Sunny didn't hesitate.
He surged forward the moment the words left Mahoraga's mouth. The sudden burst of speed shattered the silence between them. His shadows stitched themselves to him — augmenting his whole body.
Sunny's strikes were sharp, yet reckless — attempting to make Mahoraga overcommit in his strikes.
But he answered each movement with ease. Their swords clashed against each other in a melodious rhythm.
Sparks scattered with each blow, neither of them let the other gain an advantage. But in the contest of strength — Sunny was losing. Each impact traveled up Sunny's arms like striking a wall. The difference in strength between them was obvious but Sunny didn't slow down.
If anything, he grew more aggressive.
He stepped in closer, twisted his body, letting one strike glance away before sliding past Mahoraga's guard. For the briefest moment, an opening appeared.
Sunny took it instantly.
The tachi drove forward.
The blade sank into Mahoraga's arm with a heavy resistance. Sunny expected him to pull away, to scream.
Instead, Mahoraga simply looked down at the sword buried in his flesh, then tightened his arm. Before Sunny could retreat, he drove his knee into his solar plexus.
The blow crushed the air from his lungs and lifted him off his feet. Sunny was sent skidding across the sand, his body tumbling before finally grinding to a halt several meters away.
The force tore the sword from Sunny's grasp, leaving the blade lodged in Mahoraga's arm.
Sunny forced himself upright, his breath ragged and his hair slick with desert sand. On the other side, Mahoraga looked calm, as if the tachi piercing his arm was nothing more than an inconvenience.
Sunny growled, "Damnation," he muttered.
The tachi quickly vanished.
A beat later, it reappeared in his hand—
But before his fingers could close around the hilt, a massive shadow swallowed the ground in front of him.
Mahoraga was already there.
His figure towering over him and his short sword rested against Sunny's throat.
"You lose."
"..."
He didn't move.
Mahoraga looked down at the boy trembling beneath the edge of his blade. His eyes burned with anger and deep exhaustion.
Mahoraga retracted the gladius. The weapon dissolved into motes of light as he stood back.
At that moment, Sunny finally spoke up.
"I had your arm," he scowled, "In a real fight, you'd be crippled."
"In a real fight," Mahoraga countered, "I would have used that grip to pull you onto my sword while yours was still buried in my arm."
"You're obsessed with landing a fatal strike," he continued, "You see an opening and you treat it like a gift. It isn't. An opening is a lure. Every time you reach for it, you have to ask: what am I leaving behind?"
He took a step back. The wound on his arm was already knitting together, the flesh pulling shut and the blood began to dry.
"You are afraid of staking your life because that is the only thing that matters to you. But until you're willing to throw a piece of it away to buy a victory, you'll never truly win."
Sunny stared at the drying blood on Mahoraga's skin, his chest still burning with every shallow gasp.
Afraid of staking my life?
The irony was almost enough to make him laugh, if it didn't hurt so much to breathe. He had spent every waking second of the last year dangling over the abyss.
He was merely a Sleeper, yet he had slaughtered Awakened and Fallen Nightmare Creatures alike. He had overthrown an entire kingdom and slain the king's hideous guard. He had even faced a Legacy in single combat — one who had trained far longer, under far greater tutelage — and lived. And beyond all that, he had uncovered the forbidden lineage of an unspeakable, insidious entity.
He had staked his life a thousand times.
But maybe, Mahoraga was right.
He had always staked his life to keep it, never to risk it for victory.
"Easy for you to say," Sunny rasped, his voice dripping with venom. Sunny rasped, his voice dripping with his usual venom. "You're built like a fortress. I get hit once, and I'm a smear on the ground. If I don't value my life, no one else is going to do it for me."
Mahoraga studied him for a moment. Then his brow furrowed slightly.
"Why are you being so rude?"
Sunny blinked, the sudden shift in Mahoraga's tone catching him off guard. The question was so simple, so painfully mundane compared to the life-and-death lecture he'd been receiving, that it made his blood boil.
"Rude?" Sunny spat, "You just kicked the air out of my lungs, pinned me to the dirt like an insect, and spent the last ten minutes telling me everything I do is wrong. And you're worried about my tone?"
He pushed himself up, ignoring the protest of his bruised ribs.
"I'm sorry, did I hurt your feelings while you were busy reminding me how easy it is for me to bleed? Must be nice," Sunny snarled, stepping into Mahoraga's space despite the massive difference in their stature.
"Must be real nice to stand there and talk about 'sacrifice' when you're a titan who can't be hurt. You want to know why I'm rude? Because I'm tired! I'm tired of being the underdog. I'm tired of people like you and Nephis looking down on me like I'm some dog that can help you."
Mahoraga listened quietly, then scoffed.
"First of all," he said flatly, "you're the one who asked for help. I didn't offer. And now you're complaining because I gave it.
"Second, don't flatter yourself. I don't need you to get out of here. I could manage that on my own. What use would a third-rate Sleeper who can barely hold his ground be to me?"
He shrugged.
"The only reason you're still breathing next to me is because you happened to free me from that cage. That's it."
Mahoraga tilted his head, studying Sunny for a moment.
"Whatever mess you've got going on with that Nephis girl is your problem. I couldn't care less. Just don't take your frustrations out on me."
Then his expression shifted, a faintly smug grin tugging at his mouth.
"Besides," he added dryly, "women, am I right?"
"..."
Sunny stared at him.
For a long moment, he didn't move. The desert wind slid between them, stirring the sand around their feet. Mahoraga's smug expression remained exactly where it was.
Without a word, without even a flicker of a shadow to warn him, Sunny lunged forward. He didn't use [Midnight Shard].He didn't use a clever technique. He just balled his fist and swung with everything he had.
CLACK.
…
"And then I told her, 'Fuck you, Neph!' you should've seen her face. One of the best moments of my life."
"…That's it?" he asked.
Sunny flexed his throbbing knuckles and grimaced. "Shut up, you oaf."
A small fire crackled between them, its faint light barely pushing back the vast darkness of the dunes. Above, the sky stretched endlessly — a black ocean scattered with cold stars.
In the distance, the night roared.
Steel clashed. Thunder rolled. Sometimes the ground itself trembled, as if titans were trading blows somewhere beyond the horizon.
Shapes moved far away in the darkness — colossal silhouettes colliding, falling, rising again. Bursts of blinding light split the night sky like lightning, followed by the distant echo of something enormous being torn apart.
And then the battle continued.
This was the never ending war.
Two cursed armies marched across the desert, fighting the same endless war they had fought for centuries — warriors that could not die, bound by the will of an ancient deity who had condemned them to eternal conflict.
Neither Sunny nor Mahoraga went anywhere near them. Compared to those things, the two of them were barely insects.
And as such, they resorted to hiding at the edge of the battlefield — praying that the war doesn't cross towards them.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
Minutes passed.
Then Sunny spoke.
"…Hey."
Mahoraga didn't look at him. "What."
For a moment, he hesitated. "Do you think I'm an idiot?"
Mahoraga frowned slightly. "You'll have to be more specific."
Sunny let out a quiet breath. "For trusting them."
For a moment, he didn't answer.
"…Yes," Mahoraga said eventually.
Sunny's lips twitched faintly.
"Thought so."
"But not for the reason you think."
Sunny glanced at him.
Mahoraga leaned forward slightly, resting his forearms on his knees as he stared into the fire.
"People misunderstand something about trust," he said calmly. "They like to say, 'Don't be kind to the wrong person or you'll regret it.'"
He shook his head faintly.
"But regret only exists when you treat every action like an investment. When you expect something in return. You trusted them because that's the kind of person you are. Not because it guaranteed a reward.
"No matter how much you claim to prefer being alone — I don't think it is what you enjoy. You crave companionship and that is why you trusted them.
"They betrayed you. They lied to you. They took advantage of you. That is their nature. But your kindness is yours. You're angry because the world didn't meet your expectations. That happens. It will keep happening."
He glanced sideways at Sunny.
"But changing who you are because of that? That's just letting the worst people decide what kind of man you become."
"You trusted them because you chose to," he finished. "That was your will."
His gaze returned to the distant battlefield where the colossal shadows clashed, and added quietly.
"And if they betrayed that trust…" he said quietly, "then that's their weakness to carry. Not yours.
"In a world of schemers and betrayers," Mahoraga continued, "to remain untouched, to be kind by will — not by hope. That is not weakness. That is control. That is strength."
____
A/N - Might just be my best chapter yet. I tapped into my inner Nietzsche and Socrates to write this. Anyways drop some stones gng.