Shadow Slave

Sunny left the cafe and caught a train to go visit Aiko. After that, he traveled to the Academy and said his goodbyes to Teacher Julius. The old man was a bit emotional to let him go, but did not try to dissuade his unruly pupil. Instead, he tried to offer encouragement.

"The Second Nightmare! Ptui! No student of mine can be killed by a mere Second Nightmare. Don't you dare put a stain on my reputation, Sunny my boy… you hear me?"

Finally, Sunny left the Sleeper compound and stood outside for a while, watching the setting sun. Then, he turned around and headed deeper into the Academy complex.

The room where Nephis slept did not change much. He replaced the flowers on one of the tables and sat down, looking at her pale and motionless face.

No matter how many times Sunny came here, seeing her… seeing her like this… brought a dull pain to his chest. The cauldron of emotions burning in his heart was too deep and seethed too furiously for him to understand it. Sunny was never good with emotions, after all.

There was resentment, longing, guilt, affection, fear… and hope.

Looking at the transparent lid of the sleeping pod, he sighed.

"Hey, Neph."

Just like before, this was the only thing he said out loud. He lingered for a bit, and then thought:

'You are still alive, out there somewhere. That is good. That… makes me happy. It really does. You know, right after everything happened, I wasn't sure if I wanted you to live. I thought that maybe it would be better for you to die. Sometimes, I did.'

Sunny lowered his head and closed his eyes tiredly.

'But after a while, as time passed, I... I started to miss you more than I wanted to be free of you. Maybe what Master Jet said is true… maybe no one is really ever free in this world. Maybe the only freedom there is is the freedom to choose your own chains.'

A dark smile appeared on his lips.

choice was taken away from me. By you, by Cassie. By fate. I never had anything, and then, I had even less than that. Wouldn't you be angry to be dealt a hand like that? Because I am. I am so, so angry. And that is why... I am never going to stop trying to break free. Screw truth,

the sleeping young

strong enough to rip them apart. You want to destroy the Spell? Well, I want to destroy fate itself. Which one of us do

laughed, his voice full of

it, why can't you break it? If that is our

quiet again, his eyes full

a while, he rubbed his

challenge the Second Nightmare soon. We might not be able to visit you again for a long time. So you… you take

sighed heavily, stood up, and left

time for

***

luxurious sleeping pod, Sunny had a conversation with Effie. He moved her pod into the underground dojo and installed it near his own. The two of them were most likely going to spend a long time in the Nightmare, so the house had

things went wrong with the representatives of Valor, Effie was

it was functioning perfectly and could sustain his body for months,

the former happened, the well-being of his physical body was a moot point. If the

destroyed, the process would create a new one. So, maybe, it was more appropriate to say that Ascension allowed the spirit body to become corporeal. In any case, the

so badly, knowing that it would make her as strong and healthy as she was in the Dream

pod malfunctioned and thoroughly roasted Sunny's physical body instead of preserving it. If the Nightmare

very attached to his mortal shell. He didn't want any harm to come to it, if only out for sentiment

took one last glance at

watching him silently from her wheelchair, strained to raise a hand and

"Sweet dreams!"

not leave dirty dishes all over the house, but he was just too

the lid of the metal sarcophagus started to move, his eyes closed, and he fell into the