Chapter 351: Once Again
Once again, Sunny found himself in the endless space between dream of reality. All around him, there was nothing but a boundless black void, which was illuminated by a myriad of bright stars. Between those stars, countless strings of silver light were woven into a beautiful and inconceivably complex pattern.
Once again, he felt as though he had glimpsed the inner workings of the Spell. Was it just an illusion, or was he able to see more now? It was almost as if his eyes were now able to discern a hint of meaning behind the unimaginable, titanic brilliance of the ethereal weave.
…He had the eyes of Weaver now, after all.
With a pained moan, Sunny forced himself to look away from the strings of silver light. The magnitude of the secret hidden in this cosmic pattern was so immense that just thinking about it could drive him mad. The Forgotten Shore had taught him an important lesson, and it was that one had to be careful about what they looked upon.
Some things were not meant to be seen by humans.
…Not to mention that he had other things to think about.
"Curse it! Curse it all! Curse all of you!"
His voice disappeared into the darkness, full of indescribable fury, bitterness, and sorrow. No one was there to hear it… except for the Spell, which chose to tactfully remain silent.
Breathing heavily, Sunny clenched his fists and closed his eyes.
He didn't know what brought him more rage and pain — the fact that he had lost Neph, or the fact that his secret had been revealed. Both were too bitter to swallow.
All that time, all that suffering… and for what? He had outsmarted and defeated so many powerful enemies, only for his True Name to be discovered by an ungrateful, weak, blind girl?!
After everything he had done for her...
Cassie's betrayal, perhaps, had hurt him the most.
"Curse her…"
Once again, he was a slave. He made a full circle and returned exactly to where he had started. In shackles. Only instead of nameless slavers, Nephis had become his master now.
Nephis…
Sunny gritted his teeth and groaned, a storm of conflicting emotions tearing his heart apart.
'Why did she have to do it… why…'
The pain of losing her, the hope of finding her again… was just as strong and overwhelming as the hope that she would die and disappear forever in the unforgiving hell of the Dream Realm, so that they would never have to meet again.
So that he would be free.
He clawed at his face, not knowing how to process this conflagration of feelings. For someone who had spent most of his life alone, not caring for anything, this was all just too much.
Luckily, time in this boundless void was a strange concept, so he had an eternity to try and come to terms with his new reality. The Spell kept silent, as though giving him a chance to do just that.
After a while — maybe hours, or maybe days, or maybe just a single second — Sunny sighed.
Some time later, he opened his mouth and whispered:
"...I won."
He had survived. Who could have thought?
Slightly more than a year ago, he was thrown into a region of the Dream Realm that no human had ever escaped, and now, he was not only returning to reality, but aslo doing so as one of the most powerful Sleepers in the history of the human race.
Maybe even the strongest one.
…Or the second strongest.
He had survived countless horrors, crossed a cursed sea on a boat made of demon bones, slew hundreds of Nightmare Creatures, gained experience and scars worthy of a lifetime, touched the hidden knowledge of the gods, saw a tyrant die and a new one be crowned, banished an ancient curse into the darkness of oblivion and watched as a sun died.
And now, he was about to become an Awakened. An elite among elites, a person at the very top of society, one with access to the best food, the most wealth, the highest forms of prestige. The highest… everything.
All his dreams were going to come true.
All his suffering would now be rewarded.
"I will not be sad, I will not be bitter, I will not be angry. Who should I?"
Had he gone through this nightmare to be left heartbroken on the other side? No. He had earned this joy, this delight, this triumph...
And he was going to enjoy it.
Slowly, a shaky smile appeared on Sunny's face. At first, he had to force himself, but after a while, the smile became sincere.
"That's right. Victory is supposed to be sweet. So, let's see… what should I start with?"
As if answering him, the Spell finally spoke. Its voice sounded a little strange, as if it was continuing a sentence after being interrupted:
[...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.
Chapter 352: Monster Core
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…
Chapter 353: Light Bringer
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.
Chapter 354: Awakening
Just like after the First Nightmare, Sunny suddenly sensed something waking up within him. Back then, it felt as though this new power came from inside his soul as opposed to some external source. This time the feeling was very similar, only more intense, more defined.
It was coming from his Shadow Cores.
They were radiating an ethereal, but almost palpable heat. The energy was circulating through his entire body, changing it, making it stronger. It was somewhat similar to the strange feeling he got every time he received a shadow fragment, but so much more powerful.
…A thousand times more powerful.
And deeper, too.
With a barely audible gasp, Sunny slowly sat down and crossed his legs, then closed his eyes, concentrating on the transformation.
Every fiber of his being was soon full of the mysterious energy. The familiar euphoric feeling overwhelmed him, washing over his mind like a warm wave. However, Sunny wanted to feel more, understand more. He wanted to remember this moment in every detail.
It was his triumph, after all.
Beneath the physical changes that his body was undergoing to become better, stronger, more perfect… was another, subtle, but equally incredible change.
It was happening to his soul.
Sunny had no words to describe it, but knew that he had never experienced anything as wonderful. The transformation of his soul was not at all painful, like the creation of the second Shadow Core had been, and not nearly as torturous as the agony that consuming a drop of divine blood had caused him.
It felt… natural, right, and profound. As though he was coming one step closer to becoming complete, to what he had always been meant to be.
A better being.
Soon, the pulsating waves of heat retreated, replaced by a wave of soothing coldness. The dull ache in his heart that had remained there, unnoticed, ever since leaving the Forgotten Shore lessened a little. His mind became calm and tranquil.
Sunny felt like... like a sword that had been tempered and fortified in a fiery crucible, a being made of cold, pure, resilient steel.
He exhaled slowly and opened his eyes.
His body felt stronger, faster, and more enduring, similar to how he felt when wrapped in the shadow. The change was sufficiently pronounced, and he knew that it would only grow greater if he used one or both of the shadows to actually augment him.
But it wasn't the main difference.
Sunny knew that the actual quality that separated Awakened from the Dreamers was not physical might, but a new innate ability. Just like Dreamers gained the ability to sense and interact with soul cores, the Awakened could do the same with soul essence.
But knowing and feeling were two different things.
Before, he could vaguely feel his Shadow Core. The feeling was elusive and ethereal, but unmistakable. He felt its emptiness at the start of his journey, and felt it brimming with power near the end.
Now, that power wasn't contained inside the Shadow Cores anymore, but broke free, flowing naturally through his entire body. It circulated slowly, coming and going from the cores, passively saturating his bones and muscles with power.
Sunny instinctually felt that, with some practice, he would be able to direct the flow of shadow essence to concentrate it in a certain area. He could expend some amount of essence to give his arms incredible, explosive strength for a short amount of time, or feel his legs with the power to jump a dozen meters into the air.
In short, it wasn't as though he had become monstrously strong and would be all the time, crashing through walls and breaking delicate things by accident. Instead, by wisely controlling his shadow essence, he would be able to gift himself short bursts of truly inhuman physical might. The rest of the time, he would enjoy a much smaller, but still considerable passive effect of his body being saturated with freely flowing essence.
'More training…'
Sunny could now control the shadow essence by instinct, but if he wanted to truly master it and do it more efficiently, he would have to learn from experienced Awakened. Some instructors at the Academy existed for the sole purpose of teaching newly Awakened just that, after all.
And then there was a whole another layer of combat strategy that he would have to understand and master.
Sleepers thought much like mundane humans, only with more power and tools. But battles of the Awakened were much more tactical. While essence always restored itself to the core's maximum capacity, it took time. In the reality of a battle, it was a finite resource. Because of it, one had to be smart and careful about how and when to use it.
He would also have to absorb as many shadow fragments as possible to increase the capacity of his cores. Luckily, he now had two of them, which already gave him a big advantage over the rest of the Awakened.
But this new amazing quality he had received was not the end of the Awakening. The main event was yet to happen…
The Spell spoke again, filling him with anticipation.
[Awakening Aspect Ability…]
[...Aspect Ability acquired.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Shadow Step.]
Sunny blinked, then hurriedly summoned the runes.
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Lost from Light.
Rank: Awakened.
Class: Monster.
Shadow Cores: [2/7].
Shadow Fragments: [0/2000].
Just as expected, both of his cores were not Dormant anymore, instead becoming Awakened. The shadow fragments were consumed to fuel the Awakening, bringing him to a stark and sad zero.
'A thousand fragments, gone just like that…'
He wasn't really disappointed, though. The amount of essence consumed during the Awakening directly corresponded to the starting capacity of the core, and thus, the extent of the physical transformation that a Sleeper would go through.
By collecting a thousand fragments and fully saturating his first core, Sunny not only received a second one, but also made sure to gain the best benefits a Sleeper could dream of. Very few Awakened had ever fully saturated their cores before returning from their first journey to the Dream Realm, and now, Sunny was one of them.
The difference was not drastic, but every little bit of power counted in a life-and-death situation.
'Enough stalling!'
Impatient, he banished the thoughts of cores and shadow fragments and found the description of his new Aspect Ability.
Aspect Ability: [Shadow Step].
Ability Description: [You can move freely between shadows, traveling from one to another in an instant.]
Looking at the shimmering runes, Sunny soon discovered that there was a stupid grin on his face.
'Teleportation… that's teleportation, right?'
That was, without a doubt, a form of teleportation.
An ability such as this was a game changer. His mobility would become truly incredible. Not only would he be able to apply it to traversal, making his future ventures into the Dream Realm easier and safer, but it could also play a decisive role in a battle.
What was more deadly than an assassin capable of appearing out of nowhere and disappearing from sight in a blink of an eye?
Not many things, really...
Of course, he would have to experiment and learn the true extent of this amazing Ability… what was its range, for example? Would he be able to jump to any shadow in sight, or to any shadow in the range of his Shadow Sense? Did a shadow have to be deep and large enough for him to fit through, or would even the smallest and faintest of them do?
And what about his own shadows? Would he be able to send one to a certain spot, and then step out of it, just like Saint usually did?
He couldn't wait to learn.
But before that, there were two other things he had to see.
One was the new Memory he acquired. The other one — and the one that filled him with nervous anticipation — was much more important.
It was the relic he was supposed to receive for mastering the first step of the Shadow Dance.
With a Legacy Relic in his hands and a Lineage Attribute coursing through his blood, Sunny would be theoretically eligible to create his own Legacy Clan. A great clan, even!
…Not that he was planning to.
But before Sunny could glance at the corresponding runes, the Spell suddenly whispered into his ear:
[Wake up, Sunless!]
And instantly, the black void full of bright stars and silver light disappeared.
Chapter 355: Back to Reality
On one of the underground levels of the Academy hospital complex, in a small room that was filled with the massive rectangle of the dream pod and various pieces of medical equipment, a delicate girl with pale blond hair was sleeping beneath the transparent glass lid, her face surrounded by wisps of cold vapor.
Suddenly, a series of lights ignited on the surface of the pod, and the medical machinery in the room came to life, producing various noises.
A few moments later, the girl opened her striking blue eyes and screamed.
…On a top floor of a private care facility in the center of a city, in a spacious room with tall windows and a luxurious interior, a state-of-the-art sleeping pod stood silently, bathed in sunlight. An attending nurse sat in a comfortable chair beside it, monitoring the vital signs of a beautiful young man who slumbered inside.
For the past three years, there had not been a single minute when the young man was left alone. His pod was surrounded by fresh flowers, and someone was always there to keep watch.
For three years, the flowers and nurses came and went, but the young man had remained the same. Nothing about him ever changed.
Suddenly, the nurse opened her eyes wide.
A second later, the sleeping pod shone with bright light. Its lid swiftly slid sideways and hid in a special housing slot.
The figure inside was slowly raising in the air, as if pulled up by an invisible force. The beautiful young man was… levitating.
The nurse remained motionless for a few seconds, stunned. Then, she hastily ran to the panel on the wall and pressed a call button.
…In a small apartment in one of the less prestigious areas of the city, in a tiny room, a tall young woman was lying in an old and barely functioning pod. This one was possibly the last representative of its model, taken out of production a long time ago. Still, it seemed like the most luxurious thing in the apartment, by far.
The door of the room was open, letting in the sound of a news broadcast. A pleasant and confident tone was currently saying:
"...unusual number of Awakenings! Dear viewers, we… we are currently receiving a report from our correspondents, and will be able to update you on this event shortly. The representatives of the great Legacy Clans, meanwhile…"
Suddenly, the sound of the broadcast was cut out, replaced by a heavy, hopeless silence.
Soon, the sound of tentative steps could be heard, approaching the room where the pod stood.
Just a second later, however, a fist slammed into the armored glass of its lid from inside, sending a net of cracks through it.
…Back in the Academy, in a room identical to the first one, the lights suddenly blinked and then went out. It was now shrouded in absolute darkness.
Something crashed down with a thunderous noise, and then, a pained human voice hissed:
"Damnation!"
A moment later, the lights came back, revealing the figure of a lithe young man with pale skin and dark hair standing near an overturned medical monitor.
There was a disoriented, confused expression on his face.
The lid of the sleeping pod was still closed.
However, it was empty.
…And a few hundred meters away, hidden even deeper underground, there was another room.
This one was slightly bigger, and much better guarded, than all the others.
In it stood a simple sleeping pod.
Beneath its transparent lid, a young woman with ivory skin and long silver hair slept, undisturbed by anything.
Despite the growing commotion outside, inside the tranquil room, it was quiet and peaceful.
Nothing changed.
The pod did not shine with bright lights, the medical equipment remained silent.
Imprisoned in the glass coffin of the sleeping pod, the young woman continued to dream, as if cursed to remain in her nightmares forever.
***
Sunny looked around the small room, slowly realizing where he was.
…Academy. He was back at the Academy.
He had returned to the real world.
He looked around, noticing the medical equipment and the sleeping pod, all of which were currently ablaze with the light of alarms. The pod was still closed.
'How the hell did I get out?'
Speaking of which…
Looking down, Sunny realized that he was naked. To avoid any awkward situations, he summoned the Puppeteer's Shroud.
Once the armor weaved itself out of black strings and covered his skin, he felt a lot better.
…He did, however, have to force himself to not summon the Midnight Shard as well. His instincts screamed, demanding him to arm himself in an unfamiliar environment.
But this was the real world. He had to adjust his behavior.
The decision to cloth himself turned out to be the correct one. Just a few moments after he had made it, the door of the room opened, and a woman in a white coat rushed inside.
Noticing Sunny, she froze. Her eyes widened in horror, and she raised a hand to cover her mouth, as if suppressing a scream.
'What's wrong with her?'
Sunny frowned, blinked a couple of times, then looked at his reflection in one of the medical machines.
'...Oh.'
Since both Sleepers and Awakened traveled to the Dream Realm in spirit, his actual body was whole and pristine, without even a single scar.
However, the same could not be told about the Puppeteer's Shroud.
The silk armor was torn and dirty, looking like rags. What's more, it was covered in so much blood that it was hard to tell that its fabric was once grey.
Looking at the doctor in embarrassment, Sunny forced out a smile and said in a raspy voice of someone who had not spoken in more that year:
"Uh… hi? Can I maybe get some clean clothes?"
The woman stared at him for a few moments, then said in a trembling voice:
"Slee… Awakened Sunless? Sir, you are awake?"
'Sir… did she just call me sir?'
Sunny grinned.
"I sure hope so. I've been sleeping for a year and two weeks, after all."
The doctor finally seemed to relax and looked at him with a relieved, joyous expression in her eyes.
A few moments later, she smiled slightly and said, her voice full of sincere admiration:
"Welcome back to the real world, sir!"
Chapter 356: Interview with the Shadow
The hospital complex and the administration of the Academy were in complete chaos today. Weeks following the winter solstice were always a busy time for all the people working on the periphery of the Awakened society, since most of the Sleepers who had ventured into the Dream Realm that year usually returned in a span of one to two weeks, very rarely a month.
…Those who had survived, of course.
The sudden Awakening of so many Sleepers who had been gone for years, counted as irrevocably lost, created a shockwave that spread through entire humanity. And people at the Academy were at the epicenter of that storm.
It was a joyous chaos, nevertheless.
In a small office at the surface level of the hospital, a young woman dressed in black slacks and a white blouse was sitting behind a desk, hastily compiling a short report. She had dark-brown hair, neatly tied into a high ponytail, and thick glasses that were constantly sliding down her nose, forcing her to push them back up.
The young woman was one of the administrative workers tasked with the initial debriefing of returning Sleepers. As such, she had seen a lot of incredible things, and heard a lot of incredible stories.
And, sadly, even more heartbreaking ones.
But today was like no other day in her career.
The Sleepers that she was debriefing today were all anomalous, each and every one of them. The things they told her made her blood run cold, and her imagination fail. She even had an urge to dismiss their reports as false, but knew that it was nearly impossible — the lie detection technology built into the walls of the office would make lying very hard to pull off.
'Incredible… they are incredible, every single one of them…'
To survive for that long in a region of the Dream Realm completely cut off from the rest of the human territory, one populated by Nightmare Creatures much more powerful than any Dreamer could ever become… the achievement of these brave young men and women was truly remarkable.
It filled her with a sense of compassion, pride, and hope.
Humanity received an unexpected, but wonderful gift today.
Finishing the report and sending it to her superior, the young woman pressed a button to let the next Sleeper know that it was their turn to come in.
The door of her office opened, and a pale young man with dark hair entered the office.
Because of the nature of her job, she was accustomed to interacting with incredibly attractive people — almost every Awakened was pleasant to look at, after all. The young man in front of her was far from being the most outstanding in terms of appearance among them, and yet, for some reason, she was unable to look away for a couple of moments, a natural smile somehow finding its way onto her face.
There was something elusive about the young man that attracted attention, almost demanded it.
He was of small height, with a delicate, slender build and perfect white skin. His dark eyes had a humorous, slightly mischievous spark in them. The young man wasn't exactly handsome, but due to his small stature, pale complexion, and dark hair, he looked like a beautiful porcelain doll.
And there was a… a subtle strangeness about him. The young woman couldn't quite put it into words, but it seemed as though his every move, every word was ever so slightly not exactly how they should have been. Not really wrong, but also not completely right.
This quality was equally as disturbing as it was magnetic. It was the reason why she couldn't stop paying him a bit more attention than to all the other Sleepers she had interviewed today.
The young man smiled and sat down opposite her. In response, her own smile widened a little.
"Good day. My name is Teddy, and I will be your interviewer today, Awakened… uh…"
Of course, she already knew his name. His file was opened on the screen in front of her, containing all the information the Academy had on the pleasant young man. But it was important to create a friendly environment to allow the Sleepers to relax. After their experiences in the Dream Realm, most were tense and on edge.
'Second to last place in the ranking… poor kid, I can't even imagine what horrors he had to survive…'
The young man answered in a pleasant tone:
"Sunless. But people usually call me Sunny. So, uh… Awakened Sunny, I guess? No, that sounds weird. Just call me Sunny."
Teddy nodded, then typed a few words on her pad.
"I will ask you a series of questions about your time in the Dream Realm. The purpose of this briefing is to enrich our base of knowledge about it, as well as let us know how to better assist you in the future. Any little bit of information you can provide might help future Dreamers in their own trials, but you don't have to answer if you don't want to, of course."
Awakened Sunless… Sunny… nodded seriously.
"I understand. I promise to be honest and tell you only the truth. I am a very honest person, you see."
Teddy smiled and asked the first question:
"How long have you spent in the Dream Realm?"
Sunny sighed.
"A year and a few weeks. Although, uh... it felt much longer."
That matched the information in the file.
'This is so terrible. A whole year out there…'
She smiled with encouragement.
"I see. You did very well, Sunny. Very few Dreamers had managed to survive for that long, especially in a region such as the... the Forgotten Shore, right?"
He shivered slightly before answering:
"Yeah. That's what we called it."
Teddy typed a few more words.
"From the interviews with the other Dreamers, we have confirmed that the region of the Dream Realm you were sent to is populated with Nightmare Creatures of the Awakened Rank and above. Can you confirm that information?"
The young man grew a little paler and nodded again.
"Yeah. Awakened, Fallen… Corrupted, too, although those only appeared at night."
Teddy added a couple of lines to her report and asked:
"Have you participated in the battles against such Nightmare Creatures? If so, how many have you killed?"
Sunny was silent for a second, then raised his hand and began counting on his fingers with a thoughtful expression.
"Uh, three or four…"
She began to type and thought:
"Four Awakened creatures. That poor kid looks so weak, and yet he managed to defeat four abominations much more powerful than him, despite being in second to last place of the ranking. Good job, Sunny. You are truly admirable."
But Sunny didn't finish speaking.
"...hundreds."
Teddy froze, staring at the monitor.
"Excuse me?"
The young man thoughtfully scratched his chin and said:
"Yeah, I think that's right. Around four hundred."
After a long and awkward silence, he asked:
"I am sorry, Teddy, is everything alright?"
She nodded slowly, then forced out a smile.
"...Everything is fine, Sunny. I… I am sorry. We'll have to pause the interview now."
He looked at her with sincere surprise and blinked a couple of times.
"Really? Why?"
She cleared her throat, then answered in a small voice:
"I'm... afraid that I am not qualified to conduct this interview. My… my superior will be with you shortly, Sun… Awakened Sunless. Please wait for a few minutes."
Sunny sighed.
"Oh, well. Alright. It's been nice to meet you."
With that, he gave her a bright smile.
Chapter 357: Risk and Reward
Sunny left the office of the government agents in a strange mood.
The conversation went exactly as he had planned. Even after a higher-ranking specialist had been called in, he managed to steer the interview in the right direction, manipulating both answers and questions to achieve the desired result. In the end, he wanted everyone to know that he was someone exceptional… but not so exceptional as to overshadow the best of the best.
Someone who was in the very highest tier of young Awakened, but also at the very bottom of that tier.
Even though he had kept his most outrageous accomplishments to himself, it felt weird to give away so many secrets about his skill, power level, and achievements. Sunny had grown so used to pretending to be a pathetic clown that removing that mask to reveal another, less outlandish mask was not easy for him.
And yet, it was something he had to do.
After he had Awakened, there was not a single moment for him to properly think things through. He had to go through a series of medical and psychological tests, followed by a lengthy debriefing. However, he had been able to realize one thing very clearly.
His situation had fundamentally changed.
Now that his most important secret was revealed and Nephis had become his master, it was as though a crushing burden had been removed from his chest.
...Replaced by another, even more terrible weight.
In any case, he could finally allow himself to relax a little… for a while, at least. Not because he trusted her that much, but because she was currently imprisoned in the Dream Realm, unable to enforce her control over him even if she wished to.
In a sense, as far as his worst nightmare becoming reality went, this was the absolute best version of how things could happen.
He had a lot of time time to think about countermeasures and prepare for whatever the future held, after all.
Walking through the corridors of the hospital complex, Sunny was engrossed in thought.
One thing he was sure about was that a divine shadow like him could only have one master. So, he didn't have to worry about someone else finding out his True Name and enslaving him, not anymore. The guillotine blade that had hung above his neck all that time was now gone.
However, he still kept the existence of his True Name a secret, for one simple reason — he didn't know what was going to happen if Nephis died.
Would he be free forever? Or die with her?
He felt that neither of these theories was correct. Firstly because the description of the Aspect described him as a divine shadow that had lost its master… which probably meant that he could lose another one and remain alive. Secondly, because the runes of the Shadow Bond had become grey and lifeless, but did not disappear.
Which meant that they might shine with ethereal light once again in the future.
So, the most probable explanation was that he would be safe as long as Nephis remained alive, and if she was killed, anyone would be able to use the True Name against him once again.
A deep scowl appeared on his face.
How long could anyone survive in the decimated remains of the Forgotten Shore? The dark sea was gone, but so was the sun. Most of the Nightmare Creatures were dead, but the strongest ones survived. It seemed that Changing Star had escaped the collapsing Crimson Spire, at least. What was she going to do now?
Try to cross the Hollow Mountains to reach the human Citadels, or try her luck in the unexplored regions to the north, west, or east? What were the chances of her making it back to the real world alive?
If it was anyone else, Sunny would say that the probability was zero. But it was Nephis, after all. For some reason, he was sure that she would survive, somehow.
So, yes. Even though many things remained unclear, his situation had fundamentally changed.
He was an Awakened now, which meant that there were countless possibilities in front of him. To get access to the best opportunities and the most advantageous treatment, he needed one thing: status.
At this point, continuing to pretend to be a weakling would only be a hindrance. Sunny wanted to reap as many rewards as he could without putting himself at risk. That's why he shifted his usual pattern of behavior and gave the government agents enough information to paint himself as an exceptionally talented Awakened.
Not that he had a lot of choices. Sooner or later, people were going to learn at least some things about his time on the Forgotten Shore and see that a weakling simply would not have survived all that.
Luckily, there was no shortage of exceptionally talented individuals who had Awakened today. On any other day, Sunny's description of his prowess would have made a huge splash. But currently, he was just one of a hundred.
Speaking of that hundred…
Turning a corner, Sunny suddenly found himself in the middle of a small crowd of people. Dozens and dozens of young men and women were standing in the middle of a small hall, most dressed in the simple training clothes provided by the hospital, just like he himself was. On their faces, there was an indescribable kaleidoscope of emotions: joy, sorrow, worry, anticipation...
Most were looking at a small screen displaying a long list of names.
These were the survivors of the Dreamer Army.
Not everyone was here, of course. Some spent many years on the Forgotten Shore and had been transferred to other facilities by the government or their families. Sunny didn't see Seishan, Kai, or Effie.
…Or Cassie.
His face darkened.
The absence of the first two made sense. Kai was probably being cared for in an expensive VIP care facility, while Seishan had to be kept in the stronghold of her clan. However, he had no idea where the other two were.
Sunny hesitated for a moment, then looked at the list of names displayed on the screen.
Before he could read anything, however, someone quickly approached… and hugged him tightly.
'What the…'
Looking up, Sunny saw a vaguely familiar young man holding him in a passionate embrace. A moment later, the young man let go of him and looked down with glistening eyes:
"Sunny! You are here, too!"
Before he could even answer, a somber expression appeared on the young man's face. In a voice that trembled with emotion, he said:
"Thank you! Thank you so much, Sunny. If it wasn't for you and your shadow, we would have never made it to the Gateway."
At the sound of these words, the others turned around. As soon as they saw Sunny, bright smiles ignited on their faces. A hum of voices rose from the crowd:
"Guys! It's Sunny!"
"Thank you, man!"
"We will never forget what you did for us!"
Sunny stared at them, dumbfounded.
'Weird… this is so weird…'
Ever since he had come to his senses near the sleeping pod, mundane humans were treating him with the utmost respect. They even went so far as to use honorifics, calling him "sir" or "Awakened Sunless".
And now this… why was everyone so friendly and happy to see him? He had never experienced anything like this before.
Was this what it was like, to be an Awakened?
After dozens of young people came closer to shake his hand or happily pat him on the shoulder, he awkwardly smiled.
"Uh… it's nice to see you too, guys."
The young woman who was currently facing him smiled in response. Then, however, her face turned dark.
"Have you heard anything about Lady Nephis after coming back?"
He stiffened, then shook his head.
"No. Have… have you?"
She turned back to the screen, tears appearing in her eyes.
"Nothing. None of us did. Out of everyone who made it to the Spire, only two are unaccounted for. She… we think she is still inside."
Sunny remained silent for a while, then asked:
"Who is the second?"
The young woman sighed.
"Sir Caster. No one had seen him near the Gateway. He must have gone to help her hold back the Terror, and… and…"
Her voice trembled.
"...someone said that he died. Oh, gods! What if Lady Nephis dies, too?"
Sunny lingered for a few seconds, a grim expression on his face, then squeezed her shoulder lightly and quietly walked away.
Chapter 358: Shadow Step
The hospital staff had provided each of the newly Awakened with a small room at one of the underground levels of the complex, to have a place to rest and get accustomed to their new abilities while waiting for more permanent accommodations — if they were going to remain at the Academy, of course.
It was also a place they could take their families to talk and spend time together in privacy. Currently, many emotional reunions were taking place in similar rooms around Sunny's, made especially joyous and heartbreaking because the survivors of the Dreamer Army had spent long years on the Forgotten Shore.
They had gone through hell, indeed, but their loved ones in the real world had suffered a great deal as well.
...Not that Sunny would know anything about that. No one had been waiting for him to return, after all.
In any case, the room he had been provided with was sufficiently comfortable. There was an area for training, a desk with a pitcher of water and some snacks, a sofa, and even a bed.
None of the returned were going to sleep, of course. Not for a few days, at least.
At the very end of the field of shimmering runes, Sunny could now see a new string of symbols:
Gateway: —
Usually, the name of the Gateway that an Awakened had last used would be written there. This was their anchor in the Dream Realm.
Every time an Awakened fell asleep, they would be transported to the Gateway they were anchored to, spend some time in the Dream Realm — either as much as they wanted or as little as possible, only until their soul was ready to travel between worlds once again — and then go through that Gateway to wake up back in reality.
However, the Gateway of the Forgotten Shore had been destroyed. For that reason, every single survivor of the Dreamer Army now had no anchor in the Dream Realm. That didn't mean that they would remain in the waking world forever, though.
Rather, it meant that they were going to be transported to a random one as soon as they fell asleep, just like during their first journey into the land of nightmares. The prospect of being at the mercy of the Spell once more was nothing short of terrifying.
Especially for Sunny, who had the misfortune of always finding himself in only the most extreme of circumstances.
However, the situation wasn't really that bad.
There was a way for a newly Awakened to change their anchor without relying on chance. It was to acquire the services of a Saint, who would be able to take them to the Dream Realm without involving the Spell, appearing near the Saint's own anchor.
Of course, that anchor would most likely be situated in one of the human Citadels, allowing the Awakened to anchor themselves to a Gateway in human territory.
There were just a few dozen Saints alive across all of humanity, so for an average Awakened, their help was not easy to get.
However, Sunny was not an average Awakened. In fact, none of the survivors of the Dreamer Army were.
Every year, the most promising of the newly Awakened were recruited by powerful Citadels and provided the means to anchor themselves to their Gateways. Everyone profited from this arrangement — the talented Awakened received a chance to change their anchor if they wished to do so, while Citadels received new powerful defenders or useful craftsmen to enhance their living conditions and infrastructure.
With how extraordinary the hundred survivors of the Forgotten Shore were, and how unusual their circumstances turned out to be, there was going to be a small recruitment war happening in the next few days. Prosperous Citadels were going to fight for the right to add these outstanding young people to their populations, promising better and bigger rewards, as if during an auction.
The government would inevitably get involved, too, helping those who for some reason failed to find a Citadel to call home.
The survivors of the Dreamer Army just had to remain awake long enough to make a choice and settle the details of their future anchors. Since their physique was far superior to that of mundane humans, they didn't have to sleep every day, so two or three were not going to be a problem.
…Sunny had a lot to do in these few days.
The first thing he had turned his attention to after retreating to his personal room was test the limits of Shadow Step.
The result of these tests left him pleasantly surprised.
Just like he had suspected, the ability to travel between shadows was akin to a weird form of teleportation. He could enter a shadow that was large enough to encompass his body and instantly appear from another.
The distance of that jump, however, was not too large. Currently, it was even smaller than the range of his Shadow Sense, around a dozen meters or so. However, he knew that it would increase as he absorbed more shadow fragments, just like the range of Shadow Control had increased back on the Forgotten Shore.
There was an exclusion from that rule, too.
He was able to travel between his own shadows no matter how far apart they were.
By now, he could control his shadows from as much as a couple of kilometers away. That meant that, if both were sent into opposite directions and reached the limit of the Shadow Control range, he could potentially instantly cover about four kilometers of distance in less than a second.
And that was just one side of Shadow Step. The other was, arguably, even more miraculous and unexpected.
Before, Sunny could move through shadows as though he was one of them, becoming practically undetectable.
But now, he could literally become a part of the shadows, diving into them and becoming incorporeal. Not only did it make him completely undetectable by means of sight, hearing, and smell, but it also allowed him to move with incredible speed through any uninterrupted shadow, no matter how long and vast it was.
In that state, he was invulnerable to physical attacks, but also unable to perform physical attacks of his own.
It also felt very strange. Sort of... peaceful. Sunny had to constantly remind himself to concentrate and not forget what he was doing.
That ability would become truly incredible at night or in the depths of some terrible cave system, like the one they had traveled through on their expedition to the Hollow Mountains.
In short, Shadow Step was incredible.
However, it came at a price.
Unlike Shadow Control, which was as natural to Sunny as breathing, using Shadow Step required him to expend essence. The more distance he covered with a jump and the more time he spent as an incorporeal shadow, the more essence he would have to consume.
Sunny suspected that the theoretical four-kilometer jump would eat through all of his essence, leaving both of his cores dry as a desert.
Spending essence was not the same as spending shadow fragments, of course. His soul always slowly generated essence, eventually filling his cores to their maximum capacity, while shadow fragments increased that maximum capacity and were used to create new cores, as well as turn Echoes into Shadows.
Still, he also needed essence to fight effectively and use the more powerful enchantments of higher rank Memories, so balancing its expenditure was an intricate task.
Truly, becoming an Awakened had opened a whole new layer of both incredible opportunities and insidious problems. It was a lot to take in.
…But he was going to get there, eventually.
Sitting on the floor of his temporary quarters, Sunny sighed and summoned the runes.
Finally, it was time to reap his reward.
He had worked so much, and done so much, to get here. First, repeating the same sword strike thousands of times, day after day, until his hands bled and his muscles screamed from the pain. Learning the basic katas and movements of Neph's flowing battle style, then gaining enough insight into it to make it his own. Almost dying to receive the gift of clarity, then fighting against the Shadow Saint and slowly incorporating her grounded technique into his.
Studying the movements of his shadow to catch the slight difference in how it held itself, then spending countless hours trying to decipher the hidden meaning behind it, until his mind was ready to boil. Solving that mystery and traveling into the past to observe the birth of the nameless temple slave, and the beautiful dance of his mother.
And then, torturous practice and arduous process of turning his vision of the elusive and wonderful battle art into reality.
Only to finally succeed in the middle of the furious, bloody battle against Nephis.
Of all his achievements, this was perhaps the one he was proud of the most.
Because Shadow Dance was entirely his. It was something he created out of almost nothing, something that bore and expressed his individuality.
Sunny had never received any type of inheritance, so this legacy, which was created by himself and for himself, held a special place in his heart.
...Looking at the shimmering runes, he read:
Aspect Legacy: [Shadow Dance].
Shadow Dance Mastery Level: [1/7].
First Relic: [Claim].
Second Relic: Unearned.
Third Relic: Unearned…
Holding his breath, he concentrated on the runes describing the first relic and whispered:
"Claim."
As Sunny watched, the runes glowed brightly for a few seconds, and then changed.
First Relic: Claimed.
And a moment later, the Spell spoke softly into his ear:
[You have received an Aspect Legacy Relic.]
[You have received a Shadow: Soul Serpent.]
Chapter 359: Soul Serpent
Sunny stared at the runes for a while, then slightly tilted his head.
'A Shadow…'
What an unexpected boon.
Usually, a Legacy Relic came in the form of a Memory, or very rarely an Echo. Perhaps there were some other types of Relics out there, but he had never heard of them.
That didn't mean much, though. By now, Sunny was reasonably certain that there were a lot of things that he, as well as the rest of mundane humans, had never heard about. Awakened kept a lot of secrets.
Nevertheless, receiving a Shadow pleasantly surprised him.
Looking up, he saw new runes appearing out of thin air:
Shadows: [Marble Saint], [Soul Serpent].
Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then furtively looked around. The small room was empty and quiet.
Feeling a little bit stupid, Sunny shook his head and summoned his new Shadow to take a good look at it.
A slight breeze moved his hair, and in the next second…
Nothing happened.
'Huh?'
Sunny frowned and looked around the room, then scratched the back of his head.
'What the hell? Where is the damn snake?'
He had hoped to see a giant serpent made out of shadows appear in front of him, with black scales as thick as plate armor and a mouth wide enough to swallow his enemies whole. Or an average-sized snake, at least!
But there was nothing.
He even checked to see if a new shadow joined his two invaluable helpers, but no. Both rested on the floor, one seemingly content, the other bored and in a perpetually bad mood.
'Weird…'
He raised a hand to rub his eyes, but froze at the last moment.
"What is that?"
There was something dark on the skin of his wrist, peaking out slightly from beneath the sleeve.
Following intuition, Sunny hastily stood up and took off the top of the training suit provided to him by the staff of the hospital complex. Left naked to the waist, he then looked at himself through the eyes of the shadow.
'...Huh?!'
Out there on his pale skin, an intricate image of a black serpent was tattooed, so detailed that it almost seemed alive. The serpent coiled around his arms and his torso, its tail resting just above his right hand, its head just above his left.
"...What? I have… a tattoo now?'
In the darkness of the small room, the serpent almost seemed to move under his skin, two curved fangs threatening to break its surface. It was striking, beautiful, and disturbing.
Of course, Sunny recognized the serpent immediately. Both the nameless temple slave and his mother had a very similar image marking their skin, after all.
It was the Shadow God's mark.
But why did his new Shadow turn into a tattoo?
Confused, Sunny listened to his body and soul, trying to feel if something had changed about them.
And soon, he did notice a small difference.
The flow of the shadow essence through his body had changed. If previously it had circulated naturally, now, it seemed to follow the coils of the serpent, moving faster and with more intent, as if directed by them.
'Soul Serpent… does that thing enhance my shadow essence control?'
To experiment, Sunny poured essence into his limbs and then performed several movements of Shadow Dance. After that, he jumped from one shadow to another a few times, expending even more essence.
He felt the difference instantly. Not only was he able to control the essence better, but it also seemed to be consumed at a slightly slower pace, and restore at a faster one.
Soul Serpent served as a channel for it, existing both on the material and the spiritual plane. As such, it was connected both to his cores and to his body, creating a strange bridge that allowed Sunny to use his shadow essence with better efficiency.
'This is… a very useful Shadow.'
Those words were an egregious understatement. Sunny had already understood how important and vital managing essence was for the Awakened — any tool that could enhance that aspect of their power was truly precious.
And he got such a marvelous one, practically for free.
He was also sure that the Serpent would only get more powerful in the future, provided he kept it well-fed, of course.
…But how was he supposed to feed Memories to a tattoo?
Perplexed, Sunny thought for a bit, then finally concentrated on the runes once again.
Shadow: [Soul Serpent].
Shadow Rank: Dormant.
Shadow Class: Monster.
Shadow Attributes: [Shadow Guide], [Soul Weapon].
Shadow Description: [When the end came, Shadow was the last of the gods to be destroyed. Many have resented him for creating death, but in the end, death embraced all.]
Noting the interesting detail of a connection between Shadow God and death, Sunny lowered his gaze.
However, the last string, the one he had been accustomed to paying the most attention to when it came to Saint, was missing. There was no indication of how many shadow fragments it would take to make the Serpent evolve.
Sunny frowned.
Come to think of it…
That strange Shadow was clearly connected to his soul. Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that it was a monster — Sunny was a monster himself, after all. So, maybe, the Serpent would not evolve its Class like Saint had, by consuming the soul core of a suitable Nightmare Creature. Most likely, it would grow alongside Sunny himself.
But why was it of the Dormant Rank, while Sunny had already become an Awakened?
'Huh…'
Maybe… maybe its Rank was not tied to Sunny's soul, but to his comprehension of the Shadow Dance? Currently, he had mastered only the first of the seven steps of the battle art, and the Serpent belonged to the first of the seven Ranks. Would it evolve to a higher Rank if he mastered more steps?
Full of thoughts, Sunny sighed and turned his attention to the Shadow's Attributes.
[Shadow Guide] Attribute Description: "Soul Serpent guides shadow essence as it flows through your body."
[Soul Weapon] Attribute Description: "Soul Serpent can assume the form of a weapon."
'The form of a wea… wait, what?'
Sunny blinked a couple of times, then stared at his left wrist, where the head of the Soul Serpent was drawn under his skin. Its scales were so intricate that it almost seemed as if the creature was moving.
Now… it really was moving.
Following Sunny's mental command, the Soul Serpent slithered up to his hand, and then escaped from it, turning into a dark blade. As the coils moved across his body, the blade grew longer and longer, until a hilt wrapped in black leather rested comfortably in his grip.
The tattoo was gone.
Sunny found himself holding a lusterless greatsword. It was a menacing, formidable, foreboding odachi.
Including the hilt, the odachi was as long as he was tall. It was surprisingly light for its length, but heavy enough to inflict truly devastating wounds.
Almost invisible on the dark steel, an lifelike image of a coiling serpent was etched into its blade.
He weighed the greatsword in his hands for a while, then smiled darkly.
'...Truly, this is a weapon worthy of a shadow.'
It was still weak, though. If it was a Memory, it would have been only a Dormant one of the second tier. Sunny was going to have to put in some work to make the dark odachi really fearsome.
With a sigh, he commanded the Serpent to slither back onto his body, and then to disappear entirely. A few seconds later, his skin was clean and empty once again.
'What a bountiful harvest I had today.'
Sunny stared at the darkness for a few minutes, then sighed heavily.
It was time to do something that he had dreaded doing ever since returning to the real world.
He couldn't put it off any longer.
Chapter 360: Broken
In a heavily guarded underground room, a young woman with silver hair was sleeping in a transparent machine that kept her body alive. Her face was pale and thin, painted by the ghostly glow of machine lights and deep, angular shadows.
The room was peaceful and silent, the hum of machinery creating low background noise. From time to time, a piece of medical equipment produced a sound and grew quiet again.
A blind girl with piercing blue eyes stood quietly near the sleeping pod, an empty expression written in the delicate lines of her beautiful face. If it wasn't for the fact that her hand rested on the hilt of an elegant rapier, a person would easily mistake her for one of the Hollows that were cared for on another level of the hospital complex.
The door of the room did not open, however, there was suddenly another presence inside. A young man with pale skin and dark, cruel eyes appeared out of the shadows and walked over to stand on the opposite side of the sleeping pod. His steps were soft and quiet.
He lingered for a while, then looked down, at the young woman sleeping beneath the glass lid of the mechanical coffin.
For a second, his face became contorted by a terrible grimace. Grief, anger, fear, and longing mixed in his eyes, then disappeared, hidden behind a mask of cold indifference.
Sunny stared at Nephis for a long time, trying to get his emotions under control. He knew that seeing her like this, weak and helpless, would affect him. But he didn't know just how much it was going hurt him.
…He also had not anticipated how dark the thoughts entering his mind would be.
'...I can kill her right now. One strike of the Moonlight Shard, and I'll be free again.'
But no, he couldn't.
Firstly, because there was no guarantee that Nephis would die if her body was destroyed. Just like there were Hollows, people whose souls had been destroyed while leaving an empty body behind, there were Lost — people whose bodies in the real world had died, leaving their souls wandering the Dream Realm.
He suspected that this was the reason why the people who wanted Changing Star dead had sent Caster to kill her in the Dream Realm instead of infiltrating the Academy.
And secondly, and maybe more importantly… he simply could not bring himself to harm Nephis. Not again, not anymore, and not… not like this.
'Cassie, on the other hand…'
With a dark grimace, Sunny slowly moved his gaze to the blind girl.
As if noticing it, she turned slightly and said:
"Hello, Sunny."
He stared at her, his eyes burning with fury.
"What, you can see now?"
Cassie lingered for a moment, then shook her head.
"No. But… something like that."
A wild grin appeared on his face.
"Congratulations. Really, good for you! You won't be useless anymore, at least."
He knew that his words were going to hurt her, and was glad to say them for that reason
The blind girl didn't react, and just continued staring into the emptiness, her eyes cold and distant. But he wasn't fooled. He knew her well enough to recognize the ocean of pain hiding behind that coldness.
'Good… suffer! You deserve this!'
Sunny opened his mouth, wishing to accuse her, but then forced himself to stop. He had to keep himself under control...
Swallowing his angry words, Sunny gritted his teeth and spat:
"How? How did you even know?!"
Cassie hesitated for a bit, then answered quietly:
"When you killed that spy from the Castle. You said it out loud then. I saw it… in a vision. After that, the rest was not impossible to figure out."
His eyes widened.
Sunny remained silent for a long time, trying to deal with the shock that her words had caused him.
'Harper… when I killed Harper?'
The memory of that horrible day sent a shudder through his soul. He remembered it so vividly… the blood streaming down his hands as he held the pitiful young man down, murdering him, giving in to the agony of the Flaw.
And whispering in a hoarse, barely audible voice:
"Lost from Light! I am… Lost… Lost from Light…"
Standing in the underground room of the hospital complex, Sunny wanted to both laugh and cry.
'So this is it… this was what did me in… one mistake, I only made one mistake, and it was all it took to undo me!'
It was almost as if Harper had managed to avenge himself from beyond the grave. Well… he had never gotten a grave, really. Sunny just dumped his body in the ruins, for the Nightmare Creatures to feast on.
A lot of good it did him, in the end.
Piercing the blind girl with a burning look, he said through gritted teeth:
"So that was why you were waiting for me back then, why you gave me the Eternal Spring? You were… you were ready to say goodbye. You knew?"
Cassie slowly faced him, then said in a steady, even tone:
"Yes. I did."
Sunny looked down, clenching his fists.
"You knew... if you knew… then why didn't you try to change anything?! Why, curse you?!"
Cassie stared at him, her calm expression finally collapsing. Pain, sorrow, and anger contorted her face, and with a voice so hurt that it almost sounded as if she was bleeding, she answered:
"Didn't try?! Of course, I tried! I tried everything I could to make the future I saw change! But no matter how much I tried, it never did. It always remained the same! Even worse, my attempts only made it... appear even more inevitable..."
Turning away, she gritted her teeth and remained silent for a while, her hands trembling.
"I… I… I was the first one to understand what my vision of the Crimson Spire meant. Shadows devouring a dying angel… I understood it on that very day."
Cassie closed her eyes for a moment, then spoke again, her voice quiet.
"Don't you remember? I even asked you to promise to always protect her. And what did you say?"
Sunny stared at her, remembering. Yes, at the very start, there had been a conversation like that.
"...No. I said no."
A fragile smile appeared on Cassie's face.
"Yes. You said no. And on that day, I knew that I had to make a choice. And I made it. I chose Neph."
She shivered and hugged herself, as if dying of cold.
"I had to betray one of my best friends to save the other. And I did. I chose to sacrifice you to save Neph. Of course, I fooled myself for a while, telling myself that nothing bad would happen. That if I help Neph, maybe both of you would survive. But deep down, I knew that it was just one of the possible outcomes, so what was the difference? I betrayed you. And you know what?"
A small, bitter laugh escaped from her lips.
"It was for nothing. I betrayed my best friend, and nothing still changed. I sacrificed you, but couldn't save anyone. Despite it all, I couldn't… couldn't change fate."
Sunny stared at her for a while, then snarled:
"...That's it? That's your speech? That's what you have to say for yourself? What do you want me to do, pity you?"
A furious gleam appeared in his eyes.
"After everything I have done for you, after I saved your life countless times, took care of you as if you were my sister, this is how you chose to repay me? By giving my biggest secret to Neph, so that she could use it against me when the time came?"
Cassie remained silent, not saying anything.
"Do you even know what you've done?! Do you even know what you've taken from me?!"
She hesitated for a bit, that answered quietly:
"I didn't know why, or how my vision would come true. I only knew that it would happen in the Spire. So I gave your secret to Nephis, hoping that she would survive thanks to it."
Sunny laughed, then grew quiet.
An oppressive silence settled between them, and remained unbroken for several minutes.
After a while, he finally said:
"...I can understand. Rationally, I do. You were forced to make a terrible decision, with both choices being a betrayal. And you chose to help Neph, who was with you first. Who saved you when I would have just left you to die."
But then, a cold gleam appeared in his eyes.
"But that doesn't mean that I can forgive it. You go to hell, Cassie. Go to hell and die there, for all I care. I hope that I will never see you again."
With that, Sunny turned around to leave, but then stopped.
He couldn't help but be cruel to her one last time.
"Oh, and that secret? It was the reason why she got stuck there all alone. So, in a sense, you have doomed both of your friends."
As he spoke those words, Cassie flinched.
A satisfied, vindictive smile appeared on Sunny's face.
...But why did it hurt him so much to say those words?
"So, congratulations. You've made it back, Cassie. Go back home, spend time with your family. Didn't you tell me that your mother makes the best eggs? Eat your fill. Try to enjoy them, knowing what you did."
As the blind girl paled and turned away with a broken expression on his face, he smiled bitterly and dissolved into the shadows.
Bonds of friendship were such a fragile thing.
They were so hard to create, but so easy to break.
All it took was a moment...