Nephis's vision blurred the deeper she stepped into the black sand. Each step stirred memories she had tried to bury—of a vast, silent, desolate expanse, identical to the one that had marked her time in the Nightmare Desert.
Alone. With no one around. Only the distant whispers of nightmare creatures, the metallic scent of blood... and her own madness. Because, although she never told anyone—and honestly, it was pretty obvious—spending two years completely alone, surviving only to kill, hadn't exactly done wonders for her mental health.
Not that she'd been completely normal before that... but without those two years, she'd be a very different person now.
Thankfully, now she had Sunny.
During that dark time, he—then just her friend, now her boyfriend—had been a constant presence, even from afar. He hadn't been there physically, but his memory... his existence... had helped keep her standing.
Sometimes, she blamed herself for not being more selfish. For not dragging Sunny with her, for not forcing him to stay. Maybe if she had...
But no. This wasn't the time to revisit old mistakes.
She was with him now. Truly with him.
And something about this desert was different. Something deeply, profoundly different.
A strange coldness, one that had nothing to do with temperature, seemed to seep into her soul. As if the darkness itself clung to her bones. As if the void wanted to remind them they were still in hostile territory.
But Sunny was with her.
They walked for what felt like an eternity. Each step more cautious than the last. Sunny led the way, a silent scout, while Nephis followed close behind, his protective shadow.
It brought back memories... ones that, to her surprise, she missed. When he walked ahead, finding paths, and she guarded his back. When the silence between them was comfortable, not empty.
The wind picked up. It struck her face, whipping her long pale hair—and Sunny's dark strands—into the air like white and black flames. There shouldn't have been wind... not in a forest this dense and dark.
And yet, there it was.
Nephis turned her face slightly. For a moment, just a moment, she allowed herself to admire Sunny. She said nothing. Just looked. His serious expression, the black hair tousled by the wind, that ever-watchful gaze. For a heartbeat, she thought he looked... beautiful.
Then his voice echoed in her mind:
—There's a forest ahead. Be careful.
They both stopped at the edge of a darker zone. Before them rose what was clearly a forest... but unlike any Nephis had ever seen.
The trees were tall and twisted, their bark pitch-black. Not dark brown. Not charred. No—black as the abyss. Darker even than the shadows Sunny controlled.
Their trunks looked like hardened ash. But it wasn't ash. Not exactly. They had a faint sheen, a density that defied reason, as though they absorbed the very light around them.
If not for the cold sinking into her bones, for the ominous pressure in the air and the unnatural silence that cloaked everything... she might have called the place beautiful.
Not in the usual sense.
Beautiful like a flower blooming on a grave. Beautiful like a storm on the verge of tearing the world apart.
Unnatural.
Sinister.
And yet, strangely... mesmerizing.
Nephis swallowed silently.
This was no ordinary forest.
And deep in her soul, she knew.
This was a threshold.
One that could not be crossed without consequence.
Nephis approached the tree with caution, slowly extending her hand toward its dark surface. She knew it was a bad idea. But what could a simple tree do to an Ascended human? And not just any human... someone with a divine Aspect.
She wasn't naturally confident. Her story had turned her into a creature of caution. And yet... in the end, it was still just a tree.
It was then, as she touched it, that she understood.
The black trunk, along with the eyes that adorned it —though they weren't eyes in the human sense, nor defined enough to be truly called that— weren't made of shadow.
They were made of true darkness.
Not the shadows Sunny controlled, which needed light to exist. No. This darkness was something else. A phenomenon that depended on nothing. A complete void. The absolute antithesis of both light... and shadow.
The natural enemy of them both.
She had encountered very few beings made of this substance. She could count them on one hand. And that said a lot, for someone like her. Or like Sunny.
She could only recall two...
The first: that silent knight on the forgotten shore, whose presence was still burned into the depths of her mind.
The second... she wasn't entirely sure. But she believed the being that had defeated her during her Second Nightmare might have been one as well.
She didn't want to remember it.
She leaned in closer. And that was when she saw it. Barely visible against the darkness of the bark, there was a number carved into the surface. Small. Simple. But profoundly disturbing.
She didn't have time to study it.
Because she felt it. Too late.
The wind howled with sudden force. The cold, once a constant whisper, turned into a blade that cut the breath from her lungs.
And from the distance, between the trees of darkness, a figure emerged.
A humanoid silhouette. Of average height —maybe a few centimeters taller than Sunny.
It was made of darkness. Of that darkness.
It didn't walk. It didn't breathe. It simply appeared... as if it had always been there.
Then, without warning, it hurled a spear.
The speed was monstrous.
Sunny reacted instantly. His shadow rose in front of him like a living wall —a shield made of essence and will.
The spear pierced the barrier. It didn't stop it... but it slowed it. Just enough.
Enough.
They both dodged the impact in the last instant, their movements precise and clean. There was grace in their response. Efficiency.
They turned in unison. Nephis with the elegance of a war machine, Sunny with the ease of a living shadow.
Her silver eyes gleamed with intensity. His, with a deep and threatening onyx glow.
The dark hunter remained still. Faceless. Voiceless. Only a faint gleam where its eyes should have been.
It was eerily similar to the knight from the forgotten shore.
They needed no words. They were warriors. Old companions. They knew exactly what to do.
Nephis drew her sword. The blue blade trembled in her hand, wrapped in a cold luminescence.
Sin of Guilty.
Sunny was already holding his. Jade green. Alive. Polished by countless battles.
Sin of Solace.
And then... hell broke loose.
Sunny vanished in a faint flicker. Shadow Step. He disappeared from his place only to emerge beside the dark hunter, like a shadow among shadows.
The creature already held another spear.
It didn't flinch.
Nephis narrowed her eyes. This wasn't just any creature.
To resist Sunny so naturally... to react with such calm...
It had to be, at the very least, a transcendent demon.
The hunter didn't speak. In fact, it was incapable of speaking. Not a single sound came from its dark form, as if the very concept of language was foreign to it.
Sunny struck first.
A swift thrust, aimed directly at the hunter's right flank. The movement was clean, perfect. But the enemy dodged it with the ease of an animal evading a blow mid-hunt.
It was pure instinct. No technique. Just reaction.
And just as the hunter turned to counterattack, Nephis emerged from its blind spot. Her sword traced a lethal arc, aiming with surgical precision for the creature's neck.
The hunter slid to the side, evading the strike with strange grace. It didn't feel like a living creature, but its movements were too fluid, too efficient —like a predator that had killed many times before.
It launched itself toward another tree and clung to its side effortlessly, observing them from above.
It had no face. No mouth. And yet, for a fleeting moment, they both felt as if it were smiling.
An imaginary smile. Arrogant. Almost mocking.
And then... it vanished.
It made no sound. Left no trace. It simply faded into the darkness of the forest, as if it had never been there.
Sunny and Nephis exchanged no words. They didn't need to. They knew they had to follow it —but with extreme caution. That creature was not just a nightmare beast. It was clear from a distance that it wasn't normal.
They moved forward for several minutes through blackened trees, ash in the air, and a silence that grew thicker with every step.
"Neph. I can't see it."
Sunny's voice echoed in her mind —calm, but alert.
For even him, with his heightened senses and shadow abilities, to be unable to detect it... that was a bad sign.
Nephis nodded to herself. She knew she couldn't lower her guard. Not here. Not now.
The creature was made of true darkness. That changed the rules.
Then, the warning came.
"There are three. Be careful."
Sunny's voice again. This time, tighter.
Nephis didn't waste time. She turned toward the nearest tree, her gaze cold and impassive. Beside her, an imposing figure had already appeared —Saint, the Stone Saint.
A living shadow. An Echo. A remnant of Sunny... but also, in a way, a creature of darkness. A powerful ally.
Silence reigned for just a second.
And then, they emerged.
Three silhouettes materialized from the blackness. They didn't walk —they were simply there, as if they had always been part of the cursed forest.
The first —an archer. Tall, his body tense, as if perpetually drawing his bow.
The second —a swordsman. His form seemed to leak into the air, as though his essence couldn't maintain a stable shape.
And finally, the dark hunter. Once again before them, motionless... waiting.
All three were demons. Corrupted. Enigmatic. Lethal.
And then, Nephis understood.
She understood why there was nothing left in this forest but ash.
Because everything else... had already been hunted.
It was said that Nightmare Creatures lacked real intelligence.
They were monsters consumed by madness, devoid of reason or purpose. It wasn't even clear if they felt madness... perhaps they were madness itself.
But the three corrupted demons before them were different.
Not because they spoke, nor because they looked human.
But because they didn't fight like savage beasts.
Nephis gracefully dodged a slash aimed straight at her eye, spinning smoothly to counterattack. Her blue blade sliced through the air—into nothing.
Gone again.
It had anticipated her move. Too fast. Too precise.
And then she realized it.
These three demons weren't normal.
Not just because of their absurd strength, but something even more disturbing: they were working together.
They didn't speak. They didn't look at each other. They didn't signal.
Yet every move seemed calculated to complement the other's, as if they shared a common instinct. A shared purpose.
They fought like a single organism.
Fortunately, Saint was with her.
The living shadow born of Sunny was more than just an echo—she was a perfect warrior. Nephis had trained with her for days, sparring in brief duels, learning her rhythm.
Saint didn't need words. She was there, like a mirror of Sunny's will.
And speaking of Sunny...
Fighting beside him was like dancing between light and shadow. Synchronized. Deadly. As if each knew what the other would do before they even moved.
An arrow flew toward her face.
Nephis slashed it midair with inhuman precision. The arrow, made of pure darkness, crumbled into black ash before it touched the ground.
First the archer, she thought. Then everything else will be easier.
As if hearing her thoughts, Sunny appeared on the tree from which the arrow had come. His green jade sword shimmered with a sickly glow. His onyx eyes—deep as an abyss—locked onto the archer.
The archer didn't flinch.
Didn't retreat. Didn't even raise his bow.
He just waited.
And just as Sunny launched toward him like lightning—
—another arrow sliced through the darkness.
It didn't come from the archer.
It came from far off, deep within the gloom. A perfect trajectory, aimed straight for Sunny's throat.
By miracle or reflex, Sunny twisted at the last moment. The arrow didn't kill him.
But it did bury itself in his right shoulder.
A low grunt escaped his lips as he stumbled back, landing beside Nephis and Saint. The arrow still quivered in his flesh, though strangely, there was no blood.
Nephis glanced at him, and he met her eyes with a grimace of frustration.
"Looks like... there's more than just three," he muttered with a crooked smile.
And then they saw it.
In the distance, within the ashen forest, three new figures emerged from the shadows.
Three humanoid shapes, formed from the same abyss, slowly took shape.
Six hunters.
And the forest grew darker.
A new archer, a woman wielding a scythe, and another swordsman had arrived. The forest seemed to respond to their presence—the wind howled stronger, and the black leaves danced wildly, whipped by gusts that howled like trapped souls.
Nephis felt her strength surge. She already knew the reason.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of Sunny's four shadows break away from him and merge with her own silhouette.
She did what needed to be done.
Her silver eyes blazed, and instantly she was engulfed in white flames that burst from her chest like a flower of pain and fury. Though her expression remained blank, inside she was burning. She had long grown used to the punishment of her Flaw... but the fire never hurt any less.
Moments later, Sunny was wrapped in those sacred flames as well. His open wound from the earlier arrow healed instantly with a dry snap and a faint flash. The blood vanished, but his eyes remained just as grim, just as dangerous.
That was when the real battle began.
In a burst of speed, the dark swordsman and the scythe-wielding woman lunged at them like living shadows. The air between them crackled with the tension of the coming clash. Nephis felt one of their gazes—if it could be called that: hollow sockets in a lifeless face. An abyss was staring back at her.
Neither hesitated.
Nephis rushed forward, Sunny right behind her, his shadow trailing him like a loyal ghost. Saint, the onyx-armored knight, marched at their rear like an angel of true darkness.
And when they met, the battle exploded like thunder held back for too long.
As if born for this moment, Nephis and Sunny fought as one. Their movements mirrored and contrasted each other—she, a perfect flame; he, a wraith of shadow. While she struck with divine precision, he flowed through the cracks in their enemies' defenses like smoke through fingers.
Mid-battle, Saint forced her way between the two enemies, driving them apart. Her spear slashed in a wide arc that nearly split the ground. The earth trembled. A ring of darkness erupted around her.
Now facing the scythe-wielding woman together, Nephis and Sunny moved with deadly grace, dodging invisible arrows that kept raining down from somewhere in the trees. Each one whispered death.
The scythe-woman was fast. Too fast. Every swing of her weapon sliced the air like a reaper's blade on a field of souls—and where it passed, the light blinked out for a moment.
Sunny, wielding Sin of Solace, slipped under a sweeping strike with an elegant twist of his body. He ducked just in time, spun, and retaliated with a vertical slash, as clean as a verdict.
The jade blade descended like judgment, slicing through the space where her cheek should have been. The mass of shadow barely dodged—too slow. The edge of the sword grazed her.
Drops of darkness fell like living ink.
They touched the black sand of the forest floor and vanished, as if they had never existed. The creature stepped back in silence, its movements now erratic—as if the strike had thrown off its balance.
Sunny didn't stop.
He veered left, using the cover provided by Saint, who launched spears of shadow from afar. Nephis charged straight at the woman with a silent cry, her blue sword gleaming like a star.
She swung it in a wide arc—a blade of pure light cutting through the dark.
The strike met the scythe head-on. The clash was thunderous, and the impact so powerful it sent both of them flying backward.
And then, Nightmare arrived.
He burst out from the roots of a twisted tree with a neigh that made the earth tremble. His eyes blazed like coals. He barreled toward the dark swordsman, who barely had time to lift his weapon.
A brutal collision. Metal against nightmare.
Ravenous Fiend, seizing the chaos, crawled up the archer's body like a parasite. Arrows pierced through him, but his metal form simply bent and twisted, absorbing them. He laughed.
All around them: chaos.
Light. Shadow. White fire. Steel. All of it collapsing into a perfect storm.