The End of the Beginning

[Sorry that it took me so long. I really wanted to give myself some time. But I guess I can't run from it forever. Anyways, I hope you like the Chapter and tell me your thoughts.]

With the air as dry as it could get and the sun merciless as ever, there was no hope to grasp wherever one looked.

Nephis had no strength left, so she could only listen to the clinks and booms of colliding steel and flesh. The silent threat of one of her comrades and friends losing their lives hung in the air with an oppressive intensity.

After all, Effie was barely breathing while looking more like a corpse. Similar to Bloodwave, whom she didn't know as well, but had no less hard feelings when sensing his broken state through her aspect.

While her gaze never left the cloudy sky, she could only hope for a miracle to unfold but knew that no one was coming to save them.

Because the only man who could go toe to toe with that beast had his hands tied and couldn't even get near the battlefield.

"I'm sorry, Sunny. I'm sorry that I could not beat him. I'm sorry that it's too late now. I'm sorry that it has turned out this way."

She mumbled under her breath as her tears evaporated under the burning intensity of the sun above the clouds.

Naeve, who had no strength left either despite his physical health, looked up at Kai with a sorrowful expression. He had never seen the archer so broken. Kai had been the one with the least injuries so far, but his heart was aching and racing at the same time while he tried to keep Effie alive.

"You don't think we can win this fight, do you?"

Naeve's question hung in the air while Kai didn't seem to acknowledge it at all, too busy helping his closest comrade stay alive. Just as Naeve expected to be ignored, Kai answered.

"I think…I think I knew from the start that we had no chance. But it felt right, didn't it? You know, Sunny didn't really want to go to Antarctica at first. He said something along the lines of, 'Why should I risk my life for a bunch of strangers who couldn't care less when I needed help?' And he is right. But he did it anyway, didn't he? Do you know why?"

Naeve pondered his question for a while. Never had he doubted that Sunny was a hero worth worshipping. After all, he was the one who clung to the lives of all those civilians and fellow Awakened. He was the one who saved the most while killing the most Nightmare Creatures. He saved him and his cousin selflessly. Or so he thought.

Reluctantly, he answered anyway, not daring to ignore the conversation that could very well be his last.

"No, I have no idea. I always felt like he put up a facade of indifference to protect himself. Why did he go to Antarctica?"

Kai, despite their dire predicament, chuckled at his cluelessness. Who could blame him? Kai himself had spent countless hours beside Sunny, both on the battlefield and in times of peace. But still, even as his best friend, he felt like Sunny was still a mystery to him—an entity that one should be careful about discovering.

"It's simple, really. He felt like he lacked conviction after an argument with Effie. She commented on how small his goals were compared to Nephis, and that's why he would never catch up to her. So…he stepped up his game. Only the dead gods could have known how far he would go. He didn't do it for all those civilians; he didn't do it to protect humanity. At least that's what he told himself. But it became clear to those close to him that behind that impenetrable wall of pain lay a flicker of humanity that one could never compare to. It is so small yet so strong."

Naeve, momentarily confused by Kai's words, frowned. Hearing that someone would think a man like Sunny lacked conviction was preposterous to him. How could someone say that to him? Wasn't it obvious that Sunny was so strong because his conviction was so overwhelming?

Kai chuckled once more while raising an eyebrow.

"I know, right? Effie just wanted to mess with him back then. In truth, though, she really believed that Sunny lacked conviction. But she could not have been more wrong. His deepest desire is so simple yet so strong that it overshadows every noble thought out there."

"So what is it? What drove him to such lengths?"

Kai took a deep breath before stating his answer. A bit dramatic for such a simple conversation, but it felt right.

"To live free."

The answer was simple yet enlightening. Naeve had been told about his enslavement by the woman he loved—a situation he couldn't even begin to understand how painful it would be. To be so closely tied to the person you love and yet held at arm's length by an unbreakable bond that neither of them could ignore.

But he did destroy it. And now that it was gone and Sunny's life was supposed to turn for the better, all that was left was another obstacle that he had no idea how to overcome.

'At least they had some time together.'

He tried to hold himself from crying with all his might. Naeve had a daughter of his own, after all. Of course, the love between lovers and parents was fundamentally different. Or at least that's how every person should see it.

The thought of being powerless and having to abandon his daughter was heart-crushing to him. What would he have done if it came to such a situation?

He didn't know and was just happy that he didn't have to go through all of this.

"I…I understand. He truly had been dealt the worst hand of cards by the world and went with it anyway. Hell, as it seems, the world even tried to cheat on top of that."

Kai gave him a nod while the corners of his lips curled upward a little.

"Exactly, but the saying 'The house always wins' doesn't come from nowhere."

The bitterness of the situation caught up with them as a deafening thunder rang through the wasteland. But the source was not what they expected.

As the dust settled around the explosion, they couldn't believe their eyes. The Mad Prince had assumed the form of a Shadow Colossus in order to better deal with the ants. Little did he know a blind seer had been on her way to interrupt the flow of battle.

The Chainbreaker lay in shambles around the towering giant that was now missing most of his left side. Shadows spilled from the wound like a waterfall as the rest of the shell crumbled to the ground.

"No fucking way! Did she… kill him?"

Kai stammered under his breath as the hope that Cassie's famous maneuver had finally put an end to the dire fight.

Only to be crushed when the Mad Prince emerged from the fleeting shadows, seemingly unharmed.

"I'm not the Sun Prince, you cripple! Did you really think that would work?"

He screamed loud enough for Cassie to hear, no matter where she was hiding from him at the moment.

Kai and Naeve gave each other a nod before summoning their weapons and dashing to her side. They could only hope to reach her in time. Jet, along with Roan and Thyris, weren't faring much better. In the short time they clashed against the Mad Prince, they had earned a lot of wounds. Now Cassie's maneuver and the explosion that came with it had pushed them away. Every bone in their body ached, but they were alive, if just barely.

Well… except for Jet, but no one was concerned about her vitals.

Still panting from the excitement and fear of death that overcame her, she rose from the dust. In an instant, the Mad Prince was before her.

"So you have finally decided to show yourself? Have you decided to die along with your friends so you don't have to mourn their deaths as the lone survivor?"

His wicked grin was mad enough to make the already thick air around them even more unbearable. Cassie looked at him, finally face to face with the origin of this mess; she couldn't help but shudder in fear. Her legs tried to betray her, but she had to change the events of her vision no matter what.

"No, I'm here to end you."

She hissed like a venomous snake. As far as he was concerned, that was quite fitting. What he didn't know, though, was how she was possibly trying to do that.

"Oh, how marvelous of you. But tell me, snake, how are you hoping to even scratch me? Let alone kill me?"

A hint of fear spread across his face as her lips slowly opened, her expression showing nothing but mischief.

"Who said I'm alone?"

In an instant, his expression of fear turned into horror as her shadow began to ripple. A man in onyx armor and the mask of a demon rose from it.

"No…it can't be. You aren't supposed to come near me. DIE!"

The Mad Prince screamed before charging at his uncorrupted self. But his slave didn't listen. The blood flowing from his ears solved the puzzle for his disobedience. Sunny handed Cassie a small sack with two objects before sending her off to Nephis.

He didn't have much time until his ears would recover from his self-harm. Being so close to his corrupted core didn't help either. At this rate, it would only take minutes until his own soul would succumb to the corruption, so he had to make the best of those and defend the lives of his friends with his last stand.

His plan was chiseled in stone, but he couldn't vanish until he had delivered the message to Nephis.

So the two shadows clashed, unable to kill the other under the command that was still between them. With the head-piercing pain from his disobedience, he could only channel it into his burning hatred for his master and slave in front of him.

Meanwhile, Cassie had reached her destination. She didn't care how Nephis would react upon seeing her. All she had to do was deliver the extraordinary rock and the Crown of twilight.

The Mad Prince sensed her movement and the frustration that came with it as he found himself unable to stop her. All he could do was watch and figure out what his other self had planned. And when he did, he didn't like it one bit.

As Cassie was only steps away from Nephis, he conjured a hand made out of shadows out of her own. Equipped with a black Jihan, it shot forward. Under normal circumstances, Cassie would not have fallen for the trap, but the emotional and physical exhaustion slowed her down.

In an instant, he pierced her heart. Moments later, she fell to the ground with the sack still tightly in her hand. Luckily, her momentum carried her far enough to Nephis.

"Here… take it… It… It's from Sunny," she weakly mumbled to her nearly unconscious friend before her body fell still to the ground, a cascade of tears flowing from her eyes as the knowledge of what was about to happen drowned her in despair.

Not able to move much, Nephis mustered up the strength to turn her body to look at the close voice that had just whispered to her. When her eyes finally focused, she saw Cassie in a puddle of blood.

'What? How? Why?'

She tried to scream, but her voice refused to obey her. Noticing the package in Cassie's outstretched hand, she mustered up the strength to pull it closer before her hand finally managed to grasp the objects inside.

[You have received a Memory]

[You have received a Memory]

Her eyes widened subtly as realization hit her.

She wanted to summon them, but without an ounce of essence left, she could only wait until it replenished naturally. Without Dusk or Dawn in Godgrave, the Crown wouldn't help much either.

While the others pulled every ounce of strength they had left together to help Sunny end this ordeal they fought furiously. The end was near, they could feel it. That alone gave them strength.

As Sunny looked back at Nephis, he pulled the mask away from his face before speaking his last words.

She could not hear him, but the lips she studied for hours were easy to read.

"I love you too. Until we meet again… Sayonara."

Her weak voice carried the sadness out of her body.

With hope in her heart, she watched his wide smile until the very end. No tears were shed as the two just cherished their last fleeting moment together. Not even the vast distance between them could sever the deep connection between their souls. With a slight nod, he closed his eyes. In deep understanding, Nephis did the same as she did not dare to watch the scene that was about to unfold.

In the next moment, Saint and Fiend emerged from his shadow. The two loyal servants looked at their master with what could only be described as sorrow.

The Mad Prince screamed in Horror as he could not believe his uncorrupted self.

In the flash of an eye, they brought their fists together. Sunny's head exploded with a deafening thunderclap. In the same moment, every shadow vanished from the battlefield.

The Mad Prince… gone.

Saint… gone.

Fiend… gone.

The love of her life… gone.

[Wow, that's it, huh? Dozens of chapters and tens of thousands of words leading up to this sorry ending? If that's what you are thinking to yourself right now, I can assure you that this is not the end. While writing "Missing Piece," I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to include in this work. But for now, that shall be it. The story will continue with things like the Shadow Realm, a Fifth Nightmare, Asterion, and of course, a lot of Sunphis. But as of now: A) We don't have a lot of knowledge about most of those things, and I want to wait until we either do or I come up with something I can comfortably share. And B) I'm getting tired of writing alternative stories, especially of such length. And before I drift off into writing something half-hearted, I want to put an end to "Missing Piece." A temporary one that leaves me the possibility of picking it back up.

What? You think dying could kill Sunny? Hell no, he's gonna be a dad after all. He can't leave his child behind like my father did. (I had to make the joke. It's true though… which makes it so funny.)

For now, I'm gonna focus on one-shots and maybe even a reaction fanfic. Although that one will only start after the Father of Ketchup, that many pull from their burger, finishes his.]