Sunny and Nephis walked to the Immortal Flame mansion in comfortable silence. It felt… Peaceful.
It was in the middle of the night, not many people were on the streets, not many PTV's passed, only the ambient sound of the calm night.
They appreciated the silence, after a year on the Forgotten Shore and four months exploring the Dream Realm, fighting constantly, risking their lives in battle, they didn't really take their time to just relax.
And the company of one another just made it all better…
"Thank you Sunny."
He looked at Nephis, surprised at her sudden statement.
"For what?"
She looked back at him, a small smile on her lips.
"For letting me feel normal for once."
Nephis didn't really have a childhood, her father died when she was young and the next years were filled with the constant assassinations from Valor and the slow decline of her Clan. From deserters to sold Memories, Valor took most of Immortal Flame, to the point her grandmother lost her life from the pressure…
Ever since that day, Nephis decided she wouldn't stop until she got her revenge, dedicating every day, every hour, every second to kill the Sovereigns.
But today, she just went to a cafe and talked. Sure, they talked about important matters like the Second Nightmare, but it felt normal, the conversation was… Comfortable.
Sunny was a little surprised, but smiled as well.
"Your welcome."
They continued walking, silently, with each other.
When they finally reached the mansion, Nephis bid him farewell, and entered her home.
Sunny breathed slowly, remembering what happened fondly. Remembering Nephis…
[Your Light Connection has Deepened.]
He walked for a while alone, appreciating the shadows that covered him in the night
He smiled, he was happy, he needed to appreciate these moments when he just felt normal. Soon, he wouldn't be able to do this anymore.
The Chain of Nightmares was coming, and his mother wanted him to lead it. A test for him, the main reason he was looking for a Seed, it was fortunate that Nephis appeared with the proposal to do the Second Nightmare, he just needed to find one more for the Shadow Watchers, then he would be ready.
Once he Ascended, all of the Clan's useless Memories would be given to him to Transcend his Shadows. The two Shadow Saints, the Shadow Wraith, the Soul-Devouring Tree, along with whatever Echo he acquired and the Echo Undying Blade promised him.
Speaking of Echoes…
Echoes: [Shadow Blade Kurt].
Sunny had been debating whether or not to turn Kurt into a Shadow, Memories weren't a problem, even if the enormous arsenal of useless Memories of the Clan somehow exhausted, they could make more. Even though Valor were known for their enchanters, Song still had many of their own, letting them create a plenty of Memories for his Shadows to consume.
The problem was the Echo itself, Sunny didn't want to make Kurt an Shadow, the mere sight of the corpse turned Echo already made him shiver. And from what he saw from the example, Shadows were not simple soulless copies of the originals, they incarnated their past forms.
The most blatant examples were the Stone Saints, Saint and Igris, they retained their demeanors and personality from before they became Shadows, even showing differences of their own.
While both shared the discipline and skill of the Stone Saints, children of Nether, they were different, Saint showed an inherent indifference towards most things, using mostly a defensive grounded style of combat.
Igris, on the other hand, was much more aggressive, even though he shared the grounded style, it was like he modified it for offence, being much more brutal in his encounters, and the Shadow himself was always disgusted by weakness, every time they faced something weak, he brutalized it beyond recognition. At the same time, he never let anger consume him, Sunny could still see the cold eyes of logic on the Knight every time he fought. Sometimes, Sunny could even feel Igris's scrutinizing gaze bare down on him, as if the Shadow was judging his master…
All of that to say Kurt was not stable, he was a broken shell of a man that was too scared to go to the Dream Realm, even if he could see his attributes and abilities, Sunny doubted he would be of help.
It wasn't worth the investment.
But Sunny decided to keep the Echo of the man.
'Who knows, maybe he'll be useful someday…'
He walked a little more until he decided it was time to go home, dissolving into shadows and rapidly returning to the Song manor.
Far behind his disappearing figure, Revel smiled sarcastically at the overprotective Silent Stalker.
"Told you."
Caera took off her face mask and sighed, having to listen to her elder sister.
"C'mon, it's late and I have a date tomorrow."
"Yes. I know."
Caera's angry voice surprised Revel, but she didn't press her sister, deciding to just go home quietly.
— — —
The next day, in a Zone at the edge of a volcano, lava and fire leaked and flowed like water.
Trees made of burning rock and lakes of lava created immense heat that didn't spread to other Zones due to the proximity with the Frozen Wastelands that lended the excess cold to ease the heat's spread. Being an isolated Zone that existed between the Wastelands and the Hollow Mountains.
However, in the flame forest, nightmare creatures of Corrupt and Fallen rank were being decimated in the middle of a storm made up of cold flames and Darkness, fighting the extreme climate of the Zone
Darkness spread, enveloping the most powerful monsters and leaving them numb, letting a demoness made of the same Darkness with giant wings slice them apart with her lethal battle style.
The ones the demoness didn't kill were left frozen by cold flames made by the angel made of ice inside the frozen storm.
The storm of Dark and Cold swept the battlefield, changing the landscape slowly, the cold storm brought ice to the fire Zone, freezing everything that came close, breaking them apart. However, as soon as the storm passed, the heat and flames of fire returned, the everpresent lava flowed endlessly, regardless of the power of the frozen angel.
The Darkness and Cold Storm continued their beautiful slaughter, until a massive Corrupted Devil in the shape of a lava golem with an upper body armor made of molten rock stood in their way, reaching the same height of the Cold Storm.
It was massive, twin rock horns placed in the top of its rock armor, with lava made skin and shining, maddening red eyes made of fire, the jagged mouth was made of the rock armor, letting a breath of fire out. Its lower body was a river of lava that connected with the Zone.
The Devil confronted the Cold Storm, unleashing its own storm made of fire. Upon the two opposing elements clashed, the fire burned the flames made of ice, fusing it and turning to water that dropped in the ground, but as soon as it touched the ground it evaporated due to the immense heat of the Zone.
The concentrated ray of fire slowly melted the tornado of cold flames, eventually it would pierce the storm.
The angel of ice took note of the Devil's advantage against him and dismissed the storm, concentrating his power into a shield made of cold flames in front of him.
As the storm disappeared, his flames and the fire ray were kept in a deadlock of power.
The angel pointed his longsword towards the nightmare creature, taking a deep breath and flying to faster than the eye could see, he pierced through the fire ray completely and sliced the creature's chest. Passing through the Devil to appear behind it.
A diagonal slice burned on the creature's armor, and ice began taking place, freezing the lava in an unnatural way. However, the molten armor of the lava monster was able to keep the cold from spreading.
Landing on the burned ground, the angel of ice mere presence froze the space around him, his great ice wings contrasted against his black overcoat as his skin cracked as if it was made of glass. Icy flames leaked from the cracks, showing the contained power.
Vessel of Ice, Azriel. The Cold Flame.
He turned back to the fire creature that was now being consumed by ice. His pure blue eyes sharpened as he summoned his cold flames again, freezing his longsword in frostburn and walking towards the Devil.
The golem of fire and lava breathed into its own skin, melting the ice faster and freeing itself, turning its maddening fire eyes towards the angel of ice.
It raised its lava-made hand protected by molten rock and threatened to attack.
However, a massive shroud of Darkness that dwarfed the creature appeared behind the massive figure of the Devil and descended upon it, interrupting the attack.
The tall demoness materialized on top of the Corrupted Devil's head, her leather armor that blended with her clothing and enveloped her slender and beautiful figure tightly. The two black horns in her head complemented her massive dark wings with feathers sharp as blades.
Dark Dancer, Revel. The Lightslayer.
A wicked grin appeared on her face as she used her Darkness to freely move through the Devil's body, fracturing the armor made from molten rock and exposing the flowing lava skin of the Devil.
The Corrupted being felt its great armor breaking, maddening rage filled it as it began to intensify its power, understanding that the culprit behind its current predicament was moving through its skin, so it raised the temperature of the lava skin that flowed in its body, turning it ablaze and chasing the Darkness away.
But the moment the Devil was freed from the impenetrable Darkness that enveloped it, cold flames invaded its being.
The Vessel of Ice slashed through the air, a cold wave of icy blue flames tore through the heat and found the Devil, spreading like fire. However this time, there was little to no armor to protect the Devil from the attack.
The hot orange fire was quickly being consumed by cold flames. The angel of ice took flight once more, turning into a ray of flames aiming directly at the Devil's head, bringing his longsword down on it.
Embedding his sword of cold flames on the lava skin of the abomination, the reaction of both elements made a great cloud of steam rise as cold and hot flames battled for control…
The demoness manifested herself some meters from the battle, she looked at the cloud of steam and smiled.
The steam soon disappeared, revealing a massive statue of ice in the form of the Corrupted Devil. The angel of ice stood on top, jumping down and flying towards the demoness.
As he did, the giant statue broke down, the Devil perished as his parts evaporated.
The angel landed beside the dark demoness. Both dismissing their Transcendent forms, regaining their normal appearance.
Azriel sighed, cracking his neck and opening his blue eyes that looked like ice.
"So, did you have fun?"
Revel's voice was full of amusement and satisfaction, Azriel on the other hand, held a stoic and neutral face as he looked at the daughter of Song.
"Somewhat, but is this really your idea of a date?"
"Of course! We are alone here and none of my sisters will stalk us like I did to my brother! Silent hates this Zone."
Azriel hummed as he walked forward.
"You stalked your brother?"
She followed him, happily recounting yesterday's events.
"You wouldn't? Oh, right, you don't…"
Revel apologetically looked at him, expecting a glare or a sigh, but Azriel merely looked at her and smiled, a gentle, simple smile.
"It's fine Rev, don't worry, moreover, I'm curious, what happened?"
She paused for a moment, then returned the smile with one of her own.
"Oh, nothing big, since he used a sound isolating Memory we couldn't hear anything, but he seemed happy, especially considering he was with Changing Star… It was great."
The ice Saint paused, a question appeared on his mind.
"Wait, so the movie was right? They were in a relantionship?"
Revel chuckled, almost laughing.
"God's no! That movie is one of the worst things! Since when did you watch it anyway?"
He widened his eyes and scratched his glassy neck.
"Fang was curious about the fight scenes and forced me to go, I for one, didn't want to suffer with his presence alone and forced Shin to go."
A hint of realization appeared on Revel's face.
"So that's why you guys looked like you saw a ghost last week!"
He chuckled humorlessly as Revel laughed at him.
"Two serious Saints and an elite Master watching a movie! I wished I could see that…"
She paused.
"No, forget that. I wouldn't want to, I'd have to see the movie again."
Azriel shook his head in amusement.
"Come on, let's go back and have a proper date, please."
Revel rolled her eyes.
"Fine… You're no fun, you better not lead me into a restaurant or a park…"
He stared at her humorlessly for a second.
"I bought you a new book."
Her tone immediately switched.
"You're the best!"
Azriel smiled at her.
With this, both Saints went back, going to have a proper date rather than fighting abominations for hours.
And Revel got her new book. She loved it.
— —
Lonesome Howl sat at the edge of a tree of the Blightlands, looking down in amusement as she witnessed her little brother fight against a horde of nightmare creatures with some of his subordinates.
"Ahh… C'mon little brother, it's only Fallen Tyrant."
The two Shadow Saints were in the front lines, taking on all the thralls of the Tyrant together with some of the Shadow Watchers. Their leader meanwhile distracted the Tyrant with the Faceless Knight and Nameless Ghost.
The abomination had a woman's body with its lower half consumed by a living plant. It stood amidst a hill of never-ending gray vines and dead flowers, it was beautiful in its own twisted way born from some infection. Where a face should have been, there was only a flower in the form of a violet lily. Her slender body was clad in vines, as if it was made from them, while jagged plant wings spread behind her.
The thralls looked like a mix of dogs and humans made of plants and vines. The golems and the Tyrant ignored physical damage due to their nature, no matter how many times you cut them down, they would regrow as if nothing had happened.
As such, not all Shadow Watchers were that valuable, Lan and Kin were basically useless against the Tyrant, being relegated to dealing with the weaker thralls together with Merlin and the Shadow Wraith.
Meanwhile, the strongest thralls were being defeated by the Shadow Saints with the support of Mei and Lycon, Mei being the one who dealt the final blow to each of the golems thanks to her Aspect.
All the while Nix and Lauma assisted through the sidelines.
Finally, the Tyrant was faced by the Heir of Shadows and his two closest allies.
Kira was the biggest torn to the abomination, his Aspect was its very weakness, as such, it tried to avoid the Knight with all its might, using its poison to infect the air. However, Motza shut the ability down.
The Nameless Ghost's Awakened Ability let him interrupt the essence flow of whatever entered his mist, meaning the already primal usage essence of the Fallen being was further affected, diminishing its power and ability.
The Hollow Death meanwhile, studied the Tyrant, as if looking for something…
Howl smiled while looking at her brother barely attacking the Tyrant, only involving himself to defend the others, she knew exactly what he wanted to do, and she knew he was close.
He just needed one last push, then, after he accomplish it, they could really start their mother's plan for him to become a Titan as soon as possible.
He didn't need to master the next step of his Aspect Legacy to start the plan, but Howl figured he could at least finish it now that he was so focused on mastering it. Plus, he found his subordinate's Seed.
She looked behind her just to see a Seed for the Second Nightmare.
"Now I just have to wait."
—
Sunny stared at the Tyrant's incessive and wild attacks, the wings of plants had long unfolded into dozens of individual vines that spreaded to attack Kira and Motza.
The Knight stood his ground, burning the plant abomination and forcing it into the defensive. But that was only possible due to the assassin's Awakened Ability disrupting the Tyrant's own Ability.
But Sunless was on his own mind, extrapolating, studying, learning.
The third step of Shadow Dance meant shadowing the nightmare creatures style's, however, how do you shadow something you aren't?
Sunny is not a nightmare creature, he's not an Iron Spider, a Carapace Scavenger, or a plant abomination.
However, he could shadow what they were, who they were, how they fought… The primal instinct, the brutality the…
Sunless closed his eyes, and began shadowing the creature that brought him back to his trauma, the one who made him face his fear, the one he studied for six months…
He began shadowing the Forsaken Knight.
He opened his eyes, and it looked as if a maddening rage consumed him, however, his calm demeanor and slow steps betrayed his rage. He summoned the helmet of the [Stone Shell], the intricate helmet with a plum on the back and a straight line as a visor manifested letting only darkness be visible.
He ordered his own shadows around. Gloomy, Happy and Creepy on his odachi, Haughty on himself.
Step by step, he got closer to the Tyrant, who had been burning constantly by the Faceless Knight. It was crazily and wildly attacking, trying to kill the invaders as the mist infested its territory.
However, it stopped, even while half its body was burnt, even as its power was dampened by the mist…
It stopped, and turned to the Heir of Shadows.
He walked, calmily, each step carried power, power that shouldn't exist in his body… Shadows expanded in him, everything seemed deeper, denser, impossibly dark.
The Tyrant trembled, and let out a maddening skirm in whatever mouth it had.
Ignoring everything, all the injuries and all other enemies. It leaned its body, charging the vines at the -Forsaken Knight- that was meters away…
But he was already beneath the body of the leaned Tyrant. He used the shadows to get closer, his presence only got stronger.
Before the abomination could react, Sunless moved [BloodRaven], augmented by three shadows, and sliced the Tyrant's body in half.
The front part of the abomination's body was cut, letting a blood-like green liquid fall.
Hollow Death didn't stop, using the brutal and unrelenting style of the Fallen Knight, he moved his blade, a flourish of heavy strikes gutted the corrupted plant being.
The skirms of the creature was almost pityful… Almost. Hollow Death had no mercy, his eyes just showed disgust and arrogance.
Sunless did a vertical slice to the Tyrant, it tried to protect itself with the vines, but it was useless, they were all gutted.
On one last attempt to survive, it used the vines behind the attacker to kill him. They were burned before they reached the target.
Kira sliced almost all of the vines that were connected to the Tyrant and aimed at his master, grabbing the last one and heating it up, turning into flames.
Like a match, the fire flowed through the vine, reaching the main body and starting a fire in the Tyrant.
The whole body burned like a massive bonfire, the Tyrant screamed, skirmed, convulsed, the flower head snapped to stand in front of Hollow Death…
But it was soon decapitated.
The body didn't stop moving immediately, still convulsing insensantly, burning like wildfire, it wouldn't stop burning until it inevitably became cinders… But the battle was over, the Tyrant was merely waiting for death to take it…
Sunless stared at the burning corpse, the Spell whispered in his ear, not announcing the kill, as he didn't deal the final blow, what welcomed him was something much more valuable…
[Your Aspect Legacy mastery level has increased.]
[You have received the right to claim a Legacy Relic.]
[...Your Shadow has evolved.]