It didn’t take them long to reach high ground after the grand battle with the Tyrant, as they were just a few hundred meters away from it.
The climb, however, was the hardest part of their subsequent journey, as every single member of their cohort was beyond exhausted and seriously injured.
Nightmare couldn’t help them all, as being pulled into the shadows wasn’t…
a favorable experience for living beings that didn’t possess shadow attributes.
They had cheated a bit, though, with Sunny arriving first at the top and pulling the rest of the cohort up by the golden rope.
Nephis had depleted almost all of her essence in the fight to power her Aspect’s ability, so she could only perform a quick fix on the most serious wounds — and only the physical ones, of course.
The most grievous ones, however, were the ones on their minds, which were not so easily healed.
Cassie was the worst off, as the Tyrant had violated her mind quite severely — she had been the only one who completely lacked any kind of mental protection during the battle.
She could barely move on her own for now and had some difficulty with speech.
She would heal soon enough, though — at least, that was what he believed.
Despite the fact that the Tyrant had put her mind in quite a disarray, the wounds couldn’t be too deep: his Domain and Will were not powerful enough to drive a person fully insane in such a short time, and most of his efforts had been directed at Nephis and Sunny, after all.
The Changing Star was in quite a bad shape herself.
She had been overusing her Aspect throughout the battle — to heal or empower herself, or empower her weapon.
He could still see the aftereffects of it: she was an emotionless husk, moving her body on autopilot and barely interested in anything.
Besides, it hadn’t been long since she first started using her Aspect in battle at all, and she was still not used to the excruciating pain that her Flaw inflicted.
Well, if you could ever get used to such a thing…
Sunny was a complicated case in terms of his own state.
Physically, he was better than expected, considering that he had been thrown across the field by Nightmare Creatures for a while.
His subsequent Awakening had done his body a great deal of good, and afterward he had been somewhat less susceptible to injuries.
Well, at least on the surface it looked that way.
Most of his current wounds, however, were internal.
You could even say that he was in the worst shape of the group.
Not only had he been bullying his poor mind for the duration of two fights — shadowing his future self, diving into the shadows of multiple Nightmare Creatures, enduring the Tyrant’s constant mental assault.
The thing was, his Awakening was as much a blessing as it was a curse in his circumstances.
That stunt of his had already started showing its consequences: his soul was in constant agony, his body was feverish, and his thoughts were cloudy.
The whole process of awakening as he had done it was something beyond idiotic — something a sane person would never even think of.
But he wasn’t entirely sane, and so he was still breathing.
After his spontaneous Awakening, he hadn’t waited for his body to adjust to its new abilities before throwing himself back into the battle.
And now he was paying for it.
The aftereffects of [Thief’s Instinct]’s curse also had to be factored in…
All in all, he was in terrible shape.
The moment they finally reached the top of the carapace of the dead aquatic Nightmare Creature, all strength left Sunny’s body completely, and he dropped to its surface, exhausted and hurting beyond belief.
All of them lay on the ground staring at the darkening sky in complete silence — except for the sound of the approaching Dark Sea and their heavy breaths.
Nightmare stood watch at the edge of the platform, a few meters to his master’s right.
With him as their guard, no abomination would dare approach, and no bad dream would disturb their sleep.
He still couldn’t believe it.
Nightmare remembered him.
For thousands of years, he had been fighting Corruption and waiting for Sunny to arrive in the Dream Realm — and the moment he set foot there again, the Stallion had felt him somehow and traveled through not one but two Death Zones to save his life again.
If that wasn’t a manifestation of loyalty, he didn’t know what was.
That was the only scenario that made sense to Sunny.
After all in his previous life, the original Nightmare had died long ago — seemingly having given up on living a meaningless existence — and only his resentment had remained.
‘Do they all remember me?’ he mused.
There was however no way to know for now — not until he found Saint, Mimic, and Fiend, if he found the latter two at all.
He shook his head, banishing unpleasant thoughts and drowsiness alike.
It was not time to sleep yet.
He had promised the girls some answers, after all.
He thought for a few seconds about how much he wanted to share and decided to go with the flow for now — he didn’t want to reveal his most closely guarded secrets, at least not until they were all back in the Waking World.
As Sunny tried to sit up, he growled in pain.
Every cell of his body, mind, and soul hurt like hell.
After this stunt, it seemed he would be out of commission for at least a few weeks.
There was no immediate need — at least for now — to damage himself further.
It wasn’t the worst state he had ever been in, though, so he believed he could manage a short conversation.
“Khm! Well…” he started awkwardly, drawing their attention.
Both other members of the cohort shifted to look at him as he raised himself into a sitting position.
Nephis followed, also helping Cassie up, as the blind girl was still having trouble regaining complete control of her own body.
“I promised you some answers, but to be honest I have no idea where to start…” he said, scratching the back of his head.
Nephis, however, took the lead immediately after those words left his lips.
“I can direct you, then,” she said, her voice flat, her expression neutral — even more so than usual, with her emotions still burned out by her Aspect.
“First, who are you, Sunny? No sane person would believe that a kid from the outskirts could do what you can, no matter how hard a life you led before,” she said firmly.
Cassie hiccuped after the last sentence and blushed a bit, but nodded in agreement reluctantly.
“Second — what in the Spell’s name happened during today’s fight?
That thing you did after the Demons apprehended us both, the new ability you gained out of nowhere.
Actually, I already have suspicions about that, but I want to hear it from you.
Also, that horse of yours” — she nodded toward where Nightmare was standing — “the Nightmare Creature that came to save us and then gave its life to you…
none of that makes sense to me.” She watched his reactions carefully, not betraying a single thought running through her head.
“And then, that weapon of yours… I didn’t question it when you summoned it before the second battle, but now… What is — no, how can you even possess such a thing in the first place?” she finished, shifting her gaze briefly toward Cassie, who was completely still and seemingly not all that interested in the conversation.
As Nephis listed her questions, Sunny was already thinking of how to steer the conversation — how to be truthful enough without revealing anything that might lead to disaster later on.
There was a reason, of course, why he wouldn’t tell them everything for now.
First — Nephis knew of Asterion’s existence, and the Dreamspawn himself was aware of and very interested in her.
He was already taking risks by explaining even this much.
To be completely honest, Sunny wasn’t entirely sure about his own safety in this regard either, given that he too knew about the Dreamspawn.
But he was a small piece of dust for now — nothing worthy of the mighty Sovereign’s attention.
And by the time he did tell them, it would already be too late for the despicable beast to act.
There were other reasons too, of course, but the main one was fairly simple — there was no real point in telling them.
No matter how much he disliked thinking of them that way, they were useless right now and couldn’t help him in any meaningful way.
More than that — knowing Nephis’s character, Sunny was fairly certain that her stubbornness would likely be the ruin of his carefully laid plans.
And, well…
it was a hard thing to prove.
To be completely fair, he still wasn’t sure how he had even managed to convince Jet to work with him.
The chances were they would simply think him even more of a madman than they already did.
Sunny composed himself, bringing his focus back to the conversation.
All of those questions made sense to him — especially the last one.
High-ranking Memories, after all, had no business being in the possession of a Sleeper, especially one with no background whatsoever.
From her perspective, he was a perfect candidate for a Great Clans’ assassin; the only direct disproof was his behavior toward the group, and toward herself in particular.
He coughed painfully, shook off his unease, and finally began.
“To some of those questions I can give a complete answer only after we get back to the Waking World, and there are very good reasons for that,” he said, noticing Nephis’s eyes narrow slightly in suspicion, but continuing without pause.
“As I told you before, I am a kid from the outskirts. I did lose my parents when I was very young, and I do have a younger sister who was adopted a long time ago while I was left behind, because… well, I was a bit unruly, I suppose?” he chuckled, his gaze growing distant for a moment.
He shook his head and continued.
“It wasn’t an easy life — but that life alone couldn’t account for the abilities I possess. There are reasons for that, though…”
He met Nephis’s gaze.
Her expression remained neutral and absolutely unreadable.
Sunny couldn’t tell what was going through her head, but the logical assumption was that she was rightfully suspicious.
“First — after my First Nightmare, I was given a glorious appraisal and a Divine Rank Aspect,” he said, letting that piece of information sink in for a moment.
He registered Cassie choking in surprise and chuckled in amusement.
Nephis, on the other hand, gave no visible reaction at all — seemingly having already suspected as much.
“Second — I had already unlocked my Aspect Legacy. In simple terms, it allows me to gain a deeper understanding of my opponent and replicate their combat style, among some other cool things. To be honest, I had done it within the first few weeks at the Academy and had unlocked the Third Step a week or two after we met Nephis.”
The blind girl’s coughing intensified, and he had finally gotten a reaction from the Changing Star.
Her expression had finally shifted — almost imperceptibly — her pupils widening slightly and her mouth opening a fraction before she controlled herself and stilled her face again.
“Wai-th, wai, wait-t…” Cassie blubbered through her coughing, her words sounding a bit garbled, her mind having too little time to repair itself.
“Div-i-i-ine As-sh-pect? Ah-sh-pe-c-ct Lega-s-s-sy? Ee-s that a d-joke?” she asked, each word making her even more embarrassed.
In the end she tried to hide her flushing face in her palms, but her hands missed completely.
Sunny wasn’t sure whether to be amused or feel sorry for her.
In the end, he decided to be polite just this once.
But he would still tease her later.
After the battle, he had expected that the Tyrant possessing her mind and using her as a meat shield would destroy her already fragile self-esteem — but that wasn’t the case, to his pleasant surprise.
It seemed their pre-battle conversation had the beneficial byproduct of giving Cassie some conviction to keep fighting.
Her self-esteem was still below average, of course.
But it was a start.
Cassie had even managed to fight off the Tyrant from within her own mind, helping him and Nightmare in their subsequent battle.
Though there hadn’t been much of a fight to begin with, to be completely honest.
The arrogant bastard had stood no chance against an ancient Fallen Terror and one madman of a shadow — especially after deciding that evolving mid-battle was a good idea, even in a fight that already seemed won.
However, Cassie was clearly embarrassed by her temporary movement disability and incoherent speech — but that was fine with him, as it was rather endearing and gave him ample material for later teasing.
“No, it’s not a joke. And stop with the questions for now! My Flaw compels me to answer each one, and it’s quite painful for me to defy it — I still have two questions left to answer…” he exclaimed with irritation, then continued.
“And on top of that, I also possess the Shadow God’s Lineage — Neph probably knows what I mean.”
After that, Sunny turned to look at the Changing Star.
She looked thoughtful and even a bit surprised — but there was something else, too.
He could swear he detected a spark of envy in her eyes.
He chuckled inwardly.
It seemed her burnout was beginning to recede.
Sunny waited until Cassie summoned the [Endless Spring] and took a careful sip before continuing.
He would collect as many amusing reactions tonight as he could.
“To answer the second question — well, it’s quite simple, really. I just decided to become an Awakened mid-fight,” he finished nonchalantly.
Nephis drew a sharp breath, and was promptly covered in water as the blind seer choked and began coughing uncontrollably.
She looked at Cassie, wiped her face, then gave him a betrayed look — which he ignored, giggling silently.
He could swear he saw Nephis shiver slightly as those words left his lips.
Cassie, on the other hand, was still coughing in shock and offered no particularly useful reaction.
‘A Coughing Girl — I’ll make that nickname stick,’ he thought in amusement.
“The Nightmare, though…” he smiled, resting his hand on the beautiful Stallion’s neck and scratching it enthusiastically.
“Actually, I’m not entirely sure about that myself. You could say I met him before waking up from my First Nightmare. He was a good friend of mine… But I only have guesses as to how he remembers me here,” he said, shrugging.
No amused reaction came from either of them, so he exhaled dejectedly and continued.
“As for the weapon… It’s called the [Shapeless Thief], and apparently I received it for slaying a Cursed Terror right before I woke up in a police station after my First Nightmare.” Nephis’s eyes widened at that, and Cassie gave her standard reaction to shocking news.
He fought himself not to laugh before proceeding.
“So it’s a Sacred Memory of the Sixth Tier. Oh, and it’s also somewhat cursed — it tends to turn its wielder into a complete thieving lunatic if not used carefully, which is why I don’t use it unless it’s a life-or-death situation.”
He smiled in satisfaction and looked at them, waiting for a reaction.
Cassie, seemingly tired of embarrassing herself, turned her face away from him.
‘Did she just pout?’ He nearly giggled.
He hadn’t seen that in a while — if ever.
There had probably been a few such moments during their months of travel to the Dark City in his previous life, but it was too long ago to remember.
Nephis, on the other hand, looked a bit surprised and rightfully exasperated.
She sighed wearily and hid her face in her palms, massaging it slowly.
She spread her fingers slightly, still covering her face, and sent him an annoyed look.
“Okay, let’s start from the very beginning. You somehow got acquainted with the Fallen Terror during your First Nightmare and befriended him.” She uncovered her face and started counting on her fingers.
“Then, by some miracle, slew a Cursed Terror and received a Memory for it — something I’m certain not even the Great Clans possess.” She bend another finger and nodded to herself.
“Then you returned and almost immediately unlocked your Aspect Legacy. Somewhere along the way you also apparently seduced a Master from the Government. Came back to the Dream Realm and made yourself an Awakened without a Nightmare Spell — something completely unheard of. And then the friend you made in your Nightmare found you in the real world and came to save all of our skins. Am I missing something?” she asked, raising a brow.
“Actually, you are. You’re missing a lot, and misinterpreting a lot. But you know what?” he grinned, clearly amused by her version of events.
“It sounds funnier that way, so let’s leave it. And also, what do you mean by ‘sed—'” She gave him a look, opening her mouth to reply.
“Actually — never mind. I’m too tired to dive into that.”
Nephis looked at him for a second before closing her mouth and exhaling.
A small amused smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she massaged her brows.
“This is the most ridiculous story I have ever heard. But you know what is even more ridiculous? I somehow believe it,” she chuckled.
“Does that mean I’m going crazy too?” There was a barely audible whisper from their side that sounded suspiciously like ‘you always were.’ “Well, at least you’re not lying — though I can see you’re stretching the truth in places. That’s fine with me. I can imagine you not wanting to disclose all of your secrets; that’s a wise thing to do in your… circumstances. And I’ll respect that — at least until it puts us all in danger.” He raised his brows slightly, not having expected her to let him go that easily, but nodded gratefully.
“I want to ask one last thing, though,” she said, her expression turning serious.
Cassie was listening attentively, opening and closing her mouth from time to time, but decided not to speak at all, afraid to embarrass herself further.
Sunny wouldn’t let her live another day after this!
“What is the essence of combat to you?” Nephis continued, catching him mid-thought with the sudden change of topic.
Both he and the blind seer blinked in surprise.
He looked at her for a moment, his expression clearly saying ‘that’s the only thing you want to know?’ — but seeing her steely gaze waiting for his answer, he exhaled and shook his head with a nostalgic air.
What did he expect?
It was Nephis.
“Of course you’d ask that…” he mumbled, with a slight smile on his face.
“What is the essence of combat… Well, to me it’s desire, I suppose.” Nephis’s brows furrowed at that, but he elaborated almost immediately.
“Everything comes from desire, after all. Every single action we take, every breath and every thought. Even Gods and humans were born from Desire… Combat is no different.” Nephis listened very attentively as he explained — more so than for his previous story, somehow.
“You may desire to murder your enemy; you may desire simply to defeat them; you may desire just to see another day. You may also desire to be free…” He swallowed the bile rising in his throat, his expression shifting for a fraction of a second before he controlled it.
“Or you may desire to defy and oppose anything that stands in your way. All things start with desire and return to it in the end. Without it, everything else is meaningless. If there is desire, there is purpose; if there is purpose, there is will. And where there is will… there must exist a way. That’s how I see it, at least.”
They were silent for a few seconds afterward, looking thoughtfully at each other.
Cassie shifted awkwardly, feeling like a third wheel throughout the entirety of this conversation — not that she’d wanted to be a part of it in the first place.
She trusted Sunny completely, after all, and needed no confirmation of it.
Besides…
‘Both of them are crazy!
Ridiculously so!’
Nephis looked thoughtful — brows furrowed, lips slightly strained, eyes distant.
She hadn’t expected such a philosophical answer from him, he suspected.
Well, he’d had a great deal of time to think: during his years of solitude, during his travels, in…
other situations as well.
And after going back in time — or something like it — he had reevaluated many things and changed some opinions too.
The essence of combat had been one of them.
“A desire, huh…” she slowly mumbled, rolling the word around her tongue.
She raised her gaze to his and held it, unblinking, for a few seconds.
And then smiled.
“Alright… You’ve given me a lot to think about, to be honest.” A pleased expression spread across her face.
“I won’t torture you with questions anymore, seeing as they… actually torture you in a way. Unless Cassie wants some answers too?”
They shifted their gazes toward the blind girl — not that Neph could see her clearly in this darkness.
The poor seer shivered under their gaze and shook her head vehemently, keeping her mouth wisely shut.
“Then I guess it’s time we finally got some sleep…” She stifled a yawn behind her palm to prove the point.
Sunny interrupted her, though.
“Wait. Don’t you want to ask me one more thing? About my Aspect, I mean,” he said with a knowing smile.
She blinked, then chuckled.
‘Of course he knows…’
“I might be interested, to be honest. But I’m also dead tired. So — maybe some other time?”
He nodded nonchalantly as he scratched Nightmare affectionately.
Yeah — they would have plenty of time ahead of them.
The journey wouldn’t be easy, and would still be long, but…
It would be manageable.
Both in terms of time and difficulty — even considering his current condition and his Awakening having come far earlier than planned.
It had been worth it.
All of it.
So he could finally allow himself to rest, even if just for a little while.
***
The following two weeks Sunny found fairly boring, even knowing the sentiment wouldn’t last.
The reason was simple — he had very little to do, as he was more or less bedridden.
Well, kind of.
He really did have a bed, after all!
He had offered both members of their group the use of the bed, at least in turns — but they gave him strange looks every single time.
Nephis had almost agreed the very first time, until Cassie took her aside and whispered something in her ear.
Now both of them — even if the dummy seer was blind!
— looked at the bed and at him strangely every time he summoned it.
He sighed.
‘Those idiots…’ It was very comfortable, after all — their loss, he supposed.
“I have to get Jet some kind of cool gift as a ‘thank you’…” he mumbled, lying on the bed with his hands behind his head and his eyes half-closed as the sun set on the horizon.
He shivered slightly.
He didn’t need to turn around to know that Nephis was giving him a look.
Going back to the matter at hand — he was bored.
Having decided to let his body, mind, and soul heal for a while — a sentiment shared by the whole cohort — he had discovered there was simply nothing to do.
The first few days had been rather pleasant — ‘a little vacation in this forsaken hell,’ he’d taken to saying.
However, the longer his recovery took, the more restless he became.
He was itching to do something, but, well…
there was simply nothing, really.
Even setting aside his condition, their journey as a whole was going smoothly: they traveled on Nightmare’s back for most of each day, covering on some days more than ten times their usual distance, stopping only for short fights that were unavoidable, when they were running out of resources, or when Nephis wanted to farm some fragments.
He had nothing to complain about.
With Nightmare and Serpent as their main force, he was still gaining fragments too — not as many as he would have liked, but nothing to scoff at either.
He was also in possession of a small fortune in Soul Shards by now; most of his share he had given to Nephis and some to Cassie, keeping a few for himself.
Yet despite everything, it was a boring and maddening stretch nonetheless.
During the nights, they had also started taking risks from time to time, beginning to traverse the Sea.
Now that he was an Awakened, not only had he reclaimed his Happy shadow and thus had more shadow material to spare for the boat, but the quality of his shadows had risen as well.
Now even a single Awakened shadow’s materialized form could expand nearly twice as far as his Dormant one — and the shadow material itself could become as solid as softwood.
Thus, they had plenty of space to travel in comfort.
Or they would have, had Sunny not frequently been forced to summon Nightmare to drive off the pursuing abominations.
They took their chances only on nights when Cassie’s intuition told them it was safe.
The shadows’ storage capacity and the duration they could hold items had grown significantly as well.
Capacity had increased by more than double, and duration to nearly five times its previous value.
It was more than an hour now, if his shadows were loaded to the brim!
He already had a few ideas about how to put that to use once they reached the Dark City…
There were other changes after his Awakening, too.
The quality increase of his shadows had extended to their amplification — though it wasn’t dramatic.
From what he could gauge, he had gained something close to fifteen percent of additional strengthening from a single shadow.
Not a staggering number, but it accumulated.
By wrapping two shadows around himself, he gained an additional thirty percent in amplification — and that was something noticeably more significant.
His body had also become considerably stronger, faster, and more durable then the previous time.
His bones had grown much denser, and he could feel them starting to approach the strong he’d once had when possessing the Bone Weave as an Awakened.
The latter was out of contention, of course — at least for now.
He had also begun to understand how the [The Shadow’s Claim] attribute truly worked.
Initially, he had assumed it only made his shadows a bit more independent and provided a limited version of the [Shadow Manifestation] ability without expending essence.
He was wrong.
From all the signs, the Shadow God’s Lineage had changed him on a much deeper level than that.
That feeling of being completely torn apart — body, mind, and soul — had not merely been a feeling.
It seemed it had literally torn him apart and recreated him anew, using shadows as the material.
He had begun to suspect this during their first month of travel through the Dream Realm, though now he was almost certain.
The reason: his new ability to turn semi-corporeal — something he had only achieved as a Supreme in his previous life, and only by killing himself to attain it.
It wasn’t especially powerful yet — he could maintain it for only a second or two — but it could be a decisive factor in battle.
He could also feel his mind sharpening as the aftereffects of his stunt receded.
Nothing dramatic, but a small gain here, another there…
It seemed that the Shadow God’s Lineage required him to advance through the ranks before its true benefits became fully apparent.
He was starting to regret consuming it a little less.
But there was one more change.
His other attribute — [Trace of Death] — or rather, [Omen of Death] now, as it had apparently evolved, and he had had no time to acknowledge it during the life-or-death battle.
He summoned his runes and focused.
[Omen of Death] Attribute Description: “What Death left behind has not been idle. It has been watching — long enough to learn the shape of what comes before an ending: the particular weight in the air, the angle that does not survive, the moment before the moment. An omen does not warn. It simply arrives slightly ahead of what it is pointing at, and waits to see if you notice.”
The description was vague and mysterious as usual.
Now, however, he had a fairly clear sense of what it did — and, for that matter, what its previous iteration had done as well.
He had initially believed that [Trace of Death] gave him the ability to identify when something had recently died in his vicinity, but he had been completely wrong.
Instead, it had enhanced his intuition a bit and given him a general sense of where something was about to perish — or where his own end might be waiting, for that matter.
That was how he had found Cassie on the first night: had he not followed it, she would have died within minutes, either by drowning or by being torn apart by Nightmare Creatures.
A minor thing, to be honest — but not an unhelpful one.
His evolved attribute, though…
that one had potential.
To put it simply: it drastically enhanced his intuition and battle-sense, allowing him not only to escape certain death, but to identify his enemies’ vulnerabilities and the most efficient ways to slay them.
After his initial two weeks of rest, he slowly began to practice with Nephis again and occasionally joined the less intensive fights as well.
Not having his mind torn apart and his body on the brink of failure, he noticed it immediately.
The silent pull to dodge a moment before his instincts usually kicked in.
A blind spot that was no longer quite so blind.
A weakness that would normally have taken time to spot.
All of it had become clearly apparent to him.
It was an incredibly useful ability for someone like him, who spent ninety percent of his life in battles.
And if his guess was right, it would evolve into something far more terrifying given time…
‘Sorry, Shadow — you’re not a fraud.
My mistake.’
Other than his new discoveries, there wasn’t much of note in the subsequent month of travel.
He started joining fights more frequently after the third week; trained with Nephis and helped her improve her combat style more quickly than he remembered her managing in his previous life; gave her advice about Divine Aspects and what to expect once she reached the thousand-fragment threshold — something she was already close to; played poker with Cassie and was robbed dry every single time — seers, even blind ones, were cheats!
— and did…
a few other things.
And after two months of journeying from the edge of one Death Zone to the center of another, they finally did it.
They reached the Dark City.
***
When they finished climbing the city’s walls, it was already late evening.
There was no one to meet them this time — but they were not particularly worried, as they had quite a force behind them.
They spent their first night in an abandoned building after clearing it of monsters and leaving Nightmare to watch over their sleep.
They were too exhausted to press on to the Castle, after all, and the girls had already begun to suspect there was no Gate there — knowing Cassie’s vision and having moved around the Spire, feeling the presence it exuded.
A suspicion confirmed once his shadows went to ‘scout’.
But they were not worried, somehow.
And why would they be?
Hadn’t they slain countless abominations on the way — almost half of them of the Fallen Rank — and successfully eliminated a Fallen Tyrant and a few dozen of his minions?
They also had two members with Divine Rank Aspects, one of them an Awakened with two Ascended Shadows — one of which was a Terror.
So was there really any reason to worry?
Well, Sunny knew better than most that there was.
Not only because he knew the power structure of this City and how hard it had been to conquer the Spire the first time around — his evolved attribute was screaming at him too.
There was only death waiting for them in the place where their only way home stood.
Something was about to go very, very wrong…
But he dismissed those thoughts for now.
There would be time to worry about these things later.
Now, though…
A mischievous smile spread across his face.
He had some work to do.
***
“Sunny, did you go out somewhere last night?” Cassie asked innocently as they sat eating breakfast at the old table in the abandoned house they had taken refuge in.
“Yeah. Couldn’t sleep, so I decided to go for a walk and scout a bit.” He answered without batting an eye at the suspicious glance Nephis was directing at him and his shadows.
“There’s some disturbing news, by the way.”
He took a drink from the [Endless Spring] and continued, his tone carrying a gravity completely at odds with his inner state.
“Well, where to start… First, as we expected, there is no gateway inside the City…” As he heard disappointed sighs, he pressed on.
“It’s located at the top of the Crimson Spire, and that is protected by a Fallen Terror.” the silence overtook the room once again.
Not of the apprehension…
of disappointment.
It seemed their group had become quite spoiled this time around.
“Just a Fallen Terror?” Nephis murmured, seemingly unimpressed by the apparent weakness of the City’s defenders.
“I know, right? I said the exact same thing — but she looked at me like I was crazy. Which I am, but that was uncalled for.”
Cassie furrowed her brow for a moment and opened her mouth, but Nephis was already asking what was on her mind.
“Her? Did you meet another Sleeper here?”
Sunny jumped excitedly, as if he had just remembered something important.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? Right, I made a friend last night. She’s pretty cool — I’ll introduce you later.”
Cassie stared at him dubiously with her unseeing eyes and a slightly tilted head.
“You… went out for a walk… in the middle of the night. Met another person in the middle of a monster-infested city. A woman. And… befriended her?” she asked incredulously.
“That’s the gist of it, yeah,” he answered, taking another bite of meat, before his expression grew slightly more serious.
“Well, the Terror might not be our biggest problem, though. There’s also a one bastard in a Transcended golden armor — Gunlaug — who fancies himself the King of this place and essentially gatekeeps everyone else from reaching the Spire. Oh, and he demands tribute from those who want to live inside the Castle — one shard per week.” Cassie mumbled something incoherent in shock and indignation, while Nephis’s face twisted in disgust, eyes gaining a dangerous glint.
“I told you to keep a few, didn’t I?” he asked smugly.
“Those will last you a week or two while I scout the area. Then we regroup and decide what to do next.”
Sunny put the last piece of meat in his mouth and stood up, dusting off his hands and then stretching his back.
Nephis’s eyes followed him, eyebrows slightly raised.
“Wait. You’re not joining us?” she asked incredulously.
“Not the place for me. I’m an outskirts rat, remember? Besides, I already have a place in mind to stay. And I have a few other uses for those shards…”
Nephis wasn’t satisfied with his decision — he could see that — but she couldn’t force him, and someone had to look out for Cassie in the Castle.
So she had no other choice.
As they filed out of the house, he spoke up again, catching Cassie’s uncertain expression.
“Don’t worry, Cas. You two can relax there a bit. Take a hot shower, sleep on a real bed,” he chuckled.
“Test the grounds. You’ll manage.”
Cassie opened her mouth to protest, but he flicked her nose immediately, cutting off her objections.
She mumbled something unkind, but he ignored it completely.
They mounted Nightmare one by one and made their way to the Castle.
There was the occasional creature stupid enough to challenge them, but the road was overall smooth, all things considered.
As they moved he carefuly explained what he believed would be sufficient for them to know going in.
And so they finally arrived at the outer settlement.
They attracted a few curious looks, of course — a trio of newcomers riding a huge horned horse, covered in the blood of dead abominations.
What was unexpected, however, was how little attention they were actually drawing.
So their group had been a bit surprised by that.
Well, everyone but him from his of course…
The reason was a large commotion in the settlement — people running about, whispering, some even laughing.
He could even see a sleepy Effie walking out to see what was going on.
He gave her a wave just to watch her eyes nearly roll out of their sockets at the sight of them.
He chuckled as they dismounted from Nightmare’s back.
Riding a horse bareback wasn’t the most comfortable experience, to say the least.
He would have to order a saddle in the artisan’s district as soon as possible.
“Damn, did you hear the news?” someone whispered excitedly beside them.
“Who hasn’t? Even the Crimson Terror has probably heard it already.”
“What news? I just woke up — can anyone tell me what the hell is going on?” a familiar voice called out as the Sleeper pushed her way through the crowd.
“Something absolutely insane happened! Someone robbed that bastard Gunlaug clean — hahaha!” The Sleeper in rags laughed, clutching his stomach.
“Shards, armory, even his personal wine collection! All of it gone in a single night! The guards are searching every corner of this damn City.” He laughed a little more.
“And you know what the funniest part is? They don’t even know what the thief looks like! The man was robbed right in front of his own eyes, and was none the wiser — hahah!”
He could feel two burning gazes boring into his back as he walked nonchalantly through the crowd.
Then came two synchronous sighs.
And then a quiet, resigned: “Sunny…”
He couldn’t help himself after that.
Sunny finally giggled.
Hi, lads and ladies.
How have you all been?
Another long chapter, not as long as previous one though, whether that is good or bad I’m not sure, tbh.
And its close to 2 am here again.
In a working day…
Fixing my bad habits, huh…
Probably in another life.
Sometimes I think I am as crazy as Sunny.
This chapter should have been a really short one connecting the events of their journey to the Dark City and everything that is going to happen inside its walls (or outside of it too, who knows), but it somehow turned out it this way.
I’m not particularly happy about this chap, but what’s done is done.
I will probably post the next one on Friday, but no promises for now.
So, what do you think about it so far?
Your comments are the biggest motivation to write the next one sooner.
See you all, soon!
Bye!