Nephis could not believe her eyes.
If it was not for the image she had to uphold and the amount of people nearby she might have even laughed.
'How come he is so fast?'
She had been trying to locate a seed of nightmare for a while, but they had not had any luck.
They could have asked Saint Tyris of white feather for knowledge on where local nightmare seeds were, but they did not want to get involved with the great clans at all.
Actually, Nephis avoided them like the plague.
She was not stupid enough to believe they had given up on taking her life, nor did she wish to test the limits they would go to.
But it seemed as if her passive attitude had come back to bite her.
In her effort to be careful, she had wasted too much time. Now, Sunny had left them in the dust.
Effie seemed to be thinking something similar, as her usually carefree face was scrunched into a semblance of a scowl.
Kai was on the verge of being emotional, but he had always been a little soft. Not only that but Sunny was the one who had introduced him into the cohort.
If he had to pick one cohort member to be his 'bestfriend' it would be Sunny.
Cassie did not really show a reaction like the others, she simply sat next to Nephis with a stoic face.
Inside though she was hoping with all her heart that Sunny was okay.
As the group sat in relative silence, a doctor approached them.
"Master Sunless is fine, but we want you to keep him company should he suffer another... episode."
Nephis nodded and soon she found herself in a small medical room.
In the center of the room was a simple hospital bed.
On it lay a pale young man with raven black hair, it was so dark it could have been mistaken for strings of the night sky.
His skin looked like pure white marble without even a hint of an imperfection.
If one was to see him for the first time, they would think that a statue lay one the bed.
As Nephis looked over Sunny's body her face started to warm up.
Sunny looked... different.
He was still short at around 5'6 but his once frail body had changed.
Nephis thought about his attributes, mainly [The Weave] and its [Flesh] trait.
Nephis also looked at his new attribute called [Marble Shell].
[Marble Shell] Attribute Description: [Your skin is made from living marble, it is extremely durable and resilient to the elements.]
[Marble Shell] Attribute Traits: [Living Stone], [Feather of Truth], [Stalwart], [Underworld Armament], [Mantle], [Shell], [Bound].
(I think we all know the traits of the Marble Shell.)
'Just what has he been up to.'
As her eyes landed on his bare chest, she realized just how much his body had changed.
The first and most notable difference was a large black snake tattoo.
It ran from one hand all the way up his arm, then coiled around his torso before going back down his other arm.
It looked so real as if it was going to slither off his skin at any moment.
His once boney ribcage had become covered in lean muscles.
Not the kind you see on a body builder, but the kind you would see on a modern day dancer.
His arms and chest were also covered in a generous amount of muscle, just enough to make him seem strong but keep his lithe appearance.
Nephis had never expected Sunny to be so....
'Ahem, anyways.'
Effie on the other hand was less reserved.
"Wow Princess, your Prince is looking good, huh? And a long Snake tattoo? Seems like he's trying to send a message."
Nephis face twitched.
Cassie just smirked trying her best to not laugh. She wanted to see what Sunny looked like too, but for obvious reasons she couldn't
As they all made their way to their seats, the doctor walked in behind them and began speaking.
"His vitals are stable, and we could not find any signs of mental damage. But we were unable to hook him to an iv, his skin seems to have taken on the quality of stone."
Nephis just nodded as the doctor excused himself.
The cohort did not have anything to do but wait, so that is what they did.
After a few hours of tense silence, Effie finally decided to ask.
"When do you think he will wake up?"
Cassie opened her mouth to answer, but instead she just smirked.
Effie was about to ask her what was so funny, but before she could speak a low groan sounded from nearby.
~
Sunny's hand found its way to his head as he covered his eyes.
'Why is it so damn bright?!'
He had spent the last two or three months in absolute darkness. The kind not even his vision could pierce, so seeing sunlight was like being flash banged. Whatever a flashbang was.
Sunny quickly used his shadow to look apon the world.
Due to its lack of rods and cones it could not be blinded by light.
As Sunny's perception shifted to that of his shadow, he took in his new surroundings.
To his surprise, he was no longer in the Dark City.
He was in a small hospital room with bright white lights, and windows that let in plenty of natural sunlight.
To his left was a machine that let out rhythmic beeps every few seconds, to his right was...
As Sunny's shadow took in the other side of the room, he felt a sudden wave of nostalgia and longing.
It had not been all that long since he had last seen his friends, but it had felt longer due to his almost complete isolation.
In total it had been around ten months, but for Sunny it felt like years had passed.
He quickly sat up.
Fighting through the burning feeling that radiated through his sight, he looked around the room with his own eyes.
Slowly the realization dawned on him.
'I'm not in the nightmare!'
Sunny's second nightmare was not as hard as his first one, but the result was far more harrowing.
Sunny did not even want to think about what he had done.
Suddenly, his mood darkened.
Well, for a second.
The second his eyes fell on Nephis, his world became much smaller as his worries left his mind.
In Sunny's vision, or memories.
He was not sure what had happened in the crimson spire that led to him seeing visions of the future, but he was sure of one thing.
The things he saw were definitely true.
That had all been confirmed the moment he entered the nightmare desert, he had only known it was there due to the memories and further than that.
Eurys had confirmed many things, like Ananke and Noctis's existence. Which yet again he only knew about due to his memories.
As Sunny realized his mind had gone on a tangent again, he focused himself.
In the memories of the future, he had been very close to Nephis.
Actually, that would be an understatement, he was helplessly in love with her.
It felt weird to have the memories of the future in his mind, mainly because they were way to vivid to be memories and because they actively influenced his mind.
For example, from the Forgotten Shore all the way to his third nightmare, Sunny had been very emotionally unintelligent.
It was only in the Tomb of Ariel, during his time on Windflower that he had fully understood his feeling for Nephis.
But right now, even though he had not actually lived it. He felt the same as he had after the Tomb of Ariel.
His emotions were clear to him.
He loved her.
The only problem was that Nephis was still her old, emotionally distant self.
She did not remember the future like him, nor had she lived through a decade of harrowing years.
She had only been a carrier of the Nightmare Spell for a couple years, though her experiences could not be compared to the average awakened.
As Sunny saw Nephis for the first time in months, he pulled in all the random thoughts of their relationship and smiled.
"Hey Neph."
Nephis seemed to be a little distracted as she just stared at him.
'Is there something on my face?'
Sunny unconsciously looked at himself through the shadows.
Sunny noticed that he did not look like he thought he would.
He looked closer to his Saint appearance than to when he was a Master.
As a smug grin found its way onto his face, he decided to pull an Effie.
"Like what you see?"
Nephis flinched at his question as her face became horrified.
Well, as much as her stone cold face could show emotion.
It seemed she was in her own little world, and his question had shattered it.
She opened her mouth to speak, but Effie beat her to it.
"Very much so, your looking good Doofus."
Sunny blushed a little, it seemed his efforts had backfired due to the very person he was copying.
But to his surprise, Nephis just silently nodded along with her words.
Suddenly, he felt that Effie was not so bad.
Cassie was the next to speak.
"Welcome back Sunny."
Sunny smiled.
"Hey Cassie, glad to be back."
After Cassie was Kai.
"It's good to see you are alright Sunny. I was worried I would never see you again."
Sunny just scoffed
"Like I would ever die before getting to see that stupidly, obnoxious face of yours again."
Kai just smiled at his... compliment?
Well whatever it was, Kai was happy either way.
The last was Nephis.
"Welcome back Sunny."
'Did she just copy Cassie?'
Sunny was expecting at least a hug for someone, but turns out they were not feeling it today.
'Well, maybe later.'
This was when sunny realized that he was currently not wearing anything above the waist.
'Oh, maybe I should wear something before expecting hugs.'
Sunny quickly called apon the shadows resting under the bed, shaping them into a simple shirt.
Sunny had learned this trick from his future self, but it was not as useful as it was for his Saint and even Supreme selves.
They had much more essence to spend on keeping the shadows material, so currently it was not that useful.
But it would last him long enough to get some proper clothes.
Sunny would have loved to just summon a memory, but he currently had no armor type memories.
Actually, he had gained next to zero memories in his nightmare, and most he did get were very weak or outright useless.
Safe to say, Saint had a feast.
Not only was she a transcendent already, but she had over half of her shadow fragments full.
The only memory he kept from his nightmare was a Utility memory called [Perfect Quiver], which had a single useful enchantment.
It copied any arrow placed into it and made an entire quiver worth of the arrows.
That included memory arrows.
However, his bad luck and lack of memories could wait till later.
Right now, he just wanted to catch up with his friends.
And eat some food, preferably something other than Nightmare Creature meat.
Honestly, a salad would have done him wonders.
Sunny knew just the way to convince them too.
"Hey Effie, want to get something to eat?"
Effie's face lit up with delight.
"Of course Doofus, you know me so well."
~~~
After they had called for the doctor, Sunny was told all about a bunch of tests that needed to be ran, interviews that needed to be conducted, and protocols to be enacted.
The entire time the plump doctor was talking, Sunny just gave him a completely deadpan stare.
As his words trailed off, Sunny sighed and just looked toward his friends.
"Meet me in the cafeteria."
The doctor gave him a grateful smile.
As he opened the door, ready to leave he started to speak.
"Great, first we need to do a full body scan to look for abnormalities."
As the doctor turned around to see if he was following, all he saw was an empty bed.
His eyes filled with panic as he searched for the new ascended. But he was already long gone.
Actually, he was already sitting at a table browsing a menu.
When the doctor turned to the cohort, smiles broke out on Kai and Effie's faces.
Nephis just shrugged her shoulders and stood.
It was time to have a meal with an old friend.