With every passing moment, Kallen felt his wounds recover, but his muscles grow more tense. He took a look at his scale count in his runes, seeing that they hadn't grown at all since the defeat of the Lesser Wyrm of the Depths. That had been quite a while ago.
He shifted on the blade of coral, turning a strip of crab meat over, roasting it with Wyrm's Tongue. Kai had left him with all their food before he took off for the Bright Castle.
The man had waited for Kallen to get better first, but he had taken off in a hurry.
Kallen thought Kai was afraid of the dragon, and that was why he was in such a rush to gather the others. Not that the Titan was actually going to come after them for a while. When it did move, however, Kallen suspected it would be headed for the Bright Castle. Seren's flaw had been mostly dormant for far too long. Not much had triggered it lately, that he could even think of. Unless it was working behind the scenes somehow.
Which it very well could be.
Staring out at the dark sea, he knew he needed to start hunting these 'leviathans' that he needed to kill for scales. Not only was he curious what would happen when he filled them up, but he also suspected that they were heavily tied to his growth with his abilities.
Increasing them didn't exactly affect his finesse much, but it did make a difference with the force he was able to exert with Ocean's Wrath. There had been a noticeable jump after killing Puddle's defiled incarnation, as well as after killing the Wyrm.
The problem was, the last true denizen of the black sea he'd defeated had almost killed him. It taken a miracle to defeat it, and it was one of the weaker ones.
In fact, the Awakened Titan he and Kai had desperately escaped from wasn't at the top of the food chain either. Considering it was being fed on by the Crimson Coral for… well who knew how long, as well as the fact that it dwelled in a death trapped cave. It likely wasn't very strong in comparison to some other depth dwellers.
But still, more than likely, if it was at full strength, it was capable of killing everyone on the Forgotten Shore if it attacked the Castle.
Unless I get that armor of Gunlaug's…
~~~
When he was desperately swimming away from a nightmarish tentacled shark squid hybrid, Kallen decided that trying to gather scales while he was on the Forgotten Shore was a fruitless endeavor.
If it weren't for his superior maneuverability, the thing would have caught up to him, but as he shot out of the water, rolling onto the patch of crimson coral, he scrambled to the highest edge away from the corrupted abomination.
It lunged after him, tentacles swirling wildly, but it was unable to climb out of the sea. Thus Kallen was safe.
He sighed deeply, steadying the trembling of his hand, and checked his runes.
Scales: [161/1000].
Four measly scales for nearly getting himself killed. The math wasn't promising, he needed a better strategy.
The creature he had killed was a bottom feeder, hiding inside the sand. It might have actually ambushed him if he hadn't already known it was there. Though sight was difficult under the black sea, his dormant ability allowed him a sort of sixth sense when underwater.
Without it, I would have been dead a thousand times over. Kallen sat back on the piece of coral, chest heaving. He wiped his brow, watching the monstrous squid-shark thrash in frustration before finally retreating into the sea. I wonder how Kai is doing.
The guy should have reached the Bright Castle by now. If all went well, he'd gather the others as planned and rendezvous at the spider nest. Kallen was only a few hours walk away from it, he could see the statue it laid at the bottom of on the horizon.
He wondered what Cassie had undoubtedly foreseen in their future. Had she seen them escape the Forgotten Shore? Had she seen him kill Gunlaug and take his armor? Or die trying?
Kallen paused. Had she seen him emerge as Bright Lord and refuse to escape like he'd been debating for weeks now?
Has she seen me and Caster kill Nephis?
A distant rumble shook his outcropping. His head snapped up, scanning the horizon. The black sea remained unnervingly calm, but that meant nothing. Something could be moving beneath the surface now, tracking him and waiting to strike.
With a grunt, he pushed himself upright and began gathering his meager supplies. The meat Kai had left was nearly gone, and his stomach growled. He'd have to hunt again soon, but not here. Not with that tentacled nightmare waiting below.
As he secured the last of his gear, a glint caught his eye. Something metallic and half-buried in the coral. Kallen knelt, brushing away the reddish growth to reveal something familiar. His canteen. The one he thought he'd lost, what was it doing here?
Another tremor passed through, stronger this time. His fingers tightened around the canteen. He snarled, then let it drop, watching it clatter against the coral, its surface shimmering before dissolving into mist.
Mind Attack.
The tremor came stronger now. The coral beneath pulsed like a beating heart, its colors stretching unnaturally. Kallen didn't flinch. He'd spent weeks in the spider nest hallucinating from venom. This was nothing.
He closed his eyes for a moment and reached for clarity, but nothing seemed to change for the better. In fact, when he opened them again, the world around had changed. The coral outcropping was gone. He stood knee-deep in black water, its surface still as glass.
A dragon loomed before him, close enough that he could see the fractures in its sole remaining horn.
Kallen remained silent and grabbed for his trident. Feeling nothing from his connection with the Memory, he took a deep breath and calmed himself. The dragon wasn't really in front of him and whatever was doing this wasn't strong enough to be considered a 'worthy' opponent.
Whatever it evens considers worthy.
Wordlessly, Kallen summoned Wyrm's tongue and activated its [Greek Fire] enchantment. The flame spilled out from the handle, and formed backward as he willed it, igniting him in a raging inferno.
He bit his lip against the pain, even with [Fireproof] helping him. Still, it was nothing compared to the radiating heat from the Titan he'd already fought.
As the heat enveloped him, the vision broke like glass, reality reasserting itself in a dizzying rush. Kallen found himself back on the coral outcropping, fire billowing from his body.
A leviathan of writhing scales and rotting, jagged bone floated before him, maw lined with rows of terrifying teeth. It seemed surprised to see him lucid. That was good.
Digging his back foot into the coral behind him, Kallen used the leaping ability granted by his armor, and launched off of it, moving away from the Corrupted sea creature.
~~~
Sunny
"Well?" Sunny asked. He and Nephis were alone, stalking through the dark city on a duo hunt. There wasn't anyone around for miles. "What is this master plan of yours?"
She didn't answer immediately as they moved quietly around a decrepit building.
"Kallen's sister is dying. That's why she is here right now."
Sunny didn't say anything when Nephis fell silent, instead waiting for her to elaborate.
"Her grandfather, the leader of the Blackwater clan, Saint Daelan must have seen something, some sort of imprint on her soul and been unable to heal it himself." She sighed. "Which meant that no one in their clan was powerful enough to heal her."
Sunny thought on this for a moment. Or he was lying. But that was illogical. What reason would there even be for that in the first place?
"The problem is, I couldn't even see this 'imprint' when I checked her myself."
Sunny frowned. "What do you mean."
"I mean there's nothing there." Her voice was quiet, but the undercurrent of frustration was unmistakable. "No flaw. No imprint. No wound to heal."
"That's… it's good, right?"
Nephis turned her gaze toward him. For the first time, he saw something unfamiliar in the grey fog of her eyes. It was doubt.
"No," she said. "It's not." A beat of silence. "If I can't see it, that means it's buried deeper than my senses could reach. If the House of Night couldn't heal it, that means its deeper than even a Saint's power might touch. Which means that even if I awaken further, even I might not be strong enough to heal her until it is too late."
Sunny stared at her. "So you're saying…"
"I'm saying that when Saint Daelan sent a pre-teen into her first nightmare in order to save her, he made the right call."
The weight of what she said settled a quilt of dread over them. Sunny exhaled, chewing on this new information. "So… they intend for her to become a Master before this flaw kills her? That's their plan?"
Nephis nodded. "It's the only reason they'd force her to become an Awakened. They're hoping that becoming a Master would naturally purge her soul of the deformity.
"Do you think it would?" Sunny asked.
She shook her head. "I don't know. I doubt it… "
He narrowed his gaze "And your plan?"
"Is to make sure he knows about this disease of hers," she answered. Then a slight hesitation. "But also make sure he never finds out that she's dead either way."
Sunny stopped walking. The crumbled street beneath them seemed to tilt. "You're going to lie to him?"
Nephis didn't break stride. "I'm going to give him a reason to keep moving. A false reason… yes, but one all the same."
Sunny grabbed her arm, forcing her to face him. The odd fabric of her armor's underlayer was damp from the rain. "You're going to use this as leverage? What, tell him that you'll be able to save her once we get out of here to coerce him into challenging the Spire? That's your plan?"
For a moment, her face hardened, then something flickered in the depths of her bearing. Something like guilt passed through before vanishing.
"Would you prefer I tell him the truth?" She spoke low and dangerous. "That Seren is a lost cause? A terminal patient? That every second he spends fighting for her is wasted? That the reason she's here is because her own grandfather made a losing gamble?"
Sunny's grip on her slackened. "That's…" the words died in the back of his throat.
That's exactly what I would do, he realized.
"Truth doesn't win wars. Conviction does. And the fact is, we need his strength."
Sunny said nothing.
Nephis kept going. "He'd break if he knew the truth, and we can't afford something like that. These people can't afford something like that." She turned away, pulling her arm from his grasp. "So yes. I'll lie to him. I'll let him believe there's enough time, because the alternative is watching him bury himself beside her."
A distant screech sounded through the city, bouncing off the walls. Some Nightmare Creature hunting in the dark; neither of them flinched.
Sunny sighed, his breath fogging in the air. "And when we get out? When he finds out that you can't do anything?"
"We'll keep lying, Sunny. Tell him I can save her as a Master, tell him anything, whatever keeps him going. Lie until the day she dies. Sure, maybe a miracle happens and maybe we're able to reverse it, but the practicality of the situation is clear. She dies and there's probably nothing we can do about it."
"You sound like you've given up."
Nephis glanced back at him, anger clear in her expression. "I haven't. I haven't given up, and I won't give up until after she's gone… but you should prepare yourself for the worst case, just as I already have."
Sunny's accusatory expression must have set her off, because she grew even more intense.
"You think I want this? Do you think I'm some sort of unfeeling monster who doesn't care when one of her companions will die?" She shook her head. "You think this is easy for me? It's not. I'm just the only one with the will to carry this burden… besides you, Sunny."
She turned back around and began to move forward once more.
"And when he finds out?" He called, standing still underneath the downpour of rain. It felt like needles on his skin.
"Then he'll hate us," Nephis said, eyes fixed ahead. "And that'll just be one more burden to cary. Add it to the list, what's one more?"
Sunny watched her walk away. He followed, wrestling with the decision for a few moments.
You shouldn't have told me, Neph, he thought, his face twisting into a nasty look behind her back. Because I won't be able to lie to him if he asks for the truth.
He could have sworn he heard the sound of waves crashing against the shore in the distance.