It was a short journey; it took them only two weeks on [Hippocentaur]—Faraam's echo—to reach the end of the Forgotten Shore.
One of the reasons Faraam took nearly three months to reach the Dark City was because of the Chain of Mountains he had to pass through to reach the other side.
This time though, Faraam, knowing what was inside, took a long detour, going around the mountains.
While this took around a week, it was very worth it.
Now both he and Sunny were looking at the dead land, filled with ruins.
"So this is where you were summoned?"
Faraam glanced at Sunny and nodded.
"Doesn't seem that dangerous."
"You should know better not to lower your guard. There is a reason there isn't a single nightmare creature in this place."
Sunny sneered.
"Obviously, that is why I've been asking for that last seven days. What are you afraid of?"
"You will see soon, and since you are a divine shadow, you will feel it more than me."
Sunny clicked his tongue and walked back to the camp.
When they arrived a week ago, Sunny saw from afar the land next to the Forgotten Shore. It was dark, very dark, actually, that he couldn't see anything, and for some reason, his shadows didn't listen to him at all as he tried sending them to investigate.
The only light was the fiery halo on the sky, where he later found out that it was the sun eclipsed.
But after a few minutes the eclipse was gone, and the sunlight lit the land, where he saw only desert and ruins.
After that, both of them decided to rest for a day, but somehow the day turned to a week. As Faraam seems to wait for something.
Obviously Sunny knew that Faraam was waiting for an eclipse. What he didn't know is why he was waiting.
With no other choice, he waited too.
As hours passed, the sun rose to the center of the sky; there were no clouds covering it.
Suddenly a voice called for him.
"Get up and watch. Watch who will kill us if we don't reach the pagoda in time."
Sunny frowned and walked toward Faraam and stood beside him.
He looked at the sky as it was slowly being covered by something.
The eclipse has started.
Soon enough, half of the land was covered by a shadow.
That was when Sunny felt it—something... something was inside that shadow.
The moment Sunny felt it, whether by instinct or quick decision-making, he surpassed his shadow sense.
Fear. What Sunny felt was primal fear of the unknown, of something he couldn't describe by words.
'Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! This is suicide!'
In front of Sunny's eyes, as the eclipse covered the land. Thousands of shadows stood like statues, looking in their direction... no, they were looking at Faraam.
The man himself chuckled.
"Look at these fuckers; they still want me dead."
Turning to the Sunny, he spoke again:
"These are the things that will kill us if we don't reach the pagoda in time. We'll ride on [Hippocentaur] twenty-four hours. We will sleep only once in two days, each only four hours. No stopping at all."
Faraam summoned the echo and jumped on his back with Sunny following him.
And when the eclipse finished and shadows returned to their place, Faraam ordered his echo to run.
There was only a single enemy on this journey to the pagoda, and it was time.
And time passed, and as it passed, the two grew closer to the pagoda by each day.
While they were riding on the echo, Faraam explained to Sunny what happened to this place, or at least what he understood.
"This land was once ruled by a kingdom that worshiped Shadow God. The kingdom either built the pagoda as a temple of worship, or they founded their kingdom where the pagoda was; either way, it doesn't matter. Gods know why; the kingdom was greedy, and for some reason it seems they attacked the pagoda to steal from it. Anyway, Shadow God punished them and turned them all to shadows... the ones we've seen, at least that is what I think happened to them."
Sunny remembered the shadows he saw and sighed.
'Idiots.'
"The nightmare will probably be about that era."
"So our goal in the nightmare is to stop them from attacking the pagoda?" Sunny asked.
"It depends."
Sunny really wanted to slap the shit out of him; unfortunately, he couldn't.
"Did you listen to what you said? They literally got punished by a god for being greedy, and you want to do the same thing?!"
"First of all, we aren't sure they got punished by Shadow God; hell, I doubt they are alive. Second, the kingdom, even though it knows that the temple belonged to Shadow God, still attacked it. That means there must be something variable inside, maybe something left by Shadow."
Faraam took a breath. "So yes Sunny, if that thing was worth the risk, then I will do it."
Sunny cursed... not because of how dumb what Faraam said, but because he kind of understood. The allurement of something left by a god was really tempting, even though Sunny wasn't dumb to sacrifice his life for it.
Unfortunately the man in front of him wasn't dumb; he was worse; he was desperate. And desperate men make decisions that kill them.
Sunny knew that he couldn't convince Faraam to change his mind, so he prayed for the dead gods and the spell that what awaited them in the pagoda was a gateway.
And after six days of marching inside this desolate land, they finally reached the pagoda a day before the eclipse.
And Sunny's prayers were ignored. Well, the gods are dead, and the spell was the enemy of humanity.
Because when they reached the pagoda, both of them felt it—the call of the seed of the nightmare at the top of the pagoda.
"Damnation!"
Faraam smirked, "It seems that fate wants to kill me more than wanting to save its beloved child."
"How should we get in?" Sunny asked.
Faraam looked at the main gate of the pagoda; they couldn't get inside from there due to the shadow on the ground in front of it. Even though Sunny restricted his shadow sense, he could somehow feel the thing inside that shadow.
The same shadow he sensed for a fraction of a second near the Forgotten Shore.
Faraam ordered his echo to go around the pagoda where there were no shadows and summoned the [Formless Ichor].
"Since the seed is at the top, we will climb."
Sunny didn't refute, even though it was dangerous; it was better than going near the main entrance.
Returning the [Hippocentaur] to his soul sea, he took Sunny's hand and turned the formless ichor into a rope and threw it at the sky.
The rope moved by itself and wrapped around one of the bricks of the pagoda and pulled both of them. Faraam repeated this again and again until they reached the top, where the call of the seed was unbearable.
Covering his armor with the formless ichor, he spoke to Sunny:
"The moment I break the wall, we ran toward the seed! We don't know what is inside."
Sunny nodded, and Faraam took a deep breath; he poured essence into his arm and punched the wall with all of his strength.
The wall exploded, and both of them entered the pagoda. The two ran in a large hallway toward the seed, the call as their compass.
The hallway was filled with arts and engravings; Faraam didn't have time to look at them, let alone understand them, as he rushed past them in a mere second.
"Something is coming toward us!" Sunny screamed.
"Just ran!" Faraam yelled back.
It only took them ten seconds to reach the end of the hallway, where a large gate waited for them.
Faraam noticed an art above it that had something that Faraam was familiar with. A mask. The same mask Sunny has. Weaver's Mask.
The art had two beings; one was a small one with seven arms, six black and one white; he wore a mask with three horns. There was no doubt who they were, Weaver.
The other was a giant shrouded in black, with golden lines seeping from their chest.
The two seemed to have a conversation until the giant stabbed itself with a dagger in its chest, bleeding what seems to be a golden ichor.
From inside the chest of the giant, a gate opened, and a drop of the golden ichor fell down toward the gate beneath it...
Faraam couldn't have time to decipher what the art meant to convey as he bashed the gate, opening it completely.
"It's behind us!" Sunny screamed again.
Faraam sensed it; just its presence made him nearly fall down on his knees, but Faraam endured as he saw the seed of the nightmare: A golden chalice ornamented with gems and diamonds above an altar.
The altar was clean, dry, and as wide as a bed... just like the one where Sunny sacrificed himself to the gods.
Before that thing reached them, the two touched the chalice, and suddenly they were gone, and Faraam heard the spell's voice.
[Awakened! Prepare for your Second Trial…]
[Two brave ones… welcome to the Nightmare!]