After a long-winded explanation on the best way to subjugate the automatons, Sunny stared at the Ascended Soul Shards in contemplation. Considering that he needed Shadow Fragnts, he didn’t have any use for them.
The sa could be said for Seele, who also saturates her cores through the act of killing. Well, one of them at least. Sunny had no idea how the second one worked.
She wasn’t present currently, having left to look for Oleg.
And since he couldn’t bring them back into the Dream Realm without either a storage mory or becoming a Master, there was only a single reasonable solution.
He had a needy lady to provide for after all.
"Welco to Sunny’s Brilliant Emporium!"
With a grin on on his face, Sunny quickly snatched the five Soul Shards as he recieved the baffled stares of his recent companions. Standing on the husk of the automaton, he explained:
"Today’s item of interest are five Ascended Soul Shards! The price for one of these is a single mory! Normally, it would be worth one of the Ascended Rank, but I’ll graciously give you guys a discount, so an Awakened mory works just as well, no matter how useful or useless it is."
Bronya frowned in confusion.
"Shouldn’t we just split them up? We all contributed to the defeat of the robot..."
With a smile on his face, Sunny replied:
"Unlike you, Princess, so people have to provide for themselves. Besides, I’ll take literally any mory! I’m sure you have so trash that you want to clean out."
Sweeping his gaze over Dan Heng, March, and Bronya — who still seed skeptical despite his flawless explanation — Sunny asked:
"What are you waiting for? This is a once in a lifeti deal! After this, it’ll only be mories that are equal in Rank, so take advantage while I’m still feeling generous..."
After a few monts of silence, March stepped forward.
"It doesn’t matter if the mory is good or not, right?"
’Saint, you will definitely be feasting.’
"That is what I said, yes."
Extending his hand out for March to grab, Sunny felt her mories flow into his soul, making them his own.
[You have recieved a mory.]
[You have recieved a mory.]
Quickly checking his runes to make sure that they were of the Awakened Rank, Sunny passed two Soul Shards over to March, who imdiately crushed them to absorb the Essence within. She then left, stating that she was going to look for Seele.
Sunny waited to check whether the mories were good or not for when he gave away all five of the Ascended Soul Shards. If they weren’t very good, he would feed them to Saint in order to increase her Shadow Fragnt counter. If they were powerful enough to be added to Sunny’s armory, then he would keep them.
Either way, Sunny would get more powerful no matter how strong or weak a mory was.
The process was repeated with Dan Heng, gaining another two mories in exchange for two Soul Shards. He also ended up leaving, stating that he was going to look for March... who was looking for Seele. Sunny was starting to believe that she had gotten lost while looking for the Underworlder.
With only a single Soul Shard left, Sunny prepared to receive a single mory from Bronya. Assuming that they were all Awakened mories of the first Tier, and were all fed to Saint, she would be five Shadow Fragnts closer to reaching her limit.
It was small, but it was progress nonetheless.
As Bronya held his hand, she transferred her mories over to Sunny.
’...Huh?’
There was only one Soul Shard, so he should have only gained one mory. Yet, the Spell was telling him otherwise.
[You have recieved a mory.]
[You have recieved a mory.]
[You have recieved...]
To make sure that he wasn’t seeing things, Sunny examined his mories...
And found that the list had almost doubled in size.
Blinking, Sunny turned towards Bronya with a confused expression.
"...You know that you were only supposed to give one mory, right?"
As expected, she simply nodded, showing that she understood what she had done.
But that only made Sunny even more confused.
"So why did you give so many?"
Bronya paused for a mont, before smiling.
"Although I don’t know the full story, I believe that the three of you truly desire to help Belobog. To , that is worth much more than a few Soul Shards."
She sent him a curious look as she continued:
"Besides, you have an actual use for these mories, right?"
Sunny stared at her for a mont, before nodding.
"How did you know?"
Bronya pointed at her eyes.
"One of my Attributes make especially observant. Also, I doubt anyone remotely competent would give away Soul Shards for unusable mories — not unless there was sothing more to it."
...In retrospect, it would seem strange if soone specifically asked for mories that didn’t provide much benefit.
"Well... thanks, Bronya."
Looking away in embarrassnt, Sunny walked over to one of the mine’s walls — ignoring the giggles coming from behind him. Sitting on the ground while leaning against the wall, Sunny entered his Soul Sea in order to both check his new mories and feed so of them to Saint.
As usual, there were his Shadow Cores within the sky — the third one, his Demon Core, having been ford recently. Below, the shadows of his slain foes stood silently, peacefully resting within his soul.
Around his Shadow Cores were small orbs of light, which represented his mories. The amount of them increased drastically due to the amount that Bronya had given him.
Looking around his lightless soul, Sunny sighed. Summoning Saint, he watched as his Shadow rose from the dark sea. She silently stared at him with two ruby flas emitting from her eyes, clad in dark, lusterless armor that was similar to the Mantle of the Underworld.
In the Vessel of Rembrance, his past self noted that there might have been a correlation between the two, but there wasn’t any conclusive evidence.
Sorting through his mories, he took note of the few that seed like they could be useful. Having more charms and tools would always be helpful.
The rest of the mories were either completely useless, or were weapons that wouldn’t be suitable for their respective style of combat. Sunny could probably make use of them if he were to shadow another’s fighting style through Shadow Dance, but the weapons didn’t seem much better than the Midnight Shard.
Plus, if he needed another weapon, he could use Serpent to transform into one. He would need to increase it’s Rank first before it could be effective though...
He kept a single weapon mory though, seeing that it might have so use later...
One by one, Sunny handed over mories to Saint for consumption, each of them dissipating into light as they were destroyed. He watched as her counter of Shadow Fragnts went up with each mory.
Shadow Fragnts: [180/200].
[186/200].
[192/200].
After handing her a few more mories, Sunny held his breath.
Shadow Fragnts: [200/200].
...What was going to happen now?
According to the Vessel of Rembrance, the last ti Saint had evolved, her transformation took a very long ti. She retreated into a chrysalis after defeating a creature of darkness, and had ford a new core. But this ti was different, since he had simply filled her Shadow Fragnt counter.
A few monts later, Sunny received the answer.
Bathed in the lightlessness of his Soul Sea, Saint suddenly shuddered. It felt like a deep, dark energy within her surged, radiating from within as Sunny himself felt it.
It was very different, but also very similar to the process he himself had gone through after the First Nightmare.
’Is she... is she ascending to a new Rank?’
The thought filled Sunny with a jubilant thrill.
anwhile, Saint was in the throes of her transformation. The still waters around her were now restless, as though assaulted by invisible winds. Wisps of dancing black fla suddenly appeared around her body, and it rose above the surface of the water, becoming partially obscured.
Sunny took a step back and silently watched the strange and beautiful process, his heart beating wildly.
After a few minutes, it was over.
The invisible winds disappeared, and so did the black flas. The water turned tranquil and still once again. Saint landed on her feet and straightened, her graceful figure brimming with new power. The glow of her ruby eyes seed to have beco brighter.
Unlike the previous ti, the taciturn demon had not changed outwardly. Her onyx armor was still composed of polished, stonelike tal. Sunny knew that beneath it, her skin was still smooth and white as alabaster.
...On the inside, though, the changes were nothing short of profound.
Sunny hesitated, then summoned the runes.
Shadow: [Marble Saint.]
...Her na didn’t change. The next string of runes, however, was vastly different:
Shadow Rank: Ascended.
He froze.
’...Can I marry Saint?’
Sunny was amazed by his own abilities. Not only could his Shadows besides Serpent increase in Class, but also in Rank.
Ascended, Saint was now Ascended! Indeed, she had achieved a new rank... the sa Rank, in fact, as that of Cocolia, and Sampo, as well as the Doomsday Beast, the Web Empress, and the automaton.
An Ascended human was called a Master, while Nightmare Creatures of the sa Rank were called Fallen. Saint was now sowhere in between — a creature possessing multiple Cores, but following the Path of Ascension as opposed to the Path of Corruption.
Like Sunny himself.
Of course, she was much more powerful than him now.
Sunny was torn between being mad with joy and slightly bitter. As her master, wouldn’t it be logical for him to be stronger than Saint? She’s starting to seem more like an overpowered summon he calls upon during tis of trouble, instead of a minion that fights battles that aren’t worth his ti.
He sighed, then looked at his Demon with a wide smile.
"Good job, Saint! Who’s going to stop us now, huh?"
The taciturn Demon did not answer, and just tilted her head a little.
...Then, however, she silently raised her hand, made a fist, and lightly struck the left side of her breastplate twice.
Sunny nodded, inwardly cheering as he thought about how easy the rest of his life was going to be.
’World domination, here I co!’
He lingered for a mont, and then looked back to the runes.
Saint’s Class, Attributes, and Abilities did not change. At the very end of the plane of runes, he was t with the Shadow Fragnt counter.
Shadow Fragnts: [0/200].
As Sunny stared at the number, he imdiately started thinking about where he could get more mories. He wanted to make a Transcendent Demon as soon as possible...
Dismissing Saint, Sunny looked through so of his new mories.
mory Na: [Everwinter Night].
mory Rank: Awakened.
mory Tier: III
mory Type: Charm.
mory Description: [As they walked through the Shade, the cold seeps in. Flesh and bones turn to ice and frost, just as Preservation falls to Destruction.]
Sunny found the mory’s description to be eerie. It seed to state that the Preservation has already lost to the Stellaron crisis, but what did that an? Belobog was still standing, so it must have been referring to sothing else...
Either way, his attention was mainly drawn to the enchantnts. Two of them, to be precise.
mory Enchantnts: [Fading Embers], [Coldheart].
[Fading Embers] Enchantnt Description: "This mory provides a small resistance to the cold."
[Coldheart] Enchantnt Description: "The wearer of this mory gains a boost in strength within cold environnts."
It didn’t need to be explained that such a mory was extrely valuable within Jarilo-VI. Sunny didn’t need the resistance to cold due to the Trailblaze, but the boost in strength was certainly enough. He could attach it to the Mantle of the Underworld in order to increase the potency of the enchantnt, or give it to Saint to achieve the sa effect.
The second mory was a weapon: the only one that he had kept out of all of them.
mory Na: [Sky Reacher].
mory Rank: Awakened.
mory Tier: IV
mory Type: Weapon.
mory Description: [The End cos for all, no matter what they are. And yet, a small girl reached for the sky despite that fact.
Against all odds, The End did not arrive.]
...Sunny found the description of this mory to be strange. It runes that described The End were different from how they should be. Was ’The End’ and ’the end’ different?
One of the lights that orbited his Shadow Cores arrived at his hands, light coalescing as it ford a large greatsword — one that was twice as long as Sunny was tall.
It must have looked comical. Suddenly, Sunny found himself glad that he dismissed Saint.
Checking the enchantnts, Sunny read:
mory Enchantnts: [Clear Sky], [Undying].
[Clear Sky] Enchantnt Description: "The reach of this weapon can be extended."
[Undying] Enchantnt Description: "The stronger the wielder’s will to survive, the sharper this blade becos."
The [Undying] enchantnt reminded Sunny of the Midnight Shard’s [Unbroken] enchantnt, but seed to be focused on sharpness rather than tenacity.
Sunny planned to give the weapon to Saint, who was able to wield any weapon mory. It wasn’t suitable for Sunny, who preferred to wield more dexterous weapons.
Both of these mories were given to him by Bronya, who obviously wouldn’t wield a greatsword. He had another mory that he kept, but it wouldn’t be very relevant currently.
Today, luck was truly on his side.
...And an Ascended Demon was now by his side, which instantly propelled Sunny to a completely new level of capability. Together with the newly transford Saint, he would be able to do much more, challenge much more powerful Nightmare Creatures, and therefore, accelerate his own growth even further.
Even better, this change could not have co at a better ti.
After all, Sunny had no idea how deep Cocolia’s pockets were. mories, Echoes, Aspect Abilities... her true capabilities were still a mystery.
Exiting his Soul Sea, Sunny started to wonder how many Soul Shards he could get from all the other automatons...
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