Sunny finally saw them — two withered husks nailed cruelly to the snow-white bark of the tree. Their bodies were gaunt, their decayed skin stretched tightly against their skeletons to the point of looking like a translucent layer that would tear at the slightest moment.
Both stared at them with empty eyes, their teeth bared in eternal grins.
"Oh my god, Azarax! Look at this, there's finally living blood in this desert."
The first skeleton spoke in a dry, rasping hiss — yet disturbingly lively, as though his humour had never faded despite being pinned to a tree.
The second figure stirred.
A faint creak echoed as something within its withered frame shifted, the sound was unnaturally loud in the suffocating stillness around the tree. Its head tilted ever so slightly and its empty sockets fixed on Sunny and Mahoraga with a slow, deliberate focus.
"You wretched fool!" he snarled, turning on the other with sudden fury. "Have you lost even that pitiful instinct of yours? Can you not smell it? They reek of a daemon… they are of Weaver's, you blind idiot!"
The skeleton let out a dry, rattling chuckle. He didn't seem bothered by the fact that the first living blood they encountered in ages belonged to the traitor. If anything he sounded delighted.
"Weaver's brats? My oh my, truly the times have fallen on such sad and hollow days."
At that moment, Mahoraga stepped forward, his voice cutting cleanly through the exchange between the two ancient skeletons. His gaze settled on the second, and for the briefest instant, something almost like familiarity softened his expression.
"Azarax, still as loud as ever I see…," he turned towards the first skeleton and asked in a questioning tone, "Who must you be?"
The first skeleton spared him a glance before answering him in an aloof tone, "Me? Oh, I am no one. Just a humble slave."
Mahoraga's lips twitched as he asked in a more threatening tone, "What should I call this humble slave?"
The skeleton remained silent for a bit, "A name? I used to have one of those, before. What was it? Oh! Eurys. Eurys of the Nine…"
Sunny's heart skipped a beat, Damnation.
Sunny suspiciously glared at the weathered skeleton. If the creature truly belonged to the Nine, then calling himself a "humble slave" was a falsehood so blatant it bordered on making a mockery out of them.
Humble Slave, Sunny thought humorlessly, Right.
Auro had not been humble — far from it. He had been utterly sure of his own self righteousness and was wrapped in self serving narcissism disguised as mercy.
He found himself wondering how Eurys would react if he learned that it was his hand that had extinguished the light of his companion.
He also found himself weirded out with the way Mahoraga had regarded Azarax — a warmth he had never known.
Just what kind of history did Mahoraga have with Azarax.
Sunny pushed the thoughts aside and focused on their conversation.
"We seek a Seed of Nightmare. Do you know where one is located?"
Eurys stared at him, "A Seed of Nightmare? What is that?"
Mahoraga blinked before his eyes narrowed slightly, "You don't know what a Nightmare Seed is? At the very least, you must know of the Nightmare Spell. It has been devouring Divine Realms like a glutton, absorbing them into its own — what we call the Dream Realm. Surely you've heard of it."
For the first time, Eurys seemed a little surprised.
"Weaver's little spell? So it has gotten that powerful? Huh… how surprising. No wonder you guys reek of that daemon, then."
Sunny's eye twitched, ...Little spell?
The sheer absurdity of it warped Sunny's sense of reality.
The Nightmare Spell — the cosmic parasite that had toppled and consumed civilizations, shattered the laws of physics, and condemned billions of lives to an endless struggle for survival was being dismissed by a chained skeleton as a minor parlor trick.
For a moment, Sunny genuinely wondered if he had misheard.
His gaze lingered on Eurys, then shifted to Azarax, searching their hollow expressions for mockery, for deception… for anything that could reduce those words into something comprehensible. But there was none.
Only indifference.
If the Nightmare Spell was insignificant to them… then what kind of world had they come from?
Mahoraga, however, did not react. His expression remained unreadable as always, "Yes exactly. Nightmare Seeds are trials — trials that take the form of an event from the past. Obviously, the Nightmares are quite deadly. So one would naturally have no reason to enter one unless you need to ascend. And we are in a dire need of ascension."
"Is that so? My, oh my. In that case, you will not find guides better than the two of us. Just take us off this damned tree, and we will lead you to this Nightmare Seed.
"Of course, you'll have to give a better explanation of what the Seed is because if you don't know," he gestured towards the nails pinning them both, "we haven't been outside in a while."
Mahoraga nodded slightly before adding coldly, "We don't need two guides."
Immediately upon hearing that the second skeleton strained to free himself and roared again, "I am Azarax the Mighty, the Plague of Steel, King of Kings, Conqueror of a Hundred Thrones! Choose me, Weaver's spawns! I will guide you to the shores of the Underworld and through its dark expanse, back to the world of the living! You will need a powerful guide if you wish to escape!"
Mahoraga paid him no mind and turned towards Eurys and asked plainly, "What about you?"
"I am willing to offer my help," he muttered vaguely.
Sunny let the silence stretch for a moment, his eyes drifting between the two ancient prisoners. One ranted like a deranged king lost to his own grandeur, while the other met everything with an unsettling indifference.
Neither inspired confidence.
"…So," Sunny said at last, his voice low as his gaze wandered between the two bound figures, "which are we freeing?"
"Eurys," Mahoraga said without a moment of hesitation.
Sunny raised an eyebrow, "Don't you know Azarax?"
Mahoraga's eyes did not leave the nailed skeleton. "I do," he said quietly. "Which is exactly why he stays where he is."
_____
A/N - Drop those powerstones now, let's hit at least 60 by tomorrow!