[Prepare for appraisal…]
Sunny found himself suspended in a space between dream and reality — an endless black void illuminated by a myriad of stars. Between those stars, countless strings of silver light were woven into a breathtaking, inconceivably complex net, forming mysterious nexuses and radiant constellations.
It was beautiful.
But Sunny was in no mood to appreciate it.
His mind was racing, working as fast as it could, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Thoughts of Hero — of Auro of the Nine — clawed through his memory.
Did he miss something? Some moment when he might have let his name slip?
No.'No, I wouldn't make such a mistake.'
So then how, exactly, did Auro know his name?
And not just that — what happened to the Mountain King? Did Auro really kill it?
…Somehow, Sunny didn't think so.
Wait.
Auro had said something else to him — something more — just before the end.
"…Go break your own fate, Sunless… just like you broke mine and…"
What?
What was next?
Sunny was sure he had said something else — a few more words — something important. But no matter how hard he tried to remember, they slipped away, dissolving like mist. The memory unraveled, resisting his grasp.
It was as if the words themselves were trying to escape from him.
Each time he tried to focus on them, his head grew dizzy.
That had to mean something.
He was certain that Auro's final, unfinished words contained the secret — a clue to everything.
Why did Auro know his name?
And more importantly… how did he?
Could it be…
Did Auro realize he was not real? That he wasn't flesh and blood, but a construct?A conjuration born of the Spell?
An illusion?
Sunny shivered.
And what did he mean — "… just like you broke mine ,and..."?
What was Auro's fate?
Why did he speak of it as though it were something written, something he could see or know? Could he truly see his own future? Or was he only referring to the task he had been given? A role he believed himself bound to?
So many questions — and not a single answer.
Sunny's thoughts spiraled with growing distress.
But the thing that disturbed him most — more than Auro's name or the mysterious disappearance of the Mountain King — were those final words.
"Go break your own fate, Sunless."
Not a request.Not a hope.
The tone had been different — certain, almost commanding.
As if Auro knew he would.
Which led to an even more unsettling thought:
Did Auro truly know Sunny's fate as well?
Or was it just a poetic echo of their conversation in the cave — that strange dialogue on fate and defiance?
And what exactly happened in that narrow space of time, after Sunny left Auro behind… and before he arrived at the altar?
His head throbbed with confusion.
His first nightmare might be over — at least, that's what the Spell had said — but to Sunny, it felt like the nightmare's mysteries were only just beginning.
He was nowhere close to understanding what had truly happened.
Nowhere close to understanding what it meant.
If anything… it felt as though the real nightmare had only just begun.
Sighing, Sunny finally forced the thoughts from his mind and looked up.
He took in the shimmering threads of silver, the drifting stars, and the black, infinite sky around him.
And waited for what came next.
Somehow, Sunny understood that he was seeing the inner workings of the Nightmare Spell. He couldn't help but think that it resembled the celestial equivalent of a neural network.
'Is this... how the Spell thinks?'
If so… was the Spell alive?
It was a question countless people had been asking for decades. The best answer they had come up with was simple: there was no way to know.
The Spell was neither alive nor dead; neither sentient nor mindless.
It was more of a function than a creature.
But Sunny was in no mood to ponder philosophical questions.
He was eagerly awaiting his boon.
The Spell was still appraising his performance. However, the first reward had nothing to do with that evaluation:
[You have received a Memory: Nobility of harrowing Fate]
'Yes!'
Sunny's heart leapt in elation. He was almost ready to break into a triumphant dance — if only his body wasn't still recovering.
That Memory had belonged to Auro of the Nine, an Awakened Human — which meant the Memory itself was of Awakened rank. Earning it was an outrageous stroke of luck.
There were seven ranks to all things governed by the Spell. These were, in ascending order of power: Dormant, Awakened, Ascended, Transcendent, Supreme, Sacred, and Divine.
(Nightmare Creatures followed a different hierarchy: Dormant, Awakened, Fallen, Corrupted, Great, Cursed, and Unholy.)
From the Spell's perspective, Sunny was a Dormant human.
'Having an Awakened Memory this early… this changes everything.'
Possessing a Memory of a higher rank than one's Soul Core wasn't just rare — it was invaluable. It could tip the odds in his favor when he finally entered the Dream Realm. The power gap between ranks wasn't just significant — it was absolute.
He was tempted to examine the Nobility of harrowing Fate right then, but the Spell was not yet finished.
And now, something shifted.
However, another voice rang out — the same as before:
[You have received a Memory: Puppeteer's Shroud]
'What!'
Sunny's eyes widened in disbelief. He was surprised to receive another Memory. But… who had this one belonged to? How had he even earned it?
Somehow, Sunny felt that this one, too, belonged to the Mountain King.
But that didn't make sense.
He had done nothing to bring about the tyrant's death.
…Or had he?
Sunny wasn't sure anymore. His first Nightmare's list of mysteries was only growing longer — a row of blank checkboxes stretching into the dark, waiting to be filled.
He sighed.
'Gods, I'm sighing a lot these days.'
[Aspirant! Your trial is over.]
[A nameless slave ascended the Black Mountain. He stood at the edge of death, and yet chose to defy it. He severed a thread of fate not meant to be touched — and by doing so, tore loose a knot that bound more than just himself. Ripples from this act will echo far beyond your understanding. You bled on the altar of a dead god and called upon a power no longer awake.]
[You have defeated a dormant beast: Mountain King's Larva.][You have defeated three dormant humans, names unknown.][You have defeated an awakened human: Auro of the Nine.][You have defeated an awakened tyrant: Mountain King.]
[You have received the Shadow God's blessing.]
[You have achieved the impossible.]
[Final appraisal: Absolutely Enchanting. Your treachery and defiance truly knows no bounds.]
That final part was not really necessary, as far as Sunny was concerned, but
he was still pretty satisfied with the praise from the Spell. He felt like his
chances of evolving his Aspect to an Awakened, or even Ascended one were
pretty high.
His overall power was still dependent on the rank of his soul core, which
would remain dormant until much later, but the rank of the Aspect itself
would do wonders for his overall potential.
[Dreamer Sunless, receive your boon!]
He was an Aspirant no more. Sunny grinned.
[You have been bestowed a True Name: Lost from Light.]
His jaw dropped. A true name! He had received a true name! Never in his
wildest dreams did Sunny dream of becoming one of the chosen few to
accomplish such feat — and in his very first Nightmare to boot! Not even
all of the Saints could boast of having one. He was an elite now, a bonafide
cream of the crop! He was going to be rich!
But the rewards kept coming.
[Your Aspect is ready to evolve. Evolve Aspect?]
'What kind of a question is that?!'
Sunny crossed his fingers and said "yes".
[Dormant Aspect Temple Slave is evolving…]
[New Aspect acquired.]
[Aspect Rank: Divine.]
Sunny fell over.
[Aspect Name: Shadow Slave.]
'Divine… it's Divine.'
Sunny was standing on his knees, stupefied. The shock was so great that for
a second there he lost all control over his limbs and fell.
'It said "divine"... right?'
He raised a trembling hand and rubbed his eyes, making sure that he was
awake. Or rather conscious, since, technically, he was still sleeping in the
underground vault of the police station.
Confused by all this terminology, Sunny silently summoned the runes and
found the lines describing his aspect.
____________________________________________________________
Aspect: [Shadow Slave].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Description: [You are a miraculous shadow left behind by a dead
god. As a divine shadow, you possess plenty of strange and wondrous
powers. However, your existence is empty and lonesome; you mourn the
passing of your former master and long to find a new one.]
Innate Ability: [Shadow Bond].
Ability Description: [Find a worthy master and let them know your True
Name. Once they recite it out loud, you will be bound to their will, unable
to disobey any command. It is improper for a shadow, let alone a divine
one, to walk around without a master.]
_______________________________________________________________
That was… a lot to digest.
First of all, Sunny felt his heart beating faster. He heard it right! All the
suffering and horror he had experienced in the First Nightmare paid off in
the end. A divine Aspect, he had received a divine Aspect! Anything above
Awakened was rare and immensely valuable!
People with Ascended Aspects were rare enough to be fought over by
various factions. The factions themselves were built around singular
powerhouses with Transcendent or Supreme Aspects. And he had never,
ever heard of anyone acquiring a Divine one. Never!
Anything with the "divine" prefix was so hard to find that it mostly lived in
the realm of myths and legends. After all, the human race had not reached
that high yet; it was only slightly more than a decade since humans
managed to finally conquer the Third Nightmare and receive the ability to
evolve their cores to Transcendent rank.
As Transcendents — or Saints, as they were called in the real world —
powerful Awakened ruled over the Dream Realm, but even they did not
dare to face Nightmare Creatures of higher ranks. Subsequently, there were
not a lot of Memories and Echoes of Supreme rank around, let alone
Sacred… or Divine. The same went for Aspects.
And yet Sunny just got one!
He grinned, driven half-mad by joy and arrogance. However, his jubilation
was a little muddied. After all, there was that weird innate ability. Of
course, he had no intention of becoming someone's magical slave, with no
free will of his own. To hell with that!
But it wasn't that bad. All he had to do to avoid that fate was to conceal his
True Name. No one except for him could see his status. That meant that
Sunny just had to keep his mouth shut, and no one will know that he even
had one.
It meant giving up on all the benefits that someone who was bestowed a
True Name after the First Nightmare was entitled to, but it all paled in
comparison with a Divine Aspect.
'Not a problem,' Sunny thought with a smirk.
If the Spell had the ability to laugh, it would surely do so after hearing his
thoughts. However, it didn't. Instead, it began to speak again: [The First
Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers…]
Sunny felt something waking up inside of him. With a startled cry, he
clutched his chest and stared into the darkness, trying to understand what
was happening. The feeling was not painful or unpleasant, yet it was like
nothing he had ever experienced. It was as though his soul was being
shaken awake, infused with strange new energy.
However, that energy did not come from some outside source. Rather, it
was coming from within, as though it had always been there, sleeping.
The energy filled every fiber of his being. Sunny felt his emotions
becoming clearer and sharper. Then, his body began to change, too. He felt
as though a miniature star was burning in the center of his chest: waves of
heat were radiating from it, slowly reaching his stomach and shoulders, then
his arms and legs, then his hands and feet.
Under that heat, his bones, muscles, organs and blood vessels were being
rebuilt and revitalized. Sunny felt like he was being reborn. He was
becoming stronger, faster, healthier.
It was euphoric.
With each second, his transformation was becoming more profound. New
confidence settled in Sunny's heart. He was not a weak, frail street kid
anymore. He was not as vulnerable against anyone who would wish to bully
him as he was in the past.
With his powers awakened and his will tempered by the horrors of the First
Nightmare, he was now someone you would not want to cross.
After some time had passed, the star burning in his chest finally cooled
down. The heat was replaced with a soothing coldness. That coldness
washed over Sunny's body, taking away all the aches and discomforts that
had been accumulated there over the years. Then it moved up, reaching his
brain and, finally, his eyes.
His vision strangely doubled.
He could still see the void populated by an endless pattern of stars. But he
could also see something different.
A silent, calm dark sea illuminated by a lonely black sun.
From his previous knowledge, Sunny knew that this was his so-called Sea
of Soul. But he also knew that it was supposed to look quite different.
For starters, it was supposed to be much more lively. The star hanging
above — the visual representation of his soul core — was supposed to be
burning with bright light, filling the Soul Sea with a warm, blinding
shining.
However, Sunny's soul was dark and lightless.
'That's strange.'
He took a look at the black sun. At a closer examination, it actually turned
out to be transparent. It's just that with no other major source of light
around, the star had appeared to be as dark as its surroundings.
Also, no one wass supposed to be here except for him. It was his soul, after
all! But Sunny had a nagging feeling that somewhere just beyond the
periphery of his vision, hidden in the darkness, shapeless forms were
constantly moving. No matter how he turned his head, he couldn't catch a
clear glimpse of them. And yet the feeling would not go away.
Not wishing to waste any more time on this right now, Sunny turned back to
the black sun and finally spotted two spheres of light orbiting around it, as
though caught in the soul core's gravity well. A subtle smile appeared on his
face.
These were his Memories: Silver Bell and Pupetter's Shroud. Later, there
would be dozens of such spheres here. If he was lucky, he would even
acquire an Echo or two!
The Spell's voice suddenly pulled him out of the Sea of Soul.
[Awakening Aspect Ability…]
'This is it. The moment of truth,' Sunny thought.
Divine Aspect or not, his immediate future still depended on the first Aspect
Ability he would receive. His role in the Dream Realm would be based on
its characteristics. If it was a combat ability, he would be most useful on the
frontlines of the bloody battles against the Nightmare Creatures. If it was
tied to sorcery, he would likely become a powerful, but fragile ranged
fighter.
If it was something having to do with utility, he would be a vitally
important part of the behind-the-scenes workings of the Dream Realm.
Utility Abilities were also extremely valued in the real world, where
Awakened performed many tasks that kept it going.
If he was lucky, he could even become a healer. Healers were very rare, and
as such, sought-after specialists.
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Shadow Control.]
Sunny hurriedly summoned the runes. He wanted to go to the description of
his new ability right away, but then decided to give his overall information
a look first.
______________________________________________________________
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Lost from Light.
Rank: Dreamer.
Shadow Core: Dormant.
Shadow Fragments: [12/1000].
___________________________________________________________
'What? What is that?'
Where the rank of his soul core was supposed to be written, a mysterious
"Shadow Core" appeared instead. Sunny looked at it, blinking. He had
never heard of anyone having a different kind of core before. Was he that
unique?
This enigmatic shadow core would certainly explain why his Sea of Soul
looked so strange. And also… He moved his eyes down, noticing the
"Shadow Fragments" counter. Usually, there was supposed to be an
indicator of the number of soul shards consumed. However, it was nowhere
to be seen.
'Do I… do I actually have a completely different progression path than all
Awakened?'
The idea was as exciting as it was frightening. Not having to fight for
resources with anybody else was an incredible advantage. Most of the
human society in the Dream Realm was built around the acquisition of soul
shards. If he had no need to gather them to evolve… not only would he be
able to become more powerful with incredible speed, he would also be
completely self-sufficient.
On the other hand, he had no idea how to acquire these shadow fragments.
However, he had gotten twelve of them somehow already: so whatever it
was that he had to do, he had already done it in the First Nightmare.
'I'll have to explore this carefully.'
Satisfied with this decision, Sunny continued to study the runes.
______________________________________________________________
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Nobility of Harrowing Fate].
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Fated], [Mark of Divinity], [Child of Shadows], [Sense of the Unseen],[???????].
Aspect: [Shadow Slave].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Abilities: [Shadow Control]
.
Aspect Ability Description: [Your shadow is more independent than most. It
is an invaluable helper.]
_____________________________________________________________
'What is that supposed to mean?'
Sunny held his breath and began to read the description again, but at that
moment, a new set of runes appeared just below it. Simultaneously, the
Spell's voice resounded in the black void.
[All power has a price.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
[Your Flaw is: …]
Sunny read the runes, and his eyes widened in horror.
'Oh, no. No, no, no...'
He closed his eyes, then opened them again, hoping that the runes would
disappear.
'Please, be gone! Please!'
But the runes were still there, shining slightly, as though mocking him.
Flaw: [Clear Conscience].
Flaw Description: [You cannot lie.]
Sunny stared at these three simple words, feeling like there was a
bottomless abyss opening right beneath his feet. The Spell, which was
usually frivolous with its descriptions, decided to be straight and on point
this time. There were only three words. They left him no room to maneuver.
'Can't lie. I can't lie? Me? How am I supposed to live if I can't lie?!'
Sunny's very survival was predicated on his ability to deceive and outsmart
other people. Even the Spell itself congratulated him on his treachery!
Without the ability to lie, he wouldn't be able to achieve anything.
Not to mention…
His heart suddenly felt as though it was about to stop.
If he could only tell the truth, how was he supposed to hide his True Name?
Wouldn't anyone be able to turn him into an obedient slave by simply
asking a couple of innocent questions?
"Sh…"
Sunny was about to scream and curse, but at that moment, the Spell spoke
again.
[Wake up, Lost from Light!]
The black void spun and disappeared