A Sunless Dream

He stared at her with a hollow look in his eyes, his statement wasn't born out of hatred but just pure cold pragmatism. There wasn't any other way, the only way for him to continue to live free was if he killed everyone who knew his true name. And with everyone forgetting it, that only left Nephis.

Nephis looked at him with a confused expression, what did he mean she should die? The option was one that her plans would never accept, she had to live and have her vengeance on those responsible for the death of her father. She had to defeat the nightmare spell that continued to take the lives of billions of people, though his statement was one which typically would have made her instantly on guard. The man before her, Sunless, tone portrayed anything but a desire to kill her. His hands moved slowly and began scratching at his neck, slowly at first however he continued with such intensity that gashes began to arise with his red blood being visible for all those who bore witness.

But not a drop dared to escape his body.

"I...don't want you to die, but I want to be free. I want to be able to do what I choose to do without anyone being able to control my actions" he said, tears dropped from his eyes as he continued "why? Why did it have to be you? If it was anyone else, I wouldn't have even thought twice." He cried to himself, she tried putting her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him however he tensed up like she was a living plague. "We'll meet again." He said, as shadows from across the room seemed to coagulate and come forth to surround him hiding him from her vision. Soon, he was surrounded in what could only be described as a shadow tornado and upon it's dissipation, he was nowhere to be seen.

Nephis didn't even have the slightest idea towards the true identity of the man who had just stood before her, however the condition in which he left the building in left her with an indescribable pit of sadness within her being which she could not even push to the back of her mind. Remembering his words, she opened her runes and looked down, her eyes widened as she observed a new set of runes with a name she could not tie back to any particular memory.

Slave – Sunless

Slave's True Name – Lost from Light

Slave's Flaw – [Clear Conscience]

Slave's Flaw Description – Slave cannot utter a lie

Shadow Bond Description – The pathetic lost from light attempted to escape the fate which he had been destined for before he had drawn his first breath with pathetic desperation. Utter a command, and upon the slave hearing it they are forced to obey whatever command they hear.

The description of the man before her in the runes painted a picture of utter surprise on her face, not once had the spell ever described her or any of her other cohort members to her knowledge in such an antagonizing manner and additionally the spell commented on his failed attempt to escape his fate with wording that even implied disdain. 'Since when did the spell have such mannerisms?' she thought to herself, this thought was irrelevant though as she quickly shelved it in the back of her mind to be thought of at a later date. Making her way downstairs she smelled the same scent of the man who had just been in the room with her around the house strongly giving her implications that this wasn't somewhere he had been in for a long time 'But this place seems so...familiar.' she continued to think to herself.

Making her way downstairs she was greeted by wary looks from all the members of her cohort, standing in awkward silence she stared at them. Not knowing what to say first, luckily, Effie managed to break the silence "What happened up there? We heard shouting but we thought you might know more about him than we did" she said, for once her tone was not teasing, but rather one of genuine confusion.

However, that quickly changed as a sly smile appeared on her face "Although, if you two were doing other things in there I wouldn't be surprised. He is quite a fine specimen" she said, barely restraining a grin despite the extremely confusing nature of the events that had just occurred.

"It seems as if, he's known me for a long time" Nephis said, she looked at Cassie in an attempt to see if she understood any more than she did, sadly it seems as if she was left in as much darkness as Nephis was in this current situation. "We have a...bond linking us together he is unable to disobey a single command he hears coming out of my mouth and it appears he is trying to shatter that bond" she continued, her voice did not radiate the unchanging and steadfast certainty in which it always possessed but rather she appeared quite confused almost melancholy even.

"If he can't disobey a word you can say, then why not just force him into telling us how he knows us. Surely that would be a great method to start off" Kai asked, however the suggestion was quickly shut down by Cassie "It seems like bringing up too many memories of his past with us causes him to become very self destructive as you saw earlier" she said. The situation was quite puzzling, since this was the case none of them had any idea on how to move forward with this information.

Nephis continued to shed light on the conversation she had with the man "He seems extremely self destructive even outside of his memories of the past, it seems as if our connection has taken a toll on his mental health" she paused for a second "He's close to snapping, he put my hands around his throat and forced me to choke him till he almost passed out and didn't even resist." The very memory of the event made her sick to her stomach, the type of power she had over him was unhealthy, nobody should be able to completely control another human being in the way she was able to control him. However, as things stood, she could anyway.

The cohort expressed a look of indescribable shock and worry, they couldn't wrap their head around why he would do such a thing. Or anyone would for that matter. "He wants us to treat him like he doesn't exist, but at the same time he said we would meet again. I know he can't lie so how-" Nephis was cut off as Cassie tentatively asked "How do you know he can't lie, you didn't command him to did you? Or was that his flaw?" though Cassie herself was not beyond using that type of control for her own benefit depending on the situation, Nephis doing so was simply incomprehensible.

"No, I can see his flaw and his true name as well as several other pieces of information about him" she said, Nephis took a pause to sit down and assess the environment around her. Locking eyes with Rain who had been sitting in silence as the whole affair occurred, 'How powerless must it feel to be a mundane in a room full of saints' she thought to herself. It was the same type of feeling she had to go through in her second nightmare and forcing it upon someone as dear to her as Rain was something that left a bad taste in her mouth even though it was entirely unintentional.

"Well, there's no need to act now anyways" Effie said, her nonchalant posture settling in once more. "He must be asleep, isn't he? If not then we can go and see what Cassie can find out in his memories" she said, feeling quite proud of herself for the idea that she frankly didn't even take more than two seconds to think up. A solid plan, nonetheless.

"He's gone, disappeared in a tornado of shadows" Nephis said, shutting down any ideas of the plan that Effie came up with "let's just take a moment to rest and get used to our new transcendent bodies, as we are now we are unable to do much" she concluded in a tone of finality that left no room for argument. The reasoning was sound though, newly awakened transcendents may outclass masters in terms of pure physicality however a lack of control could leave them open to losing to those in an entire rank below them.

And with that, they made their way outside of the oddly familiar home they were in and returned to the dream realm. Planning to hone their newly found skills as fast as possible.

Sunny on the other hand, was sitting in the middle of a field in Antarctica using his shadow sense to assess the amount of foes that had surrounded him. His heightened presence in Antarctica made him a beacon to all the local nightmare creatures that screamed out 'Come eat me' however, listening to that call would lead to an untimely demise.

By all regards, Sunny was furious. Everything he had planned, every goal he had set for himself seemed now so out of reach. He meant what he had said whenever he told Nephis to stay out of his way, however he yearned to see her and talk to her once more at the same time. Shaking his head, Sunny cleared his mind of all distractions and extended his shadow sense to it's maximum "50,000, 60,000, 70,000" he quietly counted to himself, assessing the number of nightmare creatures that surrounded him.

He had abandoned all armour, the frigid temperatures of Antarctica bit into his body. Though he had achieved transcendence he still felt a cool chill run down his spine. He wasn't planning on getting hit once.

If he wanted strength, this was the perfect place to start.

Soon the nightmare creatures were less than ten feet around him, rapidly closing in from all sides. They ranged from fallen devils to even some corrupted terrors. But it didn't matter.

On the battlefield, he didn't need to care about his future, his past or what was to come. The essence of combat is murder. And so, that was what he was going to do. Murder them all.