Changing Star's voice traveled through the air. Her voice had a strange tone, unlike anything Sunny had ever heard from her before. It was like the air carried bitterness, annoyance, and… concern?
'W-What happened to her? Did some shape-shifting abomination take her place?' Sunny was immediately worried, and without even thinking, he defied Neph's request and moved towards her. He soon regretted it, though.
'Oh… Gods! No!' Nephis's shoulder was torn and bleeding. The carapace pauldron on the left side was almost shattered, and her crude seaweed wear had come undone. Heat immediately rushed to Sunny's cheeks.
'W-Why does she not communicate better?! Everything is her fault! Yes, hers… not mine!' Sunny tried to justify himself. He glanced at his shadow.
'Isn't that right?' He transferred via a mental link that he and his gloomy companion shared. His shadow scoffed and gave a disapproving stare. It could not talk, but Sunny could make out exactly what it was thinking.
'You fool! Didn't she say not to come any closer?! Why did you?! You should be ashamed of yourself!'
'Traitor.' Sunny scoffed at his shadow's response.
'Just whose side is he on? Isn't he supposed to be my shadow?! Back me up, at least!' Sunny sighed. His mind wandered back to the scene he just accidentally… yeah, accidentally stumbled upon. The vivid scene was still stuck in his mind.
'Just what happened to her arm?' Sunny had noticed the gash on Neph's arm, of course. It was just that he got distracted by… better not to think about it. The wound looked like it had been crudely torn open by the scavenger's massive pincers. Just remembering the damage to his friend left Sunny in pain. He did not like seeing Nephis hurt. He would rather have her not be hurt ever again. Gods knew she had gone through enough.
"S-Sunny? Are you alright?" Nephis asked, startling Sunny with her approach and breaking him out of his thoughts.
"Ah, y-yeah, I'm fine…" Sunny replied on impulse, not resisting his flaw. He glanced at the lithe figure of Nephis who had snuck up on him. The wound on her shoulder was gone completely, and her seaweed clothing was back to normal, but there was a pained expression on her face.
Sunny bit his lower lip. He knew exactly what had happened. She had healed his own wound, and as exchange, she felt pain. Thin silence stretched between them for a moment, until Sunny's weak voice broke it.
"I-I'm sorry… W-What does it feel like? Your flaw, I mean."
Nephis's expression did not change. "It's just pain. Don't worry about it." When Sunny heard these words, it was almost like a sharp knife was plunged through his heart and twisted relentlessly. His sight had started to blur, and he had even started to tear up.
"D-Don't say that!" Sunny said in a whimper.
"I-it's alright to be afraid of pain! It's normal! So don't you go thinking it's nothing!" He added, concern seeping through his voice.
Nephis nodded slowly. "…I'll try." She did not say anything else, choosing to remain silent for a while.
"Like burning alive… it feels like burning alive." She added after the silence had long become awkward, and after Sunny had calmed down.
After that, she moved to retrieve the spoils of their battle and absorbed them. Sunny moved after her, still feeling melancholic. Humans were supposed to be afraid of pain. He did not want Nephis to lose that too. Even if it meant not using her aspect at all, that would be better than her losing herself, becoming Something else. Something not human.
A figure of a man with tan skin and golden eyes flashed through his mind. It was none other than Asterion, the original Dreamspawn. He thought about what would happen if she gave in to her flaw and burned herself away. Would she be like him? Sunny had not known Asterion well, but from what he heard from his parents. He was not human, did not consider himself human. Would Nephis become like that one day? Like the worst of their enemies? Sunny did not know, but he had to make sure it would never happen.
Sunny went to get Cassie from her hiding spot. Seeing the petite girl unharmed had cheered him up and put him in a better mood. He heaved a sigh of relief, happy that she was still alive and unharmed.
"S-Sunny! Is everything alright? Is Nephis fine?" Cassie asked with a worried tone, hearing Sunny's approach. She was concerned about her friend. Maybe the vision… the first one, where he had led her into the castle, and Nephis was nowhere to be seen, was also getting to her.
Sunny's lips curled downwards slightly, and he responded in a wistful tone. "She's fine." Hearing his words, the blind girl's face lit up with joy and relief. Sunny held out his hand, holding Cassie and bringing her with him to where Nephis was.
"Rope?" He asked. Nephis immediately summoned her golden rope memory and started tying it around herself. While doing this, she asked him.
"Did you get anything?"
Sunny tried to shake his head and say "No," but he could not. Instead, pain started assaulting his mind.
'W-What?! Why is my flaw activating all of a sudden?!' Sunny wondered and pulled up his runes.
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteers Shroud], [Azure Blade]
'No new memory, so what? …come to think of it, the spell did say something about…'
Echoes: [Carapace Scavenger]
Sunny's mouth hung open. The immense shock he felt made him completely forget about the pain of his flaw, until it got unbearable, that is. When that happened, he answered in a slow, but excited tone.
"Y-Yes. It's an Echo."
Nephis's eyes widened slightly. "An echo? An actual echo?"
Sunny's lips curled up as he nodded greedily. "Yes, a real carapace echo… I'll check it out in my soul sea," and as he said that, he dove into his soul sea.
Inside his soul sea was dark like the night of the forgotten shore. Sunny was standing on top of a black sea, and in the sky, there was one transparent core —his shadow core. Gazing deep into his soul, he could not get rid of an eerie feeling of something moving beyond it.
"Creepy…" Sunny shuddered slightly. He gazed above, towards his shadow core. Around it, a new ball of radiant light was orbiting. This one was much larger and brighter than the rest, though. He called down his new echo. The ball of light stopped orbiting the core and descended towards Sunny. Then, a perfect replica of a carapace scavenger manifested in front of him.
"Whoa!" Sunny exclaimed, checking out his new toy.
Echo: [Carapace Scavenger].
Echo Type: Beast.
Echo Core: Awakened.
Echo Attributes: [Strong], [Armored]
Echo Description: [A cursed solider of the fallen legion].
Sunny had not even realized when a massive grin formed on his face. He had an echo now. He could do many things with it. It could carry heavy cargo, fight his enemies, or perform other menial tasks. The echo was awakened, too. Unlike Sunny, who was only dormant, his echo had an awakened core. Most sleepers would not have echoes, and if they did, they would be of the dormant rank. Only a few elite legacies could afford to have echoes handed to them by their clans, and it was rare even among them. Sunny, though, had an awakened echo. One of the strongest awakened echoes, too, no doubt.
Checking out his new toy, he placed his hand on its cold carapace. Then, a sudden, calm voice entered his mind.
[Transform echo into shadow?]
'A… a shadow?!' Before Sunny knew it, the grin on his face had widened. It was so wide now that it could even be considered… uncanny. He knew what a shadow was, of course. His father had an aspect related to shadow creatures, after all. Shadow, unlike echoes, could grow. They could rise in both rank and class. Sunny did not know if shadows would interact with his aspect the same way they did for his father's, but he was sure they would share the trait to grow. That was because he knew that shadows were alive, which could not be said for echoes.
His father's aspect ability allowed him to create and store shadow creatures. Some came with his aspect and had to be unlocked by a special ritual. Some were granted to him by his aspect legacy, and some were created by him.
His dormant ability allowed him to inherit a small trait from a shadow and add it to himself. Later, it got a qualitative change, allowing him to inherit larger traits and even abilities that started to consume soul essence, though.
His awakened ability was simple on paper, but complicated in practice. It allowed him to fuse some compatible traits of shadows together to later apply it onto himself using his dormant ability. Keeping two shadows fused constantly drained essence as well.
His fathers ascended ability was the simplest one of them all. It allowed him to actually manifest his shadows into the real world. Granted, the ability had limitations, but it was still really powerful.
His transcendent ability was just as simple as his ascended one. It allowed him to fully morph into his shadows, or even a shadow creature created by fusion using his awakened ability. The transformation would inherit every attribute and trait of the shadow.
Needless to say, the aspect was very powerful. Really fitting for a sacred ranked one, but Sunny did not have a sacred rank aspect. He had an even better one —a divine rank. So how would his shadow creatures interact with him and his aspect? The future prospects were bright. If his father was an example, having shadows was a huge boon. So, he did not hesitate.
"Yes!" He did not hesitate, excitement overflowing from his voice.
[Not enough Shadow Fragments to preform transformation.]
[Shadow Fragments required: 46/100].