A Sunless Dream

Sunny's hands remained firmly pressed around the two women as he stared at them with a broken expression in his eyes. Tears hit the ground beneath them as they remained silent, unable to respond to his accusation.

"If we make you unhappy, for your sake Sunny just leave us!" Nephis words appeared harsh however the intent behind it was pure. She knew that her interactions with Sunny would inevitably lead to this however indulged in them anyway, Sunny's gaze weakened even more as his hold on them relaxed slightly.

"It isn't that simple, as long as you two are alive, you'll always find a way to snake yourselves back in my life. Destroy the semblance of peace that I've created!" his voice strained as his grip on their necks tightened once more. Cassie continued to remain silent, her lip trembling as she heard his words.

She didn't dare borrow Nephis senses, the look in his eyes would utterly break her if she decided to do so. "If you have nothing else to say, this is over. Goodbye." Sunny brought his shadow arms down in one quick motion, intending to end the lives of his former comrades.

However, his arms remained only a few inches away from the faces of his allies as Orion blurred across the battlefield. Restraining his extra arms with a pair of his own, Sunny's head shot up as he stared at Orion with a rage filled expression, his eyes flashed crimson once more as he prepared to lunge at him.

"Don't do that, you and I both know you aren't winning that fight" Orion reasoned calmly, the rage in Sunny's eyes continued to flare as black flames began to swirl around his body. In a moment, Sunny pressed his arms down on both Cassie and Nephis, allowing the scalding heat to leave a mark on their body.

Jumping backwards, Sunny turned around, his expression grim "I hope I never see you again, but at least you have something to remember me by." In a moment, Sunny's shadows dispersed from his body, moving at a rapid pace towards the farthest range he could muster before disappearing into his shadows and out of sight.

Nephis moved to heal the burn marks Sunny had left on her arm, however her fingers twitched resisting her attempts. 'I don't want to' she thought to herself with gritted teeth, turning to Cassie she prepared to heal her instead however she was brushed off roughly.

"Leave it, it's fine. This is all my fault anyways" Cassie shook her head as she began to mentally berate herself, she shouldn't have trusted Mordret and she knew it, however, her desperation led her to making a deal with the devil.

Cassie was pulled out from her internal anguish by a slap from Nephis, holding her face in pain Cassie stared at Nephis with a dumbfounded expression "You have to stop blaming yourself for the things I do, this was nobody's fault but mine." Her tone was firm and steadfast as she pulled Cassie into a hug.

Her steady breathes slowly became more jagged as her body trembled in Nephis arms. Turning to Orion, Nephis stared at him with a raised eyebrow, her intentions clear. "Why did you save us? He had us dead to rights and you know it." Orion simply shrugged his shoulders before sitting down.

"I'm repaying a favour, if I hadn't copied your ability, I would have never learnt what it means to be human. This is the first and last time I'm ever saving you so don't get any ideas."

Nephis raised her eyebrow "Learn what it means to be human? Are you a separate entity from Sunny now?" Orion nodded his head "I inherited the amount of soul cores, his aspect and attributes. But I'm no longer part of him, I'm my own unique soul."

Orion allowed a sly grin to settle on his face before staring at Nephis "And at the rate your relationship with him is going, you might as well call him Sunless. Seeing as you two aren't friends anymore."

In response, he received a glare from Nephis before surveying the battlefield. The memory of Effie's death became fresh in her mind the longer she stared at Orion, her fingers twitched moving to summon her sword. Intending to end the life of her friends killer.

"If you don't want to see the end of today, summon that sword." The threat was simple yet effective, Orion slowly got up and made his way to the remaining members of the cohort, dragging them towards Nephis. Morgan was the first to stir, she awoke to Kai's worried expression standing over her.

"Who is that?" Morgan's voice remained strained as she outstretched a hand to hold the man before her. Kai allowed her hand to rest on her face before taking her hand in his own "It's Kai, the battle's over. We won." A small smile settled on Morgan's face as she slowly sat up.

Jet was next to stir, she had expected to truly die after the amount of essence she had lost in her battle with Orion, however, he had been kind enough to share some of his own as he dragged her towards Nephis by the foot before choosing to shadow step the rest of the distance.

As they all sat up, they saw Orion's injured form sitting in front of all of them, a mischievous smile settled on his face as he watched their expressions go from horrified to angered as they watched him in silence. "Why is he not dead?" Morgan asked, in response she was met with a shrug from Orion who answered instead.

"I've killed people for less. Now, seeing as I'm the strongest one left on this continent, I'm stuck in a bit of a bind here. Should I, kill you all, take you hostage or let you go?" his tone was innocent as he watched the forms of the injured saints tense at his threat. There wasn't much that could hold a Saint in prison however, if it was Orion, there were no guarantees.

"We can report you as dead so this mission can be complete and go our separate ways" Nephis offered, attempting to negotiate. "I'm more surprised you people aren't leaping at my throat for the death of your friend, I suppose rationality is what got you people this far anyways." Orion didn't even grace Nephis solution with a response, instead he stared at Kai.

"Nightengale, or Kai as you call yourself. If you were me, what would you do in this situation. If you lie, I'll kill you all." The way Orion spoke of their deaths appeared more of a matter of fact than a threat, Kai felt a growing lump form in his throat as he thought of an answer.

"I'd never be able to put myself in your shoes, you're stronger than I am and that makes it hard to imagine the world from your perspective. But if I possessed your strength, in our current state, we don't offer much of a threat. There would be no harm in allowing us to leave peacefully, no?"

Orion nodded in acknowledgement before he thought of his own reply, a smirk settled upon his face as he surveyed the injured saints around him who clearly were using the opportunity to gather the essence necessary for another fight.

"I'm not interested in having you people return here continuously, knocking on my doorstep demanding my head simply because I said a few words to your king. So, I'll be moving my citadel. If you return here attempting to fight me, I will torture you and send you back where you came. This appears like a sound deal, no?"

No matter the outrageous words that came out of Orion's mouth, Kai could still sense no lie. Instead of offering a response, he slowly nodded. Nephis spoke in his stead "Bring me the body of raised by wolves, she deserves a proper burial." In a second, the body of Effie was before them.

Her head had been stitched back onto her body, a faint smile remaining on her face even in her last moments. Once brimming with life, her eyes appeared dull and empty indicating that what once was, is now gone.

Nephis bit her lip till she drew blood, the sight of Effie's corpse enraged her to no end. Before she could mutter a reply, she was already in Bastion. The cohort found themselves where the Cafe had once been, now replaced by empty space in a grassy field.

Sunny was gone, and they had lost.