Last chapter of volume two!
Hopefully, you all enjoy this final chapter.
***
Sunny felt shadows rush past him as he and Nephis fell into the pit. Despite the high elemental resistance, he was still cold and disoriented as they fell. He could tell it kept going straight down after zig-zagging and taking hits all over to protect Nephis for a while, but luckily, since it went straight down, the sides of the pit were empty, so they could poke their heads out to breathe. They quickly did so as before when Nephis used her flames underwater it had created a pocket of air from the fire turning the water into steam and oxygen. Sadly that made the area extremely hot and the oxygen levels were low since her flames demanded back the oxygen to burn underwater.
He would've questioned how the flames could be lit in the first place without oxygen or how everything but Nephis's flames were special so it was best not to think about how her flames took oxygen from the water. All of his education was from Nephis teaching him since he dropped out at 7, so his knowledge of physics and thermodynamics was basic and his knowledge of fire was little to none. Even Nephis didn't pay much attention to class — aside from combat class — much when she was taught before the assassinations started. School was boring for everyone Sunny supposed, not like he didn't agree since killing monsters daily was indeed more fun.
He was grateful at least for being able to breathe underwater even if it proved to be difficult, plus they would've died from lack of oxygen before dying to the enemies. Not to say being able to breathe fresh air again wasn't nice. With Nephis holding onto him from above, pressing all of herself against him...
'Pure thoughts! Or at least till later.'
"So... feeling better?" Sunny asked timidly, dismissing his inner rant.
Of course, neither of them was feeling particularly great but it felt natural to ask.
"More or less, humanity-wise," Nephis said, "but I guess some of myself is coming back already. After our kiss I mean..." she said sheepishly as she turned away from him, which didn't do much since they were right next to each other.
Sunny looked up slightly to see her slightly flustered face before smiling. Although they had kissed many times before, it was still a new experience for them. Their relationship was still new too so they were figuring out their own way to love each other too as well as antisocials. Luckily, both of them were battle fanatics so they had fun together battling creatures and monsters of the Dream Realm as they traveled. Looking around Sunny expanded his shadow sense to see if there was an end anytime soon or if the illusionist was anywhere near them. Sunny didn't dare let himself believe that there was a chance it wouldn't chase them as the waterfall suddenly went diagonal slowly, after all it desperately wanted to capture Nephis to study her like an animal.
Sunny shuddered from the thought of Nephis becoming a prisoner for the rest of her life as she became devoid of life. She told him during a rant that becoming a [Dreamspawn] after her first nightmare hadn't helped her feel connected to humanity and [Nephilim] made it worse. So Sunny made it a point to try and help her preserve her remaining humanity.
Shaking his head he focused on the present, but held Nephis a little closer to him.
"None of the puppets or the illusionist is chasing us currently," Sunny said to Nephis who thought deeply after his words.
"That... doesn't mean anything. We should still be on guard until we escape." nephis said flatly, but as if realizing her tone she continued, "thank you for notifying me."
'That's... going to be the best I'll hear for a while.' Sunny sighed, saddened that Nephis would struggle to talk normally for a while after burning her humanity.
*Splash*
Sunny and Nephis looked back and saw nothing — or at least Nephis didn't — Sunny on the other hand with shadow sense felt shadows that dropped from the waterfall high up before quickly approaching them.
"I take that back their really hellbent on capturing you it seemed," Sunny murmured in Nephis's ear.
"I guess I made a deep impression," nephis said coldly, "but I don't plan on staying, nor will capturing me be easy."
Nephis let go of Sunny and swam against the current by going up before submerging into the water. Before Sunny could question her he suddenly saw in the distance a primitive raft that made the one Nephis constructed in the Forgotten Shore look advanced. It was made of dark charred wood, metal covering the outer edges of the boat like walls, and a cannon to top it off. He quickly summoned his bow and shot a few arrows at them, some landed true while others were simply swatted away. They returned fire with a volley of arrows and a cannonball as Sunny struggled to dodge each time, managing to only get scratched by a couple, get impaled by three arrows, but luckily managed to dodge the metal cannonball in time.
'Damnation!' Sunny thought as they slowly closed in on him at a startling rate as they went deeper in the underground sewer.
Their fight continued as Sunny naturally adapted and became better at dodging while in the water, and they adapted to shoot at him while he dodged. Right as they were a few tens of feet away, the water in front of them suddenly burst as someone jumped from the water and landed gracefully with a thud sound on board with the sailors... pirates? He honestly didn't know what the difference was.
Before they could recover from the surprise attack Nephis went on offense as she swung her sword horizontally at a group of puppets. Sadly most of them seemed to recover and dodged but two were decapitated with ease as their heads rolled into the roaring sewer. All of them attacked in unison as Sunny sent out his four shadows who enveloped her as her figure seemed to be dimmed a little. She struck with inhuman speed and precision, as if she knew what would happen. She dodged a sword that threatened to gut her as another aimed for her from behind which she simply ducked and swung low at the legs of the monster who now would never walk again.
Sunny swam towards her as the battle continued. They got into a rusty formation with arrows being sent at her whenever she was attacked, and even when she was at times. She was able to dodge simply by cutting them down or using her agility as she applied those same skills to the enemies. She was lethal as she was treacherous — all thanks to him — as she made sure to go for the weak spots while not staying still for even a moment. A spiked tail swung at her as she was occupied dodging another sword swing and a claw aimed at her throat. All of this she dodged simply by jumping extremely high before impaling a puppet's head before hitting the ground in a roll. His shadows were definitely of much help to her, he almost felt proud of them if they weren't so abnoxious.
Not before long Sunny reached the raft as Nephis cleared out the last of the monsters. Finding himself at the edge of the raft Nephis walked over and held out her hand, which Sunny took delightedly as she pulled him aboard. Sunny looked around the raft for a second to analyze it, but quickly found out there was nothing impressive about it. Before they could catch their breath though Sunny felt more shadows of rafts approaching them. Nephis seemed to have noticed that he stood still like a statue as she made her way to the canon and aimed behind them. Sunny had seen what a cannon looked like in a history book before so he quickly noticed the similarities it had to the waking world one and its differences.
For one there was no priming vent to pour gunpowder in, in fact, there wasn't anything on the ship other than them and a couple of cannon balls. Instead, there was simply a wooden lever on the right side that seemed to be enchanted along with the cannon. Sunny was really wondering if the illusionist knew how to make memories or not since it was the second time he saw something enchanted but not a memory.
Sunny also entertained the thought of summoning Saint and Serpent, but disposed of it since they needed to heal and they would most likely sink the whole thing. Saint couldn't adjust her weight or swim and Serpent would struggle to be agile in the shallow waters. The river wasn't that shallow but definitely not filled enough for a Serpent of his size so they would stay in his soul sea. Sunny held out his hand to signal when to shoot and when they got close enough he gave the signal and fired which flew through the air before the sound of crushed wood and a large splash of water echoed throughout the sewers.
Sadly it only sank 3 of them as the rest advanced on them, now seeable from the flames Nephis conjured up a few hundred yards away. The battle of the rafts had begun was the only thought Sunny had before ducking as an arrow grazed his hair.
'Damnation!'
Sunny started returning fire with his own arrows as Nephis continued to shoot down more and more boats. The illusionist hadn't caught up yet so for now things were calm compared to when they fought in the cave. Sunny shot a few arrows before sliding behind a metal sheet as arrows made a snapping sound trying to penetrate the metal side. Nephis summoned a shield and used it to cover herself to be able to send a cannonball every 30 seconds with the help of his shadows.
Loud booms sounded throughout as Sunny aimed and shot out a couple of arrows before ducking under a sheet of metal. Peeking up he aimed once more and fired in retaliation, sending a few arrows across. Their situation was quite odd since the "battlefield" took place in a small and narrow tunnel where barely two rafts could be side by side together which helped keep the enemies back but also didn't have them much room to dodge when they shot canons back too. Turns out they weren't the only ones who had canons Sunny quickly found out as suddenly a hole appeared next to him and he barely saw a metal ball pass him, just barely passing him without leaving a scratch.
The fight continued as they sustained more damage which Sunny tried to fix with shadows but gave up after depleting his small reserves over and over. Nephis herself was starting to tire again as their rate of fire started to falter, but the enemies didn't as the battle continued. Sunny knew he had to do something big to change the tide, but luckily, he didn't need to. Suddenly Sunny and Nephis found themselves at the entrance of a large lake cavern. Vines grew abundantly on the ceiling and weird blue-looking tentacles grew at the bottom of the lake. Nephis, after realizing where they were, quickly broke two pieces of wood off the raft and threw one two Sunny.
"What's this for Nephis?" Sunny asked as he watched Nephis start pattling.
"The river current has ceased now, we needed to push ourselves now to move."
'Of course, why didn't I realize that,' Sunny thought. After all, he should've felt them slow down after the downward tunnel leveled again. Quickly going to the left side Sunny pattlef in sync with Neph as rafts appeared shortly after, with creatures already pattling behind them. Sunny realized quickly that they had two disadvantages to being in the open field. One is that there's the possibility of them being surrounded now that there is more space. That meant certain death most likely if they did since they'll be surrounded on all fronts. The second one was since there were only two of them but hundreds of puppets not including their master — and since they both were paddling to outrun them while they only a few needed to paddle — meant that they were still under attack by arrows and cannonballs while they could only hope that they missed.
Sunny brought back two of his shadows as Nephis distributed some of her flames among them both. Sunny felt like he could row the boat across the lake in less than a second with his strength but was proven wrong quickly since he didn't expect paddling to be so inefficient for speed. The sewer leveling out was really detrimental for them. As they paddled they were fired at multiple times by arrows and cannonballs started finding their way into the ship as pieces of wood flung everywhere when it smashed through. Sunny summoned a wall of shadows whenever they sent arrows aimed at them but a few started getting through. Luckily, Sunny used his Will to make his armor sturdy and even made some arrows miss him by inches just by willing them to do so.
As they moved along the once still lake that shimmered with ethereal light from the ceiling they continued to be ambushed by more and more shops that threatened to sink them at any moment. Their goal was to try and reach the other side since Sunny could feel another tunnel leading deeper down. Normally Sunny would be adamant on going even deeper in the cave system, but desperate times called for growing a pair and shoving fear down, or at least that's what the saying was he thought. They were halfway through the lake before the first complications made themselves known.
A cannonball hit a group of shadows forming to fill a hole in the raft as it ravaged through the shadows and landed hard on the ship. Sunny and Nephis both stumbled from the shockwave as Nephis quickly held him tight and pressed him tightly against herself as the raft tilted heavily to the right, and almost sank before stabilizing once more but with loads of water filling the raft. The extra weight made the raft too heavy as water started pouring in from all the holes around them. Nephis released Suny as he tried his best to cover the gaping hole the cannonball made at the center with shadows, fix minor holes with shadows, and scoop up any water.
Serpent was working tirelessly as he fueled and met demand for essence as Sunny manifested shadows from all around and commanded them to fix the holes.
'I guess I really am a master among them, though master sounds weird while being a slave. Being a lord sounds better, Lord of Shadows... has a nice ring to it.' Sunny mused as an arrow grazed his long hair and cut a few strands off.
Nephis herself was doing her share as she helped by distracting the enemies and shooting the occasional cannonball so Sunny didn't get shot at every moment just for existing. After Sunny fixed the major holes he felt the same deep shadow from earlier enter the cave as he felt a chill go down through his spine. Sunny turned to the entrance and saw the illusionist loading two cannons simultaneously from a sturdier-looking raft.
'Damn it'
Sunny reached his cannon as the first shots from it were fired and hit true on the sides of the raft. Sunny reloaded the cannon with Nephis still paddling as he then fired it at the illusionist. It flew through the air and reached the raft in only two seconds... but was caught by the illusionist's hand as he threw it into the water with a loud splash.
"Punky tricks you play little shadow."
Sunny felt his legs go a little weak seeing the illusionist casually catch a cannonball ball but shook it off and started paddling again with Nephis. The illusionist started sending bolts their way which easily broke through the conjured shadow walls — which Sunny learnt the hard way — so they had to dodge each time the illusionist fired. After a few minutes Sunny could see the exit just a few hundred yards away so he paddled even faster since they were also starting to catch up now. Nephis had to stop paddling after one of the rafts smashed into theirs and engage in close combat with the creatures that tried to pour onto their boat. They were quickly demolished by Neph's blade as they entered the exit tunnel of the lake which went down steeply so they grounded themselves as the boat lurched forward before plunging into the dark tunnel.
Sunny almost fell from the sudden gain in speed as they traveled downward quickly. This reminded Sunny of the time when he took Rain to a water park before she was adopted. He had saved enough money from doing less-than-legal things to get it but didn't regret it a single bit. Of course, the water park was somewhat risky since the slides rusted from not being taken care of, the water was a deep blue color since half the filters were clogged or damaged beyond repair, and the occasional screw came off when someone shook the slides too much which caused them to break over and over again. Nevertheless, it was one of the better parks around and it wasn't like Sunny was loaded.
That day had actually been a fun day for both of them, more so for Rain but Sunny also had fun. They rode on several different rides like one that produced massive waves which Sunny had to hold Rain on her shoulders so she didn't drown. Another was called "the lazy river" which was a large river that encircled the whole park as people often fell asleep while on their tubes. Rain being the child she was refused to stay still and raced by paddling her little feet as she tried to race Sunny which Sunny found adorable so he let her win each time.
They went on multiple slides too, one of which terrified him. He wasn't scared of tall heights but the slide was extremely narrow and went down sharply. Rain didn't seem to mind as she practically had to drag and beg him to go on it which made a pint of blood drain from his face as he said sure to her. Sunny still remembered when he screamed at the top of his lungs while Rain just laughed with her hands in the air when they got pushed down by the lifeguard.
'Never again,' Sunny shuttered as he fixed another hole in the ship and Nephis sent a cannonball toward the room to try and tear down the ceiling.
Luckily it did as the rocks fell on top of a puppet ship which crushed most of them on it. The illusionist suddenly got up from its raft and hopped from ship to ship to try and reach them but to no avail as the rocks enveloped the opening, leaving them — more like Nephis — in the dark. Sunny sighed as he felt the raft go down, his mind was getting exhausted from all the mental tasks he had to perform but he sucked it up. Suddenly a big ferocious wave appeared in front of them as Nephis reached out to Sunny and Sunny tried to hold the ship together with tentacles, but they quickly snapped from the water pressure as they sank to the bottom of the water.
Distorted Sunny tried to look for Nephis' hand but could see her as the river dragged him downward. Sunny swam up and reached the surface of the water where he held on to a piece of broken wood as he floated down the stream. Sunny tried to heal his wounds but realized that his crown was missing, and he couldn't feel it anywhere near him so he couldn't unsummon and resummon it, and also his shadow sense was weirdly suppressed though he couldn't tell why or how. Worried about hidden danger, all Sunny could do was float and look around with his worldview now limited. Sunny drifted for a bit until he saw up ahead.
'Where the hell is- Neph!' Sunny saw Nephis up ahead who was holding on vine that hung from the ceiling.
Behind her, two identical tunnels lead left and right. As Sunny threw away the wooden board he saw a dark object shine in his peripheral vision. Stuck in a crack in the wall was his dark crown.
***
Nephis, after seeing him, smiled as she knew she would be rescued since Sunny would be able to tell which tunnel was the right one for them to go through, which quickly turned into shock as Sunny instead of heading towards her... started going towards his crown that was stuck in a crack.
***
Sunny moved to Nephis before slowing down... his mind suddenly went fuzzy as he started moving towards his crown. Sunny moved like a zombie as he swam towards the crown, forgetting Nephis entirely as his mind filled with thoughts that weren't his... or maybe they were his...
'Must... protect the crown.' Sunny felt brain-dead but quickly went away as the thought of saving the crown filled his mind.
The crown itself had a malevolent darkness surrounding it as the vine on Sunny's head started to spread across his head. Sunny needed to save the crown, it needed to be protected, and only he could do so...
Nephis watched all this play out as she saw a vine grow on his head and his eyes turning milky white.
'Milky white...'
Nephis' thoughts recalled back to the soul devourer who had brainwashed them. Nephis remembered that Cassie's eyes, which had always been a beautiful blue, had turned milky white when Sunny said the sovereign's nicknames. Nephis knew something was wrong and it had to do with the crown that he was trying to save. After all, why didn't he just dismiss it, Sunny was an idiot sometimes but not at simple things like this. As Sunny reached the crown and reached out his hand, thick vines the size of arms reached out from the crown towards him, almost as if he was able to be enveloped by hungry vines.
"Lost from Light snap out of it!" Nephis yelled at the top of her lungs.
Sunny suddenly paused, his hand just an inch away from the crown, his eyes turning from milky white back to onyx black. He blinked, then blinked again as his thoughts suddenly came back to him. Looking at the crown in front of him still trying to grasp him he pushed himself back as he tried to figure out what just happened to him.
[You have gained an attribute]
Sunny eyes revealed pure shock as he opened his runes and skimmed through them until he saw something that made him shiver.
[Cursed]
Attribute description: The crown refuses to let you leave. It refuses to let you break your promise Lost from Light. You may not leave until you've bought the mercy of death for the corrupted. The further you stray the more the crown will control you until you turn into a perfect vessel.
Sunny tried to dismiss the memory since he was coming back later but had to leave now, but it refused. Cursing Sunny knew what he had to do as he summoned Serpent into his weapon form. Lifting it in the air, Sunny forced all his will onto the blade to make it sharp enough to cut mountains before bringing it down...
Onto the crown...
Serpent made contact... and sliced through the crown like butter as the vines reached out in a desperate effort to save itself but it quickly wilted as the crown started to dissolve.
[Your memory has been destroyed]
Sunny winced at the notification, but only for a moment, before turning around and heading towards Nephis who was about to collapse from holding onto the vine. Nephis let go and Sunny caught her in his arms as they held each other tightly, moving slowly towards the tunnels.
"So... which one?"
"I don't know my shadow senses are being suppressed by who knows what."
Nephis nodded as if knowing that already.
"I say left."
"I say left."
"I guess it's decided then," Sunny said, a small smile forming on his face.
"Indeed," Nephis responded, a small smile finding its way to her face as they both held each other tightly, refusing to let go ever, as they drifted into the left tunnel.
Sunny and Nephis, light and shadow, a Dreamspawn and a Divine Shadow, two impossible existences drifted together in the dark abysses of the sewers. The roaring water echoed into their ears as they continued going down, that was until suddenly it curved upward as Sunny and Nephos were immediately flung into the air going upward and gaining height before crashing onto mud and rolling to a stop moments after.
Suddenly a bright yellow light hit Sunny's eyes which felt blinding since he hadn't seen the sun for a long time. Both of them breathed hard as his heart raced and Sunny could feel her heart racing too. She suddenly heard Nephis chuckle, soft at first until it turned into a wholehearted laugh. Sunny joined in, laughing along as they wondered just how they survived all that. Eventually, their laughs died down and they got up, supporting each other's weight by linking arms under each other.
Sunny looked around and he could see trees that looked like the waking world trees but bigger and tougher with vines growing off them. Around them nature seemed to consume everything as green could be seen all around that sunny almost believed he was in those old picture books showing the world before the nuclear wars, but remembering he was in an unexplored region that could very well be lurking with great monsters he made sure not to let his guard down.
Silence seemed to overtake them for a moment before Sunny heard a voice that confused him.
[You have received a memory]
'...huh?'
***
End of volume 2: The Dreadful Sewers
Beginning volume 3: The Jungles of Mystery