Sunny dreamt of a mountain
The Mountain was large, larger than the peaks that surrounded it and seemed to tear through the sky and bathe in the pale moonlight. The road was a line moving up the mountain sandwiched between the walls of the mountain on the right and the bottomless fall to the left
The most significant part about this?
'Then that vision really was memories of myself from the future...'
The cold assaulted him first but it did not hurt as much as the ache on his arms caused by the iron shackles. The iron shackles that each slave in this line connected to the long chain was attached to.
There were the people walking at the sides too, the slavers who wore an olden style armor
Everything was the same
Everything aside from a few tiny detail in his runes, well tiny was vastly incorrect. It was possibly the largest and most monumental things that had ever occurred
...
Name: Sunless
True Name: —
Rank: Aspirant
Soul Core: Dormant
Memories: —
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Fate Breaker], [Flame of Divinity], [Shadow].
Aspect: [Temple Slave].
Aspect Description: [Slave is a useless wretch with no skills or abilities worth a mention. A temple slave is just the same, except much rarer.]
...
'The attributes... they're all different!'
Sunny had known the basics of the spell and how it operated before today and after he possessed more knowledge than anything or anyone in the world, both worlds even.
Aspects were vital in the lives of any infected and yet the attributes were just as important, a configuration of ones innate qualities and now it had seemed that the meddling of the Divines had changed that...
'They are Gods after all...'
Sunny focused on the runes describing his attributes and stared wide eyed
[Fate Breaker] Attribute Description: The strings of fate wrap around you and yet they can not bind you or restrict you. They are beholden to your actions breaking or strengthening depending on what you, an anomaly in its web, does
[Flame of Divinity] Attribute Description: Your soul is aflame with the light of divinity.
[Shadow] Attribute Description: Shadows recognize you as the heir to their throne
Speechless, Sunny stared at the runes. It could only have been one thing that caused that change
'This... this is impossible'
It was not though. Attributes were ones innate qualities so how did they change...
It was simple... because the gods had changed them and he did to. His future self did at least and the Gods and Daemons could do many mystical things... after all... They had been the ones to create life and death in the first place...
Once that understanding had settled in Sunny was anything but settled. The shock was so great that it caused him to loose track of his steps and fall over pulling the chain down with him
"Whore's bastard! Watch where you're going!"
And then that part carried on as normal as his vision had shown him. The bulky man in front spoke about how Sunny would soon die and they would follow
Then there was the bullshit scholar spited from the back about incurring the wrath of the gods as if they would intervene in the lives of some slaves... perhaps they would though. Maybe not all of them but Sunny felt that Shadow would not...
He steadied himself quickly and walked on and eventually there was another voice
The voice came from a young red headed man that rode atop his horse
"What is going on here?" - His voice held no malice
"It's nothing, sir. We are just all tired and cold. Especially our young friend over there. This journey is truly too hard for someone that young."
Sunny noticed this time before Auro looked at him how his eyes shone with disgust at the voice of the man that had spoke before it turned gentle again when aimed at him
The soldier sighed and took a flask from his belt before extending it to Sunny.
"Bear with it a little more, child. We will stop for the night soon. For now, here, drink some water."
Sunny's eyes flashed for a second the perfect response forming in his mind after assessing what was going to happen
"I will drink when we set up a camp"
Sunny turned his head and continued forward ignoring the young Hero
There was a chuckle from the back of him, an older man that was on a horse too - this one with a whip in his grasp
"Good, at least he knows what his position is. Not many smart ones in this bunch..."
Sunny however did not take the compliment
'I will slit your throat myself for that'
Sunny was not talking about the compliment, rather he was speaking about what was supposed to happen. That whip was supposed to cut his tunic and draw his blood
'This is the first... the first of many things i will change'
Of course now, Sunny knew for sure. He was a Fate Breaker
Fate had always had 2 points on a graph, destined to connect no matter the path it took
Sunny had still checked his runes despite then being different, he still slipped and got yelled at by Shifty but then... the graph deviated from its end point
He did not try to accept the water from Auro, he did not get lashed by the old slaver nor did he fall down again
The graph no longer had a direct end and with no end there would never be a fixed path to go through to reach it, unless of course... Sunny was the one drawing the graphs now
The caravan kept moving
And soon the next big change would be drawn
He kept moving forwards, step after step while trying to regulate his breathing to conserve as much energy as possible
He still watched as a few of the slaves along the chain died and were hurled of the cliffs but unlike the last time he felt they had got of much better than those still moving. All of them aside from 4 of the people in this caravan would live after that thing comes
and in the end he would be the last one standing
"Stop the caravan! Prepare to camp!"
By now Sunny had already developed plan.
Just as it had happened before all the strong slaves had surrounded the bonfire and Sunny, Shifty and Scholar and the broad shouldered man
Shifty had once again tried to eat the bloodbane berries and once more Scholar had stopped him while the 3rd man had watched them while shivering in the cold
Sunny however, Sunny had brought himself close to an edge of the mountain where an oddly sharp rock protruded from the mountain.
No one had seen him raise his hands before bringing down the shackle chains on the rock and no one had heard it either
Because just as he did a thundering noise sounded from above and something massive came falling from the sky
The area in front had exploded into motion, the slaves running and falling and in turn pulling more of them down too.
Sunny brought the chain down again in the chaos, his hands were aching more now but the adrenaline pumping in his blood was allowing him to ignore it. In the next moment
The chain binding him to the chain connecting all the slaves had broken.
Sunny didn't waste a moment, he jumped to the side and watched as the mountain king slashed at the broad shouldered slave who's heavy body fell on Sunny. Sunny waited a second and heard the chilling howl and felt the enormous Shadow move past him and unlike the last time
Sunny was not shackled
He rolled the big mans corpse of his body and now, not limited by the connecter chain Sunny moved away and watched as the corpse started to convulse and writhe
Before shifty had chance to yell at Sunny to get away from it Sunny jumped.
This time he did not take any time to be shocked, or wonder why a tyrant had just appeared in his first nightmare, nor did he freeze in fear or need to get help from the other slaves.
When Sunny had positioned himself to break the chain before the mountain king fell he had made sure to break the chains binding the shackles that held is hands together and the one connecting him to the long chain. The reason he had not broke the shackles was because right now, He needed a weapon
And what better weapon than to pieces of hard steel
He landed on his knees feeling it sink slightly into the snow as he sucked in a deep breath and then his hands fell too and in the next moment, just as the larvae infected corpse rose it fell back down under his strike. The skull had cracked and brain matter and blood leaked onto the snow
Sunny smiled as he rose
[You have slain a dormant beast, Mountain King's Larva.]
He admired the grizzly site for a moment and so did the 2 slaves even though for them, admire might not have been the best word. Sunny turned to them with the same gentle smile - "I thought you 2 had said I was going to die first?"
Shifty looked at him with wide eyes
Sunny heard the screams of the dying slaves and turned to see another larvae infected. He ran towards it and jumped as it rose, back turned to him. Sunny dug his nails into the corpse of the creatures neck, already torn by the Mountain king and heaved. He jerked his hand to the left and right over and over while pulling up and a second later the head had been removed
Sunny fell off the corpse and the head rolled too
He did not pay attention to the spells announcement though because a young soldier was looking at him, sword in hand.
Sunny looked into his eyes and then away bending down and picking up the key to the body of the shackles- "Go deal with the big one"
Auro stared for a second and nodded before dashing off
"Boy! Over here!"
Sunny threw them the key and spoke before Shifty could unshackle himself - "I have a plan to deal with that thing"
"What!?, Are you mad?!, We're free gods dammit just run"
"We will die without the fire before he get down the mountain" - Scholars voice came from behind
"Shut it and follow me unless you want that thing to follow you down and chew your bones" - Sunny moved forward towards where the Hero and Tyrant were fighting
"He's mad!" - Shifty turned to Scholar desperately looking for an opinion he wanted from the older man. He did not like him but his knowledge allowed him to not die of BloodBane poison
"Unfortunately he is also right... "
Shifty looked red as if he were on fire despite the cold but followed when scholar walked forward
They both followed behind Sunny who was moving with eerie precision, he stepped over corpses and looked out to see if there were any larvae and eventually they reached the wagon.
"When i tell you remove the wheels and push with your life" - He looked at Shift who was opening his mouth - "Do it or ill kill you myself"
Shifty seeing the boy who had cracked the skull of the big man, and watching him run with the red blood still staining his fingers from the infected who's skull he ripped of, gulped and turned to the wheel waiting
Sunny however was already running to the corpse following the chain. He fell to his knees and slid grabbing the dead mans hands and removing it , Sunny shoved the corpses hand out and then attached it to the chain
His chest was heaving as he sucked in hoarse breaths, adrenaline was leaving his body drop by drop.
"Just a few more moments"
He lifted the chain and looked at the ongoing battle. Just as he saw, Hero was shoved back and then rolled to regain his bearings before charging again
Sunny threw the chain and this time he was aiming for its head
He watched the chain fly and ... miss completely
'Huh...' - his mind went blank, was it because he had exerted himself so much in the last few minutes
But then the chain landed on the ground and the mountain king had stepped in it
'Is this supposed to be a joke?' - Sunny had obviously, drawn this entire plan and dictated all his actions based on his past self's actions. So imagine his confusion and even embarrassment when he watched his past aim for the leg but the chain wrapped around its neck
But now the embarrassment was worse, how did he aim for the neck this time and instead had succeeded with the original plan
He smiled regardless and pulled.
Just as the creature lifted its leg moving to kill Auro the chain tightened and Sunny turned to the slaves
"Now!"
He to was already running , or what ever his body was capable of doing for now
The wagon was still moving slowly but when he joined it sped up and the pressure was less on the hero now since he did not need to disrupt the creature from ripping the chain around his neck, so he charged again swinging the sword pushing the tyrant back
Sunny too was pushing the wagon back and it rolled faster
And then just like the last time mountain king fell