One moment, they were still in the clearing — smoke and ash drifting from the dead fire pit, the scent of burning meat still clinging to the air. The next, they were sprinting through the crooked forest paths of the Dream Realm, branches slapping at their faces, roots twisting like claws. Whatever that creature had been, it wasn't alone.
The forest didn't feel like a forest anymore.
It felt like a cage.
Because something was watching.
No — many things.
They moved in the corner of his vision. There were dozens of them…
How could so many Nightmare Creatures be chasing solely after them?
Sunny grit his teeth, his shadow stretching.
From it stepped two beings — silent and deadly.
The first was tall and still, clad in dark armor like tempered void. Her face was hidden beneath a smooth, unbroken helm, but her glowing red eyes pulsed with silent wrath. She moved like a statue waking from sleep, the Sky Reacher dragging sparks against the rocks as she took position.
Saint.
The second followed with a hiss, long and sinuous — an obsidian snake with layered armor plates like dragon-scale, it's coils slithering in impossible loops that never broke its forward momentum.
Serpent.
Saint raised her blade in a wordless salute and turned toward the woods behind them. Serpent coiled beside her, head lifted, tongue flicking.
Behind them, three ripples slithered across the terrain — shadows detaching from his feet.
Gloomy surged into Saint, while Haughty and Happy reinforced Serpent.
Then Sunny turned and ran with the rest.
The forest behind them erupted.
The first wave of Nightmare Creatures came crashing through the trees with eerie grace — leaping, crawling, twisting between trunks. Some had too many limbs. Others none. A few dragged their bodies with twitching bone spurs, or slithered like mantises with their flesh peeled back to reveal organs of glimmering stone.
Serpent struck first — the snake's body launching through the air like a whip, crashing through the chest of an Awakened Beast. Its armored coils squeezed, bones shattering beneath the pressure. The Beast's body turned into a paper figurine and fluttered into ash.
Saint stepped in front of the next, her greatsword cleaving in a precise arc — not brutish, not slow, but patient and absolute. The creature vanished in a burst of flame. Another replaced it.
And another.
And another.
They didn't stop.
And none of them had souls.
Sunny's eyes widened, his pupils tightening. He looked behind them once more, narrowing his gaze. His inner vision shifted — sliding deeper, beneath the skin, beneath the soul, toward the hidden layer of truth beneath the lie.
He saw them for what they were.
They weren't Beasts or Devils.
Their bodies were puppets, shaped from flesh, but hollow.
And in that hollowness… a maggot squirmed. Fat, wet, blind. Buried deep, like a worm in a corpse. From it, threads spread out — thin, illusory threads.
The same kind of thread he'd seen trying to ensnare Seele earlier.
Sunny's breath caught.
They weren't just trying to kill the group.
They were trying to kill Seele.
And him?
He was being avoided.
Even the few that got close to him redirected the moment he raised his spear.
They didn't want to fight him.
But Seele — every time she lagged even a step, the monsters shifted. She'd drawn more than half the attacks. Her clothes were already torn from near-misses. Her scythe was stained.
Sunny narrowed his eyes.
'This isn't random. But what makes her so special…?'
"March! Cover Seele!"
March didn't hesitate. She dropped back and loosed an arrow that screamed as it flew, freezing a charging Nightmare Creature mid-leap. Seele glanced at him, startled, but didn't argue.
Dan Heng had noticed too. He slowed his pace slightly, holding the line as he started to notice the patterns.
The group kept moving, but they were being herded now — toward the cliffs.
Sunny's lips twisted.
That wasn't going to happen.
"Left!"
They broke formation and turned. A few of the abominations blinked into flame and reappeared in front of them — teleportation. Two leapt at once.
Dan Heng spun his spear mid-stride and drove it through the first one's skull. March's second arrow pierced the other's thigh, freezing it to the earth. Seele swept past both, her scythe dragging a glittering arc across the creature's chest.
It turned into a paper figurine and burned away.
They never screamed.
Sunny didn't like that.
Behind them, Saint was beginning to slow. Not because she was wounded, but because the Nightmare Creatures no longer cared. They blinked past her. Danced around Serpent's strikes. Used the terrain, the flame leaping, the speed — swapping places, appearing from firebursts, firing air bullets so quickly the sound blurred into one continuous hum.
One shot clipped March's leg. She hissed but kept moving, blood spattering the ground.
Dan Heng pulled her forward.
"Run!"
Seele faltered.
"Why are they only aiming for me?"
Sunny didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
But the threads…
He looked deeper into one of the Nightmare Creatures still stalking them from the treeline. The threads seemed to gather together at some point, stretching an extremely large distance.
'Is that… where the controller is?'
It was too far. They couldn't possibly make that kind of trip. Plus, there were plenty of unknown factors; what other abilities did they have? Were they much stronger in person, or weaker?
As such, Sunny couldn't possibly take that kind of risk. Not when their destination was in the opposite direction — the Tear.
Even so, he had an idea.
Well… it was more of a gamble. These Nightmare Creatures were technically possessed, right?
Sunny summoned the Sunflare Talisman after dismissing his Shadows. As the amulet appeared in his hands, he skidded to a stop.
Seele snapped toward him.
"Wait — what are you—"
But Sunny was already turning.
Already running toward the fire.
Toward the puppeteer's strings.
Activating his Awakened Ability, he appeared behind a random abomination. He slammed the Memory against it's skin with a focused look on his face. He wasn't attacked, but that was to be expected according to his observations.
A few seconds passed.
Nothing happened.
Sunny's panicked, diving through the shadows again as he appeared next to the others, who had stopped when he disappeared.
Triggering his ability to perceive souls, Sunny watched in trepidation as the puppets continued to pursue them.
Except the one he had used the Sunflare Talisman on.
The maggot inside it was already burning, but it was withstanding with a surprising tenacity. However, that wasn't what caught Sunny's eyes.
It was the threads.
They were burning as well.
And after a few moments, the same happened to the threads controlling the other Nightmare Creatures. The normal eye couldn't see it…
But to Sunny, it looked like a raging wildfire in the sky.