Revenge of the Treacherous Shadow

"Can I use my memory to burrow through the sand like that worm? I've just been using it as a means to get the sand out of my eyes, and to not feel the heat. 

[Desert spawn]:You move through the desert as if you were born from it.

After analyzing his memory, Sunless decided to test his theory. Equipping the memory, Sunless jumped into the ground, and instead of hitting it and having a mouthful of sand, he instead sank through it. 

"Incredible!"p

Sunless, who was currently burrowing through the sand, decided that now was the time to execute his plan. 

Slowly but surely, he went underground. Inching his way under the nightmare creatures. At first he was extremely scared, fearing that everything could go wrong, until...

Nothing went wrong, and with that, Sunless grew complacent. He started speeding up, not truly paying attention to his surroundings.

"ROAR"

"Rumble"

The beasts had somehow smelled him, every single one of them started stomping on the ground, creating an earthquake that hit Sunless head on.

"Damnation, just when I thought some thing could go right."

As blood spilled from Sunless's mouth, the animals continued to stomp on the ground Sunless knew he had to do something or else he would die here. 

And so Sunless started tunnelling through the sand, going as fast as he could, he tried to reach the surface, but that was impossible. The earthquakes caused by their stomping deterred him from rising up. 

Sunless decided on another course of action. To descend, although it was all but guaranteed that he would probably meet a terrifying creature, that was the plan. Sunless knew that his [fated] attribute would never let him rest, so using his advantage, he descended further and further down, until-

"Jackpot."

Infront of Sunless was a massive scorpion, it was sort of beautiful, its exoskeleton adorned with vivid colors, rapidly shifting from black to red, to purple, and green. Its most breathtaking feature was its tail, it was bigger than the rest of its body, it curled all around the body of the scorpion, and at the end of it, there was a stinger. The stinger, was pitch black, as a liquid dripped down from the stinger and touched the floor, the floor would burn, as the corrosive venom from the stinger burned it.

Since the creature seemed to be in a rest of sorts Sunless decided to summon saint, and make her attack the monster briefly before sending her back to his soul sea.

"Okay saint, go and attack him."

Nodding curtly the austere shadow approached the scorpion, and then, instantaneously, he heard the spell before he had even registered what had happened.

[Your shadow, Marble Saint has been destroyed]

The scorpions tail had lashed out, hitting Saint in the head before she could even understand what happened, and with the corrosive venom of the scorpion, she stood no chance. 

"No! My Shadow!"

Sunless screamed out. Although she was just a shadow, to Sunless she was so much more, she trained with him, she fought for him, and now she died for him. This caused Sunless to feel immense pain, the pain of losing a companion.

Immediately after the Marble Saint was killed, the scorpions eyes locked onto Sunless. 

"Damnation! This isn't the time to mourn, I need to escape!"

With that thought Sunless started to run upwards with the scorpion following closely behind him. 

"RUMBLE"

As Sunny continued to rise to the surface, the nightmare creatures on the surface started to stomp their feet again. This time however, there was another thing with Sunless, the scorpion. The scorpion didn't appreciate being stomped on. So with that, it rose to the surface, forgetting about Sunless, and started to attack all of the creatures at once, giving Sunless a window of opportunity.

"I will be back wretched scorpion, and when I come back, you will regret what you've done."

Looking back at the chaos of the nightmare creatures, Sunny then looked at the gate. 

"Second nightmare, here I come."

Walking through the gate, Sunless then heard the spell say:

[Prepare for your trial]

[1,000,000,000 brave ones, prepare for your trial]

Sunless' eyes widened

|||

The massive tree looked down at Nephis and Cassie.

"You two humans, what do you know about the nightmare spell."

The creature asked, suddenly retracting all the pressure that had been placed upon them, and returning his voice to a normal level.

"The nightmare spell is a tool created for humans to awaken, and become stronger."

Cassie replied, this time, her voice was less shaky, due to the creature retracting its pressure. 

"HAHAHA, so the gods lost in the end it seems. You humans have done me a great favor, I can now rest in peace with this knowledge, and so because of that, I decided to give you a gift, a technique that was previously lost by the humans of the past. It's called the simple domain."

The creatures voice boomed. Both Nephis and Cassie were equal parts confused and apprehensive. Not knowing what the creature meant by the simple domain, they would still listen.

"For any creature in existence, to go up the path of ascension, or descend the path of profanity, they all need to learn one important thing, and that thing is to impose your will upon the world."

Nephis's eyes would widen. 

"That sounds exactly like the sovereigns! What does he intend to teach us? Perhaps how to become sovereigns?"

"The simple domain is the art of imposing your will onto the world, without using your source element. In other words, to put naught but your pure will on the world. This could have many uses. And although it is normally taught to saints, anybody can use it, even dormant beings. However, the farther away you are from sovereignty, the harder it is to learn, or master."

Nephis and Cassie would both look at each other with surprise written all over their face. This power that this being was offering to teach them was incredible! Nephis personally knew how powerful a domain was, so to just have a simple domain would be incredible. 

Looking at Cassie, the tree continued to say 

"If you become proficient enough with the simple domain, you can then force the world to see in your place. Although it will be quite different from seeing, I'm sure it will be beneficial for you."

Immediately, Cassie without thinking, blurted out

"Please teach me! I need to learn how!"

"Of course I'll teach you, the first thing you have to do to learn the domain is to have conviction. Have a reason for living. You need to have a true understand of your own character and from there, once you are able to do that, the simple domain will be far to easy. All you have to do is will your will into existence."

Upon hearing the profound words of the monster, Nephis then asked, "can we stay here for a while to learn?"

She knew that if they stayed, then any monster that dared to appear before an unholy titan would be slaughtered instantly, allowing Nephis and Cassie to rest for a bit. However, it seemed as if the titan had clearly seen through her plan to use him as he would chuckle. 

"No, You can't stay with me because I'm going to go die"

"What! Why?"

Nephis asked, bewildered as to why such a creature would want to die.

"The gods are dead, that's all that I've been waiting for, in these thousands of years. I'm tired, I need to rest."

With that, the creature disappeared into the green foliage, as Nephis would look at Cassie and say, I guess we have to challenge the nightmare. Because there is no way we can survive in this accursed forest alone.

"I agree." Cassie responded, albeit a bit aloofly, as if she wasn't really there. But Nephis knew what she was thinking of. Taking her hand, she would lead Cassie to the gate. 

"Are you ready"

"I was born ready"

[awakened, prepare for your second nightmare!]

[Two brave ones! Welcome to the nightmare]

|||

The massive ant stared down at them, for a second it seemed as if the entire world stopped, and then the ant spoke.

"Three little breasts have entered my domain, how wonderful! What business, pray tell, do you have with me?"

Her voice reminded Kai of Ki Song, the way that it demanded your entire focus, how it sent shivers down your spine. However the difference was that while Ki Song's voice sounded beautiful, the ants voice sounded like someone was shoving glass into your ear, making Kai wince. He had never heard anything like it. It was terrible.

"We didn't want to disturb you." Seishan said, her voice, was filled with fear and her tone was respectful. This made sense to Kai because he knew that any nightmare creature that could speak, was extremely dangerous. 

"All we want is safe passage throughout these mountains to accomplish a goal."

"And what goal is that?"

"We want to challenge a nightmare gate, please allow us safe passage through your domain."

Although Kai didn't know what a domain was, he just assumed that it was a word describing her territory. 

"A nightmare gate you say, Well then, I have one perfect for you. It's just here so you don't have to strain yourself with the journey." 

Kai and Efffie looked at Seishan. Their eyes conveying a silent message: "what do we do!"

"My lady, if I may, I believe that the gate that we have cho-"

"Please I insist." 

And with that all conversation was over, her voice, turned sickly sweet, emanating a dangerous quality that scared all of the cohort.

Leading them further down the tunnel, the song cohort could only follow, with fear in their hearts as they would then arrive at a massive clearing. all around the clearing there were eggs, massive eggs, the size of humans. Each of them wriggling and writhing, making disgusting slimy sounds. 

In the middle of it all was a nightmare gate. Turning around to face the cohort, the ant queen proclaimed

"Here is the nightmare gate!"

The cohort could only begrudgingly walk forwards, accepting their fate.

[Awakened, prepare for your second nightmare!]

[Three brave ones, welcome to the nightmare!