The first thing Nephis saw when she woke up was a blur launching towards her waking form. She raised her guard ready to defend herself from any attack.
Her time spent alone in the dream realm had turned her into a light sleeper out of necessity since she didn't have anyone to protect her while sleeping in the hostile expanse of the nightmare desert and beyond.
'That must have been a dream earlier', this wouldn't have been the first time that Sunny had appeared in Neph's dreams, but something was off. Sunny never wore such a torn and painful expression in her dreams.
She was acting strange after having that dream, which was why despite having her guard up she ended up blindsided when Cassie collided with her.
When she recognized the figure on top of her as Cassie she idly wondered if she was still dreaming and looked around the room to catch her bearings.
Nephis breathed in the sterile air as the nostalgic scent of a hospital room reached her. She saw Effie and Kai standing by the sides of her bed both looking like they had found a long-lost friend. That's when she realized she wasn't dreaming.
Having made it back to the waking world was a huge shock for Nephis. She had been surprised she had even survived a couple of days after the events of the Crimson Spire. She had been so sure that Sunny would end up killing her body in the waking world because of [Shadow Bond].
Cassie was sobbing against Neph's chest as she cried out, "You're finally back. Why did you leave me alone for so long?"
Nephis didn't know what to do with Cassie. Truth be told she had never been good at comforting people. It was strange for Nephis to see Cassie, although she would never admit it, she had almost forgotten about her blind friend.
She was suddenly thankful that her normal cold and aloof personality would probably prevent her friends from noticing much of a difference in her behavior.
Everything before the end of the Crimson Spire felt like several lifetimes ago for Nephis as she nearly went insane in the nightmare desert with her only saving grace being Sunny's runes.
Whenever Nephis looked at Sunny's runes she couldn't help but be overcome with an overwhelming sense of guilt as she had to look at the [Slave] title.
She was afraid she had done irreparable damage to their relationship and since she couldn't see Sunny in the room with her, she had a feeling that she had, but what else was she supposed to do.
She couldn't let Sunny stay in the Dream Realm with her. So even if Sunny ended up hating her, she was alright with that as long as he survived.
At least that was what she had tried to tell herself after the Crimson Spire. Yet the other feeling rising in her heart every time she opened up his runes had led her to realize something about herself. She was hopelessly in love with Sunny.
That's why she couldn't let him go. She knew Sunny was avoiding her, but she couldn't accept that. She needed to apologize for enslaving him and forcing him to leave her. She couldn't let their relationship end like this.
Nephis knew how hypocritical she looked, forcing Sunny to leave her and then when he did avoid her, searching for him and insisting that he stay by her side.
It didn't make any sense, and no doubt Sunny would believe that, but she didn't care. She was in love and gods know love did not make any sense either.
This love of hers scared her more than a little. She had always been so driven and determined to accomplish her goals, and she had believed she would have sacrificed anything in pursuit of them.
That was until the Crimson Spire, and she realized she could not sacrifice Sunny. For the first time she had found herself wavering when it came to progressing towards her goal.
She had known that staying in the Dream Realm any longer would not only be immensely dangerous but would also slow down her pursuit of strength. Yet she had chosen to stay behind anyway because the alternative of sacrificing Sunny simply wasn't possible for her.
Nephis looked down at Cassie who was still sobbing into her chest and asked, "Where's Sunny?" with all her usual emotional tact.
Cassie looked up at Nephis and she could instantly tell her blind friend was not happy about her attention not being on her and the one on her mind was Sunny instead despite Cassie sobbing against her, not that Nephis really cared.
Something was odd here though. 'Why is Cassie alive?', Nephis had been sure that Sunny would kill Cassie immediately the second he returned from the Forgotten Shore.
If she thought that would happen one might have called Nephis cruel for having told Sunny that Cassie had betrayed him. Yet it was quite the opposite. She had told Sunny about Cassie's betrayal in her own weird way of compassion. She knew the pain of having her clan and family betrayed while being left in the dark about the culprit. So, she simply didn't want to put Sunny through the same horrible experience after how badly she had hurt him already.
Which was why she was so sure that Sunny would kill Cassie. The blind traitor was essentially helpless in front of Sunny's wrath. Yet he stopped himself for a reason that was beyond Nephis.
She was sure that if she was in Sunny's shoes she would have killed Cassie without hesitating for even a second.
Nephis might not have done it intentionally but maybe she had told him about Cassie's betrayal because she wanted Sunny to understand her. After Sunny had left her in the Dark City, she realized he simply couldn't relate to her thirst for revenge.
Perhaps it was her own misguided way of trying to relate to Sunny.
Neither Effie nor Kai seemed to know anything about Sunny's whereabouts and based on how they both turned their gazes to Cassie, she knew where she would get her answers from.
Cassie wouldn't look Nephis in the eye as she said, "He told me about your bond and said he was going to leave to preserve what little freedom he had left."
Nephis didn't like how Cassie wouldn't meet her gaze as she frowned. The blind girl was acting strange.
Effie and Kai wore similar confused expressions as Effie turned to Nephis and asked "What bond are you talking about? What's with Sunny avoiding you to preserve his freedom?"
Nephis looked at Effie and Kai then sighed. She really didn't want to have this conversation, but it seemed like Cassie had forced her into a corner.
"It's not my place to share. If you want to know you'd have to ask Sunny. Wait maybe don't do that or ask him if he would mind telling you."
She found it strange that neither Effie nor Kai seemed to question her strange wording there at the end, so she asked. "Did Sunny tell you his Flaw?"
Receiving a nod from both of them Nephis frowned. She was starting to become a little jealous of all the time the members of her cohort got to spend with Sunny. That's when a thought started to worm its way into Nephis' head.
'Did Sunny spare Cassie because he loves her?', the thought started to make her seethe internally.
She tried to calm herself down. She doubted that could be true. If anything, Sunny probably saw Cassie as something more akin to a little sister. Well at least he probably saw her that way until he learned of her betrayal.
Still a glare must have made its way onto her face as Cassie finally got off of her and returned to her chair with a pained expression on her face.
Nephis tried to soften her gaze and asked Cassie again "Where's Sunny?", the seer must have been a little frightened by her glare earlier as she responded quickly.
"I last saw him in the outskirts. I haven't been able to find him since and he hasn't appeared in any visions. He must be using some kind of memory that blocks divination."
Nephis' face turned contemplative as she said, "I need to see Sunny there something we need to talk about."
She knew she was ill equipped with the necessary abilities and knowledge to find Sunny by herself, so she had to take charge of her cohort again to find Sunny at all costs.
"After the Crimson Spire I started to question how well I ever really knew Sunny at all. He's always kept so much about himself close to his chest. Hell for most of the Forgotten Shore I was convinced he was a spy sent by the legacy clans to kill me.", Nephis said with a sad smile.
Seeing Sunny's runes had been the greatest shock of Nephis' life. Who would have thought that the person she believed was the biggest liar she knew had a Flaw that prevented him from telling a single lie. Not to mention finding out about his "Divine" aspect.
She had thought that her Flaw was cruel but seeing Sunny's Flaw in combination with his innate ability had made her feel glad that she didn't get anything worse.
Nephis had become convinced that Sunny was the best in the world when it came to working around a Flaw.
Hell, when it came to Sunny sometimes his Flaw didn't even see like a detriment rather, he wielded it like a weapon of deceit.
She was determined to learn more about the man she loved and to come to understand him not only so she could find him but also because she couldn't stand knowing so little about him anymore. How fitting that the most mysterious person she knew shared a connection to both the nebulous daemon Weaver and the god of mysteries Shadow god.
Luckily, she knew just where to start her investigation into Sunny. First of all, she had to find out if Sunny had any girlfriends after he returned from the Forgotten shore.
'There it is.' was all Sunny could think of as he felt his gut being pierced by an arrow. He knew the consequences of his good luck were bound to catch up with him as he waited for the sucker punch that [Fated] was bound to send his way.
Fortunately, he was sent flying by the impact from the arrow. This served to create some distance from the archer which was advantageous for him because of multiple factors.
It would become harder for the archer to hit him as the distance increases, now that they had him wounded they might want to approach him to finish the job, and he needed to find something to use as cover from their arrows, and considering he saw no suitable cover in front of him being launched backwards may help him reaching some.
Sunny hit the ground and groaned hoarsely as he could feel the arrow being pressed further into him. He didn't have time to let himself recover as he hurriedly scanned the terrain around him for something he could use as cover.
That's when he saw the skeleton of a massive serpent lying not too far from him. He shadow stepped behind the skull of the serpent and let himself lean against the bones.
'This is gonna hurt like hell.', he mustered his resolve before yanking the arrow out of his gut with one quick motion and did his best to muffle his scream.
Thankfully, Sunny was much stronger than the last time he had a wound to the gut. He had the body of a Master now and Blood Weave had also been strengthened after he consumed Shadow God's lineage. So, although he didn't have the [Unbroken] enchantment from the Midnight Shard to help him, he would still survive a wound like this that would have been fatal for most.
He began to focus on his Shadow Sense trying to sense the approach of any arrows or the mysterious archer themselves.
Sunny didn't know what came over him but guided by some kind of terrible premonition he summoned the [Undying Chain].
Just as the last sparks of the summoned armor fell into place, he could feel his hair being grabbed as a cold gaze traveled over him. Somehow the archer managed to sneak up on him despite his Shadow Sense having spread out within a radius of several kilometers around Sunny.
All Sunny heard was "I'm tired of you coming back to life bastard. If this does not kill you then I give up on this wild goose chase the seers sent me on. It's been thousands of years it should be about damn time I retire anyway. Well third times the charm as they say.", as he felt a dagger pierce his chest.