Far away from Ravenheart, Sunny traversed near the point where the Hollow Mountains and Godgrave met.
He travelled for a while. Away from any Citadel that Ki Song owned so that he wouldn't get spotted.
Fortunately, the plan went perfectly. At least he believed so.
"Man, isn't it nice to have things go smoothly for once," Sunny said to his shadow.
Lately, he had been enjoying the benefits of having all seven bodies. Truly, it had been taxing to spread himself thin. In the original timeline, it had felt like he spread himself too thin, therefore slowing down his rate of progression.
But now he would continue at this pace. In his possession were both the sinister board game and the dollhouse. After Sunny had left, he realized that he could shadow-step with the board game, but the amount of essence that it required made it impossible.
Now it was time for step two.
Coming from Ravenheart, Sunny knew that Kai was somewhere in the waking world working with the government. So that's where he went.
Opening a gate, Sunny found himself in NQSC beyond the outskirts were nobody lived.
After a few shadow-steps, Sunny found himself on top of a skyscraper. This was going to be tricky.
Finding Kai wouldn't be too hard. NQSC had millions of people, but it only had a handful of Saints.
Kai, Effie, Jet, and Cor were Saints of the government. Typically, it was their responsibility to stop the gates in NQSC, diffcult gates would be the ones they were sent to. Only sometimes would the clans help out and send their people to aid the people of the Waking World.
So Sunny would just need to wait until a gate opened up that a typical Ascended couldn't fend off. Kai had just become a Saint a few months ago. It had been two and a half months since Sunny returned, or technically finished his third nightmare.
Meaning Kai would still be nearly done limit testing his and getting accustomed to new his body or rather his new transformation.
He would respond to nearly any category two or three gate that opened, and so Sunny waited for that moment.
***
Kai's communicator lit up. It was a simple notification, but one that could mobilise even a Transcedent.
Warning
Category three has opened in the West district.
Time since open: Unknown
Urgent
It was reported to have been seen inside an abandoned building.
Unfortunately, it seemed like this gate had been unnoticed for who knows how long. Opening his apartment window, Kai leapt out.
The nightmare creatures could already be pouring out into the streets, but Kai was soaring, and as soon as he leapt out, he scanned the general direction from which the nightmare gate opened.
Locking onto the location, Kai flew quickly. He was there in just two minutes, and as soon as he arrived, dozens of Fallen Nightmare creatures started to crawl out onto the marble floor of the abandoned building. Perfect timing.
It was spiders. Perhaps three dozen of them, but a simple command made them turn stiff as if they were statues.
"STOP" his ethereal voice rang out. The command was simple, and all the spiders froze. Kai unsheathed a small sword and zipped around them. His small sword felt little resistance as he butchured them. The eerie part was how they all stood still and offered no resistance.
Kai killed all of them easily and was flying directly above the gate.
That was when the gate guardian appeared. It was a Corrupted Devil. The creature was just stepping out of the portal when an arrow pierced the top of his head and exited through the bottom of his jaw.
The force was extraordinary, and the arrow went deep into the earth.
"Yes! I didn't hit any pipes this time." Kai said out loud. It was really annoying to accidentally destroy infrastructure. That was a big problem for Effie, but Kai had already started to minimise his damage during battles.
Pulling out his communicator, Kai glanced down before he noticed something odd. The floor. It looked different. It wasn't exactly dark black, but his keen eyesight noticed the difference quickly, which was ignored when he arrived. He had been too focused on the Nightmare Creatures.
Shadows? He thought, but before he could think, the entire floor leapt alive. Grabbing and wrapping around once, twice, and then a third time. It was incredibly tight, he couldn't move at all.
"My transformation abili....."
A cold voice rang out. Snapping Kai out of focus.
"If you transform inside this building, it'll collapse onto the next few buildings." It wasn't a lie. NQSC wasn't barren. An abandoned building didn't mean it was run down, rather, it meant that it was too expensive for something to lease.
It was in the west district, surrounded by dozens of other buildings filled with people. The buildings were all compact and close together. One could only imagine how many would get injured or die.
Before Kai could assess the situation, something strange happened. It was his eyes that confirmed it. Seeing through thick shadows wrapping around him, he knew he was in another place, but before he could activate his transformation ability and escape, he was thrown somewhere else.
***
Sunny shadow-stepped with Kai to where a gate was open. With a figure next to it. It was his incarnation waiting.
Sunny threw Kai into the gate and stepped through. He was back on the Forgotten Shore. Kai tore through shadows using his transformation ability, and immediately new shadows replaced the old ones.
Sunny doubted that Kai had already developed the muscle memory to call Cassie for help, as everyone in the future did.
It had only been two and a half months after all.
That was when Sunny read the inscriptions on the board game.
Hopefully, Saint and the others had been able to deal with the Cursed abominations that came out, but it should've been relatively simple. Since Seishan could do it, he had no doubt that Saint would be able to do it as well.
They were all transported once more.
This was the third time that he had transported Kai without his consent, the first was when he transported him to the gate, the second time was when Sunny threw him into the gate. This was the third time, and so Sunny was starting to feel a bit bad.
He was only hurrying because he was unsure if Kai would contact Cassie, but now it was too late. The Death Game would cut off all contact and leave them isolated.
**
Sunny felt the wind blow on his face as his feet landed on the soft ash.
Back in the Death Game once more. This time however, he had managed to bring in all of his incarnations.
Sunny had thought about it for a long time before deciding how he would enter the Death Game.
Worrying whether or not he would be able to bring in all of incarnations when he remembered something.
Sunny had taken the place of a Cursed Tyrant. He wasn't sure until he thought about it more. Technically speaking, he was a Supreme Titan, but the difference between him and Cursed Tyrant was like night and day.
The worst-case scenario? He could only bring five of his incarnations, making him a Tyrant.
Sunny looked around. Kai shoul-
That's when Sunny saw him. Soaring in the sky. The dragon looked like it was actually fleeing from Sunny in the direction of another square. A snow square which would be incredibly lethal and would kill the poor archer without him even realizing.
Hurriedly, Sunny summoned a javelin made of shadows. Then, with all his strength, he launched it.
Its speed was nothing short of amazing. It still took a while to reach Kai, but it wasn't aimed at him, regardless. Sunny didn't believe he could hit him anyway from this distance without Kai dodging anyway.
Kai was nearly a hundred meters away. Moving impossibly fast for a dragon.
Looking back, Nightingale, the dragon slayer, watched the javelin soar past him.
After a few seconds, that's when the shock came.
A tentacle, the largest one Kai had ever laid eyes on, came out broke out from the sea of clouds below and harmlessly swatted the javelin away as if it were some children's toy.
Kai stopped in his tracks and looked back at the man wearing the fearsome demon mask, only to see him dismiss it and wave towards him with a carefree smile.
Unsure what to do next, Kai weighed his options. He was incredibly shocked when he tore through the Shadows and even more bewildered when he freed himself.
Looking around, Kai knew he was in someplace that he had never even heard about. It didn't look like any part of the Dream Realm at all.
[Cassie?]
Kai tried to contact Cassie to no avail, so, dismissing his transformation ability and assuming his human form, Kai decided to talk to the person who had taken him. So far, it didn't look like he wanted to kill him.
Flying towards him, Kai finally landed.
With a short breath, Kai asked him a simple question.
"Who are you?"