The lower level of the temple was much more intact than the upper. It had only been broken in a few places after all. The ceiling most notably, which made sense since it was the same as the floor of the upper room.
Sunlight leaked in from the cracks, lighting up the room in a dim white light. The room itself was barebones. Its walls were uncharacteristic, adorned with nothing. The floor was plain stone, with a few bloodstains here and there. In the corners of the room, white sand had accumulated over the years, leaking through the gaps in the ceiling.
In fact the only thing in the room was an altar in the middle. A circular pedestal that stood a few feet off the ground. It was made of the same black stone as the rest of the temple. Sunlight shone directly on the altar, finding its way through one of the holes in the ceiling.
As Lucien's eyes passed over the pedestal, an image from the past flashed into his mind. A pair of daggers floated above the pedestal, golden sand flowing around it like rings. Around the pedestal, dozens of human soldiers were kneeling, praying to the weapon.
He blinked and the image disappeared, replaced instead with the current view of the room. No soldiers were there now, and the dagger was long gone, only its visage floating in Lucien's vision.
"What…is that?" Nephis asked, staring intently at the altar.
Lucien frowned, "What?"
"There is something floating over the altar." Nephis said, frowning, "But I can't seem to make out its shape."
'She can see that?' Lucien narrowed his eyes at the translucent visage of the dagger. It wasn't just his imagination.
"It's a dagger." He finally said. "You can't see that?"
Nephis shook her head, "It's like looking through a haze."
"Huh," Lucien breathed out moved closer to the altar, his eyes never leaving the dagger.
As he got closer, something within him grew excited. A deep hum emanated from his chest. One of his cores, the very first one, had begun shaking with anticipation. But Lucien didn't know that. He was too busy staring at the weapons. From the edge of the altar, he leaned in to get a better look at them.
The hilt of the blades were made entirely out of a white stone, with a dark cloth wrapped around the grips. Around where the hilt met the blade, the material warped into a ring, leaving a gaping hole in the weapon. The blade itself was dagged, with a serrated edge. Lucien couldn't quite make out the material of the blades, but it wasn't anything he was familiar with.
In his curiosity, he raised a hand to try and grab it, but his fingers passed straight through them. Like they didn't even exist.
"Strange." He said and pulled his arm back.
His eyes pulsed red and a filter fell over the world. But even the enchantment of a divine memory failed to notice anything. In fact, with the effect of Nightveil active, he couldn't even see the blades.
It was like they didn't even exist.
"I can't seem to interact with it." He said, finally stepping back from the altar. A deep frown marred his face. His gaze swept across the room, but Nightveil didn't unveil any hidden mechanisms in the room.
"Try again once night falls." Nephis said, "The desert changes at night, that might be the key."
Lucien glanced at her and took a moment to consider her words. She had a point, the entire desert changes after the sun sets. The deathless, as Nephis called them, hid from the sun for some reason. And the sun was now shining directly on the altar.
"You might be right." He said after a while.
Pushing those thoughts away, he summoned the soul sack and asked:
"So, what are you in the mood for today, rotted bear flesh, bland stone flesh, or maybe some corrupted crab flesh?"
Nephis stared silently for a moment and then said, "Crab."
"Alright then, light the fire and I'll prepare some profane crab meat."
With that, the two got to work.
The sun was beginning to set in the nightmare desert. The deathless had already begun clawing their way out of the sands. And the desert came alive in a cacophony if violence. All around them, the soldiers and monsters of days past had once again fallen into their eternal battle.
Lucien and Nephis watched from the staircase as the battle took shape around them. A few deathless fought around the temple, but none tried to wander in. They were too busy slaughtering each other.
The two of them shared a glance and went back inside. This place was safe for now, so long as they didn't make too much noise. They couldn't even spar like they usually did, the clamour of swords would draw too much attention.
And so they sat in silence.
Lucien's gaze swept toward the altar once again. The twin daggers floating above it, remained unchanged. With no sun to light up the altar, they were even harder to see than before.
"Go," Nephis said suddenly, "See if it works."
"It won't." Lucien shook his head, "It's only gotten fainter since the sun went down."
Nephis just shrugged and said, "Alright."
After months of hunting alongside him, she had begun to understand what kind of person Lucien was.
Curious, Lucien was an incredibly curious person, so much so that he would zone out in the middle of a hunt, a thousand thoughts running through his head.
Therefore, she knew that Lucien was going to touch the dagger. She wouldn't need to convince him, his own curiosity would do it for her.
Of course, that was only a surface level understanding, and he had changed too. After spending months alone in the hollow mountains, Lucien no longer zoned out when provided with new information. Nephis didn't know if it was because he'd learned to control his thoughts more efficiently, or if he had stopped considering every single possibility.
Eventually, Lucien sighed and got up. Without another word, he walked up to the visage of the twin daggers, and touched them.
Nothing happened.
Glancing back at Nephis, Lucien began to say:
"See? It didn't wor-"
His words were cut short, and a ripple passed through the world. The faint visage of the daggers shattered, and an impossible amount of sand shot out from them. The golden sand curved around Lucien, forming rings around his body. First one, then two, then three, before finally stopping at seven.
Seven rings of burnt yellow sand revolved around Lucien, all of them intersecting at one point. His chest, right above where his soul core was supposed to be.
Then, all of a sudden, the flowing sands froze, and the ripple that passed the world returned, coalescing on the nexus. And the sand began flowing backwards, all of it concentrating on that one point.
For a moment, the infinitely dense mass of sand floated above Lucien's chest. And then, in a fraction of a second, the nexus sank into his chest. Inside Lucien, his humming soul core let out one last hum of satisfaction.
[You have received a Remnant.]
Lucien's knees buckled under him, forcing him into a kneeling position in front of the empty pedestal. His eyes turned glassy as his consciousness was forced inside his soul sea.
Inside his soul sea, was chaos. The waters rippled and lashed out, causing huge waves to take over the world. The tenebrous clouds above collided, and dozens of bolts of lightning hit the ground. Strong wings blew all around him in a cyclone, blocking the horizon from his view.
Above, three of his soul cores were mostly fine, just a bit violent. But the fourth one, the first soul core he had ever formed, was different. He had expected a small star to be revolving around it, as all new memories did, but there was nothing there.
Come to think of it, the spell seemed to call it by a different name. A Remnant.
All of a sudden, the chaos stopped, frozen in place. It was as if someone had paused the world. High above, the veil of clouds parted and a comet fell from beyond. The golden streak fell like a star, and came to a stop right in front of Lucien's face, and he could finally tell what it was.
An orb of sand floated in front of him, the golden grains circling around a pair of daggers. As Lucien peered into them, the spell spoke again.
[Would you like to bind the Remnant?]
'Another soulbound relic?' Lucien narrowed his eyes, should he do it?
The last time he bound a relic…
Lucien shuddered, he wouldn't wish that pain on his worst enemy. But then again, it had been an invaluable boon.
After a moment of contemplation, Lucien hesitantly said, "Yes?"
Nothing happened for a moment. Then the spell spoke.
[Requirements not met.]
"..." Lucien blinked, took a moment to process it, and then said with a twitching eye, "Why did you even give me the choice when I hadn't met the requirements?"
Naturally, the spell didn't reply.
Lucien sighed, "Fine then, what are the requirements?"
As soon as he said that, shimmering runes appeared in front of his eyes. There, right under his memories, a new set of runes showed up.
Remnants [1/7]
[Mictlan's Demise]
[???]
[???]
[???]
[???]
[???]
[???]
Remnant : [Mictlans Demise]
Remnant Rank : Dormant
Remnant Tier : I
Remnant Type : Weapon
Remnant Description : [In the distant past, a Titan rose to kill the Sun.]
Awaken the Remnant? [Requirement : Uncover the Truth]
"Seriously?" Lucien blurted out, looking around him at the chaos in his soul sea. "All this fanfare for a Dormant memory?"
Of course, he didn't receive an answer.
Sighing once more, Lucien willed the memory to materialize
The twin daggers glowed for a moment, and the sand swirling around them flowed back into the weapons. And as Lucien's eyes fell upon the blades, a memory invaded his mind.
Lucien saw a titan, a truly gargantuan being that made entire mountain chains look tiny. It's figure blotted out the sun, and cast a shadow wide enough to cover an entire continent. A shadow that was getting smaller.
The giant was falling. Its divine flesh was being turned to ash, and white bone peeked from beneath.
The memory ended there, and Lucien was back in his soul sea. As he was comprehending what he just saw, the runes describing the Remnant shifted under his vision.
Rank : Dormant
Rank : Dor..
Rank : Awakened
At the same time, the runes describing the memory also shifted, as new information was added to them.
Remnant Description : [In the distant past, a Titan rose to kill the Sun. But the Sun burned fiercely, and the Titan fell before it could reach that goal.]
With that, the runes stabilized, and Lucien was left speechless. The red glow in his eyes died down, and Lucien sat down on the water. So that's what the requirement meant by 'Uncover the truth.'
The memory would rise in rank after Lucien uncovered more of its history, becoming ascended, transcendent, maybe even reaching divine. To bind it, Lucien would need to turn it divine. And to turn it divine, Lucien had to learn about the Titan that tried to extinguish the sun.
Of course, learning about a dead nightmare creature from the distant past would be no easy feat, but for a divine weapon? It was worth the effort.
"I don't suppose you're gonna help me with it?" Lucien scoffed, glaring at the runes.
As if on cue, the world started moving again. The turbulent waves returned to their tranquility. The tenebrous clouds above calmed down and lightning stopped falling from the sky like rain. The storm winds turned into a soft breeze, and peace returned to Lucien's soul sea.
"Right then," He muttered and turned back to the runes, his eyes pulsing red, "What enchantments do you have for me?"