Shadow Slave | School Days

 Sunny stared Caster in the eye as blood trickled down his form, he no longer resembled a human, more of a red devil who was designed to kill. Running his hands through his hair, Sunny's indifferent gaze melted into a smile filled with mirth and crazed fury as he wiped blood from his brow.

"Swing your fucking sword, hit me!" Sunny growled, Caster took a step back, the grip he had on his jian involuntarily slipping as he swung his sword at Sunny's collarbone. The blade met bone as it ricochetted backward, even without defending Sunny was far too strong for him.

A thin line of blood trickled from Sunny's shoulder as the gash quickly closed, Caster took two more involuntary steps backward as words were caught in his throat. "You're a fucking monster! That's all you've ever been! You ruin the lives of everyone around you mongrel scum!" Cocking his head to the side, Sunny stared at him passively before his smile widened.

"You're right, so come kill me. This is your second try." With a roar of rage, Caster slashed his sword at Sunny's face, cutting his cheek open as his blow missed its mark by a few inches. Sunny's facial muscles and skin hung loosely, quickly reconnecting as Sunny continued to stalk toward Caster as blood oozed from his still open wound.

"You better kill me with this one." Sunny mumbled, Caster blitzed toward him with blinding speed, sending a slash downward as he closed his eyes and awaited the sound of his sword hitting flesh. Yet, due to him willingly blinding himself Caster's attack had missed it's mark, slicing the ground next to Sunny as the shorter man looked at him with disdain.

Before he knew it, Caster's legs were kicked out from beneath him as Sunny grabbed him by the hair. Slamming his face into the ground, Sunny watched blood fly indifferently as his face twisted into a frown. "I don't get it, why can't you fucking kill me?" Sunny slammed his head against the ground once more, teeth flying in multiple directions as Caster screamed for help.

He had promised to kill Caster, but not quickly.

Slamming his head against the floor once more, Sunny felt his skull crack open as he raised himself to his feet, grabbing Caster by the hair and repositioning his remaining teeth across a curb in the hallway. Stomping the back of his head brutally, Sunny watched his skull split into two pieces as he wiped his foot across Caster's clothing.

Moving to walk away, Sunny keeled over with shock as he vomited a wad of blood. The amount of poison he had ingested into his system was monumental, it was slowly damaging his internal organs and would take weeks to heal. Yet Sunny didn't care. Wiping his mouth, he continued his aimless walk down the hallway.

Days had passed; Sunny had run out of people to kill a long time ago. Suddenly, incredulously, a man wearing a red robe with a blade at his side paced towards him with a happy smile. He bore two moon tattoo's on the back of each of his hands and hummed a happy tune as Sunny took in his presence.

'Noctis, from the looks of it he's about as strong as Mordret maybe even stronger now.' Sunny's eyes narrowed further 'Maybe if it's him... he can kill me.' Noctis stopped in front of Sunny as his smile widened, pulling out his phone before turning it around and showing it to Sunny.

It was a picture of Nephis. Sound asleep in a dishevelled building and medicine at her side.

"Lost from Light, or Sunny as she calls you. I think this is enough to say I've paid my debts to you." A slight frown arrived on his face as he noticed Sunny's injured form, raising a hand to his nose, Noctis pulled out some perfume and sprayed his body, taking a step back away from Sunny.

"You smell disgusting, well not really, you don't smell of anything. But everywhere around you reeks of death, was the breakup really that bad?" Noctis melodious voice rang out through the hallways as he flicked through his phone and played some strangely romantic music. Doing a little twirl, Noctis stared at Sunny teasingly before smiling at him.

"Oh no Nephis! You were the love of my life don't leave me!" He teased, Sunny continued to stare at him blankly as Noctis continued to dance around with a large smile on his face, acting out a breakup scene that Sunny didn't recognise for a few moments.

"You're no fun you know that? So, tell me, what do you want from me now?" Sunny's reply could barely be heard, his voice hoarse and feeble yet Noctis heard every word. "Kill... me." Noctis stared at him with a grimace before pulling his sword from it's sheath.

A beautiful blue long sword emerged, Noctis held it firmly in one hand before swinging it forcefully. Just as Mordret once had done, a vacuum of air and a thunderclap resonated throughout the empty hallways, slicing lingering corpses apart as it flew past Sunny's head.

"See! Your muscles started twitching in preparation to dodge my attack! You don't even want to kill yourself!" Noctis roared with fury, sheathing his sword and pacing toward Sunny. Grabbing him by the shoulders roughly, Noctis stared him in the eye, his brunette orbs piercing into Sunny's blackened ones with unmatched fury.

"Get yourself together for fucks sake! You're a killer but who fucking cares? What would happen to the lives of all the people you've killed, just for their killer to die for nothing in a downtrodden place like this? Would they have died for nothing? Do their lives mean nothing!?"

Noctis shook Sunny's body firmly, forcing his empty eyes to focus on his own before letting out a sigh. Despite his attempts to appear nonchalant, his indifferent gaze quickly conceded to one of fury as Noctis eyes flashed with anger once more.

"It is the cross of all who have taken a life must bear. You must make the deaths that you have caused mean something, your atonement is living a life which deserved their death as a prerequisite! I don't care whatever issue's you're going through, but suicide is never an option, not for you!"

Letting go of Sunny's shoulders, Noctis walked past him, glancing backward before letting loose a sigh. "And to make it worse, you can't even pay me. Also ask the readers, you dying would be boring!" Sunny turned around slowly with a confused expression on his face, yet Noctis had already disappeared from view, blitzing into the distance farther than Sunny's eyes could see, leaving Sunny to continue his lonely walk.

It had been a week since she and Sunny had separated, Nephis had continually been receiving information on his position from Revel and the plan to intercept him had already been completed. Soon it would be time for her to see Sunny again.

Her relationship with Revel had become more strained as Nephis continued to unveil details of what had happened that night, Revel continued to offer her no reply, only responding when it had to do with Rain's wellbeing as the two spent their days in uncomfortable silence.

However, the silence had temporarily been thrown to the side as she and Revel sat down to have a conversation about what actually happened between Sunny and her parents. Nephis didn't quite care about the details of their murder, instead, she was interested in the money.

"I don't know what you expect me to tell you, Sunny only told me one night while you were asleep that he asked a man named Noctis to take care of you should he be unable to in future. I assume that's who he's been going to contact whenever he disappeared those days, yet I have no clue who Noctis is."

Revel stared at Nephis expression blankly as she watched the younger woman's eyes widen "Noctis? He was the one who saved me from those soldiers and gave me medicine! So, he's had something like this planned out for this long." Burying her face in her hands, Nephis sighed loudly as nervousness swam through her body.

"How do I even face him, what do I even say?" Before Revel could offer her reply, which was surely laced with insults, Rain appeared in the room with a frown on her face. "Who's Sunny? You guys keep talking about him like I should know who he is but don't tell me anything!" Nephis stared at her blankly, unsure how to reply before Revel walked up to her and patted her on the head.

"Sunny is...someone very special to you. He's sacrificed so much for you that you wouldn't even know. But that's a matter for another time." Rain stared at Revel curiously, studying her expression before her frown grew slightly. "But Aunty Revel! Why haven't I seen someone so amazing before?" A kind smile was all she received in response as Revel knelt to her eye level.

"Because it could be dangerous. Some very, very bad people are after him and he's only trying to keep you safe. Like a superhero!" Upon hearing the word superhero, Rain smiled brightly as she mimicked the pose of a superhero, running around slightly as Revel offered her a light laugh.

Raising herself from her seat, Nephis studied her form, now devoid of bandages and injuries as she sighed to herself. It was time to see Sunny.

Her plan was quite simple, the path Sunny was taking was a direct route to the southern quadrant, yet he still had quite far to go before he actually reached there. So, Nephis would take a shortcut which only required travelling an hour or two from the trading hub to intercept him and hopefully restrain him.

'Restraining Sunny, but this time he might actually be trying to kill me. Is that even possible? I've never seen anyone ever stop him once he get's going.' Nephis thought to herself, dressing up Rain in Sunny's spare clothes as the two exited Revel's tent.

Grabbing her by the shoulder, Nephis turned around to see Revel's piercing gaze burning a hole through her forehead as Revel stared her in the eye. Without saying a word, Revel handed her a pistol, fully loaded with seven bullets as she let loose a friendly smile.

"That's for you, if you lose, kill yourself with that before Sunny gets to you."

Nephis could only receive the gun and turn around silently, sliding it into her pocket as she removed the bullets. She had no idea how to use a gun, but she was sure her intuition would guide her if the moment needed it. Packing food and water for Rain, the two quickly disappeared from view.

It was time to meet Sunny.