Shadow Slave

Sunny looked at the terrified young girl, and then… laughed.

...His laughter sounded more than a little bit unhinged.

His lady shuddered:

"Sir, you… you…"

Sunny waved a hand in the air.

"No, no. No need… I understand. I sound crazy."

The night sky above them was covered in an impregnable veil of clouds, and the one below them was empty and dark. The ancient stones they stood upon were slick with rainwater, and it was too dim to see anything except for vague silhouettes.

The silhouette of the Awakened hunter was towering, menacing, and embodied the very concept of terror.

But Sunny didn't care that much.

Massaging his chest, he smiled crookedly and said, his voice hoarse and raspy:

"...But then again, this whole world is insane. Someone told me once… ah, I don't quite remember who… that we can only reflect what is in front of us. Is it my fault that there is nothing in front of me except for madness?"

He looked down, his smile turning into a wicked grin.

"And someone else once told me that they wanted to destroy the world. Back then, I thought them insane… I think… but now, I wonder…"

The Awakened hunter took a step forward, his monstrous voice permeating the darkness like an insidious murmur:

"Weak… so weak… his mind is broken..."

Sunny laughed again.

"Ah, yes… I am very, very weak. But I am not weak enough, I guess? Somehow, I have a feeling that I wasn't supposed to be able to last that long. Who would be able to endure that much pain, that much horror, and that much suffering without losing their mind completely?"

He glanced at his sword, then at the approaching enemy.

"And yet, I did. Actually, while some of those nightmares… gods, how cruel they were… did hit a nerve, overall… I am surprised to admit that... they really weren't that bad."

Sunny stared at the Awakened hunter with a concerned expression, then scratch the back of his head.

"Crazy, huh? It is almost as if after you have already been gutted once, nothing else can impress you that much. Or if you have already watched your mother die once, the second time won't be as… well… maybe it would? I don't know… I am a bit confused about what is real, and what is not. Maybe I am myself not real. There's one thing I'm sure about, though…"

The young girl slowly backed away from him, her face painted with fear. The Awakened killer tilted his head a little, then asked with curiosity:

"What?"

Sunny shrugged.

"Well, it's that, real or not, I am really... really, really hard to break. As it turns out. At least not to the point where I'll be unable to think. And notice things. Oh, and I did notice a few things…"

He slowly raised his sword and pointed it at the approaching hunter.

"One thing I noticed is that my heart always seems ache, doesn't matter whether it's in a nightmare or in the real life. So, that demands a question… if the heartache is the same, then maybe the nature of both the dream and the reality is the same, as well?"

He took a step forward, a confused expression on his face.

"The second thing I noticed was that many of my thoughts, actions, and reactions don't really make sense. Sometimes my hands will try to do something on their own, and sometimes fragments of feelings, ideas, and judgments that I have to cause to possess will just appear on their own. Easy to explain in a dream… not so much in the waking world. And I am awake, am I? Or am I? Or am I not? Sometimes, it's hard to say…"

He laughed again and assumed a defensive position, waiting for the terrifying Awakened hunter to attack.

"Well, and the last thing I noticed were the radiant spheres of light I seem to be able to see inside the souls of living beings… or vile orbs of darkness in those of the Corrupted. It took me a few nightmares to realize that those were soul cores. Strangely, once again, this ability pursued me from the nightmares into reality, making the two seem so much alike. So… with all that said… I am really only curious about one thing."

Sunny smiled, ready to meet his death… once more.

"You see… in my nightmares, I met all kinds of creatures. Awakened warriors, Corrupted monsters… even Transcendent immortals. Some of them had one soul core, some two or three…"

He lingered for a moment, and then looked past his enemy, at the mighty black steed standing motionless behind him, barely visible in the shadows.

"So, my question is… why does this damned horse always have six?"

...With that, he dashed in the opposite direction from where the hunter's sword flashed, abandoning the young girl he was sworn to protect without a second thought.

Sliding on the wet stones, Sunny dove under the flying blade and jumped to his feet, putting all of his weight into an attack of his own.

However, his strike was not directed at the menacing killer… instead, it was directed at the tenebrous steed.

Unobstructed, the tip of the sword touched the mighty beast's onyx coat… and shattered, as if striking adamantine stone instead of a living being.

In the next moment, the Awakened hunter's blade pierced him from behind, exiting out of Sunny's chest in a fountain of blood.

Ignoring the terrible pain and the blood that was flowing from his mouth, Sunny grinned and looked at the motionless horse.

The stallion looked at him back, his eyes dark and full of boundless, terrifying malevolence.

A gargling laughter escaped from Sunny's lips.

"Doesn't matter… it doesn't matter. Kill me again, bastard… kill me as many times as you want. In this nightmare, I am just a mundane swordsman… but in the next one, or the one after that, or the one after that… I'll be someone powerful enough to rip you to shreds. And then I will kill you again, and again… and again. Let's see which one of us is going to break first, you wretched pony!"

The black steed looked down at Sunny, his eyes igniting with ghostly crimson flames.

He snorted quietly, and then opened his mouth, full of sharp teeth that were more like those of a wolf than that of a horse.

And then, the Nightmare bit down on the trembling human's head, easily crushing it between his mighty jaws.

Sunny died.

And woke up with a tortured scream.

It was time to face a new day…

He rolled out of the dingy tent he had been sleeping in and grinned, mad sparks igniting in his dark eyes.

It was time to hunt an evil horse…