Sunny's upper body sprung up, a certain urgency accompanying his breath.
He was on a bed in a place that seemed to flicker, as though trying to exist, but failing in the process.
The floor was concealed by a thick fog that extended endlessly. The surroundings shifted, revealing other figures, other places, hospital like. As soon as a giggle in a place was shown, it almost immediately glitter he'd away.
This wasn't a dream. Sunny was unsure if he even could come up with a dream this nonsensical.
His hand trailed his chest and stomach, realising his wound was gone.
His joy was cut shot as he felt a gaze pierce him. It was Luna. She sat eyeing him, another bed between them.
Sunny realised that Luna had willed to appear there with the bed as well, for it hadn't been there a moment before.
On the bed lay Moonlight, heavily bandaged, with tubes carrying a golden flow from a place concealed by the fog.
"You're healed fast," Luna said, sounding as though she was holding herself back.
"Yeah, I...I must have not gotten too hurt," Sunny answered with an oddly obvious lie.
"You were dead, Sunny," her tone demanded a certain explanation that Sunny too, did not have.
"I was lucky?"
"No, dead."
Luna's eyes looked down at Moonlight for a moment in silence, the surrounding shifting continuously, disregarding them completely.
"She was at the brink of death too, and it costed a soul stone to buy her enough time for her to be tended to."
Luna rose, her eyes locking onto Sunny and she walked forward, Moonlight's bed fading away with the fog as she did.
"But you...You were well gone. So tell me why you are now sitting in front of me, not a wound or scar in sight?"
Sunny froze. He remembered what he had heard in the abyss as he was fading away; 'Death denied, order by System Zero, execution-absolute."
His head shook, signalling that he did not know either.
"Do you have a dormant ability, Sunny?"
Sunny felt something within him, as though Luna's question demanded an answer, irregardless of his will.
"What's that?" He managed.
She looked into his eyes, a corner of her mouth twitching.
"How are you still alive, Sunny? Resurrection isn't normal."
"Because I never died," He answered, eyes locked onto hers.
His heart was racing. If she wanted to she would slice his head off before he could flinch. He has seen how fast she was, both in the street with the lady anomalies, and in his spectator room when he witnessed her deal with multiple runners at once.
"Are you lying to me?"
There it was again, a feeling like his consciousness was being overthrown for him to answer.
"No."
In truth, he had said no lie. But he had not revealed all truth either. He hadn't died, that much was true, for his death was denied, and he was conscious in the spectator room.
Without another word, the fog flowed. When it settled Luna was gone.
"Congratulations, Sunny," a French accent congratulated him, with Areste appearing from the fog, seated in an arm hair with one leg comfortably above the other.
"You accomplished your first assignment, not many make it this far, trust me." He held out a glass and red wine poured into it, a figure glitching in and out of the fog pouring it for him. "How do I tell you this, lé anomalies, they are attracted to power, the moth to the light bulb."
The air seemed to tense up as Areste rose from his seat, swirling the wine in his glass. Each step he made echoed the fog, with the fog concealing the floor parting to give way to his step.
"Normaly, a new user attracts few anomalies. Mademoiselle Luna told me you ran into covern anomalies the day you got your system. A day later, a swarm of Runners appear." He stopped at the edge of the bed, standing looming over Sunny.
There was a certain aura about him, something that seemed to demand attention, or some level of respect.
Sunny's body tensed up, as though in the presence of an anomaly, or something far worse.
"I take it you understand how I find this...alarming, no?" Areste asked, a deep and serious tone in his voice.
Sunny instinctively gripped the bed sheets, his jaw tensing. There was nobody else but the two of them, nobody to break the situation should it escalate too far.
"I had a look in your past, le Grand Bishop Markh is a good friend of mine. On his behalf, we will be keeping your...effect to ourselves, yes?"
Sunny gripped the sheets tighter and nodded, taking a breath that came out shaky. He finally understood why Moonlight was quiet around him, there was something alarming about this man.
"Luna will be coming by soon," Areste said, turning to walk away, fading in the fog as he did.
Sunny finally could breathe right.
Luna had already come by, either Areste simply had it wrong, or he was supposed to wait for Luna a second time.
He dangled his feet over the bedside, to step on the fogged floor, but it did not acknowledge him. For him, there simply was no floor. It was as though he was on a bed suspended in nothingness.
He moved his legs about, still clinging to the bed. The fog swayed, never materialising to be a floor for him.
He could not command it as the others could.
The figures fading in and out of the fog walked effortlessly, the fog materialising a floor for them to walk upon.
He sighed.
What he wanted had no meaning, he had no say here, he had to wait for someone to. Come get him.
With another sigh, he fell back onto the bed, trying to get a grasp of whatever had been happening.
Areste had mentioned the Grand Bishop, did it mean that the Grand Bishop too, was a system user? He would possibly be a very high ranking one, with the amount of authority he had.
It wouldn't make sense for someone his age to not be a high ranker. Then again, Sunny did not know the Grand Bishop's age. If anything, the Grand Bishop never did seem to age, he had been the same for as long as Sunny knew him, or at least, for as long as he remembered knowing him.
A sound echoed Sunny's ears, a musical instrument of sorts, and he immediately fell through the bed, into a pool of water and back out, standing before a great door that stretched up, towering to the skies.
There was nothing else around, only Sunny, the door before him, and of course, a vast stretch of darkness.
"System, where am I?" He managed a whisper, looking around, only there was nothing to be looked at.
**Error: Location does not exist.**