Chapter Summary: Nephis should learn to stop raising flags like that.
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1 Month Ago
Sunny regarded the two women seated before him with open irritation.
"Mind repeating what you just said?" he asked in a painfully polite tone.
Cassie flinched, looking aside to avoid his gaze.
It still felt strange, seeing her so aware of everything around her. She had come a long way from the scared girl he had to plunge into the Dark Sea to rescue, that was for sure.
They all had, in their own way. Whether the changes were positive or not remained to be seen.
Unlike the blonde woman, Nephis met his eyes without flinching. At least that part was still the same.
"In my second nightmare, I had the chance to talk with the Daemon of Hope," she said evenly. "One of the things she told me is that someone who carries the bloodline of one of the Daemons cannot be revered. If they are, the awakening of their corrupted progenitor will be hastened."
So he hadn't heard wrong.
Sunny leaned back on the [Shadow Chair], humming in thought.
That was troubling information.
He was rather infuriatingly famous right now.
Most of it came from the Government's propaganda. As much as it infuriated him, his life made for a perfect backstory for the Martyr figure they had turned him into. That, he could forgive.
What he couldn't forgive was the aberration they had inserted him into.
Two days ago, Effie had finally managed to convince him to watch that insult of a movie called A Song of Light and Shadows. He had found it amusing at first, thinking that it must have been a particularly high-budget parody of the real one. Then they confirmed that it was the real deal, and he had barely been convinced not to kill the director, mostly thanks to Rain, Effie, and Kai.
Nephis and Cassie seemed quite willing to join in on his plan to assassinate the man, though.
The point was that Sunny was already incredibly famous, and he had only become more so after jumping from a Sleeper to a Saint.
It also made his future prospects rather troubling. Domains were usually composed of people, after all. If the dreams were to be believed, his was made of the shadows belonging to those he had killed, but it still was a serious limitation.
"She's telling the truth," Cassie interjected. "I can see—"
"I don't doubt that she's telling the truth," he interrupted dryly. "She's a terrible liar, after all."
Despite her expression not changing, he had the sensation that Nephis had just pouted.
"Do you think what Hope said is true?"
He shrugged helplessly at Nephis' question. "I don't know."
A long exhale that left him feeling a century older escaped him, and for the nth time, he wondered when his life had become so damn weird.
"What I do know," he continued, "is that we are receiving mixed signals here."
"What do you mean?" Cassie asked, tilting her head in confusion.
He dragged a hand through his hair, idly reminding himself to get it cut already, and commanded the shadows to change into the form of an ancient, beautiful temple.
Sunny stared at the shadow replica of the Temple of the Twin Gods with no small amount of resentment. That place had earned a place in his memories right alongside the Nameless Temple he had found in his First Nightmare.
He wasn't going to forget it anytime soon, that was for sure. Not when a simple tug of his mind could deliver him back to it. He was, after all, still anchored to it. Sunny still didn't know how to feel about his own relieved reaction when he realized he could anchor himself to Ravenheart with one of his avatars without losing the one in the temple.
"After conquering a citadel within the Tears and finding out that I couldn't use its Gateway,"—he did his best to ignore the guilty expressions on their faces—"I found a message left by Weaver, the Daemon of Fate. I won't go into details, but it ended with that bastard urging me to become as famous as possible."
Nephis narrowed her eyes, her brows arching faintly in thought. "Do you trust them?"
He laughed sharply.
"Spell no. The bastard probably said it only to manipulate me into doing something else," he answered straight away.
The shadows answered his command and transformed the beautiful temple into a magnificent tower.
"However, in the Nightmare, Shadow and… I don't remember who else told me the same thing."
"So Hope, a Daemon herself, tells us that you have to stay hidden. Meanwhile, another Daemon and… I don't remember either, as well as a God, tell you the opposite," Nephis summarized, looking faintly troubled.
"And I trust them all equally, which is not at all," he added.
Both women nodded in agreement.
"What should we do?" Cassie asked the question that was on everyone's mind.
Sunny rubbed his smooth chin, idly lamenting the fact that he couldn't grow a beard at all. It was a hard question, the kind that would probably carry terrible consequences no matter what choice they made.
"Go with the flow, I guess," he said in the end. "It's not like my fame will go away anytime soon, and at this point, I can hardly go back into obscurity. Just yesterday, we had that big fancy ceremony in which Ki Song named us heirs…"
If he heard a single step-sibling joke more from Effie, he was going to murder her and feed her corpse to a Nightmare Creature.
"…and she's sure to put us in the spotlight as much as she can."
"But—"
"I agree with him," Nephis interrupted starkly. "We should be on the lookout for signs, but until we have proof of Hope's claims or a way to discern the others' intentions, we cannot make a proper plan."
Cassie sighed tiredly. "You are right."
She nodded and stood up, gripping the hilt of her rapier.
"I will instruct my agents to be alert."
He watched her leave, wondering when exactly it was that she had grown into the confident woman before him.
Sunny had missed many things while he was away -far too many in his opinion- and this transformation of a girl he once loved like a sister was among them.
Cassie always seemed to have a plan nowadays. No matter the circumstance, she was always two steps ahead.
He was alert on his own, too. He had already been surprised once by her, and that wasn't something he would ever forget.
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Present time
Sunny glared at the leaf resting on the palm of his hand.
It stood there, innocently, acting like it wasn't driving him mad with its stubborn refusal to remain fixed to it. He almost expected the damn thing to start whistling.
"Still not working?" Kai asked gently.
He glared one more time at the infuriating leaf and turned toward the archer, wondering why he was speaking to him like he was about to go on a killing spree. He stood beside the door of his room within the Ivory Tower, having just entered, and looked at him with faint traces of concern.
"No," He answered flatly. "I think this damn leaf is broken."
Kai stared at him oddly. "Maybe you should take a break."
"This is my break." He shrugged. "Besides, I need to master my Will sooner or later, so might as well work on it now."
Now, if only the damn thing cooperated with him, it would be great. He had been trying again and again, but no matter how much he tried, he was still just as close to learning to handle his Will as he was at the beginning.
Meanwhile, Nephis had already begun to grasp hers and was blazing through the exercises.
He had tried not to let it get to him at first, but the voice in the back of his mind was getting louder and louder with each passing day.
"I'm talking about a real break." The archer said patiently. "It cannot be healthy to fight all day and then spend the rest of the time training."
"I have seven bodies." He shrugged. "I can do many things at the same time."
A quirked eyebrow told him what his friend thought about his words. "Is any of them resting?"
Sunny shot him a glare. "No, but it's not like I can afford to right now."
Kai took a step forward in lieu of answering, grabbed the hem of his shirt, and before he could react, lifted him like he was an unruly pet. It was so surprising that he didn't even have time to react.
One couldn't tell, given his slim build, but the archer was quite strong. He was a Master, after all, and archery took quite a lot of strength, too.
"What are you doing?"
Kai left the room with him in tow without saying anything and started walking across the halls.
"You know I can break free at any moment, right?"
The other man smiled gently, and Sunny couldn't avoid feeling vaguely threatened. "I can also tell Rain embarrassing stories about you."
When had kind, innocent Kai become this evil? Who was such a bad influence on him?
He was going to beat up the bastard!
Admitting defeat, Sunny allowed himself to be dragged away, curious about where it was that his friend intended to take him.
A few minutes later, they arrived before a door, which Kai opened without knocking, and entered the room beyond. It was small, with only enough space for a round table and some chairs. Seated there, he found Effie, Shakti, Gorn, and Sid.
"Sorry, we did not ask for a Doofus in the delivery." The Huntress said cheerfully.
"Amusing," Sunny answered dryly.
"I know."
When Kai plopped him down on one of the vacant chairs, Sunny stared at the table and found it covered with a board pertaining to a game he did not quite recognise. There were many colourful squares, with an old, moustached man wearing an elegant suit displayed prominently at the center square.
He felt like that old man would charge him for breathing the same air as he did, if he could.
"What is this for?"
Shakti handed him a weird-looking figurine and a dice. "We are playing games."
He rolled his eyes, "I know. I mean, what am I here for?"
At the silent urging of the others, he rolled the dice and got the worst possible number. A perfect example of his luck, if there ever was one.
"You need to relax," Sid said cheerfully. "And we are playing games, so we sent Kai to retrieve you."
Gorn rolled next and let out a victorious cheer when he rolled perfectly. He took his figurine and moved it through the board.
"You can thank us by bringing food and drinks," Effie interjected, shooting a playful glare in the direction of the archer. "Kai here was also supposed to do it, but he failed us."
"The horror." Kai retorted dryly.
"Indeed." She rolled the dice and glared at the board. "Jail again? This thing is loaded."
"Skill issue." Sid shot back.
Despite himself, a smile crept onto his face at their antics.
Sunny leaned back on his chair and paid attention as the game kept advancing, getting into it far more than he was proud to admit.
Time passed quickly as they played, and while it couldn't take his mind away from the problems awaiting outside. Sunny couldn't deny that he felt just a little lighter.
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Sunny hummed a tune as he walked forward.
It was the very same one that one of his incarnations was listening to from Kai within the Ivory Tower. Strictly speaking, it was a waste of focus and essence to keep it active while it did nothing but play board games.
And yet, he couldn't find it in himself to dismiss it.
On his way, he greeted some of the Fire Keepers, who saluted him respectfully. He was never going to get used to that.
Still humming, he called on the shadows, and they answered eagerly, turning into an odachi and a pair of wings. His shadow sense had alerted him to the approach of more Nightmare Creatures, and it was his turn to handle them.
They kept growing in number, as well as in power, the farther they advanced into the Stormsea and the closer the golden light got to them. At least their large numbers also made for a good source of shadow fragments.
[Shadow Fragments: 247/6000]
A pity he couldn't get them from anything but Corrupted Nightmare Creatures anymore. His Sleeper self would probably laugh at him.
Then again, that bastard had more important things to laugh at him for. He would curse him, too, most likely.
Shaking the thought away, he kept walking under the relentless rain, doing his best to ignore just how reminiscent it was of another perpetually rainy place.
A minute later, when the edge came into view, he stared oddly at the sight before him.
Nephis and Ki Song stood there, talking. What made it odd was how attentive Nephis looked, as though she didn't want to miss a single word coming out of Ki Song's beak.
Sunny wondered what they were talking about. Changing Star could barely stand being in the presence of the Sovereign, so it had to be very important for her to be that interested.
"No way," he heard Changing Star say when he got close enough.
"It's exactly as I'm telling you," Ki Song replied with complete certainty.
"Did they really..." she trailed off.
Just what were they talking about to make Nephis act like that?
"Yes, Saint Dire Fang and Saint Crouching Tiger competed for the hand of the same Master." A giggle, a giggle, came out of the raven's beak. "You should have seen them, strutting around, challenging each other to more and more ridiculous quests. They even held a poetry competition."
What?
"And they didn't know that she already had a fiancé?" Nephis asked, even her neutral tone failing to conceal how eager she was for an answer.
Ki Song covered her beak with a wing, her eyes shining mischievously. "Little Bin made sure of that."
Were they... gossiping?
Ah, he understood now.
What little remained of his sanity had finally taken its leave. It had lasted far longer than expected, if he was honest with himself.
"Ah, my other heir is here," Ki Song called out, being the first to spot him.
Upon noticing him, Nephis looked aside, a hint of red tinging her cheeks.
"Sorry for interrupting," he said, though he lamented listening to all of that far more.
"Don't be," the Sovereign answered easily. "In fact, why don't you join us?"
"There are Nightmare Creatures incoming that I have to deal with." The refusal came quickly, perhaps too quickly.
Ki Song waved a wing dismissively. "Just send one of your other incarnations."
"Sorry, I can't afford to take this lightly," he refused once more.
He wasn't interested in hearing gossip.
Even if he was, he couldn't afford to slack off. One of his bodies was already relaxing with the others, so the other six would have to fight much harder to compensate.
"So you don't want to hear about that one time Hel stole Revel's favorite book, and she retaliated by sprinkling purpurine on every single piece of clothing she owned?"
...
Then again, five bodies should be enough to handle the Nightmare Creatures.
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Sunny cursed the other two slackers.
While one incarnation was playing board games and another was shamelessly listening to -admittedly juicy- gossip, he was the one getting repeatedly assaulted by homicidal birds.
Life was so unfair at times.
A massive talon sliced through the rain toward his neck, sharp enough to sever it cleanly, and Sunny only managed to twist aside at the last moment.
His hand shot forward and wrapped around the creature's leg. Ignoring the Corrupted Beast's angry screech, he spun around and hurled it away.
The unfortunate creature became a feathered missile. It tore through the storm and slammed into several members of the flock with enough force to send all of them tumbling from the sky in a chaotic mass of wings, feathers, and outraged shrieks.
A moment later, lightning struck so close to him that the white light blinded him, and the following thunder made his bones shake.
The Nightmare Creatures did not hesitate to pounce on his moment of vulnerability.
Heeding the warning of his shadow sense, he flew backward as quickly as he could, just barely avoiding the charge of one of the larger ones.
At the same time, his odachi moved, and he sensed one of the shadows growing a head shorter. Another swing, and one of the assailants lost a wing. Sunny heard the splash of its body hitting the water below through the static assaulting his ears and smiled viciously.
It did not last long. Despite his best efforts, some attacks got through, tearing deep gouges into his armor and raking -fortunately- minor wounds into the flesh beneath.
Sunny finished his retreat through the air and hissed, trying to blink away the white dots flooding his vision.
When he finally managed it, he saw the flock circling him warily. Despite himself, another smile tugged at his lips.
The one leading them must have learned by now that he was no easy prey. Now, if only the bastard could also learn to leave them alone, it would be great.
For but a moment, they stood idle, preparing for the next clash, as Sunny studied them, and they studied him in turn.
Rain poured endlessly from the black sky, while far below, the sea raged, and high above, lightning strikes brought fleeting moments of clarity within the darkness.
The moment ended, and the battle resumed.
One creature after another descended upon him while Sunny moved through them like a shadow given form, his odachi flashing time and again to the tune of falling bodies and pained shrieks.
As he fought, a part of his mind remained fixed on another task.
He was observing the flock, studying them, analyzing what made them tick. The way their muscles rippled, how their wings beat, the angle at which they attacked with their beaks, and the one they used when striking with their talons instead.
The feeling had become stronger recently.
The sensation that he stood on the verge of achieving the next step of [Shadow Dance].
It was there, so tantalizingly close that he could almost touch it. He wasn't sure yet what it would take to master it, but he was certain that it had some relation to shadowing other beings more deeply.
Sunny dodged another talon and cut through its owner's chest.
[You have slain a Corrupted...]
The creature's corpse fell, replaced by yet another before a breath had passed. At times, it felt like they were trying to bury him beneath the weight of their corpses.
Sunny looked up when he heard a sudden shriek echo from above.
He froze.
Not because of the Fallen Monster diving down upon him, but because of the golden light flickering in the distance.
It was close, far too close for comfort. And maybe it was just his imagination, but for the briefest moment, he could have sworn there were two lights instead of one. Like every time before, the light vanished before he could tell for sure.
His frown deepened in thought, but another Corrupted Beast dove toward him, and he was forced to focus on the ongoing battle once more.
As the fight continued, he quickly reviewed their plans.
If the thing came close enough before they left the Stormsea, a possibility that was becoming more and more certain with each passing moment, and proved itself too strong to fight, they would release the crushing.
The closest citadel of the House of Night was far away, and the Nightgarden should be on the other side of the Stormsea, which meant there would be minimal risk of harming innocent Awakened, unlike in the far more populous Valor territory.
And if that failed...
They would abandon the Ivory Tower and leave through the Gateway.
Invaluable as the flying citadel was, their lives were far more valuable. No one was willing to risk them any more than they already did, whether Ki Song liked it or not.
Eventually, the fight neared its end, and only a single creature remained. A grievously injured Fallen Demon, staying airborne solely through spite.
A part of him couldn't help but approve. It would make for a great outskirts rat.
Sunny sighed. Maybe he was more tired than he thought if he was starting to think that way about Nightmare Creatures.
Shaking away the idle thought, he activated [Endbringer], and in the same instant, his sight shifted as countless inky strings came into view. The one belonging to the creature was a dark one, betraying deeper injuries beneath the skin.
Just as he was about to grasp its string and put it out of its misery, a thought struck him.
The Demon dove toward him with a loud shriek, intent on tearing him to shreds no matter how injured it was, but Sunny ignored it, dodging absentmindedly while he pondered.
An old idea had resurfaced in his mind.
Back when he was a Sleeper and had only recently obtained [Endbringer], he had attempted to combine the strange perception with the sight granted by [Blood Weave].
The results had been catastrophic. The pain alone had rendered him unconscious.
Never one to give up that easily, he had tried several more times, but the result had always been the same until he eventually stopped trying.
However, he hadn't made another attempt after becoming a Saint. There were always more pressing things to do, after all.
Now, however...
Well, it was as good a chance as any.
Sunny took a slow breath and activated both sights at the same time.
The world changed immediately as the familiar black strings started morphing before his eyes. First, they grew explosively in number. At first, there had been millions, if not billions of them, belonging to himself, the Demon, and every raindrop in the vicinity. Now? He couldn't even begin to grasp how many there were.
He watched attentively as the strings twisted in an almost mesmerizing display. They drew inward, grew incredibly thin yet impossibly wide at the same time. Their color changed too, going from abyssal black to progressively lighter shades.
An eternal second later, the strings finished their transformation and became... chains.
Golden chains, countless of them extending endlessly in every direction.
Sunny stared at the mesmerising sight, and a strange sense of déjà vu washed over him.
Before he could identify the source of the sensation, agony exploded behind his eyes.
His world was shattered, consumed by the soul-rending pain assaulting him. Sunny released both abilities instantly, and the chains disappeared, leaving no trace of their existence behind, but the pain lingered.
It felt like millions of needles stabbing into his eyes all at the same time. Sunny's vision was blurred, and it was only when he wiped at his eyes that he realized they were bleeding.
For several seconds, he simply floated there while the pain continued lancing through his skull.
Without even looking, he created a javelin out of the shadows and impaled the still-attacking Demon, putting an end to its existence. He heard the Spell's announcement but couldn't make out a single word through the haze enveloping his brain.
A full minute later, ever so slowly, the pain started to recede, leaving behind a lingering discomfort that refused to go away.
What he had seen was already starting to blur, as if his mind refused to acknowledge what it had been made a witness to. However, one detail remained crystal clear.
One chain.
One single golden chain.
So immense that his mind struggled to comprehend its size, and so bright that merely looking at it had almost blinded him.
Most importantly, it had stretched toward the very same direction from which the golden light kept appearing.
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Two days later, Nephis was seated at the head of the table, eating dinner.
Around her, the cohort ate, the low hum of conversation filling the room. Sunny leaned back in his chair, a look of fond exasperation on his face as Effie teased him. Across the table, Kai recounted a story from when he was learning to play the flute, his tone wistful as Cassie listened between bites.
It was a sight she would never grow tired of.
Nephis watched them quietly, savoring the ordinary rhythm of the moment: Effie's teasing, Sunny's sarcastic replies, Kai's easy talk, Cassie's quiet but pointed questions. They all blended into a harmony of familiarity that felt like a small island of peace amid the endless storms of the world.
Gradually, she allowed herself to relax and let go of the tension coiled around her shoulders.
She joined the conversation, offering a dry comment that drew a laugh out of Effie. For a fleeting instant, it felt like everything was all right in the world.
Then, from the corner of her eye, she noticed Cassie.
Her posture had shifted, growing stiff at the same time her expression slackened, and color drained from her face.
Nephis knew what this meant. Cassie was having a vision.
Effie froze mid-laugh, Kai's story trailed off mid-sentence, and even Sunny seemed vaguely concerned.
When a full minute passed, motion returned slowly to Cassie's body, signaling her return to awareness. She did not move, and neither did she speak.
"Cassie…?" Kai's voice was barely a whisper, laced with concern.
The seer flinched, as if she were still stuck in that place between reality and vision. Finally, she turned toward them, urgency written across her face.
"We have to leave. Now."
Without hesitation, she rose from the table, a shower of sparks coalescing around her hand in an instant, forming the unmistakable shape of a copper whistle. Without giving them time to intervene, she blew it.
The note rang out, piercing and metallic, easily echoing across the island despite the roar of the storm. It carried with it a command no one could ignore or mistake.
It was a signal of immediate retreat, meant only for the most dire emergencies.
Panic rippled through the room as the implication began to sink in.
Without allowing the building fear she felt to slow her down, Nephis ordered the return to the Waking World immediately. She trusted her friend enough to take such a reaction seriously.
Everyone moved, slipping through the halls with a speed and coordination born of countless hours of training, and one by one, the Firekeepers started leaving through the Gateway.
"What is it?" Nephis asked while she watched. "What did you see?"
Cassie's grip on the hilt of her rapier was already tight enough to turn her knuckles white, yet she managed to grasp it even harder.
"If I tell you, it will be far worse," she answered quietly.
Sunny regarded the Seer warily. "I want to hear it anyway."
Cassie turned to him, her eyes piercing even through the blindfold she wore.
"You don't," she answered plainly before stepping through the Gateway.
Nephis watched silently as Cassie left, followed closely behind by Kai.
Distantly, she noticed the look on Ki Song's avian face through the open windows. The Sovereign's disappointment was easy to see, mixed with frustration at the fact that they had to give up so close to the finish line.
Nephis felt frustrated too, so much time, effort, and sacrifices rendered pointless just like that.
Effie left last, her cheerful expression more forced than Nephis had ever seen it.
Nephis turned toward Sunny, who was already tugging at his tether to leave, an action she followed immediately after. The agreed-on protocols were clear: as the strongest, they were to leave only after everyone else had.
She felt herself start slipping through the realms, the room around her fading back and then... it stopped.
It was sudden. Terrifying. Crushing their attempt to escape without even trying.
A presence, heavy like a whole chain of mountains, settled upon their shoulders. Light itself was twisted, the shadows coiled in unnatural ways, the air thickened, and through the windows Nephis' eyes caught a blinding golden light outside, as dazzling as it was oppressive.
They tried again, grasping at their tethers, but it was useless. It was as if they did not even exist.
They tried the Gateway next, but it only gave a faint light before turning dim again.
Without hesitation, Nephis attempted to summon the Crushing next. It answered her call eagerly, its overwhelming weight already fighting for dominance against that of the presence.
And then... it fizzled out. The Crushing deactivated on its own and failed to return, no matter how much she tried to rouse it again.
That was when, through the window, she saw it.
A Nightmare Creature, belonging to the flock, but nothing like any they had ever faced before.
It was a monstrosity of impossible scale, with wings that were vast, jagged, lined with spines that caught the lightning in serrated gleams. Yellow feathers fused with bone, claw-like scythes glinting wetly in the storm. Eyes, dozens of them, swirled across its face, some glowing a sickly amber, others pitch-black, each fixed in unrelenting malice. Its beak was hooked and serrated, dripping a thick, glimmering ichor.
"It's a Great Terror," Sunny muttered beside her, his tone filled with trepidation.
Nephis barely heard him, far too focused on the other, terrifying sight before her.
In front of and above the Ivory Tower, two golden orbs hovered, as big as, if not bigger than, the tower itself. The same impossibly bright light they had glimpsed before, casting the world below in a blinding, unnatural glow.
The Terror shrieked, a mad, keening cry that carried across the Stormsea, over the waves, and into their hearts.
The flock answered without pause, hundreds upon hundreds, descending from the clouds in unison, surrounding the island and blotting out the sky. The rain hissed as their wings cut through it, the storm overshadowed by the chorus of their screeches.
Nephis' grip on the [Blessing of the Moon] grew so tight it started groaning. She didn't even know when she had summoned the blade.
"The two of us against impossible odds," Sunny said in a strained voice. "It's almost nostalgic."
"Almost," she added, her voice just as strained. "And there is Ki Song, too."
"Right."
They stood silently for a moment, gazing into each other's eyes, and then, without saying anything, stepped toward the door and the danger lying behind its threshold at the same time.