They walked side by side for some time, keeping quiet.
Eventually, Sunny spat angrily:
«Waste of essence.»
The avatar grinned.
«I might be a waste of essence, but you're the one wasting essence to have a conversation with yourself. Fool.»
Sunny widened his eyes.
«What conversation? It's a quarrel. A quarrel with myself! Get your facts straight. Idiot.»
The avatar did not answer immediately, instead turning his head this way and that.
Eventually, he asked:
«Say… don't you think that the mist has been strangely thin recently? I can almost see the next mountain.»
Sunny scoffed.
«That's just how it is…»
But then, he fell silent.
Because at that moment, Sunny fully realized that he was right.
The mist was, indeed, too thin. It was thinner than ever before, even.
He lingered for a moment, then dismissed the avatar, wrapped the shadow around his body, and hurried his steps.
He recalled the scouting shadows, too, augmenting his body further.
«Can it be? No, really… can it?»
The world was slowly turning darker.
«It can!»
Sunny forced himself to remain calm and alert, moving forward as fast as he could while remaining cautious.
Half a day later, he climbed a tall peak and looked ahead, staggering slightly at the sight.
He did not even register at first what he was looking at. The only thing he cared about was that he could see anything, at all.
Out there in front of him, there was no mist.
Instead, there was a vast and desolate expanse of flat land. A land shrouded in eternal darkness, with a starless void looming above it as a black sky.
Sunny inhaled deeply.
«No way…»
After all these years, he had returned to the Forgotten Shore.