A Sunless Dream

Kai found himself in an awkward position as he made his exit from his cohorts place of meeting. After about five minutes of flying around aimlessly he had discovered he was being followed. Although he the figure didn't seem like a nightmare creature, anyone who could keep up with his flight was a cause for caution.

Slowing down, Kai shouted out "Who's there?" he proceeded to scan the environment around him with his impeccable eyesight however the being still eluded him. "I didn't want to do this but. Reveal yourself" he commanded with his ascended ability.

Kai could feel the unknown entity making its way into his field of vision, however what he didn't expect was for Morgan of Valor to make her way outside his blind spot begrudgingly with her face starkly red.

Swiftly landing on the ground before her, Kai looked at her with a puzzled expression before asking "Morgan? What were you doing here?" she continued to not meet his eye and pretend as though all the grass within a fifty-meter radius was far more interesting than her so instead he forced the issue.

Walking up to her, Kai grabbed her lightly by the chin causing her to look his way. Although he wasn't aware of her flaw, the supreme armour he was donning made the degradation non existent as his light green eyes remained intently focused on her own pair of vermillion orbs.

Morgan turned even redder than usual before lightly pushing him away, she then proceeded to mumble something under her breath before sprinting away far past the horizon as far as possible. From the brief interaction, Kai himself was slightly red as he looked to the ground running his hand through his hair "She has beautiful eyes." He mumbled to himself.

Far across the dream realm, Sunny and Cassie had come to an extremely sudden stop. The expression on Sunny's face was one of absolute despair as he stood extremely still, if there was a message he wanted to relay to Cassie it couldn't be auditory.

[Stay still, stay extremely still. Don't even move, don't even think about breathing] he thought to himself. Thankfully, Cassie had already formed a mental link between herself and her companion just in case of any separation. This mental link however did not make the situation any easier as she simply heeded by Sunny's words without even a flinch.

[What's going on Sunny?] Her voice rang through his head like a midnight bell as he made motions to gulp however his throat was caught and refusing to move. [It'll be done in a second, if he sees us, we're finished. It's five more minutes till dusk, right? Wait till then]

The unbridled fear that ran through Sunny's voice almost made Cassie shiver, catching her body mentally from making any sudden movements she attempted to clear her mind and wait out the time before she lost her focus and moved.

Five minutes slowly passed by as Sunny dropped to the floor at the sudden lack of stress. He looked back at Cassie with a jagged smile and asked, "You probably want to know what that was right?" he only received a nod for his troubles, so he kept going "His blade was right on your throat, I do it all the time, so I suspected he was doing it too. He's been travelling in our shadow ever since we got close to the citadel. But he went back to check on the cursed titan."

Sighing for a second, Cassie asked "What was the issue with me moving then? Surely if he wanted to kill me then he would have done it already?" Sunny shook his head and tried to gather himself once more. He had been in many stressful situations but the feeling of hopelessness he felt was beyond him, he never wanted to experience that again.

"He was in your shadow, but he wasn't focusing on it. He was treating you like any run of the mill nightmare creature who could be taken out by Saint. But occasionally, he focuses on you intently to see if you're worth his time. Not moving, breathing, or making a sound made you appear like a fallen beast in his eyes. It shouldn't be that way but maybe it's because he's so detached."

With his explanation finished, he grabbed Cassie and dove into the shadows moving at high speed to ensure no more surprises would happen. Since it was now dusk, if he chose to activate the Crown of Twilight, he would be granted near infinite essence which would surely prove to be a boon in this fight.

Like he had done before, he chose to drop Cassie off quite a bit away from the citadel but not before making a request. "Cassie is it possible to create a mental link between Nephis and I?" although the request was odd, Cassie couldn't fault Sunny for wanting to speak to his girlfriend before such a harrowing battle.

"I can, but it will take extreme amounts of essence especially if you both are this far away from each other" Sunny nodded, he didn't need a full conversation with her anyways to portray what he wanted so instead he kept it brief. "Let Nephis know before you make the link, when I say now, I want her to give me an order and the order is simple..."

The steady yet quiet steps of Sunny's feet echoed throughout the quiet citadel as he made his way towards it. He couldn't deny he was nervous, yet he was quite excited at the same time to fight a clone of himself. He had enhanced himself with all six of his shadows in preparation, hiding his identity would do him more harm than good in the fight that was about to take place.

Since he had gotten this close, the lord of shadows wouldn't make running an option.

Soon, he found himself standing before the lord of shadows. The man was sitting on his throne in the same nonchalant fashion that he always had as he continued to don his replica of weavers mask. Why he did so Sunny had no idea, however, not being mistaken for this ruthless psychopath would do him wonders.

Didn't want another soon to be dead Sovereign taking a swing at him.

With a hand extended, the shadows moved towards him and formed into his weapon of choice, a Jian. It was the same form as the sin of solace and did not lose out in terms of sharpness, he was almost certain the lord of shadows would do the same. And he did.

With a hollow laugh ringing throughout the walls of the citadel, the lord of shadows looked towards the man before him. "You, you're the piece I've been missing!" he shouted to himself, his voice then took on one of anger "How dare you deny me my identity."

And with that, the battle started.

The lord of shadows appeared above him with a downwards swing, usually, Sunny would have been forced to block however with the aid of the shadows Sunny was able to dodge out of the way in time. Sunny responded with his own slash however the lord of shadows quickly parried it.

Closing the distance, the lord of shadows sent out a horizontal slash to Sunny's chest which Sunny raised his sword in preparation to block only for it to morph insidiously into a vertical slash cutting Sunny lightly across the face.

'He's still more skilled' Sunny thought to himself before holding his sword in a reverse grip and rushing in. A slash flew over Sunny's face as he ducked down and sent a slash of his own towards the stomach of his clone, however, the lord of shadows jumped over the blow and attempted to kick Sunny in the head.

Sunny bent lower to dodge the blow before grabbing the lord of shadows by the leg. "That didn't work last time" his insidious clone grunted out before swinging his leg downwards at an impossible angle almost causing Sunny's face to fly into the floor and be immediately crushed under his opponents heel.

Rolling out of the way, Sunny jumped backwards before throwing his sword at the lord of Shadows instantly forming a new one and using his moment of distraction to attempt to appear from his shadow and stab him in the spine. The lord of shadows dodged the blow by inches before spinning Sunny's entire world with a picture-perfect bunch to the jaw.

"If we're fighting, I suppose introductions are in order. I've learnt that to be human means you need a name. My name is now Orion" and with that, Orion stared at him expectantly awaiting for a name in reply however it was Sunny's turn to laugh at him.

"I don't think mistakes deserve naming."

Although Sunny couldn't see Orions face, he was sure that a look of anger flashed across it. How he knew? Because it would have flashed across his if he were in Orions shoes.

With his newfound fury Orion closed the distance between the two once more, sending a slash diagonally downwards at Sunny however Sunny closed the distance between the two even further shortening the Jian to a mere dagger before slashing it across Orions chest.

However instead of being met with the sound of armour, he was met with the singing of steel as a sword protruded from Orion's chest blocking the blow. "Cute strategy. But, no." A kick to Sunny's jaw sent him flying upwards into the ceiling of the citadel. Gritting his teeth Sunny used the momentum to ground himself on the ceiling before immediately pushing downwards.

Orion met him in kind jumped off the floor to meet his opponent like he had once before as their swords soared through the air to meet each other's throats. 'I'll lose this clash, I'm sure of it' Sunny thought to himself. Visions of his own death attempted to flash through his mind as a bitter defiant grin appeared on Sunnys face.

In a move he had never once done before, instead of clashing swords with Orion he redirected the swords force downward and into himself. This action caused him to spin with speed Orion himself was not used to as in a split second a knee was firmly placed in his chin sending him flying.

"It takes a stupid move like that to beat a genius" Sunny muttered to himself tiredly as he saw Orion emerge from the rubble. Although there was a slight crack in his mask, he seemed mostly fine as he cracked his neck. "A half-baked move like that couldn't even hope to leave a bruise on my skin. Saint did better than you" he mocked.

Immediately, he was upon Sunny once more. A slash to his chest was met with a parry from Sunny as the sounds of their swords clashing, defending, and attacking swung through the air. 'We're equals in speed, strength, every physical attribute! Why can't I see a limit to how much he can do!' Sunny thought to himself as he launched an onslaught of attacks at Orion.

Orion dodged an overhead slash before jumping backwards to dodge a downward one. As he hit the floor, he bent his blade revealing the flat side of it to block a thrust that Sunny had aimed right at his heart. Although the force of the blow pushed him back slightly, he still appeared unharmed.

'Don't think, don't blink, don't breathe, don't even remember your name! Anything else is useless! If I lose focus here for even a second, I'll di-' his thought process was cut off as Orion appeared beneath him once more, sending a slash upwards at speeds he hadn't been using before "You'll die, right?" he jeered.

Sunny barely jumped above the blow however the onslaught didn't end there. From the flat of Orion's blade, another sword emerged piercing upwards barely missing Sunny's throat as he moved at another impossible angle. Although they were physical equals, the battle was going in every way but Sunny's. Any offence he happened to mount was quickly shut down with brutally robotic and efficient counter attacks that he struggled to understand what he was doing wrong.

His lungs were burning, his eyes were red from lack of water. Sunny had forgotten all usage of his body except for that which was absolutely necessary for combat. Jumping towards his opponent in another flurry, Sunny slashed downwards and then quickly morphed his attack into a horizontal slash aiming to gut Orion.

'Like this?' he thought to himself, however a kick to his shin sent what felt like electricity barrelling throughout his entire body. It felt as though his shin nearly broke under the force of the blow regardless of bone weave as all he heard through his agonised scream was, "No, like this."

It was becoming absurd; Sunny himself couldn't imagine reaching this level of skill. From the beginning it had been beaten into him that the essence of combat was murder, but this was far beyond it. It appeared like he was fighting a man who could not only see the future but could actively change and improve it according to his will.

'I guess I have no choice then' Sunny sighed to himself as he donned the Crown of Twilight. Essence immediately poured into him as he felt his sanity slowly slipping [Cassie! NOW!] he mentally exclaimed to her. He was hoping, praying to the dead Gods that he could survive the oncoming onslaught from the lord of shadows long enough to receive the command.

Parry. Block. Strike. Dodge.

Sunny ran through these movements with robot like efficiency, every second felt like an hour as he waited with gritted teeth for Cassie to relay the command. Suddenly, Sunny's mind was instantly put at ease.

Nephis had uttered the command.