Sunny lay seated in his luxurious shadowy chair; behind him stood a brick cabin.
He was in the Bastion Forest; behind the cabin lay the lake, and all around him vegetation was beginning to grow through the ruins of what was once a city of millions.
His two hands and six others made of shadows moved swiftly and in unison, as did the hands of his six other incarnations—all seated in a circle.
In the center of the seven entities, a gigantic well was brimming with soul shards: awakened, ascended, transcendent, supreme, and sacred.
Every so often a dark hand would rise with a shard toward one of the incarnations, grasp it, and weave it into the tapestry, causing it to disappear by magic—literally.
In the blue sky of the ancient domain of Valor, there was a star shining brighter than the midday sun; of course, it wasn't a star but Nephis, transformed and currently returning from a battle.
She descended from the sky and landed softly, turned her head toward Sunny, and reverted her transformation; the pristine flames gradually extinguished until her slender form was revealed. In her hand was a shard brighter than any in the well—a divine soul fragment.
Nephis looked completely haggard; her skin was unnaturally pale and her face resembled that of a corpse, which was odd, since both of them were now sacred.
Nephis walked toward Sunny and summoned a set of silk garments, then tossed the divine shard into a chest against the cabin wall.
The demigoddess collapsed onto Sunny, who gently stroked her head.
"How was it?"
She remained silent for a few seconds and then whispered,
"Like shit."
When Sunny regained his senses, it didn't take long for them to face the fifth nightmare.
It turned out to be incredibly easy—compared to their previous experiences—for them, the strongest enemy was a mere accursed tyrant; of course, other supremely powerful beings would have died against him, but Sunny and Nephis were no ordinary supremes—perhaps even the strongest in history.
Their nightmare lasted around six months, but that was enough time for chaos to erupt.
Mordret seized their absence and launched a massive attack on Bastion; almost simultaneously, a cursed terror struck Ravenheart, and the Third finally found a way back into the Dream World.
The Cohort and the Saints tried to intervene; they barely managed to halt Mordret, but half of Bastion had already been destroyed along with millions of lives.
Ravenheart fared no better; Song and Kai's sisters could do nothing but retreat to the Stormy Sea.
But worst of all was Asterion: with his return to the Dream World, war broke out, and almost every mundane human perished.
Amid the chaos, the fragile order they had established collapsed, and thousands of the awakened and masters died fighting to survive.
The only ones who mostly survived were the Saints, but even they were not spared.
Mordret and Asterion clashed; the Prince of Nothing emerged victorious, and the Cohort, with the help of the other Saints, sought the Mirror Abomination, who had now become a Supreme.
Almost all of them died; those who survived did so by pure luck, with Jet from the Cohort being the sole survivor thanks to her flaw.
And the cherry on top: in the waking world, gates overflowed in South America and Africa, resulting in the loss of the waking world.
Just then Sunny and Nephis returned, transported the survivors to the Forgotten Coast; the final count was terrifying:
A couple of million mundanes, around ten thousand awakened, about a hundred masters, and a dozen Saints, including Morgan and Seishan.
Hope was lost, yet Sunny and Nephis did not give up. He had an idea—a terrible idea—to play with time itself.
He would create his own grand spell: he marked all remaining humans with the Serpent and sent them to kill every nightmare creature.
These awakened were perhaps the strongest in history, marked by the Serpent and graced by the Shifting Star; ordinary awakened were as powerful as long-time masters.
Now, Sunny was about to finish his spell.
Hours passed and three people approached the cabin: Jet, Seishan, and Morgan.
They stood before the Shadow Heir, faces grim.
"There are no more— the great creatures and the cursed ones are gone."
The incarnation of Sunny holding Nephis raised its head.
"Doesn't matter; this is enough. I'll finish it in the coming days."
The girls' faces lit up; without another word, they entered the cabin.
Sunny poured all his focus into the tapestry; each incarnation sprouted two more arms.
The tapestry Sunny was weaving was immense; he had been working on it for months, though it was barely as powerful as the Nightmare Spell—or so he believed.
This was partly because Sunny wasn't only going to go back in time; he was going to do it right. He wasn't leaving anything to chance.
Days passed, the sun rose and set, the well full of fragments emptied little by little. Sunny wove the last sacred fragment, but he wasn't finished there.
'Almost there, just a bit more…'
The chest was dragged toward him; inside were dozens of divine shards, mostly obtained from the Hollow Mountains.
With renewed enthusiasm, Sunny moved faster, weaving the remaining shards into his spell. When he finished, he examined it: a constellation of stars and dark threads peeked from beneath the world, and just behind it lay the Nightmare Spell itself.
He had thought he'd never be capable of something so vast and… divine, worthy of a god. Well, technically he was one of humanity's two gods.
The spell had two main functions and several secondary ones: the first was to rewind time by twenty years, to when Sunny entered his first nightmare; the second function, activated immediately after the first, would merge this spell with the Nightmare Spell itself.
Additionally, when activated, it would absorb the souls of all creatures bound to Sunny's spell.
Sunny returned to himself and gazed at the horizon; soon he would return and set everything right.
"It's done."
Two words—those two words made Nephis open her eyes eagerly; happiness bloomed on her face, for the first time in a long while.
She rose lethargically and looked into Sunny's eyes, unconcerned with distance.
"We… will return and… fix everything."
They moved closer and shared a deep, loving kiss.
Minutes passed, souls inseparable.
They took hands and Sunny activated the spell.
The world itself shook, as if its fabric had just been violated; Sunny felt something agonizing, an indescribable pain—his cores were ripped away, and so were those of everyone else.
His consciousness was transported into the spell he had created; he saw the grand black constellation, and watched as thousands of trails—some brighter, some dimmer—fell into place within his creation. Then he saw seven trails, the brightest in the constellation, and another seven trails, intense but darker, completely black.
His consciousness faded; the last thing he saw was the person he loved most dissolving just like him.
Eternities passed, or perhaps only a blink—no one was there to know, and even if they were, it was impossible to comprehend.
The next thing Sunny knew was that he heard strangely familiar words:
[Aspirant, welcome to the Nightmare Spell! Prepare for your first trial…]
He had the vision: the snowy mountain, the destroyed caravan, the blood, the bones—everything just as he remembered.
Then the pain returned in his feet and wrists, the intense cold seeping into his bones, and his weak, pale body.
'I did it… I'm back.'
He savored the sound of chains rattling, his feet sinking into the snow, and the slaves' groans.
To confirm his return he summoned his runes.
Name: Sunless
True Name: —
Rank: Aspirant
Soul Core: Inactive
Echoes: —
Memories: —
Attributes: [Predestined], [Mark of Divinity], [Child of Shadows]
Aspect: [Liberator of the Temple]
Aspect Description: [You are a liberator whose will does not break under chains and refuse to be held. A Temple Liberator is the same, only much rarer.]
'Huh, I didn't know I could change; I guess it's because I broke destiny once.'
He checked his attributes—they were exactly as he remembered.
'I wonder how Nephis is? I hope she retained her memories too.'
This time he didn't stumble and avoided the lash—that would have been a major failure.
Sunny began rekindling past memories, specifically those of his Aspect Legacy, though comprehension was there, the voice of the spell never arrived.
He assumed it was because, technically, he didn't have his Aspect yet.
The caravan halted after some time walking; they were given icy water and the same hard, moldy bread.
The slaves formed a circle around the fire as before, and Sunny found himself excluded to the outside.
While the others rested, he fixed his gaze on the mountain, waiting for the Mountain King to descend.
Then he saw him: a single rock tumbled down the cliff, followed by a giant boulder.
The awakened tyrant fell near Sunny—numerous milky eyes, a mouth full of teeth and drool, worms writhing beneath its skin.
'As disgusting as I expected.'
He waited patiently for the awakened abomination to strike; when it did, he only took two long sidesteps, keeping enough distance for the attack to pass inches from his face, the sound of the chain snapping filled him with satisfaction.
He planned to save all his strength; everything had to be flawless.
Chaos erupted—guards were powerless, slaves panicked.
The tyrant jumped and halted on the other side of the path, leaving Sunny surrounded by the grotesque sleeping beasts.
Without hesitation he moved to the twitching corpse of a slave, wrapped the chain around its neck and, with all his might, used it as a lever; it didn't take long before the spell's voice announced the kill.
[You have slain a Sleeping Beast, the Mountain King's Larva]
'Phew, that's one down.'
He lifted his head to see five more larvae convulsing; the corners of his lips curled into a sinister smile.
The inhuman screeches of larvae and the clatter of chains were the only sounds.
[You have slain a Sleeping Beast, the Mountain King's Larva]
He sighed, looking at his trembling hands—disappointing; not long ago he'd been a sacred being, perhaps the mightiest warrior in human history, second only to Auro. Now he was fighting for his life against a mere Sleeping Beast.
He scanned for something, and there he saw them: two terrified slaves pressed against a tree, unsure what to do. He called them over; for now, he needed them.
"Hey, idiots! Come help me if you want to live!"
He told them his plan to tip the carriage onto the abomination; though hesitant, both agreed—they had seen him kill half a dozen nightmare creatures, after all.
Sunny dashed to the other side of the path and saw Auro and two other guards barely holding the creature at bay. He didn't wait and searched the snow for the carriage chain.
His fingers found the cold metal—he gripped it tightly—and hurled himself toward the tyrant, who was now fighting the awakened warrior.
Auro saw Sunny and immediately grasped his plan; he switched to a full-on offensive stance to draw the beast's attention away from the scrawny slave.
When Sunny found the moment, with practiced precision he flung the chain—this time perfectly—the chain wrapped around the monster's neck, and it tried to rip it off with its claws, only to be halted by another cut from the annoying human.
He spun on his heel and sprinted back to the carriage, where the two slaves were desperately pushing; he joined them, and as before, the carriage creaked forward at a crawl.
'Dang piece of junk!'
Though it seemed Sunny was handling things effortlessly, reality was quite the opposite—he was tired, exhausted, in pain, and he knew the tyrant's fall depended almost entirely on his luck.
The carriage inched toward the edge; the three slaves pushed with all their meager strength, trying to replace the already dead oxen.
The wood hit the ground and the two front wheels plunged into the void—just one last push was needed to send it over.
Sunny looked into the tyrant's milky eyes, murderous intent in his gaze; the corners of his mouth lifted into a sinister grin.
He gave one final shove; the chain rattled and tightened, the abomination realized what was happening but it was too late—it tried to break free with its claws or bite the chain, but nothing worked.
Its immense and grotesque body was yanked into the abyss as it let out a strange, deafening scream.
'Die again, bastard.'
He cast one last glance into the void before running toward some red berries—of course, this wasn't over yet.
The two slaves lay on the ground, exhausted; every fiber of their bodies ached.
Auro was no different—his body was covered in blood, dirt, and snow; he had several wounds, his breathing ragged.
He lay in the snow trying to recover; a figure moved behind him, but for some strange reason, unlike other creatures, he couldn't sense it.
The next thing he knew, half his body was hanging over the cliff, and above him a pale young man with black hair looked down with murderous intent and a calm smile.
"Sorry, it's for a greater good; I hope you can understand."
Before he could react, he was pushed again and fell off the cliff, killed by a frail slave.
Sunny stared at the abyss with hatred—for both the tyrant and the Ninth Member; of course, the last words had been lies.
'Oh, I'd almost forgotten what lying felt like…'
That was a lie too.
He walked to the fire with calm; everything had gone well, though the rest of the journey would be far from easy.
[You have slain an Inactive Human, name unknown]
[You have slain an Inactive Human, name unknown]
[You have slain an Inactive Human, name unknown]
[You have received a memory]
The spell's voice announced three deaths—the two slaves and the dying guard; he had killed them by feeding them copious amounts of the poisonous berry.
Of course, he hadn't done it out of vengeance or spite; it was part of his plan.
When the tyrant returned, he would devour their bodies, and the poison would infect the abomination.
[You have slain an Awakened Human, Auro of the Nine]
[You have received a memory]
Sunny approached the fire and sat beside it, enjoying the warmth amid the frozen mountain; he gazed at the dark sky with satisfaction—he had succeeded.
He had gone back in time, changed his Aspect, and slain more creatures—this meant he would have a slight advantage when he returned to the Dream Realm.
He sat for several minutes, feeling the heat in his body; when he grew bored, he summoned his first memory, both in this life and the next.
A myriad of sparkling sparks flowed into his hand, coalescing into a small silver bell.
He looked at it with nostalgia and joy, invoked the runes of his new memory.
Memory: Silver Bell
Rank: Inactive
Description: [A small memento from a long-lost home that once brought comfort and joy to its owner. Its clear chime can be heard for miles.]
He examined it for a moment, then discarded it. Now he summoned his new memory—an awakened one. A pendant formed around his neck, bearing a flat metal plate, devoid of details, polished and reflective.
Finding nothing else, he invoked the runes; what he saw was a pleasant surprise.
Memory: Rebellion
Rank: Awakened
Description: [Long ago, a peaceful town was laid to ruin by followers of the God of War. Powerless at the time, a group of survivors swore vengeance, even confronting the Gods themselves.]
The description was incredible—that was essentially the story of the Nine, very concise but accurate. Strange that Sunny felt no particular benefit from the amulet.
Of course it was odd; he had a theory but would have to wait until later to test it.
He rose painfully from the ground; to his misfortune, he had work to do.
He scoured the caravan ruins, gathering food, water, and essentials; this time, to his relief, he didn't have to don the bloodied cloak.
When he finished, he returned to the fire and lay down to sleep—tomorrow would be an exhausting day, a very exhausting day.