[...Your shadow is overflowing with power.]
[Your shadow is taking shape.]
Suddenly, Sunny felt his soul begin to radiate a strange heat once again.
'Crap…'
[Your shadow is complete.]
Something inside of him exploded, drowning his whole being with indescribably suffering. With a startled yelp, Sunny fell down.
***
'How come… how come I end up on my ass every time I come to this place…'
The first time Sunny had appeared in the void, he was so shocked to discover the Divine Rank of his Aspect that his legs buckled. And now, due to the painful transformation happening to his soul, he ended up in the same situation again.
Because he had left the Crimson Spire, the [Soul Conduit] Attribute was gone. And without its interference, the strange process that had begun due to the saturation of the Shadow Core was finally able to continue.
It was just as painful as Sunny remembered.
Gritting his teeth to prevent himself from screaming, Sunny tried to endure that terrible agony. He was no stranger to physical pain, but this was something different. It came from the soul itself, and for that reason, was so much worse.
'Argh, damn it all!'
However, it was still not nearly as bad as the chilling torture he had gone through after consuming the drop of Weaver's blood, or the nightmare he had endured after meeting the Black Knight for the first time.
And it didn't last as long.
After a while, the pain lessened, and then finally disappeared, leaving him feeling refreshed and whole again.
Sunny carefully stood up and looked down, checking to see if he was still in one piece.
He felt… stronger. Much, much stronger.
Stronger, faster, more resilient. Very much so.
He felt so powerful, in fact, that for a moment Sunny even entertained the idea that he had subconsciously commanded his shadow to wrap itself around his body, and was now enjoying the effect of its augmentation.
To make sure that this wasn't the case, he habitually glance down to check on the shadow.
…And froze.
'What… the hell?'
The shadow was not wrapped around his body. It was where it was supposed to be, on the unseen surface Sunny was standing on, somehow visible despite the darkness of the black void.
But it wasn't alone.
Two identical shadows were currently staring back at Sunny.
One seemed sulking and morose, and the other appeared to be joyful and friendly.
Sunny stared at the two shadows, dumbfounded. After a while, he said in an uncertain tone:
"Am I… am I seeing things, or are there two of you?"
The shadows, of course, did not answer. They had no vocal cords, after all. However, the sulking one looked at him with contempt and shook its head in derision. The friendly one, meanwhile, looked down shyly and slightly shrugged.
'What is going on?'
Frowning, Sunny lingered for some time, and then dove into the Soul Sea. With the [Soul Conduit] Attribute gone, it was back to its usual, tenebrous appearance. The surface of the water was tranquil and still, and hundreds of motionless shadows stood silently in the darkness. Above him, shining spheres containing the Memories were circling around the…
Sunny raised his head, then flinched.
Where the black sun of the Shadow Core had once loomed above the quiet sea, there was now… two.
Two identical Shadow Cores hovered in the dark sky, shining with lightless black radiance.
He blinked.
'Two… there's two of them.'
A few minutes passed, or at least something that felt like a few minutes.
'There's two… I have two cores… why do I have two cores?'
Humans only ever had one soul core. That was a fact. Only Nightmare Creatures had more...
Sunny looked down at his hands, then made them into fists, feeling newly gained strength course through his muscles. Then, he scowled and looked up again.
"Your shadow is taking shape, your shadow is complete…"
So the Spell was not speaking about the bad-tempered shadow that had accompanied him for so long. Initially, Sunny had assumed that the shadow — and his core — were going through a transformation due to the acquisition of the thousandth fragment, perhaps evolving or even Awakening. But the Spell actually meant to say that his second shadow, and thus a second Shadow Core, were complete.
They had been assembled from the thousand shadow fragments he had collected.
Making him a… what?
Sunny hesitated for a bit, then ordered the shadows to wrap themselves around his body. The sulking one seemingly rolled its eyes before obeying the command; the friendly one seemed extremely delighted to do as he asked.
Both flowed up and covered his body. Immediately, Sunny felt his already considerable strength double…
And then triple.
His mouth hung open.
'Too powerful… this is too powerful…'
This was incredible!
To experiment further, he commanded one of the shadows to return to the surface of the tranquil water. A moment later, he had a shadow once again, but still enjoyed the familiar augmentation, even if it grew weaker, returning to its previous strength.
He then summoned the Midnight Shard and ordered the second shadow to wrap itself around its blade. Now, both his body and his sword were augmented. Then, he sent the sulking shadow to join the friendly one. His body was not enhanced anymore, but the austere tachi felt much sharper, more lethal, more... deadly.
Finally, he commanded one shadow to leave the Midnight Shard and cover the Puppeteer's Shroud.
Two Memories were augmented at the same time.
'Holy hell...'
This was just too good. Sunny stood silently for a while, staring into the distance.
So this was it… this was the most unique, most powerful side of his Aspect. A Divine Aspect, after all, was not necessarily more powerful than a lesser one.
But it had much more potential.
With the second core and a second shadow, the gap between Sunny and the other Awakened was going to increase. And if he was right about it… if he was right, this was only the beginning. Because if there was a second core, there would most like be the third one, and then the fourth…
Suddenly, it all made sense.
Why Nephis never seemed to be able to saturate her soul core, no matter how many shards she absorbed, no matter how many Nightmare Creatures and humans she slew. Why she had been incapacitated after killing Gunlaug. Why she was so much stronger, faster, and more powerful than him, even at his peak.
...It was because her Aspect was Divine, just like his. But she had discovered its secret much sooner than him.
As a dull pain appeared in his heart, Sunny banished the image of Changing Star from his mind and summoned the runes.
He had to make sure that his guess was right.
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Lost from Light.
Rank: Dreamer.
Below that, new runes were shimmering in the darkness. Sunny's eyes widened.
Class: Monster.
Shadow Cores: [2/7].
He stared at the glowing runes, his face calm, his heart engulfed by a dark fire.
…Monster. Two out of seven.
He was right, after all. His progression path was indeed different from all of humanity. It was harder, larger... but also so much more promising.
The promise of it was as vast as it was frightening. He was reluctant to even try to imagine the pinnacle of what he would potentially be able to achieve.
The possibilities were simply limitless.
What would a human with seven cores and the might of a titan be capable of? What obstacles would they be unable to conquer? Who would dare to stand in their way?
...Who would dare to call them their slave?
Of course, the road to creating five more cores would be long and arduous. It would take him years, if not decades. If he even manages to live that long. In fact, the magnitude and scale of such an ambition were nothing short of insane. After all, the stronger he grows, the stronger enemies he would have to face to collect their shadow fragments. It seemed all but impossible.
...Almost.
Was he really going to try?
After some time, Sunny lowered his gaze and continued to read the runes. His face looked like that of a madman — there were simultaneously a deep frown and a wide smile somehow coexisting on it, making for a strange sight.
But then, the wide smile disappeared, leaving only the frown behind.
There was something even more important waiting for him in the glow of ethereal runes. Something even more frightening.
Reaching the lowest part of the field of runes, he read:
Aspect: [Shadow Slave].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Description: [You are a miraculous shadow left behind by a dead god. As a divine shadow, you possess plenty of strange and wondrous powers. However, your existence is empty and lonesome; you mourn the passing of your former master and long to find a new one.]
Right beneath it was the description of the part of the Aspect that had cursed his life, turning it into a nightmare:
Innate Ability: [Shadow Bond].
Ability Description: [Find a worthy master and let them know your True Name. Once they recite it out loud, you will be bound to their will, unable to disobey any command. It is improper for a shadow, let alone a divine one, to walk around without a master.]
…However, the runes describing Shadow Bond were grey and lifeless, as though the Ability was now inactive.
'...Makes sense.'
He had a master now, after all. He wasn't free to walk around without one anymore.
And speaking of it…
Right below, new runes were now shining in the darkness:
Master: Changing Star.
Sunny stared at those three words for a long time.
Who knew that just three words could bear such a crushing weight?
Such a vast and complicated meaning...
Finally, he shook his head slightly and concentrated, making the runes shine brighter, new ones appearing out of nowhere as he watched:
Name: Nephis.
True Name: Changing Star.
Rank: Dreamer.
Class: Demon…
The runes shimmered in the tranquil darkness of the silent sea.
Name: Nephis.
True Name: Changing Star.
Just as Sunny had suspected, that True Name hid many meanings. It didn't describe a star that was always changing, but instead a star that caused change. However, there were a lot of words for change in the runic language, each hiding a unique meaning.
The one used here meant a cataclysmic change that brought ruin and disaster; sometimes bad and sometimes good, but always cruel and calamitous, wreathed in misfortune.
So, in a sense, Nephis was neither a Star of Change nor a Star of Ruin, but both; the two went hand in hand, inseparable, destined to bring both salvation and damnation to those touched by her light.
…Just like what had happened to the doomed Dreamers of the Dark City.
The Spell was really good at giving names, it seemed.
Thinking of his own True Name somberly, Sunny read further:
Rank: Dreamer.
Class: Demon.
Soul Cores: [3/7].
Soul Fragments: [2749/3000].
He stared at the last two strings, a dark expression written on his face.
'So this… this is how far ahead of me you are.'
Then, with a heavy sigh, he looked away.
Many events of the past few months made sense now. During the fight against Gunlaug, Nephis had already been a Dormant Monster — just like he was right now, a Dreamer in possession of two Cores. It was because she had known that killing the Bright Lord would push her toward the third that she asked him to prevent Caster from attacking her in that moment of weakness.
…And in the time since, Changing Star had almost reached the fourth.
'How was she so fast?'
Sunny had made a conscious choice to avoid saturating his core during the civil war in the Bright Castle. In hindsight, this decision had turned out to be a wrong one… or maybe not. If he had collected all thousand shadow fragments back then, he might have been dead already, killed by one of Tessai's Guards or a Nightmare Creature while completely incapacitated by the formation of the second Shadow Core.
Hell, he would have been crushed to death by a piece of falling granite if not for the [Soul Conduit] suppressing the process at the best possible moment.
…Just as always, terrible misfortune had come together with incredible luck.
But even if he had come to possess the Monster Core back then, he would have never managed to create a third, let alone get this close to the fourth one.
It was because Nephis had one big advantage over him in the matter of collecting essence.
Like every Awakened except for Sunny, she received a certain portion of the enemy's accumulated soul essence when killing a fellow human, while he received only a single shadow fragment… or a few, at best, if the enemy was of the higher Rank than him. Which hadn't happened yet, but was inevitably going to, considering his luck.
The war against Tessai and Gemma must have been a true feast for Changing Star. Especially when slaying those experienced members of the Host that had long saturated their cores themselves.
She was always on the frontline, after all. Fighting, killing, leading her followers…
Sunny grimly stared into the darkness for a while, then slowly turned back to the runes. His eyes slid lower…
Memories: [Dream Blade], [Starlight Legion Armor], [Dawn Shard], [Dark Wing], [Nameless Sun]...
There were a few utility Memories, too, including [Evertwine] — the golden rope he knew so well. But Sunny did not pay them a lot of attention. His sight was attracted to the Nameless Sun. What was that Memory and why hadn't he seen or heard of it before?
Memory: [Nameless Sun].
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Tier: VI.
Memory Type: Weapon.
Memory Description: [For a long time, the Nameless Sun suffered in solitude, longing for all the things that were lost. Only when she lost that longing, too, was the Crimson Terror of the Forgotten Shore finally born.]
His eyes narrowed.
'So… she received a Memory after killing the Vessel, after all.'
An Ascended weapon of the sixth tier… Sunny wished that he could see its weave and learn what enchantments that terrible Memory held. Whatever they were, however, the Nameless Sun was bound to be extremely powerful.
But was it enough to help Nephis survive in the ruthless hellscape of the Dream Realm? He did not know.
Frowning, Sunny continued to read the runes.
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Dreamspawn], [Nephilim], [Flame of Divinity], [The Fire].
[Dreamspawn] Attribute Description: "You are born of two worlds, belonging to both, but welcomed in neither. Your soul exists on the edge between nightmare and reality."
[Nephilim] Attribute Description: "There once were terrible creatures born of an unholy union between the divine and the profane. Nephilim were the most beautiful, and the most harrowing of them all."
[Flame of Divinity] Attribute Description: "Your soul is aflame with the light of divinity."
[The Fire] Attribute Description: "You have inherited the lineage of Sun God."
He hesitated for a bit, studying Neph's Attributes.
'So that's how it is…'
Sunny had always wondered what was her innate Attribute — the one that was at the center of all the rest, the core of her being, just like his [Fated] trait. He often thought that it was tied to drive, battle prowess, or will.
But it was not.
Instead, Neph's innate Attribute was called [Dreamspawn] and tied to her nature as a child of a Hollow mother. In a sense, she was connected to the Dream Realm — and the Nightmare Spell — from before she had even been born.
Her core trait was duality.
If his guess was correct, that duality was further expressed after Nephis had conquered her First Nightmare and received her Aspect, as well as a new Attribute — [Nephilim]. Once again, it described a half-blood creature: half divine, half profane.
Half deific, half… Unknown?
Suddenly, he remembered how Changing Star had stopped and stared at the depiction of a radiant being engraved into the walls of the ancient mine below the Hollow Mountains.
Was that creature one of the nephilim? Or a fallen angel, from whom nephilim were supposed to be born? After all, the similarity between that creature and her own powers was hard to deny.
And then there was the last Attribute, [The Fire].
Sunny rubbed his face.
A Lineage Attribute, somewhat similar to his own Blood Weave. Finally, the meaning behind that word became clear: Lineage Memories akin to the [Drop of Ichor] were able to impart Awakened with unique Attributes that, unlike the usual ones, seemed to be hereditary. They could be passed down through a bloodline, and at least one of the great Legacy clans — the almost destroyed Immortal Flame — possessed one.
Did all great Legacy clans — like Song or Valor — possessed one, too? Was that what allowed them to rise to the very top of humanity and claim their place as great clans, in the first place?
'Those bastards have so many secrets.'
Sunny also couldn't help but notice a slight difference between [Blood Weave] and [The Fire]. While the latter was described simply as "lineage", the former was described as a "forbidden lineage".
What exactly made Blood Weave forbidden? Was it because it didn't come from a proper deity like Sun God, but from mysterious Weaver, who was a daemon? Had no one except for gods been allowed to leave behind a Lineage?
The Blood Weave was also described as a "partial" lineage, while The Fire was not.
"Questions, questions…'
With a sigh, Sunny turned to the runes once again.
Aspect: [Light Bringer].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Description: [You are a creature of light that was banished and doomed to exist in the darkness. You bring radiance and warmth to wherever you go, but with it comes indescribable longing.]
Aspect Ability: [Soul Flame].
Ability Description: [Your soul burns with the purest of flames. That flame can both restore and destroy, and is both a blessing and a curse.]
Innate Ability: [Halfbreed.]
Ability Descriptions: [You can directly absorb a portion of the soul essence of any Nightmare Creature destroyed by your flames, as well as of any human.]
Flaw: [Pristine Soul].
Flaw Description: [You must suffer to use your power.]
Sunny dismissed the runes and was motionless for a while, thinking.
The name of the Aspect, Light Bringer, could be translated in several ways. The first rune could mean both light and fire, and the second meant either to bring or to bear, depending on context. So it could have been Fire Bearer as well, not that it made any difference.
The rest he had already known or suspected, so it didn't surprise him much. Only the strange Innate Ability, Halbreed, was somewhat new. Nephis had mentioned once that she was capable of doing something like that, but without sharing any details.
It was also funny that the name of her Flaw was Pristine Soul, while his was Clear Conscience. What a pair they were, one lost from light, the other the source of it.
…One a master, the other a slave.
He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes for a second.
What else was there to note?
The [Soul Conduit] Attribute was gone. It seemed that the artificial sun or the Crimson Spire itself had sustained too much damage and collapsed, thus removing it. He had escaped just in time.
'I guess there's not a lot of secrets left between us now.'
Sunny was sure that there was a new rune that Nephis could summon, one reading "Slave". Just like he now had access to all the information about her, she was going to learn everything about him.
The unique nature of his cores, the shadow fragments, the true identity of the Marble Saint, the Weaver's Mask… she was going to know it all.
That could potentially complicate…
Before he could finish that thought, however, the Spell spoke again, its voice filling the black void with melodious whispers:
[The Second Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers…]
'Oh, crap! I almost forgot!'
Sunny stared into the void with wide eyes.
He was about to Awaken.