The four heroes continued on their journey, gathering the mythical items that would allow them to seal the cursed sea. The movie didn't explain things too much, and simply showed a short montage of their adventures. As Sunny watched the extremely simplified version with a complex expression.
'So… I'm practically a god, I have a self-proclaimed rival, and I can charm any woman with a few cheesy words and a stupid smile.'
He mentally nodded.
'Yeah, makes sense… not!'
At this point, Sunny realized that the movie was genuinely just a joke, and wasn't meant to be taken seriously whatsoever. After all, one of the four protagonists was named H2O, there was practically no plot, the movie was filled with unfunny gags, and character progression was thrown out the window.
The real question was: who thought that they could do this and get away with it?
Sunny was much too petty to let this go unpunished.
Once the four main characters collected the special relics — with the fake Sunny shirtless the whole time — they returned to the Dark City, started a rebellion — that happened off-screen — and started a siege on the Crimson Spire to reach the Gateway — which also happened off-screen.
…It was very anticlimactic. Sunny expected a massive battle, but instead, the four heroes simply rushed towards the end, fighting a heavily-edited sun. For whatever reason, the other three characters collapsed on the ground — at least, Sunny assumed they did. He couldn't really see H2O, since she was invisible for some reason.
Anyways, the climax was really just the fake Sunny spouting corny lines as he unleashed his super duper ultra move:
"This world has no need for light!"
"Your evil will be purged!"
"With the power of my friends, I'll never lose!"
With all the laughing besides him, Sunny wanted to crumble into nothingness.
When the battle ended with a single triumphant blow, the movie… abruptly ended. There was no aftermath or anything, just the credits.
And as those credits rolled, Sunny was filled with confusion.
'Wait, those names…'
Sunny recognized them. Not just the actors, but the producers as well. It was no wonder this movie had such a low budget. It wasn't even made by a proper movie studio!
The armrests of his chair were crushed in his grip, causing Bronya and Dan Heng, who were beside him, to flinch. Sunny's brow began to rapidly twitch as he rose from his seat with a murderous expression.
"Uh… Sunny?"
"That seat was expensive…"
'Those bastards…'
Sunny knew the individuals who created this sorry excuse of a movie very well. After all, he had read through detailed profiles on each of them, and had even practiced his interactions with them.
'I'll kill them all!'
***
The journey to the remote island that Sparkle had mentioned turned out to be uneventful. Sunny rode the heavenly chains in the form of the shadow and traversed the islands on foot, avoiding any Nightmare Creature that crossed his path.
The southern part of the Chained Isles was relatively safe, or at least safer than the northern part. Well, no surprise — it was bordering regions of the Dream Realm that had been tamed by humans more than a decade ago, while to the north there was nothing except for the dreadful Hollow Mountains.
The Desecrated Grove itself was somewhat near the main route from one of the Great Chains — which connected all of the Chained Isles to the rest of the Dream Realm — to the Sanctuary of Noctis. People who were either coming to or leaving the region used that route to travel between the Great Chain and the Citadel, so it was often patrolled by the White Feather forces.
Sunny traveled along the established route, then left it to go deeper into the dangerous wilderness of the flying islands. He carefully avoided all the places where Corrupted Nightmare Creatures were known to dwell, and kept his eyes open for any sign of danger.
However, nothing that couldn't be avoided happened. None of the islands Sunny wanted to cross were rising, so he even managed to escape having to endure the Crushing.
It had only taken a few hours to get there.
Sunny flew through the shadows and then soared high into the air, cresting the edge of a large island and softly landing on its soil.
The Desecrated Grove… he had arrived.
The Desecrated Grove was a large island, it's surface overtaken almost entirely by a forest of twisted, charred, dead trees. The ground was covered by a thick layer of ash, which was often thrown into the air by the strong winds. Grey flakes rained down from the sky.
There were many Nightmare Creatures nesting in the dark forest, and although most of them were only of the Awakened Rank, one had to be careful to not get ambushed, surrounded, or stumble upon an especially ferocious abomination.
All Sunny knew was that Sparkle was searching for something that was necessary to get back to the Ivory Tower safely, which would let them challenge the Second Nightmare.
There were four chains connecting the Desecrated Grove to other islands, but the one he himself had used was the most convenient. Any sane leader would have chosen the same route, and even though the Crushing was capable of making anyone's path unpredictable, the other three were just too much of a risk.
That's why Sunny wasn't surprised to see human footprints leading toward the menacing wall of blackened dead trees, already mostly covered by a new layer of ash. There were also signs of a battle, with several misshapen carcasses laying on the ground and showing clear signs of their Soul Shards being removed.
Judging by the fact that they were only partially devoured by the scavenging Nightmare Creatures, the Abyss Watchers must have passed through no more than a day or two ago.
Sighing, Sunny tied a piece of cloth around his mouth and nose, summoned the Cruel Sight, and started following the footprints.
Soon, he entered the ashen veil of the twisted forest. His ability to see through any shadow proved to be invaluable once again: if not for that gift, he would have been scared witless, expecting a sudden attack to come from the surrounding darkness at any moment.
With his sight, the Shadow Sense, and the ability to see all around himself with the help of one of the shadows, Sunny felt confident that nothing would be able to get close to him unnoticed… at least not on this comparatively tame island.
But that was the thing about the Dream Realm. Even creatures that were supposed to be easy to deal with could kill you in a second if you weren't careful enough. Tame or not, everywhere in this godforsaken world was a potential death trap.
With a slight frown, he turned into a shadow and glided through the darkness, covering much more distance with every minute than he had been on foot. He still preferred to be cautious, though, sending one of the shadows ahead and moving slow enough to be able to react in time if something unexpected happened.
After an hour or so, he finally found them.
The Abyss Watchers were camped at a secluded clearing that was around halfway to the heart of the island, dangerously far removed from the edge. If the Desecrated Grove entered the ascent phase, the time window for them to get back to the chain before the Crushing became deadly would be extremely narrow.
The Abyss Watchers were comprised of a little over a hundred survivors of the Forgotten Shore — those who had decided against pledging their allegiance to the Legacy clans that wanted the recruit them, as well as other factions, and had not become fully independent.
Although Sunny was their leader, he didn't command the whole host herself. Instead, his followers were divided into several cohorts, each operating in different regions of the Dream Realm. The Abyss Watchers were not a formal organization, but more of a loose alliance of psychos who decided that working under Sunny sounded like a fun time.
Well… once he gets his hands on them, Sunny would certainly have a fun time.
…Sunny's shadow entered the circle of light created by one of the torches, glared at the lookout, and then waved at him.
The young man stared at it with wide eyes.
"What the hell?!"
The other swiftly turned, summoning her weapon.
"What is it?"
The first one remained silent for a moment, then sighed.
"Ah, crap…"
He massaged his temple, as if experiencing a headache.
"...It's the Boss."
***
There were eight people in the cohort Sparkle had brought to the Desecrated Grove. Eight people whose names he recognized from both the profiles she had given him, and the credits of Absence of Light.
Even if some were clearly displeased with having to wake up a bit early and wary of his entrepreneurial ambitions — which they had been amply subjected to — they were still clearly happy to see Sunny. Soon, his shoulder began to hurt a little from all the friendly slaps it received.
"What brings you here, Big Boss?"
"Big? Are you seeing what I'm seeing… I mean, Boss is a… respectable height."
"He's probably here to see that Demoness, damn it! My back still hurts from all that digging!"
"That, or we're going to get scammed. And Durk, let's be real here. Your back was hurting since you were all bent over for a whole hour while making flirtatious eye contact with a rock, with that freaky Flaw of yours."
"What can I say? That moss-covered shell was tempting as hell!"
They all exploded in laughter, sending him mocking jeers.
Sunny sighed — half in anger, half in amusement. Durk had an Aspect that let him give objects sentience, making them alive in a way. They could float around and act as projectiles, or do more complex things depending on the object. His Flaw however, caused him to see those sentient objects as if they were human.
Somehow, Sunny was grateful that his Flaw wasn't as weird.
"So, have you guys booked your funerals yet?"
They all froze, slowly turning to him with fear in their eyes.
"…Actually, Boss, I think your height is just fine where it is! The Demoness certainly likes it!"
"Shut up!"
The man who made that comment was punched in the gut by his friend, doubling over in pain, before just… falling to the floor.
'Is he dead?'
Sunny shook his head in annoyance, then paused, a dark grin rising on his face.
"Actually, those Nightmare Creature corpses led me here. I'm almost impressed!"
Sunny chuckled as he continued:
"Surely, you wouldn't mind handing them over to me? I mean, I'm your Boss, so I should get around… a hundred percent of the profits? What do you guys think?"
There was a moment of silence.
"…No! My limited-edition Mongrel figurine, which was totally not from the black market! I was going to sell those Soul Shards—"
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?!"
The man on the floor groaned in pain as he was kicked by his friend.
Sunny's eye twitched at the mention of Mongrel. Were his own slaves… employees also his fans?
Durk coughed into his fist, sent his own gauntlet a strange look, then said:
"Well, you'd need to talk to the Demoness about that. She's been using them for some creepy ritual."
Sunny crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes.
"Then I guess I'll do just that. After all, she's 'completely devoted to me', right?"
The eight Awakened sent him looks of confusion, before groaning and whining once they realized what he was talking about.
"Boss, you were already on us about this last year! The Demoness taped us to the wall at the Sanctuary for a whole day! Naked!"
Sunny scoffed.
"Yeah, you want to know who else was naked… for two years condensed into two hours? One of you guys! Pretending to be me!"
"…You have to admit, it was pretty funny."
Sunny sniffed the air.
"What's that? Do I smell a free Awakened Soul Shard talking back to me?"
"I stopped talking. I stopped talking!"
"Uh… Boss. I think you meant 'hear', not 'smell'."
"Another one? Today might be my lucky day."
"Silly me! I've got my words mixed up!"
"That's what I thought. Now make me some fine cuisine as they negotiate for those sweet Soul Shards."
Planning to make their lives a living hell for the next hour or so, Sunny happily skipped over to the tent Sparkle was in.
It made sense that they removed certain parts like the siege of the Crimson Spire and the rebellion in the Dark City, only skimming over them. After all, he doubted that they would want to put the major events that led to the deaths of their comrades and friends into a movie meant to be a joke.
Which… was a strange thought. Considering that Sunny himself had orchestrated these events, didn't that mean…
His gaze darkened.