When Kafka had dragged Sunny to the shore of Scalegorge Waterscape, without his consent, he may add, he used Shadow Manipulation to create a relatively small boat. Ten people could probably fit on it, but it wasn't as if he needed that much space. It was just the two of them, after all.
But if he had to choose between being closer to Kafka or further away, he'd choose the latter in an instant. His instinct to either kill her or run away was still lingering in the backdrop of his mind, and he decided to invest at least some trust in it, no matter how irrational it seemed.
The Stellaron Hunters needed him, whether it be for Elio's grand narrative, or the smaller, more tedious tasks he was left with. Those that required him to don his mask.
Kafka didn't seem unintelligent, and she didn't seem insane.
...Scratch that, she had to be insane. Not because of anything personal about her — not that Sunny knew anything of her background — but simply because that was the true nature of Nightmare Spell carriers. Those that survived for a long time while living a life of constant warfare, at least.
This was just a guess, but Sunny had the feeling that Category One Nightmare Seeds sprouted in those who were undergoing intense emotional turmoil.
That, or [Fated] thought it would be funny to have the Spell infect him the same instant he saw his sister.
In any case, even if his theory was true, he doubted that the Nightmare Spell exclusively picked out people who were most fucked-up in the head. In fact, he bet they were the minority.
After all, negative emotions could be born from something as small as someone being slightly rude.
Still, it was probably more likely to find an insane Awakened than a sane mundane. Moreover, insanity was a spectrum, so there was likely plenty madmen and women hidden in plain sight.
As for Kafka...
She was a Saint.
Risking your life in the Second Nightmare could be excused by saying that you simply never wanted to go to the Dream Realm again. That, or they wanted to use Ascendence as a cure for their crippled physical body.
The Third Nightmare only existed for those who wanted power.
If someone wanted to live a life of comfort, they only needed to sell their Memories.
If they wanted political power, there were far safer ways to go about it.
Why would anyone want to risk their life to grow more powerful?
That could only be because they had a use for personal might.
But to make use of it, they had to continue risking their lives.
Which meant that whatever they wanted to do had to weigh more than their life, right? That, or they were utterly confident that they'd never fail or hit a wall.
Either way, their sanity couldn't be very... well, sane.
As the days, weeks, and months passed, Sunny wondered if he could do the same. Stake his life.
In the end, he could came to the conclusion that the only thing more important than that was his freedom. If it came down to it...
...Well, he still had room to maneuver, and he was never truly out of options. The possibility of there being something that can remove Shadow Bond was never zero.
Moving past that, Sunny's point was that he couldn't possibly know what went through Kafka's head. And as long as that was the case, his life was never truly safe in her hands.
On a logical level, it was, but humans were illogical.
In any case, when they had gotten on the boat, Sunny lamented that he couldn't stalk their conversation. That, and he didn't like the fact that Blade and Dan Heng were in the same space.
Sunny was not disillusioned with Jing Yuan. If the Xianzhou Luofu was benefited more than it was harmed, he would be completely fine with letting Blade and Dan Heng kill each other.
While Sunny did not know how deep Jing Yuan's allegiances ran — whether he prioritized himself, the people of his ship, or the Xianzhou Alliance as a whole — he knew that the leadership of the Luofu was, frankly, connected solely by common interests.
Fu Xuan admitted to killing off any spies her 'allies' sent to infiltrate her staff.
It was a race for power.
As for Jingliu... eh. Who knew what her goals were, if she even had any. In any case, she was also a danger to Dan Heng if she wanted to be one.
But it was too bad. Sunny knew that Jingliu would notice if he sent his shadow over to watch, and he knew that Jing Yuan would notice the minute movements of shade due to his knowledge of the General's Aspect. It wasn't worth intruding.
That was until Kafka spoke.
"Elio's Divine Kingdom is over us, now. If you want to try something, you won't get caught."
It was as if she was reading his mind. That, and based on the expectant look on her face, Kafka seemed to be encouraging him to spy on them.
It was probably part of the Script.
So, that's exactly what he did. Sending out the Creepy shadow — simply because the guy really liked to stare at... things — he watched their conversation from multiple angles.
He even had his shadow do donuts between the four individuals.
Just as he predicted, he was being 'concealed' in some way. They wouldn't be able to see Sunny. And since his shadow was the expression of his lightless soul, it remained just as hidden.
'...Unholy shit.'
He could kill people without them having a clue.
Sunny had thought about it for a bit, before deciding that he may as well, ask Kafka about it. At the same time, he paid attention to their conversation, his shadow connected to Jingliu's.
He wasn't able to hear the beginning, but he noticed that they were talking about some guy. Oh, it was him. Was Blade passing Sunny some aura? He was kind of frying Jing Yuan, honestly.
Then, Jingliu called Sunny a fraud.
It was by design, so he didn't really mind. He actively tried to find common body language between the untrained and noncombatants, and used Shadow Dance to perfect his craft and seem as harmless and meek as possible. For some reason, it never really worked, but Jingliu actually fell for it.
All three men present suddenly tried to defend him, however.
Why, he almost blushed.
Then, Jingliu started to compliment some student of Blade's or whatever. Blah, blah, blah, then she asked for his age? Weird. Then, Blade said the guy was eighteen. Huh, that was Sunny's own age.
Then, Jingliu grew disappointed. Even weirder.
Sunny wondered if she was the kind of person who couldn't properly interact with adults. Then again, she was doing so right now. Maybe she just preferred the company of youths? A bit odd, considering that they all seemed to be parasitic critters.
Cute critters, at the very least.
He also got his answer from Kafka, with her saying that this whole Divine Kingdom thing was technically isolated. Sunny really didn't like the way the word Divine was used there. Like, was Elio actually Divine...?
That would be pretty crazy.
Even crazier, no sneak attacks. What was even the point?!
Sunny watched as Blade said a line or two, yawning from boredom despite the war criminal chilling in his boat...
Then, he froze in utter shock.
Within a few seconds, information flooded his mind.
Each movement Jingliu made. The shuffling of her footwork. The arc of her blade. The precision of her thrusts.
They registered in Sunny's mind with startling clarity. Just as he had thought, they were utterly perfect. There was no personality or specialties hidden within her swordplay.
It was as if she took apart the foundations and hammered them down until they couldn't possibly improve.
And his shadow understood that, sending that knowledge into his head...
Except, that wasn't anything he needed to know. Actually, he already knew how she fought. Sunny fought her himself.
What brought him to an abrupt halt in all his other mental facilities, however, was the fact that she had been holding back this much when she dueled with him.
Sunny knew at the time that she hadn't been going all out. She wasn't trying to kill him, so she didn't use her Aspect or any special enchantments. He was impressed by her fine Essence control, but it wasn't as spectacular as her swordsmanship...
But now...
He wasn't so sure.
Actually, he was completely sure. Sure that he had been completely misjudging her, though that was due to a lack of information.
Her Soul Essence.
That was where her true strength lied.
Because if she had used those same Essence techniques on Sunny, he would be dead a hundred times over.
Jing Yuan used his Soul Essence like strikes of lightning, achieving instantaneous and huge bursts of strength. At the same time, if he timed his usage of Essence, he could use it to heavily mitigate the damage of an attack.
Despite the fact that Jing Yuan likely spent years perfecting it and refining himself in battle, his Essence technique seemed...
Incomparably simple.
When compared to Jingliu, at least. The same could be said for Blade's Essence technique, which Sunny described as a whirlwind of torment. A constant rush or fever.
To Sunny, Jing Yuan and Blade's Essence techniques were like a light switch.
Jingliu's was like the power grid of an entire city.
It should be noted that Jingliu was moving far too quickly for Sunny's normal perception. Instead, he had to rely on his memory of how his own shadow moved alongside her, despite the fact that it moved almost as quickly.
What he perceived was utterly insane.
Sunny knew that higher one's Rank was, both the quality of their Essence as well as their skill in isolating different parts of their body increased. Moreover, upon Transcending, Saints were able to project their Soul Essence outside of their body.
This let them add an explosive pulse to their blows, or reinforcing their weapon, or dampening an impact.
But that was it. Nothing more should be possible.
Of course, that wasn't entirely true.
Because Jingliu was genuinely cheating.
Between the vision he got from Weaver and Shadow Dance, Jingliu's Essence was read like a book.
It was so weird.
She'd circulate Essence into a perfect, rotating ring that looped around the bones of her limbs. When they passed through her elbow, the swing accelerated drastically. It stabilized as it floated over her forearm, and arced faster when it went over her wrist. A similar event happened with her legs.
Meanwhile, her Essence branched out like a network from her spinal cord, seemingly hastening her nerves? These patterns stretched across her entire body, which means... she mapped out her entire nervous system with Soul Essence. As for her brain, it seemed that there was a cloud of Essence brushing against it.
He wasn't too surprised that she was being delicate. The mind was too fragile to use Soul Essence on it recklessly.
When she landed, a thin layer of Essence dampened her footsteps, making them silent. When she rushed forth, she created a tunnel that removed sound, erasing her sonic boom. Simultaneously, she negated air resistance.
Back to the rotating rings that passed down her bones, they didn't simply disappear. Once they reached the end of her arm, they would compress and increase her blades potency. At the same time, whenever she launched in any direction, she would compress the rings tightly at her sole, before blasting off.
Jingliu seemed to use Essence to stimulate her heart, choosing when to quicken her heartbeat or to lessen it. Her lungs were taking in oxygen at an optimal rate. She used Essence to increase the quality of her blood...
She had lost her mind. Maintaining all of these functions was impossible for a human.
It was like running by controlling each and every muscle in your legs separately, rather than being guided by instinct.
It should be innefficient.
But it wasn't.
It was a perfect system, each part synergizing perfectly with the rest. Jingliu perfectly calculated the stress limit of every part of her body, and guided Essence accordingly.
It would have been a goldmine...
If it wasn't unachievable.
Sunny figured that there was no way she figured this all out based on nothing but talent and practice. There had to be an Aspect Ability or Memory in use that he couldn't notice.
For a normal person to pull that off, they'd need to actually learn how to manually puppeteer their body, treating it as if it were a separate machine.
...Which meant that it was a goldmine!