746 First Steps

Summoning the Undying Chain and the Cruel Sight, Sunny bypassed using either the elevator or the stairs, and stepped through the shadows to leave the underground dojo behind.

No matter what kind of an abomination had found its way into his home, the creature was going to regret it dearly!

For a moment, however, Sunny felt a hint of hesitation.

…He did not know what had transpired in the waking world during his absence, after all. He had left for the Night Temple seven months ago, and had not been back since.

For all Sunny knew, humanity might have fallen in that time! The whole city could have been destroyed, with endless hordes of Nightmare Creatures stalking the desolate ruins. Any kind of horror could have been hiding in his living room…

'Well, so what? It is still my living room…'

No matter what state the waking world was in, anyone and anything thinking that they could simply make themselves at home in a home that belonged to Sunny would have to reconsider their life choices.

Ready for battle, he appeared from the shadows… and froze.

The exhilarated howl grew much louder above ground, but it was not produced by a Nightmare Creature.

Instead, it was produced by Effie.

With beads of condensation still glistening on her olive skin, the huntress was standing in the center of the room and howling like a maniac. Behind her, the door of the guest bedroom was taken off the hinges… complete with a large piece of the wall and a chunk of the ceiling.

'That wall was reinforced with armored alloy, dammit!'

Sunny stared at his friend in shock, then slowly blinked.

'Wait… Effie… is standing?!'

Indeed, the young woman was standing tall, her long legs appearing healthy and strong. There was no wheelchair in sight.

In fact, her whole appearance had changed. The weak, unhealthy girl with pale skin stretching over brittle bones and a twisted spine was gone. Instead, Effie looked almost like she did in the Dream Realm — tall, attractive, with sparkling hazel eyes and perfectly defined, lean muscles rolling under the dewy olive skin. She was radiating an infectious feeling of vitality and vigor.

Everything about her was screaming of strength, potency, and power. The only thing that changed was the length and cut of her hair, as well as the degree of her tan.

Before Sunny could realize it, a joyous smile crept up on his face.

…Of course. The Ascension was a miraculous process. It merged the physical and the spirit bodies together, taking the best parts and perfecting both. Even the Lost could return from the Dream Realm and live in the real world once more after conquering the Second Nightmare. Effie's disability was no exception to this magical rule.

That was the reason why she had always strived to become a Master, to begin with.

…A moment later, Effie ended her triumphant howl on a high note and turned around, finally noticing him. Her eyes shined. She took a step forward and grinned brightly:

"Doofus! I'm walking!"

Sunny wanted to say something, but then forced himself to look away. He cleared his throat.

"Congratulations! I am very happy for you… I am. But, please… can you put something on?"

Effie blinked a couple of times, then looked down. In all the excitement, she had completely forgotten to dress after climbing out of the sleeping pod.

Her grin turned a little sheepish.

"Ah… well… pretend you didn't see anything!"

Hearing the young woman hurriedly stomp away, Sunny let out a heavy sigh.

"I will… try…"

Effie's voice resounded from the guest bedroom:

"Sunny!"

He turned his head slightly.

"What?"

For a moment, there was silence.

"...Sorry about the doors! And the walls!"

Sunny grimaced.

"It's not a big… wait, walls? As in multiple walls?! What… what the hell did you do?!"

***

While Effie was clothing herself, Sunny looked around his house. It didn't change much.

In the seven months that passed since his departure, the cleaning systems had done a good job of keeping everything presentable. If not for the broken door of the guest bedroom and the debris of the collapsed wall laying on the floor, he could have thought that he had left only yesterday.

It was a strange feeling… so much had happened, so much had changed. He had changed most of all. He was a Master now, and that was perhaps not the greatest transformation Sunny had gone through after living through the Night Temple and the Nightmare.

And yet, here in the waking world, everything was the same. Everything was unchanged.

He did not know how to feel about it.

The permanence and safety of his home were very… comforting. But they also filled him with a deep sense of resentment, for some reason. The contradiction persisted, making him feel confused.

Shaking his head, Sunny retrieved his communicator from where he had left it and turned it online.

There was a backlog of unanswered messages he was going to have to go through, but right now, that did not matter. Only the last message caught his attention.

It was from Cassie, containing only a couple of worlds:

"I'm fine."

He quickly sent a response, and then dialed Kai.

His friend answered the call immediately, as if he was waiting for it. The charming young man was already dressed, although his gorgeous hair was wet and messy. In the background, multiple people in stylish business suits were feverishly running around with slightly shell-shocked looks on their faces. They were probably the representatives of his agency and PR team.

Kai smiled.

"Sunny! What… what happened? How did the Nightmare end? Is everyone alright?"

Sunny lingered for a moment.

"I am alright. Effie and Cassie are alive and well, too. After you dealt with Sevirax, everything… everything went smoothly."

The young man sighed with relief.

"Thank the gods. But what about…"

He grew silent, not wishing to say Mordret's name aloud. Then, Kai shook his head:

"Actually, don't answer. I'll be there in ten minutes!"

The image on the screen of the communicator shifted, and then cut off. The last thing Sunny heard was someone's voice yelping:

"Mr. Night? What are you… what do you mean, step away from the window?!"

Sunny lowered the communicator and smiled.

A piece of the broken wall caught his eye, laying on the kitchen table. Everything else was perfectly clean and spotless.