Nephis fell on her knees holding her blade in her hands, tears slowly falling on her blade.
N: Where did he go?
No one answered her question. No one even looked at her. Kai felt sorry for his friend, and Seishan felt powerless. Cassia understood why Sunny left and even had an idea of where he would probably go, but kept quiet. Effie, on the other hand, looked at Kai, then at Seishan and then at Cassia.
E: I wanna join his clan as well. Where do I sign?
Sh: Ask Sunny. Only he can make you part of our clan.
E: Oh, I see. Well, since the princess over here was too arrogant to acknowledge his request. I guess he is quite upset. Well, at least I would be. Still, I am beat. I am gonna crash on this bed again.
Sh: I will head for the Bright Castle.
Ca: I will probably go with Effie and sleep again. After that, we have to return to the slums.
Kai was left alone with still-crying Nephis behind him.
Nephis asked him, not looking at Kai.
N: Do you know where he is?
K: I do.
N: Tell me where.
K: No.
Kai wasn't looking at Nephis either. Too hurt to see his memories as well. Every member of the Shadow Clan, including Nephis, saw them.
N: Why?
K: Why should I?
N: I want to…
Kai looked at her and asked.
N: Why did you break your promise? That was not nice, Lady Nephis. I thought it was some normal promise, but this is just cruel from you.
Nephis looked at him with red eyes.
N: Please tell me where he is.
Kai looked at her for a long time and sighed, and pointed at the lonely island a couple of hundred meters away from them. There was a small watchtower looking deeply into the sea.
Nephis lingered for a moment and stood up slowly.
White flames still burning across her body. Now fully healed. She disappeared.
Kai looked in the direction they went and looked in Seishan's direction, and floated upward and headed for her location.
Sunny was sitting on the edge of the very hard cliff-like surface in the darkness, just blankly staring into the dark sea.
His 3 shadows were watching over him. Happy was standing behind him. Facing away from him, looking into the city.
Creepy and gloomy were leaning on the rocky cliff and watching the sea while having their hands behind their head, their weapons summoned. No one said anything.
Ha: She is coming.
Sunny nodded.
S: I am happy you guys can talk now. It makes me very happy.
They looked at him in their peripheral genuine smile appearing on their faces.
Sunny waited until Nephis got to the top.
Happy lingered for a moment and, together with Gloomy and Creepy, disappeared into the shadows and coiled around Sunny, hiding in his shadow.
Nephis stood behind Sunny, who was still sitting on the rock cliff still blankly watching the sea.
S: Why did you do it?
Sunny started.
N: I don't…
S: You do know.
N: I-I felt that I was getting left behind. I never lost, I never lost only to my father. So I hate losing.
S: That doesn't change anything. So you asked your dad to kill you with every fight. What a lovely family relationship you have there.
N: That's not fair.
S: You are talking about being fair, yet you casually break the promise we made? Why should I listen to anything you have to say for yourself anyway?
N: I am sorry. I really am. What can I do to get you to forgive me?
S: Promise me something. No, you have to swear it to me. When I ask you to do something, you will have to. Regardless of what it will be.
N: I swear.
S: Sunny looked behind him, seeing Nephis with her head still hung low.
He slowly faced her and stood up, moving her hair back and holding her face gently.
S: Then, let's forget this happened. The past should remain in the past. You can't change it. Although we are back in time. What a paradox.
N: Why are you calming down so quickly?
S: Because I don't see a reason for staying angry, it might be because I love you too much. So Nephis.
He looked at her and said with a smile.
S: You are way more beautiful when you smile, Nephis.
N: You too, I am sorry. I just don't want to hold you back. I almost feel like I am just holding you back when I see you fight for real.
S: I am losing myself when I fight like that. That's why I only fight for real when I really want to kill someone and not get hurt in the process.
Luna was eyeing Nephis coldly. Her soft expression for Nephis was gone, but she didn't stop her master from showing his love to Nephis, for now.
He pulled Nephis closer and kissed her. This time, Nephis hesitated to hurt him again, but her cold heart got ignited like a flame of the divine flame, making her want to feel alive again. She put her hands around him, grabbing his hair, not wanting to separate. Their kiss was passionate and very comfortable. When they eventually had to pull away to breathe, they were both breathing heavily. Luna jumped between them and hissed at Nephis.
Nephis breathed in sharply and stepped away slowly.
N: A-Alright, Luna. I get it. I am in the wrong. Please let me enjoy it a little more.
Sunny hugged Nephis, smiling, and they appeared in their bed in the cathedral. Sunny closed his eyes, and as Nephis was looking at her lover's peaceful sleeping body, she felt ashamed.
N: He just wants me. All he wants is to live peacefully with me. He is doing all this because I want it. I believe if it were on him, he would just create a house and live there peacefully without a care in the world. I don't deserve him. I have to try harder. I have to keep him. I must prove to him I am worth keeping.
As she put her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, she hugged his body, closed her eyes, thinking about something.
Luna had other plans. She was looking at Nephis with her galaxy blue eyes with an unreadable expression in their depths, her eyes suddenly illuminated their room for a single moment.
Nephis woke up early in the morning, breathing sharply and heavily.
N: NO! SunNy!
She was looking around herself, panic written all over her face. She was covered in cold sweat.
She touched her head, her silver hair falling over her face, covering her eyes. She was shaking.
N: nightmare? What a dreadful nightmare.
Sunny slowly opened his eyes and looked at Nephis.
S: Bad dream?
Nephis didn't even let Sunny other option to do anything because he was already holding him in her hands, hugging and kissing him with relief.
Sunny was caught off guard for a second, but if it calmed her down, he didn't mind.
S: I really need to get Nightmare. He will be very useful. What do you think, Luna?
She slowly opened her eyes and slowly nodded, drifting back to sleep.
Sunny lay back into their bed, hugging Nephis tightly.
S: sweet dreams, Neph.
After a couple more hours, they woke up and headed for the other section of his cathedral. Sunny walked to the building opposite where others slept and started cleaning the place up. His other 3 shadow helpers were helping too, and so it took not as long as it would have taken him alone.
Sunny discovered that even tho his shadow helpers are different entities, they still can share the same thoughts with each other as well as with their master. More importantly, he can affect their thoughts, but they can't influence his. They can react differently, but they can't disobey. They are just glad they are of use to him, either by augmenting him or serving him as his other hands, legs or so on.
Sunny was holding a particularly large wooden piece, and as he tossed it away from the building, he asked.
S: Is there a reason for you to say who is first and who is in which position?
Gloomy looked at him as he tossed another pile of trash out of the building and said.
Gl: Well, yes. But we can't tell you more.
Creepy had his hair over his eyes while holding a bunch of charcoal pieces from outside, and dropped them in front of the building.
Cr: You will know more, more of us there will be. Only once we are at full number can we tell you more. After all, we have our restrictions too.
Happy was using a make-shift broom and cleaning up the place, and said from inside.
Ha: you should focus more on mastering everything, not just getting our other brothers, obviously.
Sunny looked at them and asked, but Happy beat him to it.
Ha: Yes, you can control us and even separate your mind completely, suppressing us. It would cause major strain on your brain, but that is just my thought. We are obligated to follow your commands to the best of our abilities, so I don't think it is really necessary, tho.
G: Yeah, after all. All we see. You can see as well.
Cr: The only thing you can't control if you use our bodies is the mastery of our weapons. That is specifically bound to us.
S: Is it just me, or do you look more and more human?
Happy looked at his brothers, and they all nodded.
Ha: well more we converse with you and other humans more we regain our past selves. That's the most I can tell you.
S: That is incredible.
Ha: thank you.
S: Are you turning human thanks to me….
Cr: Save it. We can't answer that yet.
S: I see. Well, do you eat?
Gl: No, we live with you. So, although we may look human, we are still just corporeal shadows. We don't need human nutrition. We just consume essence to live. The better the potency, the better it is.
S: I see. Also.
Ha&Cr&Gl: don't ask.
S: Fine.
S: What about your feelings of love?
Happy scratches the back of his head and sighs.
Ha: Well, that's complicated. Although we don't love Nephis like you do. We still have a feeling to protect her. Regardless of our outrage about her antics.
S: So that means you can love someone else?
Ha: Like I said. It is complicated.
S: Were you humans before you became shadows?
Gl: I think that one is pretty obvious, isn't it? I mean, of course, we were. After all, only beings of higher intelligence can become shadows. And those who can become corporeal and even talk can only be human, so yeah.
S: Fair enough.
After that, his shadows merged back into his shadow again.
S: Right, I should get something ready, right? After all, how else to start a day I not with a good breakfast? Am I right?
Sunny decided that the building he was just cleaning would reconstruct into his restaurant of a sort.