Late Night Walk

Sunny had found himself on an unfamiliar bed under an unfamiliar ceiling. He slowly rose up, stretching his body for a moment. As he looked around the room he was in, he realized that it was quite luxurious; what he would normally expect out of the upper class.

'I guess everything went well?'

In truth, Sunny had no ide what had happened after he fell asleep. However, he could deduce that he wasn't in any mortal danger, as he wasn't in a jail cell currently.

Not that such a mundane thing could contain him. Shadow Step was simply too powerful.

He looked down at his clothes, finding himself only wearing his shirt and pants. Normally that would have been fine, but Jarilo-VI was simply too cold to not wear a jacket. It was fine since he was indoors, but he wasn't planning to stay inside for long.

A divine shadow such as himself could not be confined to a room!

'Ah… I'm just so funny!'

Summoning the Finality's Farewell, he used Shadow Step to appear outside of the hotel he was just in. He looked up at the night sky of Belobog, before walking aimlessly in a random direction.

The streets of Belobog, bathed in the soft, silvery light of the moon, seemed to hum with a quiet, almost mournful energy. The air was crisp, carrying with it the faint scent of iron and snow. Above, the sky stretched in a canvas of deep indigo, dotted with stars that flickered like distant, forgotten lanterns. Street lamps lined the avenues, their pale glow casting long, distorted shadows on the cobblestone roads, which twisted and turned like veins through the heart of the city.

A chill settled over the city, a reminder of the unrelenting winter that gripped Belobog with a frozen hand. The towering structures of steel and stone, built to withstand the harshest of elements, loomed like silent sentinels in the night. Their facades were etched with intricate patterns of frost, delicate and crystalline in the dark. Between them, narrow alleys seemed to pulse with the faintest echoes of life — distant laughter, the shuffle of boots on ice, the occasional murmur of a hurried conversation that cut through the stillness.

And yet, despite the cold and the gloom, there was a certain beauty in Belobog's night. The snow, gentle as it fell, clung to the city like a blanket, transforming the harsh, frozen world into something softer, quieter. The light from the streetlamps danced upon the ice, casting shimmering reflections on the glistening roads, where each step seemed to leave a brief, delicate imprint. It was a beauty born of necessity, carved into the heart of a place that had learned to survive against the odds.

Despite the state of this planet, Sunny couldn't help but think that Belobog had a strange appeal to it. He wasn't quite sure how to describe it, but he wouldn't mind living here for the rest of his life — which was impossible due to a few problems he had.

Even so, the simple, quiet life that most people had was something that Sunny longed for.

…Something clicked with him.

It was like a missing puzzle piece had just been placed, covering the contours of what made him Sunny… but it was not complete. Rather, this only felt like the beginning.

He frowned at the strange feeling that welled up within him, not understanding why he felt such a way — or what he was feeling in the first place. Ignoring this confounding sensation, he simply kept walking as he felt the cool air on his skin. Every breath he took created a warm mist, contrasting the low temperatures of Belobog.

Sunny didn't feel very tired, so it should have been fine if he took a short walk, right? He had just woken up after all, so he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep until morning.

Slipping a hand into his pants pocket, he dug out his phone. Booting up his cellular device, Sunny leisurely tapped random apps. If he opened up a game, he would play it for a couple minutes before closing out of it. If it was some sort of social media, he would mindlessly scroll through it. His eyes were completely glued to his phone, but he used his shadows to see where he was going.

…Unfortunately, he couldn't find anything on his phone that had to do with his past.

There was nothing else to do, so he simply kept tapping random things.

Suddenly, his finger froze in place. He had been mindlessly searching for anything that could grant him clues on his past, but couldn't he just search something up? That would be much more effective than just scrolling at least…

An imaginary lightbulb flickered in his mind, causing him to quickly go into his search engine as he typed his object of interest:

"Sam."

A few results popped up, but they didn't lead to what he had actually wanted to see. He tried again — this time, specifying what he wanted to find.

"Sam criminal."

His results had changed, each of them following the same topic. Sunny smirked as he clicked on them one-by-one, checking to see if he could find any information…

'Great Clan stronghold burnt to a crisp… Jepella Rebellion…'

As he went through the results, he realized that some of these sounded quite familiar to him. The more recent ones on the other hand, did not.

Sometimes, whole cities would be burnt down. Other times, labs would be raided.

And in each one, a single title would appear:

Stellaron Hunter.

Sunny paused for a moment, before typing that in the search engine. Tapping on the first website, a few images appeared — accompanied by names and descriptions. After looking at them for a second, Sunny realized that they were wanted posters. Six of them, to be precise. And the amount of credits on them…

Sunny almost drooled. He wiped his chin with his sleeve though, just in case. Each of them had multiple images coming from different angles, which allowed him to get a better view of their appearances.

The first one was a woman who seemed to be in her late twenties: Kafka.

Kafka is described as being very beautiful and charming — a young woman with red wine-colored hair that was tied in a messy ponytail with two loose bangs hanging on either side of her face. Her eyes are of a similar, lighter color, and she wears dark, round sunglasses on top of her head along with a pearl earring in her right ear.

She wore a white dress shirt that exposes the top of her back and shoulders along with a black jacket that is draped over her shoulders. There was a silver butterfly pin on its left lapel, and on the back there was a large, spider-like pattern in the center, along with webs on both shoulders and a burgundy inside. There was also wine-colored straps with golden accents on both her jacket and thighs, and gloves of a similar shade. She has large silver rings on each of her fingers, and her gloves have silver spiderwebs on the backhand.

She wears black, high waisted shorts and nylon tights, with a thigh garter on her right leg. She also wears black boots with two different lengths: the right goes over her knee, while the left goes slightly over her ankle.

There was a short description about her Aspect, which seemed to be related to using strings as weapons as well as being able to control people with her voice. There were also reports that Kafka was a Saint, which made sense considering how high her bounty is.

He gazed at the picture as a strange feeling welled up within him. Sunny looked at the next one: Blade.

Blade is a man with fair skin, long dark blue hair with red tips, and red eyes. He wore an oriental-styled black tailcoat with red clothed insides and gray trousers. The tailcoat was embroidered with gold and dark blue colors, and he wore a black belt alongside a styled metal decoration on his left thigh. He also wore a black glove on his right hand, and bandages can be seen wrapped around his right arm, right thigh, and on his left hand.

His Aspect was unknown, but was suspected to be related to regeneration. Sunny wasn't sure why, but that didn't sound quite right to him…

Similar to Kafka, he was also a Saint.

The next image caused Sunny to narrow his eyes. After all, it was his master: AR-26710, who's True Name was Fading Firefly.

Sunny blinked as he realized that they were called SAM, and not just Sam. Not like there was any way for him to be aware of that, since capitalization wasn't obvious during conversation.

Sunny wasn't quite sure how to describe SAM, besides having a large build and being adorned from head to toe with metal plating. The armor was fearsome and intimidating, which was suitable for an Ascended Terror.

Their Aspect was also unknown, since the flames that they used were from the armor itself. Not only that, but their Rank was also unknown — although they were suspected to be a Saint.

Considering the fact that one of AR-26710's Memories was a dress, Sunny was quite sure that it was a woman. However, considering that the public described SAM as a male, he decided to withhold judgement for now.

…Sunny still believed that AR-26710 was a she. It simply felt right to him.

The next Stellaron Hunter was a petite young woman by the name of Silver Wolf. It was a strange name, but it might have simply been an alias.

She wore a short, black coat along with a crop-top which covered the upper part of her body, exposing her navel. She also wore black unbuttoned shorts with a decorative piece of black and purple fabric that hangs off the back, along with a white belt that had a game console attached at the hip.

On her head she wore purple glasses, as well as a black bow which she uses to tie her hair into a loose ponytail that becomes a drill. She also wore a pair of black, white, and blue boots, along with a knife attached to her right leg and short fishnets up the calf on the left.

Her Aspect was related to technology. She was a Master just like AR-26710, which meant that there was a good possibility that they challenged the Second Nightmare together.

There were not many Aspects that had a connection to modern technology. After all, Aspects generally had to do with fantasy, not science. However, as time passed after the descent of the Nightmare Spell, some Awakened gained Aspects that allowed them to turn modern weaponry into Memories — or make Memories that were based on modern weaponry.

These Memories were generally very limited when it came to enchantments. When it came to deciding between a bow or a gun, it generally came down to preference, talent, and overall chemistry their choice of weapon has with their Aspect.

Even rarer than a firearm-related Aspect was one that was directly connected to things like computers. From what Sunny was seeing, her Aspect seemed to be of that kind.

There was only one more Stellaron Hunter remaining, which cause Sunny to almost trip when he looked at the pictures.

'…Who the hell is Mongrel?!'