They were standing in sight of the closest approximation of a true god left in existence — of a Seed where the spirit of the last surviving god, the Forgotten God, was trapped.
Well, Nephis was in sight of it. Sunny currently had his eyes covered.
Why was she covering his eyes, anyway? Sunny’s hand fell down.
The answer was pretty obvious...
It was because Nephis possessed the [Longing] Attribute and was immune to corruption, while he wasn't.
Gazing upon the source of the Nightmare was not much different from gazing directly into the Void. One glance, and his soul could very well bloom with the vile, virulent darkness of the Corruption.
"I won't look. I promise. Nephis, you can lower your hand."
However, she only let him go after tearing a strip of fabric off her tunic and tying it around his eyes.
Sunny caught his breath, trying to evaluate the situation. Azarax, Saint, and Slayer seemed to be holding the Deathless back — for now, and just barely. He could already sense the torrents of Will shifting, which was an ill omen here in the Nightmare Desert.
It meant that a Deathless Spirit was approaching... or possibly even a few of them.
Sunny and Nephis had to make it inside the Tomb of Ariel quickly.
However, that was a problem in and of itself.
There was surely a way inside the great pyramid. After all, the people led by the Sybils had reached the Great River somehow at the height of the Doom War. Daeron and his champions made it inside, as well...
And so did Sunny and Nephis, in the future — tonight. Even if they had not reached that future just yet.
But even if they had, Sunny still had to find an entrance soon.
"How do we get inside?"
Neph's shadow shifted as she glanced up, almost taking a step back as a result.
After a short stretch of silence, she said:
"Up there, close to the top of the pyramid... where it is marked by claw marks. That is where the stone we used to enter the Third Nightmare had come from, most likely. The scars left on its surface run deep, so there must be a path inside one of the marks." Sunny hesitated for a moment.
"You want us to... climb to the top? Close to that Seed?"
He wasn't sure that it was a wise idea. Nephis shook her head.
“We can't climb the pyramid — if we touch the lesser Seeds, I will be eventually drawn into a Nightmare, while you will be killed or corrupted. So, we will have to fly."
Sunny nodded.
“Then it's time to summon back the Chain Breaker."
As soon as the words left his mouth, he froze for a brief moment.
He realized that the pieces of the puzzle were aligning perfectly to repeat the future they had experienced in the Third Nightmare.
Did it matter, though?
At the moment, it did not matter at all.
The Chain Breaker was their best chance of getting into the Tomb of Ariel without ever touching its walls, so that was what they were going to use to get there.
"I will help Azarax hold the Deathless back while you draw it from your Soul Sea and prepare it to take air. Then, we'll... we'll..."
Sunny's voice trailed off, and then he fell silent.
In fact, everything fell silent. The world was suddenly quiet and peaceful, the clangor of battle entirely gone.
That was because there was no battle anymore.
Turning away from the Tomb of Ariel, Sunny relied on his shadow sense to perceive the world.
What he sensed made him shiver.
The Deathless were retreating.
In fact, if he did not know any better, he would have said that they were running.
“What... why are they..."
All that remained on the white sands in front of the Tomb of Ariel were Nephis, Sunny and his Shadows, the pitiful remains of the Shadow Legion, and Azarax at the head of his undead army.
The Deathless were terrifying, but somehow, their absence frightened Sunny much more.
"What are they running from?"
It was then that he felt it...
The shadows.
Countless shadows were separating from the boundless form of the great pyramid... and moving swiftly in their direction.