A Sunless Dream

The silent message promised by Nephis words loomed through the air like a cloud of black miasma. Nephis couldn't look Sunny in the eye after making the comment and chose to walk out of the room, she needed to ready herself for the oncoming battle she may have with the lord of shadows.

However, her head snapped back as she saw something fall behind her. It was Sunny, who had fallen quite embarrassingly in an attempt to reach her in his weakened condition. Rushing over to him, Nephis picked him up and sat him down on the bed with a look of exasperation and shock written all over her face.

"Why would you do that? You're in no condition to go to God Grave!" Nephis looked him over once more, although physically his state was pristine his mental state caused his body to simply refuse the commands he was giving it hence his current weakened state. Although a simple command from her was all that was needed to rectify the issue, she knew as well as anyone the consequences of such an action would be irreversible.

Sunny looked up at her, his eyes filled with unaltered resolve, and she knew from the look on his face that his next words were not something she could force him to stray away from. Willingly at least. "In the entire world, two worlds even, I'm quite sure I know myself the best regardless of how distorted his mind may have become. Although currently I may not be much help in terms of combat, I'm sure I could recover before you reach God Grave."

Not even giving her an opportunity to respond Sunny continued "I'll be in your shadow ready to intervene or tell you anything you need to know" slowly, Sunny began dissipating into the immaterial form of a shadow. Nephis reached her hand out to him and grabbed his face for a few seconds without saying a word, once he had fully become a shadow she got up and left the building.

Before she did so though, she silently commented "Although I may not remember all of our past encounters and interactions, I'm glad to have you on my side Sunny" after making her way to where Cassie was, he observed her silently enjoying some waffles which had been provided to her by Aiko. Although she had been crying for extended periods of time, it didn't show as she locked eyes with Nephis.

Her crystal like blue eyes reflected suppressed emotional anguish however their gaze did not once leave her. "We'll be going to God Grave, I'll explain the rest on the way there. It appears the Lord of Shadow is a much more harrowing foe than we thought" opening the door, she strode out the building before making her way back to the chain breaker as well as the rest of the fire keepers.

Back at the nameless temple, the lord of shadows remained seated on his throne, his posture not revealing even a slight implication of the twisted and disturbed concoctions his mind was weaving together. "You, come out" his tone shifted from one of indifference to utter elation as he broke out into a humourless laugh which echoed through the silent walls of the citadel.

Between breathes he managed to continue his sentence "You couldn't have possibly thought you could hide from me" once more he broke out into another release of utterly manic laughter however as quickly as the laughter came it was shut down. His tone of joy was immediately replaced by one of cold command sending chills down the spine of his observer "Pathetic."

Mordret had seen many things since the day he was born, however someone noticing his presence in a reflection of his without even being familiar with his abilities beforehand was something he had never experienced before.

He observed the inner anguish that had taken place in the cohort, he too had vague flickers of experience with a man who had called himself Sunless. He couldn't exactly pinpoint where he had heard the name, however his heart told him that beneath the facade of a humble cafe owner and lovestruck saint. He was a monster that shouldn't be taken lightly.

Deciding it would be worth it to sacrifice one of his many bodies for the sake of an interaction, Mordet came out from the corner in which he was hiding and stood before the man before him. Originally, he had been hiding in one of the reflections caused by the dim lights that littering the citadel but ever careful one of his faux bodies remained nearby.

For the sake of this mission, Mordret had used the body of a master who had the capabilities of creating and manipulating sand to attack and defend. Although it was a useful ascended ability, it was not something Mordret had coveted and thus was disposable.

"If you speak, I will kill you" The lord of shadows said simply, nobody no matter how perceptive they claimed themselves to be could tell what was going on within the head of the amour clad saint. However, what was readily apparent was his ability to end the life of his ascended body in the blink of an eye.

Mordret motioned to respond, however the words never left his mouth as suddenly his head was five feet away from his body. Surprisingly though, the lord of shadows had never once even gotten up from his throne. "I see, coming to spy on me to assess my strength? Laughable" as if to further emphasise his amusement by the situation he broke out into a temporary laugh before turning to his side "eat him."

The last thing Mordret saw was the humongous lumbering body of a being that appeared to resemble a pathetic imitation of a human grinning wildly as it made it's way towards Mordrets' fallen body.

Fast winds beat against Nephis skin as she stood on the deck of the chain breaker, making sure to take advantage of it's high speeds and the wind that was caused by it to provide ample resistance to the immense heat. They were almost in God Grave, and due to that preparations had to be made lest the entire lot of them were killed either by the lord of shadows himself or the murderous nightmare creatures which prowled the landscape.

Motioning for all the fire keepers to gather around her, Nephis stood next to Cassie as she began to explain their plans for the encounter with the ominous recluse saint. "From what I've gathered, the lord of shadows is immensely powerful and aggressive towards all of those who come into his territory. Make sure to stand behind me and do not attempt to engage him in any form of conversation if you wish to stay alive."

She turned around, signalling the end of the briefing however Cassie knew that there was more that she wasn't telling him. So, she decided to form a mental link between the two of them like she had done so many times in the past. Despite being the one to form the link, Nephis spoke first with her calm voice resounding through her head.

[The Lord of Shadows is an incarnation of Sunny gone rouge, I'm sure you already knew that though from listening to my conversation with Sunny though] she commented, Cassie didn't visibly respond at all to the accusation of eavesdropping because quite frankly it was too obvious to even attempt to deny. And so, she didn't.

[How is Sunny?] was all she asked, she hadn't gotten an opportunity to become acquainted with the man at all since their first encounter. However, despite this, her heart compelled her to express concern for the man as though he was her very brother. Although to her mind such a thing didn't make sense spending time attempting to rationalise it would be pointless.

[He is well, although his mind is a bit shaky from his recent...engagements with us. Currently, he is attached to my shadow. I'm surprised you haven't noticed him waving at you] this caused Cassie to look down at Nephis shadow abruptly although she couldn't see she took the moment to borrow Nephis senses as she reciprocated the action.

Beneath Nephis feet was Sunny's shadow waving at both of them awkwardly, beckoning them to go somewhere more private for him to reveal himself. Sighing, Nephis did exactly that with Cassie following close behind her. Soon they found themselves in Cassie's room, and in another miniature tornado of shadow's Sunny made his presence known again.

Somehow, he had a change of attire since making a home of Nephis shadow. He was donning onyx armour which plated his body from head to toe as well as a sheathed Odachi at his side which he used as support for his shaking form.

Turning his head towards Cassie he simply stated, "Once you get close to the citadel, make yourself scarce. Borrow Nephis senses and remain as far away as possible from the citadel. If you don't then you will be killed slowly and brutally" Nephis raised an eyebrow in a silent question towards Sunny's abrupt and ominous statement towards her friend beckoning him to continue and that he did.

"See, after the whole slavery thing I've been having thoughts of lets say violence towards you in particular. No hard feelings though but I'm quite sure if you are spotted or even sensed by that bastard you have two seconds to escape before he catches you." Taking a second to pause, Sunny fell back and sat on the bed. Standing was taking too much energy from him at the moment.

"And I guarantee you he won't make your death slow, so just allow all of the attention to be on Nephis. I'll be fine enough to protect the rest of the fire keepers by the time we get there." Sunny gathered essence preparing to make his way back into Nephis shadow once more however he was cut off by Cassie.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. For everything" she muttered out. For someone who couldn't see, she found herself locking eyes with people more often than she actually intended. However, the effect was clear. Sunny's simply looked at her for a second and shrugged "What's done is done" and with that he had disappeared.

After another hour of flying, the sky around them seemed to be enveloped by a pitch black miasma that even supressed the very stars themselves. "We're entering the lord of shadow's territory" she said. Squinting her eyes for a brief moment, she saw the man standing thousands of meters ahead of them at the entrance of his citadel "And by the looks of things, he's ready to give us a worm welcome."

Taking a second to analyse the nuisances that had invaded his territory, the Lord of shadows analyses the presence of changing star. Laughing to himself for a brief moment he made his way back into the citadel planting himself firmly on the throne.

It was only polite to give his guests a warm welcome