Sunny disappeared into the shadows leaving Cassie crying and breaking down over his parents' grave.
He decided that he had enough of the Blind Witch meddling into his life, so he raised a hand letting sparks of light coalesce into the form of the fearsome mask of the nebulous daemon which he donned upon his face.
Seeing Cassie show up to his parents' grave uninvited, nearly sent him into a blind rage so he had to take precautions against her bothersome divination.
It would also be a necessary measure because he knew Nephis would be after him and had no doubt that Cassie would be snitching every detail of any vision, she had that involved him to Nephis.
Sunny didn't know where he would escape to but if there was one thing he was sure of it was that nowhere in the waking world would grant him the peace he desired away from Nephis' pursuit.
He needed time to think and come up an actionable strategy to escape Nephis so first of all he would need a hideout to place his anchor in the waking world as he knew that the first place they would look for him would be his house and leaving his anchor there would effectively trap him in the dream realm once he entered.
While walking the streets of the outskirts he contemplated making his hideout somewhere here. He knew the outskirts better than anyone in his cohort so it was obvious how much trouble they would have finding him here.
Problem being that making his hideout in the outskirts would be too obvious. He planned on never being seen again so his last sighting would be by Cassie at his parents' grave. They also knew he was born and raised in the outskirts so they'd easily come to the conclusion that he could be found somewhere there.
Hiding in the shadows of the streets a spark of inspiration came to him as he decided upon a viable location to use as his hideout.
Cassie stood frozen in grief and self-loathing as she listened to the distant echo of Sunny's parting words reverberate throughout the courtyard.
She finally had her answer. Ever since she returned from the Forgotten Shore, she had been wanting to know what Sunny's weakness entailed so she would realize why he hated her so much and how deep her betrayal of him was.
But now that she finally had her answer she couldn't help but wish that he had never told her in the first place.
Cassie slowly lifted her downtrodden gaze and made for the exit of the park intending to return to Nephis' side so she could be there for when her only friend woke up.
These past two years had been rough on her. After Nephis never returned she had been rather lonely as she found out that she didn't have any other real friends.
Nephis and Sunny had been her two only real friends after she had awakened. She had plenty of friends from before she had been infected by the nightmare spell, but she found that even they began to disassociate with her because of her flaw.
With Nephis gone and Sunny having ended their friendship, the second he returned she was left with no one other than her family.
There was Effie and Kai, but it would be a stretch to call them friends. Colleagues would have been a better word to describe their relationship.
She knew that Sunny had never told either of them about her betrayal, but he didn't really need to either. His burning animosity for her was by no means subtle.
Effie and Kai had always been better friends with Sunny than her so when they picked up on the fact that he had ended his friendship with her and the sheer spite and rage he had for her, they distanced themselves from Cassie as well.
Cassie had been quite surprised when Effie had set the condition that if Sunny wanted her to join him in the 2nd nightmare, then he would have to invite Cassie as well.
She pinched her nose as the putrid scent of the outskirts air assaulted her senses. It wasn't helping that after she gained her flaw all her other senses had been sharpened to a frightening degree.
'I can't believe Sunny grew up in this dump'
Actually, never mind it makes too much sense that only a place like this could turn Sunny into the man he is today.
She had never really understood Sunny. He had always been somewhat of an exciting mystery to her. Now she was starting to think the reason she couldn't understand him was due to the sheer difference in their upbringing.
Cassie had a good life growing up. She had loving parents, she never had to worry about where her next meal would come from or if she would ever get to eat her next meal altogether, and she was popular at school with no shortage of friends. Everything considered her life growing up was blessed.
It was only after she had gained her flaw that Cassie had gotten a true taste of despair and helplessness.
She had only recovered from her state of depression when Nephis had saved her after she arrived on the Forgotten Shore.
As she looked around the trash ridden outskirts, filled with scents she couldn't even describe and all sorts of loud noises she didn't dare imagine what had caused, she began to realize why she could never compare to Sunny or Nephis.
Sunny had his father die before he could ever really make memories with him. He also experienced his mother falling ill and leaving him at an early age as well. He was put into the orphanage system and found no peace there either as he was separated from his sister leaving just him to learn the harsh realities of life.
When she had first entered the outskirts she had doubled over as she felt bile rising in her throat. Just the air of this place disgusted her, and she was sure she hadn't seen even a small amount of the filth and savagery that the outskirts had to offer.
Yet Sunny had grown up in the outskirts. He had experienced all these things and more that made Cassie want to immediately leave and find a nicer part of NQSC to walk. It was no wonder why Sunny had always been so jaded and cynical ever since she first met him.
Neph's life growing up wasn't much better. Her mother and grandfather had died before she was even born. She had been raised by a father that was hardly ever present until he died just a few years later. She had lived through who knows how many attempts on her life ever since she was a child. Nephis had to watch as her clan was slowly destroyed and her one source of hope, her grandmother, passed away as well.
Sunny and Nephis had been experiencing the despair and hopelessness that had nearly broken her their entire lives.
Yet they had strived through it all with sheer force of will alone, desperate to accomplish their goals.
She approached the academy gates with a newfound respect for the first two people she had met in the Dream Realm.
The warmth of countless candles raised in the name of the last daughter of the Immortal flame reached her as she made her way towards Nephis.
Opening the door Effie and Kai turned to greet her with strange looks and questioning gazes. Cassie didn't have the heart or the energy to provide them with any answers as she slumped into a chair beside Neph's bed.
She was too overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions after her encounter with Sunny to do anything other than stare at the floor, with her lightless eyes, in a daze.
Just as she began to believe that she would never break out of her reverie and started to question if she even wanted to, she heard the sound of eyelids fluttering open followed by a low groggy groan causing her mood to do a complete 180.
Sunny was standing in the shadows of an alley just before a dirty and unassuming building barricaded by a heavy metal door.
This was the safest place he could think of in the Waking World to establish his hideout at. Not because the building was highly secure or anything of that nature rather it was because everyone avoided it like the plague.
He ignored the heavy metal door and simply stepped inside. Sunny's nose was immediately assaulted by the scent of cheap alcohol, dried blood, and a few other scents he couldn't even begin to name despite his illustrious history growing up in the outskirts. Sunny's hide out was the abandoned Slaughterhouse where he and Jet had killed Shadow Blade Kurt.
After Kurt had been dispatched the Slaughterhouse had been abandoned by the owners and the clientele citing something along the lines of bad publicity but in reality, it was because the government had started to crack down harder on them after the incident.
Ever since the nightclub had become a haunted house of sorts. It was the perfect location for Sunny to establish a hideout at, as few people know of it and those who do try their best to forget about it.
Sunny made his way down to the underground arena where he and Jet had confronted Kurt. He made himself at home in one of the private boxes facing the arena.
Now that he had a hideout, he could finally allow himself to relax and plan out his next course of action. Not being able to think of much he opened his runes and started to look through what tools he had at his disposal.
After reading through the runes of all his memories several times over, he focused on one memory in particular, that being the Shadow Lantern.
Sunny had always thought something was off about this memory.
'How the hell is this a divine memory?'
The Shadow Lantern was useful for sure but to him it didn't really live up to the divine title. He only ever began making much use of it once he had gotten Shadow Manifestation.
All things considered comparing the lantern to the other divine memory in his possession, Weaver's Mask, was just downright insulting.
'How can a memory that can store shadows be of the same rank as one that allows someone to pear into fate?'
This led him to the conclusion that he didn't know everything about the Shadow Lantern.
So, Sunny began to study the lantern reading over everything the spell's runes used to describe it. The name of its one enchantment caught his interest [Gates of Shadow].
'If the enchantment describes itself as a gate, then where does the gate lead to?'
Moving further down he read the description again.
[This Lantern devours light and can contain, and then release, an infinite amount of shadows.]
The word infinite in this enchantment had always puzzled Sunny. This seemed to be the closest thing to what could qualify this memory to be of the divine rank.
'So, this memory is a gate that leads to someplace that can store and release an infinite amount of shadows.', Sunny pondered with a curious expression on his face.
Infinite was a strong word so he tried to think of someplace that could store that many shadows and that's when the answer hit him.
'Don't tell me.', Sunny began to believe that the Shadow Lantern lead directly into the Shadow Realm. A sinister smile made its way onto Sunny's face as he broke out into laughter.
'This is perfect.', just in his time of need Sunny had found the entrance to an entirely unexplored and hidden realm that no one had been able to reach without perishing.
The sheer luck of his discovery made Sunny suspicious. Usually whenever Sunny had an ounce of luck [Fated] would make sure to give him some even worse luck to "balance out the scales." But today he could feel would be different. He just knew that his luck would change for the better.
So, he cautiously opened up the door of the shadow lantern and placed it on the floor and then used Shadow Step to dissipate into the shadows and enter though its gates.
Standing awestruck in the Shadow Realm he immediately felt euphoric. Surrounded by his source element and all four of his shadows he felt that he could defeat anything.
Having let his guard down momentarily that's when Sunny immediately got some sense knocked into him as he felt an arrow pierce his gut.