The scorching heat pressed against her skin.
Sweat clung to Nephis as she tried to ignore the suffocating weight of exhaustion settling over her body.
All around her, the sand was stained red.
What was supposed to be a secured city for the Valor clan...
Had become a battlefield.
A hellish wasteland of blood and death.
And the one responsible for this massacre...
Mordred.
The fallen prince of Valor.
The most terrifying part wasn't the destruction itself.
It was how he did it.
Not with his own body.
Not with his own flesh and blood.
But through a host.
A soldier.
A warrior, either Awakened or Ascended.
A man who had lived, loved, fought for his family...
And never even realized when he ceased to exist.
Neither his wife.
Nor his daughter.
None of them would ever know the exact moment when their beloved husband and father was no longer himself.
When his soul was ripped from his body, devoured and erased, replaced by the will of a demon that had lurked in the shadows.
Mordred had deceived them.
Used the man's body as a mere tool for chaos.
And then...
Simply let him die.
How deep must Mordred's hatred run to bring him to this?
His hatred for his father.
For Anvil.
For the Third Sovereign.
So deep that he had allied with Song, his sworn enemy, just to watch Valor burn.
So relentless that he was willing to destroy the only peaceful escape from this desert, turning a potential refuge into a death zone.
Because before letting Anvil set foot in the Tomb of Ariel...
Mordred would burn everything to the ground.
And Nephis understood him.
Mordred's hatred...
Was only comparable to her own.
How ironic life was.
She, Mordred, Sunny, and their cohort...
What were they in the face of the Sovereigns' power?
Ants.
Mere shadows beneath the weight of kings.
But not kings who clung to power just because they were born into it.
No.
The Sovereigns stood at the peak by their own merit.
The Valor clan was the pillar of humanity, and its leaders had proven it through blood.
Each of them was a monster born from war.
Anvil, the unbreakable hammer.
Ki Song, the visionary who built her empire from nothing, who defied Valor and rivaled its power.
And the enigmatic Asterion...
According to Mordred, the most dangerous of them all.
But what use was all that power...?
If in the end, they were nothing more than beasts who believed themselves above fate?
What could mere Ascended do against them?
What could warriors achieve when even Saints were nothing more than tools at their feet?
Nothing.
Nothing.
Except remember.
Except hate.
The Sovereigns' fate had been sealed long ago.
When?
When Anvil and Asterion used Mordred as a simple bargaining chip?
When they betrayed and murdered Nephis's father?
When they ordered the extermination of her clan, sending assassins after a silver-haired child?
Perhaps, if they had chosen a different path...
Things would have been different.
But no.
The path had already been carved.
Because Nephis and Mordred would never forget.
Because hatred and vengeance were woven into their very existence.
Because the world bowed before the Sovereigns...
But they failed to see that the ground beneath them was already shaking.
Their reign would end in blood.
And the most ironic part of all...
Was that their downfall was not set in motion by some grand battle.
Not by the rebellion of an army.
Not by the rise of a new power.
No.
Their fate was sealed the day a mere rat from the outskirts...
Met a silver-haired girl on a bridge at the Academy.
From that moment, everything was decided.
From that moment, their fall began.
The fate of the world was sealed the instant Sunny and Nephis met.
How curious fate is
Nephis stopped.
In front of her, a massive dark mass floated in the air, emanating a dense, oppressive aura.
It was a cube.
A deformed cube, with irregular angles, pulsating with what seemed like a living energy, as if the nightmare itself was breathing within it.
But what was most unsettling wasn't its shape...
It was what it represented.
The call of the nightmare resonated in her mind, like a persistent whisper, inviting her to step forward.
Nephis squinted her eyes.
The cube... it looked too much like the pyramid in the distance.
Too much.
It wasn't just a coincidence.
The black stone surface of the cube had the same texture. The same feeling of ancientness.
Had a part of Ariel's Tomb been ripped out and turned into a nightmare seed?
Or perhaps... the Tomb of Ariel itself was a colossal nightmare, composed of thousands of seeds?
Millions?
She didn't know.
Only theories without answers.
And right now, the present was the only thing that mattered.
She took a deep breath, forcing her mind to focus.
This was a category three nightmare seed.
An infernal challenge.
But she wasn't alone.
Beside her, her cohort stood silent, watching the seed with tense expressions.
It was normal.
They all knew what this trial meant.
The final step toward transcendence.
The ultimate test.
But they weren't alone.
Nephis glanced to a further point.
Mordred.
The bastard demon was still there, in a body that wasn't even his.
Just minutes earlier, he had been fighting Morgan, right before the enormous category four doors had materialized in the distance.
His state was deplorable.
He was missing an eye.
An arm.
His skin was covered in wounds and dried blood.
But still...
He smiled.
As if none of it mattered.
As if he had already won.
Nephis narrowed her eyes.
In contrast, beside her, Sunny observed him with very different emotions.
Sunny's gaze...
It was one of death.
His expression was cold, calculating. His eyes, dark pits of emptiness.
Nephis could almost hear his thoughts.
"Should I kill him now?"
This was the best chance they would have.
Mordred was gravely injured. He wouldn't be able to resist if Sunny decided to end his life right then and there.
But there was something undeniable.
Mordred would be useful.
Nephis knew that.
And Sunny did too.
Because they both knew the power that Mordred held.
Not because they had fought him before.
Nor because they were close.
But because of what he was.
A carrier of a divine aspect.
Like her.
Like Sunny.
The trio of divine aspects.
Only Nephis understood what that meant.
What that power entailed.
What it cost.
What it was worth.
Mordred had been infected by the spell since he was a teenager.
He had been marked.
He had been forged in fire and blood.
And now, although he was a demon capable of committing atrocities in his thirst for vengeance...
His existence had value.
Perhaps the key piece in this third nightmare.
Nephis felt Sunny tense slightly at her side.
And then...
He let out a sigh.
He approached the seed.
The silence was absolute.
The blazing sun in the sky was the only witness.
There were no farewell words.
No wishes of good luck.
Only determination.
Because this challenge was immense.
And they were good at facing the impossible.
Nephis inhaled deeply.
She took a step forward.
And then another.
Her cohort followed her without hesitation.
The nightmare seed vibrated.
And then...
They were pulled inside.
A simple step.
A small act.
But one that would turn the world upside down.
One that would change history forever.
Although they didn't know it yet.
Or perhaps they did.
⸻
[ Ascended Nephis. Prepare for your third trial. ]
[ 1,863,49,51 brave ones... welcome to the third nightmare. ]
——
Short chapter to conclude the second volume—we've finally reached the Third Nightmare.
Even so, I hope you've enjoyed the journey so far.
I'm going to try to adapt the entire Third Nightmare because, fun fact, I originally wanted to start this story from this point. But then I thought, why not begin a little earlier? Just a few chapters.
And in the end... it turned into 30.
I hope you're enjoying the story!