Sunny appeared from behind. Nephis composed herself, turned around, and said awkwardly,
"How are you?"
'What kind of dumb question is this!?' Nephis thought, cursing herself.
Sunny chuckled and sat beside her. But not before taking a look at her revealing skin though. She noticed it, but didn't say anything.
'Hmm...why did he still stare? We saw each other naked multiple times. So how does this dress, revealing a little bit of my body make any difference?'
Well...she thought this like, she also didn't stare at his body when it was only half or not covered. As if they hadn't seen each other naked multiple times.
"Well, I am fine...as fine as I can be."
She nodded.
Before she could say anything else, Cassie behind her stirred.
Nephis looked behind.
"Cassie, are you awake?"
Cassie slowly sat up and looked toward the voice. She slowly started to move.
"Nephis, are you there?"
Nephis stood up from her place and went to Cassie. She comforted her a little, before saying someone else was here with them.
Cassie tensed a little, before hearing Sunny's voice and recognizing who he was.
They talked for a bit. Sunny told Cassie that he was exploring the Labyrinth before coming to this place. Cassie was shocked to find out that the sea went back underground in the morning. But she was most shocked that Sunny killed an awakened beast as a sleeper.
In the end, her mood was down when she found out that they were in an unexplored area of the dream realm, and there was a high chance that this was a death zone.
Tears came down from her face. Nephis moved forward and hugged her, and started caressing her hair to comfort her. Cassie hugged her back.
But Sunny noticed something strange, and he was sure Nephis also noticed it.
When Cassie was talking to them she was scared. Most of it came from fear of this unknown zone. But sometimes she tensed when talking to them. Same in the academy. When Sunny talked to her there, her voice was tensed.
Sunny thought for a bit, then realized that it may be because of Unseen from Fate.
One of her attributes helped her see everyone's attributes. But because Sunny and Nephis had Unseen from Fate, maybe she couldn't see their attributes. But Sunny was not sure of it.
With that the night came. They shared their aspects and attributes. And Sunny had brought some meat with him. They ate the carapace scavenger meat raw, because it was dangerous to light a fire now. Cassie had the most problem eating it, because other two used to it. After that they went to sleep. Sunny took the first watch.
Well...not exactly. Cassie lay down and slept. In front of her, Sunny and Nephis kissed and went to sleep, arms wrapped around each other's bodies.
Sunny's one arm was placed under her head like a pillow. And his other hand went up from her body and was placed on her barely covered back. With this hand, he gently pressed her soft body against his warmth.
Nephis comfortably rested her head on his arm. Her one arm wrapped lightly across his chest, the other wrapped around his waist.
She pressed her face in his chest. Her cheek pressed against his arm. His jaw brushed against her hair.
She tightly pressed his warm body against her, drawing herself closer as if trying to melt into him, as though afraid to lose his warmth. Their legs entangled.
With this they closed their eyes, and felt something. Cassie couldn't even see what had happened in front of her.
For some reason Sunny and Nephis found this...exciting. Like they didn't want their friend to suffer from blindness. But there was something...exciting about knowing that they could do anything with each other in front of Cassie, and she wouldn't know.
Well...they didn't say this out loud to each other, but they looked into one another's eyes and figured out that the other party also thought the same thing.
Nephis moved her head backward, just enough to his face.
"Should we tell her about relationship?"
Sunny turned his head down and smiled toward her warmly.
"Not yet. Let her live in the dar-...I mean let her be unknown to this, for now. I am liking our hidden relationship alot."
She let out a chuckled.
"Agree. I also liking this. It feel exciting, like we're doing something hidden, and no one know this."
"Yea. It is our little secret."
After this, she again buried her face in his chest.
Anyways, Gloomy took the watch while they all slept. Because they already knew that nothing would attack them tonight. But Sunny still told Gloomy to watch carefully.
....
In the morning they left on their journey. But unlike last time, they didn't try to avoid every carapace scavenger. They avoided when there were too many. But if there were not, like only two or three, they ambushed them. At first Sunny and Nephis had some problems, because of their bodies. But slowly they received fragments and it got easier.
Especially for Nephis. Because of her Blessing, she could channel her will more effectively, and control her flame better. Plus Blessing was more effective against corrupted creatures.
Sunny was still cursing himself, because why didn't he create Curse before everything.
Sunny and Nephis also slept every night like before, sleeping while embracing each other. Poor Cassie, not knowing what is happening in bac- in front of her.
Cassie also received her vision to the west... and also received her crimson spire vision. The vision didn't change.
...
Sunny was sitting on a carapace scavenger corpse. Around him there were three more dead carapace scavengers lying.
In a short distance Nephis was pulling out soul shards from dead scavengers.
He sighed and checked his runes.
Name: Sunless
True name: Lost from Light
Rank: Dreamer
Shadow Core: Dormant
Shadow fragments: [64/1000]
Sunny smiled.
'It's only been a week since we got here. So by that this is good progression speed.'
Nephis was also close to 100 soul fragments. Plus she let her opponents barely stay alive, so that Sunny could kill them and get stronger. She stalled them for time, and when Sunny was done with his opponents, he teleported to her and killed them. Unless she couldn't handle it anymore, and killed them herself.
'Sigh...still not a single new memory.'
With that he stood up and went to Nephis. She had just finished collecting all shards. They hadn't yet fought the awakened monster, and received starlight armour. So she was still wearing a seaweed-made dress.
Half of her body was covered in blood, but not her blood.
Her white hair right now was half red. Blood dripping down from her hand, palm fully red. Calm grey eyes. Her face completely emotionless and indifference. Some blood on her cheek, right under eyes. Few drops of red on other cheek
Sunny, for some reason, found this extremely...hot..