[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell!
Prepare for your First Trial…]
Sunny dreamed of a mountain.
Lonesome, empty, it stood uncontested between the night sky. The moon bathed its slopes in pale light.
Then, time began to move backward, snowflakes rising to the clouds, bones turning to flesh, slaves appearing in chains.
Sunless was one of those slaves, being dragged in chains together with hundreds of others, all of them walking with heavy shackles that burdened their bloodied wrists.
The slavers escorted the slaves, many with anger, disgust… Some stared at Sunless with hatred, like he had done something against their very being.
It was cold, very cold, snow touched his skin, the comfort of Ravenheart was long gone. Trees stood around them.
Sunless analyzed his surroundings.
'First: check my runes.
Second: find out my objective to finish this nightmare.'
Sunless summons his runes to figure out his aspect and attributes.
-
Name: Sunless.
Rank: Aspirant.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Memories: —
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Fated], [Ember of Divinity], [Child of Shadows], [The Blood]
Aspect: [Temple Slave].
Aspect Description: [Slave is a useless wretch with no skills or abilities worth a mention. A temple slave is just the same, except much rarer.]
-
Sunless was disappointed, his aspect was useless. He looked at his attributes.
[Fated]: "The strings of fate wrap tightly around you. Unlikely events, both good and bad, are drawn by your presence. There are those who are blessed, and there are those who are cursed… but rarely both."]
'Okay, it can be good or bad, double edge blade, I would rather not have this, but it's not the end of the world.'
[Ember of Divinity]: "Deep within your soul, an ember of divinity shines, almost ready to erupt into a radiant flame."]
[The Blood]: "You have inherited the lineage of Beast God."
'Makes sense, mother made sure I inherited the lineage of Beast God.'
All his sisters had these attributes when they entered their nightmare, regardless of who their vessels were. Each sister inherited a different part, it seems he got the same as Seishan. But what interested him…
[Child of Shadows]: "Shadows recognize you as one of their own."]
It was an attribute from his vessel which means, based on that and the marks on his body, that this "temple slave" follows Shadow God… Maybe even if he didn't have Beast God's lineage he would still bear [Mark of Divinity].
'I wonder… What will happen in my appraisal?'
Sunless sighed.
'Nothing tangible, but I can manage.'
With that done, he began to think what to do.
'If I compare it to my sister's nightmares, I need to escape, either that or kill them all.'
He saw as night approached and made his decision.
'As soon as they…"
When night came, the guards started to pay more attention to their surroundings than the slaves. It was easy for Sunless to escape unnoticed, even the slaves next to him did not notice.
He got rid of the shackles by dislocating his fingers and blended into the night, hiding from the guards… But not escaping.
Soon enough, he got close to a guard that was distant from the rest…
The guard had light armor, had a sword in the scaraboard and a knife next to it.
Sunless quickly and quietly stole the knife, the man turned around only to be met with the blade in his eye.
The Spell announced.
[You have slain a Dormant Human]
'First down… who's next?'
The heir of Song was ready to kill the small army all on his own, but something caught his eye as he was leaving.
A small larva, it was crawling towards the corpse of the guard, as soon as it got in, the body started convulsing and moving.
Immediately understanding what was going on, he jumped at the corpse, using the sword he pillaged from the guard.
The corpse got up and tried to kill the boy, but Sunless's sword pierced before it could. The corpse stopped moving, dying before it could do anything.
The Spell announced.
[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Mountain King's Larva]
Sunless eyes sharpened.
'Larva? A thrall? Does that mean…'
An Awakened Tyrant… In his First Nightmare.
'Well, great…'
—-----
Sunless was tired.
After about three hours, he was able to kill some other guards and many more Larva, the Tyrant was using them as scouts, probably to measure the soldiers numbers, he was stalling that process, but not stopping it.
With his attribute of [Child of Shadows], he could locate the guards that were alone and deal with them quietly, he discovered that he could also see in the dark, which meant the Larva couldn't hide from him.
It's not that Sunless wanted to save the slaves, much less the slavers, from the Mountain King, quite the contrary, he wanted to stall the Tyrant to make sure he was ready for it.
In fact, he had already decided that he would use all of them as a distraction for the Mountain King, they were just phantoms made by the Spell, not real people. He just needed time to make a plan to deal with it.
'Agh… What am I doing?
Dealing with an Awakened Tyrant?''
He had already prepared the trap, one that would make him not even need to fight.
'Mother is right, the moment I try to fight, I will already lose.
I have to think in other ways.'
And he did just that.
After he had killed the first Larva, he headed down the mountain to find his new enemy, and he did.
It has a large, horrid abomination that had multiple arms and jagged sharp teeth. Sharp claws, like blades. Fur in the whole body.
But what Sunless noticed was the creature was blind, it moved by using its arms as tentacles to find itself.
He had an idea.
Sunless was under a tree beneath a cliff where the slaves and slavers.
Looking at his new memory after he had killed one of the guards.
[Memory: Silver Bell.]
Description: [A small memento of a long-lost home. Its clear ringing can be heard for miles.]
'Well, it changes my plans a bit, but it's still the same. It's actually better.'
Then, he heard a roar, together with screams and sounds of battle.
'It' s time.'
He got up and waited a while, he could hear all the destruction and death.
Even with the mentality that they were just phantoms… It affected him more than he wanted to admit.
But it needed to happen, the Tyrant needed to have its bloodlust amplified so his plan could work.
After a few minutes he heard the Mountain King close, Sunless used the [Silver Bell], using the ringing to bring it close…
And making it fall off the cliff.
With the Mountain King being blind and in the middle of a battle where it was devouring hundreds of people, it could easily be fooled by a simple trick.
The creature fell head first, it fell right on Sunless trap. Various weapons and sharp trees were beneath the cliff where the Tyrant fell. And with gravity being a factor…
The monster was hurt, badly.
A smile appeared on Sunless' face.
'Now, just need to…'
He took a step back.
'Wait, why didn't the spell…'
Mountain King began to move, it quickly went to attack him, even if it was battered, bruised, bleeding, it didn't matter, it was still fast. It almost hit the Song's heir, but he rolled as fast as the creature attacked.
'Damn it! I failed…'
Sunless was dodging the tentacles the best he could, he was still an Aspirant, and his opponent was an Awakened Tyrant, it was leagues above him.
Trying to remain calm, he remembered all the fights he had against nightmare creatures, how he needed to adapt and find a weak spot. And that was where it was wounded or his eyes, all on its head.
He used his stolen blade to parry one of the strikes and advanced to hit the blind eyes of the creature. He needed to kill it now, if it got up, he was dead.
He ran as fast as he could, put his sword back, ready to pierce the abomination's eye…
But he was already on the ground.
The Mountain King waited for the human to get close and used three of his arms to hit him, making sure he couldn't escape, and he didn't.
Sunless was on the ground, everything hurt, his bones were screaming, something was bleeding.
The Tyrant got up, his massive figure creating a shadow that covered Sunless, it slowly approached him.
He was going to die… there was nothing he could do…
'I am going to die…'
...…
(I can help you, help her.)
Sunless opened his eyes.
(What little brother? Can't take a hit?)
(By the Gods, stop, you look like children!)
He began to move.
(You weren't paying attention.)
(You're welcome Sunny…)
He grabbed his sword.
(Hey future dead people!)
(Don't die.)
'No… Not yet.'
He got up.
(Come on… Didn't you say you were going to beat me?)
'I still need to find you…'
(Come back to us…)
'I made a promise'
He calmed down.
The Mountain King got confused, it lost the scent of its prey, it moved the tentacles hands around, hearing for something.
Sunless breathed, and started to walk, no sound was heard, nothing touched the hands of the monster…
It was as if the human had become shadows…
But the weak slave was still approaching.
The mundane human was approaching with a mundane sword.
Sunless slashed the tendons of one of its legs. They had already been wounded.
It fell, desperate to find the human, it got scared, a mere insect was scaring the great Mountain King…
Sunless was already close to his mouth.
There was a lance that pierced his neck, it was because of the fall.
He grabbed the lance, and pushed to the side, then pierced the sword right next to it.
The beast screamed in pain, roaring and spasming, trying to get rid of the pest, but the heir of Song was holding tight onto the lance and sword.
He placed his feet in the furred skin of the monster and sliced its neck.
The sword tore through the inside of the creature, much weaker than the outer skin.
The Awakened Tyrant felt its entire neck being opened in two…
It fell, dead, on the ground.
[You have slain an Awakened Tyrant, Mountain King.]
[You have received a Memory: Puppeteer's Shroud.
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Type: Armor.
Memory Tier: V
Memory Description: [A worm of doubt once found its way into a righteous king's heart. With time, the king was devoured from inside and became its puppet. A lifetime later, the Puppeteer Worm escaped from the king's dead body, leaving behind a cacoon of black silk. No one knows where it went; however, once people dared to approach the silent castle, they found the silk among the mountains of gnawed bones and fashioned it into an armor.]
Sunless barely looked at the description, he just looked at the type and immediately summoned the Memory onto his body.
The soft grey and black fabric wrapped around his skin
'I won't die, not now…'
He looked at the horizon.
"Not ever."