Shortly after, still feeling dazed, Sunny found himself standing alone on the walls of the Jade Palace. Gazing at the vast expanse of ashen snow below, he was lost in thought, a distant expression frozen on his face.

He wanted to talk to Cassie more, but forcing the memories of his original life to surface had taken a toll on her. She had yet to recover from receiving a glancing blow from a Spirit of the War Empire, after all — so, shortly after they were reunited, the attendants rushed him out of her chambers. It seemed that the Jade Queen was quite serious about letting the Oracle of Thetis recuperate in peace.

Sunny could not really blame her, because Cassie had looked pale as a ghost after pulling her blindfold up, as if she were on the verge of fainting.

Her empty eye socket had not bled this time, at least.

Actually, was it still empty? The Jade Queen mentioned something about her other eye... Sunny sighed.

He wondered about what Cassie had endured in the Fifth Nightmare. What had she been up to all these years? Outwardly, she looked the same. But there was hardly anyone in the world who knew Cassie better that Sunny did... then Sunny had. So, he could tell that she had been changed by the Nightmare, as well.

Still. She seemed to have gone through the Unmaking without losing herself, at least — or had regained her sense of self afterward. That was why she was able to summon the other challengers now and help them remember who they were, as well.

‘No one can survive in the Dream Realm alone.'

Sunny smiled faintly.

The advice Jet had given his sixteen-year-old self shortly after the First Nightmare still held true, even now that he was an ageless demigod trapped in the depths of the Fifth. He would have remained here forever without knowing who he was, probably, if not for Cassie's help.

Having someone to watch your back was a nice thing.

It was vital, even.

Sunny's smile dimmed, and a heavy sigh escaped from his lips.

Even though his mind had not settled yet, and he was not quite sure what kind of being the new Sunny was, he knew his own identity now. However, that alone did not mean that the Nightmare was conquered. In fact, nothing except Sunny himself had changed since before he met Cassie.

She probably knew more about the nature of this Nightmare and the conflict they had to resolve, so he would learn it in due time. For now, all he could do was wait — which was a good thing, since Sunny needed time to settle his mind.

‘The Fifth Nightmare...'

The Fifth Nightmare was as insidious and perilous as the Dreamspawn had insinuated. In fact, it was so much worse than anything Sunny could have expected. The Unmaking itself was already fearsome enough. What followed, however, was the true trial — a trial that lasted countless years, completely indifferent to the incredible vastness of time.

The length of the Unmaking itself could not be measured, since it had happened within Sunny's mind. For all he knew, all the countless lives he had endured could have been contained within the bounds of a single moment. The second part of the Nightmare, though, had begun at the dawn of time — for him, at least.

The Age of Gods, the Age of Heroes, and now the Age of Humans... how many years had it been?

For a moment, Sunny imagined what the real world would have looked like if the same number of years had passed outside the Seed of Nightmare. The waking world would have been entirely gone, consumed by the Dream Realm; humanity would have been wiped out, and everyone he knew would be long dead.

But no, that was highly unlikely. Sending someone into a Nightmare that lasted thousands of years went against the purpose of the Spell. Its goal was to raise new gods while the Forgotten One slumbered, after all — to help Awakened walk the Path of Ascension swifter than they would have been able otherwise.

The Spell provided Awakened with tools to climb Ranks. Apotheosis was quite a special obstacle, though — it was a step far more profound than achieving Transcendence or attaining Supremacy. What one needed most to attempt Apotheosis was time. It was a wealth of experience that allowed one to leave their human perspective behind and develop the mindset of a god. So, that was what the Spell provided in the Fifth Nightmare — it cheated reality by giving those who challenged the Nightmare time. The Unmaking alone was a compressed eternity shot forcefully into the challenger's mind and spirit.

And if they managed to survive that, the true trial awaited.

The Spell was most likely twisting time to stretch its fabric within the Nightmare, as well. So... Sunny was not sure how many years had actually passed in the real world. Smile of Heaven had already been missing for three decades before Sunny, Nephis, Cassie, and Mordret challenged the Nightmare. However, she seemed to have entered the second part of the trial at a later date than they had. There was no making sense of the timelines, so Sunny was not even going to try.

He simply chose to believe that they would return before the world ended.

If they managed to survive the Nightmare, of course.

'Wait...'

His expression changed subtly.

His face gradually paled, and his eyes widened.

‘Smile of Heaven?!'

Raising both hands, Sunny clutched his hair. That was right! Snuggle! He had met Snuggle, Smile of Heaven, in the Nightmare! She was alive.

Not only that, but...

Sunny let out a quiet groan.

“D—damnation."

She was basically his mother-in-law! Trembling, Sunny hurriedly tried to remember everything he had said and done in front of Snuggle.

The more he remembered, the uglier his expression grew.

"Oh, no..."

A stifled groan escaped from his mouth.

"Oh, no!"

‘I'm dead. I am so dead.'

Well, he had been dead for quite some time, so perhaps he would survive this somehow, as well.

Smile of Heaven was still alive, at least. The Mad Prince had confirmed it — so, not everything was lost. Sunny still had a chance to make amends.

Eventually, he sighed and straightened, his hands falling to rest on the parapet.

‘But what now?’

Cassie was here, in the Jade Palace. So was Mordret, even if Sunny had not met him yet.

And Nephis...

Nephis was coming as well.

It didn't take a lot to figure out who and what she had become in this Nightmare.

‘White Abyss, the First Ruler.'

Sunny should have known. It seemed that Nephis had replaced Kanakht as the ruler of the First Kingdom in this version of history — that indeed sounded like something the Queen of Humanity would do. She ruled the First Kingdom for quite some time, and then... what happened then?

Unlike in the real world, the First Kingdom had not collapsed because its ruler went mad and attempted to consume all his subjects to become a god — therefore, the Demon of Repose did not have to get involved. Instead, it seemed like Nephis simply abandoned her throne, and her kingdom tore itself apart all on its own. Sunny sighed, a dark expression settling on his face.

Even if Nephis had taken measures to weaken her Domain before entering the Fifth Nightmare, there were still countless people in the waking world who worshiped her. So, her Unmaking would have been just as crushing as Sunny's own — perhaps not in its nature, since she would not have experienced endless Corruption, but definitely due to its scope.

Which would have been, ironically enough, all the more difficult to conquer for someone who was immune to Corruption, but struggled with being human.

She must have been just as lost and shell-shocked as Sunny had been.

And what had Sunny done?

He changed in the face, feeling a strong feeling of nausea overwhelm him.

Sunny... had massacred an entire tribe of people.

‘Oh, gods.'

He leaned on the parapet, feeling sick to his stomach.

...But also not as sick as he should have felt.

A bitter smile twisted Sunny’s lips.

‘I am not who I used to be, after all.’

Sunny — the old Sunny — would have been utterly disgusted by what he had done. He would have been crushed and devastated, unable to cope with the glaring hypocrisy and horror of his deeds.

But now... he was revolted and regretful, sure. He did not like it one bit. But he was not that shaken by the truth, either. He wouldn't lose any sleep because of it, at least.

Because Shadow still dwelled within him — was him.

The burden of countless lives he had experienced did not disappear. It was still there, shaping him, coloring his perception. Making him more than a human... but less than a human, too.

He was looking at the world through the prism of eternity, after all.

Sunny felt like himself, but he also felt that many things about him were... muted. His heart was like a stone whose sharp edges had been smoothed by the passage of countless years. Having experienced an endless ocean of emotions, nothing moved him strongly anymore — or at least as strongly as it had, and was supposed to. Even the tumultuous events of his original life did not feel as sharp and biting anymore. Some of them just seemed... childish. Others remained poignant, but had lost their edge.

If he had to describe it, all he would be able to say was that his original life seemed like...

Like a distant dream.

A dream that he had dreamt once, and was dreaming still.

‘Isn't that... exactly what Noctis told me once, in the Second Nightmare?’

That was how Noctis — not the inexperienced youth Sunny met in the Fifth Nightmare, but the mad immortal he had met in the shattered Kingdom of Hope — described what he felt after witnessing the ruins of the temple where he had grown up. Sunny stared into the distance for a while, then sighed.

‘I wonder how Noctis is doing.'

Had he listened to Sunny's advice and refused Sun God's offer?

Or was he there once again, enduring immortality and madness to keep Hope chained?

Sunny did not know... but he hoped that Noctis was dead.

That Noctis had died countless years ago, having lived a short, but beautiful life as a hero — just as he had wanted to.

As Sunny thought that, he heard soft footsteps behind him and turned around. He stared at the approaching man for a short while, then exhaled slowly.

“Funny meeting you here."

Mordret — the man who had been Mordret once, at least — smiled faintly.

"Is it?"

He walked up to Sunny and leaned on the parapet near him.

“It's good to see you as well, Sunless."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.