A/N: Make sure to read the updated ver. of ch 4.
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The Dark city was mostly a city of ruins, many of the buildings were entirely collapsed and only a few were barely standing. Structures like the cathedral, that were in a relatively good condition, were extremely rare.
Sunny stood on the roof of a half collapsed building, which might have been a house one day, and looked around.
At first glance, the city was the same as always, unchanging from the day he first stepped into it, except for the collapse of some building during bloody battles between Nightmare creatures.
But there was something odd that only someone like Sunny, who had spent months here, could notice.
The city was now completely and eerily quiet, devoid of howls and roars. It was as if someone had eradicated all the life and turned this place into a ghost city.
Sunny closed his eyes and basked in the silence. A small proud smile etched on his face.
To think he would one day accomplish such a feat.
His younger self from a year ago would have never believed that he became strong enough to clear an entire city full of Fallen creatures.
...Even if the Nameless Sun had killed and weakened most of the creatures, he also wasn't alone and had a lot of help, and the fact there was still a Fallen Devil that could easily crush him...
STILL, how many sleepers could boast about killing a Fallen creature let alone multiple ones?
And speaking of the Fallen Devil...
Sunny scanned the surroundings, his eyes lingering on a few spots before nodding to himself.
If everything worked as planned, they would become the sole inhabitant of this city today.
He took a deep breath and shifted his perspective to Happy who was monitoring the Devil.
Quite a distance away, towards the north. A figure slithered between ruins seeking its next prey.
Its lower body was that of a giant brown serpent spanning almost 10 meters, the end of its tail was segmented and a shade darker than the rest of its body, forming a peculiar looking organ.
The upper body however was humanoid resembling a female human with completely dark eyes and a wide mouth full of sharp teeth.
When he described it Nephis told him the creature reminded her of Nagas, mythical creatures from legends before the age of the spell, and its tail was similar to a Rattlesnake, a snake that uses its tail to create rattling sound as a warning.
...Sunny didn't know what the fuck were Nagas and Rattlesnakes. However, they did sound cool, especially Rattlesnakes.
Anyway, Nephis theorized that the Devil's ability was most likely related to its tail.
And she was right, after following the Naga, as he decided to name it, for a while, he managed to uncover the Devil's abilities.
Its tail was capable of producing three different sounds with three different effects each.
The first one resembled a high-pitched scream that dealt severe internal damage, disorientation and dizziness, the second was a howl that caused a deep sense of fear and dread to the point where some weak creatures could simply drop dead from horror.
The last one, and the most dangerous in Sunny's opinion, was a gentle melody that caused hallucinations and forgetfulness. This melody almost blew Sunny's cover if it hadn't been for the Puppeteer's shroud which was augmented by Gloomy and Happy at that time.
Sunny shivered as he recalled the incident. But quickly composed himself and started preparing to play his part.
What was Sunny's part you might ask?
Well today for a change, he was actually the bait.
Sunny's mouth twitched as he recalled Happy from its monitoring position, but instead of attaching itself to Sunny's feet it glided past him.
He ran the plan in his mind one last time before deciding to act.
However, he didn't shout to grab the Naga attention.
Just because Sunny believed that the Fallen Devil was the last Nightmare creature alive doesn't mean that was the truth.
Of course their battle would definitely attract the attention of any remaining "neighbors" in the area anyway, that was Sunny's second role: to monitor any incoming variable and assess if he could handle it alone or order retreat.
He also had a way to grab the Devil's attention without hurting his throat.
Standing on the roof, he simply stared at the Naga's slithering form.
Suddenly the figure froze before abruptly twisting and heading straight towards Sunny's position, destroying everything in its path.
Powerful Nightmare creatures could sense whenever someone gaze at them.
It approached rapidly, crushing everything in its path and leaving a trail of dust and rubble in its wake.
Sunny's muscles tensed as the figure of the Naga grew closer, ready to act at any moment.
'Not yet.'
He resisted the instinct to run away and summoned the Prowling Thorn.
'Not yet.'
Finally, when it was close enough, The Naga coiled its body like a spring and leaped high into the air. If it landed on him, it would crush him and the building he was on.
'Now!'
Sunny sprang into action and jumped, but instead of clashing with the Naga, he jumped to the side, away from the Fallen Devil.
Behind him a dark rift suddenly appeared, it looked like as if someone ripped a hole in reality itself. From the rift a flash of light and shadows leaped out, clashing head on with the Naga.
Sunny barely avoided being caught in the clash and landed with a roll, he looked behind him to see the aftermath.
It seemed like the Naga was pushed back and landed on pieces of rubble nearby creating a cloud of dust. Its upper humanoid body rose menacingly from the dust to observe its attacker.
On the other side stood a statue wearing an entirely black armor, which looked like it was cut from obsidian, her body was covered with a dark, radiant flames that contained wisps of darkness.
Light and shadows, the two forces covering the marble statue did not clash, instead they resonated. The light made the darkness deeper, and the darkness made the light more radiant and stark.
In her right hand was a sword made from the same material as her armor, while her left had a shield strapped into it.
The imposing statue raised her shield and hit its rim twice with the edge of her sword, as though challenging the Naga.
It was Saint, augmented by Sunny's shadow and Nephis' flames, who was going to face the Naga.
While he was summoning a new memory, he allowed himself a second to appreciate Saint.
With Her taciturn aloofness hidden behind her helmet and the dark flames illuminating her surroundings, Saint looked like a warrior that walked out of hell to reap the souls of her unfortunate enemies.
...That was technically right since Saint came from the underworld.
At last, the memory Sunny was summoning finally materialized, a charm which looked like a gem made out of polished crimson coral.
Sunny swallowed a groan and immediately threw the Broken Oath towards Saint, who caught it without taking her eyes off the Naga.
At the same moment, the Naga decided to take action. Its massive body sprung forward so fast to the point where Sunny's eyes could hardly keep up.
Yet, Saint skillfully dodged to the side. Her armor had already accommodated the Broken Oath by using the [Underworld Armament].
The Naga let out a pained sound and backed away from the soul-damaging aura emitting from Saint before it could follow with another attack.
Meanwhile, Sunny threw the Prowling Thorn at an exposed pillar of a ruin nearby, the thorn wrapped around the pillar and the string drew tight around his wrist, jerking Sunny's body towards the ruin, far from the battle and the Broken Oath soul damage.
Saint didn't let her enemy get away from the effective radius of Broken Oath, she charged forward, the augmentation of Sunny and Nephis allowing her to keep up with Fallen creatures in terms of speed, strength and durability, and even sometimes surpassing them.
The Naga moved with elegance not fitting its appearance, twisting its body unnaturally and moving between Saint's attacks while trying to keep as much distance as possible.
Broken Oath was an Awakened memory of the first tier, its effect shouldn't be strong enough to make a Fallen creature with four cores in its soul this wary.
But with the Dawn Shard nearby, it was boosted to the Ascended rank. Its soul eroding effect and radius were much more potent and larger.
The Naga let out a shriek, its dark eyes glared at the charging statue warrior as it kept moving around, evading the sharp blade of Saint, but it couldn't get away from the soul-damaging aura.
Agitated by the pain of its soul being eroded, the Naga's tail started shaking rapidly, creating a blur.
A high-pitched scream drowned the battlefield, Sunny grimaced and quickly covered his ears but it didn't help much.
It felt like being rammed by a PTV. He swayed, feeling extremely dizzy, his ears were ringing and he was sure if it wasn't for Blood Weave he would bleeding out of his ears and nose now.
Unlike him, Saint wasn't affected in the slightest, her ruby eyes were still fixed on the Naga, filled with killing intent.
Stalwart Attribute Description: [The Stone Saint is highly resistant to all forms of damage, as well as being fully immune to mind and soul attacks.]
It seemed that the Devil wasn't expecting this as it froze in shock for a second, not expecting its attack to have absolutely no effect, it managed to regain its bearings as quickly and tried to back away from the charging statue warrior.
But it was already too late, that second was enough for Saint to close the gap and slash at the neck of the Naga.
The dark blade bit at the tough neck of the Naga and a stream of blood as dark as the starless night slid into the blade.
Unfortunately, Saint's blade was made from the same material as her armor, an Awakened material. It wasn't also considered a memory so it couldn't benefit from the Dawn Shard.
The blade only managed to cut through a third of the Naga's neck when its tail wrapped around Saint's leg, raising her in the air before slamming down hard, creating a small crater in the ground.
Saint barely managed to stand up when The Devil wrapped its lower snake-like body around her tightly.
After realizing its abilities were useless against the stone warrior, it immediately changed tactics. It was using the strength of its body to immobilize and crush Saint.
However, Saint proved to be a tough nut to crack. Her marble-like body proving to be extremely hard for the Fallen Devil, It would take a lot of time and effort to crush the marble warrior.
And time wasn't something it could spare currently, Saint's body was still emitting the soul-damaging aura, and with most of the Naga's body wrapped around Saint, its soul was eroding even faster.
Saint struggled to free herself. But even her demonic strength amplified by the shadow and light couldn't do anything when her body had no support and locked in place by coils of the Naga's body.
Her ruby eyes were locked into the blade which was still lodged into the Naga's neck. Her eyes never showing fear or nervousness, only the desire to kill her enemies.
Sunny watched all of this unfold from a distance, his face was too calm considering the dire situation Saint was facing.
And why wouldn't he? Everything was unfolding like how he expected.
He noticed while following the Naga that when facing a strong enemy and being pushed into a corner, it would always try to wrap itself and crush its opponent using its powerful snake-like body.
Sunny was mostly worried that the Devil wouldn't approach Saint because of the Broken Oath. Fortunately, that didn't happen.
In this position the Devil sacrificed two of its strongest points to trap its prey, its terrifying agility and speed which allowed it to evade and dance between most attacks.
The Naga was now standing still, its coiled body around Saint preventing it from moving freely, and Neph's flames were illuminating its body.
'Any time now.'
Sunny clenched his hands.
Just because everything was going according to the plan didn't mean he liked it.
He wanted nothing more than to rip the ugly bastard that was trying to crush Saint.
Meanwhile, Saint didn't avert her eyes as the Naga's mouth opened, showing rows of sharp teeth ready to bite her head off.
Suddenly, the Devil sensed another presence on the battlefield. It froze, and quickly turned its head in an unnatural angle towards the new presence.
There, on the roof which Sunny was standing on originally, was the same rift that Saint jumped from. However, this time it was a flash of sunlight that crossed the rift at an incredible speed.
Heading straight to the Naga.
Before it could react, a white arrow surrounded by sunlight had already impaled itself in the soft flesh of the Devil's mouth. The Naga let out a scream from the unimaginable pain of its soul collapsing.
While it was thrashing around in pain, the Naga loosened its crushing grip on Saint, allowing her to free herself.
She lunged forward, grabbed The Naga's humanoid body and pulled it to the ground with her heavy marble body.
An attack from the Nameless Sun and the accumulating eroding effect of Broken Oath caused significant harm to its soul, momentarily immobilizing the Fallen Devil.
That was all Saint needed.
She pinned the humanoid body with her knee, while her hands pulled the sword out of the Naga's neck.
Instead of trying to behead it again, Saint thrust her sword towards the Naga's mouth.
The dark blade passed through the upper jaw and emerged from the other side of the skull, covered by dark blood and pieces of gray matter of the Devil's brain.
The Naga's body convulsed few times before stilling forever.
The spell whispered in Sunny's ear.
[You have slain a Fallen Devil, Death Rattle.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
Sunny waited for the spell to continue but was only met with silence.
'No memory... again.'
Sunny sighed in disappointment, their luck with memories was very bad recently. It was as if fate was against them.
He examined his surroundings one last time before smiling to himself. Nothing had approached them during the entire fight.
Sunny was now almost sure there was no living beings besides them in the Dark city.
Who could ignore a fight this loud?
Still it was better to move cautiously.
Sunny dismissed the Broken Oath and approached Saint, who was still standing over the Devil's body.
He examined her closely, her armor and sword were showing multiple cracks, but except for a few scratches Saint was mostly unharmed.
He glanced at the slowly fading dark flames enveloping her body as he summoned Gloomy back. The dark flames were a combination of Sunny's shadow and Neph's flames.
Normally, Nephis' flames wouldn't be able to augment Saint, she could only augment herself or her memories. However, they discovered one day by accident when Nephis was healing him that they could augment each other's memories, Saint and even themselves!
Even more so, the flames and shadows resonated with each other creating a far more potent augmentation than they could separately.
For example, Saint was now being augmented by a single shadow, Gloomy, and all of Neph's flames, who was already a Devil. She was supposed to be six times stronger now.
But in reality...
Saint was almost eight times stronger!
The sum of their augmentations was greater than its parts.
Sunny believed that the reason for the sudden change in their dormant abilities was the damned Shadow Bond.
He sighed, still feeling very conflicted.
'At least one good thing came from that cursed innate ability.'
His eyes lingered appreciatively on Saint's fearsome and powerful figure before opening his runes.
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Lost from Light.
Rank: Dreamer.
Class: Monster.
Shadow cores:[2/7]
Shadow Fragments: [398/2000].
'Not bad at all...'
This was the fruit of his labor in the past two months...or was it three?
It was quite hard to keep track of time when you were always surrounded by darkness.
Anyway, that was almost double the amount he had gathered during his first stay here almost a year ago, and in a shorter time as well.
That was because he was far more skilled and stronger than his younger self, and this time he wasn't alone.
With Nephis by his side carrying the Dawn Shard and the Nameless Sun, they could challenge Fallen creatures, which younger Sunny considered to be way out of his league, and emerge victorious. Also with her miraculous healing flames, he didn't have to waste days on recovering from serious injuries.
When Saint joined them approximately one month later coupled with the discovery of the "evolution" of their dormant abilities, their days became much more manageable.
However, every fight was still harrowing, Fallen creatures were still a calamity to any sleeper after all.
Another reason for his fast progress was his deal with Nephis, where he had to explain how he obtained shadow fragments.
Revealing once again another secret of his...
Nephis seemed somewhat surprised but quickly nodded in understanding, this must have answered some of the things that puzzled her about him.
He proposed the same terms he made when they first met: He gets to land the final hit, while she gets all the soul shards.
However, with the knowledge about her innate ability, which allowed her to absorb a portion of the soul essence of any Nightmare Creature killed by her flames, Sunny wasn't sure if she would hinder her own progress and accept the same terms again.
But much to his surprise, and relief, she accepted without a thought but this time she added a condition: She gets all the kills and shards till she becomes a Devil.
Sunny thought for a second before accepting, Nephis becoming a Devil would eventually increase their chance of survival and help him fight and kill stronger creatures.
...Even if it meant widening the gap between them.
He glanced at the roof where he was originally standing, there Nephis was standing at the edge, observing the aftermath of the battle.
She was holding a large curtain in one hand, which was strangely transparent from one side and completely dark from the other side, and crude-looking bow in the other hand.
The bow was not a memory, instead it was handmade by Nephis herself, it was made of the remains of a Nightmare creature whose bones were hard but quite flexible, while the string was harvested from the body of the Iron Spiders which Saint had once fought and killed.
Sunny was honestly very impressed by her crafting skills, from making bows to building boats using only remains of Nightmare creatures, Nephis was very knowledgeable in the art of survival.
'Well, that's a true legacy for you.'
The curtain, however, was called [Curtain of Mysteries]. Sunny received it after killing a very troublesome Awakened Devil.
One of the very few Awakened creatures that survived the Nameless Sun culling.
He rubbed his neck unconsciously, remembering how close he was to losing it that day.
That Devil had the ability to move undetected by shadow senses and could hardly be seen by the eye.
It slowly snuck up on him, waiting for the perfect moment to catch him off guard.
Unfortunately for that Devil, he was already taught a very painful lesson by the Dark Knight of the cathedral for relying too much on his shadow senses.
Sunny managed to move in the last moment, escaping only with a few scratches on his neck. They used the light from Neph's flames to expose the Devil's movements, they eventually managed to quickly corner it and kill it.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of Nephis landing next to him, the curtain already vanishing in a rain of sparks, Happy reluctantly slid off the curtain and attached itself to Sunny's feet.
As the last sparks disappeared into the air , Sunny thought to himself that it was worth the trouble.
The curtain had three simple but very useful enchantments:
The first one allowed it to change size according to the user's will, unfortunately it was an active enchantment.
The second enchantment was the most important one, it obstructed beings and objects covered by the curtain from being sensed or seen from the outside while allowing beings inside to observe the outside, acting more like a barrier between its interior and exterior.
This came in handy today, as it managed to dampen the effect of the Devil's scream on Nephis.
The last enchantment only enhanced the effect of the second one when the curtain wasn't exposed to any light source.
Sunny could achieve similar effect with his [Child of Shadows] attribute in the shadow-ruled land of the Forgotten Shore without relying on anything.
So naturally it went to Nephis.
"Memory?"
He looked towards Nephis, who was examining the Naga's dead body closely before pulling a milky white arrow that seemed to be made out of bones.
This was the [Bone Arrow] which she received from killing the guardian Wolf of the cathedral.
It had one single enchantment that made the arrow extremely sharp. But its biggest use was that it could act as a vessel for the Nameless Sun memory.
Feeling the pressure of his flaw pressing on his mind, he answered.
"No, nothing."
He sighed and threw a strange transparent dagger that wasn't in his hand a second ago.
Nephis caught the Moonlight Shard without looking and started cutting the humanoid body of the Naga, searching for four radiant soul shards.
"Did you notice anything?"
"No...no movement at all, I think it's safe to say there are no creatures left in the Dark city." He added with dark amusement "We killed them all."
Neph simply nodded before saying in her calm voice,
"We shouldn't lower our guard still." She paused as she pulled a shard before crushing it "what about the rock?"
"I haven't checked yet."
With a silent command, Saint walked to the side the building and came back with a seemingly ordinary rock in her hand.
Saint looked at the rock, turning it around and inspecting it closely.
Meanwhile, Nephis crushed the last soul shard and wiped the Devil's black blood off her hands. She handed the Moonlight Shard back as they walked away from Saint, creating a safe distance for their...experiment.
After walking for a while, Sunny judged they got far enough, he glanced at Neph, who was standing beside him.
"Ready?"
"Yes."
Sunny closed his eyes and gave a mental command to Ordinary Rock.
Suddenly, a distorted high-pitched scream echoed through the ruins once again.
Sunny covered his ears instinctively. However this time instead of a grimace, his face split into a wide grin.
Even if it was distorted and quite weaker, there was no doubt about it.
It was the Death Rattle's scream...most importantly the scream carried the Devil's power too.
Ordinary Rock had the ability to record various sounds and replay them.
To most carriers of the spell it would seem useless. But to someone as devious as Sunny, he could achieve a lot of things with it.
However, he never thought of using the Ordinary Rock to record the sound attack of a Nightmare creature.
In his defense, Nightmare creatures who use sound attacks were extremely rare, and he wasn't even sure if the recorded sounds by Ordinary Rock could carry the power of the attacks.
Maybe it always could, or maybe it could only recently do it, when it was elevated to the Ascended rank by the Dawn Shard.
Nephis was the one to suggest the idea of using Ordinary Rock's recording ability on the Naga, seeing no harm in trying he hid the Rock on the side of the half-standing house.
The results were better than he expected.
'Two minds are better than one I guess...'
His only regret was he only managed to record one attack, but all in all he was extremely satisfied.
He turned to Nephis and gave her a thumbs up.
She only nodded in acknowledgment before pausing and awkwardly raising her hand to give a thumbs up.
Sunny's lip twitched but he didn't comment, simply turning and walking towards Saint.
He fell into deep thought, his mind trying to find the best way to utilize his new weapon.
He identified two problems immediately:
Firstly, the recorded sound attacked indiscriminately, it could harm their opponent but it would also harm Sunny and Nephis.
This could simply be resolved by handing the Ordinary Rock to Saint, who was immune to such attacks.
Combined with the Broken Oath, Saint could dish out physical, mind and soul attacks simultaneously while being immune or highly resistant to such attacks!
Effectively becoming a jack of all trades!
This didn't mean Saint was invincible now, she was still an Awakened Demon fighting mostly Fallen creatures at the end of the day.
And unfortunately, she might stay in the Awakened rank for a long while...
Secondly, Ordinary Rock was not a weapon-type memory, making Saint unable to wield it with her [Weapon Sage] ability, rendering the memory useless when Sunny wasn't nearby.
Still, Sunny was very pleased. It was better than nothing in his opinion.
He looked at Ordinary Rock which was being examined more thoroughly by Saint now, a hint of curiosity flashing through her ruby eyes.
Suddenly, he remembered the description of Ordinary Rock enchantment.
[Not Really] enchantment Description: [The word is mightier than the sword. The rock is mightier than the word.]
Indeed, with the Death Rattle's scream, Ordinary Rock was mightier than any word!
...He must have said this out loud because Nephis was now staring at him weirdly.
Getting hit two times by the Devil's mind attacks must have shaken him more than he thought...
He coughed to cover his embarrassment while refusing to meet her gaze.
'Damnation...'
*****
Sunny fell face first into his soft warm bed as soon as they returned to their room.
Saint was in his soul sea. The cracks on her armor and sword were being repaired by the dark flames of his soul core.
Nephis glanced at him briefly as she began to prepare their food.
"Are you going to sleep now?"
Sunny mumbled something that was muffled by the bed before flipping over and saying.
"Yes, but I can stay awake for an hour or two."
This was not only because of today, it was the accumulation of the past two to three months.
Nephis possessed such an amazing healing ability, her flames could simply erase wounds, which would have usually taken days of recovery, in mere seconds.
So, he was never forced to spend days resting. He spent all his days by either hunting, planning or training.
He pushed himself harder than he ever did, and now he was paying the price.
Of course, they took some breaks, more like Nephis forced him to, every now and then. But Sunny was too eager to grow stronger, and at least narrow the huge gap between him and Nephis.
He managed to escape the Bond command last time with his cunning and a stupid amount of luck, but would he get that lucky again?
...Not that it mattered anyway, Nephis could get a similar amount of fragments from soul shards as he got from kills.
And if she used her innate ability, she would leave him in the dust.
Moreover Saint, his strongest card, was growing very slowly due to the decline in the amount of memories he could get his hands on, even with the few memories he got from Nephis.
His tired mind flared with irritation and frustration but he willed it down with a deep breath. He raised his body from the soft embrace of the bed using all his will power.
He must have been lost in his thoughts for a long time. Nephis had almost finished cooking their food, the torch memory softly illuminating her ivory skin and sharp features, her storage memory was sitting right next to her, a ceramic white jar with beautiful engravings on it.
Sunny stared at her, equally mesmerized and resentful.
Eventually Nephis finished cooking, as usual it was another bland Nightmare creature meat.
Sunny reluctantly left the bed and sat opposite to her, eating in silence.
This was how they usually spent their time alone when they weren't training or planning, just in silence. Sunny and Nephis were not exactly a talkative bunch, both preferred silence over an awkward conversation.
Once they finished Nephis finally broke the silence.
"I think it's time to start our journey."
Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"Right now?"
Nephis shook her head as she rose from the floor, walking towards a corner of the room.
"No, there's no telling when we will find a gateway, it might take months or years. We should get as much as we can now...I say we leave in a week."
She brought back a large monster hide and unfurled it in front of him. It was a map of the Forgotten Shore.
This was one of the very few things they managed to retrieve from the burned remains of the Bright castle.
"I want to go over our path once again." She pointed towards a huge mountain chain in the south.
"All the human ruled territories lies on the south of the Hollow Mountains."
"So going north means only getting further away from human territories."
Sunny continued, they already talked about this multiple times.
"Yes, also directly crossing the Hollow Mountains is out of question."
They actually entertained that idea for a while. But remembering the feeling of immediate death he got from the white mist covering the mountains was enough to dissuade him.
The only thing that awaited them there was death.
Nephis seemed to eventually come to the same conclusion.
She pointed towards the west side of the mountains.
"The Hollow Mountains stretch further than Ravenheart in the west...so that only leaves the east." She paused and added without much confidence "Hopefully the Hollow Mountains are not as tall and unassailable there, or even that there is an end to them somewhere in those unexplored regions."
Sunny stared grimly at the map, he didn't like leaving his life to chance and hope. However, he didn't have a better plan.
"I still hate it, we have no idea if the Hollow Mountains have an end in the east, we don't even have an idea about what kind of region is in the east. It might be even more deadly than the Forgotten Shore, filled with Unholy and Cursed creatures..." He stopped himself then added with a defeated sigh "But, it seems to be the best course of action given the circumstances...so no objections here."
No one said anything after that. Both were staring at the map, their thoughts a mystery.
After what felt like hours Nephis stood and looked at Sunny.
"I will take the first lookout."
The meaning of her words was clear: you sleep first, I will take the first watch.
Nephis had two more cores in her soul, making her stronger and more resistant to fatigue than him.
Sunny didn't argue, he was already having difficulty keeping his eyes open at this point.
"Sure." He said with a yawn.
Happy and Gloomy very eagerly separated from his feet and attached themselves to Nephis.
...Sunny had never seen this enthusiasm when they were with him.
'Those bastards...'
Nephis didn't have the [Child of Shadows] attribute, so she wasn't able to see clearly in the darkness of the Forgotten Shore.
That's why Sunny's shadows had to accompany her, they acted as the scouts and notified Nephis if they discovered anything.
Sunny dropped on the bed like a sack of potatoes and closed his eyes, hoping to at least get some sleep today.
Truth to be told, there was another reason for his exhaustion.
After the spire, he always had trouble sleeping with Nephis nearby. The new dynamic between them always weighing on his mind.
Everytime he opened his runes he would see the damned "Master" rune... reminding him of what he became... what he truly is.
'There is nothing more pathetic than a slave who begins to trust his slaver.'
...He could already tell he wouldn't get a wink of sleep today.
'Damn it!' he clenched his teeth hard.
*****
A week later, Nephis, Sunny and Saint set off for their long journey through the Dream realm.
Before they left and after much deliberation, Sunny decided to do one last thing.
On one of the walls of the priestess' room, below countless lines that Sunny once used to count his days was a line of two runes.
The first was "Sun" and the second was "Loss"
Sunny stared at these two words for a long time.
To be honest, he never expected to see these words again until he was strong enough to deal with the Soul Devourer tree.
Yet here he was, standing in front of the same runes not even a year later, still a sleeper.
He sighed softly and started carving a new line of runes under his, using the Prowling Thorn after getting Nephis' permission.
The second line was "Star" and "Change"
After finishing, he lingered in front of the runes for a minute.
He didn't know if they will make it back to the Waking world.
He didn't know how long they were going to be stranded in the Dream realm.
He didn't even know if someone would somehow find their way into the Forgotten Shore and into this specific room and read his engravings.
Still, he wanted to leave a mark of the two sleepers who set off on an impossible journey to survive.
After thinking for a while he decided to carve one last line of below their names before walking away.
"The last two sleepers of the army that extinguished the Sun."