"A lot has happened lately."
Sunny took a step to the right, avoiding a sharp talon aiming for his neck by a hairbreadth.
"I have been trapped in the Dream Realm for almost three years," he mused. "Faced more than enough life-or-death situations to last me a lifetime. Trudged my way through endless darkness and rain. And yet, I survived. Not only survived, but came out stronger than most. It almost took three years, but I have escaped the Dream Realm."
When the sparrow-like Nightmare Creature did not relent in its assault, Sunny took hold of one of its talons and slammed the avian against the ground. The crunch of bones breaking echoed clearly all around the floating island.
[You have slain an Awakened...]
"I am a Saint now. Me, the outskirts rat. A mongrel, as Caster would call me." He smiled viciously. "Well, he's dead, and I'm not, so spell him."
Shadows rippled outward, forming an unbreakable bulwark between himself and the remaining flying abominations. The creatures, far from being cowed by their lack of success, attacked even more ferociously.
A particular one, as big as an elephant, shrieked loudly and then disappeared.
Warned by the swishing of the wind and his own honed instincts, Sunny knew that the creature had appeared at his back, steel-like feathers already swinging for the nape of his neck.
Sunny did not bother to turn around. Instead, shadows erupted as a geyser, and a pitch-black spear bloomed from the ground, impaling the Nightmare Creature with ease.
[You have slain an Awakened Devil...]
"Because things can never be simple for me, I ran into trouble immediately after."
He danced to the side when an owl-like Nightmare Creature burrowed its way out of the ground and speared at him with its long beak.
"Owls can dig? You see new things every day." He shook his head and crushed its head with his bare hand. "Anyway, I dealt with the trouble. Little did I know that it would be the easiest thing to deal with since I returned."
At a snap of his fingers, the bulwark morphed, the shadows it was made of bubbling up into a forest of lance-sized spikes that punctured through dozens of the abominations at the same time.
"Plots at every corner, more fame than I ever wanted, a sister I hadn't talked to since she was a literal toddler, friends I thought lost." He exhaled slowly. "And there is also my disastrous love life. Cannot forget that one."
Annoyed by the constant enraged shrieks of the Nightmare Creatures, Sunny shaped the shadows one last time. Their form swelled, rising high like a dark monolith that towered over the flying creatures. Another thought, and they turned into hundreds of javelins that struck at the Nightmare Creatures with a speed that turned them into a dark, deadly blur to the naked eye.
They struggled against the tide of darkness, evading desperately, using each other as meat shields, attacking the incoming weapons in hopes of destroying them, fiercely flapping their wings in an attempt to escape. All of their actions fell flat against the manifestation of death he had shaped into being.
It started slowly at first, one creature falling to the ground amidst a rain of blood and feathers. A second passed, and one turned into two; another second passed, and two turned into three; and finally, after another second passed, it looked like a downpour of Nightmare Creatures was falling from the sky.
[You have slain...]
[You have...]
[...]
Not even a minute had gone by before the skies were clear and blessed silence returned.
"One thing led to another, and now here I am, traveling through the Dream Realm once again when I would have gladly never set foot in it again." Sunny dragged a hand through his long hair. "Even worse, I'm about to embark on one of the most dangerous journeys of my life."
He tilted his head in thought.
"Now that I think of it, that's not saying much. All of my journeys so far have been harrowingly dangerous." The world turned darker around him for a second before he reined in his will. "If that's not enough to reconsider my life choices, then nothing is."
Sunny exhaled once more and turned to his conversation partner, who, for some reason, looked rather murderous. The green-feathered, condor-like Fallen Tyrant glared at him with an amber gaze filled with madness and anger. It was probably related to the dozens of black chains keeping it bound, a particularly thick one keeping its beak shut so as to stop it from constantly shrieking.
"What do you think? Should I stop making a habit of diving headfirst into danger?"
The creature's glare intensified, the wish to tear him to shreds clear in its eyes.
"Is that supposed to be a no? A yes?" He sighed dramatically. "Why is it that all my conversation partners are always so poor?"
Sunny lamented inwardly a little more and then closed his fist decisively. The shadows answered his order without hesitation, tightening instantly; a cacophonous crack of bones followed right after.
[You have slain a Fallen Tyrant...]
[You have acquired a Memory, Emerald Feathers.]
Sunny scratched the back of his head upon hearing the voice of the Spell.
"A Memory? Might as well take a look at my runes while I'm at it."
[Name: Sunless.]
[True Name: Lost from Light.]
[Rank: Transcendent.]
It had been a while already, and he could still scarcely believe it when he saw it.
He, a Transcendent. He had spent so long believing that he would die a Sleeper that he still felt like he would wake up at any moment and realize that he had dreamed it all.
[Class: Titan.]
[Shadow Cores: 7/7.]
[Shadow Fragments: 7000/7000.]
Becoming a Titan so quickly had been another surprising event, one that he would have rather avoided. He could almost feel his heart bleed whenever he remembered what it had taken to do so.
Gritting his teeth, Sunny forcefully cast the thought away. This wasn't a good moment to think about Eirene.
Taking a deep breath to settle his nerves, he decided to check the other categories before looking at the new Memory.
[Shadows: Marble Saint, Soul Serpent.]
Serpent was currently with the original body, taking a much-deserved rest.
Meanwhile, Saint was still within his Soul Sea. The evolution was almost done, but it would still take a day or two more.
[Attributes: Beloved Child of Fate, Flame of Blasphemy, Prince of Shadows, Blood Weave, -Unknown-, Onyx Shell, Soul Weave, Bone Weave, Flesh Weave, Spirit Weave, Mind Weave.]
[Attribute Name: Flame of Blasphemy.]
[Attribute Description: Your soul is aflame with the light of the divine and the profane. Rejected by both, your existence alone is the gravest of sins.]
The Spell sure could be dramatic with its descriptions.
Shadow's ominous words came to mind, but they were as useless when it came to shining light on the mystery as they were vague.
[Attribute Name: Prince of Shadows.]
[Attribute Description: Shadows recognize you as their one and rightful monarch-to-be.]
It had evolved from [Child of Shadows] after transcending, its effects quite obvious, every shadow he had come into contact with so far eagerly obeying his will.
[Attribute Name: -Unknown-]
[Attribute Description: -Unknown-]
This one had replaced [Endbringer] and still puzzled him due to the lack of details. The ability itself was still there; if anything, it was stronger than before, but the fact that even the Spell couldn't properly identify it worried him all the same.
"Just what did Shadow do?" he muttered beneath his breath.
He pushed the thought aside for later and continued. He did not have the information to properly ascertain what had happened, and he would rather avoid descending into another tirade of wild guesses.
[Master: Changing Star]
[Rank: Ascended]
Having gone through everything else, he finally took a look at his Memories.
[Memories: Silver Bell... Lie Detector, Warming Rock, Cooling Rock, Painkiller Rock... Sunny Arrow #16, Mantle of Darkness... Emerald Feathers.]
[Memory Name: Emerald Feathers.]
[Memory Description: The cunning bird sought his glittering hoard, yet grasped his heart instead.]
Sunny took a quick look at the single enchantment and was promptly disappointed. It was a tool-type Memory that grew a pair of wings on the user's back, allowing flight for an amount of time that scaled with the owner's reserves of essence.
"Just a month ago, I would have loved to have this thing," he mused to himself, smiling wistfully. "And now I'm disappointed. It almost feels surreal to think how much has changed in such a short amount of time."
He stared down at his hands, at his clean, spotless hands. He had all of his fingers, yet still expected at times to see two of them missing. The scar he had shown to Rain days ago was completely gone, and so were many others.
He looked at his armor next. The [Onyx Mantle] shone under the sun, not even a scratch marring the black onyx, an image as magnificent as it was terrifying.
Sunny took hold of a clump of hair next; it was smooth and silky to the touch. When he let go, it cascaded down his back like a river of silk.
If he bothered to look for them, he would spot many more differences across his body, broken, ugly things about himself that had faded when he consumed the pieces of Weaver's bloodline and had completely disappeared after transcending.
The others had said that his face was beautiful now -"devilishly handsome," he had retorted- but he did not dare check.
It was stupid of him, but Sunny dreaded that if he ever did, the illusion would be broken, and he would see himself once more as the mangled, broken thing that had been staring back at him every time he dared to look at himself in the last year.
"I am a Saint now," he repeated, his breath becoming heavier without realizing. "I escaped. I'm not weak anymore. I'm not helpless."
It didn't sound convincing even to his own ears.
"Come on, Sunny, pull yourself together," he muttered angrily, slapping himself to forcibly draw his mind away from the spiral of negativity he was falling back into.
He took another deep breath and dragged his eyes away, not daring to look at himself any longer. With a thought, countless shadow tendrils emerged, looting the Nightmare Creatures for their shards and depositing them inside the just-summoned [Safebox of Greed].
Sunny took a seat on a conveniently placed rock as he waited for the process to be done.
While he did, he allowed his gaze to drift across the island. It was one among many he had crossed during his trek toward the still-distant Ivory Tower. Verdant green grass covered the ground, dyed red by the battle that had just taken place.
A little distance from him, there was a small copse of trees, clustered tightly like a family sheltering against the cold.
The sky above was a beautifully clear blue, and the sun shone brightly, almost blinding his eyes. He wasn't used to seeing it yet.
He had grown so used to the darkness of the Forgotten Shore and the eternal downpour of the Tears that he was still stunned at times by the myriad of colors he saw at every moment. It always stood in stark contrast to the scale of grays that had been his life for a long time, almost like he had been dead and now he had returned to life at last.
His gaze landed on the mountain of Nightmare Creatures beside him next, orderly piled by the tendrils to facilitate the search. That was another thing he wasn't used to yet.
Not long ago, a battle like this would have taken all of his skill, smarts, and a non-negligible amount of luck to win, let alone survive. He would need Saint and Serpent's help, too.
Now? He had won all alone without breaking a sweat. Spell, he hadn't even moved from his initial position. Shadow Manifestation alone was more than enough to handle such a pitiful skirmish.
"Pitiful skirmish, huh? When did I become so arrogant?"
He chuckled, knowing full well that it wasn't a new development, yet asking the question all the same.
Ironic as the thought was, it was also completely true. Comparing his Sleeper self to his current Saint self was like comparing a candle to the sun, maybe even more ridiculous.
Though more ridiculous than any of it was the fact of how weak he still felt.
"I'm a Saint, one of the strongest -if not the strongest- in the world," Sunny gritted his teeth painfully. "And yet I still have to bow my head to Ki Song."
It couldn't be avoided. As much as it irked him, a Supreme wasn't something he could defeat as a Saint. Even if he ignored every other factor, there was a massive, insurmountable gap between them. That was his will. The memories had offered no help when it came to grasping it, and as such, he had yet to get a handle on it. Meanwhile, Ki Song had decades to refine her own.
Besides, he also lacked true experience wielding his new abilities. The memories of his dream self had been useful at first, a way to quickly grasp the things he could do. However, they felt more like a hindrance now, bad habits that he was fighting hard to unlearn.
Similar as they might be, the Sunny inside the dream was not him, and it showed in all of the tiny details that were crucial in a battle where the slightest mistake could prove fatal. He had made many of them against Saint Madoc, Jest, and Revel. Mistakes that the first two could have used to kill him had he been just a fraction slower, and that would have granted victory to the third.
If he were honest with himself, none of them was what truly worried him. Neither was Ki Song, but rather the precarious future ahead of him. If a Supreme were the most dangerous thing he would have to face from now on, he would donate all of his fortune.
"Become as famous as possible." Weaver, Shadow God, and Oblivion had told him.
"The more people adore you, the closer the awakening of the Forgotten God is." Nephis had told him instead.
He trusted them all equally. Minimally, and with a decent degree of calling himself an idiot for even trusting them that much.
However, if he were to choose, he would rather believe Nephis. Not because of the tangled mess of emotions that always reared its ugly head when it came to her, but because the other three were just that shady.
Fate, Weaver, Shadow, and Oblivion. All of them wanted something from him.
The latter three were all dead, but he didn't think even for a moment that he was out of danger when it came to them just because of that. And Fate... he could still hear it in the back of his mind, every almost-whisper as sweet as it was poisonous.
And its words were very sweet.
"What a damn mess." A sardonic smile tugged at his lips despite himself. "Is it too late to return to the Tears?"
-------------------------------------------
Sunny craned his neck back to take a proper look at the island above him.
From his point of view, bathed in the rays of sunset, it almost looked like a flower that had been ripped out of the ground. The chains dangling down looked like roots, the soil and rock its home, and finally, the towering white pagoda at its center like the flower itself.
"Her gateway sure is cooler than mine," he admitted inwardly, with no little reluctance.
The Temple of the Twin Gods was nice enough, but it just couldn't compare to a floating island capable of crushing a whole region of the Dream Realm.
With a careless shrug, Sunny pushed the thought aside and extended his senses, searching for a shadow up above. Not even a breath had passed before he zeroed in on one, and he plunged into it.
When he emerged, it was far above, coming straight out of the shadow of the pagoda.
"Ah!"
Puzzled, Sunny turned his head in the direction of the scream just to see a frightened Shim. The healer had jumped back in surprise, hands already drawn to his weapon.
Movement drew his attention to the only other person within the Ivory Tower. Sid only gave a brief stare to her friend before turning to him and giving an exaggerated bow.
"Saint Sunless, I welcome you to the Ivory Tower, the citadel owned by none other than the great Changing Star!"
Sunny smiled awkwardly, hiding just how uncomfortable the deference that bled through her voice made him feel. She had exaggerated it for comedic purposes, but Sunny noticed that there was a hint of the real thing in there, too.
The Firekeepers weren't too blatant about it, but he had noticed their tendency to treat him as if he was... more. Not just the way they would normally treat a Saint, but more as if he were some sort of savior or prophet.
"Thank you," he replied, if only to avoid making the silence even more awkward.
"You are welcome." Sid looked him up and down with a little admiration. "You arrived here incredibly quickly. As expected of you, I guess."
His smile strained a little more.
Sunny pointed at Shim, seizing the chance to change the subject. "What happened to him?"
The woman shrugged and stepped to the healer's side, who had already recovered his composure.
"Dear leader, here is a little on edge, so he got startled by your appearance," she answered, patting the Firekeeper's back patronizingly.
Shim glared at her. "Just because you cannot be bothered to be concerned about anything doesn't mean that I shouldn't be, either."
The woman smiled brightly. "Sorry, what did you say? I didn't concern myself enough to listen to what you had to say."
Given the way his fingers were shaking, Sunny was sure that he was envisioning strangling the blonde woman.
"Did something happen?" he asked before Shim could be tempted into following through.
Letting out an exasperated sigh and pointedly looking away from his fellow Firekeeper, Shim turned to him with a grim expression.
"Lady Changing Star hasn't returned yet." His voice was filled with concern. "It has already been days since she said that she needed to do something down in the Ebony Tower, and she hasn't returned yet."
"That's just Neph for you," Sunny answered, shaking his head in exasperation.
"That's precisely why I'm worried," Shim answered flatly.
Tilting his head in thought, Sunny couldn't avoid agreeing.
"Fair enough, she's probably battling some inordinately powerful Nightmare Creature because that's her will or something like that."
Suddenly, at the back of his mind, he felt a weird sensation, like he was suddenly aware of something he hadn't been before. It felt fuzzy, almost like he was imagining it or it was just a hunch. It pointed straight down, and it felt... warm?
A snort drew his attention to Sid, who threw him a teasing smile. "Says the one who challenged a Third Nightmare and then seduced a Sacred Titan."
Sunny's eye started twitching upon hearing the last part, the strange hunch all but forgotten already.
"Effie?"
"Effie," both of them agreed immediately.
He pinched his nose. "Of course she tattled."
"What's there to be ashamed of?" Sid wiggled her eyebrows. "Worried Lady Nephis might be jealous?"
"I have nothing to be ashamed of, but that doesn't mean I want my love life to be a discussion topic." He shook his head. "And no, I'm not worried about that."
Sid opened her mouth to speak—
A heat like no other descended upon the world before she could.
It did not arrive all at once. It crept in, subtle at first, just enough to prick Sunny's skin beneath his armor. Then it grew. The air thickened with scorching intensity, as though every breath scraped down his throat. Next, the wind died, making the heat feel even more oppressive.
The light changed. It deepened, shifting into hues of molten gold and reddish-orange, as if the sun had risen once more despite being almost set.
When the ground beneath his feet grew uncomfortably warm, Sunny frowned and turned toward the arch, the source of the strange phenomenon.
It flashed once, then twice, and finally settled into a steady light. Immediately after, a wave of heat rolled outward, distorting the air so violently that reality itself seemed to ripple. And from within that wavering inferno, she stepped through.
A woman, her entire form wreathed in white flame.
Fire clung to her like silk, coiling around her limbs, cascading from her shoulders in slow, deliberate tongues. Her eyes burned brighter than the arch behind her, twin suns locked onto the world with quiet, devastating certainty.
Where her foot touched the ground, the stone cracked and blackened. She kept walking forward, paying no heed to the burning grass she left in her wake as she advanced.
Her steps continued onward, the twin suns she had for eyes unerringly staring forward. When a mere meter separated them, she stopped and looked down at him, her expression unreadable behind the flame shroud.
Sunny could feel a bitter smile tugging at his lips.
Nephis had transcended.
What would normally take years, even for prodigies, she had done in a matter of weeks.
And that hunch he had earlier? It was her. It was like a sixth sense, one that always knew where his dear master was.
-------------------------------------------
Nephis stared down, or was it up?
She wasn't sure. All she was sure of was that she was in pain. More pain than she had ever been in.
And still, that strange sixth sense told her that she had arrived in front of... something. She didn't know what it was, but it felt comforting, like a balm for her weary soul and body.
"..."
Did someone speak?
"..!"
Nephis couldn't hear anything above the roar of the flames, but she was sure that she had heard someone speaking. She tried to blink away the fire covering her eyes, but it burned brighter instead. She tried to listen more closely through the fire engulfing her ears next, but the only thing that reached her was the flickering of flame.
"..."
She opened her mouth to speak, but no breath left her throat, only fire.
Through the blinding inferno engulfing her, a bright light caught her attention. It danced in front of her eyes, almost like a swarm of fireflies.
Nephis felt that comforting presence draw closer right after, only stopping when it was almost within reach of the flames wreathing her body.
Cold.
Her mind was so addled by the pain and the fire that it took her ten seconds to realize it. Something cold stood before her, waves of chill emanating from it.
The contrast in temperature only made the pain worse. Provided with that contrast, the agony coursing through her veins grew unbearable as if understanding that it should be more agonising. Her throat opened in another silent scream.
The cold moved. This time, it approached her head, not stopping until it reached her forehead.
"...sp..t"
Weakened by the cold, her flames thinned enough for her to barely see a rock resting against her forehead. Holding the rock tightly was a hand englobed in a thick shadow gauntlet, melting before her eyes. Her gaze followed the arm down to a man's face, a face that was very familiar to her, although at the moment it felt distant, foreign. And yet, somehow, despite the haze of pain, it made her feel better.
The face contorted, lips moving in an attempt to say something to her. Nephis tried to listen again, but it was to no avail.
"...asp..."
The cold helped, but she still wasn't able to hear through the fire.
As if capable of reading her mind, the rock moved, leaving her forehead and approaching her ear next, where it weakened the flames enough for her to hear, if only barely.
"Stop... using... aspect!"
Nephis blinked slowly, incomprehension running through her mind. What did he mean? Was she using her aspect?
Hadn't she always been a woman made of fire? Wasn't she meant to be in pain?
A hand grabbed her shoulder next and shook her harshly. The sudden contact, paired with the cool touch of the rock against her head, brought a sliver of clarity to her mind. It lasted just long enough for her to dismiss the flames covering her.
Freed from them and the tyrannical agony they inflicted, her vision and mind were finally clear.
She saw Sunny's face in front of her, staring at her with concern clearly painted on it. Behind him, she also saw Shim and Sid, gazing at her with a mix of awe and horror.
He opened his mouth to speak, but whatever Sunny was going to say went unheard as her knees buckled and she fell forward, consciousness abandoning her right after.
Just before the darkness claimed her, she felt a pair of arms catching her.