Shadow Slave | School Days

Standing before the ruined expanse of Valor's former stronghold, Mordret could only satiate his hunger for their deaths with a slight smile as he obliterated buildings left and right, not bothering to spare his acquaintances a passing glance as he did so.

Regardless of if he found it empty, he didn't quite care. Soon enough, he would have to disappear once more to return to his hidden hobbies, so, destroying as much of his father's legacy as possible was quite a pleasant pastime.

Meanwhile, Nephis and the rest of the group were currently throwing aside large boulders, searching for any trace of where they could have been taking Sunny to no avail. Nephis' mind ran through a thousand thoughts per minute, yet still she found that there were no leads.

Pushing aside a large boulder, Effie turned to Nephis with a downtrodden expression, clearly disappointed in their failure. "Neph, I don't think he's here." She mumbled, yet her white haired companion heard her loud and clear as she snapped her head backward with a furious expression.

"I know that I'm looking for where those fiends could have taken him." The idea of Sunny remaining in a room with Morgan while utterly immobile horrified her, who knows what sort of psychological torture she could be putting him through? Each second she spent without a clue was one more in which Sunny could be broken beyond repair.

A notification flashed through her phone, causing Nephis to stiffen entirely as everyone present snapped their eyes toward her. Pulling out her phone, she noticed with wide eyes and baited breathe that she had received a notification from Sunny.

"No, this can't be him. He can't move." Nephis gasped, clicking on his profile and moving with shaking hands to open the video in which she had been sent. There was a slight flicker of hope, hope that Sunny found the strength to make one final desperate act of defiance allowing her even the slightest clue.

And yet, all she received upon opening the video was Morgan's velvet eyes. Mordret's face contorted into one of sick, sadistic fury as he heard her voice, Nephis' face becoming stone still as she saw the other woman pan the camera around herself.

"Hi, Nephis or should I say Changing Star! How do you like my room?" She said, panning the camera around her excellently furniture room before panning it down to her thighs. "So, I hope you wouldn't mind that I took my property back from you, after all, I had him first so it's only fair that I keep him, no? Sunless, tell Changing Star how much you like it here!"

Nephis could only watch on in wide eyes as Morgan grasped Sunny by the back of his head, raising him so he was seated upright as he looked at the camera with an expression of horror written across his eyes. Suddenly, Morgan cut a thin line over his collarbone, blood spilling slightly before the wound quickly closed.

"See! He's perfect, a perfect weapon from the immortal flame! Anyways, I'll have to reset all the... imprints that you have done to his body, after all, I can't have him thinking of other women, right? So, yeah. You've lost this round, and the next time you see this divine specimen here, I don't even think he'll remember you!"

Just like that, the video shut off. Nephis didn't move, staring blankly at her phone for a few moments before turning to Mordret. "It's ok if I kill your sister before you, right?" Mordret could only shake his head firmly at such a request. "If you do that, I'd kill you. No hard feelings of course, but she's in my top five list of people I want to kill."

Not offering a reply, Nephis could only stare emptily at the rubble around her before Effie finally broke the silence. "Who's in the top five?" Mordret smiled widely at her, his sharklike teeth showing in full form. "I'm glad you asked, so firstly I'd like to give some honourable mentions."

Pausing, he placed a hand on his chin and decided with a triumphant hum. "The entire country of Poland and Russia, I don't like their food. And for the main five, we have: Anyone in Valor, Morgan, Asterion, Anvil, and finally, the last daughter of the immortal flame."

Everyone present stiffened slightly, careful to hide it from Mordret's keen eyes as Effie cocked her head to the side, intending to sell her act as best as possible before he noticed. "Why the last daughter of the immortal flame? Did she have anything to do with what... happened to you?"

Mordret nodded his head, his joking expression vanishing as he focused his eyes on her. "She's the entire reason that they began their experiments in the first place, to make her a slave who could defend her from the entirety of the underworld. Now, granted, she had nothing to do with it but if she just never existed the world would be a marginally better place. Three hundred children barring Sunless and I would still be alive!"

Although Valor's white ghost was not a man of many morals, he still prided himself as someone who's actions generally trended toward making the world a better place even despite his utterly impeccable ability to ignore all evils around him. To him, Nephis was a stain who needed to be removed.

Checking an invisible watch, Mordret bowed theatrically before snaking his hand around Effie's waist. "Well, it's been fun, but I have duties to attend to." Pulling her in, he planted a kiss on her forehead before disappearing in a gust of wind, everyone waited a few moments, beads of sweat pouring from Samara's head as she stalked toward Nephis.

"Last daughter of the immortal flame. Hm, I wonder who that could be?" She asked mockingly, only receiving a blank stare from Nephis as she turned around to face the group. "Searching forever is only going to get us easily killed, we're far better off if we return to where we came and regroup once we have leads."

Her tone was firm, leaving no room for argument as she received a symphony of nods. Despite her words, Nephis had no intention of following them. After all, she needed to collect Rain from the trading hub. As the group turned around, Nephis prepared herself to split off from them only for two figures to slam into the ground in front of them.

Seishan and Eubin landed in front of the group, holding Rain in tow as Eubin stared at the group with an exasperated expression. "Did you really think that Valor would stay here after Sunny killed three hundred thousand people?" She exclaimed, eliciting looks of shock from everyone present as Kai took a slight step back.

"Sunny did...what?" This time, it was Seishan's turn to speak as she glanced at the unconscious Rain. "Listen again Nightengale, good music by the way. They tried to capture Sunny with three hundred thousand men, Sunny killed all of them. I watched it live; he redirected a fucking missile!"

The pride that lingered in her voice was barely concealed, she was in awe while she watched. What Sunny had done on the battlefield was impossible by every facet of the word. She even found herself exclaiming lightly as Sunny stood and redirected a missile back into the air. But, she wouldn't let them know about that.

Seishan had priorities, and one of them was getting the girl in Eubin's arms to complete safety. They had waded through a massacre, almost half of the trading hub had been killed by what looked like two attacks. Yet, Rain remained unharmed. Her resemblance to Sunny was so stark that Seishan continued to resist a smile upon studying her features, knowing that the man she loved still had a reason to keep going.

"Look, not only did you do something fucking stupid, but you also brought Mordret of fucking Valor with you! Do you know what that guy would do to you if he found out your secret?" Eubin's piercing gaze remained locked on Nephis as she tore a hole through her body with a glare.

"I didn't have any other fucking choice, how else was I supposed to get past Noctis!?" Nephis exclaimed, shifting to take Rain from their arms as Effie cocked her head to the side. "Who's the girl, and why does she look so much like Sunny? Wait, don't tell me... he has a daughter!"

A light laugh escaped Seishan and Eubin's lips at the implication, and the glare she was giving Eubin put images in her head that caused a blush to fight toward her face as she took a deep breathe to clear her mind. "This is Sunny's sister. And I'm taking custody of her."

Immediately, the mood in the clearing shifted as Nephis' eyes hardened. She didn't trust Eubin, that had been the one message that Revel had told her with utmost seriousness despite her joking attitude. And leaving her with Rain would be placing Sunny's biggest weakness right into Song's hands.

"I'm not letting you take her, who knows what you might do with her. Maybe use her as a bargaining chip for Song? In fact, I'd rather trust Seishan with Rain than you." Nephis said, her glare piercing and focused as Eubin burst out into laughter.

"Do you think if I was here working for Song, it'd be just me? Let's be honest, they've given us all orders to do whatever it takes to secure Sunny, and here I am, lending you a helping hand out of my own free will just to be faced with suspicion. A bit unfair, no?"

Despite this, Nephis' eyes only narrowed as Seishan stepped between the two women. "I don't really care what you guys have against each other, but I'm just going to ask a simple, clarifying question. Ok?" The two women's eyes snapped towards her as their glares intensified.

"Do you have anywhere safe you could keep Rain, where she would be comfortable and not afraid?" Nephis hesitated to answer, the Colosseum or Orion's radiant castle as he called it was currently being suspected on the grounds that they were colluding with Sunny. So, moving her there would only put Rain in the way of more harm from stronger people.

And yet, the idea of relinquishing Rain to Eubin terrified her to the core for reasons she couldn't explain. Instead, Eubin took initiative. "She can live in my house, I have traps set all over it that will trigger if anyone unwanted enters, and I have protection from Ki Song herself. So, it's only wise that I keep her. Especially when I don't run around with Mordret all the time."

The slight jab at Nephis caused her eyebrow to twitch as she moved to close in on the other woman, only being blocked by Seishan as she frowned in barely restrained anger. "I'm only going to ask this once, why are you going to far to help us? You have no reason to!" Eubin stared at her with a complicated expression, placing a hand on her chin in contemplation as she prepared her answer.

"Well, I'm interested in people. You just happen to know one of the most interesting (and attractive) people. In fact, not one of, the most interesting person. I wish to see how his story concludes, and as it stands, you're inhibiting the safety of people who are necessary in his progression."

Walking towards Nephis, she jabbed her in the chest with her finger. A wide smile arriving on her face as she prepared a snide remark that had been welling in the depths of her soul.

"In other words, I'm better at loving Sunny than you."