In the past, receiving a new mory had always been an important and morable event for Sunny. After all, with his advantage in deciphering the secrets of their enchantnts, mories were one of his most powerful tools. Sunny relied on his soul arsenal a lot.
However, as ti had gone by, the importance of the mories lessened to a large extent. Of course, he was still reliant on them - but these days, most of the rewards he received from the Spell were either too weak for his level of power or inferior to sothing he already possessed.
With rare exceptions, their worth lay mainly in expanding his repertoire of weaving and serving as fuel for the evolution of his Shadows.
So, getting a new mory was not as morable an event as it had been before.
...Still, it was not to the extent that Sunny could forget receiving one.
'What the hell?'
He seed to be saying this phrase a lot recently.
Sunny was befuddled, but he couldn't deny what he saw - there was indeed a new string of runes at the end of the list of his mories, one that he neither recognized nor had ever seen before.
He scowled, then threw a suspicious glance at the Sin of Solace.
After hesitating for a while, Sunny chose not to say anything and turned his attention back to the runes.
Not only had the new mory appeared out of nowhere, but its na also made him feel a deep sense of unease.
The runes read:
mory: Key of the Estuary.
Sunny stared at it for a minute or two, disturbed. He had just been thinking about the Tomb of Ariel, the Great River, and its estuary... and now, this?
What did the na of the mory an?
Where did it co from?
And, more importantly... when did it appear?
He had not killed anything, or anyone, after entering the Nightmare. His Shadows were within his Soul Sea - they couldn't have slain a Nightmare Creature, either.
Except for Soul Serpent. But if Rain had been attacked by an abomination and Serpent killed it while defending her, the Spell should have still announced the kill and the acquisition of a mory to Sunny. Yet he had not heard its voice since entering the Nightmare.
Had it happened while he was asleep?
With a grim expression, Sunny pulled his attention from the mysterious mory and glanced at the list of his Shadows. Soul Serpent's runes were still bleak and lifeless, but they were there - which ant that Serpent had not been destroyed, at least.
It wouldn't have let anything happen to Rain without sacrificing itself first. So, Rain was most definitely alright... she had to be.
Suddenly, Sunny felt his heart turn cold and heavy. He looked at the beautiful expanse of sparkling water with a somber expression, his eyes full of concern and darkness.
Then, he slightly shook his head and looked down.
'Doesn't make any sense.'
What were the chances of a random abomination in the distant NQSC gifting Sunny with a mory that was connected to the Great River? Why would it?
Pursing his lips, he let out a heavy sigh and turned his attention back to the runes.
Concentrating on the Estuary Key made more shimring symbols appear in the air.
As soon as Sunny started reading them, his expression changed.
mory: Key of the Estuary.mory Rank: Supre...
'Supre?!'
His heart skipped a beat.
At the sa ti, Sunny's unease deepened.
He should have been excited to find himself in possession of such a powerful mory. However, instead, all Sunny felt was a cold sense of dread. It was because he firmly believed that nothing in this world - two worlds, rather - was ever free. So, getting a Supre mory out of nowhere only made him feel apprehension.
'...Could Serpent even kill a Great Nightmare Creature?'
Soul Serpent was an Ascended Tyrant, just like Sunny. Sunny himself was not powerful enough to dare face a great abomination... his chances of surviving such a fight were not zero, but very close to it. The vessels of the Skinwalker were proof.
Frowning, Sunny swallowed his questions and continued to read.
mory Tier: VI.
'Sixth Tier...'
He didn't even bother to consider the implications and turned to the description... which was strangely short.
There were only several shimring runes:
mory Description: [The answer is oblivion.]
Sunny stared grimly at the short string of runes, perplexed.
'The answer?'
He was confused.
To what question?
Was oblivion the key to the Estuary? What did it an?
Or was it not oblivion, but Oblivion - the Demon of Oblivion? But what did that easily forgotten daemon have to do with anything?
Sunny rubbed his face, then glanced at the enchantnts of the mysterious mory. However, to his disappointnt, there were no more hints hidden in the runes. All he saw was:
mory Enchantnts: [???].[???] Enchantnt Description: [???].
And that was it.
There seed to be only one enchantnt, but it had no na and no description. It was just like the [Where is my eye?] enchantnt of Weaver's Mask, which had not been nad until Sunny used it.
There was one difference, though... [Where is my eye?] was an active enchantnt, while the enchantnt of the Estuary Key seed to be a passive one.
Sunny took a deep breath.
'So... what is the probability that Soul Serpent had killed a Great Terror while I slept, and that the mory received by as a result has to do with the Great River?'
That was the only logical explanation, and yet, the logic of that explanation was highly questionable.
He remained motionless for a while, then sighed and summoned the Key of the Estuary.
Of course, it would have been more prudent to first study the mysterious mory in the Soul Sea... yet, sohow, Sunny felt reluctant to touch it within his soul.
Soon, countless sparks of darkness sward around his palm, and then slowly ford into a jagged piece of black stone.
The jagged stone was utterly black and cool to the touch, reminding Sunny of the building blocks of the Tomb of Ariel. There were no features to it, no runes or images carved into its surface. It was just a rough, palm-sized chunk of stone that seed like sothing one would randomly pick up from the ground.
Since the mysterious enchantnt of the Estuary Key was a passive one, it was supposed to co into effect as soon as the mory was summoned. However, if it was doing sothing, Sunny couldn't tell.
He did not feel any changes, neither in himself nor in the world.
'Ah... I feel like I'm going mad.'
He had been bombarded by more and more bizarre questions since the start of the Nightmare, and none of them had any answers.
There was also an answer that didn't seem to have a question.
Even the Sin of Solace had beco a bit weird.
Uttering a quiet curse, Sunny concentrated and peered beneath the surface of the jagged black stone.
Even if the enchantnt had no na and no description, he could still study its weave himself. After all, by now, he had so knowledge of weaving, as well as the ability to intuitively feel the purpose of various weaves.
Within the Estuary Key, there was a vast tapestry of ethereal strings. It was not the most complicated spellweave Sunny had ever seen - that would be the weave of Weaver's Mask - but it was still incredibly complex, and unimaginably intricate. An enchantnt like that was hopelessly outside the scope of what he himself could create, at least.
Sunny was stunned.
However, he was not stunned by the intricacy or complexity.
Instead, what paralyzed him were the strings themselves.
Because, unlike the strings of soul essence that comprised the weaves of all mories created by the Spell, these ones were not ethereally luminous and silvery white.
Instead, they were lightless and dark.
...Like sothing Sunny himself would create.
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