Kallen exploded forward. A golden suit of armor enveloped him, and a longsword to match flowed into his hands.
Saint was at Sunny's side in an instant. The unstoppable force of Kallen's attack meant that Sunny needed to dodge. He rolled, shrouded in his shadow, and darted behind a small protrusion of coral.
Just long enough for Saint to take the attention.
The purple eyed sleeper would devastate the knight in mere moments in a straight up confrontation, so Sunny didn't hide for long, leaping out of the shadows from behind, careful to keep his eyes off of the reflection in the visor of that echo.
Kallen deflected Saint's attack, and threw a snapping kick, sending her crumbling to the ground. Sunny darted from the cover her large form provided, slashing at him with his blade.
The attack was parried.
That was all, but to Sunny, it felt like a shockwave had rippled down his blade, and stung his muscles and tendons and organs and…
Sunny gnashed his teeth and tried to follow up, but encased in that echo, Kallen was fast. He followed up with an unavoidable punch.
Sunny collapsed to the ground, but recovered in time to launch a tandem attack with Saint. Strangely, Kallen had ample opportunity to follow up—on either Sunny or his echo—but he hadn't grasped the moment.
It wasn't just hesitation, it was flat out refusal to land any sort of heavy blow.
Why was that?
It didn't matter. Sunny launched forward, him and his shadow companion weaving together, their tactics seamless, their combined power near the height of what any Sleeper had ever accomplished.
But still, Kallen had a transcendent echo.
He wasn't a better fighter than Sunny. His aspect was left unused in the battle, but there was a yet a discrepancy between them.
Strength, speed, durability, Kallen had the advantage in it all all. And to top it off, Sunny had to actively avoid looking into his own reflection, lest he suffer the full force of a terrifying hex on his mind.
It was truly an unwinnable fight, but Sunny persisted. He would give his all, and he would buy Nephis as much time as he could. Maybe he could stall and slip out the portal when Kallen was distracted? Maybe Sunny and Nephis could engineer a situation that could allow them to escape?
And so he fought. He fought and bled and took blow after blow, barely scraping that transcendent armor in the process.
He and Saint battled perfectly, utilized every ability at their disposal, and in the end, they managed to leave a single crack in the impenetrable echo of Kallen the Nightwalker.
The blow had forced saint back into Sunny's soul sea, and him on the ground as he was unable to avoid the follow up attack.
Sunny moaned in pain on the ground. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and saw Kallen form a small blade in his left hand. Then, before the liquid hardened into the weapon, he waved his right hand and it shifted, flowing out of his hand into the air.
Kallen forced it to twirl in the air for a moment, before directing it to the crack. It settled deep into the open wound, and hardened around it, erasing the imperfection as if it had never existed.
Damnation… Sunny rose to his shaky feet, wincing from the pain in his solar plexus, and sending his shadow to reinforce his whole body. There was no winning this kind of fight. He didn't have Nephis's Dawn Shard to help him here.
Still, he summoned Saint once more.
"Stand down, Sunny," Kallen said. Sunny looked up to him, focusing just off to the side of his mask to avoid that harrowing mind attack.
"Why are you doing this?"
Kallen took a step forward, and Saint flinched, gripping her sword tighter. The boy stopped, tilting his head at the shadow, before looking back at Sunny.
He began to say something, then paused, and didn't speak.
"Why are you helping Caster?" Sunny asked, his voice louder this time. "After all Nephis has done for you. For your sister."
Even as he said it, he winced, knowing what he and Changing Star were hiding from him. Kallen must have known. If not, why else would he do something like this?
"Your flaw is that you cannot lie," Kallen suddenly said, ignoring the question. "Isn't it?"
Sunny struggled against the compulsion, but eventually relented to the growing pressure that didn't allow him to speak any untruth. He let out a shaky breath. "Yes."
"I thought so." Kallen approached Sunny, and the film over his face faded. Only then, could Sunny see his face. The pain in the depths of those mysterious eyes of his. They were hollow and resigned to some horrible fate. His voice cracked as he began to speak again. "You have a sister, don't you?"
Hesitation, then, "I do."
A hint of warmth spread on Kallen's ice cold face. It vanished shortly.
"I remember you telling me about her." He placed his hand on Sunny's shoulder. "I don't want to hurt you. You're an important friend… go back to her, don't throw your life away for this, it isn't worth it."
Sunny hesitated. Kallen's hand rest on his shoulder, while his other lay to the side unused. He was in a vulnerable position. If Sunny wanted to, he could summon the ghostly stiletto: the moonlight shard and shove it into Kallen's unprotected face.
"There are a lot of people who want Nephis dead, and they're willing to go through anyone they want in order to get there."
Sunny held Kallen's gaze. The traitorous bastard…
Those words he'd just said. They implied that he was sent here to kill Nephis. Not that he had found out she lied about Seren.
He was doing all of this in spite of all that they'd done for him.
In a brief moment of weakness, Sunny swung for Kallen's bare face, moonlight shard blinking into his hand. Kallen flinched backward, blocking the attack with both hands, but Sunny dismissed the blade and summoned it in the other hand.
It connected with the open flesh of the Nightwalker's face.
But Sunny had hesitated.
If just for a moment, he thought of that treacherous secret he and Nephis were keeping from the boy. It was irrational, but that brief fraction of a second had given him pause. And as his blade whistled past Kallen's face, drawing a shallow swipe across his cheek, the blood that spilled began to move.
It shot at Sunny, and when he took a moment to dodge, he found a golden blade punched into his stomach.
Sunny staggered back, and Kallen took a few steps forward, jamming the weapon farther. It was nothing more than a simple knife, but its transcendent strength had torn through the Puppeteer's Shroud as if it were nothing more than a simple shirt.
Sunny tried to look into the boy's eyes for a moment, but when he did, the terrifying pressure of his own reflection forced him to his knees.
He grasped at the wound in his stomach, not even noticing as the Nightwalker left. He just lay in the small pool of his own blood, blood weave trying its upmost to keep the sticky stuff inside where it belonged.
Why did Kallen stop there? Sunny found himself wondering as his lineage attribute worked to stitch him back up. It was an agonizing process.
Why hadn't Kallen finished the job?
~~~
Kallen
A quaking roar could be heard as he ascended. He reached the entrance to the portal in no time, then climbed the coral a few flights to find Caster kneeling beneath Nephis's outstretched blade.
She wasn't wounded, but there was a bright white flame glowing around her. As the blade fell, practically screaming toward the Legacy's neck, a flash of gold collided with it, sending Nephis's strike to the side.
Caster backed away, and Kallen took a few steps in front of him. The daughter of Immortal Flame seemed tired, but there was a conviction in her eyes that surprised him. It hadn't been there until she'd seen him.
"She's afraid you've found out," Ariel said.
Kallen ignored Ariel. "Caster, you can go now. I'll take it from here."
The Legacy rose on weak knees, one hand clutching his side, the other reaching for balance. Each faltering step he took away deepened the silence between the two left behind.
Nephis watched him go, her brow furrowed, eyes flicking to Kallen with dawning suspicion.
"Kallen?" she asked carefully.
He turned toward her, his voice calm. "Hey, Nephis."
She didn't lower her blade, but she hesitated, just enough for her breath to stall. For a moment, she scanned the wreckage around them, as if searching for someone.
"Where's Sunny?"
Kallen didn't answer.
Something tightened in her posture. Her grip on the hilt steadied, but a hint of grief poked through. "You found out, didn't you?" she whispered. "The leviathan devouring the shadow and the angel…"
Kallen shook his head, confused. Nephis wasn't making any sense, meanwhile, she looked at him as if he was going to lash out and attack at any moment. To rush her like some rabid animal.
"Found out what?" He asked. "What leviathan?"
Her lips parted, but no words came. She took a defensive step back, slow and cautious.
Kallen shook his head and turned from the girl, walking a few steps back before forcing the golden armor to peel back from his face. Nephis should see the pain in his eyes, just as Sunny had. She should see cold certainty, as well as his quiet sorrow.
"Sunny is okay. He was going to protect you and I couldn't let that happen, but if he knows what's good for him, he'll leave you and me behind."
"You spared him?" Nephis asked. "Why?"
Kallen cocked a brow. "Becuase he is my friend. Do I need any better reason? This does not concern him."
Changing Star went quiet. Contemplative. Realization dawned on her, but she seemed to fight against the obvious. "You once told me that I was your friend."
"You still are."
"I see."
A silence built between them. Born from mistrust, confusion, and apprehension.
"I suppose I should quit stalling, huh?" Kallen crouched, brushing an armored hand across the ground. He looked up at her. "I'm sorry."
Then, the room erupted with movement.
A/N: I have injured my hand so no new updates after I run through my backlog for a while. Thankfully, book 1 is completed + 2 chapters of book 2, and I only have to edit them very lightly, so I shouldn't miss an update. But yeah, the ao3 curse came after me. I suppose that's what I get for having this on AO3 in the first place...