Arriving at the empty apartnt complex that he had the new stove delivered to, Sunny walked into a random room with the corpse of Shadow Blade Kurt over his shoulder. Tossing the dead body on the ground, Sunny leaned against the wall as he checked his runes.
With a new mory, Echo, and the chance to devour Kurt’s soul for his Abilities, Sunny was extrely excited.
There were also a few tidbits of distressing information he gained, that of which he would need to contemplate thoroughly.
With a sigh, Sunny checked his runes:
Na: Sunless.
True Na: Lost From Light.
Rank: Awakened.
Class: Demon.
Shadow Cores: [3/7].
Shadow Fragnts: [1658/3000].
mories: [Weaver’s Mask], [Silver Bell], [Puppeteer’s Shroud], [Vessel of Rembrance], [Midnight Shard], [Moonlight Shard], [Dusk Shard], [Prowling Thorn], [Mantle of the Underworld], [Ordinary Rock], [Autumn Leaf], [Blood Blossom], [Broken Oath], [Dark Wing], [Endless Spring], [Finality’s Farewell], [Destroyer’s Final Road], [Silk Shroud], [Everwinter Night], [Sky Reacher], [Sunflare Talisman], [Ghastly Hunger], [Cruel Sight], [Covetous Coffer], [Evelyn].
Focusing on the runes of the newly-obtained Evelyn, the mory he had recieved from Constance, Sunny... let out a disappointed sigh. He had expected a Transcendent mory, considering how she stated that none of her other rewards could compare.
Na: [Evelyn].
mory Rank: Awakened.
mory Tier: VI.
mory Type: Weapon.
It was... only an Awakened mory of the sixth tier. Maybe Sunny’s expectations had gotten too high, considering how often he gets powerful mories, but he would have thought that he’d gain an Ascended mory, at least.
’She scamd !’
Constance was quite lucky that he was able to keep Kurt’s corpse. Otherwise, she would need to guard every Nightmare Seed in existence to prevent him from becoming a Saint.
Clicking his tongue, Sunny read the description of his new, underwhelming mory.
mory Description: [As the people of War continued on their path of conquest throughout the divine and mortal realms, an alliance was made with the followers of Beast. The Blessed of the Moon were promised technological advancents in exchange for the might of their prized hunters. To commorate the occasion, the Empire granted their newfound allies with a new and innovative weapon, one that would continue to be used in conflicts in the realm of War. And so, Evelyn was created.]
Sunny raised a brow at the description. It seed that the mory he had recieved from Constance wasn’t the usual weapon. Summoning it in his hand, he scrutinized it.
Sunny’s jaw dropped.
The firearm rested heavy and grim, forged of blackened steel etched with cryptic engravings. Its barrel, long and brutal, bore no scars despite it’s outdated design. It emanated an endless desire for blood, to be soaked into the primal liquid of life.
The grip perfectly fit Sunny’s hand, and the trigger sat beneath a jagged guard like a promise of violence. This was no elegant duelist’s pistol — it was a hunter’s instrunt, built for close quarters and blood-soaked streets.
Every inch of it humd with nace, not just a tool, but a symbol of slaughter.
This wasn’t the first ti Sunny has carried a gun, but it was certainly the first ti that he’s ever felt so entranced by one. It was almost like his intuition was calling for him to never release this mory.
There was also the strange description. Sunny assud that the weapon in the description was referring to Evelyn itself, so that would an that far into the Dream Realm’s past, the people who followed War God had created... a gun.
How did that make any sense?! As far as he knew, those people only ever used swords and spears!
And it seed like Evelyn had been a gift to the people who followed Beast God.
With a sigh, Sunny moved onto the enchantnts.
mory Enchantnts: [Quicksilver], [Blood Ammunition], [Blood Bath], [Divine Right], [Hunter’s Mark], [Call of the Night].
’Six whole enchantnts...’
[Quicksilver] Enchantnt Description: "All bullets shot from this gun carry the mystical properties of silver, dealing more damage towards foes of an evil, undead, corrupted, or vile nature."
Sunny tilted his head. Did that an that he would deal more damage to practically every Nightmare Creature? And if a creature held more than one of those traits, would they take even more damage?
Well, at least Sunny knew that this weapon would be useful. He didn’t have many ranged options anyways.
[Blood Ammunition] Enchantnt Description: "The user’s blood can be sacrificed to create a bullet. The strength of the bullet is based on the potency and virility of the blood."
Sunny blinked. Then, he straightened up in astonishnt. Wasn’t this... perfectly tailored towards him due to [Blood Weave]? Undoubtedly, there were few people who had blood as potent as his own. After all, his blood was born of the Daemon of Fate.
Wondering if Evelyn was much more powerful despite it’s lacking Rank, Sunny continued:
[Blood Bath] Enchantnt Description: "The more your foes bleed, the more your vitality returns."
[Divine Right] Enchantnt Description: "This mory is more effective in the hands of divinity."
’What... what a reward!’
Not only would blood loss not beco an issue as long as he hit his shots, but Sunny, who had [Essence of Divinity], should see a stark improvent in Evelyn’s effectiveness. After all, his Attribute completely changed the nature of his Shadow Essence due to the excessive divinity within him. If more divinity equals more power, then this mory might have reached a potency equivalent to the Ascended Rank!
[Hunter’s Mark] Enchantnt Description: "This mory allows the holder to vaguely sense the location of those who have been damaged by it."
Although the enchantnt would have been great for anyone else, Sunny had other sensory options thanks to his Aspect. Sohow, this was the most disappointing enchantnt despite it’s usefulness...
[Call of the Night] Enchantnt Description: "This weapon is alive, and it craves the blood of Beast God and her descendants."
’...Eh?’
Sunny glanced at Evelyn in curiosity. Making sure to not point the handgun at himself, he read the runes that were engraved on it’s blackened steel barrel. He vaguely recognized a few that ant ’Beast’, ’Blood’, and ’Hunger’.
"Uh... you can’t talk, right?"
A strange sensation rushed through him the mont he asked, as if... the mory was confirming his words?
’Huh.’
It couldn’t talk, but it could sowhat communicate. Now that he thought about it, maybe Constance handed the weapon over to him because she was bothered by the weird sensations it would give her. She couldn’t see enchantnts like Sunny could, so it wouldn’t be too strange.
Looking into the spellweave of Evelyn, Sunny furrowed his brow. The weave wasn’t too complex... until he encountered the part that gave the weapon life. All the other enchantnts weren’t very complicated.
What truly caught his attention, however, was how the [Call of the Night] seed excruciatingly similar to two other weaves he had seen before — with major differences.
Ghastly Hunger and the Mantle of the Underworld. Just like those two mories, the weave seed to abruptly end at a certain point, as if it was lacking another anchor.
Moving on from the unexpectedly powerful mory with a sigh, noting to test it out later, Sunny looked down at Kurt’s corpse. Without remorse, he looted the man’s pockets, grabbing his phone, wallet, and all the other crap that was shoved in there.
The shards of glass and empty stimulant packs attracted his attention for a mont. Sunny had expected the stimulants to be of the pleasure-inducing variety, but to his surprise, they seed to be the kind that Awakened use to stay awake for long Druid’s of ti.
A slight frown appeared on his face.
’Don’t tell ... was this guy afraid of going to the Dream Realm?’
...Kurt might have been even more broken than he had suspected. From the way he fought with murderous intent and efficiency, the man had once been a dedicated combatant, a specialist... but what kind of a specialist was scared of his specialty?
With a sign, Sunny stared into the distance and summoned the runes.
And there it was, written in the ancient symbols in the air in front of him:
Echo: [Shadow Blade Kurt].
Echo Rank: Awakened.
Echo Type: Beast.
...All humans were considered to be Beasts by the Spell, since they only had one Soul Core, so this was not surprising.
Well, all humans except for Sunny and AR-26710.
Curious about how the Spell added his moniker to the runes, Sunny read further.
Echo Attributes: [Swift Hand], [Shadow Sworn], [Mark of Death].
[Swift Hand] Attribute Description: "Your blade strikes fast and true."
[Shadow Sworn] Attribute Description: "You are known to shadows."
[Mark of Death] Attribute Description: "You bear a mark of Death, as just like Death, you were created to be a weapon."
Sunny tilted his head a little.
So, an Attribute that increased perception and agility, an Attribute that gifted Kurt affinity to shadows — although to a much lesser extent than his own — and a third Attribute that... actually, Sunny had no idea what the third Attribute did.
It’s description, though, was very interesting. He knew that death had been created by Shadow God, and now, he learned that it had been created as a weapon... but against whom? What kind of enemy could have demanded the creation of such a terrible thing?
Soone immortal, perhaps... no, that didn’t make sense. If there had been a ti before death was invented, then everything back then was immortal, eternal, and endless... right?
Sunny wasn’t sure that he understood the concept of a world without death. What he did know, though, was that sothing as harrowing as death would not have been invented without a reason.
He frowned, then turned his attention back to the runes:
Echo Abilities: [Shadow Manipulation], [Shadow Strike], [Awakened].
[Shadow Manipulation] Ability Description: "You can affect the movent of shadows and walk through them unseen."
[Shadow Strike] Ability Description: "You can strike at the shadows, and your shadow can strike at the living things."
’...As expected.’
Sunny had more or less surmised what Kurt’s Aspect Abilities had been. They were different, but at the sa ti similar to his own. Both were much less versatile and powerful than what he was capable of himself, though, even if the ability to deal direct damage to and through his shadows was sothing Sunny would have loved to have access to.
[Shadow Manipulation], especially, was almost no more than a slightly different version of his passive Attribute, [Child of Shadows].
’Manipulation, really? Just because shadows like more, doesn’t an that you have to deceive them. Rude.’
...Still, having a Shadow like Kurt could add a new layer to his battle prowess.
There was also the last Ability:
[Awakened] Ability Description: "This Echo has the innate abilities of a carrier of the Spell."
So... using mories? That was a nice ability to have. Even Saint herself was limited to only using weapons and charms.
Full of thought, Sunny looked at the last string of runes.
Echo Description: [I have entrusted you with a beautiful blade, but all that you will face is a hideous nightmare.]
He blinked a couple of tis.
’Is... the Spell bitter?’
What a funny thought that was.
Sunny dove into his Soul Sea.
’Let’s take a look...’
He walked past the rows of silent shadows, noticing the dark figure of Shadow Blade Kurt standing among them motionlessly. Sparing him a glance, Sunny approached the spot between the black suns of his Shadow Cores, found a large sphere of light that orbited one of them, and summoned the Echo down.
The sphere floated to the surface of still waters and slowly dimd, revealing a gaunt, naked man standing inside.
Sunny felt his skin crawling.
In front of him was a human... or rather, a soulless copy of a human. Echo Kurt looked almost like a person, but the lifeless emptiness in his eyes scread of a profound, abhorrent wrongness. It was incredibly unnerving.
The Echo was very much like the Hollow victims of its original, only even more vacant and devoid of the undefinable spark that all living things possessed. It was an artificial copy of a man that lacked the very thing that made him human.
A ghastly effigy.
...The thing was incredibly creepy.
Sunny hesitated, then tried to think about things logically.
The Echo was more or less useless to him in its current state, but thanks to it’s [Awakened] Ability, it would possess the innate capacity to use mories... which ant that Sunny could provide Echo Kurt with an armor and a weapon.
That question was... did he want to?
On the surface, that question was rather simple. Who wouldn’t want to have a creature equal to a powerful Awakened in their service? But really, things were more complicated.
Sunny frowned, then raised a hand and poked the ghastly creature in the shoulder.
A new string of runes appeared near it:
[Transform Echo into a Shadow?]
He froze, thinking.
Having a human Shadow certainly had its benefits. But having any Shadow also demanded a trendous investnt of resources. Nurturing Saint was very hard on Sunny, and especially on his arsenal. Less importantly, but still sowhat pressing, was the need to spend a hundred Shadow Fragnts to complete the transformation.
Sunny had spent so much ti and effort to get halfway to creating a fourth Core, and the idea of being suddenly pushed back by a whole hundred Fragnts did not seem too alluring.
The point was, he felt reluctant to turn just any Echo into a Shadow.
So was Kurt a worthy Echo?
Even though Sunny was very curious to see what would happen if one of the silent shadows was placed into a human Echo, the answer was... no.
Sunny wasn’t sure that he was.
There were two reasons.
The first one was rather simple, but also not too convincing.
Awakened were inherently mad to a certain extent, whether it was due to the horrors of the Dream Realm, the threat of their fellow Awakened, or the trials brought by their Flaws. Sunny felt like dragging around a reanimated copy of a man he killed would bring him closer to making that step. His humanity — and sanity, to be honest — were already on thin ice.
However, that wasn’t the main reason.
The second reason, and the most important one, was the nature of the Shadows. Shadows weren’t soulless, empty copies of their originals. They possessed a semblance of a consciousness, and a distinct personality... Saint was living proof.
Yes, she was created from a powerful Nightmare Creature, but her Attributes and Abilities were not what made her strong.
Saint was strong because she was Saint.
Her will, intellect, and unbreakable resolve were what made her such a deadly presence on the battlefield, and a valued companion for Sunny.
And that was why he didn’t want to create a Shadow of Kurt. Yes, Kurt possessed powerful Abilities that shared the affinity with Sunny’s Aspect.
But Kurt himself... was weak.
His weakness was the cause of why he had eventually surrendered to the burden of the Nightmare Spell and was about to massacre defenseless humans of the mundane variety.
No matter how powerful, Sunny didn’t want to possess a Shadow of an unstable butcher... but more than anything, he didn’t want to possess a Shadow of soone who was weak. How could he rely on soone like that?
On the path he was taking, there was no place for weakness... at least not for the weakness of that kind.
With a sigh, he summoned Saint, and watched her appear near the naked figure of Kurt in a whirlpool of black flas.
The taciturn demon stared at him with her indifferent ruby eyes, not paying any attention to the human Echo. Seeing them side by side only made Sunny more sure of his decision.
He remained silent for a few monts, and then gestured at Kurt:
"Do you, maybe... want to eat him?"
Saint remained motionless for a few monts, then silently turned to the Echo and raised one hand. Her gauntlet easily pierced the chest of the dead killer, and a few monts later, his body disintegrated into a flood of white sparks.
Those sparks ford into three brilliant streams and entered into the darkness that hid inside the Shadow, then flowed into her three Core remnants.
[Your Echo has been destroyed.]
Sunny felt a wave of bitterness wash over his heart, but very soon, it disappeared.
He was watching the Shadow Fragnt counter in the runes describing Saint.
...Apparently, feeding on Echoes was much more nourishing for a Shadow. She received much more Fragnts than she would have from an Awakened mory of the first tier.
Right now, the counter was showing a simple number:
Shadow Fragnts: [50/200].
He stared at the number for a few monts, then rubbed his eyes. No, he wasn’t mistaken. It was indeed fifty out of two hundred.
Pleasantly confused, Sunny narrowed his eyes.
’But how does it make sense?’
Her Shadow Fragnts had been reset to zero after Ascending. He hadn’t fed her any mories recently, so this was quite the jump.
With a sudden suspicion, Sunny turned around and looked at the rows of silent shadows.
...The shadow of Kurt was gone.
’So, she consud it too...’
He was starting to understand what had happened. Most likely, a larger share of the Fragnts ca not from the Echo, but from the shadow of it’s original. Kurt had been an experienced Awakened, one in possession of a fully saturated Core. By absorbing his shadow, Saint must have inherited a portion of all the Soul Shards he had accumulated over his life — just like a human would after slaying another human.
Of course, since his Shadow was now an Ascended, she required Shadow Fragnts of similar quality to grow one-to-one. Those that ca from Kurt were only Awakened, though.
So, assuming that a tenth of the Soul Shards from Kurt’s fully-saturated Core were converted into Shadow Fragnts, then Saint should have had [100/200]. Due to the difference in Rank, however, she instead gained fifty.
Suddenly, the regret he felt over sacrificing such a valuable Echo disappeared.
’One last thing...’
With a grin, Sunny exited his Soul Sea. Holding out his left hand, the gauntlet of the Mantle of the Underworld disappeared to reveal a porcelain glove. Holding it out in front of Kurt’s corpse, a maw suddenly opened up on Sunny’s palm, revealing rows of jagged heath and a long tongue.
Suddenly, Sunny’s division shifted.
He saw a translucent figure — or rather, a ghostly image of Kurt, which seed to rapidly deteriorate.
Sunny paled. At this speed, it would take less than a minute for the soul to disappear to... wherever souls went. Sohow, it hadn’t disappeared in the ti between when Kurt died and when Sunny decided to devour it.
Sothing to think about.
’Eat it you damn glove!’
A crimson eye suddenly appeared on the back of Sunny’s hand, which seed to... roll in annoyance?
’...Why is all my crap suddenly gaining sentience?! Just eat!’
The spiritual figure was suddenly drawn in to the glove, twisting and wiggling as it tried to escape. Sunny could faintly see Kurt’s eyes widen in horror.
Then, the glove seed to suddenly expand, it’s maw gaping open as it swallowed Kurt whole. As it shrunk back to it’s normal size, drawing a strange look from Sunny, both the mouth and eye disappeared.
’Creepy...’
Sunny prepared to check the mory’s runes, praying fervently to whoever was listening.
’Give Shadow Strike, give Shadow Strike...’
Sunny opened the runes... and groaned in disappointnt.
First Slot: [Shadow Manipulation].
"What a useless Ability..."
Under Weaver’s Mask, Sunny wore a wide grin.
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