Shadow Slave

2888 Other Side of the Coin

The Deathless were already rising from beneath the dunes, ready to descend upon those who had invaded Ariel’s Hell in all their unending fury. Sunny and Azarax took their places at the head of the battle formation, while Nephis remained at the back, standing among the shades like a flash of pure white flame in the sea of darkness.

Just before the battle began, Sunny glanced at the distant — but not as distant as before — silhouette of the Tomb of Ariel.

At that moment, he thought he heard something…

An echo of a distant, indiscernible whisper that crawled into his ears and disappeared, as if it had burrowed into his brain.

He stumbled slightly.

Azarax gave him a contemptuous glance.

“What, Shadow? Are you afraid?”

Sunny remained motionless for a moment, then shook his head — the incarnation who was closest to Azarax did, at least.

“No. I just… I thought I heard something. Didn’t you hear it, too?”

The black skull of the ancient tyrant just stared at him with its empty eye sockets, then turned away with a snarl.

“Get your head into the game.’

Sunny smiled darkly.

‘What the hell was that?’

Of course, he knew what it was even while asking the question.

It was the Call of Nightmare.

The great pyramid was built from numerous enormous blocks of black stone, and each of those blocks was a Seed of Nightmare — just like the one that had been knocked free and sent flying by some titanic blow eons ago, ending up far away in the desert. The block of stone Sunny and his cohort had used to enter the Nightmare about the last days of the River People.

All Seeds emanated the Call, and all Awakened were susceptible to the Call. In fact, the more powerful you were, the more maddening the Call of Nightmare became, drawing you forth to challenge the Seed… Actually, Sunny had never known if the Call of Nightmare was simply something innate to the Seeds or if it was a function of the Spell meant to push Awakened to grow stronger.

Now that he was not a carrier of the Spell but still suffered from the maddening melody of the Call, though, he knew that it was the former.

Which was an interesting philosophical question to ponder, if one had free time. Why were all Awakened drawn to the Nightmare Seeds? After all, it was only the carriers of the Nightmare Spell who could destroy them by challenging the Nightmares. For everyone else, touching a Seed simply meant surrendering themselves to Corruption.

Perhaps that was why the Seeds emanated the Call — maybe they were meant to lure living beings into becoming twisted by Corruption… like enormous flytraps emanating a sweet scent.

Or maybe it was the reverse side of what the Puppeteer had once told Sunny. According to the giant moth, all Nightmare Creatures were drawn to the Flame because of a maddening contradiction within them. They longed for the Flame and wanted to either possess or destroy it, because only then would they know peace.

Perhaps the Awakened were drawn to the Void for the same reason, as well.

And the Call they heard was simply an expression of that innate, primordial longing.

That was the philosophical question… Sunny, however, did not have the luxury of free time to ponder it. Instead, he had to contemplate a far more practical matter. With so many Seeds of Nightmare constituting the Tomb of Ariel — millions of them, quite likely — just how deafening the Call of Nightmare would become by the time Sunny and Nephis reached it?

Would they even be able to withstand it without going mad?

‘I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.’

Sunny shook his head, as if trying to shake the whisper out of his ear.

“I have seven heads, and they are all in the game. Worry about your own head, fossil.”

Azarax laughed.

“I’ve never beheaded someone seven times. I have something to look forward to now… thank you, Shadow.”

In front of them, the endless horde of Deathless was already advancing to descend upon the invading army like a flood. Sunny exhaled slowly and sent all seven of his avatars forward.

‘One step at a time…’

The battle washed over him, drowning out all unnecessary thoughts.

Azarax had been right — tonight, the oppressive force of the Deathless felt much heavier.

Sunny and Nephis had already been fighting in the Nightmare Desert for weeks. Not a single night had been easy, and their fatigue accumulated — their enemies, on the contrary, only kept growing stronger and stronger the deeper into Ariel’s Hell they went.

The Deathless were, naturally, a terrifying foe to face… after all, it was in their name. Fighting creatures who could not be killed was something that only a madman would do, and yet Sunny and Nephis did just that, night after night.

The undead warriors couldn’t be destroyed, but they could be rendered harmless. To achieve that, each had to be dismantled bone by bone — and even then, the black bones tended to assemble back together after some time. So, they had to crush the bones into dust, even if each of those bones was as tough and durable as a steel weapon of a high Rank would have been.

Added to that was the chilling skill and cunning of the Deathless warriors, as well as their eerie ability to cooperate with each other and instinctual understanding of military tactics.

The most deadly thing about the Deathless, however, was their Will.

To most people, the undead prisoners of Ariel’s Hell and Sunny’s shades would seem quite similar. But actually, they were the opposite of each other — the shades were shadows cleansed of their mortal vessels and their sense of self, while the Deathless were mortal vessels who had been denied their shadows, and therefore their deaths. As a result, they were just as void of personhood, but at the same time far more aware of their own selves, and therefore in possession of a quiet, but powerful Will. More than that, their Will was vast like an ocean.

Sunny had already encountered that phenomenon while fighting the Black Millipede Tribe. Back then, none of the millipedes had possessed a Will powerful enough to threaten him — not even the Queens, since he outclassed them. However, there were simply too many nightmare creatures in the great swarm of their ghastly tribe. Their weak Wills fused together, forming a vast and alarming force that could crush and wash away anything, least of all a lone enemy.

Sunny had withstood the harrowing immensity of the Black Millipede’s collective Will — the spirit of their species — because he was a Supreme Titan, and because he was cunning and cautious, eroding it away bit by bit before finally forcing a decisive battle.

However, the Deathless were far more powerful than the Black Millipedes had been, and he was pressed for time on top of that. So, even with three Sovereigns — Sunny, Nephis, and Azarax — fighting side by side and supported by three Supreme Shadows, waging a war on the Deathless was a daunting affair.

They had made it this far into the desert due to their strength, determination, and skill… but most of all, due to their ability to adapt.

Their ability to learn.