The Hollow Mountains loomed ahead, their jagged peaks clawing at the overcast sky. Pale mist pooled in the distant foothills — still, heavy, foreboding. The air was thick with worry. They were entering a Death Zone, and any encounter with a live Nightmare Creature would prove fatal. The group traveled together in a tight formation, taking care to make their presence small.
Coming upon the Starlight Legion's quarry, Sunny peered towards the vast expanse below. The corpse of a Nightmare Creature lay in the basin. At least three times the size of the Carapace Demon, it had been slain by the First Lord's cohort to clear the path to the Dusk Shard. Nearby, a mound of neatly arranged stones marked a fallen member of the First Lord's cohort who died slaying the beast.
Etched upon the grave lie a single sentence:
"Her nightmare is over."
Sunny's gaze lingered for only a second before he turned away. "Over here," he said, steady but low, and led the group toward a narrow tunnel carved into the quarry wall. It would do no good to risk an encounter with the dangerous mist.
***
The cohort followed in silence, the half-dozen footsteps echoing softly behind Sunny. The walls of the tunnel were adorned with intricate carvings.
Sunny paused before the first of them, torchlight casting flickering shadows across its surface. "This," he began, "is the beginning of the Forgotten Shore's history."
The group gathered around, their eyes fixed on the ancient stone. It showed a sunlit land, adorned with forests and stone cities. Cassie reached out, her fingers tracing the grooves of the engravings. Kai and Aiko exchanged glances, their curiosity piqued by the stunning artwork. Effie remained silent, her expression unreadable, while Caster's gaze remained largely on Sunny.
The story of a once-beautiful land, lost to time and darkness, began to unfold. Each carving a fragment of a forgotten narrative, waiting to be pieced together.
The next mural showed stars clustered thick across a carved heaven. One was larger than the rest. It descended in a sharp streak until it struck the earth. In the aftermath, waves of destruction rippled outward, scarring the land with a massive crater.
"A comet?" spoke Aiko.
Sunny didn't respond. He studied the carving with narrowed eyes. He remembered it clearly. That was no comet.
They moved on.
The next carving brought the group to a halt.
A figure stood alone at the heart of the crater, luminous even in stone. It was humanoid, tall — and wrong.
Three eyes glowed from its face: two ordinary, the third set vertically in its brow, burning with carved light.
The people in the mural surrounded the being in worship... or fear.
Cassie's fingers hesitated at the edge of the figure's silhouette.
Sunny's expression didn't change, but his voice had a weight to it.
"That," he said quietly, "is a Nephilim."
Kai blinked. "A what?"
"A union of the divine and profane," Sunny said. "Something that should not exist."
A flash of sorrow from his Flaw assaulted the minds of his cohort, and they all returned their gaze to the mural.
Aiko frowned. "But it looks like a person."
"Plenty of monsters do," Sunny murmured.
There was a beat of silence. Then he added, almost reluctantly:
"If you keep asking about the nature of Nephilims, I'll have to answer. If my Flaw forces me to reveal the forbidden knowledge I carry, some parts could kill you. So don't."
That quieted the group.
Even Caster, who'd been watching him carefully, gave only a short nod — thoughtful, but restrained.
Sunny lingered behind as the others began to move again.
The figure's face seemed different than he remembered.
Or maybe it hadn't changed at all.
Maybe he had.
It looked just a little like her.
The following mural was badly damaged and indecipherable—deep cracks veined the stone, splitting through the figures in jagged scars.
They didn't linger.
The one after was clearer.
The radiant being knelt, head bowed. A tall human stood before it, armored and grim, driving a spear through its chest. From the wound, no blood flowed—only darkness. A churning tide poured out of the creature's body, devouring the earth around it in sharp-edged waves.
The humans closest to the impact were already being pulled under.
"From what I can tell, this doesn't depict shadows," Sunny said.
His tone was analytical, almost distant. "Shadow is just an absence. This is probably something else."
Kai shifted uncomfortably. "Like what?"
"True Darkness," Sunny said. "A thing in itself. The opposite of light. Not a lack. A presence."
He stepped back slightly. "There's no way to be certain what exactly the substance was. Just speculation I once had."
The next mural continued the story.
Darkness bled upward now—reaching for the sky. The stars were vanishing, swallowed or falling, until only a black void remained. The land lay beneath it, featureless and lightless. In the foreground, humans ran. Fought. Fell.
The carvings showed monsters. And among them... distorted figures with once-human shapes. Half-familiar outlines with twisted limbs, screaming mouths.
Aiko squinted at the mural. "It looks like it's spreading."
"It is." Sunny stepped closer, inspecting the fine etchings that showed the darkness slithering across the stone. "It doesn't show the Dark Sea, though."
Cassie's head turned toward him. "Then where did it come from?"
"...If that thing was leaking True Darkness," he said finally, "then maybe it seeped into the earth after extinguishing the light in this land. Far below the Hollow Mountains lies a place called the Underworld. A vast expanse of True Darkness. Maybe it awoke something there—and that became the Dark Sea. Who knows."
He didn't linger on it. He turned and kept walking.
They moved on in silence. The tunnel stretched deeper, the air growing cooler with each step. The carvings continued, uninterrupted, wrapping around the tunnel walls like a living story.
The next was different. Seven human figures stood together in a circle, each distinct in pose and bearing. They towered over a huddled crowd of civilians, arms outstretched, protective. One held a hammer. Another, a shield. A stilleto, a sword, a flowing cape, a spear, a crown.
"The founders of the Starlight Legion," Sunny said. "The Shards they left behind are what we have set out to collect."
He gestured to the faint suggestion of walls being raised, of people migrating from scattered ruins to a single place.
Kai leaned in, squinting at the massive figure with the hammer. "The Builder?"
Sunny nodded. "Yes. The statue made in his image carried us here."
The next mural showed the finished wall. The city it protected was nestled behind it. Outside, in the center of the seven figures of the Starlight Legion, vast structure was taking shape. A tower.
It wasn't yet complete. But even unfinished, it pierced the clouds. They all knew what was depicted.
The Dark City. The Crimson Spire.
The group looked up at the mural in silence, save for the shallow sounds of breathing.
Sunny's head tilted slightly. Cassie paused, her hand still resting lightly on the wall. She pulled it back—and paused. The dust had already been cleared. A hand print, pressed into the stone beside hers.
They kept walking.
The final mural stretched wider than the rest. At its center, the tower stood completed, rising impossibly high into the sky. Above it, carved flame radiated in concentric lines — a stylized sun. It blazed over the city below, driving back the darkness in wide arcs.
A second sun.
"They made a false star," Sunny murmured. "That's what the sun is, here."
He paused. Then added, more softly:
"But, they didn't show the cost."
Aiko looked at him sharply.
Sunny's eyes lingered on the sun for a moment longer. "It wasn't just magic. The light wasn't free. They powered it with... sacrifices."
She said nothing, but her fingers coiled tighter around the thread of her dagger.
Across the mural, seven shadows flickered. They all kept walking deeper.
***
The path carried them down.
Over the next few days, the descent deepened. The wide shaft narrowed into a winding tunnel, then opened again into a massive vertical drop that stretched beyond sight. Time blurred in the dark.
Eventually, they reached a river.
It ran silent, winding through stone like a vein. A small boat waited on the shore, ancient and untouched. No one questioned its presence. They boarded without a word, eyes shut to the world around them.
The water carried them forward.
Through echoing caverns and beneath jagged overhangs, they drifted until the current pulled them into the maze.
There, the silence changed.
Sunny led them with his shadow sense, urging them to keep their eyes closed as the ancient trap wound around them. Nothing tried to stop them. Nothing moved, and Nothing watched.
In certain corners of the maze between rivers, shadows clung to the floor. Human-shaped, but without form. No bodies. No bones. Just hollow silhouettes scorched into stone.
Sunny paused at each one.
He knelt beside them. One by one, he pulled the remnants into his Soul Sea. They did not fight. They did not speak. They were not alive.
They were simply... what was left.
No signs of death. No markers of violence. These people had not been killed. They had been removed — sliced from the world, memory and matter both.
Erased. Only their shadows remained.
The maze let them pass.
On the far side, they crossed a narrow bridge of polished black stone, arcing over a final stretch of still water. At the end of it, the First Lord's skeletal remains lay.
Atop his skull sat a crown.
***
The Dawn Shard rested atop the First Lord's skull.
Simple in design. Modest in ornament. But its presence filled the chamber like breath held too long — quiet, tense, and waiting to be broken.
The cohort stood in silence.
No one moved. No one reached.
They looked to Sunny.
He stepped forward, just enough to stand apart from the others. The torchlight flickered against the stone, drawing thin shadows across his face.
"The Dawn Shard increases the powers of Memories near it. It is a tremendously valuable tool, but I'm not taking it," he said.
The silence didn't crack, but it shifted. Breaths held, then released.
Sunny stared at the crown for a long moment before speaking again.
"It's a symbol. A leader's crown."
His voice wasn't bitter. Just even. Measured.
"I cannot be that leader."
He didn't look at them as he continued.
"My Flaw makes it impossible. Every fear, every hesitation... it leaks out of me. You all feel it. Imagine what that would do to an army."
He exhaled slowly, a tired sound.
"They'd see a commander. Then they'd see regret, apprehension, or fear. And that doubt would spread like infection."
A beat passed. Then another.
"Whoever takes it, will bear a great responsibility. You will be the face of our forces, even if I lead from the shadows."
Kai stepped forward first.
"I could take it," he offered, scratching at his jaw. "I have fame, and others would follow me... but I'm in the air more than I'm on the ground. My presence, and the crown, vanishes when I am just a dot in the sky."
He gave a half-smile. "Plus, I don't want to wear a hat."
Effie snorted, then shook her head. "It's not me either. I don't have the personality."
She didn't offer more than that.
Aiko raised both hands. "As if."
Then all eyes turned to Caster.
The young Legacy folded his arms, gaze lingering on the Dawn Shard.
"I refuse," he said simply.
No explanation. No false modesty. Just that.
But after a moment, he glanced sideways at Cassie.
"...She's the one you trust most, isn't she?" he asked Sunny.
Sunny didn't answer. He didn't need to.
Cassie, who had said nothing through it all, remained still.
"She's an Oracle," Kai said, thoughtful now. "She is blind and yet, she fights. That kind of image that might prove inspiring to others. A leader who overcomes impossible odds, who can see the future they lead others towards."
Effie shrugged. "She doesn't crack under pressure, either."
"She can handle it," Caster said quietly.
After a beat of silence, Cassie stepped forward, slowly.
She reached out and took the Dawn Shard from the skeleton's brow.
Her other hand rose, adjusting it carefully over the wrap across her eyes.
It settled into place as though it belonged.
Sunny watched.
And for a moment — one flicker of memory too fast to blink away — it wasn't Cassie standing in front of him.
It was Nephis.
Starlight Legion armor. Crowned by the Dawn Shard. A leader.
Cassie shifted slightly, the torchlight catching on her visage.
And the illusion broke.
It was her again. Not Nephis.
Sunny blinked once and turned before anyone could see his eyes.
The cohort flinched when they saw him anyway.
He began the final strides toward the statue of the Stranger, where they would fight to claim the Dusk Shard.
And yet, even as he walked, something cold lingered behind his ribs.
A wrongness. Unseen, but waiting.
He didn't know why he looked over his shoulder. Just that he had to.
***
The silence before the battle was not comforting.
It was vast. Heavy. Wrong.
Not the kind of silence that comes before a heroic clash — no breathless stillness of poised warriors.
This was a mute tension, like the world itself had paused. Like something outside of sound was listening, and didn't want to be disturbed.
Sunny stood at the threshold of the final chamber.
Before him, the colossus loomed — the half-finished Stranger's statue rising from stone like a god carved from the mountain's heart. At its base, tangled in a nest of broken wreckage and molted plates, the Cursed Herald lay curled. Still. Dreaming of ruin.
Behind him, the cohort waited.
Their plan was set. Everyone knew their role. Saint stepped from the shadow, joining Effie in the front.
Sunny exhaled, and gave the signal. The others surged into motion with him — silent and sure.
And then—
Something touched the back of his neck.
No sound. No shift in air.
Just the idea of breath. Cold and weightless.
He turned, pulse ticking once.
Nothing.
The tunnel behind them curved into darkness, untouched and quiet. No presence. No eyes. Just gloom.
His gaze lingered.
Nothing.
He turned back—
"...nny."
A voice, but it didn't speak.
It simply... wasn't.
Like the syllables had been hanging there the whole time, waiting for him to notice.
Not spoken.
It almost slipped past him, too.
"...Sunny..."
His feet stopped moving.
That wasn't possible.
He didn't hear the voice. Not the way one hears with ears.
He felt it.
Behind his sternum. In the base of his spine.
A tremor that struck not his body, but the outline of who he was.
He blinked once. Then again.
His hand had drifted to the hilt of his weapon without him realizing.
The voice had come from behind. From the tunnel. But no one else turned.
The cohort advanced, unaware.
Sunny swallowed.
His tongue was thick in his throat. His heart wasn't racing — it had slowed. Each beat heavy and dragging, like it didn't want to disturb the quiet.
He turned again.
The tunnel was empty.
But the light didn't fall the way it had before.
The shadows had shifted slightly. No... everything had. Nothing had.
It felt tighter now.
Like the hallway was longer.
Like space was folding.
Like something was inside it, stretching it out, contracting it, breathing without lungs.
Then—
"Sunny..."
The third time.
That voice.
Not just familiar. Known.
Known too well.
Not from a memory — from a moment.
Clear and delicate and perfect.
Sunny had heard it like this only once before:
When she had said his name.
He staggered back half a step. He couldn't help it.
Because that voice — it shouldn't exist anymore.
And yet.
It had said his name.
No hint of urgency. No cruelty. No rage.
Just that maddening intimacy. That slow, gentle cadence that only one person had ever spoken with.
His lips parted.
He didn't want to say it.
But he had to.
It escaped like a breath trying to hold itself back:
"Neph...?"
And then, from everywhere at once:
"̸̡̛̘̯̹̫̋̊̄̈̀͝S̷͈̗̻̙̭̞̈́̒͗̋̽̄̂Ṷ̵̮̙̌̃̑̏̂̐͠ͅN̴̰͍͆́̕N̸̢͎̹̳̥͚̼͕͋̽͗͐̈́̾͝͝Y̸̢̥̮̠̗͗͛͌̈́̅̔͘͠!̴̡̱̞̰̪̈̑́̎̅͑̇"̶̛͉̼̋̓ͅ