Sunny woke up dazed as something slapped him on the face. Still sleepy, he tried to shake off whatever slapped him in the face but failed. After what seemed like hours Sunny finally woke up completely and found that what had slapped him in the face was a hand. 'Wha- wait this is Nephis hand! And is Nephis HUGGING ME!'
Nephis was, indeed, hugging him. 'What how did this happen? WHEN did this happen?' trying to move away Nephis shivered before pulling him closer to her. Completely encased by Nephis, Sunny attempts to escape were futile, well maybe he would've gotten out if he tried but secretly he was content.
'Wait Nephis said my true name,' remembering this he turned to look at Nephis. Her silver hair was covered in blood, but it looked like her injuries and cuts had fully healed or were close. But Sunny was staring at a specific part of her intently, her throat. 'It would be so easy to kill her right now, to kill my now supposed master and free me from my chains...but why am I hesitating?'
Sunny hated the idea of being someone's slave, and, if it was anyone else he wouldn't have hesitated to kill them. But killing Nephis, Sunny hated the idea infinitely evermore. He and Nephis had gone through so much together, from the crimson maze to the bright castle, to the edge of the misty mountains, and the crimson spire. They both had gone through it all together, even after their falling out Sunny had still deeply cared about her. So as much as it pained to be a slave to her, he couldn't kill her.
Eventually, after a while, Nephis began to stir from her sleep. Opening her eyes she stared at a pale, skinny kid in her arms. Immediately the events that had transpired the day before rushed into her mind before a voice brought her out of her thoughts.
"Nephis...while I'm not uncomfortable do you mind letting me go?"
"Oh sorry, Sunny," Nephis gently let go of Sunny before standing up straight to take a look around their surroundings. Or at least she would've if she could see but destroying the sun tends to leave you in darkness. She felt a tug at her shoulder as a voice spoke in the darkness, "We should head to the bright castle, or at least what's left of it after your followers burnt it to the ground."
"That sounds reasonable," Nephis then summoned her flames before a pair of hands extinguished them as she heard a yelp from sunny, "don't summon your flames Neph we would only be attracting unnecessary monsters to where we are. I'll just guide the both of us with my [child of shadows] attribute."
"Lead the way," Letting Sunny put a hand on her shoulder, he led them away from the spire and towards the dark city.
***
As Sunny led them to the castle he took a moment to look at his ruins.
Name: Sunless
True Name: Lost from Light
Rank: dreamer
Just as he was about to check the ruins below a familiar voice whispered in his ears
[...your shadow is overflowing with power.]
[your shadow is taking shape.]
Immediately Sunny felt a sharp pain in his chest as he felt something forming inside him. Sunny had to cover his mouth to avoid letting out a pained scream before collapsing to the ground.
"Sunny what's wrong?" Nephis asked with a lace of worry and surprise as she dropped down to sunny. Sunny continued to shake for a few mins while whatever was happening took place 'I must look like an idiot in front of Nephis, fuck this hurts but nearly as much as getting gutted by that devious forsaken knight.' Sunny felt his whole being and soul changing as something inside him was growing, or more like being built. Eventually Sunny felt whatever was happening to him lessened and cool down as he opened his eyes again to see Nephis sitting next to him.
"What was that sunny, I thought you were dead if you didn't start convulsing," Nephis said in an unemotional tone but her face betrayed her by showing a hint of frightfulness in her eyes.
"I think I have an idea but I'll need to check to make sure." Opening back his ruins he looked below to see that the runes had changed as now they read
Class: Monster
Shadow Cores: [2/7].
'Huh, I guess I do have a different path from others, being able to form multiple cores. Does that mean I follow the path nightmare creatures take? Being a divine aspect holder sure does have its perks if this is one of them...even if it did feel like my insides were being torn apart while forming a new core.'
He also felt... stronger, much stronger than he was a few minutes ago. And not just stronger but faster, more resilient that he could take the soul attack from the spire for much more time than before. He felt invisible but quickly shut that idea out, arrogance and pride gets you killed in the dream realm and would get him killed if started. Although he had grown stronger Sunny knew that he was still the weakest creature on the forgotten shore and got here by luck and skill, not strength.
Sunny wondered if his new strength boost was from unconsciously wrapping his shadow around himself so he looked down to make sure that wasn't the case...and then froze. Two shadows were staring back at Sunny at that moment, 'What the... wait why does the new shadow seem...joyful?' Indeed the new shadow was the exact opposite of the gloomy shadow as it gave a happy aura.
"Sunny is something wrong?"
"No nothings wrong, let's keep going"
Composing himself he continued guiding the both of them before taking another peek down. 'What's going on? Why are there two shadows now? I should dive into my soul sea maybe something changed that caused this to happen'. Diving into his soul sea, it looked like it was back to its usual, tenebrous appearance. The surface of the water was still and tranquil with hundreds of shadows motionless and lifeless in the background standing still. Above him, he could see shining spheres containing his memories as they all circled the black sun...
Sunny eyes widened as he saw that where the black sun of his shadow core loomed over his soul sea there were now... two. Two identical black suns hovered over his soul sea in the night sky, shining with lightless black radiance. 'There's two black suns...So I have two cores now...why do I have two-' Suddenly having a realization he tried to remember what the spell said before he felt the pain of forming a soul core.
'The spell said that my shadow was overflowing with power, taking shape, and was complete. It wasn't talking about the shadow I already have, it was talking about my second shadow being complete! Which also means my second soul core was also complete. Those fragments must have assembled to create it too making him from a beast to a monster. I have two shadows now... does that mean-.' Sunny quickly exited his soul sea to try out his idea after he took a look around their surroundings to sense if there was any danger.
After sensing no danger he commanded both shadows to wrap around him. Immediately after wrapping himself in his shadows, he felt his strength double...and then triple. His mouth hung open as he had a single thought 'this...is too powerful... it's incredible!'
Sunny experimented with his newfound power. Augmenting himself, augmenting his [Puppeteer's Shroud], and augmenting [Midnight Shard]. They were all augmented three times their base power than twice. Sunny also found out he could augment two different things at the same time, so he could augment himself and his tachi or himself and [puppeterr's shroud].
As Sunny was having fun playing with his newfound power he suddenly had a revelation 'So that's how Nephis never seems to fully saturate her soul core, she's also a divine aspect holder!' it all made sense after this revelation as no matter how many monsters, humans, and shards she killed or got she never fully saturated her soul. It also makes sense why she was incapacitated during her fight with Gunlug and how even at his peak during the crimson spire she was still more powerful than him in all aspects and strengths.
'Huh I'll ask her about it later to confirm my theory but I'm sure I'm right.' Opening back his ruins he continued reading
Aspect: [Shadow Slave]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect description: [You are a miraculous shadow left behind by a dead god. As a divine shadow, you possess plenty of strange and wondrous powers. However, your existence is empty and lonesome; you mourn the passing of your former master and long to find a new one.]
'And right below them...'
Innate ability: [Shadow Bond]
Ability Description: [Find a worthy master and let them know your True Name. Once they recite it out loud, you will be bound to their will, unable to disobey any command. It is improper for a shadow, let alone a divine one, to walk around without a master.]
Before they were blue and full of life...now they were grey and lifeless.
'Makes sense as I have a master now...'
Almost deciding to not even check he looked below the ruins to check.
Master Changing Star
Sunny looked at those three ruins and then the woman he was leading. Who knew that just three runes would hold so much meaning to them, a terrible meaning much less? Shaking his head he turned back his attention to the ruins, making the ruins shine brighter, new runes appeared out of nowhere.
Name: Nephis
Rank: Dreamer
Class: Demon...
'This confirms both that she also has a divine aspect and she was holding back during their fight at the spire.'
True name: Changing Star
To anyone else they would've been enamored by the fact she had a true name but eventually move on. Sunny on the other hand knew runes language and knew that depending on which language you're using it could have a different result. In Nephis case it didn't just translate to Changing Star, it could also be Star of Ruin...which after the events of the Dark City and the crimson spire seemed more like the latter.
But the one the spell is using means a catastrophic disaster that brings ruin and disaster, sometimes bad and sometimes good but always disastrous. It seemed like the spell was good at giving names... like the implications of his true name somberly before reading further into the runes.
Soul cores: [3/7]
Soul fragments: [2749/3000]...
Staring at the fragment count he thought 'So this is how far ahead of me you are Neph...huh.' Sunny sighed before continuing to scroll, many events of the past suddenly made sense now, Nephis has fought Gunlug as a monster just like him, with two soul cores. She knew that killing him would push her over the edge to get her third core so she had asked him to protect her while it happened as Caster would have killed her while she was incapacitated.
And since then she had almost reached her fourth... 'how the fuck does she progress that quickly?' It then struck Sunny as to why, it's because every other awakened but Sunny held an advantage over him...they all receive a certain portion of soul essence aka soul fragments when killing a human. Meanwhile, he would only get one fragment from them unless they were of a higher rank.
Plus she is always in the frontline fighting, killing, and leading her "followers". Sunny grimly stared at the distant but approaching dark city before turning back to his runes as he scrolled down more.
Memories: [dream blade], [starlight legion Armor], [Dawn shard], [dark wing], [nameless Sun], [Evertwine]...
There were more utility memories in her soul sea but Sunny didn't pay them much attention as something else had caught it. 'The Nameless Sun... what was that memory and how come I never saw it before or known about it till now...' Deciding to take a look he looked closely at its runes.
Memory: [Nameless Sun]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: VI
Memory Type: weapon
[For a long time, the Nameless Sun suffered in solitude, longing for all the things that were lost. Only when she lost that longing, too, was the Crimson Terror of the Forgotten Shore finally born.]
His eyes narrowed at the rankings of the memory. 'So she received a memory after killing the vessel the crimson spire...how interesting and would prove to be useful... wait! I should ask Nephis to let me see it to study its weave but also its enchantments'. Deciding to ask her later for the weapon Sunny continued reading.
Echoes-
'Ha, at least I'm beating her at that aspect!'
Attributes: [dreamspawn], [nephilim], [Flame of Divinity], [The Fire]
[dreamspawn] attribute description: "You are born of two worlds, belonging to both, but welcomed in neither. Your soul exists on the edge between nightmare and reality."
[nephilim] attribute description: "There once were terrible creatures born of an unholy union between the divine and the profane. Nephilim were the most beautiful, and the most harrowing of them all."
[Flame of divinity] attribute description: "Your soul is aflame with the light of divinity."
[The Fire] attribute description: "You have inherited the lineage of Sun God."
'So her innate attribute is [Dreamspawn]... how peculiar and sad'. Nephis innate attribute was called [Dreamspawn] which came from being the child of a hollow. So in a sense, she was connected to the Dream realm and the spell before she was even born, which made her core trait duality. And was further proven by her [nephilim] attribute which made her half deific half...Unknown?
Sunny didn't even want to start up the meaning behind the [The Fire] attribute and the realizations behind it. But Sunny acknowledged one important detail that was different from his lineage [Blood Weave] and [The Fire]. While the latter described it as "lineage", the former was described as "forbidden lineage". Sunny had guesses as to why it was forbidden, from it not coming from a proper deity, but a Daemon instead to only Gods being able to leave behind a lineage. [Blood Weave] was also described as a partial lineage while [The Fire] was not 'so many damn fucking questions, I should just continue reading.'
Aspect: [Light Bringer]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Description: [You are a creature of light that was banished and doomed to exist in the darkness. You bring radiance and warmth to wherever you go, but with it comes indescribable longing.]
Aspect ability: [Soul Flame]
Ability Description: [Your soul burns with the purest of flames. That flame can both restore and destroy, and is both a blessing and a curse.]
Innate ability: [Halfbreed]
Ability Description: [You can directly absorb a portion of the soul essence of any Nightmare Creature destroyed by your flames, as well as of any human.]
Flaw: [Pristine Soul]
Flaw Description: [You must suffer to use your power.]
Sunny dismissed the ruins to take a look at Nephis who looked like she was also going through her ruins. 'She has probably already seen my ruins and reading them now, I guess I'll have to give her an explanation for everything when we get back'. Sunny was still drenched in blood and cuts from their fight on the crimson spire. His saving grace would be that he had Nephis to heal the cuts and [Endless Spring] to clean himself and Nephis up.
Sunny was forming a plan in his head to try and escape the forgotten shore now that the gateway was gone. Realizing they would have to go through hell again without the help of other sleepers to even try conquering another gateway, Sunny was starting to regret his decision. 'By the dead Gods, I can already tell [fated] is going to cause trouble, at least Nephis is here or else I would've gone crazy already from being away from society'.
Reminded that Nephis was here Sunny took a glance at her. She looked like she was getting used to being blind but was still having difficulty walking properly. Sunny was suddenly glad he was able to see in the dark and had his shadow senses. Sunny then had an interesting thought 'I wonder if hunting in the dark city would be easier now that he was most likely the only creature able to see-'.
Sunny then stopped abruptly to Nephis's confusion. After a solid 15 seconds Nephis asked without emotion,
"Why did you stop Sunny?"
"Well... it's because we've arrived"
Indeed, in front of both the sleepers was the burnt remnants of the Bright Castle.