A day had passed since Orphne's whispers had ended.
Yet the wind had not left with them. This left him reluctant to leave hoping that her voice would return.
Sunny had spent hours sitting in the Shadow Chair waiting for the whispers to return. Somewhere along the line he must have fallen asleep.
His growling stomach woke him up with a start.
Being able to fall asleep so easily was uncharacteristic of him.
'I was more exhausted than I thought. I have to say I definitely prefer physical exhaustion over this mental exhaustion.'
He shot a glare downwards to his shadows for not having woken him up.
Blinking the sleep out of his eyes he realized that his shadows shouldn't be there after he sent them off the other day to scout.
His stomach growled again and he was suddenly glad that no one was here to see the embarrassing sight.
'Orphne really spoiled me I haven't felt hunger this intense in a very long time. Hell, I'd even eat synthpaste right now.'
The food native to the Shadow Realm had really left him wanting. He had yet to encounter any form of vegetation anywhere even on his hunts with Orphne.
When he had inquired about this, she had told him it was because they are in the outskirts of the Shadow Realm that were relatively desolate
Even as spoiled as he had been by Orphne the variety was still lacking since the menu was only meat.
Still the huntress was an amazing chef. She had a way to always make a dish taste good no matter how grotesque whose meat they were eating was. He had always thought it a shame that she didn't have more ingredients so she could further showcase her skills.
His expression fell after realizing that he had already begun to refer to Orphne in the past tense.
Sunny stood up to start busying himself. It was better than muddling in thoughts he was better off not thinking of.
He swept his gaze all around gathering his bearing even though it was completely unnecessary since his shadows had already scouted everything in a close vicinity.
Letting his eyes linger on a particular direction he tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
Quickly he was forced to shield his eyes with a hand.
'Why is so bright that way. It's too damn bright.'
Looking downwards he realized the sand in that region of the Shadow Realm had melted into glass.
He then noticed that this area of the Shadow Realm felt noticeably warmer than where Orphne had lived.
Moving his gaze upwards he saw a massive humanoid figure in the distance that seemed to epitomize the very concept of heat. It was absurdly bright like the very sun was walking the earth. Even from here he wasn't safe from the harsh reflected light that reached much further than even the direct influence of that thing's domain.
Fortunately, that figure must have been some distance away, so he wasn't exposed to temperatures all that fierce.
He turned 180 degrees, "Yeah, I don't plan on going that direction."
Quickening his pace, he couldn't help but wonder where the hell he was. Based off that creature's strength alone he believed that Orphne had sent him closer towards the center of the Shadow Realm since he doubted something like that would be in the outskirts.
It didn't help that Orphne's attempts at describing places in the Shadow Realm was less than useful. The huntress was a great teacher but any attempts at describing sights she had seen were futile because her enhanced senses let her see the world in an entirely different way than him.
She had even attempted drawing the Shadow Realm which had given him a laugh and a new bruise to add to his collection.
Sunny couldn't help but feel that all of this was too much.
"Seriously can't I get and rest in the realm of peace I could really use some right now."
He must have been more affected by Orphne's 'death' than he had previously thought.
It left him not feeling quite like himself. He had thought that he had abandoned close relationships with others after how much he had been hurt by them in the past.
Yet after spending close to half a year with the huntress he had become attached to her. He wanted to dismiss their relationship to something as simple as what he felt towards Teacher Julius but even someone as emotionally unintelligent as himself knew that Orphne had been more than that to him.
The huntress was moreorless a mother figure to him. Her very existence seemed baffling to him. Any topic he thought himself knowledgeable about Orphne would prove his ignorance in with a casual comment.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she turned his whole world upside down.
So, to see her be so utterly mismatched against an opponent left him reeling even a day later. It broadened his horizons in a way that was entirely unwelcome.
"Perhaps this is exactly what I need though. To grow stronger, one must first recognize that they are weak."
He couldn't help but smile.
'When did I learn to spout such philosophical nonsense. I can't go insane this early I don't plan on returning to the waking world anytime soon.'
Not being able to protect those close to him was quickly getting old. Losing Orphne had sent him down a spiral of thinking about everything else he had lost.
He couldn't help but compare himself with people he knew who were able to protect those close to them.
'Maybe you have to value others lives' more than your own to save them. Thinking back, it always seemed to be that way. Orphne was able to save me because she cared for my life more than her own. Noctis could succeed in freeing Hope for the same reason. Nephis sent me back to the waking world because she thought I had a better reason to live than her revenge. Hell, even I was able to save Rain and get her adopted because I cared for her more. Because Rain was family, I was too stubborn to give up and eventually succeeded even though I ended up alone.'
A scowl blossomed on his face.
'How does that even make any sense. It can't be that the only way to save those close to you is to leave them.'
He noticed another common point between all of those experiences.
'Now that I think about it, the reason we all bore such a great sacrifice to protect those close to us was because we were too weak.'
He couldn't help but smile seeing that he was proved right all that time ago.
'In the end strength is the only virtue that matters, and weakness in the only sin. In all of those examples the reason someone was forsaken was because they were too weak thus, they had to pay a huge price to get their way.'
A long sigh escaped him.
Gloomy separated himself from Sunny and manifested himself into another incarnation that was giving him an accusatory glare.
He even dared to point a finger at Sunny.
"Hurry up and start searching for your lost soul already. Me and the other shadows were starting to wonder if you would ever find out about it."
Acting like Gloomy brought a smile to his face. Of course, it was only acting but he figured that it would help him stave off the threat of going crazy once again from the lack of social interaction.
Maybe purposely acting crazy to stop himself from going crazy wasn't a good idea but it was better than staying silent leaving himself with his own dark thoughts. Doing that would surely drive him crazy even faster.
Scoffing he returned the accusatory point. The Gloomy incarnation hardened his face as if coming to a decision and approached the sitting Sunny.
He slowly raised his foot and tipped the chair that the original Sunny was sitting on over.
Sunny did an exaggerated combat roll while raising his guard.
"What the hell was that for bastard?"
Gloomy's glare never faltered as he accused.
"You already know why. It's because if no one else is here to get you off your butt we'll have to step in."
Sunny returned the glare with no less intensity as he countered.
"What do you mean you'll have to make me take action? I can take action when it's called for like I did when coming to the Shadow Realm."
Gloomy laughed at that.
The Haughty and Creepy Shadows detached from him and manifested besides Gloomy while Happy joined the main incarnation.
Haughty made sure to distance himself from Creepy and Gloomy seemingly reluctant to associate with them despite being on the same team.
This time it was Haughty that was the one insulting him since he deemed it more in line with his character.
"Point taken. You don't need anybody to tell you when to run away."
Sunny's face started twitching.
'Haughty really knows how to get under my skin.'
"How am I supposed to 'take action' anyway? Who knows where my soul could possibly be in this whole realm."
Gloomy's glare softened as he decided to take a different approach as he manifested a sword for himself striding towards Sunny and Happy.
Haughty seemed reluctant to let Gloomy make the first move as he wasted no time forming a weapon and advanced barehanded.
Creepy seemed rather interested in this act perhaps growing curious of what his own innards looked like.
Deeming himself the leader Haughty began speaking before Gloomy could.
"Listen. Staying with Orphne made you grow timid again. We can't afford to delay any longer. It's already been close to half a year, don't you think Princess should be closing in on you right now?"
Happy took several steps backwards while raising his hands in a placating manner.
"Woah woah woah, is this really necessary surely we can settle our differences in a more peaceful manner."
Sunny turned towards Happy and shook his head before blocking Haughty's punch without looking.
"As much as I hate to admit it, they do have a point."
Haughty launched his other fist as Sunny which was also caught.
A devious smile made its way onto his face deciding to exploit Haughty's weakness and do something Haughty would doubtlessly look down upon.
Sunny was about to launch a low blow against Haughty which would have landed if not for someone as well versed in human anatomy as Creepy predicting it and forcing Sunny to disengage under the threat of a rain of arrows.
A blunted arrow hit Haughty square in the back which only earned Creepy a glare.
"We're on the same team you Mongrel."
Gloomy countered on Creepy's behalf.
"Get some better insults we're all Mongrel you troglodyte."
While they were bickering, Sunny used the opening to manifest an encirclement of shadow arms around them while Happy, in perfect sync, provided them with javelins.
The launched javelins were perfectly accurate and yet they had no effect at all. Haughty caught a javelin midair and proceeded to crush it without even diverting his attention away from Creepy in the slightest.
The arrogant shadow wore a victorious smile as he watched Creepy scramble around dodging a barrage of javelins with no opportunity to replicate Haughty with both his arms occupied by a bow and arrow.
It was becoming clear to Sunny that as much as he thought himself superior as the main incarnation, he wouldn't be able even out the odds with sheer pride especially against the Haughty incarnation.
Sunny was tempted to summon Saint to even out the numbers but that would do the reverse as he had no doubt that Saint was significantly stronger than a single incarnation. He opted to summon Nightmare instead, commanding him to only go for blunt attacks.
Creepy seemed content staying in the backline with a bow made of manifested Shadows accompanied by blunted arrows. Sunny was beginning to suspect that bow had a draw strength that was a bit beyond what would be considered appropriate based on the nasty bruise he sported on his right knee.
He didn't even need to command Nightmare to go after Creepy in the backline and he was becoming a little concerned with the eagerness that Nightmare displayed towards attacking him.
Gloomy, the most senior shadow, was even more eager than Nightmare to use this opportunity to vent all of his anger against his master for everything he had been put through. He was already upon Sunny with his pointed falchion pushing Haughty out of the way and forcing Creepy to orbit around them lest he fire at his allies.
During his training with Orphne she had pointed out that he had too strong of a preference towards using swords that he was familiar with such as Tachi or Odachi and rarely used other sword types much less other types of weaponry.
She had emphasized that limiting his arsenal would only serve to slow his progress in [Shadow Dance] and he'd be damned if he didn't take all of her lessons to heart in the Shadow Realm.
Sunny summoned the armor from his [Marble Shell] attribute which he had obtained during a hunt as he parried a wide slash from Gloomy with the right gauntlet. Using the widow before Gloomy could retract his sword he took a wide step into his guard and hit Gloomy with a straight from his left gauntlet right to Gloomy's chest.
He was sent reeling while Haughty attempted to step in towards Sunny having already formed shadow manifested knuckledusters. Happy intercepted him leaving the bout down to a series of 1v1s.
Creepy was leading Nightmare around using [Shadow Step] to separate himself from the steed whenever he got close. Even with teleportation Creepy was struggling to get shots off at Nightmare because the steed would swiftly close in upon him whenever he attempted to separate them.
Already Creepy found himself drifting off as it became increasingly hard to keep his heavy eyelids open.
Seeing that stalling and trying to whittle Nightmare down with arrows would take far longer than the amount of time it was take for him to fall asleep he abandoned that strategy as he sidestepped Nightmare's charge while hooking the frame of the shadow bow around the steed's horns and pulling him to the ground towards the string.
Yanking Nightmare to the ground left Creepy exposed which Nightmare exploited by lashing out with his hooves tripping Creepy as their bout entered into grappling territory.
Creepy was already starting to regret turning this into a ground fight as he had done it do avoid Nightmare's horns and fangs but ended up exposed to a much more dangerous force – the hooves.
He attempted to summon the armor from [Marbel Shell] but was finding it hard to defend against the steed's four hooves that maintained a nonstop barrage.
Nightmare's [Swift] attribute proved invaluable as if it wasn't for how exposed grappling made him it'd be his preferred area of combat since his legs proved to be his most deadly weapon.
Just before the armor was completely summoned Nightmare blindsided Creepy with a hoof straight to the jaw knocking him out and forcing the Shadow to dematerialize.
The steed was quick to regain his footing and about to reinforce Creepy but Sunny unsummoned him taking pity on poor Happy.
Happy was attempting to disengage from Haughty but the arrogant shadow's offense was proving too fast to escape from.
The arrogant shadow deemed his fists to be the only weapon he needed while Happy was leaning more towards using his legs. He was constantly trying to disrupt Haughty's advance by attacking his legs with weak kicks while doing his best to defend his head reluctant to fall to the same fate as Creepy.
Even though Happy had managed to guard against any attacks aimed at his weak points he was still losing the fight since Happy seemed reluctant to harm Haughty based on his principles.
While he had summoned the armor from [Marbel Shell] he was still barely staying in the fight. The shock from each blow was getting to Happy causing him to find it hard to even keep his guard up any longer.
Seeing Happy's battered guard, Haughty grew more confident. He sped up his offense going for wider blows and advancing faster than ever.
Haughty's confidence proved to be his downfall. He went for a very wide blow that blew open Happy's guard when his left arm fell helplessly to his side. Happy seeing that convincing Haughty proved entirely futile decided that this was his best chance and threw a noncommitted punch towards the arrogant shadows jaw.
Neither the Happy incarnation nor the Haughty one believed that the punch would land and were shocked when it sent Haughty staggering back several paces.
While Happy was shocked by the success of his attack it was nothing compared to the shock that the Haughty Shadow was experiencing which delayed his defense.
The overreaction gave the Happy incarnation enough time to step in and send another straight right to Haughty's jaw knocking out the arrogant shadow.
Haughty's form slowly crumbled until he returned to just a shadow, which shot a hateful glare towards the main incarnation.
Sunny had two goals with this fight. First was to get his emotions in check because he couldn't afford to be overly emotional while wandering the Shadow Realm on his lonesome. While those incarnations weren't really the shadows he had them acting as he still thought it would help as a form of 'hands-on therapy'.
Before the fight even started, he knew who would win and who would lose. His confidence wouldn't serve him well in a realm full of countless dead beings stronger than him. Besides Haughty had long needed to be knocked down a peg, especially after his training arc with Orphne. Sunny had caught Haughty standing prouder even after the huntress' death. Somehow seeing Orphne lose a futile fight didn't seem to lessen Haughty's arrogance. Sunny was starting to believe that Haughty even thought he could have won that fight.
Creepy was well Creepy. He doubted that losing a fight would affect Creepy in the slightest. Meanwhile Nightmare desperately needed a win. The steed was the newest shadow and Sunny could tell that he wasn't all that confident compared to Saint or Serpent. Nightmare didn't seem to have all that much battle experience either. What little experience he did have was mostly acting as a mount or luring enemies to sleep. Sunny needed Nightmare to be ready to fight in a direct confrontation by himself just in case.
It goes without saying, he also planned on winning himself. Gloomy would only be acting like his usual self after he lost so there was no problems there. Rather if Gloomy won it could prove to be a problem as being too gloomy would only help him with delaying action, which as much as he hated to agree with Gloomy delays were something he couldn't afford at the moment.
His second goal was to deplete his essence. While maintaining all of his incarnations at once helped with that goal he still had plenty of essence to spare.
Sunny started to materialize shadows around Gloomy. The Gloomy incarnation only looked at them tiredly.
He moved his gaze to the main incarnation letting out a sigh, "Do we really have to do this."
Gloomy's tired attitude would serve him no purpose in the Shadow Realm so he had to crush it early.
With a grin a spark seemed to ignite in Sunny's eyes as he replied. "Yes, we do. Now let us take it up a notch, shall we?
The grin never left his face but the warmth behind it seemed to disappear as Sunny placed his hands in the pockets of his shadow made clothes.
He manifested a swarm of tentacles around Gloomy. The first ones had already formed and he still didn't launch an assault. What seemed like minutes passed until a massive area surrounding Gloomy was riddled with spiky tentacles all pointed at him.
This was a tactic for dealing with elusive foes he had come up with ever since learning of Song of the Fallen's awakened ability. While he never took such plans into action he'd be lying if he said he never had thoughts of killing the seer after returning to the waking world.
Assaulting them with a massive barrage of attacks that left no room for evasion was the best way to deal with someone who specialized in dodging rather than enduring an offense.
The previous fights had been relatively brief because as much as he was enjoying this act if he let his shadows be completely in line with their characters then he would be here all day. He was simply too hard to nail down and even when he did get hit, he usually had strong enough defenses to withstand an attack. If he played this act with them, knowing his thoughts as well, the fight would probably never end.
The real problem was that like always, his offense was lagging far behind his defense. In a fight against himself his greatest risk to himself would be a death from boredom as the progress was simply too slow.
At last, the final shadow tentacle was manifested. Now there wasn't a single safe place left in the entire range of his shadow sense.
If one looked closely enough it almost seemed the shadows were drawing backwards slightly constricting upon themselves resembling a snake preparing to strike.
Even Sunny could hardly see the moment they launched. He did not envy Gloomy right now. He called upon serpent and commanded him to transform into a staff.
Right on cue just as serpent had taken shape Gloomy shadow stepped right in front of Sunny as they both came to the same conclusion that this was the only area safe from the bombardment.
The Gloomy side of his personality successfully predicted him. Which was as to be expected of his most senior shadow. He had to give Gloomy this much at least or he would constantly feel like someone was directing a hate filled glare at him.
Sunny swung his staff sending the head straight into the left side of Gloomy's abdomen. The Gloomy Shadow staggered back several paces as he was forced onto a knee.
Sunny decided to let Gloomy think his persuasion was working as his face became more sincere as well.
"You still haven't answered my question, even if I was ready to go out searching for my soul, how would I even find it?"
Gloomy seemed to be getting tired of their little act as his glare returned.
He threw up his hands in exasperation.
"Drop the act. We both know there's a way to track down the lost soul and I'm not going to be the one to do it."
Sunny rolled his eyes.
"Well, why not? Enlighten me, why should I be the one that has to suffer through the "Where is my eye?" enchantment of [Weaver's Mask]?"
Gloomy's glare somehow turned even more intense.
"Bastard. You know why. Do you really think an incarnation would be able to handle the pain? It's pointless we all share the same mind moron you'll feel the pain as well. Besides if we drain enough essence for the enchantment then maintaining any incarnations would become difficult."
A frown appeared on Sunny's face as he retorted.
"But I won. So, it's only fair that you should be the one to witness the tapestry of fate. Hell, I'm even a little jealous of you, losing the fight and being rewarded with the opportunity to gain infinite knowledge. How is that fair?"
Gloomy didn't have the face of someone excited to gain infinite knowledge as he glared at Sunny for what seemed like several minutes.
Sunny didn't budge completely, maintaining his victorious stance. Eventually Gloomy only sighed before dropping his glare as all his energy began to dissipate.
His face started to grow a little smug. It was only natural that he would outlast Gloomy in an argument as the downcast shadow would eventually give up viewing the whole effort futile.
The incarnation began growing indistinct until Gloomy returned to Sunny as a Shadow.
He had grown weary. Tired of the act. Arguing with Gloomy had exhausted his last reserves of energy. Although he was tired, he was already in a much better mood, it was a good kind of exhaustion. He could already feel several hateful glares targeted at his back coming from his shadows.
Sunny never would have thought that he could feel this good from exhausting his essence and working through his psychological problems aka beating up his negative shadows.
"I should do this more often."
Looking at his shadows, he saw Gloomy, Haughty, and Creepy shaking their heads frantically which brought a smile to his face.
'That's better.'
With that sorted out he finally had the confidence to withstand witnessing the tapestry of fate.
He had just a sliver of essence remaining, just enough to summon [Weaver's Mask] and for activating the enchantment. Even after transcending he still thought it prudent to drain his essence before activating the [Where is my eye?] enchantment.
Even that sliver of essence was significantly larger than what he had left when first activating the enchantment in the Sky Below. He didn't show it much but he was subtly more confident about this time even if it was unconsciously.
After all he was a transcendent now, the were an enormous difference in power between his current self and when he had used the enchantment as a mere awakened. His mind had grown used to sensing countless shadows in a wide radius around him. The amount of sensory data he could absorb was infinitesimally larger. So, what could possibly go wrong?
Summoning the mask, he gazed at it with solemn expression before letting out a defeated sigh.
"I really don't want to do this but there is simply no other way."
His intuition was telling him that this would work. Having never seen the tapestry of fate in the Shadow Realm he had no idea where his soul was but now that he was within the same realm it was practically guaranteed that there would be a thread pointing straight towards his soul.
'I'm curious what the thread will look like, will it be dark considering my shadow nature or will it be bright because it is my lost soul?'
He worse a sardonic smile at the thought.
"Nah, I can't picture my soul being bright. It's almost certainly dark. Blending in the Shadow Realm's natural scenery, that sounds just like my luck."
He moved [Weaver's Mask] to his face with a trembling hand already recalling the unimaginable pain he had experienced when activating the enchantment.
With the mask just short of his face he gritted his teeth and with sheer force of will pushed the mask closer to his face until he felt an attractive force. The mask seemed magnetically attracted to his face before landing on it with a foreboding but familiar weight.
Once he had the mask on completely it almost seemed to lock onto his face in an unfamiliar way. No band or strap was needed to prevent it from falling. He had the feeling that even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to remove [Weaver's Mask] without gazing at the grand tapestry of fate.
The mask seemed to beckon him urging him to give it his essence and activate its only active enchantment.
He was already starting to feel disturbed by how alive [Weaver's Mask] felt. The mask felt animated much more so than any of the other times he had worn it and even more than when he had first gazed at fate while falling through the Sky Bellow of the Chained Isles.
He felt the urge to rip the mask off his face yet he stopped himself not only because he suspected that he wouldn't be able to but as well as he couldn't let himself back down now. He had already stepped on a path of no return and would be damned if he stopped now.
Sunny took a deep breath and poured his essence into the [Where is my eye?] enchantment.
[Weaver's Mask] devoured his essence hungrily as if it had been waiting for him to finally be forced to call upon its terrible power and witness the grand tapestry of fate once again.
In just a moment, his small pond of remaining essence was exhausted to just a few scant droplets.
Several seconds passed and just when he began thinking that the enchantment wouldn't activate, the pain hit like a tsunami.
His mouth opened as he tried to scream yet no sound leaked out. Even the act of screaming alone seemed to require too much energy.
He was drowning in pain not even able to string together a single coherent thought.
The pain seemed everlasting, only a moment passed but it felt like an eternity.
And then finally, the strings appeared within his vision. They were brilliant and dazzling so much so that they would have stolen his breath away if he had any left to give. He was already coughing and rasping for air desperate to fill his deprived lungs.
The strings were everywhere, crowding his vision and blocking all sight of the Shadow Realm beyond them.
Sunny narrowed his eyes as he ignored most of the strings sifting through them looking for any strings that stood out.
He sorted through countless strings looking for the one he knew should be there.
A cough forced its way out of his mouth painting the inside of [Weaver's Mask] in crimson blood. He started to become desperate, increasing the speed at which he discarded useless threads. Yet he still couldn't find any string worthy of note.
If Sunny was capable of rolling his eyes right know he definitely would have as he finally realized. Through sheer force of will he moved his head to look downwards towards the countless strings connected to himself.
He stared at the strings trying to find a new string that differentiated itself from the others. Several seconds passed as he scanned through them.
The pain was still there but now it was more bearable as it became dwarfed by his confusion.
He managed to string a thought together.
'Where the hell is it? It should be here; there's no way the fate of my own soul isn't tied to me.'
The pain wouldn't allow his eyes to light up as another revelation came to him.
Instead of looking for something that was there he began to look for what wasn't there. Perhaps he truly was right when thinking the thread was camouflaged with the natural scenery of the Shadow Realm.
That's when he noticed that despite the countless strings protruding out of his body there wasn't a single one coming from his heart which was where his soul core overlapped.
As his eyes followed the string of nothingness, he realized that it was pointed in the direction he was already heading.
Thank the spell he wouldn't have to traverse the fiery hell behind him.
His thankfulness died a quick and tragic death as the string reached far past the horizon and his vision could no longer track how far away his soul was.
Blood started to leak out of his eyes and just before he processed the thought that he could dismiss [Weaver's Mask] he saw a familiar thread flash into existence right next to the nothingness that corresponded to his soul's string.
This thread that was alight with pure white flame looped in front of him before doing a 180 and pointing directly behind him.
He could only let out an exasperated sigh followed by a word he found himself saying all too often in recent days.
"Damnation."