Sunny and Nephis stood opposite each other, holding training swords. Both felt more than a little disturbed by how much this scene resembled their bitter confrontation at the very top of the Crimson Spire.
Of course, today, the situation was completely different. They were just going for a friendly spar, not a battle to the death. There were no stakes in this training fight, no emotional investment… no complicated mixture of regret, fury, and resentment.
…So why did Sunny feel as though he had to prove something?
Forcing himself to relax, he glanced at Nephis and attacked. Their swords met with a deafening clangor.
A few seconds later, Sunny jumped away and shouted:
"Stop! Stop! Stop!"
Changing Star froze while he looked around, breathing heavily.
Sunny gritted his teeth and spat a muffled curse.
"Damnation…"
His idea to have a spar might not have been the wisest one he ever had. Yes, the underground dojo was designed specifically to allow Awakened to train their powers. It was isolated, reinforced, and heavily armored, able to transform into an impregnable bunker in case a Gate opened nearby and a tide of Nightmare Creatures flooded the district.
The interior was furnished with heavy plates of armor-grade ceramic alloy and supplied with training equipment meant to withstand the rigors of Awakened power.
…However, Sunny and Nephis weren't Awakened anymore! They were full-fledged Masters, and abnormal ones at that!
The alloy sword in his hand was shattered. A few plates on the floor were broken. If this continued, the repair bill for the dojo was going to really sting Sunny's wallet.
More than that… Nephis was not exactly at her best. She had just returned to the waking world yesterday. Before that, she had been a Sleeper, which meant that she had no experience of controlling soul essence whatsoever. Let alone doing it with intricate precision and efficiency of a Master, she had never even done it crudely as an Awakened.
Sunny could tell exactly how chaotic and unrestrained the flow of her essence was, because Shadow Dance now allowed him to sense the movement of the mystical energy through the bodies of his opponents.
Sure, every Master had an instinctual understanding of how to augment their physicality with essence, but it still took some time to get used to it, and even more to master it. However, every Ascended before Changing Star enjoyed having the experience of making the first steps on that long and arduous road as an Awakened.
In fact, by the time Awakened reached Ascension, controlling essence was as natural to them as breathing.
Not so much for Nephis. Her return as a Master might have been miraculous, but it also deprived her of a lot of things that people who did not break the natural order of things usually enjoyed.
She was out of her depth.
As Changing Star stared at the broken sword in her hands with a deep frown, Sunny waved a hand in the air and forced out a smile.
"That… you'll have to spend some time learning how to guide your soul essence. After that, you will have to spend even more time relearning how to fight with its help. I had years of practice already, so fighting at full force won't do us any good."
He thought for a bit, and then said:
"Alright, let's try this again, but without using any essence at all. It will be a pure test of skill…"
Sure, Nephis had one more core than him. But with all things considered, if both of them neglected using essence or augmenting themselves with their Abilities, the gap in physical prowess should not have been too overwhelming.
Once again, they stood opposite each other and concentrated. Each discarded their broken weapons and took new ones.
A moment later, they clashed.
This time, things went better. However… not by much.
One of the problems was their battle techniques. Due to Shadow Dance and his familiarity with Nephis, it didn't take Sunny long to sense the core of her style. It had changed a lot and matured over the past two years, but so did his mastery of his Aspect Legacy.
Although Sunny could not master the style yet, he attuned himself to its flow and cadence enough to be able to predict some of Neph's moves with a good degree of precision.
The problem, then… was that Changing Star herself could do more or less the same. Her ability to discern, predict, and control patterns of combat was not based in affinity to shadows, and was sufficiently different from it… but achieved a similar result. It was the product of her talent, training, and incredible combat intelligence.
As the result, Sunny was able to somewhat predict what Nephis was thinking of doing, while she could predict that he had predicted her actions, and change her approach on the fly… which he would also discern, and so on.
It was very confusing. Sunny had never found himself in a battle that demanded so much mental gymnastics before. He was not even entirely sure what was happening! There had to be a solution for this predicament, of course, but he had no time to come up with one yet.
However… that was just half of the problem.
The other half was that Neph's essence control was so rudimentary and bad that she couldn't even prevent herself from instinctively using it. As the result, Sunny had to endure sudden outbursts of speed, strength, and agility that were too chaotic to predict. Because he was holding himself back, handling this pressure was rather troublesome.
At some point, Changing Star overdid it during one of her strikes, causing her second training sword to shatter, as well. The jagged end slid forward and bit into Sunny's cheek.
Drops of blood fell to the floor.
Sunny jerked back and grimaced, feeling that the left side of his face was seriously torn. The wound was bad enough to cause Blood Weave to shed a few drops. It was nothing that he wouldn't be able to heal quickly, of course… but it still hurt!
...Before he could say anything, Nephis suddenly reached forward and placed a cool palm on his torn cheek. In the next moment, a brilliant white radiance illuminated the underground dojo.
His pain instantly disappeared, replaced instead by relief and gentle warmth. He felt... he felt as though he was being cleansed by something pure, precious, and sacred.
A pristine white flame.
Standing close to each other, the two of them froze for a moment. Neph's hand rested on Sunny's cheek, which was swiftly healing. The soft radiance emanating from her skin reflected in her calm, grey eyes.
Beneath that calmness, there were pain and suffering in them.
Sunny moved slightly, wishing to say that she didn't have to do this.
Before he had the time to speak, however, something unexpected happened.
The white flames suddenly seeped under his skin…
And then engulfed him.