Chapter Summary: Summary at the end note to avoid spoilers.
-------------------------------------------
Thunder rumbled above as they clashed again.
Sunny's odachi met Nephis' blade again in a shower of sparks that briefly lit the rain between them, carving fleeting silhouettes out of the darkness before the light was swallowed whole by the storm once more.
The impact sent a shockwave through the soaked earth beneath their feet, bending the grass flat and scattering sheets of water into the air. Neither of them yielded even a step, and for a brief, disorienting moment, Sunny found himself thinking how absurdly familiar this was, as though they had been transported to the past.
And in a sick way, they had.
He had been running ever since he left the Dream Realm.
Running from his thoughts, from his fears, from his own treacherous mind.
Running from choices he refused to make. No, from choices he was afraid to make.
And now, reality had finally caught up to him.
Nephis pressed forward, her sword slipping past his guard with surgical precision, forcing him to twist away just enough for the edge to graze his side. Sunny retaliated immediately, shadows surging from beneath him like a tide, but even as Nephis stepped back to avoid them, he felt that something was wrong.
Nephis moved with flawless precision, each strike deliberate, each defense perfect, yet there was hesitation behind every action.
What was she playing at? Did her plan require feigning weakness? Was she giving him a false sense of security? Leading him into a trap?
Whatever it was that she planned, he wouldn't allow it to happen.
Sunny pressed harder.
Their weapons collided again and again, the rhythm of their exchange growing faster, more violent, until the rain itself seemed to blur into streaks of silver light around them. He expanded his control over the shadows. Chains coiled around her legs in critical moments, spikes stabbed into her feet whenever she took a step, and shadowed weapons struck at her whenever they had the chance.
Sunny was gaining ground.
Step by step, strike by strike, he was forcing her back, opening new vulnerabilities, each clash easier than the last.
Whatever she was planning, it must have been truly devious if she really needed to pretend so much.
Nephis lunged again, white flames trailing behind her blade like a comet cutting through storm clouds, and Sunny met her advance head-on, their weapons colliding with enough force to make the air shudder around them. He twisted around her follow-up strike, slipping just inside her reach and countering with a brutal diagonal cut that forced her to disengage.
When she retaliated, he noticed it immediately. It was a feint, leaving open a vulnerability in her posture that would be heavily punished if he were foolish enough to target it.
Sunny did just that, fully intending to fall for her trap so that he could spring his own.
His odachi shifted mid-swing, abandoning the previous strike and redirecting toward the point where her defense would weaken minutely, his mind filled with anticipation for the moment Nephis would redirect so that he could do the same...
Except that there was no trap.
Just a single, unguarded instant of vulnerability as Sunny's strike followed through, cutting deep into her chest.
It felt almost... easy.
Easy...
Nephis staggered back slightly, and Sunny moved again before the realization fully settled in. There was no hesitation in his actions, no second thoughts; his arm moved, and the odachi was already flying before the thought had a chance to begin forming.
His odachi came for her throat with brutal precision, aiming to end the duel and her life all in one go.
Nephis reacted instantly. Her blade snapped upward toward his chest for a lethal blow of her own.
Sunny did not attempt to parry, nor did he attempt to block, evade, or take any other action of the sort.
What he did was to dismiss his weapon. The odachi dissolved into shadows mid-motion, collapsing into nothing as he halted his own movement entirely, refusing even the instinct to step back.
Nephis' blade stopped a hair's breadth from his chest, so close he could feel the blistering heat of her flames against his skin.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
The rain continued to fall between them, slow and heavy, as though the world itself were weeping.
Sunny stared at her. He took in her battered armor, the already closed wound on her chest, the soul-wrecking pain visible behind her eyes, and the way she was holding her sword.
Then he gritted his teeth.
"You are not trying."
Nephis did not try to deny it. "I am not."
Lightning split the sky above them, bathing the world in light just long enough to see his own battered form in the reflection of her eyes.
"Why?" he asked.
She looked at him then, with those infuriatingly honest and understanding eyes of hers. He hated how easily she could see through him, how she always caught on to what he was truly thinking, how she seemed capable of looking at a wretched bastard like him and not feel disgusted.
"You wanted to fight," she answered evenly. "I don't."
Something in Sunny's mind snapped.
The shadows around them began to move, convulsing across the ground as though acting as a conduit for the storm raging inside him.
Sunny closed his eyes and took a slow, heavy breath that felt like dragging razors across his lungs.
When he opened them again, he was glaring at her.
"How benevolent of you." His voice was quiet at first, almost restrained; then it grew in volume. "Look at the grand Changing Star! Even now, she pities her slave too much to kill him! Even now, she acts like she didn't intend to betray him all along!"
Nephis' expression shifted slightly, frustration bleeding through the composure she usually wore like armor.
"What do you want me to do?" she shot back. "Should I try to kill you? Just because a cowardly god said so? The same one who used us and couldn't even be bothered to say thank you? Do you truly believe me to be that cruel? That callous? That evil?"
Sunny remained silent for a long moment as words refused to come out despite the building pressure of his flaw.
"No," he said at last. "No to all of the latter."
His fists closed so tightly it hurt.
"As for your first question..." He hesitated briefly, as though the words were heavier than mountains. In the end, he managed to force them out. "I want you to fight me. Really fight. Not this play-pretend you've been doing so far."
For the first time, Nephis' expression broke. Her perfect, stone-like, emotionless mask broke completely, revealing what she felt beneath. And yet, Sunny felt no triumph at the feat.
Ever since he had known her, Sunny had always thought of Nephis as both the unstoppable force and the immovable wall that no one and nothing could affect.
And now, seeing the vulnerability on her face, the sheer anguish radiating from her... it broke his heart.
He hated himself and her for that.
"Why?" she asked, her voice almost cracking midway through the word. "Why do we have to fight? Why should it be inevitable when neither of us wants this?"
Sunny let out a humorless chuckle, hating himself even more for the fact that he couldn't refute her words.
"Might as well get it over with now," he said lightly, almost casually, as though he didn't feel like he was breaking apart. "Your betrayal, I mean."
Silence followed his words.
He noticed her eyes briefly catching the light in a way that made them seem wetter than they should. He told himself it was the rain.
"You don't trust me," she said a moment later. "Nothing I can say will convince you of my intentions."
Sunny shrugged faintly.
"Would you trust me if you were in my position?"
Nephis dragged a hand across her face, and the wetness disappeared from her eyes.
"No, I guess not. But I would like to."
A smirk he didn't feel drew itself across his lips.
"There you have it."
Nephis exhaled slowly, and the sound almost broke his heart all over again.
"Merias only gave you an excuse, didn't he?"
Sunny was silent for only a second before nodding.
"It was inevitable."
He was surprised by his own voice, distant and dejected, as though it belonged to someone else. To someone who finally had the courage to say out loud what he didn't dare even think.
"It has been great, hasn't it?" he mused aloud, the smirk turning into something softer, almost joyful and fond. "I had some of the best moments of my life ever since I returned, and yet I hated all of it."
Despite how much he wanted to, no light-hearted chuckle followed his words. Neither was a snarky comment nor an attempt at lightening the mood.
All along, this moment had been inevitable. Sunny's very nature made it so.
"The only thing we have done so far is live a beautiful lie, when we should have faced the ugly truth from the very beginning." He continued, each word quieter than the last.
Nephis closed her eyes mournfully, and when she opened them again, whatever hesitation had lingered was gone.
"Do you truly want this?" she asked one final time, her voice straining to stay composed. "This fight?"
Sunny did not answer immediately.
The rain filled the silence between them, steadily falling upon them as though the world itself wanted to echo how he felt inside.
When he finally spoke, his voice trembled slightly despite his efforts to steady it.
"I'm not sure," he admitted. Then, after a pause that felt far longer than it should have, he added, "What I am sure about is that I will regret it forever if I don't do this."
Sunny squared his shoulders, straightened his back, drew a confident smile across his face, and raised the odachi challengingly.
"Fight me, here and now. Give me everything you have, every ounce of your strength, of your skill, of that damned conviction you are so proud of." He paused, steadying himself one final time. "I will never forgive you if you don't."
Nephis looked at him for a long time, a thousand thoughts seeming to pass through her mind. In the end, she nodded resolutely, gripping her sword so tightly that the hilt started to bend under the pressure, her face already set back into the same composed mask she always wore.
"Then come, Lost from Light. Fight me to your heart's content, if you want," she said softly.
Sunny smiled sincerely, joyfully, desperately.
And then, he moved.
Shadows surged outward as his body began to swell, shadow after shadow coalescing upon his form until he became a shadow colossus, towering over the lithe form of the woman he hated and loved at the same time.
Within the same heartbeat, her form unraveled, turning from a woman into an ocean of fire and then into a colossus of white flame that answered his strike with one of her own.
The two colossal figures collided with enough force to send ripples through the storm.
Shadow and flame crashed against one another above the Ivory Tower, neither yielding ground despite the shockwaves unleashed by the clash. Sunny felt the impact reverberate through every part of his transformed body, yet did not have time to fixate on that fact.
Instead, he found himself focusing on the fact that even now, after everything that had happened and all he had been through, Nephis still felt like an insurmountable peak.
It was infuriating.
He had more abilities. More versatility. More tricks. More experience fighting opponents vastly stronger than himself. Yet every time their attacks met, every time shadow collided with flame, he was reminded of a simple truth he had long since learned yet found difficult to accept.
Nephis did not need tricks. If she decided she would advance, she would do so, and woe to those who dared stand in her way.
Sunny retreated before the next exchange could happen, his enormous body dissolving into a tide of shadows that swept backward through the sky. At the same time, countless weapons emerged from them. Spears, swords, javelins, axes, arrows, all forged from shadows and compressed into lethal shapes in such numbers that the very rain seemed sparse in comparison.
He unleashed them the moment they finished forming, and the sky, impossible as it sounded, turned even blacker.
A torrent of shadow-forged weapons descended upon Nephis from every direction at once, each carrying enough force to kill Nightmare Creatures of the Corrupted Rank.
Nephis answered with fire. White flames erupted from her body like a miniature sun being born amidst the storm.
The shadows were consumed almost instantly. Entire volleys disappeared before reaching her, reduced to minuscule wisps by the merciless heat of her Aspect.
Sunny did not stop even for a moment.
He continued summoning weapon after weapon, flooding the battlefield with an endless barrage intended to overwhelm her through sheer volume, if nothing else. It was not a sophisticated strategy, nor did he truly expect it to succeed. What he needed was pressure. Openings. Opportunities. Anything.
The skies flashed repeatedly as lightning illuminated the battle. Through those brief moments of radiant clarity, Sunny caught glimpses of Nephis moving through the storm like a living star. Every weapon that reached her was destroyed. Every opening was covered. Every attack was answered.
As the battle continued, both of them climbed higher and higher into the sky, abandoning the ground entirely. The Ivory Tower diminished beneath them until it looked insignificant compared to the vast storm surrounding them.
Sunny abandoned the colossus form. She had learned to fight it too well for it to be worth keeping. Instead, shadows gathered around him once more, twisting and stretching until a new body emerged.
This time, he resembled a gigantic bird, with wings vast enough to eclipse entire clouds and a serrated beak made for tearing apart flesh and bone. The moment the transformation finished, Sunny folded his wings and dove.
The air exploded around him in response to his speed.
Nephis raised her sword just in time, blocking his shadowed beak from piercing straight through the white flame colossus's head. The collision that followed created a shockwave powerful enough to tear apart the surrounding clouds, briefly bringing the relentless rain to a stop.
Sunny attacked again and again, with his beak, body, and talons in a frenzied fury that paled only before the one raging inside him.
Even as his beak snapped forward repeatedly, each strike carrying enough force to pulverize mountains, Nephis endured them all, adapting to his every move just a little slower than he adapted to hers.
When she finally retaliated, taking advantage of a slight delay caused by his lack of experience with the form, a lance of white fire pierced straight through one of his wings.
Sunny abandoned the form before it could begin crumbling, directing the remaining shadows into a new shape. Smaller, leaner, yet just as cruel. What emerged was a hulking creature with long claws and a body that seemed almost made of obsidian, reflecting the lightning strikes in unsettling ways.
He lunged even before the transformation ended, slashing savagely at the larger colossus, rending her form even faster than she could restore the damage.
For a while, the transformation proved more effective. Nephis was forced onto the defensive, meeting claw strikes with sword blows while avoiding the countless shadows Sunny continued weaving into the battle.
Then she adapted, like she always did, and that advantage was lost until they were once again locked in a stalemate.
Sunny committed a mistake, a single mistake, and yet it was enough for a gigantic sword wreathed in white flames to pierce his chest and explode outward with enough force to damage his real self, buried beneath countless layers of shadow beneath the shell.
He teleported out of danger before the damage could extend any further, but that did nothing to alleviate the burning pain coursing through his body and soul.
A moment later, he reemerged on the Ivory Tower and looked up.
Nephis' transformation turned her into a sight worthy of legend. A giant of white flame, shaped into the form of a knight, wielding a sword as tall as a mountain and bearing a pair of burning eyes that felt as though they could sear his very existence away if he gazed into them for too long.
And meanwhile, here he was, down on the ground, a simple slave destined to be nothing more than her obedient shadow.
Sunny found himself smiling at the sheer absurdity of it all.
After so much blood, sweat, and tears -and after almost two years spent in hell- he still fell short of her.
Was that his fate? To always be lesser? A shadow cast by someone else and incapable of existing on its own?
More shadows poured out of the [Shadow Lantern] like a tide of ink, pooling beneath his feet as he started growing once more.
Who decided that?
His body lengthened, expanded, and scales blacker than the shadows that made them grew over him.
Was he meant to lose this fight? Destined to learn his place here and now and meekly follow her lead?
The sky itself appeared to darken as a gigantic serpent emerged amidst the storm clouds, its body winding through the heavens for hundreds of meters.
Who decided that?
Was he meant to die here, despite what Merias said? Still a slave? Still bound by the countless chains binding him?
Sunny opened his mouth and let out a roar that shook the storm and made the sky itself vibrate.
Who decided that?
He hadn't, and that was the only thing he cared about.
The transformation settled over him with natural ease, as though he had always been meant to take it upon himself. The Bird had felt like a shape he assumed. The Clawed Beast had felt like a weapon. But the Serpent? The Serpent felt just right.
Something important clicked into place somewhere deep within his mind.
He did not pay it any mind before pouncing faster than any of his shells had ever moved, coil after coil unfolding as he wrapped himself around the fire giant and, ignoring the searing pain, bit deep into its neck.
Sunny fought to keep himself constricted around Nephis, endured the immense blazing pain as the heat kept rising long past the point he thought reasonable, and most of all, fought against that tiny voice in the back of his mind telling him that he was not enough. That he would never be.
Who decided that?
The storm continued to rage around them as the fight continued.
Sunny's serpentine body clashed hundreds of times against Nephis' fire giant, neither of them yielding a single step nor showcasing the slightest hesitation.
Eventually, however, reality asserted itself. No matter how powerful they had become, neither of them possessed infinite essence.
Sunny had already been low before the battle started, and as much as the [Ring of Sorrow] helped, it couldn't keep him going endlessly as a Saint as it could when he was a Sleeper.
Their battle descended toward the ground little by little, their forms growing smaller with each exchange until they were back in their human forms. The fight wasn't done yet, and they had to be frugal with what was left.
Despite the exhaustion heavily draped over both of them, the duel continued on the ground without pause. If anything, it became even more dangerous.
Neither of them could hide behind a monstrous form or the might of their Aspect anymore, which left nothing except skill to decide it all.
Sunny, to his chagrin, immediately found himself under pressure.
Every movement Nephis made carried an unbearable sense of power, given more weight by the power of her Will. A slash barely blocked turned into a wall of steel. Grazing blows became deep wounds instead of scratches. She moved faster than she should. He moved more slowly than he should.
Sunny blocked, countered, and adapted.
Yet he still found himself yielding ground.
Eventually, he decided that the perfect chance he was looking for wouldn't arrive.
Sunny deliberately overextended during one exchange, creating an opening that instantly drew Nephis' attention. The moment she committed to exploiting it, a shadow behind her stirred.
Saint emerged in all of her dark glory.
Her armor was cracked in countless places, ruby dust pouring out of her in a steady, harrowing flow. And still, the taciturn shadow stepped from the darkness faster than he had ever seen her, ruby eyes glowing with all the enthusiasm of a child being handed a long-awaited gift.
Without hesitation, the knight slammed her shield directly into Nephis' back.
The impact echoed across the battlefield amidst a cacophony of breaking bones. She had managed to react just in time, turning what could have been a crippling blow into 'just' a broken arm.
Sunny attacked immediately when she staggered, followed close behind by Saint.
Against their impeccable teamwork, Nephis could do nothing but give ground step by step, her arm already restoring itself under the radiance of her white flames.
He refused to acknowledge just how much pain she must have been in as she did so.
Saint kept attacking relentlessly, her sword and shield working in perfect harmony with Sunny's own strikes. Together, they pushed Nephis across the soaked battlefield, forcing her to defend against attacks coming from multiple directions at once.
Just as victory seemed at hand, Saint's previous injuries started catching up to her.
Every movement had become fractionally slower, every defense slightly weaker.
Nephis noticed it too, for she deliberately allowed one of Saint's attacks to land and carve deep into her side. Within the same heartbeat, Nephis retaliated with terrifying force. In her diminished form, the stone woman wouldn't be fast enough to dodge.
Sunny dismissed her before it could land, and the taciturn shadow crumbled back into the darkness, trying and failing to land one final attack before she disappeared.
Despite how much he wished to stop, and how much he could see that Nephis wished it too, they continued without pause.
The duel returned to being one against one, a dance of shadows and fire under a never-ending storm.
Before long, the truth made itself clear once more, as Sunny felt his odachi start threatening to dissolve in his hands as the last of his essence nearly ran dry.
At the same time, Nephis' flames dimmed, flickering precariously as she was faced with the same problem.
For a moment, they simply stared at one another through the rain. Two people, exhausted, hurting, soaked to the bone.
Sunny felt it once more. The temptation to stop right there and then, go back to pretending, delay once more, and let it be his future self's problem.
He let out a self-deprecating chuckle at that thought and spent the final trickle of essence he possessed.
A short blade appeared in his hand. Not an odachi, but a tachi. A Memory he had received from the flock and whose name he hadn't even bothered learning.
His final weapon.
His final chance.
Nephis looked at him, a simple question running through her beautiful eyes.
"Do we have to?"
Sunny smiled sadly and nodded.
They lunged at each other within the same breath, blade against blade as they pushed against one another.
Without any essence left or the aid of their Aspects, the fight felt closer, more intimate. Like this, it felt less like a bloody duel to the death and more like a dance. A dance in which only one of them would remain standing by the end.
Steel rang against steel in a swift, steady cadence.
Distantly, as he blocked yet another crushing blow, he noticed the smell of salt in the air.
As he stepped back from a slash, only to still be cut despite being millimeters beyond the edge, he felt as though the ground beneath him was shaking.
When he kicked her in the stomach and against the wall of the tower, instead of white stone, he saw red coral.
Sunny stepped closer still, his tachi searching for her throat, only to be met in a deadlock that ended when she kicked him back. He did not blink, and yet her armor became a black bodysuit covered by plates of gleaming white metal.
Without even realizing it, he screamed and fought harder, bringing up the [Midnight Shard] to strike directly at her throat.
Nephis blocked with the [Dream Blade], the edge of his tachi sliding along her blade until it hit the handguard. She punched him then, the impact strong enough to make his teeth feel loose.
He returned the favor with a headbutt that left her nose a bloody mess. It did not heal.
Sunny did not find joy in that fact.
The only thing he felt was a building pressure in the back of his mind, like his head was a kettle on the verge of blowing its lid.
"You only had to ask," he whispered against his will when their blades locked against each other's.
Nephis' eyes remained fixed on him, no emotion bleeding through her composed expression.
Another slash to the throat ended up blocked, too. And he was only fast enough to avoid her retaliation by a fraction of a second.
"You only had to ask, and I would have stayed with you," he continued, the words pouring out unbidden.
Nephis' graceful movements stalled for a fraction of a second, long enough for the pommel of his tachi to land against her battered chestplate. He found no satisfaction in the harrowing sound of cracking bones.
She recovered too quickly, and his follow-up strike failed.
The same smell assaulted his nostrils again, stronger now. Salt, stagnant water, and despair.
"Do you have any idea how stupid I felt?" he continued, bending to avoid her sword. "I thought myself the master of lies and deception, and I couldn't see you coming."
Nephis remained silent.
"I lost count of how many hours I spent dreaming of the ways I would take revenge. In the way, I would make you suffer until even you would beg me to stop."
Nephis remained silent.
"And yet, somehow, in this sick, broken thing I call a mind, I found a way to still care about you. I wondered what you were doing, if you were well, if you had someone to stop you from diving headfirst into the first sign of danger you found."
Nephis remained silent.
"I hate you," he said so vehemently that the words seemed to hang in the air as though they were physical, the slash that would cut her neck apart diverted at the last moment.
Nephis remained silent.
"I hate you," he repeated.
They drew closer still, their blades rendered useless at such close range. They punched at each other, kicked. Sunny even tried to bite her when she got too close.
"I hate the way you make me feel."
She answered with a headbutt of her own, and Sunny, even as he started seeing stars, tackled her to the ground. They started wrestling there and there, their weapons all but forgotten on the ground as each of them sought dominion.
Sadly, he had committed a terrible mistake. The fact that she was taller and, as such, had a bigger reach proved too decisive a factor. He barely managed to disentangle himself and spring back to his feet before she could completely subdue him.
Nephis got up a moment later, a light limp the only show of weakness she allowed herself.
They dove toward their discarded weapons at the same time, and the duel resumed.
"I hate that I still care about you."
Like a broken dam, the words kept pouring out no matter how much he tried to stop them. They came out when their blades locked against each other, when they stepped close, when they drew away, when he fought to regain his breath.
"I hate how happy I was to see you again."
Tachi collided against the sword, slipping minutely through her guard for a tiny, inconsequential scratch. A victorious smile still threatened to form on his face.
He had to savour every little victory. Otherwise, he would have to admit just how much he hated them. Or just how much he hated seeing Nephis in so much pain.
"I hate you."
So why couldn't he stop feeling like he was breaking apart every time he attacked her?
The ground shook beneath him, debris rained around them, walls of red coral drew closer before his very eyes, and still they fought.
Eventually, the decisive moment arrived as an opening appeared in Nephis' guard, so infinitesimally small he was sure it was not a feint.
Sunny took it without hesitation, his blade shooting forward at the same time Nephis moved, her sword arcing so swiftly it was nothing but a silver blur in his eyes.
Yet instead of defending where the attack was aimed, she defended her throat, right where he was actually aiming. The tachi rebounded off her sword, which continued unimpeded.
Sunny staggered when pain exploded through his chest as a sword protruded from his lung. Soon enough, the taste of blood filled his mouth, its coppery tang one he was far too familiar with.
He coughed violently and stared at Nephis in disbelief. She returned his gaze with eyes filled with sorrow.
For a moment, neither moved.
She did not speak, but her eyes said it all. "You always aim for the throat."
A weak, sad smile appeared on Sunny's face at the same time the tachi disappeared from his fingers.
His knees buckled beneath him, sending him toppling toward the ground.
Nephis caught him before he could fall completely, her sword already dismissed, and lowered herself to the ground beside him, supporting his weight while rain continued falling around them.
For a few endless seconds, neither spoke.
Then Sunny slowly raised a hand, his fingers moving up as if to softly caress her face. She leaned closer, not making any effort to guard against him.
Then Nephis froze, and a small gasp escaped her lips.
The [Moonlight Shard] was protruding from her chest. Just a little more to the right, and it would have pierced her heart.
Sunny's smile turned sadder still. "And you are too trusting of me."
Nephis toppled to the ground, the exhaustion and injuries she had taken too much even for her to resist any longer. He caught her without meaning to, his free arm moving before he could think twice to cushion her fall.
He found himself kneeling beside her prone form, stubborn defiance the only thing keeping him from joining her on the ground. Slowly, with more effort than he thought himself capable of, he moved the stiletto to her neck.
A single twitch, and she would die.
But he knew that wasn't going to happen. Any moment now, she would speak at last and order him to stop.
She would have yet another moment of weakness, as she claimed to, and he would be just as helpless to stop her as he had been the last time.
He braced himself, preparing to strike the moment she so much as twitched.
Lightning struck above, and rain continued to fall heavily as Sunny waited for it to happen.
It didn't.
Nephis mouth remained shut, and she made no sign of changing that.
"What are you doing?" He asked, then coughed violently as the pain in his chest flared up.
She remained silent.
"Won't you order me to stop?" He wheezed, finding it harder to breathe by the moment.
Lightning striked.
"It's just one word. You might even be quick enough to get it off in time."
Rain continued to fall.
"You already did it before. It should be even easier now."
The wind blew.
"Do it!" He demanded.
And still she remained silent.
"What are you waiting for?"
Not a word.
She only looked at him. With those infuriatingly honest, understanding eyes of hers.
Her words echoed clearly through his mind.
"Nothing I can say will convince you of my intentions."
Was this her plan?
It only took a look at her for understanding to settle in.
She wasn't going to order him. In fact, not a single word would come out of her mouth until he made his choice.
Nephis, the absolute mad woman, was ready to die if that's what it took.
Her ambitions, her desire for revenge, she was ready to stake it all on the line, if that meant keeping her promise.
The blade pressed tighter, almost enough to break skin.
She did not say a word.
A small droplet of blood dripped along the edge of the blade, and still she did not make a single sound.
The decision was his and his alone.
The moment he had been running from all this time was finally here.
No more delaying.
No more lying to himself.
The choice he made today could not be taken back.
He felt his heartbeat increase as the ground shook even harder beneath him. The walls of red coral kept closing in on him little by little, so close already that he felt like he was being suffocated by them.
Sunny's grip on the [Moonlight Shard] tightened, fighting to keep it still despite his trembling hands.
"Say something." He demanded.
Nephis didn't.
"Anything."
Lightning rumbled again.
"Please, say something."
The smell of salt grew overwhelming.
"I don't know what to do." He whispered.
She did not say anything.
Rain kept falling, and lightning kept striking.
He was lost, well and truly lost.
He had been running from this very choice for so long that he didn't even know how to stop anymore.
It was in his very nature, and something he had learned to follow religiously ever since he was a child fighting for survival on the outskirts. When someone struck at you, you struck back twice as hard. It was the only way to avoid becoming prey in that cruel world.
A lesson as brutal as it was simple.
He had followed that mindset for so long that he couldn't even remember a time when he didn't.
The decision should have been crystal clear.
Kill Nephis. Free himself. Break the chains that smothered him, that reminded him of just how weak, helpless, and pathetic he was at every moment.
Just a twitch of his wrist, and she would be dead.
So why?
Why couldn't he do it?
What was it that made him doubt even now?
He loved Nephis.
Loved her awkwardness and that face she made when he called her crazy. Loved the fact that she didn't need any reason besides wanting to do something to do so. The fact that she had taught him how to be strong on his own. That she had accepted a wretched liar like himself when all common sense should have made her stay clear.
Loved her conviction, as much as it infuriated him, the very same that made her kept walking forward when he would have stood still and cowered instead. Loved that she had taken care of Rain, even though he would never admit it, when nothing forced her. That she took care of his own sleeping body.
But most of all, he loved the way she looked at him. Like he, he, was worth something. Like he deserved to be more than just an outskirt rat.
And yet, was that enough? Enough to make him doubt even now?
The answer came to him right at that moment, so simple he didn't know if to laugh or if to cry.
He didn't want to.
He could kill Nephis. Kill Cassie, next. Kill everyone who slighted him in the smallest of ways. Forget about Rain. Close his heart forever. Never allow anyone to come close so that there wouldn't be a risk of his True Name being found out again.
Sunny didn't need anyone but himself and his shadows. The company was appreciated but not needed for survival. The desire for love and company was a weakness that had led him to no end of trouble and suffering.
Yes, he could run away to a secluded region of the Dream Realm. Where no one would ever find him again. Where no one would ever hurt him.
It would be peaceful, safe, but most importantly, completely and utterly… pathetic.
He wouldn't be Lost from Light anymore, but Lost from Everything.
And for what? Just because he was afraid? Because he would rather run away forever than risk being hurt?
He didn't want that. Not at all.
What had he told Eirene?
He wanted to live.
And this? The farce he had been living all along? The way he had pretended that he could delay endlessly? The way he flip-flopped constantly? Desiring Nephis one moment and hating her next? How he lied to himself?
That… that wasn't living.
In a way, it was even worse than his life before the Spell.
The realization was followed by another one.
He had already made his choice. He had made it all the way back when he didn't take advantage of Nephis' reticence to fight in order to kill her.
And he had made it again when he went out of his way so as not to hit anything critical with the [Moonlight Shard]. Just like how he would make it countless more, even if he kept refusing to admit what was obvious.
The walls of red coral stopped just as they were close to crushing him, starting to draw away instead.
Sunny was a filthy, shameless liar. And nobody was more of a victim of that than himself.
The ground stopped shaking beneath him.
His choice had been made all along, but he had refused to accept it.
Debris stopped falling, and the smell of salt left him at last.
The stilleto disappeared from his grasp, and Sunny allowed himself to flop down beside Nephis, all remaining strength already expended.
He was silent for a long time as he looked toward the endless storm, toward the lightning and the rain that hadn't stopped for a single moment. Just like how the storm inside himself never did.
Time went by, seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into what felt like hours.
"I cannot forgive you." He whispered at last. "What I went through, the scars it left… It's not something I can forget."
From the corner of his eye, he noticed Nephis shuffling closer with great difficulty, just enough for their shoulders to touch.
"I hate you."
"I know." She spoke at last.
"I cannot forgive you." He repeated.
"I know."
"But I think…" His voice broke; his every instinct screamed at him to shut up. "…I think I love you more, and I want to try."
His hand found hers, and he squeezed with all of the strength he had recovered.
"I love you too." She said softly.
Sunny's eyes closed, the endless war waged between love and hate deep inside still without an end in sight. And yet, for the first time, it looked like one side took the advantage.
"Among the many terrible choices you have made." A faint, wry smile drew itself across his lips. "That might just be the worst of all of them."
"I can say the same to you." She replied softly.
Sunny laughed, an action he regretted immediately after when the wound in his chest reminded him of its existence.
"Guess we might actually be fated."
Sunny did his best to ignore the oddly judgmental stare she gave him. It hadn't been that bad, had it?
Far into the horizon, beyond the endless black clouds, blinding lightning, and heavy rain, the sun, ever so faintly, started to shine through.
Their journey through the Stormsea was over at last.