Tingyun went very still, not with the violent shock of soone recoiling from danger but with the fragile, suspended quiet of a mind attempting to reconcile a statent that did not align with any known category of experience. Sunny could almost hear the gears turning in her head, the careful sorting of possibilities, the instinctive search for sarcasm or taphor that might soften the literal aning of his words. When none presented itself, she drew a slow breath that sounded unnecessary for a being no longer bound by flesh, yet deeply human all the sa.
Sunny, oddly comforted by the fact that he could finally speak without tiptoeing around the truth, leaned back slightly and allowed a trace of swagger to creep into his posture, as though recounting the absurdity of his life as a ridiculous story might rob it of so of its darker weight. If nothing else, he did not have to worry about her running off to tell anyone, because betrayal was not sothing his Shadows were capable of in any aningful sense.
"To further elaborate, my birth brought with it the darkest night my howorld had ever experienced, which was imdiately followed by a not-insignificant portion of the population across multiple star systems being dragged into what is essentially an eldritch purgatory. A little over a decade later I was personally blessed by death itself, received a Divine Aspect for my trouble, and gained the ability to drag the deceased back into sothing resembling life. You, anwhile, had the misfortune of being possessed by a Lord Ravager who intended to dismantle the Luofu from the inside out, and while she may have been a Supre Titan with all the theatrics that entails, she still made the mistake of stepping into my mind and underestimating how unpleasant that experience could be."
He paused just long enough to let the image settle, a faint smirk tugging at his lips.
"After that I swung my sword very, very hard. Unfortunately for you, you happened to be caught in the crossfire sowhere between that series of events. And now we have arrived at the present mont."
Privately, he felt a flicker of smug satisfaction at how effortlessly he had appropriated Noctis’ dramatic cadence, though he doubted the once-immortal Saint in question would appreciate the theft. Tingyun, for her part, said nothing for several seconds, the silence stretching until it beca impossible to tell whether she was stunned, skeptical, or attempting to determine whether humor was appropriate.
"I... see? I must confess that aside from you, I have only known one other Awakened personally, and her stories have never been quite so... extravagant."
Sunny’s chest puffed out slightly despite himself, ego quick to seize any opportunity for validation.
"Of course they haven’t! Not only am I among the strongest Masters in the entirety of human history, but I have maintained cordial relationships with multiple Saints who have sought my assistance even when I was nothing more than an Awakened. Whoever this friend of yours is, I regret to inform you that she could not possibly hope to rival my greatness—"
Tingyun interjected with gentle innocence:
"Ah, she is also a Saint. Perhaps you know her."
The words hit like a brick. Sunny’s confident posture collapsed mid-sentence, his spine going rigid as if soone had poured cold water down the back of his shirt. He asked weakly:
"Co again?"
Tingyun tapped a finger thoughtfully against her chin, the faint motion audible in the soft rustle of fabric.
"Unless sothing unfortunate has occurred in my absence, she should still be presiding over the Sky-Faring Commission. Madam Yukong?"
Sunny’s already pale complexion blanched further, draining of color until he looked like soone who had just been inford that the executioner had arrived early. He had never t Yukong personally, yet the mory of Jing Yuan’s booming laughter as a storm of arrows had rained from the heavens during their battle with Phantylia was vivid enough to make his shoulders twitch reflexively. Every Commission aboard the Luofu was headed by a Saint, a fact that now returned to haunt him with rciless precision.
He turned in her general direction, forcing a smile so strained it bordered on painful while keeping his eyes firmly shut.
He said in a saccharine tone that could have soured milk:
"Oh, Madam Yukong? I have never had the pleasure of eting her, but I am quite certain she is an exceptionally accomplished individual."
Tingyun lifted a hand to her mouth in what was likely a polite gesture of amusent, though he could not see it.
"Nothing compared to you, I am sure. As far as I am aware, she has never personally slain a Supre Titan. Perhaps the two of you should et, so that we might relay to her everything you have said."
Sunny shook his head so violently that his hair brushed his cheeks.
"No thank you. I would hate to impose on soone of her stature."
Internally, he found himself ntally cursing his Shadows as a collective entity. Nightmare delighted in needling him, Serpent dispensed edgy comntary like a disgruntled poet, Saint communicated through aloof silence, and now Tingyun had sohow weaponized politeness into a tool of psychological warfare. Truly, Fate had conspired to surround him with the most inconvenient personalities possible.
Clearing his throat, he attempted to steer the conversation back onto safer ground.
"For the record, I would strongly advise against seeking her out. For several extrely practical reasons."
Tingyun replied calmly.
"I had already reached the sa conclusion. In my current state, it is far more likely that an arrow would pass through my body before she had the opportunity to recognize . Even if she did, it would place you in a very precarious position, would it not, Benefactor?"
Sunny nodded automatically, the title once again sending an uncomfortable shiver down his spine due to its uncanny resemblance to the way Phantylia had addressed him.
"Do you know what you intend to do now? Or is there anything else you need?"
Tingyun shook her head slowly.
"My most sensible option is to remain with you. I possess neither the ans nor the justification to reintegrate into society, and while my strength may currently be limited, I would like to believe that my skills are not entirely without value."
He could practically hear the smile in her voice, warm and faintly triumphant, as though she had secured sothing important.
"If you will have , of course."
Sunny hesitated only briefly before nodding. Despite the discomfort of knowing her loyalty was not wholly voluntary, denying her would have been tantamount to abandoning her to nonexistence.
"Fine. You can stay."
Relief radiated subtly from her, though she maintained her composed deanor.
"Thank you."
Her tone darkened with quiet resentnt.
"Though I must admit, I am disappointed that Phantylia is dead. She wronged deeply, and I had hoped to repay that debt in kind."
Sunny blinked, eyes snapping open on instinct before he imdiately slamd them shut again, the brief glimpse of her shadow-ford body reigniting his earlier panic.
"About that..."
Sunny rubbed his neck.
"She is not entirely gone. I destroyed her body, not her existence."
Tingyun fell silent, the weight of that revelation settling heavily.
"I would like to say that this is encouraging, but I cannot imagine any scenario in which a living Lord Ravager is a positive developnt."
"Join the club."
Though, to be fair, Sunny wasn’t quite done with making Phantylia’s continued existence a living hell.
Another pause followed before she asked, her tone lightly curious.
"Why have you been keeping your eyes closed?"
Sunny pursed his lips, debating whether honesty was worth the humiliation, then rembered that dishonesty was not an option available to him.
"From my point of view, you are completely naked..."
***
Before the massive cauldron of the Alchemy Commission, a single figure stood in contemplative silence, a long coffin balanced across his back as though it weighed nothing at all.
Luocha’s pale hair caught the ruddy light, turning molten gold at the edges, while his pristine white garnts remained an almost jarring contrast to the soot-darkened stone and the dried sar of blood staining the ground at his feet.
The mark had been partially scrubbed away, but not enough to erase the violence that had occurred there, a stubborn echo of catastrophe embedded into the very texture of the floor. Around him, squads of Cloud Knights moved with disciplined precision, their armor whispering softly as they patrolled in overlapping circuits, yet not a single one so much as glanced in his direction, their gazes sliding past him as though he were nothing more than an absence in the air.
He studied the stain with quiet intensity, eyes reflecting the cauldron’s glow like polished amber, as though attempting to read a story written in blood alone.
"The currents of Fate are chaotic."
A soft voice echoed behind him, feminine and serene, carrying with it the faint cadence of soone accustod to speaking truths that others would rather not hear.
"Rather than a Star appearing here as expected, a Shadow ca and brought death with his own hands."
Luocha inclined his head slightly, acknowledging her presence without turning, as though he had sensed her arrival long before she spoke.
"I suppose that ans there is no need for our presence here. I assu you are ready to turn ourselves in?"
The woman paused beside him, her footsteps soundless despite the hard stone beneath her feet. She was strikingly beautiful even with a silk blindfold concealing her eyes, her expression tranquil in a way that suggested sight was an unnecessary luxury. Like Luocha, she went entirely unnoticed by the passing patrols, their formation splitting and rejoining around her without any sign that they perceived an obstacle.
"Not yet. There is one final lesson I must impart to my student before that Chapter may close. His soul is quite beautiful, you see, and I’d regret not shaping it myself. Moreover, a friend of mine has returned to the Luofu, and I find myself curious to see what remains of him, different though his soul may now be."
Luocha did not question her, nor did he attempt to follow as she stepped past him and continued onward, her presence fading into the cavernous hall like a whisper swallowed by distance. Within seconds she was indistinguishable from the darkness itself, leaving behind only the faint impression that she had never been there at all.
He remained where he stood, silent and unmoving, until the last echo of her passage dissolved completely. Then, slowly, he lifted his gaze toward the distant false sky above.
For a brief instant, sothing unreadable crossed his expression, a mixture of resignation and quiet anticipation, as though he were observing the unfolding of a play whose ending he already knew yet could not avoid watching to its conclusion.
User Comments
0 comments from readers