Sunny and Nephis stood inside the Academy dojo. The two of them were completely alone, having found the room entirely empty upon entering, the training equipment still gleaming from a fresh polish.
Following the regulations for using the training facilities outside of standard class hours, both of them had swapped their casual clothes for a pair of full-body training suits provided by the institute. The suits were form-fitting and shaded in a twilight grey, leaving their arms and legs bare but crafted from a specialized material engineered to protect against severe injuries or critical trauma. Unfortunately, not even such cutting-edge technology was proof against the stubborn whims of a certain Nephilim.
"Let's fight using Memories," Nephis proposed to Sunny, waiting for him as she stood upon the ring.
Sunny, who was still finishing adjusting his shoelaces, knit his brows and turned to look at her. "Are you crazy?" he asked, his voice tense and full of reprimand.
"You said you wouldn't say no to me if I agreed to your conditions," Nephis reminded him, countering his tone perfectly.
"And what if we end up hurting each other... I don't know, brutally?" he pointed out.
"In that case, I will heal you. I can summon flames that cure any wound," she said confidently.
Sunny snorted, averting his gaze to mutter something under his breath that Changing Star couldn't quite catch. But if she had to make a guess, she would suspect the shadow had grumbled, "What a headache!"
Sunny rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, letting out a heavy sigh. "Fine! Whatever you want." Done with his laces, he stood up on the ring directly across from her. "But make sure to regulate the gas pressure, Cremating Star," he said, only half-joking.
Before initiating the bout, Sunny glanced down at his shadow, where Thene was currently concealed. With a silent mental command, he instructed her to return to the dark waters of his Soul Sea. Myriad Shade protested, thoroughly unwilling to leave his side even for a brief period of time. After a moment of stubborn insistence, he finally managed to convince her to withdraw.
With that taken care of, the two began to summon their Memories.
Lifting her right arm, a cluster of brilliant sparks condensed within Nephis's hand. The [Dream Blade] appeared, its blade vertical and the tip pointed toward the floor. Simultaneously, a simple tunic adorned with leather sandals and a cloak the color of sea waves materialized over her body, overlaying the training suit perfectly without appearing bulky.
'If I'm not mistaken, that's the armor she obtained alongside her sword during her First Nightmare. I don't know its name or its enchantments, but if I'm not wrong, she got it after slaying an Awakened Terror. Therefore, it must be an Awakened Memory of the sixth Tier,' Sunny thought, studying her white attire.
While Changing Star swung her longsword through the air in a series of clean vertical slashes to warm up her muscles, Sunny looked down at his own right hand. A swirl of dark, crimson sparks condensed into a black serpentine dagger, its hilt wrapped in scarlet bandages—the [Deplorable Dagger]. Upon his body, the [Puppeteer's Shroud] manifested, cloaking the twilight grey of his training suit in an even darker shade of charcoal. He briefly considered summoning the [Crimson Cloak] or his other Memories alongside it, but ultimately decided against it.
Sunny watched Nephis slice through the air to loosen her shoulders, then returned his focus to the curved blade of his dagger. Giving it a few test thrusts, he commanded Gloomy to wrap around his body, doubling his physical attributes. Delivering another couple of random slashes into the empty air, he hummed in satisfaction.
"Ready?" Sunny asked, falling into a low stance. His legs split wide, and he gripped the hilt of the [Deplorable Dagger] in his right hand, the blade pointed downward in a reverse grip.
"Ready," Nephis nodded in confirmation. She lowered her center of gravity and bent her knees, bringing her shining silver blade perfectly horizontal at shoulder level, gripping the hilt with both hands.
An instant of silence descended upon the room, a stillness where lights and shadows danced around them like mute spectators taking their seats to witness a duel between the favored children of their creators. Changing Star and Everlasting Gloom locked eyes. Flames and shades danced within their gazes, both eager for the feud.
The moment the clock hand struck exactly nine, as if staring at their own reflections in a mirror, the two of them took a single forward step in perfect, flawless synchronization.
The exact moment the duel commenced, Sunny's senses snapped into sharp focus. Driven by his [Child of War] attribute, his mind went completely blank before reigniting in the blink of an eye, transforming into a sheet of perfectly still, crystalline water. His muscles coiled like overwound springs, his blood boiled hot in his veins, and his eyes radiated a cold aura as heavy as death itself.
A sudden chill, sharp as a blade pressing against her throat, assailed Nephis. She instantly registered the change, watching the shadow in front of her transform into a demon that had finally stopped pretending to be human.
CLANG.
Their blades—one brilliant and silver, the other pitch-black—collided in mid-air, unleashing a sharp metallic ring that echoed through the entire dojo. Taken aback by his sudden metamorphosis, Nephis suffered a fraction of a second of hesitation. As the gleaming edge of her longsword caught in the curve of his serpentine dagger, Sunless seized the opening, throwing his weight forward to shove her weapon back toward her.
Staring into his pitch-black eyes—two bottomless pools of absolute darkness—Nephis immediately snapped back into focus. Driving her weight into her legs, she reclaimed her footing and forcefully pushed the locked blades back to the center line.
Sunny didn't fight her momentum. Exploiting the force of her counter-push, he deftly spun his dagger, letting the edge of the [Dream Blade] slide off his own until its tip pointed harmlessly at the floor. In the same fluid motion, he drove his right knee upward, planting a brutal kick squarely into Changing Star's midsection. Augmented by his shadow, the blow sent her staggering a dozen paces back, struggling to stay upright.
Nephis ground her teeth. Stubbornly refusing to lose her balance and tumble onto the floor, she slammed the point of the [Dream Blade] into the ground ahead of her to anchor her weight. Snapping her gaze back up, she prepared to heave the longsword into a heavy vertical strike, but Everlasting Gloom was already upon her.
Sunny's face materialized mere inches from her own, moving with the terrifying efficiency of an unstoppable engine of war. His black serpentine dagger flashed from left to right in a devastating horizontal arc, moving far too fast to allow her time to think. Instantly relying on raw instinct, Nephis wrenched her longsword upward, keeping the tip pointed down to form a desperate guard.
Another sharp crack of metal resonated through the hall. Deflecting Sunny's assault, Nephis swung her weapon in a wide arc to force some breathing room, but as she brought the shining blade back down to execute a punishing vertical cleave, Sunny moved as if he were reading her mind in real time. He executed a flawless back-step, evading the descending edge with textbook precision.
What followed was a relentless barrage of lunges, parries, and slashes, neither side giving an inch. It was a masterful, lethal dance of light and shadow. If the empty air around them could have cheered, a magnificent chorus would have risen to acclaim the two combatants.
Leaning into a wide horizontal sweep from left to right, Nephis sent the flat of her longsword hurtling toward Sunny's right shoulder. Without even shifting his head, Sunny tracked the incoming steel out of the corner of his eye. He snapped his weapon up, catching the blow between his shoulder and her blade, and absorbed the impact to roll cleanly across the floor in the direction of the momentum—springing back onto his feet, instantly primed to retaliate.
Despite the initial intensity, the duel soon entered a tactical stalemate where both opponents began to carefully study each other's movements. Neither Nephis nor Sunny had any intention of delivering a decisive blow just yet. Instead, both sought to draw out the absolute best their opponent had to offer without forcing their hands too hard.
'Mh... strange,' Sunny noted internally as he deflected another sharp horizontal slash. He dropped into a clean roll, instantly springing back up to Nephis's right and launching an oblique counter-cut, which she narrowly evaded by tilting her upper body backward. 'Nephis's technique is... some kind of Frankenstein battle art.'
Sunny had not yet physically mastered the first step of the Shadow Dance, meaning he was still unable to deeply mirror or fully assimilate the combat styles of his opponents. However, thanks to the grueling time spent training in the Shadow Temple with Thene during his First Nightmare, combined with the raw combat instincts granted by his [Child of War] attribute, he could state this fact with absolute certainty.
'This isn't the combat style of the Immortal Flame Clan—the one she eventually teaches the original Sunless on the Forgotten Shore. This battle art is a chaotic patchwork of different fencing styles, likely stolen and pieced together from various Legacy Clans.' His analytical thoughts echoed in his mind, keeping perfect rhythm with the melodic song of clashing steel. 'Smart, yes... but still incredibly unrefined. There is no fluid coordination between her moves, no elegance. It's just a raw, improvised arrangement of thrusts and cleaves. No wonder she was badgering me for a duel with such stubborn persistence. Nephis is trying to forge her own personal battle art completely from scratch. And to perfect it, she needs to clash with opponents she deems genuinely strong—like me and Yuki.'
Then, Sunny caught a distinct gleam of realization within the polished silver mirrors of Nephis's eyes. A satisfied, subtle smile curled her lips, a clear sign that her rough technique was being actively shaved down and refined with every single strike she traded with him.
'Is there truly so much hostility between Nephis and her own Clan that she refuses to use her own father's battle art?' Sunny wondered, a fleeting thought crossing his mind. 'Well... let's shake things up a bit. Time to poke the sleeping dragon.'
Nephis unleashed another soaring, ascending slash, bringing her arms high above her head with the [Dream Blade] locked in a two-handed grip. But just as she lunged forward to execute the strike, her opponent did the unthinkable.
Sunny deliberately let go of his black dagger, letting the [Deplorable Dagger] slip from his right hand and drop to the floor with a soft metallic clatter. Instantly, he lunged inside her guard, grabbing Nephis's raised forearms with both hands and locking them in place. He arrested the gleaming blade mid-air, holding it perfectly vertical. The raw physical strength granted by his shadow augmentation allowed him to completely dominate her balance.
Before Changing Star could even process the sudden grapple, Everlasting Gloom drove his right knee upward. Concentrating every ounce of his reinforced strength into his quadriceps, he delivered a brutal front kick straight to Nephis's stomach, sending her rolling across the floor.
Watching his opponent tumble away across the mats, a smug, provocative smirk spread across Sunny's lips. Inadvertently, swept away by his own mounting arrogance, he lowered his guard.
"Is that really all you can do, Dumpling Star?" he asked, completely full of himself as he looked down at Nephis, who was already pushing herself back up onto her feet using her arms.
Meeting his gaze, her silver eyes practically spat literal sparks. Nephis was truly furious, utterly pushed to her limit by how this obnoxious shadow consistently and purposefully mangled her True Name just to mock her. In a sudden flash of blinding rage, she did the unthinkable—something that Sunny, deep down, had logically known she was capable of, but due to his own smug carelessness, completely failed to react to in time.
Nephis burst into flames, throwing herself at Sunny like a roaring, incandescent fireball.
"Oh, GREAT HEAVENS!"
THUD.
***
Ten years ago...
"Grandma, Grandma," a seven-year-old girl with long black hair and two brilliant silver eyes called out in a sad, whimpering voice. One of her schoolmates had just been teasing her. "That boy keeps making fun of me. What can I do to make him stop?" she asked, rubbing a teary eye as she threw herself into her grandmother's arms.
"Little Neph," her grandmother replied, welcoming her into her embrace and squeezing her tight. "I think it is finally time to teach you the secret technique of our Clan."
"Hm?" The little girl tilted her head to look into her grandmother's eyes, her face still smudged with tears and a bit of a runny nose.
Gently running a finger under her eye to wipe away the tears, her grandmother continued, "Remember, Neph, if you ever happen to meet a stubborn, touchy boy who teases you or refuses to pay attention to you," she raised a hand into the air and clenched it into a powerful fist, "then take him somewhere private, where it's just the two of you, leap onto him, and knock him clean unconscious. That way, afterward, you can do whatever you want with him."
"And if I do that, will that boy stop making fun of me?" little Neph asked innocently.
"Of course he will!" her grandmother answered confidently, smiling proudly as she pointed a finger toward the ceiling. Then, however, she brought that same finger to her chin as a sudden doubt crossed her mind, her gaze turning distant. "Though... I'm not really sure it was a good idea to teach you these things. Because of this, your grandfather wasn't even conscious when we conceived your mother."
Then, another realization struck her.
"Now that I think about it, your father wasn't awake either the two times you and your brother were conceived, respectively," she added, a hint of genuine concern creeping into her voice.
Meeting her granddaughter's innocent eyes once more, she concluded, "Just remember, little Neph, only do this to a boy you are truly interested in, understood?"
Little Neph didn't fully comprehend what her grandmother was trying to tell her, but two things were perfectly crystal clear to her:
1-If there is a boy she is genuinely interested in, knock him out cold.
2-If the two of them find themselves completely alone afterward, she will have a baby.
***
In the present...
Changing Star stood upon the ring of the Academy dojo, clamping a hand over her mouth to stifle a startled, "Oh, oh!" that threatened to escape her lips. Her right hand still held the [Dream Blade] in a tight grip, its silver steel gleaming as her pure white flames gradually subsided until they died out completely.
Directly in front of her, the young man named Sunless lay on the floor, knocked clean unconscious. His body was splayed out sideways across the mats, one arm stretched out limp over the ground, the other caught behind his back, while his legs were awkwardly crossed over one another.
Letting her white longsword clatter to the ground right alongside his black dagger, Nephis approached him and slowly knelt by his side. "Sunny?" she called out, placing a hand on his upper shoulder and giving him a light shake to see if he was alright.
Receiving no answer, her worry spiked. "Sunny?!" She shook him harder this time, accidentally rolling his body over until he lay chest-up, his head lolling toward the opposite wall.
Noticing that he still showed no signs of life, Nephis instantly panicked. 'What do I do now?!' she asked herself, frantically looking around. Her eyes swept the room in search of witnesses, but no one else was present—it was just the two of them.
'Should I destroy the evidence?' she wondered, training her gaze back onto the lifeless body. She extended her palm upward and summoned a small, flicking white flame, genuinely debating whether or not she should cremate the corpse to avoid being charged with manslaughter.
Fortunately, before she could execute her cleanup plan, Nephis noticed Sunny's chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. He was still breathing. Relieved, she extinguished the fire and pressed a hand against her chest, letting out a long, reassuring sigh.
There were still hours left before the first classes of the day were scheduled to begin. Having calmed her nerves, Changing Star went back to observing the sleeping figure of Everlasting Gloom. 'He reminds me of the doll I had when I was little,' she thought, watching him sleep in total oblivion.
Driven by curiosity and a deep sense of satisfaction—since this boy had evaded her for days and was now entirely at her mercy—Nephis hooked her arms under his shoulders and lifted him up. 'He even weighs about the same as my childhood doll,' she noted, a small, amused smile playing on her lips.
Propping his head against her chest and settling his dead weight onto her lap, Nephis reached out a hand to test his face. 'He is much softer than my doll, too,' she observed. Her fingertips traced down his right cheek toward his lips, finding his pale skin remarkably soft and pliable to the touch.
Then, Changing Star's gaze caught a series of bite marks crowning his neck. 'Is he... a secondhand toy?' she wondered.
'Wait a minute!'
Suddenly, the questionable teachings her grandmother had left behind before passing away rushed back into her mind. Nephis froze, looking around the empty dojo. 'Sunless and I are completely alone. He is unconscious. This means...'
Her face erupted into a furious, sudden blush, heat radiating so intensely that actual steam practically began to billow from her cheeks. Her knees felt weak, and a strange, uncomfortably pleasant warmth pooled beneath her navel. 'Am I... about to have a baby?'
The terrifying thought made her eyes well with tears, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. She was deeply afraid of the future, terrified of the unknown, and for some bizarre, inexplicable reason... aroused.
'No, no, I cannot get pregnant right now! I still have to achieve my ultimate goal. I have to burn the Nightmare Spell first,' Nephis reasoned internally, shaking her head fiercely to break the spell. 'Wait! What the hell do you mean by "right now"?!'
Then, noticing that both of them still had their full training suits and Memories armor on, she calmed down slightly.
'Why would we even need to take our clothes off, anyway?' Nephis was genuinely curious to find out. He possessed an intoxicatingly pleasant scent, and his height wasn't bad at all.
'NO! I cannot get pregnant!' she screamed in her head, violently shaking her head again. In her mind, an image appeared: seven beautiful children, boys and girls with gorgeous silver hair and beautiful black eyes, giving her warm smiles and calling her mommy as they held out their arms to be picked up. Nephis had to shake her head harder to chase that image away.
Behind her, Nephis could almost feel the phantom hands of her mother and grandmother resting heavily on her shoulders, pushing her toward the carnal deed while whispering into her ears like twin tempting devils: 'Go on, little Neph. It's a family tradition.'
Meanwhile, completely unconscious and entirely unable to offer any resistance while draped over the Nephilim's lap, Sunless showed no signs of waking up anytime soon.
Nephis's gaze remained locked onto Sunny's sleeping face as the minutes silently ticked away. Her silver eyes wandered, losing themselves in the sharp contours of his pale features and the ink-black strands of his hair.
Intrigued, Changing Star leaned her head down even closer to examine his dark locks. Before her First Nightmare, she had possessed that exact same shade of hair; looking at him now, a faint, unexpected pang of envy pricked at her chest.
At that moment, Professor Rock opened the doors of the dojo, having arrived early to prep the facility for the upcoming morning classes.
What was the very first thing the bear-like instructor saw the second the door swung shut behind him?
He saw Sleeper Changing Star, her face flushed a deep crimson and radiating actual steam, leaning closely over Sleeper Everlasting Gloom. The boy was draped securely across her lap, completely blacked out, while she hung over him as if in the middle of committing some unspeakably profane act.
The silence that followed was absolute.
That day, the Academy dojo didn't just catch fire—it was practically reduced to ashes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(If you liked this, also read: "Shadow Slave: Corrupted Files.")