A Sunless Dream | Shadow Slave Fic

Days turned into weeks as Nephis slowly became accustomed to Sunny's company. They had shared embarrassing moments, hugged and kissed more times than she could count, and each moment claimed a place in her mind as a unique memory that she would never let go.

However, Orion's command had left her feeling a faint sense of fear as each day came to an end. She didn't know how, but she knew he was always watching every moment she interacted with Sunny, almost waiting for her to slip up.

This morning, she found herself sleeping in Sunny's room as his arms were firmly wrapped around her waist refusing to let go. Sunny's black book remained placed on a drawer kept adjacent to his bed, almost beckoning Nephis to stretch out her arms and look at it's contents.

Despite her curiosity, Nephis restrained herself as she felt Sunny's face bury itself into her neck as a small yawn escaped his lips. Preparing herself for the loss of contact, Nephis was pleasantly surprised when his body relaxed once more, and he allowed himself to be claimed by unconsciousness.

Throughout the days she had spent with Sunny, his daily routine consisted of occasional hunts of nightmare creatures in addition to heavy training. However, he had promised today would be different compared to the rest and so Nephis was feeling almost excited at the change of pace.

Before she knew it, Nephis hand was placed firmly on the book. She had moved slowly to not stir laying behind her once more and pulled the book close to her chest as she quietly pried it open. She had never seen Sunny use a pen; however, each word was written in what appeared like dark ink and the book appeared to gain more pages as she opened it.

'Is it a memory?' she questioned before taking a moment to analyse the contents. Inside the book contained a wide variety of topics, not limited to any specific activity or plan of action. However, his plans for Bastion which he had written down caught her attention the most.

Aside from his potential goal of wiping the place off the map, he had lists of several peoples names ordered alphabetically as he wrote a small note next to their name. Thousands of people were present, however none of those grasped her attention as she quickly searched for her own name.

Upon finding it, she realised her name had been crossed out from Nephis, instead being replaced by her true name to represent her identity. 'He's trying to kill our familiarity' she thought to herself as she glanced down at the brief text he had written next to her name.

All in all, he had not said much about her. Aside from immediately recognising her as the woman who had stolen his freedom, she didn't see anything of interest within the list of names. Continuing to flip through the pages, her eyes widened as a particular section caught her eye.

He had written a diary of all the times he had spent with Nephis since he decided to attempt a relationship with her. Each line expressed genuine affection as he wrote paragraph upon paragraph about all the features about her, he adored.

But abruptly, there was a stop. Within each page she could see the edges had been slightly crumpled as though someone had attempted to rip them out of the book forcefully, however, could not muster the resolve to do so.

Before feelings of regret could overwhelm her, she felt Sunny stir once more, much more forcefully compared to last time as she stealthily placed his book upon his counter. Releasing his grip from her waist, Sunny slowly rolled out of bed and met Nephis eyes.

A blush crept on his face as he lost all his composure "I didn't do anything weird in my sleep did I?" he stammered out, silently praying to the dead Gods that was not the case. Nephis shook her head teasingly as a smile crept upon her face once more "Aside from using me as your personal cuddle toy, I'd say you were quite calm."

Upon hearing that, Sunny rushed out the room into his shower, turning the heat to its maximum and hoped it would wash away the embarrassed expression he had on his face.

After a good twenty minutes of showering, Sunny made his way out only to be greeted by Nephis who had also chosen to shower. Water made her hair cling to her body as her hair was wrapped in a messy bun, she looked at him with a confused expression before noticing she was only wearing a towel.

This time, it was Nephis turn to rush out the room as she slammed the door behind her before Sunny could notice her beet red expression. 'Pure thoughts Nephis, pure thoughts!' after donning appropriate clothing. Both looked at each other and tried to pretend nothing had just happened, and to further ignore the issue, Sunny buried himself into cooking.

The kitchen was filled with a comfortable silence as the lingering aroma of Sunny's cooking hung in the air, Nephis allowed her curiosity to guide her speech as she finally asked the question she had been waiting to for hours.

"What are we doing today that's so special?" Sunny responded by allowing a smug grin to settle upon his expression, Nephis could see his exposed chest puff out slightly with pride as he locked eyes with her "I'm going to try become a sovereign, but without the spell."

Nephis eyes widened slightly, she knew he couldn't lie however she still found his statement hard to believe. However, her poker face had been trained too long to fall to this type of challenge. "How do you plan on doing that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow to further accentuate her curiosity. However, Sunny simply shook his head in reply, only offering "A particular method, you'll see" as a response to her question.

After an hour of preparation, Nephis watched Sunny intently as he sat on the grass a hundred feet away from his home. His eyes were closed as essence coursed through his body, each centimetre of it being filled with power that went beyond imagination.

In moments, the grass beneath Nephis began to shift. Although Saint's typically had that effect, it was much more pronounced in this case. The world itself bent inwards, conforming itself to Sunny's will as he cut a floating leaf with merely his will alone.

Sunny's eyes shot open as a smile of satisfaction plastered itself across his face. "Look above you" Nephis obliged and the sight before her made her mouth nearly fall open in awe. Sunny had managed to bend the clouds to his will, forcing them to etch his name in the heavens without even a wave of his hand.

"It's a bit crude, a far cry from what the sovereigns can do. But it's a step in the right direction." She could tell he was proud of his efforts, and quite frankly she was as well. To show this, Nephis ran up to him and enveloped him in a deep hug which he returned in kind.

"I'm proud of you" she remarked, upon hearing those words, a gentle smile settled upon Sunny's face as he outstretched a hand and began running it through her hair. "Thank you, Stella, that means a lot to me." Unknown to Sunny, Nephis lips had curled into a faint snarl at the mention of another woman's name.

Although she was the one who gave herself the name, hearing it as opposed to her own triggered a fury inside of her that couldn't be explained. The warmth of Sunny's body however, quickly melted away the icy rage that threatened to overwhelm her.

Nephis too had not been relaxing in her training, although she had less time to train due to Sunny's extended company. Whenever Sunny was not around, she attempted to mirror his moves as well as sharpening her technique in ways she had not even considered up until that point.

Sunny's efforts had lit a fire in her, and she wasn't about to let it die.

In the Song domain, Orion and Revel were walking through the streets, Orion knew she had to make her presence in the domain known however that didn't mean he enjoyed it. A constant look of annoyance had become his neutral expression as he walked through the bustling streets of people.

Revel held his hand lightly as they walked past the people, several men and women alike turned their heads at the sight of the two however none were bold enough to make a remark in the presence of Orion's killing intent. However, that fact quickly changed.

As they walked past a market, Orion heard a faint whistle from behind him as he heard a voice whisper "Isn't that Lightslayer Revel? She's even hotter than the rumours say, I wouldn't mind taking her for myself." A roar of laughter erupted from behind Orion as his head snapped back in seconds.

All light in the Song domain was quickly extinguished as Orion turned his head slowly to glance back at the culprit of the statement. Before he could act, he felt Revel squeeze his arm lightly. Soon enough, light returned to the Song domain as Revel pulled Orion to her room for scolding.

Soon enough, both had gotten tired of continued exposure to people and decided to take a ride on Orion's dragon. The idea of turning it into an echo had crossed his mind, however that was a matter for another day as he lay in Revel's lap with his eyes closed allowing her to run a hand through his hair.

"What did you think of Sunless?" his eyes snapped open as he stared at Revel curiously, who looked at him with a slight smile. "He's like your older brother, even despite the height difference." Orion pouted slightly, causing Revel to laugh as he silently complained about Sunny's status.

"The girl who was with him" Orion's voice turned serious for a moment, with hints of hatred lingering in his tone "Is Changing Star in disguise." As he finished, Revel's expression became serious as she raised an eyebrow "Does that make Sunless an enemy too?"

Orion shook his head in response, a smile settling on his face "Neither of them are enemies, this entire war shouldn't be happening in the first place." Pointing upwards, Revel followed his hand as she gazed at the moon, bathing the world in it's pale glory.

"Think about it, there is a third sovereign sitting on the moon away from the entire altercation. If we fight with Sword, who will benefit the most if not him? Not to mention we'll be feeding him information without having any ourselves." Revel nodded at his rationale, however another question shot to her mind.

"How do you know there's a third sovereign, mother never mentioned him." Orion sat up and faced her, his tone remaining serious "I can sense his soul, it's much more profane than both mother and Anvil. But..."

Turning and laying his head on her thighs once more, Orion continued "The funny thing is, Sunless doesn't know that the woman is Changing Star. If he did, I'm sure he would try to kill her." Revel's eyes widened at the statement; she had assumed Changing Star at least had a friendly relationship, but the new revelation changed everything.

"Aren't they in love?" She questioned, Orion nodded his head slowly "It's a long story, I can explain it all if you wish." Revel nodded with vigour as Orion began his retelling of Nephis and Sunny's interactions.

The chilling air of the moon dropped hundreds of degrees as a man with a broken astronaut suit appeared from the darkness. The glass of his mask had a heavy crack in it as well as a gaping hole, which would typically spell a death sentence for the average human.

Asterion was far from average.

An annoyed grunt escaped his lips as he dusted himself off, sitting on the corpse of a cursed titan as he gazed down at earth. No, he was gazing far beyond that.

 "How in the world can that man see me?"