Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

Sunny did not fully understand what the sorcerer meant by saying that the new heart needed time to settle. Physically, he felt fine... great, even. Both of his hearts were beating steadily in his chest, powerful and dependable like relentless machines. However, he had not put them under any strain since the battle with Nightmare, so there was no way of telling how they would behave in a crisis.

Remembering the frightening pain of having his heart give out, Sunny decided to take the immortal’s word for it and allow himself to rest.

He needed rest, anyway.

While his body had healed, the mind was not that resilient. Sunny felt that his mental state was not in the best of shapes... however, strangely, it was not as bad as he would have expected.

After the hellish two months he had spent in the Red Colosseum with Elyas, their subsequent escape, and the young man’s death, Sunny had beem numb and apathetic for a long time. He had gone through the motions of pursuing a simple goal without much emotion, hiding in the darkness as he traveled across the Kingdom of Hope, too hurt and defeated to feel anything.

Already in a damaged and vulnerable state, he had been then thrust into the harrowing succession of nightmares and forced to experience one hideous torment after another. At this point, Sunny could have broken... but instead, unexpectedly, he had found himself full of rapacious determination.

That determination had banished the suffocating lethargy and allowed him to endure countless nightmares and continue to fight, until there were none left. It was as though the two ghastly experiences clashed and counteracted each other, leaving him in a semblance of a healthy state.

Or maybe it was just the matter of suffering a bitter defeat by Solvane’s hand, but then refusing to give up and clawing his way to victory in the battle against Nightmare. That victory, costly as it had been, ignited his tortured spirit despite all the suffering it brought, the same way that the previous defeat had extinguished it.

Well... healthy was a strong word. Perhaps functioning was more suitable.

He could still feel barely closed wounds in his mind, which sometimes made their existence known. And added to that was the invisible, insidious poison of Hope...

Yes, a week or two of rest did not sound too bad. Sunny had a feeling that later, there would not be such an opportunity again.

...After their breakfast conversation, Noctis offered to host him in the luxurious residence. However, Sunny felt that sharing a living space with the eccentric sorcerer would have been very conducive to peaceful restoration, so he politely refused. In the end, he settled in spacious quarters on the opposite side of the ring of menhirs, close to where his small room had been in the future.

His new one was larger and much better furnished. It was comfortable, beautiful, and safe. However, Sunny didn’t like to stay inside the room for too long... being surrounded by its stone walls reminded him of the dungeon of the Red Colosseum too much, so he spent most of his days in the inner garden of the Sanctuary.

The people living in the former Temple of the Moon did not seem as perturbed by seeing a horned demon walk among them as the humans of the waking world would have been, especially since they knew that Sunny had arrived with Noctis himself... however, they were still tense and apprehensive around him. In the end, Sunny found himself being avoided at all costs, which suited him fine.

Not wishing to disturb anyone unnecessarily, he tended to remain in a corner of the garden where very few people ever appeared... coincidentally, it was the same place where he used to sell Soul Shards in the future. His favorite stone, sadly, was usually taken by the girl with burnt skin, a bandage covering her right eye — most likely missing.

Oh, well... life couldn’t always be perfect.

The first time Sunny sat down on the grass a few meters away from the girl, she spared the four-armed monster a short glance, lingered for a few moments, and then asked in a broken voice:

”...What happened to your hands?”

Sunny looked at the burn victim, not really wishing to engage in a conversation, then reluctantly produced the emerald amulet and answered.

”Lost my fingers. Got new ones. What happened to your eye?”

A single crimson eye looked up at him from behind the short, messy dark hair. Grinning as if he had said something funny, she curled her fingers under the bandages and lifted them up.

The four-armed devil grimaced.

The entire right of the girl’s face was burnt to a crisp, a mess of charred skin and flesh. Her empty eye socket seemed to achingy pulse, oozing with pus.

Them, completely unbothered by the mangled half of her face, the girl pointed in the distance towards the miniature scarlet sun. Its light gave the Chained Isles a blood-like hue...

”Turns out it’s not a good idea to fly too close to the sun. Who would have thought?”

Her tone dripped with sarcasm.

’...Man, the people here are crazy.’

They haven’t spoken after that, remaining in indifferent silence.

With a sigh, Sunny threw these thoughts out of his head and closed his eyes, trying to meditate.

Two weeks... that was all the time he had to prepare himself for the encroaching hell of an obliterating war.