Asher opened his eyes to a sea of pain.
White flames flickered faintly across his back, slowly knitting flesh together—but most of it was charred. Countless second and third-degree burns covered him like a map of agony. There was no blood, no shattered bone, but the flesh was mangled beyond recognition.
Somehow, neither the Second Skin nor the Spirewind Mantle had been destroyed.
Asher neither screamed nor hissed. He just lay there, staring up at the fractured sky with a hollow expression.
The gate was still intact. He could sense it.He could also sense one presence making its way up the Spire. Only one.
Sunny had killed Caster.
Asher's mind, sharp as ever, searched desperately for a solution—but there wasn't one. One of them was going to be left behind.
Footsteps echoed faintly through the ruin until Nephis appeared beside him, sitting down with a soft thud, her legs dangling over the broken floor.
Silence settled between them—broken only by the occasional crumble of debris falling from the caved-in roof above.
Nephis had just finished checking her attributes, a faint frown creasing her face before it vanished beneath the pain of her injuries. Her body was mostly intact; her burns were shallow. But her soul… her soul was in tatters.
"We're stuck," she said quietly after a while.
Asher nodded weakly. "Sunny's joining us too."
Nephis bit her lip. Her face went still—emotionless, unreadable.
"I see."
Silence took hold again.
After a moment, she spoke once more. "Say… I wanted to ask." She turned to him, her steel-gray eyes gleaming faintly in the pale light. "Were you the void at the end of Cassie's vision?"
Asher didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Nephis understood. She rose to her feet, brushing the dust off her legs before turning toward the shattered stairway.
"...Sunny," she murmured softly. "You're finally here."
Sunny stood at the edge of the ruin, staring at the headless carcass of the Terror. His expression trembled as he looked between them.
"You two… actually killed it."
Nephis lowered her gaze, while Asher muttered, "It killed itself."
After that, his ears grew numb. His eyes turning hazy. He wasn't crying, but, he rather, a feeling of lost had echoed all over him. A constant ring rippled in but his ears, mumbles in the background.
"I warned you, didn't I? I told you that this story won't have a happy ending. That there will be only sorrow, pain, and rage. Do you remember what you answered me?"
Sunny finally said, snapping him out of the small reverie.
…Shifting slightly, Nephis looked at him and answered, her voice strangely wistful:
"...Life is not a story. It only ends when you die."
Sunny summoned the Midnight Shard, its obsidian edge catching the dim light. Nephis followed, drawing her silver blade, the faint shimmer of flame dancing along its length.
Asher's legs were still dangling from the ledge, his back to the abyss. Slowly, he pushed himself upright, turning toward the two of them with hollow eyes. The wind whipped past, carrying the faint scent of smoke and blood.
He neither summoned a weapon nor assumed a stance. Instead,
He just stood there, the ruins of the spire trembling beneath his feet, the broken sky reflected in his gaze.
"I'm sorry…" he said quietly, voice trembling yet steady, as if holding back something vast. His expression twisted, not from fear, but from unbearable grief.
"I really am."
Then, with his face turned toward the burning sky, Asher leaned back — and fell.
Sunny clicked his tongue, his voice low and rough.
"Bastard."
Nephis said nothing, her eyes fixed on the empty space he left behind.
They both knew Asher too well.
He'd always been a coward — to the end.
And they both knew, even if they wanted to stop him, they couldn't. His abilities made him almost untouchable. Extremely hard to catch. He could fly, have sudden speed boost, slow them and more.
"He is a bastard alright."
Sunny looked at Nephis with a grim smile, "Didn't expect a legacy to use such vulgar words."
Nephis let out a quiet sigh. "You can blame yourself — and him — for that. I learned most of my language from the two of you, after all."
Sunny chuckled weakly, shaking his head.
"So… are you ready to die?"
White sparks ignited in the depths of Changing Star's eyes as she met his gaze.
"What about you?"
Sunny's smile faltered.
"No… not really."
Staying behind meant death.
…As the ancient, gargantuan tower quaked around them, balancing on the edge of collapse, Lost from Light and Changing Star prepared to cross their blades.
***
Asher plummeted from the shattered floor of the spire, the world spinning around him in streaks of light and shadow. The wind howled past, tearing at his hanging clothes, roaring in his ears like the screams in his mind.
His azure eyes stared blankly at the burning sky above — distant, fractured, endlessly far away.
Then he closed his eyes.
He could still hear the clash of blades echoing far above… the faint ring of steel where his friends fought against the inevitable. A tremor passed through his lips as he bit down, hard, until he tasted iron.
He had tried.
Gods, he had tried.
He had fought with everything he had — clawed against the tide, defied destiny itself — and yet… even as a transmigrator, he had learned the cruel truth.
Fate could not be beaten.
Not when its strings were woven so tightly around Sunny's soul that it would not let go.
Fate had twisted and adapted to his presence — letting Gemma live, letting Kido live, saving hundreds who were meant to die. And still… the scales demanded balance.
Sunny's fate remained unbending. Unbreakable.
Asher's hand trembled, his nails digging into torn flesh — reopening the half-healed cuts he'd made before.
'Screw fate…' he whispered, voice breaking under the wind. 'Screw it all.'
The world slowed.
Gravity wavered — twisting around him like liquid glass — as a faint blue shimmer opened below, a gate pulsing with dim light. The soft hum of its awakening filled the air, drowning the roar of the storm.
He looked up.
"I'm sorry Sunny."
"I'm sorry Neph."
***
"Leave me, Sunny. Please. Go."
He shook his head stubbornly.
"I don't want to."
Changing Star was silent for a moment, looking at him with a pained expression. And then she said, making his world crumble:
"Go… Lost from Light."
His eyes widened.
Deep within his soul, something moved and rose from slumber, triumphant. Unbreakable, eternal, irresistible. Complete, perfect, and sweet.
…Before Sunny knew what he was doing, his hand shot forward, the ghostly blade of the Moonlight Shard appearing in it.
"Stop."
His hand froze, the tip of the stiletto mere centimeters away from Neph's eye.
Trembling, he looked at his arm and willed it to move forward.
But it didn't. It didn't move at all. It was as though that hand did not belong to him anymore.
As deep horror drowned his heart, Sunny moved his gaze and looked at Nephis, his eyes wide with shock.
"H… how…"
A sad smile appeared on her lips.
"How did I know? …Cassie told me."
Neph sighed and looked away.
"She was the first one to understand the meaning of her vision. She knew that the two of us will end up fighting each other, and that I was going to lose. Maybe even die. She just didn't know how, when, and why. So, Cassie told me your secret, in hopes that it will save my life one day. But I… I hoped that I would never have to use it."
Sunny stared at her, too shocked to say anything. She smiled sadly.
"So, then. I guess… I guess this is goodbye. Ta… I hope that you'll take care of yourself, Sunny. Now, go. Escape before it is too late.'
Even though Sunny didn't do anything, his body moved on its own. Standing up, he turned around and walked toward the shining ring of the Gateway.
Step, step. Another step.
But his body would not listen. It just continued to move forward, indifferent to his commands. A dull ache settled somewhere in the center of his heart.
There was nothing he could do. He was a miraculous shadow bound to a master; once the master gave a command, he had no choice but to obey.
Sunny slowly walked up the steps of the dais and approached the circle of runes, then crossed the iron ring without slowing down. As soon as he did, the runes shone with intense light.
His body began to glow, too.
The ethereal radiance grew brighter and brighter, until it became hard to discern the human figure in its middle.
…And then, suddenly, it disappeared, leaving only emptiness behind.
Sunny was gone, finally free of this long and arduous nightmare. The journey back to reality that had taken him more than a year was now over.
Nephis stood before the fading gate in silence, her arms loosely crossed. A faint, trembling smile tugged at her lips as she lifted her face toward the fractured roof above.
"I kept my promise," she whispered.
The words barely left her mouth when her body lurched forward — violently, without warning. Her breath hitched, eyes widening as her head whipped around.
And there he was.
Asher.
His hand was still outstretched from the push, his eyes glistening with unbearable sorrow.
"Goodbye... Neph." His voice cracked, cheeks raising for one last, sad grin. "Thanks... for everything."
For an instant, time itself seemed to halt.
The light of the gate flared behind her, painting her silver hair in gold and white. Her eyes widened, trembling — then squinted against the blinding glow.
She could not speak or move. Only a single tear broke free, glimmering as it fell, before she was swallowed by the swirling light.
Her hand reached back, trembling.
"No," she whispered.
But the word vanished with her.
Just a few seconds after she disappeared in a flash of light, the crack in the stone reached the circle of runes and broke it.
The shine of the Gateway grew unstable and swiftly faded away.
At the same time, the artificial sun of the Forgotten Shore ignited one last time with a bright, intense explosion of light, and then extinguished.
Only the sound of falling debris remained.
And one figure remained, alone in the dark.
Asher stood there, tears streaking his face, the faintest trace of a grin trembling on his lips. His breath was steady, his eyes fixed on the emptiness where she had been.
[End of volume two: Shadows That Don't Fade.]