The real Tomb of Ariel was silent.
The civilizations that should have populated the Great River, the settlements that shifted across time's current, the people and their fires and their noise — all of it was absent. Utterly hollowed out. The islands existed, their architecture intact in some places, but the life that should have animated them was simply… no longer there.
Sunny had noticed it from the moment he entered, though understanding it took longer.
This Nightmare used his memory as one third of it's foundation.
That was the only explanation that could hold true. Places he had never visited could not exist here with any completeness — the Nightmare had built from what it knew, and what it knew was limited to what Sunny knew, both him and the Original. The absences were mapped onto the gaps in his own recollection. Civilizations he had heard about but never seen. Islands he had heard described but never stood upon. The Nightmare had attempted them and produced only vague landscapes, scaffolding without substance, architecture without inhabitants.
The contradiction nagged at him.
Though, he was certain — with the particular certainty of someone who had spent millennia accumulating knowledge about the Dream Realm — that the Underworld still had to exist beneath the Hollow Mountains.
Nether's domain. The Prince of the Underworld was down there regardless of whether the Nightmare had sufficient memory to construct it properly.
He simply could not determine how to reach it.
—
The islands that remained were overrun.
Corruption that had spread across the River's banks across centuries of neglect, filling the vacancies left behind by absent civilizations with the only things that thrived in abandoned places. Nightmare Creatures.
Sunny massacred them.
Anything below the rank of Cursed collapsed when his Will of Death passed over it. He would not call it effortless — a Sacred-Titan's Will still had to be directed and invoked against something with intent — but the outcome was never in question. Fallen and Corrupted abominations were crushed like ants. The Great Monsters fared somewhat better and lasted somewhat longer, though the distinction between somewhat better and not enough was one they did not survive long enough to appreciate.
He collected their Shades as he went.
The accumulation continued. He traversed the River and the River moved around him and time did what time always did inside the Tomb — whatever it so pleased.
He could not have said how long he spent there.
Days passed by certain measures. Weeks by others. A Time Storm caught him at one point and held him suspended in an interval he could not parse by any clock he possessed, the current of the River twisting past and future into something undifferentiated. He was forced to wait it out.
But, at least he had company, albeit his own.
His Avatars manifested at his side when the solitude became counterproductive. A second perspective on problems proved useful. They traversed the infinitely shifting interior, and split up when need be.
Under normal circumstances, he would employ his Shadow Legion. However… he had also devoured them all when becoming a God.
'Truth, at times, crushes the world's lies,' he thought, passing through yet another ruined civilization, all but taken by Great abominations. 'But it cannot erase the truth that the lies were there. Not even with the power of the Gods.'
…He was beginning to understand why Ariel had buried things.
—
Somewhere in the later reaches of his traversal, moving toward the Estuary, the first genuinely interesting opponent appeared.
A Cursed-Tyrant.
It emerged from the deep corruption blanketing on the far, with a quality of something that had been present for a very long time and had grown accustomed to being the most dangerous existence in its vicinity. Its Will rippled outward with real force — present in a way that the lesser creatures had never been. Sunny felt it land against his own Will and assess him, the way an experienced warrior assessed an opponent before committing.
Then he gave a greeting of his own.
The Cursed-Tyrant… well, it lasted longer than the others, that he could say. Several hours of combat across a stretch of infinite blood that the creature clearly considered its territory, fighting with the accumulated cunning of centuries of survival in a place where survival required cunning. It struck hard. It adapted. It was, by any reasonable standard, a formidable existence.
Though it didn't take long for Sunny to overwhelm it.
The mathematics of a Cursed-Tyrant's Will against a Sacred-Titan's ability to become to antithesis of anything… only had one answer—
[You have slain 'Inertia.']
Its Shadow joined Sunny's Spirit. And so, he moved on.
The pattern established itself clearly over what followed.
Anything below the rank and class of Cursed-Terror wouldn't be all that life-threatening to him as long as he focused and gave it some effort. Anything of Cursed rank required genuine effort, a real expenditure of Will, occasionally hours of actual combat. Anything of Unholy rank would be a different matter entirely — he was aware of that with the clarity of someone who had faced an Unholy-Titan and survived it only by multiple factors and sheer luck. For something of the Unholy Rank, that was acceptable to him. Though his chance of victory against another was very thin.
Trouble, certainly. Manageable trouble if he decided to run away.
And yet he also doubted that [Fated] would present such an opportunity.
He had the feeling that somewhere along this road, in whatever configuration of events Fate had already arranged and was now waiting for him to arrive at, there was a battle that would make him bleed.
He did not know when. He did not know what.
He simply knew that the maybe the River, or even something outside this Pyramid had something in store for him.
Sunny exhaled slowly and flew on.
—
It took an uncountable amount of time and triumphs before finally he reached Verge.
In front of him, the eternally flowing waters of the Great River turned to ice. A vast landmass stretched beyond the frozen surface, reaching so far into the distance that the horizon swallowed its end. The current of the river moved around it, yet the island stood unmoved, anchored in place as if it had always been there.
He remembered this place clearly from his Third Nightmare, and the sight of it brought terrible memories back. The endless plain of ice was covered in sand and lifeless soil, forming rolling hills and dry riverbeds that cut across the land in winding paths. Skeletal trees rose from the frozen ground, their branches bare and brittle, and scattered across the plain stood mounds of black stone that formed twisted pillars like a forest of jagged towers.
He had found land again, and as Sunny stepped onto the frozen ground of Verge, he drew in a slow breath and looked across the barren expanse. It felt different from lands he created from shadows, and the distinction mattered far more than he expected.
'I wish there didn't come a time where I would ever be back here.'
The Third Nightmare carried too many memories, and this place held more of them than most.
Shaking his head, Sunny wasted no time and manifested his wings once more. Shadows gathered behind him and formed dark wings that spread wide before lifting him into the air. He was not here for Verge itself, and there was no reason to remain on the frozen plain longer than necessary.
He was here to find the Estuary, and he already knew where it was. The hidden, terrible secret that Ariel hid was Oblivion's Tomb, and that secret lay within the Estuary.
That place still had its uses.
Sunny had no idea where else he would find Oblivion, and the Estuary would likely be the only place where he could enter her Dream. Ariel was tied to that place as well, and there was a strong chance he would encounter the Daemon of Dread there.
After some time searching across the frozen land, Sunny eventually found the Estuary and entered without hesitation. The path through the ancient structure felt familiar to him, and he moved through it with steady steps.
He passed the many runes that described the beings of the Void, their forms carved into stone through ancient symbols filled with meaning and power. Sunny was not incorruptible, yet the runes did not affect him the way they would affect others. Whatever Abaddon had assimilated into him allowed him to endure corruption, albeit in a different way.
It was no wonder his runes kept shifting between Sacred and Cursed Titan. The Spell could not decide what he was, and the truth was that he existed as both at once. There was also the fact that he was a participant in the Nightmare, which meant there were two versions of Sunless overlapping into one existence.
He passed the lake guardian as well. The creature watched him approach, then lowered its head and allowed him to pass without resistance. Sunny considered killing it for a moment, though he continued forward instead. The guardian posed no obstacle to him now.
And it was there that he stumbled upon the Vile Thieving Bird's corpse.
Sunny walked up the short hill where the lonely tree stood, the grave of Oblivion resting beneath its branches. He tilted his head slightly and reached out with one hand, touching the remains of the Vile Thieving Bird. The feeling was strange, because the memories of killing the creature existed in his mind, yet they belonged to another version of himself.
He was a participant of the Nightmare. He was the Supreme Sunless who had killed a Cursed Terror, and at the same time he was not that person. Even those memories felt distant and uncertain, like fragments of a life he had watched rather than lived.
He drove his shadows into the corpse and retrieved the Sacred Soul Shards, then destroyed the remains completely after taking several feathers and parts from the body. He might need them later if he was forced to weave a Memory during this Nightmare, and it was better to be prepared.
The Vile Thieving Bird no longer existed after that.
Sunny continued forward until he reached Oblivion's grave, then stopped in front of it and looked at the lonely tree that grew above the buried Daemon.
"Oblivion…"
He stopped himself and shook his head. Abaddon had already set a path for him to follow, and Oblivion was not the next Daemon he was meant to meet.
It was Ariel.
Sunny took a slow breath and looked around the Estuary. He did not know if this would work, because this was Oblivion's grave and not Ariel's domain. Even so, he stood in the heart of the Estuary, at the source of time itself. There was no better place to attempt this than the Tomb of Ariel, where the Daemon's greatest secret was hidden.
[Sacred-Titan 'Lost from Light' has activated 'Dreamwalker.']
The world around him began to crumble, the ground beneath his feet breaking apart as if it had turned into dust. The air itself seemed to fracture, and the entire world collapsed in silence.
—
In moments, everything returned.
Sunny stood in the same place he had been before, though the remains of the Vile Thieving Bird were gone and the tree in front of him looked different from before.
He blinked once, then looked forward.
Someone was there, kneeling in front of the tree and digging a massive grave into the ground. The figure looked human, which was enough to make Sunny stop where he stood.
That was how he knew.
"Ariel."
The figure stopped digging, and its form shifted before settling into Sunny's own appearance, though it wore the body he once had as a Sleeper. The other Sunny turned around with a wry smile and studied him with open curiosity, as if examining something rare that had appeared without warning.
He straightened slowly and brushed the dirt from his hands before speaking. ["You… who might you be? You don't belong here—"]
Ariel paused mid-sentence as his expression changed, his eyes sharpening with sudden understanding while he stared directly at Sunny. The shift in his gaze made it clear he had already seen through something deeper than mere appearances.
["Oh… oh… OH!"]
Blinking several times, Ariel looked down at the body he had chosen to wear after seeing Sunny's truth, then looked back at Sunny himself with open fascination, as though comparing two reflections that did not match.
["It's you! Ah! It's been some time… er…"]
Sunny answered calmly. "I am Lost from Light, not the Daemon of Possibility, Ariel."
Ariel tilted his head slightly as he observed him, his expression thoughtful as the excitement faded into recognition. ["…I see. So you have finally come after all."]
The reaction made sense to Sunny, because Ariel's situation resembled Hope's in several ways. From everything Sunny had learned through his conversations with Hope, each of the Daemons existed within their own inner world and did not automatically know when he entered their domain. Ariel was an exception among them since he was the Daemon of Truth, yet also because he had witnessed the battle against Entropy. Weaver, Nether, and Nokstella would likely sense his presence as well since those three had chosen to help him for reasons he still did not understand.
Even so, Sunny could tell Ariel understood more than Hope had when they first spoke. Ariel had looked into his truth almost immediately, and that single glance had told him everything he needed to know.
That was how Ariel knew the Sunny standing before him was not the Daemon of Possibility, but Lost from Light instead. He understood that this Sunny was not the Original, but a challenger to this Nightmare.
Ariel chuckled a moment, then spoke up once more.
["How funny. That Daemon had many truths within him, yet you are more of a mess than he was!"]
Sunny arched a brow. "How so?"
Ariel spread his hands out in an almost theatrical gesture, his eyes glinting with interest rather than mockery.
["Within you I can see Nothingness as well…. that was not something that Daemon possessed. Other than the countless existences within you, I can sense shadow, light, darkness , divinity, corruption, and now Nothingness… four different affinities inside one vessel. Remarkable! And so frightening! You truly know no bounds."]
Sunny paused at that, genuinely caught off guard by the fact that a Daemon of all things would call him frightening. "Really? I give you the frights?"
Ariel nodded slowly, watching him as if observing something unfold rather than speaking to a person directly.
["There are many words one could use to describe you. Monstrous. Miraculous. Inconceivable. In the end, frightening is the most accurate. You remind me of him more than you think."]
Sunny shrugged slightly. "I guess…"
He did not really believe that comparison. The Original had forced Entropy into submission without destroying it, which required far more precision than simply killing a god. On top of that, the Original had climbed to a height of power that may have even surpassed the Daemons themselves. Being compared to someone like that felt exaggerated, absurd even.
Ariel tilted his head slightly, as if listening to a voice only he could hear, then shook his head with a faint smile.
["No, no. You are underestimating yourself. Your presence is far too voluminous for a mere Sacred Titan. The powers inside you are raging and active. They are expanding, intertwining, amplifying each other into something greater."]
Sunny frowned slightly at that. 'I don't think I should be too happy about that.'
Ariel gave a small shrug.
["Happiness has very little to do with power, grand Shadow. Power is a matter of existence, not emotion. Let it run wild, I say!"]
He stopped moving and looked directly at Sunny, the playful expression fading away.
["But you did not come here to discuss what you are. You came to learn about my siblings, what you will encounter, and how you might survive meeting them."]
Sunny nodded once.
Ariel smiled again.
["Very well. I will not waste your time. I can tell you where you will find Weaver, but I cannot tell you what you will find when you reach him. Even I can not understand what he is planning at any given moment."]
Sunny ran a hand through his hair, clearly annoyed by that answer. "It doesn't matter. I'll deal with that when I get there."
Ariel gestured lightly in acknowledgment.
["As you wish. After you leave this Inner-Dream, however, your next destination should be Nether."]
Sunny looked at him more carefully now. He was aware, but still wanted to hear it from Ariel. "Nether?"
["Yes. The power you possess, those two wholes of Darkness and Nothingness, are not things you currently control. You may perhaps use them instinctively, sometimes violently, very clumsily. Nether well… Nether understands True Darkness better than any of us."]
Sunny thought about that for a moment. When you looked at it logically, it made sense. Nether was the Prince of the Underworld and had spent ages surrounded by True Darkness. If anyone could explain how those forces worked, it would be him.
Sunny hesitated slightly. "I assume I am to expect some resistance?"
Ariel suddenly laughed and raised a hand.
["No, no. Nether is not one you need to fear. He already helped you once, and he would not have done so without a reason. Nether does not act without purpose. If he showed interest in you once, then he will likely show interest in you again."]
Sunny did not find that particularly comforting, but he accepted the logic.
Ariel continued walking slowly as he spoke.
["After Nether, you must find Mirage, my sister, the Daemon of Imagination. If you truly intend to enter the Labyrinth, then Mirage is unavoidable."]
Sunny frowned. "That name. I've heard it again and again. 'The Labyrinth.' What exactly is it?"
Ariel stopped walking and blinked once. Then he blinked again, as if surprised Sunny did not already know.
["'The Labyrinth of Worldlines', of course."]
Sunny stared at him. "…"
Ariel folded his arms behind his back and spoke in a calmer tone now, almost like a teacher explaining a difficult concept.
["You intend to turn back the world, do you not? Reverse its state, undo what has already occurred. If you do that while remaining inside the world itself, you will be dragged backward along with it. Your body, your mind, your power, everything would regress along the reversed passage of time until you eventually cease to exist in your current form."]
Sunny's expression slowly became more serious.
Ariel continued.
["Due to that fact, you cannot remain inside the world while it is being reversed. You must exist somewhere outside the normal flow of time, fabric, and existence. There are only two places where that is possible. One is the Void. The other is the Labyrinth of Worldlines, filled with frequencies. "]
He smiled slightly.
["Unfortunately, even one such as yourself would be unable to withstand the Void, so the Labyrinth is your way to triumph."]
Sunny absorbed that information slowly. "So the Labyrinth is… what, exactly?"
["An etheric sea of pure frequencies that contains countless versions of reality. Every possibility and variation of an event, every world that could exist or could have existed. A maze made of choices instead of matter."]
Sunny exhaled slowly. "I see. So losing myself there would be quite troublesome."
Ariel nodded.
["It is very easy to lose yourself there. Very easy to walk into a world that is not yours and never find your way back. Mirage holds one of the keys that will allow you to maintain your identity while traversing the Labyrinth. Without that, you would eventually fall into another worldline."]
Ariel looked directly into Sunny's eyes at that point, his expression more serious than before.
["The next Daemon you will meet after Mirage will be Rime, the Daemon of Repose."]
The moment he said that name, Sunny felt a chill run through him. Something about that name felt dangerous in a very different way than the others.
Sunny spoke slowly. "Ariel…"
Ariel gave a small shrug.
["I presume that you expected this. After all, Shadow God and Weaver both interfered with her in different ways. She is not fond of either of them, and you are the heir to both. She will not greet you kindly. She may even attempt to kill you."]
Sunny felt his stomach tighten slightly at that. If a Daemon truly tried to kill him, there was no scenario where he would survive.
He spoke calmly anyway. "How am I supposed to defend myself against a Daemon…?"
Ariel answered immediately.
["Oh! Oh worry not, you do not need to."]
Sunny blinked. "I'm sorry?"
Ariel continued calmly.
["…We Daemons are still bound by Weaver's Spell. The restrictions apply even inside this strange Nightmare of yours. You may have summoned two Gods, which is something none of us expected, but that does not change the rules placed upon us. We cannot directly harm you. We cannot directly harm… anything."]
Sunny relaxed slightly, but not completely.
Ariel continued.
["Rime will not be able to attack you herself. However, she can create something to attack you in her place. A guardian,perhaps, constructed by her own will. She will try to prevent you from reaching her Dream."]
Sunny nodded slowly. An Echo of sorts, created by the Daemon of Repose, that was something he could tackle.
After a moment, Sunny asked, "Do you think she could create a Divine Nightmare Creature?"
Ariel looked at him with a completely flat expression.
["Well of course!"]
Sunny sighed and rubbed his face. "Damnation."
Ariel continued speaking.
["From Rime, you must learn how to restrict your existence. When you enter the Labyrinth, you will not be able to bring your body with you. You will not even be able to bring the structure of your soul and spirit. You will be broken down into your core fragments and reconstructed inside the Labyrinth. If you do not learn how to control your own existence before that happens, you will not be able to reassemble yourself in the matters that come after."]
Sunny stared at him. "I see. It's not a matter of rooting my existence to anything, because 'anything' will be far too much in the Labyrinth. How vexing."
["Indeed. You caught on quickly."]
"Tch."
Ariel looked toward the grave he had dug earlier, his expression turning strangely distant for a moment.
Then he spoke again, more quietly this time.
["And last… Oblivion. You must obtain 'Oblivion.'"]
Sunny simply nodded.
Oblivion was a strange name. People spoke of the Daemons often enough, and their names appeared in gravings of old. However, whenever someone tried to list them all, one name always slipped away.
That name was always 'Oblivion.' Demon of Oblivion.
Sunny remembered what Abaddon had told him. Oblivion would be the last Daemon before Weaver. That order mattered for some reason, and he wasn't going to disregard what Abaddon said now.
And in this moment, Ariel had spoken the name and said nothing more.
Because of all these factors, Sunny chose to not ask another question on the matter.
Instead, Ariel spoke once more.
["To find Nether's Dream, you will need to step onto the surface of the Underworld. It appears that you have never been to the Underworld before, and thus it does not exist in this Dream. So the grounds where it does exist will have to do."]
In that moment, Ariel stood in front of Sunny. Before Sunny could react, two fingers touched his temple, and his mind flooded with images.
The first vision showed halls and caverns filled with True Darkness. Massive corridors cut through the underground world, supported by pillars so large that entire cities could have been carved into them. Sunny saw everything clearly through the darkness, every tunnel, every abyss, every distant structure fading into the depths of that hidden realm.
Nether.
The second vision unfolded into endless reflections. Mirrors faced mirrors, lakes reflected skies, skies reflected cities, and every reflection contained another reflection inside it. Sunny saw himself repeated endlessly across countless worlds, each version of himself standing in a different place, all staring toward something beyond the reflections.
Mirage.
The third image appeared slowly, an enormous ship stretching farther than Sunny could properly judge. Its hull had been shaped from a single massive piece of wood carved into the form of a vessel large enough to carry entire cities on its decks. Palaces stood across its surface, pagodas rose high above the decks, forests grew between structures, and rivers crossed the ship as if it were land instead of a vessel. There were buildings, roads, gardens, towers, and empty halls, yet nowhere could Sunny see a single person.
Repose.
The fourth vision arrived last. A dark wasteland spread beneath a black sky, the ground covered in fine black dust that shifted softly under unseen currents. Above, a storm of silver clouds churned slowly, glowing with silver-light that spilled across the land in rivers of pale radiance. The entire realm lay beneath that silver glow, endless hills stretching into the distance while immense shadows drifted across the land like silent giants.
Sunny watched the storm above and felt his own essence react to that place, responding to it as if it belonged there.
Weaver.
The visions disappeared at once, and Sunny staggered as the pressure left his mind. His thoughts felt heavy and slow for a moment, as if his mind had just returned from a long journey across several worlds.
Then the Spell spoke.
[You have received the Demon of Dread's Blessing!]
Sunny nearly fell as Ariel's fingers left his temple. He held his head for a moment, waiting for his thoughts to steady before lifting his gaze again.
When he looked up, he saw Ariel's true form.
It was terrifying and beautiful at the same time, a vast existence shaped into a humanoid outline. The form resembled a person, yet every part of it carried a scale that did not belong to a human body. His mind could fully grasp what it was seeing, and yet the details were too great to put into words.
It reminded him of Hope. Both possessed humanoid shapes, which made sense. Even Daemons held Flames of Desire in them, just as humans were born from the sparks of Desire.
Ariel spoke calmly.
["Do not be surprised. I said I wanted to pass something on to you, and now I have."]
Sunny understood that he meant the Blessing. He shook his head once, clearing the last of the dizziness, and looked toward Ariel again. Ariel had already turned away and was standing near Oblivion's grave, looking down at it.
Then Ariel spoke again.
["Now, Sunless, there is nothing left. Depart on your journey."]
Sunny stood there for a moment, slightly confused. Ariel did not look pleased or satisfied. His gaze remained on the grave, and his expression carried something distant.
Sunny understood then that Ariel had nothing more to give him, no more knowledge to share.
So he deactivated [Dreamwalker].
Just before the Dream collapsed around him, he heard Ariel speak one last time.
["I will be watching you, you who fights against the Oldest Dream."]
—
And so, just like that, Sunny departed. He left the Source, crossed the Rivers of Time, and emerged from Ariel's Tomb with a sense of completion that followed him long after the Dream collapsed behind him.
Oblivion's Dream was something Ariel never named directly, yet Sunny already knew where to find it. The answer had been in front of him from the beginning, tied to the same place where he had first encountered Ariel. The Heart of the Estuary remained the only anchor connected to Oblivion's grave, the only place where their paths could cross within a Dream.
He could have entered her Dream immediately, but Abaddon and Ariel had both given guidance, and ignoring their words would have been reckless. So he chose patience and turned his attention elsewhere.
Back in the Nightmare Desert, Sunny rose into the sky and moved toward the Hollow Mountains at tremendous speed. Opening a Dream Gate from his current position would have brought him close to the mountains in an instant, which was well within his ability as a Sacred. Still, he continued forward through the desert instead, because the lands on the way to the Hollow Mountains were still infested with Nightmare Creatures.
There were very few Unholy abominations remaining in this Nightmare, and Divine echoes could only appear through very specific circumstances. The only Divine existence he truly expected to encounter was something connected to Repose, and that possibility alone meant he would need to act quickly when the time came. None of the Daemons besides Nether and Weaver would have any knowledge of his arrival, which meant Repose would remain unaware until Sunny stood directly in her domain.
Even then, she remained a Daemon, and caution remained necessary.
The real reason Sunny continued across the desert, hunting every powerful creature he encountered, was tied to his appraisal. He thought of this entire journey as something similar to a First Nightmare. During his first Nightmare, he had received the Puppeteer's Shroud after slaying the Mountain King, and the logic seemed simple enough. Powerful enemies inside a Dream often resulted in powerful rewards once the Nightmare ended.
Because of that, Sunny made sure to hunt every Cursed creature he could find. Even if he only received one or two memories from his Appraisal, the effort still felt worthwhile.
Creatures of lower rank likely had no influence on the final reward, but eliminating the remaining Great abominations still brought a certain satisfaction. It also gave him time to experiment with his new affinities and abilities, since he had gained several new ones and still barely understood how to use them properly.
During the days he spent hunting across the desert and mountains, he never managed to fully unleash the power of his two new affinities. That alone made his next destination obvious. Nether would likely be the one who could explain how those powers worked and how they were meant to be used.
Even so, his journey through the Hollow Mountains still proved useful. The Creatures of Nothingness that lived there gave him a small fragment of understanding, something incomplete but still valuable.
By the time he began his descent toward the Underworld, Sunny had slain two Cursed Demons, one Cursed Devil, and his most difficult battle had been against a Cursed Terror.
Thankfully, he never encountered a Cursed Titan. Fighting something on that level would have meant facing an existence equal to himself.
At one point during his journey, Sunny actually stopped, looked up at the sky, pressed his hands together, and loudly prayed that he would receive a Sacred weapon ranked Memory when this Nightmare ended. The scene would have looked ridiculous to anyone watching, but Sunny did it anyway.
And finally, after days of travel and battle, he reached the Underworld.
—
A dark river flowed through a cavern of black stone, its surface slow and heavy beneath a blanket of pale fog. The mist spread low across the water, turning the river into a path that seemed to lead nowhere and everywhere at once.
A lone figure moved through that fog, cutting a silent path across the water.
That lone figure was Sunny. He drifted above the river with two black wings spread behind him, his back turned toward the direction of travel, arms crossed loosely as he glided forward with his eyes closed, hovering on the edge of sleep.
However, he was not sleeping. He was thinking.
Several thoughts drifted through his mind during the long journey through the Underworld river. Some revolved around the Daemons he still had to face and what each of them might demand from him. Others drifted toward the world he would eventually return to once the Nightmare ended, a world where he would awaken with power far beyond what he once possessed.
Most of his thoughts, however, circled around one person.
That thought had first surfaced while fighting one of the Creatures of Nothingness in the Hollow Mountains. During that battle, he had used the [Chain] enchantment on his Shadowbound relic, [Curse], and the idea had remained in his mind ever since.
He possessed [Curse]. Eventually, Nephis would possess [Blessing] once he recreated it.
That left Cassie.
With his Desire amplified by Hope's Blessing, three flames had become his anchors. Nephis, Cassie, and Rain. Rain had died alongside humanity in this Nightmare, so he never had the chance to see what powers she might have gained as a Saint.
Cassie, however, was different. He could still prepare something for her, something tailored specifically for her abilities and her role beside him.
At the same time, he also needed to modify his own Shadowbound relic, [Curse].
Now that he possessed [Soul Flame] as the dormant ability of his Aspect, that power would likely remain with him after the Nightmare ended. That meant he would be able to heal himself, heal others, and eventually heal his Shadow Legion once he regained it. Because of that, the function of [Black Flame] would need to change to accommodate the existence of Soul Flame.
He also began to consider altering [Dark Embrace]. His flaw would naturally resemble something close to [Pristine Soul], and even now he felt intense pain whenever he unleashed his Second Aspect. He endured it because pain had long since become familiar to him, but that did not mean he should continue relying on endurance alone.
If [Dark Embrace] could be modified to work on himself as well as Nephis, it would solve many future problems. Expanding its effect through his shadows also seemed possible, allowing the ability to spread across any area his shadows occupied.
There were many possibilities when it came to modifying [Curse], especially now that he had authority over True Darkness and Nothingness. The exact results remained uncertain until he fully mastered both powers, which was something he intended to accomplish before leaving the Nightmare.
For example, he considered applying those affinities to [Absence of Light], which strengthened him whenever he stood in darkness or in places where shadow and light contrasted. If True Darkness or Nothingness could be integrated into that enchantment, the effect might change entirely.
He would also need to rethink [Shadow Flame], since he also now possessed a single reservoir of Soul Flame within himself. Once he reached Supremacy again, he would naturally be able to distribute Soul Flame to his legion. Keeping [Shadow Flame] unchanged would serve very little purpose.
Then there was [Weakening Curse]. He wondered whether his new affinities could be woven into that enchantment as well, altering its effect into something far more dangerous.
There were many ideas, many possibilities, and more questions than answers.
And beyond all of that, there was still Cassie.
A Nightmare filled with Sacred and Supreme Soul Shards offered more materials than he could ever hope to gather in his own world. It was the perfect place to experiment, to build, and to test new enchantments and relics without restraint.
So Sunny continued to glide along the river with his eyes closed, drifting above the dark water while thoughts moved endlessly through his mind, one idea leading into another as the fog slowly parted before him.
Eventually, the river carried him to a massive opening in the black stone ahead.
He had reached the entrance to the Underworld.
—
"Well… what a gloomy place."
Sunny's voice drifted through the hall of pillars and returned to him in faint echoes. He stood on a low rise of dark sand, looking out across the black stone expanse where rows of massive pillars disappeared into dim distance. Runes covered their surfaces from base to top, carved so densely that the stone looked wrapped in writing rather than built from it.
'To think Neph once passed through here…'
He walked forward slowly, boots pressing into the fine dark grains underfoot. There was very little to explore, and the reason became obvious the longer he looked around. The world simply ended here. Beyond the hall and the pillars, there was nothing more, only empty distance where more of the Underworld should have been.
He had already expected something like this after speaking with Ariel. This Nightmare had been built from the knowledge of the role he occupied, and that role had never truly seen the Underworld. Because of that, most of this realm had never taken shape inside the Dream.
So this hall of runes would have to be enough.
Sunny stopped walking, took a slow breath, and closed his eyes. He focused inward, reaching for the familiar sensation that allowed him to walk into Dreams, gathering his thoughts and steadying his mind before activating the ability.
Then the Nightmare Spell spoke quietly.
[Sacred-Titan 'Lost from Light' has activated 'Dreamwalker.']
For a brief moment, everything felt normal. Then something pressed against his mind without warning, and pain followed immediately after. Sunny staggered, one hand rising to his head as the pressure pushed into his thoughts, searching, probing, examining every corner of his mind with deliberate intent.
The pressure vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared.
A moment later, the Spell spoke once more.
[The 'Prince of the Underworld' is looking at you.]
Sunny slowly straightened, lowering his hand while keeping his expression calm. He could still feel that attention resting on him, like someone observing him from very close distance.
Nether was watching him.
Sunny remained where he was and allowed the gaze to linger, showing no resistance and no attempt to hide anything.
Then the world around him faded into darkness…
It seems he has been granted a royal audience with the Demon of Destiny.