Fate's Slave - Shadow Slave X Honkai Star Rail

After eating a surprisingly hearty meal at Natasha’s place, she had led him to the Goethe Grand Hotel. Strangely enough, the hotel shred the first part of it’s name with the Goethe Hotel in the Overworld, the place in which Sunny had woken up in the previous day.

’Such spite...’

Wearing the Puppeteer’s Shroud, he laid upon the surprisingly comfortable bed, Sunny turned off the switch that controlled his consciousness...

***

Finding himself back in the Sanctuary of Noctis, Sunny stepped into to his personal room. He planned to simply sleep until he could actually return to the Waking World. Mental fatigue still accumulated gradually even if an Awakened slept in the real world, so he still required sleep in order to function properly.

Jumping onto his bed, Sunny shut his eyes as he waited for the embrace of sleep to claim him. With a relaxed sigh, he sunk into the soft mattress of his bed.

’Hm... I haven’t seen Sparkle in a while.’

He wondered if he should pay her a visit later. Once he did, he could probably ask her about those guys that were calling him boss a couple days back.

...Was he forgetting something?

As if on cue, a sudden knock on his door brought him out of his quiet respite. A vein bulged on his head as Sunny didn’t even bother to get up. Sending out one of his shadows, he checked who had decided that it was a smart idea to disturb the slumber of Lost From Light.

When he saw the fidgeting girl that was waiting outside of his room, he couldn’t help but sigh. It seems that he had forgotten about the request he had asked of Seele.

She glared at a passing Awakened that was staring at her strangely.

"What? You got a problem?"

Sunny snorted as the man hurried away. He wasn’t sure why he was so afraid of a glaring Seele. She seemed more like a ruffled kitten than anything else.

Sunny landed on his back after he slid off his bed. Laying there for a second, he decided to stop being lazy as he used Shadow Step. He appeared in front of the door, opening it to greet the purple-haired girl.

She looked at him for a second, before raising an eyebrow.

"Who pissed in your cereal?"

Sunny realized that he must have looked quite annoyed right now. He wasn’t able to receive the sleep that he should have gotten, so he was quite peeved.

"I didn’t eat any cereal, so I couldn’t tell you."

Seele nodded.

"Right. So, what’s cereal? Is it good?"

...Sunny had the same question. Somehow, he knew what cereal was despite having no memory of ever eating it before.

"It’s something that you eat after pouring it in milk. They come in these rectangular boxes, and there’s a whole bunch of types... I think."

He paused for a moment.

"Actually, it tastes better if you pour the milk in after. People who put the milk in first should go to hell."

Sunny realized that he had some strong emotions about the correct way to eat cereal. Maybe he should get his head checked...

...At Natasha’s clinic, preferably.

If his heart could still pump blood, he was sure that it would skip a beat whenever he thought about the woman.

Cleansing his mind before he got too excited, Sunny thought about an inconsistency in Seele’s words.

"Wait, how do you know that phrase if you don’t know what cereal is?"

She shrugged.

"It’s a pretty common saying where I come from. I don’t think anyone ever thought about what it actually meant."

Sunny felt like he shouldn’t think about it too much. The world was simply too weird to waste energy thinking about useless things. Rather, he had a much larger problem to deal with. One that was staring him right in his face.

Waving his hand as he moved to the side, he invited Seele to enter his room. Peeking out into the hallway, he looked left and right multiple times in order to really sell it to her. From now on, every action he took had to be as calculated as possible.

Shutting the door before locking it, he walked past Seele. Pulling out a chair, he sat on it in such a way that his chest pressed against the backrest. He observed Seele for a second, calculating his next move.

How exactly should he construct this character of his?

Did he really need to construct a character? Maybe his own personality would suffice...

Mentally nodding to himself, Sunny spoke:

"Before we proceed with your initiation, why exactly do you want to join my... secret organization?"

When Seele had offered to do any one thing that Sunny desired, he had asked a specific question in order to gauge how far she would go. A ridiculous question that most people would probably brush off as a joke.

To be specific, Sunny had asked:

"What if I asked you to join a secret organization that wanted to rule the world?"

He hadn’t asked her to do such a thing. He simply wanted to know what her answer would have been if he had asked her. Unfortunately, Seele had thought that he really wanted her to join an organization that worked in the shadows.

And for whatever reason, she had accepted! Even worse, she seemed to find some benefits to doing so. As such, Sunny couldn’t find it in him to take his words back.

Mainly because he didn’t want to suffer the wrath of her supposedly innocent alter ego.

Seele blinked at his question.

"...Well, it’s kind of embarrassing."

Urging her to continue, Seele then said:

"When I was a kid, I got in a brawl with as homeless man in order to drink from a bucket of water. I was really thirsty at the time, so even though I got really beat up, I lasted long enough for him to give up."

Sunny had no idea what this was leading up to, but he patiently listened. Maybe there would be an interesting development.

"A few days later, I found him at death’s door in a clinic."

...So that was the interesting development!

A wry smile appeared on Seele’s face.

"I hate it when people suffer for my sake. So I promised to myself to make a world where nobody has to live at the expense of others."

Sunny frowned. He thought that such a dream was both naive and impossible.

"Do you actually believe that you can make such a world a reality?"

To his surprise, Seele simply shook her head.

"Maybe I did at one point, but people aren’t that simple." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Sunny saw her fist clench.

"Pain will always exist. The only way for every single person to live in true peace, is for every single conflict to magically disappear. From street brawls to kids arguing about candy. Everything."

Seele sighed.

"But at that point, won’t that just lessen the meaning of happiness? Everybody would be happy, but are they really? If there’s nothing to compare happiness to, it just loses all it’s worth."

Sunny was... actually impressed by how mature Seele actually was. He had expected a rant about justice and altruism, but instead got an entire speech about how peace in the truest sense wouldn’t be possible, and how the very concept of it destroyed the meaning of peace and violence.

If only his companions were as flexible as Seele. Maybe they would have already solved the Stellaron crisis.

"...You didn’t actually answer my question."

Seele blinked.

"Oh... my bad."

She seemed deep in thought for a second.

"If I was a part of an organization that ruled the world, maybe I could save my home. And you’re strong, so I thought: ’Maybe he’s actually insane enough to do it.’"

Staring at Sunny for a second, Seele smirked.

"Are you really trying to rule the world?"

Sunny was about to vehemently deny that accusation. Considering his Flaw, he would have to tell the truth regardless.

...But as he thought about it, was ruling the world really that bad? Actually, it sounded quite amazing.

Of course, it was bound to be very difficult. Not only would he have to be the strongest, but he would have to be surrounded by the strongest. Sunny knew better than anyone that two against one had better odds than one against one. Having an organization of powerful people with himself at the top seemed quite tempting.

However, he was weak. If he wanted to have that kind of power, he would need to challenge the Nightmares, gain more Cores, have a luxurious armory of Memories and Echoes, weave strong connections with people in high places, and much, much more.

He would have to surpass the Saints, becoming a being that transcended Transcendence itself. But he couldn’t stop their. Even if he became the strongest human by reaching Supremacy, there were bound to be Nightmare Creatures of Cursed and Unholy Ranks skulking around.

As long as there was something stronger than Sunny, he couldn’t possibly feel safe.

He would need to go even further. He would have to challenge the Fifth Nightmare to become a Sacred being, and challenge the Sixth Nightmare to become Divine. Once he did so... wouldn’t it have been practically impossible for his life to be disrupted by another?

The gods were dead. Sunny alone would stand at the top with only the Aeons as a threat. Even then, they didn’t have a tendency to directly interact with worldly affairs, designating their followers to fight their battles for them.

’Damnation... maybe I’ve actually lost it.’

Sunny felt desire like no other well up in his chest. This wasn’t desire for things that he was familiar with, such as food, sleep, or things that he probably shouldn’t be thinking about right now.

...No, he was wrong. This was a desire that Sunny understood very well, expanded to magnitudes that he couldn’t possibly quantify it.

A desire for security.

It was a simple thing. Sunny didn’t trust others to keep himself safe. He went with the Astral Express to keep himself safe. Everything that he does was to survive.

However... there was one thing that didn’t want Sunny to live. Something that had wanted him dead from the very beginning.

The world. Both worlds, even.

It did everything that it could to kill him. Why else would he be put up against an Awakened Tyrant within his First Nightmare? Why else would it give him a Flaw that took away his greatest tool — the ability to lie? Why else would he have Shadow Bond, a chain that could be wrapped around his neck as long as someone said a measly three short words — words that anyone could know as long as they ask him?

[Fated] will cause all kinds of unlikely things to happen to him. Both good and bad. In order to survive the Attribute, he needed to become powerful enough that he couldn’t be fazed. He needed to be able to shrug off the weight of the world itself.

He didn’t want to be just a part of the world — it’s plaything. Sunny wanted it all. Every last piece of it.

He could see it now. There he was, relaxing on the balcony of a beautiful castle. Eating a bountiful meal prepared by the greatest chefs in two worlds. Staring upon the most gorgeous of views in two worlds. Enjoying the company of only the fairest of women in two worlds...

Maybe he was getting ahead of himself with the last one. Not even becoming Divine could save his looks...

And there it was; a horde of Unholy Titans scrambling to devour his Divine soul. Sunny nonchalantly sipped out of a glass of milk — he was a growing boy after all, and he would certainly have a growth spurt... someday.

With nothing but the wave of his hands, the stampede of unspeakable horrors dissipated into nothing.

It wouldn’t matter what the world tried to do against Sunny, as he would simply be too powerful to be hindered by it. He would not be the world’s toy, rather, the world would be his own. The world would simply have to watch; whether in fear or respect.

This would be Sunny’s ultimate vengeance.

To stand atop that which wishes his demise.

Was there anyone else that could commit such a grand act of treachery?

It started low, a dry rasp from deep in his chest, almost hesitant, as though his mind were grappling with the audacity of his thoughts. But then, as the idea took root, the laugh grew, rising in pitch, gaining speed, until it erupted from him, an uncontrollable roar of hysteria. It echoed off the walls, reverberating through the room like a storm of madness.

The sound was wild, chaotic, like a man who had just discovered that the world was his to burn — and that he could do it with a single flick of his wrist. His laughter reverberated in his bones, in his blood. It was the sound of something breaking free, something feral, something unstoppable.

Seele’s smirk fell off her face, instead contorting into an expression of pure disbelief.

"...What the hell did I just get myself into?"

Sunny’s laughter died down. Slowly but surely, the sound devolved from a euphoric melody to a quiet joy, before the room became quiet altogether.

It was madness. To do something as insane as crushing the world itself out of pure spite was something only a lunatic could genuinely believe. And yet...

’If this is madness... then why do I feel so complete?’

Sunny’s cynical inhibitions shattered — grinded down to dust itself. He looked down at Seele — which was comical, as he was the one sitting in a chair while she stood in stupefaction.

Rather, he was looking down on the world, his eternal enemy.

Sunny grinned as he disembarked from his chair. This would be a long, rough battle. One that Sunny would have to endure great pain in order to fight.

’The world? Yeah, I’ll win against it. After all, I am Lost From Light...’

"...If that is my will, who dares to stop me?"