Last Day On Earth

Sunny's mood fell as he glared at Nephis sitting quietly beside him, looking at him with curiosity as if she had forgotten their deal.

Cassie seemed to have heard Nephis sitting down and asked:

"Hey Sunny, who's that?"

Sunny wanted to ignore the question but the pressure of his flaw began to grow, forcing him to answer.

"It's just Nephis."

"Nephis?"

Cassie tilted her head.

"Ya, you know, Changing Star of the Immortal Flame Clan."

Cassie froze and then, with a stunned expression, turned her head in the general direction of where Nephis was sitting.

"W-wait what!?"

Sunny's annoyance grew even further.

'Oh god, please don't tell me Cas is a fangirl.'

Cassie's empty gaze was piercing, and even Nephis was starting to show some discomfort under its intensity. Fortunately, she was given a break when Cassie turned her gaze back towards Sunny.

"Sunny you didn't tell me that you were friends with Lady Changing Star!"

He glared at the girl.

"I'm not."

A doubtful expression appeared on Cassie's face.

"Then why is she sitting with us?"

Sunny turned back towards Nephis, his glare sharpening.

"That's what I'm wondering as well, she already agreed to leave me alone as long as I sparred with her."

Nephis paused for a moment, then shrugged.

"This is the only table that isn't filled."

Sunny scoffed.

"I've never even seen you eat in the cafeteria before. You usually grab some food and head back to your dorm."

Nephis didn't respond and instead pretended not to hear him, her face remaining as indifferent as ever as her eyes bore holes into him.

Sunny, feeling uncomfortable with her gaze, sighed. Completely giving up.

"Fine, whatever, you win. What do you want this time?"

Nephis blinked and cleared her throat.

"I want you to help me."

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"With what?"

Nephis hesitated. After a while, she answered in a flat tone:

"The dream realm."

***

Sunny was irritated.

He didn't know why, but it seemed that the white-haired princess never intended to adhere to their bet's condition. Instead, she became even more proactive in bothering him. 

Every single day she appeared whenever he entered the training room and asked him to spar with her. And, against his better judgment, he would always agree since it would allow him to train to control his bloodlust.

Of course, he wasn't the only person who noticed this change, and he had also been getting a lot of unwanted attention from other sleepers, namely, a certain legacy. Although he hadn't been outright attacked, he had been casually interrogated by Caster on more than one occasion.

Feeling his mood plummet at the thought of the legacy, Sunny shook his head to get rid of his thoughts and instead turned his gaze towards the root of all his problems as she walked silently next to him.

'Why is she so damn tall?'

Nephis was tall, almost a full foot(~30cm) taller than him, and although he found her annoying, he could understand why she was so intensely pursued solely based on her appearance. But watching her, he noticed something was off.

'What's with her today?'

Nephis was giving off an unusually somber aura as they headed toward the cafeteria for dinner.

'Ah, of course. I guess today's the day.'

Today was exactly one month after they arrived and the day they were due to enter the Dream Realm for the first time.

'I guess most people are afraid,'

Sunny, who felt nothing couldn't help but smile.

'Should I be as well?'

***

Their final meal was quiet– but pleasant. 

Cassie was having a hard time mentally preparing herself for what was likely going to be death. But having had a month to do so, she seemed to have come to terms with it and just enjoyed her food while talking with her companions.

Strangely, Nephis was the one who was having the hardest time accepting that it had reached the Winter Solstice. The cold-hard resolve she had shown throughout their stay was nowhere to be found as she fiddled with her silverware without eating. 

'Is she worried about Cas?'

Sunny felt that her newly made friendship with Cassie was the primary reason for her aura of discomfort, even he was somewhat disheartened by their blind friend's chances of survival.

But Sunny couldn't do anything about it, so why would he waste his time worrying about it? 

'After all…'

The image of a dark-haired girl surrounded by a loving family flashed through his eyes.

'She doesn't need it.'

***

After that, there wasn't much to do.

When the sun was close to setting, Instructor Rock gathered them in the foyer of the Sleeper Center and led them outside.

In the snowy parks that surrounded the white building, other Awakened were leading their batches of Sleepers to the same destination. It was the Academy's medical center.

The center looked more like a shrine than a hospital. Its interior contained both highly advanced technology as well as some of the best Healers among the Awakened. For the duration of their first journey into the Dream Realm, the bodies of Sleepers would be kept safe in specially designed pods and sustained by the magical powers of those Healers if anything unfortunate were to happen on the other side of the Spell.

Of course, whether or not they would wake up in the end wholly depended on the Sleepers themselves.

To Sunny's surprise, after entering the medical center, Instructor Rock did not take them directly to the wing containing Sleeper pods. Instead, he led them to a comparatively deserted floor and then opened the doors to a spacious gallery that was brightly illuminated by the beautiful crimson rays of the setting sun.

There, they saw rows and rows of wheelchairs. In each wheelchair, there was a person with a blank, strangely peaceful expression on their face. All these people were completely silent, motionless, and still. They did not show any reaction to the appearance of guests.

They all seemed to be… empty.

'Hollows.' he noted.

Looking to his right he saw Nephis's expression darken as her fists clenched into a ball.

The silence was suffocating. 

Instructor Rock looked at the empty people with solemn eyes.

"There is a reason I brought you all here. Look well and remember. Some of you may know who these people are… for those of you who don't, they are called Hollow."

He gritted his teeth.

"Each one of them was once either a Sleeper or an Awakened. Some of them were weak, some of them were strong. Some were even incredibly powerful. All of them have perished in the Dream Realm."

Sunny recalled something he had read once:

'If you're lucky, once your spirit is destroyed, your body dies with it. But if not, you'll become just like them. Hollow.'

Instructor Rock glanced in the direction where the sleepers stood, and then added:

"So don't die out there."

***

Half an hour later, Sleepers had been led to their personal rooms and were preparing to enter the pods.

In one of the rooms, Cassie was helplessly trying to orient herself in the unfamiliar space, touching the walls and strange pieces of machinery with her hands. Her previous resolute air nowhere to be seen as tears streamed down her beautiful, doll-like face.

In the other room, proud Legacy Caster was staring listlessly at the floor. His lips were moving, repeating one strange phrase over and over again. He was trembling.

Somewhere else, Changing Star Nephis, the last daughter of the Immortal Flame clan, was looking down at her hands. Underneath her skin, soft white radiance was slowly growing brighter and brighter. Her face was contorted in a grimace of harrowing agony.

And finally, there was a room where Shadow Slave Sunless, Lost from Light, turned away from the sleeping pod and glanced down at his shadow.

"Well? Are you ready?"

The shadow shrugged and didn't answer.

Sunny sighed.

"Yeah, me too."

With that, he stepped forward and climbed into the pod.

***

In the vast echoing darkness, he heard:

[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Sunless!]

— — — — — — —

End of Chapter.

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