A lonely Shadow

Cool air danced and bounced around the corners of Cassie's room as she remained seated on her bed indifferently. During her time alone, she found herself doing this often. Although there was celebration to be had, seeing as she managed to change Nephis fate, her life seemingly hung in the hands of a man with a broken mind.

Recalling his words to her, Cassie stared at her ceiling contemplatively. Looking back on her past interactions with Nephis, all the way from her initial encounters with her, she couldn't quite find fault in Sunny's words. Perhaps she was a slave, that wouldn't change her view on Nephis in the slightest.

Despite her blindness, Cassie was extremely perceptive. She noticed the slight rustle of the leaves as the world conformed itself in accordance with a newly arrived presence. If the door had not opened, it only took a moment of reflection to realise who had arrived in her room.

Sunny was there.

Cassie hadn't had any further visions about the man who stood before her, quite frankly all she could see were the chains of fate which clung to him tightly. There would be no way to free him from the chains she had placed on him, at least with her current ability. And regardless, she wasn't quite sure Sunny would allow her to survive this encounter.

"Sit up." Sunny's cold voice echoed through the room, unknown to Cassie, he had his scythe resting lazily across his back as his military bodysuit clung to his body like a second layer of skin. Dried blood blotched itself across his uniform in huge patches, although it had diminished due to Sunny's half-hearted attempts to clean them.

'He's just killed someone' Cassie thought to herself, complying with Sunny's command with immediate effect. Her hand remained slightly open, ready to summon a weapon at a moments notice. Despite their strength disparity, she was sure she'd be able to alert Nephis before Sunny was able to kill her.

"Sunless, how may I help you?" Her unfamiliar usage of his name had been on reflex, the pain of his slap still echoed throughout her body. "You're going to do something simple; it won't require much effort from you so get up and get ready. I'll be on the roof."

With that, Cassie felt a presence vanish from the room. She moved to pick up her modified communicator, hoping to send a message to Nephis before she left however cold steel wrapped around her neck, drawing a thin trail of blood stopping her actions entirely.

"Nephis doesn't need to know, it'll be our own little secret." Sunny whispered in her ear, reaching towards her, he snatched the communicator from her hand and crushed it, before lifting her up and jumping out of the window. His grip was soft yet strong, Cassie didn't bother attempting to resist as she borrowed his senses to see where she was going.

Sunny was moving at immense speeds, faster than she had ever seen anyone move before. He was currently barrelling towards the outskirts before crash landing into the dirty soil, leaving a dust cloud floating around them. Dropping Cassie, it took all her acrobatic capability to not land flat on her face as she spun and landed on her feet.

"Now that we're somewhere private, I need you to do me a favour. You're going to let me know the location of the citadel owned by Sky Tide, or Saint Tyris." Sunny's voice remained cold and impassive as he spoke. However, the strange nature of Sunny's request only sent a puzzled expression across her face.

"I'll see what I can do, is your intention to bind yourself to their citadel?" Cassie asked, to which she received a grunt of agreement. Sunny's plan was quite simple, he wanted to saturate his fourth core and unlock a fifth one to add as an extra bonus.

In his studies of the geography of the dream realm, he had heard of a creature which could mimic the abilities and aspects of humans and nightmare creatures. And if his hypothesis was true, it would also be able to copy their flaws. 'Well, it's time to see what having a slave feels like.' Sunny thought to himself as he followed Cassie.

It didn't take long for him to find himself in Sky Tide's presence. Overall, she was quite the intimidating woman, he could feel the environment conforming to her presence. The grass bent slightly towards her; the wind sung a little louder as she glided towards him.

After exchanging pleasantries with the intimidating fellow, Sunny set out on his journey. He had researched on things like the crushing too extensively to be caught by such a thing, and so he simply picked the lowest hanging island before beginning his mission.

Summoning Saint and Nightmare, he had them run off in the same direction, to the limits of his ability to control them and beyond. Their mission was simple, kill every nightmare creature you see and run if the fight gets too dangerous. That way, Sunny could saturate his core passively without having to run into many nuisances on his way to his goal.

Nightmare creatures didn't deserve his time, he'd had his fill killing and eating as many as the eye could see in his stay at the forgotten shore. Memories of eating his way through the entire dark city hit him like a canon as he continued to run, a wicked grin settled itself on his face as his speed increased.

Finally, he saw it. The figure looked vaguely humanoid, it had arms and legs which were too long and thin to be a humans with a reflective face to match. 'This is my esteemed guest' Sunny thought to himself, rushing in with his newly summoned scythe in hand. However, he quickly halted to a stop as he heard signs of combat around the creature.

His face grew irate as white flames shot up from the creatures location, a part of him was hoping and praying that there was another user of white flames who existed, but sadly, it was the person who he'd like to see the least. There Nephis was, fighting the mirror beast and being left utterly hopeless in its wake.

Sunny jumped into a nearby tree watching the battle proceed, the creature had managed to not only replicate her aspect, but also her weapons and skill. It felt like watching Nephis fight a clone of herself who didn't have the downside of her debilitating flaw.

His gaze shifted to one of disgust as he remembered pitying Nephis for the pain her flaw caused her. Her aspect was truly a cruel one, which was why he found intense pleasure from watching her use it so freely. Sunny could tell that Nephis was tiring, there was simply no feasible way forward for her in this fight and he knew it.

Tremors spread through the ground as the mirror beast lunged towards Nephis in a burst of speed, Sunny knew Nephis couldn't react, he wasn't even sure he could get there in time to save her. And so, he improvised. Stepping into a nearby shadow, he appeared in Nephis own before extending his arms and pulling her downwards.

Darkness enveloped the two of them as Sunny paced away from the mirror beast at intense speeds, the mirror beast was slowly losing its form as it turned into a shadow to give chase, but Sunny was faster. Launching Nephis out of his shadow, he turned to the mirror beast, meeting it's stride before whispering in it's ear as he was only inches away from a blow.

"Stop, lost from light."

The creatures movements stiffened, standing upright remaining as stiff as a board. Sunny paced around the creature analysing its form before allowing a laugh to escape his lips. 'If I were it, I would have escaped by now. After all, I never specified for how long' he mocked internally.

Turning backwards, a frown settled itself on his face as he witnessed flames lick at Nephis skin, slowly healing her from the wounds she had incurred from the mirror beast. Pacing towards her, Sunny glared at her before he spoke, his tone came out with venom.

"It's almost like, in all two worlds it doesn't seem like I can get away from you. Now, tell me. What are you doing here hunting for my prey?"

Nephis stared at him incredulously before shrugging. "I got here before you, I got told that you were coming here and ran into the mirror beast on the way. What did you even do to stop it?" Her ability to shrug off his aggression irked Sunny to no end, so instead, he plastered a fake smile across his face before responding.

"Ah, I see. Cassie told you right? I'm going to break her nose when I see her next. To answer your question, I said a few words to the beast, and we came to an amicable agreement that it would not attack unless I said so."

The lie came as easy as Sunny breathed. He couldn't have Nephis know about the true nature of the mirror beast, if she hadn't already figured it out by now. Turning around, Sunny paced towards his prey once more before whispering to it, making sure Nephis couldn't hear.

"Don't copy another ability without my command, now guide Nephis out of the island then return. Do not let her be hurt by anyone." His silent command emanated through the creatures body as it made its way towards Nephis briskly. Sunny jumped atop it, sitting on its shoulders in a manner resembling a mere child.

"My good friend here is going to escort you off the island, Valor's ball is in a month, no? I hope I never see you again till then Changing Star!" enthusiasm riddled his voice as Nephis watched the creature approach impassively. "And if I refuse to leave?" her question was less antagonistic than curious, she wondered how far Sunny would go to hide his secrets.

"Nothing much will happen to you; I'll just make you have some sweet dreams again before sending you on your way back to the real world." The threat loomed in his tone as Nephis gazed at the mirror beast impassively, before relenting and following the mirror beast as it guided her away from the island.

Smiling to himself, Sunny studied the bright skies of the dream realm before stretching. He needed to prepare his mind and body for what he was about to do after all.

He was going to meet the prince of nothing.