Within his room, Sunny was holding onto a reflective spear formed from ice, its length slightly exceeding his own height. Prismatic colors bounced off the spear's surface, which seemed to be fragmented endlessly. Rather than only having one reflection, it was as if the spear took Sunny's face and broke it into countless pieces, while simultaneously bathing it within a rainbow.
The more Sunny looked at the spear, the less it looked like ice, and the more it seemed to look like glass containing a singular instant of time. The blade of the spear was faintly reminiscent of a trident — or perhaps a spiked mace — in the fact that smaller spikes of glass jutted outwards at the socket, while one singular shard pierced upwards. In a way, it was somewhat similar to a flower.
Sunny hummed, gazing at the Cradle of Madness for a few moments, before closing his eyes. In his mind, countless battle arts that he has run across flashed through his head. Taking the length of the spear into account, as well as the peculiar way its blade was shaped, he took apart the myriad fighting styles he has shadowed, before compiling them back together.
As he dissected principles and put them back together, a new fighting style was born: Prismatic Lotus.
Deciding that it would be stupid to use it within his room, considering the absurd length of the spear, he dismissed it back into his Soul Sea. He would always be able to test it later. Instead, he decided to look at his other Memory — one that was easily more valuable due to its superior Rank.
Memory: [Dark Scale].
Memory Rank: Supreme.
Sunny practically salivated upon reading those words. How many people in the world had Supreme Memories? There was probably only a handful of Saints with one or two of them, while Sovereigns probably had plenty of them.
The point was that Sunny managed to obtain one through his own hard work, because he clearly did all the work in killing Scar of the Hollow. Without the little poke from the Lance of Preservation, that thing would have never died!
Source? Himself.
Memory Tier: IV.
Memory Type: Charm.
Memory Description: [The Whimsical Tyrant madly laughed at his pursuers, heat radiating off armor forged from amber, draconic wings spread with domineering weight.
"Tell me, have you ever been afraid of the dark? Of course you have. Nobodies and slaves such as yourselves fear Nothing more than what you can't see. But I... I was born in the dark. Molded by it. The dark is me just as much as I am it. I do not fear the dark. But I fear the Dark. Would you like me to show you? Oh, yeah, you do! You want to see it so badly, don't you?! Then let me engrain this into your brain—!"
An abominable chimera stepped out of the shadows, spreading terror and Darkness wherever its hooves landed. The Whimsical Tyrant spread his arms as the world burned above them in a dance of white flames and crimson lightning.
"Let this name haunt your Nightmares forever, you miserable wretches. Feast on them all, ***** ******: **** ** ********!"
At that moment, their luck ran out.]
'...This guy really likes to talk.'
He supposed this Whimsical Tyrant was someone who, as his title suggests, did things on a whim. So, perhaps he was the kind of person to start rambling without any meaning at all.
After reading the line about draconic wings, Sunny guessed that the Whimsical Tyrant was related in some way to Scar of the Hollow, who was also a draconic being who wielded True Darkness. Perhaps they were of the same species.
Also, what was up with the censored bit?
Moving on, he checked the enchantments.
Memory Enchantments: [Hollow Embrace], [The Dark Is Me], [Haunt], [Dark Blood].
[Hollow Embrace] Enchantment Description: "This Memory greatly improves the rate at which the wearer's Essence is restored when surrounded by True Darkness."
[The Dark Is Me] Enchantment Description: "This Memory infuses authority over elemental Darkness into the wearer's Domain. The extent of this authority depends on the might of the Domain. Furthermore, the wearer will not experience any of the downsides of being within True Darkness."
Sunny's eyes bulged.
'W—What?'
Forget about [Hollow Embrace] — it was useful, but too situational to be reliable — [The Dark Is Me] would get rid of one of Sunny's biggest weaknesses... being completely blinded in True Darkness! Sure, it wasn't a common thing to encounter, but considering how he met Scar of the Hollow and the weaker members of its race, it was obvious that he needed a way to counter it.
Elemental Darkness was the enemy of both shadows and light. It completely stripped away his Aspect whenever he had to face it. Although he doubted that weakness could be so easily mitigated, he now had the power to actually see in Darkness!
...The rest of the enchantment was a bit confusing, however. What did it mean to have Darkness added into his Domain? Sunny didn't have one, as he wasn't a Supreme... so perhaps the rest of the enchantment was useless?
Still, even if it was, this was a major gain for him. Simply being able to reliably see in True Darkness when most others cannot is a huge advantage he wouldn't pass up. Moreover, [Hollow Embrace] would help him regain his Essence faster if he was put in such a situation.
Now, he just had to hope that one of the enchantments created True Darkness.
[Haunt] Enchantment Description: "This Memory plagues the wearer with intense fear, which increases the longer it is worn."
Sunny made a face. Of course there was a downside.
He was already a pretty cowardly person, but he usually pushed past that because he had shit to do. What Sunny was concerned about was the possibility that he would lose all rationale when wearing the Dark Scale. After all, uncontrollable fear was something that might make him run away from a Dormant Beast.
That wouldn't be good...
He sighed, once again holding onto hope that the last enchantment would give him the means to use the first two enchantments...
...His prayers were answered, but in a way he found... questionable.
[Dark Blood] Enchantment Description: "This Memory slowly dissolves the wearer's blood into Darkness."
'What? What the hell did that even mean?!'
...It was obvious, actually. Sunny's own blood would be used as a source of True Darkness, but that only brought up some questions. The conditions for [Hollow Embrace] required him to be surrounded by True Darkness, not to have it within him. Would it still work? Moreover, what was the point of being immune to the negative effects of True Darkness if it was all within him? In that scenario, it couldn't even blind him. Perhaps it was expelled from his body?
After a few moments, Sunny summoned the Dark Scale. True to its name, it resembled a black dragon scale, no more than the size of his palm.
Then, three changes happened at once:
Within himself, he could feel his blood slowly disappearing, with True Darkness taking its place instead. He also felt the rate of his Essence restoration surge higher.
The third change, on the other hand...
Sunny yelped as he threw the Memory across his room, causing it to fall into a small trash can in the corner. He began to feel up his own body...
Then, he paused, making an unimpressed face.
'Oh, I get it.'
Sunny's main source of fear mainly came from his paranoia. Rather than give him new fears, the [Haunt] enchantment only amplified what already existed. So, feeling True Darkness flow through his veins, Sunny panicked and threw his Supreme Memory like it was garbage. He sighed, dismissing it from the trash can back to his Soul Sea.
Even worse, the True Darkness remained in his body, not being naturally expelled. Frowning, Sunny tried to turn into a shadow... and failed.
'You can't be fucking serious...'
Groaning, Sunny summoned the Moonlight Shard into his hands, before brushing the ghostly stiletto against his wrist. Just as he had hoped, elemental Darkness flowed out of the bloodless wound, as if trying to escape his body. Sunny sighed as he watched it all exit his body and dissipate. It seemed to not be permanent, interestingly enough. Instead of having to cut himself open every time, he could simply wait it out as long as the Dark Scale was dismissed, though it might take longer if he didn't give the Darkness more space spread out to dissipate.
All in all... what a shitty Memory! Now that he thought about it...
The whole part about his blood becoming True Darkness was just a time limit! It wasn't even meant to be a proper source of Darkness!
He really, really wanted to cry.