Chapter Summary: The autistic duo finally agrees on something. The world is doomed.
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He cast his gaze far, scanning carefully for anything that did not belong.
Minutes passed by in silence until a sudden shout coming from below shattered it.
"Kai, what do your dragon eyes see?!"
He rolled said eyes. Watching that ancient movie trilogy with the Cohort had been a mistake. So had telling Effie about the evolution of his Aspect.
Kai regretted everything.
"Not much!" he shouted back.
Even flying as high as he dared in the Dream Realm, he still couldn't spot any clue for kilometers on end. Whatever they were hunting, it sure was sneaky.
It was actually impressive, to be honest. He wasn't one to boast, but he doubted even most Saints had sight as good as his. And still, he could not find anything out of place. It was like they were looking for a ghost.
Ah, right. There were actual Nightmare Creatures that behaved like that.
Idly, Kai wondered what creature would eventually replace them in that phrase. So many of them had changed or outright vanished ever since the descent of the Spell that it was hard to keep track.
A few minutes later and still failing to find a clue, he decided to come back down. There weren't any Nightmare Creatures in the vicinity, but he knew better than to tempt the universe.
By the time he landed, his armor was already turning back into sparks. The heat wasn't too bad, but he would rather not wear scale armor if he could avoid it.
"Did I miss anything?" he asked curiously.
"All good," Rain answered lazily.
"Better than good," Effie added in an even lazier tone.
Kai resisted the urge to roll his eyes again.
Sprawled over a deck chair, doing her best impression of a starfish -a creature that, surprisingly, still lived- the Huntress looked like it would take the end of the world to get her to do anything productive. Barely.
Effie was wearing a bronze-colored swimsuit, surprisingly modest considering it was her, and sipping some sort of cocktail that would probably kill a Dormant human. Seishan's vacation mood had certainly infected her.
The Cohort and the Firekeepers were spread out in groups around the Lake of Tears. Officially, they were searching for clues.
Unofficially, Sunny and Nephis had told them to take a much-deserved break while they handled the investigation.
It didn't sit right with him.
Shaking away the thought, he lay down on a chair to the Huntress' right to rest a little before searching again.
He wouldn't admit it unless forced, but he had to accept that it was nice. The temperature was just right, the chair comfortable, and the presence of his friends was more relaxing than anything else in the world.
Kai got so comfortable that he might have dozed off, search all but forgotten, if not for someone deciding to speak.
"Can I ask you guys a question?" Rain asked shyly.
He turned his gaze to the teenager, who occupied the chair beside him. She wore an awkward, sheepish expression, the very same one she had worn the night before after sending that ancient -and very expensive- candelabra crashing down.
She was wearing a swimsuit, too, having been peer-pressured -though she hadn't put up much resistance- by Effie and Seishan into joining in the laziness.
In the chair to her left, sitting as stiff as a statue, was Tamar, who looked like she was questioning every choice she had ever made.
It was a look Kai sympathized with. He tended to do that too when in Sunny's presence.
Must have run in the blood.
Beside Rain rested Serpent's massive head, seemingly napping. Kai was quite sure that not even a second would be needed for the Transcendent shadow to pounce if there were any threat to its charge. One of Sunny's shadows was prowling around, too.
"Go ahead," he answered kindly.
Rain hesitated for a moment longer before asking, "How do you handle all that attention?"
It only took Kai a moment to understand what she meant. Unofficial agreement or not, the Awakened of Song couldn't -or rather, wouldn't- stop paying a great deal of attention to Rain.
Tamar lowered her eyes, though it wasn't her choice to make. It spoke well of her quality of character, a quality that would hopefully make the budding friendship between the two girls a real one.
He himself had been on the receiving end of a similar situation -still was- and once upon a time, he too had chafed under the pressure of so many people watching him.
"I don't think I can help you much with this," Effie replied lightly, as though she didn't put much mind in her answer. Kai knew her well enough to tell that it wasn't such a case. "People have been staring at me for as long as I can remember."
He grimaced a little at that answer. He had seen those stares and knew just how much she hated them. Being pitied for her illness after going through an ordeal like the one Effie had endured must have stung deeply.
And that was as a renowned Awakened. He didn't want to know just how bad it must have been before that.
Effie straightened up a little to properly look at Rain, a rare serious expression passing across her face.
"My advice? Spell them. Let them look, let them point at you, let them think whatever they want. The only attention that matters is that of those you care about."
She took a sip of her cocktail.
"And if they bother you?" She smiled viciously. "Point them my way."
Her piece said, she lay back down, doing her best impression of a starfish once more. It was in moments like these that Kai reminded himself that despite her outlandish attitude, Effie was nothing if not incredibly sharp.
Sure enough, Tamar was looking at her with wonder, as though what she had said deeply resonated with her.
Meanwhile, Rain smiled at the Huntress, looking a little less awkward.
The girl's gaze shifted to him next, awaiting his answer, which he gave after some consideration.
Sadly, it wasn't what she probably expected.
"I'm afraid there is no easy answer to this," he admitted reluctantly. "I tried all the methods suggested to me"—and was quite a little traumatized by the one that said to imagine people as Nightmare Creatures—"and none of them really worked."
"How did you manage in the end?" Tamar asked curiously, her body almost hidden behind Rain as though afraid to meet his gaze.
Kai smiled wryly. "I didn't find one in the end."
Maybe if he had, his band wouldn't have disbanded after he had a panic attack during a concert.
"The only advice I can provide is not to force yourself to endure it and to allow those around you to help when needed. Eventually, you'll get used to it little by little, until it becomes manageable."
Seeing Rain's disappointed expression, he felt a little guilty for crushing her hopes. He did not take back his words, though. Back when he became an idol, he would have liked someone to be as honest with him as he had been with Rain.
The world would be a far better place if people were more honest, in his opinion. It was such a pity that most didn't seem to agree.
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Months ago.
Nephis didn't think of herself as an easily irritable woman.
"...and then I told him, 'My good fellow, imagination and an active mind are a blessing from the Gods themselves. However, you must also know the time and place to put them to use. Your fashion sense? Not one of them.' For some reason, he got quite angry about that. Can you believe it? And here I was, trying to be helpful!"
She had trained herself extensively. Meditated every day. Learned countless methods to regulate her emotions.
"...so I did what any other man as humble and noble as I would do. I defeated Belfast the Dreaded, rejected the princess' love confession, brought her back to her poor, concerned parents, rejected their offer of marrying the princess, too, and then set their castle on fire when they admitted to lying about having that rare herb I was looking for..."
All of that training seemed woefully insufficient in the face of this... man.
"...and that, my shiny friend, is how I became the best dancer in all of the Kingdom of Hope. Any questions?"
Nephis closed her eyes, let out a long, slow breath, and counted to a hundred.
It wasn't enough. Not nearly enough, but at least she wouldn't be tempted to throw her sword at Noctis the moment she opened her eyes.
"Yes," she answered through gritted teeth. "What's the relation between this story and learning about Shaping?"
Noctis blinked owlishly, his expression one of innocent surprise. It could have convinced anyone looking at him that he was genuinely taken aback by her question. Nephis wasn't fooled.
"Well, it has no relation." He tutted in disappointment. "Why didn't you tell me that you wanted to learn about Shaping instead of one of my marvelous adventures?"
"I did. Repeatedly."
His innocent expression didn't change in the slightest. "But why didn't you interrupt me, then?"
The grass around Nephis started to wilt as though exposed to intense heat.
"I also tried that," she answered. If she gritted her teeth any harder, they might just crack. "Repeatedly."
"No, no, it's fine." He patted her arm sympathetically. "You were so interested in my story that you wanted to listen to the end. I can understand."
He took a sick pleasure in this. She was sure of that.
Rather than keep fighting a futile battle, she decided to soldier on. "Can you start teaching me about Shaping, then?"
Noctis rubbed his chin thoughtfully. After a full minute, he nodded, a mischievous glint clear in his eyes.
"But of course! I'm the best sorcerer in all of the Kingdom of Hope, after all!" He coughed to clear his throat. "Let's start from the beginning. I was a young man, wise beyond my years and far more charming. It was a hot summer day, the bugs chirped, and the birds sang when—"
The irritating man ducked beneath the lance of white fire she threw at his head, smugness radiating from him. Said smugness disappeared a moment later when he realized that her real target was the bush filled with his favorite berries resting right behind him.
Nephis watched with vindictive glee as he frantically ran to put the fire out. Normally, she wouldn't do such a thing, but she felt like Noctis had more than earned it.
The mad Saint sat back down after dousing the fire, a pout drawn across his beautiful face.
"Youngsters these days." He shook his head sadly. "They want to know all about the 'how?' but nothing about the 'why?'. In my youth—"
When a ball of fire sparked to life within Nephis' open palm, he wisely chose to shut up.
"Fine, fine. Honestly, you have no sense of humor."
The ball of fire grew bigger. She didn't even care about the pain it caused her, as long as he would finally get to the point.
Noctis got the message, finally adopting a serious demeanor that felt oddly jarring on the normally flamboyant man. Still giving him a menacing glare, she let the fire dissipate.
"The first thing you should know about the Sorcery of Names, also known as Shaping, is that it is, in essence, the language of the Gods."
Taking his pause as a prompt to ask a question, she did just that.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm glad you asked!" He was truly shameless. "You see, the Gods can manipulate reality by doing nothing more than speaking. Such is their knowledge and understanding of everything that encompasses creation that merely speaking the True Name of something was enough for them to shape it."
"So Shaping consists of invoking those True Names to shape reality?" she asked again at his prompting.
"Correct! As expected of my student." He even had the gall to nod proudly. "I, however, won't be directly teaching you any True Names."
Nephis would have thrown another lance of fire at him if she hadn't noticed the seriousness in his gaze.
"Why?" she asked instead.
"You see, my shiny friend..." His eyes grew sharper. "If I am to teach you, I might as well do it properly. I could easily share all the Names I know with you, but that would be doing you a disservice. Shaping is the act of understanding the world and being understood by it in exchange, something that you shall greatly appreciate putting the effort into in the future. Not to mention just how dangerous it is to invoke a Name you don't properly understand. In fact, you should never invoke a Name you don't fully understand. People think the danger is in failing to Shape something. It isn't. The danger is in succeeding."
Nephis nodded, showing no outward expression.
Don't invoke a Name she didn't understand? That was a lesson she did not need to hear in order to know. She had already done such a thing, and it was something she would forever regret doing.
"So you will teach me how to understand those True Names instead?"
"Correct again. I will teach you how to truly listen, so that you may hear the True Names of what surrounds you."
"I'm ready."
Nephis listened attentively to Noctis' explanation, though to her, it sounded like pure gibberish.
Things like "Open your heart" and "listen to the world" sounded like the kind of thing a scammer in those old pre-Nightmare Spell movies would say. Her grandmother quite enjoyed them, and Nephis had spent a long time sitting beside her, watching those old films while she shared stories of an age long gone.
Shaking away the sudden melancholy, Nephis turned her mind back to the task.
Vague -though she would rather call them useless- as the instructions were, she was never one to balk at a challenge, and so she did as instructed. She closed her eyes, listened attentively to her surroundings, regulated her breathing until it matched her heartbeat, grew completely still, and finally cast all thoughts from her mind.
She spent minutes like that, listening to the chirping of the birds, feeling the warmth of the sun on her fire-like skin, smelling the slightly charred scent of the grass beneath her, and tasting the fresh air. However, no whisper arrived promising the knowledge she sought.
"Anything?" Noctis asked.
Feeling a little irritated by both the interruption and her failure, Nephis opened her eyes and shook her head.
"Oh, good," Noctis said cheerfully. "I would feel quite incompetent if you succeeded on your first attempt when it took me months."
This time, she did throw the lance of fire at him.
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Present time.
Water flowed steadily, falling from the Weeping Mother into the Lake of Tears and from there streaming into the many rivers that populated this region of the Dream Realm.
Nephis was relaxed, sitting beside the bank while listening attentively to the way it moved, trying to grasp the True Name of Water.
Trying to learn a new Name was a rather curious experience, as though she were locked inside a soundproof room.
First, she began hearing her own heartbeat, then the blood pumping through her veins. Next came the flexing of her muscles and the scraping of her bones against one another. Except her heartbeat was replaced by that of the earth beneath her. Her blood became the water, both that of the lake before which she sat and the moisture in the air, flowing smoothly without pause. Her muscles and bones became the wind, whistling and dancing to its own tune. And that was merely scratching the surface.
That curious experience had become both easier and harder ever since she became a Saint. Before forging her current connection to the world through Transcendence, listening to it was equivalent to trying to understand someone speaking behind a thick wall. Now, however, it was more akin to listening through a closed door.
It made it easier, because it was much simpler to hear what her surroundings were trying to tell her and, as such, grasp their True Names. Harder, because of all the clutter. The world wasn't quiet, as everyone and everything had its own voice and wanted to be heard. As a Saint, she could perceive far more than before, so she had to sift through an endless cacophony to reach what she was looking for.
At least her Ascended ability, [Longing], made her immune to Corruption, a very real and dangerous possibility for Shapers who recklessly listened to what they shouldn't. According to Noctis, about as many Shapers had fallen to forbidden knowledge as to the blades of their enemies.
She could sense it even now. The Lake of Tears might have been purged of Nightmare Creatures, and Sunny had made sure to finish the job, yet traces still lingered like a festering wound on otherwise unmarred skin. That rot was whispering to her even now, making all manner of sweet promises that would come true, so long as she listened to what it had to say.
Nephis shook her head and forced herself to stop listening. Immune she might have been to Corruption, but she would rather not be infected with a more mundane sort of madness.
Reality returned slowly as her connection to the world faded back to the dim link shared by every other Saint. The sense of disconnection was a curious one, too. Like her consciousness was as vast as an ocean and she was forcing it to fit through a straw back into the minuscule shell of her body.
Nephis opened her eyes and found everything exactly as she had left it, the sun still high in the sky.
A quick assessment told her what she had hoped. She was close to learning the True Name of Water.
It would be a great breakthrough, marking the ninth Name she could invoke that didn't originate from her Aspect Legacy. A lack of versatility was one of her greatest weaknesses, and she fully intended to remedy it.
Such a Name would prove useful in the current situation, too.
A day had already passed since they arrived at the Lake of Tears, but no progress had been made toward finding the culprit. No new disappearances had occurred, either.
Nephis hoped to commune with the lake itself through the True Name of Water to gather more information, as every incident so far had happened in its vicinity. A troubling fact, given that the surrounding citadels and even those beyond relied on it for water.
She looked down at it and saw her own reflection staring back at her. It was oddly reminiscent of something, though she couldn't tell what, no matter how hard she tried.
The perfectly still surface of the lake broke right at that moment as someone emerged from the water.
"Anything?" she asked curiously.
A shower of sparks appeared in the man's hand, leaving behind a smooth gray stone from which heat immediately began to emanate, quickly drying him off.
Sunny stood before her, his body glistening as the droplets of water still clinging to his hair and skin evaporated. Disappointingly, he wore a diving suit made of shadows instead of a swimsuit.
He shook his head.
"I searched the entire bottom of the lake but found nothing my shadow sense hadn't already detected. I didn't find any strange remains, either."
Nephis hummed thoughtfully. "Nobody saw anything. There are no remains of the victims, nor is there any solid trace of the creature."
"And our culprit only attacks during daylight," Sunny added, his brows furrowed in thought.
"Do you have any hypotheses?"
"A Corrupted Devil at least," he said with a shrug. "Beyond that? Nothing."
She nodded before voicing the thought that had been running through both their minds.
"Maybe it's not a Nightmare Creature."
"It's a possibility," Sunny agreed. "But I find it unlikely. Besides the Master, all of the victims were complete nobodies with no enemies who would have any reason to target them. There's nothing linking them together, either."
"The creature is smarter than the average Nightmare Creature."
When he looked at her askance, she continued.
"It never shows itself, never attacks twice in a row in the same place, and after the first time, never struck at another group."
The third disappearance had been an Awakened from Clan Wu, a woman returning to the citadel with her Cohort. They had been walking beside the riverbank, with the woman trailing behind. According to the report, she had been speaking one moment, and the next she had gone silent.
When one of them turned around to see why, they found her gone.
That was the incident that had led the local forces to raise the alarm and triple their vigilance.
Ever since then, no other group had been attacked. The remaining four disappearances had all occurred while the victims were alone. The last victim had tried to hunt the creature by himself in a vain attempt to earn glory, which had obviously failed, given that he disappeared too. Since then, traveling alone had been completely forbidden, with hefty fines and punishments imposed on anyone caught doing so. Nephis couldn't help but shake her head at the fact that it had taken them so long to implement such an obvious measure.
"I suspect so, too." Sunny dragged a hand through his hair. "Which makes all of this even more complicated."
"Has it ever not been complicated when we're involved?" she replied wryly.
Sunny snorted. "Point taken."
Given the circumstances, there was nothing they could do but wait while keeping their eyes and ears open. She hoped to learn the True Name of Water before the creature struck again, but she wasn't confident. It would take at least another week, and it seemed unlikely that the creature would wait that long before making another move.
At least their own people were as safe as they could possibly be.
Spread around the lake in six groups, each was watched over by one of Sunny's shadows. If they weren't safe under his protection, then nowhere in the whole region was.
They remained silent for a while, each trying to find an alternative to simply waiting for another tragedy to happen. Nephis found none, and judging by his expression, neither had Sunny.
Eventually, her thoughts returned to a question that had been bothering her for weeks.
"Can I ask you something?"
Sunny quirked an eyebrow. "Go ahead."
"Do you mind telling me why Merias called us 'Harbingers'?"
She immediately noticed the way his expression soured. Even someone who didn't know him nearly as well as she did would have noticed.
"I don't mind," he said with a tired sigh. "But it's also not a topic I enjoy talking about."
"You don't have to if you don't want to," she reassured him.
Sunny shook his head, a silver bell already beginning to form in his left hand.
"No. I might as well get it out of the way."
He rang it the moment it finished forming, and their surroundings were enclosed within a bubble of silence.
He waved his free hand next, and the shadows around the riverbank stirred to life, becoming a table and two chairs, which they soon occupied. Sunny even produced a bottle of juice and some snacks from his safebox.
From afar, it might have looked as though they were having a picnic.
She was a little amused by the idea. Would Ki Song be forced to read a report about how they spent minutes presumably having a romantic meal while they should be searching for a nightmare creature?
Shaking away the idle thought, Nephis focused on Sunny once more. After taking a sip from his glass, he waved his hand again. More shadows poured over the table and formed two silhouettes, one male and one female.
Nephis barely stopped a smile from breaking through her composed expression when she noticed that the male shadow was taller.
"Imagine these shadows are you and me..."
He paused.
"Why do you look like you're about to laugh?"
Nephis almost lost her composure right then.
"I'm not," she replied with a perfectly serious expression.
Sunny looked at her suspiciously but continued after munching on one of the snacks.
"To explain this properly, I'll have to explain how one becomes Sacred as well."
Nephis leaned forward, even more interested now.
"As I was saying, consider these shadows our representatives." Both silhouettes slowly began growing larger. "From Dormant to Ascended, most humans are of no real consequence, lacking even a drop of divinity."
The shadows suddenly became much larger while somehow feeling... denser.
"Becoming a Saint is the first turning point. They gain a sliver of divinity of their own while also forging the connection with the world that will accompany them all the way to divinity."
The shadows continued growing until, at last, another change occurred. Smaller silhouettes began appearing behind them. They were much smaller and, for lack of a better word, less real, as though they would disappear the moment she looked away.
"Becoming Supreme means becoming a demigod. Someone who not only holds a connection to the world, but has also carved out a piece of it to call their own and shape as they see fit. That is how Domains are born." The shadows continued growing until they were twice their original height. Then, suddenly, they stopped. "We have forged a connection with the world and then conquered part of it. Can you guess what's next?"
Nephis leaned back in her chair, her expression turning thoughtful.
The next step clearly involved taking that process even further. The exact nature of it, however, remained a mystery. One she wouldn't have been able to answer without both the context of the conversation and the hint inadvertently provided by Merias.
"The next step is becoming part of the world," she guessed. "By becoming a Concept, I assume."
Sunny smiled. "Yes."
Nephis remained silent, waiting for him to elaborate.
"To evolve further, a Supreme must find a compatible Concept and slowly turn themselves into its living embodiment. For example, someone with an affinity for life might seek to become concepts such as Nature, Growth, or Evolution. To do so, they would spend centuries planting endless forests, healing countless beings, or helping everyone around them become more than they already are. However, there is a very important thing to consider. No two beings can hold the same Concept. Let's take Shadows as an example. If I were to become their Concept, then nobody else would ever be able to until I died."
He paused, his expression turning grave.
"Generally, this is a process that takes centuries or even millennia. Some never manage it. In fact, most never do."
He fell silent again. Just as she was about to remind him that he didn't have to continue if he didn't want to, he spoke once more.
"However, there are exceptions. Individuals so deeply attuned to a Concept that they might achieve natural apotheosis in a fraction of that time, or even as soon as they become Supreme. These individuals are easy to recognize if you know what to look for, and are known as Harbingers, for their very existence announces the arrival of a new god."
A small, self-deprecating smile briefly appeared on his face.
"In the dream where I was a Sacred, I was one of them."
"Inevitability," she said quietly.
Sunny's silhouette grew into a towering giant. It stood there, completely inert and lifeless, and yet Nephis couldn't shake the feeling that its eyes were cold. Cold as a winter night. As ice. As the vacuum of space itself.
Colder still.
"Inevitability," he agreed. "The Sovereign of Death, transformed into the Spirit of Inevitability itself. The embodiment of the idea that every struggle is ultimately meaningless in the face of Fate and an inescapable end."
"You hate it," Nephis observed easily.
When she noticed how tightly he was gripping the edge of the table, she gently took his hand in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
Sunny froze for the briefest moment, took a deep breath, and steadied himself.
He didn't let go.
"I hate the very idea that such a thing could exist," he said, his voice turning a little fragile. "Fate, Weaver, Shadow, and who knows who else. All of them strive to control me, to turn me into their little puppet, dancing to their tune. All of my life, I have done nothing but defy the expectations set upon me. And now I'm supposed to become the embodiment of just how futile that is?"
Sunny's eyes burned brighter than any flame she had ever seen.
"Inevitability? What a damn joke. It's like telling me I should resign myself to becoming exactly what they want me to be. That no matter how much blood, sweat, and tears I shed, it'll all be pointless."
He met her eyes.
"I refuse, Neph."
His grip tightened so much it hurt.
"If my fate is to become a slave to their whims, then they'll have to drag me there screaming and kicking. I'll resist with every ounce of my being. I'll fight until every drop of blood has been spilled, every bone broken, every muscle torn, and until my soul and shadow have been shattered beyond repair."
His voice became quiet.
"And if even that isn't enough... then I'd rather die."
Nephis understood immediately.
The promise had been directed at her, too.
There was no future in which he would willingly remain her slave. No future in which the Shadow Bond would stop being a sword of Damocles hanging over his head. No future in which he would tolerate his undoing being a single word of hers away.
A smile slowly spread across her face.
Good.
"That means I'm destined to become the Spirit of Ruin, doesn't it?" she asked calmly.
Sunny tilted his head, his sharp eyes effortlessly piercing through her expression.
"Yes," he answered, a smile of his own beginning to form.
Hers became wider. Sharper. Colder.
Almost like a blade sliding free from its sheath.
"I refuse to become such a thing," she said as white flames ignited within her eyes. "I refuse to be reduced to a sword without a hilt. A flame that would burn down the world simply because that's its only purpose. A Star that knows nothing but bringing Ruin to those around her."
This time, she was the one who squeezed harder.
"When I transcended, I made a vow, Sunny. One that I intend to keep."
She had swum in an ocean of divine fire. Endured through a pain that few to none could experience and keep their sanity. Carved the words into her very soul.
And now she was supposed to meekly follow along some vague affinity with a Concept? Just because she was destined to? Never.
"I am Changing Star. My soul burns bright with the Immortal Flame of those who came before me. I am the one who shall bring Salvation to those who need it and Ruin to those who deserve it. That is my vow, and nobody shall make me break it."
Their eyes met, and Nephis' conviction only grew stronger as she saw the same fire reflected in his.
"I refuse this Fate," she said.
Sunny's smile widened even further.
"So do I." A small chuckle followed. "Shall we sign a contract?"
A chuckle of her own followed.
"No need." She replied confidently. "There is no one more honest than you in the world, two worlds, even, isn't it?"
Sunny studied her expression for a moment. Whatever he found, he chose to believe in.
"There isn't. Just like how I know you would rather die than break a promise."
Maybe Merias had been right.
Maybe they truly were destined, entwined in Fate and Ruin.
Maybe their actions would bring about the end. And maybe those same actions would prevent it.
Nephis didn't care.
The only future she was willing to accept was the one she built with her own two hands.