Sunny had gone through many chilling trials in his tumultuous life, but the Nightmare Desert was, perhaps, the most harrowing ordeal of them all. Lost in a true Death Zone, pursued by Nightmare Creatures, and forced to undertake the Second Nightmare… he saw little hope of making it out of this tribulation alive.
"Argh! Damnation!"
Sunny cried out, but the sound was instantly swallowed by the roaring storm.
The world had vanished.
What little horizon there had been was now devoured by a raging wall of pale sand, churning and screaming as it tore across the desert. The world was perfectly white and suffused with incinerating heat. The grains of sand cut their skin like knives, but two humans and one sentient skeleton stubbornly marched forward through the radiant inferno.
Sunny narrowed his eyes, and summoned all his protective memories in an effort to shield himself from the merciless hailstorm.
Gritting his teeth, Sunny pushed through the wind and walked forward.
He glanced sideways at the skeletal figure striding unflinchingly ahead, his brittle bones untouched by the scouring wind. Mahoraga on the other hand was a monolith, effortlessly adapting to the chaos.
How the hell do they keep going? Sunny thought in disbelief, slightly infuriated by the sheer contrast between them.
Wasn't it funny? His journey as an Awakened first began with almost freezing to death in the cold mountains and now, he was on the verge of succumbing to the unbearable heat of this accursed desert.
Randomly, he remembered a part of the speech Nephis had given to the Sleepers in the Bright Castle, right before leading them to siege the Crimson Spire.
"The weak will die. The strong will die, too. And those who remain won't be the same... follow me... and you will never be slaves…"
He wanted to laugh.
Oh how right she was.
The weak had died.
The strong had died too.
Whatever they had been before — that version of them had long since ceased to exist.
"Eurys!" He shouted over the howling winds, "are you sure you know where a Nightmare Seed is located?"
For a moment, there was no response.
Then, the skeletal figure ahead tilted his head ever so slightly. "My oh my…" his voice drifted back, eerily calm, "such impatience."
He continued on forward casually and answered, "From what you've told me, these Seeds tend to surface in places of significance. As it happens, I know of one such place."
Sunny could resist but let out a pitying laugh. A half promise, a vague answer — that was all? Was he supposed to stake his life on the word of a walking skeleton?
He lowered his head and forced his way past the storm.
At this point, whether Eurys was wrong no longer mattered.
Whether the Seed even existed — didn't matter.
They had come too far to turn back.
So Sunny kept moving, dragging himself forward through the burning gale, with nothing left but the certainty that stopping meant death.
…
2 Months Later
A dark river flowed through a cavernous expanse of black stone. Fog nestled on the water, stifling its quiet murmurs and veiling everything in white. A lone source of light was traveling through the fog, tearing a path through it.
It was a slender gondola cut from onyx, with a glass lantern hanging on its bow. A pristine white flame burned within the lantern, straining against the confines of its crystal prison. The fog opened up before the gondola, and then silently closed behind.
A young man with ebony-black hair and bronze skin was curled into a ball, sleeping on the bottom of the boat. Against the light of the lantern, his face seemed deathly pale.
A man sat a short distance away from him, rigid and unmoving. The lantern's pale light illuminated features, revealing a face that might have once been called striking — sharp, well-defined, almost regal. Yet whatever grace he possessed was dulled now, overshadowed by the hollow look in his eyes.
"One day the gods will fall
And reveal their lie
The one who sleeps will awaken
To devour his children
Oh, and us all
That which was forgotten
Will be remembered
And consume the world
Oh, all of us will dream
The nightmare
Of the Forgotten God…"
As he sang, the young man stirred awake. The skeleton grew silent, glanced at him and said in a cheerful voice.
"Good morning, shadow. How have you slept?"
He sat up straight and did not answer, instead glaring at the skeleton with tired eyes.
"Are you feeling well? You… you have not been speaking much these past few weeks, little shadow. Has your mind finally gone?"
They continued to sail in silence for a while. Slowly, the fog receded, revealing a black shore. The skeleton changed the course of the boat and let it drift until its bottom scraped against the rock.
There, he let go of the oar and sighed.
"This is it. That is as far as I go."
The two young lads remained motionless, staring at the shore. Their expressions were a cheap imitation of the enthusiasm they once had. Whatever spark that had once kept them moving had long since been snuffed out.
Sunny finally spoke, his voice hoarse and gravelly.
"How close are we to that place,"
The skeleton shrugged.
"Close enough, I'd wager. Uh… sorry for lying to you, by the way. In my defense, you only have yourselves to blame. Who would be foolish enough to trust a skeleton that has been imprisoned since the Age of Daemons to lead them to anything?"
He hesitated for a while, then added, "Are you sure that you want to go on? There are worse fates than death after this shore. Trust me… I should know."
Sunny looked at him for a long, silent moment. The fog pressed in, thick and cold, and the river behind them gurgled softly.
"Doesn't make a difference," Sunny finally said. His voice was plain, stripped of any emotion. "We've already come way too far."
"Too far," the skeleton echoed softly. "Ah, yes. That's how every tragedy starts, isn't it? Too far to turn back."
Sunny glanced at him and then asked, "What will you do after this?"
Eurys snickered.
"Me? Oh, I don't know. Now that I've been taken off that damned tree, there's not much time left for me to exist. Maybe I'll try to find what remains of the Shadow Realm, to have a proper death. Maybe I'll just go back and tease Azarax for a while, one last time. That fellow was really insufferable, you know.
Spending an eternity in his company was the greatest punishment of all! A piece of advice… choose your eternal companions carefully, shadow."
The two men lingered for a moment, gave an acknowledging nod, thanking him for the guidance he had given, and then walked into the darkness.
Without looking back, Sunny spoke quietly, "Thank you, Eurys… farewell."