Sunny slowly approached the wall of leaves, careful not to step too hard or shift his weight, as the branch was about to snap due to earlier landing.
'It goddamn hurts!'
He was pretty sure he had some sort of internal bleeding. It was nothing Blood Weave couldn't stop, but it still hurt like hell as he felt blood rise to the back of his throat. The wounds on his back weren't a pretty sight either.
Sunny pushed the leaves to the side and finally found what he was here for. The Spawn of the Vile Thieving Bird.
Not wanting Serpent to get near it, Sunny checked his runes, searching for a certain memory.
'I've interacted with the Knight statue… So I should have-... Yes! There you are, I've missed you!'
Memory: [Midnight Shard].
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Tier: III.
Memory Type: Weapon.
Memory Enchantments: [Unbroken].
As he thought! The Demon had given him the Midnight Shard. Sunny summoned it as he wrapped Gloomy and Happy around the tachi before stabbing it straight through the egg.
[You have slain a Great Devil, Vile Thieving Bird's Spawn]
[...Your shadows grow stronger.]
'...'
Sunny waited in anticipation, but nothing happened.
He had not received a copy of Weavers Forbidden Lineage.
'Whatever… I expected this anyway.'
He didn't even know what he would do if he had obtained a copy.
But now his suspicions were pushed even further. He had received Shadow's Lineage twice, but not Weaver's?
'Just what is going on…'
Sunny did not like being in the dark in the face of such divine problems. Frustration boiled deep within his soul.
He sighed as he dismissed his blade.
Looking towards the ground, he jumped off. Shooting towards the ground below, not wanting to spend another second near the tree.
As he glided down, wind rushing past his face he thought:
'I can't believe a Great Devil was the easiest kill I've had today…'
***
Sunny landed next to a sizable center, as the impact the Demon had made on the ground was quite heavy. It had landed in the Ashen Barrow, so ash had been scattered in all directions. Sunny could still feel bits of ash falling on his skin.
Sunny looked around for a few seconds, before finding the Transcendent soul shard he had left behind earlier. The soul shard had been buried halfway underground as the Soul Devourer attempted to consume it through its roots. Seeing this, Sunny gave the quite large soul shard a good kick, sending it flying away.
The tree, as if enraged, attacked Sunny's mind with more ferocity than it ever had before.
Sunny groaned as he felt its presence in his mind. He attempted to leave, only to find himself walking towards the tree.
'I might as well get a couple shadow fragments from those fruits while I'm here, right?'
Sunny continued forward to the trunk of the tree
'Maybe I'll camp here for a while… Actually, maybe I should just stay here fore-'
Sunny then jolted.
'Hmm?'
What was he doing again?
Right, he was going to eat a few fruits.
Just a couple of those juicy fruits…
"Arghh!"
Sunny screamed in pain, as he suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his hand. Looking down, he discovered a blade going through it.
The Midnight Shard.
Sunny had stabbed himself. As he grabbed his hand in pain, he was suddenly aware of his actions.
'I-..I need to get out of here!'
The tree's influence had affected him much more than he thought, so he immediately bolted towards the Ashen Barrow, intending to get as far away as he could.
As he was running though, he suddenly slowed.
'Just one fruit wouldn't hurt… Just one…'
Sunny turned his head slightly, before removing the blade from his palm, grimacing from the terrible pain. The hex faded once more, as this time Sunny escaped from the Terror's range.
Running through the Ashen Barrow, Sunny thought to himself:
'Just wait, you wretched tree! You'll be dead within the week!'
Sunny was not going to let it off easy.
***
Sunny returned to his previous campsite at the coral pillar, picking up the sack of soul shards he had left behind.
As he had finished his goal here, he was now going to leave. His destination being the Dark City.
After he finished retrieving his things, Sunny finally decided to check the echo he had obtained.
Echoes: [Steel Amalgam.]
'The name changed?'
This meant that the Devil he had killed had a true name… Storm of Silver.
As the Echo was a soulless copy that didn't even possess a sense of self, it naturally didn't have a true name.
It seemed the raven was quite a powerful variant, as it had managed to become a Devil, and a true name holder at that. He was quite impressed with its power and tracking ability, as he was pretty sure it had been following him since their first encounter, never giving up on catching him.
'Treacherous thing…'
Sunny also didn't forget its power over lightning, which had managed to completely stun Serpent for several seconds. Serpent was not weak at all, being able to even damage him could be considered an achievement for most Awakened nightmare creatures.
His curiosity on the creature's runes had reached its peak, so Sunny summoned the runes.
Echo: [Steel Amalgam].
Echo Rank: Awakened
Echo Class: Devil.
Echo Attributes: [Steel Cast], [Magnetism], [Lightning Rod].
Echo Abilities: [Storm Cloak].
[Steel Cast] Attribute Description: [Encased within steel from birth, the Steel Amalgams had protection against many types of damage, both magical and physical.]
[Magnetism] Attribute Description: [This Steel Amalgam's keen eye can detect electrical and magnetic signals. This can also be used to help its flight]
'So this is how it was tracking me…'
[Lightning Rod] Attribute Description: [The steel shell encasing the Steel Amalgam attracts all forms of lightning, empowering itself with it.]
[Storm Cloak] Ability Description: [Electricity can be used both outside and within the body with varying means.]
'Not bad.'
He was quite happy with his new Echo!
Despite the fact that it paled in comparison to what he once had, something of this strength suited his current means quite well.
This could have been a powerful nightmare creature one day, but it had unfortunately met Sunny.
'I wonder how it died before…'
Echo Description: [Forged for battle since birth, the beasts of the Steel Legion were all powerful in their own right. The Devil, yearning for battle, took flight into the endless horizon. As it flew through countless storms, lightning endlessly struck its body, eventually turning it into an aspect of lightning. Flying above a desolate shore, it thought it had finally met its match, only for it to realise that what it had found was a Devil far more terrible than itself.]
'...'
'Even in this life, the Spell loves to tease me. At least it didn't call me treacherous again…'
But more importantly… within the description, it mentioned that the devil had supposedly become an aspect of lightning.
'Could this mean that it has the potential to develop an aspect? Can nightmare creatures even get aspects? I thought that was a human exclusive thing…'
As far as he was concerned, nightmare creatures couldn't have aspects.
But if it was a Shadow…
Sunny made up his mind.
He was going to turn it into a shadow.
[Transform echo into a Shadow?]
[Shadow fragments required: 92/200]
Sunny clicked his tongue.
'Right.'
He had only just formed his monster core. The shadow fragments required to create a Shadow of such a high rank compared to his was not cheap.
Sighing, Sunny made his way back down into the labyrinth below.
He had a certain Terror to kill.
***
[You have slain a Fallen Beast, Burned Oil Centipede.]
'That should be enough.'
Sunny now had several barrels worth of the Fallen Beast's corrosive oil, having recently gone on a killing spree.
He planned to use it to set the tree on fire. Obviously.
Of course, a mundane fire would never be able to kill an Awakened Terror, but he had a way around that — his shiny new echo had Devil powers and could control mystical lightning after all.
Sunny's plan was simple: fly above the tree while dousing it with as much oil as possible before using the Steel Amalgam to set it on fire. He would then just do this repeatedly until the tree died.
That was it, that was his whole plan.
As dangerous as the Soul Devourer was, it was just a tree. It couldn't move, it couldn't fight without its enthrallment, and it couldn't even gain any new minions as Sunny just killed anything that wandered even remotely near it.
The Soul Devourer had been trapped by him, and it had no way to escape. It couldn't even defend itself unless Sunny entered its range.
Summoning the Steel Amalgam, he lifted and moved the glass barrels he had created to store the corrosive oil onto its back. After he was done with that, Sunny himself climbed on, and a moment later they were flying through the sky.
Sunny was not worried about the Cursed Heralds at all, as every time they spotted the Steel Amalgam they had immediately fled.
'It seems like this bird was one of their natural predators…'
It made sense, while the Cursed Heralds were powerful and vicious, their bodies weren't especially tough aside from their feathers. When meeting another flying beast that had a much tougher body while still having lethal attack prowess, they were hopelessly outmatched.
Sunny felt the wind move through his hair as he gazed at the massive tree in the distance. Flying closer, but still staying out of range, Sunny threw one of the barrels of glass at the tree.
The glass broke on impact, scattering the oil everywhere at the base of the tree. Sunny circled around the tree and repeated this three more times so he could start a blaze as large as possible.
Sunny proceeded to send a command to the Steel Amalgam, as the next moment, it was charging up a powerful blast of lightning at the tip of its beak. Observing this process, Sunny thought to himself:
'Why didn't it use this right away when attacking me?'
If it had used this as its opening attack instead of diving at Sunny, it would've probably killed him the first time Sunny had been attacked.
Sunny guessed that it was because the raven wanted a fair fight against, as in its Echo description it was stated that it searched through lands far and wide in hopes of finding a worthy foe. In his opinion, that was completely idiotic.
'Doesn't matter now. It's dead anyways.'
As Sunny concluded this thought, the raven finished its attack, launching a ball of condensed lightning at the oil below.
In the next moment, the tree was lit ablaze. Sunny backed away a bit, as to avoid any latent risks from the tree. He had also of course done this during the day, as to avoid the dwellers of the deep causing unnecessary problems.
Sunny watched dispassionately as the Soul Devourer burned in the distance.
***
Several hours later, the burning stopped. The tree had survived.
Sunny, not discouraged in the slightest, tried again. This time, he had also set the crown of the tree on fire to get rid of all the leaves at the top. The tree seemed to be swaying in panic, as its branches were shaking in fear.
Sunny backed away again, letting the fire burn itself out as he watched from afar.
***
The burning had stopped once again, the tree still clung to life. Its roots had now emerged from the ground, as it seemed to be trying to flee. But it did not matter, the speed of its relocation was extremely slow, and even if it did miraculously escape, it wasn't like Sunny couldn't just follow it.
Taking advantage of the fact the roots were now exposed, he doused the roots, the crown, and the trunk of the tree with oil. A minute later, the tree was burning again.
Sunny watched from a distance as the tree began to sway ferociously, its roots on the ground swinging around wildly. The obsidian bark crackled and smoldered, the burning of the leaves made it sound like the tree was screaming in pain.
It screamed for a long time.
And after several hours, something finally changed. The tree seemed to lose its structural integrity, as its base seemed to collapse in on itself, causing the trunk of the tree to begin falling vertically. The tree, no longer being able to support its own weight, was slowly crushed from bottom to top as it hit the ground, huge clouds of dust kicking up as the tree seemed as if it was disappearing underground.
'Looks like a damn building being demolished.'
Sunny continued to watch closely as the last of the tree disappeared into the blaze below, a massive cloud of dust and ash erupting into the air. And a second later, Sunny heard the whisper of the spell:
[You have slain an Awakened Terror, Soul Devouring Tree.]
[...Your shadows grow stronger.]
'...'
Sunny felt nothing.
This was supposed to be a moment of triumph and glory, he had finally avenged himself!
But Sunny felt as if it was a waste. He felt as if he was simply watching a mundane tree burn, as if the Soul Devourer was just a stranger, and it hadn't haunted his nightmares for years.
The first time he had been here, it had been so terrifying. When Sunny thought about how hard he had to try to escape, he still got shivers, the memory of its enthrallment was etched deep within his mind. Even if most of the memories were blurry due to the tree's influence at the time, Sunny still remembered the absolute terror he felt under its influence.
He had once promised the tree he would return someday, powerful enough to not fear anything. And here he was, back, at the very same rank no less.
But now it was dead. Sunny had even killed it while still being a Sleeper. The tree had not amounted to much — dying without grace, crumbling in on itself as it burned.
'It didn't even give me a Memory.'
All that remained of it was the twelve new shadow fragments trickling into Sunny's soul, as a massive lumbering tree appeared among the row of silent shadows.
Pushing these thoughts out of his mind, he nodded to the Steel Amalgam.
They began to fly west, marking the end of Sunny's first month in the Forgotten Shore.
***
Sunny spent the entire night on the back of the Steel Amalgam as it flew across the massive crater, the endless abyss far below them. With its [Magnetism] attribute, the raven could fly for a very long time, most of the time it didn't even beat its wings as it seemingly levitated while it glided effortlessly across the air.
'What a useful guy you are.'
Sunny stared at the starless sky, lost in thought. These days, he felt a bit lonely.
He had spent a whole month isolated in what could possibly be the absolute worst time of his life. The fact that the absolute majority of the time he had here was spent killing or trying to kill something didn't help him either.
But maybe it did. Maybe the fact all he did was fight and kill, distracted him from the memories he had kept at the back of his mind.
But still…
He missed his friends. He missed the warmth of other humans.
Despite the fact that Sunny never really fit into society and had spent most of his life alienated from them, when he was in the presence of other humans it had brought him comfort. Knowing that there were others like him out there, fighting the neverending war against Corruption, somehow gave him peace of mind.
Sunny looked down at the dark city below him.
It was time to enter society again.
Dismissing the Steel Amalgam, Sunny slowly glided downwards with the help of the Herald's Cloak. Landing on the edge of the crater, Sunny looked at the sixty meters of weathered stone that held up the Dark City in the distance.
As he slowly made his way towards it, Sunny thought to himself:
'I wonder if the first lord is still alive…'
Sunny did not know when the first lord had died, but he did know that he had arrived fifteen years earlier before Sunny originally did. There was a good chance that he was still alive.
Sunny hoped this was the case, as the stories he had heard from the people who had survived in the Dark City for a long time painted quite the picture. He was certain that the first lord had the potential to be a future saviour of humanity, and would almost certainly gain a true name once he escaped this damn hell.
'Such a damn shame,'
So many great humans had been lost to this hell.
But now, a Devil had arrived in this hell… to liberate them all.
***
Slowly climbing the wall up towards the Dark City, Sunny sent his shadows ahead to scout. There didn't seem to be any humans at the outskirts of the city. This time, there was no demon-like woman feasting on the meat of nightmare creatures by a campfire.
'Effie should arrive here about seven or eight years later…'
Sunny ceased this train of thought. Most of his cohort wouldn't arrive until many years later, and he did not intend to sit around.
'I'll give myself a few months.'
Depending on how things went, Sunny hoped to liberate the humans here within four months, but if things went wrong he would still set a deadline of about six months.
As Sunny finished his climb into the outskirts of the Dark City, he extended his shadow sense outwards, only to find… no one.
'Where are the humans here?'
Sunny quickened his pace, moving further inland.
'Did something happen? Am I missing something?'
Sunny was about to start running, but then shadow scouts found something.
Humans! Hundreds of them!
All of them were gathered within the Bright Castle. They seemed to be listening to a tough looking woman, who seemed to be in the midst of a speech.
Sighing in relief, Sunny moved forward as he slowed his pace, sending his shadow scout further in to listen.
'There seems to be about 150 to 200 humans here…'
With the new batch of Sleepers that had arrived, there were bound to be a lot of people here, but as the Dark City had only been conquered 5 years ago in this time, the population was still relatively small. As Sunny's scout got close enough, he heard the woman's speech.
"-will conquer the Crimson Spire!"
'Huh?'
That was a terrible idea, lady!
Just from hearing that part of the speech, Sunny realised what was going on here. The woman giving the speech must be the second Bright Lord.
Sunny's mood darkened immediately.
'It seems I'm too late.'
The first lord was already dead.
But on the bright side, the second lord was still alive.
'There's still a chance.'
Sunny had arrived just as she was announcing her plan to conquer the Crimson Spire with her cohort. But seeing as the Midnight Shard was still in Sunny's hand, as well as the fact that the Dawn Shard was still at large, this was was simply a suicide mission.
'I have to convince them otherwise.'
As Sunny's scout got closer, Sunny noticed something. Looking at the tall, black haired woman, Sunny recognised the armour the second lord was wearing.
It was the Mantle of the Underworld.
His eyes widened with surprise.
'I have to get my hands on that!'
The Mantle had been extremely useful to him in the future, and he wanted to get his hands on it no matter what, even if it meant weakening the second lord. Sunny could always just hunt down more nightmare creatures and give her a better one. Sunny shifted his gaze, noting that it was currently an Ascended memory of the sixth tier.
Sunny continued listening to her speech, cautiously making his way through the shadows towards the Bright Castle so as to not disturb any of the Dark City's denizens. As Sunny got closer, one of his scouts noticed someone in the crowd. Sunny had already recognized about twenty of the people who had been with him at the academy, there were likely more but he simply just did not recognize them.
But there was one he noticed that stood out to him.
Song Seishan.
'Seems like she's just arrived here.'
He observed how she kept cautiously looking around every once in a while, as if something was suddenly going to lunge out of the shadows at her. She was still a new Awakened after all, and she had just survived some grueling weeks within the labyrinth, so she was bound to hold some fears deep within her heart.
"I will give anyone who wants to join me two months to prepare themselves! If you wish to be free of this place, then you must fight!"
The second lord continued her speech passionately.
'She seems like a fiery one.'
Her speech sounded as genuine as they came.
"In one hour, come find me and prove you are willing to join! If you can prove yourself, we have powerful memories and plenty of soul shards to grow your strength!"
She pumped her fist into the air.
"I hope to see a lot of you. Please, do not forget young Dreamers, to survive in the Dream Realm, we must fight!"
The speech had come to an end, some of the Sleepers cheered, some stayed silent, and some looked at her maliciously. The second lord left, as the castle burst into murmurs, the young men and women trying to decide what to do next.
Sunny watched silently.
***
Dismissing her armour, the second lord sighed in exhaustion. She had returned to her quarters within the castle, to prepare herself for the trials yet to come.
Holding her face within her palms, she murmured to herself:
"...Will this really work?"
She felt unsure of herself. But clearly she was desperate.
"Oh Silver… What should I do?"
She silently sat with her face in her palms, thinking about her former cohort member, the first lord.
"It will work."
The woman immediately shot upwards, dashing away from the source of the sound, summoning a weapon.
"Who are you?! Show yourself!"
The despairing young woman was gone, and a ferocious warrior took her place.
A man slowly walked out of the darkness in the corner of her room.
As the woman's weapon, a spear, finished being summoned, she immediately raised it and pointed at the person who had shown up in her room out of nowhere.
"State your purpose!"
The young man whose face was hidden by the shadows, spoke to her:
"My name is Sunless."
He took another step forward, revealing his pale face.
"And I am here to help you."