"Of course I didn't know! You just vanished. We didn't have time to talk—I had no idea if you were even okay. It's been, what, a year since I last saw you? How could I have known you had a true name?"
Sunny's voice rang out, laced with frustration as he continued to berate Dawn. But then, movement disrupted the encircling crowd—a flash of blonde rushing toward them.
Cassie.
Her tear-streaked face barely held together. Sobbing, trembling, stumbling through the crowd—her emotions were visible from a mile away.
Dawn hadn't seen her coming. He jolted in shock when he felt someone wrap their arms around him from behind.
"H-How… are you here? This... this never happened in my visions."
"Cassie?"
That name hung heavy in the air. For a moment, Dawn could barely breathe. A hundred emotions wrestled inside him—some from the crowd's mounting energy, but most from Cassie herself.
Surprise. Joy. Sadness.
Feelings he never imagined seeing in her, all laid bare at the sight of him.
He hesitated, then turned slowly and returned her embrace.
His eyes met Sunny's, silently asking a question. Sunny answered only with a wide-eyed look of disbelief. He was just as lost.
After five minutes of raw sobs pressed into his chest, Cassie's tears ebbed. She pulled back just enough to whisper something coherent:
"How are you here?"
"Well, let's simplify things—I got dropped into some godforsaken desert. I spent every day running from Awakened, Fallen, and corrupted abominations. Then I found a gateway, but apparently the spell thought that was too easy, so it dumped me here instead. That's the short version."
Cassie let out a shaky laugh, clinging to him. A gentle smile warmed her face as she whispered, soft as a breeze:
"I... I thought you were dead."
Dawn's answer was a murmur against her hair.
"Trust me. It would take a god to make me give up on living."
A beat passed. Then another thought surfaced—one darker, but full of quiet power:
"Especially now that I can finally feel emotions again."
From the side, a voice broke the moment.
"…Nephis?"
"Yeah, Sunny?"
"Is it wrong that I feel like a third wheel right now?"
"Nope. I feel the same."
"Yeah, thought so. Wanna get lunch?"
Nephis nodded and drifted toward the food lines with light, quiet steps. Sunny lingered, then followed, glancing once more at Dawn and Cassie—still wrapped in each other's arms.
Farther back in the crowd, a statuesque beauty and a man who looked like an idol sat beside each other eating their bowls of food.
"Kai. We're shipping them, right?"
"Duh."
Yeah… I expected Cassie to be shocked. But this? This reaction?
He couldn't explain why, but he didn't mind it.
Still locked together, their stomachs betrayed them with a simultaneous growl. They blinked, embarrassed, before sharing a silent nod and heading to the camp's main area for something to eat.
Peace hung thick in the air. Not the absence of chaos—but acceptance. Anxious maybe, but still calm. Dawn could sense it. None of the people here were weak. They carried strength in different shapes. He respected that.
Off in the distance, someone shouted boasting about having slayed a Fallen Devil. The camp buzzed to life as others began boasting about their greatest kills.
Curiosity stirred.
Sunny leaned toward Dawn—now seated among Nephis's tight-knit cohort—and raised a brow.
"What's your greatest kill?"
Dawn smirked.
Let's have some fun.
"You see, back at the start of my journey, I met a creature. But it wasn't like the others—it had conscious thought. It taught me everything it could in the little time we had.
"And because of me… I ended up killing it. Not directly. But it still died.
"Sounds lame, doesn't it? But that's how I killed a Cursed Titan… also known as the Spawn of Destiny."
Silence slammed down like a hammer.
The boasting crowd fell still. All eyes turned—not to Dawn—but to Kai. The auburn-haired idol dropped his bowl. His mouth opened. His face twisted in disbelief.
Denial.
And just like that, Dawn earned the quiet respect of most—if not all—of the Dark City's residents.
authos's note:
Sorry for not posting in so long some things happened in my life and I ended up also like kinda not knowing what to do with this story for a long time but I have a somewhat clear idea on what I'm going to do next and my life is looking a little bit better now so I decided to continue this story. hope you guys enjoy this chapter