Chapter summary: Nephis got cucked twice in a row.
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"SUUUNNY!"
Blinded by obsession, Nephis screamed her beloved's name at the top of her lungs. The Spirit of Humanity surged forward through the thick mist of Nothingness, incinerating it with her boundless, crushing will.
When her eyes finally locked onto the summit of the Nameless Temple, a radiant, unhinged smile spread across her face.
"Found you," Nephis whispered softly.
She plummeted from the sky, crashing onto the peak with a deafening thud that shattered the earth, sent violent tremors through the mountain, and instantly melted the surrounding rock into a bubbling pool of lava.
Her prize was right there, within arm's reach. All Changing Star had to do now was take a single step forward to reclaim what was hers—and hers alone.
'Wait for me, Sunny. Once I cross that threshold, you will be mine again. This time, for all eternity... and beyond.'
Just as she raised her foot to step forward, a figure materialized directly in her path, blocking her way.
"Mordret," Nephis spat, his name dripping with pure venom.
The Spirit of Nothing looked at her with an offhand, casual expression, holding his hands loosely joined in front of him as if bumping into an old acquaintance during a leisurely stroll in a park.
"Changing Star."
She grit her teeth, the white flames in her eyes flaring violently.
"Out of my way, Mordret! I am in a foul mood today. I don't have time for your games."
Faced with her threat, the Spirit of Nothing didn't flinch, nor did his composure waver. Instead, he raised both hands in a placating gesture of surrender.
"So much hostility, Lady Nephis. And to think we've known each other for so long. Why don't we have a nice little chat, just the two of us? What do you say?"
The Spirit of Humanity lunged toward him, but before she could strike, a loud, deliberate voice cut through the air, demanding her attention.
"Hey there, little Nephie!"
Nephis whipped around, finding to her utter shock Supreme Ki Song—the woman she believed she had slaughtered with her own hands. But before she could even process the impossibility of her presence, her eyes widened as she noticed who she was holding in her arms.
'Sunny.'
With a ruthless, predatory smirk, the Queen of Worms stared Changing Star right in the eye and said:
"Watch this."
"..."
"..."
"..."
It happened as abruptly as a supernova explosion. It was so fast, so utterly unexpected, that everyone present was left frozen, jaws dropped and completely speechless.
Before anyone could form a sentence—or even a coherent thought—Ki Song grabbed Sunny by the collar and locked her lips onto his in a fierce, overwhelming kiss.
The Supreme kept her gleaming crimson eyes locked onto the Spirit of Humanity the entire time, deepening the kiss ruthlessly as her tongue slid past his lips and deep into his mouth.
'Well... I suppose that certainly counts as a distraction,' Mordret thought, staring at the scene with wide, incredulous eyes, momentarily forgetting their tactical plan altogether.
Beside him, Nephis felt the blood in her veins boil with sheer fury. Her face twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated hatred toward the woman who dared to stare at her while kissing her man. The temperature radiating off her spiked so violently that the very air seemed ready to detonate.
Smack.
After a solid two minutes, Ki Song finally pulled her lips away from Sunless, their mouths parting with a glistening thread of saliva. Judging by the distinct reaction down in his trousers, he had enjoyed it a little too much.
Without breaking eye contact with Changing Star, the Queen of Worms brought a hand to her mouth to lightly cover the wicked, utterly satisfied smirk spreading across her face.
"Oh, my! My, my! I must admit, that was even more thrilling than the time I killed your father."
"YOUUU!!!" Nephis roared, consumed by pure, apocalyptic rage.
Driven by her indomitable will, white flames erupted around her like a blazing inferno. But before she could even raise her blade, the Spirit of Humanity and her incandescent flames vanished into thin air, dragged instantly into a reflection.
***
Finding herself suddenly drowning was a novel experience for Nephis—especially now that she was a Sacred Titan, a being far above such mundane inconveniences.
She immediately summoned her white flames to incinerate the vast ocean dragging her into the depths. However, this was no ordinary water.
It was the reflection of the Dark Sea from the Forgotten Shore—a Great Titan in its own right—now empowered by the crushing will of the Spirit of Nothing. Still, despite the impossible pressure, Changing Star managed to break through.
KRA-KOOM!
Like an incandescent meteor rupturing the surface of the water, she erupted from the depths. The superficial layers of the Dark Sea boiled violently, evaporating into massive clouds of thick steam as she breached the surface like a radiant spirit of pure light.
Nephis snapped her luminous wings, beating them furiously to gain altitude as she took in her surroundings. Below her stretched a world composed entirely of dark, churning water. Above, the sky was nothing but a dense, suffocating mist without beginning or end.
"Enjoying the view up here, Changing Star?"
Mordret asked, materializing beside her, suspended effortlessly in mid-air. The Spirit of Nothing looked at her with an air of haughty frivolity, a picture-perfect smile plastered on his face and his hands clasped casually behind his back.
"This is one of the Relics from my Aspect Legacy—a fragment of the Realm of Mirage, the Daemon of Imagination. In here, I can create whatever I desire, without any limits."
His tone suddenly sharpened, taking on the edge of a predator that had finally cornered its prey.
"Now tell me... wouldn't you like to see the others?"
Mordret extended a hand, summoning the [Cruel Sight] into his palm—a weapon Sunless had elevated to the Sacred rank during their time in the Fifth Nightmare. Simultaneously, six other figures materialized by his side, each bearing radiant white wings. They were reflections of Nephis.
Changing Star offered no verbal reply. Gritting her teeth and glaring at her opponent with pure, unadulterated hatred, she simply leveled the tip of her blazing sword at him.
And so, a cataclysmic battle of reflections, light, water, and fire began.
***
Outside the Nameless Temple, the landscape was nothing short of apocalyptic.
Where the panorama had once been veiled by the thick mist of Nothingness and a pristine mantle of snow, there was now only a boiling caldera of magma, stretching toward the horizon as far as the eye could see, and even beyond.
At the base of the citadel, upon the steps of the sanctuary as ancient as time itself, Supremes Kai, Effie, Jet, Rain, Morgan, Seishan, and Ki Song stood waiting, their weapons drawn and ready. Promise of a Distant Sky had buffed Mordret by bestowing epithets upon him such as fireproof, everlasting, and tireless, but there was only so much she could do.
The seven of them felt terribly powerless, and they hated it. It burned them to their cores. They were Sovereigns—just a single step away from godhood—yet what could they possibly do against a Sacred Titan of Nephis's caliber? Even if they combined all their strength, the sum of their raw power wouldn't be enough to scratch her.
Therefore... all they could do was wait.
And pray. Pray that the Spirit of Nothing, Mordret, could somehow hold his ground against Changing Star.
Meanwhile, in the innermost chamber of the Nameless Temple, Sunny was desperately pouring his essence into the Memory Ariel had given Cassie. The gleaming golden pocket watch hovered between his palms, pulsing with a sinister, dark light. Its copper hands spun wildly backward, as if winding up the mechanism.
Lost from Light sat cross-legged on the floor, with the blind seer standing by his side.
'Goddammit, I've been at this for seven hours straight and I'm still not done! How much longer before this damn thing is fully charged?!' he thought, grinding his teeth.
Time was rapidly running out.
Glancing up at Cassie, he asked, "What do we do if Mordret loses before we finish?"
Honestly, Sunny wasn't confident in the Spirit of Nothing's victory at all. Not out of distrust, but because he had read the description of Nephis's Sacred Ability. Unless Mordret possessed the exact perfect counter, he couldn't win.
Just reading the description had made his skin crawl. Nephilim truly were the vilest creatures in existence—worthy descendants of both the divine and the profane.
Serenade of Doom looked at him, raising her hand to display a pendant Memory Effie had given her—the one containing a small inner world. "If the worst happens, I will seal you inside this pendant and open a portal to transport us both in the outskirts of NQSC, which is now part of the Dream Realm. There, since it is the domain of the War God, the laws of the world should prevent a Sacred being from entering. As a Supreme, I can only stay there for a limited time before being repelled, but if I bring you inside this, we shouldn't have any issues."
Hearing this, Sunny nodded, momentarily satisfied with her contingency plan.
Initially, he had planned to use the [Shadow Lantern] to bring everyone away to the Shadow Realm; however, given the current situation—with Cursed and Unholy abominations roaming freely—what was meant to be his homeland had become the most dangerous place in all the Realms. This was especially true because it was the grave to the mightiest warriors who had fought the final battle at the end of the Doom War—the very place where the Void gate had been opened, unleashing corruption upon the creation.
'Yeah, come to think of it, Cassie's solution is the best idea we have right now,' Sunny thought. Part of him was glad to have her by his side again—a companion who always thought of everything.
"Of course, that is excluding the fact that, as a Dreamspawn, it might be trivial for Nephis to bypass those rules and reach us anyway," she added dryly.
This earned a loud, exasperated curse from Sunny.
"Damnation!"
***
The battle was raging brutally for Nephis, who couldn't manage to land a single blow. Searing white flames exploded furiously across the sky.
Her blade clashed repeatedly in mid-air with that of the Spirit of Nothing, but whenever she managed to break past his guard, all her sword met was thin air—literal nothingness.
Below her, the reflection of the dark sea prevented her from touching the ground to rest or even lowering her altitude. Her six reflections used her own abilities against her, constantly wrestling away her authority over the flames. At one point during the clash, half of them transformed into Kai, Rain, and Saint Tyris respectively. Nightingale's reflection used the power of his voice to bend her will. Rain's reflection bombarded her with epithets like fragile, frail, and heavy, effectively debilitating her. Tyris's reflection hijacked the air currents, stripping away her aerial advantage. And every single one of them was empowered by Mordret's terrifying, boundless will.
Mordret was literally turning the elements themselves against her.
On the other hand, Changing Star wasn't faring poorly either. If, back when she was a Supreme, she didn't even know how to kill herself, now there truly existed nothing capable of annihilating her. Her regeneration was endless, her stamina limitless, and her destructive power unprecedented.
Nevertheless, she wasn't winning, and the Spirit of Nothing looked like he was prepared to keep this up for eons.
The battle seemed destined to drag on for eternity.
It was at that exact moment that the Spirit of Humanity finally played her trump card. The ultimate ability she had acquired upon becoming a Sacred.
---
Aspect: [Light Bringer].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Description: [You are a creature of light that was banished and doomed to exist in the darkness. You bring radiance and warmth to wherever you go, but with it comes indescribable longing.]
Aspect Abilities: [Soul Flame], [Flame Manipulation], [Longing], [Unleash the Light], [Flame Link]...
...[Third-eye].
---
***
Sunny was still pouring his essence into the Memory forged by Ariel. He didn't have much of a choice; if he wanted to travel back to the precise moment he had in mind, he couldn't afford to be reckless—he had to arm himself with patience above all else.
As the quiet consumed the chamber, his mind drifted across his heightened senses.
Through the shadows, he could feel his companions—friends and former enemies alike—standing at the threshold of the Nameless Temple, sharpening their weapons. His ears picked up the undercurrents of fear and hesitation permeating their hearts, born of lingering regret:
Could things have gone differently? Did it really have to end like this? Was there truly no other choice?
The answer to all those questions was, inevitably, yes.
It wasn't mere wishful thinking on Sunny's part. In Ariel's Game of Death, he had personally witnessed how different choices would have yielded alternate timelines—a thousand times better than their miserable present.
But what truly gnawed at the Spirit of Death was something else entirely. He was about to travel back into the past, long before any of this tragedy unfolded, escaping into a time unburdened by the horrors of today. Meanwhile, everyone else would remain here to face the doomed tomorrow.
Rain, Kai, Effie, Jet, Seishan, Morgan, Aiko, Professor Julius, the survivors of the First Evacuation Army, the White Feather Clan, Beth... even Cassie.
He was abandoning them all. Sure, it was to save them—but once he changed the timeline, could he truly say the people surrounding him in the past were the exact same souls he had left behind? Or merely another variation granted salvation by his act?
Questions raced through his mind, yielding no answers, and his heart grew heavier by the second. How much time had passed while he was lost in thought?
A mere seven minutes.
And he was still nowhere near finished.
'Damnation!'
When the suffocating silence finally became unbearable, Sunny let out a long, weary sigh.
Tired of his own internal spiral, he looked up at Cassie and gave a faint nod. "Hey."
"Hey," Serenade of Doom replied with a gentle, melancholy smile.
"So... was there really no other way for things to end?" Sunny asked, his voice barely a whisper while his hands steadily continued feeding essence into the watch.
Cassie lowered her head slightly, her fingers tightening into fists against the fabric of her dress. After a long pause, she shook her head. "No. Unfortunately not. Nephis's moment of weakness cost us too much. Over time, her obsession with you would have grown completely out of control, making everything far worse. The only option was to leverage the [Mark of Desire] given to her by Hope—forcing a wedge that would drive you to break away and claim your freedom."
She fell silent for a beat before adding with a soft sigh, "Though... it is far too late now."
Silence lingered between them for a moment.
Sunny tilted his head slightly. "So, let me get this straight... the only way you could fix Nephis's madness was to make her even crazier?"
Cassie froze.
"..."
"..."
"Pfft—hahaha!"
"Hahaha!"
A sudden, fleeting burst of laughter escaped them both—a brief, shared moment of light that neither had experienced in what felt like a lifetime. Heaven only knew how long it had been since either of them had laughed so genuinely.
When the laughter finally faded, they were left gazing at one another, their faces marked by the exhaustion of years that had been anything but kind to them.
Nor to their hearts.
"Hey," she began softly, lost in the delicate contours of his face, as a wave of nostalgia washed over her. Memories of an ancient past resurfaced—a distant time when they were just two kids sitting together at a corner table in the Academy cafeteria, waiting for their fate. "Do you ever wonder if things could have been different?"
"In what way?" Sunny asked, tilting his head slightly.
There was profound remorse in her expression, veiled behind the sea-blue blindfold, yet laid bare by her peach-pink lips.
"If... if I had just talked to you from day one in the cafeteria... maybe we would have—"
KABOOM!
Cassie never got the chance to finish her sentence.
In the very next instant, a cataclysmic wave of explosive white fire tore through the room, obliterating the ancient hall and shattering the temple that had endured for thousands of years.
Mordret had lost.
***
Nephis touched down just a few paces from Sunny. He was on his knees, his head bowed as he coughed up a mouthful of crimson blood.
The blade of an odachi, black as a starless night, was the only thing keeping his battered, bleeding body from collapsing entirely. His ears were ringing violently, and every muscle and bone in his frame screamed for mercy.
Unfazed, Changing Star strolled toward him. A serene, celestial smile graced her face as she casually stepped over the charred corpses of friends and foes alike.
Rain, Jet, Seishan, Kai, Ki Song, Morgan... they were all dead. The surrounding landscape of what was once the Hollow Mountains had been reduced to a smoldering volcanic caldera.
"Sunny, why do you keep running from me? From my love?" the Spirit of Humanity asked softly, coming to a halt just a single step away.
Sunny forced himself to look up. To his utter horror, he saw that Nephis now possessed a third eye upon her brow—and just meeting its gaze was enough to flood his very soul with Corruption.
This was the terrifying power of her Sacred Ability.
---
[Third-eye] Ability Description: [You can devour or spread Corruption like a veritable plague.]
---
"Heh... heheh!" Seeing it, Sunny immediately lowered his head again, a low, slightly unhinged chuckle escaping his lips.
To her ears, the echo of his laughter lacked any real malice. "You are completely out of your mind, Neph."
"And yet, you fell in love with me anyway. Am I wrong?" Nephis cooed, her eyes practically shining with obsessive adoration as a visible flush crept up her cheeks.
"True," he admitted, but he wasn't finished.
"You, on the other hand... for someone who claims to know me better than anyone else in the world, you seem to have forgotten my most charming trait."
A bold, defiant smirk broke across his bloody face.
Nephis tilted her head slightly, blinking in genuine confusion. "Your height?"
The smirk instantly shattered. A prominent vein throbbed on Sunny's forehead.
"What the— NO!!! Why would my— ugh..."
He dragged an exasperated hand down his face, pinching the bridge of his nose tightly to stop himself from shouting a string of curses that might permanently wake whatever abominations were still lurking nearby.
Then, his gaze grew deadly serious.
"No, Neph. I am Treacherous."
The surrounding shadows abruptly deepened, growing thicker and darker, as if mocking the encroaching light.
"Did you forget that I possess seven bodies?"
Changing Star barely registered the warning. Before she could utter another word, Sunny activated his Sacred Ability.
On that day, the mist of Nothingness died, tearing open the gateway to the Underworld for the first time since its creation. True Darkness was finally unleashed to devour the realms, and the Spirit of Humanity was the very first to be swallowed by it—alongside one of the incarnations of the Spirit of Death.
***
Far away...
"It's time," Sunny said.
The moment had finally come.
He and Cassie were sitting at a small table in the now-deserted Academy cafeteria—the exact same corner table where they had once spent an entire month sitting together without ever exchanging a single word.
If only the old wood and the reinforced walls could have spoken on their behalf.
"I understand," she replied. Looking around the empty hall, she added, "It is quite surprising to discover that now that the War Realm has been completely devoured by the Dream Realm, its restrictive laws on Awakened no longer apply."
Weighing her words, Sunny nodded in agreement. "Right? It wouldn't be half bad to stick around a bit longer just to study the phenomenon. Who knows, I could have even written up one of my reports to publish!"
Their banter hung heavy in the air, swallowed by the silence between them.
Then, in perfect synchrony, they both stood up and faced each other.
Without a word, Cassie reached up and untied the sea-blue blindfold, revealing her beautiful, innocent blue eyes to the world for the first time in an eternity.
Yet even those had changed.
One of them now glowed with a brilliant, golden-yellow hue, while the other was bloodshot, rimmed red from all the tears she had shed along her grueling path.
"I suppose this is goodbye... or at least, for the current me," Serenade of Doom said with a faint, melancholic smile.
"I suppose so," Sunny replied, nodding, albeit with a heavy trace of hesitation.
The words seemed to die in his throat, coming out disjointed and awkward. His heart truly physically ached just looking at her. He had spent so much time hating her... and for what?
Cassie had truly become a broken doll. Not physically, but spiritually and mentally. Which was infinitely worse.
"Sunny," the blind seer whispered his name, her voice trembling on the verge of tears. "May I be just a little bit selfish... for one last time?"
A single tear traced a path down her soft cheek from her blue eye, swiftly followed by another.
Sunny couldn't bring himself to say no.
Not again.
"Yes."
With that, Cassie grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into a soft, yielding kiss.
It was a silent, intense, passionate, desperate, deeply yearning, and thirsty kiss—unlike anything they had ever shared before. Their lips moved together as if they inherently belonged to one another.
KABOOM!
And as their tongues intertwined, Sunny fully activated the time-travel enchantment of the Memory. He completely ignored the violent earthquake and the deafening explosion that signaled Nephis had finally arrived.
'She really doesn't know when to quit, does she?' he thought, utterly exasperated. 'On my next run, I seriously need to improve my taste in women.'
Smack.
Their lips finally parted just as he watched the world around them slowly begin to dissolve into nothingness.
"Please, Sunny. I'm begging you," Cassie pleaded in her final moments. "When you meet my younger self again... don't let her become me. Kill her, punish her, put her in chains, make her your concubine, treat her like absolute trash—I don't care what it takes! But please... do not let her become Serenade of Doom!"
Her smile, so deeply tragic yet unimaginably sweet, faded slightly as she cradled his cheeks in her hands and whispered:
"I love you, Sunless... my Lost from Light!"
And that was how Sunny traveled back in time.
***
Now...
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