Sunny followed behind Mahoraga as the enormous doors of the throne hall slowly groaned shut behind them, sealing away the suffocating presence of the King once more.
The moment they stepped back into the corridor, the pressure crushing the palace seemed to lessen slightly, yet Sunny's expression only grew darker.
His mind was in complete disarray.
"Are you out of your damn mind?!" he snapped, his voice echoing sharply through the corridor.
The shadow servants drifting nearby immediately lowered their heads further and hurried away from the commotion.
Mahoraga glanced at him drearily. "Good morning to you too, Sunless."
"Not only did you insult the King, but you tried to outshine him by belittling how he commanded His army!" Sunny hissed, lowering his voice only slightly as they continued down the corridor. "Do you have any idea how suicidal that was?"
Mahoraga remained silent for a brief moment.
Then he sighed softly.
"I didn't insult him."
Sunny stared at him in disbelief.
"You absolutely did."
"No," Mahoraga replied calmly. "I pointed out what he already knew."
That caused Sunny's expression to falter slightly.
Mahoraga's gaze drifted toward the rain cascading down the distant fortress windows.
"The King isn't a fool, Sunless. He knows why he's losing." His voice remained steady. "He's fighting a war against Divine beings while trying to preserve his people, his land, and whatever remains of his kingdom at the same time. That's impossible."
He shook his head faintly. "You can't win a war like this without sacrificing something."
Thunder rumbled beyond the palace walls.
"But he refuses to do that," Mahoraga continued quietly. "Every retreat costs civilian lives. Every abandoned city means surrendering another piece of his kingdom — more places his people can still call home. Every strategic sacrifice means condemning thousands of his own people to death." His eyes narrowed slightly. "So instead, he tries to save everything."
"And because of that," he finished solemnly, "he's slowly losing everything. The King is sacrificing the future to protect the present."
Sunny's footsteps slowed slightly.
Mahoraga glanced at him briefly before continuing.
"The King didn't spare me because he liked what I said." A faint smile tugged at his lips. "He spared me because I said something nobody else around him was willing to."
The shadows drifting through the corridor silently parted as the two continued walking.
"Think about it," Mahoraga said. "Everyone in that throne room fears him. Worships him. Reveres him. Even his own commanders probably hesitate before questioning his decisions."
Sunny frowned slightly.
"And you don't?"
Mahoraga chuckled softly.
"I barely know the man."
That answer somehow irritated Sunny again.
Mahoraga continued regardless.
"He needed someone willing to say exactly what was wrong without flinching." His expression hardened slightly. "Someone who wasn't blinded by devotion or terrified of dying."
Sunny folded his arms tightly.
"And you decided that person should be you."
Mahoraga shrugged.
"Well, no one else seemed interested… And I'm trying to get us out of this Nightmare, Sunny. So stop treating me like I'm your neighbor. For fucks sake, we fought together for over a year, don't you have a shred of trust in me?"
Sunny fell silent at that. For all his criticism, they were still standing on the same side of this nightmare. He stared at Mahoraga for a brief moment, then looked away, his expression tightening.
He clicked his tongue and shoved his hands into his sleeves, resuming his walk as though nothing had happened. Yet beneath the surface, Mahoraga's words lingered, quietly gnawing at his thoughts.
After a while, he finally spoke up:
"Speaking of this Nightmare—"
Though before he could continue his doom-bringing monologue, Mahoraga raised his hand and pressed a finger to his lips, cutting him off mid-sentence.
His left hand erupted into threads of yellow light, weaving themselves together until an orb formed out of empty space.
Memory: [Oathbound]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: III
Memory Type: Charm
Memory Description: [A nameless knight walked the shores of a forgotten sea. Sword in hand, he carved through the darkness — relentless and alone. He reached its heart. But It was not enough. Corruption took him there. His last screams echoed across a sea no one remembers, heard by nothing at all.]
Memory Enchantments - [Cone of Silence], [Muted Scream]
Cone of Silence - This memory creates a bubble where sound suffocates and cannot escape.
Muted Scream - The less you speak, the more your power grows.
Only once the bubble had fully formed did Mahoraga let out a quiet sigh of relief. Then, without warning, he turned and struck Sunny cleanly across the back of the head.
"Ow—what was that for?" Sunny muttered, his hand shooting up to his head as he winced.
"You stupid, reckless idiot," Mahoraga muttered. "This entire castle is his Domain. Do you really think he can't hear every word we say?" He clicked his tongue lightly, shaking his head. "Don't talk like that again. Thankfully I had a silencing memory with me."
"You could've just said that without hitting me," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "You enjoy that a little too much."
"You don't listen unless it hurts a little," he replied flatly.
Sunny considered his words for a moment… and agreed with it.
Not that he'd ever say it out loud.
"Whatever… where was I?" Sunny asked himself, if trying to force his thoughts back into order, then exhaled through his nose and shot Mahoraga a sidelong glance.
"Right," he continued, his voice sharpening. "What are we supposed to do about this Nightmare? How do you even deal with something that involves Divine Deities? Even a Master wouldn't stand a chance here and heck we're not even Masters for crying out loud!"
He paused for a moment, letting out a loud, exhausted sigh.
"I wonder how we're supposed to beat this Nightmare… and whose side we're even meant to be on. As far as I can tell, there are only two paths: either we help this kingdom bring down the two Divine Hosts, or we side with those two and tear this kingdom apart. And honestly… I'm leaning toward stabbing the empire in the back."
Mahoraga let his words linger in the air for a few moments. Then, his expression shifted, becoming strangely foreign and unrecognisable.
He let out a low, quiet chuckle that slowly deepened into something colder, sending an involuntary shiver through Sunny.
Then, lowering his head slightly to meet Sunny's gaze, Mahoraga finally revealed what he had been planning:
"I'm not planning to simply beat this Nightmare, Sunny," he admitted with a faint smirk. "I'm planning to conquer it. I'm going to carve my name into history itself and set a record no one will ever surpass."
His eyes gleamed with something feverish as the smile on his face widened.
"I'm not going to destroy just one side… no." His voice lowered into something darker. "I'm going to destroy all of them. The Gods. The Daemons. This Kingdom. I'll tear every last piece of this Nightmare apart… and force it beneath my heel."
Sunny took a step back, his expression cracking for the first time.
"…W-what are you talking about?"
Mahoraga didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he took a step forward.
The distance between them shrank, and with it, the casual familiarity Sunny had grown used to felt briefly replaced by something far more unstable. Mahoraga's expression had changed entirely now — no longer calm, no longer composed. Something brighter and far more dangerous sat behind his eyes.
His breath caught for a moment. The air inside the bubble suddenly felt tighter.
Sunny instinctively tensed.
"You're not talking about surviving anymore," he said slowly, his voice lower now, less sharp and more uncertain. "You're talking about gambling everything for what?" Sunny snapped, his voice breaking through the silence. "For some record nobody will even care about?! They're Gods!"
Mahoraga cut him off with a quiet laugh.
Then, he smiled.
It wasn't the usual lazy curve of amusement. No… this was something far more unsettling. Something unhinged. A smile that felt fundamentally wrong, in a way Sunny couldn't immediately put into words.
Mahoraga leaned in slightly, his eyes gleaming.
"Even gods can die, Sunny." he said softly.
At that moment, Sunny finally recognised what that smile was — it was an ambitious smile, a greedy smile, a crazy smile, and a hungry smile.
____
A/N - Peak?