Atop the crimson spire, the dark desolate swallowed the sky. There was no one left in the forgotten shore, that is, with the exception of two. A pale young man, and an angel of white. The angel was gripping her injured arm, wearing tattered armor and dirt clinging to her silver hair.
Sunny stared at Nephis, every cranny of her bruised body captured within his eyes. By his side, the gateway was turning dimmer and dimmer, the smooth stone around the collapsing block.
'I need to finish this soon.' Sunny thought as a smile crept up on his face. During the time they were falling, Sunny used the [Prowling Thorn] to keep himself from being severely injured, before it seemingly disappeared.
"I am sorry Nephis, but I need to meet Rain. Or, well, atleast see her while making sure she's safe." A hoarse voice escaped his lips.
Neph sighed, "I am sorry Sunny... But I, too, have my goals." Neph steadied herself using the help of her sword...
But just as she did so, the [Prowling Thorn]'s hilt struck her legs, making her lose her balance. Sunny, instantly taking advantage of the moment, lashed towards her, and using the hilt of the [Midnight Shard]—the same one Neph gave—struck her shoulders.
Sunny smiled, a melancholy gaze behind his eyes. Triumphant he was, but he felt sorry, regretful, hollow, and he started to fantasize meeting Rain again, about how he would tell her the truth, and many more things... Despite knowing that he couldn't enter her life.
Sunny turned around, walking towards the gate which was barely a minute away from breaking, until a thought struck him.
'What if Rain hates me for this?'
Of course, rationally he would never tell Rain he was her brother, let alone that he betrayed Neph like this. She was Nephis of the Immortal Flame, someone many people looked up to, and now he was sure that her fame would rise even more now that the Forgotten Shore happened. What if people asked him direct questions as to what happened to Neph? What would he say?
What could he say?
Just as these thoughts started to plague his mind, puzzle pieces fell into his mind.
"Why did you hold back? I know you can share your flames to, both, heal and to augment yourself... So why?" Sunny turned around, looking at her.
"I was trying not to kill you... Who says I don't wish to go home? I can't kill you—a trusted companion of mine—for selfish reasons, nor can I be left behind here." Neph spoke
Sunny was about to turn the elbow, which held the [Midnight Shard], while having it aim towards the gate.
"So I'm sorry Sunny but... Stop Lost from Light." The words left her lips in a somber tone, but to Sunny they felt like a fire suddenly engulfing his very being.
Hatred.
Sunny's eyes widened with a feeling of despair and bloodlust, and immediately, he twisted the finger holding the string of the [Prowling Thorn]. He didn't care if she died, even if it meant being left behind.
He would never be a slave. He would never forget his promise to Auro of the Nine.
"Stop." The piercing words ordered him yet again, making his very soul shudder at the thought of assaulting her. His legs betrayed him. His hands betrayed him. And then, so did his will.
"Move away. And only move after I leave."
Sunny's legs responded themselves, without him having any control over them. Those words kept making him feel more and more despair, maybe she would order him to survive and be her obedient slave? Follow her everywhere?
There were simply too many consequences to having authority over him.
"How...? Why...?" Sunny asked, his voice almost strained...
"HOW? WHY?" Sunny spat this time, his voice laced with venom.
"How? Cassie told me... She had a vision about you saying your True Name." Neph paused, before continuing, "She was also the first one to realise what that vision meant."
Nephis looked behind once again. Hesitation.
'You already went far panicking, don't look back. Go for it. Let him hate you. Don't show your weakness.' She gritted her teeth, "As for why... My goals are important to me Sunny."
With tears shimmering in the faint light of the gate, Neph continued, "Take—I hope you take care Sunny." And with a single step, she left.
Sunny stood there, trembling. Before he burst into a maniacal laugh. "You better hope I don't because if I do... If I survive this hellhole I will kill you."
In this forgotten shore, there was only him left, Sunless. One without the sun. Quite fitting, wasn't it?
Just then, a maniacal laughter sounded across the ruins of the Crimson Spire.
'Why, Why! Why is it always me... This was the one time I trusted someone and THIS is how I get treated? THIS? I treated Cassie like a sister too, so why me dammit!'
The moment the thought finished, the spire crumbled like a sand castle breaking, and using the [Prowling Thorn], he tried using the string to slow down his fall as much as possible...
'It can't end like this...'
After a minute of desperately trying to reduce his free fall, he finally felt his feet reach the ground.
Looking down, he stared at his hands.
People said that saying goodbye is the hardest thing... That it hurt.
He felt warm tears rolling down his cheeks.
'I want nothing more than to say goodbye to her...'
Suddenly
[...Your shadow is overflowing with power]
[Your shadow is complete]
Like the devil's own voice, the spell resounded through his head, digging into his ears. Something inside of him exploded, drowning his whole being in indescribable suffering. With a startled yelp he fell down.
---
In the waking world a figure with silver hair woke up, the teardrop on her cheeks reflected the room. The pod opened to let her sit as a fair girl with black hair and a slightly pale face, wearing a white coat, entered.
'Is this fate's way of reminding me of what I did to Sunny?'
The girl looked almost like him, but with many noticeable differences but still many similarities—such as hair color, eye color, even the skin till an extent—being present. She was also obviously much older and taller than him.
"Can you take me to Sunny's room?" The words left her lips, almost instinctively.
"Who?"
"Sorry—I meant Sleeper Sunless."
Sunny... The only man who stood by her side. The only one who she could trust with her back, and yet she left him there to basically certain death—
'As if some mere nightmare creature could hurt the noble cockroach...'
She closed her eyes, and recalled as she checked her runes... and, as if to mock her, she saw:
Slave: Sunless
"I—I'm sorry." She choked and held back the few tears threatening to escape, "I'm so sorry... I really am."
She was sorry for leaving without him...
But alas, she already made the choice. She couldn't stop her goals now... Not after leaving Sunny alone in that hell.
'I am sorry.'
After seeing his runes she was a little surprised to see him having a divine rank aspect and even a forbidden lineage! But then, as if to bite her again, the spell showed [Shadow Bond] too, rubbing even more salt to her already deep wounds.
Guilt.
'I'm sorry...
I'm sorry for being weak...
I'm sorry for using your true name like that...
I'm sorry for my failures...
And I'm sorry for having the audacity to pry on your secrets after what I did.'
The girl in front of her replied to her "I'm sorry but there are certain procedures—" The room suddenly grew hotter, "Ah, nevermind the procedures, I'll take you to his room!"
Reaching the room, the first thing she saw was a blonde figure, her eyes were covered with a damp blue blindfold.
"I'm sorry."
A choked whisper escaped the blonde girl's lips.
"Cassie..." Neph finally spoke after a few moments, walking towards the blind delicate girl.
"It worked... Didn't it?" She asked, turning around towards Neph.
Towards exactly where she was standing...
"How did you—" then, Neph paused.
"How did I know where you are? It's my Awakened ability..." Then, she turned back, facing Sunny's sleeping body.
"You... Why didn't you tell us?" Neph finally spat those words, "You know it could all have been prevented if YOU saw the whole context or the fact only one of us could leave, we could have left him behind instead! You got used by your own visions and fate, it's... it's pathetic."
Cassie flinched at that, and looked away.
Then, Neph felt her vision turn blurry... She was blaming her friend. Her best friend. Her only friend besides Sunny.
Now? Sunny was gone... She was all that remained.
"I'm sorry." She whispered, finally allowing her walls to break and burst into tears.
---
Sunny woke up, his vision blurry.
'Why? Why?_
The world spun around him.
Why?
His head felt heavy.
Why was he always the one?
His legs were weak.
He was left behind when Rain was adapted...
Everyone left him behind.
"Guess I was right all along. Trust people and they'll only betray you."
He took a deep breath, filling his lungs, and holding it until he couldn't.
"I am a slave again, huh?"
Curse you Nephis. Curse you Cassie. Curse you [Shadow Bond].
Then, he suddenly recalled the conversation he had with Neph.
"Stop Lost from Light."
"I was trying not to kill you... Who says I don't wish to go home? I can't kill you—a trusted companion of mine—for selfish reasons, nor can I be left behind here..."
"How? Cassie told me... She had a vision about you saying your True Name."
"As for why... My goals are important to me Sunny."
"Take— I hope you take care Sunny."
"I was trying not to kill you... Who says I don't wish to go home? I can't kill you—a trusted companion of mine—for selfish reasons, nor can I be left behind here..."
"I was trying not to kill you... Who says I don't wish to go home? I can't kill you—a trusted companion of mine—for selfish reasons, nor can I be left behind here..."
A trusted companion?
A trusted companion?
Who enslaved their trusted companions, damn it?
Then, he opened his runes to distract himself, After all, there was no point to think about why she did it... The important thing was that she did it.
He decided to check his new Aspect Legacy Memory, only for the first thing he saw to be a painful reminder. The moment he laid his eyes on those runes, he felt a punch on his guts, and salt being thrown on his wounds.
[Master: Nephis]
Sunny screamed in agony again, and the shadows around him stirred.
'Just kill me Neph an—no just Changing Star—and spare me the trouble. I'm reduced to a mere slave now dammit! Whatever you do I hope you at least have the decency to protect Rain... she's my only family left.'
What if Rain starts to like Nephis, Changing Star? Would he still be able to have his revenge? Would he just run away? Be a coward? That was, after all, how he survived so far after all. That was just the way. No one else to trust.
And running when the situation demanded it.
---
Nephis walked towards the hall, today the forgotten shore survivors were supposed to meet for a party after finally being free from that place.
As soon as she entered the hall, she noticed the smiled on people's faces, them talking to each other and whispering stuff, soft giggles being heard from some sides.
The people were happy—something she wasn't at that moment. All she felt was guilt. Guilt of leaving Sunny behind for her mere goals. Guilt of taking his chance of meeting his sister away. He actually had someone unlike her and that was why it hurt her more.
Her fist clenched at the thought. Right as the thought crossed her mind, "Sunny? Where's Sunny?" One of the Forgotten Shore survivors, Shim, asked and the rest followed up on it.
"Yeah, Lady Nephis. Have you heard from him or anything about him."
Nephis looked away slowly and responded with a look revealing no expressions, "No, I haven't. I'm sorry"
She went towards a corner and saw Kai and Effie?
She saw a girl stuck in a wheelchair. Neph's fingers twitched as she reached out to heal her.
"Don't bother," Effie said suddenly, "it won't work." Then, a pause followed.
"Where's doofus?"
"...Yeah, what happened to Sunny?"
"He came back to help me out with the terror," she paused, feeling guilty again, "and the gateway was about to collapse" Another longer pause followed this time. "And well I made it b-but he didn't." She lied, a skill she learnt from Sunny, giving half truth and letting others fill in the blanks wrongly. They would come to their own conclusions after this. As guilty as she felt, she couldn't afford it right now, and so, she shrugged away the emotion.
A longer moment of silence followed.
"If anyone can survive the Forgotten Shore it's him and me. He's like me after all."
"If anyone can survive the Forgotten Shore, it's doofus! Cheer up princess."
Nephis and Effie said at the same time.
"Yeah what Effie said. Wait what do you mean like me?" Kai asked.
"I mean our aspects... I won't go into details because it's, well, just our little secret."
Effie and Kai looked at her, and as soon as Neph noticed it, she blinked.
"What, did I say something wrong?"
Effie sighed, "Nevermind," and did a facepalm "I get what you mean."
Later Awakened Rock announced what happened, that Sunny and Caster went to help Lady Nephis and Caster died but Sunny was still alive and stuck there, while Caster died.
Soon after that she went to Sunny's room.
***
Three Months Later
"Wake up! Your night—"
"Shut up" he slammed the ordinary rock on the ground, woke up on his bed on the cathedral, and using the [Silver Bell], (instead of [Midnight Shard] for petty reasons, though he would never admit it loud himself) marked another day. There were 6 months worth of lines there and today he would finally leave. He marked the place with the runes for 'Lost From Light'
Runes:
Name: Sunless
True Name: Lost From Height (I mean light mb)
Shadow cores: [3/7]
Shadow fragments: [0/3000]
He smiled in relief, and exited his runes. He looked at Saint and flashed a smile, "We did it saint! We cleared the dark city and formed a third core! For once fate was on our side with kills!!"
He looked at Saint, disappointed by the lack of response and sighed. Seeing that, Saint proceeded to hug him. Sunny, caught off guard, let a smile slip through.
"Thank you for being the only one on my side... I hope you don't betray me unlike those ungrateful people."
He realised why he felt so hurt by their betrayal later... Yes for Cassie—no Cassia, he already knew why, it was because he treated her like a sister... But as for Nephis it took him two months to realise... Realised that he was in love with her, maybe even before reaching the Dark City.
But, for now he had to focus on today.
Today he would head towards the library before finally leaving the Dark City to maybe find a clue for another citadel or even a Nightmare seed.
Reaching the library, he read notes for about an hour before finally picking the last book. Sighing he rested against a book shelf only for the shelf to move and him falling down...
'Huh? What the hell?'
"DAMNATION!"
He kept falling for a while, getting drowsier every second, 'Ah I'm going to die. This was a nice run... Wait, no it wasn't! It was a terrible run. He wouldn't die just like that.'
Then, silence enveloped the place. The same silence as the one in a funeral.
'Ah I hope Rain's safe and Nephis at least had the decency to take care of her.'
Those were his last thoughts before he found himself drifting to a slumber.