Sunny watched the sun appear over the eastern horizon, his hearts growing cold. His vertical pupils narrowed, and his fists clenched.
The night… was over? Had it been that long, already?
He had lost the track of time, considering he had been knocked unconscious by… something. He couldn't recall what had happened to him.
He slowly turned to Noctis, whose battered face had almost healed and was now calm and carefree again. The sorcerer was looking at the sky with a strangely neutral expression.
"Remind me… wasn't the plan to defeat Sevirax before dawn, so that killing him would be relatively easy for you?"
The immortal sighed.
"Well, it's good to have a plan. However, plans rarely go as you want them to go."
Sunny gritted his teeth.
"So… what now? How are you going to deal with the dragon?"
Noctis shrugged.
"He must be really, really angry right now. After all, we just killed his brother — the only person Sevras still cares about in this world. Congratulations, by the way! I really did not expect you…"
'He's dead?!'
Sunny interrupted him with a low growl.
"Get to the point! Now that the sun is rising, we're practically committing suicide!"
The sorcerer remained silent for a few moments, then scratched the back of his head.
"I, uh… will come up with something?"
Sunny stared at him in disbelief.
"…Deadass? Because I'm pretty sure you have the knife that could kill the dragon, while the dragon can't say the same. I should probably give it to you, right? That's why you wanted to be my friend so badly…"
Noctis looked at him for a while, then simply shook his head.
"No. No, that was not the reason, Sunless. In any case, giving me the knife won't do much good. I will still have to defeat Sevras, whether he becomes mortal or not. Either I subdue him and we can use the knife to finish the job, or he subdues me, and then there's no point. And... I really don't have any tricks left."
He smiled, and then added wistfully:
"Ah, except one."
Sunny exhaled with relief.
"Finally! What is it?"
The sorcerer turned to him with a smile.
"Why… it's you, Sunless! Of course. Did I not say that Fate brought us together for a reason?"
Sunny stared at him, his expression slowly turning dark.
"You did… but what the hell do you mean?"
Noctis looked away, at the beautiful silhouette of the flying city. After a few moments, he said:
"No matter how my battle with Sevras goes, it will end near the Ivory Tower. One of us will fall… maybe it will be him, and maybe it will be me. However, that doesn't matter."
He sighed, and then glanced at Sunny.
"As long as one of us dies, there will be only one chain left. It won't hold Hope for long. So, Sunless, my dear friend…"
Noctis lingered for a moment, and then smiled.
"Should I lose... I want you to kill me. That is my desire."
The sorcerer looked at him, the smile disappearing from his face. Then, he said softly:
"That is the fate I spoke about. You are my death, Sunless. Didn't you know?"
Then, Noctis suddenly cleared his throat and awkwardly looked away.
"That is if I lose, of course! Don't, uh… don't kill me by mistake if I win. That would be very inconvenient… a bit funny, though…"
Sunny glared at him for a while, then faced the Ivory City and scoffed.
"I know… you'd better win, then!"
***
'No, no, fuck!'
Sunny took a simple glimpse at his runes, before suddenly feeling the urge to pull his Devilish hair out…
Or, rather, Beastly hair.
For he was a Devil no longer. Not even an Awakened, in fact. Just your average Dormant Beast.
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Lost From Light.
Rank: Dormant.
Class: Beast.
Shadow Cores: [1/7].
Shadow Fragments: [489/1000].
As if anything couldn't be worse, he had lost over a dozen Memories!
Memories: [Weaver's Mask], [Silver Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Vessel of Remembrance], [Midnight Shard], [Moonlight Shard], [Dusk Shard], [Mantle of the Underworld], [Extraordinary Rock], [Endless Spring], [Finality's Farewell], [Destroyer's Final Road], [Ghastly Hunger], [Covetous Coffer], [Morgan's Warbow], [Shadow Lantern], [Dying Wish].
His armory, which had been carefully selected Memories so that he could respond to any situation, had suddenly emptied drastically!
He couldn't possibly know what had happened between the time he mysteriously became unconscious and when he woke up over Noctis's shoulder. He had the feeling that asking the sorcerer would only lead to some half-assed answers…
'Who cares about the why?! Somebody got rid, or stole, all of my hard-earned work!'
His claws dug in his palm, causing them to bleed. Sending a cursory glance at his singular remaining shadow, he met eyes with Gloomy. The only Shadow Core he had remaining was his original one, it seemed.
…Sunny guessed that he must have taken a massive amount of soul damage — enough to destroy three of the Shadow Cores he had cultivated, and downgrading the last of them by half the Shadow Fragments. Memories were bound to Cores, so the damage had to be widespread enough to even hit the glowing stars orbiting them.
Looking at his remaining Memories, Sunny scowled. He only had the ones that were either attached to his first Shadow Core since the beginning, or were fortunate enough to not get caught in whatever soul-destroying explosion had hit him. Looking at Weaver's Mask and the Shadow Lantern, he surmised that they were simply too durable to be damaged by a non-Divine level attack.
He even lost an entire Rank! That kind of thing only happened when an Awakened's Soul Core is crippled, causing them to be lowered on the Path of Ascension. He couldn't use Shadow Step, couldn't control his Essence… he was barely better than a mundane human.
Whatever had hit Sunny would have certainly caused a normal person's soul to immediately collapse, killing them right there!
His losses were endless, but there was still a faint shimmer of hope.
There was nothing he could do about his Class for now, but as long as he survived the Nightmare, he would be brought right back up to the Ascended Rank.
As for his Memories… well, that was just another reason to further his understanding of Spellweaves, right?
'Not going to matter if I get jumped right now…'