, Cassie, Effie, and Kai all sat on chairs with serious expressions on their faces.
They had been informed that Sunny was fine, better than fine actually but he was currently unconscious.
"So, Doofus was sent back to the Dream Realm?"
Effie was not very enthused when they had told them, however the words they said next surprised everyone in the hall.
"No Ms. Raised by Wolves, he is not back in the Dream Realm. Master Sunless has Ascended, he is simply sleeping."
The doctor himself seemed to not believe it, and the second he said that a wave spread through the crowd.
"Someone Ascended from a mere Sleeper?"
"He challenged a second nightmare as a Sleeper, how?"
Nephis was so shocked by that statement she had to check his runes just to be sure.
Name: Sunless.
True Names: Lost from Light, Prince of Death.
Rank: Ascended
Class: Titan
Shadow Cores [7/7]
Shadow Fragments: 2893
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Midnight Shard], [Ordinary Rock], [Endless Spring], [Prowling Thorn], [Weaver's Mask], [Broken Oath], [Storage Bag], [Dark Bow], [Perfect Quiver], [Soul Arrow], [Feind Maker], [Burden Bringer].
Echoes: -
Shadows: [Onyx Saint], [Soul Serpent]
Attributes: [Fate Breaker], [Divine Grace], [Shadow Spawned], [Unchained], [Forbidden Holder], [The Weave], [Marble Shell].
Aspect: Shadow Prince.
Aspect Rank: Unknown
Innate Abilities: [Shadow Bond], [Shadow Born].
Aspect Ability: [Shadow Control], [Shadow Strike], [Shadow Manifestation].
Aspect Legacy: [Shadow Dance]
Flaw: [Clear Conscience]
Flaw Description: [You cannot lie.]