Nephis watched everything with an emotion difficult to name. Seeing Sunny in such an unrestrained state, consumed by the madness of his form, did nothing to calm her heart. It was only a second, but she hesitated. The thought of losing him crossed her mind... and it hurt.
He was just a shadow, without body or organs... and yet, in some impossible way, she knew. She knew how much each blow, each bite, each assault hurt Sunny. She felt it deep in her soul.
Seeing him like that, turned into a creature of pure will, without control, without consciousness, was an image that brutally contrasted with the warrior she knew. Sunny used to move with an elegant, lethal style, full of strategy and cunning. But now... he was nothing more than a beast.
And although she couldn't see him directly, she felt it. The sea itself stirred, trembled with the clash of the two leviathans, shaken by their rage and power.
Technically, she wasn't alone. Beside her was Saint, Sunny's favorite Echo. And although she wouldn't admit it out loud, each day spent alongside that stone warrior convinced her more that she was excellent company. Especially as a training partner.
The stone woman was not only a transcendent demon but also seemed an expert in all types of combat. Truly, Sunny had divine luck with Echoes... and she still hadn't obtained one. Although, if she thought about it, calling Saint an "Echo" was almost insulting.
Because Saint didn't behave like a common Echo. She didn't obey with the soulless rigidity of the others. She was different. She almost seemed to have a personality. A proud warrior who, when satisfied with her battles, greeted with a sharp strike of her shield, as if acknowledging her opponent.
At least, she wasn't alone in her thoughts.
Though she hated this position. Waiting. Observing. Staying still, like an assassin in the shadows, calculating the exact moment to intervene. It wasn't her place. She used to be at the front. Always. Not only because her Aspect demanded it, but because... she enjoyed it. Perhaps a thought typical of someone with a broken mind. But Nephis had never been a normal girl.
And then... hell broke loose.
The two serpents collided.
A roar that broke the sea.
Nephis and Saint wasted no time. They prepared their arrows. White and black. Loaded with poison, power, and contained fury.
And then, silence.
The blue serpent slowly sank into the ocean, defeated.
But Nephis didn't celebrate. She felt no satisfaction. She didn't feel closer to overcoming the nightmare.
Because she saw it.
The black serpent.
Sunny.
His eyes, once like the abyss, barely burned with the light borrowed from his flames. They were fading. Blood surrounded him. The shadows enveloping him were agitated... some even seemed sad.
Sunny was dying.
And she couldn't allow it.
Her mind emptied of all thought. Only one purpose remained. An absolute truth. Plans, dangers, pain didn't matter.
There was only one thing her soul screamed: save him.
Her heart couldn't endure much more. Neither could she.
With the last will she had left, with her essence almost extinguished and her body trembling, she activated her Aspect. And the sea, for an eternal moment, was invaded by a white sun. Pure flames descended upon the ocean like a living star.
She didn't care about the pain. The scream of her soul asking her to stop. She didn't care about anything.
She launched into the water like lightning, her body wrapped in fire.
When she reached Sunny, surrounded by shadows and blood, she took his face with trembling hands.
"Sunny... don't die, please."
Her voice was nothing more than a broken whisper, but in it was all she had left.
All her hope.
All her faith.
All her life.
With the flames flooding her soul once more, the black serpent came back to life. Its torn scales were rebuilt with renewed shadows, and its eyes—once dull and empty—shone again with that fearsome intensity that only Sunny possessed. A spark was enough. The heat of Nephis's flames, her despair, her love... that's what brought him back.
And then, Nephis collapsed onto his still-imposing body, wrapped in embers, exhaling a trembling breath. She used the last strength she had to cling to the back of the shadow creature. Her fingers, stiff from the effort, barely managed to anchor her as her mind barely resisted fainting.
With a choked sigh, she invoked a Memory. A memory of escape. Not of victory, but of flight.
Because although the great blue serpent had died, they weren't safe.
Under the waters of that eternal sea, hundreds of creatures as lethal as it lurked. There was the dark butterfly, which had already proven capable of facing the leviathan... and surviving. There were the swarms, the krills, the specters of the depths. There were nameless horrors, some that perhaps even surpassed the blue serpent.
Sunny fled.
He did so with infernal speed, gliding like a living arrow through the blood-stained water. A body of shadows, a creature born of nightmares, moving as if the abyss itself pursued him. Not for glory. Not for pride. Just to survive. For her.
And Nephis, weak but conscious, accompanied him. She saw how Sunny avoided predators emerging from the seabed like hidden blades. She saw how he destroyed a group of krills with blind rage, only to continue fleeing when the swarm multiplied.
They fought. They escaped. For hours. Maybe days. Or maybe minutes. It was impossible to know in a river that distorted time.
The only thing Nephis knew was this: Sunny was not okay.
Not physically—that had already been solved with her flames—but mentally. He was fighting against something she couldn't heal. Madness, hunger, the trace of a mind that had been forced to assume a monstrous form. A shadow disguised as will.
Finally, after who knows how long, they surfaced. In a forgotten corner of the sea without coast or sky, they emerged.
Nephis, still clinging to Sunny's body, wanted to speak. She wanted to tell him that everything was okay. That he had made it. That he was safe now.
But she couldn't.
Her Flaw, consumed by the effort, had devoured all emotion. It was a familiar void. One she knew, but this time had left her almost completely inert. No pain. No relief. Nothing.
Only silence.
And yet... it didn't matter.
Because Sunny was worse.
His shadow serpent form was falling apart. He no longer screamed. Nor roared. Nor fought. He had ceased to be a creature of rage. Now he was just... something fading.
Then it happened.
She felt his body shrink. How the weight beneath her gave way. The last breath of his Manifestation disappeared... and there he was.
A young man with dark hair and pale skin, floating in the sea like a leaf worn by the storm.
Sunny.
Both fell into the water. Nephis sank with him, the heat of her embers dissipating in the ocean.
She watched him. Saw how his eyes blinked, confused. As if reality was slipping away. His head turned to one side, then the other. Desperate. He was looking for something. He didn't know what. Or who.
But Nephis did know.
He was looking for her.
Silly shadow.
He didn't turn enough. He didn't see her behind him. He didn't know she had been there all along. His gaze, as it closed, was tinged with fear... with sadness. As if he died without finding what he loved most.
And then, with a sigh she could finally feel, Nephis did the most logical thing.
She hugged him from behind. Drew him to herself. Held him with her chest against his back, as if she could enclose his soul within hers with that gesture alone.
"Fool," she whispered, without emotion, but with soul. "I'm always with you."
And she wouldn't let go. Not this time.
But even after her words, Sunny still didn't react. Like a lifeless puppet, he floated in the water with half-lidded eyes and a vacant stare. Maybe he was too disoriented, too exhausted to process anything. So Nephis went with the second idea that came to mind.
She bit him.
Yes, she simply leaned in and sank her teeth into his shoulder — not hard enough to injure, but just enough to hurt.
The sudden aggression snapped Sunny out of his stupor. His body tensed like a drawn bow, his eyes flared with anger, and he turned slowly, glaring...
Only to find Nephis smiling shamelessly at him.
She was completely drenched. Her silver hair clung to her face like strands of moonlight, darkened and heavy from the salt of the time-twisted sea. Her once-imposing armor was now in tatters — deformed plates and torn leather, barely clinging to her frame. She even had a small cut on her cheek, the kind that went unnoticed until you saw the blood.
Sunny didn't know if she had dispelled her Aspect to conserve essence, or if she had done it on purpose. But if he were honest —and he always was, at least with himself— he would say that in that moment, he was staring at the very incarnation of beauty.
Silver hair, soaked by the sea. A strong, athletic body. Grey eyes that pierced through the soul. And those small wounds... they didn't mar her. If anything, they added something. Fierceness, maybe. A strange kind of charm. Dangerous and radiant.
He opened his mouth to complain about the bite, but no words came. Partly because his entire body ached, and partly because he knew he needed to conserve what little energy he had left. Even the smallest effort could cost him dearly, especially in a place as hostile as this.
And then... he saw it.
In the distance, floating in the middle of the dark sea as if immune to the logic of this senseless world... there was a ship.
A small wooden vessel, not much larger than a regular house. It sat no more than two hundred meters away, gently rocking, but unmoved by the colossal waves of the infinite sea. Still. Silent. Unshaken. Its structure was simple — no sails, no mainmast. Just a bare deck, bordered by a railing, with a single hatch at the center.
It looked old. Not ruined, but... ancient. As if it had sailed from another era, another dream, drawn here by some unknown will. And yet, there wasn't a single scratch on it. No cracks, no water damage. The wood looked dry. Almost new.
Nephis eyed it warily. A ship? Here?
They had faced krill swarms, formless horrors, butterflies the size of towers... and now, a perfectly preserved ship drifting in the middle of this madness?
"That looks like a trap," she murmured, frowning.
Or a miracle. Or a gift from some ironic twist of fate. Whatever it was, they had to decide quickly.
Because even if it was a trap, it was still a better option than facing another sea serpent — if there was another.
Sunny, his face still painted with a mix of annoyance and maybe a hint of humiliation from the bite, tried to swim toward the ship.
The result was... pitiful.
His arms barely moved. His body sank more than it swam.
Nephis let out a soft laugh — one of those rare ones — and moved closer.
"Seriously?" she said, amusement in her voice.
Without asking, she wrapped an arm around him, steadying his weight.
And she swam. Swam toward the ship, with Sunny in tow, while the darkness of the sea of time watched in silence.