Shadow Slave - After the Third Nightmare - A different Story

Purple-Eyed Boulder

In the depths of rocky hills, far from civilization, there were massive boulders. That itself wouldn't be so eye-catching if not for that the place was mostly purple. Scarce vegetation, snowy peaks, and massive landscapes composed of purple rock was another breathtaking sight. Emerald lakes, and rivers completed this place .

This picture was strange, but Sunny knew very well already that this place is very dangerous. While the boulders looked very still, from time to time it would seem they moved. They did. Some of them were Corrupted Devils, and were known for their shapeshifting capabilities.

In a day cycle green lake was emanating with some greenish mist. It wasn't that terrifying mist that enshrouded the Hollow Mountains, but it was still very dangerous. Breathing it would lead one to quick death out of poisoning. That's why even Saints didn't try to conquer this place.

During the night it was much safer, but not enough to want to conquer. Whatever they would clear out during a night, would be lost during the day. Also poison made the place uninhabitable. For Awakened, and many Masters coming here without Memories enabling them to breath was simply death. For Saints that could hold their breath for some time, it was still a considerable risk. With no land to title, and water to drink, and citadels that could isolate the air living there was nothing to gain in conquering this place. However, there were still explorers. Some still decided to venture looking for some unique resources.

And they're mostly dead. If there's no one to report death, there's no one to inform how deadly it is. People of the Song Domain learned about the region's nature in an indirect manner. With explorers going missing teams tried to pinpoint the horde of Nightmare Creatures or eventually that single Creature that caused the Awakened cohort to go missing. After all, it could be a danger to human settlements.

I happened to be not. Boulders don't need much to breathe or eat so they don't care. Poison can't affect them. If he looked at these ones he could see they lacked normal flesh. If they left the hill, the Saints could hunt them down. But these Devils seemed to be intelligent enough to understand how nice it is to sleep in a safe home.

Corruption wanted to spread, and take over everything that lives – that much Sunny could infer from numerous times he used Shadow Dance on his opponents – but corruption rarely could make for the essence of a being. If an animal, noble beast or... whatever wasn't sentient before being corrupted, corruption wouldn't give it sentience. It would just remain with its instincts, though instincts would be corrupted. What kind of instincts a rock could possess? Rock would want to stay still, and wait for something to approach it? Corruption might want to twist that instinct, but there isn't much to twist in the first place.

Sunny observed it from the shadows, and was studying his prey. The purple rock had protrusions resembling amethyst. These were creations of the rock Devil that tried to look like something precious.

A five-tailed fox-cat, seemingly adapted to life in this region, came close. It was lured by the beauty of the purples. It looked around as if he was sure there's no one preying on it. The narration on the encounter of both was ongoing, catching every important, and unimportant movement.

'He doesn't know.'

Cause the moment the fox-cat touched it the maws of the purple boulder with jagged teeth closed on it turning it into bloody paste.

'It's a shame that cameras don't work in the Dream Realm. Recordings could conquer the communicators, and do some education...'

The maw was already hidden inside the boulder, and everything looked like there was no prey in the first place.

'Okay, screw this.'

Suddenly Sunny dived into shadows, and moved swiftly towards the boulder. Sunny then emerged for a short moment, touched the boulder, and dived back. Surprisingly the boulder sank into shadow with him. It was a trick he picked up during some of his hunts. He could use Shadow Step on someone else. But it wasn't without limitations. The greater rank, and class of the creature, the greater expense of the essence.

He didn't take it really far away. Just to a small plain where the air isn't poisonous. He had to do it fast before the boulder learned it could fight back his powers. That would cancel out his Shadow Step, and then he would have to deal with a full-alert purple boulder in an unfavorable environment. Thankfully Sunny succeeded, and on the plain there were his Shadows, Saint, Fiend, and Soul Serpent, waiting for him.

When his figure emerged with the boulder Sunny jumped back, and Soul Serpent started its assault. It turned into a humanoid figure. It was a human he killed long, long ago. Kurt. He ordered four of his shadows to wrap around Kurt. Kurt swiftly striked at the lively shadow of the boulder.

The Boulder screeched in pain.

"NOW!"

The boulder unfolded itself showing an arsenal of amethyst claws, spikes, hands, and other tools of torture like death, mostly made of a crystal resembling amethyst.