Return - Shadow Slave: Unchained Fate

Sunny dreamt of a mountain.

Time flowed backwards, then paused. A poignant stillness enveloped the snowy slopes. Then, a ripple traveled from the fringes of the Nightmare, towards a frail slave among a caravan inching down the winding mountain road. When the ripple reached the slave, the Nightmare shuddered.

Time resumed at its normal pace, and Sunny found himself walking amongst the scenes of his First Nightmare. The shackles that bound his hands made odd noises, creaking as if somehow strained.

'Am I alive?'

He certainly didn't feel like it. His shadow sense was severed, not just suffocated as if he were within true darkness. It was just... gone.

As Sunny continued walking, haunting visions from that strange space clawed at the edges of his mind.

'Have I made it back?' Sunny's thoughts raced. 'If I did, then why am I not in the Nightmare Desert? Or Antarctica? Why am I back here? What the hell happened?'

Sunny attempted to summon his runes, but couldn't, as if they were just out of reach. The strangeness of the situation only grew.

Pushing on that sensation of his runes being outside his grasp, he reached once more. Pressure began to build within him, a tightness that whispered warnings, urging him to stop. Perplexed, he ceased. Sunny continued moving with the slave caravan, puzzlement fueling his steps. He demanded answers from the Spell.

Grasping at his runes one last time, the pressure returned. The pressure grew, yet he would not buckle. Unwilling to give in, he felt an unexpected 'pop' within the deepest part of his being.

Sunny stumbled and his head instinctively turned as someone screamed:

"Whore's bastard! Watch where you're going!"

The shackles on Sunny's wrists continued to groan.

After swiftly recovering his balance, he averted his eyes to focus on the path ahead. He paid no attention to the people and chatter around him. Mercifully, his silence spared him from the violent intentions of a certain slaver looming nearby.

[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial...]

At that moment, Sunny's runes finally blinked to life.

Name: Sunless.

True Name: —

Rank: Aspirant.

Soul Core: Dormant.

Memories: —

Echoes: —

Attributes: [Unchained], [Fatecharmed], [Mark of Divinity], [Child of Shadows].

Aspect: [Temple ?#?##].

Aspect Description: [#?#?? is a useless wretch with no skills or abilities worth a mention. A temple ##?#? is just the same, except much rarer.]

'Shit.'

He cast doubt upon his very perception. Regression through time wouldn't be outside the realm of possibilities given the bizarre experiences he endured earlier. Yet, something about this felt fundamentally wrong.

The Spell had the capacity to create entire worlds for its trials, a power that dated back to at least the time of Daeron's Kingdom. Ananke had once told him that the Spell was a living Sorcery, one that needed nurturing to grow and evolve. The moment Sunny had heard those words, a chilling realization settled in his subconscious.

The Nightmare Seed of the Tomb of Ariel housed challengers from across time. The Spell had only continued to grow since its capacity to create at least that realm.

How powerful would it be now?

Sunny had silently considered a theory from then on. It was based on a simple truth: that the Spell grooms those it infects by rewarding them for changing Fate during their trials. Would it not be likely then, that the ultimate purpose of the Spell was to grow powerful enough to send its most promising hosts back in time? It would be fitting given its lofty goal of altering Fate, even outside the confines of its Nightmares.

If the Spell had orchestrated this bizarre situation, he would understand. Its power already seemed nigh-omniscient, given it could conjure the Daemon of Desire for a simple trial after all.

But was his experience in that strange space truly a result of the Spell's influence? He hesitated, doubts gnawing at him. The Spell had remained silent throughout the entire ordeal. Really, Cassie's plan to make him fateless seemed like it overshot fate and stranded him outside of everything, Spell included.

'Definitely outside Fate... and probably time. Two worlds, wait... three? Does the Tomb of Ariel count? No, that was just the Nightmare version. So.. four worlds?'

Sunny took a deep breath to stave off a bout of dizziness.

'Well... I'm not corrupted, so was the god's barrier to the Void itself the only damn thing she didn't kick me out of?'

If this were truly the work of the Spell, which Sunny strongly doubted at this point, he would have expected the power to be used on someone of a higher rank. Maybe a future version of Nephis, if she kept going and didn't destroy the overgrown sorcery first. Never mind that, this journey through time was comically short for doing something as lofty as 'changing fate.' Was this truly the shallowness of what the Spell could accomplish? War's divine realm is the only one left, the rest are long gone!

'Fuck it, this is all assuming my memories are accurate anyway! Was all of that stuff with the strings just symbolic? It could've been! How should I know? Staying alive as a disembodied skull doesn't seem very literal!'

The shackles around Sunny's wrists still continued to strain.

'Its all too surreal...'

Sunny terminated his speculative thoughts, as they were a dead end with such limited information. Instead, he opened the runes for his new attributes, [Unchained] and [Fatecharmed]. These new innate attributes took the place of [Fated] after all, so hopefully they would be more agreeable to his tolerance for suffering.

[Unchained] Attribute Description: "You rejected your chains, and your soul has escaped even the strings of fate. You innately resist all methods of binding unless they are permitted."

[Fatecharmed] Attribute Description: "The strings of fate are drawn to you, as if longing to embrace you. Some beings attract either fate's blessing or curses, but rarely both. Should you seek them, you may discover many unlikely events, both good and bad."

Sunny's brows furrowed as he considered the implications of these new attributes. With a mental command, the supernatural resistance towards the shackles around his wrists ceased. He was still walking amongst the slave caravan after all, and the noise it created was annoying.

With that distraction quelled, he returned his focus inward.

[Fatecharmed] was obviously the remnants of [Fated]. [Unchained] however... it seems this was crowning accomplishment of Cassie's plan.

Sunny shuddered, suddenly understanding a critical piece of information.

'The Guiding Light pointed me to the Vile Thieving Bird. Not Oblivion...'

Was... all of this just to set up the moment the creature could steal his fate without ending his life?

A shiver traveled up Sunny's back. To tear the strings of fate themselves... the power of the Cursed Terror dwarfed his imagination. Yet, it wasn't the bird that filled him with dread, it was Cassie. He already had the stunning realizing of just how far her web of manipulations spread, but to leverage the power of a Cursed Terror, as an Ascended?

'No, not even. She started this as an Awakened' Sunny remembered. 'Utterly absurd.'

Still, it went farther than that—Cassie achieved what a divine sorcery, honed over countless millennia, had not yet realized: a way to defy Fate itself. Or perhaps, this was precisely the purpose of the Nightmare Spell. To train its infected to rebel against the very fate that sought to bind them. To do what it could not. After all, the Spell was created by Weaver, the Daemon of Fate. Would a sorcery weaved of Fate truly have the power to change it? One might think so... but if it could, wouldn't Weaver simply do it themself?

Regardless, one truth remained. Cassie didn't possess the same kind of power that the wielders of Divine Aspects used. Yet, she had mastered an aspect one rank lower with a skill that surpassed anything he, Nephis, or Mordret had ever achieved. She was a monster.

Sunny's mind went blank for a time, before he finally allowed himself to think of the present.

'I need to get out of this Nightmare.'

***

As the procession followed its familiar course, the caravan halted its march at nightfall. The other slaves gazed longingly at the fire, but Sunny's eyes peered into the night sky to await the descent of the Mountain King. Right on time, a cacophony of noise erupted above, and lances of ice began to rain down upon the camp. With practiced calm, Sunny deftly sidestepped the deadly projectiles.

Then, the ruler of the mountain appeared, crashing to the ground with a sickening thud that shook the earth beneath. The lumbering form of the Awakened Tyrant appeared exactly as Sunny remembered. Strange worm-like shapes writhed under its skin, while its five unfocused eyes lazily gazed in the direction of the slaves, drool dripping from its ugly maw.

Sunny stepped back, watching a screaming, broad-shouldered, slave next to him be silenced by a vicious strike. Twisting to avoid the blood spraying from the corpse, Sunny remained perfectly still and quiet to avoid drawing the attention of the blind tyrant. His eyes followed the chaos unfolding, waiting for the moment when the creature's rampage would create a break in the chain.

As his bindings went slack, Sunny sprang into action. Grabbing the now freed length of chain, he immediately began to wrap the fallen slave in chains.

"You two, come! Lift! Pull!" He shouted at two nearby slaves looking on in shocked confusion.

As squirming shapes beneath the fallen man's skin began to churn violently, their understanding fell into place. Stirred from shock, the two slaves pulled upon both ends of the chain with all their might. Sunny threw his hands into the air, catching the smaller length connecting his shackles around the neck of the reanimating corpse. Pulling with his entire body weight, the spell soon sang: