"You're.... saying that you already unlocked your aspect legacy!? And what do you mean the first step?"
'How can this saint know about Sunny's aspect legacy?'
"Yes. Apparently I can get seven relics from my aspect legacy! You know how broken this is!? Entire legacy clans are build around just one such relic. But I can get seven!"
'Cute.'
"What are you laughing at?" Sunless uttered a bit irked.
"Nothing."
"No time for love birds right now."
The saint had suddenly appeared between them. After a split second, breaking out from their daze they jumped backwards creating some distance.
In that tense moment where the saint had teleported between them, there was something off about him. Even though he had quickly masked it, it did not go unnoticed by the two sleepers.
Turning around the saint headed out, "What are you brats all tense for? I don't have all day."
'...Brats?'
'This little...'
Despite their reluctance they hurriedly joined the saint while giving the beaten up fiend a pitiful look.
After a moment of hesitation Nephis asked the question which had been gnawing at her mind for a while now, "Who are you?"
"Very neat time for introductions. Isn't it a bit too early? Why didn't you wait a little longer?"
"...We never got the opportunity to."
As the pain of the saint's flaw kept increasing he finally gave in, "I am... Lord of Shadows. Head of the Shadow Clan."
'Now forget about my name.'
'Were they in hiding for so long?... Does he wish to recruit Sunny?'
Nephis glanced towards the saint and voiced her suspicions. "Lord of Shadows... are you trying to recruit Sunny?"
'And with his condition for Sunny to remain underground, his clan would remain hidden as well. It all works out.
Since he only made a deal with him it is highly unlikely he will invite us.
...I missed my chance to invite Sunny. But...'
"But why did you tell me this?"
Glancing towards the white haired girl with a forlorn look in his eyes he whispered, "Because I'd like to set some things right."
***
Cassie closed the door behind her and walked to the circular table present in the center of the room. Two people sat on either side of it facing each other. They were Kai and Effie. A single candle which burned with a sparkling white flame was kept on the table.
Sitting on one of the spare chairs kept beside the table she sighed. Now was the time for discussion. Discussion about the saint's sudden appearance.
With some brief planning they had sent Nephis to make sure the saint remains out of earshot. And if he were to leave Nephis, she would dismiss her memory which would indicate them that it's not safe to formulate a plan anymore.
This at the very least put their minds at ease, even if just a little.
"For starters let's summarise what has happened until now."
Nodding Effie leaned backwards on the wooden chair which let out a creaking sound, "That dude appeared out of nowhere, took doofus under his wing and made some gods knows what deal with him. Then made Nephis do her princess thing. And now he's off to... where again? Doofus's bedroo-"
*Coughs*
"He is where Sunny used to live... with a fallen devil." Kai interjected.
"Right same thing. Point is he is an oddball."
Glancing towards the blind seer Effie uttered in a low voice, "Even if he is dangerous I don't understand yours and Nephis's unnatural wariness towards him. What are you hiding exactly?"
'I knew they weren't the saviours they posed themselves as. Though that didn't matter, that was what the people here needed anyway. And neither do I give a shit about princess's relationship with the legacy clans... But something tells me I'm gonna get dragged in this mess. So I need to know atleast the basic information.'
Despite there being no point Cassie stared at the huntress whose underlying tone of threat had turned this discussion into an interrogation.
Remembering the instructions Nephis had given to her while departing for the Ruined Cathedral, she sighed.
'Here goes nothing.'
***
'Is he losing it?' Sunny thought as he heard the saint snickering behind him.
The split second of distraction caused him a strike on his left arm.
'Damnation! Neph go easy on me.'
Even though the strike had taken a toll on Sunny, he regained his momentum right away. He had been getting pushed backwards again and again with his spars against Nephis. Who for some reason wasn't giving Sunny a chance for a break.
'Actually I take that back. She is angry. Why did you become a tryhard all of a sudden today?' Sunny regretted agreeing to this bout.
Nephis continued her furious onslaught pushing Sunny to his limits. Sunny while still being outmatched, gave Nephis no room to strike him either. It was a game of cat and mouse. Whatever the hell they were supposed to be.
Sunny had been brainstorming with his new understanding of shadow dance. He had gotten a lot better at reading and predicting her moves. But even though he had made great progress in these aspects, blocking her strikes was a whole new set of challenge.
He had gotten used to deflecting her hits by now. But blocking it was truly a laboriously tedious task, thus he preferred to parry and deflect her attacks instead of blocking it.
'Why is there such a big difference in our stats?'
Clearing out his thoughts, he focused his mind on the battle infront of him.
They exchanged blow after blow, strike after strike. None of them giving in to the other's onslaught of attacks. Only the sound of their swords clashing against each other was heard in the vicinity.
Nephis's sword came as a blur from the right aiming at his chest. He parried her strike deflecting her blade, while his own sword flew off spinning like a boomerang.
Nephis got alarmed.
Anyone would have seen this as an opportunity to strike, yet Nephis didn't. She knew Sunny all too well. She didn't teach Sunny to loose his sword while striking. That was one of the most basic things she had taught him right in the beginning. This was a trap.
'But what can he even do now?'
One thing was for certain, she didn't take Sunny for a fool. He would've thought of something, formulated a plan or a strategy that he was confident with if he had gone far enough to throw his biggest weapon.
'No... that wasn't his intention in the first place!'
She had been too late to realize his shenanigans. He wanted her to hesitate. It was time that he needed.
Sunny dropped low, putting his weight on his left hand, and sweeping her off her legs... That was what would've happened if Nephis hadn't distanced herself in time.
'That was clos-'
She froze as she saw a wide grin plastered across Sunny's face. Her eyes widened as he pulled his right hand backwards tugging on strings which were almost invisible to the naked eye.
'Behind m-'
She couldn't dodge in time as she felt something colliding against her back at great speed. Though whatever had hit her couldn't pierce her armor, it certainly threw her off balance.
Sunny was already closing in and it would take her a second too long to parry his attack. Racking her brain for any solution for this crisis she gained clarity. Her mind cleared leaving no room for doubt and hesitation. With no unnecessary thoughts plaguing her mind she came up with a counterattack in an instance.
Dropping to her knees she avoided the punch aimed at her face while taking brunt of the another strike previously meant for her abdomen with her left shoulder.
With Sunny's fist only partially hitting Nephis's shoulder, it went a little too far. Far enough to ruin his strategy. He lost his momentum.
Nephis grabbed onto his wrist.
'Damnation!'
In a flash she pulled him downwards and slammed him on the ground.
Grunting Sunny glanced up at the girl who was straddling his waist with her right forearm pressed against his neck.
"I win." Nephis spoke panting heavily with a smug look on her face.
Suddenly a loud whistle blew breaking the heat of the moment.
"Holy shit! Princess is quiet the fiesty one. See Kai I told you. I knew she was the top."
"EFFIE! Manners!"
Both Sunny and Nephis turned their gazes onto the bickering duo with Cassie in tow, and then back at each other.
"What's a top?"
Sunny's eyebrows twitched as he realized what their position was. Letting the pain of his flaw build up, he said in a tense yet shaky voice. "Neph get off of me! Fast!"
Tilting her head slightly at Sunny's peculiar reaction, she got up.
As Nephis glanced back towards the others, she heard something inaudible. Facing Sunny again who had gotten up and was dusting the dirt off of his mantle awkwardly, she asked. "Were you mumbling something?"
"Yes... Don't ask."
She watched him walking towards the cohort while muttering some curses under his breath that she didn't even knew existed.
After a moment of hesitation Nephis joined them as well.
"When did you guys come?"
"Right before the man in black left."
"He left? To where?"
'Didn't he say he would moniter our spar?'
"Hell if I know. He just started snickering and left. Quiet a weirdo I'd say. He might be a little off in the head."
"Actually he was mumbling something to himself as he left." Kai interjected.
They all shifted their focus on him, urging him to speak as they were puzzled at his nervousness.
"He said something about boiling a sea or something."
"....."
For a minute there was complete silence.
"As I said, he's deranged." Effie exclaimed breaking the tense atmosphere.
Both Nephis and Sunny nodded and glanced towards Kai, waiting for his confirmation that it was a lie.
When the confirmation didn't come, a sense of foreboding started to build up in them.
"Are you saying...?"
"Yes..... he wasn't kidding."
***
A nightmarish steed could be seen atop a headless gigantic statue. A chill spread across the area. The world's very essence bent around him, as if bowing before it to accommodate his passing.
Normally, such a huge effect wouldn't have taken place in the space around it. But this was not normal at all. It was quiet an extraordinary situation, an anomaly actually.
There were two major reasons to this. Atleast the only ones that the Lord of Shadows had realized.
First one was that when he had entered this... past timeline... or a nightmare if one may call it. All of his shadows and he himself had reverted back to being transcendent.
But that didn't mean he lost all of his progress. He still had his memories, his shadows and shades in his soul sea. But he couldn't summon them now.
As for Nightmare himself, he still had the nightmares that he had harvested from the immortals of the underwater city. Each one of those by itself was dreadful and harrowing.
The second reason was that Sunny had wrapped all seven of his shadows around the steed. And with the effect of the curse enhancing his power exponentially, they were a force to be reckoned with.
A force that could face a great titan.
And thus the invisible battle began.
***
The battle had been going on for hours now. Yet Sunny himself had nothing to do as the battle was taking place in a different plane beyond his reach.
'Well it kind of is within my reach but I don't want to end up destroying the Forgotten Shore and killing every sleeper present here.'
With some free time on his hand he recalled what he knew as of now and what all had changed since he came here.
Since he had become a saint again, he had theorized about cheating death again... but then he came to the conclusion that just cheating death wouldn't be enough for another act of defiance to become a Sovereign. Even then he could try it, but he would lose a valuable core which he didn't had the time to replenish and create again.
Leaving that aside and thinking about this from a long term point of view he knew he would have to spend multiple years here.
Years that he didn't have. He really needed to get back before the dreamspawn came and wreaked havoc across both the worlds.
But he couldn't do anything about it right now. His best hope was that just like the 3rd nightmare, the time passed here wouldn't be considered as real in the original world.
Getting back on the previous topic. Since he had no means as of now to become a Sovereign, he had to rely on other means to defeat much more powerful enemies... or to carry out tedious tasks.
And right now his greatest weapons were his shadows. Among them two stood out. One was Nightmare.
And the other was Serpent.
Serpent had a unique system of growth. The deeper into shadow dance Sunny went, the higher in the path of ascension it would rise. And as long as he had the knowledge of shadow dance, Serpent would never weaken.
Such as now. Even now after being forcefully taken down a rank, it had evolved again. It was of the supreme rank. A supreme titan, rivalling the dark sea in rank and in class.
But Sunny refused to use Serpent in this battle. Afterall, not just this battle, but the whole forgotten shore would serve as a stepping stone for Nightmare to reach greater heights.
***
That night something unprecedented happened in the history of the Forgotten Shore. A cycle had been broken, one that had been continuously running for thousands of years.
The dark sea didn't come out. And neither did any nightmare creatures.