Two days.
It's been two days since Sunny entered the First Nightmare, and Undying Blade was still there, waiting for him to wake up, any one could have been there, but the Saint insisted, all of the four Saints that trained the 8 children of Song insisted that they needed to be the ones to watch them.
It was their responsibility, they trained the children, they would be there for the children.
Permansor Lunae wanted to be here, but he was on a mission, and the Queen wanted Divine Seer for a while, so Undying Blade was there in his friend's stead. He also liked the kid, so it didn't bother him.
"C'mon kid… What's taking you so long?"
Undying Blade was nervous, he always was, no matter how many times he saw the heirs of Song survive, he was nervous.
He saw many legacies die in the First Nightmare after all. He would never admit it to anyone though…
As he was looking at Sunless, he heard a knock coming from the door.
"Come in."
The door opened, it was Revel, the eldest daughter.
"How is he?"
Revel spoke.
"Nothing yet, but he is alive."
She grabbed a chair, put beside the bed, and sat with the elder Saint.
"He is taking the longest time…
Even Silent didn't take as long."
She spoke with worry.
Caera took her time in the Nightmare, one day and a half, according to her, she was just being careful. Didn't help with her families worries though.
Silence settled.
"You know, I always thought that you two looked like blood relatives."
Undying Blade broke the silence.
Revel was flabbergasted.
"W-What?"
"You just look so alike…
Black hair, black eyes…
Pale skin…
Cold and lousy personality ...."
The woman glared at the man.
"I have a wayyy better personality than him!! He looks like a statue most of the time! And the rest of the time he is a gremlin!"
"Keep telling yourself that. At least he is dedicated and doesn't spend half of his time in a dungeon with his mother's corpse army."
Blade said with a smirk.
Revel groaned at the response of the elder.
"... I just hope his true blood sibling knows that one day…"
"Hm… Yes… Me too"
Undying Blade felt somber.
All the sisters and the mentors knew about Rain, Sunless blood sister. The one that was supposed to be another child of the Ravenqueen…
But she was taken by another family before Ki Song could get to her.
Blade knew that Revel hated the people that adopted Sunless's sister, not because they took Rain, but because they didn't take Sunny as well.
In her mind, they took advantage of the fact that Rain was too young, she wouldn't remember her brother, or her first family, and left Sunless to rot in that orphanage.
Just so they could have the 'ideal' family…
Even if that was what made him become her little brother. She still hated them.
But before he could continue the conversation…
Sunless got up.
"Humm. What time is it…..?"
Revel and Undying Blade got up.
"Sunny!"
"Kid!"
Sunless got up, still getting used to the light.
"How are you? How was the Nightmare? What took you so long?"
Revel was bombarding him with questions, Sunless was planning to brush it all off…
But his flaw didn't let him.
"I am fine, but kind of overwhelmed because of my Aspect. The Nightmare was different and very, very difficult, I even fought an Awakened human and a Tyrant!
It took me some time to find a way to kill them."
As soon as Sunless finished talking, he quickly moved his hand to his mouth.
Both Saints stood there, overwhelmed.
"Excuse me, what?"
His sister asked, confused.
"It doesn't look like he is lying…"
Undying Blade was shocked.
Not only did Sunless defeat an Awakened, but also killed an Awakened Tyrant, as an Aspirant, that was unprecedented.
"But, why did you say it like that, Sunny?"
Sunless wasn't one to just say things out of the blue, sure, he sometimes didn't filter his thoughts, but this? This was different.
Sunless sighed.
"You guys are going to figure it out sooner or later…
It's my flaw… I cannot lie."
Revel's surprise became understanding, at first it seemed like an simple, if not easy flaw to deal with, until you think about how many lies you tell on one day. It would torment Sunny for a long time…
But it wasn't a crippling flaw at least.
Blade then spoke with caution.
"Look Sunless, you may already know this but I am going to say it anyway.
Be. Careful. That flaw can cause you a lot of trouble, not only for you, but the whole of the clan, no one besides us, your sisters, and your mother can know, got it?"
"Yes…"
Sunny answered with confidence.
"... And maybe your girlfriend."
His confidence became embarrassment, his face got red. The smirk on Undying Blade creeped its way onto Revel.
"I-I don't have a girlfriend!"
"Yet! The way you are looking, you'll get a girlfriend in no time!"
"Really Rev?"
"Okay, okay, enough, now, go get ready, Revel will call everyone and I will get you something. Then, we will talk about the next 10 months until the Winter Solstice."
Revel smiled at her brother, and then left the room with Undying Blade.
In the halls of the Song mannor, Blade chuckled, thinking of how to tell the story to his fellow Saints.
"Killed an Awakened Tyrant… Haha, it makes my Nightmare look like child's play."
The elder Saint spoke with humor.
"As expected of the only son of Song"
Revel said like the proud sister she is.
Both laughed as they passed through the halls of the Song mansion.
—
Sunless entered the bathroom, he was stinking. Turning the shower on, his mind began to drift.
'I really… Did it…'
Sunless had been dreaming of this moment for years, every time one of his sisters entered a Nightmare, the Dream Realm, became Masters, Saints…
All the training, education…
Surviving in the mountains of Ravenheart in Frostblade's classes, training in assassination techniques with Undying Blade, learning biology, geography and history from Lunae, and strategy from Divine Foresight…
He had done so much… 10 years to prepare...
He did it…
And it felt… Fulfiling…
Then he thought about how he wasn't as excited as he expected to be.
It was as if… He just finished an exam.
He killed a Tyrant, and an Awakened one at that! Even an Awakened soldier!
Then Sunless noticed…
Did he really have to kill Auro?
He could have been a threat, it was logical to kill him.
He had been trained to kill.
Even if it had been just a phantom of the Nightmare, Sunless felt nothing.
Was it his training that hardened his will, or just that's how he was?
'No… It's not only that.'
It was only the beginning, he still had a long road ahead of him.
Letting that aside for now, he exited the shower, finally refreshed and clean. He looked at himself to see how he was.
Awakening changed your body, it got rid of your imperfections and made you the peak of human conditioning, even made his mind sharper and capable of thinking faster. The more you walked the path of Ascension, the more that happened.
He already had muscles thanks to his training, but now, his body was perfect.
And now he was even more beautiful than the natural Awakened, maybe even more handsome than a Master. He smirked, he really is an heir of the God of beauty. Well, once was an heir.
But he also noticed that his eyes were… Different, it's like it became a black hole, absorbing light constantly, like they were hollow.
'Hollow Death huh…'
His shadow then moved.
"Hm?"
He looked at it with a curious expression.
"Did you just…"
His shadow tried to disguise itself, but its master had already noticed their presence.
The shadow sight, well it made the motion of a sight, no sound came of it.
'Your shadow is more independent than most. It is an invaluable helper.'
Those were the words of the spell.
"Well, we have 10 months, let's see what you can do, we have a long road ahead of us."
The shadow looked at his master with a strange expression, like something wasn't right, like his master wasn't the person it expected, but after seeing the determination in his eyes, it returned to its position as a shadow.
Sunless walked out of the room with a new set of clothes, all black, of course.
But before he closed his door, he looked at his room's table, an unfinished round of death game he and his elder sister promised to complete.
After a few seconds, he turned and closed the door.
"I will find you Shan, even if I have to burn the entire Dream Realm to do so…"