"Leave me, Sunny. Please go."
Sunny shook his head stubbornly, and he opened his mouth to say something but closed it. He sighed softly, turned around, and approached the dais with a troubled expression on his face.
A sigh of relief escaped Nephis's soft lips as pristine flames grew brighter, mending her body back together.
Sunny's thoughts were in complete disarray. Wasn't survival more important?
After all, he didn't have a single selfless bone in his body.
So why? Why was he doing this?
Sunny stood before the gateway, his gaze lingering on Nephis one last time. She responded with a sad smile.
Suddenly, the midnight shard appeared in his left hand. His shadow surged into the shard, augmenting it as he drove it into the shimmering runes. Nephis's eyes widened in shock.
"I don't want to leave," Sunny said quietly.
Nephis's eyes widened in horror as the runes and the gateway itself flickered dangerously. She tried to shout, her voice laced with desperation.
"Stop, Lost—"
Her words were swallowed by a deafening sound of shattering glass. In an instant, an explosion of light painted their worlds white.
A faintly familiar voice whispered something sweet and terrifying into Sunny's ears.
[Second Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers...]
He was about to awaken.
'Crap! I'm awakening. Did it backfire? What happened to Nephis?'
***
Sunny found himself falling toward a surface of rocks. He turned his body to roll and lessen the impact, but as if mocking him, gravity slammed him into the rocks. He definitely broke something!
[Your shadow is evolving...]
[Your shadow is taking shape...]
He heard a soft feminine yelp somewhere behind him, but he was in too much pain both physically and mentally to care right now.
Nephis... He lost her.
A pained groan escaped Sunny's lips as he lay there on the surface of the rocks. He didn't want to get up.
After a few hours or minutes, a faintly familiar voice spoke behind him:
"So are you just going to lie there?" asked Nephis in a flat tone.
'...Wait, Nephis?' His heart skipped a beat.
Sunny tried to sit up hurriedly but couldn't. It felt like an invisible force was pinning him down. Every muscle screamed in protest as he fought to push himself up. After a few agonizing minutes, he finally managed to sit upright, groggy and disoriented.
They were in a cave.
Sunny's eyes focused on Nephis. She was leaning against the cave walls as she had an exhausted expression on her face.
The Starlight legion armor was breached and torn at certain places, a result of their bloody duel earlier, but there were no signs of injuries on Nephis's body. She had managed to heal herself.
She was currently looking away as she said meekly:
"Please put something on, Sunny."
Sunny's eyes widened as blood rushed to his face. He hurriedly summoned the Puppeteer's shroud. After a few seconds, he felt the familiar leathery surface of the Puppeteer's shroud on his skin.
When he dared to look at her again, Nephis was calm, though he knew her well enough to know that she was anything but calm.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Sunny worked up the courage to finally ask:
"Where are we?"
Nephis sighed softly as she summoned a white flame on her fingertips to illuminate their surroundings. Obsidian rocks with jagged edges stretched endlessly around them into the shadows.
"I do not know, Sunny."
Sunny sighed in response and asked:
"Actually, never mind. Do you know of any place in the dream realm with similar characteristics? High gravity and... rocks?"
Nephis shook her head.
"It does remind me of something called the Crushing from a region called the Chained Isles, but that shouldn't be anywhere close to the Crimson Spire," she admitted, and she added in a quiet voice, "Assuming we're still in the Forgotten Shore."
Her words jolted Sunny to attention.
'Forgotten Shore...'
"Nephis, check your runes!"
He exclaimed in excitement as he summoned his own. That's right, he had awakened!
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Lost from Light.
Rank: Awakened.
Class: Monster.
Shadow Cores: [2/7].
Shadow Fragments: [0/2000].
'2000 fragments? Seriously?' Sunny groaned inwardly. 'Why not 1000?'
His gaze shifted to his new Aspect Ability.
Aspect Ability: [Shadow Step].
Ability Description: [You can move freely between shadows, traveling from one to another in an instant.]
'Teleportation... That's a form of teleportation. Right?'
Sunny asked in his head as a stupid grin worked up to his face.
He turned to Nephis, who was frowning at her runes, oblivious to his excitement.
Sunny finally asked the obvious:
"The spell awakened our powers, right? Does that mean we entered the gateway? If so, why aren't we back at the Academy?"
Nephis dismissed her runes with a sigh. "Probably because some genius stabbed the gateway," she replied flatly, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
Nephis shook her head and continued.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Now that we're awakened, we should be able to manipulate essence. Hopefully, that should help us combat the gravity. Try to circulate it."
Sunny nodded as he closed his eyes and focused on a new sense. He reached for a new instinct that should grant him superhuman strength.
After a few minutes of meditation, he was finally able to circulate essence.
The crushing weight eased, and he could move freely again.
He opened his eyes to find Nephis nodding in approval as she continued:
"Be careful with how much you use," she warned. "It takes time to replenish essence, and we'll need it for whatever's out there."
Sunny nodded and added:
"We should find a way to get out. It's getting harder and harder to breathe in here. I'm assuming this place has been closed for quite a while."
Sunny looked around. He could see perfectly fine in the absence of light; they were in a small cave, surrounded by dead ends and walls of jagged edges.
The cave felt suffocating. Sunny attempted to use his shadow sense but was immediately overwhelmed by information. He yelped and shut it off.
Nephis whispered his name in a concerned tone.
"Sunny?"
After a few minutes, he replied with a soft sigh.
"It's my shadow sense," he explained. "Too much input—this place is surrounded by nothing but shadows. I'll try again."
Nephis nodded as Sunny focused on his shadow sense again. Back in the Forgotten Shore, he was surrounded by the light of the sun or the darkness of the dark sea—both of them were natural enemies to shadows. His shadow sense was in a constant state of taking in maximum input, but here he was surrounded by nothing but shadows. The shadows fed him information almost enthusiastically. When he tried to sense his surroundings, the shadows eagerly provided information to a degree he was not used to.
This time he deliberately filtered out the information he received. It took a while, but he eventually focused on what he wanted to sense. He finally found the boulder blocking the entrance.
"I found it. I found our way out of here," Sunny said in triumph.
"I should be able to cut it apart. Lead me there."
Sunny nodded as he tried to stand up without using essence, but it was just too hard!
Gravity was just a little bitch sometimes, but now it was even worse.
After some more extreme effort, Sunny managed to stand up as he smiled triumphantly while looking down at the ground.
He looked up to see Nephis staring at him with an amused expression on her face.
"What?"
Asked Sunny with exasperation. Nephis simply shook her head.
"Nothing."
Sunny looked away as he slowly walked. Nephis quietly followed him as he led her to the boulder.
That's right, behind this he could feel more shadows. He placed a hand on the boulder as Nephis summoned her silver sword.
As Nephis's sword illuminated with white radiance, she got into her stance, ready to splice the boulder open.
Sunny felt an ominous feeling as he realized that they were finally going to get out of this wretched suffocating cave. Sunny shook his head softly as he continued.
As she prepared to slice through, Sunny murmured, "Knowing how the odds are always stacked against us, I can't help but worry."
Nephis smirked. "Would you prefer the cave?"
Sunny scoffed but said nothing, stepping back.
'Bah, what am I so scared of? We survived the Forgotten Shore. What's out there can't be worse than the Forgotten Shore.'
With a single, violently loud slash, Nephis cleaved the boulder. Fresh air rushed in, filling the cave. Sunny took a deep breath, relief flooding him as he opened his eyes.