Chapter 74 70—Journey to the West, fam!

With Nephis serving as their vanguard, the journey progressed at a significantly faster and more decisive pace.

After thoroughly sharing their respective abilities and Memories, the trio officially set off. Just like in the original storyline, Nephis attempted to hide the devastating destructive potential of her flames, claiming they were only meant for healing. However, since Sunny already possessed that prior knowledge, he casually decided to call her out on it out loud.

She glared at him—with an unmistakable trace of suspicion—but frankly, Sunny saw no reason to keep it a secret, especially considering he and Cassie had received a direct, front-row demonstration of those silver flames just a few days ago.

However, that wasn't the primary source of friction within the group.

"Let me get this straight," Sunny blurted out at one point, stopping dead in his tracks. "When I handed you those Memories from your brother, advising you to swallow your pride and leverage his dominance for once, what exactly did you do? You gave them away?!"

He practically shouted the last part, entirely dumbfounded by the sheer stupidity of her action—especially after discovering that Nephis currently possessed only a single sword and a Charm Memory.

"What did you expect from me, Sunny? That I'd bow down just because it was convenient?" Nephis snapped back resolutely, dressed in a newly fashioned set of clothes she had woven out of tough seaweeds. "No. I don't care if I have to scrape by in utter hardship, I will never accept a single thing from my father's miserable Clan!"

Cassie had offered to lend her the [Starlight Legion Armor], considering Nephis a far more critical offensive asset to their cohort, while Sunny had offered to let her keep his [Crimson Cloak] to cover herself. But Changing Star had politely declined both.

"I expected you to be a little smarter, my dear little Star! The world belongs to the cunning—trust me, I swam with them in the Outskirts for years! And if you keep going like this, you're going to end up dead just to satisfy that cheap, useless pride of yours and that unbearable stubbornness that keeps driving you to make stupid decisions!" He jabbed a finger in her direction.

Then he added, "And to whom on the Spell did you sell those Memories anyway?"

"I didn't sell them. I gave them to Sleepers who needed them back at the Academy," Nephis replied matter-of-factly, her tone oozing self-righteousness.

Sunny froze. His face flushed a deep shade of angry crimson, and a vein near his eye began to twitch visibly. The very moment he spotted a cluster of three or four Scavengers on the horizon, he charged at them like a lunatic without waiting for the others, venting his boiling rage entirely on the poor, innocent Nightmare Creatures.

Aside from that intense brief clash, there were no further arguments.

During combat, Sunny often paired up with his shadow, Myriad Shade, leaving Cassie in Nephis's hands so the two girls could bond more. During their final week at the Academy, Changing Star had built a wall between herself and them, distancing herself from the group. This arrangement allowed them to forge a bond exactly as the original timeline intended. Their teamwork was surprisingly impressive. Cassie knew how to move and support, while Nephis had raw combat experience on her side.

Together, they appeared to be an unbeatable duo on the battlefield.

However, there was something... a lingering, unpleasant sensation Sunny just couldn't shake from his mind, like a persistent phantom buzz in his ear. A gut feeling that something wasn't quite right with Changing Star.

She didn't display any obvious signs of distress, but out of nowhere, she seemed to look at him with a strange suspicion. She would pause to stare at him a second too long whenever he spoke or moved, or carefully weigh every single word that left his mouth. It was a subtle, almost imperceptible shift in behavior that had appeared completely out of the blue—and worst of all, it was entirely inexplicable.

'Lately, Nephis keeps turning to stare at me. She shoots me these tense glances whenever I do something, and to top it off, she listens to my words like she's searching for a hidden trap. Hm? Is it possible... she's actually falling for me?' Sunny reasoned to himself.

After all, in the novel he had read, it was stated that Sunless and Nephis—the main pairing of the series—started developing mutual feelings right around their time on the Forgotten Shore. And right now, he was Sunless. Even if his personality was completely different, the mask he wore was still the same. Consequently, he satisfied himself with that explanation and moved on.

Naturally, at the end of each day, Sunny gave all the Soul Shards he had earned to the two girls, fully aware that they would be of no use to him. When he explained the reason, Nephis seemed to give him a skeptical look, as if doubting the truthfulness of his words. He also continued trying to awaken naturally, dedicating a brief period to meditation at the end of each day, shortly after sunset. Progress was being made, yet Sunny sensed that the path to awakening was not as simple as it had initially appeared.

The further he advanced, the more he realized that circulating one's essence was a long and incredibly complex process—far different from the simplified accounts found in the stories he had read in his past life. If one were to liken essence to blood, it would need to flow through vessels in a continuous, repetitive cycle; however, essence was more of a spiritual concept than a physical one, and thus could not be made to flow according to that principle.

Then, to keep spirits high despite their grim reality, Sunny adopted a playful, lighthearted, and affectionate demeanor around Nephis and Cassie, without coming across as overbearing. He took on the role of the sharp-tongued, overly theatrical jester to distract them whenever the bleakness of their situation became too heavy to bear.

For instance, when he and Nephis were crouching behind a ridge to monitor a pair of nearby Carapace Scavengers...

"Ah, what a lovely day, isn't it, Jerry?" Sunny mimed, altering his voice to sound like one of the Carapace beasts.

"You bet, old pal! Sure would be a shame if some passing pyromaniac showed up and murdered us both," he answered himself in a different voice, making tiny hand gestures.

"Sunny, what the hell are you doing?" Nephis interrupted, staring at him blankly.

Sunny turned to her, lowering his hands with a wide, innocent grin plastered on his face.

"What? I like to imagine every Nightmare Creature we meet has its own personality. It feels a bit repetitive killing them while hearing the Spell announce the exact same generic names every single time. So, I took the initiative to add some local flavor!"

Hearing this, Changing Star knitted her brows, clearly unimpressed by his childish antics. Meanwhile, behind them, Cassie was pressing both hands tightly over her mouth, trying her absolute hardest not to burst into laughter and alert the nearby abominations.

Or that other time...

"What's the situation?" Nephis asked softly.

The three of them, along with Myriad Shade, were crouching behind a tall coral wall after hearing the heavy footsteps of approaching beasts.

"Well, through Gloomy, I spotted at least two or three up ahead, but my Shadow Sense tells me there are four more coming from the opposite direction," Sunny reported.

"Great," Changing Star instructed smoothly. "You take those three, and I'll handle the group of four."

"Or," Sunny countered, clapping his hands together playfully, "I take those four, and you take those three."

"What? We don't have time for this, Sunny! Don't argue, just go."

"Why? Are you afraid you'll lose?"

"This isn't a competition."

"Shame. Because if it were, I'd have already won. After all, I've already slain hundreds of Awakened Creatures and a Master back in my First Nightmare."

"Fine," Nephis gritted out, her pride provoked. "But if you get hurt, I'm not healing you."

"Deal! Provided the winner gets a kiss from the loser."

"..." Nephis opened her mouth to scoff, but a vivid blush rapidly spread across her face as the words registered. "Fine," she finally accepted, utterly convinced of her victory.

Sunny smirked triumphantly. "Perfect. Thene, come with me!"

With that, he dashed out from the hideout with Myriad Shade right beside him.

"What?! No! That's cheating! You can't use your Echo!" she yelled after him, trying to stop him.

"No offense, princess, but that's how we do things in the Outskirts! You win by playing dirty!" Sunny called back over his shoulder with a cheeky grin before plunging straight into the fray.

"Mmmh!" Changing Star ground her teeth, practically fuming as a bright shade of red flushed her cheeks.

Having no choice if she wanted to avoid paying the wager, she sprinted into battle after him—completely forgetting that in the event of her victory, she would be the one receiving the kiss.

And then, there was that one night...

Purr...

Nephis silently watched an exhausted Cassie resting her head on Sunny's right thigh after another grueling day of survival. The blind girl was curled up on the hard ground, comfortably nuzzling against his leg for warmth and comfort.

Sunny looked up, caught Nephis staring, and casually patted his left leg with a grin.

"What's wrong, princess? If you're tired, I've got two legs and two arms. Plenty of room."

He said it purely to tease her.

Changing Star opened her mouth to retort, but before a single sound could escape her lips, a dark blur shot past her like a gust of wind.

To both of their utter astonishment, Myriad Shade had promptly flopped down, resting her head comfortably on Sunny's other leg. The dark Echo shot Nephis a triumphant, proud look, even playfully sticking her shadowy tongue out at her.

'Wait, what just happened?' Sunny thought, staring down at Thene and then back at Nephis, caught entirely off guard by the unexpected turn of events.

The next morning, after spending the entire night with his knees locked in place, his legs were completely numb for half the day.

These were the kinds of lighthearted moments that brightened their few brief periods of rest. For the most part, the journey proceeded smoothly. The enemies they encountered posed little threat to the cohort; even when a Fallen Rank creature crossed their path, Sunny simply handed Soul Serpent to Thene, and she cut it in half in a matter of seconds. Still, Sunny couldn't entirely shake the feeling that Nephis didn't fully trust him—though he brushed it off as nothing more than her usual cautious nature.

Then, one evening...

---

Rank: Dreamer.

Class: Beast.

Shadow Cores: [1/7].

Shadow Fragments: [524/1000].

---

'This is going to take forever.'

Sunny sighed, staring at his runes.

Three weeks had passed since they entered the Dream Realm, and deep down, he could feel that he was approaching the natural Awakening. All the grueling effort and relentless battles were finally on the verge of bearing fruit. Yet, he couldn't shake that agonizing feeling that always haunts someone right before crossing the finish line—that subtle, creeping sensation that just before he could touch the red ribbon, Fate would step in to trip him up.

Myriad Shade had currently retracted into his Soul Sea to recover from the non-stop skirmishes of the past few weeks, so Sunny had taken the initiative to pull night watch himself. Nephis had originally volunteered, but he had stubbornly insisted.

'I'd love to say I'm just being paranoid,' he muttered to himself. 'But the sheer speed and consistency of our progress lately makes me feel like Fate is just taking a running start before delivering a dropkick straight to my face. I am Sunless, after all.'

Sunny dismissed his runes and watched the darkness of the night slowly bleach away as a new sun crested the horizon. He turned his head to the right, where Cassie and Nephis were sleeping. Changing Star seemed to be sleeping with one eye open, as if constantly anticipating a threat. But what was she afraid of?

'And what about you, my dear conscience?' Sunny asked the mental projection of his Flaw perched on his right shoulder.

<<What do you expect me to tell you, boy?>> the Jiminy Cricket replied with a casual shrug.

'I don't know. You've been awfully quiet lately. Unusual, considering you're supposed to be my conscience. Sort of.'

Hearing this, the Cricket placed its tiny hands behind its back and straightened its posture, its ridiculously oversized top hat tilting to the side with the movement. It wore an utterly carefree expression, idly twirling its walking cane behind its back.

<<Boy, are you asking because you expect me to judge you, or because you need a critique just to keep moving forward?>>

Sunny exhaled, his gaze wandering between the horizon and the jagged stone at his feet.

'Maybe.'

He went silent for a moment, feeling a strange, hollow abyss opening up in his chest, before adding, 'Probably. Honestly, it'd be nice to have someone tell me where I messed up, so I can start over without repeating the same mistakes.'

<<Aha! Got you!>> the Cricket exclaimed, slapping its knee. <<You're doing it again.>>

'Doing what exactly?' Sunny asked, turning to look at it.

<<This! Basing your own choices on the opinions of others.>>

The imaginary creature paused, letting the weight of its words hang in the morning air. Then it raised a tiny finger toward the sky, its tone suddenly dripping with profound, scholarly wisdom.

<<Listen to me carefully, boy. Only a God possesses the right to judge—and in this world, all the gods have been dead for a very long time.

So stop staring into other people's eyes as if they can see the potholes in the road ahead of you. You'll only find the potholes in their paths, not yours.

I get it. You're terrified of failing, especially in a life-or-death hellhole like this. But the point is, you have to fail. It's impossible not to.

Only those who do nothing make no mistakes. But those who stumble and fall will have a clearer path tomorrow, because unless they're either idiots or fools, they'll already know which rock not to trip over again.

So stop working yourself into a panic. Just keep moving forward. How? The exact same way everyone else does: regardless. Stumbling, falling, crawling on your stomach if you have to—but always, relentlessly forward.>>

Hearing this, Sunny exhaled again. Slowly.

He felt the cool breeze of the morning sun brushing against his skin as the black sea receded under the growing light. His future remained uncertain, his heart was still plagued by doubts, and yet... somehow, he felt a strange sense of peace settle over him.

Suddenly, a choked gasp and frantic squirming behind him shattered the silence, forcing him to whip around toward the girls.

"Ah... ah...!"

Cassie had just snapped awake. She had a vision.

"Cassie, calm down! I'm right here!"

Nephis, sleeping closest, stirred instantly and grabbed the blind seer by the arms to anchor her.

"What's wrong?" Sunny asked, his eyes widening in concern as he rushed over.

SWING.

The instant he stepped closer, Changing Star abruptly unsheathed her longsword and pointed the tip straight at his throat, forcing him to freeze dead in his tracks and throw his hands up in instinctual surrender.

"Neph?! What the hell are you doing?!" he asked, utterly incredulous.

"What did you do to her?" Nephis hissed at him, keeping the trembling blind girl shielded behind her body. Her grip on the hilt of her [Dream Blade] was white-knuckled, her silver eyes blazing with cold, lethal intent.

'What the—' Sunny was completely thrown off guard.

"Neph, what the fuck could I have possibly done?!" he shouted back, his patience instantly snapping. "I've been on watch all night! If I wanted to hurt her, don't you think I would've done it long before we even met up with you?!"

Changing Star didn't seem to listen. A dark, poisonous thread of doubt was twisting through her mind, where the image of the panicked Cassie inexplicably overlapped with memories of a blue-haired girl begging for help.

"Sunny...? Neph...?"

A soft, disoriented voice cut through the suffocating tension, drawing both of their attention down. Cassie had finally calmed down enough to register their raised voices.

"Cas, are you okay?" Nephis asked softly, finally lowering her blade, though her body remained visibly tense as Sunny carefully stepped closer.

"I... I think so," the blind girl replied hesitantly. "Neph... could you please let go of me? You're squeezing too hard."

Changing Star blinked, her icy posture faltering slightly. "Oh. Right. Sorry."

"Cas... can I have some water?" Sunny asked gently.

At his request, Cassie summoned her [Endless Spring] wooden flask and held it out to him, but Sunny gently caught her hands and pushed the container back toward her lips.

"You drink first," he said cautiously.

The blind seer nodded and took a long sip.

Two minutes passed in heavy silence. Then three.

Nephis suggested giving her time to catch her breath, so she and Sunny stepped a few paces back to wait until she was ready to speak. Changing Star seemed hesitant to push the matter, but Everlasting Gloom firmly insisted that in their current situation, they couldn't afford to keep secrets from one another.

Nephis glared at him with narrowed, mistrustful eyes when he said that, but she ultimately agreed—though her silence carried a heavy, unspoken warning.

"Do you feel better now?" Sunny asked, sitting down.

The three of them were currently arranged in a neat circle, positioned at equal distances from one another. The space between them felt razor-thin, yet suffocatingly heavy.

"Yes," Cassie nodded, answering almost immediately. Her head was bowed, her lips wet from the water, her mind clearly still trying to assemble the shattered pieces of her vision.

"Do you feel up to talking about it?" Nephis chimed in softly. "Because if it's too much—"

"No," Cassie interrupted firmly, snapping her head up. A sudden, fierce determination flared in her sightless, pale blue eyes. "I can do it. I'm not a fragile doll."

"We're listening," Sunny nodded, acknowledging her resolve.

'This is it. The moment of truth,' he thought, his hands tightly clenching into fists at his sides, his heart hammering against his ribs. 'This is what I've been waiting for. To see if Fate has actually shifted, or if its strings are still dragging us toward inevitable ruin. I need to know if my choices actually changed anything.'

The blind seer took a deep, shaky breath, held it, and slowly exhaled.

Then, she began to speak.

"I don't really remember everything clearly. It's all in fragments... but I can try to tell you what I managed to piece together."

Sunny and Nephis nodded almost simultaneously, the surrounding silence hanging on her every word.

"At first, I saw a... a boundless darkness locked behind seven seals. Something vast and ancient was churning in it. I felt like if I looked directly at it, my mind would shatter. As I watched, terrified, the seals broke one after another... until only one remained. And then... that seal broke, too."

She shivered slightly, wrapping her arms around herself.

"After that... I don't know. It was as though my consciousness shattered into a thousand glass shards, each reflecting a different image. Most were dark and terrifying. Some I've already forgotten. But the others..."

Cassie fell silent, searching her memory.

"I saw the human castle again. Only this time, it was at night. There was a lonely star burning brightly in the black skies, and under its light, the castle was suddenly consumed by fire, with rivers of blood flowing down its halls. I saw a corpse in golden armor sitting upon a throne; a woman with a bronze spear drowning in a tide of monsters; an archer trying to pierce the falling sky with his arrows..."

'Okay, so far it's identical to the original timeline,' Sunny noted internally, hanging on her every word.

"Then I saw... I saw... a demon staring straight into his father's eyes."

'Wait, what?'

"A siren singing notes of blood."

'What the hell?'

"A green swordsman desperately searching for the way home."

'Zoro?! Is that you?!'

"And then... a shadow being ridden by a colossus."

'Okay, what the absolute fuck? Are you just making stuff up now?! And who is riding whom?!'

"In the end, I saw a colossal, terrifying crimson spire. At its base, seven severed heads were guarding seven locks. And at the very top..."

'Okay, here it comes.'

Sunny squeezed his fists so hard his knuckles turned stark white, practically vibrating with anxiety for what the blind seer was about to reveal.

This was supposed to be the first major climax of their tragedy. The moment where the three of them broke. Where Sunny lost his freedom, where Nephis was left to wander the hellscape alone for two years, and where Cassie permanently lost her soul to guilt.

The time of truth.

"A black knight slicing the sun in half. And beneath it... a spirit and an angel engaged in a lethal dance of ice and fire, bleeding to death."

"..." Sunny's mind went completely blank.

"When I saw the angel and the spirit bleed out," Cassie whispered, her voice dropping to a frail trembling murmur, "I suddenly felt as though... as though something so precious it can't be described with words was ripped from my chest. And then, I was consumed by so much sorrow, pain, and rage that what little remained of my sanity disappeared entirely. That was when I woke up... I think."

Nephis and Sunny remained silent for a long moment, struggling to process the bizarre, apocalyptic imagery Cassie had just dumped on them. Sunny sat there with an expression suspended somewhere between complete disbelief and utter bewilderment. But out of everything he had just heard, the one question pressing most urgently against his brain finally spilled out:

"No, hold up! Wait a minute! Turn back a moment, who is riding whom?!"