For an instant, the fear was completely real.
His body remained suspended in the air, unstable, his essence depleted, and with no clear position from which to react.
But he didn't give up.
He unsummoned the Mantle of the Underworld and, in almost the same motion, the Puppeteer's Shroud wrapped around his body.
The next instant, Serpent abandoned its tattoo form and began to take physical shape. The creature was about to transform into a flying beast to let him escape.
That was when something unexpected happened.
The tornado shape hurtling toward him began to lose cohesion. The rotation turned irregular, the current weakened… and within seconds, the enormous column of wind started to dissipate until it vanished completely.
Sunny narrowed his eyes, trying to understand what he was seeing.
Among the remnants of dust and scattered currents, he managed to make out a figure in the distance. He tried to focus to identify it, but then he remembered an important detail.
He was still in the air—though not for much longer.
A moment later, he began to fall straight toward the ground.
"I'm screwed…"
A fall from this height wasn't going to hurt him much, especially with Bone Weave, but he still didn't want to land on his ass.
The ground approached too fast, and even with the Puppeteer's Shroud, he wouldn't be able to cushion the impact.
But just before he hit, two arms caught him firmly.
The impact was contained, but not completely. He felt the jolt travel up his back, and a small cry of pain escaped his mouth before he could hold it back.
For a few seconds, he stayed still, staring at the sky with a tense expression. Then he let out a tired sigh and blinked several times, trying to regain his focus.
He turned his head and noticed Saint watching him in silence, her beautiful face completely expressionless.
Sunny cleared his throat and, looking to the side, said:
"You can put me down now, Saint." The shadow carefully helped him to his feet before letting him go.
"Thanks." He paused for a moment before adding, "Not just for catching me… but for killing the creature too."
Saint gave a slight nod and turned her gaze toward the horizon.
The figure he had seen earlier was approaching with calm steps.
Sunny's expression hardened.
He summoned Serpent in the form of a tachi, while two shadows adhered to his body and another to Saint's. They both remained on guard, watching the approaching figure without lowering their defenses.
As the distance shrank, details began to emerge. Long hair, the color of pale wheat. Black armor and a bow held in one hand.
Sunny narrowed his eyes slightly… and then his lips curved into a faint smile.
It was Arthur.
But… Why was he using a bow?
Either way, he'd saved his life, and after so long, they had finally met again.
With Serpent returning to its tattoo form, he began searching for the shards and then headed toward Arthur. Along the way, he wondered how the hell Arthur had managed to kill that creature.
Also, he hadn't heard the spell's message, so he didn't know what rank it was.
Curious, he checked if he'd gotten a Memory—and he had.
Name: [Severed Wind]
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Tier: VI.
He stopped walking as he thought: 'That was a damn Fallen Terror!?' Sunny shuddered at the thought.
Memory Type: Weapon.
Memory Description: [The storms changed first. They stopped wandering aimlessly and began to look downward. Their movement became deliberate, almost conscious. The sky gained intention, and the intention turned aggressive. People abandoned their homes before the will of the storms became absolute.
Then an eight-armed figure appeared. It did not promise salvation, only the possibility of changing their fate. Rejecting it did not seem like an option, so they followed it into the depths of a pyramid where time did not flow naturally.
What they left behind was devoured by the skies that had learned to want.]
'So that was the fate of the people who lived here… Obviously, the storms became corrupted somehow, and the people living here had to leave.'
'Then Weaver showed up!? What's that about a pyramid where time doesn't flow naturally!?'
Memory Enchantments: [Wind Obedience], [Rising Current], [Static Wake], [Deflecting Current], [Invisible Blade]
[Wind Obedience]
Enchantment Description: "The wind moves for this blade."
[Rising Current]
Enchantment Description: "The air displaced by the blade adds a small amount of additional force to each attack."
[Static Wake]
Enchantment Description: "The blade leaves behind faint instability in the air, making it slightly harder for opponents to accurately predict the path of the next strike."
[Deflecting Current]
Enchantment Description: "A subtle current of turbulent air forms around the wielder, causing incoming attacks to be slightly deflected from their original trajectory."
[Invisible Blade]
Enchantment Description: "The weapon can become invisible."
Sunny let out a soft "Damn" and then added, "This sword is really powerful—though the last two enchantments obviously require essence."
He almost summoned it to see what kind of sword it was, but he remembered that Arthur was approaching, and if he summoned a sword out of nowhere, it would look strange.
'I'll have to test it later,' he told himself.
Then he continued walking toward his friend. As the distance between them shrank, the smiles on their faces widened almost unconsciously.
When they were just a few meters apart, Sunny stopped and said, "Took you long enough to find me."
"Not my fault a tornado scared you that much," Arthur replied.
The retort was immediate, accompanied by a slight grimace of displeasure.
"I don't get scared that easily"
Arthur raised an eyebrow with evident disbelief. "Your face before you fell said otherwise."
The silence lasted only a moment. His gaze shifted to the side, and a small exhale escaped his lips.
"Fine… maybe I was a little scared."
That was enough for both of them to let out a restrained laugh that quickly became genuine. The sound was strangely comforting amid the ruined city, as if for a moment the world felt normal again.
Finally, they stood face to face.
"It's good to see you, Arthur."
"Yeah… I was worried we wouldn't find each other again."
What followed was a simple gesture, but heavy with meaning: their hands met in a firm handshake.
After pulling apart, Sunny's gaze drifted toward the remains of the city. Collapsed buildings and streets scarred by destruction. Then he looked in the direction his companion had come from, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"How the hell did you kill a Fallen Terror on your own with a bow?"
Arthur answered immediately, "I'll explain on the way back." A small, shy smile appeared afterward, accompanied by a slight tilt of his head. "I assume you're hungry, right?"
Sunny brought his hand to his stomach. "Yeah… I'm starving." There was a brief pause before he added, "Let's go to my house."
Arthur raised an eyebrow.
"Your house?"
Sunny shrugged and replied, "In the outskirts, if you left your spot, someone else would steal it… so yeah." Then, pointing to himself with a mix of pride, he concluded, "My house."
Arthur laughed at that and decided to keep walking toward the city. Sunny followed, and minutes later they arrived at the house he had claimed since he got there.
Without needing to exchange words, Arthur summoned his Memory where they kept the food and immediately started cooking.
Fortunately, he had paid attention when his mother taught him to cook, because the kitchen had every kind of utensil imaginable. Spatulas, pans, even pots.
It surprised him at first, but once he started cooking, he decided not to pay it any mind.
While Arthur prepared the food, Sunny went to take a shower, and minutes later he came out of the bathroom completely relaxed.
Obviously, they weren't going to let their guard down. Now that they knew creatures could enter the city, Sunny had his three shadows spread throughout the city, watching for any that might appear unexpectedly.
Additionally, Saint was on the roof of the tallest building with [Drowned Oath] in hand and [Tempest Shafts] ready.
Both were Ascended-rank Memories that combined into a lethal duo. They were the same memories they used to damage the Fallen Tyrant in the Dark City, and also the ones Arthur had used to kill the tornado.
The bow had a cumulative enchantment: the more hits landed, the stronger the next shot became. The arrows had the enchantment that the farther they traveled, the stronger they became.
Arthur had used that combination to kill the Fallen Terror, shooting at it relentlessly from a distance. Since it was a massive target, he could maintain a safe distance while hunting.
After a massive number of hits, there came a point where the combination became lethal even for a Fallen Terror, and that was how he had defeated it.
Saint would use the same strategy while keeping watch from the building.
When Sunny finished his shower, he asked Arthur, "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Arthur, still cooking, flipped the meat and replied, "Yeah. You?"
"Yes, me too," Sunny answered while drying his hair, which had now grown past his shoulders. Then he remembered something. "Actually, I have something for you," Sunny said.
Arthur, still facing the kitchen, raised an eyebrow. "What thing?"
"A book."
"A book?" Arthur asked, curious.
Sunny got up from the chair where he was drying his hair and walked over to a cabinet. Seconds later, he moved next to Arthur and showed it to him. "Yeah, a book."
Arthur turned his gaze away from the meat, wiped his hands on a tablecloth they had stolen from the castle, and took the book in both hands.
The title read: Djinn Language Dictionary.
Arthur's eyes widened at the title, and he fell completely silent. A small shiver ran down his spine as he unconsciously remembered the Blood Armor's description. And Sunny noticed it.
Still standing beside him, Sunny lowered both eyebrows and asked, "You okay? That's not the reaction I expected at all…"
Arthur didn't answer right away. He simply turned around and set the book down on the table. Then he went back to cooking. "Thanks for holding onto it for me." After adding the spices, he continued, "I was just thinking about something important."
Sunny didn't believe him for a second, but he decided not to push it as he went back to the bathroom to put away the towel. Then he went to the table, and Arthur had already finished cooking.
They both began to eat in silence until Arthur looked up and asked, "Do you mind telling me where you found the book?"
Sunny took a sip of water before answering. "I don't mind." After a few seconds, he continued, "I found it in a library."
"Was there anything special about that library besides the book?"
Sunny nodded his head, and the topic ended there, making it clear that he didn't want to say what else he had found.
Moments later, after continuing to eat in silence, Sunny was the one to break it. "How did you find me here?"
Arthur shifted in his chair. "Well, after we split up, I found a cave and took shelter there." A slight pause. "After that, I spotted a tornado in the distance and decided to follow it."
"What made you want to follow it?"
He just shrugged. "The creature was acting strange. It had its tornado form active even though it could have gone unnoticed without the tornado effect, so I thought it was following someone."
Sunny accepted the answer with a nod and added, "I see… you thought it was following me, and with the bow, you started charging the enchantment until it was strong enough to pierce the tornado and kill the creature."
"Exactly." Then he added, "As nice as this is—being in a comfortable house and all—" He paused and continued in a more serious tone, "We should talk about what we're going to do next."
Sunny let out a sigh and looked up at the ceiling. After a few seconds of thought, he said, "I think we should stay longer."
The corners of Arthur's lips curled upward slightly.
"I was thinking the same thing…"
Sunny lowered his gaze and looked at him with both eyebrows lowered. "What? Really?"
Arthur shrugged, holding his gaze. "Obviously, why not?" In a more confident tone, he added, "For Fallen Terrors, they have a weakness we can exploit easily… we should stay longer and saturate more cores."
"Yeah, the only thing that worries me is that not all of them are Fallen Terrors and there's something stronger," Sunny commented.
Arthur facepalmed. "Oh no, you shouldn't have said that."
Sunny's face lost its color. "Fuck." Then he immediately corrected himself, "I mean, there definitely shouldn't be anything stronger than a Fallen Terror, right?"
Arthur laughed and said between chuckles, "Let's hope not!"
***
One month.
A month had passed since they made the decision to stay longer. So far, the plan had been successful, and they had been growing stronger at an alarming rate.
Currently, both were resting after a day in which they had to fight three creatures each. Fortunately, the maximum number of enemies that had attacked them simultaneously had never exceeded two.
The theory they had formed was based on another weakness they believed these creatures had.
They believed that maintaining the tornado's active protection prevented them from being close to one another.
Granted, Arthur had seen one split apart, but that didn't mean they could also gather together. So when they came to hunt them, they were always far apart from each other. For that same reason, they always split up, each facing a Fallen Terror on their own.
This had worked out wonderfully for Arthur. Since starting the plan, he had already managed to form his Tyrant core, despite the loss of fragments. Currently, his status looked like this:
Class: Tyrant
Aether Core: [5/7]
Aether Fragments: [1890/4000]
Another thing that had increased was Dawn's Ballad counter:
Name: [Dawn's Ballad]
Memory Rank: Ascended.
[773/800]
He was on the verge of obtaining his first Transcendental-rank Memory, and it would be his sword. One thing he was only now realizing was that every time he rose in class, he could feel the sword growing stronger. As if there were a relationship between the number of his cores and Dawn's Ballad's power.
On the other hand, while Sunny's growth was more complicated than Arthur's, he had already achieved his Devil core.
Class: Devil.
Shadow Cores: [4/7]
Shadow Fragments: [475/3000]
Also, something very important happened this month: Saint's rank increased. After so long, she had risen in rank and was now a Transcendent Demon.
When Sunny told him this and summoned her, Arthur felt a shiver run down his body. The difference in presence from when she was an Ascended Demon was completely ridiculous.
Her onyx body radiated a sense of vast, dreadful power, and the menacing crimson flames dancing in her ruby eyes were brighter. And since her ascension, the ease with which Sunny started killing creatures had also increased ridiculously.
Obviously, during this month, they had also been searching for where the portal to leave the Relictombs might be. Unfortunately, the theory they arrived at was one they didn't like at all.
They had searched in nearly every direction from the city and found no starting point. As if that weren't enough, they also hadn't felt any pull toward any direction.
The only direction they hadn't ventured into was, obviously, the East.
Because that was where the creatures always came from, and also in that direction lay the largest tornado they had seen upon arriving at the Relictombs.
If these other creatures already created tornados of ridiculous magnitudes and were Fallen Terrors… what rank would the central creature be?
It was a question they had asked themselves several times during this month, and at the same time, it was one they didn't want to find the answer to.
What creature could control Terrors? Supposedly, that class consisted of independent creatures due to their powers.
Even though the ones here were on the weaker end of Terrors, they had never allowed themselves to relax or become overconfident in their fights.
The decision they had reached was to wait longer before attempting anything.
First, they needed to grow stronger by saturating more cores and then obtain more powerful Memories.
Another thing they were waiting for was Sunny to Awaken naturally. Since returning to the Dark City, he had been trying to circulate essence to make it happen, but he hadn't succeeded.
He said he was missing something—that the technique Arthur used to circulate Aether through his body to maintain his constant augmentations wasn't working for him. That there must be an extra trick, but he hadn't found it yet.
Currently, Arthur was in his house reading the Djinn language dictionary with a cup of tea on the table.
Yes, Sunny had finally infected him, and now he treated that place as his own.
They had also decided that each would take one house for themselves. For that reason, Arthur was now alone in the living room, reading the book with his feet on the table—something his mother would punish him for if he did it at home.
'But this is my house, so I do what I want!'
The dictionary was actually very well made and had helped him immensely in understanding the runes that made up the clouds in his Soul Sea. It had also, unfortunately, confirmed that the runes on the back of the altar said exactly that.
Even so, he couldn't continue studying the book because just then, a shadow slid under the door and stopped in front of him.
The shadow—which Arthur identified as Haughty, the last shadow Sunny had acquired—stopped in front of him, looking down at him with clear arrogance in its posture. As if it wasn't the least bit impressed by Arthur, as if the very idea of looking away was beneath its dignity.
Arthur let out a controlled sigh because he knew there was no point in getting angry at a shadow. Then he took his feet off the table and set the book down next to the tea, which was still warm.
"I really wanted to drink some tea," he said as he stood up. Then he began to stretch lazily and added, "I guess I should kill it quickly so it doesn't get cold."
Before heading out the door, he grabbed the bow from a hook and slung it over his shoulder. He hadn't unsummoned it once since he arrived, so the bow's power was impossible to calculate, but he was sure he could kill a Corrupted Beast on the spot.
Minutes later, the Spell sounded in his head:
[You have slain a Fallen Terror: Obscured Tempest]
[Your aether grows stronger]