The gentle rocking of the ship against the waves created a strange contrast with the situation the group found themselves in. Fog covered the entire sky, while the wind carried a cold premonition of danger.

  Changing Star y imperturbably on the deck of the ship, resting with a tranquility unbecoming of the eerie pce.

  Her captain, the talking skeleton, sang ancient tunes, filling the silence, while his nonexistent eyes surveyed their surroundings with inhuman precision.

  Meanwhile, Saint stood still at the front, watching the path slowly opening through the fog with cold determination.

  The journey had been as terrible as they had imagined, filled with dangers and monsters that nearly cost both Changing Star and her their lives, but even more surprisingly, it didn't go any further. Being a death zone, as Changing Star had named it, it was expected that they would have already been killed by some horror too powerful for them to handle, but instead, they survived.

  Their fate was not due to some miracle, unmeasured luck, or some grace of fate, but to their third companion; an ancient deity fallen from grace. Saint couldn't be certain of that statement, as she had never encountered one so closely in this life or the next, not even when it came to her own father, but her intuition told her that his presence, however faint, was no less than that of a sovereign.

  Still, that didn't save them from having to face hordes of abominations of varying ranks, as well as some fights against even corrupted beasts. Needless to say, those st encounters were almost a death sentence for both women. But it had all been worth it; their strength, even if not tangible, grew with each encounter.

  Their connection to the shadows and darkness seemed to increase with each moment close to death. Her already perfected technique blended ever more with her new constitution and skill set, while her array of weapons had also grown, useless as such tools were to her.

  At the end of the day, her skill and intelligence were the deadliest weapons she could wield, and that was something both warriors could master perfectly.

  It had been strange. Saint wasn't an individual who felt the need to form a bond. Neither now, nor thousands of years ago, had he felt the need for such things. He had been created to act in perfect coordination with his brothers and sisters, and only fighting alongside his master could come close to such a feeling. But now, however, she couldn't say with precision how Shifting Star differed from her former siblings.

  Was she also perfect?

  It didn't matter, she told herself. But a glimmer of recognition dawned in her eyes.

  They were both stronger now, but above all, his shadow seemed to grow with the sughter. With each defeated enemy, it grew deeper, more vast. She hadn't risen in rank as she had hoped, nor had she developed a new core, but the very essence of her being was far more coarse than that of her rank, offering a greater increase to her portal than she had originally had access to, but, above all, making her shadow more difficult to kill.

  Still, even if her strength had grown day by day, it wasn't enough. At the end of the day, it didn't matter how strong an ant was. Against true monsters, they were nothing. If they continued wandering through that dead world, they would soon encounter a being capable of killing all three of them. Therefore, they had opted for a risky option. A nightmare seed, a test from the demon of destiny. The key to ascending.

  Saint wasn't sure she could enter a 'nightmare,' as Changing Star privately described it. But what she did know was that the star of destruction always accompanied the star of change, so conflict and opportunity were always at her side. So, she didn't hesitate, even if her destiny was the most dangerous of abysses.

  “Well, dies, this is the final stop,” the skeleton stopped the small boat at the bck gravel bank.

  “What will you do next?”

  “Haha, don’t worry about me. I have a date with death, now that your father has disappeared…”

  The skeleton remained still, waiting for a reaction from its audience, but neither of the two women (the shadow doesn’t count) showed any.

  “Ah… I always get a tough audience. Anyway, I’m leaving. I’m not getting any deader. See you ter.” With those words, the skeleton gently pushed the boat with his oar.

  The waters rippled as the bark of the makeshift boat slowly drifted away into the river mist. But just before disappearing, the skeleton turned once more to face both women to let out one st cry.

  “By the way, Miss Statue. I recommend you start thinking more about how you are now than how you should be. Following only your parents’ image is often more boring and dangerous than you think.” Her words floated in the air until the figure finally disappeared.

  The tide returned to calm, and silence reigned once more. Both Changing Star and Saint remained motionless, as if those words had been directed at both of them, but at the same time, they didn’t really care.

  “Shall we leave?” Changing Star turned to look at her companion and the shadow that accompanied her.

  Strangely, the statue lingered for a moment, its gaze still fixed on the spot where the individual had disappeared. After a moment, it shifted its gaze until its eyes met Changing Star’s directly and… answered.

  “Yes.”

  Changing Star’s eyes widened. Not only because it was the first time the statue had answered her, but also because of the voice it used. It was a soft voice that reflected confidence, dignity, and indifference, but with a melodious note that spoke of a beautiful woman… well, to be more precise, it was her own voice. She had mimicked her very words with the same disinterested tone. It was endearingly unnerving.

  Shifting Star looked at her more closely, then noticed a small stone tied to the creature's neck like a neckce. It was recognizable as an ordinary rock, but she couldn't help but recall a certain memory won by her former comrade.

  "The ordinary rock?"

  "Let's continue." Without paying any further attention, Saint used the Memory Charm tied around her neck again and moved forward.

  Shifting Star stared at her wordlessly for a few seconds, only to shake her head ruefully. Had she known, she would have struggled to answer in sentences longer than two words.

  The two warriors moved forward, walking directly to the top of the mountain, where a series of stairs adorned the surface of the mountain in an unnatural way.

  In the world of nightmares, there were multiple ruins with different shapes and purposes that were lost to time, but this one… seemed to have remained unchanged since its creation. As if time itself refused to alter that pce.

  Saint observed that pce with interest, a new and bitter feeling filling her heart. Home, origin, house; she could recognize the pce she stood on. The gates of the underworld.

  At the top of that pce, where the only point of that construction seemed to have been altered, a whirlwind that tore through reality throbbed impatiently.

  Without exchanging words, the two took a step forward.

  < You have entered a Nightmare Seed >

  < Number of Participants: 2 >