The cathedral was bright as always, the sun illuminating it giving an almost golden-like appearance.
The crowds entering the cathedral made it clear to Sunny what day it was– Sunday. 'The sun's day' as the priests would call it.
A day Sunny truly loathed.
Merging with the crowds, Sunny hesitantly entered the cathedral,avoiding the ushers that were guiding the congregation to their seats.
Sunny had demanded to return home certain that this is what he wanted. Areste's words, however, shook him. If he stayed then he would lead the anomalies here.
He hated the elders, without doubt, but it is his siblings that he feared for.
He tried hiding behind the person seated in front of him as the sons of the sun emerged, claded in golden flowing robes. His mouth tasted sour at the sight of the robes and the elders leading the congregation in worship.
His heart started racing when he realised one of them was missing, the one who once had the red ribbon around her waist– Halo.
"No," he whispered to himself under shaky breath, gripping the hem of his clothes.
Clothes that he now realised was a hospital gown that looked all too much like a dress.
Sigh.
It, however, was not too much of a concern. Nobody even seemed to notice anything wrong with him. Everyone always wore white or golden to the cathedral so a girl in a white dress wouldn't really attract any attention.
His attention remained on his siblings. A gut feeling told him that this was a bad idea, but still he wished to see his siblings,with the hope that Halo was simply running a bit late.
He knew it was too unlikely for the Halo to be late to this. She wasn't him, she couldn't have insulted the arch priest and got kicked out of the day's serving.
He rose as everyone else did, as customary to begin the ceremonious service. He lowered his head and turned away as the sons of the son, alongside two elders and an arch priest walked past, to begin their walk back to the podium.
Symbolic, that's what they called it.
They would walk from the door to the podium with the Sun sigil held high to symbolise the rising of the sun, and when up at the podium, it sumbolised the high noon–when their god poured down blessings and protection unto his followers.
Nonsense, Sunny had called it countless times over, yet he had carried that sigil himself on multiple occasions, every one of which he considered throwing it on the floor.
Was their god really waiting for noon so he could bless people? Was he incapable of doing it on any other time? Sunny had asked before on multiple occasions alongside countless other questions. Of course, they were never answered.
Blessings and protections.
From the same god that killed the parents of an infant leaving him orphaned to be imprisoned by his little cult. Such benevolence had to be applauded.
When the sigil arrived at the podium everyone bowed, uttering the words Sunny could never bring himself to say, words that made his ears sore upon hearing them.
"Praise He who is to be applauded for light, hail He who protects all and rewards the righteous. Glory to he whose judgement is most just and whose light vanquishes all evil and darkness. The Lord whose divine light illuminates the heavens and the earth. May you be with us, great Sun."
The moment the world's were uttered, Sunny almost walked out. 'He who protects all' where was he when Sunny's parents were murdered? That's right– He was the murderer. For him to be praised and worshiped as a just god, one of protection and benevolence simply made Sunny's mouth bitter.
The arch priest began his banter as he always did when everyone sat, "Praise He, indeed, for without Him, what would the earths be, if not the domain of evil and darkness?"
As the sermon continued, Sunny couldn't help but watch his siblings. He concluded that returning to them was simply too great a risk to take. Every moment he spent so close, anomalies could be approaching the cathedral.
His presence placed everyone in that cathedral at risk. He didn't care about neither the congregation nor the elders, but his siblings...
His eyes accidentally met with Luce's and her eyes widened as she nudged on their brother, Orion, signaling to Sunny, clearly trying to withhold her excitement.
Sunny immediately sank into his chair before Orion's eyes met him. Maybe they could convince Luce that she had just imagined it. She was sad the last time he had left. He had been gone for over two weeks now without any contact whatsoever, leaving them in the hands of the elders.
Now for him to return just for him to tell them that he had to disappear forever because of anomalies and systems and other nonsense he didn't even understand wouldn't be good.
System users aren't allowed to reveal anything to non system users anyways, there wouldn't even be an explanation.
From where he hid, Sunny could see Luce browsing through the congregation around where he was, in search of him.
Lucky for him, the sermon was coming to an end and as such, the sons of the sun had to rise and stand at the steps of the podium, facing the arch priest, away from the congregation.
Everyone rose to their feet, bowing their heads as they spoke that same prayer that Sunny ever so hated, "Praise He who is to be applauded for light, hail He who protects all and rewards the righteous. Glory to he whose judgement is most just and whose light vanquishes all evil and darkness. The Lord whose divine light illuminates the heavens and the earth. May you be with us, great Sun."
People started to walk out of the cathedral, talking amongst themselves, the noise of children playing, running through the people and mother's chasing after them, men laughing heartily as they discussed where to go down a drink, teens taking photos of the place and of themselves.
Through the chaos Sunny locked his gaze on the podium. After the sermon the sons of the sun had to accompany the sigil back into the chambers.
The look on Luce however showed hesitation. She wanted to dive into the crowd in search of Sunny. She was certain he was there. She had seen him. But still, she could not defy when she was led to the back chambers. Defiance did not burn within her with the same brutality as it did in Sunny.
"Hey, girl, you come here often?" A guy, around Sunny's age approached.
He had his hair pulled back as if he had done it only a moment ago, and ironed white shirt and beige pants. He was handsome, that much Sunny had to admit.
"I...uh, I saw you and thought I could approach and maybe ask for your number," the guy said, a bit of nervousness in his tone.
From behind him, on the seat across, Sunny could see others looking over, perhaps friends of the guy.
Sunny had been called a girl many times. He looked the part, most definitely. But he had never been approached like this.
On some occasions when he was approached by drunks when he had escaped from the cathedral with some of his siblings for some fun. But at that time it wasn't serious, he was tipsy and could barely even find any seriousness in the situation, but this...
" I...uuh," Sunny stumbled through his words.
"She swings the other way buck, you know..." Moonlight spoke, plopping herself next to Sunny, forcing a gasp out of him.
She wrapped one arm around his shoulders and the other through the front, her hands meeting before the guy, her index and middle fingers held out on each hand as scissors before the scissors started colliding with each other.
Without a word, the guy disappeared into the crowd back to his friends in defeat.
"Hey get off!" Sunny pushed Moonlight off of him.
"Aww, really babes, what, you into that guy now and don't love me anymore?" She asked in a mock sobbing tone.
Luce ran out onto the podium and into the leaving crowds in casual clothing. Immediately Sunny noticed her, he rose and blended into the people to leave, with Moonlight following.
"Aren't you supposed to be in an ICU or something after the thing almost killed you?" Sunny asked as they made for the gates.
"Yeah, that was like two weeks ago... But hey, I hear you finished your first tribulation huh, almost record time," Moonlight commented.
"Yeah..."
"You don't sound so happy."
"How did you know where to find me exactly?"
"We found out with Luna about four days ago, just in case you never woke up."
Sunny finally stopped once outside the gate and around the corner, grabbing her by the collar.
"If you're here to try convincing me to go back to SAGS, I'm not coming. Not after I blindly got sent to fight multiple anomalies and wasn't even given a heads up about the tribulations."
She looked down at him and placed her hands on his.
"Sunny, first of all, I never knew hospital gowns could ever look so good on someone, maybe we really should become girlfriends. Also, runners are supposed to be weak, they're basically like being told to kill worms while there's dragons out there. Only this time the worms were for some reason overpowered. And tribulations usually come a bit longer after you get the system."
He released his grip on her. He remembered Areste mentioning something about anomalies coming more powerful and in greater numbers for him. They hadn't endangered him, he had endangered Moonlight.
"There's usually only one runner when there's a report, but I could easily defeat a handful of them before that happened. They shouldn't even be able to damage agent protection in any way." She shrugged, "new things everyday am I right? Now about my proposal..."
"Proposal?"
"Do you see how that hospital looks on you, hoe? You really should switch to wearing dresses and being my girlfriend."
Sunny looked at her for a moment, his eyes darting up and down, getting a good look at her.
"I'm guessing your brain hasn't healed yet? And just what exactly are you doing here?"
"Well, you do understand that anomalies are usually attracted to new system users, right?"
"So you're here to what, protect me?" He tilted his head lightly.
"Basically." She tilted hers in a similar manner.