The next day, or whatever counted for day in this lightless land, they left their temporary camp and continued East toward the desert.
With nothing to block their way, the journey was rather…boring. There was no thrill in it. There was nothing to do but travel. Lucien never thought he'd miss being able to fight nightmare creatures one day.
Sighing, he turned his mind to other matters. More specifically his aspect legacy. He hadn't gotten very far with it, he could only hold the shape of a spear for a second or two before it dissipated.
It had gotten a bit easier to form the shape now, but maintaining it was still incredibly difficult. He was at the edge of a breakthrough, he could feel that. But he was missing something, something important enough to stop him from crossing over that edge.
Summoning the stone spear, Lucien tried once again to emulate its shape. Purple lightning covered the memory in a thick layer, taking on its shape and appearance. The memory disappeared into sparks of light, but the lightning stayed. For a few seconds, Lucien was holding a spear made entirely out of lightning.
And then it crumbled down, returning back into his soul sea. At the same time, a portion of his blood was claimed as the price.
Silently cursing, Lucien tried again. Beside him Nephis stared at him curiously as they walked. She saw him create the construct of pure electricity once again, which crumbled after just a few seconds. And then he tried again.
"Do it without the spear." She said suddenly, "You're creating a vacuum inside the construct. That is why it crumbles."
Lucien paused and looked at her. Do it without the spear? He frowned, how was he supposed to get the shape right with no base to work up on?
Slowly, he turned to the spear in his hand. What she said made sense. When the memory returned to his soul sea, the space it occupied becomes empty. And that emptiness pulls at the walls of the construct, forcing it to collapse in on itself.
'Well, it couldn't hurt to try.' A small part of his brain said, and he dismissed the memory.
Bringing both arms close to each other, Lucien summoned the lightning once again. Tendrils of electricity danced between his fingers, coalescing in the middle of his palm into a sphere of lightning.
Before it could collapse, Lucien grabbed it on two ends and pulled. The spherical orb of lightning began stretching out, slowly taking the crude shape of a staff. Lucien pulled with all of his might, but it was getting harder and harder to pull until…
The terrible sound of shattering glass filled the air as the rod of lightning tore down the middle. Lucien stumbled as the tension suddenly disappeared, and lost his balance.
A small amount of his blood disappeared, taken as a price.
"Well that went well." He muttered, pushing himself back up to his feet.
Although, his flaw seemed to count it as a 'creation', although not a very strong one. There might be some merit in Changing Stars statement.
Nephis watched as Lucien walked back up to her, already preparing to try that again.
"Is that your awakened ability?" She suddenly asked. "To shape lightning?"
"Something like that," Lucien strained out as he pulled at the orb of lightning again. Once again the stream of lightning tore down the middle and exploded. He braced, and weathered the explosion. It might have just been his imagination, but he could stretch it a bit more this time. That was enough, he just had to keep practicing.
That night, they fought again, marking yet another area of the Forgotten Shore with their blood.
Afterwards Lucien brought out a handful of soul shards from his soul sack, and handed them to Nephis. As per their previous agreement, Nephis proceeded to drain out most of the soul essence in and returned the nearly empty shard to Lucien.
As a sleeper, Lucien had poured the storm inside him into them, filling them to the brim with their destructive power. It wasn't exactly efficient, but it got the job done.
Now, as an awakened, Lucien used his storm essence instead. The essence was a lot stronger than the storm, but it was also a lot scarcer. To fill up just one soul shard of the awakened rank, Lucien had to drain one of his cores.
But he didn't mind that, that just meant it'd be stronger. Besides, it's not like he was using his essence very much these days anyway.
"What do you use them for?" Nephis had asked once after seeing him fill up a storm shard.
Lucien simply shrugged and said, "Well, each one of these holds enough soul essence to fill up a core. So they work as excellent power sources when I'm building something."
He lifted one of the shards up against the fire, "And if I'm ever in a pinch, I can just…"
A sliver of storm essence flowed from his body into the shard. Almost instantly, it started violently vibrating.
Turning away, he hurled the crystal as far as he could. A moment later, the world lit up as a cacophony of lightning bolts exploded in all directions, nearly touching the sky. Lucien's ears were still ringing by the time the light died down.
"..." Lucien's jaw dropped, and for a moment he was rendered speechless. That was so much stronger than the previous storm shards.
Nephis meanwhile silently stared in that direction. An idea slowly forming in her mind. If a single cores worth of essence could cause such devastation…
"Right," Lucien said, clearing his throat, "I can just do that."
Nephis just nodded absentmindedly.
That was their routine for the next few days. They would walk during the day, spar at night, and Lucien would try to unlock his aspect legacy. It wasn't long before they reached a tall hill that stuck out in the middle of the sea of dust.
Nephis stood and stared at the hill for a while, then without another word she began climbing it. There was nothing but more coral dust at the top of the hill.
"What is it?" Lucien finally asked.
"This," Nephis began, and looked around. In the distance, the headless statue of the knight loomed over them. "This is where we spent our first night."
Lucien stayed silent for a bit and then said: "It doesn't seem tall enough for the dark sea."
"It wasn't" She shook her head and looked up, "There used to be a coral pillar here, we climbed that to escape the sea."
"Was it the three of you from the beginning?" Lucien asked, now curious about their arrival on the Forgotten Shore.
"No, it was just me and Cassie. Sunny found us on the second day." She said, a hint of regret in her voice.
'Strange,' Lucien thought with a frown, 'What's there to regret about that?'
They decided to camp atop the hill that night.
Lying down beside the campfire, Lucien suddenly spoke.
"Can you tell me what happened during the revolution against Gunlaug?"
Nephis remained silent for a long while, so long in fact that Lucien thought she had already fallen asleep.
Lucien was about to turn away when Nephis finally spoke.
"I invoked the right of challenge against Gunlaig." She said, "We fought, he lost."
Nephis continued to tell him about her fight against Gunlaug, how she had managed to break a portion of his mask, just enough for the blood blossom to slip through. She told him of the long drawn out battle against the Castle Guard. How Seishan had turned against them at the last moment and joined Nephis' army, thus turning the tides of the war.
"So that's how it went down." Lucien said after she was done, "I just wish I could've been there."
Nephis nodded, "I know you wanted to kill Gunlaug yourself, but we couldn't wait for you to come back."
"Yeah, I understand." Lucien sighed, "I'm still a bit bitter about it, but Gunlaug's dead. That's all that matters."
"Can I ask you something?" Nephis suddenly said.
"Go ahead."
"How many cores do you have?"
Lucien raised an eyebrow, "What makes you think I have more than one core?"
Nephis just stared back at him silently, daring him to lie.
A part of him wanted to hide that information, to keep her guessing just in case they clashed in the future. Another part of him questioned what advantage she could even get from that knowledge. A third part of him pointed out that he already knew how many cores she had, and that it was only fair. A fourth part of him considered lying to her about it, to make her underestimate him.
In the end, he decided to tell the truth. There was no real advantage to be had by knowing that information, and Nephis would be able to tell if he was lying.
"Four, I'm a Devil."
Nephis just nodded and went silent.
"One last question," Lucien said, sitting up.
Nephis tilted her head inquisitively, signalling him to continue.
"Why did you let Sunless win and leave the Forgotten Shore."
Nephis' face twitched, a spark of surprise alighting in her eyes for a moment. Then suddenly, her face returned to one of indifference and she said in a neutral tone.
"What do you mean?"
"Please," Lucien scoffed, "You expect me to believe that you, a Dormant Demon lost to Sunny?"
Nephis stared at him for a while, before saying: "What makes you think that?"
"Because I can see it." Lucien retorted, an eerie red spark in his eyes. "I don't believe for a second that you lost to Sunny. No, you chose to stay behind, why?"
"..."
Nephis turned away from him, "That's not something you need to know."
'So she did lose intentionally.' Lucien frowned, 'That made no sense. The Nephis he knew would never give up her one chance to escape. But here she was, having done exactly that.'
Clearly, he didn't know her well enough.
The next day began in silence, neither of them willing to break it. Lucien continued practising for his aspect legacy as they continued onward to the desert.
It wasn't long before the dark lightless skies began gaining some colour. At the same time, the dead grey coral sand began turning white. A wave of heat suddenly hit them.
The two of them glanced at each other, they both knew what this meant. A shower of sparks enveloped them both.
Dark stone armour covered Lucien head to toe, and instantly began emanating a constant stream of true darkness. An equally dark blade manifested in his hand, and drank in the darkness, growing stronger in its presence.
In stark contrast, Nephis stood enveloped in a pristine silver armour that seemed to radiate a pure white light. A silver blade appeared in her hand, capturing the radiance and glowing white. And finally, a simple crown fell on her head, enhancing all of their memories.
Their peaceful journey had come to an end, the edge of the Forgotten Shore was almost upon them. The two figures walked side by side, swords held high as the world got brighter and brighter.
They had reached the desert.
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