Nephis stared into the pit of darkness that swallowed Lua and the second Spire messenger up. The first messenger, the one holding the shard memory, lay in a heap near where to cohort first encountered it, its bestial body broken and battered, crimson blood pooling round the damnable thing's gaping beak.
Nephis stared for a long time before the sound of hurried footsteps drew near, Effie approached to her side, following her gaze down the hole, her usually teasing expression wiped away by a pale, almost ghastly face.
"She's alive." A voice called out from behind as Sunny steps forward, cradling the transcendent bone knife Lua wielded. The memory had yet to dissipate into white sparks clearly disparaging the idea that Lua had perished in the subsequent fall down the dark pit.
The dagger had been embedded within the Spire Messenger when it attempted to snap the young Sleeper in half between its beak. The twisted crow paid the high price for the attempted hunt.
"W-we have to go down there, we have to save her." Effie said in a hurry, her voice shaky with barely suppressed emotion and dread. The Forgotten Shore was already a nightmare for sleepers and would certainly give Masters a run for their money.
But the underworld… that was a completely different story, Saints trembled at the idea of willingly exploring its depths. Unknown to the 6 Sleepers, even the Soverignes were limited to scurrying around the borders of the Underworld like rats.
"We can't." Sunny interrupted before any of the others could give their opinions, "We barely managed to handle the Messenger, and now you want to go into another death zone."
"Lua is down there!" Effie roared, causing Kai to stiffen and Cassie to jolt at the sudden noise. The young blind girl looked paler than marble in the low light. For his part, Kai looked sickly apologetic, his natural kind heart shattering at the harshness of leaving behind one of their own.
"We can't help her." Nephis stated solemnly, drawing the huntress' ire. "We know she's alive thanks to the memory," Nephis gingerly took the dagger from Sunny's pale hands and tucked it into the belt of her armour, making sure it was secure but available if need be.
"She will survive, she is made of sterner stuff than most of humanity… I do worry for her, but do not doubt her ability to survive." She gave her piece, months of fighting alongside the woman had shown her the truest extent of the Sleeper's power and ability to overcome all odds, no matter how rigged.
It wasn't in the same sense as Sunny surviving deadly encounters or Nephis' own ability to defy the natural order of the world but more like the young Dreamspawn was moving through the world in a way it didn't properly anticipate and more importantly, couldn't accommodate. Although this fact seemed lost on the person in question.
It was unnatural and eerie for sure, but then again so is both the Waking and Dream Realms so the Dreamspawn's odd nature wasn't really that out of place, at least she didn't seem to harbour the same inhuman nature as the first member of their species.
"Let's hope so…" Effie drawled slowly her tone implying her deep misgivings with the idea of leaving one of their own to fend for themselves in one of the most dangerous parts of the Dream Realm.
Kai raised his hand and gripped Effie's shoulder in a reassuring manner, "If anyone would survive, it would be Lua." Effie did little but glower at them, the reassurance doing little to quell her worries.
Nephis turned solemnly to Sunny and Caster, her stoic face only letting a small amount of grief show through, "Did one of you get the Dusk Shard?"
Sunny only nodded in response, even his shadow remained still and somber, in his short few months knowing the Dreamspawn he had come to find her quite a comfortable person to be around.
Despite knowing his flaw and the existence of his true name, she remained respectful and refused to pry deeper into Sunny's character and motives, electing to allow Sunny to live his own life without her direct interference.
This fate being the likely end to such an incredible person really left a bitter taste in Sunny's mouth, the influence of [Fated] likely played a significant part in guiding the cohort to this outcome.
'Damnation' He thought bitterly to himself, resentful to the dead gods that they would lose one of their own in such an unprecedented way.
Nephis took a step away from the pit, sliding the Talon into the belt of her armour, this was their indicator about Lua's life, and a transcendent weapon none the less. Leaving such an item to rot in Effie's special bag would be an utter waste.
Many creatures would struggle to even scratch the surface of the bone dagger, so it was no real risk to use it readily but any of the active enchantments wouldn't respond to anyone but the owner's soul essence, so it was severely limited in its capabilities.
Sighing to herself, Nephis fully turned and made her way back to the group, where they would decide how the plan to depose Gunlung would play out now that their strongest card was out of play.
Her mind gradually wandered back to that vision Cassie had had during their first few nights together, 'there was no mention or symbolism for Lua… was this guaranteed to happen no matter what.' The thought about the inevitability of Fate was haunting for the last daughter of the Immortal Flame.
***
Deep below the cursed peaks of the Hollow Mountains within the eternal darkness of the underworld a young woman lay on her back amidst a heap of shattered obsession splinters and half broken boulders.
The ground was caved in where she rested, the impact of her landing having shattered the stone. A few dozen meters from her body a large winged creature with pale skin and jet black feathers round its serrated beak lay on the ground in a heap.
A long scarlet spear sat embedded into the creature's head, the tip embedded deep within the monster's skull. The shaft steadily drinking up the blood pooling around the creature and pulsing with ghostly red embers in the darkness.
Slowly the woman's eyes opened their rose gold colouring damp in the dark environment, their subtle glow only highlighting where they are. The deep yellow runes curving round the spear's cylindrical hilt thumping with light, indicating the spear's capacity for blood was almost fulfilled.
Shakily Lua turned her head, her gaze tracking over the obsidian cave she'd landed into the Spire Messenger which lay near her, tracing over its body her eyes landed on Sky's Gift which sat half embedded in its head.
Only giving the war spear a tracery bit of time she traced further up, past the curved and jagged rocks which made up the ceiling of the cave she landed in and up to the gaping pit of darkness above her.
"Im trapped" Her quiet, blank voice rang out, echoing slightly off the cave walls. "...Wolf" beside her a shape formed from starry mist materialised, gradually forming into a wolf, its ears perked up as it lowered its muzzle to Lua.
Tentatively it looked over her body before letting out a soft whine, following the Eidelon's gaze she sucked in a breath as she stared at the large shard of obsidian which had pierced straight through her abdomen and out the other side, pushing past her armour entirely.
A grimace flashed over her face as she crunched her core and rose into a sitting position, her gauntleted hand coming to cradle the sharp to prevent it from both moving, which would cause further potential damage and to keep it from sliding out which would cost her a large amount of blood.
Of course there was practically no blood on her or coming from her thanks to her greedy armour drinking up any that escaped and sealed the wound already. But, pulling the shard loose would undoubtedly cause it to reopen and possibly bleed out before her armour could re-seal.
Raising her arm she positioned it on Wolf's fuzzy back, the Eidelon in turn shifted, expanding in size to act like a crutch. Slowly rising to her feet whilst suppressing a grimace Lua's gaze drifted upwards.
For a moment the proud, confident demeanour of a Legacy broke apart, but it was gone just as quickly, replaced with a grim sort of determination. "The talon!" she gasped, remembering how she had skewered the first messenger with the transcendent dagger, "It's still up there… that means they'll know I'm still alive."
She grimaced at the thought of losing her most effective weapon, the transcendent memory was stranded with the rest of the cohort, but given that it served as proof of her survival it was necessary to let it remain, at-least for now.
"I'll need to find water soon lest I die quicker than some monster devouring me." As she spoke to herself, a memory from her time with Morgan popped into her head. According to the Princess of War, King Anvil himself had spent some time down here with the other members of his cohort.
He had apparently been quite adamant about avoiding anything to do with the zone due to even supremes having to crawl around like gutter rats. Morgan seemed to think her father was exaggerating to an extent given that they were just new supremes when they were there.
But, Lua was not foolish enough to believe a mere dormant devil had any chance of surviving in this place. So heeding the sword sovereign's advice was paramount in this scenario.
"What means of escape do I have?" Lua mused to herself as Wolf assisted her towards her spear, yanking it free of the spire messenger's head caused a small amount of grey brain matter to ooze out of its fractured skull.
The smell was pungent and disgusting, wafting through the air like a dense cloud. Undoubtedly this would attract something which lurked in the dark. So, without wasting much time Lua first extracted the Ascended soul shard and crushed it between her clawed fingers.
[Your soul grows purer]
The Spell's comforting voice gently whispered in her ear, its precedence a comfort in this dark corner or rather bottom of the world. Many people's descriptions of the Spell differed, some saying it was indifferent, others venerent.
Nephis had personally described its voice as despicable, mocking and cruel. Clearly the thing had favourites. Although no one really knew if that actually related to the rate of rewards the Spell bestowed.
Lua struck her spear forward again, slowly carving slices of meat off of the corpse and warping them in her cloak before tying it up. Slowly raising it up she used [Assimialate] on the cloak to attach the bundle to the back of her armour to form a makeshift backpack.
"Wolf, come here." She spoke softly and called her Eidelon over and painfully clambered onto its back, leaning forward like a horse rider, "Should i have a saddle made?" she questioned the Eidelon, who only shrugged in return.
Lua found herself frowning at how the Eidelon was beginning to show more of an ego, it seemed the more she summoned it, the more its personality would develop.
It was a complicated feeling but knowing the Eidelon would remain loyal to its master regardless was comforting, perhaps it would function similar to Sunny's shadow and the small range of emotion the stone saint had displayed.
Regardless, she rested against her Eidelon as they both slowly trudged into the darkness of the caverns. The walls were the same, smooth obsidian that formed the floor and ceiling of the branch cave she landed in.
Although some particular slivers had a subtle red glow coming off of small cracks which fractured the smooth surface. The fissures gave off a small amount of heat, likely the capillaries to some large lava duct which flowed around the area.
The small fissures increased with both size and heat the further she ventured into the tunnel, gradually raising the previously freezing temperature to one of pleasant warmth to a suffocating heat.
After it got to around 40 degrees the temperature seemed to level out, no longer increasing with depth. It brought into question whether or not the Dream Realm was a planet with a molten core or something else entirely, given the Realms horizon lines it made one assume that it was a regular planet.
Yet the gravity matched that of Earth, which would not be possible given that the explored size of the Realm was already larger that Earth and was theorised to be even larger, the resulting gravity should be much greater yet it remained unchanged.
Eventually after what felt like about half a day of walking the scenery changed again. The narrow cave which she was traversing transitioned into a wide open maw of a cavern. The path ahead suddenly dropped off like the sheer face of a cliff, clearly she'd popped out at one of the higher tunnels.
The cavern was a few dozen kilometers in diameter, shaped like a large misshapen dome with multiple supporting rock structures, varying from wide to thin. The roof of the dome was cracked slightly, great fractures running across the weathered stone.
Beyond the cracks lay an unfathomable darkness that almost appeared to stare back at her. Straining her augmented eyes, Lua tried to discern exactly what lay there when a large shape emerged from the largest of the cracks.
What appeared to be some kind of shadowy vulture made of pure darkness shot out, screeching and hammering its wings before a large pale grey arm emerged, its long spindly fingers wrapping swiftly round the creature before pulling back into the infernal darkness of the cracks.
"...Big world huh." Lua mumbled to herself, thankful that the creature seemed to possess no interest in pursuing her and only focused on the darkness creature before it.
The big thing was probably some Great or Cursed ranked nightmare creature given the dreadful feeling she got from merely gazing at it. But it wouldn't help to stare at the creature given that such an action alone could draw its gaze and possible ire.
But there was little interest for a Great of Cursed one to chase down a little Dormant Devil. But regardless, proceeding further would require more caution. Peeling her intruding gaze off of primordial fracture and back to the rest of the area she went back to analysing her options.
She seemed to appear on one of the higher cave tunnels, hundreds maybe even thousands more emerging from various points in the dome like speckled stars of darkness against the infernal glow from the magma cracks.
Most of the caves seemed to be around a similar size to the one she emerged from yet a select few of them seemed utterly colossal in comparison. One in particular to her right on the far wall of the dome, seemed at least a few kilometers in height and width, stretching around halfway up to the top height of the dome.
Somewhere deep in the tunnel lay a subtle but intense glow of light and heat, 'The origin to the magma?' what laybound was likely a magma chamber. And, given that she could feel the heat from here it must be a gigantic one.
Shifting focus again she looked down to the floor of the dome, what she saw was more of the same besides a few objects which gave her pause. Strewn about the obsidian floor and rocks was what appeared to be three large, ruined train cars.
Lua couldn't get a good view from her current position but the shape was clear enough to identify. Three large train cars, devoid of an engine car, were resting coldly on the obsidian, no sign of nearby tracks.
Two of the cars had been ripped at and were in tatters, whilst the third and foremost seemed to be in good condition. It was little more than to see the shape and conditions of the cars at the current distance.
The oppressive darkness and general distance making it nigh impossible for a Sleeper to make out any true details. Lifting her attention to the center of the dome's floor, she saw a large iridescent magma pool, glowing brightly against the dark surrounding, almost like a great beacon.
Floating in the centre of the pool was a large island with a large monolithic tower sat in the centre, which looked like it was ripped straight from the Chained Isles. Despite not being anchored there, she had visited multiple times on account of her mother. The purpose was both to show her the clan's territory and to force a seed of the nightmare to infect her.
The tower sat on the island looked almost eerily similar to the Ivory Tower which resided at the centre of her home region. Of course, the color was off of course, but the resemblance was nonetheless present.
A wave of bitter nostalgia washed over Lua as she reminisced on the better part of her life, and the despair that came with being dropped and stranded in the Forgotten Shore for almost three years.
And now the situation had worsened even more, she was trapped alone in the underworld, injured and missing her strongest weapon. "What did Neph always say?" Wolf tilted its head in response, its glowing eyes serene.
"Oh, right… 'If it is our will, who dares to stop us'" Lua chuckled at her macabre imitation of Nephis unwavering tone, the one she used when ever she needed to convince them to do something obviously suicidal, yet always worked.
In the centre of the bare stone island, rested a large metallic obelisk, its features bare besides a large entrance at the bottom, and the tip which was decorated with numerous overlapping runic patterns, glowing a stark blue against the surrounding magma glow.
Patting the sides of wolf's body softly with her armoured boots, she urged the Eidelon forward, and down the jagged stone slope which ran from her cave entrance down to the floor of the dome.
***
It took about an hour for the pair to traverse downwards onto the 'ground' where they were surrounded by large boulders which had been dislodged from the ceiling when the fractures occurred, slamming down to the ground and casting large craters in consequence.
Gingerly traversing over the unstable portions of obsidian she drew near to the three carriages. They appeared to be made from silvery stone like material, large petrified wood roots stretching over the structures like vines.
Large inert runic patterns and circles decorated the armoured hulls, the portions which were not ripped apart of course. Each individual car seemed about hundred meters long and ten to fifteen meters wide. Sporting four levels as was evident by the back of one of the cars.
The bottom most level seemed to be a subtrain maintenance tunnel, whilst the ones above were for mainuse purposes. Lua slid off Wolf and used it to help her up into the subtrain. Conjuring an essence blade in her hand, she advanced at a cautious pace.
One arm shielding her still impaled side whilst the other was on guard for attack. The insides of the subtrain seemed to be made from the same stone as the outside but there were far more of the petrified wood veins stretching throughout the length.
Many more runic spells and formations lining each of the 'motors' as Lua judged. Leaning down she held the blade close to illuminate the dormant runes. Knowledge flitted into her from her unique eyes.
The innate ability finally proved to do more than see souls as small amounts of understanding came to her. The runes as she read seemed to both provide a good amount of suspension for the carriage but also form what she could only read as 'rails'.
"Rails? Does that mean it can go pretty much anywhere and is not beholden to prebuilt areas?" Lua looked as Wolf for its opinion, who in return, leaned in and licked her face. A grimace falling over the sleepers face as she was covered in slobber. "Disgusting…"
Spending a few more minutes to understand the basic principles of how the runic array built into the carriage's structure functioned, she moved on. Proceeding through the two back carriages and into the foremost.
The subtrain in all three carriages was pretty much the same but this one seemed to activate slightly with her presence. The long dormant runes flickering in a deep vermilion at her entry.
A small but subtle drain on her cores appeared as if the carriage was attempting to use her to start up again. Raising an eyebrow Lua stalked till she found a service ladder, vaulting up it to find herself on the first floor.
This carriage's main interior was different as well, instead of four normal sized levels, it only had two. A large cargo bay and metal gangway above, circling round the edge of the walls and leading to what appeared to be a large command room.
The main cargo hold was mostly empty besides a few boxes of long out of date supplies. However, in the centre were two large crates, the sealing runes on these containers were not dormant in the slightest.
Glowing with prominent and oppressive jade light, their seal still fully active and working. Cautiously she approached, Wolf towering behind her. Raising one hand she traced the runes until she found what she was looking for.
Injecting some of her magenta essence into the runes, the constrained hissed, and whirled as it slowly opened, revealing the contents within. Deep within the crate rested a stand, resting on its dais was a large red velvet cushion.
Framed by the cushion was an ornate glass pen, its body decorated with brilliant golden runes, their enchantments well beyond Lua's understanding of the sorcery technique. The tip was as clear as spring water, the spiralling edges converging into a simple, pin prick wide point.
Within the pen's glass structure, rested five kaleidoscopic points, their colour shifting constantly with brilliant light. A quick gasp escaped Lua's lips as she shielded her eyes from it, the brightness of divinity overpowering to someone like her.
Cautiously, as if handling a nuclear bomb, she extended her fingers and touched it. In a sudden blur, the pen shattered into billions of bright rainbow lights as it dissolved into her soul.
[You have received a Memory.]
The Spell's delighted voice whispered softly in her ear, the blinding light of the five sacred soul shards vanishing into her soul. 'The runes were to stop the memory from falling apart. It's a containment field.'
To test this, she attempted to call forth another memory from her soul. Nothing responded. Taking a quick glance around Lua memorised the runic spell's formation, she never knew when it could come in handy but she had a greater boon to review.
[WhisperSpine Quill]
Memory Rank: Sacred
Memory Tier: V
Memory Type: Tool
Memory Description: [A specialised tool used for runic sorcery.]
Memory Enchantments: [Archive of Glyphs], [Astral Ink Genesis], [Glyphbinding], [Runeweaver's Grace]
"S-scared?" Lua stared blankly at the runes, the sheer disbelief of possessing the second highest rank of memory possible. Even within the networks of the Great Clans, there were no known Divine Memories and only the King of Swords possessed Sacred memories.
Even then, they were far and in between, and only a product of one of his aspect abilities and not something that could be forged.
In combination with the Spell's reluctance to reward memories for killing high rank enemies truly made memories above the Supreme tier impossibly valuable.
Resigned, Lua turned her attention to the Four enchantments the Sacred memories possessed and their functions.
[Archive of Glyphs]
Enchantment Description: [This Memory stores a library of runic sorcery.]
[Astral Ink Genesis]
Enchantment Description: [This Memory requires neither ink nor paper to draw.]
[Glyphbinding]
Enchantment Description: [This Memory can temporarily enchant items or individuals.]
[Runeweaver's Grace]
Enchantment Description: [This Memory Guides the wielder in runic sorcery.]
"...this is so… useless." Lua stared blankly at the enchantment description, a runic sorcery tool. Who needed that! Here she was stuck in perhaps the second most dangerous region and fate deals her such a hand like this.
"...I'm gonna die." Shaking head and dispelling the resignation, Lua lifted her gaze back to the floating runes. A joke, this is what it felt like. A sacred memory, perhaps one of ten in current existence and it's a sorcery tool, something Lua only knows the basics of.
However, one particular enchantment caught her eye [Archive of Glyphs], the idea of a library of different iterations of runic sorcery being stored within the memory was undoubtedly enticing to any awakened, but amplified from its owner being a legacy.
Most legacy children were taught the basics of the various types of sorcery however, Lua had always had a particular interest in the runic variety, later partially shifting to the soul based sorcery the Prince of the Underworld practiced after her first nightmare.
The creation of Nether's Stone Saints and following defilement of the Gods' laws against the six… no wait seven dreadful Deamons had always been intriguing to her mother Tyris. Especially the kind of secret existence of the Ebony Tower, wherever it really was still eluded the White Feather Clan but its existence certainly wasn't a mystery.
'Most of the enchantments are rather self-explanatory, but I'm not really sure with the more… arcane ones.' Lua pondered to herself before cycling a small amount of soul essence into that particular enchantment.
Stars burst behind her eyes, as she jolted back, blood dripping slowly out her tear glands as the usual radiant rose gold colouring of her pupils darkens and shifts to a dirty ruby colour as the internal blood vessels ruptured.
Staggering back Lua instinctively brought her hand up to her nose, the back of her hand pressed against the two crimson streams of blood leaking out of her body. "Wha-" barely managing to even mutter, her legs gave out as she crumpled to the floor like a deflating balloon.
Wolf was by her side in an instant, using his large body to cradle the sleeper. Activating the enchantment was a horrible mistake. Without any experience Lua had unknowingly attempted to access all the information within the Artificial Library at once.
Centuries of Runic information had attempted to force its way into Lua's brain in one instant, the sheer load rupturing internal vessels and causing internal bleeding within her brain and draining four soul cores in a mere moment, which undoubtedly caused issues regarding the stability of her soul.
Lua stared emptily into space, her whole existence still reeling from the accidental attack on her mind. She could barely see past the veil of both blood and pain, her ears ringing loudly, preventing her from finding balance and leading to her physical collapse.
"urughh~ " A gurgled moan of agony spilled out her lips, her regeneration temporarily overwhelmed due to the suddenness and severity of the damage, combined with the instantaneous draining of her four cores, preventing her from using an active form of regeneration or damage control.
Blackness creeped into the edges of her vision, her head lulling against Wolf as unconsciousness took over.