Mia stood up slowly and asked.
"Prince of Nothing? Do....you have some kind of history?"
Sunny sight and thought for a moment.
"Yeah. You can say that."
"Was it a positive one?"
"Gods no. He tried to kill me the moment he had the chance....and then bunch more times."
Mia blinked and asked cautiously.
"Despite all that, you still want him in your clan? Why?"
Sunny's smile vanished and was replaced but an empty expression that betrayed his hateful gaze at the sky.
"I always had a feeling he was corrupted. Or maybe he was manipulated by someone. After all his actions, as well as his flaws, we are weird."
Mia thought for a moment and said.
"You mean Ast..."
Sunny snapped his head at her, making her stop saying anything.
"How do you know that name?"
"Seyshan mentioned him in Forgotten Shore when I asked about the Supremes."
Sunny shook his head and thought for a moment.
"Yeah. I think he manipulated him. Also, I think I know his flaw, but I will have to check it for myself when I eventually meet him."
"Do you think he will listen to you?"
"He will. After all, I have something he...well, why would I spoil all the fun right away? Stop asking about it, alright?"
As he said that, he faced her and scratched the back of his head while saying.
"Also, don't say this to Nephis."
"You mean she isn't on board with you getting Prince of Nothing into your clan?"
Sunny chuckled a little and said.
"No, she'd probably kill him. I am almost certain about it, but it is what it is."
Mia sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.
"Fine. I will try my best. Also, should I be worried about him attacking me?"
Sunny stopped and looked at her....no her more of she looked into her.
"I really hope he won't. It won't end well for him."
"What is he?"
"I think he is an awakened terror"
Mia froze mid-step and blurted out.
"He is also a divine aspect holder? You think I would still beat him?"
Sunny pointed his finger at her chest and said.
"Not you. Your soul. On that note, he'd probably avoid fighting you when he looks at your soul, so you don't need to worry that much."
Mia wanted to ask something, but couldn't.
"Restriction, Mia. This is the restriction. It is far too early for you to know more than you need to know. After all, knowledge is both Divine and Unholy. There is always a price. Everything has its price, and some things have worse penalties than others. So remember. Be careful what you wish for, Mia."
With that, both of them stepped into the shadows and disappeared into them appearing in front of their house.
"I will head inside now. You do you, Mia."
Mia stood in front of Sunny's house for a while, and as Sunny entered the house, she stepped forward, sinking into the shadows surrounding the dark of the night. After she descended, she appeared in a space where his other 4 shadows stayed. Not the space for his killed shades but the space for his corporeal shadows, in this case, even things or people soul-bound to him. The space looked much better than it looked in Forgotten Shore. At least that's what the other 4 said. It seems to evolve just as Sunny gets stronger or reaches a higher rank. This time, it looked like a giant flat surface stretching into infinity in all directions. The only thing that was different was that there was a layout of Dark Cathedral from Forgotten Shore. Basically, Sunny's base. It seems to transform into the location he bounds himself to. Right now, it is The Dark Cathedral from Forgotten Shore with a couple of major differences. The main "training circle" was constantly changing in its size. As if it were responding to their needs of a sort. Or it wasn't sure what form to keep, as for the second thing. There were no monsters to get attacked by.
As Mia looked around herself, she spotted Haughty in the middle of the circle.
"Haughty. Train me."
Haughty faced her still in his fully kitted fighting gear and said nothing.
"Giving me a cold shoulder?"
She approached him, grabbing her katana, which appeared on her waist.
Haughty still did not move but said sternly.
"Why would I waste my time with you, Mia? You are clearly frustrated. You are thinking too much."
"Is that bad?"
"In a fight? The worst thing you can do is to think too much. That's why you lost. Master was just being nice by saying you let your emotions take control. Which is also true, but you wouldn't win anyway. I don't really understand why you wanted that duel in the first place. It was pretty obvious that you'd lose."
Mia's gaze turned cold, and she said.
"Maybe if you ever loved someone you'd..."
She stopped cause Haughty slammed his blade into the ground with such force that it sent her flying across the arena. As Mia slowly stood up, Haughty stomped his foot into her chest, slamming her into the ground, shaking the ground, making the whole arena vibrate.
As he stepped over her brutally destroyed body, he said as his killing intent was almost in a liquid form dripping from his shadow-like thought body.
"You know nothing. Stupid girl."
As he looked back at her rapidly regenerating body and her stunned expression, he sighed and said.
"I shadow-like thought you knew you can't die here. That's why the connection to our shadow essence and our master is so strong here. Even if I were to cut you into pieces, you'd regenerate."
Mia slowly stood up in agonising pain, she just felt and looked at Haughty venom dripping from her eyes.
Haughty just scoffed and looked down at her with a pridefully arrogant expression.
Mia looked at him, annoyed and summoned her blade, preparing to draw it, but as she reached for it, it was missing. Happy was standing beside her, holding her blade and tossed it aside after a while of looking at it.
"Was that necessary? Happy."
"Yeah. It was. You were gonna do something stupid. Not to mention you crossed the line with your comment."
Mia sighed and said.
"I am sorry. I guess I..."
"Don't bother with the apology, I would have reacted the same."
She looked up and Haughty after he said that and asked.
"Yet you still attacked me?"
"What would you do? Say: Thank you? No. I did it because you crossed the line. Don't do that again."
Mia nodded and asked what she wanted to ask from the start.
"So what should I do when I fight?"
Now she was surrounded by 4 brothers, and they stared at each other and with slight grin showing on their faces answered in unison.
"Just killing, intent. Nothing else."
"What?"
"It's simple, Mia."
Mia looked at Gloomy, who was standing behind her, and he continued.
"All you have to do is to discard everything else and concentrate only on one thing. Everything else is just a distraction that is in your way. Let your soul take over. Release your killing intent."
"How are you doing it?"
Happy said slowly.
"We are always using it. Passively. Just like... never mind. Use it passively and as if store it contain, it, compress it make it thicker, stronger and when the time comes release it all at once. Your power will increase drastically. You will get the hang of it eventually. We will leave you. Now you at least have someone to aim your killing intent at. So in the end, that loss was good for something. Make the most of it. Mia."
As he said that all of them vanished, leaving her in an endless expanse of Sunny's shadow soul, the arena transformed as soon as 4 the brothers left into an endless flat surface.
She sat down cross-legged and closed her starting to concentrate.
Meanwhile, as Sunny entered the house atmosphere suddenly got tense. Not just in a feeling of tense atmosphere. The air was burning. As if something or someone was heating it up. Someone was sitting with her hands folded on the sofa. Nephis looked up at Sunny as he entered the house and asked, which was more of an order but still a question.
"Don't you want to say anything? Sunny."
Sunny sight and walked to the sofa and sat, took an armchair from next to the sofa and moved it facing Nephis, after which he sat down on it and crossed his legs.
"So, what do you want to hear, Nephis?"
Sunny didn't ack coldly on purpose, but he just didn't feel the need to act to lighten up the already tense mood.
Nephis didn't move and asked.
"You went to the Chained Islands. Alone?"
"No, with Kai."
"Why not me?"
"He needs more training. I felt like it would be a good way for him to train."
"Any other excuse for you not taking me?"
Sunny just looked at her and spread his arms slightly.
"You can't use Shadow step and moving in a dream realm, as we are in school is strictly prohibited. So tell me, how will a brightly white flamed knight sneak into a dream realm without making people pause and look at you? I really want to know."
Nephis opened her mouth, then closed it again, and she simply looked away from him, not wanting to accept his reasoning. Despite it being true. Eventually, she asked while calming down and cooling down the air.
"Are you going there now?"
"No, I will go there in 3 hours and stay there for 10 hours more or less."
"Just, come back alive. Okay?"
She blushed a little while saying it. At that, Sunny stood up and leaned closer to her face.
"As you wish, my love."
She faced him, and he kissed her. It was a warm and long kiss. It felt refreshing. As if they were suddenly full of energy. After all, love is the greatest mystery of the human mind. You can't understand it until you live it yourself.
Nephis pulled away and held his hands as she pulled him into her lap.
"Neph?"
"Just let me have this one. I want to be greedy for a while longer."
Sunny just smiled and hugged her waist while lying with her on their sofa, closing their eyes in a warm and loving embrace.
After a while, Sunny opened his eyes and moved slightly, making Nephis wake up.
As Nephis looked at him, she asked.
"Leaving already?"
"Yeah. Rest well. I'll be back soon."
"I'll be waiting."
Sunny stepped out of their house and immediately sank into the shadows, disappearing as if he were never there.
As soon as he did, Nephis closed their house door and looked at her phone, and her eyes narrowed with a determination sparking in her eyes.
As she picked her phone up, she called the only number in her contacts that she didn't have saved as a name.
The receiver answered on a second ring, groggy but amused.
"I wanna go to the dream realm now."
"You know it is against school rules, Awakened Nephis."
"I don't care, and neither do you."
"I like that. We are leaving in 15 minutes."
"Understood, Master Jet."