The slums huddled near the outer walls of the Bright Castle were exactly as Sunny remembered them.
Impoverished, bleak, and crawling with Dreamers wandering aimlessly, waiting for something to happen. All of it bathed in the pale light of the morning sun. In a way, it felt as though he had never truly left the familiar Outskirts of NQSC.
A truly charming sight.
'It feels surreal to think that in timeline B—the one where Nephis commanded me to leave her behind on the Forgotten Shore—this would one day become my city,' he mused.
Sunny was currently navigating the shady back alleys of the settlement, heading toward the makeshift Memory shop run by Steve and Aiko. It was the exact place where, in his previous timeline, he had acquired his armor—the [Mantle of the Underworld].
A dark wooden mask depicting a three-horned demon entirely concealed his face, rendering his appearance and presence completely unrecognizable. Naturally, walking around wearing the [Weaver's Mask] drew quite a bit of attention. As he walked, many passersby turned to stare; some nearly mistook him for a Nightmare Creature. But it hardly mattered.
Sunny had regressed in time to just a week after he had originally left the cohort. In his first life, he had shown up a handful of months later, but returning so soon felt like a total lack of style. Therefore, regardless of the wary gazes fixed upon him, he preferred to keep a low profile—just like in the good old days.
'What the hell are you looking at, you moron?!' Sunny yelled internally, glaring viciously at a Sleeper who had been staring at him a bit too curiously.
Feeling a sudden, icy shiver run down his spine, the man immediately looked away, shrinking back into the corner where he sat.
As Sunny continued his trek, a specific memory took root in his mind—a conversation he and Saint had shared the previous night.
***
"You should find yourself other women."
"Huh?!"
Sunny was sitting comfortably on the edge of his bed in the cathedral's secret quarters, his arms resting behind him on the mattress to support his weight. A scalding wave of pleasure radiated from his groin, washing up his spine and threatening to turn his mind completely blank. Saint was kneeling right in front of him, entirely stripped of her armor. Her soft, heavy breasts were wrapped securely around his fully erect member, stroking him up and down repeatedly, enveloping him in their plush warmth.
"What do you—ngh!—what do you mean?"
Sunny asked, stifling a moan between his gritted teeth. It was rather difficult to hold an elaborate conversation in this current predicament.
Undeterred, Saint continued her rhythmic torment, squeezing his thick length between her plush mounds. With every slick stroke—her soft flesh squeezing tight around his sensitive crown before sliding down his shaft and back up again—a jolt of pure arousal struck his chest like a blissful electric shock. The friction was thoroughly lubricated by a slick mixture of their fluids that coated her generous cleavage.
"You heard me," she replied softly, her boiling breath ghosting over his weeping tip.
Sunny had to clench his jaw against the exquisite pressure she exerted on his aching length.
"There is no shame in having multiple partners," Saint elaborated smoothly. "Besides, even if I wished to, I cannot conceive children. Even if he is immortal, a Lord should have a lineage. And then..." A wicked smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "If I remember correctly, in the previous timeline, there were quite a few exquisite beauties chasing after you, my Lord."
Sunny lowered his gaze to look at her for a long moment. There was a very distinct intention burning within the rubies of her eyes.
"But I already have you," he murmured, sliding a hand to her cheek and gently caressing her flawless marble skin with his thumb.
At his words, Saint blushed. Deeply. She paused the rhythmic, undulating motion of her hands pressing her vigorous breasts against his cock—a sudden halt that made his rigid shaft twitch needily between those soft cushions.
'Cute,' Sunny couldn't help but think, watching her avert her flushed gaze, even though their current situation was far beyond merely intimate.
Saint rose just enough for her lips to meet his. She kissed him deeply. During the affectionate exchange, Sunny instinctively wrapped his arms around her neck, watching her shyly close her eyes.
Then, breaking the kiss with a soft smack that echoed through the quiet room, she looked him straight in the eyes. "I know. And for that, I will be eternally grateful, and I will love you with all that I am," she whispered, affectionately cradling his left cheek in the palm of her hand.
At that moment, Saint lowered her hips. Sunny had to swallow his words as he felt his thick erection slide directly into her slick passage, slowly being swallowed whole by a scalding grip as soft as silk.
Saint began to deliberately roll her hips up and down, sending violent electric shocks of pleasure straight to his brain with every single plunge.
The bedsprings resumed their loud protests.
"I love you, Sunny... my Lord," she confessed sincerely, beginning to moan without any restraint. Sunny felt his blunt tip repeatedly bottom out against her womb as his shaft glided flawlessly through her weeping walls. "But I am not the only one. And this time... ah! Unlike the last time, I refuse to give you up for anything in the world... aah!"
Her words began to melt into her sweet cries of pleasure, her heavy, soft breasts bouncing mesmerizingly before his eyes with the brutal rhythm of her hips.
Saint continued breathlessly. "Which is why I want you to be happy. Truly happy. I never want my love for you to become just another cage.
And I also know exactly what it feels like to love someone and not be loved in return. That is why I want the others to finally have an opportunity this time."
As she spoke those incredibly sweet words—laced with profound affection and a touch of lingering regret—Sunny felt his mind completely white out.
He focused entirely on his fingers digging into the flawless marble skin of her sculpted shoulders. On the view of her magnificent breasts bouncing heavily before his face. On her slight, perfect weight grinding down against his pelvis. On her thick, soft thighs wrapping around him, and the absolute, scalding tightness of her interior firmly milking his rigid shaft, making it pulse wildly and sending waves of blinding heat through his veins with every devastating plunge.
"All of—nnngh!"
"Aaah!"
Before he could even process the thought, his mind shattered.
Sunny erupted deep inside Saint, flooding her womb with thick, scalding heat. At the exact same moment, she threw her head back, tightly squeezed her eyes shut, and cried out as a violent orgasm wracked her frame. Her slick core gushed, soaking the bedsheets beneath them.
Sunny let himself fall backward, his spine resting flat against the soft mattress, his arms splayed out across the sheets.
"All of them?" he asked, tearing his gaze away from the cold ceiling to look into her burning eyes.
Sunny took in the sight of the ruby flames in Saint's eyes staring back at him with pure desire. He saw the smug little smile playing on her plump, sculpted lips, and the vivid blush painting her cheeks.
He admired her pristine, silk-soft white skin entirely exposed, the gentle curves of her delicate hips, and her heavy breasts crowned by taut peaks. He felt her hands pressing lightly against his stomach, and finally, he felt his length—still buried entirely inside her—twitching softly within her tight walls, releasing the last of his seed that was now leaking from her swollen lips in thick, white ribbons.
"All of them," Saint replied smoothly. "So you had better get to work, my Lord."
There was a distinct wickedness in her tone—the kind that promised nothing but utter trouble.
Yet, Sunny found it absolutely delightful.
Saint leaned down to kiss him once again, their tongues tangling hungrily as her soft, heavy breasts pressed warmly against his chest.
***
Sunny shook his head to banish the vivid memory. Now, as he walked through the narrow streets and dark alleys of the Bright City, was certainly not the time for such distracting thoughts. He forced his mind to focus entirely on the present.
Turning left, Sunny ducked into a dark, narrow side street to cut down the distance separating him from the castle.
It was in that exact moment that he saw her.
"...and that is why, if you follow me, none of you will ever be slaves again!"
Sunny nearly burst into hysterical laughter at the sheer irony and staggering hypocrisy of those words.
Blood vessels burst in his eyes, turning the sclera red around his pitch-black irises, painting a grim, abstract landscape of fury. His hands clenched into tight fists at his sides, his nails digging in until it hurt. His breathing grew incredibly heavy, fueled by the raging fire of pure hatred he desperately wanted to spit at her.
Nephis stood in the center of a small plaza, surrounded by a crowd of slum dwellers, serving them her usual morbid, hypocritical, cheap monologue.
Beside her stood the other core members of her current cohort: Cassie, Effie... and Caster. However, Sunny was far too busy shooting venomous glares to even notice them, seemingly trying to bore a hole straight through her skull from behind his demon mask.
'You know what,' he thought to himself, his thumb absently rubbing his knuckles that were turning white from his death grip. 'Why am I still thinking about this?'
The question echoed loudly through the temple of his mind. A crack of thunder shattering calm waters and splitting the earth.
A wicked, treacherous smile made its way toward Sunny's lips. 'Why am I still brooding over it again and again?! Haven't I had enough of Nephis? Didn't I already bury those feelings deep inside me a long time ago?'
His internal questions had no interlocutor to gift him an answer, but deep down, Lost from Light already knew the truth.
What was still holding him back?
He had already severed his chains once. Nothing and no one would stop him from breaking them again.
Why didn't he just chase his own happiness?
After all, he wasn't exactly short on candidates.
Who the hell was he supposed to ask for permission to love?
Nephis?
'Nephis.' The blood boiled in his veins.
'Yes, exactly. That is the reason I hesitate. If I've always held myself back, if I never took a single step forward, it was purely my own doing.'
That stark realization made him loosen his fists, slightly dulling the roaring fire of rage in his chest and calming his ragged breathing behind the demon mask.
'The fault is mine and mine alone,' Sunny told himself. 'So, now I have to move on. Didn't I once think about building seven Legacy Clans of my own? Since when did I become so... humble?'
A new smile—brimming with renewed malice, yet tasting fiercely of freedom—appeared on his face.
'Yeah. Let's look at it that way.'
"Uh?" Nephis suddenly turned around, sensing a distinctly malevolent gaze fixed upon her. An instinct she had cultivated during a childhood spent constantly running from her persecutors.
Pausing for a moment from distributing hunted meat to the needy, she stared at a dark alley corner, believing she had sensed a familiar presence. However, when her silver eyes scanned the darkness, there was nothing there but shadows.
She stared at that alley for a fraction of a second longer. Then, Nephis shrugged and went right back to what she was doing.
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