Sunny's stay within the domain of Clan Song turned out to be unexpectedly pleasant.
Upon his arrival, escorted by Seishan, his very first order of business was to meet the Queen of Worms, Ki Song. At last, he had the chance to come face-to-face with one of the figures Nephis despised so deeply.
The Sovereign welcomed him warmly, bypassing the usual tedious formalities. Instead, she offered him a single drop of her blood to officially bind him to her domain.
Sunny swallowed the crimson drop without a second thought. Just as he had anticipated, [Blood Weave] instantly flared to life at the presence of a foreign lineage, ruthlessly devouring it whole.
Afterward, Seishan acted as his guide, showing him around the sprawling castle, outlining his new duties, and formally introducing him to her sisters. During this tour, he also had a highly unexpected reunion with Mordret.
From that moment on, the Prince of Nothing attached himself to Sunny like a shadow, following him everywhere and acting as if they were long-lost brothers. Sunny couldn't honestly call him a friend—or at least, he wasn't ready to go that far yet. But surprisingly, in day-to-day life, Mordret didn't turn out to be terrible company.
"Sunless, my dear friend! What a genuine pleasure to run into you today!" Mordret would exclaim every single time they crossed paths, waving cheerfully. The sheer, unearned familiarity of it always made Sunny grumble furiously under his breath.
Then there were the Blood Sisters. Seishan's sisters—Eunbin, Lonesome Howl, Silent Stalker, Moonveil, and Revel—turned out to be unexpectedly polite, a far cry from the ruthless, bloodthirsty assassins the rumors painted them out to be. Over time, Sunny managed to get to know them individually. He found them to be surprisingly grounded individuals—formidable warriors, yes, but each with her own distinct personality, quirks, and interests.
And then... there was Hell. Better known as Deathsinger.
"Hello. I am Hell, though some call me Deathsinger. It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Master Sunless," she had said during their first introduction, gripping his hand tightly with an unblinking, fixed smile plastered across her face.
"Er... the pleasure is mine," Sunny replied, returning the handshake nervously. He couldn't help but notice that her grip was a bit too tight, almost possessive, as if she had no intention of ever letting him go.
After two excruciatingly awkward minutes of absolute silence—during which she refused to release his hand and simply stood there, staring intently into his eyes—Lost from Light cleared his throat, raising his free hand to his chin to break the eerie tension.
"Ahem. So... is there something specific I can do for you?" Sunny asked, desperately trying to salvage the situation.
For some inexplicable reason, Hell Song's eyes suddenly lit up at his question, gleaming with a manic, sinister light.
"Yes. Yes, of course you can," she said, nodding twice in rapid succession. "Put a baby inside me."
"Eh?" Sunny blinked, genuinely dumbfounded. 'Surely, I misheard her.'
"PUT A BABY INSIDE ME!"
That day, Sunny ran like hell. Literally.
Aside from that minor traumatizing incident, his days passed rather peacefully.
Ki Song would occasionally ask for his assistance on scouting missions or to clear out specific abominations, but other than that, he was largely free to continue his usual routine.
He spent time with Rain, hung out with Kai, cooked mountains of food for Effie, gave lectures at the Academy, and caught up with Professor Julius. He even managed to stay in close contact with Master Jet and visit the Chained Islands whenever he pleased. Despite his initial fears about joining a Legacy clan, he had far more freedom than he could have ever imagined.
Naturally, Soul Reaper mercilessly teased him for selling out to a big-name Legacy clan, joking that he had stabbed his fellow Outskirts rats in the back. But deep down, she was profoundly relieved to see him no longer drowning in his own dark thoughts. Jet genuinely cared for him. Partly because they shared the same miserable origins, but mostly because she had watched over him ever since he took his very first steps into the world of the Awakened.
He felt so comfortable that, for a fleeting moment, he even considered laying the permanent foundations for his Brilliant Emporium right there in Ravenheart. If he had asked his greedy assistant Aiko, she probably would have jumped for joy at the prospect of tapping into the Clan's vast wealth.
However, the most unexpected pleasure of his time in Clan Song was the time he spent with Seishan.
Chatting with the Blood Lord turned out to be incredibly enjoyable. Getting to know her brought a breath of fresh air that he desperately needed. As it turned out, he and Seishan had much more in common than either of them had thought. Both hailed from the Outskirts; though she had been adopted by the Queen at a young age, while he had spent years surviving in the freezing, dark alleys of the slums. Both absolutely adored wealth—she loved luxury, and he loved cold, hard credits. They both shared a passion for ancient history and good food, and the list went on.
In short, they never ran out of things to talk about. Sunny even went as far as inviting her to the grand opening of his Brilliant Emporium.
If someone had told him three years ago that he would one day passionately explain his life's dream to a Legacy scion—and that she would actually appreciate it—he would have told them to stop inhaling toxic fumes from the Outskirts' broken air purifiers.
Sunny and Seishan also frequently found themselves fighting side by side during the dangerous missions assigned by the Queen, their combat skills complementing each other perfectly.
And then, one day... the irreparable happened.
It was completely unexpected. They had spent hours fighting off a massive swarm of Nightmare Creatures infesting a forest near Ravenheart. After the grueling battle, utterly exhausted and battered, they had taken refuge inside a dark, secluded cave.
The princess noticed a stray drop of blood staining his cheek. His blood. Reaching out to gently wipe it away, her Flaw suddenly flared up. Driven by pure, predatory instinct, she brought her stained thumb to her lips and licked it.
Instantly, the Blood Lord's body was flooded by an overwhelming surge of pleasure unlike anything she had ever experienced. The mysterious essence hidden in his blood acted like a potent aphrodisiac. Seishan felt as if her very veins had caught fire; her mind went completely blank, and her alluring eyes clouded over with raw, unrestrained lust.
"Shan... what's wrong?" Sunny asked, entirely misreading the sudden, drastic shift in his friend's demeanor as he realized she was staring at him like he was a feast.
He didn't get the chance to say another word. In the next heartbeat, she crashed her lips against his. Their bodies collided, tangling together in the dim light of the cave. Hands wandered desperately, armor and clothes were stripped away and discarded in a frantic blur, until there was nothing left between them. It was the first time for both of them. Two battle-hardened souls making love for the very first time, clumsily but passionately exploring the warmth of each other's bodies.
When they awoke the next morning, Sunny found Seishan completely shattered. Her usual regal pride and flawless composure had crumbled overnight. She didn't know if what she felt was burning shame, or if it was the embers of their consumed passion still glowing softly in her chest. Overwhelmed, the princess simply asked him for time—time to process and make peace with these intense, alien feelings.
At first, Sunny tried to talk to her, but she couldn't bring herself to face him properly. So, after a while, he backed off, respectfully deciding to wait until the princess was ready to open her heart to him.
It was a painful separation for him, and a difficult choice to make. But it was a choice nonetheless—one that, hopefully, would eventually yield a result, perhaps triggering the effects of his mysterious Attribute, [Mark of Choice].
Then, one day, without any prior warning, Lost from Light received an urgent call from Soul Reaper Jet, asking to meet in person.
Following that meeting, fully sponsored by Clan Song, he departed for Antarctica, taking command of one of the Vanguard divisions in the First Evacuation Army.
The first step toward the point of no return in the Domains War had just begun.
***
"I am sorry," Sunny whispered, his voice cracking as he looked at his fallen comrades. His subordinates. His friends.
Belle. Dorn. Samara.
He had been forced to watch them die, one by one. Falcon Scott had become a frozen wasteland of rigid corpses and frostbitten soldiers. Its towering buildings and once-bustling streets were now utterly devoid of life.
The passing of the Winter Beast had left no survivors in its wake.
None, except for the two of them: him and Jet.
Despite everything he had done. Despite all their grueling efforts, the unimaginable sacrifices, and the oceans of blood spilled, there was absolutely nothing they could have done to stop the sudden onslaught of a Corrupted Titan.
And so, after painstakingly burying the bodies of his fallen cohort, Sunny and the Soul Reaper embarked on a makeshift vessel to return to civilization—the back of his Greedy Mimic.
"Good morning, Sunny," Jet murmured softly, waking up the following day.
After drifting across the freezing sea for days, they had reached land and summoned Nightmare to continue their grueling trek. When the freezing night finally fell, they had halted the dark steed and taken refuge inside a secluded cave. In that moment, surrounded by the heavy, suffocating quiet of their solitude, the two of them had felt a desperate, aching need for comfort.
And so, they had shed their armor, their clothes, and their burdens.
It had been sweet. Jet could have told him it was her first time so he would be gentler, but she had fiercely refused to even entertain the thought. More than anything else, she just needed to feel alive, defying her Flaw.
"Good morning," Sunny replied, waking up bare beneath the warm, tangled embrace of their blankets, his eyes still heavy with sleep.
He glanced down, taking in the chaotic aftermath of their night of desperate passion.
"How did we end up making such a mess?" he asked, letting out a breathy, half-hearted laugh.
"Mhm," even the fierce, stern Soul Reaper chuckled genuinely for once. For the first time in her life, she felt truly happy to be vulnerable with someone.
"Looks like you have more than one problem to worry about now, outside of that Song princess of yours," Jet teased, before leaning in to capture his lips in a lingering, affectionate kiss.
Sunny savored the taste of her lips, but inwardly, he was cursing up a storm. 'Damn Nether and his convoluted machinations! I bet this is all because of that cursed Attribute he gave me, [Mark of Choice]. What the hell was he trying to achieve when he made me inherit it?!'
Nevertheless, in that fleeting moment, Lost from Light allowed himself to fully experience the sweet, grounding comfort of human warmth.
***
Nephis woke up. She slowly opened her silver eyes to find a hand gently clasping hers.
Then, she noticed the figure lying on the bed right beside her. Ink-black hair as smooth as silk, eyes like twin obsidian gems, and pale skin as flawless as porcelain.
Sunny.
"What are you looking at?" Changing Star asked softly, a warm, genuine smile blooming on her lips. She felt as though there was nowhere else in the world—in both worlds, even—that she would rather be.
Sunny smiled back at her, his dark eyes brimming with tenderness, before softly whispering, "You."
He leaned closer, tilting his head to capture her lips. It was in that exact, perfect moment that the world dissolved into a blinding white, and she truly awoke.
Nephis woke up. For real, this time.
She was lying in the bed of her mansion, and there was no one there holding her hand while she slept.
It hurts.
Creaaak.
The heavy door to her bedroom slowly swung open. Lifting her head from the pillows, Changing Star watched Cassie step into the room.
"Valor has summoned us," the blind seer announced, her voice perfectly flat. "It is time to go to Antarctica."
"Okay," Nephis nodded.
A single, hot tear traced a slow path down her cheek. Her heart ached so terribly much that morning.
***
Changing Star entered the meeting room alongside Cassie, accompanied by Saint Whispering Blade and her adopted sister, Morgan.
Joining Clan Valor wasn't a choice she was particularly proud of, but her grand objective demanded sacrifices, and the rewards were well worth the cost.
Inside the oval room stretched a long, rectangular table where high-ranking members of the government and the renowned Clan Song were already seated. Among the latter, she spotted him.
'Sunny.'
The name couldn't help but echo in the temple of her mind—a sound as melodious as a silver bell, and as entirely delusional as hope itself. However, he didn't notice her immediately. As Nephis stepped further inside, she realized Sunny was seated right between Master Jet and Seishan. She noticed the way the Soul Reaper was looking at him, and how the Blood Lord was holding his hand beneath the table.
When he finally turned and offered her a brief, perfectly polite nod of greeting, her [Longing] ability no longer perceived that intense, burning warmth directed at her—the flame that, until very recently, had still been alive.
Her heart finally, definitively shattered in two.
***
Morgan had challenged Sunless to a spar—a test to see if the renowned capabilities boasted by the famous Devil of Antarctica were actually true.
The Princess of War was not disappointed. His combat skills were truly remarkable, entirely befitting the boy who had challenged his Second Nightmare alone as a Sleeper and lived to tell the tale. Furthermore, she discovered something highly interesting: her Flaw, which rendered everything she touched incredibly fragile, seemed to have absolutely no effect on him.
It happened just before they traded their first blows. Morgan had asked him to choose a weapon. As she reached forward to grab a wooden training sword, Sunny reached out for the exact same one, and when their fingers brushed against each other...
"Eep!"
The Princess of War retracted her hand with feline speed. For a brief, fleeting moment, she had felt the pleasant, solid warmth of his fingers against her skin. It was alien, grounding, and incredibly warm.
Sunny stared at her for a solid minute, unable to believe the highly undignified squeak the terrifying scion of Valor had just let out. He watched her blush furiously, looking less like a ruthless warrior and more like a flustered teenage girl experiencing her very first crush. It was a truly memorable event.
Subsequently, Morgan proceeded to go all out, using extreme violence to mask her sheer embarrassment. Sunny held his own against her onslaught, though not without walking away with a cracked rib or two.
All things considered, the princess was deeply satisfied. And deep inside her, quite unexpectedly, a switch had been flipped. It was a warm, pleasant emotion she didn't quite know how to describe—not out of stupidity or foolishness, but simply because her first crush had arrived very late in life.
The following days were incredibly grueling for all the Awakened deployed on the front lines, whether they belonged to the government or the great Clans.
Kai and Effie had also arrived, taking command of their respective divisions within the second bunch of the Evacuation Army.
Whether by sheer luck or through one of Cassie's grand, mysterious machinations, Sunny found himself fighting alongside Nephis—though purely to coordinate their forces during the chaotic onslaught of Nightmare Creatures. Nevertheless, this brought Changing Star a profound sense of relief. They hadn't spoken, nor had he even looked her way, since the night of the gala.
Then came the first clash between the two Clans—a grim prelude to the great war to come. A bloody skirmish that erupted immediately after three Category Four Nightmare Gates ripped open right in the middle of the battlefield.
Whispering Blade was killed. Those who couldn't escape the mundane world, or barely managed to save their own lives, were forced to flee into the Dream Realm. Then came the harrowing trek across the Nightmare desert, which proved to be even more perilous—especially with the terrifying presence of the Skinwalker hunting them. Sunny hadn't missed that cursed wasteland one bit.
Their desperate journey ended with the seven of them reaching a Seed of the Third Nightmare. The makeshift cohort consisted of Sunny, Nephis, Cassie, Effie, Kai, Jet, and Mordret. The Prince of Nothing was the one who had actually located the Seed, currently missing an arm and an eye for his troubles.
Morgan and Seishan had been with them initially, but the respective Saints of their Clans had insisted on pulling them back before they entered the desert any further.
The first to take a step toward the Third Trial was Lost from Light.
"Try not to pull any nasty tricks while we're in there, Mordret," Sunny told the Prince with a genuine, albeit strained, smile.
"You took the words right out of my mouth, dear Sunless. Let's just focus on staying alive." Mordret returned the sentiment with the same unsettling enthusiasm and charisma he always displayed.
If they weren't exactly friends yet, they were dangerously close to becoming so.
Sunny put one foot forward. Turning around to look at the group one last time, he said:
"Well then... see you on the other side, I guess!"
His gaze lingered specifically on Jet, for whom he had recently developed entirely new emotions.
With that, he turned back toward the swirling portal that would lead him into his Third Trial.
But just before he could step through, he heard Effie announce loudly from behind him:
"By the way, did I mention I'm pregnant?"
"..."
Once again, Sunny tripped, literally face-planting into the Nightmare.
[Ascended! Prepare for your Third Trial!]
"Damnation!"
[Thirteen million, seven hundred thousand, and sixty-seven brave ones… welcome to the Nightmare!]
"What the—is this thing broken or something?!"
***
The Third Nightmare proved to be entirely true to its name, because it was located inside the great Tomb of Ariel itself.
At the very beginning, Sunny didn't just find himself drowning once again; he was lost in a thick, suffocating mist in the middle of a seemingly bottomless sea. To make matters worse, a deeply irritating, all-too-familiar figure was standing right beside him.
It was the spectral manifestation of the [Sin of Solace], having taken on his exact likeness to taunt him.
What followed was no better. Taking flight by manifesting a pair of shadow wings through his Aspect, Sunny was pursued for miles by a Great Beast—a majestic leviathan serpent that refused to let him go. He flew until he finally spotted dry land, which turned out to be the massive shell of another Great Nightmare Creature: a giant, island-sized turtle.
As fate would have it, he was reunited with Nephis on that very island. Unlike her, Sunny wasn't particularly thrilled by the reunion. But after everything he had endured during the tragic fall of Falcon Scott, he was simply too exhausted to keep running from her. Besides, their current dire situation didn't leave him much room to be picky about company.
Sunny spent the following month in Changing Star's company. They passed their days training and, inevitably, talking. They didn't delve into heavy or painful topics, opting instead for simple, trivial banter. For a fleeting moment, it felt almost like going back to when they were just two kids who had barely met on the Forgotten Shore, hardly even knowing each other's names. Sunny had to admit... it was surprisingly pleasant.
Right on cue, however, the cursed spirit of the jian dragged him harshly back to reality, whispering those fateful words in his ear:
"There is nothing more pathetic than a slave who trusts his own slaver."
Sunny's expression instantly darkened, his gaze turning distant and cold.
The next day, he devised a meticulous plan to confront and ultimately overcome the Great Beast, slaying it and inheriting the crown of the king it once was.
[You have slain a Great Beast: Daeron of the Twilight Sea.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[You have received a Memory: Crown of Twilight.]
Sometime after, they encountered Ananke, an old lady of the Great River navigating a modest boat. She introduced them to the ancient civilization inhabiting the river of time itself, teaching them their customs, culture, and traditions. The Transcendent also explained the concept of natural awakening to them—though thanks to Eurys, Sunny already knew more about it than she did.
Tragically, Ananke met a painful end. Sunny inherited her mantle, weaving it into a Memory in her honor.
---
Memory: [Ananke's Mantle].
Memory Rank: Transcendent.
Memory Tier: I.
Memory Type: Garment.
Memory Description: [This mantle once belonged to Ananke of Weave, Priestess of the Nightmare Spell. She met the Children of Weaver in a nightmare and guided them across the perilous currents of time. Her wisdom was radiant, and her kindness was a blessing.
May she rest in peace.]
Memory Enchantments: [Enduring], [Concealing], [Tasteless]
[Enduring] Enchantment Description: [This mantle is durable, resistant against the elements, and capable of repairing itself.]
[Concealing] Enchantment Description: [It masks the presence of its wearer.]
[Tasteless] Enchantment Description: [Why did it have to be black?]
---
"What the hell is that supposed to mean, you little wretch?!" Sunny snapped in irritation at the Spell after reading the final enchantment's description. "Black looks good on everything! A ton of things use black as a base color and look incredible! What do you even know about it?!"
He was genuinely at a loss for words.
"Stupid Spell."
Overcoming their grief and pressing forward, they eventually reunited with Cassie. The blind seer was currently held in chains—figuratively and literally—as the last Sybil of the River People.
With that crisis resolved and their friend recovered, they set off in search of Jet and Effie. They managed to find them relatively quickly, but the location where the two had ended up gave them a massive headache.
Sunny was genuinely overjoyed to see his Jet again—a detail that did not escape Nephis's watchful notice.
Raised by Wolves and Soul Reaper had landed on an island suspended in the sky where time was locked in an endless, repeating loop. The moment night fell, the cycle would reset completely. To make matters worse, the floating island was infested with dozens of Nightmare Creatures, none of them weaker than a Fallen or Corrupted Beast.
It took Lost from Light a while to realize the true nature of the repeating loop. Trapped between endless deaths, the persistent torment of the [Sin of Solace] ghost, and the constant anxiety of figuring out how to break the cycle, Sunny went through living hell.
Yet, there was a single moment of quiet—a brief instant of calm where he could finally breathe and take a break.
It was when Nephis offered him a peaceful picnic. In that tiny, fleeting moment, perhaps he had found a shred of peace.
If not for the quiet, cold realization echoing in his mind: 'I don't love Nephis.'
How could he? After everything she had done to him?
The betrayal, the loss of his freedom, the years of bitter hatred. In the end, he didn't truly blame her anymore—he was simply exhausted by that toxic emotion. Besides, over these past few months, he had long moved past his old feelings for her.
Seishan, Jet, even Morgan in her own way... Sunny had unexpectedly found comfort and genuine happiness in building new relationships. He had moved on. But he knew all too well that she hadn't. And that was a problem he would eventually have to address.
'Let me just survive this Nightmare first, then we'll talk,' he told himself, completely unaware that time was something she wouldn't give him.
Finally, with the help of a mysterious ally, Sunny managed to resolve the temporal loop.
A gentle maiden trapped in the tower that governed the island. Her name was Windflower.
***
Windflower stood before him. All around them stretched a vast, blooming meadow—an endless expanse of vibrant, lush colors. This was what the island, bearing the name of its sole resident, had once looked like.
Windflower was a rare beauty with flawless, dark skin. Her face was exquisite and gentle, framed by raven hair as soft as silk that cascaded down her shoulders. Her azure dress was woven with delicate white accents.
She held out her delicate hands. Cupped within her palms rested a breathtaking blue lotus. Pristine and graceful, it mirrored the vivid hue of both the sea and her garments.
A final gift, meant only for him.
"So, it is time," Sunny said quietly, looking from the flower to the princess standing before him.
"I am afraid so," Windflower replied softly. "It was a true pleasure meeting you, Sunless. I know we haven't spent much time together, but these few, fleeting moments to me had been really beautiful."
Her genuine smile reached her eyes, making them shine as she looked at him.
With that final farewell, Sunny raised a hand, carefully reaching out to accept her offering.
But the very moment his fingertips brushed the delicate azure petals...
"Mh!"
Sunny felt a sudden, soft warmth press against his mouth. His dark eyes went wide as he realized Windflower had leaned forward, capturing his lips with her own. Only then did it dawn on him that she smelled faintly, sweetly, of blooming flowers.
Smack.
When they finally parted, Lost from Light simply stood there, staring at the Princess of the Twilight Sea, his mouth hanging slightly open in pure disbelief at what she had just done.
Meanwhile, she looked back at him with a radiant smile and a deeply melancholic gaze—the look of someone mourning a lost opportunity.
"What?" she teased gently. "Is there something wrong with seeking a little bit of affection in my final moments of life? Besides, you have been quite the knight, Mister Sunless. Sunny."
At her words, her dream began to fade, and the beautiful blooming meadow around them dissolved into the mist, leaving him with only the lingering image of her splendid smile. But right before she faded away completely, a single tear traced a path down her cheek, and Windflower whispered:
"Sunny... if you ever meet the real me out there, please, tell her that I tried my best. We all did."
***
[You have slain a Transcendent Human: Windflower of the Twilight Sea.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[You have received a Memory: Dream Flower.]
Deep within the dark, silent depths of Sunny's Soul Sea, a father and his daughter were finally reunited.
Sunny slumped heavily against the cold stone wall, his eyes fixed on the lifeless body of the princess as his own body surrendered to immense exhaustion, sliding down to the floor. Pulling his knees tightly to his chest, he silently summoned his new Memory.
The splendid blue flower she had gifted him in the dream was still there, right in his hand. Graceful and immaculate, its petals seemed to dance enchantingly atop his palm.
It was at that exact moment that Nephis stepped into the room. She paused, watching Sunny as he stared down at the blue lotus, his usually guarded eyes filled with a tender, distant sorrow directed entirely at the deceased maiden lying before him.
Changing Star had no idea what had just transpired between them, but for some inexplicable reason, she couldn't shake the intense, searing irritation that threatened to make her completely lose her temper.
Her patience was rapidly running out. The dark, consuming desire to make Sunny hers was slowly winning the war against her morals and the silent promise she had made to never use the [Shadow Bond] again.
And desire, as they say, is nothing more than a form of hope.
***
"Faster! Faster!"
Sunny rowed with everything he had, his muscles burning with exertion. Following the path illuminated by the guiding light, he pressed on toward the Estuary of the Great River—a place situated at the very origin of time. It was the abyss where Ariel, the Demon of Dread, had buried his darkest secrets, and exactly where Cassie had promised he would find the key to his freedom.
After escaping Windflower's island, they had managed to recover Kai and Mordret. Following a brief stop at the island of the last Sybil to bid a somber farewell to its inhabitants, the cohort was now preparing to face their ultimate challenge and conquer the Third Nightmare once and for all.
During their harrowing navigation, a small miracle had occurred: the child Effie carried in her womb had finally been born. She had named the little boy Ling.
The night before the final confrontation, the cohort had split up. Nephis, Effie, Kai, Jet, and Mordret ventured out to scout the final island and gain a tactical understanding of the battlefield. Meanwhile, Sunny and Cassie were left behind to guard the Chain Breaker.
Just before leaving, Changing Star had turned back to look at the two of them one last time. Her expression was profoundly dark. The white flames dancing in her eyes concealed countless fears and obsessive thoughts, fueled by biting winds of resentment and a twisted, possessive desire.
Later that night, Serenade of Doom had quietly slipped away, setting sail on a small skiff detached from the main ship. Cloaked in shadows, Sunny had secretly followed her.
Once they were truly alone—save for the maddening whispers of the [Sin of Solace] and the silent presence of the Echo of Torment—Cassie had finally revealed her true intentions.
Ever since she and Nephis had returned from the Forgotten Shore without him, the blind seer had wept for his absence. Slowly crumbling under the crushing guilt of having surrendered his True Name to Changing Star, Cassie had spent every single waking moment since then meticulously orchestrating his liberation.
"My True Name, Serenade of Doom, means that I am fated to witness the fall of friends and heroes, and to sing of their deeds for as long as I can remember them... like fading ink on the pages of a diary. I am meant to be a witness. Powerless to change the course of destiny," she confessed, her voice trembling with the weight of years of silent agony. "And unfortunately, Sunny, we are out of time. In truth, our time ran out the very day you returned from your Second Nightmare."
Sunny didn't fully comprehend the terrifying scope of her words, but he perfectly understood the raw intent behind them. Cassie was desperately trying to make amends.
"I cannot say if it is because Nephis was originally the one meant to be trapped on the Forgotten Shore, exactly as fate dictated... but ever since she returned and you didn't, the future has worsened drastically. People don't have the slightest clue how fast the hands of the doomsday clock have lunged forward. But thankfully, we are still in time. We can still fix this, Sunny."
With that, she handed him the guiding light—the compass that would lead him straight into the heart of the Estuary to reclaim his freedom. Despite the sickening knot in his stomach at the thought of abandoning his comrades just before the final battle, Sunny took it. But before he departed, he turned to Cassie one last time, his dark eyes burning with fierce determination.
"Let's do this, Cassie. Let's destroy Fate!"
Now, Sunny was finally inside the Estuary.
After navigating a mind-bending labyrinth, surviving its ancient guardian, and finally shattering that cursed spirit of the jian once and for all, he found himself standing before a solitary grave dug at the base of a massive tree. Or perhaps the tree had been planted there long after the grave was dug—who could really tell?
The grave belonged to the Demon of Oblivion.
Looking up at the towering branches, Sunny noticed a single, peculiar fruit hanging from the tree. Without a second thought, he reached up and plucked it.
The moment he consumed it, a searing, soul-tearing agony brought him crashing to his knees. As he writhed on the ground, the Spell whispered joyfully in his mind:
[You have received an Attribute.]
---
Attribute: [Soul Weave].
"You have inherited a part of Weaver's forbidden lineage. Your soul has been altered and imbued with stalwart potency.
A lonely demon shed tears standing above a forgotten grave. A tree grew from the ground where the demon's tears fell, and from it grew a wondrous fruit."
---
"Ah... ah..."
Sunny gasped for air, his chest heaving. Lying spread-eagle on the bare dirt, he didn't know whether to rejoice over acquiring a new, vital fragment of his forbidden lineage or curse the heavens for the pain. However, as he scanned his surroundings, there was no sign of the key that would finally sever his chains and free him from his destiny as a slave.
Then, it appeared.
'H-how did I not notice it... before?'
A colossal creature had been lurking in the abyssal darkness of the vast cavern all along. It had been completely hidden from his sight, his smell, and even his shadow sense, despite being the size of a small mountain. It possessed a hunched back, a disheveled mantle of messy, oily black feathers, a terrifyingly sharp beak, and mighty wings that were vast even when folded, obscuring its gaunt, skeletal body.
And it possessed a vile soul—radiating more concentrated, sickening Corruption than Sunny had ever witnessed in his life, pulsing outward from six grotesquely giant nodes.
'A… a Cursed Terror…'
The Vile Thieving Bird.
Before Sunny could even form a coherent thought, let alone utter a word, the towering abomination was upon him. The sheer speed of the titan was unfathomable. Enormous, razor-sharp talons slammed into him, pinning him to the ground with crushing force and rendering him completely immobile. Its abyssal, pitch-black eyes gleamed with a bottomless, unnatural greed.
The Vile Thieving Bird raised one of its terrifying talons, preparing to plunge it directly into his chest and rip out his soul.
Yet, instead of fear, a feral anticipation bloomed in his chest. Sunny could already taste the sweet, intoxicating flavor of his liberation.
'I am free,' he declared prematurely in his mind, waiting for the strike that would steal his thread of fate.
His True Name.
But just a fraction of a second before the Terror could plunge its talon into him, the world around Sunny shattered like frail glass.
The darkness, the bird, the cavern—it all dissolved into blinding light, and the Spell whispered right into his ear:
[Wake up, Sunless! Your Nightmare is over!]
[Preparing appraisal...]
'No...'
Nephis had beaten him to it. She had completed the Nightmare.
Sunny had just failed to reclaim his freedom.
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