The situation continued to worsen, little by little, for a few months.
Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie had played their cards well, managing to avoid major losses. However, it was hard to call their achievement a triumph — if anything, it resembled a controlled fall.
The Human Domain had reached the bottomless abyss and was now careening dangerously on its very edge, slipping lower and lower with each day.
There were more Nightmare Gates. Abominations continued to threaten the southern coast of the Western Quadrant, and were already drawing close to the remaining cities in the Eastern Quadrant. The settlements in South America had to be evacuated, dealing a blow to the food supply across both the waking world and the Dream Realm.
In the Dream Realm itself, more and more battles and skirmishes were being fought to defend the Citadel Cities.
If there was one piece of good news... it was that Sunny and Nephis did not have to worry about the climate in the waking world gradually changing due to the cold seeping into it from the Dream Realm. That was because the waking world was not going to exist long enough to suffer the consequences.
Still, they tried to handle all these threats with minimal losses.
They moved strategically, engaging in those battles that threatened widespread damage and avoiding those that did not. The champions of the Human Domain threw themselves into the fray, as well, guided and coordinated by Cassie's voice whispering into their ears.
All across the Dream Realm and the waking world, warriors of humanity were fighting countless battles.
The tide of Nightmare Creatures was already overwhelming, and little by little, it was growing more and more dire. The casualties would have been crippling if not for the miraculous flames that healed the wounded soldiers — and pulled those who were gravely wounded from the jaws of death.
Because of Neph's flames, the losses among the soldiers were minimal. And because the losses were minimal, her armies could do more, pushing the abominations back over and over again instead of succumbing to attrition.
Unseen and unknown, Sunny was supporting humanity from the shadows. The ranks of his Shadow Legion were swelling, but the new shades were immediately sent into battle, since the number of enemies he faced was growing as well.
Even Mordret seemed to have joined the effort to stem the tide of Nightmare Creatures, even if his involvement was limited to the regions surrounding the Hollow Mountains.
But, of course...
It was not enough.
Sunny and Nephis were both painfully aware that even if their efforts were enough to prevent humanity from suffering heavy losses for now, that was not going to last. The severity of the threat they faced was growing far faster than the collective power of humanity... and the worst of it had not even begun yet.
Things were going to turn much worse before too long, and so, they had to prepare. It was not quite time for truly desperate measures yet... but it was no time to hold back, either. They had to move fast, even if that meant that their plans and preparations could not be as thorough as they would have wanted.
And so, the winter solstice arrived.
On that day, Sunny turned thirty.
Thirty!
He was not a young man anymore. That was an outstanding achievement in and of itself, considering the life he had lived. It was also a momentous occasion... but he did not have time to think about it at all.
In fact, he had forgotten about it completely.
That was because something far more important was happening on that day. Piercing the howling winds with its bow, the Chain Breaker flew above the undulating waters of the ocean. Soon enough, a dark line appeared on the horizon... and not long after that, the flying ship reached a snowy shore.
The shore was desolate, with not a living being in sight. The Nightmare Creatures seemed to have retreated, wary of the beings aboard the flying ship — or perhaps they had all been eviscerated by fellow abominations a long time ago.
Here and there, wrecks of alloy battle machines lay sprawled on the frozen ground, covered by patina and rust.
It was Antarctica, of course... East Antarctica, to be more precise. The place where the Sovereigns had first revealed themselves to the world, all those years ago.
Those Sovereigns were gone now, and new Supremes had taken their place.
The Chain Breaker continued forward, moving deeper inland. Below the flying ships, old battlefields flashed one after another. Spent casings, ruins of abandoned cities, scattered debris of devastated military camps...
Sunny, who had once traveled all across this vast landmass as a member of the Special Reconnaissance Unit, recognized many of these places. Of course, they looked very differently now — hollow, forlorn, desolate... silent.
Utterly devoid of people.
Only Nightmare Creatures remained, staring up at the Chain Breaker with mad, frenzied hunger burning in their bestial eyes.
Looking at the dead, tainted, deserted expanse of East Antarctica, Sunny could not help but wonder if all continents of Earth would look like this one day soon... if all of existence would look like this, rather.
This dreary landscape was an illustration of what would happen to the world if he and Nephis failed.
‘Being here... is pretty disheartening.’
Sunny sighed.
The waking world was pushing down on him, straining to force him out. He wasn't going to stay for long, anyway — in truth, his visit to the cradle of humanity had not been dictated by any practical reason.
Sunny had simply wanted to be here for what was about to happen.
Eventually, they reached their destination... It was the snow-covered battlefield where the Battle of the Black Skull had once taken place.
And the three enormous Nightmare Gates that towered above it like appalling fissures in the fabric of the world.
Sunny studied the Gates for a few moments, then turned to look at the six people who were gathered on the deck of the Chain Breaker.
These were the valiant souls who were going to challenge the Fourth Nightmare today.
