"So... what are you going to do with your newfound power of me as your slave?" Sunny said with a firm, wavering voice. After all, if worst came to worst one of them would die. 'Although I hope it doesn't come to that because I don't even think I could kill Neph even if she uses half her power.' Sunny knew that there was no chance of beating her so he wasn't going to beat around the bush and ask her directly about their bond.
***
"So... what are you going to do with your newfound power of me as your slave?"
Nephis paused for a second, frozen upon hearing Sunny's question. 'What will you do with your power over me...' Neph understood what Sunny was getting at by asking her about their bond. At first, Neph wanted to say nothing, that she would never use his power over him. But she knew Sunny would never accept such an empty promise, after all, he was the slave in question, and she was the one who enslaved said person. 'God I regret saying his true name, if only I knew what saying it would do.' After some complications, she finally decided to go for it and say it in her way.
"Sunny, I know you the best of both worlds, so promises are meaningless to you. So instead, I'll show you I have no ill intent to use my power over you. I may slip at times with my wording and accidentally command you to do something, but never purposely. That is what I will do with this bond between us, and I'm sorry that I took away your freedom."
***
Sunny...was baffled, to say the least, but he couldn't help but feel...satisfied? Neph saying that she knew him best in two worlds was true, after all, he knew her best in two worlds too. And he also didn't love promises as well as they are easily breakable, especially empty promises. 'Plus it's not like she made me a slave for a bad reason to begin with. It's not like Neph would be a bad master to have anyways...not in a lewd way!' Shoving down those thoughts he was complicating how to respond, and eventually, he found the right words.
"I guess I can live with that...and I also understand why you said my true name and...I forgive you."
Nephis looked shocked, which was to say her eyes were slightly widened. She wasn't expecting such a positive answer back, much less being forgiven.
"Sunny...how are you forgiving me this easy? I took away your freedom, made you a slave even!"
"Well because you did it for me, to protect me. And also I would much rather be with you braving the dangers than leaving you behind. After all, I have nothing in the waking world, my sister is doing fine without me and eventually, you and the cohort would've forgotten about me. Plus...you mean a lot to me for me to leave behind in this godforsaken hell, so yes I forgive you Neph."
Before Sunny could react Nephis suddenly locked him in a deep hug. Sunny was shocked for a moment but eventually reciprocated the hug back to the white-haired girl. They hugged for a while, about 5 minutes Sunny guessed but it was hard to tell since there was no sun. To Sunny's anguish though, it was interrupted by a growl coming from Nephis's stomach signaling she was hungry.
Suddenly embarrassed, she let go of Sunny and pulled back toward where she originally sat. A slight shade of pink found its way into her ears, which Sunny saw as clear as day...If it was day. 'I can already tell telling time is going to be an impossible task' Sunny thought before getting up from his majestic bed.
"I have some scavenger meat stored, I'll cook it up for us."
"Thank you, Sunny," Neph said not daring to look at him.
***
Sunny brought out some meat from a chest before placing it on the wooden table. He then began cutting it into strips of meat before summoning [Midnight Shard] and placing it over a makeshift firepit. Once adjusted over the firewood, he then began placing strips of meat on the tachi before grabbing a torch from the wall and lighting the firewood. He added salt and some seasoning he had gotten from a herbalist inside the castle onto the meat as it sizzled.
Eventually, it finished cooking and he brought out two plates inside a small cabinet. Secretly, he added a bit more meat to Neph's plate before handing her a porcelain plate and [Endless Spring]. Giving him a smile, which looked weird on her since she wasn't used to emoting before, she then started eating a bit hurriedly. 'At least she loves it,' Sunny thought before then starting on his plate.
They both ate in silence, the crackling of flames in the background illuminating the stone, warm priestess room. After Nephis was done with her food she handed him back [Endless Spring] and the plate before then resting on his bed. Eventually, Sunny also finished his food and washed both their plates with the water from his memory before then putting the dishes back in the cabinet and dismissing his memory before sitting down next to Neph.
'I should check my ruins and see what's up about my aspect legacy.' thinking of his ruins, they shimmered into existence as a blue touchable screen.
Name: Sunny
True name: Lost from Light
Rank: Dreamer
Class: Monster
Shadow Cores: Dormant
Shadow fragments: [0/2000]
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Dark Wing], [Endless Spring], [Extraordinary Rock], [M... Un...old], [Midnight Shard], [Moonlight Shard], [Prowling Thorn], [Weaver's Mask], [Blood Blossom], [Broken Oath],
Echoes:
Shadows: [Stone Saint]
Attributes: [Fated], [Spark of Divinity ], [Child of Shadows], [Blood Weave]
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.]
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.]
Of course, these were gray and lifeless because he had Nephis as his master now.
Aspect Ability: [Shadow Control].
Aspect Ability Description: [Your shadow is more independent than most. It is an invaluable helper.]
Flaw: [Clear Conscience].
Flaw Description: [You cannot lie.]
Aspect Legacy: [Shadow Dance]
Shadow Dance Description: [Once an elegant dance, now a deadly battle art. This mysterious style was created by the treacherous Lost From Light after witnessing a graceful slave dancing with her shadows. Who else could have taken something so beautiful and turned it into something so vile?]
As Sunny looked below the description, ignoring how the spell called him treacherous, he saw that they had changed.
Shadow Dance Mastery Level: [1/7]
First Relic: Claim
Second Relic: Unearned
Third Relic: Unearned
Fourth Relic...
'Claim...' Sunny thought as he stared at the runes. Not only had he received his Aspect Legacy as a sleeper, something unheard of in history. But he had also just achieved step one of his legacy! Feeling cheerful, he tried tapping it to claim it, but felt annoyed when it didn't work, 'I wonder...'
"Claim," Sunny said aloud which caught the attention of Neph as she looked at him looking into the air. 'He must be looking at his runes,' Nephis thought internally chuckling at how hilarious it was sunny moving his hand in the air. 'I wonder what he claims-" Before Nephis could finish her thought a small, black snake appeared from the shadows on the ground. Nephis started summoning her sword as she moved to a defensive stance away from the snake. Sunny stared at her looking confused which in turn confused Nephis as to why he wasn't moving away from the snake. As if reading her mind Sunny said,
"Nephis this snake is what I got from my aspect legacy. I discovered the first step during our fight at the Spire and this is my relic... it's similar to Saint."
"Oh sorry it just surprised me...saint?"
"Saint was an echo of mine until I turned her into a Shadow creature by sacrificing 200 shadow fragments. Now it can grow and ascend ranks by eating memories."
"So that's why you asked our cohort to trade useless memories for soul shards at the cathedral."
Sunny nodded before turning back to his runes and went back to his Shadow(s) runes to read the serpent's runes.
Shadows: [Stone Saint], [Soul Serpent]
Tapping on the Soul Serpent rune name, new runes popped out.
Shadow: [Soul Serpent]
Shadow Rank: Dormant
Shadow Class: Monster
Shadow Attributes: [Shadow Guide], [Soul Weapon]
Shadow Description: [When the end came, Shadow was the last of the gods to be destroyed. Many have resented him for creating death, but in the end, death embraced all.]
Sunny paid attention to the connection between Shadow God and death. However, he noticed there was no shadow fragment counter at the bottom like with Saint. Sunny frowned before realizing that it might be connected to his soul, after all, it was a dormant monster that was the same rank and class as him. But Sunny intuition told him that the rank for the Serpent was connected to his comprehension of Shadow Dance. 'Interesting...well at least that means I don't have to divide my useless memories between them to evolve.'
[Shadow Guide] Attribute Description: "Soul Serpent guides shadow essence as it flows through your body"
[Soul Weapon]
Attribute Description: "Soul Serpent can assume the form of a weapon."
'So I can turn it into a weapon that's useful but I can't use my essence though because I'm not awakened yet...unless...' Sunny commanded Soul Serpent to help him guide shadow essence mentally. The serpent slithered towards Sunny before sliding into his arm and turning into a tattoo, it looked onyx black and its intricate scales made it almost alive. 'This is the same serpent the temple slave and mother had, Shadow God's mark!' Sunny then felt a slight change within him, something dormant, something powerful was now awakened if only slightly. 'Shadow essence...' Sunny realized as he felt a puddle of essence in his possession.
'Wait if I can manipulate essence then that means I can fix that armor!' suddenly remembering the broken armor Sunny started summoning it. Nephis was watching this all enamored, from the serpent he had gotten to it now being a tattoo. On his pale skin now laid a black, fearsome serpent. The serpent had coiled around Sunny's arms, its head on his left arm and its tail ending on his right. Nephis would be lying if she said he didn't look cool with it, 'and all I have is a sword that isn't really a sword.' Nephis thought sulkily as she noticed the golden sparks appearing before Sunny.
After a few moments something finally formed onyx, stone-like armor appeared in front of Sunny. Placing his hands on the broken armor and with the help of Serpent, he started to pour his puddle of essence into the broken weave. Just as he ran out of essence something happened, the weave of the armor started to repair itself. Its transformation was...remarkable both Nephis and Sunny thought as the memory shone and repaired its stone-like properties and metal. Eventually, it completed its transformation and looked brand new, a complete juxtaposition from a minute ago.
"Sunny what did you just do?"
"Oh, something simple...I just used my essence to repair the broken weave of the ascended armor." quickly a shocked expression reached her eyes before she then quickly fixed herself and replied with an emotionless voice.
"Use essence? Sunny how are you able to use your essence when we're not awakened?"
"Well, the Shadow I just received has an ability in tattoo form to allow me to circulate my essence. Although it's just a puddle of essence it was enough to repair this armor I got from Steve a while back."
"Well that's good Sunny, we're going to need all the power we can get if we want to survive and get out of this, together."
Sunny smiled at the last word Neph said as it filled him with a bit of warmth in his heart. Neph laid down on the bed again leaving Sunny to his thoughts, 'I should check out my new armor. Sunny then focused and dived into his soul sea. It was tranquil and the warm water reaching his knees felt warm and soothing as he made his way over to his new memory. He didn't need to enter his soul sea to check on it but he liked entering it if not for anything else than for its calm atmosphere.
Memory: Mantle of the Underworld
'Whoa... sounds awesome. But, Underworld? That word again.'
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: VI
Memory Type: Armor
Memory Description: [Vowing to never look upon the Goddess of the Black Skies again, the prideful demon retreated into the darkness beneath an unassailable mountain chain. He wasn't the first to lead his army against the gods. However, he was the first to shed their blood, as well as learn the secrets of his own.]
'Shed their blood...like ichor? And secrets of their own, what does that mean?'
Memory Enchantments: [Living Stone], [Feather of Truth], [Stalwart], [Underworld Armament], [Prince of the Underworld]
[Living Stone]
Enchantment Description: "This armor can repair itself while being worn."
'It's an active enchantment but will surely be useful post-fight to speed up repairs.'
[Feather of Truth]
Enchantment Description: "The weight of this armor can be changed at will."
'This is also an active enchantment...I'll need to activate it continuously to keep it light if I even want to wear the damn thing.'
[Stalwart]
Enchantment Description: "This armor provides extremely high protection against physical attacks, high protection against elemental attacks, and a moderate amount of protection against mind and soul attacks."
'This would've been useful against the fallen terror in the crimson spire with its moderate protection against soul damage.'
[Underworld Armament]
Enchantment Description: "This armor can accommodate a Charm Memory to inherit and enhance its enchantments."
'I can use [Blood Blossom] with this armor then.'
[Prince of the Underworld]
Enchantment Description: "This armor grows stronger according to the amount of opponents its wielder defeats."
Defeats counter: [1213/6000]
'It's similar to Stone Saint then by being able to grow with me. It already has 1213 defeats so rumors of the first Lord wearing it are true. Well, thank you First Lord for your hard work.'
After Sunny was done reading he sat in the darkness for a while, thinking. At first, he wanted to immediately put on his new magnificent onyx armor, but then dismissed that idea. There would be time later... for now, he was too tired. He had spent too much shadow essence already fixing the armor and the exhaustion was setting in. He did, however, note a few things about the Mantle of the Underworld.
The first fact he noticed was that it shared two enchantments with Saint. However, there were subtle but important differences between the versions of [Stalwart] and [Underworld Armament] possessed by the onyx armor and the taciturn demon.
The Memory offered better protection against physical and elemental attacks, but lacked the complete immunity to mind and soul attacks, possessing a moderate amount of protection against those rare and fearsome types of damage instead. Overall, this was an advantageous trade-off, since most Nightmare Creatures relied on more common ways of destroying Awakened.
...Unless they didn't.
The more interesting difference, however, was hidden in the description of the [Underworld Armament]. While Saint's armor could accommodate a Charm Memory to inherit its enchantments, the Mantle of the Underworld could both inherit... and enhance them. Just one word made so much difference. Sunny couldn't wait to explore this subtle trait of his new Memory with [Blood Blossom].
But the most interesting enchantment was, without a doubt, [Prince of the Underworld].
'A growing Memory would prove to be an invaluable boob...'
For the longest time, Sunny had wondered about how an Ascended Memory of the Sixth Tier had ended up in the hands of humans in the Dark City. It had to have come from destroying a Fallen Terror... or so he had thought. But now, Sunny knew that more likely it had become a memory of the Sixth Teir by the First Lord completing its requirements one by one. What tier and Rank was the onyx armor when he had first found it? How many of the vanquished foes had been defeated by his hand? Was the Mantle of the Underworld one of the reasons for his legendary achievements?
But all these questions were doomed to be left unanswered sadly. The First Lord had taken the answers with them to the grave, with anyone else who possibly knew was also likely dead.
Remembering the lonely cairn in the Hollow Mountains, Sunny sighed. Then, his thoughts wandered to something else.
'The Goddess of the Black Skies... Storm God?'
Teacher Julius had described Storm God as being the deity of the depths, of the oceans, of darkness, stars, travel, guidance, and disaster. He also said that the gender of the gods was subject to change. Stars, darkness, and storms were somewhat related to black skies...
Frowning, Sunny remembered the runes describing the Mantle of the Underworld. Indeed, "black skies" could also be translated as skies covered by storm clouds, or the night sky.
'Interesting...' Sunny then started rubbing his forehead. 'Too many theories for today, I should rest now.' Sunny stood up from the ground where he was sitting and walked over to his bed, with a sleep Nephilim inside its covers.
Sunny took a moment to appreciate the scene, how Neph's silver hair was spread all across the bed. Her sleeping face looked docile and peaceful, a complete difference from her normal emotionless face, it was a beautiful sight to see Sunny thought. Sunny went to the far end of the bed before crawling onto the bed. Looking at Neph's sleeping face one more time, Sunny smiled as he turned around and put out the torches with the help of Saint before falling into the peaceful embrace of sleep.