After Nephis left, Sunny returned to staring at his shadow. However, despite the fact that he had figured out the essence and foundation of the elusive battle art that hid inside it, he had no idea how to go about creating an actual style out of them.
He did not have enough experience and mastery to be able to create something out of nothing. It was a dead end.
'Curses! Why even hide that damn mystery inside the Aspect if I can't do anything with it?!'
Perhaps in the distant future, he would be able to. But right now, it was as though he had found the door, but was not strong enough to turn the key and unlock it. It just stood there and teased him endlessly, just like the damn Gateway inside the Crimson Spire.
It was pure torture.
'Maybe I wasn't supposed to notice the existence of the hidden style so soon...'
But he did! And he worked so hard to gain insight into its secrets. Was it all for nothing? All the pain, all the effort?
Why would Spell do this to him?
'Do you have to ask? That's the damn Spell we're talking about! Why wouldn't it do something like this to you?"
With a bitter sigh, Sunny turned away and tried to forget all about the shadow, techniques, and battle styles. It was almost dark, anyway.
'Time to sleep.'
Walking over to the center of the marble arch, Sunny lay down beside the other members of the cohort and tiredly closed his eyes.
The beach vacation was over. It was funny, visually stunning, and unexpectedly emotional... but ended on a bitter note.
Tomorrow was going to be another long day.
'To hell with this. This… this…'
Exhausted by all of it, he fell asleep before even finishing the thought.
***
'...this crap.'
Sunny opened his eyes and looked around in confusion.
The world was enveloped in a strange, dim twilight. Deep shadows surrounded him, shrouding the tall walls that were cut from black marble. Looking between the mighty columns, Sunny saw the black circle of the sun burning in the lightless sky.
'An… an eclipse?'
No, wait… what walls? What columns? Wasn't he supposed to be sleeping at the top of the white arch?
...What was happening?
Suddenly, a woman's scream tore the silence like a sharp knife. It was full of pain and suffering. Sunny tried to summon the Midnight Shard into his hand... only to realize that he had no hands.
Then, something else resounded from the darkness.
...A baby's cry.
'Wh—what the…'
Almost at the same time, Sunny realized something terrible.
This was a dream. He was dreaming.
…People were not supposed to dream in the Dream Realm!
'...Not good!'