"You're too stiff. You need to be fluid… heh, like a shadow."
Sunny laughed at his own joke as he easily deflected an awkward attack from Seele. The Soul Serpent had taken the form of a war scythe as he replicated each of her moves with grace and effortless skill.
She stumbled back as she lost her balance. Before she had the chance to regain her footing, a lusterless curved blade hooked around her neck.
Sunny sighed. This was looking to be more trouble than it's worth.
"You need to readjust your footing with every move you make. The same placement won't work for every situation."
The purple-haired girl growled as she roughly pushed his scythe away from her neck, stepping a few paces away from him as she readied her scythe. Frustration was apparent on her face, as she clearly lacked the desire to converse.
Shrugging, Sunny stylishly twirled his scythe around, picking up wind as he inadvertently sliced through blades of grass.
They clashed once more.
The two of them were currently on Iron Hand Island in the Chained Isles, a place that was mostly lacking of Nightmare Creatures.
Having watched her fight since the day he had met her, Sunny had come to the conclusion that Seele and Veliona were both very incompetent when it came to wielding the scythe. It wasn't really her fault, as her upbringing generally limited any possible training she could have gotten. Besides, he was rather impressed with the fact that she had survived in the Dream Realm for so long without a proper weapon.
Well, she was probably just lucky.
Either way, her luck wouldn't last long if she didn't improve. As her employer, Sunny generously took it upon himself to train her until she had a modicum of skill — enough to fight against other Awakened.
Whether it was Cocolia, or Sunny himself, she wouldn't have stood a chance against either of them if she only relied on her Aspect.
He would have suggested that she try a different weapon; such as a sword. Not only were they simpler, but also more versatile.
However, her scythe was a Memory of the Transcendent Rank — Transcendent, just like her garment! Sunny was convinced that she had everything handed down to her on a silver platter!
Anyways, the value of the Memory was simply too high. As such, it made more sense to simply develop her skills with it.
And… uh… that wasn't going too well.
Seele was just too stiff with her movements, and wielded the thing like it was a sword. Her footwork brought her no rotational force, which was key to making sure that her attacks held weight.
There were no twirls! No twirls whatsoever!
'Without twirls, you might as well use a knife!'
Jabbing the shaft of his scythe into the ground, he pushed down. Using the strength of an Awakened Demon, he picked himself up the ground, pole vaulting over a horizontal slash from Seele.
Which seemed to be a feint.
She suddenly grabbed his scythe while he was still in midair, holding in an iron grip as she tried to forcefully pull him down. She was less of a warrior, and more like a feral beast.
Marginally impressed, Sunny allowed her to pull him towards her. Before she could swing her scythe with her other hand, he gave her a devestating punch to the face, causing her to release her grip as she staggered back. Sunny landed back on his feet.
"Wha—"
She didn't have the chance to speak as Sunny's scythe once again looped around her neck.
"It was a decent setup but the follow-up takes too much time. Especially when using a scythe."
Feeling a searing glare, Sunny sighed as he continued:
"We're done for today. It's about time for you to leave, right?"
Allowing Serpent to revert to it's tattoo form, Sunny summoned the Endless Spring. Tossing it over to Seele, he watched in amusement as she drunk it like she's never seen water before.
Despite his complaints, there were a few things that made training Seele and Veliona easier when compared to the average person.
The two of them shared the same muscle memory, which meant that whenever he trained one, he was actually training both. This meant that he only needed to put in the effort of training a single person to train two.
Of course, they weren't really seperate from each other. Really, it only meant that no matter who was in control, their skill would be consistent.
So, in actuality, that wasn't much of an advantage.
However, she did have something that put her above the rest:
Viciousness.
What she lacked in skill, was made up for with wild, untamed viciousness. Her movements were not elegant or graceful, but simply a product of instinct and the desire to survive.
This was something that most people lacked. Legacy Clans produced heirs that knew honorable and complex battle arts that have been developed for millennia, while the common folk lived in comfort until the dreadful day in which they get infected by the Spell.
They knew nothing of the struggle to survive, so they can't.
However, people like Sunny and Seele, who knew nothing of comfort and honor, were the kind that would grit their teeth and survive against all odds. They didn't care for immaterial things that could only hold them back, and they had no lack of experience when it came to braving the depths of despair.
Whether it was due to spite or integrity, their will couldn't crumble.
So… even though they lacked any talent, experience, or skill, the one thing that was hardest to develop was already ingrained in Seele and Veliona. Now, it was simply a matter of following the motions until their body understood what their mind did.
If allowed to properly develop, Seele and Veliona would be a pair of monsters… in a single package.
***
Once the two of them returned to the real world, Sunny climbed out of the sleeping pod. As his main contact in Belobog for his currently unnamed secret organization, Seele had her Wildfire duties, which meant that she couldn't stay in the Dream Realm for long.
Looking around his empty room, Sunny thought:
'I really need some furniture…'
With a sigh, he went down the spiral staircase to the Party Car, before walking over to the Parlor Car. Once he was there, he heard March loudly complaining about something.
"Dan Heng, I know it's you! Stop lying!"
"…I don't even like strawberry ice cream."
Remembering something he had done the previous day, Sunny stayed silent as he walked past the two of them. There was a glowing, blue, rotating crystalline construct floating in the middle of the Parlor Car. Approaching it, he placed a hand out as he closed his eyes.
Suddenly, a mental image of an intergalactic map surfaced in his mind. There were hundreds, thousands of locations, each of them connected to eachother by a track. As he looked through them, there were two locations he recognized.
The Herta Space Station, and Jarilo-VI.
Using the Space Anchor — a tool that allowed those who followed the Trailblaze Path to teleport between two points — he felt his body get pulled into an immaterial void as his body and soul disappeared from the Express.
In the next second, Sunny found himself in the middle of the Overworld.
Every location the Astral Express arrives at has a Space Anchor placed. Jarilo-VI had one too, but it was deactivated due to the Stellaron, which extended to cutting off the Star Rail — the path the Astral Express takes to get from one point to another.
Now that it was gone, the Space Anchor operated just fine — both of them. One in the Overworld, and another in the Underworld.
Walking into an alleyway, Sunny turned into a shadow as he discreetly traveled to Qlipoth Fort. Hidden from sight, he quickly traversed the corridors as his shadows were sent out to find who he was looking for.
Once he located them, he used Shadow Step to instantaneously appear in Bronya's room. Seeing that she didn't notice him yet, he spoke:
"Hey."
The young woman, who had been sitting at her desk writing something, suddenly jumped when she heard his voice. Swiveling around, she placed a hand on her chest as she sighed in relief. For whatever reason, she seemed to be sweating buckets.
"Sunny… you almost gave me a heart attack."
Tilting his head, he cheekily grinned.
"Heart attack, huh? I've heard that it's pretty common in the Underworld."
Bronya glared at him.
"That isn't a joking matter."
Sunny blinked.
"It isn't?"
Sha stared at him for a moment, before sighing in resignation.
"It doesn't matter. Can I help you with anything?"
Sunny nodded.
"You can tell me what's going on… I've been out of the loop, you see."
She picked up the paper she was writing on.
"I was just writing a report on what had happened over the past week or so. It's heavily edited, so nobody will be incriminated in any way."
He assumed that included Cocolia.
Bronya continued:
"My mother is unconscious, and it's unknown if she will be waking up. The Architects are trying to decide if I should take up the mantle of Supreme Guardian or not… and they have some very conflicting opinions."
She frowned.
"If Mother does not wake up over the course of the next month, then I'll most likely have to succeed her… honestly, I don't think I'm even remotely prepared to take her position."
Contemplating her words for a moment, he scowled.
"Yeah, you weren't ready."
Bronya's face contorted into a stiff smile.
"No need to be so blunt about it…"
He wasn't done.
"From my perspective, you wouldn't be that good of a ruler during times of conflict. If the Stellaron crisis wasn't resolved, you'd have a hard time. You're too soft to make the necessary decisions."
He paused for a moment, before shrugging.
"During peaceful times, though, I'd think you'd do just fine. With everything that's happened, you've seen enough of the city you're ruling to understand the people. You might not be exceptionally charismatic, but even the people who should naturally harbor a dislike for you hold you in… decent regards."
Sunny awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.
"So… it all works out?"
Bronya stared at him in bewilderment for a moment, before releasing a soft giggle.
"You… really need to organize your words better."
Sunny lifted a brow.
"Do I?"