As the merciless, burning rays of the Nameless Sun traveled through the endless and desolate expanse of the crimson coral, seaweed, and the unimaginable horrors those lands contained, the lonely sullen walls of the Dark City still continued to stand.
Its streets and alleys, buildings and squares, and the few human settlements along with the Bright Castle itself were still intact too.
The difference from the usual picture it had for the last decades was easily decipherable though.
The City was quiet.
Or much quieter to be exact.
Neither the endless abominations nor those few humans still occupying those walls were lurking through its streets — not as many at least, and not for long periods of time, that’s for sure.
The City couldn’t be called absolutely serene, though, as the sounds of the steel meeting steel could be heard coming from the spacious and mostly empty nave of the Ruined Cathedral.
A young blond woman ducked to the side and parried the piercing strike with her graceful rapier.
Her opponent’s blade twisted over her weapon and pushed its tip towards the ground; a quick movement to her left; and a strike with the flat side of their sword under her calf.
The girl squeaked and lost her balance as she tripped slightly and almost fell face forward.
“You put too much weight on the upper side when you lunge,” a young man’s voice rang suddenly from her back, as she struggled to regain her balance; the girl’s breathing heavy.
“It could have been proven somewhat useful in a ring — though I’m not sure of that either — while all other competitors used the same type of weapon and played under the standard set of rules. Here though, you just give your enemy an opportunity to slip into your guard and unbalance your whole stance.”
The voice explained methodically as it circled around her.
Cassie wiped off the sweat from her forehead and turned around cautiously, towards where she believed the young man stood.
“It’s always hard to re-learn something, and you’re making fairly good progress considering your Flaw. Still… At least try to keep my advice in mind, dammit! I’m not talking just because I love to hear my own voice, for your information!” the man chuckled after that as the floor squeaked under his feet, indicating that he was getting ready for another lunge.
“Stance a bit lower and slightly to the front — yeah something like that,” the voice commented as the girl followed his instruction and then went quiet for a moment.
Her heart started to ring in her ears.
“Try to predict the flow of my strikes. Sometimes it’s better to take a step back, especially when you have neither the experience nor strength to redirect it correctly.”
All she managed to do after that was a quick and short breath and then all hell broke loose, as a barrage of strikes exploded from all around her.
Cassie gritted her teeth as she ducked slightly to the side, the sentient rapier in her hand and her sharpened senses giving her a general location of the things in her vicinity.
Though, it wasn’t nearly enough to predict the devil that circling around her and picking her apart without any effort whatsoever.
“Take it easy a bit, I am a poor blind girl, you madman!” she managed to shout, before he cackled from the side and attacked her again, completely ignoring her plea.
The slight movement of the air and a quiet whistle of her teacher’s blade were all the indications of the impending attack she received as she took the rapier in both of her hands — definitely not the way you would see it being used — and lowered herself as she lifted her hands upward quickly as the strike connected with her weapon ringing painfully through her bones.
This time she decided to follow his advice and let all the strength leave her hands as she swiftly lunged back.
The girl could feel his weapon follow downwards — it was her chance!
She made a quick round motion of her sword and then shot forward once again with a piercing strike to where she believed her opponent’s face was.
The tip of her weapon didn’t find him there though, she realized, as a humorous chuckle sounded just a meter to her right, almost breathing into her ear.
‘How did he get there so quickly?
Did he shadow-step?!’
“That was a good one. Congratulations, you’re not completely hopeless!” the girl’s face twisted as she moved to face him.
“The strike was subpar though — no weight behind it and your elbow should be turned upward and not otherwise!”
Her next attack was met head-on, and the very next moment he tried to pull the exact same trick he did earlier.
As he started to twist his blade, she already read his move correctly and redirected her rapier downwards and moved back, slipping away from his trap.
The young woman quickly changed her stance, identifying his next location by the quiet rustling of his armor and shot towards him with a subsequent set of strikes.
Her teacher silently parried all of them, even ignoring a few mistakes she made that he could have severely punished her for.
Cassie’s legs wobbled a bit towards the end of it as the young man took a few loud steps back, letting her catch her breath for a few seconds.
“That was better. Much better, in fact,” he said simply as the girl was quickly running all of her mistakes through her mind dejectedly.
“You have good instincts and your basics aren’t bad either. Though I would still advise you to practice with other types of weapons — it gives you a good understanding of how to counter them at least. And who knows, you might like something other than [Quiet Dancer] too…”
At that Cassie felt her weapon jump in her hand in irritation, apparently asking to slip away and teach the sharp-mouthed devil a lesson.
She would have liked that too.
However, she knew that no matter how much she liked her faithful companion, it would never be enough to put a single scratch on the monster in front of her…
“You are thinking something rude, aren’t you?” the voice chuckled as she heard him change position.
Her heart skipped a beat.
“And here I thought that I should take it easy on you today… But it looks like you still are full of fire! Good, we need to consolidate today’s lesson anyway!”
She let out a helpless moan just a moment before the next strike connected with her blade sending her stumbling back.
“Oy, Sunny! Quit bullying that cute blind angel!” an outraged female voice rang from the entrance of the Cathedral, that was followed by two pairs of loud steps a few seconds later.
The ruthless shadow that was tormenting her stopped in his tracks and made a humorous ‘tsk’ sound, and then chuckled.
A few more steps echoed from the entrance, coming inside, and she could tell that he had finally decided to dismiss his weapon.
The very next second Cassie exhaled loudly and collapsed on her knees, summoning the [Endless Spring] and taking a greedy swig from it.
Her torture was finally over!
“Oh, hello there guys!” he shouted excitedly from her side.
She could imagine a smile spreading on his face.
“Don’t let the looks fool you, though — this little puddle of cuteness is the real menace here! Do you know what she tried to do with that death stick of hers? And they call me the Devil, the nerve!” she heard him say with fake exasperation and amusement in his tone.
“Whatever she tried to do, all of us know you probably deserve it…” she heard a male melodious voice that could belong to no one other than Kai say quietly from the side of quickly approaching Effie.
“You traitor…” Sunny sighed to her side, as Cassie let out a small chuckle and let out another soft breath.
“Anyways, you guys decided to sleep in today or what? It’s almost noon already!”
After a moment of silence, a quiet humorous sound was heard from behind the first two approaching figures.
“Not all of us are crazy enough to live inside the most dangerous part of the city… So it actually takes some time to get here from the settlement.”
Sunny mumbled something rude, that she decided not to register for her own good, and then answered, too much excitement in his voice — the madman was overplaying it by a fair bit.
“Well, you actually miss a lot, Neph! Not only is there an almost infinite amount of food and soul shards running around, but some Creatures are actually fun to be friends with too! Effie and Kai knew my previous neighbor, for example…”
The aforementioned duo giggled almost simultaneously as they finally reached them.
The last two pairs of steps that were coming towards them probably belonged to Caster and Sid — an assumption that was proven correct as they gave their short greetings and split apart, taking their usual spots in their groups.
Cassie jumped a bit as a huge hand — belonging to no other than the perverted huntress — started patting her gently over the head and the other, smaller and much softer one, gave her a supportive shoulder squeeze.
She exhaled shortly and gave them a bright smile.
Those two knew exactly what she had been going through just a minute ago, after all…
Only in her case it was much worse as she had to also push all of her senses into predicting the attacks of the mad devil — that was bantering with Nephis right now — as she was actually blind, no matter what Sunny claimed sometimes.
The only indulgence he could spare for her though was the fact that he always sparred with her with his eyes closed and — as he assured them several times — never using his shadow sense or sight on her.
Something that didn’t help her that much apparently…
As they slowly started to move towards their destination deeper inside the cathedral, her thoughts ran towards the situation they had found themselves in.
In the three months that followed their arrival in the Dark City, a lot had changed.
The first and the most perceivable difference was their group dynamics, or, to be exact, the power struggle of two forces within it.
After she and Nephis had returned from their week of imprisonment — as they used to call it — inside the walls of the Bright Castle, the change was already evident.
Sunny, in that short time, managed to form a new cohort of his own — something that left a bitter taste in both hers and Neph’s mouths.
But that was okay.
It was his right to decide who to socialize and go to battle with — they had brought Caster with them too, after all — and Kai and Effie were actually nice and cool people to be around to be fair.
And yet…
Well, she actually could tell from the very first few days that the dynamic of those three was apparently different from their own — they were much closer, more open with each other, and much more sociable too, despite the fact that Nephis, Sunny, and herself knew each other much longer and spent more than two months moving from one life-or-death situation to another.
It was kind of sad.
And both Neph and herself were quite jealous of that too, though the Immortal Flame heiress would never admit it aloud.
That didn’t mean that Sunny stopped talking to them or anything like that — quite the opposite in fact — but there was an apparent difference in the way he behaved within each of their groups.
If she were completely honest with herself, she already knew that he had some reservations about both herself and Nephis from the very beginning.
Even in the Academy, despite his support and help, he didn’t try to get too close to her — never crossing any boundary that would be considered inappropriate or even truly friendly in the way he did around the other two.
And in their travels it became even more apparent, as he became even less talkative than before.
She could tell that he cared about both of them deeply — it was an obvious observation all things considered, but still, both she and the awkward legacy girl always wanted something… more.
To her own shame, at first Cassie actually believed that he wanted to take advantage of her after he approached her first — something she figured out was a completely wrong conclusion as the guy was either not interested in romance altogether — a fact that was proven somewhat correct, considering the fact that he had managed to rebuff Effie’s constant… advances for several months without ever giving in — or just was head over heels for that government woman of his…
Effie even called him impotent at some point, but it broke her confidence greatly after Cassie shared some of the things she heard from rumors about his… adventures in their Academy days.
And also of that vision she had about that Memory of his… That guy was an insane pervert!
Maybe her first impression wasn’t that wrong?
It actually hurt her feelings quite a bit too!
Wasn’t she pretty, cute, and actually nice to be around?
She was also blind too, so shouldn’t that also push people around her to want to take care of her?
It did for him in a way, just not the way she believed it would… What was she even thinking about?!
She shook her head vehemently, bringing the attention of Effie to her as she gave her a supportive squeeze on the shoulder.
That woman could also understand her quite well…
But she digressed.
Yeah, it was quite a blow to her already damaged self-esteem.
Something that worsened even more in their months of travel.
And could you blame her?
Especially considering how much of a burden she was all the way to the City?
Consciously she knew that she helped a lot in her own way, but compared to what Nephis and Sunny brought to the table, it always felt lackluster and not nearly enough from her perspective.
Her main problem with herself was her apparently malfunctioning ability, as those prophecies she received were useless most of the time and those were few and far between to begin with.
So basically it was only good for her sharpened intuition.
But that was very… dull for a Sacred Ranked Aspect, to be fair.
Though, there were times when Cassie could feel the apparent wrongness of her being.
That something was missing.
Something was blocking her.
That she should be something more.
Well, she even had a guess or two about that one…
Things started to change somewhere in the middle of their journey, after Sunny opened up to them.
Seeing — metaphorically of course — how much weight he was holding in his chest; of how much he was pushing himself towards that unknown goal of his; her self-pity really looked even more pathetic than it actually was.
The brief story of the life Nephis led before meeting them she shared with her behind the walls of their room inside the Castle, only strengthened that belief.
So she was forced to put herself back together.
It was a slow but steady process, and she was quite proud of herself all things considered.
It was one of the countless things she was very grateful to both of them for.
And so she decided to improve, to become a better version of herself.
At some point she even asked Sunny and Neph to give her lessons in swordsmanship.
Not only did it improve her fighting skills, but it also helped her quite a bit in improving her space navigation ability.
Now she could even detect and dodge Sunny’s attacks — a person who was generally much harder to read — and she was quite satisfied with that too.
Nowadays she could even put up a fight against some of the weaker Awakened Nightmare Creatures — something that not all sighted Sleepers could do, apparently.
So she had all the right to be proud!
She shook her head slowly with a smile, as her thoughts ran back to the situation they had found themselves in.
After she and Nephis returned from the Castle, the power structure of their reformed cohort started to change slowly, as Nephis started to take more of the administrative roles upon herself and slowly reestablish her position towards the leadership of the group, which Sunny silently supported, to everyone’s surprise.
Though not completely it seemed…
Whatever plans Changing Star had before, she had to correct quite a bit as the Sleepers of the outer settlement of the City were already familiar with the crazy shadow and believed him to be either the leader or generally the strongest person in their cohort — which was all true before the restructuring.
And so, after more than a month of careful promotional campaigns Nephis ran — either giving away free food or general resources, being the pillar of support to the hopeless people of the outer settlement, among some other things — she had managed to change the view others had towards him, with somewhat of the desired effect.
Though there were complications on that front too, as Sunny never stopped doing whatever he was doing before: running around the city at night, either alone or with a small group of hunters; killing lots of abominations in the process; buying out junk memories and giving away food with it too — though it wasn’t such a big problem these days; doing… something within the Castle walls; and he even led a small and particularly short campaign of reclamation of some of the regions of the City, which led to the Sleepers getting much better living conditions compared to what could only be called ghettos in some parts of the outer settlement.
At some point he even started selling or exchanging some helpful memories too.
So now they found themselves in a kind of equilibrium.
From the outside perspective, there was generally one force that was led by the Lady Changing Star of the Immortal Flame Clan, but in all fairness everyone knew that the group itself was split in two. This story is hosted at novelping dot com.
Over the first part ruled Nephis herself, with Caster as her right hand and most of the human settlement behind her back.
On the other side was Sunny’s own force — much smaller in quantity, but of a much higher quality overall — which contained Night of the Night&Gale — she could barely believe it even now!
— huntress Athena and Sid, an experienced huntress from the outer settlement, as the main attacking force, and about two dozen other experienced Sleepers too.
And she was pretty sure that he had something to do with the things that were happening behind Castle walls too.
And while all of them were moving towards the same goal — to conquer the Citadel and to return as many human lives as possible to the Waking World — there were more and more clashes of opinion between the leaders day by day.
And Cassie — belonging to both and at the same time to neither group — was stuck between two fires!
The whole situation sucked…
She just couldn’t choose who to support!
Both of them were her best friends, with Sunny being not only the first person to be kind to her in her grievous circumstances but saving her life countless times in the first two weeks before they met Nephis and after that point too, and Changing Star being a kind, lost, and awkward puppy that she couldn’t just leave alone either.
Not only that but she just couldn’t pick which agenda to follow as well.
And while she knew the general idea of what Neph was planning to do — collect all of the Shard Memories; kill Gunlaug; take control of all of the human forces; and push towards the Spire — she could only try and guess what the crazy shadow was scheming.
Even her visions were not much help there either.
And she even could guess why…
She shifted her head slightly towards the back of the widely known Devil of the Shore — a nickname Sunny had earned at some point — and activated her Dormant Ability.
It was actually much harder for her to get a read on him compared to all other people she met.
Some of the things were simply out of reach for her completely, but still she could perceive a thing or two if she knew where to look.
She concentrated on his attributes, fighting the growing headache and quickly running her thoughts through them.
The one that interested her to begin with was an attribute that seemed unremarkable at first sight, located at the very beginning of the list.
The one called [Defiant].
The first time she managed to figure it out was quite surprising to her, but she paid it not that attention as the description was very vague overall.
But after a while, she was forced to come to one simple, yet disturbing conclusion that changed the picture altogether.
From what she could gather, in his First Nightmare, Sunny managed to do something completely impossible… Something that seemingly disconnected him from the influence of Fate.
And as she was almost always in his presence, it was affecting her perception of future events quite a bit too.
Among some other things…
She massaged her brows painfully.
Her strongly developed intuition was also whispering to her: ‘you just barely scratched the surface’; but even thinking about it for too long was making her very uncomfortable, besides the fact that the headache was becoming unbearable whenever she tried to think about it more profoundly, so she was forced to let go, like every other time before.
One single thought remained, though, before she was forced to let go of it too: ‘what could he have possibly done to achieve such a feat?’
She shook her head as they finally reached their destination — a massive round stone slab in the eastern part of the Cathedral where the altar should have been — that served them as a table for their meetings when they wanted to be away from prying eyes and ears.
It was too tall for any of them to sit comfortably at and yet too short to stand at too, so all of them either had to bend towards it or just stand awkwardly behind.
All of them beside her and Sunny, of course — their modest height comes into use sometimes too!
And so all of them took their usual spots: Sunny and Nephis opposite each other, Caster to Changing Star’s right, the spot to her left usually left empty; while Kai and Effie were to Sunny’s right and left respectively, with Cassie and Sid standing opposite each other in the middle of both parties.
If there was some hidden meaning behind their current accommodations, she was too tired to pay much attention to it, like usual.
Cassie threw one last short look over the table, before Nephis cleared her throat, deciding to be the one to break the silence this time.
“All of us know perfectly well why we gathered here today. The problem we kept avoiding all this time became too evident now and there is no point in pretending that it doesn’t exist…”
From the side of the table opposite to Changing Star’s, Cassie detected a slight movement thanks to [Quiet Dancer] and her heightened senses — Sunny was taking the initiative over the next part of the speech.
“From what I managed to figure out, and from the records my sources in the Castle provided us, in all of the recorded history and known folklore — if we can even call it that — there was no similar instance to what we have on our hands here. So we’re in quite a predicament, it seems…” he lingered there for a moment, letting his words sink in and then continued, with what she believed was a reluctant nod.
“The Sun had never behaved like that. Not only has it grown much hotter in the last few months, with a severe effect of weakening any being stupid enough to be under its direct view, but the day itself became longer. If we were naive enough or didn’t have any information from more than a decade ago, we might have believed that it had something to do with a seasonal change of the Forgotten Shore, and yet everything we know directly contradicts that notion, unless we want to be ignorant and think that such a thing happens once in more than half a century and as suddenly as what we got.”
There was no need to say that in their ranks there were people naive enough to believe that.
A heavy silence stretched over the air around them for a few seconds, before she once again heard a motion from Nephis’s side and then a steady voice addressing Cassie herself.
“Were there any visions about what is happening on the Spire? Any at all?” her voice cracked slightly on her last question, imperceptible to most.
But not to Cassie, of course.
She shook her head slowly and took a deep breath before answering.
“Nothing that we hadn’t already known — only some visions of the past, I believe. The roads the Starlight Legion had to take before creating the Artificial Sun. Some events after that… Definitely nothing that could give us a lead towards what is going on.”
Her visions of the Sun… were not of the kind she wanted to remember and retell, to be honest.
When she said that she didn’t see anything useful there she was completely honest — there wasn’t.
However, there were visions… of a very, very gruesome kind.
She swallowed the bile that rose in her throat.
It was hard to even remember it, because the entire vision was just pure agony of the person holding the weight of the world on her shoulders.
So much pain.
So much suffering.
And never ever a single moment of respite.
Cassie could only imagine what that poor soul must have gone through…
That was the moment Sunny decided to take the lead once again, as he took a step back from the table.
“So we can’t proceed like that. Even if we succeed in all of the preparations and make it to the Hollow Mountains and back comparatively fast — something that already seems impossible considering the continuous soul attack from the Sun — we would be going to the Spire absolutely blind…”
Cassie felt a slow short movement from all around her — everyone agreed with that.
However…
“It’s all good and all, but what are you suggesting? I see no other way to go about it, as sitting and waiting for a miracle would do nothing good either.” Caster’s voice had finally sounded from Nephis’s side.
A corner of Cassie’s lips tugged slightly in amusement.
Han Li’s heir held a very peculiar position inside their group, after all.
On one side — he was an outwardly nice person to be around and a very fierce fighter with a strong Aspect, who was seemingly held in high regard by Changing Star herself.
On the other side… The poor guy had quite a few problems too.
First and foremost — the rumors that somehow started to circulate about him the moment he joined their cohort… A coincidence, of course — Cassie thought, forcing herself not to smile.
Then there was the source of the whole situation itself.
It was an open secret in their cohort that only Sid and Caster himself probably hadn’t figured out yet — that the crazy thieving shadow was the one at fault for the demolished reputation of the esteemed Legacy…
Somehow Sunny managed to keep almost all of his abilities a secret from the general populace of Sleepers and anyone outside the select few he trusted, even though he was on the frontlines every single day.
And thus Caster had no idea that the person responsible for his troubles was no other than the gremlin standing in front of him.
It was a really funny situation altogether, Cassie mused.
But the two-faced bastard deserved it, she believed, considering that he was also a person that was most likely sent to kill one of her best friends, so there was that too…
For some reason, Caster had also decided to play the role of a jealous admirer towards Nephis, trying to scare off all the guys around her too… And that is how he got himself two new nicknames among the masses — ‘The Friendzoned Simp’ and ‘The One Who Comes Too Fast’.
From the mere wording she could put her finger on only two idiots who could come up with something like that.
The exact idiots who stood side by side to her left.
She barely managed to hold back a chuckle.
And that was the reason his friendly persona cracked in the end and even his perfect play started to fail from time to time too.
After a few seconds of silence, Sunny had finally taken a step forward and put his elbows on the table, interlacing the fingers of both of his hands and took a short breath, mentally preparing for the backlash that his next words would bring.
“What I offer is a simple solution — a short scouting mission,” he let his words sink in.
Cassie could feel everyone’s eyes here growing by the second — her own included.
“Thus, I’m going to the Spire tomorrow morning,” he said with finality and the very next moment was forced to flinch as the synchronous shout rang from all over the table.
“Like Spell you would!” only Caster and Sid were left completely speechless as every other person inside the nave screamed.
“What the hell, Sunny?! I thought you were past your suicidal tendencies,” Nephis said loudly, her voice gaining a dangerous tone.
“What are your suggestions then?” he immediately went into attack like usual in their clashes.
“To grow our strength and push through like every other time? In real life things don’t always work that simply, Neph!” he shouted, before composing himself the very next second and exhaling.
“I have a very bad feeling about that place… My gut is telling me that only death awaits us there, so I have no more desire to do that than any of you,” he muttered as he tilted his head downwards, staring at the stone table’s surface.
“And you know better than anyone that if everything was according to our info, then I could probably push through to the Gateway alone,” he finished with certainity in his tone.
“Sunny, I know you’re strong and all, but don’t you think that you’re too full of y—” Caster began, his voice soft, holding a patronizing edge in it, but stopped suddenly as he registered all of their gazes.
“What? Why are you all looking at me like that?” After throwing one last dumbfounded look towards the ignorant Legacy, all of their attention shifted back to the madman in question.
“Anyways, though I want to agree with the pervert here,” Sid, who was silent all this time, finally voiced her opinion as she threw a short look of contempt towards the Han Li heir, adding to his irritation.
“I see no other solution too. I agree with the Devil — right now we’re just going in circles and blind at that — no pun intended, Cassie.”
She felt a quick motion to her side that was followed by the exclamation.
“Thank you, finally a voice of reason!” Sunny shouted to the irritated looks from all the others present here.
“Even Cassie herself told me the other day that there is something deeply wrong with the Spire, and as her prophetic ability doesn’t work on the place, I see no other choice.”
Now every single gaze was directed at her — she knew.
She took a step back awkwardly and coughed into her fist — a damn habit she had to get rid of unless she wanted to stay a Coughing Girl forever.
“Why are you all looking at me like that?!” she shouted and made a gesture towards where the Devil was standing with a grin on his face.
“I had no idea what madness he was planning! You can never be sure what’s happening in that head — even Fate itself is afraid to touch him with a stick, honestly!” she finished with an exasperated huff.
Cassie could feel his gaze lingering on her figure just a bit too long before he chuckled and proceeded with his explanation.
“You have to admit that I am the only person here who could pull this off. First — my Aspect is perfect for scouting,” he listed slowly, counting on his fingers.
“Second, I have an Ascended Armor of the Sixth Tier that provides a very high level of defense against mind and soul attacks,” he said as he bent his second finger and tapped the breastplate with his other hand’s knuckles.
“Then there is Nightmare,” he nodded towards the stallion that appeared from his shadows the moment prior.
“And finally — I am the only one strong and crazy enough here to pull that shit off and come back alive. If there are any other ideas, I’ll be glad to listen.”
The silence returned to the room as everyone present dived into their own thoughts.
Cassie herself didn’t like that plan of his one bit and yet… She knew he was right.
Even though her prophetic ability was silent about that place, her sharp intuition was telling her the same thing Sunny’s did.
Something had gone terribly wrong on the isle where the Crimson Spire was located.
And unless they knew for sure what they were dealing with, they couldn’t know what they should prepare for and how to proceed.
She swore mentally, as she let out a sigh.
“I… agree with Sunny,” she finally said reluctantly.
“Even though I hate it with every fiber of my being, I have a feeling that if we don’t know what is happening on the Spire, then we’ll be as good as dead very soon. And if you don’t believe Sunny’s intuition, you’ll have to believe mine.”
A slow motion to her left indicated to her the grateful nod Sunny made, and then suddenly a low, barely audible hiss reached her ears from the direction opposite him.
“The last time you pulled a similar stunt, you fried your brain and were out of commission for almost a month! What makes you believe that this time would be different?” Nephis said with a low voice as she straightened her back and stared at him challengingly.
There was barely a second of silence after her question before he answered simply.
“Nothing. There is no guarantee. There is never a guarantee in anything we do, and you know it,” he said, his voice flat, before a note of heat crept into his tone.
“Also… need I remind you that that stunt was also the very reason why we’re standing here and beating around the bush, arguing over the thing that we would have to do sooner or later anyway?!” he shouted and then cursed silently as he shook his head in irritation and muttered something — she couldn’t quite make sense of — letting out a short irritated breath.
Nephis gritted her teeth as she stared at him intently for a few seconds, squeezing her hands tightly — as the skin of her gloves screeched in protest — before breaking their eye contact and exhaling tiredly.
Effie mumbled something from the other side with a curse and Kai nodded silently too.
It seemed they had reached an agreement of sorts.
“Damn it, Sunny…” Changing Star muttered once again and then composed herself, throwing a short look over everyone present.
“Okay, we proceed with that crazy plan of his,” she said before continuing, her voice absolutely flat.
“There is a condition, though. One there will be no negotiations about.”
Some strange feeling tingled inside Cassie’s chest that she couldn’t quite make sense of.
Sunny inclined his head slightly to the side and a small frown was present on his face at the moment — she believed — before he nodded for her to continue.
Nephis, on the other side, circled their makeshift table and moved towards him, standing just a few meters in front of him, staring him down.
“If you were to die,” she started slowly, her voice not betraying a single emotion that — Cassie was sure — was brewing inside her.
“I’m calling dibs on your room up there,” she said simply and pointed at the rooftop, where his famous apartments were located, making every single person look at her dumbfoundedly, but she continued without missing a beat.
“I quite liked it. It’s very cozy and would remind me of you for a while,” she said simply, nodded to herself and left the Cathedral without elaborating any further.
Six shocked expressions followed her silently before all of them threw a short glance at him, Caster’s heated glare being the most eye-catching.
The Legacy ground his teeth with an enraged sound before huffing and following Nephis in her wake, leaving everyone behind.
‘Maybe… maybe he really has a crush on her?!’ Cassie wasn’t sure anymore, if she were completely honest.
She shook her head before returning to an even more shocking revelation.
Did her friend just?…
“Was that a joke though?” Kai muttered quietly, not very talkative today for some reason as he threw a short glance at the devil looking as dumbfounded as any of them.
“That was a joke! Definitely a joke…” Effie laughed nervously before looking at Sunny too.
“Right, Doofus? She was joking, right?” she asked almost hopefully and then turned her head at Cassie to which she smiled supportively, though she wasn’t sure who she was supporting and for what…
“Am I right? Sunny?! Guys?!”
***
And so the next day came, and as planned, Sunny left the city on Nightmare’s back the very next moment the Sea receded.
Considering how fast Nightmare was, especially when he was moving through the shadows, and also the relative proximity of the Spire, it should have taken him no less than a few hours to go there, scout around the isle in his shadow form, and then return — and yet… It was already past noon and there was no news yet.
Every one of them was on edge — even Caster, though for a different reason probably.
Effie was chewing on her twentieth portion of snacks as she was lying on top of the old bench she brought from some other part of the Cathedral; Kai was pacing around the perimeter; Sid was back in the settlement, doing whatever task Sunny gave her before leaving; Nephis was meditating on top of the stone slab table; and Cassie herself was nervously trying to concentrate her ability on the defiant shadow that was nowhere to be seen.
He was probably fine, she mused.
There was literally no way that this crazy guy would be killed by a mere Fallen Terror.
Cassie chuckled silently.
It was really ridiculous.
No normal Master, never mind Awakened, would usually have any chance of killing a Fallen Terror by themselves.
And yet she — a puny Sleeper — was thinking about it as ‘mere’.
Sunny had definitely spoiled them too much.
Almost all of their fights seemed too easy and too predictable thanks to his planning.
And they also grew much faster than they could have ever imagined.
Even Cassie’s Core was nearing full saturation, with Nephis recently unlocking her third one, Sunny pushing his fourth, and all other members of their cohort saturating their owns long ago.
That was insane, now that she thought about it.
But they were not only stronger than usual Sleepers — they were more experienced and much more skilled too.
Either absorbing the silent lessons of their carefully calculated battles — either from the thoughts behind the plans or from fights themselves — or learning new fighting styles and techniques from their two most renowned fighters in the group.
So Cassie could say with all confidence that they were probably the strongest generation of Sleepers Nightmare Spell had ever seen.
If only they could become Awakened too, then everything would be much easier…
It seemed impossible though, unless they finally reached the Gateway and returned to the Waking World.
Of all the people Sunny gave lessons in Natural Awakening to — namely Kai, Effie, Nephis, and herself — only Changing Star managed to make any progress at all, as expected.
However, her newfound ability to slightly manipulate essence inside her body and soul wasn’t nearly enough to awaken for now.
The process of Core’s reformation for a Sleeper not only had to be long and careful, but also required precise control of their essence too — something Sunny had help with thanks to his Serpent and… she had no idea what else.
For now, though, Changing Star managed only to move the essence slowly through her body and strengthen herself a little when the situation required it.
Cassie herself, on the other hand, hadn’t managed even that.
She could barely even get a feeling of it for now, so she had a long way to go still, just like Kai and Effie did.
So their most probable way to Awakening was the usual one, after all, with Nephis being the only one who had a chance before that.
And just as the last thought finished forming in her head, her heart skipped a beat and tightened in her chest.
She let out a short breath as her eyes widened comically.
Something wasn’t right!
Her hand shot towards her chest as she dug her nails into it.
She started to hyperventilate, attracting the attention of others as they shot towards her.
It hurt so much, somewhere deep inside.
Not physically.
More like her soul was being torn apart.
The voices reached her ears, but Cassie wasn’t listening.
All of her attention was on that unnatural pain and that disturbing feeling.
She didn’t know how long it took her.
How long she was making a mess of herself before finally it hit her.
She exhaled and turned her head towards where she believed Kai was and shouted.
“It’s Sunny! Something is wrong with him!” She screamed suddenly, probably scaring everyone around her witless.
She wobbled on her legs as her head started to spin, images she couldn’t possibly see started to flash in front of Cassie’s eyes.
A gross metallic smell reached her as a thin stream of something slippery escaped her nostril.
“I… I think he reached the City… South… East… move… fast…”
Those were the last words she managed to utter hoarsely before warm hands wrapped around her from behind as she started to collapse.
The voices continued to scream but she couldn’t even force herself to listen as her consciousness slipped away.
***
She woke with a start, as she jumped into a sitting position on her bed, completely forgetting about everything she just dreamt about.
That was something important she could tell — something that had to do with Sunny, she believed… But the thought completely escaped her head as she remembered the last thing that happened before she collapsed.
Before she could move, however, a pair of gentle palms wrapped around her hand and squeezed it supportively.
She turned her head suddenly to their source as Kai’s melodic voice reached her ears, putting her heart at ease.
“You’re okay, everything is okay, Cassie. He’s okay too. Take it easy,” Kai said gently, and she finally let out a sigh of relief as she squeezed his hand in response.
It was unbelievable how gentle and warm he was, even in this god-forsaken world.
“How are you feeling? You scared us senseless.”
“I am okay, thank you. Just a slight headache. It happens…” she mumbled to his incredulous looks and then asked her own question.
“Sunny… is he alright?” she managed to ask, as she was trying to control her breath and pounding heart.
“He’s alive… Not going to lie, he was in a pretty bad state when Lady Changing Star and I reached him: he was barely clinging to his consciousness; bound to Nightmare with a rope; bleeding all over the place… It was a nasty and disturbing sight, truly,” he said, the bile rising in her throat, before he continued, sensing her uneasiness.
“He is alright now, no need to panic! Lady Nephis healed him — not completely though, as some wounds refused to stay closed for some reason — and he even gained consciousness just a few minutes ago, so I decided to check on you just in case.”
She swallowed and took a minute to compose herself in silence under Kai’s supporting watch.
‘What… What could possibly wound Sunny so much that even Neph struggled to fix him?’ Cassie didn’t like it one bit and it seemed their fears once again were being proven right.
She cursed silently and took one final breath before she moved to stand up and looked at the idol with a frown, and said, her voice grateful and smooth and yet containing a dangerous strain.
“Please… Can you take me to him?”
And so they moved immediately, Kai being a wreck of nerves himself, as he led them.
The whole crazy situation was taking a toll on him too.
As it turned out, they had put her in one of the rooms priests used centuries ago, which they had cleaned and rearranged a bit in case they would need to relocate there at some point.
It turned out they needed it much sooner than expected…
The room they had put Sunny in was just a few dozen meters from hers, so their road was fairly short, silent, and filled with tension.
Cassie expected screams, shouts, cries of pain and anything in between.
However, she was proven wrong once again.
The first thing they heard as they silently entered the small room was the humorless voice of Nephis.
“When I said that I wanted your room, if you died, I didn’t mean that you needed to go and do exactly that, you… you Doofus!”
The two of them stopped in their tracks as they stared at them from behind — well Kai did, as she obviously couldn’t.
A small choking sound reached her from the right side, indicating that Effie heard that too.
Feeling their gazes, Nephis slowly turned around and threw them a short look, lingering on Cassie for a few long seconds, then gave them a nod, seemingly satisfied with her condition for now, and turned back to the Devil in question.
Sunny let out a painful chuckle before he waved at them from his makeshift bed.
“Hey, guys… The mission was tougher than expected, as you can see…” he managed to joke, before coughing and looking at Cassie.
“Cas, ehh… could you give me an [Endless Spring], please?”
And so, as he was drinking greedily, she could finally try and get a feeling of his form and… she didn’t like it one bit.
Physically he wasn’t that much worse for wear, except for a sizable piercing wound on his lower stomach that was radiating heat and a… very wrong and disgusting feeling from it even now.
He was very weak though.
The last time she remembered him in a similar position was the next day after the battle with the Tyrant and their flock as his wounds finally caught up with him — the most grievous his fried brain and shambled mind.
This time though… She believed his soul had been wounded very seriously.
The belief she knew was correct, considering the type of creature he was probably up against.
A few seconds later he finally tore the Memory from his lips and sighed, giving her his thanks as he passed it back.
“So, was it worth it? That operation of yours that you had to almost die for?” Caster finally said from the corner of the room as he took a step forward.
Sunny threw him a short look, but kept silent for a few seconds before he massaged his nosebridge and painfully rose into a sitting position.
“I…” he started slowly as he licked his lips.
“I think it was worth it, even though I know that none of you will like what I’m about to say next…” he swallowed and gritted his teeth as his hands started to shake.
“It’s bad. Terrible. Worse than we could have ever imagined,” Sunny whispered, his voice shaking with rage, fear, uncertainty, or all three combined — she wasn’t sure.
“Sunny…” she found her own voice slipping away from her lips, before she knew it.
“What did you see there?”
He looked at her and chuckled humorously at that.
“I saw our plans breaking apart and the future fading away, I guess…” he managed to mutter, before shaking his head.
“You see, our information was very outdated about what was happening at the Spire, as we predicted.”
He let out a shaky breath as he ran his palm through his hair and pulled it down.
“Dammit…” he cursed shortly, before he turned to look at them once again.
“There wasn’t an army waiting for me there — only a field covered with bodies, with just a few abominations strong enough to survive the influence of the field of pure soul-destroying energy there. Her subjects, I assume,” he muttered the last phrase slowly to the owlish looks of others.
“You can feel its influence even from here, but around the Spire it’s just pure death — no Sleeper can dare to survive for more than a few minutes,” he said with finality and then chuckled again.
“But at the very foundation of the Spire it waited for me. The Sun. The Crimson Terror herself. Though it wasn’t a Fallen Terror anymore…”
As the realization started to grip their hearts, he forced a smile, lacking any humor behind it, his hands shaking even more.
“Oh yes, you all guessed it right — it had evolved into a Corrupted one!” he moaned painfully as he tried to move up, before Nephis rudely put him back down on the bed with a challenging glance.
He chuckled and shook his head.
“But that is not the worst part yet. We had a short skirmish with the Terror, and we had even managed to wound the crazy bitch before my soul started to deteriorate too fast and she put a solid piece of corrupting light right through my gut…” he muttered with a painful grimace on his face.
“The thing is… it continues to evolve. Saint had managed to pierce her with my strongest weapon, but was completely outmatched immediately after, and so couldn’t finish her off in the end.”
Effie muttered something as she looked up at him, as if he had grown a second head.
“It had managed to survive that?” she shouted incredulously, to which he chuckled and waved his hand negatively.
“We were fighting too close, thus there was no opportunity to activate anything too destructive, so as not to kill ourselves too… But we digress. With our stunt today, we managed to win a few more weeks of time before it heals completely and continues its evolution…”
Caster was looking at all of them suspiciously, completely missing what they were all talking about.
As he was about to open his mouth to ask the logical questions, Sunny was already talking once again, to his apparent irritation.
“If my guess is correct, then no more than a mere two months from now, we would have to face a Corrupted Titan. And then… any form of life on the Forgotten Shore would simply cease to exist…”
Hello, glad to see you all guys back here!
Another chapter that was supposed to be fairly short, somehow composed itself into a complete monstrosity, more than twice of the planned size.
Jeez…
And so the final POV of the planned streak here, and we finish it with Cassie’s.
There were not as much inner musing as I initially wanted and we were mostly concentrated on the events happening from her perspective, as I didn’t want to show Sunny’s thoughts on everything yet.
Though I may have fumbled here and there, throw a few rocks if you want xD And so, the final obstacle of the arc finally reveals itself.
Did u guys really believe, that the cohort would have to face a mere Fallen Terror with how strong they are?
You should have known better, I guess 🙂 The next chapter I’m planning to post somewhere closer to the middle of the week, but we’ll see.
A-a-a-and, that’s it!
Thank you for reading my nonsense and you’re welcome in the comments as usual.
See you soon.
Bye!