Cassie's world was a strange, lonely place.
No one—not a single soul—could ever truly understand her misery. Not because they didn't care, but because none of them had seen what she had. None had felt what she had felt.
Not now. Not ever.
At least... that was what she had always believed.
Until she saw-.
"Are you hurt?" Nephis lowered her hand, letting Cassie clasp it.
"I'm fine," Cassie said, jaw clenched.
Nephis helped her settle against the base of a protruding coral, then quietly sat beside her. Cassie folded her arms across her stomach and curled in on herself, as if trying to shrink away from the world.
Silence fell.
The wind swept over the coral landscape, rustling with soft sighs. Distant echoes drifted from somewhere beyond the ridges—warped, muffled, half-recognizable. Yet neither of them spoke. Not at first.
Then, at last, Cassie turned her sightless gaze toward Nephis, and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
"He'll be alright," she said softly, offering a fragile smile.
Nephis bit her lip. Her hand hovered for a moment before lowering.
"What did you see?"
Cassie hesitated. That was the hardest part—translating the chaos of her visions into something others could understand. Her mind did not receive stories. It glimpsed fragments. Feelings. Symbols.
But she had to say something.
"I... saw something move."
She paused, trying to put words to the image.
"It was dark. Too dark. And in that darkness... there was a star. Only, the star was black."
Her head tilted slightly. Lips pursed in thought.
"The place felt like my soul sea. But emptier. Deeper. Devoid of light. I think... it was Sunny's."
Of course it was. His aspect was different from theirs. Different from anything she had ever known.
Cassie lingered for a moment, hoping something would interrupt her. But nothing came. So she continued.
"There was a disturbance," she murmured, brushing away a bead of sweat from her forehead.
"The ocean... it held countless figures. Just standing there. Watching. Not alive. Not dead."
Her arms wrapped tighter around herself. Her breath grew shaky.
"And something slithered... through the calm."
Nephis gently squeezed her shoulder, grounding her.
"You don't have to say more," she said quietly.
Cassie's face tensed. Her blind gaze swept toward Sunny, then the horizon, then back to Nephis. She looked lost in a memory. Or maybe a warning.
"No... It's just that..." she exhaled, the words caught in her throat. "That thing—it didn't feel like it belonged to this world."
Silence descended once more.
Nephis's eyes drifted toward Sunny, unconscious, lying peacefully a few paces away. His face was relaxed, serene. As if he had no worries at all. Contrary to whatever he was facing inside his soul sea.
...And she could do nothing to help him. Again. That fact tore at something inside her.
"Nephis." Cassie's voice, barely more than a whisper, lingered in the air. "What's the most precious thing in the world to you?"
Nephis turned to her, her brows furred.
"...Where did that come from?"
Cassie moved closer. A bit too close.
"Is there someone you'd die to protect?"
Nephis looked down. She pulled back slightly, uncertain.
"I'm... not sure what you're getting at."
Cassie said nothing. Just sat there, motionless. An eerie stillness clung to her. One that made Nephis uneasy.
In the distance, something thumped.
Then again. Louder this time.
Nephis turned her head sharply, summoning her sword. But Cassie didn't move. Her head remained facing forward, expression unchanged.
She hadn't reacted at all.
But that didn't make sense. Her hearing was the sharpest of them all.
Cassie leaned in, placing a hand on her knee.
"If the world were ending," she whispered, "and you could only save one person..."
Her voice lowered, barely audible.
"Who would it be?"
Nephis turned sharply, raising a hand.
"Cassie, I—"
A screech split the air.
Coral shattered as something burst from behind the ridge. A massive pincer slammed into view—then another.
Nephis sprang to her feet in a single, fluid motion, rushing toward the first silhouette that emerged from the darkness.
A Scavenger lunged at her from behind a coral outcrop, maddened light flickering in its grotesque eyes.
Its massive pincer came crashing down—too fast to dodge.
But Nephis rolled forward, the pincer missing her by a hair's breadth. She landed in a crouch, right beneath the creature's legs, and swung her sword in a wide horizontal arc.
A burst of white flame followed the blade's path as it sliced cleanly through the joints of the Scavenger's legs, severing chitin and bone alike.
The monster collapsed with a shriek, its limbs crumpling beneath it.
Before it even hit the ground, she was already moving.
Another Scavenger struck from the side, its claw sweeping toward her head. She leapt sideways, barely evading the blow. Her feet skidded on the coral as she pivoted, brought her sword up, and drove it through the base of the creature's skull.
Squelch.
Brain matter sprayed in a grotesque fan as the abomination dropped with a hollow thud.
A third Scavenger dragged itself toward her. She met it head-on, raising her sword and stabbing it straight through the crown of its grotesque head. The blade emerged from the other side in a burst of ichor.
Two down. No—three.
A small, cold smile played across her lips.
An Awakened weapon against Awakened beasts put them on even ground. And with Sunny's help, her sword technique had improved more in weeks than it had in years. Mere Scavengers no longer posed much of a threat—not in such small numbers.
But despite the swift victory, an uneasy weight lingered in her chest.
'What was that just now... with Cassie?'
That strange, haunting expression. The intensity in her voice. It wasn't like her. Then again, Nephis had never truly understood her. Interpersonal communication had never been her strength. She was the first to admit it.
Even so... something had felt wrong.
Cassie had been different ever since she emerged from that long nightmare. More distant. More cryptic. As though something dark still clung to her from the shadows of that dream.
Was it the seed of corruption? Was it affecting her mind?
Nephis narrowed her eyes, scanning the coral-ridden horizon. As a Legacy, she'd been privy to secrets most could only guess at. But even she hadn't expected to encounter something like a seed of corruption here.
Her gaze drifted to Sunny.
He lay still, unconscious, his expression unnervingly calm. Peaceful, almost. Which only made it more disturbing—whatever was happening inside him clearly wasn't peace.
Would he know what was happening to Cassie?
Nephis wasn't sure what to think about him anymore.
Ever since that first encounter beyond the academy gates, he had been helpful. Friendly, even. He'd supported her in ways that went beyond the battlefield. But still, something about him unsettled her.
Was he truly someone she could trust?
That had been a difficult question from the start.
Sunny was powerful—unnaturally so. And yet, he had no affiliation to a Legacy clan. That alone was a red flag. One didn't grow that strong without the backing of a great clan.
He had all the signs of a hidden assassin.
And yet...
Not one, not twice... in the short time they had spent together in this harrowing place, he had risked his life more times than she could count to save them- Even when it would've been easier to leave them behind.
He could have discarded them long ago. She knew her own strength. She couldn't even defeat his Echo in a fair fight. If he'd wanted her dead, she'd be dead.
So why didn't he? He had no reason to keep her alive.
If he truly was an assassin, what was stopping him from acting? And if he wasn't... who was he, really? He couldn't be some random Sleeper who just happened to show up in the same cursed corner of the Dream Realm
She sighed, rubbing her brow.
The more she thought about it, the more she realized how little she actually knew him.
And yet—he seemed to know everything about her. Her swordsmanship. Her mindset. Her nature. Even her flaw.
Every time she healed him, there was a subtle shift in his expression. The corners of his lips would fall, and his eyes would narrow—like he was sharing in her pain. Like he felt it.
And sometimes, he would refuse her help altogether. Quietly. Calmly. As if he knew it would hurt her more than it would help him.
That couldn't be coincidence.
So then...
Where did that leave her?
She barely knew anything about him. Not his origins. Not his goals. Nothing beyond what he had willingly given—assuming any of it was even true.
If everything he'd told them was a lie—then what did that make her, trusting him this far?
And if it wasn't...
Then what was she supposed to do with the knowledge that the one person who might understand her best... was also the one she understood the least?
Another screech tore through the coral forest like a jagged blade.
Nephis's eyes narrowed.
More Scavengers. And from the sound of it, and from the sound of it, they were coming from all around them.
She clicked her tongue in frustration.
Holding her ground against a group was already a challenge—but protecting both Sunny and Cassie at the same time?
At the very least, she needed to get them out of the open.
She turned sharply toward them and shouted:
"Cassie, take Sunny and—"
Her voice caught. Cassie was gone. She was running in the opposite direction. Nephis froze for a heartbeat, stunned.
'What the hell is she doing?'
Before she could process it, another shriek rang out—closer this time. Right beside her. From the twisted coral, a grotesque head emerged. Then another. And another.
Two Scavengers burst out behind Nephis, their pincers raised high, eyes glowing with hunger.
And then—
A third creature lunged from the coral beside Sunny, slicing through the narrow branch that separated them. It barreled toward him without hesitation.
At the same time, a distant scream echoed from Cassie's direction.
Nephis turned her head just in time to see a pincer crash down before her, blocking her path. A Scavenger towered in front of Cassie, its eyes glowing with murderous glee. She halted, crumpled to the ground.
Four Scavengers, surrounding them.
Nephis's heart pounded. Cassie was too far away from Sunny—she couldn't protect them both. She had seconds. Maybe less.
Her heart clenched.
'Why... why did she run away?'
She had to take care of the two scavengers, then rush towards one of them, hoping the other would survive till she reached them.
There was no more time.
She spun around, gritting her teeth. The first Scavenger lunged, and she met it with steel.
Her blade drove up beneath its chin, jamming into its head. The beast shrieked and retaliated, its massive claw slamming downward.
Nephis released the hilt, leapt over the falling pincer, and brought her knee crashing into the sword's pommel.
Crunch.
The weapon drove deeper. Bone shattered. The creature dropped with a dying wail.
[You have slain a...]
The spell's voice echoed in her mind, but she dismissed it.
There was no time.
She yanked the sword free in a shower of black ichor. The second Scavenger was already charging.
Her gaze flicked ahead. The third creature was nearly upon Sunny. The fourth had its claw raised above Cassie's limp form.
Nephis's lungs burned.
'I don't have time!'
White flame flared in her eyes.
She moved.
Pivoting on her foot, she twisted around the beast's sweeping strike, sidestepped into its blind spot, and drove her sword clean through its skull.
The creature spasmed, then fell. But the price was time. Time she didn't have.
Her head snapped up. The Scavenger near Sunny was already lowering its pincers. Cassie, meanwhile, was curled beside a jagged stone, unmoving. But she wasn't afraid.
No.
Her blind gaze was fixed on Nephis. Her lips curled into a faint, knowing smile—As if she were saying: choose.
Nephis faltered, just for a moment.
Her heart plummeted.
No...
Was Cassie really telling her to choose? Between her... and Sunny?
Her grip tightened. There was no time to figure it out. No time for regret. No time for hesitation.
She moved.
With a growl, Nephis raised her sword and sprinted forward, leaving behind every thought, every hesitation—every doubt.
The choice had been made.
She didn't even know why. Only that her instincts made the decision before her mind could.
Somewhere in the distance, Cassie watched her go. A strange serenity bloomed across her face.
"So that's... your choice."
Her voice was soft. Almost wistful. A shadow loomed above her. A shriek echoed.
The Scavenger's pincer drove through her stomach, pinning her to the rock. Blood poured out. Cassie didn't cry out. Didn't even wince.
She just... smiled.
...
Sunny stood still in the quiet vastness of his soul sea.
Nothing stirred. Not a ripple marred the obsidian surface, not a shimmer of unease tainted the dark horizon. The air was still. Empty. Serene.
Except for the familiar figure standing in front of him.
The Centurion Echo.
It met his gaze with eerie silence, its face now entirely obscured by the strange symbol.
Sunny took a cautious step forward.
"...What are you doing here?"
His voice echoed in the emptiness.
"I didn't summon you."
Yet the Echo stood there, unmoving. Unbidden.
Had it appeared on its own? Was that even possible? Echoes weren't supposed to act independently. Unless... unless the completed symbol had changed something.
"Strange..."
He frowned.
He had been careful. He'd made sure to keep his Echo far from the Centurion's corpse. He'd made sure the symbol hadn't reached his heart. So how had it merged with the incomplete half and become whole?
More importantly... what did that mean? Was the Echo stronger now? Smarter?
It had already shown intelligence—far more than most. It had translated the language of the Forgotten Shore into English. Could it communicate with him now?
"Can you... talk?"
The Echo didn't respond. Not at first. After a moment, it tilted its head slightly and shook it from side to side.
Not yes. Not no. Almost like it didn't know the answer.
Sunny stared at it, then exhaled slowly.
"Tell me... who are you?"
He stepped closer, peering into the Echo's shrouded eyes.
"Do you know anything about that symbol? Anything about the world you came from? About the seed of corruption... or the words left behind by the other Centurion?"
There was a flicker of hope in his voice—an edge of desperation hidden beneath the calm. Even the smallest piece of insight could change everything.
But the Echo didn't answer. It didn't even react.
It stood as still and lifeless as a statue—showing no hint of awareness, no trace of the mind he knew existed within it.
Sunny's shoulders sagged. He sighed.
"...What should I do next?"
It was a ridiculous question. And yet, he asked it.
Because the Echo had seen the corruption in Cassie. It had perceived something no one else could. So maybe... just maybe... it could see more. Things that lay beyond Sunny's own reach.
But perhaps he was hoping for too much. The Echo tilted its head again. Then slowly turned, as if scanning the horizon—confused.
No answer. Sunny shook his head with a rueful smile.
Of course.
He turned to leave.
But then—
Crunch.
A jarring sound shattered the stillness.
Sunny spun around.
A scythe had erupted through the Echo's chest, grotesque black blood splattering across the still air.
"...What the—?"
The Echo didn't fall.
It reached up with slow, deliberate movements, pulling the scythe free from its torso. Then it turned the blade, and—without hesitation—began carving into its own armor. Slicing open its massive torso like a slab of stone.
Sunny's eyes widened. Because it was writing. Letters. Slowly, with each stroke of the blade:
K – I – L – L
The Echo paused. Then resumed, a short distance beneath:
T – H – E
Sunny's breath caught.
Kill the...? Kill who?
His mind raced with possibilities. A monster? A human? Something else?
Then came the final word. Carved large across the ruined expanse of its chest:
I – N – C – A – R – N – A – T – E – S
Sunny's face went still.
His brows furrowed. His smile faded.
Kill the Incarnates?
His thoughts turned cold.
Who... are they?
AN: Comment more, guys. There's been a steady decline in comments recently. It might make me go on a hiatus- 💀
Also Thx for leaving a review to all those who have. Y'all are the best :)