Chapter Text
Killing the damnable bird had been no easy feat. In fact, had Sunny not already had plenty of experience evading death- literally- he would have ended his journey in the depths of the tomb of Ariel. What made him much more nervous, though, was what came next.
Weaving his fate back into himself was the greatest challenge Sunny had faced. He had originally hoped to use the same method that the Vile Thieving Bird had used to re-incorporate it into himself, either through its shadow or by using the sixth step of shadow dance, only to learn that the bird had been much less delicate in its thievery than Sunny had thought it would be. Basically, the bird had only stolen enough of his fate to allow the nightmare spell to recognize it, and its gruesome talons had all but shredded the rest.
So now, Sunny was stuck weaving the golden threads back together, slowly reassembling his life with his own two hands- or, rather, eight hands. Nephis watched on confusedly, apparently having expected something more grand from killing the bird. He had hyped it up quite a bit, looking back on it, only for it to turn into another session of Sunny weaving.
The worst part was how long it took. As a mere supreme, his essence would drain almost instantly the moment he managed to tweak a strand of fate. Not only that, the tapestry of fate was also behaving oddly due to the Tomb’s influence on time, with him sometimes having to link and pull from the strings of fate that had attached to him during the third nightmare. Furthermore, he had to be incredibly careful, as a minor mistake could cause irreparable damage to literally everything. That being said, he had finally finished the first portion, that of twining together the memories of his current self, such that the memories of the pre-fateless sunny and the post-fateless sunny would be the same person in other people’s eyes.
With a heavy sigh, he flopped down on the floor, letting his essence begin to refill from his domain. Even though he had lost a great amount of shades during the fight with the bird, his essence regeneration hadn’t been crippled due to the immense strength the shadow of the Bird had added to his domain. As such, His essence topped up quite rapidly, and he was able to interact with the strings again soon. Despite that, he decided he could continue his break, seeing as Nephis was approaching.
“Hey. How's the progress? Any Idea how long it will take to weave whatever it you refuse to tell me about?”
Sunny grimaced. It had taken quite a while to get Nephis out of the loop of asking what he was doing, explaining for various amounts of time, then having her promptly forget.
“I’ve finished the first step, but it's definitely going to take a while. I’d say a few years if I don’t make any big mistakes.”
Nephis looked at him like he was crazy. “Sunny, I get that you’re eager to be alone with me, but a few years?”
Sunny threw up his eight arms in indignation “I’m...”
One of his arms hit something, and he felt his essence leave his body again. What he had hit had been a nice ball of golden strings, the foundation of his weaving. It lightly bounced on, and somehow entangled itself with a set of pristine strings, a set of strings that were only present because of the mysterious, time bending nature of the Tomb of Ariel. A set of strings that had not yet been stolen by the Vile Thieving Bird.
And Sunny passed out.
***
Cassie had really hoped Sunny would make the choice to stay with the cohort, but ultimately knew that he wouldn’t. That was the burden of knowledge, of being able to see the future, and it carried especially heavy at this moment. She smiled faintly.
‘At least I won't have to carry this burden soon’
She almost started to cry. If the cohort wasn’t here to notice, to question her, she was sure she would be sobbing. But she consoled herself, knowing it was what he would want.
After all, It was the only way The Lord of Shadows could be free.
Wait, What?
Wait, What was she thinking about?
***
Nephis grimaced. At least the spell would heal her shattered body for her, when the nightmare ended. Which would be soon, considering she had just conquered Verge.
She grimaced again. Where was Sunny? She would have harsh words for him when they got out. And Cassie, considering she seemed to be the cause for his disappearance. But what she most wanted to talk to him about was something she couldn’t bring up. It grieved her to no end that the bond was getting in the way of them. And it upset her more to think about that, knowing it would always be worse for Sunny.
She decided to check his runes again. It was a bad habit, not that she cared, and she somehow found herself doing it embarrassingly often, especially in cases like right now, where she had no clue what he was up to.
Immediately, she startled.
Rank: Ascended
Why was it calling Sunny, Supreme of shadows and...
Why was she checking her runes? She would only become a saint and be able to see her new abilities after the spell kicked her out of the nightmare.
***
Why was he standing up? He was sure he had passed out on the floor, and... Why was his mind so slow? And why did he feel so weak? And why was the damn Bird standing in front of him again?
No, actually, that last one explained things. He was just having a nightmare. He had been quite traumatized by the Bird, and he’d had to remember that moment quite a lot recently, so it only made sense.
Actually, looking down at the talons piercing his chest, Sunny realised it didn't make sense for nightmares to hurt this much.
“Ah, Damnation.”
[Your nightmare is... your... you nightmare is... is...]
Flying through cement and alloy, Sunny passed out again.