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Chapter Text

Sunny found himself standing at the brink.

Freedom was right in front of him, he had gone through so much to get here, stabbed, gutted and maimed more times then he could count, even so Sunny survived and grew stronger because of it.

Him, a mere rat from the outskirts, abandoned by the world and now he stands at the top as possibly the strongest Sleeper to exist, to ever exist, with just one step his nightmare would finally be over.

He would be the one who would triumph. 

All it would take is abandoning Nephis in this forgotten hell. 

Sunny stood still for a moment as he looked at Nephis, her long silver hair was caked with blood and she looked as if she could barely stand, even with her flames licking at her wounds, her armor and body were beaten and ragged.

The look of pain and sorrow were evident on her stunning face, but he could still see the burning resolve peeking from behind her striking grey eyes.

As Sunny momentarily lost himself in her beauty, he came to a sobering realization.

He…he had nothing.

Even if he went back to the waking world, what would be there to do? Rain doesn’t need him… she never needed him and that won’t change just because he was an Awakened, Kai and Effie would have their own lives to live, they would forget him eventually and Cassie had been keeping her distance since the Dark City.

Changing Star on the other hand? 

She would have followers and fame, her conviction would blaze the path towards her nebulous goal to destroy the Spell, she was destined to make a mark on the annals of history and maybe lead humanity to a better future, like her family did.

The world needed Changing Star no matter how ruinous she was, but it did not need Lost from Light. 

No one ever did.

The Crimson Spire shook again, the cracks on the platform crawling towards the gateway and its iron ring at its center bit by bit, and the sun above was waning, slowly approaching its death throes.

Looking up at the dying star, Sunny decided to be selfless for the 2nd time in his life.

He sighed and turned away from Nephis and slowly walked towards the gateway, unseen from her eyes, white sparks were materialising in Sunny’s left hand hidden by his body.

Nephis breathed a sigh of relief as Sunny walked away a small smile on her lips, “Take care of yourself Sunny and I hope you can find your sister, I promise I’ll be back”

“Rain” said as he slowly walked forward.

“Hm?” 

“My sister's name is Rain, please take care of her Neph” Sunny smiled as he firmly grasped the memory that had materialised in his hand.

An Ordinary Rock.

Changing star was confused but before she could react Sunny spun and threw it right at her face.

The rock struck Nephis’ square on the nose with a sharp crack. Her head snapped back, and her hands flew to her face as tears welled in her eyes. Before she could recover, Sunny was there. The cold pommel of the Midnight Shard slammed into her temple.

A dull thud and her body crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.

Sunny picked up her dazed form, ran and dropped her unceremoniously onto the podium. Nephis tried to resist, staggering toward him. He summoned the Moonlight Shard. A quick motion and drove the stiletto through her hands, pinning them to the gateway.

He held the dagger in its position, thankful his maneuver worked, if her guard was up and if she had been in her prime… this might have all been for nothing, he grimaced at the amount of pain that he kept causing her but this was necessary.

Nephis’ profile began to fade and blur, the blue runes ignited in the dim red darkness of the spire, her eyes were wide and panicked as she slowly focused on Sunny, Nephis started to move, struggling to pull out the dagger from the gateway.

“Sunny… NO!” Her efforts doubled but it was all for naught.

He forced a smirk on his face, hoping he could cover the daunting reality of his situation “Don’t worry Neph, you said so yourself, it would be difficult to kill a noble cockroach like me, right? I’ll… be fine, the world needs you more than it needs me, tell Cassie I hope she’s ok.”

She struggled, weak and clumsy, still dazed from the blow. Desperation burned in her eyes. “Don’t… say that…” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Sunny, please… don’t do this… don’t leave me too.”

His heart ached at her words, but he stood resolute, Nephis began to dissipate even more, her grey eyes met his filled with profound grief and unspoken emotions, but then filled with a sudden determination. She spoke 4 words that made his world crumble.

“LOST FROM LIGHT, ST-“ Changing Star disappeared, her words echoing in the broken hall of the Crimson Spire, as if heard in a forgotten nightmare.

Sunny stood there, eyes wide and shocked, trying to comprehend the weight of those words and deep within his soul, something moved and rose from slumber, triumphant. Unbreakable, eternal, irresistible. Complete, perfect, and sweet.

‘How did she know?’ Sunny thought as the cracks finally reached the iron rings, the runes extinguished and the podium they sat on fell apart.

Feeling a well of bitterness, anger, fear and relief surge in his heart, Sunny forced himself to look away. Now wasn’t the time for doubts. He sprinted to the platform’s edge. Wind howling as he leaped into the void. White sparks spun behind him, ending with the [Dark Wing] unfurled, catching the air and slowing his descent.

The Spire was collapsing. Coral shards rained down like a maelstrom. Sunny dodged left, then right. Too slow. A jagged edge slashed past his cheek. He gritted his teeth and pushed forward, relying on Shadow Sense to orient himself.

As he made it outside, he pumped his legs for all their worth, the Nameless Sun of the Forgotten Shore gave out one last blazing cry, and then collapsed without the weight of a soul to power it, Sunny ran and watched in awe as the Spire crumbled and the land was plunged into eternal darkness.

“D- damnation, that was close!” He stopped to catch his breath, wincing as the pain of this long and arduous siege finally started catching up with him, he was spent, broken and bleeding but thankfully Blood Weave kept the worst of it away.

‘I need to rest, I'm stuck here for the foreseeable future and I’m too tired to try and comprehend everything that went down in the spire’ Sunny tiredly looked around, he could thankfully see in the dark, but even then he felt a pang of fear at the sheer desolation around him.

The bodies of sleepers, the corpses of monsters, the breaking coral and… the silence.

It was unnerving.

“Ha- hah! well no problem, being alone in the darkness with no friends, surrounded by monsters and gods knows what else waiting for me, this is just like back in the Dark City, and I survived that perfectly fine! Right Gloomy?” He looked at his wayward shadow with a forced smile.

Gloomy looked at him, exasperation clear in his posture as he looked at his master incredulously, he shook his head but there was a faint tremor of worry in the shadow’s silhouette.

“Right” Sunny nodded and slowly began his trek to find a shelter to sleep in “I’ll be fine, I’ll… be fine.”

As Sleeper Sunless gazed upon this Forsaken Land, drowned in shadows he saw a twisted irony in his current situation.

“Fate is such a funny thing isn’t it? going through all of that, so much suffering just to end up without anyone just like in the beginning, I really am… Lost from Light arent I?” He let out a dry laugh.

Sunny walked on in a sunless land. 

Chapter Text

Nephis found herself within a black void. 

An endless expanse between the edge of dream and reality very much like her own soul, The space of the void shinned with a myriad of strings, bright stars serving as nexus’ between each point, there was an inhuman beauty to the pattern as if crafted and weaved by a being who could see further than both mortal and divine, to create this grand yet living tapestry.

In the middle of this void, stood a tall silver-haired girl, she was encased in a black bodysuit, with striking white armour panels, a seven-star crest at the center of its chest plate, her skin was ivory and eyes gray. She stood in the space like a sacred being separated from it and was instead a stoic angel sent from the heavens.

But the angel's face was currently distorted with grief and anger as she kneeled in the void, her hands covering her face. 

Why? That was the biggest question going through Changing Star’s mind.

“Why did you do it, Sunny? It wasn’t supposed to be you! Dammit… it wasn’t supposed to be you…” her voice was thick with pain as she felt the full extent of her loss.

After killing the Crimson Terror and seeing the Soul Conduit attribute she knew what she had to do, Sunny would come after beating Caster, she would set the stage for her deceit and after her loss, Sunny would leave and survive, she would have been stuck in the Dream Realm alone… but that was better than risking his life.

And his True Name… 

That was supposed to be the last option, the safe option.

She didn’t want to use it, it was supposed to be her last resort if nothing worked, but even then, even after stripping his agency away it was all for nothing.

She could heal, she was a Demon and scion of the Immortal Flame Clan, the journey promised to be long and arduous but she would not die until she got her revenge on those three ghouls and destroyed the Spell, she refused.

‘The Spell…’ at that thought she looked up at the silver tapestry, her face a rictus of rage and anger, some might have thought it beautiful… but she found it to be abhorrent aping beauty to hide its ugliness.

And again it’s taken something… someone precious from her.

‘I’ll destroy it’ she promised herself, maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow but someday she would, white embers ignited in her eyes, burning the promise into her very soul.

But before that fateful day, she would have to live with the fact that someone sacrificed themselves to save her life and the powerlessness at not being able to stop it.

Again.

The embers in her eyes died, instead replaced by a deep sorrow, hugging her knees, a dull pain rested in her chest as Nephis replayed the entire encounter repeatedly, trying to find a better way, where she went wrong and what she could have done better, how she could have saved him!

If Sunny died… she didn’t know what she would do.

’The world needs you more than it needs me’ his last words resounded in her head, his look of resignation as if accepting that he was nobody, and that last look of an emotion she couldn’t describe as he held her down.

Changing star spoke, her voice barely even a whisper;

“I need you Sunny… I need you.”

Nephis spent an unknown amount of time wallowing in self flagellation; it could have been days or maybe weeks, but eventually the mocking voice of the Spell resounded in her ears.

[The Second Seal is broken.]

[Awakening dormant powers…]

***

In a compound deep under the Academy, a pod lay in the middle of a room surrounded by medical equipment, its owner had lustrous silver hair and perfect white skin, her face was peaceful and vulnerable, as if far away from the horrors of the real world.

Without warning a violent gout of fire burst through the pod, slagging the metal coffin and dramatically the temperature in the room, the smoke slowly cleared revealing the striking silhouette of Changing Star.

She stood up and was slightly dazed and embarrassed from the sudden loss of control, seeing that her tracksuit was burned she summoned her broken armour and turned around as the doctors and Awakened of the facility quickly rushed into her room.

“Slee- Awakened Changing Star! You're awake as well, thank goodness!” The personnel looked upon the scion of the Immortal Flame Clan in awe, the reports of coming in from the newly awakened Dreamer Army were flooding in and the only word to describe their feats so far was astonishment, especially from Lady Nephis.

Looking at her with her broken armour, long silver hair and calm grey eyes, it was as if they were looking upon a Saint sent from the heavens, but… strangely enough her face was marked with an expression of muted grief instead of triumph.

“Eh, Lady Changing Star, is there a problem?” One of the guards asked as she looked at them silently. 

Nephis closed her eyes, sighed and asked “Take me to Sunny’s room”.

“Sunny?”

Nephis lingered for a bit and rephrased “Ah, I mean Sleeper Sunless I would like to visit him”

“O-Oh that’s perfectly fine, but it would be better for us to conduct an interview first to get-“ The doctor shut his mouth as she glared at him, her intentions obvious as white sparks ignited in her eyes.

One of the guards spoke up in a hurry “Th- That can be arranged mam, p-please this way” he gestured for her to follow, the rest of the crowd parted as she moved, a stoic expression on her face.

They walked through the twisting maze of the Academy and finally arrived at a non-descript door, as normal and bland as the rest of them in the area.

The guard lingered a bit while Nephis stared at the door, as if afraid to open it and see what’s inside, without looking at him she opened it and entered the room her steps deceptively calm, and in it…

Was another metal coffin, much like the one she destroyed, sleeping inside was a small but frail boy, his messy raven-black hair spilled over most of his head and his skin had a slightly unhealthy pallor, his face on the other hand was peaceful and serene, not at all reflecting the dreadful nightmare he was currently trapped in.

‘Sunny…’ Nephis looked down at the pod staring at Sunny’s visage, the dull hollow pain in her heart coming back stronger than before. She realised in this moment how much he meant to her, seeing him so open and vulnerable after saving her… it was painful and tore at her very soul like a ragged wound.

She put her forehead down on the glass, the feel of it cool to the touch, sitting there and trying to sort her emotions until the door opened and the sound of small but delicate feet echoed through the room ending right beside her.

“Neph… wha- what happened?” She looked up sharply at Cassie, her unseeing cerulean blue eyes were stunning combined with her golden hair, they were filled with sadness as well as relief “Did it work? His True Name?”

Nephis was silent for a moment, she gritted her teeth as she responded “Yes… it worked but not in the way that you think”

“What?” Cassie looked at her in confusion

“It was for nothing, Cassie!” She shouted “We fought in the Spire, I threw the fight but even then he got the best of me and sacrificed himself. I used his True Name but… but it was too late… it was for nothing…”

“Sacrifice? But the vision showed—” Cassie was confused, the encounter was supposed to be different did… Did something change?

Nephis grabbed her by the shoulders and looked at the blind seer, rage and sadness warning on her face “Fuck the vision Cassie! You misinterpreted it or maybe it was vague on purpose. It doesn't matter, we betrayed him and didn’t mean anything, because he's stuck there!” 

She loosened her grip and slumped, the fire within her burning out “And we don’t know if he’s coming back…”

Cassie stood still unable to understand, this was supposed to be what she wanted. Nephis was safe and back in the waking world, her plan to defy her vision came true so why does it feel as though… as though something so precious that it can't be described with words was taken from her? 

She knew Sunny wouldn’t kill Nephis after everything that happened, but even then that fear that Nephis would die would still persist, did she guarantee the visions fruition by telling them? Would they have been a better outcome if she never revealed his True Name? Was this all her fault for thinking that she could overcome fate? 

The guilt of knowing that Sunny saved Nephis instead of killing her… It made all of her justifications hollow, all the excuses she could have made flimsy.

It made her treachery even worse

Song of the Fallen, walked over to the coffin, putting her hands over it, her best friend still stuck in his nightmare even after everything, her prophecy no matter how hard she tried always led to a bad outcome, and seeing the result of it was too much.

Nephis stood beside her and spoke, her voice low. “Sunny… he told me to tell you that he hopes you're ok.”

That was the breaking point, she collapsed on the pod, tears falling down her beautiful face like a waterfall, staining the glass beneath, Nephis hugged her as Cassie buried her face in her chest, trying but failing to cover her gasps in vain 

“I’m sorry Sunny, I’m so sorry” she broke down, her voice wet and ragged as she repeated that phrase over and over, they stood over the pod sobbing for their friend, and praying silently to the gods for his survival.

But the gods were dead and there was no one to listen to their prayers.

Nephis put her hand right above Sunny’s, the other cradling Cassie, the glass stopping her from touching his face, she closed her eyes and gave Sunny the first and hopefully the last order she ever will in her life.

‘’Come back Lost from Light, I won’t forgive you if you don't.’’

Chapter Text

It was night and Nephis was laying down in her room given to her by the Academy, it was much more luxurious than when she was a Sleeper and she suspected more than most of the actual Awakened in the school.

She wasn’t tired, physically at the very least, but her mind was exhausted, after leaving Sunny’s room, Cassie left saying she had something urgent to attend to, that left Nephis having to deal with most of the Dreamer Army.

Their thankfulness and praise they gave her was nice but also slightly uncomfortable.

She never liked crowds.

Her mood dimmed a bit when they started to ask questions about Sunny… and Caster

Caster could burn for all she cared but she needed to put up a front of a compassionate leader, she didn’t allow any of her pain to show on her face, it wasn't difficult she just had to think back to how things were as a child, so she just gave them reassurances and told them she didn’t know of Sunny’s current whereabouts.

There was going to be a gathering for the survivors in the Academy Hall tomorrow, to mourn the dead and celebrate the living, and fortunately or unfortunately whichever way you saw it, some of the high-ranked members of staff asked if ‘Lady Changing Star’ could hold a speech at the end of it.

Honestly, Nephis should have been proud and eager, she was one step closer to accomplishing her goal, no matter how powerful, she knew that she couldn’t face the Sovereigns by herself. Strong and loyal soldiers combined with a power base were necessary.

Although risky, since the Great Clans would not let her run around plotting against them unmolested, currently Nephis was like the number one song ever released by Nightingale ‘Nightmare in your heart’ everyone had their attention on her especially if she could get Kai and Effie to stay, two heroes with True Names… they would think twice before doing anything.

But recently she felt herself…

Waning.

It was a scary thing, like the very core of who she was and what she knew was being damaged, Nephis never thought this could happen but seeing the result of her goals, the blood that was spilled and Sunny…

For the first time she didn’t know if what she was doing was the right thing.

Changing Star gritted her teeth as she chased away the thought, she couldn’t afford to waver not now, all the sacrifices to get her here would have been for nothing, she can’t stop and anyone trying to would face her wrath.

The temperature in the room rose slightly at Nephis’ thoughts, trying to distract herself she decided to check the new memory she got from the Crimson Terror and her progress towards creating her Devil core.

However, what met her sight at the bottom of her runes…

“A Di- Divine Aspect?, Monster core, Divine Memory!? A Forbidden Lineage…”

Nephis’ mouth continued to grow more and more agape, as she read Sunny’s runes, she knew that he was exceptional, especially at the last moment of their fight, something about him changed then, it was like fighting herself.

And it must have had to do with his Aspect Legacy… Shadow Dance, a Sleeper unlocking their Legacy? That was unheard of.

And his Flaw… a pang of regret wormed in her heart, remembering their argument in the Dark City.

‘I hope you're ok, Sunny.’

Seeing his runes made her feel a bit voyeuristic… and jealous too. How did he get a Legacy, a Divine Memory of the highest tier and from the looks of it a completely new Divine Lineage, where was the fairness?

Honestly, it felt like he was the protagonist of a web novel.

But with it came an overwhelming sense of relief, as if one of the weights on her soul had been dropped, being able to track his progress in real time, confirming that he was alive and his status was just a thought away…

She would always regret what led to her saying his True Name but for a moment she was thankful.

Feeling a bit better but still a little restless —the stim patches guaranteed she wouldn’t be sleeping for a while— she left her room and headed towards the Gym, practicing her katas should hopefully shake off some of the nervousness for tomorrow.

***

The practice didn’t work.

If anything she was more nervous, but she didn’t allow it to show on her face, stoic and aloof as ever, it was practically a skill at this point.

She walked to the conference hall passing and greeting as she passed by, entering it she saw that it was already filled to the brim with the newly awakened army and their attention immediately snapped to her as she entered.

“Lady Nephis!”

“Changing Star! My lady, we are so glad that you're ok!” 

“Thank you! Thank you so much for freeing us!”

She was accosted by them and without a sliver of her uncomfortableness showing, greeted them all as cordially as she could, seeing the looks of worship and praise in their faces was a bit disturbing but also…

Heartwarming, it was one thing to see all the survivors on a screen, but to know her actions led to so many lives being saved, so many of them finally getting a chance at a better future, made her feel warm.

And unlike her Aspect it came with none of the pain

The faces blurred but the feeling of warmth and contentment lingered and even grew as time went on until finally she saw a familiar head of auburn hair.

Walking over to Kai, she saw that the Awakening made his face even more stunning, and his electric green eyes practically popped out of his face, she wondered if his voice had improved too, it’s been too long without a Nightingale release…

She would ask him later.

Nephis was about to greet him until she saw someone unfamiliar sitting next to him in a wheelchair.

She had a sickly pallor to her skin and her body was deformed, her legs and back barely looked as if they could support her frame and the wheelchair was the only thing supporting her, preventing the girl from collapsing out right.

She was about to question who she was until she saw a familiar grin on her face.

“Well, well look at this Kai the princess has finally blessed us with her presence” Effie’s energy was infectious even with her crippled state, she waved and said “We were wondering where you went off to, maybe to your fancy castle hidden in the clouds? Or would it be flames?”

Effie tried to tease her, but she could hear a subtle pang of insecurity in her voice.

Nephis was stunned to see the boisterous hunter looking so weak and raised her hand subconsciously to heal her.

“Don’t bother” Effie waved her off with a slightly resigned expression on her face “Plenty of healers have tried, the only remedy to this is a good dose of 2nd Nightmare.”

“Oh… well… I’m sorry?” Nephis was confused on how to console someone in this sort of situation; she wasn’t used to it.

Before Effie could take advantage of her uncertainty like a vulture smelling prey, Kai stepped forward and put his hand on her shoulder, a concerned and relieved expression on his face “Lady Nephis, I’m so glad that your ok and I have to thank you, we really would not be here without your bravery!”

Trying and failing to hide her blush, she coughed and nodded.

She tried thinking of a response, but Kai’s face became more somber as he asked “Also, have you seen Sunny? I was… shamefully knocked out at the time, but Effie said that he climbed back up the tower, did you see him? What happened?”

Even Effie leaned in a bit at the mention of Sunny, her face uncharacteristically serious “Yeah, I didn’t see him enter the gateway too, the doofus better not have died… it would be a shame for us to lose access to all those riches he left behind wouldn’t it?” She tried to laugh it off but there was an edge in her voice.

Nephis didn’t want to talk about Sunny again, but thankfully at that moment Instructor Rock and a small number of professor’s came up to the podium.

The atmosphere in the hall turned solemn and heavy as they discussed the meaning of being Awakened, the sacrifices it enfolded and the pain of loss, they congratulated the Dreamer Army on doing the impossible and to make sure they honour the lives lost from this day on.

The speech was broken by a cry in the crowd.

“Sunny! Tell us what happened to him!”

There was a bit of a stir with the speaker's words, Instructor Rock’s voice was somber as he spoke.

“Please calm down, Awakened, I will tell you now.”

He hesitated then said.

“It seems that after Sleeper Sunless' heroic final push to lead the rest of the survivors  to the gateway, he joined Changing Star and Sir Caster in beating back the Crimson Terror; the details of the final moments are sparse but Lady Nephis promised to speak to enlighten us.”

All eyes again we're on her, the weight of them tangible.

Nephis looked around the hall, Effie and Kai especially had a look of pleading on their faces, she began to walk to the stage, her steps were deceptively calm, but her heart ached again at the reminder of what she lost.

She also mentally cursed the Awakened who had asked that question, she was glad Sunny was being remembered but being put on the spot like this was far from ideal, she didn’t think she would have to fabricate the truth of what really happened in the Spire.

And most of all… she felt weak.

No matter how she looked at it, Sunny is where he is right now due to her weakness, due to the fact that she was not strong enough to protect him and also not strong enough to tell him that he was not a nobody, at least to her.

And if Sunny died… that again would be her cross to bear, because to be weak was the ultimate sin, that she knew all too well.

It also made her steps so much more difficult, so much more heavy, like her First nightmare when walking up the stairs of that lighthouse. How can people rely on a leader who can’t even protect those close to them? 

How can Changing Star kill the Sovereigns when she can't even grasp what’s right in front of her?

Subconsciously she pulled up his runes, she didn’t know why but that felt like the best thing to do right now, and on them:

Shadow Fragments: [12/2000]

‘It was at 2 the last time I checked’ Nephis was surprised, she knew that Sunny had some strange form of progression to gain fragments, not even a day had passed and he was already out there killing and hunting.

Becoming stronger.

A comfortable feeling slowly bloomed in her chest at the sight of his visible growth. She didn’t know what this emotion was but it was nice, Nephis knew that at that moment she felt closer to Sunny and if he was out there with the same goal of becoming stronger…

Well she couldn’t afford to be left behind could she?

With newfound determination burning within her, promising to be better, do better, to make sure the mistakes of the past never happen again, Changing Star strode onto the podium, ready to face the future.

If it was her will, who dared to stop her?

Chapter Text

The gathering in the conference hall ended hours ago and it has been a bit of a whirlwind since then.

Nephis told a tale of Sunny’s last act. How he heroically carried her broken and beaten form to the gateway, knowing that he would not return but sacrificing himself anyway, she expressed hope in his survival and that she was confident that he would return.

The crowd was solemn through her explanation, but seeing her faith at his return, uplifted the atmosphere just a bit, although their reactions…

“If Changing Star says he will come back then I’ll believe it, I’m sure his short stature will allow him to evade all sorts of abominations!”

“Who knew that such a gremlin-looking boy could secretly have a heart of gold all along?”

”I can’t believe I ever doubted him, such a valiant boy would never fall to the hands of abominations!”

“I always thought he was speaking nonsense whenever he opened his mouth, but knowing that he was such a gallant young man, what if most of it was the truth?”

Nephis felt a little bad, she knew that Sunny didn’t like being called a hero, but it was a bit of personal revenge for unlocking his Aspect Legacy before her.

Effie at least got a good laugh out of it.

She also subtly and not subtly rallied a cry for the survivors of the Forgotten Shore, to join her in bringing back the glory of the Immortal Flame, not with those exact words but she got her point across to the right people.

She talked to Effie and Kai privately, they were her… friends, ones she hadn’t had in a long time and she wanted them with her and not just because they were strong. Extending an offer to keep being part of her cohort, if they wished. Effie was all aboard; she wanted to challenge the 2nd Nightmare as soon as possible of course and Kai said he would have to talk to his agency, but it seemed like he was inclined to stay together too.

Although that might mean that Nightingale would split up….

Chasing the depressing thought away, Nephis also clarified that there would be a level of danger in joining up with her, that went past fighting Nightmare Creatures and that if they do she’d go into detail about it, before that though they should think about the risks more in-depth.

Both of them gave her affirming nods with slightly somber expressions on their faces.

Nephis trusted that they would come around even with the danger, Cassie was a no brainer.

There was still a lot to do— picking a Citadel was paramount, she couldn’t afford to step on the toes of the Great Clans too early, she had to unseal her family’s old manor with all the unpleasant memories that came with it and start looking for a seed to challenge the 2nd Nightmare, but right now she was walking through the Academy grounds.

The lilac hues of dusk painted the sky the form of the clouds stretched, as if done by the hands of a skilled painter and crickets sang a symphony in the canopy, the atmosphere was calm and pleasant, even if she had to dodge some devout fans here and there.

Nephis found herself enjoying it a lot.

Unconsciously, she started walking towards the bottom of the Academy, Nephis’ mind was wandering but she knew where she wanted to go.

Arriving at Sunny’s door, she entered without ceremony, not expecting to find anyone, only to be surprised to see icy blue eyes and a solemn face staring back at her.

“Oh? I didn’t think I would be meeting the illustrious Changing Star of The Immortal Flame Clan.” the woman said sarcastically, she was sitting on a chair and the three silver stars on her blue coat’s shoulder signified her rank “What can this humble government worker do for you today?”

Her voice was casual but there was a tinge of sadness in it.

“I don’t think a Master can be called a ‘humble worker’” Nephis deadpanned, her eyes sharpened for a moment wondering why this woman was here “Although, may I ask why you are in Sleeper Sunless’ room?”

If this was some type of intimidation or blackmail tactic by the Great Clans to get to her, she wouldn’t hesitate to fight, Ascended or Not.

The Master's eyes sharpened as well, staring her down, the temperature in the room decreasing slightly, before they softened, a troubled sigh leaving her lips.

“Let’s drop the posturing, not here, I get enough of it at work” she all but mumbled the last part “My name is Soul Reaper Jet, as you can imagine I had heard about the grand awakening of the ‘Dreamer Army’ and decided to check if Sunny was in it, I watched over him in his 1st Nightmare and gave him some advice on surviving the Dream Realm” Nephis eyes widened at that piece of information.

Jet’s right elbow was on the coffin as her face rested in her hand “It’s rare to see us outskirt rats survive our nightmares, so I had high hopes for him, to see that he survived in a unknown region of the Dream Realm, as a Sleeper no less was even more impressive.” There was a tug of pride on her face as she spoke.

But was replaced by melancholy just as fast “Hah, I promised to buy him a real treat when he came back, I'm glad the kid’s alive but his chances of surviving on his own… aren’t good I was the one who told him no one survives the Dream Realm alone-“

“He’s going to survive” she blurted out and thought of shutting her mouth, but the sight of seeing this woman care for Sunny even though they met only once assured her a bit “And he's not alone.”

Jet looked surprised, yet smiled at the interruption “Pray tell how he isn’t alone? Did you leave a surprise for him in the Forgotten Shore?”

“I… can’t tell you all the details, Sunny’s secrets are his to keep” she said bluntly and without a hint of shame “But it has to do with his Aspect, I can check his status any time I wish, and he can do the same with me, so as long as I live his never alone.” She said resolutely while staring at Jet, daring for her to contradict.

Jet was silent, a slightly startled expression on her face, and then she did something Nephis didn’t expect.

She laughed.

“Oh Gods! You look so serious, I must say, Changing Star I didn’t expect you to be so romantic.” she said with a teasing grin plastered on her face.

Nephis blinked, momentarily stunned.

”R-romantic!? I-I just meant—” she blushed as she stammered out a response, flustered at being put on the spot and the flimsy excuses she started to make, but Jet just waved her off.

“Yes, yes I believe you Lady Nephis” her smile was smaller but much more genuine “I’m glad to see that Sunless had at least found a devout companion to trust in, they really are a dime a dozen in this line of work.”

Jet stood up and looked down at the pale raven haired boy, her voice soft as she spoke “I’m happy to see you’ve followed my advice Sunny, I hope you can excel and exceed my expectations again” she then muttered something about ‘paupers enchanting princess’ Nephis wondered the relevance of that but dismissed it.

Master Jet must have been reading a romance novel before she entered.

Nephis was about to make way to let the Master leave, until she paused, she didn’t know why but she felt as if meeting Soul Reaper Jet was an opportunity, not just in helping with matters of the Immortal Flame…

But to also fulfil a promise.

Taking a breath to gather herself, she glanced at the pale woman “Master Jet, before you go I think there is something that you can help me with” Nephis stated, her face stoic and professional as ever once again.

Jet’s easy going demeanour fell and was overtaken by cold rationale, looking at Changing Star silently she raised one an eyebrow “Oh? Is there now? What can a Master like me help with for the star of this new era?”

“Please just call me Nephis, I feel like we’re going to be talking more often” she smiled a bit “Before he pushed me into the gateway, Sunny asked me to fulfill a promise, he told me he had a sister…”

The icy-blue of Jet’s eyes never changed, but there was a transparent warmth radiating from them as Nephis detailed what she wanted, she raised her hand towards the silver haired girl and spoke “Well, how could I refuse such a heartfelt request? And since we’re going to be so informal, you can just call me Jet.”

Nephis shook Jet’s hand, in the silent yet somber darkness of the room. Their new partnership originating and bound over the body of a lost shadow.

Chapter Text

In the darkness of a forgotten land, there was a grand yet magnificent city, surrounding it was a wall, embracing the city and serving as a protector from the horrors beyond it, a solemn oath that it swore to fulfill.

But even then, abominations dwelled within its depths like a festering corpse, the oath was broken for all its worth. 

One of these abominations walked down the city streets, its body was emaciated and had pasty white skin which clung like dried leather, the creature had a bipedal form, while still walking on all four limbs each of them as long as it was tall, its head ovoid and lacked any form of facial features except for a long and terrifying maw of teeth.

It looked weak and sickly, but there was furious might hiding in the abominations body, ready to pounce at the first thing that appeared. It's been so long since it has seen any food…

Just then a furious roar echoed in the ruins, the beast's sharp senses pinned down the origin and galloped straight ahead, hunger blazing in its infernal soul.

It made a turn onto the next street and looked around, killing intent radiating in waves looking for prey, only to hear the roar again, confused, it looked down at an unsuspecting shape on the floor

It was… 

A rock?

The creature was slow on the uptake but by the time it figured out the trap it was too late.

A much more deadly predator had found it.

Furious red orbs ignited from the darkness as a majestic figure wearing gothic armour lept from the rooftops, landing on the back of the abomination with a sickening crunch, body crumpling in on itself like rotted wood.

The beast screamed long and loud, but was cut short as the tenebrous knight continued its dirty work, carving up the creature and maximising the amount of blood shed while deftly dodging all of its attacks, it struggled, it screamed and it fought.

But it was not enough.

Suddenly, a nimble shadow sped out from an alley, leaping onto the shoulders of the dark knight and jumped straight at the beast, it’s dark and ominous tachi was surrounded by a bloody red aura and sang as it pierced straight through the creature’s tough hide and embedded itself straight into its brain.

The pale beast gave one last whimper before collapsing 

[You have defeated a Fallen Beast; Chalk-born Stalker]

[Your Shadow grows stronger]

[You have received a memory]

The shadow jumped down and finally revealed itself, it was short in stature wearing a fearsome dark armour, the texture from a first glance was stone-like yet the aura of toughness it gave off was unmistakable, there was a tattered dark cloak on its shoulders with white filigree in sworl-like patterns on its center, the armour was surprisingly similar to the Marble skinned knight right next to it, although she was more scary.

The figure looked at the air reading something only he could see, then silently shook his armour-clad head.

“Weapon type memory, not bad and it’s a war hammer too, but it has 2 active enchantments, it’s taking me all I have to use [Feather of Truth] so that I can actually wear this damn armour, I’ll just give it to Saint to use.” The figure spoke, clear regret in its voice.

It dismissed its helmet and beneath it, was an unkempt and shaggy mane of raven-black hair that cascaded over the boy’s face and shoulders, his eyes were sunken and his skin was unnaturally pale from the lack of exposure to light, yet his eyes were two-pools of darkness that blended in with the night, there was a menace in them that promised death to all who met its ire.

Sunny sighed as he looked at his runes, the hunt for the stragglers of the Dark City had been progressing well, although the amount of abominations had been ever-dwindling, he had had to take more and more risks, his old approach to hunting just wasn’t enough.

He needed a lot more strength if he wanted to make it out of this hell as a Sleeper.

Glancing at his runes, he read: 

Name: Sunless.

True Name: Lost from Light.

Rank: Dreamer.

Class: Monster.

Shadow Cores: [2/7].

Shadow Fragments: [1980/2000].

Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Midnight Shard], [Ordinary Rock], [Prowling Thorn], [Endless Spring], [Blood Blossom], [Moonlight Shard], [Mantle of the Underworld], [Weaver's Mask], [Broken Oath], [Furious Will], [Blight of Heresy], [Cloak of Peace], [Storm’s Edge], [Soul Soother], [Light’s Burden], [Stalker’s Redoubt].

Echoes: —

Shadows: [Marble Saint], [Soul Serpent]

Looking at his progress Sunny couldn’t help but feel that these last 3 months have been rewarding beyond limits. 

But they’ve also been an unimaginable hell, he wouldn’t inflict on his worst enemy.

The first few days after the Spire fell were relatively fine aside from that ambush right as he reached the city, he had gone back to his room in the Cathedral and had been recuperating from his injuries, most of the Nightmare creatures in the area had been killed by the Nameless Sun, meaning it was quiet for a time.

But once all the hidden monstrosities started to leave their nests things started to take a turn for the worse.

His wit, cunning and extra-sensory abilities had been pushed to their absolute limit, with the amount of abominations he killed each day, gathering memories and fragments had been easy —in a relative sense—, with how dangerous things have been becoming he couldn’t afford his old approach in risk-taking. 

Sunny, spent less and less time on carefully scouting Nightmare Creatures and learning their weak points, he would ambush them, set up traps, lure them into fighting other stronger abominations and finish them both off when they were weakened or use his favourite time and tested tactic of giving Saint a running start and letting her drop right on top of them.

Who knew that a stone-statue falling at high speeds from above could do so much damage?

This had given him a plethora of Memories to his Soul Arsenal and vastly increased his lethality, although it has been slowing down a bit for the past couple of weeks, he didn't want to think of it as an omen.

‘The Memories thankfully had a secondary use, since most of them were useless.’ He mused as he looked at Saint, now an Ascended Demon, her presence had become even more menacing, he wasn’t sure if it was his imagination but the darkness seemed to be giving her strength.

His Shadow had been an ever-reliable ally, he didn’t know how he would have survived without her…

And thanks to Serpent he had been able to circulate his essence in fixing the Mantle of the Underworld, the elemental resistance helping him stave off the cold and the essence helped in giving him minor strength boosts.

The quality of essence was meagre but just enough for him to activate [Feather of Truth] and one other enchantment in a pinch, especially with his Monster Core, when he became a Demon he would be able to do much more.

Overall, Sunny has been at his most fearsome, the Forgotten Shore had been a crucible that had made him far stronger than any Sleeper, even most Awakened wouldn’t be able to stand a chance against him, physically he was in his prime.

His mental health on the other hand….

“I have to say Gloomy, I’d started to regret pushing Nephis into that Gateway a couple of times, I mean who would want to be trapped in this hell over a friend?” Sunny’s grin was wide and carefree, he turned around and began to make his way back to the Cathedral “But look at me I have more soul shards than I know what to do with, an Ascended Demon on my side and I'm getting closer to mastering the 2nd step of Shadow Dance by the day! I’m practically on top of the world!”

His grin was manic, lips straining his face as he looked at the ground waiting for his eldest shadow to respond.

Said shadow was silent, gazing at Sunny as you would at something embarrassing not wanting to associate with it at all.

He was silent for a bit and sighed “Well at least you have my back right, Saint?” he glanced at the marble knight, she stared, taciturn as ever and beat her sword on the rim of her shield, in some mock form of support.

“Now that’s someone I can always rely on, you should learn a thing or two from her and Happy,” he mocked his shadow and kept on walking, he dismissed Saint into the shadows and walked seemingly without a care in the world.

Yes… Sunny would be the first person to admit that his mental state hasn’t been the best since leaving himself here, it was already bad even before the Crimson Spire, and his mind was currently moving towards a direction he did not like at all.

But who could blame him? At least when he lived in the Dark City originally, he had the present but distant knowledge of humans being a stone throwaway and even had to dodge a couple of hunting parties to avoid attention, he didn’t realise how much comfort he had at the fact that others were suffering with him.

Now?

The silence, the ever increasing danger, having to keep himself alert at all times and the loneliness…

He found himself talking to his shadows even more frequently than before Saint, Serpent, Gloomy and Happy, they were as silent as death itself, but even the minimal reactions they had was a balm to his soul, without them he might have done something… drastic.

And there was the other thing that affected his mental state, both for good and ill.

At that thought Sunny’s forced smile disappeared, his face stayed carefully blank as he looked at the runes that made themselves present on that fateful day.

Master: Changing Star.

Changing Star, Nephis, his friend, his teacher, his partner…

And his slaver.

The myriad of emotions he felt originally after arriving back at his room were intense, he had spent so much time hiding, had been so careful and made sure to never slip up even once, all for the sake of preserving his freedom and never being beholden to someone else’s will and living life on his own terms.

Is it not ironic by choosing to live life the way he wanted to was what cost him his freedom?

The most present thing he felt was confusion, how did she know? Did she hear him when he had killed Harper? But he would have sensed her presence if she was near, but he wasn’t in the best state of mind to do that…

Although in the corner of his mind there were darker thoughts of what… or who could have told her but he refused to entertain it for his own sanity.

There was also anger, rage at Nephis for what she did, the audacity to put a collar on his neck, expected to obey like a good little dog and allow her to stay in this place to fulfill her martyr complex, Sunny honestly dreaded meeting her again at fear for what she would do and his rapid rush for strength wasn’t only to become strong enough leave.

But at the possibility he would have to kill Nephis.

The very thought of it made him want to vomit, but it was simply his reality.

There was also, sadly —shamefully— a part of him that was…. happy she did it, happy she connected herself to him through the bond, it gave him a window into the real world, limited as it was, if he ever held doubts that the waking world existed her runes were just a thought away and it also helped to ground him and stave off boredom.

Imagining the many adventures of Changing Star, Cassie, Kai and Effie as they battled through the Dream Realm, facing all sorts of abominations, nefarious Awakened and making new memories while also expanding their legend, was basically his only pass time when he wasn’t fighting for his life.

Daydreaming of Nephis, her long silver hair flowing like dazzling silk, piercing grey eyes looking in a direction that he could only dream of and her intricate white armour burning with radiance as she faced challenge after challenge, it was nice.

Sunny was sad that he wasn’t there at the cohort's side, but he couldn’t help but believe that they didn’t —never, a whisper in his mind— needed him, he wouldn’t be surprised if they barely even noticed he was gone…

He crushed down the thought, inadvertently stopping in the middle of the road, trying to take deep breaths to calm himself, there wasn’t time for doubt that would get him killed in a place like this.

Idly he glanced again at her runes 

Soul Fragments: [987/5000]

‘She must be in the middle of a fight right now’ a wry genuine smile found its way onto his lips, the other parts of her runes surprised him too, her innate ability was perfect for fast growth and she had a Divine Aspect as well.

Combined with her disposition she was like the protagonist of a hero novel.

“Well I can’t allow myself to fall behind, she’s already two cores ahead! Can’t afford to slack off now.” Sunny spoke, his voice filled with resolve, he wouldn’t give up, he might not have had anything in the waking world, but just like he told Hero in his First Nightmare he won’t allow the world to beat him down that easily.

Once he reached Demon, he would leave the Dark City, he had been agonising in which direction to go towards and right now it was between East and Wes—

A rustle was all the warning he had.

Sunny lunged forward, rolling out of the way as something fast and precise struck the area he had been standing on, a loud boom, resounding through the ever present silence of the city.

He immediately summoned back his helmet, brandishing the Midnight Shard at the new threat in front of him, it was…

A person? 

‘A human? What the hell is… no’ Sunny dismissed the thought immediately after paying a closer look at his foe, it might have looked humanoid in shape, especially being covered by that dark cloak but that all changed when he saw what was underneath.

The figure was hunched, the tattered and black cloak hid most of its profile but it couldn’t hide the warped face beneath it, it was made of crimson coral, muscle, sinew and bone, in a faux-parody of a smile and its body was made of the same material.

It had no ‘hair’ and it looked as if some form of vile black ooze was what held it together, one of its hands was a khopesh made of the same crimson coral.

It gazed at Sunny, hungry and mad, but he could see a nascent form of intelligence in its eyes and combined with the eerie way the wind seemed to move around it confirmed to him what he was facing.

‘Awakened Devil’ he grimaced, not having the initiative of the fight and the fact it got the jump on him was troublesome, Sunny was an anomaly among Sleepers but still at the end of the day a Sleeper, all it took was one good attack to kill him, he dismissed his tachi and instead Summoned [Storm’s Edge] an Ascended Weapon of the First Tier and [Furious Will] an Awakened Charm of the Third Tier.

It was a damascus longsword, a lightning pattern in its middle with an extravagant pommel and hilt, he was more comfortable with the tachi but this sword had a lethal enchantment he could use in a pinch and the Charm — a small sphere made of multiple tiny fists— manifested directly onto his armour.

Though as Sunny got ready to fight, the universe wasn’t done surprising him.

The two houses on his right and left exploded in a shower of debris and splinters, out of the dust walked three creatures he never thought he’d see again.

Carapace Demons, in all their deadly gleaming glory, watched him with malice and schadenfreude, surrounding him on all sides crowding him towards the Devil, their armour seemed slightly rusted; it didn't change one fact.

“Damnation.”

This was an ambush.

The fight with the Devil would have been tough, but he would have come out on top, but with three Demon’s in the mix? This had just become much more lethal, although the Demon’s didn’t feel nearly as dangerous as their brother at the Ashen Barrow.

Regardless, it seemed as if he wasn’t the only one adapting to the current hunting dynamic of the area.

Happy had shifted from his tachi to his body and Gloomy surrounded his sword, crimson orbs ignited behind him as Saint in all her dark glory stepped out, her back towards him covering his flank.

All the combatants stood still for a moment, the tension in the air crackling like a lit flame, the Devil raised its Khopesh and the Demons clacked their pincers.

Sunny watched this all silently and then…

“Kill the Demons” 

At his proclamation, Saint dashed towards the Carapace Abominations, her sword flashing with dark radiance.

Though he didn’t have time to be worried as at the same time, the Crimson monstrosity grinned at him one last time and then moved.

One moment it was a few feet away and then it was right in front of him, as if teleporting, it’s Khopesh coming down in a deadly arc.

Sunny lunged to his left, scrambling to make some distance but his movements were stifled, like moving through molasses, he didn’t have time to curse as the Khopesh glanced off his shoulder plate, agony seering down his arm.

The Khopesh finished its arc in the ground but the Devil wasn’t done yet, an upwards strike that again left Sunny desperately dodging as the air itself seemed to be working against him, hindering his movements while the Devil moved with eerie grace.

Their blades clashed and Sunny felt his bones rattle with each blow, he was on the defensive and losing ground fast but that was fine, his Shadow Dance had been forced to grow in an unorthodox way, only having Nightmare Creature’s to Shadow had made his fighting style raw and beastial.

He dodged left, right, back and parried the blade, his movements were precise, almost as if he could predict where his opponent would attack all he needed was one moment.

The wind around the Devil slithered around the Khopesh, rapidly condensing and surrounding it in a destructive gale of turbine winds, it spun on its heels and vertically slashed up, trying to bisect the troublesome shadow.

Instead of trying to dodge though, Sunny changed tactics, stepping into the attack and raising his pauldron to block it.

The blade struck with an echoing clang that resounded throughout the street, Sunny’s forearm screamed in protest, but his body didn’t move an inch from the destructive blow, at the last moment he activated [Feather of Truth] grounding him and throwing off the rhythm of the monster as it staggered.

He grabbed the blade and with Storm’s Edge in his other hand sliced down on the devil’s arm, at the last moment a torrent of electric sparks ran down the sword.

The devil’s arm was lopped off with a crunching squelch, it tried to move back but the electric currents in its body froze it in place, Sunny dropped the arm, pulled back his own and with the might of a siege ram hammered the devil in the chest with a vicious uppercut, lifting it into the air with the force of the punch.

[Furious Will] raised the power of all physical attacks with its passive enchantment, as long as the wielder sacrificed some of their stamina beforehand, combined with his Monster physique and shadow augmented strength, every move he made carried immense power.

The devil’s chest caved, its power cushioned most of the blow and its landing, but it was still critically injured, wind gathered around it as glided backwards, but Sunny wouldn’t let his prey leave that easily.

Sadly the universe had other plans in store for him.

The devil glared and then blasted the ground, lifting the dust and broken debris in a makeshift smokescreen to obscure his sight. Sunny cursed and started focusing on his Shadow Sense, just in time to see multiple pieces of stone hurl themselves at him like a machine gun.

He dodged deftly and pushed forward towards the source, but as he cleared the dust what waited for him wasn’t a broken devil but a gleaming demon, its form torn and bleeding.

It struck like lightning, Sunny could only dodge again at the last minute but its follow up strike with its pincer hammered into his head.

He was too dazed from the blow to move around the scythe that struck him in the chest, sending him flying into a derelict building.

Sunny groaned, and again thankful he had purchased the Mantle of the Underworld, but he could feel multiple ribs poking him in an extremely unpleasant manner and his right arm had finally given out at the punishment it’s been taking.

‘Damnation, these things are too coordinated, they really must have been getting desperate’ he chuckled and grimaced at the pain, pushing himself up.

Saint was fighting three Awaken Demons and with the surprising amount of intelligence they were showing, he could guess the other two boxed her in, allowing they’re brother to assist the Crimson fighter.

Limping, he saw said abomination gathering more of a gale around itself probably preparing that movement ability it showed and the demon was grinding its scythe’s together in anticipation.

Sunny looked as they took pleasure in his broken state and simply shook his head.

The creatures began to stalk towards him but before they were given a chance to get close, Sunny summoned a torch into his hand, it was topped with a yellow glowing crystal and immediately sent two of his shadows into it, closing his eyes.

[Light’s Burden] had a neutral light mode but could burn brighter with essence, every creature on this Forgotten Shore had adapted their sight to the dark and with such a bright light augmented two times over?

They may as well have been staring into the sun.

Both monsters flinched covering their eyes and trying to get to cover but the damage was done.

Two arrows streaked from behind them, striking the devil in its head and extinguishing its rotten soul.

[You have slain an Awakened Devil: Rotten Spirit of Gale] 

[Your shadow grows stronger]

[You have received an Echo] 

The other arrow struck one of the knee joints of the Demon, it screamed but was swiftly silenced as Sunny appeared right in front of it, combined with the Blood Blossom and an Ascended Sword, he pierced straight through its jaw into its brain with ease.

[You have slain an…]

Sunny slumped onto the ground and dismissed the torch, he quickly sent two of his shadows to aid Saint while he recuperated, he hoped Saint hadn’t taken too much damage when she put her focus away from the other two Demons, to aid him.

He had gotten a bow memory [Blight of Heresy], an Awakened memory of the fifth tier in his first month back in the Dark City, he knew the benefits of having a ranged option and had given it to Saint, it could create arrows as long as the user can withstand the sickening feeling of rot on their minds, debilitating for him but perfect for her.

His arm was aching fiercely and he had to keep taking in shallow breaths to ease the pain from his ribs. Blood Weave would help with some of the healing but he had another memory to help with that or else he would have never survived so far…

But he knew that his pain wasn’t about to end.

A piercing screech rang through and was swiftly silenced, Saint had finished her job and to commemorate the occasion the spell whispered into his ear:

[Your shadow is overflowing with power.]

[Your shadow is taking shape.]

The familiar tearing pain that originated from the very depths of his being, he gritted his teeth and promised himself to endure.

It was worse, much worse than the pain from the first time around, as if his soul had to overcompensate from having to house another core, he whimpered but pushed it down, tear streaks going down his face.

[...Your shadow is complete.]

And just like that it was over.

He felt the familiar rush of strength, of being turned into something stronger, something greater, his chances of escaping this place had just shot up, not by much but with an additional shadow in his arsenal and Echo as well, he would be even more dangerous.

Sunny should have felt ecstatic, he was strong, powerful and brimming with potential.

But he was alone.

So alone.

Weariness draped onto his shoulders, a burden that grew heavier and heavier each day, that hadn’t been one of his more deadlier fights but the fact he was taken by surprise by so many Awakened creatures was bad, it could have easily turned deadly.

And it was only going to get worse as he left…

He sometimes questioned the futility of fighting, of struggling like this day after day when there was an answer to silence all his woes right in front of him.

Without even realising it, Sunny was gripping the handle of the Moonlight Shard, its handle cool, the transparent stiletto had no glint making it seem as if he held a blade made of pure darkness. 

He doesn’t know how long he stared at the dagger, but his reverie was broken with the sounds of heavy footsteps right in front of him, looking up he stared at Saint, her helmet was broken revealing her hauntingly perfect face and cracks were running through her armour, ruby dust leaking but minimal.

She glanced at him for a moment, there was a faint sense of disapproval? But it was mixed with sympathy and understanding in her gaze, she then bent down and took the dagger out of his hand.

Sunny closed his eyes and sighed quietly “Let’s go”

He stood up with a bit of difficulty and leaned on the tenebrous knight, they walked in somber silence towards the Cathedral, but not before he ordered Saint to carve out portions of meat from one of the demons, he still needed to eat after all.

Climbing up to his room, Sunny dismissed his armour and cloak, he looked at the map of bruises on his body and grimaced, white sparks materialised on the floor into a Black Amphora with wavy neon-blue streaks that wrapped around its shape, white smoke that carried the scent of fresh pine started to curl around the room.

After inhaling the smoke Sunny instantly felt better, he could feel his wounds dull in pain, his aches and pains being carried away by the smoke.

The [Soul Soother] was a very handy tool-type Memory for one reason, and not because it was aesthetically pleasing, but simply for its ability to heal, it was an Awakened Memory of the Third Tier with one powerful enchantment.

But it came with the caveat that the owner must be sleeping to experience the full breadth of healing, the Amphora could not be moved and for any dismembering it will actively draw from your own body.

Sunny did not like to dwell on how he discovered that last one…

He summoned the under garment of the Puppeteer’s shroud and meandered to his bed, he was too tired to eat and would cook the Carapace meat tomorrow.

Calling upon Saint, he ordered her to keep watch and climbed into his silken sheets.

"Ah, what an exhausting day” he mumbled, but his mind couldn’t help but wander into the dark moment he had while holding the stiletto dagger. Those moments have been becoming more and more frequent and he didn’t like it.

He still hadn’t bought a house for himself, thanked Jet for her advice, informed Teacher Julius on his findings, made sure that Rain was ok and… seeing Nephis one last time, he couldn’t die.

But those reasons have been becoming weaker and weaker as the days go by.

Gazing at nothing and his mind even more restless than before, Sunny opened Nephis runes, seeing her progress was calming and it seemed as if she got a new memory.

He closed his eyes, but didn’t dismiss her status page, he imagined Nephis, standing over him with a soft smile on her face, telling him that everything would be ok, that image gave him solace as he fully surrendered himself to sleep.

“Goodnight, Neph”

Sunny spoke in the silence of the spacious room, not even realising the lone tear rolling down his face.

Chapter Text

Nephis wondered how she found herself in this situation. 

Right in front of her was a vertical black rift in reality, it pulsated similar to a puss infected wound and the very air warped around its presence, the utter wrongness it exuded was thick enough to almost touch. 

A Nightmare Gate 

And flowing out of this Gate like ants on a hill, we're emaciated humanoids, draped in dirty hunting attire with crude stone weapons, they're appearance was pathetic but the malevolence in their eyes burned as they all lunged at her, eager to feast on her Awakened Soul. 

Changing Star cut one down, she hadn't activated her Aspect as of yet, but something told her that was not going to last, she hoped the Firekeepers were keeping the school safe. 

Sunny would hate her if his sister died on her watch. 

***

3 hours ago

‘I can't believe I let Cassie and Jet talk me into this’ Nephis was uncomfortable with the situation but she really didn't have any other option to solve her current dilemma. 

That dilemma of course was Rain, Sunny’s wayward sister. 

The past couple of months had been quite busy, she had set up her followers back in her family mansion and it had officially become their base of operations. 

As much as she wanted to eviscerate the Great Clans with her sword, she was only Awakened; her influence was big, but was slightly hampered by that glaring fact. 

So sadly, she had to align herself with one of the Clans and since Valor and the Immortal Flame were old friends it was the only option, she might have been on… amicable terms with Song Sieshan but there was too little public capital to keep her totally safe. 

Right now, public capital is all she had keeping her safe. 

Valor wasn't very open with snubbing their new princess, but she had felt the contempt from most of the elders, who were no doubt partially involved in the destruction of her family, Nephis didn’t even entertain the thought that they wouldn’t be trying to inconvenience in the future.

That’s why she needed to become a Master as fast as possible. She had been agonising where to set up her followers and cohort, when Cassie out of nowhere said that the Chained Isles would be the best region.

She had been very ambiguous, so it must have been some form of oracle nonsense. 

It was under Valor territory, but still distant enough from Anvil’s central Domain, although she did have to work directly under the White Feather Clan as an extended force, and for the past couple of months has been leading her army in extinguishing most of the abominations lurking in the dark. 

Cassie was off right now she said there was something she needed to find in the Isles, so she had given a decent cohort of Firekeepers to aid her, Effie was hunting like the madwoman she was with at least 10 Awakened or more backing her and Kai normally played the role of scout, reporting back to them on the comings and goings of Nightmare Creatures.

The rest of the Firekeepers were her direct retinue, the artisans, fighters and background support, helping the White Feather Clan keep order in the Chained Isles or in extended missions in other parts of the Dream Realm.

It was chafing and degrading to work under the family of her killers, but the White Feathers seemed overall distant from Valor, but that stress could not compare to the promise that she had to keep.

After talking to Jet months ago, she had promised to go through the government database for Rain and after a month she had been found, her residence, schooling and even the hobbies she engaged in were all documented for Nephis’ perusal.

Problem was…

She didn’t know how to approach the girl without looking like a creep or attracting unwanted attention.

Her mind had been running circles and one day she had invited both Cassie and Jet to her manor, the plan they pitched at the time seemed like a genius way to connect to Sunny’s sister and put the name of Changing Star more into the eyes of the public.

That’s how she found herself in her current situation.

“I-I must say! To have the magnificent Lady Changing Star of the Immortal Flame, coming to teach and instruct the young minds of our fair school was a surprise” the rotund and portly man who would be the principal of the school said, his eyes were practically glowing, looking at her like a prized fish he just won “ To take time out of your no doubt bush schedule to enlighten the next generation, truly your benevolence knows no bounds!”

A training seminar, that was Cassie’s plan and was backed by Jet.

“This is the best way to do things Neph,” Her expression was serious, but there was a hint of amusement in her eyes, that Nephis wish she saw at the time “I promise! This will be killing two birds with one stone.”

“Are you sure? I don’t know about having to teach kids…” she was reluctant, but it was quickly vanishing under their persistence.

Jet, normally so stoic, was also restraining a grin “I agree with Lady Song of the Fallen -“Call me Cassie, please”-, you don’t really have any other way of connecting to the girl and this would be a good start, imagine how thankful Sunny would be if he learnt that you personally trained his sister?”

The thought of Sunny coming back and seeing that she went above and beyond in her promise, smiling that mischievous smile of his, but with much more fondness thanking her, flashed in her mind for a moment.

“I guess this really is the only option…” Nephis turned her head to the side, to conceal her slight blush and wasn’t able to see the victorious smirks and fist pump from the both of them.

Now here she found herself walking down the halls of the school towards the gymnasium to instruct a group of preteens, she had four Firekeepers Sid, Shakti, Shim and Gorn, she could never be too careful after all.

The school was very high-scale, clean marble flooring and the windows were sufficiently reinforced with roller shutters no doubt installed in case of emergency, she walked by empty classrooms and saw real wood on some of the teachers desks, the kids who went here clearly did not want for anything.

Nephis had fought the Crimson Terror, led the Dreamer Army on the Siege of the Crimson Spire, survived the crucible of the Forgotten Shore and had been dodging assassins since she was a child, she had seen more horrors then most veteran Awakened.

Yet this was going to prove to be her toughest challenge yet. 

The principal continued to drone on and one as he guided them, she could handle compliments well enough but this was getting slightly annoying.

“Permission to tell him to shut up, boss?” Sid spoke in a low voice from right behind her, her tone was dead serious but there was a grin on her face and curiosity if she would actually say yes.

Nephis’ face was blank, but she still allowed a small smile to appear on her face “Permission denied, although… that might change in the next 5 minutes”

Sid’s grin turned mischievous, but thankfully for the unsuspecting principal they had finally reached the gymnasium of the school, where the current class was loitering.

The bored gazes of the students turned to them as they entered, but were quickly replaced with awe as soon as they saw her.

They started to speak, exclaiming at her presence and the principal did his best to calm them down, but she wasn’t paying attention to them instead her head was casually on a swivel as she looked for a certain girl.

And there she was.

Nephis was surprised at how much she looked like Sunny, she knew they were siblings but even then she expected some form of glaring trait to differentiate them.

She had the same raven-black hair, onyx eyes and pale skin, she even had the same slender physique as her brother, albeit less unhealthy, her hair fell to her shoulders, and her eyes were wide with wonder, her cheeks still had a slight amount of baby fat and to Nephis quiet amusement was almost the exact same height as Sunny, she looked like a female version of him in all sense.

Her heart ached a bit at the sight of the innocence she still held in her eyes, compared to the coldness within Sunny’s own, she couldn’t help but wish that Sunny —and even her— were given the same opportunity to just be… Children. 

Regardless, of the past she is still happy that she is here today and the women that she became, especially the companions by her side.

‘I promise Sunny, I’ll do my best for her while you‘re gone.’ she vowed within her heart.

The wonder in Rain’s eyes slowly turned into confusion, she looked around for a bit for some reason turning back to Nephis as if confirming something and then ducked her head away. 

‘What?’ She was confused at the strange act until she realised that she had been staring at the little girl the whole time since she entered.

Mortified at the thought she might have intimidated Rain, Nephis‘ thoughts scrambled for a way to fix her error but was interrupted by the Principal finally getting the rowdy children under control.

“Calm down children, I’m sure you're excited but let’s show our best faces today,” her respect for the principal increased a few notches, seeing the genuine smile he had at handling them “As you have all figured out this was the surprise I had in store for you today, Lady Nephis, Changing Star of the Immortal Flame Clan and the Princess of Valor had come here personally instruct you today for a special combat seminar!”

Changing Star walked past the principal and looked at the gaggle of students, they were all looking at her in wide-eyed wonder, naivety practically oozed off of them and she could already see others shaking in excitement waiting for a chance to learn from her.

“Hello everyone, you all know who I am as your principal so enthusiastically introduced” she smiled, hoping it didn’t come out forced “Yes I am Changing Star, I came here today in hopes of educating the next generation, while still young you are readily approaching the age where you undergo the trials of the Spell.”

The mood in the room dimmed slightly, Rain and a few other kids specifically had a much more downtrodden look, a story she knew all too well.

“Sadly, this is only going to be for today. I do have other schools to visit after all, but I hope to teach you as much as possible, so let’s get started.” The multiple schools were to throw off any would-be Valor spies.

At that proclamation, the kids cheered up and started to scream, jumping up and down in enthusiasm.

Nephis knew at that moment that Cassie and Jet had sent her to hell.

***

Despite her lamentations, the class hadn’t actually gone too bad, the children were actually decently well mannered and thankfully having my retinue helped take off most of the stress of dealing with every single child, they were still seasoned Awakened after all.

Although some of the comments of the children really tested her stoicism.

“Were you really in a relationship with Sir Caster?”

“Did Sir Sunless actually kiss you when he carried you to the Gateway back to the waking world?”

“Is it true, Sir Caster and Sir Sunless were in a rivalry to fight for your heart?” 

“Who won the rivalry!? Please we need to know they are so many speculations online!”

“Don’t be stupid Sir Sunless can’t even compare to Sir Caster’s valiance!”

“Shut up!”

‘Cassie and Jet are going to pay for making me do this.’ she sighed, continuing to watch the students with a keen eye.

For some bizarre reason, the general public believed she was in some form of love triangle with Caster and Sunny, there was even a scuffle between two students on who more deserved her heart or was the better man.

She had no idea why so many people were interested in her love life and found some of the questions stupid.

Sunny was obviously the better man, but she couldn’t say that without stocking the flames.

Besides that, she taught them basic Katas and told them the importance of economy of movement when in a fight, she also wanted to teach the true essence of combat, but Cassie said it would be too grim for some reason when she was planning all of this, so she had to make do.

Partway through, she actually found herself enjoying the experience it brought her back to the time she was teaching Sunny how to fight, none of the students were as good as him, Nephis’ never thought she would find anyone like that but they were decent.

But they were… soft, very soft, none of them had even an inkling of killing intent or clarity. They performed the moves as they were supposed to, but there was no meaning behind them, just motions.

Nephis was also crestfallen to see the same with Rain, she was definitely much better than most of her peers, not the very best but decent enough in fitness and understanding.

Even then, this was all noise.

Your true potential and nature would only come out in a real life or death battle, and while the quality of teaching can definitely help, it all falls apart in the face of death. That's when you either rise better than before or succumb to your fear. 

Nephis could not force that on Rain and she desperately hoped that she would prove herself, but even if she didn’t she would still hold to her promise.

No matter what it takes. 

Trying to be inconspicuous as she could, Nephis slowly meandered into Rain’s general direction, observing she could see a bow on the ground next to her as she was currently trying to get used to the basic katas with a training sword.

There was definitely discipline, her eyes were sharp but even then she was… lacking something.

The girl’s movements also started to become even more stilted for some reason, she was shaking and seemed to be trying to burn her gaze into her sword. What was her problem?

When she did a quick glance in Nephis general direction she realised she had been staring again. 

Mentally cursing her social incompetence, she took a breath and walked directly towards her, which sent the pale girl into a panic.

“You.” 

Rain nearly dropped her sword and looked towards her wide eyed and a little disbelieving, she pointed a finger towards herself “M- me?”

Nephis nodded “Yes, I’ve been watching you since the class started and I have to say I’m slightly impressed.” she wasn’t, but she knew that buttering up people made them more favourable towards you.

Gaping, she began to stutter out a denial, but Nephis carried on “If I would give some advice, this training longsword you're using isn’t good for someone of your build, I think a… tachi katana, yes that, would suit your form better.” She knew that she was just copying Sunny’s weapon of choice and she didn’t care, it’s not like she was wrong.

“Oh, uh really? N- not that I’m doubting your genius Lady Changing Star!” she shook her head in denial “B-but I kinda like longswords better…”

“Nonsense,” Nephis firmly denied “I have no doubt that you would excel with such a blade in your hands and even surpass some of the students in your class. Keep up the goodwork.” Inwardly she was proud of herself, her compliments would definitely earn Rain the praise of her peers, boosting her school life and no doubt make her more amicable to the idea of training her.

It was simple logic. Who wouldn’t want a combat genius among them? She had to pat herself on the back for the excellent social manoeuvring 

‘Cassie would be proud of me.’ she smirked inwardly as she walked away, making sure to give her one more nod.

True to her expectations, the kids in the periphery who heard her looked at Rain with envy but for some reason some also had… hostility? That didn’t make any sense and just as she was going to dwell on the issue.

An alarm blared throughout the building, letting out a grating, echoing ringing sound. A second later, the sound repeated.

Her communicator produced it as well and so did the teachers and most of the students.

A Nightmare Gate was opening in the vicinity.

Nephis cursed and looked as kids in the gymnasium started to scream, the teachers were trying to calm them down with no effect and the Firekeepers were looking down at their communicators with grim expressions.

A whirlwind of white sparks materialised in her hand and around her body, the sight dragging everyone’s attention to her, it materialised into her sword, Dream Blade and the Starlight Legion Armour.

“Stay calm!” Her voice, clear and melodious, echoed in the room “Listen to your guardians and do not panic, as long as I am here I swear not one student or human will die in this building!”

“I swear it!” She raised her blade upwards at her proclamation.

She looked towards her Firekeepers, barking instructions for Sid to follow her towards the Gate and the rest to stay in the building, they all gave nods not a sliver of doubt in her orders.

Good, she wouldn’t take the bulk of them and leave the children unprotected.

As she walked out she caught sight of Rain, she was scared and panicked as the rest of the students but there was hope and most of all resolve in her eyes, she hadn’t dropped her sword and held it firmly at her side.

Nephis smiled, because just for a moment she looked like Sunny, determined and ready to fight.

***

And now here she is.

She cut down an incoming Barrow Wraith as the Spell called them, she had already augmented herself and her Sword, there were 4 more Awakened behind her and Sid was at her side holding off the hoard.

The pressure was mounting and it got worse when a presence blasted out of the Gate, suffocating and filled with maddening hunger.

The Gate Guardian.

It had the same dessicated body as the other Nightmare Creatures, but this abomination was much more deadly, it’s spear was large, and wore intricate robust leather armour with a rotten cloak of beast hide on its shoulders, iron bracelets on its wrists, its skull served as the creature's helm and it wore a beastial burial mask, creating a menacing visage,

Both the skull and mask had three eyes, — a motif she was all too familiar with— rounding up to a total of six and each burned with stark crimson radiance, as they did the rest of wraiths became more invigorated and the glow of their eyes burned brightly.

A Fallen Tyrant had stepped out, the only thing in its way was Changing Star, her loyal follower and a mix-match of Awakened behind her.

Nephis’ heart was filled with trepidation, could she beat a Fallen Tyrant? Possibly on her own at that, she didn’t know especially since the pain of her Flaw had already started to weigh her down.

But then she remembered.

‘Please, take care of her Neph.’

Nephis was not one to break the faith others had in her. 

Changing Star raised her sword towards the chieftain, her radiance grew brighter consuming her figure making her look like the center of a burning star.

“Come.”

***

Nephis would like to say that she fought the Tyrant one on one, that their battle was one of epic proportions but where she inevitably came out on top triumphing over her foe with pure will and grit.

She would be half-right.

They had fought for a couple of minutes, and it was an extremely taxing battle even for her, Nephis thought that she would have had to push out more of her flames damn the consequence of collateral when finally the government forces arrived, led by Jet.

After that the battle had become significantly easier, Jet’s soul damage and her flames were a surprisingly good combo and Nephis found herself enjoying fighting with her quite a lot. 

Changing Star, stood in the wreckage of the street, looking as the government forces handily dealt with the straggler Nightmare Creatures and started to build a perimeter around the gate, hopefully a cohort would be able to conquer it soon.

Much as she tried, she also didn’t miss the look of awe and reverence that many of the Awakened and soldiers had as they looked at her, she had already heard rumours online of her single-handedly holding back a Nightmare Gate and beating a Fallen Tyrant, which was nowhere true.

Well, she did want more public capital…

She sighed, but her musings were interrupted by a certain pale woman striding up to her, looking energetic even after such a vicious battle, with a smile on her face.

“I must say Lady Changing Star! You truly do make us fellow warriors proud facing a horde of Fallen abominations as a mere Awakened?” She had a look of mock shock on her face “Honestly at this rate you're going to put us Masters out of the job.”

Nephis face was deadpanned, gazing at Jet she kept my voice even “I would think you’d better than most to believe simple propaganda, Soul Reaper Jet” I started to walk towards the school, and more importantly from the scrutinising gazes of everyone in the area. “Shouldn’t humble Masters such as yourself know to not fall for government workings?”

Jet walked by her side as they strode away, her grin was to playful for someone who had fought a Fallen one, “You overestimate us too much, Lady Nephis” she chuckled then her voice become a tad bit more serious, “And just so you know there were no casualties so far in the surrounding area or at the school, I don’t give out congratulations easily, but good job.”

Holding the look of relief that nearly made it onto her face, she gave Jet a nod, thankful that she hadn’t failed Rain or any of the innocents who had the misfortune of being near a Nightmare Gate.

That just left one other problem, Nephis took out her communicator and sent a message to one of the Firekeepers at the school, glancing at Jet she spoke in a more low tone. “That is very good, I am glad to see my efforts pay off, now Soul Reaper as an extinguished and venerated Master I’m sure you have quite the bit of experience in interacting with other people right?”

Jet quirked an eyebrow “I may have, why?”

Nephis communicator buzzed in response, she looked down and then gave Jet a vicious grin. “Then you wouldn’t mind dealing with the Paparazzi.”

Jet was confused but it was too late, Nephis stopped in front of her loudly proclaiming for everyone in earshot “Thank you for your efforts in helping Master Jet! I have other matters to attend to as of now so would you please talk to the crowd and our fellow Awakened in my stead? I know an honored Master such as yourself is quite busy, so I’m thankful for your cooperation.”

Ignoring the look of betrayal on her face, Nephis, filled with vindication, definitely did not hurry or run away from the approaching crowd that she had dumped on Jet.

Now, it was time for her to handle another matter.

Nephis had wanted to take a slower effort in approaching Rain, but the Nightmare Gate appearing right next to her school had scared her. What if she and her temporary cohort hadn't been here?

Rain would be dead and Nephis couldn’t bare to see the look of hurt on Sunny’s face for not keeping to her word.

She walked into the entrance of the school ignoring all of the students and parents embracing each other or who immediately tried to thank her as she passed, simply giving wordless affirmations.

The Principal's office was not far from the entrance and she already had Shakti guarantee that the round man wouldn’t be bothering them for the next 30 minutes.

Opening the small yet reinforced steel door, she saw Shim at the side of the room looking a little worse for wear but overall ok giving her a grateful smile and nod, seated on the singular couch in the room was none other than Rain.

She was frazzled, her raven hair was messy and she looked like a child who had gotten in trouble and sent to the principal’s office —which wasn’t necessarily wrong—, but even then she gripped her training sword within her hands, a stubborn glint of determination in her eyes.

Observing Rain, Nephis knew that things would be a difficult when it came to training her but she had a feeling that everything would be ok.

“Hello again,” she smiled, the effect was a bit diminished because of the blood and bits of Nightmare Creatures on her, but Nephis didn’t know that.

“Oh! A-ah, h-hello, Lady Changing Star!” Rain stuttered out, she looked nervous again, was she really that intimidating? “Are you also waiting for the Principal? I can leave if you have anyth-“ 

Nephis held out her hand to give herself a chance to speak, “No that was simply a cover to bring you to this office, I am actually here… for you Rain.”

“Me!?” She exclaimed looking between Shim and her, trying to see through any deception, “W-why me? And wait how do you know my name?”

Nephis paused at her slip but smoothly recovered “Isn’t it in my best interest to know the name of promising students? And yes you, this isn’t a trick.”

Rain was looking more and more frazzled as the conversation went, she was actually starting to get a little worried… “Me? A promising student? What?” she looked disbelieved at the statement “Wait is that why you’ve been staring at me like a cree- I mean ever since you started the class?”

Nephis nodded without hesitation “You are correct Rain, I knew the moment I laid eyes on you that you had great potential.” She saw a main character in a popular romance/action novel use the same line and Cassie said that it apparently worked wonders on the young generation.

“Lady Nephis… Are you crazy?”

The room lapsed into silence.

Rain’s face was replaced by pure horror, realising her faux-pas.“P-Please forgive me for my untoward comment! I- I didn’t mean—“

A small laugh escaped Nephis lips, silencing Rain as she got the rare sight of The Changing Star laughing with a bright smile on her lips, “Don’t worry about that Rain I won’t smite you for voicing your thoughts the situation is a bit unbelievable.”

She paused to gather her thoughts but there was still traces of amusement on her face, “I haven’t told anyone this yet, but the true reason of me doing this… temporary combat class wasn’t just to enlighten the next generation but too look for a student who I could teach personally.”

Rain's jaw dropped.

“I am a firm believer in making sure the next generation is strong enough to survive the trails of the spell, there I did not lie,” her voice turned firm, which subconsciously made Rain straighten up, “And when I saw you, I knew that I had to try and grow your potential, it was only affirmed when I saw your reaction to the incoming Nightmare Gate, not many mundanes have the courage at facing Nightmare Creatures knowing their odds of survival are slim.”

The pale girl blushed at the compliment, but she then looked down at herself. “B-but I’m no one special, I just… I just didn’t want to feel weak, to be someone who would die without trying to fight…” her voice became quieter as she spoke.

A cool ivory hand landed on Rain’s shoulder, making her whole body go rigid, “That fact alone already makes you exceptional Rain, irregardless of your skill level.”

Nephis kneeled down, eye level with the one who was precious to the person she knew the best in two worlds and who she refused to disappoint, white sparks ignited in her eyes, the sight making Rain freeze feeling the intensity in that gaze.

“You can refuse, I won’t stop you if you want to leave, my training will not be a small thing,” her voice was calm, but even then there was steel in it. “So, I will ask one time, Rain will you be my student?”

“Yes!” She exclaimed, then quickly calmed herself trying to look composed which was ruined with the look of pure excitement in her eys “I mean, yes, Lady Changing Star! I will be your student.” She paused and shyly looked away. “If you’ll have me.”

Nephis stood back up happy and ecstatic at how things were going, everything was going according to plan.

Rain wasn’t done talking, though she seemed to be lost in her own world “Oh my god, me, me! Being trained by the hero of the next generation I can’t believe it!” 

Nephis was about to comment, but Rain’s mania continued “Ah! Mom and Dad aren’t going to believe this it’s like a dream!” She started giggling to herself, “This really must be one, it’s to crazy!” Nephis found the entire thing cute, in the way it reminded her of Sunny in his happier moments, but when the giggling didn’t stop she started to get a bit uncomfortable.

That uncomfortableness turned into panic when Rain passed out and fell on the floor.

Shim, quick as ever, was already at her side, he checked her pulse while Nephis had to shift on her feet hoping she didn’t somehow get Sunny’s sister killed, the concern on his face though turned into exasperation.

“She’s… fine ma’am,” he stood up and carried Rain onto the coach “She just… well it seemed she passed out from joy is all, I didn’t even know that was possible.” He mumbled out the last part, Shim shook his head, dumbfounded.

Looking at the innocent pale girl unconscious with a dumb smile on her face, Nephis revised her statement about everything being ok.

This really was going to be her toughest challenge yet.

Chapter Text

“Effie, I don’t know… are you sure this is actually a good disguise?”

“Trust me princess, no one is ever going to suspect you for being the legendary Changing Star with this outfit, although I can’t promise you won’t attract another kind of attention…”

Nephis stifled a groan at Effie’s recent innuendo as well as her wagging eyebrows, and Cassie’s —the traitor— giggling. Honestly, she appreciated the hunter, Effie was a valuable friend and had been introducing her to the joys of the mundane world that she couldn’t truly experience as a child.

But sometimes Nephis wondered if having friends was worth it if it meant experiencing Effie’s sadism everyday, she still questioned how she ended up living in her new house and why she’s allowed it till now…

Effie, Nephis and Cassie were currently in the main bedroom of said new house, the room was actually quite spacious, the window was one-sided (obviously) allowing her a view of the outside, the bed was large and the bedding was styled to her taste in all plain-white, the end of it facing the window with the door on its right.

The house in all was one-story, with a reinforced basement for training and Sleep Pod, as much as she tried she wasn’t comfortable living in her old family manor, especially with the amount of Firekeepers there, she needed her own space.

Glancing at her wall mirror, Nephis had to admit that Effie was right, she really did look good, black cargo pants with fashionable sneakers, a halter top that left her midriff and shoulders bare and a white-jacket on top, with the front open.

She had used a Cosmetic Memory to change her hair to its original black colour, tying it into a bun and wore a fake pair of square glasses to round everything off.

Apparently, there was a comic hero before the Dark Times who could hide their identity with just glasses alone. She wondered if it was exaggeration, the idea of not recognising someone simply because of glasses sounded ridiculous.

A stray thought crossed her mind of what Sunny would think, but she crushed it before it could form. 

“I’ve been allowing you to change my wardrobe since you moved in Effie, even if I didn’t see a problem with my previous one,” Effie and even Cassie shot her a skeptical look, which she ignored, “But don’t you think this is a bit overkill? We are just going to watch the premiere for the movie…”

Nephis couldn’t help but shudder, ever since her and the Forgotten Shore survivors had come back they’ve been a media sensation, one the government couldn’t help but use for their propaganda machine and this movie was the result.

A Song of Light and Darkness, even the name was atrocious.

It was going to be a brave and harrowing tale of her journey through the shore, braving the labyrinth, challenging Gunlaug, assembling the Dreamer Army and so much more.

She really didn’t want to go, but apparently Griffin Tyler was on it for sound he wasn’t Nightingale but he was still quite good, plus she was also press ganged by Kai, Effie and Cassie into coming.

“Nonsense! You can never look too good princess! Isn’t that right Cas?” Effie looked to Cassie who gave an enthusiastic nod, clearly she liked the change of wardrobe which was strange considering she was blind.

“Effie’s right Neph, plus it’s going to a good old fashioned girls day out, Kai won’t be in the actual theatre so it’s important to cherish these moments.” She had an earnest smile as she spoke, “There’s also…. Uhhh nevermind” Cassie glanced away from her.

Nephis frowned “There’s also what?”

Effie laughed. “The prude is talking about how you also need to look good for Sunny when he inevitably returns of course. Gods! I can’t wait to see the look on his face.”

As much as she kept her face blank, Nephis couldn’t hide the subtle blush that crept on her cheeks, expression perfectly deadpan, she looked at Effie, sporting a shit eating grin. “I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“Mhm, sure you don't, that's why you’ve been training a kid who looks suspiciously like a certain gremlin we know.” her grin only grew wider, she spun on her wheelchair, her movements smooth and graceful as she wheeled out of the room, “Anyways, the PTV is gonna be here in a couple minutes, don’t want to be late for this, I heard there was going to be a love triangle in it!”

Despite Effie’s enthusiasm, Nephis really couldn’t replicate it, she cradled her face in her hands “Ugh, I know she’s going to be insufferable after this…”

Cassie hopped down from the bed and walked towards her pulling Nephis into a half-hug “You know she doesn’t mean anything by it.”

“Still… it’s becoming more difficult to not use a sword to silence her, even for a little bit.” Despite her grim words the smile was audible in her voice.

“We all feel the same Neph,” she giggled again. “And by the way it is a very good thing what you're doing with Rain, you're going above and beyond what Sunny asked for you to do.”

“Giving anything less would be unacceptable.” Nephis left the room, holding Cassie’s hand as she trailed behind her. “And you’ve said that hundreds of times,”

“And I’ll say it a hundred times more, you— you're a good person Neph, I won’t ever let you forget that.” Cassie squeezed Nephis hands firmly.

She couldn’t deny the stress of being Awakened, especially when she had to worry about the Great Clans gunning for her, it sometimes kept her up at night, wondering when the next shoe would drop.

Even then, she’s found herself more… happy? Nephis had started to emote more and her socialising had improved too! Being here, with her friends, people who would have her back no matter what, it felt nice, it showed that she could be more than just a Changing Star.

More than a Star who is destined to bring Ruin.

Holding Cassie’s hand as she led, walking towards Effie’s never ending barrage of teasing and going to watch a potentially horrible movie, Nephis couldn’t help but feel that life… life was really good right now. 

And she promised herself she would never let this happiness go.

*** 

The PTV had taken them towards the movie theatre, where a large crowd was already present, thankfully they had VIP tickets so they skimmed the line, although not before getting a truly ridiculous amount of popcorn and snacks.

Cassie had also used the Cosmetic Memory making her hair a vibrant red and changed her eye color to green, it wouldn’t pass intense scrutiny but it would do for now.

Sitting at the back row, Nephis again had to wonder if she was making a mistake, Cassie was on her right and Effie was on her left, she had already finished one bucket of popcorn, and Nephis made sure hers was firmly out of reach, somber music began to play as the lights darkened, making multiple audience members shiver.

‘Griffin really went all out for this.’ She didn't know if she should be flattered or not.

On the screen, the interior of a spacious and beautifully lit room appeared. A small girl with silver hair was playing on a carpet, while a handsome man with dark circles under his eyes was shown studying a map.

Nephis couldn’t help but facepalm, her hair was black for Spell’s sake!

She glared at Effie as she giggled.

The girl, meanwhile, approached the table and reached to touch the strange sword that lay on it. The blade of the sword was short and misshapen, as though shattered a long time ago.

Before the girl could cut herself, though, the man lifted the sword and brought it out of her reach.

"This is not a toy, Nephis!" 

Nephis frowned, she didn’t have a lot of memories with her father, but even she knew he wouldn’t leave weapons lying around in the house, broken ones at that, that’s extremely irresponsible.

"But, daddy… why is your sword broken?"

The man smiled.

"So what if it is broken? It is still sharp."

Then, he put his hand on the girl's shoulder and looked at her with a very serious expression:

"One day you will wield a sword too, darling. When you do, remember one thing: we, Awakened, only raise arms to protect humanity. As long as we don't give up, no matter how dire the situation is, there will be hope. Just like this sword, humanity is more resilient than it seems!”

Generic the line may be, Nephis couldn’t help but nod at that, it was the responsibility of all humans to stand against the Spell and its tyranny, maybe this movie wouldn’t be so bad.

She was swiftly proven wrong though.

The actor they hired to play her was… well she was extremely inaccurate, she didn’t even look as if she had ever swung a sword a day in her life, not even a scrap of muscle on her, there were multiple pictures of her online. How could they get this wrong? 

As well, she had entered the Academy with Sunny walking behind her, not alone.

What followed was a training montage, Fake Neph defeating multiple Sleepers and for some bizarre reason giving out words of encouragement, her multiple defeats though came to an end when a broad shouldered and chiselled man came on screen, seeing him, Nephis swore that she was about to vomit.

Seeing the Director hint at a nascent romance between her and Caster was hard to watch, every encounter they had was filled with flirtatious undertones, she didn’t even remember even talking to Caster in the Academy…

Her disbelief increased even more when she saw Sunny’s actor.

“Who would be stupid enough to think that Sunny looked like a kid?” She couldn’t help blurt out, as the actor made a fool of himself, she couldn’t help but be offended for Sunny, his foolishness and lack of education always had a reason, not this tactless comic relief.

Effie laughed silently right next to her. “Oh, I don’t know princess, he certainly had the height to pull the part, the casting director really knew what he was doing, did he really act like this in the Academy?” she held a hand to her mouth.

“Well, kinda? It’s a somewhat accurate rendition.” Cassie couldn’t help but comment, she had a look of amusement and disbelief on her face.

Nephis ignored the both of them and continued to watch the travesty on screen, the final day before Fake Neph entered the Dream Realm, Sunny loudly proclaimed his love for her and his promise to win her heart, which got him laughed and browbeaten out of the cafeteria by Caster, much to the audiences delight and taunts.

Nephis fumed. 

The coral labyrinth was a decent imitation, especially the Dark Sea, but it was… lacking something, it didn’t give off the same feeling as when she was actually there.

The audience was holding their breaths during Fake Neph's journey to the Dark City. The terrifying nature of the dark tides and the deadly battles with Awakened Nightmare Creatures populating the Labyrinth created a truly tense, suffocating atmosphere.

They all knew that she would survive, but the tension came from both of her companions, and whether or not Fake Neph could carry her supposed burden’s all the way to the Dark City, they even used it for opportunities for some necessary exposition.

And, thanks to Sunny, there were also moments of pleasant levity amidst all the tension. A few times, the whole audience exploded with laughter after Sunny on the screen did something especially stupid or said something really outrageous.

He had also slowly developed a catchphrase. It was… "Are you crazy?!”

“Well they got that right at least.” Nephis mumbled as she crossed her arms, she still didn’t like Sunny being seen as an idiot especially after how much she came to rely on him.

It didn't help that the Child Sunny kept doing inane acts in hopes of catching Fake Neph’s eye.

“I promise you Lady Nephis, I might be an uneducated rat from the outskirts but I swear one day I’ll prove myself to you.” There was a gentle orchestra playing in the background, the sun was behind Sunny giving his shadows a stark contrast, his love confession being more serious this time. “Your father, Broken Sword, was just like me, and he won the heart of Lady Smile of Heaven. I'll show you that it’s not the upbringing that matters but the heart underneath!”

Changing Star looked at the small boy, she was about to dismiss his feelings again, but the burning fire in his eyes and his words resonated with her, for a moment  she was silent, then smiled.

“Well you have your work cut out for you, Sunless,” She fluttered her eyelashes “I’m not so easily won.”

Nephis sunk into her seat at the inaccuracies, Sunny would never be so honest about his true feelings towards her.

Eventually, though, they made it to the ancient city, and met Effie.

Effie was played by a very tall, athletic, and attractive actress.

…The way she played her, though, was a sight to behold. Basically, the actress went out of her way to portray the huntress as a charismatic, but not very bright savage who was all brawn and no brain. All she knew how to do was fight, eat, and break things.

Nephis turned to Effie and grinned, smugly.

This was the first time he had ever seen the boisterous young woman... completely mortified. 

It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her life.

The second act took place in the outer settlement, and was dedicated to Neph's heroic attempts to protect and inspire the young men and women trapped there. There were a lot of impassioned speeches, blood-chilling expeditions into the Dark City, and tense altercations with Gunlaug's forces.

There were also a lot of shenanigans from Child Sunny, to the delight of the audience. At some point, people started to scream "Are you crazy?!" along with him. 

And a bit later, there was a sort of comical moment of growth for the character, when he asked "...Am I crazy?" The scene was of Sunny looking into the Dark City with a tense expression on his face, but the expression became sad as he looked back and saw Caster and Fake Neph, ‘fighting’ each other in an impassioned duel, with him going into the Dark City alone.

This was met with a lot of tears from the audience, and words of encouragement that he shouldn’t give up.

…Most of this part of the movie, though, was dedicated to the genuine respect and camaraderie that blossomed between Nephis and Caster in this dire time. With the handsome male lead as her right hand, Changing Star successfully united the people of the outer settlement, reminded them what it meant to be humans, and challenged Gunlaug to save boisterous Effie from unjust imprisonment.

Sunny even made a return before the civil war, the previous child actor looked much more serious and chiselled and was for some reason taller, although not by much, he swore his loyalty to her in private and it seemed that he and Caster from that point developed some form of friendly rivalry born from mutual respect.

The third act covered the battle for the Crimson Spire in stark detail, Sunny’s mad dash towards the Crimson Spire, Effie’s battle against the horde of abominations, Kai’s battle in the skies, and Nephis and Caster slaying Nightmare Creatures side by side.

The audience seemed to have forgotten to breathe, and Nephis honestly had to appreciate the good job that the Director had done, showing the massacre of human lives and the blood spilt on their near hopeless path to freedom, favourite side characters died heroically and there was quite a bit of sobbing from around the theatre.

Enhanced by the beautiful music, the atmosphere was not tragic, though. On the contrary, it was triumphant and exalted, as if to die in this way was the highest honor a human could receive.

Nephis had to admit Griffin’s music was certainly better than Nightingale, but she would always hold the band in her heart.

When the situation was the most desperate, with the dark water rising and threatening to drown all the surviving warriors, a sudden change happened. The sea suddenly retreated, and the monsters started to fall to the ground. Caster, covered in blood and wounds, looked at Nephis and whispered:

“My Lady! The sun…" 

Indeed, the sun had suddenly turned menacingly red, its light eradicating the remaining Nightmare Creatures and assaulting the humans. For the first time in the entire movie, an uncertain and desperate expression appeared on Changing Star's face.

Things took a much more hopeful upturn though when a clear bell rang through the air, the audience cheered as the imposing and serious silhouette of Sunny stood — a bit comical considering his height— beckoning for the Dreamer Army to come forward.

Nephis gave an extremely cliche speech to Sunny about the value of being Awakened when they arrived inside the Crimson Spire and there was clearly some form of romantic tension between the two as she sped off to face the Crimson Terror.

Sunny led the survivors to the Gateway, Caster left the group to help Fake Neph but not before being followed by Child Sunny, both putting their differences aside to help their one true love.

They caught up with Fake Nephis and the following scene was idiotic in her opinion but the audience clearly loved it, seeing their emotional reactions.

“Sir Sunless, Sir Caster…” Nephis’ face was overflowing with emotion, a tear went down her cheek, “Honestly what am I going to do with the two of you?” She huffed.

“We are your comrades Lady Changing Star, no matter our grievances we will always support you.” Caster's handsome face was chiselled like stone and his beard connecting to his hair like a lion’s mane, he glanced at Sunny and grinned “Think you can keep up short stuff?”

“Huh, who do you think I am? I’ve changed a lot since I came to this Forgotten Shore, you know!” Sunny exclaimed, crossing his substantial arms and raising his now sharp chin. “I’ll show you the true power of the outskirts and then I’ll win Lady Nephis hand!”

The last scenes of the movie were somber and tragic, the combined efforts of Sunny, Nephis and Caster fought back the Crimson Terror but not before Caster sacrificed himself, saving Fake Neph from a death blow, although she still got injured, he told Sunny to look after Nephis as his dying wish.

The Spire then began to fall apart, Sunny ran down, tears in his eyes as he carried Fake Neph, arriving and gently putting her beaten form on the Gateway, much to her protests.

The last shot showed Sunny smiling down at her, kissing her on the forehead much to the boos and delight of most of the audience, before she disappeared.

He looked around at the rapidly breaking coral, a broken sword in his hand and chuckled. 

“Huh, in the end, I guess I was the craziest one of all…”

The screen turned black as Child Sunny was consumed by shadows and in the next moment, the audience exploded with applause.

Nephis face resembled a statue carved from perfect stone, not even registering the audience around her.

Effie and Cassie were silent as they shifted in their seats, none spoke but they all came to a silent agreement that the movie was horrible.

When the lights returned, Kai appeared to deafening applause and gave a short speech, congratulating the director and the crew of the movie and then inviting them on the stage for a short Q&A.

Nephis, contemplating the viability of assassination stared at the director of this travesty. Then, she glanced at Effie and Cassie, who — judging by their faces — were thinking the same.

The trio left before everyone else, walking out of the theatre not a single word was spoken until they finally arrived at a food court, they sat down, ordered food and waited, Cassie broke the silence first.

“My character barely got any screen time…” 

Effie looked at her and scoffed, “I don’t know why you're complaining, just be lucky that they didn’t have a chance at butchering your personality more than they already did.”

Cassie nodded, “Yeah, watching the movie with my Awakened ability was… really a waste of essence” hesitantly, she glanced at Nephis who was still silent, “What did you find wrong with it Neph?”

“Everything,” she said bluntly. “The Director clearly had a good idea of what they wanted to do but the execution was awful.”

Effie and Cassie were about to agree, but Nephis wasn’t done. “Don’t even get me started on the characterisation, did they even do any research on us? Calling it a parody wouldn’t even describe what they did.”

Behind Nephis’ chair and a few feet away was a trash can, the lid of the trash can was closed and unbenounced to her a small spark had just lit inside of it.

“Cassie was a non-entity, Effie was a brute, Kai was… actually accurate, we’re going to have words for him for that by the way, and I don't even want to bring up what they did with me and Caster.” Her voice was monotone, but slowly growing more heated.

The spark in the can grew, consuming the flammable material quickly.

“And Sunny… the only thing they got right was his tendency of always criticising my plans, they didn’t capture his ruthless cunning or his sharp charm!” The food had arrived, the waiter stretched his collar from the heat and quickly backed away.

Nephis stabbed a fork into her burger, the fire had grew enough that a small plume of smoke was coming out, Effie’s eyebrows rose and Cassie paled “Neph—“

“I’m not done Cassie,” her voice was frigid, quickly making Cassie shut her mouth, powerless to stop the incoming disaster. “And Sunny doesn’t even look like a child, why would someone think that? Yes, he's short but that’s not a negative trait in the slightest.”

The smoke started to become more noticeable but Nephis stayed oblivious. 

“Honestly, if I see that Director or writer, or whatever of that poor excuse they call a film, I’m going to give them a piece of my mind—” before she could finish her rant, the bin then chose to finally burst into a conflagration of white flames.

Nephis turned around slowly, eyeing the burning bin, then glanced up at the stunned expressions on the faces of nearby pedestrians and customers.

She saw their expressions go from disbelief, recognition and then excitement.

Cassie’s face rested in her hand, Nephis could have sworn she heard her say ‘Damnation’ but that wasn’t relevant right now.

What was though: 

“OH MY GOD! IT'S CHANGING STAR!!!”

Was the incoming crowd of sycophants and fans who just finished watching the movie.

Gazing helplessly at the incoming crowd and tuning out Effie’s laugh in the background, Nephis couldn’t help but think that she would much rather watch that filth again, then go through this.

At least Sunny isn’t here…

Chapter Text

At least Nephis isn’t here.

That was the thought that crossed Sunny’s mind as he lifted the boulder in front of him, a normal Sleeper without a strength-based Aspect wouldn’t have hoped of achieving this unless their core was fully saturated, but Sunny was a Demon and well on his way towards Devil, with 3 Shadows he was just under Effie in pure physical strength alone, this boulder was nothing.

Heaving the boulder over his head he tossed it, the large rock hit the ground with a cracking thud, kicking up a cloud of dust, in the ever present darkness of the Forgotten Shore any sound was foreboding but Sunny just felt right at home surrounded by nothing but shadows.

He brushed off the stray dust on his cloak and shroud as well as the stray pieces of hair that fell over his face, it had gotten long and unruly, reaching all the way to his waist, he hadn't really had the time - or the care - to cut it into a more manageable shape, maybe a ponytail would do.

“But I don't need to give Effie more ammunition to call me feminine,” he murmured and smiled at the thought of the boisterous hunter, which swiftly turned sour as he realised she probably – definitely–  doesn’t even think about him anymore. 

Shaking his head, Sunny looked at the broken corpse of the Sleeper beneath him, most of the skin and muscle had already rotted off, leaving white bone, so the smell wasn’t too bad and he had already gotten used to it by this point, thankfully its eyes were gone too he didn’t need any more accusing stares.

The stares were in his head off course, these Sleepers were dead, lost in the battle of the Crimson Spire but Sunny… Sunny has had a lot of time to think, too much really, and he couldn’t help but think what If?

What if he had decided to stay at Nephis side? What if he had just let Caster live? What if he had trusted his cohort members more? What if he decided to pursue more strength? Strong enough to prevent the massacre in the Bright Castle, strong enough to reduce the casualties in the siege.

…Strong enough to fight fate.

A loud shattering sound swept through the air to his right, Sunny looked over to see Saint clearing more debris and pulling out another Sleeper corpse, he sighed and picked up the body, turning and walking towards the center of the ruined battlefield.

In the middle of it were even more bodies, the dead soldiers of the Dreamer Army stacked carefully next to each other. Originally when Sunny left the Crimson Spire he didn’t really have the time to sort through the chaos, he was just focused on survival.

He still was, but the idea of just leaving these Sleepers lying around to rot with no one to remember them felt… wrong, he didn’t know why, he wasn’t a sentimental or good person but he had to at least pay them their respects for doing the impossible.

Sunny gently placed the corpse next to the other bodies, a morose emotion drowning his heart as he looked at the impromptu pyramid he had made, Saint on the other side placed the body she had dug up, and disappeared into the shadows as he dismissed her.

It had taken Sunny 3 days to dig the remains of the Sleepers in front of him and he had barely scratched the surface, he could still sense so many buried under heaps of rubble or Nightmare creatures, he wanted to dig up every last one, place them on this makeshift grave and give them the peace they deserve.

… But he knew that as he was right now that would take weeks, possibly months, and that was time Sunny simply did not have.

Being so weak, that he could not even sort out the remains of these brave young men and women without care or cutting corners, made the bitter hollow feeling in his chest grow even more, but he knew that as he was currently that there was nothing he could do about it.

Sunny stared for a moment and then picked up a piece of jagged dark stone he had gotten from the stray rubble that fell from the spire. He wanted to make a barrow but a tombstone would have to suffice for now, so he summoned the Prowling Thorn and then scratched into it.

[Here lie those

Who extinguished the sun Dreamers of the Dark City 

Sleep well

Your nightmare is over.]

He got a bit sloppy and cut himself on his finger so some blood fell on top of the tombstone, but he knew Blood Weave would handle it.

Sunny placed it down in front of the heap of bodies, and just stared for a bit not knowing what to say, he wasn’t much of a speaker.

In the end all he said was:

“Rest well… and,” He hesitated but then firmed himself “I promise I’ll be back in the future to put all of you to rest.”

He said this in the serene silence of the shore, not expecting a response but to Sunny's surprise he got one.

[You have received an attribute] 

‘What? How!?’ Sunny was shocked, quickly summoning his runes to see what changed.

Attributes: [Fated], [Spark of Divinity], [Child of Shadows], [Blood Weave], [Harbinger of Mercy].

[Harbinger of Mercy] Attribute Description : “The Shadow God was not only the god of shadows but peace, solace, mysteries and death, it was his will to bring peace to those who’ve passed, and Shadow Slave’s were simply an extension of that will, granting the solace of death so that they may live within him, that is the Mercy of Shadow.”

Needless to say Sunny was stunned, he didn’t know that he was actually performing a task done by Shadow Slave’s. Did him spilling blood complete the ritual or was it the promise he made?

So many questions, the explorer within him wished he was back in the real world to possibly learn more about this, but there wasn’t enough time, either way Sunny would take the boost in power he already had an inkling of what it was…

With one last glance at the pile in front of him he walked away, heading towards the ruins of the Crimson Spire, even now Sunny still struggled to comprehend the sheer desolation of the siege, the air was still without a single gust of wind, his eyes could pierce the darkness but it made the devastation around him more foreboding and the only sound for miles was the crunch of his footsteps on cracked grey coral.

Up ahead he saw the still and lifeless form of the Builder’s statue, the six other heads arrayed behind it, while kneeling on the ground, glad to have finally found rest, Sunny patted the statue as he walked past.

“I hope you get enough peace for the both of us you big bastard, I really am going to need it,” Sunny chuckled to himself, ignoring the pointed, worried and unsettling looks coming from Gloomy, Happy and Creepy

He looked at the moat that surrounded the ruins and sighed, the bridge being destroyed was not too much of an issue as Sunny summoned the Prowling Thorn and threw it across the gap, he jumped and let the kunai guide him in a much more controlled and elegant fall unlike the catacombs, getting to the other side wasn't much of an issue.

Standing, Sunny looked at the mountainous ruins of the spire, he was curious about the current state of the now sealed Dark Sea but maybe in the future, he didn't know that thing’s Rank, but Sunny knew it far out stripped him, no point starting his journey to the west on a bad note.

The debris and coral served as excellent, albeit unstable footing and stepping stones as Sunny climbed up the ruinous mountain, the climb would be long, giving him time to think on his choice, and whether or not he would regret it.

West of the Forgotten Shore… he could hardly believe it, Sunny had spent months agonizing on which direction to go to in order to find a Gateway out of the Dream Realm, North was moving further away from civilisation so he wouldn't go there, South was the Hollow Mountain’s and considering the eerie Mist that surrounded it that wasn't even an option, that only left West and East.

He was tempted to go East as that was the direction he and Nephis picked before Cassie gave them direction, and maybe even give him a chance at killing that wretched tree, but something was stopping him… No, not something, it was Fate.

Sunny had a feeling that his relationship with Fate was close, much closer than most due to his Innate attribute, and sometimes wondered where it was guiding him towards, that feeling became a certainty when he tried to pick between East and West, there was intuition in his gut, trying to tell him what action to take.

Needless to say Sunny was hesitant to listen to it, he did not like the idea of an ephemeral force above him controlling his every action and taking away his agency, but just like when Nephis had enslaved him it was out of his control, the most he could was make the best of it until he could take control of his Fate with his two hands.

And that day will come, he has no doubt about that. 

That instinct persisted until he had the idea of summoning Weaver’s Mask, he was the Daemon of Fate wasn't he? Sunny was clearly linked to him in some fashion and he doubted the unknown deity would have bad intentions.

He hoped he didn't, Sunny would never forget what happened when he actually donned the mask and activated the [???] enchantment, or as it was actually called [Where is my eye?], he had gazed at the grand Tapestry of Fate in all of its sublime beauty, even now the image was burned into his retina, the strings surrounding him like a puppet, the other string made of pure white fire pointing to the South, past the Hollow Mountains and the last one, a darkish green string bordering on black that seemed to suck in all the light around it.

…Pointing towards the West.

Gazing at the tapestry did come at a deadly cost though, when he activated the enchantment, his reserves of essence were sucked up faster than water in a desert, his mind was nearly torn asunder at the sheer weight of it all and if not for the fact that his essence was only dormant making the enchantment only activate for a second, he very well would have died.

He had been out of commission for days after the whole ordeal and thankfully had the peace of mind to summon Saint before he passed out, he was still in enormous pain when he woke but he at least had a direction to work towards.

Even now as Sunny climbed, he could feel his gut, pointing him, all but whispering in his ear ‘West, West, West’, like a Siren’s Song, whatever a Siren was… The journey ahead was pushing every single one of Sunny’s battle instincts, going into an unknown part of the Dream Realm especially as a Sleeper? Most would consider that suicide.

There was a dark part of his mind, one that he would never entertain that told him how it made the journey much more appealing, because of it.

Sunny was nimble and swift as he climbed, scaling the rubble with ease, and after about an hour or was it two? Time had become so much harder to keep track of… he had finally reached the top.

Sunny stood tall on the parody mountain of grey coral, his eyes wear two pools of oblivion as they gazed ever forward, the bags beneath his eyes were pronounced and dark, making him look like a shrivelled raccoon, his skin was an unhealthy pale and on his shoulder was a large and handmade satchel, containing all his rations for the journey ahead, wearing his tattered silken armour, and a black cloak with white filigree in swirl-patterns in the center, Sunny resembled a wraith that was born from the shadows, made for the sole purpose of taking the souls of any unfortunate victims that cross it’s path.

He was fearsome and his presence showed it, but there was also an undercurrent of emptiness, within his aura, as if his fearsomeness was all that was holding him together and slowly but steadily running out, chipping away from the relentless onslaught of the Dream Realm.

Grey and broken debris was all Sunny saw past the ruins of the spire, it would possibly be days before he finally left the Forgotten Shore proper, but it was a journey he was ready for, as ready as he will ever be.

Sunny turned his gaze behind him, this hell… it served as a crucible for him, he entered alone and learnt what it meant to cherish others and be cherished by others, he learnt to trust, to be strong, to lose, to grieve and the most important lesson of all, to survive. Sunny was not the weak little boy he used to be.

…Even then, is it not ironic that he would be leaving it alone? Just like in the beginning and just like it's always been.

“Ha! Honestly isn’t Master Jet supposed to be an experienced Ascended? She clearly didn't know what she was talking about, I'm surviving just fine on my own!” Sunny proclaimed, he tried to smile but he simply couldn't muster up the energy, as Sunny looked away he quickly summoned Nephis’ runes to anchor himself, seeing her progress was always calming.

Sleeper Sunless turned his focus forward and began to jump down the ruins, no hesitation or fear was present in his movements. As he began his journey into the unknown, he didn’t look back once. 

Chapter Text

Echoes of steel on steel bounced in the interior of the dimly lit dojo, the sound of shuffling feet was methodical and the labored breathing of one of the combatants was similar to that of a car on its last legs.

All this originated of course from the two combatants at the center of the room one pale with raven hair, her face was teeming with sweat as she tried to survive the onslaught of her teacher, said teacher, silver hair, grey eyes and ivory skin was hammering her pupil with a never ending torrent of sword strikes with an impassive gaze.

They were both in training clothing, consisting of black tank tops and white shorts, the dojo was expansive and spartan, but had a large mechanical pod in an alcove that faced the door and a rack filled with training weapons on the side.

Rain tried to feint an attack low and instead struck high, Nephis didn’t even bat an eye as she parried and punished her pupil with a strike to her temple with the flat side of her training sword.

“In a real fight that would have been a killing blow,” Nephis said, her voice was cold and sharp. “Focus more on the movement of my joints instead of the sword itself.” Rain gave her a shaky nod.

That is how the entire spar went, Rain’s increasing desperation and Nephis relentless beating, every failure was rewarded with a head strike and a relecturing on her faults, Nephis was being a little harsh but she did tell Rain her training wouldn’t be easy.

A couple of months had passed since Nephis started training Rain and she had to say that she was decently impressed, the girl was no Sunny but she had his diligence and eagerness to learn, which Nephis responded to in full, she was approaching the age where she would be infected by the Spell, and Nephis would be damned if she didn’t let her pupil be ready for the full trials of her Nightmare.

Rain tried again to use a feint, albeit a bit slower than usual, Nephis didn’t even entertain falling for it and thrusted the tip of her sword at the center of her chest, the attack landed with a hard smack and sent Rain tumbling towards the end of the Dojo.

Nephis frowned at the raven haired girl, she was sprawled on the ground and cradling her chest gingerly, even holding back an Awakened’s strength was no joke but that’s not what was bothering her.

There was something troubling the young girl, Nephis might not have been the most social of people but even she could tell that Rain hadn’t been as sharp as she usually is, and it’s been like that for the past month, she stayed silent not wanting to intrude but it was starting to affect her performance.

Nephis would need to rectify that.

“I think we’ve had enough training for the day.” She walked towards Rain and offered the girl a hand which she took with a slight bit of hesitation. “Your performance today wasn’t as good I’ll admit but I can see you’ve been diligent in your training.” There was much more warmth in her voice now that she had ‘teacher mode’ off as Effie liked to call it.

The hunter had joined a couple of their lessons —with a mix of Cassie and even Kai occasionally— to observe and even offer a few tips of her own, she will admit that she got a tad bit jealous when she saw Rain was more comfortable in being casual with Effie then with her and seeked to address it.

Rain brushed herself off and tried to hide her small blush at the compliment. “O- Of course! I make sure to do my katas every day, thank you for noticing Lady Chang- I mean, Nephis.”

That was another thing, she had finally gotten Rain comfortable enough to call her by her name instead of her title, the role of Changing Star was for the public but here and now with friends she just needed to be Nephis.

Smiling at the cute girl, she patted her on the head which just made her blush even more and beckoned her upstairs, after every training session Nephis would cook a meal for Rain and they would eat while discussing anything that came up on their mind, it was awkward at first but now it’s something that they both looked forward too.

If she could she would even try to squeeze in a small activity together like watching a movie or going shopping, —while wearing her disguise of course— she had Effie teach her everything she could in the art of makeup and fashion, in hopes of presenting herself as a sisterly figure to the younger girl.

And If Nephis was ever accused of trying to endear herself to Rain from the mouth of a messy roommate to impress a certain lost shadow, she would calmly and always deny it.

Her thoughts became slightly morose at the thought of Sunny, making her summon his runes.

Sunny was well on his way towards creating his Devil Core, he had gained another Shadow —Rotten Spirit of Gale—, a new attribute and his Soul Arsenal was steadily increasing, seeing his progress always made her happy and stoked her competitiveness, she couldn’t allow her first disciple to be stronger than her when he came back.

And he would be back. She held that belief with certainty no matter what a certain red eyed princess thought.

Entering the main floor of her house, she walked towards the kitchen while Rain dragged herself to one of the couches, normally the girl would try and join her in cooking but not today, the main living space was modest, couches arranged themselves in a U-shape with a table at the center, that sat next to a wall, a kitchen with a kitchenette for extra space near the entrance of the house with a nice window for lighting, the rooms and spare rooms were more at the back of the single story home.

Nephis prepared the meal, a simple serving of omu rice with tomato sauce, she looked busy but in the corner of her eye she was watching Rain. The pale girl was looking for a channel to watch, she seemed relaxed but there was an unmistakable amount of tension in her frame.

There was a bit of anxiety at the thought she might have done something wrong, the last thing she wanted was for Rain to be uncomfortable in her home, she needed to figure out what was bothering her pupil.

Nephis platted the food and brought it to Rain, who gave her a grateful smile.

They ate in silence for a bit, TV playing in the background, Rain finally spoke, there was some rice on her cheek, “Thank you for the meal, Nephis! I’m a bit embarrassed to admit but I’m still surprised that you can cook.”

“It’s a standard part of training for Legacies and Awakened,” she leaned over and wiped the rice from the girl's cheek which caused her to yelp a bit. “With how long we spend in the wilderness you need to be able to make a decent meal with what you have at hand.”

Nephis paused for a bit. “That reminds me we definitely need to add cooking to your training.” Her voice became serious again which was comical as she also wagged a fork in Rain’s direction.

Rain groaned “Do we have too? You're really breaking my expectations… I thought that being trained by the great Changing Star would involve a lot more sword fighting and lessons on the virtue of being Awakened.” She shook her head.

“Oh? So you want me to increase your physical training then?” Nephis smirked at the rapid head shake and paleness of Rain’s face, the banter and atmosphere was calm and teasing, which continued as they eventually finished their meals, Nephis got up with the plates ready to do the dishes and Rain had enough energy to join.

Nephis began to wash them and asked in a nonchalant voice, “So, Rain, what has been bothering you?”

The pale girl froze for a bit and then answered hurriedly “N- Nothing! Why do you ask?”

Her tone tried to be calm, but Nephis had learned early on that the girl was no Sunny when it came to deception; she was as easy to read as a book.

“Your performance has been lagging for the past couple of lessons, your tense most of the time and I’ve seen you dart a couple of troubled looks my way when you thought I haven’t been looking.” She spoke bluntly, her eyes never leaving the task in front of her, best to rip the band-aid off and lay down her cards.

Rain was silent for a bit and Nephis allowed her to sort her thoughts, she passed a dirty dish to Nephis and finally spoke, but what she said nearly made Nephis drop the plate. “Nephis… can you tell me about Sir Sunless?”

Now it was Nephis time to freeze, her voice was calm but there was an underlying tenseness hiding beneath it. “What… What brought this on? You haven’t been listening to those conspiracies online about him being a hidden child of a Legacy Clan have you?” She tried to change the topic but Rain remained unperturbed.

“No, I haven’t but that isn’t answering my question…”

Nephis’ posture was rigid, she remembered Sunny talking about Rain during the Dark City, walking away and choosing not to be part of her life was painful but ultimately a choice he made, she wasn’t comfortable with taking away his chance at revealing himself as her brother without him here, she had taken enough from him.

“I hope you can understand why I’m a bit hesitant in discussing him, Rain…” she washed and rinsed the last of the dishes, and hoped Rain wouldn’t notice the look in her eyes. “But what exactly do you want to know?”

“C-Can you tell me about him?” Her response was immediate, meaning this has been something on her mind for a while. “And the truth please, you don’t have to sugarcoat anything.”

Nephis looked at Rain’s eyes and didn’t like the curiosity and intensity inside of them, she sighed and began to pack the dishes, Rain joined her in putting them away. “Ok, Sunn- Sir Sunless was a very paranoid boy, he kept a lot about himself to his chest, which didn't paint the best impression at first but even then he was a very valuable ally.”

“As much as the movies liked to show him as an idiot, he was sharp and cunning, I would have died multiple times over in the Labyrinth if not for him and he was my first pupil too, Sir Sunless was a talented fighter,” A fond smile crept onto her lips as she remembered the days in the start of that hell, how simple things were… but the smile dropped as she continued.“We… we had a bit of a falling out when we arrived in the Dark City, but he still chose to come and help me on the expedition to the Labyrinth, even when we had our differences I knew I could trust him no matter what.”

Unbeknownst to Nephis, as much as she tried to make her face blank, Rain didn’t miss the forlorn look on her face, there was a strong undercurrent of pain in her voice if this was anyone else they would have missed it, but Rain had been trying to learn her masters mannerism since they met, she knew this was a difficult topic for her.

“And then he helped me fight the Crimson Terror, I got injured and Sir Sunless sacrificed himself.” She said a tad quickly, then flashed a weak smile at Rain. “And no he didn’t kiss me when he left.”

Nephis had hoped that would be the end of it but before she could end the topic Rain pushed on. “Was him being from the Outskirts actually true?”

“Yes… but I don’t see how that’s-“

“Di-Did.” Rain interrupted her again, much to her minor annoyance. “Did he say anything about h-his family from the Outskirts?”

Nephis freezed just as she put the last dish in the cupboard, and turned away from Rain. “No, he didn’t, all he told me was that they all died.”

“Why are you asking?” Nephis looked towards the girl. Her voice was slightly harsh, which she immediately regretted as Rain flinched away a bit. She felt guilty but discussing Sunny in-depth always made her agitated and Rain’s questions were making her anxious. 

There was silence in the kitchen for a moment before it was broken by Rain.

“Effie… Effie said something to me a couple of months ago when we’re talking about your Sir Sunless. I wanted to know if he was actually your b-boyfriend.” Rain at least had the decency of looking embarrassed at that piece of information. “I-I'm not sure if I meant to hear it, but it was along the lines of ‘Damn, she really does look just like him.’ I was going to ask her for clarification but she just changed the topic.”

Nephis mentally cursed the huntress for talking about things that weren’t her business, till Rain continued. “And it’s not only that… whenever Miss Cassie’s around there are times that she's really sad when she’s looking at me, or the time Nightingale said that someone would be proud of you for taking care of me, when you two thought I wasn’t listening.”

“I was confused at first, but when I started putting the pieces together and asked my parents where I was before I was ad-adopted, the suspicion took root.” Rain looked up, staring at Nephis she looked anxious the more she spoke as if afraid about what answer she would give. “And I even noticed the times that you had a look of nostalgia when training me, like you weren’t seeing me but someone else.”

Nephis couldn’t hold the surprise that came over her face, Rain was a good student but even she had to admit that she wasn’t the brightest tool in the shed, she was rather oblivious at times, but that assumption clearly cost her as the girl put the facts together herself.

“Nephis… did you really pick me as your student because you thought I was talented or because of someone else?” There was a slight hint of betrayal in her eyes “Please… don’t lie to me like you did at the final parts of your story.”

They both stood in the middle of the kitchen staring at one another, a pregnant pause overtook the home, and the previous easygoing atmosphere was completely gone.

“I- I chose you as my disciple because someone asked me to take care of you while they were gone.” Nephis closed her eyes, as she already knew what she was about to ask, she could lie and force Rain to not speak on the topic.

But she already knew what happened when you let secrets linger and put them off for another day, she wasn’t going to make the same mistake.

“Was…Was that person Sir Sunless?”

“Yes.”

“Did Sir Sunless say my name specifically? Me? Rain?”

“Yes.”

There was a pause.

“Was Sir Sunless, my br-brother?”

Another pause.

“Yes…”

‘I’m sorry, Sunny.’ The shame that filled Nephis was cloying and heavy, turning her head down like a lead weight, she hoped that Sunny would tell her this himself, there would be a happy moment as they reunited and Nephis would watch from the side, as the siblings bonded, Rain figured it out herself but even then she couldn’t shake the fact that she took something away from him again. 

Nephis looked up at Rain expecting confusion and even more betrayal, on her face what she didn’t expect was for the girl to be on the verge of tears.

What?

“I-if he really was my brother then why d-did he abandon me?” Rain sobbed, her voice was thick and more tears were pooling in her eyes.

“What!?” Nephis shouted a bit shocked, why on earth would she think that? “He would never abandon you! What made you think that?”

“The orphanage my parents adopted me from.” Her tears were coming out in earnest now. “I-I asked my parents if I had any relatives, and they said the caretakers told them about a boy who was with me, but were vague on the details and didn’t know much.”

“So what happened? Did he just leave me there? Why? I-I have some small memories of a warm hand, but nothing much… and even now he asked you to take care of me, but if he was my brother why didn’t he come himself?” Rain hugged herself. “And what about my parents? Did they also leave us? Was I a burden to them too?”

Nephis didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know that Rain was dealing with such a heavy topic this entire time, and felt guilty and not noticing it sooner, without the right context… it could look like Sunny left Rain and chose not to come back, and the girl was still young her current parents would have no reason to go into detail about her birth family.

With an instinct she didn’t know she had, Nephis crossed the kitchen, crouched down and immediately hugged her, Rain buried her head in the crook of Nephis neck and hugged her back.

“Sunny loved you Rain.” Her voice was soft and gentle as she patted the girl on the back. “I’m serious, he was a problem child when he was at the orphanage and didn’t get adopted like you did, but he would never abandon you.”

Rain pushed back a bit to look up at Nephis but didn’t leave her arms, “Really? I know the Outskirts are dangerous and it isn’t easy to survive… but you said he was smart, did he never think to try and look for me? Did he forget about me until the last moment?”

Nephis stared down at her pupil for a bit, hesitating. “He did look for you… Sunny told me that for a large part of his life that it was basically the only thing keeping him going…”

She took a moment to compose herself. “And he did find you, but when he did he saw that you were fine, Sunny told me that seeing you happy and smiling… Not a worry in the world… it broke him a bit because he realised that you didn’t need him, so he turned back and left.”

“What!? Bu-but I’m sure my parents could have worked something out! He didn’t need to go...” Rain tried to reassure herself, but it was a bit feeble with the tears and snot running down her face. 

“He didn’t know that Rain, in his own words he was just a dirty boy from the Outskirts he didn’t want to bring you unnecessary trouble.” Nephis grabbed a paper towel from the counter and began wiping her disciples face. “Tell me how would you have felt if from your perspective a homeless child came onto your porch saying he was your brother?”

Rain accepted the action and was silent as she thought about her words, “I-I don’t know…” Her voice was small. “Maybe I would have rejected him, but deep down I still wanted to know about my original family.”

Suddenly, she glared at Nephis, a bit of the same betrayal from earlier on her face. “But did you choose to teach me because of him? Not… not because you actually thought I was talented?.”

Rain was rewarded with a flick to her forehead for that comment, “Ow! What was that for!?”

“I will admit Sunny was the main reason I wanted to teach you and get close to you, and for that deception, I apologise” She matched Rain’s glare with her own. “You might not be as talented as Sunny, but don’t discredit yourself, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being your teacher, and my compliments weren’t empty, you have a lot of potential and I’m sure you’ll be a great Awakened someday.”

Rain’s face still looked downtrodden but Nephis could see a smile slowly growing on her face, a sense of tension she didn’t know she had inside her began to unwind, Rain buried her face again in Nephis’ elbow and they stayed hugging like that for a while.

“Do you feel better?” Nephis broke away from her reluctantly, leaving her hands on the girl's shoulder.

“A little… I don’t remember much of him, and I know I shouldn't be crying over someone I don’t know.” She sniffled. “But, I had another older brother, he died during his First Nightmare, and the fact that I have another one out there, that I didn’t even get to meet and learn what happened to us, it’s just a bit overwhelming you know?”

“I understand more than you ever know Rain, trust me.” And she did, Nephis didn’t meet her mother but even now she wonders what could have been? “And you will meet him, I know Sunny, he's too spiteful to die in the Dream Realm. He'll come back one day and I hope you two will be able to have a strong bond.”

“I hope so too!” She giggled much more upbeat then previously, Nephis was glad she didn’t mess up, her social skills had really been improving!

Rain looked at her master with gratitude but there was a hint of mischief that slowly started to appear in her eyes. “If you say he’ll return I’m sure he will, I wouldn’t expect any less from Lady Changing Star’s boyfriend, after all!”

Nephis brain stuttered, but she quickly recovered.

“Rain… you know those, online rumours are just that rumours, me and Sunny are friends nothing else.” Her voice was as steady as a summer lake.

“That’s why you always bring flowers to his pod at the Academy?” Nephis gaped at her, having long lost control of her expressions. How did she know this? And as if reading her mind. “Effie talks a lot, she even told me the reason she didn’t go for Sunny herself was because she knew you too had a thing!”

“What!?” Nephis rose abruptly, her face was a storm of muted disbelief and frightening anger, clearly a discussion was needed with the boisterous hunter on not touching what’s hers!

Nephis thoughts of violent murder were interrupted by Rain giggling then breaking out into a full laugh. “Gods! She told me to say that to get a reaction out of you! I can’t believe it worked! I can’t wait to tell her!”

Rain laughed even more, much to Nephis embarrassment and shame, she was Changing Star dammit! It shouldn’t be this easy for a middle schooler to rile her up! 

Abruptly, Rain’s face was overtaken by a thoughtful expression. “Wait, if you and my brother are together… doesn’t that make us sisters? Sister’s in law? Or would that only apply after the marriage? Am I part of the Immortal Flame now? Rain of the Immortal Flame does have a good ring to it! Am I officially a Legacy!?” She gradually became more excited as she continued to speak.

Nephis couldn’t help but facepalm, even months of getting to know her Rain was still and always will be a fangirl at heart, if anything it got worse after meeting the rest of the cohort.

Coughing into her hand in hopes the girl would calm down, Nephis focused Rain’s attention back on her. “Sunny and I aren’t in a relationship Rain, you can put any thoughts of marriage on hold.” She paused, looking to the side and speaking in a deceptively calm tone. “But, if you want to call me Big Sis… You are free to do so.”

Rain crashed into her with a strong hug which startled her slightly and nuzzled her face into her chest, this hug was genuine and happier than the previous. “I don’t think we’re that far yet… And Nephis? I know you're only training me because of a promise …but thank you for being my master, I wouldn’t trade you for the world.”

A strong burst of pure happiness, as radiant and warm as her flames filled her heart. “Of course Rain, I’m glad that I’ve done my job well.”

Stroking the top of the pale girl’s head, Nephis didn’t know if this was what it was like being a big sister, but she could sincerely say that she loved every second of it.

Chapter Text

Sunny was for the first time in a long time getting bored in a fight.

Foul, black blood spurted like a geyser from the beast Sunny had just bisected, it was a hideous thing, a mockery of a newborn baby bird, no feathers, closed eyes, a beak filled with jagged yellow fangs with leathery grey skin and bone spikes festooning its body, there were dozens of them in the area and it would have made for an intimidating sight in other circumstances.

[You have slain a Dormant Beast, Ravenous Owl’s Brood]

[Your Shadow grows stronger] 

If not for the fact that they were all Dormant Beasts of course.

Sunny was surprised and even somewhat happy at the encounter, despite being a Sleeper he had only killed one Dormant Nightmare Creature in his entire life, normally a horde of them would have been bad for a Sleeper especially considering the foul thing that birthed them battling Saint and Gale up ahead, but he was more than just your average Sleeper.

In simple words, Sunny loved finally being able to freely bully an opponent weaker than him, the vile things didn’t stand a chance.

He cut, hacked and slashed at every one of them, butchering a bloody swathe through the horde with Storm’s Edge firmly in his hand, Mantle of the Underworld was an Ascended level armour and easily absorbed the blows from the Owl’s brood, all around him the scene was more akin to a charnel house then a fight for survival, he beheaded the bird in front of him, carrying the motion into a spinning slash behind him, he was elusive like a shadow and flowed like water.

In his sight, points on the bodies of the owl spawn lit up akin to the stars in the sky, highlighting the weaknesses of these abominations, Sunny struck them with a killer precision and allowed [Harbinger of Mercy] to guide him to the most optimal death.

Despite his fun, Sunny’s mind stayed sharp and cold, seeing, feeling, understanding embodying and predicting the movements of every abomination that came close, he had long since mastered the 2nd step of Shadow Dance, — Sunny had to considering his circumstances — and was well on his way to the 3rd step of mastery, every fight mattered.

The Memories and Shadow Fragments were good as well, the Spell whispered in his ear like a sonorous choir.

[You have slain a …]

[You have slain a …]

[You have slain a …]

[You have slain a …]

[You have received a Memory…] 

[You have slain a …]

[You have received a Memory…]

Sunny continued in his onslaught, letting the battle wash over him. Time was both quick and slow in the flow of a fight, like sand running through an hourglass, or something like that. He didn’t know why people in the past put sand in glass to tell time, that seemed a bit dumb and before he knew it…

The slaughter was over.

Sunny stood in the mass of bodies and took a breath to center himself, black blood painted the grey hills robbing even more colour from their soil. A flood of Shadow Fragments strengthened his soul, combined with the passing battle high, it gave Sunny a unique type of euphoria.

There weren’t many moments where he could be happy in this hell, he had to savour each one. Sunny looked at Saint and Gale as they fought the Tyrant of this pack — or was it a flock? — of birds, the Ravenous Owl was not the most terrifying or disgusting Nightmare Creature his slain but it was still quite repulsive, It was hideous enough to not need much explanation. Even Sunny didn’t want to linger on the details.

Saint had long destroyed one of its wings, and Gale was hammering it with a continuous avalanche of wind attacks, Sunny was thinking of joining the fight until the Spell whispered in his ear:

[You have slain an Awakened Tyrant, Ravenous Owl]

[Your Shadow grows stronger]

[You have received a Memory] 

“…Huh, guess they didn’t need me after all.”

And that was that.

The owl fell with one last screech, Saints blade firmly stuck within its chest, collapsing onto the ground.

He commanded his two minions to begin cutting into the bird for meat, summoning a storage memory near Saint, and uncoiled two of his shadows — Happy and Creepy — from himself to begin scouting the area for any opportunistic predators, gods know it wouldn’t be the first time.

While he stretched his shadow sense across the area, Sunny took a moment to appreciate the region west of the Forgotten Shore, he stood on a grey grass hill and they were everywhere as far as the eye could see , their sizes varied wildly from small to miniature mountains but were still far apart enough to provide a clear view, the trees were grey and scraggly as if warped by a malevolent force and the entire ground gave off a feel of desolation.

He had coined a name for this region, which was fitting in his opinion, the Hills of the Damned.

All in all it was a dreary sight, and it made for a sharp contrast to the sky above.

The sky was bursting with color where the ground lacked it, there were no clouds and replacing them instead were a multitude of wavy rainbow aurora’s streaking all the way the the horizon, the place lacked a sun but the aurora’s served as a good replacement, you could normally tell it was night time when the aurora’s began to darken.

Sunny even now was in awe at the sight before him, the Dream Realm was always haunting in beauty, it had a way of catching you off guard, hiding the real threats that lurked in its charm, that was the lesson he learnt in his past 2 years here.

“2 years…. I can’t believe it.” He murmured, staring off into the distance, 2 years of fighting, surviving, and utter madness, the Dream Realm had been testing him in ways that he couldn’t even imagine, but the worst part in all his travelling wasn’t even the constant battles.

It was loneliness.

This isolation was only broken by clashes of fangs and steel, and his ever increasing discussions with his silent cohort of shadows, Sunny thought he knew madness, that he knew suffering, he wasn’t new to having to survive on your own, the outskirts taught him that.

But what made this worse was the fact he had tasted companionship, trust in others and safety in the fact that they were watching your back. Jet once told him that no one survived in the Dream Realm alone, and you would think Sunny’s existence would have proven that rule wrong, but no.

Solitude in hell is its own form of challenge and Sunny was struggling with it everyday, he sometimes could not even see the point of why he kept on moving.

He was sure that the world had already moved on from him, he was just some rat from the outskirts, and the lesser known member of Changing Star’s cohort, not someone worth

mentioning, not anyone special, just a footnote that Awakened would see in history books before moving on.

And what would he be returning too? Slavery and the searing burn of rejection by his old friends?

Rain proved that and Kai, Jet, Cassie, Effie, Nephis… would only reinforce that he wasn’t someone to be loved…

A cold hand landed on his pauldron jostling him from his thoughts, he shook his head and looked at Saint, she was pointing towards the storage memory, —a wooden barrel with golden rims— and the gutted carcass of the avian monstrosity, Gale was standing next to it, keeping watch for any threats.

‘Damn it, again. ’ Sunny’s face turned sour at the spiral he was in, they had been getting more and more frequent, him staring off into space while his own mind spewed poison in his ears, it was getting to the point he would be oblivious to his surroundings.

The night time anomaly of the Hills certainly didn’t help.

Speaking off…

“Thank you Saint, I nearly lost myself there!” Sunny dismissed his helmet and looked towards his taciturn shadow with false cheer. “We make quite a good team don’t we? Me hidin— I mean aiding! You in combat so that you can focus on the bigger threats as well pulling me out of the no good depths of my mind, oh Gale is here too I suppose.”

Said Shadow looked towards Sunny and sneered at him, even now as a loyal servant he had never gotten over the fact that Sunny had bested him with a good round of trickery, he's been holding a grudge ever since.

Said Shadow didn’t look as putrid anymore, his black cloak enveloped his silhouette and wasn’t as tattered as before, the coral that served as his skin look like obsidian, and the ooze that held him together was replaced with wispy shadow, his wind was tinged with darkness and all together he looked like a true spirit of shadow and wind.

Creating another Shadow was a bit risky, but he needed as much power as he could get, he fed Gale the lump sum of his useless Memories, Saint was powerfully enough at this point.

‘Honestly, he needs to learn how to let go of a grudge, it’s not a healthy thing.’ He chuckled at his shadows antics, Saint gave him a pointed look as if reading his thoughts, and simply shook her head at her master's hypocrisy.

Sunny checked his shadow's sight, and grimaced slightly at the darkening aurora’s, the Owl Tyrant had swooped down at him from the skies, making him waste precious time, he would check the Memories he gained later, he needed to find a hiding spot before night time. 

He could survive the experience, maybe… but it wouldn’t be pleasant.

Seeing that there weren’t any threats in the area, he dismissed Saint, Gale and his storage memory, and began his long trek through the desolate hills.

***

“Damnation!” 

Sunny was running, desperation subtle but present in his voice, he would usually be much more cautious than this, but he had underestimated how quickly night would fall.

The aurora’s in the sky were slowly but surely losing their glimmer, the color’s were bleeding away, sucked dry of all their charm, and the light was fading fast allowing the veil of darkness to cover the world.

Sunny wanted to find a spot for cover from the night time anomaly but he had seen nothing but hills and broken trees, some trees had hollowed spaced within them, but [Harbinger of Mercy] proved itself invaluable yet again, not only could he see the optimal point to kill a Nightmare Creature but it served as an efficient danger sense for any threats to his life, warding him away from whatever horrors might lurk within them.

It was like having a watered down Cassie with him all the time, but Sunny didn’t have the time to dwell on that depressing thought.

He was running out of time.

Color steadily drained away from the aurora’s more and more, and something else was replacing them, a vivid and bright white light was seeping in as they slowly became more and more grey, from another angle it would look as if the light was poisoning it.

The frantic beat of his feet was all Sunny could hear as he dashed, he sent Gloomy to scout ahead, he would need his other two shadows if he didn’t make it.

Sunny became more panicked as he ran, until he finally saw a hideout in the distance, it was another hollowed out tree but the abomination within it was only of the Awakened rank, some kind of wormlike creature, he sent Gloomy closer and immediately summoned Saint and Gale through him to clear it out for his arrival, they dashed out of his shadow and raced towards the tree.

A small bloom of hope grew in his chest, he might make it!

But it was too late.

The night, as if wanting to crush his hope, rushed in like a tide, the color in the sky completely disappeared, replaced by a pure ghost white, the darkness wasn’t as strong as the Forgotten Shore or powerful enough to beat Sunny’s senses, but it became more cold, more eerie.

Sunny cursed and immediately summoned the [Cloak of Peace] and wrapped one shadow on it and the other on his Mantle while he ran; he needed them for what was to come.

The Mental attack that rained down with the light.

The light of the ghostly aurora’s began to beat down on him, he vividly remembers the first time they did he almost went mad from what he saw, but thankfully he was close enough to a hideout to survive the night, he just hoped his mind could survive until his frantic run carried him to safety.

There was silence in the air, as if the world was holding its breath, only broken by Sunny’s pace to the close but too far tree.

For a brief, very brief, moment he thought that his mental resistance might have been enough.

It wasn’t.

‘Wow look at him go, scurrying like a rat, he really doesn’t know when to quit does he?’

‘I don’t know, seeing a wretch like him run for his life is amusing in its own way.’

Sunny flinched at the voices, so close and oh so familiar, their breaths grazed his ears, too close, too real but he kept his eyes forward.

“Their illusions, they aren’t real.” His voice came out hoarse, he ignored the flicker of apparitions at the corner of his vision.

‘Oh! I’m heartbroken! He thinks we aren’t real!’ The voice belonged to a woman, strong and filled with vigour.

‘It’s an excuse and he knows it.’ This voice, ethereal and pleasant on the ears, like spoken from the mouth of a singer, but its words were cruel and sharp. ‘We’re simply the truth that he's been running from for so long.’

‘Ironic that the boy who can’t lie surrounds himself with them, it would be admirable if it weren’t so pathetic.’ The last voice was light and high coming from a young girl, but the malice in its tone was alien combined with such an innocent sound.

‘And look where his lies got him, alone and trapped without a single meaningful connection in his life, his friends long forgotten him.’

Sunny closed his eyes, relying on the shadows to guide him, the apparitions had become more substantial, one of them masculine with familiar auburn hair.

‘Value secrets for all their worth Sunless, I’m sure they’ll do you well in hell.’

‘He couldn’t even keep them right! Hahaha,’ Laughter filled with sharp cruelty. ‘And look at where he is, right back where he started alone, scorned, mad and a slave! By one who he thought cared about him.’

“Shut up!” He screamed involuntarily and immediately shut his mouth; he can't entertain them.

‘Shut up! Shut up! Gods, what are you a child?’

‘No wonder his parents died, they couldn’t stand the sound of that voice.’

The insults and taunts continued as Sunny ran all of them speaking over one another, trying to drive him mad, trying to break his sanity.

The Curse of White Light is what he had named it, his first experience with it was much more intense as he didn’t have his armour and cloak equipped, the images and illusions were much more substantial, the curse would manifest itself as apparitions of people he cared for, slinging insecurities like daggers to his heart, at its absolute worse it would even materialize your worst traumas and make you experience the associated emotions amplified at its peak. You could even feel the illusions as if they were actually real, any other Sleeper would have succumbed to the curse on the spot. 

His seen injured Nightmare Creatures who couldn’t make it to safety lose even more of their maddened minds to the curse, thrashing and ripping themselves apart until they became despondent, or worse… transformed.

But Sunny wouldn’t die to this, he survived the Mountain King and Black Mountain, he was forged by the crucible of the Forgotten Shore, he was the bearer of a Divine Aspect, he was the pupil and equal to Changing Star, he had fought for 2 years alone in the Dream Realm.

He was Lost from Light and he would not die to figments of his imagination!

The pressure from the voices on his mind swiftly lessened at the declaration of his True Name, as if burned away at the mere thought of it.

Sunny was a quarter way to the tree and didn’t have time to savor his victory though, the voices came back albeit weakened.

‘Hmph, if you won’t listen to us…’

‘Listen to her. ’

‘Sunny…’ 

The last voice’s tone was calm and leveled as it spoke, it sounded distant, but he could hear the iron conviction within it, ready to take on the world and burn whoever got in her way.

Sunny stumbled and made the mistake of opening his eyes the moment he heard it, he couldn't help it, that voice was one he’d been longing to hear for years, the one who would help him sleep as he imagined her consoling him, the one who filled his imagination wondering about her current adventures, the one who was always a status screen away…

Nephis looked back at him, although her body was ephemeral, similar to a ghost, her edges were frayed and wispy like a mirage, but her calm storm grey eyes stared back at him, looking into his very soul and as clear as ever.

Frozen, Sunny didn't know what to do, he knew, knew , this was fake but for a brief moment he just wished it wasn't, to maintain the illusion.

‘…You really are an idiot.’

But the illusion broke when the thing wearing Nephis face spoke, its mouth stretched wide in a smile that would never fit in her face, and its taunts continued.

‘Stopping just at the sound of my voice, my… you really are a good slave aren’t you?’

‘Lost from Light, Lost from Light, your name is Lost from Light.’ Sunny played his True Name like a mantra and continued his sprint towards the tree, it worked to push out the ravings of the other illusions, but not Nephis, not her. 

Nephis always had ways to reach his heart, unintentionally or not.

‘Did I say you can leave Slave? Cause that’s what you are a dirty, obscene and odious Slave, who is out of his league.’ Her voice seemed to be getting stronger with each word and insult thrown, as if finding strength in his anguish. ‘Even if you somehow leave to the waking world, what do you think is going to happen? That I’d welcome you with a smile on my face? Embrace you and murmur sweet nothings into your ears?’

He was almost there, 30 or so feet away from the entrance, his two Shadows had already dealt with the abominations.

‘Who knows I might do that, after all… a slave is more useful to me, happy and content than angry and lashing out.’

25 feet.

‘You would like that wouldn’t you? Such a perverse relationship, you were already my dog in the Forgotten Shore, my helpful little shadow who would bark at my say so, why not take it a little further?’

20 feet.

‘And don’t think I didn’t notice the way you stared at my body, it repulsed me to be a victim to your lecherous gaze and lustful fantasies, I could hardly think of worse.’

15 feet 

‘…But can I tell you what I found the most funny and most amusing?’ Nephis began to laugh. A sound so pure, but now twisted by the thing beside him.

‘Come on!’ 10 feet left!

‘What I found most funny, was you thinking that I might have actually love—‘

Sunny immediately augmented himself with both of his shadows, he churned every bit of his meagre essence into his legs and launched himself towards the opening within the tree, cracking the ground from the force. 

The moment he passed into the shadows of the tree, the maddening apparition vanished, like candle flame extinguished by the wind, and its terrifying lies gone with it.

Sunny collapsed and rolled away from the entrance, he gasped for breath on the ground, trying and failing to compose himself after the mental assault, he had experienced the Curse a few times and each one was hell on his psyche, for all his protections he was still a Sleeper.

The damage was both spiritual and psychological, the taunts of his former friends rang in his skull, squirming worms invading his mind and too slippery, too stubborn to leave, Sunny found it more and more difficult to banish them from his mind with each experience.

“Ha! What do those things know huh!?” Sunny spoke in the quiet towards his ever silent audience, anger and something deeper evident. “As if some two bit illusions could ever know what Nephis thinks! I'm the one who knows her best in the world, two worlds even!”

And as always they didn't respond back, just watching on in quiet agreement, Sunny scowled rubbed his face summoning Nephis runes to distract his mind, she was close to Tyrant-hood and got herself a new Transcendent Memory, Sunny smiled as he imagined the great lengths she went to kill a Corrupted Monster.

Or maybe she got it from a Saint, she no doubt gets a lot of attention from being the scion of the Immortal Flame.

That thought wiped the smile from Sunny’s face, he tried to push it away, but all sorts of scenarios ran through his head, the attention she would be constantly receiving, the opportunities, no doubt the myriad of suitors eager to take her hand, she was willing to soak the Bright Castle in blood for her schemes, her marrying a chiseled, handsome, tall and no-doubt valiant Legacy boy to push her ever burning agenda against the three ghouls she talked about would be nothing to her.

No time to even think about little old Sunless, nothing more than a convenient slave to use like always.

Sunny stood up and paced the width of the hovel, his shadows tried to wave at him for his attention but he ignored them, his frustrations frustratingly didn't go away with a bit of movement, he walked towards the wall and then punched it with a thrice-augmented blow.

Nothing.

He growled, then punched the wall again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, his fist blurring into a raging cavalcade of clenched steel.

But his thoughts didn't disappear no matter how much he tried to vent them out.

Sunny slumped down at the ground, his hair spilled out beside his head, an unruly raven waterfall ending at his middle back, even after cutting, it kept growing, so he didn't even bother anymore, honestly he shouldn't bother about a lot of things.

Yet, here he was.

Maybe the ghost’s were right, he was just an odious cockroach who didn't know how to die.

With those thoughts on his mind Sunny finally fell asleep.

***

Days later and Sunny was currently flying.

An effigy made from black wood carved in the image of an owl was perched on his shoulder, its eyes were radiating a serene yellow glow, and the glow spread from it towards Sunny himself, the Memory [Avian's Attunement] was a Utility type memory that allowed him to tap into the traits of a bird and an honest boon to Sunny with his current circumstances.

He had always envied Kai and his free movement in the skies, and being able to do something similar was nothing if not exhilarating, he had never felt so free! Sunny could feel the burdens of his mind easing, not vanishing, but the sight before him really fed the explorer part of his heart.

His flight came with caveats of course, the Memory used his body fat instead of soul essence to activate, he needed to be constantly maintaining his food stores if he wanted to use it freely and manage when he wouldn't, but he could use it for a solid 10 minutes straight before the hunger got really unbearable, it truly lived up to the name of the beast it had fallen from.

Though its memory description was a bit morbid.

Memory Description : [The bird keeper had always loved birds, he envied them for their flight, and yearned to be as free as to touch the clouds himself, if he couldn't he still wanted to be close to them, dedicating himself in the study of everything Avian, creating a sanctuary for them to feel safe and opening his doors to all who would share his joy, one day he found an gift on his bed and with it he could accomplish his lifelong dream!

He flew to his heart's content, but little did he know a curse was ravaging the lands he stayed, he thought that he could fly away from it all, and used the gift more and more, but the curse had gotten him before he realised and he grew hungrier, madness overtaking his mind as he escaped the clutches of humanity and properly joined the beautiful birds in the sky, his hunger ever growing as he feasted on those he used to love.]

The description even now gave him shivers, he had a feeling he knew what curse the Spell was talking about…

Shaking from the bloody history of his Memory, Sunny was flying up as high as he could, it was risky and dangerous especially with the attack from the damned owl a couple days ago, but he wanted to get as clear a view of his current surroundings as possible.

But it was more of a need than a want, Sunny would be the first to admit that he was getting desperate, 2 years and still no Gateway, these years had turned him into an unimaginably sharp blade, but every blade breaks eventually and with his fragile mental state, he knew that it would take one moment of weakness for blow he couldn't recover from.

It was do or die.

He flew higher and higher and reached a satisfactory point for observation, he tapped into another one of the traits of an owl and enhanced his sight, turning his body around for any sights of ruins, he saw nothing until…

Buildings.

He hitched in mid-air and caught himself, and zeroed in on what he saw, there were buildings ruined as is anything else in the Dream Realm but it was the best he could get in his current predicament, he had been in the Hills of the Damned for maybe 5 months and this was the first time his seen any remnant of civilisation.

Closing his eyes Sunny tried to feel his fate, and with a sense of joy he could finally feel a subtle pull in that direction, it was South, a tad closer to the overall direction of the Hollow Mountains then he liked, but surely his connection to fate wouldn't try to get him killed until he accomplished whatever goal it had set out for him right?

Right?

With a heavy feeling in his heart, Sunny descended towards the ground to resume his long journey.

***

“I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut…” Sunny sighed and grimaced a bit at the pain, it was night time and he had managed to enter a somewhat non-destroyed home in the ruins he had found before the White Light got him, Saint was outside standing guard.

Sadly, when he arrived the town was being used as a nest for a Fallen Beast, he had thankfully seen it ahead of time, but it saw him too, he had to play back up for Saint in the battle and dislocated his left shoulder near the end of it, but she thankfully was able to take it down.

His handy Amphora was repairing the damage, but still he couldn’t afford too many injuries right now.

Sunny sighed and leaned back on the wall of the dilapidated house, he didn’t have much time to explore the settlement he had found himself in, so he was relying on Shadow Sense to get a feel for it, it was a farming village that rested on one of the bigger hills with a clear view to the rest of the grassland from below, he was closer to the top of the village itself.

The village was beautiful once he was sure, small and quaint, but now it was just ruins and the nature of the damage was unsettling, it looked as if the damage came from the people living within the village instead of a natural disaster, and the Fallen Beast he fought, a humanoid monster with a body made of multiple myriad faces didn’t speak well to the fates of those poor souls.

Discovering the history of this place would come later though, right now all Sunny needed was rest.

***

When the rainbow lights of the aurora’s came Sunny found himself in the town hall of the village.

He had already searched the small village for anything of use and sadly came up short, and wanted to leave the hall for last. Monuments like these normally held some form of mystery in the webtoons he read, and while he somewhat trusted his fate to guide him he needed as much information as possible.

The hall wasn’t anything special, and as to be expected any books he found were rotted through and had nothing of import, he was about to quit in frustration when one of his shadows found an interesting mural on the stone floor of the hall entrance.

Observing it more closely, Sunny could see that it could only be viewed properly when looking straight at the exit, and was a bit obscured when entering, he entered back into the hall and tried to get a more coloured perspective.

“Tsk, there’s too much dust for me to get a clear view.” Sunny grunted and summoned Gale to his side, ordering the moody Shadow to blast wind and clear the floor of debris.

Sunny was not above using his Shadows as glorified cleaning tools, and he could admit a wicked sense of joy at using the disgruntled shadow this way. 

When the dust cleared he saw the mural in full detail, it was still cracked and suffering from the decay of time, but when he looked closely he saw that it was…

A map?

As Sunny got more and more details from the mural he nearly jumped in joy, it was a decently detailed map of the surrounding area, most of it was missing, but at the upper right corner there were markings representing a forest.

The way the markings centred around it showed that the forest was clearly of great importance in the region, back before whatever curse had inflicted itself on the land, normally finding something like this wouldn’t mean much.

But the Spell always had a theme, and one of its most consistent ones was always the fact that areas of importance within certain Zones of the Dream Realm, always had a Gateway. If Sunny can find the landmarks relating to the markings he might finally have a chance at getting home.

…But Gateways also came with Gate Guardian.

Sunny brushed off the thought, it doesn’t matter what Rank or Class the abomination guarding his way out was, he would study it, learn its weaknesses, hunt it and then kill it.

Because if this was his way, who dared to stop him?

“Neph, Cass, Effie, Kai, Rain…” Sunny’s voice hitched for a moment, multiple insidious thoughts plaguing his mind, but he hardened his resolve, there was no room for doubts. “I’m coming home.”

He refused to let the Dream Realm consume him, and like he told the Hero in his First Nightmare, if his cohort was living a better life without him? They barely even remembered who he was? Well he would live to spite them all!

“That’s right!” Sunny straightened himself as he laughed into the empty cold air. “And with all these Memories I’ve gained, my dreams of a Cafe and Memory boutique will surely come to fruition, I can’t die until I’ve done it!”

“I can’t die! I can’t, I can’t…” His laugh and energy slowly died down, leaving the hall to drown in silence.

Spite was the only thing keeping him going and even if Sunny wouldn’t admit it, it was slowly running out…

***

Weeks passed.

Sunny was able to scratch down the map on a piece of wood, combined with that and his subtle intuition towards Fate he slowly guided himself towards the Gateway that would take him home, he would fly into the sky periodically to cover as much ground as possible.

It wasn’t easy though, Nightmare Creatures still roamed this land unrestricted and he was fighting them almost everyday, they would vary from Awakened to the much rarer Fallen, he even saw a Corrupted Beast in the distance, but he thankfully averted his eyes before it could feel his gaze.

The constant life or death battles greatly helped his comprehension of Shadow Dance, his mastery over the third step increased by the day and he could feel himself getting closer and closer to a breakthrough and somewhere along the line Sunny had gained the additional ability, to peer into the very souls of living beings, it wasn’t much but every little bit of strength helped.

Not to mention the Mantle of the Underworlds battle count, with each defeat it became tougher, more potent, he would have long been dead without it, not to mention Saint and Gale. 

Even though he was making progress, not everything was easy.

The Curse seemed to be having more and more of an effect on him, he didn’t know whether it was his imagination or not but he swore certain areas in the Hills of the Damned had a more intense variation of the curse, and it was becoming harder and harder to shake off its effects.

Even when hiding he could hear the warped images of his cohort, whispering in his ear on how pathetic he was, how futile his struggle would be and how it would be so much easier to just let go…

Sunny had caught himself staring off into the distance on multiple occasions, gazing at nothing with no light in his eyes; he'd once spent an entire day in that state and didn’t even realise it.

Seeing himself from one of his Shadows he looked just as Hollow as the Sleepers beneath the Academy…

The doubts in his mind were also becoming more prominent, and was finding it difficult to refute them, why should he be suffering like this? What did he do to deserve it? Save some ungrateful uppity Legacy who had enslaved him? To see the face of the blind girl who he had no doubt betrayed him? See Kai and Effie living their best lives without a worry in the world, benefiting from being the chosen Awakened in Changing Star’s cohort?

To see a sister who didn’t even remember him?

It was becoming harder to fight, at least in the outskirts he had a goal to pursue, a reason to live, but this? 

This was hell.

It was one day in the middle of his bloody haze, he had just killed an Awakened Monster, an ugly monkey like thing, with too many arms and red fur, Sunny was writhing on the ground, face painted in a rictus of agony and pain, clutching his chest.

He was finally becoming a Devil.

The pain was bad as always and even seemed to be getting worse with each new core, but he endured it, Sunny was no stranger to pain and pushed through it until finally the Spell spoke:

[Your Shadow is complete.]

He collapsed on the ground panting.

“Agh! I’ll never get used to that! What was that saying Neph told me once? No pain no gain? Whoever came up with it might have been on to something.” Despite his complaints, the power coursing through his body was invigorating, he should have felt on top of the world.

But there was only grim acceptance and silence as he stood up and gazed towards his right.

In the distance, was a mighty and large forest, it somehow managed to maintain its foliage and the trees weren’t as scraggly as its counterparts in the grassland, but they were still dark and gave off a foreboding aura, honestly combined with the rainbow sky, the sight was comical, like a child’s first drawing.

The aura of death he could see over it though was unmistakable though.

Sunny had arrived near the forest a week ago and had been hunting multiple Nightmare Creatures in order to push himself towards a new core, he needed all the strength he could get if he was to face whatever abomination guarded his route home.

Even though he could feel his Fate laid within the embrace of the forest he had to be careful about this. Sunny had been scouting it with the grace of a seasoned veteran, but he wasn’t new to abominations evading his sight, all it took was one lucky blow from a more powerful foe to end him.

And he was determined to not let that happen.

Sunny dusted himself off and looked at the newest addition to his family.

The Shadow was jittering, trying and failing to control itself, its movements were wild and there was a layer of madness hiding in each motion it made, like a madman who didn’t know how to act like a human.

“…Crazy, huh?” Sunny shook his head in a self-deprecating manner, the other shadows were all staying away from the madman, even Gloomy looked unnerved.

Didn’t matter though, even if he was Haughty, Foxy or Lazy, he would strengthen him all the same.

Sunny summoned Gale and Saint to his side, wrapped two shadows on Saint and one each on him and Gale, all three of them together were a formidable fighting force and even a cohort of Awakened veterans would have to take pause at the sheer fire power he had at his disposal.

The three of them walked down the hill, the trees of the forest looming over them like walls, stopping them from reaching where they needed to go. They walked in anyway and got ready to face Sunny’s Fate.

Like he had said before, it was do or die. 

***

Sunny started off strong, he really did.

Saint had taken point in front of them the bulwark of his shadow cohort, Gale was at the back constantly generating strong winds around them to veer of any projectiles and cover their flank and Sunny was between them, as the weakest member and their scout he needed to be protected in the case of an ambush.

But there was no ambush, they had walked for an hour into the forest deeper and deeper, like walking into the belly of a beast and there were no monsters, no animals, and no sign of active wildlife.

The sheer silence triggered Sunny’s instincts as it told him one thing.

There was an apex predator here, and it cleared out anything that entered its territory.

It didn’t matter. Sunny would find it and it would fall to him all the same. He had an Ascended Demon and an Awakened Devil by his side. He wouldn’t lose. He couldn’t afford to.

But as he laid on the trunk of a tree, hole in his side and armour almost torn apart he had to amend that statement.

Sunny heaved over and groaned, the wound on his right torso was a crater of hot pain, flaring every time he moved, the only reason he wasn’t dead yet was because of his strengthened Blood Weave preventing him from bleeding out, he was still angry over losing the Ichor of Shadow God but it was looking more like a blessing right now if anything.

A shadow moved at the edge of his senses and Sunny immediately lifted himself up and began to limp away, he couldn’t let that thing catch him.

Like Sunny believed, he had started off strong, but his enemy was stronger.

Upon first coming across it through his shadows, he thought that he might have lucked out, it was standing in the middle of a clearing, head raised up towards the sky, it had long pale black hair that extended all the way down to the ground spreading out like snakes obscuring its body, it looked humanoid but Sunny knew better.

The four cancerous nodes of pure corruption were like a spotlight in his eyes, but it was just a Fallen Devil, a tough and no doubt arduous fight but he had beaten the Black Knight, when he was infinitely weaker then he was now.

That all changed when it looked directly at his Shadow.

It was hideous like all abominations, two eyes on its head, with four yellow pupils making them up, scaly white skin that raised up like spikes that had strange warped black markings on its body and a slightly protruded mouth like a muzzle, it wore a tattered hide of skinned beasts aping some form of intelligence, its arms were long, too long, touching the ground carving grooves in the dirt with its claws. and had digitigrade legs.

When it stood up, Sunny saw that it was actually hunched as it grew an extra two feet in height and had a slightly feminine appearance, that wasn’t on his mind though because as the Devil inclined itself towards his actual location, every instinct he honed in his time as an Awakened screamed at him that he needed to leave.

Too late.

The beast had reared its head and roared, a loud and shrill thing comparable to nails on a chalkboard, the sound reverberated in Sunny’s soul, no, it was affecting his soul much to his dawning horror.

The beast broke into a sprint, fast, much too fast for a mere Devil, eyes began appearing in its hair, wild and crazed, glowing with baleful yellow light, like a feral beast on a hunt it sprinted until it reached Sunny and his companions.

Sunny didn’t even want to think about that fight, Saint was the only one who could keep up with it and even then it was a close thing, the Multi-Eyed Devil moved with grace of a human and the ferocity of a predator, every time Sunny looked into one of it’s eyes, the world would flip on its axis, forcing him to rely on Shadow Sense.

It was too strong and too cunning, it systematically tore him and his team apart, a feral grin plastered on its face the entire time, what was worse that it would periodically disappear from his senses like a mirage and strike from multiple blind spots.

That was how he got the current wound at his side, Sunny had been sent flying and thankfully Saint and Gale had held it back before it could capitalize on his incapacitation.

It didn't matter though, the Devil tore through them all the same, with only Gale landing a decent blow, he had thankfully dismissed them before they could be destroyed, but it had not ended there.

Even now the Multi-eyed Devil had begun hunting him, had been hunting him for the past couple of hours, the sick bastard clearly enjoyed it as it would reveal itself in a way that was obvious to Sunny, making him run and prolonging the chase.

“Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!” Sunny had Midnight’s edge in his hand, he had augmented himself with two of his shadows and had the other two observing the area, he couldn’t let his guard down. 

It had been quite some time since Sunny had felt this weak, and he didn’t miss it.

He was getting tired, he wasn’t losing blood but everything still hurt and he didn’t know how long he had left.

But when Sunny looked ahead of him, the abomination appeared, a crooked and sadistic smile on its lip, he raised his sword and got ready.

Sunny looked at his possible death and grinned. “What are you waiting for you ugly thing? Come at me!”

They clashed.

***

A battered dark figure was dragging itself across the forest, it had a tattered cloak on its shoulders and its armour was cracked in multiple locations with the worst of the damage on the right side of its torso and the vacant space where it’s left arm used to be, yet strangely not a speck of blood came out. 

The figure had no helmet, revealing its haggard white face, heavy dark eye bags, disheveled black hair and an eye the color of an empty abyss, the space where his left eye would be was a torn out bloody mess.

The auroras in the sky were slowly losing their color, greying out and soon to be consumed by a ghostly white light, damning the minds of all that it touched.

“Ah, damnation.” Sunny coughed out, it was a miracle he was alive at this point, the Multi-Eyed Devil wasn’t like other Nightmare Creatures, they were rare but Sunny had met them before, monsters that had power far beyond their Rank and Class.

“If I had a credit for every time I was brought to near death by a Fallen Devil, I would have two credits!” Sunny laughed out, but grimaced as pain bounced up and down his body like lightning. “Which isn’t much, but it’s more money than I have now!”

Sunny laughed even more, he laughed until his voice became hoarse, till the blood in his lungs reached his mouth, but was too tenacious to escape.

He found that phrase in a book he read once in his life and he didn’t know why he was using it now, his situation was anything but funny. Fatally injured, hunted by a Fallen Devil, out of tricks, and soon to be swallowed by the curse, the canopy of trees wasn’t enough protection for what’s to come.

‘It is a little funny though.’ Sunny smiled wryly, he lived like a dog his entire life, surviving and never living, and now here he was going to die a dog's death.

After all the struggle.

After all the pain.

After everything, his life really was just one big joke, wasn’t it?

Sunny collapsed onto the ground and looked up towards the sky, he had capitalised on the wound Gale left on the creature to incapacitate it a bit more, but that’s the move that cost him his eye.

It was licking its wounds right now, but he was sure it was going to be back, his attribute was making him very aware of the death slowly closing around him.

“I… I tried, I really did.” Sunny whispered to himself, a strange peace settling over him. “But… it’s too much, why struggle? Why fight? There’s no point…”

Sunny had fought the good fight, he had done more than any other Sleeper in history, even if he were to die here, he could at least take solace in the fact that in the end he stood proud.

He was strong.

Sunny would fight the monster when it came for him and die like a warrior, never submitting to the Spell till the end.

‘I’m fine with that.’ Sunny said as he closed his singular eye.

He would normally be worried about what his cohort would think but he had no doubt that they had already accepted his death.

Feelin much lighter than he had been in years, Sunny summoned his runes and got ready to see what Memories he could use in his last stand. He was a spiteful little creature and he wasn’t going to die easily.

But as Sunny subconsciously looked down, his eyes snapped open at what he saw.

“No way…”

Master: Changing Star.

Rank: Ascended.

Sunny was baffled, it had been a day since he checked her runes and the thought of Nephis currently challenging her 2nd Nightmare never crossed his mind, it took her 2 years and she had already become a Master.

Sunny laughed again when he realised his master had officially become a Master.

But that wasn’t what shocked Sunny the most.

Near the end of her Memories, there was a list of them and at first glance didn’t seem anything special, but when he took another look at them though, a certain message was spelled out.

DONT.DIE

“Don’t die, don’t die…” Sunny found himself involuntarily muttering that phrase over and over, he couldn’t believe it. Did Nephis really arrange her memories in a way to send him a message? Whatever clan she was a part of now must really be loaded for her to do that.

And even the way she phrased it was more like a command if anything, shouldn’t she have more tact? What if that triggered the Shadow Bond and forced him to act. This wasn’t here a day before so she must have done this immediately after conquering her Nightmare, browbeating some poor Memory owner with her new status, he wouldn’t put it past her.

Nephis didn’t have an inkling of his current circumstances or the pain he was going through, giving him such a request was rude and Sunny should have been seething at her arrogance as if it was that easy.

Sunny blinked. Something hot trailed down his face.

...Tears?

Why was he crying?

Why were tears flowing down his face?

Why did it feel as if a weight that had been holding him down suddenly disappeared?

Why did it feel so good to finally have confirmation that Nephis didn’t actually forget him?

‘Gods, this is embarrassing.’ He thought as he frantically rubbed his face, Effie would never let him live this down if she found out about this.

A fire, small but present, had begun to burn in Sunny’s chest after seeing that message. Nephis really did know him best, how could he die after reading something like that? It would be disappointing to not live up to someone who clearly believed in him so much.

Sunny lifted himself off the ground holding back the scream that nearly broke from his mouth at the pain, a new energy filling him. It was going to be tough but it looked like he would need to kill a Fallen Devil on his own.

But just as the thought crossed Sunny’s mind, one of the Shadow’s he had sent out to scout for him found something that made his breath hitch.

It was a tomb.

Well, what used to be a tomb. It was in a clearing dug straight into the hill, the entrance passage was made of wood, long rotted, the inside was grandiose and filled with fine engravings damaged by the curse of time, on the sign above the entrance was a stone sign.

[Here Lies, 

Concea

May her soul

Bless these cursed lands.]

But what interested Sunny the most, wasn’t the tomb, instead it was the rippling mass of darkness inside of it, warping the very space around it with its presence and nestled in the middle of the tomb itself.

A Nightmare Gate.

Before Sunny knew it, he was dashing towards the tomb with all the strength his body could muster, he could feel the Fate that he's been chasing for so long scream out like a siren's song towards the Gate, pulling him ever onward.

Towards his salvation.

Normally, Sunny would have been hesitant, a Sleeper challenging the 2nd Nightmare? It’s unheard of, he didn’t even know if the Spell would allow his entry! It was stupid, irrational and most of all suicidal.

But Sunny had let go of his rationality a long time ago, as much as he was filled with new resolve to kill the Fallen Devil, he didn’t know how he was going to do it and was still very much on the verge of death.

Everyone knew that Nightmare’s gave Awakened new bodies, and his current state wasn’t battle viable at all, he didn’t know how he was going to conquer it, but Sunny wasn’t new to challenging the impossible.

He was Lost from Light, and he would be damned if he didn’t die trying.

Sunny was halfway towards the tomb, when a particularly fast shadow entered his range, approaching him from behind, gaining on him. The Multi-Eyed Devil seemed to have recovered most of its wounds and at its current pace it was determined to finish its prey once and for all.

“Fat chance at that!“ Sunny growled, and he recalled his scouting shadow, augmenting his speed even more, running through the forest like a moving PTV.

Death behind him, madness above him and uncertain doom in front of him, Sunny ran like he never had before.

He entered the clearing and not even a second later the Devil also burst through, its eyes filled with maddened frenzy, eager to feast on the impudent ant that dared to hurt it, but for some reason, it paused as it gazed upon the tomb.

Sunny didn’t notice though, he crossed the entrance and for a brief moment of madness thought about the irony of running into a tomb to save his life.

…And right in front of him.

The Nightmare Gate seethed like a dark mass, he could feel a drowsiness over taking him, just like on the day of the solstice.

It was centred right about the grave within the tomb, the grave itself seemed destroyed and was suspiciously empty, Sunny normally would have been eager to dismantle the mystery, but the howl of the Multi-Eyed Devil disabused that motion.

Sunny looked at the gate one more time, then turned back looking at the Devil's rapid approach, he glared at the fiend with as much malice and contempt one could fit in a singular gaze, and all he said:

“I’ll be back one day monster, count on it.”

Without batting an eye Sunny jumped backwards straight into the embrace of the Nightmare, the Devil’s claws missing him by an inch.

The tomb disappeared, the Devil disappeared and even Sunny’s own pain left him, proof of its existence gone like a half forgotten dream.

Sunny found himself standing alone in complete darkness, surrounded by utter nothingness.

In the nothingness, he heard the voice of the Spell:

[Sleeper! Prepare for your Second Trial…]

[Brave one… welcome to the Nightmare!]

Sunny closed his eyes as he surrendered himself to the mercy of dreams.

Chapter Text

Nephis sat in one of the private booths in the teacher's lounge of the Academy.

She brushed a lock of silver hair from her face. Normally, she would wear her disguise in public, but today she was meeting Jet and needed to be seen, if only to throw Valour off her trail.

“I should really get this cut…” she muttered under her breath, and took a sip of the tea she had ordered and relaxed down into her seat.

The past year had been eventful, but also very… calming. Calm in a way she never knew that was possible. Spending time with the cohort, training Rain and leading the Firekeepers soothed scars from her childhood that she didn’t even know she had, she even found herself emoting more.

There were still struggles of course, Valor had been getting more and more bold in trying to push her around, and the White Feather clan could only do so much to help her, even now she was still surprised at how much aid Master Roan and Saint Tyris gave her.

Sky Tide especially had a surprising soft side that she didn’t expect from the stone-faced Saint. She wondered if that’s how people perceived her too…

Nephis was happy though, she wished that times like this would last forever but she knew better, the other shoe had to drop sooner or later and those three ghouls would be coming for her. Nephis was determined to wet her sword with their blood.

And what she planned to do was only a step towards that goal.

The booth door opened up, knocking her out of her dark musings on regicide, entering was none other than Jet, her cold aura enveloping the space, same blue eyes, pale skin and raven dark hair, she looked even more dishevelled than she usually was and there were multiple burn spots on her blue-uniform

Yet even, then she was brimming with energy even while looking dead tired, like always she was still able to look good.

Nephis smiled, “I’ve been wondering when you would come, Master Jet.”

“The government keeps us Ascended very busy, Lady Changing Star.” Jet grinned back at her. “But I’m sure you’ve been quite busy yourself, I can’t spend 5 minutes online without seeing your face, but the propaganda machine must roll on.”

She picked up the communicator on the table and began ordering for herself. “I still have much more attention on me because of that Tyrant we killed and you foisting the public on me, thanks for that by the way.” Jet shot her a dark look, but it lacked heat.

Nephis sighed, even now months later Jet didn’t want to let go of that, but Nephis refused to apologise, she thought they were even for all the teasing she had been subjected to by the hands of the cruel Master.

Jet’s and Nephis food arrived and they both ate while engaging in idle chatter, there was still business that needed to be cleared as they both had a working relationship in regards to the Firekeepers and the government, Jet had her humorous side but she knew when to get down to business, which Nephis appreciated.

But when the food finally finished it was time for Nephis to get to the point of this meeting, she clasped her hands and looked at Jet, steel in her gaze.

“I’m going to challenge the Second Nightmare.”

Jet was wiping her mouth and looked at Nephis in surprise, seeing that she was serious she shook her head.

“Crazy kid…”

Nephis frowned at her. “You're not that much older than me, unless you're calling yourself old?”

Jet shot her a dangerous look, while she sipped her coffee. “You're lucky you're a girl, if a boy said that to me I would have slapped him across the room.”

She paused for a moment.

“That reminds me, I need to tell you about the time I slapped Sunny when we first met, he had quite the mouth on him when he woke up from his First Nightmare.” Jet laughed and Nephis put on a mischievous smile at that nugget of information, even if it was a little brittle.

“By the way how are you going to get this through Valour? I doubt you got their permission to ascend.”

Nephis grinned, it didn’t reach her eyes. “Officially, the White Feather clan has my cohort doing an extended expedition deep within the Chained Isles to discover more information on the White Tower in the sky.”

“Unofficially though, that’s where the Nightmare Seed is actually located so they technically aren’t lying to the Greater Clan, they just didn’t divulge details on the nature of the expedition itself.”

Nephis gathered her thoughts for a moment then spoke:

“I don’t think I need to explain my reasons for challenging a Seed, you know about the Great Clans and you have a general understanding of my actual situation.” She looked at Jet, her expression was dark but she nodded nonetheless.

“Honestly, with how ambitious you are I was surprised you didn’t challenge the Nightmare sooner, you have a well known cohort, a strong force of Awakened willing to follow you and are a powerhouse in yourself.” She sipped her coffee, tilting her head and thought for a moment. “Well, I don’t know what much information I can give you that beats out standard Legacy teachings, I’m sure you’ve been thoroughly quizzed on what the Second Nightmare entails.”

Nephis nodded, her becoming a master was an inevitability, so she had studied as much as she could on the Nightmares, even then… “Information straight from the source is better than textbooks.”

Jet smiled at that and gave Nephis a breakdown on what to expect in her Nightmare, the dangers present, the conflict that needs to be resolved and how quickly one needs to adapt to the new body given to them, and all sorts of unique challenges in her Nightmare.

“And finally… I said that there is no one way to conquer the Nightmare. That means that some solutions can contradict each other. And people participating in the trial are not forced to aim for the same result.”

Nephis scowled. “What are you trying to say?”

Jet stared at her, voice lowered and cold.

“Not all challengers have to be on the same side to resolve a conflict, it rarely occurs but just… keep in that mind for whatever might happen.”

Nephis was silent for a moment, truth be told the thought of betrayal never crossed her mind, but it didn’t have to be betrayal born from malice or self-gain, there were all sorts of ways to turn someone against their companions.

“Thank you, I’ll be sure to take your advice into account,” A beep on her communicator prompted her to pick it up, her face becoming solemn as she read the message.

Nephis sighed, putting her communicator in her pocket and standing up, it was time to leave and she still had one more thing to do. “I’ll be taking my leave now, Master Jet, the next time we meet it will be as equals.”

Jet gave Nephis a searching look, and as if finding what she was looking for smiled, giving her a firm nod.

Nephis left the booth and entered the main lounge of the faculty within the Academy, she ignored the stares and gawks with a practiced impassive face and looked ahead.

Outside, the air was cool and crisp with grey clouds hanging over ahead. The sun was dipping, slowly approaching dusk, giving the clouds a hue of fiery red and dark purple. The trees were vibrant with yellow and orange foliage, and the sound of groundskeepers with vacuums, cleaning the fallen leaves reverberated across the air in sync with the crunch of Nephis feet on the grass and gravel.

Instead of walking towards the gate of the Academy however, she instead entered the Sleeper’s compound, it was sadly close to the Winter Solstice and seeing as they wanted to enter the Nightmare a little early before it came, there were Sleepers, still out and about.

She gave perfunctory greetings, and nods to those who came close, but as if sensing her urgency, they let her walk past.

‘This really isn’t going to help the rumours.’ Nephis mused, but she didn’t care, let people make all sorts of guesses on her relationship status, it wasn’t going to stop her from visiting him.

She entered the lower parts of the compound, the same grey walls, the same chemical lights overhead and walked past the halls with practiced steps.

Standing outside a certain door, was a blonde girl with a white blouse and black dress, her eyes were a strong cerulean blue, but they were unfocused, signifying her disability and her face was downcast, with solemn shadows drowning her eyes.

Cassie.

Nephis walked next to the blind girl and patted her on the shoulder, no words were needed to explain how they felt whenever they came to his room.

Cassie was silent for a moment, then spoke, her voice low. “I’ll see you outside the Academy Gates.”

She left and Nephis entered the room.

Sunny was sleeping as peacefully as ever, his pod had been moved deeper into the compound and given much finer embellishments and medical equipment to constantly be aware of his current health, even now he was serene without a single sign on his face of the Nightmare he was currently experiencing.

Nephis sat next to the pod, her chair as comfortable as always.

“Hey, Sunny.”

A pause.

“I’m about to challenge the Second Nightmare, Valour has been getting more bold in testing my boundaries and I don’t doubt it will be long before they trying something, it wasn’t even a month ago when one of the Firekeepers was mysteriously injured, but thankfully they were alive to get treated, but even then it doesn’t bode well.”

Another pause.

“Cassie was the one who directed us to the seed, she told us a pretty detailed vision of where it is and what we need to do, but you could tell that she was hiding certain details, I don’t blame her though who knows what would happen if she told us everything, we both know how that turned out for us right?”

She sighed, it was heavy.

“I wish you were here challenging the Nightmare with us, your scouting would have been valuable. Kai is good but he sadly just can’t compete with a Divine Aspect holder.”

She laughed a little.

“Rain is still fine, don’t worry, I’m still sorry about telling her that your siblings even if the situation was out of my control, but she still visited you and dropped some flowers so I hope that makes up for it.”

She rested her elbows on the edge of the pod.

“You're smart so I’m sure that you’ve already figured out who gave me your True Name, but still…. Please don’t be too hard on Cassie, she really regrets what she did, I- I don’t want you to hate her, but if you do… if you do, hate me instead. I was the one who took your freedom.”

Her head rested on her forearms, closing her eyes.

“I’m sorry for that Sunny, but I would do it again, if I could swap positions with you I would, not because you're weak, but because….”

Her voice was small.

“But because I really can’t stand the thought of you dying… I know it’s selfish for me to say that since I’m sure you feel the same, you wouldn’t have done what you did if you didn’t, but I would trap myself in that hell just so you’d live.”

“Even if we would have survived it together, even if we would have been stronger together, even if we would have been better together…”

She looked up, her chin tucked between her arms and stared at Sunny’s face.

“… I can’t take that chance, I don’t show it much, but I’m mad at you for what you did, joining the list of people who sacrificed themselves for me burns in a way my Flaw can’t compare, and I’m sure you’re mad at me for what I did, taking your freedom and violating you like that, so come back Sunny, come back so we can both scream at each other about how stupid we both are.”

White sparks ignited in Nephis eyes, she slowly stood up and looked over at the person who she knew her Fate was connected to, for better or worse, till death did them part.

“And I’ll come back to make sure I’m strong enough for the both of us, to make sure that this never happens again.”

Changing Star walked away without saying goodbye, she didn’t need to, she would see Sunny again as an Ascended, no matter what.

For if it was her will, who dared to stop her?

***

Nephis walked out of the Academy gates and entered her stationed PTV, Cassie was already sitting inside waiting for her.

While the PTV drove away, she looked at the entrance of the Academy, there were dozens of miniature tachi like blades made of hardened clay stuck next to the gate. They were positioned in a way that they always caught the light of the sun or moon, similar to a sundial. The shadows cast looked as if they were guarding the school itself.

Nephis smiled as the vehicle drove away, one of the Firekeepers, — Sid — was their chauffeur for today, and was surprisingly good with a wheel.

The interior of the PTV was silent, but it wasn’t a bad thing, both her and Cassie needed to sort their thoughts for what was to come.

The sun continued ever onward, the sky turning into the tranquil form of Dusk, the blood red hues fading from the clouds and buildings. The purple and blues became ever stronger, inviting the night. The lights of the Northern Capital Siege Quadrant started to switch on one by one, but it couldn’t fully stop the world from being drowned in shadows.

But the shadows were made deeper by the light, and the light was made brighter by shadows in turn, ever connected and better for it.

The PTV drove into the manor and main HQ of the Firekeepers, Nephis wasn't going to leave her body defenceless and exposed in her home. Even if it was destroyed, the moment she became a Master it would be rebuilt, but she didn’t want her home to be caught in the crossfire, she liked it very much.

Her and Cassie walked out of the garage, Sid drove off to find more appropriate parking and they entered the Manor proper. All the Firekeepers were on high alert, the air heavy and whenever she passed they each gave grim nods, but there was insurance in their eyes, they had faith they would come back.

Entering the main lounge she saw Kai pacing, anxious as ever but there was steel in his eyes, ready for whatever came next. Effie was munching on a whole plate of food as to be expected, not a single worry on her face, she even looked excited.

Spotting us she grinned, even with her crippled body it didn’t take away from any of her energy. “Finally, Princess! I thought we would have to meet you in the Isles, you didn’t spend too long staring longingly at Sunny’s face did you?”

Despite herself, Nephis face broke into an involuntary smile, Effie always knew how to break a grim atmosphere. “No Effie, I didn’t I was just there to pay respects, like you did as well I hope?” She raised an eyebrow.

Effie held a hand to her chest. “Of course! Telling the doofus about all of my adventures here is basically a ritual at this point.” Her smile lost most of its mischief and became much more genuine. “Not everything of course, need to save the juicer ones for when he wakes up!”

“I don’t think subjecting Sunny to Effie as the first thing he sees or hears , when he wakes up is very fair on him.” Kai spoke up smiling too. “But he always comes up with those ridiculous stories of his. I think it’s fair we surprise him with a few stories of our own.”

Cassie giggled, her face not drowned in as much sorrow. “Yeah… I agree.”

The mood in the room was much lighter as it was before, no one in the room doubted that Sunny would come back, they had too much faith in him for that.

Nephis looked at Cassie, Kai and Effie, her allies, companions and first friends she’s had in a long time, even with the void of Sunny they didn’t let it get them down and as their leader she had to make sure they came back alive to keep having faith.

“You all know what to do.” Changing Star’s voice was clear, and they all subtly straightened themselves at the fire in her voice. “We all have our tasks, I don’t need to say anything more, I trust you all to get it done.”

White embers burned in her eyes. “The next time we come back to the Waking World it will be as Masters, now come on, we have a Nightmare to conquer.”

With that, Changing Star walked off, entering the hall on the right side of the lounge, the cohort behind her and ready for anything.

Kai and Effie would go towards the Tear in the center of the Isles, to see over repairs on the flying ship to make sure everything is in working order and Nephis and Cassie would journey towards The Night Temple, to get the ivory dagger that would increase their chances in the Nightmare then in a month challenge it.

They all broke off into their designated rooms, a state of the art pod in the middle of each one, they needed their space as you never knew what would happen when a Master came back after a Nightmare.

Changing Star got into her ergonomic training suit and then entered the pod.

As the door sealed her inside, Nephis closed her eyes and surrendered herself to the mercy of dreams.

Chapter Text

Hello everyone, I hope your ok.

Sorry for keeping quiet on the current status for TWNIS, the past couple of weeks haven't really been good, my iPad is currently dead since I don't have a charger and I also broke my glasses, combined with my general mental health, it really put me out of the mood for writing, I've already put a statement on the SS Discord a couple of weeks ago but I should have done the same her and for that I apologise.

But fear not! The World Needs Its Star is not dead, I just needed a little break to get my energy back and I've already done a decent draft and outline for the 2nd Nightmare, I hope to have the two chapters out this week but if not then I wanted to give out a statement on the current status of the fic, believe me I know how painful it is to get invested into a fanfic only for it to drop off the face of the earth and the author leaves zero updates as to what is going on, I don't plan on joining that club anytime soon and if I did drop the story I would have released the plot outline to at least assuage you guys on the conclusion.

Anyways that's all from me, I'm hard at work right now with Chapter 12 and 13, I need to make sure that the subplot in the Nightmare is good, its my hope that it will make you guys cry in anguish. If I can inflict the maximum amount of pain onto my fans, then I know I've done my job well.

That's all from me, let me get back too it and I hope you all enjoy your day!

Chapter Text

Sunny dreamt of a desolate plain.

The grass was grey and the rolling hills were somber and stretched as far as they eye could see, black trees with gnarled branches and gnarled roots covered the landscape and signs of fallen villages were littered around like abandoned detritus.

At the upper right of the plains itself, the remains of a desolate forest spanned over a large distance most of the trees ruined and suffering the same affliction as the other trees in the area, broken pillars once immense littered the surrounding forest haphazardly and seemed to stretch off into the distance.

The sky on the other hand held the same expanse of colorful aurora’s, trying to give some form of color in this damned hell, they swirled in the sky like dragons and if one paid close enough attention even seemed to be squirming like worms that had just found fresh food to feast on.

Then time began to reverse.

The auroras slowly dimmed, and the expanse of night intruded on the world, the white light infecting the aurora’s in a fast motion rewind, ash spiraled over the plains caught in the winds of time and dozens of years began to pass by.

Fires rose, raging through the land like a maelstrom, the ashen hills were now covered in flame, up above the night sky was a pure black contrasting sharply with the eerie white aurora’s, they seemed even more lively and the light even more intense yet at the same time they began to retreat into rapidly into the sky, the scent of blood and ash was immense, Sunny even swore he could hear a familiar mournful wail echoing through the entire world, filled with resentment and longing… 

Time slowed and Sunny felt a powerful pull on his soul, unable to resist he surrendered himself to the attraction force of the Nightmare, his gaze directed back towards the forest, he looked at its center and was surprised to see a decently large island in the middle of it, with a beach littered in debris and surrounded by a lake, though there was something strange about it.

That was where Sunny had found himself.

…And of course, he immediately fell into the middle of the lake.

‘Damnation! Why!?’ Sunny thrashed in the water, panicking while simultaneously cursing his luck, this was the second time the Spell had dropped him right on top of a water source, even though the Forgotten Shore was long behind him the Dark Sea isn't something easily forgotten, he was beginning to get sick of it.

Thankfully, he had plenty of experience with swimming so he tried orienting himself with Shadow Sense to break through the surface of the water, breath and begin figuring out where the Spell had dropped him.

Key emphasis on tried.

The moment Sunny strained his muscles, he realised that something was horribly wrong.

His body did not listen to him, or it listened in ways that were completely familiar and alien at the same time, he felt heavier and his usual coordination was all gone, instead of swimming he was just thrashing in the water, submerging himself deeper and deeper towards the bottom of the lake, even his senses were slightly strained.

‘What the hell?!’

The panic that he had under his control fully started to reveal itself, which didn't help with his poor attempts at swimming.

The difference between this body and his First Nightmare body were night and day, if he knew that this would have happened he would have rather fought that Fallen Devil than to die by drowning!

The edges of his vision began to darken and his lungs began to burn from the lack of oxygen. His mind spun furiously trying to figure out a way from the latest trial that the Spell had thrown at him.

Not knowing if it would work but praying anyway, Sunny summoned his Memory [Avian’s Attunement] and sent every single one of his shadows into it, boosting the Tool’s strength for all its worth and with pure force of will launched himself towards the surface.

The effect was immediate, Sunny blasted through the water like a bullet out of a chamber bathed in yellow radiance. He could feel a serious strain coming from the Memory, understandable, as birds weren't meant to fly in water, and he could feel his body being actively cannibalized to feed the Memory’s enchantments.

But before being fully devoured by the carnivorous item, Sunny broke through the surface of water, flying even faster than before, he didn't even wait to look at his surroundings as he immediately relied on Shadow Sense to orient himself towards the nearby landmass, his flight was awkward and combined with him still struggling to control his body, Sunny was sure from a distance he was quite a sight to behold.

His landing was anything but graceful, he hit the rough, coarse ground with a crash, and rolled forward in a tumble of limbs, the only reason he wasn't suffering major vertigo was because of his extraordinary senses.

‘God… dammit, haven't I suffered enough?‘ Sunny sprawled onto what he thought was his back, coughing violently in hopes of expelling any water in his lungs, trying and failing to get his breath under control, without hesitation he summoned Gale to keep guard over him.

The wraith-like creature exited his shadow with a gust and after getting its bearings looked down at him with pity.

‘Yeah, I'm sure you're loving this aren't you?’ Sunny cursed the windy shadow in his mind and threw what he hoped was a glare as well, Gale scoffed and flared his tenebrous cloak with the wind, turning away to patrol.

“Bastard…” Sunny muttered under his breath, or he tried too. Something was wrong with his mouth. Strained, his breathing was still visibly labored as he tried to control his new vessel, every attempt was like a misfire of circuits, sometimes he got the right response but majority of the time it was a failure. Sunny closed his eyes and shut down all his senses, surrendering himself to the instincts of his body.

And finally after a moment, Sunny could feel the cold and glorious air entering his lungs, filling him with vigour. He never thought that something as simple as breathing would be so precious in the Dream Realm, but it showed what he knew.

Sunny breathed in and out, allowing his mind to get somewhat acclimated to his new instincts and after a bit of trepidation, Sunny looked down at what the hell was wrong with him.

‘What the fuck?’

Sunny wasn't one to use such crass language but he felt like the situation was appropriate. 

His body was 4 inches taller than normal, even though he had always wanted to be taller this wasn’t what he had in mind, his muscles were much, much more pronounced and bestial and he had two additional arms, giving him four in total, he had two sharp black horns on his head although they were short as if newly sprouted and his hair was still the same length as outside the Nightmare but more silky and smooth. 

Beside those changes he was fairly humanoid, his skin was still pale although leaning more to a much whiter shade than what was natural and there was a splatter of black splotches across his body, combined with his tattoo of Serpent it made for a mesmerising pattern, thankfully his legs were still normal, although he could feel a small bump on his rear… 

“Dammit, Dammit! Dammit!!” Is what he wanted to say but Sunny’s surprises didn’t end there, his voice was lower and had a more gravelly tone to it, the words still came out but there was a certain difficulty in speaking that wasn’t there previously.

Even then his curses didn’t end as he began to try and find a way to actually lift himself off the ground. It didn’t take him long to fully comprehend the changes in his new form, accepting though it was another affair.

The circumstances right now were very dire, an Awakened’s body was their most trusted ally having it changed so drastically, especially to a front line fighter like him, was a disaster, it took one misstep, one mistake for an enemy to capitalize on to finish you off.

Sunny would have loved to just lay there on the ground, to actually take a real and proper breath after the pure hellscape of that were the Hills of the Damned, he deserved that much didn’t he? Although physically he was fine – And if he really focused on it much stronger than before – his mental state had been long brought to its breaking point, every warrior needed their rest or else they would become sloppy

But that was a luxury he currently couldn’t afford, Sunny was within the hands of the Second Nightmare something that had killed Awakened much greater than him even with a full cohort behind their backs, he was just a Sleeper, the strongest Sleeper to have ever existed, true, but quality still mattered to a certain level, he needed to acclimate himself to his condition fast.

‘Things are looking bad right now but I still have Saint, I just need to hide until she's back to full strength, I'm confident even she could take down an average Master in a fight, plus I have an advantage.’ Sunny grinned and thanked his past self for creating Shadow Dance, focusing on the experience of shadowing creatures much more different than him in body and soul, he slowly started to test each new limb and muscle.

It took much longer than he'd liked, but after a couple of grueling minutes he slowly got use to his form, Shadow Dance was truly showing its value at the moment, as Sunny doubted any other Awakened would have gotten used to an entirely new body as fast as him, although he was still much too sluggish for his own liking. Grunting and heaving just to stand was embarrassing. 

He was like a newborn, minus the ugly face and constant crying. 

‘Ha! I'm already adapting to my new body. I'm nothing if not resilient, after all this is just a Second Nightmare! What's the big deal?’ Sunny smirked victoriously, as he stood on his own two legs.

He looked down and saw Gloomy Shadow - resembling his new form -facepalming, Happy looked at him with disappointment, Creepy was as unnerving as ever and even Crazy stopped being a weirdo and looked at him as if he was crazy.

Sunny wondered what their problem was but shrugged and moved on, it’s not like he said anything bad.

Despite that, Sunny was already on high alert, he immediately sent one shadow towards Gale to give him a boost, one to scout his surroundings and layered another onto himself for the extra strength, small as the boost may be in the grand scheme of things, every rope mattered.

Spreading out his Shadow Sense and one of his helpers, he immediately took stock of where he had found himself.

And what he saw sent a shiver down his spine.

Sunny remembered seeing debris on the beach of the island, he didn’t pay it much mind and thought that they might be rocks and scattered boulders, but what he saw was infinitely worse.

Bones, bones and the carcasses of dead Nightmare Creatures covered the beach as far as he could see, he truly underestimated the size of the island when he saw it initially, because it was much bigger than he thought one was supposed to be, especially when it was in the middle of a forest, that made the sight of so many butchered abominations all the more intimidating.

The sun was in the sky but it was swiftly going towards the horizon, it painted the entire beach in a light red hue, the water continually lapped on the lip of the beach like spilled blood and combined with all the corpses it made the entire area seem so much more sinister, even the beach itself had multiple craters and trenches from no doubt immense battles between these monsters and whatever killed them.

Some creatures were small, others were as big as houses, each one in varying states of decay and there was even one that he swore looked like the love child of a bull and an octopus

…not that he knew what a bull was, but he was pretty sure it looked similar to whatever that abomination was.

All in all, it was a macabre sight and Sunny had enough experience hunting Nightmare Creatures to see that a lot of those injuries were only a day old, whatever did this was still in the area, even Gale in the distance looked disturbed at the carnage.

He had to hide, the predator that took down all these monsters clearly wasn’t a pushover and he had no doubts in his mind that it was at least at the Fallen Rank.

‘Things are looking grim, but all I have to do is hide and scout out the area for whatever did this and avoid it,’ Sunny wondered for a moment if him killing the beast might be the objective of this Nightmare, but he immediately dismissed it, if it was he would have to do an extensive amount of research before he would tackle it.

Till then he would rest, recuperate and stay far away from the unholy monstrosity that did this.

And not a moment sooner when that thought crossed his mind, his death attribute screamed. 

He barely registered it, a blur rocketed towards him from beyond the forest bordering the beach, Sunny immediately lunged to his right with all his might, but his lack of coordination made him fall over back onto the ground. 

A large trench dug itself into the sand carving a path towards one of the many bodies that covered the beachside, exploding in a cloud of white particles. The sheer force made the sand billow out in every direction covering Sunny’s location, he coughed as he accidentally inhaled some of the dust and tried to get his breathing under control. 

In his senses he could feel Gale gathering up a whirlwind of air around himself, turning to face towards the forest, Sunny sent another shadow to support the wind spirit hoping it would be enough and the scouting one  towards his attacker 

“I really… need to–” he hacked and spat out a glob of spit, “Learn to keep… my mouth shut…”, his speech was still warped and the sand mouth didn’t help.

The shape of the object turned projectile revealed itself to him in his Shadow Sense, it was buried at the bottom of the newly formed cratered trench, it had a long wooden shaft and at its front end was a blade it was a… 

‘A spear?’ Sunny thought, a sinking feeling of dread pooling in his gut, he could tell that it was well-made, there was a leather grip and the blade socket was not crude in the slightest. 

He either had found himself at the ire of an intelligent Nightmare creature, a particularly powerful one considering the crater or even worse.

A human.

Considering his current body’s shape he had no doubt that any Awakened would mistake him for an abomination, he had never heard of a Nightmare Creature that wasn’t mad, so that would be the best guest of his would be attacker. 

Sunny accessed that sight of his shadow while crouching down, trying to shrink his profile as much as possible. Ahead of him, bordering the beach, was a raised piece of land like a steep slope that led into a forest and standing beneath the shadows of the tree was a short lithe figure. 

The figure seemed to be around his age, it was a girl with wild coarse black hair that fell down to her middle black, her clothes were a torn brown leather sleeveless tunic that revealed her midriff and skirt of the same material that reached her knees, her face at first glance looked soft and demure, but there was an intensity in her eyes that gave Sunny pause, especially combined with the hard lines carved in her face.

But that wasn’t the strangest thing about her.

Her skin was patterned with swirling black tattoos, her face was bare except for a dot in the centre of her forehead and two black streaks on her cheeks, the contrast was symmetrical and beautiful and also eerily familiar in a way that made Sunny’s heart clench.

But what caught Sunny the most were her glowing eyes and the way her gaze immediately shot towards what should have been a hidden shadow.

‘Crap!’ 

Sunny hastily called back Happy, his instincts proved correct as he heard a mighty crash echo through that area barely a second after his shadow vacated; he didn't know this woman’s capabilities and was not willing to risk the safety of his helpers.

Happy glided towards Gale, as he dashed up towards the slope, they met halfway as soon as he was augmented - his tenebrous cloak flaring out - he sent a maelstrom of wind blades towards the tattooed woman, who dodged them with feline grace. 

Their battle kicked up dust as they clashed, and Sunny could feel the displaced air from her blows even from here, he hoped Gale would be able to buy him time to think as Sunny desperately needed it.

“M-Master, she’s definitely at least a Master.” Sunny’s stomach dropped as he grew more and more sure of his assumption, the force of her attacks, the speed of her movements and the sheer presence she exuded when he first saw her was unmistakable.

Sunny also had a terrible premonition on the origin of the bodies around him.

It wasn’t only that, there was something about her, something eerily familiar that made a primal part of his mind want to run as far away as possible in the opposite direction.

But before Sunny could even make the decision the fight was over.

The tattooed girl kicked Gale in the stomach with such force, his torso imploded on itself, sending him flying towards the water like a thrown out doll. Sunny cried out and immediately returned him to the Shadows before the damage could take him out permanently.

By the time Gale disappeared and all of Sunny’s shadows returned to him, he found himself staring into a glowing yellow abyss.

‘Ah…’

Sunny now knew why he found her so familiar, those brilliant yellow eyes bored into him like predator to prey, the colour was more saturated and vivid than the last time he saw them, but he would never forget the abomination that nearly spelled his demise before he entered this Nightmare.

Lost from Light gaped at the tattooed girl who would become the Multi-Eyed Devil of the Hills of the Damned, Sunny sight shifted automatically and his dread increased even more as he saw the blindingly radiant Soul Core in the centre of her chest, bathed in the golden light of divinity, glowing tendrils stretched out from her core and past her body but his mind barely registered the strange sight of her soul.

She reached his nose in height but it certainly didn’t feel like it, and knew that he was looking at minimum an Ascended Rank Awakened.

He flinched and immediately tried to jump back away from her, but a deceptively looking delicate hand grabbed his lower forearm in a vice-like grip, and Sunny grunted as the bones in his arm creaked.

“Wait!” Sunny tried to say but it came out as more of a garble of menacing sounds than actually coherent speech, the girl's eyes narrowed and with strength that should not fit her form, she lifted Sunny up into the air with one hand.

The moment of weightlessness was brief as she then unceremoniously slammed him back into the sand, winding him completely.

Sunny groaned, the sand might have been soft but it did little to blunt the damage from the sheer force of that lazy attack, and his arm was still being held by this monstrous girl. Sunny didn’t try and augment himself either, he didn’t have illusions of who would win in a contest of strength.

‘This… is the end, I guess.’ The thought crossed his mind, and filled Sunny with immense bitterness, he entered the Second Nightmare to escape a Fallen Nightmare Creature and now was going to die at the hands of the same creature in the Nightmare before it became one.

“Damnation!” The garbled speech came out of his mouth unprompted and Sunny had to close his eyes, trying to contain the heat building in his eyes. He thought that he ran out of tears but he really knew how to surprise himself.

People always said that the Spell was fair but he certainly wasn’t feeling that fairness now, he hadn’t felt that fairness since he got dropped into that damned Shore!

But when has life ever been fair? 

Sunny had already lost himself to that ball of resentment, loneliness and despair churning within him multiple times in this damned journey through hell, and he refused to do so again in front of his enemy, he opened his eyes and stared right at his soon to be killer, he would meet his death with the same spite and defiance he always had.

He would never beg.

But, to Sunny’s bewilderment, as he glared at the tattooed girl, she didn’t look at him with indifference or the same predator's gaze she had before, instead now she looked…

Confused?

Her brows were furrowed and her lips pursed, she stared at the spot where she was grabbing Sunny’s arm and then looked back at him, his arm, then back at him.

‘…what the fuck?’ Sunny knew if there was a slim chance he survived this, he would need to wash his mouth from all the vulgar language he was using but it truly felt appropriate in this situation, he was ready to die at the hands of this Ascended girl, only for her to start staring at Sunny like an interesting curiosity.

She continued to stare silently at him and he wondered if this was some sort of perverse game she engaged in before striking prey? Did she want him to grovel? Sunny was truly lost, and the intensity of the last few seconds left him unbalanced. 

The girl cocked her as their staring contest continued in silence and started shifting from tense to somewhat awkward. She began working her jaw for some reason and before Sunny thought that he might need to say something, a clear and somewhat deep sound spoke out.

“Are…you… an abomination?” She spoke, her voice was awkward, it looked like she was trying to sound authoritative but she paused on each word and her tone was somewhat strange.

Sunny didn’t comprehend what she just said for a second before he hastily replied back.

“No, No! I’m human!” Despite the gravel baritone to his voice, Sunny forced his mouth to move in a way that could actually allow him to pronounce the right words to something she could understand.

Sunny’s heartbeat accelerated when the confusion on her face only grew, but she instead looked at his arms, his body and then his head.

“…human?” She raised an eyebrow, her tone was only laced with a bit of doubt. “Not… a Shadowspawn hybrid?”

Is that what he was now? Sunny was still unsure but he nodded nonetheless, no matter what he was still human and wanted to convey that. 

“Yes!… I'm a human… circumstances, put me in this state,” It was getting easier to find the right cadence to speak the more he did. “You don’t need to kill me!”

She met his response with another tilt of her head.

“Who said I was going to kill you?”

“Well, you threw a spear at me, slammed me into the ground and have my arm in a vice grip - a quite painful one by the way! - I think it’s a fair assumption to think you were going to kill me.” Sunny mentally chided himself for being so blunt, but he excused himself with being tired.

The girl blinked, then hastily let go, “Ah! S-sorry… I didn’t hurt you did I…?”

Ignoring her odd reaction, he could feel his arm throbbing from where she grabbed him and his body ached all over from when she used him like an impromptu club on the beach floor, Sunny couldn’t exactly hide his grimace as he cautiously got back onto his feet with a bit of struggle.

Since her sentence ended in a question, Sunny was compelled to answer it. He wanted to be as polite as possible to not piss off the monster who tore off his arm, gouged out his eye and left a hole in his chest in the distant future or was it past?

Sadly, Sunny’s mind was running on fumes.

“Of course you hurt me! You tossed my body around like it was nothing, can't you even control your own strength?” Sunny’s control over himself slipped, the grumble only made his voice more menacing.

He froze, mentally slapping himself for cursing the very powerful girl right in front of him, but instead of a glare or anger appearing on her face, the tattooed girl stared at him in silence for a moment and was shifting her feet.

What the hell?

“Ah, y-you’re right… it would look like I was trying to kill you, well I was… b-but you looked like a Corrupted… so I just went to uhm, m-my usual response…

Sunny stared at her, then responded back. “No… it’s ok, I would have done the same thing in your position too… I have had to deal with a fair share of abominations on my own for a couple of years as well.” 

“Good, I mean… it’s not good that you went through that… I j-just meant that it’s uhhh, it’s great you understand…”

Silence.

What is happening!? Sunny was on the verge of death and now he was having an awkward conversation with someone he knew was going to turn into a profane monster in the future, this entire situation was beyond ridiculous, was every Awakened Second Nightmare this strange?

His internal confusion was interrupted however when he saw the tattooed girl lower her head and mumble something. Words almost unintelligible, as if syllables slurred beyond repair were strung together in a speech.

Sunny almost wouldn’t have understood what she said but when he focused he noticed that his ears were somehow able to pick them up.

“He looks like a sacred beast… or more like a Corrupted with that menacing visage… but his soul is clear and Aspected… so he can’t be lying about being human, but then how did he….?” she kept muttering under her breath, her gaze went from confusion to wide eyed curiosity as she stared at him.

Sunny stood watching her mumble to herself like a lunatic and decided to respond.“Ah, yes, you're right, I do have an Aspect.” 

The tattooed girl froze minutely, her face immediately became impassive and wary as she looked at him with suspicion, the speed of it reminded Sunny of Nephis…

“W-what? How did you hear what I was thinking!? A-are you using some kind of mental ability on me?” 

“No… You were mumbling to yourself…” 

“O-oh…” she paused again. “Uhm, sorry?”

They lapsed back into awkward silence, staring at each other again.

Sunny wasn’t the most social person, and that was before he spent two years in the Dream Realm constantly fighting for his life, his already piddling social skills were so atrophied they might as well be non-existent.

But he never thought he would find someone, - a Master no less - to be so inept at the very concept of talking to another human being, had she been hiding underneath a rock her entire life?

What made this awkwardness worse was the fact that he was dealing with an Ascended with unknown capabilities and could easily snap him like a twig, combined with his fear of what she became… 

But right now Sunny needed information and he needed to control the flow of the conversation before she asked some risky questions, he said, “Anyway… as I said before, circumstances I can’t really explain landed me in this place, are you the only Awakened on this island? Are there more of you?”

A shadow passed over her face so fast Sunny might have missed it if he wasn’t paying attention, “Y-yes, I am the only Awakened on this island, there’s… there’s nobody else but me, hasn’t been anyone else but me for a long time.” There was a weight to her last words that made Sunny pause. She sounded ancient in that one moment.

He was starting to understand why her social skills were so poor.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he apologised, it felt appropriate in the moment even if he didn’t know what her story was. “What happened to everyone else?”

“They… you don’t know? How strange…” The confusion was back on her face but she shook her head, the ancientness in her voice fading away to the wind.  “M-my story is a long one… and I don’t think a beach… is the right place to speak about the past.”

Her curiosity was back and there was a hint of something else in her eyes as well, as she spoke. “You said that you’ve had to fight on your own? Is that why you came here?” Her awkward speaking had decreased and her words were bitter as she said them. “If you did… I have to say you made a poor decision coming to this island for respite.”

She looked at him,“We can talk more at my home, i-if you want.” Sunny didn’t miss the hint of eagerness in her voice.

She was offering him shelter and he would be a fool to not take it, despite the relative peace of their conversation, Sunny was beyond tired. He wouldn’t lie and act as if he wasn’t hesitant at following such a powerful figure he barely knew but he suspected that the girl was simply looking for someone to talk to, instead of anything malicious.

Sunny could admit that he wouldn’t mind also being able to actually talk to someone after so long. 

“I did actually come here for respite, I was being chased by an extremely dreadful and rancid abomination, I had only one way to escape, I’m not really here by choice, so… if you would have me?”

Sunny made sure to keep himself composed as he spoke, not wanting to give away the fact that said abomination was standing right in front of him and who he was asking to give him a place to get some actual sleep.

He just hoped he wasn’t on the menu.

”Yes! I mean… yes, I d-do have extra shelter,” she immediately composed herself from her spontaneous outburst. “S-sorry for that, I-I just hadn’t had anyone to talk to in a long time, you… are the longest conversation I’ve had in years.” She smiled at him, it was hesitant and stiff, but Sunny thought that even then it was a nice thing.

When was the last time someone smiled at him?

“Yes, you’re also the first person I’ve talked to in awhile.” He tried to smile back and while hers was captivating, he imagined that he was quite menacing with his new body.

Her smile became much more genuine when she heard that, and a piece of Sunny’s heart eased when he saw it, like a veil lifting off his eyes. Sunny didn’t see a dangerous monster anymore but a somewhat normal teenage girl.

She was still dangerous though.

Coughing, Sunny realised that they both hadn’t actually introduced themselves to each other. “Before we go, I don’t think we told each other what our names were.”

“Oh? Oh! Y-yes we didn’t, that’s r-rather embarrassing.” She giggled a bit, it was a soft thing it sounded like bells. “So, uh what’s your name?”

The sun was beginning to set, it rained orange rivers of light down on the beach reflecting off of the sand and many bones of long dead beasts that littered the area, stark shadows cast themselves off those bones. Despite the grisly sight, the contrast of orange light and shadow created a distinct yet warm atmosphere through the beach.

In the middle of the beach stood an imposing four armed figure, with long obsidian hair that went down his back, a mesmerising pattern of black on his porcelain white skin and two newly sprouted horns on his head, the shadows he created from blocking the light seemed to embrace him and only made his visage more menacing.

His voice was rough when he spoke but held none of the same menace of his form.

“My name is Sunless, but my friends call me Sunny.”

In front of him was the girl responsible for every single carcass on the beach, wild coarse black hair fell down her back and black tattoos danced across her skin in swirling patterns, her figure was short and lithe with a brown leather tunic covering her chest and a leather skirt that went down to her knees, the red rays of the sun only seemed to enhance the glowing yellow of her eyes and made the smile on her face all the more striking.

And when she spoke, Sunny’s eyes almost widened when he heard her name.

“Hello Sunless, my name is Concea.”