Chapter 1749 Leave It All Behind.

The battle had just ended, and the Winter Beast was gone.

The dark ecstasy of having killed the butcher of Falcon Scott had washed over Sunny's heart and receded like a tide.

Leaving it cold and hollow. Dark and utterly devoid of light.

There was nothing binding him to the world anymore. He was banished from the Nightmare Spell, fate, and existence itself. In the whole world... two worlds, actually... not a single soul cared whether he lived or died. No one even remembered that he existed.

Facing the cruel truth of that loss was too painful, and so, Sunny longed to leave it behind.

...He opened his eyes in a familiar hall. Warm sunlight was pouring through the stained-glass windows, painting the ivory walls with vibrant colors. Heavy chains lay on the floor, arranged into a flawless circle. The sky was vast and blue outside.

The Ivory Island floated on the sea of clouds, enveloped by a peaceful silence.

Sunny had not wanted to come here. In fact, he wanted nothing more than to avoid this place at all costs, However, this was where his soul was anchored to the Dream Realm, and so, this was where he had arrived after giving up on the waking world.

Standing in the center of the chain circle, Sunny shifted slightly and dissolved into the shadows.

The Ivory Tower was mostly empty right now — most of the Fire Keepers were still lost in the depths of their Nightmares, while Nephis and the rest of the cohort were too busy to visit it often. Still... he didn't want to be seen by anyone.

They could not remember him even if he told them who he was, so there was no point.

Sunny glided across the floor as a shadow, hiding in the darkness near the gate. Then, he extended his shadow sense outward and froze. On the emerald grass outside the great pagoda, two people were walking toward its gate.

The sunlight suddenly seemed brighter.

He kept himself hidden when they entered the sunlit hall. Nephis was frowning, while Cassie followed her with a strangely lost expression on her delicate face.

Sunny remained motionless as he unwillingly eavesdropped on their conversation.

«...Are you sure?»

Cassie nodded slowly.

«Yes, I.,, I think I am. The future has grown too... elusive to decipher.»

Nephis halted and remained silent for a few moments.

«Can it be connected to your Transcendence? Or witnessing that thing in Verge?»

The blind girl hesitated briefly.

«That was what I thought, as well. However, I've reached out to several seers in confidence. They all seem to be having trouble glimpsing anything from the future, as well... all over the world.»

Nephis' scowl deepened.

«What can be the reason? An aftershock of the Dream Gates being open? The Chain of Nightmares itself?»

She shook her head and continued walking.

Cassie did not move for a while, standing there with her head lowered.

Eventually, she whispered quietly:

«What has she done to me?»

With that, she turned around and descended into the basement of the Ivory Tower, where the runic controls of the island were located.

Sunny was left alone.

He exhaled slowly and emerged from the shadows, looking in the direction where Cassie had gone.

Torment... did she really believe that her Defiled twin had been capable of doing something like that? The timeline didn't make sense, and Cassie knew it.

Well, it was a reasonable theory to make. Torment's power... Cassie's power... had to do with manipulating memories, after all.

For a moment, a desperate hope ignited in his heart. What if Cassie could restore the memories of him with her Transcendent Ability? What if he could make them remember?

But no... he knew that it was impossible. if it was, she would have already done so, restoring her own lost memories first.

«...I'm sick of it.»

He gritted his teeth and walked out of the Ivory Tower.

By now, the Crushing was of no threat to him. Sunny wasn't sure if he could endure its terrible pressure, but he also did not need to. The range of his shadow sense had grown enough to reach the distant islands, so he could simply step through the shadows to leave the Ivory Island behind.

He contemplated for a few moments, considering if he should.

What was he going to do, anyway? Live like a hermit in some godforsaken corner of the Dream Realm? Leave to travel the unexplored regions of this dreadful world, away from where any human could see him?

Jump into the Sky Below and try to reach its bottom out of curiosity?

Each alternative was as good as the next one.

Well, jumping into the Sky Below was probably a bit worse than the rest...

Sunny remained still for a while, thinking.

In the end, he did not use Shadow Step to reach the flying island far below.

Instead, he circled the great pagoda and headed toward the graceful gazebo, where the portal to the Ebony Tower stood.

If he remembered correctly, there was a chamber in Nether's scorched tower where the walls were engraved with countless runes.

Sunny had not been able to understand those runes before, or at least retain the understanding of the ancient daemon's words.

After his visit to the Estuary, however...

Who knew what he would be able to learn?