’Huh? Huh... woah!’
Sunny was hit by a flashbang of nostalgia from... a couple months ago. He imdiately thought back to the voice that spoke to him in the Sky Below, giving him loads of exposition.
It seed that Mordret, the self-proclaid Prince of Nothing, was the seventh character that entered the Nightmare. Who would have thought?
Not Sunny. After all, last ti he checked, the mysterious man was trapped in a Citadel guarded by a Saint... which was then annihilated into oblivion. Realistically, he should be dead.
But he wasn’t, sohow, which reminded him of the shard of glass in the Ivory Tower. Sunny almost entertained the thought that Mordret himself had destroyed the Night Temple of the present, but that was doubtful. It had been guarded by countless Masters and a Saint before its destruction, so that wouldn’t have been easy.
Then again, Sunny did kill three Masters the other day. He even killed an immortal Saint with a Wooden Knife, simply because he was just that aweso. So, it wasn’t exactly impossible.
Even so, the usual plebeians couldn’t really compare to him, could they?
Snapping out of his thoughts, Sunny continued to pay attention to Dan Heng’s words:
"The trap that we had set for the Prince of Nothing, was really one against ourselves. Because while our forces were concentrated to form the encirclent, most of the northern reach remained unprotected. And so, left without defenders, one of the towns was taken by the fog. A thousand souls, gone. Slaughtered..."
Dan Heng paused.
"When I ca face to face with the fog, I was suddenly sent to my Soul Sea. In there, I ca face-to-face with the fog, which was actually just a man. Due to so twisted courtesy, he introduced himself as Mordret, the Prince of Nothing, and said that he was able to invade the souls of others through his Aspect. Once he entered another’s Soul Sea, he would engage them in a life or death battle..."
In the next second, Dan Heng’s visage beca... disturbed.
"...Once he entered a person’s soul, he was able to use all their Abilities and mories against them. Looking back, it was like fighting a perfect reflection of myself."
She sighed after a few monts.
"The worst part, however, is what happens when you lose the duel and get killed by him."
Sunny, who had been thinking about the strangeness of such an Aspect, looked at her incredulously.
"What? What else happens when he wins?"
Dan Heng didn’t speak for a mont.
"...Once he wins, he’ll steal the losers body. All of their accumulations will go to him, letting him use all of their tools while wearing a different face. He tried to steal my body in particular, stating that he had found my Aspect and Attributes interesting, but didn’t know I was from the Waking World."
She paused, before adding:
"It also seems like you keep your original appearance in your Soul Sea, considering that he and I weren’t a woman and fog anymore."
’...Out of everything, how the hell is that important?!’
An Aspect that let you invade soone’s Soul Sea? Fight them with their own Abilities, their own mories? That was already overpowered beyond belief, especially if you considered how unprepared most people were for the idea of their own souls turning into a battlefield. But then... stealing their body once you killed them?
Sunny narrowed his eyes, feeling a faint chill creep up his spine.
Normally, Aspects were balanced. Even the most monstrous ones ca with caveats, restrictions, weaknesses hidden under the glamour of strength. Yet everything Dan Heng described about Mordret was one-sided. He invades your Soul Sea, copies everything you can do, fights as your perfect equal... except stronger. And if you lost? Your body beca his new vessel, free for him to puppeteer.
He thought back to what he knew about Aspects. A person’s Flaw was the price of their strength, the shape of their growth. So if Mordret could take bodies, take Abilities, take entire lives as though they were coats to be worn and discarded... what was the hidden cost?
...Actually, did it even matter? If that’s all Mordret can do, then Sunny happened to have a convenient counter in the form of Shadow Dance...
’...Wait.’
"...How did he attack the northern forces if you were keeping him busy?"
She lingered for a while, then said with a hint of uncertainty:
"There were five strange creatures helping him. While we fought the prince himself, the five creatures attacked the town that we had left unprotected, slaughtering every human who lived there."
Sunny leaned back, stunned.
’Five Reflections?!’
Recalling Beastie, the Reflection that he had defeated on Reckoning Island, Sunny instinctively imagined five of them running all over the place. The imagery was... less than pleasant.
’Wait a minute... isn’t this guy... kind of overpowered?’
It made Sunny’s Aspect look decent at most.
’And why the hell does he need to kill so many people—’
Sunny froze. Actually, didn’t he have an Aspect that rewarded him for killing as many creatures as possible? The limit to his Shadow Fragnts was never a thousand like everyone else. The sa could be said for AR-26710.
If Sunny really wanted to, he could go around killing everyone and everything for each and every Fragnt. However, he didn’t particularly like killing humans.
But what if he didn’t have that inhibition?
Soon, Sunny quickly connected the dots, combining Mordret’s insatiable murder spree, the unfairness of his Aspect, and Sunny’s own progression... everything made sense.
The Prince of Nothing had a Divine Aspect.
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