A month later…

Sunny's life had already been hell since arriving on the Forgotten Shore. But the real torment began when Cassie's prophecy returned to gnaw at his thoughts.

Her voice still echoed in his memory:

Rivers of blood flowed from a broken castle. On its throne sat a young man in black armor, crimson hair blazing like fire, eyes burning with madness. With a deranged smile on his face, he held a severed head by the hair.

I saw a lamb that was wounded, bloodied, yet still standing. It bore the sins of its followers, and yet its eyes were clear, untouched, full of childlike innocence. The only pure thing in a land drowned in filth.

And I saw someone whose face I cannot recall… wearing a crystal monocle that filled me with unfathomable terror for reasons I could not name.

Sunny could understand parts of her vision about the shadow, the angel, the spire but not these three. The man on the throne. The lamb. The unknown being with the monocle.

They circled his mind like vultures, refusing to land, refusing to let him rest. None of it made sense… and that was what made it unbearable.

Sunny wouldn't admit it out loud, but living alone in the ruined cathedral was gnawing at him. Every day blurred into the next: silent, empty, and broken only by the echo of his own footsteps. With no one to argue with, no one to mock ans no one to stab in the back with words or otherwise… he was left with his own thoughts. And they weren't kind company.

He was getting feral. He knew it… maybe even mad.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

As if the Fated hadn't already decided to torture him enough, his new home had come with… a ghost.

Sunny shivered, curling deeper into his bed. His fingers clenched the blanket until his knuckles turned white. He squeezed his eyes shut, praying for sleep that never came.

And then it whispered.

"Lost… from…"

The voice was vile and sinister, making him shudder in fear.

Sunny's heart lurched. He bit down on a whimper and pulled the blanket tighter around himself, trembling as sweat trickled down his temple.

How did it...!?

He didn't know how, but it knew. His true name. That cursed chain around his soul he'd never wanted anyone to know about. The specter never finished the phrase, never said the last word. But Sunny was certain. Certain that if it did… if those words were spoken in full…

He wouldn't be Sunny anymore... He'd be a slave with no choice of his own.

That was his month. That was his hell. Not monsters outside, starvation, or the despair of never leaving the dark city.

No... his monster lived under his bed.

Finally, after hours of enduring the horror of the unseen monster lurking just out of reach, Sunny collapsed into restless sleep. His body had reached its limit after three sleepless days.

When morning came, he woke with a groggy groan, lids heavy, and an irritated sigh rasping through his throat. His gaze wandered the old room; stone walls, a mosaic destroyed by the passage of time, and shadows crawling in every corner.

Nothing...?

For a long moment, he simply sat there, motionless, waiting for the whisper of breath, the cold brush of something that wasn't there. When silence answered him, his lips twisted.

"Damn it…"

Spitting on the ground, Sunny suddenly erupted; smashing the rotten wood of the bedframe, tearing down stone dust, his hoarse screams echoing like a wounded beast. Rage and terror tangled together until his voice broke and he staggered, panting, chest heaving.

Slowly, he forced his breath under control. His hands shook as he ran them over his face. "Get it together… it's just in your head…"

But then... his blood froze.

On the bed, right where he had been lying, sat a crystal monocle. It gleamed faintly in the light of the rising sun, as though mocking him.

Sunny's eyes widened, terror flooding his veins.

"AGHHHHHH!!!"

At the same time...

Nephis stared at the stone with a flat, unreadable expression. This had been happening for a while now, and she did not like it. Who would, when someone was turning you into a joke?

Scrawled across the stone in bold letters was:

[Meet Nephis:

Professional Suicide Bomber.

Intelligence? Still loading… please wait…

Favorite pastime: Collecting simps.

Dao of Nepotism: inherited at birth, cultivated daily.

Dao of Autism: MAX level, but only for awkward silences.

Can she make a new technique with her flames? Nope.

Can she blow herself up like a discount hand grenade? Every damn time!

Nickname: Lady Fumbling Star.

PS: If you need plot armor, she's selling hers cheap. Runs out fast, though.]

What the hell was this!? Nephis thought, though her face betrayed nothing. These… things had been appearing around the outer settlements. Her followers tried to erase them as fast as possible, but each time one was destroyed, a new one appeared the next day.

Most infuriating of all was that no one knew who the culprit was.

And it wasn't just her. That bastard had written the same kind of ridicule about Cassie too, leaving the blind girl in tears. Nephis had destroyed those stones herself, and after that, people started calling the anonymous writer the Rat.

But the next day, another stone appeared with the words: "Nope. I'm actually lil' Raven, caw-caw."

Her jaw clenched slightly.

At this point, she didn't even know how to handle it anymore. The prime suspect had to be someone from the Bright Castle. Someone she had offended, perhaps? Most likely. But soon, she would be leaving for another expedition to collect Shard Memories. She didn't have time for this nonsense.

And yet… she couldn't ignore it. Not with her reputation quietly being turned into a punchline.

Even worse, the Slayer's Shard Memory had suddenly vanished. She had searched for it herself, but found nothing. Perhaps someone had taken it before her? Sooner or later it would resurface, and with Cassie at her side, tracking it down would not be difficult.

Still… this mockery had to end.

Because little by little, she was becoming a joke in the public's eye...

Amon watched the entire outer settlement curse his name, sighed, and shook his head in righteous indignation. Truth hurts, after all.

Forget it, it's getting boring. Hmm… oh? I know what to do. The Ruined Cathedral had a statue of the goddess… Hehehe. Let's visit it. But before that…

He tilted his head, a grin spreading across his face, and ran off. There was something he liked to do, and someone he wanted to meet as well.

Quietly stepping over stone rubble, Amon made his way to the spot marked on the map. Strangely, very few Nightmare Creatures seemed to hunt this part of the city. It was as if an invisible hand guided them away.

A large building, once magnificent, now loomed before him. Amon climbed the collapsed wall with ease and found himself in a dark, secluded courtyard.

In the center stood a well. Its round mouth gaped like an open wound, filled with empty blackness. A strange, ornate iron grate covered it, weighing at least several tons, as if someone had desperately wanted to seal the well forever.

It was time to save someone truly charming, pleasant, and, without a shadow of doubt, the most normal person in this world. Of course… Kai.

Amon had found very few likeable characters in the novel, and Kai was one of them. Humble, kind, and quietly heroic, unlike Nephis, Sunny, or the rest of the bumbling cast.

Why was Amon saving him? Well… obviously to recruit him into his clan. Definitely not because he had secret plans to make a dragon his mount. Yep, totally not.

He didn't know exactly when or how long Kai had been locked up, but he'd been keeping tabs on Medici recently. His friend was quickly rising in fame, slowly becoming one of the best hunters in the Dark City. Luna… had joined Seishan. That was unexpected, but if it was what she wanted, Amon would support it.

Back to the matter at hand. When he realized Kai wasn't in Bright Castle, suspicion immediately flared. Someone this likeable couldn't just vanish. He tracked it down and concluded Kai had been imprisoned here.

Following the guards assigned to feed and observe Kai, Amon stole their map without them noticing. Some might expect him to just kill the guards and take it by force. But Amon wasn't a brute. Kill? Tch, barbaric. Stealing was far more classy… and cool.

Heh. Those poor guys had been searching for the map for days. But Amon was a forgiving person, he'd return it after freeing Kai.

And once Kai was free… well, he'd raise him into a powerful force to challenge Medici. He couldn't wait to see the generational beef resurface.

Staring down at the well for a long moment, Amon tilted his head and smiled mischievously.

"Kai…"

His voice was rough, jagged, almost unnatural, as if speaking in a language barely human.

From the darkness below came a soft, enchanting voice that floated up in a cascade of whispers, smooth as silk. It belonged to a young man, calm yet with a trace of curiosity.

"Hmm? Do I have guests? It's been a while since I've had… food."

Amon grinned, but quickly suppressed the flutter of excitement in his chest.

"Hungry… I'm hungry too," he said, his tone now carrying a low, disturbing undercurrent.

The voice from the well responded, hesitant now, a flicker of unease threading through its words.

"So… are you going to feed me or not? It's been a day, and I'm feeling… fatigued. It's lonely and dark down here."

Amon's eyes glimmered. He let out a low, bestial growl.

"Lonely… then be inside me."

That... sounded wrong for some reason...

A heavy silence fell. The air seemed to thicken as seconds dragged by. And then:

"Wait… you're not one of the… you're not… oh! Oh, gods!"

The voice escalated, trembling with panic, dread, and disbelief.

"Oh, gods! It's not human… I'm going to die! Those damn idiots… they finally got me killed! I'm dead! Mom, dad, I'm sorry. It's been a good run, eh!?"

Slowly, Amon's mouth twitched as he held his breath, trying not to laugh. This was funny as hell.

He really thinks I'm some abomination?

At last, he couldn't hold it back. Laughter burst out of him in sharp, echoing peals.

"Hahahaha... shit, this is too good."

He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, still chuckling. Down below, the voice from the well went silent. For a long, cautious moment, there was nothing but the faint scrape of stone and the distant drip of water. Then, hesitant words rose up:

"So you aren't them… or a Nightmare Creature? Is this… another trick?"

Amon sighed, shaking his head in mock exasperation.

"Nope. Human. And no, not from Bright Castle either."

Silence again. He could practically taste the doubt. Kai didn't believe him, not fully. But that was fine. Belief didn't matter.

"How can I believe you?" the voice finally asked, low and uncertain.

"You can't," Amon replied casually. "And honestly? I don't care if you do. What matters is that I can take you out of this shithole. Or…" He paused, letting a cruel grin spread across his face. "…we can let the famous singer die alone in the dark. Such a tragic loss for the waking world."

Amon let the words hang for a moment before adding, more seriously:

"But jokes aside, you're in my team. So I'm opening this well and when I do, you fly out."

The silence that followed was heavy, but different this time. No abomination would have known that secret. No captor would taunt him with that. If they wanted him dead, they'd just starve him.

Finally, the voice answered, trembling and resigned.

"O-okay then… I… trust you."

"You shouldn't," Amon muttered.

"…What?"

"I said you should do that."

And with that, Amon turned to the grate. The damn thing weighed a ton. For most Sleepers, it would take two or three working together to even budge it. But Amon didn't need strength, he needed leverage. Sliding his jian into the seam, he worked the metal slowly, forcing the heavy cover aside inch by inch. His muscles screamed, his breath grew ragged, but trickery had always served him better than brute might. It was the same way he'd survived his first Nightmare.

All the while, Kai's voice echoed from below with cautious questions and nervous mutters. Annoying as hell. By the time Amon finally shoved the grate away, he was bent double, panting and sweating.

"Alright," he growled. "It's open. You can fly out now."

But nothing happened. The well remained still. Then Kai's voice rose again, awkward and uncertain:

"Uhm… how do you know my Aspect Ability?"

Amon groaned, tempted to roll the grate back into place.

"Everyone knows, Night. You're basically Bright Castle's pop idol."

A long sigh floated up from the darkness. Then, something shot out of the well in a blur of motion, scattering dust and shards of stone. Kai hovered in the air, framed by the pale light of Amon's torch, his hair disheveled, his eyes wide.

Amon stared, lips curling into an envious grin.

"Flying…" he muttered. "Gods, if I could steal Abilities already, that'd be the first one."

Kai hovered higher, glaring down at him.

"…Who the hell are you?"

Amon just grinned wider.

"Your lord and personal savior... destined messiah, too."