Shadow Slave

‘Go back to the Tomb of Ariel.’

Technically, that was an erroneous statement.

Sunny had never been inside the Tomb of Ariel, after all. Neither had anyone else — no human of the War Realm, that was. Asterion had attempted to reach the Great Pyramid once, but failed to overcome the Nightmare Desert and was forced to turn back.

What Sunny had visited and endured was the phantom version of the Tomb of Ariel conjured by the Spell. It was easy to confuse the two, at times, but the distinction was important.

So, it wouldn’t be correct to say that Cassie had sent a message telling him to go back to the Tomb of Ariel. Rather, she was telling him to enter the real Tomb of Ariel, for the first time.

‘No wonder...’

No wonder the Chain Breaker had been drifting in the Great River. No wonder that, unlike the other members of the cohort, Sunny and Nephis had taken the roles of themselves in the Nightmare, as opposed to the roles of local heroes.

No wonder he had met a future version of himself in the Estuary.

It was all because Sunny and Nephis were going to enter the real Tomb of Ariel, and therefore leave their mark on the Great River. Since the Great River flowed from the future into the past, everyone who had ever entered the Great Pyramid would have been placed into the Nightmare by the Spell — Daeron and his champions had been, and so were Sunny and Nephis.

Sunny had always suspected that he would have to visit the Tomb of Ariel one day. Now, he knew that the day had come, and that the reason he had to return there had something to do with defeating Asterion. There were several possible reasons he could think of that would make the Tomb of Ariel a key to defeating the Dreamspawn, actually.

First and foremost, there was the nature of the Great River itself. The Great River was unfathomable and supremely perilous, but it also presented a rare opportunity to anyone who could survive its treacherous currents... an opportunity to escape the confines of time.

Eurys had told Sunny that he would need hundreds of years to become qualified to attempt Apotheosis naturally. In the Tomb of Ariel, those hundreds of years could become no longer than a single day... if he was lucky enough.

Sadly, he wasn’t Fated anymore, so there was too much luck involved in that potential plan for Sunny’s taste.

And speaking of being Fated... the Tomb of Ariel also held the key to reclaiming his fate.

Sunny knew that the Vile Thieving Bird had escaped the collapsing Nightmare by stealing his fate and using his connection to the Nightmare Spell to sneak into the real world. It was most likely still in its nest at the heart of the Tomb of Ariel — the real one this time, not an illusion conjured by the Spell.

And that odious bird still had his stolen fate in its possession.

So, if Sunny were to slay the Vile Thieving Bird, chances were that he would be able to reclaim his fate, become Fated once again, and be remembered by the world. He would regain his True Name and become a carrier of the Nightmare Spell once more, which would allow him to challenge the Fifth Nightmare...

That was something Sunny had already decided to do, but now, there was an additional reason for him to venture into the Tomb of Ariel and face the Vile Thieving Bird.

A dire reason, at that.

He did not know whether it was the fact of becoming Fated itself or the possibility of challenging the Nightmare and becoming Sacred that was meant to help him defeat Asterion, but both options seemed promising.

And lastly — albeit somewhat far-fetched, as far as plans went — there was the Vile Thieving Bird itself.

That Cursed Terror, which had been hated both by the gods and by the beings of the Void, had been able to steal his fate. In doing so, it had erased the memories of him, as well as of his name, from the great tapestry of fate... and therefore from everyone’s minds. Not only that, but people weren’t able to remember their past connection to him, even if he told them repeatedly.

And what was Asterion’s main source of power? What made his existence possible? It was people knowing about him and remembering his name. It was the propagation of the idea of him across countless minds, which were the foundation of both his existence and his Domain. Sunny had been torn and heartbroken when he lost his fate and was forgotten by everyone. But Asterion? If they managed to get the Vile Thieving Bird to steal Asterion’s fate, somehow, he would not be just hurt. He would simply cease to exist, since he was nothing more and nothing less than a living, infectious, malevolent idea.

Granted, Sunny had no clue how to make a Cursed Terror do something he wanted it to do, let alone steal something from his enemy.

These were three possible reasons Cassie had wanted him to return to the Tomb of Ariel. Any of them could become the key to destroying Asterion, and he was not limited to achieving just one, either.

He had always been aware of these facts, but without Cassie’s prophetic encouragement, the possibility of a victory never seemed assured enough to take on the dire risk of venturing into the Tomb of Ariel — not while the plague of Asterion was rampaging across the worlds, at least.

Now that the blind oracle had pointed at the Tomb of Ariel and the best solution available to them, however, the equation changed completely. Her message added weight to the ethereal possibility of success.

‘So, I have to go to the Tomb of Ariel, face the Thieving Bird, and reclaim my fate.’

None of these tasks was easy.

To begin with, reaching the real Tomb of Ariel was almost impossible. Sunny suspected that one could only draw closer to it at night... and at night, the Nightmare Desert became the battlefield where two dead armies from the Doom War continued their eternal fight, destroying anyone who was foolish and unfortunate enough to get in the way of their terrifying battle.

The situation inside the real Tomb of Ariel was also unclear. It could look exactly as what they had witnessed in the Third Nightmare, or it could be completely different. There could be a thriving civilization hidden there... although Sunny strongly doubted it... but the Great River could turn out to be completely infested by the First Seeker and the Defilement, as well. The whole great pyramid could be filled entirely by the endless mass of corrupted flesh, or something even more ghastly. Imagining that, Sunny could not help but shiver.

Finally, even if they did make it to the heart of the Estuary, there remained the prospect of facing the Vile Thieving Bird in combat.

A Cursed Terror... would be the strongest enemy either Sunny or Nephis had ever faced, by far. There was simply no comparison, considering how vast the gap between the high Classes and the rest of Nightmare Creatures was. The Cursed Ones, in general, were harrowing foes — after all, Abjuration had almost annihilated all of humanity while fighting Nephis, and that fiend was not even in the same category as the Vile Thieving Bird.

That damn bird had stolen Weaver’s eye and lived to tell the tale, no less!

Still...

Cassie’s message was the first ray of hope in the hopeless, vile war against Asterion.

And despite everything that had transpired between them in the past, Sunny trusted her to have had their best interest in mind. In fact, he simply trusted her.

So, if her message was calling him to the Tomb of Ariel...

He was inclined to answer that call.

‘It is... finally time to reclaim my fate.’

The answer was oblivion...

It was time for Sunny to escape oblivion and be remembered again.