They ascended the stone steps and entered the forest. Neph's flame drowned a wide circle around them in bright light, but beyond it, darkness reigned... naturally, Sunny’s eyes could pierce through it, and his shadow sense had already enveloped the entire island.
Because of that, he could already tell that there were no Nightmare Creatures here anymore. The soulless Nightmare Butterfly was gone. The Harvester — a nebulous horror that had dwelled in the sky above the island — was gone, as well. So was the grotesque leopard that had stalked the forest, and all the rest of them.
Only old bones remained.
The forest itself was ravaged and largely destroyed, innumerable trees shattered or toppled by some awful force. The Bone Graveyard had been washed away by the waves. The carnivorous lake stood empty, and the tunnels dug deep under the surface had collapsed.
As for Aletheia's Tower itself...
As Sunny and Nephis crested the hill, he froze for a moment.
The tower was there, right in front of them. What was left of it, at least.
It had been almost entirely destroyed, turning into a forlorn ruin. All the upper floors were gone, and the lower ones were buried under the rubble. The very top of the tower seemed to have been thrown into the air and rolled to the base of the hill, then far into the forest, shattering in the process. From the look of how the stone debris fell... someone had dealt the tower a terrible blow, obliterating it completely.
Sunny exhaled slowly.
"What the hell happened here?"
He did not mean Aletheia's Island. He meant the Tomb of Ariel... the Great River.
Sunny did not know what the first loop of his Third Nightmare had looked like, but even if there were millions of challengers and the phantom of the Serpent King there, it had still been a Nightmare meant for Masters to conquer. Granted, the odds of overcoming that particular trial had been infernally low, unless, naturally, you were Nephis of the Immortal Flame clan.
And even Nephis had died back then, in the first loop of the Nightmare — and during countless loops after that.
But this... this level of destruction — the things they had seen in Weave, in the empty waters where Fallen Grace had been, in the shallows on the way to Aletheia's Island, on the island itself — were far beyond what he had expected. It was not something that any Master was meant to face, let alone conquer.
Nephis shrugged.
"The most obvious answer is that a Cursed Terror escaped from a Nightmare and descended upon the Great River like a calamity that its Rank and Class entail.”
She lingered for a moment, then added:
“Naturally, just because an answer is obvious doesn't mean that it's correct."
Turning away from the ruins of Aletheia's Tower, she sighed.
"In any case, we won't find anything of use here, just like we failed to find it in Weave and Fallen Grace. There's no point in searching anymore. Our next stop will be Verge... and from there, the Estuary."
Nephis smiled faintly.
“Who knows? The First Seeker might still be alive. If so, I might be able to kill it again.”
They went about making camp.
Soon, Nephis closed her eyes to sleep while Sunny kept watch in front of a fire. The small island of warmth and light was surrounded by boundless darkness — Sunny glanced into the darkness and listened to the silence that reigned over the still expanse of the Great River, shadows dancing on his somber face.
...At the same time, another incarnation of him was making its way to the ruins of Aletheia's Tower.
Climbing carefully over the rubble, he reached the side of the hill that was relatively free of debris — that was because the blow that destroyed the tower had come from that direction, sending the debris flying the other way.
There, in the darkness, he found what he had sensed hours before, but kept to himself.
It was not that he wanted to hide something from Nephis — it was just that he couldn't explain it to her without speaking about his past, which she could never remember. What Sunny had found... was a humble grave.
There was no inscription on the tombstone, and no way of knowing if someone was actually buried under the raised soil. However, a scattering of lovely flowers was growing on the grave and around it, creating a gorgeous meadow in the middle of the ruin.
Sunny could not see their color in the darkness, but knew that the petals were of a vibrant azure hue...
Just like the flower Wind Flower had given him once in a dream — the last dream she ever saw.
Sitting down in front of the grave, Sunny pulled a bottle of wine from the folds of his nebulous mantle, uncorked it, and poured some onto the ground.
“Is that you, Wind Flower?"
He remained silent for a long while, then glanced down.
"If so... l am sorry. I broke the promise I gave you. Like all the other promises I gave, and then broke. You wanted to die by the hand of a person who would conquer the Nightmare, but in the end, I abandoned my cohort to pursue selfish goals. I wasn't even there when they destroyed the First Seeker."
He glanced away, smiling bitterly, and took a sip of the wine.
"I really hoped to meet you again, you know?"
Sunny took a deep breath, staring into the darkness with a distant expression.
“Your phantom asked me to relay a message should I ever meet the real you. She wanted me to tell you that she had done her best. That they all had. But I guess that's not an option now, is it?"
Sunny pursed his lips.
"Because you are gone, and their best was not enough."
He remained silent for a long time, and then drank the wine once more.
“But I just wanted you to know... that I used your gift well. It helped me a lot to get to where I am. Thank you for that. You were the first person to ever give me flowers, so... please, accept this gift from me, as well."
Raising a hand, he called upon the shadows and manifested a black flower out of them — the most gorgeous flower he could think of and create.
Planting it gently on the nameless grave, Sunny sighed heavily and stood up.
"Nobody remembers me anymore, and because I was the only one who met you, no one remembers you either. Seems unfair, doesn't it? But don't worry... even though I broke my promise, I have come back now to set things right. Just wait a little longer. Soon, everyone will tell the tales about you. About Wind Flower of the Twilight Sea."
He watched the grave silently for a while longer, then took a step back and dissolved into the shadows, leaving only the black flower behind.
Far away, on the shore of Aletheia’s Island, Sunny was staring into the dancing flames. A shadow crept across the sand and wrapped itself around him, careful not to disturb Neph's sleep.
Sunny remained silent for a long time, then sighed lightly.
"To Verge, then."
And to the Estuary from there.
The goal of their harrowing journey was drawing near.