...A moment later, the band suddenly broke into countless sparks of light, which then disappeared, absorbed into her soul core.
Nephis had taken the Dawn Shard.
Then it went as usual. Sunny asked questions as if he didn't already know everything, and Nephis explained it all to him, playing along.
'Sigh. I feel like an NPC right now.'
...
As soon as the members of the cohort entered the cavern, something moved in the darkness at the base of the statue—then stepped forward.
Spire Messenger.
A moment later, the massive abomination collided against two shields—one belonging to Effie, the other to the Stone Saint.
Before anything could happen, Sunny was already by its side with inhuman speed.
Augmented by his three shadows while activating [Mystery of Death], and further empowered by [Prince of Shadows] since he was in his natural element—
He cleanly cut off the Messenger's wing.
Because of that, it suddenly lost control of its flight and crashed back to the ground.
Sunny didn't summon Blood Blossom, thinking he might one-shot it if he did.
With his back to the Messenger, he was already running toward the giant statue with all the speed he had, leaving the rest of the work to the cohort.
Caster's speed was nothing compared to Sunny's augmented body.
So the fight, of course, ended how it was supposed to.
...
Three months later, the cohort was finally back—barely surviving... from their perspective, of course.
They were currently inside the Dark City, surrounded by debris and puddles. From there, they could see the walls of the outer settlement—and also the... dark temple.
Sunny smiled sinisterly.
'Time to kill that dark clown.'
He was still hateful enough to enjoy killing him again. Plus, he also needed Saint's upgrade.
He turned toward the cohort.
"Soo... as promised..."
Effie stared at him for a moment, then smiled.
"Yes, but... you sure, doofus? Like... that's a huge black thick thing to take out..."
Sunny coughed.
"Of course I have a plan!"
...
Inside the tenebrous grand hall of the majestic cathedral, darkness reigned unopposed. It drowned the vast hall, clinging to its walls and tall columns. The rare beams of light falling through the narrow windows only served to make it seem deeper.
Six of them entered the temple.
For a moment, there was utter silence.
And then, Sunny gave the signal.
"Now!"
Before he even gave signal, Nephis had already started running.
She went deeper into the hall, her beautiful silver hair glowing like sunlight, her gray eyes calm like the depths of the ocean.
She raised her sword.
Then, brilliant pure white light burst from it—instantly obliterating the darkness and illuminating everything.
And there, right in front of her, a giant clad in black steel armor was revealed—his sword already on its way to reap the life of the future goddess.
Effie dashed forward, positioning herself in front of Nephis and raising the Dusk Shard. The heavy shield received the terrible impact of the devil's unstoppable attack. The shield managed to block it.
However, the floor beneath her cracked and shattered, sending the huntress reeling back. A pained yelp escaped her lips.
The Black Knight lingered for a fraction of a second, surprised by the sudden disappearance of its darkness.
And that was enough time for Nephis to move.
She spun around from behind the shield and brought her sword down.
The impact of steel resounded through the temple. The shockwave forced the Black Knight to step back, giving Effie room to breathe. Nephis managed to crack the giant sword slightly.
But nobody stopped.
This time, everyone knew the knight's weakness.
Caster rushed in, trying to strike the sword—only to barely dodge when the Black Knight swung its blade sideways.
Meanwhile, Kai flew around. He didn't have much to do, so he played support and distraction from time to time.
Sunny, Saint, and Nephis were already on the devil, with Effie providing support.
The Stone Saint had to retreat when the Dark Knight began vertically slashing at her repeatedly. Effie blocked the attacks, reeling to the side from the impact, tiny rocks jumping up from the cracks in the ground.
Taking the opportunity, Sunny stepped onto the majestic black blade and started running up it. He had a solid second of stable ground before the sword began to move again.
Nephis, augmented by her flames, struck at its leg—almost forcing it to bend one knee.
It was enough time.
Sunny climbed onto its shoulder and thrust Moonlight Shard down, augmented by Creepy, into it.
The blade fell to the ground, still grasped in its hands.
Taking the perfect opportunity, Saint—augmented by Gloomy and Happy—brought her sword down.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
...
Behind the door, a small room was carved into the rock.
Inside it, a corpse in a dark mantle was chained to the floor within a circle.
The mask was made of black lacquered wood, carved to resemble the face of a ferocious demon. Its teeth were bared, with four fangs protruding from its mouth. The mask was crowned with three twisted horns.
Inside the black chasms of its eyes, there was nothing but utter darkness.
Sunny stepped onto the circle of runes. He avoided reading the stone-carved inscriptions since he didn't want any headaches—and besides, he already knew what was written.
'Hail Weaver
Demon of Fate
Firstborn
of the -unknown-'
He sighed.
'What a narcissistic bastard.'
He then touched the sleek surface of the polished wood. It instantly disintegrated into a swarm of countless white sparks. Like water, the stream of light flowed toward Sunny's chest and entered his body, disappearing into the dark depths of his shadow core.
The voice of the Spell thundered suddenly—louder than it had ever been before, sounding a bit... too happy:
[You have received a Memory.]