A Sunless Dream

The days passed by quickly as the chain breaker made its way towards the ivory tower. Although the heat was smouldering, Sunny managed to circumvent such an issue by making a home out of Nephis shadow much to her own surprise. It always amused him to see how she would react when he suddenly emerged from her shadow to engage in small talk with her and overall, he felt himself becoming more comfortable around Nephis.

As he was resting in her shadow, Nephis looked down at it and beckoned him to come out. Although she had no way of knowing if he was truly there or just located in another shadow nearby her intuition had been correct, slowly materialising himself Sunny made a shadow chair for both he and Nephis to sit on as they gazed at the horizon of the dream realm.

"Sunny" he turned his head towards the source of his name, it was Nephis. She didn't break her gaze upon the horizon however he could tell she was nervous at what she was about to ask. "I wanted to know, how strong are you?" it was quite an odd question, Sunny himself had never been too concerned with his strength at least to the extent of making comparisons however he felt quite confident.

"I'd say I'm quite strong, why do you ask?" there was no way for him to give her a clear answer without appearing overconfident and so he stuck with a vague one, hopefully by learning the intentions of her question he would be able to speak more freely.

"I was just wondering about the lord of shadows, you seemed like you did better against him than me so I was curious that's all" her face was reddened slightly although one would need to focus intently upon her features to notice, and of course Sunny was someone who had mastered the art of gazing upon her beauty and had mastered such an art a long time ago.

"He's at least six times stronger than I am, and I'm not talking about pure physicality either. He's delved into some scary depths of strength that I would only be able to compete with if I sunk into them myself" was all Sunny responded with, his fight with the lord of shadows confirmed it. Throughout the entire engagement he was getting toyed with, it almost seemed like he was focused on something else rather than the fight they were having.

"I see" was the response he got; he sighed slowly as he returned to gazing upon the horizon. He had hoped his strength would offer Nephis some sliver of hope in defeating the lord of shadows in direct combat however his flaw would not allow him to feed her comforting lies no matter how much he wanted to.

"You've met the cohort, right? Do you think all of us including you would be able to win in a straight fight?" this time she turned to face him directly, Nephis at her core was a woman who enjoyed combat. However, her encounter with the lord of shadows had shaken her conceptions of strength away from her very being. Addressing him as a human was useless, he seemed almost deific and being in his presence granted her a deep sense of unease.

"No. But if I managed to do enough damage in a moment where his guard is lowered, we might be able to win. Although..." Sunny trailed off causing Nephis to grab his arm, squeezing it to 'encourage' him to finish the sentence. "There's a cursed titan, it's been put to sleep underground by one of my shadows. Currently, my clone or as you know him the lord of shadows is the one overseeing it's slumber."

He took a moment to relax after Nephis stopped squeezing his arm, "It sounds like you have more to say" was all the feedback he got, and he did. 'It'll do no harm in sharing' taking a deep breathe in Sunny mustered his courage and said "Each of my clones take turns keeping that thing asleep to do battle with a certain man on the moon. But seeing as the lord of shadows is insane, he is the only one who does so, if my guess is correct in about a month from now the thing will start stirring before it is put into such deep sleep it won't wake up unless a God commands it to."

Sunny looked at Nephis, she could already tell where he was going with this so decided to finish the sentence for him "When his focus is at it's highest on the cursed titan, you want to go and fight him then to give us a better chance at victory" Sunny nodded "But we'll need to be quick, it takes about five hours to do so you'll all have to get stronger. Including me"

Glancing at Nephis, he saw her nod in response to his comment as comfortable silence settled over them once more. Words didn't need to be said, simply being in her company was all the solace he needed. The issue of falling into the pits of Shadow Dance had been racking his mind, he had thought of a solution, however, revealing it now could have unwanted consequences. Especially knowing who was listening.

Finally, they had touched down in front of the ivory tower. Sunny sensed Morgan's presence in there and allowed a scowl to settle over his features 'I really don't like that woman' he thought to himself. There was something about her resemblance to Mordret that always set him on edge, and her fire like red eyes further enunciated his unease.

Nephis led the way into the main hall with Sunny walking right behind her, they were going to see Morgan to request her cooperation be he doubted that would be so easy especially seeing his encounter with her not too long ago. The hallways leading to the main hall were all so militant and utilitarian, each of them designed to suppress incoming attacks whether it be through slowing down incoming assailants or the hidden memories littered within the hallways designed to drain essence of all those who encountered it.

Finally, they had arrived in the main hall where Sunny laid his eyes on Morgan. She was drinking a cup of coffee and had a slight blush on her face which quickly disappeared upon noticing Nephis. "Welcome back sister, hopefully your mission went well?" her voice tore through the atmosphere and although it sounded quite melodic in the ears of some of the fire keepers, to Sunny it grated on his ears, and he wished to disappear as quickly as possible.

"We've managed to gain an idea on the type of man the lord of shadows is. He does not appear as if he will ever become an ally" Nephis curt reply made Sunny shake his head internally. What was the point of becoming 'sisters' with this woman in the first place if she spoke to her like she was a stranger. Although he would never ask Nephis this.

Morgan raised an eyebrow at Nephis words, if she remembered clearly the options given were either to make him an ally or neutralise him and by the looks of things neither of those happened. "I take it that he is not dead?" she asked, although it appeared more like a statement than a question. All she received is a nod in return.

"And why is that specifically?" the response Sunny would give was simple 'Because the bastard is too strong' however he knew Nephis wouldn't say something like that. Or at least he suspected she wouldn't. The woman he fell in love with always had a method of surprising him at every turn.

"He was too strong to kill" Morgan shook her head; she couldn't be disappointed in her failure because she wasn't stronger than Nephis and her loss to Mordret would have just beckoned anyone to point out her hypocrisy. However something more interesting came to her attention, there was a man standing behind Nephis who she vaguely remembered from her time in Antarctica.

He had never given her his name.

Turning her gaze directly towards him Morgan asked, "And who might you be?" the man shifted slightly. He appeared nervous and irritated at her question, but she didn't care regardless "Sunless" was all he said. 'What a peculiar name' she mused to herself, the man appeared strong that much she could tell. Although he seemed to be suppressing his presence before the rest of Nephis men she wasn't so easily fooled.

"Say Sunless, would you like to spar with me?" a smile settled upon her face, if he refused then she would simply ask for the relevance of him being there. However, if he accepted and was able to beat her then allowing him to be married into Clan Valor would be as easy as taking candy from a baby.

Sunny noticed the intention behind the question too before looking at Nephis, she gave him a slight nod indicating she wasn't particularly bothered by his option and so Sunny chose "Sure, I'd love to."

The reasons for him doing so were simple, firstly he just didn't like anyone who looked like Mordret and an opportunity to release his anger onto her would do wonders for his mental health. And secondly, allowing himself to marry into clan Valor would give him more funds to expand his cafe. It was truly a win-win scenario.

Although, he was slightly creeped out when Morgan let out a toothy grin that threatened to split her entire face in two and said in her sickeningly sweet tone "Wonderful."