Sunny/History

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## Before Nightmare Begins

Sunny’s parents were both menial workers. They were poor, but not destitute. His dad was employed by one of the numerous maintenance crews that took care of the city’s outer barriers. His mom worked in an underground factory that produced air filtration systems. Together, their income was barely enough to afford a small cell in one of the human hives on the outskirts.

Several months after his sister, Rain, was born, when Sunny was around four, his father was killed in a work accident, which was not a rare occurrence among the city maintenance workers. Three years after that, his mother got sick and eventually passed away. Factory workers like her often got sick and died due to the harsh conditions, so it wasn’t a rare outcome, either.

Sunny and Rain were sent to a government childcare facility. His sister was young and cute, so she was eventually adopted. Sunny, however, was older and had “behavioral problems”, which made him pretty much completely undesirable. After enduring a few years in a series of increasingly vile foster homes, he finally managed to run away and learned how to survive on the streets of the outskirts.

Sunny's life was unsavory and bitter. He imagined that it was the same for his sister, so he got obsessed with the idea of finding her and becoming a family with her again. A street kid like him can't earn much, but he saved up money as much as he could. He had almost nothing to eat but would keep putting away the pathetic amount of credits he had earned through doing all kinds of horrid crap. After four or five years of doing these things, by the time he was nearly seventeen, he finally had enough to hire a private investigator.

Sunny knew of a detective who sometimes hired nobodies like him to gather information. His services weren't cheap, but he trusted the guy. So he gave all his money to that guy and asked him to find his sister. One day, about a month after they made the deal, he found her and gave him a piece of paper with an address written on it. On the way, near the tram terminal, there was this girl, around twelve years old, wearing a tidy school uniform. She was walking in the same direction as him, only to realize it was his sister after the girl entered the house from the address. She had parents who loved and treated her well, enough real food to never go hungry, pretty clothes, expensive textbooks, and cute younger siblings. They were all smiling, laughing, and having a great time together.

Sunny just stood there, watching those happy people. How he looked down at his own frail body, his dirty and ragged clothes, the bruises on his bloodied knuckles. And realized how utterly out of place he was in that picture. After years of dreaming of finding his sister and saving her, he was faced with the simple fact that she never really needed him. She probably didn't even remember that he existed. More than that, returning to her life would not bring anything good to her. He didn't have anything pleasant or beneficial to offer. He could only make things worse.

Out there on that dark and rainy night, while Sunny was standing in the shadows, something in his heart was extinguished forever. Something inside him died. No matter what kind of situation he would find himself in after this, nothing would really compare to the darkness he felt in that single moment. After remaining motionless for a long time, he slowly backed away, turned around, and walked into the darkness.

A few days after that, he began showing the first symptoms of being infected by the Nightmare Spell.

## Volume 1: Child of Shadows

Sunny succumbed to the Nightmare Spell and succeeded in his trial gloriously. He received a True name and a unique Divine Aspect. Shortly after waking up, he met Jet, who was on watch duty to his Nightmare. She convinced Sunny to enroll in the Academy to prepare for his first journey into the Dream Realm. As both of them were from the outskirts, she gave him advice before leaving for the Academy.

Inside the Awakened Academy, he learned how to control his flaw and discovered what his aspect ability can do. During those four weeks, He was relentless, pushing his body and mind to the limits in an attempt to absorb as much knowledge and skills as possible in that short amount of time. On the day of the winter solstice, all sleepers were ushered into their pods before going into their slumber.

Sunny arrived in the Dream Realm drowning. Luckily, his Teacher Julius taught him how to swim, and survived his first ordeal. He swore to thank both the old man and Master Jet once he came back. Thinking of a way out, he decided to explore and reach the source of light. On his way, he killed a carapace scavenger and received a weapon. Then, he continued his way until he met Nephis and Cassia to join them. Together, the trio explored the Labyrinth. Knowing each other's abilities, learning how to fight, and growing fond of each other, they killed and survived various creatures, escaped the enthrallment of the Soul tree, and survived the cold and harrowing night of traversing the dark sea. Most of it, thanks to the aid and guidance of Cassie's visions. At the end of their journey, they found the human castle.

## Volume 2: Demon of Change

Sunny was alone living in the cursed city, surrounded by nothing but ruins and horrifying monsters. Shortly after, he came across a battle between Nightmare Creatures. The last of the stalwart stone warriors defeated most of the fallen beast, but in the end, she also fell. Grabbing the opportunity, Sunny gave the stone warrior a quick death, earning him an echo. He transformed Stone Saint into his Shadow.

Soon after, he met the trapped Kai. Kai is an incredibly attractive young man and with his flaw, he and Sunny immediately became friends. He asked Kai for a favor to buy memories in his stead. While waiting for Kai, he met Nephis again after four months of separation. He reminisces about the time when they first arrived in the Dark City and met Effie.

They learned from her that there was no gateway in the city. Thus, crushing their hopes of returning to the real world. They also learned about Bright Castle, its leader, the hierarchy, and how the people were living in hopes to survive. Nephis planned for Sunny and Cassie to stay in the castle and gather information inside. She used the information to target a pathfinder for justice and gave her the opportunity to spread her name and gather the remaining people settling outside the castle. Just like that, they were joined by Effie and Caster. The events that followed made Sunny realized what Cassie's vision really meant, leaving his mental state shaken. In addition to that, he made a fatal mistake that led him to commit murder. At the end of it, he decided to leave the group.

Back to the present, he joined Nephis' cohort as hired mercenary in exchange for help to kill the Fallen Devil of the ruined Cathedral. They went on a journey to reach the borders of Forgotten Shore and find something. On that journey he learned about the origin of the curse of darkness and the oath, the seven heroes left behind. Coming back to the Dark City, fulling the promise to him, and clearing the misunderstanding between him and Nephis, the final confrontation between Nephis and Gunlaug began, marking the start of Cassie's prophecy. After taking back the castle and killing the opposition, they proceeded to get the final key to the oath.

The remaining sleepers burned down the castle and left the Dark City. Five hundred of them lay siege to the Crimson Spire. While everyone was busy killing the remaining Nightmare Creatures, Sunny was tasked to open the gates of the Crimson Spire. This resulted in him banishing the dark sea and unleashing the soul-damaging light from the sun. After that around a hundred sleepers survived, reaching the gateway and finally tasting freedom. Sunny confronts Caster, which ends in Caster's death. Soon, he finds out that between Nephis and him, only one will be able to return. After a clash of swords, Nephis forces Sunny to use the Gateway by using his True Name.

## Volume 3: Prince of Nothing

Sunny was forced to return to Earth. Being betrayed by Cassie, he cruelly severed his ties to her and started making plans for the future. After many interviews with the Sleepers of Forgotten Shore, he along with four other Awakened received the SS rank. Sunny became a citizen of the highest rank. After some research on the background of the Immortal Flame Clan, he compiled a report on his findings of the Forgotten Shore, with the exception of some details that he kept to himself.

Soon after, he decided to be an independent Awakened and was anchored to the gateway of Sanctuary of Noctis on Chained Isles. Alternating between the Dream Realm and the Real World, he strived to follow Nephis' progress and visit her whenever possible. Eventually in the Real World, he bought a house, entered Dreamscape as Mongrel, and found his sister.

One day in the Dream Realm, he found a dead creature who had a golden coin fallen out of its hand, which later was sacrificed to the altar of the Sanctuary of Noctis to gain a fragment. Keeping the knowledge to himself, he decided to get his hands on the treasure chest full of coins on Shipwreck Island.

During his journey, he defeated the creature of Reckoning Island leaving behind a mirror shard, went into the Shipwreck Island, and encountered a mimic which led him to his fate of falling into the abyss of Sky Below. In that nothingness, he met Mordret due to his blood smeared on the mirror shard. The creature on Reckoning was his creation. Mordret gave him tips on how to survive the deadly divine flames of Sun God in Sky Below. He eventually survived and found himself in the Ebony Tower, faced the string of fate he saw when he used the active enchantment of Weaver's mask thus acquired another one of Weaver's lineage and discover a Nightmare Seed in the Ivory Tower.

In the end, he was forced to meet with Cassie in Desecrated Grove to invite her to challenge Second Nightmare along with Kai and Effie but instead was informed of the death vision of the two of them. Back in the Sanctuary, he sacrificed a chest worth of coins, gained fragments enough to shorten the progress between him and Nephis, and get his hands on the obsidian knife.

Back in the Real World, while following his sister, he encountered a gate opening near her. Suppressing his desire to just run away, he faced the gate as Mongrel and survived the onslaught of Nightmare Creatures enough for Jet and the cavalry to clean it up. The event led to Sunny connecting to his sister as her teacher.

While waiting for Effie and Kai to reach Chained Isles, Sunny joined the Fifth Annual Dream Tournament and became its champion. In addition, he progressed to his second mastery of Shadow Dance and got the Shadow God lineage as his relic. However, due to Weaver's lineage, the god lineage he got was devoured by it and that evolved his attributes, Blood Weave, and Bone Weave, and reached Flame of Divinity.

Since the preparation to challenge the Second Nightmare included the Ivory Knife, Sunny and Cassie traveled to the Night Temple. But everything went wrong when Sunny unintentionally released Mordret from his prison inside the Temple using the mirror shard. Both Sunny and Cassie survived the ordeal leading to the fulfillment of her death vision except they did not die and were rescued from falling into the Sky Below by Kai. The Fire Keepers repaired the ship just in time.

Tyris killed Cormac and told them to lie low for a while and to proceed as they planned. Sunny, Cassie, Effie, and Kai reached the Ivory Tower to enter the Second Nightmare but they were joined by an unknown fifth member.

## Volume 4: Chain Breaker

Sunny found himself falling from the skies, in an unfamiliar body of a creature, into the so-called Kingdom of Hope. He encountered Solvane who tried to kill him but was captured instead. After some time, he woke up with a steel collar wrapped around his neck and realized he cannot summon his memories or runes and was completely cut off from the Spell. He then finds himself thrown inside a colosseum.

Inside the Colosseum, there were thousands of Nightmare Creatures and a few humans locked and forced to kill each other every day. Those who survive received the honor of fighting against the Warmongers, if they prevailed they get to live another day. This process was repeated for two months. Sunny only survived with the help of his partner Elyas, who had a healing aspect.

Enduring the torturous ordeal, he kept searching for a way to escape until he found out how to weave sorcery and used it to temporarily disable the enchantment of his collar. While trying to save his partner, their ascended jailer showed up and beheaded him. In actuality, it was his trick to kill the priest by lowering his guard and freeing himself permanently of the collar. He was alive due to the enchantment of Undying Chain and the essence he regained from Soul Serpent by killing the remaining creatures. This helped him survive without a head long enough for Elyas to heal him.

He and Elyas almost managed to escape but they were intercepted by Solvane. She killed Elyas, tore one of Sunny's hearts out, and threw him into the Sky Below. Thankfully, his current body possessed two hearts and did not die immediately. He survived but was slowly dying. He made his way to the south and managed to stumble upon Noctis.

Noctis was happy to see Sunny and told him that fate had brought them together. They made a deal that Noctis would replace his missing heart in exchange for the location of the Glass knife from a terror that belonged to the Shadow Lord. However, after centuries of loneliness and being subjected to Hope's poison the creature went mad and attacked Sunny. He was forced to undergo countless nightmares and on each one he was tortured, experience sorrow, and killed. Eventually, he managed to escape by breaking the nightmares and then killing the terror. As Noctis promised, he replaced Sunny's heart and brought him to the Sanctuary where he met Kai.

Together, Kai and Sunny went to the Temple of the Chalice to retrieve the Glass Knife and Effie. Eventually, they were joined by Cassie to help Noctis free Hope. They attacked Ivory City to kill the remaining Chain Lords. By the end of the nightmare, the Chain Lords perished and Hope was set free.

Back in the waking world, Sunny and his friends successfully became Ascended.

## Volume 5: Dread Night

Because of the fallout with Valor Clan after the events in the Night Temple, Sunny spent six months in the waking world after the cohort returned from the Second Nightmare. In the meantime, he became a star lecturer in the Awakened Academy. Even with Tyris who had done all she could to protect Sunny and Cassie from the powerful clan and their Ascension, that only gave them room for negotiation.

Meanwhile, Jet invited Sunny to enlist in the Evacuation Army for the Antarctica Campaign instead of accepting an invitation to the clan as part of the negotiations. However, during the negotiation, Nephis suddenly returned to the waking world postponing the negotiation with Valor.

After Nephis returned, she stayed in Sunny's house for more than a month to have some rest without disturbance and train her rampaging powers. In one of their training sessions, they accidentally discover the other capabilities of their bond which surprised both. Sunny is still training Rain on the other side.

It was then that Sunny and his friends received an invitation to the Valor Clan ball. It was also at that ball that Sunny had a short conversation with Mordret inside the bathroom by fluke. By the end of the ball, Sunny decided to join the Antarctica Campaign after he got into an argument with Nephis. His decision was not emotional; the choice was cold and calculated. He went to Antarctica to find his true strength.

He met many new people in Antarctica. He became a leader who fought with his people and survived with them but in the end, they all died, he did not find his conviction and did not need it. All he ever wanted was to live a good life and keep the people he care about safe. He hated the Sovereigns because of the world they build, and their pursuit of conviction which trampled millions in the process.

## Volume 6: All the Devils Are Here

Sunny and Jet ventured into the strait on top of the Covetous Coffer to leave the Winter Beast's area of influence. However, their situation worsened when they discovered numerous Nightmare Gates beneath the cold waters. A week later, they had yet to encounter a place where the Call of Nightmare would not instantly whisk them away if they tried to leave for the Dream Realm. They decided to reach East Antarctica.

Sometime later, he became a scout in the Special Reconnaissance Unit of the army. Then he was pulled into being an envoy of the great clans, specifically to Valor due to being close to Nephis, by Saint Cor. In the end, he had to choose a side and fight in the great clan war. However, during the fight unfortunate event happened and now they are all trapped in the Nightmare Desert.

Traversing vast expanse of the desert with great horrors following them and no Transcendent that can bring them back to the waking world. Sunny and his friends were forced to challenge the Third Nightmare.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 163 The Past
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Chapter 166 Light And Shadows