Chapter 1: Changes
As Sunny stopped just before the circle of runes that made up the gateway, he realized.
"Why did you throw the fight?"
Turning around he marched back to her side and squatted to be eye level with Nephis, Changing Star.
A look of confused flashed across her bloodied face.
"What… are you talking about?"
Sunny snarled.
"Drop the act. Your performance was, indeed, masterful. But don't forget who taught you how to lie in the first place. Did you really think that you would be able to deceive me?"
She was silent for a few moments, then whispered:
"I don't… understand."
He looked at her and asked, his voice shaking with anger:
"Why did you do it? Why?"
Nephis blinked and drew in a shaky breath, but didn't say anything, looking at him with pain and confusion.
Realizing that she wasn't going to answer, Sunny spat:
"Why did you throw the fight?!"
Changing Star turned her head and looked at him calmly, then smiled.
"Alright, Sunny. You caught me. Now go. This tower won't last much longer."
As she said that, the white flames flowing from her wounds suddenly flashed, growing stronger and brighter. Her injuries started to heal once again, not as fast as in the past, but still with considerable speed. Her eyes shined with fearsome radiance.
He gritted his teeth.
"Like hell I will! Not before you give me an answer."
"What it is that you want to know?"
Sunny clenched his fists.
"Why even fight me if you wanted to let me win all along?"
She sighed. As he stared at her with burning intensity, Neph said:
"Isn't it obvious? Because if I didn't, you wouldn't go."
Turning away, she lingered for a moment, and then continued:
"People… people are usually either cruel or kind. But not you. You can be both, depending on the situation. Either ruthless or compassionate. Either cruel or kind. So that's what I did. I created a situation that would allow you to be ruthless and cruel. To leave me behind without showing any mercy."
Sunny stared at her, his fists trembling.
"But why? Why would you doom yourself to save me? What happened to your goddamned goal?! Didn't you tell me that you will sacrifice anything, anyone, to achieve it?!"
Nephis looked at him and smiled bitterly.
"Why? Are you the only one who is allowed to grow and change? Can't I change too, Sunny?"
She turned away and said tiredly, her voice full of invisible, but crushing weight:
"...Yes. I did say such a thing. But saying and doing are two different things, Sunny. Once it all started… once all those people were dying because of what I have done… once I suffered defeat after defeat… it was more difficult than I could ever imagine. It was… distasteful."
He shook his head in shock.
"So… that's it? You just gave up? After all that crap, you just decided that it was too much for you?"
Changing Star remained quiet for a bit, then slowly shook her head.
"...You don't really understand me at all, do you, Sunny?"
Facing him, she grinned.
"Give up? No, I didn't give up. I didn't abandon my goal. I just realized that I was not ambitious enough."
As white flames grew brighter in her eyes, Nephis said:
"I am going to destroy the Spell, and all those who stand in my way. I will accomplish everything that I want. But I will also do it in the way that I want. I will do it in a way that suits my desire, without compromising anything. Without sacrificing my sense of right and wrong."
Illuminated by white radiance, her pale, bloodied face seemed like a face of a demon.
"Manipulating all those people, causing their deaths? I would do it again. I would kill more if I needed to. Because it was fair and right. I gave them the chance to save themselves, or die fighting against the Spell. There is no better way."
For a moment, her eyes were aflame with passion. However, then, her expression suddenly changed. Looking down, Nephis added in a quiet voice:
"...But abandoning you here would be vile, and wrong. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth. Just like leaving a helpless blind girl to die alone would. I won't do it. If I do, I would be no better than those who I want to destroy. What's the point of reaching my goal if, in the process, I become the same as those whom I hate?"
She pierced him with a burning gaze and said:
"No, Sunny. My goal hasn't changed. It's just that reaching by using a wrong path is worse than not reaching it at all. But why do you care, anyway? Don't you think that it is insane? Don't you think that I am despicable and vile? So, go! Why are you hesitating?!"
Sunny stared at her, a deep frown appearing on his face. Finally, he asked:
"I'm hesitating because of you, fool. What about you?"
Nephis smiled.
"What about me? Do you think I will die here, in this tower? No. I will… I will be fine. I will escape it and survive, somehow. I'll find another way out. No matter how long it's going to take me, I will. Nothing will stop me. You know it won't…"
He stared at her for a while, then glanced at the shimmering Gateway.
The crack traveling through the stone balcony was already almost upon the circle of runes, threatening to destroy them.
…Salvation was so close.
He could almost taste it.
Turning away from the dais, Sunny shook his head.
"That is a horrible plan. You want to travel around the Dream Realm battling Nightmare Creatures? Fine. Let's do it together. We can try to go through the Hollow Mountains and reach the human Citadels on the other side. And that's just the south. With can also try north, east, and west, searching for an unclaimed Gateway. Two of us will have a better chance to survive. The two of us, together… it's better than being alone. Right?"
She hesitated for a long time, then closed her eyes and slowly shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was wistful and tired:
"...No. I can't. I can't let you stay, Sunny. Go! Go and meet your sister. There's something waiting for you in the real world, at least. All that's waiting for me is emptiness, bloodshed, and graves. If I return, the same thing that happened in the Bright Castle will repeat itself, over and over again, until there's nothing else. So go while you can."
The runes of the Gateway shimmered, as if on the verge of disappearing.
He gritted his teeth.
"...No."
Nephis opened her eyes and looked at him, a sense of sorrow appearing on her face.
"Leave me, Sunny. Please. Go."
He shook his head stubbornly.
"I don't want to."
Changing Star was silent for a moment, looking at him with a pained expression.
At this moment Sunny suddenly felt his mind slip a little, he did not know what exactly was happening.
It felt very similar to when his first nightmare had flashed before his eyes, but also different. That was because it was all about him.
It was his life, not just the past but something far grander. His future... or his possible future.
At that moment he understood everything. Things he had learnt on the Forgotten Shore clicked together with things he saw in his vision... if it could be called that.
More importantly, he understood the sovereigns, what domains were, how it felt to wield the will.
He understood what devastating loss felt like, he understood what it meant to lose something precious.
He understood far more than could be put into words. The Dream God, The Void, The Daemons, The Dream Realm.
He also understood what was about to happen.
It did not even take him a second to begin his strike.
Due to Nephis current bodily state, as well as her mental condition. She continued with her destined words.
"Go... Lost from Light."
The moment the words were spoken, Sunny felt a familiar stirring deep within his soul.
But in the next instant, before she could even take another breath.
Sunny's fist, augmented by his shadow, and unconsciously mimicking his future self. The strike he delivered instantly knocked Changing Star unconscious.
Had she not been barely awake already, this would never have happened. But Sunny could say he was almost lucky.
Sunny did not exactly understand what had happened, but the very, very vivid memories of his future spun in his mind.
The feeling of loss, the grief, the hate, ...and he felt it.
...But not as much as he had felt the moment he stepped through the gateway.
Sunny's mind was a mess, but in that moment, he chose to act on his vision and do the first and only selfless thing he had ever done in his life so far.
He decided to send Nephis back to the waking world.
If he had been aware, he would have known how hypocritical and self-centered this thought was, but currently he did not care.
He simply cleared his mind of unnecessary thoughts and began to move.
Reaching down, he grasped the nape of the Starlight Legion armor and began to drag Nephis toward the gateway.
With every step he took, he could feel strings digging into his flesh, he could feel an inescapable web embracing and chaining him.
The thought of the Will and his time a Supreme flashed in his mind as he strained against the world.
One by one, he heard the faint sound of strings snapping somewhere just out of sight.
With one last deliberate move, the last of the resistance disappeared. He had just tossed Changing Star's unconscious body into the gateway.
In the back of his mind, Sunny heard the unmistakable sound of ripping thread and tearing fabric.
He payed it no mind, and simply watched as Nephis, Changing Star dissipated into brilliant white sparks.
'Good, maybe the world I saw will change for the better with her in my place.'
Unbeknownst to him, he had just achieved an utterly impossible feat.
He had just broken Fate, with pure will.
~~~
In a faraway lightless abyss only aluminated by golden strings and far off stars, a place between the void and the god realms.
A consciousness stirred, it had gone into slumber long ago awaiting the arrival of a worthy being.
It had been stirred by something unbelievable, in fact even Shadow fully awoke from his slumber to gaze apon the being. The Dream God had not awoken, but did stir slightly at the disturbance.
After all, an event worthy of being watched by gods had just occurred.
The Spell, not the automated system that everyone knew, but the true Consciousness of the Spell gazed at the being.
Past, Present, Future.
It has seen the predetermined path of the being and... smiled?
In the abyss, a familiar feminine voice sounded.
"Master has chosen an heir, and he is favored by Shadow."
As the voice spoke, it felt a gaze land apon it. The gaze of Shadow.
The Spell simply nodded in silent affirmation.
After a moment, Shadow nodded as well.
Of course, they were not nodding heads to each other in a greeting, it was more of an agreement.
'We will share an heir. Hmm, I wonder how powerful he will be.'
With that thought, the spell acted on its long-time goal. To find and nurture a being capable of not just defying but actively breaking fate.
And so, it blessed the being with as much power as it could.
At the same time, Shadow blessed the being with his direct lineage.
This was not something like a lineage attribute, or memory. No, he had blessed the being with an actual blood relation to himself.
The being was now truly the son, and price of shadows. Not just in name, but in flesh and blood.
Once they had given their boons, both simply exchanged a silent understanding, and resumed their eternity long slumber.
~~~
Sunny was currently not in the best of states, earlier he had felt an indescribable pain radiate from his soul, but disappear moments later.
All that was left was a vague itch.
But now that Sunny was alone, he suddenly felt like his veins were burning, his bones were shifting, his flesh was being torn and sewn back together.
He felt something more intangible within him shifting and becoming harder, tougher. He fell his will flare, as his spirit became tyrannical.
This was all happening with the [Soul Conduit] blocking them.
These were all new itches, things trying to change within his body, things struggling against the [Soul Conduit].
That was until Sunny finally made it out of the spire. It was after only a hundred paces that his eyes widened.
The [Soul Conduit] had just disappeared, and in its wake a torrent of pain unimaginable washed over his body.
In his ear the spell spoke.
[Your existence is being remade.]
If someone would have been looking from the side, they would have been horrified.
Sunny fell to the floor screaming inhuman wails that sounded even over the collapsing spire.
But the most terrifying of all was his body, his bones shifted under his skin as his flesh split and twisted making way for new, much tougher flesh.
His entire body seemed to be morphing through some, very, very painful process.
Somehow, he seemed unable to lose consciousness, the pain was unimaginable. Even a god would flinch at the amount of pain Sunny was in.
After what seemed like an eternity but was truly only a few hours.
Another change started, this one was not so violent and instead felt like cold water being ran over his mangled body.
Only his body was not mangled, if anything he was briming with newfound might. And the feeling he thought of as water? That was pure blood of shadow god.
In the wake of this miraculous process, the shadows all across the Forgotten Shore stirred... and bowed. They all genuflected before their lord, and their Prince.
As Sunny writhed in unimaginably agony, the kind of pain that could extinguish feeling and humanity all together.
Something else was happening far away.
~~~
On one of the underground levels of the Academy hospital complex, in a small room that was filled with the massive rectangle of the dream pod and various pieces of medical equipment, a delicate girl with pale blond hair was sleeping beneath the transparent glass lid, her face surrounded by wisps of cold vapor.
Suddenly, a series of lights ignited on the surface of the pod, and the medical machinery in the room came to life, producing various noises.
A few moments later, the girl opened her striking blue eyes and screamed.
~~~
…On a top floor of a private care facility in the center of a city, in a spacious room with tall windows and a luxurious interior, a state-of-the-art sleeping pod stood silently, bathed in sunlight. An attending nurse sat in a comfortable chair beside it, monitoring the vital signs of a beautiful young man who slumbered inside.
For the past three years, there had not been a single minute when the young man was left alone. His pod was surrounded by fresh flowers, and someone was always there to keep watch.
For three years, the flowers and nurses came and went, but the young man had remained the same. Nothing about him ever changed.
Suddenly, the nurse opened her eyes wide.
A second later, the sleeping pod shone with bright light. Its lid swiftly slid sideways and hid in a special housing slot.
The figure inside was slowly raising in the air, as if pulled up by an invisible force. The beautiful young man was… levitating.
The nurse remained motionless for a few seconds, stunned. Then, she hastily ran to the panel on the wall and pressed a call button.
~~~
…In a small apartment in one of the less prestigious areas of the city, in a tiny room, a tall young woman was lying in an old and barely functioning pod. This one was possibly the last representative of its model, taken out of production a long time ago. Still, it seemed like the most luxurious thing in the apartment, by far.
The door of the room was open, letting in the sound of a news broadcast. A pleasant and confident tone was currently saying:
"...unusual number of Awakenings! Dear viewers, we… we are currently receiving a report from our correspondents, and will be able to update you on this event shortly. The representatives of the great Legacy Clans, meanwhile…"
Suddenly, the sound of the broadcast was cut out, replaced by a heavy, hopeless silence.
Soon, the sound of tentative steps could be heard, approaching the room where the pod stood.
Just a second later, however, a fist slammed into the armored glass of its lid from inside, sending a net of cracks through it.
~~~
Back in another underground chamber of the academy, a metal sarcophagus sat.
Inside, a tall, beautiful slender girl with silver hair lay asleep. Soon, however. Her eyes shot open as lights whirred across the surface of a nearby panel.
Nephis, Changing Star, had returned to the waking world.
And a few hundred meters away, in a slightly higher, and less guarded room lay another sleeping pod.
This one contained a boy with pale skin, and raven hair. However, unlike all the others, this boy stayed silent showing no hint of waking up.