499 Somewhere Far Away...

…Somewhere far away, in the depths of an endless and inescapable nightmare, a blinding disc of an incandescent sun was bathing the dunes of a vast desert in a flood of immolating heat. The sands of the desert were flawlessly white, and the azure sky above them was deep and boundless like an ancient ocean, with not a single cloud blemishing its silken expanse.

Being battered by the heat, a lone figure moved across the sand.

It was a young woman with striking grey eyes, her skin covered in terrible burns, her silver hair dirty with blood and surrounded by a radiant halo of reflected light. She wore charred remains of a shattered armor, and wielded a broken sword, its silver blade fractured and ending in a jagged edge close to the hilt.

The young woman walked forward, the trail of her footprints stretching far into the distance and disappearing over the horizon. To her left, there was nothing but an endless sea of white dunes; to her right, a line of black mountains eventually created a boundary for the scorching desert.

Far ahead, there was a tree with scarlet leaves and a scattering of something that looked like pale fruit hanging from its wide branches.

...This was where Nephis was headed.

She had to reach the tree before the night came, or… no, it was better not to think of it.

Her water had long run out, and the thirst was slowly taking hold of her mind. Her tortured body was a sea of pain, but she could still walk. She could still fight.

She was still not willing to give up.

…After a while, the tree grew closer.

Nephis stopped and stared at its white bark, its scarlet leaves, and the shapes she had thought were fruit. But they weren't. Instead, tens of thousands of skulls hung from the beautiful branches, fastened to them with glistening threads of black silk.

A spring of water formed a clear pool in the shadow of the great tree, and on its bank, with his back to her, stood a figure clad in a strange, rusted armor.

'A… human?'

No… the figure was too tall to be one of her kind.

As if hearing her thoughts, the creature turned around, revealing a desiccated face of a corpse, hollow eyes emanating ominous blue radiance, and six hands, each grasping the hilt of a weapon. Two hands held long swords, their blades sharper than a razor and curved slightly, two hands held menacing twisted sickles, and the last two held a heavy scepter and a broken shield.

The chestplate of the creature's rusted armor was shattered, revealing a harrowing wound beneath.

Being consumed by thirst and exhaustion, Nephis raised a hand, as if begging the creature to stop.

But, of cause, it didn't.

With furious madness burning in its eyes, the abomination lunged at her, striking down with one of the sickles. It moved faster than lightning, sending a scarlet cloud of fallen leaves swirling into the air with a strong gust of wind.

Taking a step back, Nephis raised her broken sword to deflect the devastating strike, as if forgetting that it had no blade.

At the last moment, though, a ray of pure sunlight appeared where the blade should have been and stopped the sickle from rending her flesh.

Nephis swayed from the force of the impact, but remained standing. Her cracked lips opened, and a hoarse whisper escaped from them:

"Let us burn, then… let us burn together…"

In the next moment, white flames ignited in her eyes.

Her skin suddenly shone with pure radiance, which then became brighter, and brighter… and then, brighter still.

Throwing the sickle away, she dodged two thrusting swords and danced around the armored giant, her blade of sunlight piercing the rusted armor with terrifying ease.

The two of them fought in the shade of the ancient tree, thousands of skulls staring at their battle with empty eyes as they swayed in the wind.

Nephis was much slower and weaker than the six-armed demon, but her skill was flawless, inexplicable, and deadly. She moved with the flow of the battle as if it was her natural element, controlling its cadence with indifferent ease. Her flesh mended itself seconds after being torn, and the flames burning in her eyes only grew hotter.

Deathly pale from the harrowing pain, her beautiful face grew colder and colder, becoming almost inhuman.

Her sword of sunlight, meanwhile, left molten marks on the body of the ancient demon. And even though such wounds could never harm it, after a while, the creature suddenly staggered.

…Of course, it did. That was a Memory left behind by the Nameless Sun of the Forgotten Shore, after all. Everything it touched was doomed to have its soul destroyed.

Finally, Nephis managed to find an opening and dashed forward, slashing upward with the Nameless Sun. The sunlight blade cut through the rusted armor and severed one of the demon's arms, then fell down and sliced through another.

Before the creature could recover, she was already upon it. Nephis sidestepped a crushing blow of the heavy scepter and places her hand on the demon's face.

The creature froze, and then opened its mouth, as if to scream.

…However, all that escaped from it were dancing tongues of white flame.

As the pure radiance enveloping Neph's skin dimmed, it was as though the demon burned from within. Flaming fissures opened on its body, leaking pristine fire and radiating annihilating heat. His flesh boiled and blacked, and eventually, the blue shine of his eyes was replaced with blinding white light.

And then, that light was extinguished, leaving two dark, charred holes behind.

Nephis let go of the creature's face, and watched as its scorched body fell to the ground.

She stared at it for a few moments, and then indifferently turned away. Making a few steps forward, Nephis swayed and fell to her knees.

Then, she reached into the pool with trembling hands, put her palms together, and brought a handful of cold, sweet water to her lips.

Finally, her terrible thirst could be quenched.