Sunny leaned his head on his hand that rested on the table—his eyes were droopy as if he was fighting against sleep, because he was—today was the winter solstice
He had a full plate of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat that rested on the table and yet his appetite was almost nonexistant, almost
Picking up a piece of meat, he threw it into his mouth, chewed slowly, and swallowed, which was followed by a yawn.
Sunny sat there and began to think about everything he had accomplished in the last month
First and foremost was his body—Sunny's vigorous training over the last month paired with the sparring had given his body a small but significant amount of muscle that had definitely became a great aid in his ability to swing a sword
His soul naturally did not undergo any significant change—his fragments had simply went up by 4 more points after the 1 shard he had accidentally absorbed
It had taken Sunny by surprise that he was now able to use and absorb soul shards but after a few moments of thinking, it was not difficult to determine
Ability Description: Your soul is a bottomless abyss, an eclipse of both light and shadow existing within. A soul that casts its own light and thus a shadow that walks on its own terms, an existence that should not exist. You can devour or strengthen both light and shadow if it is your wish.
Sunny's innate ability gave him the ability to absorb soul shards and his soul would convert that influx of soul essence into shadow essence and so from shards it became fragments
He already had extremely powerful and potent essence, which was equal to Nephis's—the reason for this was that they both had complete divine lineages—Nephis had [The Fire] and Sunny had [Shadow]
And that was right now—how much more powerful would his essence become, one [Soul Weave] is in his possession again?
It was clear that he would have the most potent essence amongst his rank in the world, two worlds even
But those were all plans for the distant future
His plans for the near future were significantly sped up as well, by leaps and bounds.
But Sunny was not thinking about that right now
All he could think about was the urge to sleep as if he were about to fall into the longest sleep of his life, and the worse part was that everyone in the cafeteria had the same mood. No, their mood was actually worse
The only people who had the less drastic expressions were Nephis, Cassie, and he.
The reason for that was simple—unlike every other sleeper in the compound, they were the only ones who knew some of the details about where they were being transported and what they would need to do; well, only Sunny knew that last bit of information
Sunny finished eating his food and turned to look at Cassie
The Seer had already wished him a happy birthday just as she did in his memories but unlike that time, he got a happy birthday from Nephis as well
That 3rd goal he had set for himself had been fulfilled quite well. He, Nephis and Cassie had a very good relationship, especially when comparing it to the fact that in the past Sunny had not interacted with Nephis in the academy, and the only reason he spoke to Cassie was because they were in the death corner
Now it was not a stretch to say that Cassie and Sunny were practically best friends. now that may have been because no one wanted to be around Cassie but regardless, Sunny had grown very close to her
His past self had not been wrong in how he grew to feel about Cassie; she truly was like the little sister he left behind.
As for Nephis, it could not be said that they were friends but they were a little bit more than just companions—it was like she was a friend of a friend only there was no friend
Sunny giving tips for what they should and should not do during their first 2 to 3 days had definitely given Nephis more trust that what had been there already
But truthfully that was a side effect of a warning he had to give them about making a fire at night on the statue—he had seen the memory of Cassie recalling and retelling the creature that had attacked them that night along with the scavengers that scaled the statue
So he had warned them beforehand
Sunny placed the remaining bits of food on his plate into his mouth and washed it down with a nice big glass of water and that seemed to be just in time for Rock to come and call them for their little tour
His initial first goal had been to learn from teacher Julius and, as a side effect, forge a relationship with him and he did but at the same time, he had formed a relationship with Instructor Rock as well
Sunny had been forcefully injected with memories of both mediocre styles and incredibly powerful ones that ranged from ancient to present times and even the future
As a result, his body and mind subconsciously moved his body before he himself had moved to react—that had given him an edge over others in terms of combat with and, in many cases, without aspects. not only that but while he was training his body during this time, his combat ability had only grown exponentially
Well anyway...
Like the last time Sunny and the rest of the sleepers were to the underground facility where the Hollows were gathered but this time Cassie, Sunny and Nephis had walked together
That was why Sunny was able to see the subtle shift in Nephis's expression as she looked at the Hollow body of Smile of Heaven—of her mother
His eyes seemed to soften, going unnoticed to everyone in the room who were more focused, worrying about if they would become one of those
"You okay?" he asked with a soft, drowsy tone
He asked despite knowing why she was experiencing these emotions but naturally he could not reveal it, not yet at least
She turned and looked down at him, her face impassive but her eyes had a flurry of emotions that Sunny could easily discern
Sadness, Worry, determination, and a furious blaze of Rage
"I'm fine." She replied after a few seconds
Sunny could tell that Nephis wanted to say something more; in the past month Sunny had confided a lot of His own past—leaving Rain at the orphanage, living on the streets, seeing her get adopted
He had confided that in Cassie and Nephis. Knowing that he would tell them in the future regardless, he had also done it to show he had some level of trust in them both and it had definitely had an effect as great as giving information about where they would be sent to
But it appeared to not be enough for Nephis to confide in him just yet, even if it seemed that she wanted to.
He turned away with a soft sigh—'... It's fine—we'll get there eventually.'
A while later they were dismissed and instructed to go into their rooms, which now had the sleeping pods that they needed to enter.
All the sleepers were entering their pods and resisted the pull of sleep for as long as they could. Sunny and Nephis, however, were not in their rooms just yet—they were in Cassie's room.
Sunny had walked to her room and Nephis had followed along and was currently leaning against the door of Cassie's room as Sunny guided the blind girl into the glass-lidded pod
Cassie laid down onto the soft bedding; her face held slight tension
Sunny could only imagine how hard it must have been for her to enter this pod herself the last time, both physically and emotionally—she must have thought that this was going to be her deathbed.
"You'll be okay, Cass; Neph will keep you safe till I find you two."
He let out a dry chuckle and looked at Nephis who stared back with a blank expression
"Thanks, Sunny."
"No problem, Cass." He ruffled her hair and made sure she was comfortable before closing the pod.
Cassie laid there waiting for sleep to take her—Sunny couldn't help but laugh inwardly
Cassie really did look like she was going to die; she looked like a corpse in a glass coffin and yet—and yet this girl would stand amongst the most powerful beings in the Dream Realm
"Right, see you in a few days."
He said, laying his palm on the glass with his hand and began to walk away towards the door
"Keep her safe, okay?"
"...I would do it even if you did not ask."
"Yeah, yeah." He patted her shoulder
Their rooms were on opposite end of the dorm compound, with Cassies being the middle ground between the two so they would next see other in the Forgotten Shore
Sunny was about to let her off with a goodbye or a good luck but she had seemingly beat him to it
"We will meet up in two days?"
"Yeah, keep an eye out for my shadow, okay?"
She nodded and responded with a "Hmm" before walking away—her short white hair brushing against her neck
He turned away and walked to his own room with a sigh
'I need to work on her social skills.'
He turned away and looked down at Gloomy, who seemed to share in that sentiment
Making it into his room he looked at the book in which he had written all of his plans for the future and placed it at the bottom of the pod and then hopped in—sure, there was no harm in letting people see his plans but then he would have to reveal he knew the future and then they would think he is a seer and then he would need to work around that
He preferred not to.
'Well, when i get Weaver's mask back I can claim to be a seer.'
He did not mean that in the way he was able to lie with the mask; rather, he meant that with the [Where is my eye?]. He would be able to see the strings of fate and thus look into the future—just like a seer
'Well anyway... time to go for a swim.
He allowed the sleep to take him and heard the spell's voice sound out
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Sunless!]