The last three months had been… hectic, to say the least. The cohort had spent most of their time adventuring through the Forgotten Shore, gathering seven special memories. Information on the locations of these memories had mostly come through either Cassie's visions or Nephis' informant within the Bright Castle.
Lua was pretty sure it was Seishan. Meanwhile, Caster had begun making moves, attempting to isolate Nephis by pushing the others away. Sunny hadn't been seen in over three months, which was slightly concerning.
But Nephis seemed confident that he was alive. Lua, however, didn't know him too well and saw his chances of survival as lower. Still, given the rumors of a crazy person living in the ruins, it seemed like he was doing well enough.
Running around the Forgotten Shore for fun wasn't the only thing Lua had been up to. Over the three-month period, she had made significant progress in both perfecting her essence weaponry and she had formed her demon core.
First, she had confirmed that the tier of her Blood Relic armor was tied to her core count—now that she had three cores, the armor had upgraded to Tier III. Unfortunately, she hadn't received a new enchantment with it, but that was fine; even just raising the tier had improved its capabilities.
In relation to her Aspect Legacy, she had finally managed to use her weapon without physically touching it.
Though she hadn't advanced enough to rank up her Aspect Legacy, her skills had improved to the point where she could control the weapon without direct contact. However, it still required intense concentration to move it akin to balancing a heavy weight with one hand.
The key was to create a tether between herself and the blade. This tether would draw essence from her three cores, preventing the blade from dissipating when it lost contact with her body.
But this wasn't the true second step. The real goal was to make the blades act independently, emulating an Echo so they would automatically attack for her. Such a feat would have taken an outrageous amount of time—if not for one thing.
A rather unique Echo Cassie had obtained The Quiet Dancer. It was unique in that it was literally just a floating sword. Lua had nearly mastered the concept. The main obstacle now was getting the blades to act autonomously—something she was confident she could achieve.
Lua slowly opened her eyes and looked around her room. Thankfully, due to the improving conditions of the outer settlement, her flaw no longer had nearly as detrimental an effect as before.
She inhaled deeply and called upon the spell. It answered eagerly.
Name: Lua
True Name: RealmHeart
Rank: Dreamer
Class: Demon
Soul Core: [3/7]
Soul Fragments: [1347/3000]
Memories: [Winter's Blessing], [Knight's Crest], [Sky's Gift], [Scale Suit], [Talon of Unrest], [Eventide], [Papyrus Scarab], [Sky Cleaver], [Valhalla], [Broken]
Echoes: [Gemstone Wolf]
Attributes: [Flame of Divinity], [Soul Bound], [True Heart]
Aspect: [The Empress]
Lua smirked gleefully, still incredibly pleased about obtaining Eventide. It had taken an enormous amount of effort from the cohort to kill the archer and its minions to obtain the memory. The fight itself had been impossible at their current level.
However, they had used the cave's topography to pin it down, and Lua had managed to steal the final hit from Caster.
[Eventide]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: V
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Description: [Forged from the depths of the underground for the purpose of vanquishing horrors from the dark sea. The mighty hunter forged a bow of pure light.]
Memory Enchantments: [Brilliant], [Starfall Volley], [Spectral], [Void Piercer], [Phantom Quiver]
[Brilliant]
Enchantment Description: [Light arrows can be overcharged.]
[Starfall Volley]
Enchantment Description: [Like the first stars to appear in the night sky, each arrow carries the spark of creation itself. Upon striking, they explode with the brilliance of a thousand stars.]
[Spectral]
Enchantment Description: [The light arrow strikes the soul.]
[Void piercer]
Enchantment Description: [The arrow slips between realms, unbound by matter. Nothing can halt its passage.]
[Phantom Quiver]
Enchantment Description: [No quiver is needed when the bow itself weaves arrows from the fabric of light.]
The bow was unique in Lua's eyes—having a weapon that could manifest its own arrows was far superior to summoning an arrow memory with each shot. And given her origin as a Legacy, the heiress of the White Feather Clan, she was adeptly trained with nearly all weapons and forms of combat.
Before her time at the academy, she had even received personal training from Princess Morgan. Though… Morgan had occasionally made some rather unique comments.
Still, it had been an incredibly valuable experience when it came to combat. Sure, as the eldest child of both a Saint and a Master, Lua had received some of the best training available—besides the royal families of the Great Clans.
Combined with both a Divine Aspect and the lineage of the Heart God—a lineage shared by 'that' person—she was far stronger than warranted. Even Nephis, despite having similar traits, wouldn't be able to match Lua's raw combat power, but perhaps her self healing ability could turn the tide. 'She's like a perpetual motion machine'
Lua slowly stood and exited the building she had been meditating in. She walked for a few minutes before climbing onto a rooftop and summoning Eventide.
Rainbow sparks gathered in her hand, forming into a beautiful bow. It was large but fit snugly in her grip.
The bow's design was highly detailed and curved, with an almost organic yet refined structure. Asymmetrical yet balanced, its form flowed gracefully while maintaining a deadly, bladed aesthetic.
Lua moved across the rooftops before stopping. She placed her free hand on the string and pulled it back—an arrow of pure light materialized.
Activating [Spectral], she released the string. The arrow shot through the air like a comet, striking the profane soul core of the beast she had been aiming at.
No physical wound was left, but the soul core shattered just as the Spell's whisper reached her ears.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast.]
[Your soul grows purer.]
Lua ignored the voice, focusing instead on the fragments being absorbed into her cores. A nice side effect of destroying soul cores directly was that she didn't have to dig out shards and crush them—saving her time.
She drew Eventide three more times, losing light arrows in quick succession.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast..]
[Your soul grows purer]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast..]
[Your soul grows purer]
[You have slain an Awakened Monster..]
[Your soul grows purer]
Ignoring the Spell's reverent whispers, Lua turned her attention to the last beast standing—'A fallen beast' Lua smiled brightly as she peered at the beast's core. 'It's armoured.'
Dismissing Eventide, she dropped from the rooftop. Crimson sparks formed into Sky's Gift as she dashed toward the monster.
The beast swung its sword at her—Lua slid underneath it, driving her spear between the plates of its armor, piercing its ribs.
The beast howled and retaliated, its claws raking against the onyx plating of her Blood Relic. Three deep marks marred the smooth onyx, but [Blood Bound] was already drawing on her blood to repair it.
She pulled her spear back and struck again.
Then, extending her hand and slashing it through the air, the beast stuttered—then was suddenly bisected.
More than ten feet away, an essence blade floated in the air—the large swing had carried it far.
'It worked.'
Lua smirked, called the essence blade to her hand, and drove its tip through the beast's core.
[You have slain Fallen Beast, Lost Knight]
[Your soul grows purer]
'Nothing?' Lua clicked her tongue as she dismissed both the essence blade and Sky's Gift. pulling up her cloaks hood over her hair and horns she walked back home with a mild annoyance that fragments were her only reward.
By the time Lua made it back, she heard two familiar voices talking—Nephis and Sunny. 'So he is alive,' she thought.
Lua smiled as she walked over to the two. A sudden rush of surprise and shock emanated from Nephis, not even remotely controlled. Then Sunny's laughter erupted.
Utterly perplexed, Lua rounded the corner to find Nephis and Sunny facing each other—but a third person was present.
"Kai?" Lua asked, looking at the stunning young man.
"Hello, Lady Lua," Kai responded with a radiant smile that made Lua feel self-conscious about her looks, despite standing out sleeper standards.
Nephis whipped around. "You knew he was here?" she asked, her face flushing slightly.
Lua's eyebrows furrowed. "Uh... Yeah? We arrived the same year, after all."
Nephis looked flabbergasted, to say the least.
"By the way, it's so nice to meet two more friends of Sunny's. What a surprise! I thought he was a complete… uh… solitary person. I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name. Was it Neph?" Kai asked gently.
Sunny grinned mischievously. "Oh, right, I forgot to introduce you. Sorry, my bad. Night, this is Nephis. Although these days, she goes by another name. You might have heard it… meet Changing Star of the Immortal Flame Clan."
Lua barley held back wolfing laughter at Kai's look of utter horror. 'This is perfect.'
"Oh. It's… a pleasure to meet you, my lady. I have… heard so much about you. It's an honor!" Kai spoke in his smooth, enchanting voice.
Lua laughed. "Wow, two celebrities meeting in an alleyway—imagine the rumors," she joked before turning around, figuring she'd receive a pyre to the face from Nephis for not telling her about Kai's presence.
She luckily managed to escape a red-faced Nephis, who looked like she was about to start swinging at Lua. As she was walking away, she heard one last line from a now-composed Nephis.
"So… uh… your friend is already here, Sunny. Can we go have a talk now?" She paused before continuing. "I have something important to discuss with you. It's… a matter of life and death."
Lua sighed, figuring it would be a group meeting. She made her way to their headquarters and entered.