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"Whether Nightmare Gates are produced by the Spell or not, there is definitely a connection between the two. Or rather, the three... since Awakened are also part of this equation."

He grew silent after that, and then added in a more serious tone:

"What interests me the most, however, is which of the three came first."

Sunny looked at him with surprise.

"Forgive me, Professor, but isn\'t that common knowledge? The Spell came first, bringing with it the Nightmares. Then, we Awakened appeared as the result."

He frowned slightly.

"... Of course, common knowledge is not always trustworthy. But in this case, it seems to follow logic."

Professor Obel shook his head.

"Who can really say? The beginnings of the Spell are not documented well. Back then... the world was not in the best shape, and by the time we knew that something was happening, it was already out of our ability to prevent, contain, or control. We tried, of course, but... even then, some truths never get to become widely known, or even be put on paper at all. It is very likely that what you said is true. There are other possibilities, though, ones that would demand entirely different solutions."

Sunny looked at him with a perplexed expression.

"What do you mean?"

The elderly scientist hesitated.

"Have you ever asked yourself this... did the Spell bring Nightmares with it, or did the Nightmares bring the Spell? Ah, forgive me. This is still too broad. Here is another question - do the Nightmares produce the Awakened, or do the Awakened produce the Nightmares?"

Sunny blinked.

"What?"

The old man smiled.

"Consider it a mental exercise. Of course, it is widely known that one becomes an Awakened through surviving the First Nightmare. However, after that, things become more interesting... you are too young to remember, but at the beginning of it all, the disasters of the Spell descended on the waking world in stages. Otherwise, we would have never survived."

Professor Obel\'s eyes suddenly became distant, as if he was remembering a distant past.

"At first, there were only those infected by the Spell. Some of them became Sleepers, and some became Dormant abominations. Then, after the first solstice, there were Awakened. However, there were also Nightmare Gates of the Second Category, and with them, more powerful creatures came into our world. Eventually, there were more Sleepers, more Awakened... there were also Masters. But with them came more Gates, and more Gates that were unlike anything we had ever seen."

He paused.

"Then there were Saints. And North America. And now, we have the Chain of Nightmares... one can\'t help but wonder."

Sunny did not like the sound of that.

\'What is he trying to say?\'

"...Wonder about what?"

The fragile old man let out a heavy sigh.

"This is just a scientific inquiry, Master Sunless. Don\'t take it close to heart. As scientists, our duty is to ask questions, and one of these questions is whether there is a correlation between the number and power of Awakened in our world and the number and power of the Nightmare Gates that manifest here. Awakened and Nightmares... which of these elements is the cause, and which is the effect?"

Sunny thought for a bit, then simply shook his head.

"Your argument has a big flaw, Professor. If there really was a correlation and we, Awakened, were somehow responsible for attracting bigger and better Nightmare Gates, then there would not have been a Category Five Gate in North America before a bunch of Supremes ran around the world. I think you are just giving in to the desire to see patterns in the chaos that all us, humans, share."

There were three Sovereigns alive in the world right now, but there had not been any when that Gate swallowed an entire continent. In any case, Sunny was not going to mention the Supremes as anything but a theoretical possibility.

Professor Obel nodded with appreciation.

"Good thinking, young man! It is always good to have a healthy amount of skepticism. However... your point is only unassailable if we assume a crucial detail to be true."

Sunny frowned.

"Yes? What detail?"

The old man looked at the scientist surrounding them and smiled with a bit of sadness.

"That the impact of a powerful Awakened emerging only flows down the river of time as we, mortals, do. However... if it spreads like a ripple through time, just like the aftershock of a Gate manifesting itself into reality, then it doesn\'t matter when their Ascension happens. The first Supreme might appear in a few years, but the consequences of their rise could have already burdened us years ago."

His fatigued eyes suddenly shone with strange light.

"As for the harrowing Gate that destroyed North America... who knows? Maybe it is just an echo of a god emerging from the human race in a distant, dire future..."

***

Some time later, Sunny left his shadow in the laboratory to stand watch and went to check on his soldiers. As he walked through the underground complex, his expression was dark.

What Professor Obel had told him... Sunny was not exactly buying it. At least not entirely. However, he felt that there were a few nuggets of truth in what the old man believed, even if the scientists might have come to the wrong conclusions based on those theories.

The ripples of time, the disasters that came from the future and thus paved the path for their eventual inception, thus creating a weird self-contained paradox... Sunny was dubious about the validity, and even sanity, of these ideas.

In his experience, the simplest answer was most often correct. Professor Obel seemed to have lost sight of that fact.

There was one theory, however, that made him restless.

\'Can the Ascension of many Awakened really cause the growing number and intensity of the Nightmare Gates?\'

He did not really see how that could be the case. After all, one had to go through a Nightmare first to become Awakened, not the other way around. However, however......

If he assumed that there really was a correlation...... one thing would make more sense.

Walking through the dark corridors. Sunny scowled.

\'...Can this be the reason why the Sovereigns are suppressing the emergence of new Saints? No, more than that. Can this be the reason why none of them challenged the Fifth Nightmare yet?\'

In the past. he had thought that all of this hidden oppression was just the result of the ambition and lust for power consuming Asterion, Anvil of Valor, and Ki Song.

But was that the only reason?

Sunny let out a frustrated sigh.

He simply did not know......