Cassia had been thrust into the nightmare spell, but never once was she ever truly afraid. She had ample right to her hubris: she had been trained incredibly well, she had worked enormously hard, she had received a lot of help and had learned all sorts of survival techniques. So, her first nightmare went smoothly. It almost felt too easy, in fact.
On top of that, she received a Sacred-ranked aspect for the relatively minor ordeal. She was ecstatic to say the least. She was now destined to a great life as an Awakened and had the prospects to even become Ascended or Transcended, thanks to her incredible aspect.
....Flaw Description: [You cannot see].....
All of her dreams, hopes, and ambitions were crushed by the Nightmare Spell the instant they flourished.
She was now a walking corpse. Even her ever-optimistic parents were left devoid of hope. Nobody, not even herself, believed Cassia would survive.
Until a short, dark-haired boy with obsidian eyes took her Flaw away. Cassia had been bestowed a miracle. The blind adolescent could now see. She could look her parents and friends in the eyes and wave them goodbye. She could once again appreciate the beauty of paintings and continue to follow her passion for fencing. People finally stopped seeing her as a corpse and replaced their pity with compassion.
Cassia was back in the spotlight, living the life of her dreams. Even her mother, who looked at her like she was already guaranteed death, finally changed to treat Cassia as the dependable and capable daughter she had been before getting infected.
She told all of them that she had found an incredible memory which could sometimes act as a second pair of eyes, depending on her luck. That was a blatant lie.
Cassia knew this was all temporary.
Sunny... didn't make her Flaw disappear into thin air. The poor boy took it upon himself. He had tried hiding this side-effect from her, but he wasn't a good actor.
Seeing the boy have to suffer the same ordeals she was put through made her heart ache. Cassia hated being blind, but more so hated having to see the adorable kid from the Outskirts suffer in her place.
So she often urged him and sometimes even begged him to turn off whatever ability allowed him to do the miraculous act. But, he looked incredibly perturbed whenever he returned Cassia's Flaw. The amount of discomfort on his face would only grow and grow the longer he didn't use his ability to the point of what looked to be excruciating pain. This phenomenon wasn't on the level of simple selflessness.
Cassia did not have to guess, but this certainly was not his own behaviour. She was pretty certain that Sunny's Flaw, whatever it was, was the root cause behind this.
Apparently, Sunny had a substitute for sight, which he called " Shadow Sense". That was not enough for Cassia to justify the arrangement by her standard of morals.
Not only that, but Sunny would likely not be there whenever she would be transported into the Nightmare Realm. She could never even think about growing dependent on him.
As much as it pained her to do so, she had no choice but to avoid Sunny. She had to stay out of the ability's activation range, so Sunny would not be forced into taking her burden.
Being blind again was difficult, but after having temporarily gained sight, she found it a lot easier to navigate. In fact, thanks to her lie about the memory and her own increased confidence and competence, she managed to become a sociable girl once again despite her lack of sight.
Still, she felt incredibly sad at having to leave the boy all alone. She had enjoyed talking to him a lot, and leaving him on his lonesome, in that sad corner of the cafeteria, felt very cruel to Cassia.
Once she escaped the Gateway, she would make sure to meet Sunny again and smother him with all the juicy gossip she had learned in the Academy till he grew sick of it.
'Once I escape the Gateway?... When did I become so optimistic?'
She really missed Sunny.
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It was obvious why Cassie had done what she had done. But well, I couldn't blame her. My Flaw forced me into taking her burden as long as she was within a couple tens of meters of me and if I refused to do, rewarded me with execrable physical pain and a horrendous and unbearable feeling of guilt and disgust. To be honest, some of the that was genuine guilt I would have regardless of my Flaw.
It was so bad, it made having being completely blind and being forced to perceive the world through Shadow Sense, a pale imitation of actual sight, look like a cake-walk.
But what was done was done. I had really enjoyed the two weeks, despite my frequent bouts of blindness of ostrasication by my peers. It was all thanks to my mentor, Julius and my friend, Cassie.
Julius made sure to teach me with utmost care, carefully treading me through any problem I may have encountered thanks to my pitiful lack of knowledge.
I also tested out my trusty Shadow and learnt about my bright future as a lookout. I would have preffered something grander but being a scout is also not bad.
I also remembered all the kids I had left behind in the Outskirts. Were they okay without my help? No, they were some pretty resourceful and cunning children. They should be fine.
I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy the peace of not having to deal with the responsibility of taking care of them personally, though that was because I faced a far harder problem.
Overall, my time at the Academy was great. I got to breathe good air, eat decent food and wear proper clothes, all for free.
The experience of training and getting stronger, though a bit painful, was somewhat exhilarating.
The month was over before I knew it. The Winter Solstice was upon me.
I wished my lovable mentor goodbye. The guy almost shed tears at the concept of me leaving. I was supposedly his best student.
'I will love to meet you once again, Julius. You were the first teacher I ever had. If I were to survive the Dream Realm, it would be because of you.'
Maybe I was sad at leaving the old man behind too.
Interestingly, Cassie even wished me "Happy-Birthday!", though through a text message on my Communicator. Wait..how she know it was my birthday? I guess I mentioned it sometime.
I was still a bit disappointed though, I kinda wanted her to personaly wish me my seventeenth birthday. My cheeks burned a bit.
'Damnation!, chasing after a woman does not lie on the path of Altruism! Stay vigilant, Sunny!'
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After Awakened Rock's showcase of the horrifying reality of the 'Hollows', that being turned into an empty husk of a.person was a likely fate for one who would fail to survive the Dream Realm's trials. Sunny entered his extravagent pod for his jouney into the Dream Realm. He, unlike many other fellow sleepers in the Academy, was quite reserved and calm.
For some reason, Sunny had confidence bordering the line of huberis, regarding his chances at surviving the dream realm.
He stepped into his pod and silently went into slumber, believing his survival to be challenging but completely possible
Sunny had all his confidence washed away when he truely entered the Dream Realm though.
Sunny was summoned deep under pitch-black water in a gargantuan ocean. He almost died by drowning and then was immediately hunted by an Awakened Tyrant, which itself seemed to be getting chased by some even greater horror. He was also utterly naked and he seemed to be in a completely unknown region of the dream realm, he was just sent into a death zone.
Rarely could anyone find a more harrowing entrance to the Dream Realm than the one Sunny had just experienced.
But Sunny, either by luck or resilience, managed to survive by climbing on top of a portruding rock and barely hanging on to it throughout the night. His Puppeteer's shroud massively helped him during these hard times.
Upon the herald of the day, Sunny understood his position. He was on a massive statute, in an unknown area of the Dream Realm, which seemed to be covered by massive coral labrinths. Most shocking of all was the corpse of the Awakened Tyrant, who had tried to eat him earlier, was lying on the corals being feasted upon by the inhabitants of the hellish place. All of them seemed at be of the Awakened rank at the very least.
It seems Sunny had run out of both luck and confidence.
However, only upon the advent of the second nightfall did he notice flames burning bright on another hill a couple kilometers away.
They were other humans here.
So, Sunny with the help of his trusty shadow, began a journey towards the hill.
Thankfully, the slain body of the Awakened Tyrant had distracted most of the labyrinth's predators allowing Sunny to traverse the perilous region much more easily.
Unfortunately, he did fall victim to the attack of one of the injured dwellers of the region, who almost manged to kill Sunless with a surprise attack. But the newcomer managed to fell the Carapace Scavenger, as the runes of the Spell called it, and live.
He received a memory called [Azure Blade]for his troubles. It was a small consolation considering he had nearly lost his life twice in the desperate battle, but a weapon was a weapon.
The encounter with the Awakened Beast had not been one without consequence too. Sunny was brutaly maimed on his right arm.
A horrifc scar streched from his biceps to his forearms.
But he ignored the pain and only moved forward, following behind his trusty scout, until he met the ones who produced those distant flames.
That was how Lost from Light encountered the enigmatic duo of Changing Star, Nephis and her blind companion, Cassia.
After letting his shadow scout out first and attempting to introduce himself to the two beautiful women through his shadow's awkward waving;
Sunny caught glimpse of the scantily-clad Changing Star and his dear friend from the Academy.
Atleast Cassie was in modest armor but Nephis...a lot of her skin was showing under her crudely made dress formed from what looked to be seaweed.
Sunny, the gentleman he was, tried to avert his eyes. But he did not need to.
Before he could let his embarresment take ahold, before he could even express his shock or say a few words out loud, his eyesight dimmed. He had gotten within the activation range of his Flaw.
He was back in Cassia's world.