The prison called the 'Box' was bigger than it seemed.
It was made with the explicit intention of function over form, every centimeter of the place was used, everywhere you looked was either a hall or a cell.
And every hall had golems that fell down from the ceiling.
But those golems weren't fighting Awakened humans, but rather skeletons brought to life by the power of a Fallen Tyrant.
The skeletons were weak, fragile, one golem was enough to deal with three or more alone, but there were three times as many skeletons as golems.
The skeletons littered on the ground were not limited to the entrance hall, but to the whole prison itself, so Serpent in the Lord of the Dead form could control all of them to overwhelm the guards of the prison.
And yet, there was still no sight of the Fallen Terror.
Sunny sighed as he looked through his shadows, he decided against going deeper into the prison himself to avoid being influenced by the mind-hex, even if he had some resistance, he wasn't immune, so Saint and Igris were leading the way forward, defeating golem after golem in search of the Shadow.
Sunny's objective was not to kill the Fallen Terror, he merely wanted to get that Shadow and get out, which was proving to be harder and harder each minute that passed.
'Again?'
He was looking through Happy, who was wrapping himself in Saint. She was clearing a prison hall on the lower levels with a squad of more than twenty skeletons, she was close to finishing the last enemy… Before the whole room trembled.
Stone shifted, iron retracted, and the walls moved, getting in Saint's way. She took a step back before squinting her eyes and turning, starting to rush out of the room as the walls began to close in on her in impressive speeds, trying to crush her.
Fortunately, the only thing it managed to do was crush the skeletons. Saint was able to reach the previous room, even if the squad of skeletons were lost.
It was weird, but after a few minutes, Sunless found a pattern.
Everytime any of his Shadows or skeletons got closer to what he presumes was the center of the Box, the walls changed and shifted, like the place was consious… Like the building knew what he wanted to do, and actively interrupted him.
Sunless' progress was pretty much zero. It didn't help that his little army of skeletons was beginning to dry out, the Lord of the Dead's power could regenerate damage of the undead, but couldn't bring the crushed ashes back to their original form.
On the other hand, the golems were literally made from the ceiling and in the ceiling, meaning even when he cleared a room, he didn't really clear it. Not to mention the fact his forces could be surrounded.
So even though Sunny had destroyed a lot of golems through his Shadows, things wouldn't change if he continued the same, the Terror wouldn't stop shifting the place, and he would never reach that little Shadow.
Sunny looked up to see Nephis cutting down another golem that had just dropped from the ceiling.
"These things have no end, did you find something?"
Sunless shook his head.
"No, I'm starting to think the whole building is the damn Terror."
"That would make sense."
Seishan ripped a golem in half, protecting Kai as he took his jian off a golem's corpse.
She turned to Sunny now that the room was clear.
"It would also explain why the Soul-Devouring Tree didn't do anything."
Sunny was forced to agree. As much as it hurt him, his Shadow Terror didn't seem to affect the Fallen Terror at all, even the golems seemed immune to the enthrallment, the best it could do is root itself on the entrance to stop the room from shifting and grab the golems that were created, even then, some escaped its grasp.
Nephis embedded her sword in the head of a golem and turned to Sunny.
"Then we have to do something else, like you said, we don't want to risk getting hit with the mind-hex, but I don't think the Lord of the Dead will work here."
Sunless nodded, and ordered Saint and Igris back.
"I agree, time to switch tactics."
Seishan squinted her eyes, but nodded.
"What are you thinking?"
"We have to destroy the walls, that's the main issue. The problem is how."
The Shadow Saints returned to the entrance, having received little to no wounds, they were in perfect condition.
Serpent slowly returned to its original form, making the skeletons all across the building fall down and return to their lifeless shells. Slithering down from the ceiling and standing right next to Sunny.
"And honestly, this time, I think brute forcing is the right option."
He transferred all his shadows to augment Serpent and ordered it to transform into one of the Fallen Demons Wraith had killed in the caves of the Jade Palace. It looked like a giant sand worm with the same length and a little taller.
For some reason, a spark ignited in Nephis' eyes.
"You'll force your way in?"
Sunny nodded, then turned to Kai.
"I know it's dangerous, but can you use your Awakened Ability to find the Shadow?"
The archer widened his eyes, and quickly understood what Sunny wanted to do.
"Are you going to dig until you get there? We won't be able to help you."
"Yes, don't worry, I'll be quick."
Seishan approached her brother and touched his shoulder.
"Be careful. We'll call the Terrors attention."
Her voice was low and serious.
Nephis looked at him with seemingly indifference, but Sunny could tell that a hint of worry appeared in her eyes.
"As soon as you find whatever you are looking for, get out of there."
Sunny nodded with a determined expression.
"Alright… Saint will stay here to help you, Igris, you'll come with me."
The male Shadow Saint squinted his eyes, then nodded, dissolving into shadows to go back to Sunless soul sea.
Saint walked to stand in front of the doorway while Nephis brandished her blade, readying her flames. Sunny raised his brow at that.
"Wait… Are you going to…"
Nephis flashed a little smile.
"You need a distraction, I'll give you a big one. This thing's soul is all around this place, so if I burn even a little…"
Seishan sighed tiredly, then smiled sweetly, her eyes quickly turning red her body snapped, beginning her transformation.
Sunny turned to Kai.
"Ready?"
The charming archer didn't respond for some seconds… Probably because he was staring at Sunny's sister with his eyes widened!
"Kai. I know it is the first time you are seeing her like this up close, but she's my sister."
Kai snapped back into reality as he blushed.
"N-No! I am-"
Sunny raised his hand in a stopping motion.
"Not now, just find the Shadow, it's probably close to the Terror's core, maybe a high security cell. I don't know what it looks like, but it feels small, weak, feeble, you may not be able to distinguish it, but please, try to find it."
Kai recomposed himself and breathed in and out, closing eyes in concentration, then opening them right after.
His sights pierced wall after wall, searching for whatever Sunny was looking for, I didn't take long.
The walls in their room started to shift, changing, trying to crush the cohort before they did something, but the roots of the Soul-Devouring Tree stopped it, locking the walls in place.
Kai pointed to the ground.
"There, dig straight through there, you'll find that Shadow."
Sunny nodded and gave Serpent the order.
Immediately, Nephis embedded her sword on the floor and ignited her Aspect inside the grand prison.
The edges of the walls lit up as flames passed through them and something akin to a screech was heard, muffled by the walls.
Serpent began to dig the floor, piercing the concrete… The skin of the Fallen Terror, unharmed by the white flames as Nephis made the conscious decision to only burn the building.
Sunny turned into shadows and followed Serpent in their worm form as it tore through the floor, eating the concrete like a hungry maw.
As Sunny went to find the Shadow, the doors of the hall burst open to reveal numerous golems. Normal ones, and giant ones, stronger ones, more monstrous ones…
The Fallen Terror wasn't holding back anymore.
Seishan and Saint advanced to destroy all of them, assisted by Kai and the Soul-Devouring Tree.
All of them ready to defend Nephis as she tortured the prison in its entirety.
—
Serpent devoured the seemingly endless walls, being able to tear through it thanks to being empowered by five shadows of a Divine Aspect that were already strengthened by a Divine Lineage, Sunny right behind it in his shadow form.
They met surprisingly little resistance, mostly because the building was already being burned by the white flames of Changing Star's powerful Aspect. The Fallen Terror must have been experiencing terrible pain, as such, it didn't focus on Sunny and his Shadow, probably the reason he didn't feel the harrowing mind-hex invade his mind even though he was getting closer and closer to the abomination's core.
That normally would mean the rest of the cohort would feel the mind attack, but thanks to the Shadow of the Soul-Devouring Tree, they were on the territory of another Terror, meaning the Fallen creature would have to fight the influence of the Ascended Shadow first, which was what it was probably doing.
After some minutes of tearing away at the concrete-like skin of the Terror, Serpent finally reached the destination, along with Sunny.
Bursting through the ground, now ceiling, of the room, Serpent quickly returned to their original form along with Sunny, who as soon as he regained his normal body, transferred all his shadows to himself, empowering not only his body, but also the [Stalwart] attribute of his [Stone Shell], letting him not worry about getting mind-hexed.
Looking up, he saw, the same room as he always saw wherever he went on the prison, compact, efficient, no architected detail to speak of, the only difference, aside from the white light now shining from the slits of the walls, was that the room was larger and there were only three cells, one in each side of the room.
The one on the left was empty, only belonging to a skeleton that seemed to have… Bone wings? It didn't matter, whatever was there was already dead, their black skull caved in and chains that once held whoever was there limp on the ground.
The one in front of him belonged to… A mist? Various chains began on the walls and tightly wrapped themselves on whatever was inside the deep mist.
Then… The final one, the one he came for.
Shallow shadows shifted on the cell, a low, dim light shining while it was slowly surrounded by the shadows, as if they were protecting the only thing that they could.
The Shadow was protecting the only thing it could.
Before Sunny could dash to them, the ceiling shifted. And an organic mound of flesh appeared, a red, burning eye bursted through the ceiling.
It quickly scanned the room, looking in the only human when it noticed him.
Sunless immediately summoned Igris.
The great Shadow Saint jumped from his shadow and glared at the eye, which sharpened its vertical iris and turned their gaze to the cell where the mist resided.
Somehow… The mist reacted.
'Huh?'
Igris stiffened, something… Changed, for the first time, Sunny saw his demeanor change, getting on his guard, Igris turned to his master and pointed at the cell on the right, basically saying to hurry.
Sunny would not argue with his Shadow, ordering Serpent to assist Igris by turning into a greatsword.
The Shadow Saint dismissed his standard weapons and held out his hand as Serpent became a weapon for him, brandishing with inherent wrath towards the mist.
He didn't stare at it, but Sunless could swear he saw something looking like a Knight appearing in the mist.
Sunny activated Shadow Step and moved to the small Shadow in the cell, thankfully, the Terror seemed to not be able to manipulate a lot of things at once, especially not when being burned by Nephis.
From controlling the golems, to struggling with the Soul-Devouring Tree in both physical and mental battle, and whatever it was doing to the mist.
So Sunny could easily reach the little Shadow, passing through the cell and entering it.
The shadows in there were weak… No, more like disheartenth, tired, broken.
Like years of constant torture slowly tore them apart…
Then Sunny understood the true terrifying facet of the Fallen's Terror power really was. They slowly destroyed their 'prisoners' by feeding them their greatest fears, molding them, making them afraid to even think of escaping.
Sunny looked down at the little Shadow, it had been torn apart, with the only thing remaining being the most essential part… And even that was close to ending, the only thing holding them together was the little light remaining…
He was glad he chose to stay.
The little Shadow reacted to his presence, cowering away, it was scared, even in the presence of their Future God… It felt undeserving, unworthy.
Crouching, Sunny held out his hands.
"It 's alright… I'll take care of you. Even if you are weak, or useless… Your Nightmare is over…"
After some moments… The Shadow creeped closer… Sunny raised it.
And the Shadow entered his soul core.
[You have gained a Shadow.]
Sunny was about to look at the runes before something else appeared in his mind.
[Light: "Sunny… Please, get back!"]
Sunny snapped out of his thoughts, he couldn't linger, his companions must be facing the golems for a while now and he got what he came for, it was time to get out.
Utilizing Shadow Step to get out of the cell, he turned to Igris to order him to desingage… But he froze when he saw the battle between two knights.
Somehow, Igris was facing something with the exact same appearance as the Shadow himself.
Two knights with the same black armor, the same greatsword, and using the exact same moves battled each other with eerie coordination.
Sunny could only tell who was who due to his connection with his Shadow.
The mist that was once on the cell was long gone, in fact, the metal bars were cracked open, bent, showing evidence of a being escaping it to find freedom.
Metal clanked as the greatswords clashed, they moved with precision and power, demonstrating the same sword skill and technique.
Igris dashed forward with so much force it broke the ground, starting a horizontal slashing motion.
The other knight put itself on guard, blocking the strike and putting them on a bind.
Both glared at each other with wrath, a thousand words speaking with a mere glance.
Igris put force in his stance and pushed the other away.
Only for the other knight to do the same to Igris.
Both slid across the ground, still maintaining their posture.
All the while that damn vertical red eye watched in amusement, even while being burned by Nephis' flames.
As much as Sunny wanted to see Igris eventually humiliate something copying him, he didn't have time, so he decided to take advantage of the fact the Terror wasn't paying attention to him and sent three of his shadows to Igris, sending a mental command to his Shadow to get ready.
Igris received it and sharpened his red burning eyes, dashing one again before even the shadows wrapped themselves onto him.
The other 'Igris' dashed as well, however, in the middle of that dash, the real Igris got the upperhand, running faster, raising his sword faster, letting it fall stronger.
The sudden strength increase given by the augmentation of three shadows was something the other Igris didn't seem to expect, so it couldn't put its guard fast enough.
The Serpent greatsword was able to pierce the joints of the other Igris armor, its shoulder being slashed through and tearing it off with relative ease.
Igris then slashed upwards as Sunless transferred two of his shadows from the Stone Saint to the greatsword, making it slash through the other Igris' armor easily, making it fall to its knees.
'Alright, time to–'
But Igris wasn't done yet.
He raised his arm and thrust it towards the other Igris' chestplate, piercing the place where he had already slashed it, reaching it deep into the creature's torso.
The copycat began turning into the same mist that once was in the middle cell, and Igris began absorbing it.
Sunny could barely react as his Shadow consumed what was once his opponent, his armor parting to let the deep mist, struggling as he began dominating the mist, controlling it, molding it.
Until all the mist entered Igris, and he dismissed himself into Sunny's soul sea.
[You have slain an Ascended Demon, Fused Mirror Fragment.]
[Your shadow grows stronger…]
'... What? Now? Really? Wait, that thing was Ascended? Not Fallen?'
Sunny shook his now non-existing head and focused on what was important.
Dismissing Serpent, he wrapped the three shadows that were with his Shadows back into himself and proceeded to enter the hole on the ceiling that was made by Serpent.
The eye of the Terror widened, and anger began rising from it, only for flames to ignite with even more ferocity, and a tormented screech escaped it.
—
Nephis was breathing heavily, her essence was depliting in an astonishing rate, only one core of her five remained whole, and even then, she continued to use her Aspect, even with all the pain she was feeling, she continued.
'Sunny… Hurry up.'
His Shadow and Seishan could almost build a wall from the amount of golem pieces they had already destroyed, if it wasn't for the fact that the Terror constantly absorbed all the golems that were destroyed, maybe they could have.
Seishan tore off the head of yet another golem, her figure was bloodied and bruised, some of their enemies were Demons, some even reaching the strength of Devils, and the sheer amount of golems were overwhelming.
Her exhaustion was palpable, Nephis wouldn't doubt if she killed hundreds along with the Shadow Saint.
In her exhaustion, she couldn't react as a Demon golem was able to escape the grasp of the Soul-Devouring Tree and fall right behind her.
As it raised its arm to attack her, an arrow pierced its plain face, making it fall backwards and saving the Princess from another wound.
Kai knotted another arrow to fire, his support had been instrumental. Thanks to him, Seishan and Saint rarely had to worry about being attacked from behind, but even he was showing signs of exhaustion, drawing a bow required extreme strength and precision, after all, he was bound to grow tired.
The only ones that were still able to hold their grounds with efficiency were Sunny's Shadows.
The Soul-Devouring Tree was still able to bind the golems and duel the Fallen Terror in a mental battle, and the Shadow Saint only showed little wounds, only a small fragment of ruby dust falling in between her joints.
Nephis looked at the hole in the ground that the Serpent did, expecting… Wishing for Sunny to pop out at any moment…
But instead, the hole began closing.
Nephis widened her eyes, the Terror was trying to close the hole off.
'No you don't!!'
Doing her best to ignore the pain, she unleashed even more of her flames, controlling them to make sure the bastard suffered.
Using her [Eyes of Creation], she noticed that Sunny was climbing up, he was getting close.
She cursed internally and channeled her flames, controlling them to focus in one place, the ground.
Now, she would just have to wait three seconds for Sunny to come out… Three torturous seconds.
Three.
A golem was created in the ceiling, the Soul-Devouring Tree tried to grasp it, but it had already expanded its roots too much, it wasn't as fast as it should have been.
Two.
The Devil golem fell down right behind Nephis, grasping its hands in anger.
One.
"Watch out!"
Kai's warning fell on deaf ears, Changing Star didn't care.
Sunny had escaped the Terror's grasp.
[BloodRaven] pierced the golem's skin as he morphed back to his human form. He turned to Nephis and pulled her hands away from her blade, forcibly making stop using her Aspect.
"I got what I came for, get out of here!"
He grabbed Nephis' hand and led her out ordering Tree and Saint to cover them.
Seishan didn't wait, she dashed towards Kai, grabbing him by the hip and carrying him out as he looked at her in surprise.
Once they all got out, Sunny dismissed Saint and ordered the Soul-Devouring Tree to close the doors.
As the roots quickly let go of the fearsome walls, the trembling intensified, the walls shifted, changed. Now that Nephis stopped burning the Terror, it had no more distractions, it focused the burning hatred on the cohort.
All the golems that were being held by the Shadow of the Soul-Devourer were now rushing to the entrance, more and more were created, more and more ran to kill the cohort…
But just as they jumped to attack, the grand doors closed, shutting off the path.
Sunny sighed, letting out a breath of relief before he looked at Nephis, who was about to collapse.
"Neph!"
As she fell, Sunny reached to her, holding her body up through her hip. He slowly laid her down, crouching to let her rest in his knee.
She leaned on his chest, her eyes showing numbness and loss of emotion, the flames that once burned now extinguished.
"Sunny…?"
He held her close, tightly gripping her arm in a way to show that she was fine.
"Yes, I'm here."
A small flame ignited in her eyes.
"Hm… Took you long enough…"
"I know… I know…"
They stood still for some seconds.
Sunny not letting her go, and Nephis not wanting him to.
Seishan let Kai down and began to transform back to her original form. She turned to look at her brother, only to see the scene of extreme intimacy with an unreadable expression.
She became lost in thought for a moment. But in the end, she smiled, now knowing full well Changing Star would not betray her brother.
Everything she did that day proved she cared about Sunless, deeply.
"Kai…?"
The archer widened his eyes for a moment, surprised as the next few words that the Princess said made his mind go blank.
"Are you free this weekend?"
— —
After a while, they climbed onto Dreadwing and reunited with the Firekeepers, beginning their journey back to their base.
Nephis and Sunny stayed close the whole time. Kai decided to join them, he was blushing too much to focus on flying, it didn't help that Seishan kept smiling at him non-stop, making him blush further.
Sunny reached for Nephis' hand, who held his hand back tightly, she leaned on him again, resting her head on his shoulder, a lost expression on her face.
Sunny's eyes widened for a moment, before they relaxed. He understood… What he felt after seeing her like that.
He closed his eyes and leaned on her.
After some seconds, Nephis asked.
"Did you find the Shadow?"
"Yes… It's in my soul sea."
"Can… I see it?"
"Of course…"
Sunny held out his hand and summoned his new Shadow.
A pool of small shadows appeared on his hand, the orb no longer had any light, now being sustained by Sunless existence.
It recalled, the inherent fear still displayed even out of the prison.
"It's… Just this?"
Sunny nodded.
"Want to see its runes?"
"Sure."
They both summoned their runes and read them.
Shadow: [Remnant.]
Shadow Rank: Dormant.
Shadow Class: Beast.
Shadow Description: [It was once the pride of the Shadowspawns, their future hero, a paragon in the face of War…
But it was captured, destroyed, for years, it was tortured.
One day, it asked its kidnapper.
"Why do this?!"
After giving the Shadow a sadistic smile, the dishonored warmongerer answered.
"Because it is fun to see an avatar of Peace crumble in the face of reality."
The young Shadowspawn was broken, his body annihilated… But he was never consumed.]
Shadow Attributes: [Broken].
Shadow abilities: [Formless Being], [Inherit].
[Broken]:
[This Shadow is broken, no longer as strong as it was… Mentally or physically.]
[Formless Being]:
[This Shadow becomes the ideal form for what it needs.]
[Inherit]:
[This Shadow acquires the abilities of what it consumes.]
'He doesn't even have a counter to evolve?'
Sunny read everything and a feeling of bitterness overcame him, the Shadow suffered for years, and never found peace.
It was so conditioned it thought it wasn't worthy to be saved…
Sunny held the orb, as if trying to protect it, and so did Nephis, she read the same runes after all, she also knew.
Even if the Shadow was useless, even if it couldn't evolve… He would keep it.
And for the first time in hundreds of years… The little Remnant felt comfort.
Sunny dismissed his Shadow and entered his soul sea, there was something else he needed to see.
The silent dark waters were the same as they always were, the five black suns hovering on the dark sky.
His Shadows all stood there, looking at the dark mist that surrounded one of their companions.
As Sunny thought, Igris had entered an evolution.
He had no idea why the two Shadow Saints needed two different types of creatures for their evolution, but it was good to know he didn't need to choose which Saint got the evolution.
Saint was next to him, observing without flinching, they had a connection after all, in many ways, they were the last of their kind.
His new little Shadow appeared on his hand, he looked around in curiosity, looking at his seniors.
The Shadows noticed the little one, Serpent slithered next to Sunless, twitching its head to the left upon seeing him. Saint just looked back and squinted her eyes, but a flash of pity appeared in them.
The Soul-Devouring Tree's roots appeared from the waters and looked at the orb of shadows, as if the roots were the Tree's eyes.
Remnant continued shifting until it stopped after leaning towards the Echo of Shadow Blade Kurt…
"Hum? It 's not a…"
Remnant immediately blurred, dashing towards the Echo.
"Huh?!"
As soon as he touched Shadow Blade Kurt's body, Remnant expanded and growed, enveloping the Echo's entire body.
The Shadows grew and grew, until a permanent pool of shadows stood in the place of the Echo, shifting and changing… Evolving.
[Your Echo has been destroyed.]
Sunny stood with his mouth gapped, dumbfounded.
Serpent also opened its mouth, if a serpent could make a confused face, that was it. The roots from the Tree recoiled and moved sporadically.
Saint raised her brow, but her indifferent demeanor continued.
Meanwhile, Sunny…
"What is happening today?!!??!"