Sunny took a step back, every muscle in his body coiling tight. His grip on the tachi tightened and his eyes remained fixed on the black coffin. For the first time in months, he was scared.
He waited… for a long time, nothing happened.
"Damn," Sunny muttered, dragging a hand through his sweat-ridden hair. "This heat's finally cracked me. Hallucinating coffins with people in them. Brilliant." He let out a dry, humorless laugh. "As if that's even possible… right?"
He called up his runes.
The familiar screen shimmered before his eyes. His gaze moved down the list until it found what it was looking for — [Fated]
Sunny swallowed.
With that accursed attribute, one could never be too sure.
He leaned forward — peering into the lightless interior of the stone box.
Suddenly, a hand shot out without warning.
It moved so fast Sunny's body reacted before his mind could catch up. He jerked back, his sword already rising in a defensive arc.
Long, pale fingers gripped onto the coffin's edge desperately. Nails split as it clamped down on the edge. A second hand followed an instant later, slamming down on the opposite rim with enough force to send a faint tremor through the sand beneath Sunny's boots.
Then, slowly, agonizingly — the figure began to haul itself upright.
Sunny did not move.
He stood still, his sword poised.
The figure that surfaced was not what Sunny expected. It was not a twisted Nightmare Creature. Not a mummified corpse animated through some ancient curse.
It was... a young man.
Tall — tall enough to make Nephis raise her head to meet his gaze. His skin was impossibly smooth and pale, the kind of pallor that had never known the harsh sun or the biting wind. Not a single scar marred it, not a grain of desert dust clung to him.
He was broad shouldered and built like one of the knights from stories — a real prince charming. His long blonde hair — almost golden fell to his eyes, framing a regal kingly look.
His eyes — green, deep and piercing locked onto Sunny and a faint weary smile tugged on his lips. He drew a single, rasping breath and raised his hands — basking in the light.
Sunny retreated half a step, without letting his guard down.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked cautiously.
The young man lowered his hands slowly, "Ah! That's a bit blunt don't you think so?"
Sunny tilted his head, "Blunt?"
A short, dry snort escaped him.
"Yeah, sure. Because what I really need right now is manners lessons from the corpse that just crawled out of a rock. My bad. Should've started with 'hello, mysterious stranger, would you like some tea while you explain why my blood apparently works better than a damn alarm clock?'"
The man nodded in agreement, "I agree with you. But you have to consider this from my position too. I just woke up from a long nap and the first thing I see is a petite young man wearing that fearsome mask and pointing a sword at me and asking me to identify myself."
Sunny's eyes narrowed behind the mask. The word petite landed like a lazy slap, but his face didn't twitch. "Real original."
"We started off on the wrong foot. Let's start over," The young man straightened, rolling his shoulders. "My name's Mahoraga, care to tell me yours?"
Sunny stared at him for a long moment.
"You can decide to not answer me but in the end we're the only two humans in this vast desert. You need my help, and I need yours."
Sunny stayed silent for a moment. Then he reached up and dismissed [Weaver's Mask].
"Sunless but you can call me Sunny," he said at last.
Mahoraga smiled warmly, "Sunny? Poetic name."
After a moment, Sunny asked the question that bothered him. "How long?"
Mahoraga raised his eyebrow, "Pardon?"
"The coffin. How long were you in it?"
"I'm not entirely sure," he admitted, glancing down at his body, he made a guess. "I look eighteen or nineteen so maybe six years?"
Sunny stared at him. "Six years," he repeated.
"Give or take."
"You've been sealed inside a stone coffin in the middle of the Nightmare Desert since you were twelve."
"Yes," he answered simply.
"Someone put you there." Sunny asked after a moment, "Why?"
Mahoraga's expression didn't change — the smile remained but the warmth vanished.
Sunny held his gaze for a moment, then added quietly, "If you don't want to answer that, it's okay."
"No it's alright." He waved a hand dismissively. "Dear old dad trapped me in the cage and then fucked off somewhere."
"Why?" Sunny asked promptly.
To which Mahoraga merely shrugged, "How would I know… I'll ask him before I kill him."
"Fair enough," he said, and started walking.
Mahoraga blinked in surprise, normally, people would say something to bombshells like that. Judgment, perhaps. But Sunny had simply nodded and kept walking — which he found fascinating.
"You aren't going to weigh in on that?"
Sunny glanced at him briefly over his shoulder. "Would it change anything?"
"No bu—"
"Then why waste the breath." Sunny turned back. "Your father sealed you in a box at twelve and left. What you do with that is your business."
He took three more steps before stopping abruptly.
His hand rose to his face as [Weaver'sMask] flowed back into existence. He looked over his shoulders at Mahoraga and asked hastily, "Can you fight?"
Mahoraga frowned, "Why is that your second question?"
"Because a pack of something large and unpleasant is going to come out of the sand in approximately —" Sunny glanced at the dunes ahead, "Now."
The sand exploded.
Not from one point — but from five.
Five geysers of white sand erupted in a wide encircling arc. Sunny moved without thought, he summoned his memories and immediately wrapped his shadows around his blade.
But before he could attack, Mahoraga stepped forward. He looked back at Sunny and declared coldly, "Let me handle this."
Saying that, he vanished from his sight — leaving Sunny by himself in the encirclement.
…
To answer Sunny's question — Mahoraga could fight, he could fight well.
Five Awakened Beasts lay ruined across the dune — colossal, armored behemoths with segmented carapaces with mandibles that could even give an Ascended a run for their money. But their coordinated ambush had lasted perhaps a few seconds against Mahoraga.
Terrifying, Sunny thought, Truly terrifying.
One had been cleaved from crown to abdomen in a single, perfect vertical stroke, its two halves peeling apart like overripe fruit. Another had its head removed mid-lunge, the severed neck spraying highly acidic blood across the desert. The remaining three had been dismantled with surgical precision.
Sunny stood motionless for a long minute. [Weaver's Mask] hid whatever emotion flickered across his concealed face.
Mahoraga walked back through the wreckage without hurry. He looked exactly as he had before the fight, his hair was barely tousled and a grin was plastered across his face.
"What was that?"
Mahoraga tilted his head, "What was what?"
Sunny sighed heavily, 'The awareness of a rock. I would love to see him interact with Neph.'
"How did you manage to shrug off the Ivory Reaver's venom?"
"Oh that," he raised his head, "It's my dormant ability, I can adapt to any and all phenomena once I've been exposed to it enough."
"Wait, any?" Sunny asked, surprised at the sheer power of his aspect.
"Yep, any." His tone stayed casual, almost light. "I've adapted to pain for instance, that's why I didn't scream when the venom fell on my shoulder. I couldn't feel it at all."
Sunny didn't respond — more so, he couldn't. He was stumped, to the extent of his knowledge even divine aspects weren't that strong. For the first time, he understood how Kai felt while talking to him.