At a glance · Third Nightmare (Event)
- Outcome
- [Reveal]Survived/Conquered
- Details
* Sunny learned the unbearable truths buried by Ariel in the tomb.
- Incongruity in the Doom War
- Sunny acquired [Soul Weave] Attribute.
- Sunny became truly and utterly free.
- Rewards
- Transcension
- Novel
- Chapter 1231 - 1580 (350 Chapters)
Article contents
Entrance
The entrance is a giant block of black stone that lay between white dunes. However, one end was cracked and shattered. The entire block emanated a familiar ghostly darkness, making all of it a Seed of Nightmare.[1]
Origin of Nightmare Seed
A black somber pyramid wreathed in darkness rose like a towering mountain from a sea of flawlessly white sand. Its slopes are vast plains, and its sharp peak is like a spear that pierces the heavens.[2]
The pyramid is built from millions of colossal stone blocks, each darker than the darkness itself and perfectly aligned. Each block was a Seed of Nightmare, with millions of them, some already in bloom and some waiting for their turn to blossom. The Nightmares were shallow and weak at the base of the pyramid and higher they become harrowing and unfathomable.[2]
The slope of the pyramid was broken and covered in cracks, with many blocks either shattered into dismal dust or missing. Four vast scars tainted its immaculate surface, as if an unholy beast had torn through the eternal stone with titanic claws. Above the scars was a narrow capstone.[2]
Explanation
Nightmare Creatures
- Main article: Tomb of Ariel (Nightmare)/Creature Catalogue
History
Mordret had invited Sunny to challenge the Third Nightmare with him.[3] Forced by the situation with no Transcendent to bring them back to the waking world Sunny, Nephis, Cassie, Effie, Kai, Mordret and Jet challenge the Nightmare.[4][1]
Prelude
This Nightmare originated from the Tomb of Ariel. The very beginning of the Nightmare was highly unusual, as time was not seen flowing in reverse, that made the necessary actions to resolve the Seed conflict unknown. Additionally, there are thirteen million challengers.[2]
The Nightmare was entered through a giant block of black stone that lay between the dunes, half-buried in sand. Inside the Nightmare was supposed to be in the desert but there was only cool freshwater in the surroundings.[2]
Sunny had spent the first month of the Nightmare on the Black Turtle's shell. Strangely, all he could remember about the dark island were happy memories, which was supposedly a harrowing place. He had spent training with Nephis, eating delicious meals, drinking cool water, and bathing in the warmth of a campfire. That's why, he was reluctant to let go of this paradise, as it was coming to an end. Sunny had entered the Nightmare crushed, having experienced bitter failures from Falcon Scott and the Battle of the Black Skull. He had wished to be strong and made his wish come true, only to find out that it was of no use in the end.[5]
Despite this, he was content on the dark island, sailing through a river of unholy blood on the corpse of a dreadful monster, and being pulled into the past by the current. He was happy to share this experience with someone he was fond of and had fun in the depths of a nightmare.[5]
When Sunny and Nephis met Cassie in Fallen Grace, she mentioned that Effie and Jet are alive and together, but they are trapped in a dangerous zone of the Great River. She has determined their exact location because of Jet's Echo, crow. Kai and Mordret were together in Twilight.[6]
Third Nightmare Summary
Events
Ancient Wood
Sunny found a rune carved into the wood he was floating with, as if someone used their nails to scratch the rune into the wooden surface in a fit of madness. The rune was "Wish", which could mean desire, yearning, longing, aspiration, or hope. However, its most fundamental meaning was just a wish.[7]
"Wish wish wish be careful of wish wish be careful of what you wish for wish for wish for wish for wish WISH WISH BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU WISH FOR BE CAREFUL BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU WISH WISH WISH FOR…"
The words spilled over the ancient wood, crisscrossing each other and resembling a single rune on the other side. The lines were rough, frantic, and forceful. The deranged weave of runes radiates a sense of dire madness.[8]
The markings seemed like they had been made a long, long time ago.[9]
Estuary Key
- Main article: Key of the Estuary
A memory of unknown origin suddenly appeared in Sunny's list of memories without his knowledge.[10]
First Seeker
- Main article: First Seeker
The First Seeker was the first person who learned the hideous truth that the Demon of Dread had hidden in the heart of the Black Pyramid was consumed by corruption.[11]
Sin of Solace's Apparition
- Main article: Sin of Solace's Apparition
In the Nightmare, the spirit of the cursed sword did not look vague and blurry. It looked complete and real.[2]
Six Plagues
- Main article: Six Plagues
The description of Six Plagues was extremely ominous as it sounds like the corrupted and twisted versions of the members of the cohort, except for Nephis, who was incorruptible.[12]
Sunny's Dream
He flees from a terrifying gate, feeling a sense of betrayal and regret. Sunny pushed his body across a stone floor, observing beautiful webs in a temple hall. A spark ignited the webs, engulfing them in fire. The webs disappeared, leaving behind acrid smoke, and Sunny couldn't see the harrowing gate anymore. He escapes the fire but becomes lost in misty surroundings, eventually encountering the Mad Prince, a Corrupted Titan. Sunny now resembled a tall, nebulous man with eight nimble arms, one made of porcelain. His slender figure was covered in a dark mantle and black polished wood mask. He observed the Mad Prince from his towering height. Mad Prince realized he was in a dream made Sunny filled with dread as the Mad Prince acknowledges his presence and accuses him of being a murderer. As the Mad Prince advances, the Sin of Solace intervenes, urging Sunny to escape.[14]
Speculations
Situation of the Nightmare based on the memories received in Antarctica
In the Nightmare Desert where they entered the Third Nightmare through a Seed that had been part of Tomb of Ariel. The Spell should have sent them into the past of the desert or the black pyramid, but instead, they were sent into the Great River.[15]
The inside of the pyramid looked like a Soul Sea or was made from one instead. Ariel built the black pyramid out of the flesh of an Unholy Titan and created the Great River out of its blood. It can be said that he created a world out of the Titan's soul. Therefore, the seven suns were made out of seven divine soul shards that the Titan had left behind.[15]
If they were inside the pyramid and the Great River is situated inside the pyramid, it could explain why there are no stars in the night sky and why it is entirely black.[15]
Ariel created the tomb to bury the truths he couldn't endure, and the dreadful secret was hidden in its estuary. There are speculations about Ariel's motives, suggesting that he had no other choice but to create a whole world, hide it within an indestructible pyramid, and remove it from the natural flow of time.[15]
Only the end of great river that flows through time, into the past, can have the point when time didn't exist yet. The estuary of the Great River has to be the point where the past disappears into the primordial void, which was everlasting and everchanging, and existed before the concepts like death and time were even created.[15]
The estuary has to exist before the gods were born and therefore, outside their control. If Ariel wanted to hide something from even the gods, he would have had to go to such lengths.[15]
There are also sybils that had entered the Tomb of Ariel much earlier. They came to the Great River, which existed outside the natural flow of time, and was thus far removed from the doom that they were escaping. The doom had to be the war between the daemons and the gods. That was why they eventually couldn't hear the voices of the gods anymore because the gods died.[15]
Therefore, there should be tons of locals on the Great River that are able to give all kinds of information including what the central conflict of the Nightmare and how to conquer it.[15]
Truth
It was revealed in Chapter 1553 that Cassie can perceive Sin of Solace's wraith through Sunny and can also perceive through his shadows. She purposefully displayed her secrets for Sunny to see, such as the chamber with the well[16] and the countless journals stored in a runic chest[16].[17]
Cassie met Torment six months after becoming Dusk. It was arranged by the Mad Prince and Torment herself, revealing that they were behind all of the schemes together.[18]
Cassie did not lie that she only saw darkness in her visions after entering the Nightmare. Still, it's not due to the Tomb of Ariel itself, but rather Torment's suppression of her abilities with the help of a sorcerous item. The shackles were worn by Dusk. Breaking the enchantment was necessary to survive Aletheia's Island and Twilight, and the visions came to her in dreams. She is safe from learning the truth of the Estuary as long as she is with Sunny, due to his Shadow, Nightmare, who can destroy dreams.[19]
Her past self, destined to become Torment, managed to create a suppression enchantment to protect herself from the truth but knew the Mad Prince was coming for her. Despite this, she didn't escape instead she created countermeasures to achieve her goals, even after her soul and sanity were consumed by corruption. To escape the madness of Corruption, she received help from the Mad Prince, who was able to preserve a fragment of his humanity due to Sin of Solace's wraith. With his help, she turned her Defiled self into an instrument of her will.[19]
The Mad Prince made the Dread Lord use his authority against her. He added fuel to the paranoia the tyrant of Verge felt toward Torment, and then put the idea of what commands to give her into his mind. The Mad Prince and Torment were capable of resisting their vile natures, to a degree, and became perfect conspirators.[19]
After the Plagues reached the Estuary and used it to invade the next cycle of the Great River, Mad Prince, and Torment prepared for the arrival of new challengers. The Mad Prince trapped two of the Plagues on Aletheia's Island and two more in Twilight. Then, he completed the Key of the Estuary and entered the Source, becoming Sunny.[19]
One of the two had to stay behind because Torment had a message to Cassie that could only be delivered face-to-face. She infiltrated Fallen Grace, modified Dusk's shackles, and wrote an accord about previous cycles. Torment met Cassie in the Temple of Dusk, delivering the message. However, as she was still a Defiled, after completing her mission, she attempted to consume Cassie but was held back by the authority of the Dread Lord, resulting in her death by Cassie's hand.[20]
The Mad Prince entered the Source to ensure that the Key of the Estuary was possessed by Sunny at the start of the Nightmare, protecting him against the truth harbored by the Sin of Solace.[19]
Goal
Most of the people who escaped the end of the world by entering the Tomb of Ariel had either died or been Corrupted, and the rest would soon follow. That was the fate of the Great River civilization. There are two ways to resolve the conflict: help the destruction of civilization or eliminate the source of the spreading Defilement.[11]
- Daeron, a figure who came from outside the pyramid, was believed to have entered the true Great River and not a version recreated by the Spell. The Spell created Nightmares based on the past. The Great River, however, existed simultaneously in the past, in the present, and in the future. It is believed that if Daeron had truly entered the Black Pyramid, he would be present in any recreation of the Great River conjured by the Spell. If his subjects challenged a Seed connected to the Black Pyramid, their Sovereign would be waiting for them on the other side to help them conquer it.[21]
However, this theory had a significant problem. The Seeds of Nightmares and the Nightmares themselves had not existed in the ancient past of the Dream Realm. No explorer had ever discovered signs that its human inhabitants had knowledge of the Nightmares, and Noctis had not known anything about them either. Daeron's plan to use the uniqueness of the Great River to help his people Transcend through a Nightmare failed, as many of his people died trying to destroy "that which was defiled." This phrase is crucial because it hinted at the goal of the Nightmare and meant that Sunny, Nephis, and other members of the cohort would have to succeed where the ancient Sovereign and his army had failed.[21]
The goal of the Nightmare was never straightforward. Its conflict centered around the fate of the Great River civilization. There were multiple solutions to the conflict, including destroying the source of Defilement and saving the River People or ensuring their annihilation. The Plagues were destroying cities across the Great River to conquer the Nightmare. While the Mad Prince aimed to ensure the Nightmare never ends.[22]
The cohort was present in the Tomb of Ariel, where Cassie became the ruler of Fallen Grace, and Effie and Jet were the last of the River Nomads. The Six Plagues needed to eradicate all humans on the Great River, and they would need to eliminate them too.[22]
Final Battle
The final battle of the Third Nightmare took place in Verge, a ruined city of the Seekers of Truth that had been almost entirely buried under the First Seeker. This entity was described as a vast, formless mass of red flesh that covered the world like a spreading tumor, overrunning the city and spilling into the Great River, infecting it while continuing to grow. It was not only an abomination, but also the source of the Defilement, meaning that any contact with its flesh resulted in instant Corruption. The battlefield itself was further overwhelmed by the Defiled—powerful, ancient Nightmare Creatures, many Corrupted or Fallen—making the confrontation seem like an impossible task for a handful of Masters to complete.[23]
To defeat it, Nephis and her cohort devised a plan to locate and destroy the First Seeker's heart or a core, believed to be deep within the mass of flesh where the remains of Aletheia of the Nine were buried. Since Nephis was the only one capable of walking across the First Seeker's flesh without becoming corrupted, she undertook the central task alone. The group first had to pass through a great legion of the Defiled, which they managed with Mordret's help, as he led them through the reflections into Verge. Once inside, the cohort split roles: Kai and Effie held back the pursuing Defiled, Mordret and Cassie lured others away as bait, and Nephis advanced toward the heart of the abomination.[23]
Upon reaching the core area, Nephis attempted to carve into and burn the First Seeker, but the flesh regenerated faster than she could destroy it. Meanwhile, her cohort was buying her time, drowning in a devastating flood of the Defiled, being pushed back toward the First Seeker and the risk of becoming Defiled themselves. Ultimately, unable to overcome its regeneration by conventional means, Nephis resorted to detonating six of her seven cores, unleashing six times the devastation she had previously wielded, which was enough to destroy the First Seeker.[23]
Aftermath
- Sunny learned the unbearable truths buried by Ariel in the tomb.1570-1572[24][25][26]
- Incongruity in the Doom War
- Sunny acquired [Soul Weave] Attribute.[27]
- Somewhere in Verge, Nephis must have delivered a fatal blow to the First Seeker.[27]
- Sunny was ambushed by a Cursed Terror, Vile Thieving Bird.[27]
- Sunny was banished from the Spell.[28]
- After the Sunny and his friends conquered the Third Nightmare, they were sent back by the Spell to the exact moment they had entered the Seed of Nightmare.[29][30] (Reason for their confusing ages)
- In Chapter 1587, Anvil directly confronted the harrowing creature identified as the same Great Titan that had previously decimated the armies of both Valor and Song during the Battle of the Black Skull. It was only mentioned that he and Ki Song (as Sovereigns) were actively holding back the Great horrors, including this Titan, to maintain control of the battlefield and ensure the continued operation of the Dream Gates used for civilian evacuation.
- Sunny was free from Strings of Fate.[31]
- Six individuals who returned from the Tomb of Ariel have memory gaps, with Cassie being the most affected. She hasn't revealed a secret to anyone, but her memory is severely damaged, and she can't see the future. However, she had a time when her memory was intact, and she could learn about the war.[32]
Trivia
- When Sunny, Nephis and Cassie had a reunion in Fallen Grace, only Nephis got a hug from Cassie.[33]
- Things that did not make sense in the Nightmare:[34]
- The Six Plagues, who had traveled the past and remained in the Tomb of Ariel, were a paradox.[34]
- Where the Chain Breaker was found before arranging for it to be discovered by Sunny and Nephis.[34]
- The destruction of Weave, denying them support from the Followers of Weaver.[34]
- There were four fixed events in the Nightmare each cycle:[35]
- Nephis and Sunny entered the Tomb of Ariel in the far reaches of the future[35]
- Cassie entered the Nightmare in Fallen Grace[35]
- Effie and Jet entered the Nightmare among the River Nomads[35]
- Kai entered the Nightmare near Twilight with Mordret[35]
- Cassie had spent the longest in this Nightmare even longer than in Forgotten Shore.[36] She entered the Nightmare a year before Sunny and Nephis came to Fallen Grace.[33]
- Sunny and Nephis spent around eight months in this Nightmare.[37]
- From Effie's perspective, it hasn't been nine months yet, but her labor started prematurely. In another perspective, she had been carrying her child close to two years.[38]
- Nephis, Kai, and Effie were all veterans of the Forgotten Shore, where humans were at the bottom of the food chain. Effie, who had hunted alone in the Dark City, was skilled in navigating dangerous terrain. Jet, a frightening existence, grew stronger after the Antarctic Center and military reconnaissance in East Antarctica. Mordret, the most slippery of the five, was the last person Sunny would worry about in the Tomb of Ariel.[39]
- Inside the Estuary, Sunny has dealt with a past version of himself, the Mad Prince, and a future version of himself.[40][41] In hindsight,
- Cassie was sent into the body of Dusk of Fallen Grace.[42]
- Jet and Effie were sent into the bodies of two River Nomads.[42]
- Kai and Mordret were sent into the bodies of two Riverborn warriors in Twilight.[42]
- Sunny discovered that Nephis and he took the roles of themselves, and their bodies will always be their own just like Daeron left his imprint in the Nightmare. They will return to the Tomb of Ariel one day.[42]
See Also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 1230 Hell is Empty
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Chapter 1231 Once More, With Feeling
- ↑ Chapter 1227 A Friendly Invitation
- ↑ Chapter 1229 Seventh Night
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 1275 Last Resort
- ↑ Chapter 1360 Marooned
- ↑ Chapter 1233 Coming to Terms With the End of the World
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 1235 Wondrous Sight
- ↑ Chapter 1236 Great River
- ↑ Chapter 1237 The Answer Is
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Chapter 1293 Defilement
- ↑ Chapter 1317 Difficult Questions
- ↑ Chapter 1312 Ancient Mural
- ↑ Chapter 1313 Nightmare Within Nightmare
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 Chapter 1248 Entombed
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Chapter 1539 Sybil's Secrets
- ↑ Chapter 1553 Shadow and Seer
- ↑ Chapter 1554 Familiar Face
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 Chapter 1555 Partners in Crime
- ↑ Chapter 1556 Dangerous Knowledge
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Chapter 1289 Crown of Twilight
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Chapter 1456 Do What You Want
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Chapter 2929 On the Verge
- ↑ Chapter 1570 Writ in Water
- ↑ Chapter 1571 Seventh God
- ↑ Chapter 1572 Testament of Dread
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Chapter 1580 What You Wish For
- ↑ Chapter 1581 Shadows and Dust
- ↑ Chapter 1585 Climbing Out of a Grave
- ↑ Chapter 1586 Grey Sky
- ↑ Chapter 1589 Untethered
- ↑ Chapter 1789 Peculiar Connection
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 Chapter 1358 Beautiful Chains
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 Chapter 1490 No Bounds
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 35.4 Chapter 1493 Sins of the Past
- ↑ Chapter 1542 Last Journey
- ↑ Chapter 1503 Approaching Twilight
- ↑ Chapter 1544 Innermost Void
- ↑ Chapter 1551 Left Behind
- ↑ Chapter 1576 Dreadful Whisper
- ↑ Chapter 1577 Past, Present, and Future
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 42.3 Chapter 1578 Lost Shadow
Sources & history
Third Nightmare (Event) · Shadow Slave Wiki
Source revision 42703
Adapted from Fandom. CC-BY-SA
Retrieved 2026-11-04 · Article version 1