shockwave rippled through the café. Cups rattled, lights flickered, and the mimic itself shuddered.
Future Sunny didn't even look up. He let out a long, weary sigh, set his coffee cup down, and muttered as he stood and walked toward the door,
"…Ah. Right on time."
The door burst open with enough force to make the bell above it scream. A rush of scorching wind swept in, carrying the faint scent of fire and ozone.
Standing framed in the doorway was a woman clad in radiant armor, silver hair cascading down her back in soft waves. Twin wings ,white as dawn folded neatly behind her, Her presence filled the café instantly, warm and commanding.
Future Nephis.
The first thing she did was glare straight at Sunny, her eyes blazing with exasperation more than anger.
"Sunny!" she snapped, her voice cutting through the thick air like a blade. "What. Have. You. Done?!"
Every head in the café turned toward her.
The younger cohort froze. Even Effie, halfway through a sip of coffee, slowly lowered her cup with trembling hands. They had never seen Nephis like this,her usual calm perfection replaced by visible emotion.
And she was beautiful, like an angel that fell out heaven.
Future Sunny hurried forward, raising his hands in a placating gesture.
"Ah, Nephis… my dearest, calm down, will you…"
The cohort collectively cringed.
Effie choked on a laugh, cassie's eyes went wide, and Kai mouthed 'my dearest?' in disbelief, even jet was smirking.Younger Sunny and Nephis both flushed their eyes darting anywhere but at each other.
"Oh gods," Effie muttered under her breath. "They're actually a thing."
Future Nephis crossed her arms, wings rustling behind her in sudden irritation. "Don't you 'my dearest' me," she snapped. "I should have known the moment you said you were 'going on a long expedition with all your incarnations.'"
Future Nephis rubbed her forehead, looking down at her with a tired half-smile. "After what we had to go through...killing those ghouls…" Her voice softened, remembering. "And yet here we are: five years in the past, when we were still Saints."
It was obvious from the cafe's existence alone,that they'd slipped back, Sunny had guessed it. His jaw tightened,guilt flitted across his features. He knew, how much she'd suffered.
"Look on the bright side," he said, forcing a grin. "We can kill them again,this time sooner. Save more people in the process."
Younger Nephis tensed as she heard the conversation reached her,words like ghouls, expedition, and five years in the past. Jet's sharp eyes narrowed, catching the implications, and even Cassie seemed to stiffen in quiet recognition. Sunny, her Sunny, sat frozen beside them,his jaw tight, his gaze flicking between his older self and the radiant woman before him.
Effie, on the other hand, looked between everyone with wide eyes. "Okay, I'm just gonna say it,what ghouls? What expedition? Why do you two sound like you've been married for a decade and went through a war together?"
Kai blinked dully, still clutching the robe around him. "Wait, married?"
Neither future Sunny nor Nephis seemed to hear them. The older Nephis shook her head, irritation softening into reluctant concern. "Anyway," she said quietly, "what did you do, Sunny? Tell me...if you will."
Future Sunny sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Let's… wait until the others show up, alright?" His tone was too light.
Future Nephis frowned, her wings rustling faintly. "Others?" she echoed, then she noticed something and froze.Her eyes widened as she finally saw them: her younger self, the cohort, all seated around the table .
The silence that followed was deafening.
For a heartbeat, the future Nephis simply stared, her expression caught between shock and disbelief. She looked from her younger self,stoic, to the rest of the group. Cassie's wide eyes reflected pure astonishment,Jet, for once, seemed at a loss for words,And then her eyes found him the younger Sunny.
He was staring back at her, tense and pale. For a moment, her breath caught. Nephis's lips parted slightly. "Sunny…?" she whispered,then stopped, realization dawning.She turned sharply toward the other Sunny,the one she knew,"Y–you were with us… from the beginning?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly despite her attempt to sound composed.
For a brief second, silence swallowed the café.Future Nephis's mind raced. She had known for years that something was missing....fractured memories, strange inconsistencies, things that didn't quite add up since Ariel's Tomb, she had somewhat suspected the cause was sunny.But now, staring at the young faces of her past and the older, guilty man who refused to meet her gaze,she knew.
It was him.
Her wings shimmered faintly before folding in, the light dimming until only a soft silver sheen remained.
"I… need to sit," she murmured.
Sunny, ever quick to react when she used that tone, pulled a chair for her. "Of course" he said gently.
Future Nephis sat down with a heavy exhale, her hand brushing through her silver hair as if trying to process the absurdity of it all. The tension in the café was thick enough to choke on,no one dared speak, not even young Sunny, who still looked like his soul had momentarily left his body.
Finally, Effie slammed her hands on the table. "Alright, enough of this bullshit," she said, pointing a finger at Future Sunny. "Can someone explain what's happening here? . You..old Sunny,start talking."
Future Sunny blinked. "Old?"
Effie shrugged unapologetically. "Well, you're definitely older, grumpier, and somehow shinier than the one I know."
Future Sunny sighed, dragging a hand down his face. "You forgot to add beautiful," he muttered, before straightening his posture and glancing toward the door. "The rest of you will be here any moment anyway… I'll explain once everyone's arrived. Easier that way."
The words had barely left his mouth when the café door chimed again,softly this time.One by one, familiar figures stepped in.
Future Effie entered first, tossing her long, loosely braided hair over her shoulder. Her eyes swept across the room before settling on her younger selfwho immediately mirrored her stare in disbelief.
Effie blinked. "Huh. Cassie did say this would happen, but actually seeing it wow." She grinned. "Still, damn, I aged well."
Future Kai came next. He paused when he saw his past self sitting awkwardly on the chair wrapped in a shadowy robe. "Oh," he muttered, rubbing his temple. "Yeah. That tracks."
Jet followed, her uniform immaculate even in this surreal setting. She gave the room a brief glance before meeting her younger self's gaze, the same calm yet calculating eyes staring back. "So it's true," she said quietly, her tone somewhere between curiosity and amusement.
Last came Cassie,unhurried, she showed no surprise.Her expression was calm. "Everyone take a seat," Future Sunny said, his tone calm but carrying quiet authority. "Let's get this over with."
The café went still as both cohorts , past and future settled around the tables. The younger ones looked tense and wary, while their older counterparts were composed, though faintly uneasy.
Sunny leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled before him. His dark eyes swept the room before he began.
"Due to… certain reasons," he said slowly, "I can't speak openly about everything. But I'll tell you what I can."
He paused, glancing briefly toward the younger version of himself. "I needed the blood of the Shadow God. Once upon a time, I had it. But it was devoured… by another lineage inside me."
The younger Sunny stiffened slightly, a hint of understanding in his onyx eyes.
Future Sunny continued, voice steady but edged with weariness. "That was destroyed.But I still needed it. So… I turned to the only place it could still exist."
The younger Nephis's eyes widened faintly. "The past.",
Sunny nodded, his expression hardening as the weight of his words sank in.
"However…" he continued, voice low and even, "retrieving something from the past" he let out a quiet breath, "isn't easy, to say the least."
He lifted his cup, staring into the dark reflection of the coffee.
"At the very least, a Divine Soul Shard would be required to create such a construct. Something capable of holding the concept of time and self without collapsing." His gaze flicked up, sharp. "And I was only a Supreme. I wouldn't stand a chance in a fight against the unholy creatures."
A moment of silence followed. "So," he continued, "I went to the only place where such a shard could still exist."
Future Nephis frowned slightly, though there was a glimmer of recognition in her eyes. "You mean…"
Sunny nodded. "The Battlefield of the Doomwar."
The name alone sent a shiver through the room. Even the younger cohort,who didn't yet know the full history felt the oppressive gravity of it.
Effie blinked. "Wait, the Doomwar? The one between the daemons and the gods?"
Sunny nodded slowly. "Yes. That one."
"The place is a graveyard of lesser gods," Sunny continued, voice calm but distant"I found one Divine Shard there but that was only half the problem. I wasn't capable enough to shape a true Divine Memory, "So…" Effie leaned forward.
His onyx eyes glimmered faintly as he continued, "I did what I always do..I adapted.killed a couple of cursed creatures, many great Nightmare creatures, and countless corrupted ones. And then I… combined them" He added with a sigh, "Taking inspiration from how the Weaver created the Nightmare Spell, I managed to link the Transcendent, Supreme, and Sacred ranks with a temporal enchantment. The spell was strong enough to connect to the Divine Shard."
The past version of the cohort stared at him incredulously. He had just mentioned killing cursed beings,the same kind of abominations that could end worlds...as if they were nothing more than pests. Even the younger Sunny seemed taken aback, though his eyes gleamed faintly, sharp with understanding and anticipation, after all he was receiving a lot of valuable information.
Young Effie broke the silence first, blinking slowly. "You killed what now?"
The rest of the younger cohort remained silent, their expressions shifting between shock and unease. To them, the words sounded absurd, impossible even,but the calm tone in which he said it made it all the more terrifying.
The future cohort, on the other hand, didn't seem surprised. They had seen too much already. However, that didn't mean they understood what he was saying.
For a few seconds, no one spoke, confusion evident on their faces..
Sunny sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. "Alright," he said finally, his tone tired. "I'll keep this simple."
He leaned back in his chair, eyes distant.
"I'll explain from how Weaver created the Nightmare Spell. They didn't just make it from nothing. They linked countless mortal souls together like roots intertwining beneath the ground , forming a web that grew stronger as each mortal ascended. When it was strong enough, they used their own divine soul to anchor it, letting it devour other divine souls until it became something beyond."
He tapped the table lightly, as if tracing the pattern in his mind.
"I used the same principle. To reach the past, you need something that can exist across time. Transcendent or even Supreme shards collapses instantly,it can't survive the strain. So I started small, with Transcendent shards. I bound them together, letting their energies overlap and stabilize each other. Then, like the trunk of a growing tree, I connected that network to Supreme fragments, and from there, to Sacred. Each tier acted like a branch feeding the next, until the whole construct could channel power upward and downward without breaking."
He gestured vaguely in the air, as if tracing invisible roots and branches.
"It was still unstable, though. Building a time enchantment isn't as simple,it's like weaving a fabric that has to exist in every moment at once. I needed a stabilizer, something that could loop time without collapsing reality. So I took inspiration from the hourglass memory Jet once had, the one that trapped her in a single repeating moment. I had already studied that pattern and then modified it scaled it up until it could encompass a Divine Shard ."
His voice lowered, calm but edged with fatigue.
"The Shard served as the heart of the tree. The roots ,the Transcendent and supreme links ..reached downward, connecting the present, while the Sacred and Supreme tiers reached upward into time. When the web touched the Divine Shard, it became a bridge between the past and present. Using my forbidden lineage, I pulled the strings of fate to guide the connection toward the point I needed."
He exhaled softly, his expression darkening.
"But… I underestimated the spell's reach. It didn't just pull what I wanted. It pulled everything closely connected to me through fate. And that," he said quietly, spreading his hands, "is why we're all sitting here now."
Sunny let out a quiet sigh. "It took me fifty years to make this."
Nephis frowned. "Fifty… what? You were only gone for a year."
He gave a faint, tired smile. "Half that time, I was inside Ariel's Tomb. Time doesn't flow the same there. For me, it was decades. For you… a year at most."
He looked down at his hand. "That was the only reason I could do it. To build an enchantment like that one that bends time ,I needed to live through it first."
****
Authors note: Damnation,that was exhausting!
The basic concept of the enchantment goes like this,
The core enchantment:[soul web]:connects all the shards and grow, that means sunny initially made this enchantment using transcendent shards which is well within his abilities, the enchantment starts with a small amount of shards and gradually grows, being able to consume supreme, then sacred simultaneously sunny added a time enchantment which is very similar to how jets memory work , this is also connected to the soul web so as the soul web grows this enchantment grows too. Finally being able to connect a divine soul shard and the result being the memory we see..