A titanic skeleton lay sprawled toward the horizon, its sun bleached bones rising and falling like a dead mountain range. But beyond it, where the land of eternal day should have stretched endlessly, the world was drowned in an ocean of darkness. It was as if someone had poured black ink across Godgrave.
The darkness swallowed the plains without mercy. The stormy sky above did nothing to pierce it. Light slid off the shadows. The boundary between day and whatever lay beyond it was stark enough to make the skin crawl.
At the very edge of that darkness stood nine figures, the young cohort along with saint Effie and Jet. They remained motionless, each one silently trying to understand the sight in front of them. Even Saint Effie and Jet, who had endured horrors beyond imagination, felt a weight settle on their chests.
Sunny stared the hardest. The expanse of shadow stretched in every direction, bottomless and alive. His heart pounded, excitement and disbelief twisting together as torrents of essence poured into his cores without restraint. The shadows welcomed him, almost pulling at his soul.
"How did he get this," Sunny thought. "How did he bring something like this here." It was unfathomable.
Saint Effie finally broke the silence. "This is the first time I'm seeing it," she said, her voice low but steady. "It's... definitely something."
Young Sunny ignored her. He stared into the abyss with wide eyes, pulse racing as the essence continued to surge through him. From the depths of that shadow a tenebrous figure stepped forward, its steps making the bones quake.
A five meter tall demon with four arms clad in heavy steel armor emerged. Spikes jutted from its back in jagged rows. Infernal flames burned deep within its eyes, casting a faint glow along its towering frame.
The young cohort tensed immediately. Only Sunny stood calm, staring up at the enormous demon without a hint of fear. The armored giant leaned forward, metal groaning, and its jaws opened with a low creak.
"Welcome, young master."
Sunny blinked. Then he smiled. The title felt absurdly pleasant coming from a monster that could crush mountains.
The others did not share that sentiment. Effie jumped back. "Young what?"
Kai flinched, trying to summon his bow in a flash of sparks. Cassie stood rigid, her blind eyes turning toward the sound with sharp alarm. Young Nephis narrowed her gaze, studying the creature with cold intensity.
Saint Jet let out a slow breath and spoke in a flat tone. "Do not panic. It is one of Sunny's shadows." She added, "It will lead us to the nameless temple."
Nephis frowned. "Nameless temple?"
Jet replied, "Yes. It is the citadel of the Lord of Shadows. We will stay there for the time being."
The shadow demon lowered its head again. "Follow." It turned, walking into the darkness. The ground trembled under each step. The young cohort exchanged uneasy glances but followed behind it, stepping deeper into the shadow soaked horizon where even daylight failed to reach.
Hours passed beneath the dark sky. Eventually the darkness revealed a massive structure rising from the chasm. A temple of ancient black stone stood before them, its steps cracked and worn. Bones littered the ground below, white against the shadowed stone. Massive carcasses were scattered around the temple.
Sunny's eyes widened. Then he chuckled in disbelief. "He found this. He actually found this."
The others stared at him in confusion. Nephis frowned. "You know this temple?"
Sunny nodded, still in awe. "Yes. This was the temple in my first nightmare. The place where I received the blessing of the Shadow God."
Everyone except Nephis stared at him in disbelief.
Young Kai went pale. "You… what?"
Saint Effie scoffed at him. "Stop lying."
Sunny threw her an offended look. "I'm not lying. I am the most honest man in the world." He paused. "Two worlds, even."
Effie's jaw dropped. The towering fiend entered the temple. Sunny followed it without hesitation, making Effie freeze in place. She slowly turned to young Kai. Kai nodded with a resigned look on his handsome face and then walked after Sunny as if this were the most ordinary thing in the world. The rest followed too.
The moment they crossed into the temple, a cold shiver ran down their spines. Something enormous slithered through the halls, scraping against ancient stone. The shadows recoiled away from the movement, trembling. Then a deep, rattling hiss rolled across the chamber, vibrating through their bones.
The young cohort stiffened. Even the older ones tensed. They could feel something immense moving in the darkness. Sunny, however, grew more excited.
A massive head emerged from the gloom. An enormous serpent revealed itself. Its black scales gleamed faintly in the dim light. Its slit pupils narrowed on the intruders. The serpent's head lowered until it hovered only a few steps away from Sunny.
Sunny stepped forward and casually wrapped his arms around the beast's head, hugging it like an old friend. "Look how big you've become, Serpent," Sunny said, smiling. "What step is he at now? Third? Fourth? I wonder."
The serpent's eyes glowed faintly as it hissed again, shadows rippling across its scales. The young cohort could only stare.
Saint Jet spared the serpent a glance, then turned to the others. "Let's eat and rest now. We'll decide further plans after that. The war is approaching fast."
Nephis asked, "Where are Kai and Cassie?"
Saint Effie replied, "Kai went to Ravenheart. And Cassie… I'm not sure."
Sunny frowned at that. His eyes drifted toward the younger Cassie, but she remained impassive, as unreadable as ever.
It was while they were eating that Kai finally returned. Two girls followed him, both sharing the same black hair and onyx eyes as Sunny.
Sunny blinked in shock. "Rain?"
The older Rain burst into laughter the moment she saw him. "Ah, my brother looked like this when he was young. How scrawny," she said, almost rolling on the floor.
Sunny stared at her, stunned. Not only did she immediately recognize him as her brother, she was older than him now. So who is the eldest now, he wondered bitterly.
The young Rain, meanwhile, stood stiffly, shy and overwhelmed. Seeing the Changing Star's cohort, their older versions who were saints in one place was too much. She was a mundane human, thrust suddenly into the future and surrounded by legends. She nearly fainted as a result.
Her older version had been shocked too when they first met in Ravenheart. She had almost killed her younger self, thinking it was some nightmare creature. Thankfully, the older Rain was also mundane, so after some panicked screaming and disastrous fighting, they managed to sort it out. Sunny himself had appeared afterward to explain the situation and tell them both to lay low.
The older Rain looked around cheerfully. "So where is my elder brother?" she asked brightly, hands on her hips as if inspecting a camp of soldiers.
Young Sunny pointed at himself, offended. "I'm right here. Can't you see?"
She gave him a single dismissive glance and wrinkled her nose. "Not you, scrawny brat."
Sunny stood up so quickly his chair scraped against the stone. "Scrawny? I'm perfectly average!"
The young cohort broke into laughter. Older Jet hid a smile behind her hand. Young Effie nearly choked on her food. Even the serpent, coiled lazily near the temple entrance, lifted its head curiously at the commotion.
Older Rain walked right up to Sunny and poked his cheek. "Look at this. How did this little twig survive the dream realm? Did someone carry you?"
Sunny spluttered. "No one carried me!"
Young Rain watched the exchange wide eyed, her nervousness slowly replaced by embarrassment on behalf of her future self. She whispered to herself, "I'm really… like that?"
Young Nephis glanced at her and nodded as if the world made perfect sense. "I can see the resemblance."
Sunny groaned. "Great. Wonderful. I'm surrounded by traitors."
The tension that had been sitting in the room since their arrival loosened a little. For the first time since stepping into this terrifying place, the young cohort laughed freely. Even Cassie's lips twitched faintly.
The serpent slithered forward until its massive head hovered beside young Rain. She froze, trembling. Sunny casually patted the serpent's scales. "That's the Soul Serpent," he told them, proud. "Be nice."
Older Rain grabbed her younger self and dragged her behind a pillar. "Nope. Absolutely not. Brother, keep that thing away from us."
"It's friendly," Sunny retorted.
Nephis watched the chaos unfold with an unreadable expression, but there was a faint warmth in her eyes. This was the first moment of normalcy since they had all been dragged into this fractured timeline.
But the warmth did not last.
Kai's footsteps echoed through the hall as he approached the group again. This time he wasn't smiling. The easy posture was gone. His shoulders were stiff, eyes sharp and cold.
Effie immediately sensed it. "What happened?"
Kai didn't waste time, when he spoke,the air grew tense. "Song forces," he said, voice low. "They're already here in Godgrave."
They all knew what that meant. The war was here.
****
Authors note: You maybe confused now however it'll make sense as the story continues, I ask for your understanding.
Thank you for reading.