Chapter 7: Interlude
Sunny's P.O.V:
The Forgotten Shore had not been kind to me.
That was an understatement of such magnificent proportions that it bordered on the absurd. If my life before the Spell had been a constant struggle against the grinding poverty of the outskirts—scavenging for scraps, fighting off gutter rats both human and vermin—then my existence since the winter solstice had been a masterclass in how to suffer creatively.
I still remembered the drowning. That first moment when consciousness returned, and instead of air, there was only the black, suffocating water of the starless void. The salt burning my lungs. The absolute darkness pressing against my eyes.
Welcome to the Dream Realm, Sunless.
The Spell's voice had been almost cheerful as I thrashed in the abyss, fighting for a surface that didn't seem to exist. When I finally dragged myself onto that stone ridge. I had been certain that death was merely delayed. The dark sea had receded, revealing the crimson labyrinth of coral and scavengers.
The nights had been filled with the sound of things moving in the depths, tentacles crushing sharks, and the endless, gnawing hunger of the Carapace Scavengers.
And then there was the rain. The storms that came without warning, turning the labyrinth into a drowning chamber, forcing us to scale cliffs while the water rose like the vengeance of some forgotten god.
But all of that—the scavengers, the coral maze, the soul-devouring tree that had nearly taken us over , the endless walking and fighting and bleeding—had been bearable because I had not been alone.
Because I met them. Nephis, Changing Star of the Immortal Flame clan, and Cassie the blind seer. My first friends. The first people since... well, since ever... who had looked at me and not seen a disposable outskirt rat.
For a month, we fought side by side. I learned to trust in Nephis's strength and her suicidal plans. I learned to trust Cassie's visions.
We reached the Dark City, only to have our hopes crushed against the reality of what guarded the Gateway.
A Fallen Terror.
The words alone were enough to inspire despair. In the hierarchy of Nightmare Creatures—beasts, monsters, demons, devils, tyrants, terrors, and finally titans—a Fallen Terror was something that shouldn't have existed in a region accessible to Sleepers. It was death incarnate, a being of such overwhelming power that confronting it was less a battle and more a mass suicide.
We had come so far. Through blood and mud and shadow. Only to find the exit barred by something we could not possibly defeat.
But worse than the Terror, worse than the scavengers, worse than the drowning darkness... was the silence.
In the Academy, I had been able to message Megumi every day. Those brief texts been my anchor. My proof that there was something real beyond this nightmare, something worth returning to. But here, in the Dream Realm, there were no communicators. No way to reach across the divide between worlds and hear his voice, or see those flat, dark eyes that saw too much, or receive one of his rare, precious I'm fines that meant everything and nothing.
The silence was driving me mad.
I could feel it, some days. The way my thoughts would spiral into dark corners. The way my shadow would move when I wasn't looking, not with the obedient servitude of my Aspect Ability, but with something hungrier. The Dream Realm was changing me. Or perhaps it was simply stripping away the pretense of civilization I had worn in the real world, revealing the thing underneath that I had always been: a creature of survival, willing to do anything, become anything, to protect what was his.
---
The conversation happened a few days after I killed Harper. Where Nephis told me about her true goal and ambition of destroying this world. And the spell.
And the length she'll go to achieve that goal.
All the while dressing it as a noble and heroic sentiment.
Hypocrite.
I laughed. It was a broken sound, devoid of humor.
"You want to know the difference between us, Neph? You want to know why your 'truth' makes me sick while my lies make me honest?"
I stepped closer, close enough to see the white flames dancing in her eyes, close enough to smell the ash and iron that always seemed to cling to her.
"You asked about my sister. But I didn't tell you about my brother."
Nephis blinked. "Brother?"
"Megumi." The name came out like a prayer and a wound. "Fourteen years old. Gloomy little bastard. Never smiles. Looks at you like he's calculating the exact angle to break your neck. He's... he's back there. In the real world. Waiting for me."
My hands trembled. I clenched them into fists.
"I didn't just leave my sister and become a street rat, Neph. I raised him. From the time he was six years old and I was eight, it was just us. Do you understand what that means? While you were learning sword forms in your shining castle, I was digging through trash heaps with bleeding hands to find a piece of food that wasn't moldy. I was fighting grown men—men twice my size—for a blanket in winter. I was eight."
I pointed a finger at her chest, his voice dropping to a snarl.
"I've done things, Neph. Things that would make your 'rivers of blood' look like a gentle stream. I've stolen from the dying. I've left people behind who trusted me because carrying them would have meant Megumi going hungry. I've killed, not in battle, but in cold, calculating necessity. I've looked someone in the eyes and decided they were worth less than my brother's next meal. And you know what?"
I spread my arms wide, offering myself to her judgment.
"I don't dress it up as salvation. I don't tell myself I'm helping them. I'm not the savior of the outskirts, Neph. I'm the villain. I'm the monster who will do anything—anything—to keep that gloomy, antisocial, genius kid alive and fed and breathing. I am selfish. I am small. I am human in the worst, most pathetic way possible."
I stepped back, my chest heaving, shadows pooling at my feet like spilled ink.
"But at least I'm honest about it."
The white flames in Nephis's eyes flickered. For the first time, she looked... uncertain.
"You want to burn this world down because you hate it?" I continued, my voice raw. "Fine. You want to kill Gunlaug and every lieutenant and make your road of bones? Go ahead. But don't you dare stand there and tell me you're doing it for these people. Don't you dare claim you're saving them when you're just using their corpses to build your ladder to the sky."
I turned away, looking toward the darkening horizon where the sun was bleeding out into the sea.
"I'm going to get back to him, Neph. I'm going to crawl out of this hell, and I'm going to do it with whatever blood is necessary—mine, yours, theirs. I don't care. I'll lie, cheat, steal, kill. I'll become a demon if that's what it takes. But I will see him again. I'll see his flat, unimpressed stare when I tell him I'm back. I'll ruffle his hair and listen to him tell me I smell like garbage and that I took too long."
I looked back at her, and my eyes were no longer desperate. They were hard. Harder than the coral that had cut my feet. Harder than the carapace of the scavengers.
"You hate the Spell? Good for you. I don't give a damn about the Spell. I don't care about the world, or the clans, or your glorious crusade. I care about a fourteen-year-old boy sitting alone in a government apartment, counting the days until his brother comes home."
My smiled, sharp and terrible.
"So yeah, I'd sacrifice everyone here for him. In a heartbeat. Without losing a single second of sleep. But the difference between us, Changing Star, is that I know it makes me a monster. You think it makes you a saint."
The silence stretched between them, heavy as the coming night.
Finally, Nephis exhaled. The white flames dimmed, retreating into the grey depths of her eyes.
"You're wrong about one thing," she said quietly.
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
She looked at me—not with the manic fire of before, but with something colder. Clearer.
"You're not a monster, Sunny. Monsters don't love anything enough to become demons for them."
She turned away, heading toward the camp were the first torches were being lit against the dark.
"You're just a man. A small, selfish, honest man. And perhaps... that's exactly what I needed to remember."
I watched her go, my heart hammering against my ribs, the image of Megumi's dark eyes burning in my mind like a torch in the void.