Chapter 1232 Lost in the Mist

Chapter 1232 Lost in the Mist

'What the hell?!'

Sunny reached the edge of his makeshift raft and froze there, his fingers submerged in water. A perfect copy of him was standing motionlessly a few meters away, looking down with a mocking smile on his lips.

The pale face, the onyx eyes, the raven black hair... it was all the same. But the apparition was much more composed and full of malice than Sunny. There was a boundless ocean of madness hiding behind the cold darkness of its amused gaze.

For a moment, Sunny was convinced that one of Mordret's Reflections had somehow found him within the mist. But the tone with which the apparition spoke was simply too familiar. With a shudder, he realized that this copy of him was the manifestation of the Sin of Solace.

However...

"Gods. You look so pathetic."

'Yeah... that's definitely that damned sword.'

But how could it be?

At first, Sunny had only heard indistinct whispers when holding the Sin of Solace. Later, he could clearly hear its voice. And later still, after Falcon Scott, a vague illusory figure would follow him around... now, however, that figure seemed perfectly real.

That was not the most frightening fact, though.

The most frightening thing was that Sunny did not have the Sin of Solace summoned. How could the spirit of the cursed sword be here, if the sword itself still rested within the still darkness of his soul?!

Suddenly, a chill ran down Sunny's spine.

As if reading his mind, the Sin of Solace laughed.

"Ah, how fun. I'll give you some credit, Lost from Light... you never fail to amuse, at least. What, are you afraid of me now?"

Sunny hated to admit it, but he was. He did not know what to expect from the cursed jian... it was tied to Ariel, after all, who was both the Demon of Dread and the architect of the harrowing pyramid of nightmares. Even if the Transcendent Memory only contained a facsimile of a distant whisper left behind by the ancient daemon, it was still an artifact of terrifying power.

He knew that power all too well. Sunny had slain many Corrupted Nightmare Creatures with its help, after all — some of whom he had no business being able to kill — and, as a result, was exposed to its destructive influence in turn. He had thought that he was handling the insidious influence of the Sin of Solace well...

But if he had, then why did the apparition feel more real than ever? How was it able to appear before him without him even holding the cursed sword?

Sunny remained silent for a while, then forced out a smile.

"Afraid of you? Nonsense! Of course not."

The Sin of Solace tilted his head a little, studying Sunny with some interest.

"Oh... but I think you should."

His voice sounded relaxed, but that only made the words more chilling to hear.

However, Sunny exhaled with relief.

"Well, why would I? You're not real. Am I supposed to be frightened of every imaginary bastard? Life's too short for that."

The doll-like young man in front of him raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure that I am not real?"

It was hard to tell how much time had passed since Sunny entered the Nightmare, too. The dim twilight permeating the mist never grew brighter or darker. However, he felt as if it had not been more than a couple of days.

He had spent most of his time numbly staring at the wood grain of his makeshift raft. For some reason, it looked strangely familiar. The strange sense of familiarity was driving Sunny crazy...

But then again, perhaps it was the fact that he had gone crazy that caused the irrational sense of familiarity with a random piece of flotsam.

After all, there had to be a reason why the spirit of the Sin of Solace was suddenly much more clear, frighteningly real, and even able to appear without Sunny summoning the cursed sword. The less stable his mental state was, the more substantial the presence of the apparition was supposed to be.

Sunny did not feel particularly insane, just numb, heartbroken, and emotionally drained. However, which lunatic knew of their madness?

The Sin of Solace, meanwhile, was behaving rather strangely. Sunny was painfully aware of his many failures, so he had expected the apparition to barrage him with mockery and contempt. Did you want to protect the people of Antarctica? Did you think that your pathetic self was capable of protecting anything?

Stuff like that.

Hell... after that last conversation with Morgan, Sunny knew that the waking world was more or less doomed. He didn't even know if Rain would be okay. The Sin of Solace could have used that fact to drive a nail into his heart, too.

But the cursed sword mostly remained silent.

At some point, Sunny glanced at the apparition, which was still standing in the spot where it first appeared, and raised an eyebrow:

"Hey... aren't you going to mock me? Don't you want to remind me how pitiful and pathetic I am?"

Sunny's perfect copy stared at him for a few moments, then looked away with indifference.

"...That grew old ages ago. I can't be bothered."

Sunny frowned.

"Come to think of it... why is it that you haven't moved a single centimeter in all this time?"

The Sin of Solace scoffed.

"Where am I supposed to go? This raft is not that large... well, I might as well stand on water, true. But why should I?"

Sunny studied him for a bit, then shook his head.

"No... I think you're hiding something."

His hallucination laughed.

"Oh, yeah? So, now you are paranoid, too?"

Instead of answering, Sunny rose from where he was sitting and took a step toward the Sin of Solace. His copy frowned.

"What do you think you're..."

"Get lost."

Sunny pushed the apparition aside, forcing it to take a step back and sway dangerously at the very edge of the makeshift raft, almost falling into the water.

The Sin of Solace cursed, but Sunny paid him no attention. Instead, he stared at the spot where the hallucination had been standing all this time.

'...Interesting.'

There, a single rune was roughly carved into the wood.