A lone human-like armored nightmare creature limped weakly, walking through the ruins of the Dark City..
It was the last of the Stone Saints, it had been separated by the rest of its kind for some time now together with a few others. Now, the ones it was with were nothing more than corpses behind it, killed while fighting Fallen nightmare creatures.
And the other ones had been killed by something else. It was the last of its kind.
And its fate had already been sealed.
A human slowly walked closer and stopped right in front of the Stone Saint. It raised its head to encounter a silver-haired girl wearing the Starlight Legion armor.
Nephis held indifference as she observed the stone knight, raising her sword, she activated her aspect, flames ignited on the whole blade.
The Stone Saint… Accepted its fate.
Thus, the last nightmare creature of the Dark City was slain.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Stone Saint.]
[Your light grows brighter…]
[You have received a Memory.]
A small change in her expression could be noticed.
'A Memory? Sunny said that the Stone Saints were special…'
[Your light is complete.]
— — —
Sunless sat on the ashened peaks of the Ashen Barrow, observing as the Soul-Devouring tree twitched and subtly moved far away, as if something bothered it.
And something was disrupting it, Saint was slowly tearing its bark, searching for the core of the abomination so it died quicker.
Since Saint had the [Stalwart] attribute, she was immune to mind attacks, meaning it couldn't do anything to the Stone Saint.
Actually… She was now the Marble Saint, an Awakened Demon, eating that core of Darkness from the Forsaken Knight made her evolve, it took some time, but she eventually came out stronger than ever.
Just in time too, it was time for the siege of the Crimson Spire. Kai was in the process of searching for any Sleepers that were teleported onto the Forgotten Shore because of the Winter Solstice using his flying aspect.
Sunny asked for Kai to take him here, to finish this last thing.
'... Damn tree, how big are you?'
It had been some hours, at least it felt like hours, since he sent Saint to kill the Terror, and it was still going.
He sighed, rolling his eyes and decided to think of something else, his mind went to the topic of Shadow Dance.
He had been wondering for a while what could be the next step, and after so much time, he had a theory that it could be something to do with shadowing nightmare creatures.
He already could read their movements, but what if he could mimic their styles? But he still couldn't get it quite right, it would take some more time…
'Now, back to see the bastard die.'
[Blood]: You really need to stop being so spiteful.]
[Shadow]: Really? Are you the one who is going to suffer with Howl's constant teasing?]
[Blood]: I wasn't the one who got enthralled by a tree.]
Sunny rolled his eyes and dismissed his runes, if even Seishan was bothering with this, then one more reason to kill the abomination.
"Sunny…"
He turned to see Caster walking up the mountain of ash. For some reason, he insisted on going with him, in detriment to Kai's back.
"You weren't kidding when you said that there wasn't much to see…"
He sat next to Sunny, resting his Ascended spear on his shoulder. His friend however, just sighed.
"Seriously, did I ever once lie to you? The only thing in this dawn place is dust, ash and that stupid tree."
Caster took a glance once at the Awakened Terror, then turned back to give a dead-pan face.
"Yeah, and you came all the way here to kill something that can't even move."
Sunny scoffed.
"So? That thing will make me suffer endless teasing for at least a decade! Being enthralled by a tree… So stupid."
"Even so, what do you gain from this?"
Sunny snapped his head to answer… But nothing came out for a few seconds.
"I… I gain… Nothing…"
He had a chance to gain a Memory, maybe even an Echo, but aside from fragments, there was really nothing to gain from killing the Soul-Devouring tree, nothing worth the risk of getting out of the Dark City, of encountering a strong nightmare creature or facing the Dark Sea.
This made Sunny think back to Seishan's words… Was he just being spiteful? Was killing the tree and the Forsaken Knight just for self-gradification?
He then thought about the Fallen Demon he let enter the Bright Castle… Was he… Really that selfish?
Caster furrowed his brows, but before he could ask another question, a handsome archer came down from the sky.
Landing gracefully on the ash, Kai approached his friends with a sorrowful expression, then sat beside Sunny's left, with Caster staying on Sunny's right. The scion of Han Li finally asked.
"No luck?"
Kai shook his head.
"From our perceptive… Actually I feel kind of relieved. No one will suffer in this place."
Sunless sighed.
"Yeah… It's just us now…"
He then turned to Caster.
"And yes Caster, I don't really gain anything from coming here, it's just like with the Forsaken Knight, it's meaningless…
But sometimes, it is from meaningless things that we find value. Sometimes… It's not so bad to do something… And not necessarily needing to do it."
Kai turned, interested.
"That's kind of selfish, don't you think?"
"That may be… But… I think if you just do what is 'necessary'... You may lose yourself in all the noise…"
Caster and Kai didn't respond, they simply thought about what their friend said, and turned to watch as the distant, giant tree slowly died underneath the sun of the Forgotten Shore.
"You know, I really enjoy talking to you guys."
Caster's sudden declaration startled both Sunny and Kai.
"Back in the waking world, it was all 'honor', making the clan 'proud', training, learning, meeting expectations… I didn't have friends, just competition, acting like my fellow legacies were people I enjoyed, that they were my friends… When in reality, they only began talking to me because of my aspect…
I thought that was all there was to life. All to walk the Path of Ascension and become the first Saint of the Han Li…"
He smiled and turned to his friends, a genuine smile.
"But you two just had to ruin it all huh?"
Kai froze for a second, asking carefully.
"I hope we ruined it in a good way…?"
Caster stared at the singer, then bursted out laughing.
Sunny and Kai stared incredulously at the scion of Han Li… At Caster, it was the first time they saw him like this.
After calming down, he looked at them both and stated.
"Yes, Kai. You guys ruined my life in a good way… I just hoped It could stay that way…"
The charming archer didn't quite understand the last part…
But Sunless did, and his expression darkened.
Still, he couldn't help but enjoy these last moments of peace…
After a while, the tree stopped twitching, and the Spell finally announced.
[You have slain an Awakened Terror, Soul-Devouring Tree.]
[Your shadow grows stronger…]
Sunless sighed in relief, and stood up, clearing the dust off his clothes. His friends took
"Finally, let–"
[You have received a...]
Sunless slid off the ground and fell back first into the ground.
"Sunny!"
Kai reached out at his friend, who was now flattened on the ash, looking at the sky with an incredulous expression. Caster's eyes widened, a suspicion creeped onto his mind, and his face twitched in annoyance.
"Don't tell me-!"
Sunny nodded, sharing Caster's disbelief.
"I got an Echo…"
— —
Sunny stared at his runes in disbelief the whole trip back to the Bright Castle.
Echo: [Soul-Devouring Tree.]
Just summoning it in his soul sea already made him stumble because of the whole size of the Terror, Wraith and Serpent had similar reactions, silent barking and hissing leaving the shadows. Saint meanwhile, just stared in indifference.
While Sunny absorbed the giant boon he had just received, Caster had been mumbling the entire trip.
"Stupid Spell… Damn luck… Why am I your friend?"
Poor Kai had to carry both to the Castle.
But Sunny was dealing with other things too.
[Blood]: You got an Awakened Terror?! You can continue being spiteful.]
Memory: [YOU GOT THE TREE?!!]
Description: [Howl: I am so lucky I was with Rev and Bladie!--
Blade: Unfortunately for me…
Howl: – I can't believe it! You got so enthralled by the tree that you wanted it to serve you?
Rev: Yeah, you're still not safe from the teasing.
Blade: For the love of the Dead God's, making clothes for your sisters is better than this, GET BACK ALREADY KID!]
Sunny looked at the messages with a dead-pan look.
'... Well, good to see things didn't change.'
— —
Upon getting back, he immediately got to Cassie to talk about the Soul-Devouring Tree and discover its attributes, thinking of the benefits of using it in the siege…
Only to be severely disappointed.
The problem was that there was nothing that showed that the mind-hex of the Echo could be targeted, as far as they were aware, the attack could be an area of effect type that didn't discriminate between ally or foe.
But not only that, it was stationary, with no physical attacks whatsoever.
Maybe if Sunny turned it into a Shadow, maybe it would be better, but risking the strength that 400 fragments gave him was not worth the gamble, especially since they were about to assault the Crimson Spire.
"Oh well, when we get out of here…"
He was about to leave the room, but Cassie stopped him.
"Wait, Sunny, can you do me a favor?"
"Sure… What is it?"
The blind seer breathed steadily, she looked nervous, as if she was about to do something stupid.
"When we go back to the waking world, I need you to lie to your mother…"
Sunless froze, trying to process what she just said, the first thing that came to mind was…
"How? I can't lie… And why would I even lie to her…?"
Cassie hesitated, but explained.
"She can't know I am Weaver's heir. If she does, she'll come for me… To kill me…"
Sunless furrowed his brows in anger… Shadows grew deeper, stronger. He just had enough of people badmouthing his mother.
"Why would she even do that?"
Cassie felt a chill come down her spine, but answered nonetheless.
"I… Don't know… I can't know… Not yet…"
The Son of Song stared at the blind seer and sighed.
"Let's say I agree, how would I even do this? I can't lie, she just needs to ask what I did with the Ichor and I'll have to answer."
Cassie breathed in and explained her reasoning and logic, of how to trick Ki Song.
After the explanation, Sunny just stared at her incredulously.
"There's no way that would work, my mom is no fool, she'll see through that in a second."
"But… It is technically what you did, no? And she knows you can't lie, she has no reason to doubt you."
"... But it's Weaver's lineage, she has enough reason to be thorough."
Cassie sighed.
"It's just the gamble we'll have to take…"
Sunless crossed his arms and thought for a moment.
"Fine Cass, don't make me regret this…"
He turned around and got out of the room, leaving the seer alone.
She let out a breath of relief and sat down, rubbing her face and neck nervously.
"Please… This has to work…"
— —
The tension on the Bright Castle was palpable, they all knew that soon, they would assault the Crimson Spire. So they were all nervous.
Yet, Sunny wasn't as worried as he should have been, the majority of them had saturated, or were close enough to saturating. So 850 Sleepers would siege the Spire. With powerhouses like Nephis, Sunless, Gunlaug, Seishan, Effie, Kai, and much, much more.
Which included his Shadow Watchers.
Sunless eventually got back to what was now the Shadow Watchers' dorm. Now that there was no Tyrant to take down and they didn't need to hide, they stayed on the Bright Castle. The Shadow Watcher's dorm was vast, it consisted of basically a center room with intersections that led to ten individual bedrooms, really convinient, almost like someone made the space specificly for them.
Most people viewed them as Sunless' guards, agents, and confidants. The ones who carry out his will.
Others were scared of them, spreading rumours about them humiliating the wards. Which was true.
The Shadow Watcher's dorm was vast, it consisted of basically a center room with intersections that led to ten individual bedrooms, really convinient, almost like someone made the space specificly for them.
Truth was, as much as they were ruthless and fearsome assassins, fighters and spys… They were also children that got on his nerves.
"GODDAMMIT!!"
Lan punched the wall with all his strength, cracking it severely.
All nine were present, eight of them were playing a game similar to a board game from the waking world. Brought to life thanks to the artisans.
The board covered all of the big rectangular table of the room, four on each side. The game was a type of war game, with soldiers and territories playing in teams.
Motza, Nix, Kin and Mei were the first team.
Lycon, Lauma, Merlin and Lan were on the other.
Kira was in the headboard, merely watching as team one defeated team two.
Kin sighed at the sight of his brother, once again, losing his temper.
"Can you stop? It's going to be our last game, I don't want to be just you throwing a tantrum."
Lan turned to him and walked back to his chair angrily.
"Shut it! You're just getting lucky with the damn dice!"
Merlin scratched her head confused.
"Wait, I'm confused, why did Lan got angry?"
Merlin still didn't quite understand how to play the game, so they were patient with her… Most of them.
"BECAUSE THIS-!"
Lycon put his hand on Lan's mouth immediately and turned to Merlin with the kindest smile in the world and pointed at the board.
"You see Merlin, Lan lost this terrain, which is a really strong position on the map because of the amount of paths it opens for our forces."
Understanding passed through the white-haired girl's face.
"Ohhh okay, I see it…"
She then turned to Lan.
"What the hell Lan?! How could you lose that terrain!"
Lan's face twisted in anger and the only reason he didn't curse the girl into the end of the Forgotten Shore was because Lycon kept holding his mouth while keeping his gentle smile.
Lauma looked at her team somewhat frightened, she knew of Lan's competitive side but still…
She sighed and fixed her now long hair into a pony tail. Using a charm Memory to keep it there.
"C-Can I… Switch teams…?"
Motza looked at Nix, who looked at Mei, who looked at Kin.
No one wanted to.
Nix turned to Lauma with an apologetic smile.
"Sorry, let this game finish and we'll change."
'Liar.'
Sunny rolled his eyes and approached his subordinates.
Kira was the first to notice him.
"Lord Sunless."
Then everyone turned and comprimented their leader.
"Hey, how's everyone doing?"
He turned to Kira and touched his armored shoulder.
"Is the [Shattered Darkness] treating you well?"
Sunless received an Ascended sword as a reward for killing the Forsaken Knight, he decided to give it to Kira, since his sword had been broken during the battle.
Kira nodded.
"Yes, I thank you again for giving it to me."
"Your welcome."
To the surprise of everyone, Mei decided to say something.
"Why don't we restart? Now that Lord Sunless is here, Kira can join in."
All eyes stared flabbergasted at the woman, even Lan stopped his tantrum out of shock.
"... What?"
Sunny shook his head, his flaw forcing him to answer.
"N-Nothing… It's just… Surprising to witness you proposing something like this…"
Mei shrugged.
"I just never had something good to add I guess…"
Motza hesitated, but turned to Sunless.
"Do you have the time?"
Sunny looked at Motza, and then at everyone else… Then sighed.
"Sure, why not?"
He grabbed a chair and put it beside Motza, sitting on it lazily. Kira, on the other hand, growed.
"Can't we at least shuffle the teams?"
"As your leader, no."
Kira sighed, but chuckled, sitting beside Lycon.
"Alright, the objective is to conquer the other team's capital… And please, no more tantrums."
Lan rolled his eyes, but everyone agreed.
Merlin, on the other hand, kept looking at Sunless with her green cat-like eyes like she was the most innocent kid in the world.
"... What do you want Merlin?"
"Can I pet Wolfie?"
He dead-paned, and everyone chuckled or laughed.
And yet… It didn't bother him… Looking at all of them like this… It was a rare sight.
Sunny sighed, and smiled gently.
"Sure Merlin, of course you can, just pay attention to the game too."
Wraith appeared out of his shadow and rested his head on Merlin's lap. The girl smiled happily.
"Yes!"
Kira looked at the girl… Then turned his gaze to Sunless. His body language basically screams: "See? Told you." The fact he was with armor seemed Irrelevant.
'Yeah, yeah… I accepted that already.'
They spent a long time playing, losing the sense of time.
— —
In another part of the Castle, the daughter of Ki Song sat down with the last daughter of Immortal Flame.
They were in Seishan's room, Nephis had just returned from a hunt, and wanted to see Sunny and Cassie, however… Seishan interrupted her.
"What do you want?"
The grey skinned beauty was staring at the view of the Dark City, but still answered.
"I want to know what are your intentions…"
Seishan turned and glared at Changing Star, malice and distrust evident in her gaze.
"Once we get out of here… What will you do Changing Star? Will you fight for humanity? Hunt my mother?…"
Seishan's body begin to morph, becoming more and more bestial and terrifying.
"Will you betray my brother?"
------------------
Author here, in my spare time, I have been making the Shadow Watchers in AI (can't draw) and I'm wondering if you'd like to see it, show how I picture them in my mind...
On the topic, which one is your favorite?
Do you have any suggestions on what to do with them? I already have plans, but I can add more.