Yoru allowed himself a quiet moment of satisfaction.
The whisper of the Spell still lingered faintly in his mind, confirming the death of the Carapace Centurion and the Memory he had received for the kill.
Under different circumstances he might have examined it immediately.
But there were far more important things demanding his attention.
Most notably, the winged abomination still circling in the storm above the battlefield.
Yoru lifted his gaze toward the serpent and tilted his head thoughtfully.
"Will I have to smite you as well?" he asked aloud, knowing well that the beast couldn't hear nor understand him.
And as much as he would have loved to do just that, the serpent was a target too high for him to reach. Its immense wings carried it through the storm with terrifying ease. From where Yoru stood, the distance was simply too great.
He clicked his tongue in mild irritation.
As he considered the problem, a sudden flare of brilliant white light caught his attention from the eastern edge of the ridge. When he glanced at it, he quickly found that the spark belonged to a human.
It was Nephis, emerging from the darkness and the rain.
Bright white flames suffused her right arm, the radiant fire illuminated her pale hair, casting long shadows across the rocks around her. The light revealed the dirt and blood smeared across her face and the torn edges of her armour.
She looked exquisite.
Yoru was tempted to make her even more beautiful… by carving her into a million pieces and-
With a violent shake of his head, he discarded those thoughts.
'Tch! Damned glove.'
Its insidiousness only grew stronger.
But it also granted him the vitality of the centurion, revitalising his muscles and returning a small portion of strength to his exhausted body.
He turned his attention back to the skies.
Nephis would heal Sunny, he just had to focus on killing the beast.
"Is facing that thing supposed to be my tragedy? How pathetic. Should've sent at least a Great nightmare creature to defeat me!"
The serpent seemed to have spent enough time ominously staring down from the sky as it made its dive downwards, letting forth another wail.
Yoru had already primed another spear by then, and raised it high.
He had conjured nine of them earlier, preparing for the possibility that the centurion might require multiple strikes to kill. Thanks to the serpent's interference, only one had been necessary.
Which meant he still had eight remaining.
The serpent plunged lower and lower, its many eyes scanning the battlefield as it descended through the rain.
Yoru narrowed his own eyes and raised the spear above his shoulder.
He aligned it with the approaching monster and hurled it with all the strength his body could muster, cutting through the rain in a clear arc.
But the spear itself was meaningless.
Against a Fallen creature, the mundane weapon was nothing more than a toy. It lacked the power to pierce the serpent's scales, let alone inflict any meaningful harm. Even its eyes would likely resist such a weak attack.
And yet, Yoru did not need to pierce it.
The spear struck the serpent's face and bounced harmlessly off one of the many bulbous eyes.
For a fraction of a second, it seemed as though the attack had accomplished nothing.
Then, another stroke of lightning answered.
A bolt tore through the sky and detonated directly in front of the serpent's eyes, drawn down by the metal spear.
The explosion of white light engulfed the creature's vision, causing it to shriek and Its massive head to recoil violently, its flight faltering as the blinding flash disrupted its senses. Deprived of sight, the creature lost control of its descent.
It crashed into the ground with a catastrophic quake, shattering stone and causing an eruption of both mud and debris. It writhed in pain, great pain that brought Yoru bliss.
Though that wasn't the end of it for the serpent.
After all, Yoru still had seven spears remaining.
And as luck would have it, the monster had exposed its wounded flank during the fall - the deep gashes carved into its flesh by the centurion's scythes now clearly visible between its coils.
Yoru smiled faintly.
What followed was a symphony of lightning and monstrous screeches.
"Again."
Another bolt lashed at the beast.
"Again!"
Strike after strike, Yoru hurled spear after spear, each one becoming a conduit for heaven's wrath.
Lightning rained down from the sky in relentless succession, spearing into the serpent's body again and again. White fire crawled across its scales while thunder rolled endlessly through the labyrinth.
By the time the seventh lightning strike tore through the serpent's body, the creature's once-mighty form lay scorched and thrashing across the shattered ridge, its wings broken against the stone and its many eyes burned blind by repeated bursts of heavenly fire.
Eventually, the serpent stilled.
[You have slain a Fallen Beast, Feathered Prior.]
[You have received a Memory: Armament of the Heir.]
Yoru exhaled slowly and lowered his arm, the stench of burnt flesh drifted through the air.
Yet even as exhaustion threatened to overwhelm him, a familiar sensation spread through his body - the invigorating rush of strength brought by the Marauder's Love.
'And a memory to… what a great day.'
Then he heard footsteps approaching from behind him. He turned and found Nephis who was surprisingly on her feet, though she looked like she could collapse at any moment. Sunny stood behind her, wriggling his fingers, probably relieved at the fact he could move and wasn't choking on his own blood anymore.
"We should… return to Cassie. She's probably worried." Nephis said tiredly.
It was obvious that the agony caused by her flaw and mental fatigue was taking a huge toll on her body.
They would collect the shards from their enemies in the morning, since the insides of the carcasses would probably burn them if they went searching for them now.
So the trio quickly returned to the blind girl who had rejoiced at the sound of thier footsteps.
It was deep into the night and the storm had stopped around that time, so Yoru summoned blankets and pillows for everyone as they began to sleep.
They were all too tired to keep watch so the task was left to Sunny's shadow. If anything were to happen, the shadow would probably alarm them in advance.
If not, so be it. They were just too exhausted to care.
Luckily, the rest of the night went without incident.
***
In the morning, no one was in a hurry to make any plans or suggest leaving the cliffs. They retrieved the soul shards from the Carapce Centurion and the Feathered prior, then moved to the opposite side of the small island, afraid that the remains would attract some creatures attention.
As it turned out, they were right. Not long after the group left the place of the battle, a dark spot appeared in the sky. Soon, it became larger and approached the cliffs, landing near the corpse of the centurion in a whirlwind.
Yoru gulped.
'Is that a spire messenger?'
The creature was massive in size, easily weighing twice as much as the carapace monster and similar in mass to the prior. Its body was white as a corpse and muscular, like that of a lion. It had two mighty paws in the back and six in the front, protruding messily out of its wide chest. Each ended with long, sharp talons.
The neck of the flying monstrosity was covered in long black feathers, as well as its enormous wings. Its head resembled that of a raven, with large round eyes and a terrifying black beak.
The bird gazed at the charred carcass of the fallen serpent with ravenous fascination, but turned its head away, instead feasting on the corpse of the centurion.
After the bird had its fill, it grabbed a few dead scavengers with its paws and flew into the sky, heading westward.
Following the black dot as it disappeared into the distance, Sunny sighed.
"Neph. What do you think that thing is?"
Nephis was also looking at the sky. After a few seconds, she lowered her gaze.
"I have no idea."
Sunny simply nodded and went about his business - another thousand strikes.
After making a fire, they roasted the centurion's meat and ate it alongside some cooked rice - offered by Yoru - and had a delicious, hefty breakfast.
Then, stuffed, the four of them laid down and lazily rested.
Not long after, Nephis turned toward Yoru and said in a calm even tone:
"It couldn't have been easy killing that beast… Well done."
Yoru looked at Nephis with a frown.
'That's so random. And very much not like her… Is she working on her social skills?'
Yoru was going to respond with his usual smugness, but for some reason, he was feeling rather uncharacteristic himself.
"Thanks… and yes, it wasn't easy in the slightest."
He paused, considering his words.
"The influence of my Memory is growing stronger each time I wear it. Actually… it's a bit scary. I don't know if one day I'll just…"
He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.
It was bad enough that Nephis already suspected him of being some kind of assassin. If he started talking about how he might one day prove her suspicions correct, he was bound to find himself on the wrong end of her sword.
Nephis sighed and looked at him with her steely grey eyes.
"You didn't succumb to it yesterday. And even if you do in the future…"
She briefly glanced toward Cassie and Sunny.
"…we will stop you."
'That's touching.'
Though Yoru couldn't tell whether she implied they'd restrain him or just kill him before he got the chance.
Still, he wore a genuine smile.
"Well… that's nice to know. But it would be difficult to take me down. I am the greatest Sleeper after all."
Sunny suddenly leaned forward.
"That reminds me. How did you do it? Smite the serpent I mean."
Cassie tilted her head.
"Smite?"
"Oh right, you don't know. He basically threw bolts of lightning at the thing till it shrivelled up and died."
Cassie grew astonished at this.
"Wow! Really Yoru? That's amazing!"
All of this praise did wonders for his already massive ego.
"A feat like that is nothing spectacular, really. In fact, it's rather standard. As for how I did it…"
Yoru placed a hand on his chest dramatically.
"I'm simply that divine."
Sunny threw him a threatening glare and Yoru quickly understood he wasn't in the mood for shenanigans.
"Umm, I think it's my attribute."
Sunny frowned.
"Tyranny did that? Why couldn't I get an attribute like that."
Yoru chuckled.
"Because you're obviously an inferior life form compared to me."
Sunny opened his mouth to retort but Nephis quickly cut him off.
"Did you receive any memories?" She asked.
That was right. He had gotten two memories last night, one for each of his kills. At the time he had been too exhausted to examine them, but now seemed like the perfect time to reap his rewards.
"Yeah, actually, I got two. One was a weapon and the other was an armour."
The others waited expectantly.
He summoned the weapon first and a spear manifested in his hands.
The shaft was forged from a smooth onyx-black metal. Intricate engravings spiralled along the length of the pole, forming delicate patterns that resembled intertwining stars and flowing constellations.
The spearhead was a deep crimson.
It gleamed like polished ruby, and bore impossibly sharp edges. It looked like crystallised blood.
Sunny gave a brief description of it to Cassie who shuddered slightly and thought it was creepy.
Yoru on the other hand thought it looked incredibly cool.
He lowered his eyes and looked at its runes.
Memory: [Bloody Requiem].
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Type: Weapon.
Memory Description: [A lone traveler once came to the Forgotten Shore. He saw a land drowned in darkness where not even a single star could be seen in the sky. But soon, seven were chosen. Their blood was spilled and in return, the land burned with light once more.
What the traveller witnessed was morbid, grotesque… and yet strangely magnificent.
The ritual disgusted him, but the miracle it birthed fascinated him far more. Obsessed with the memory of that dreadful offering, the traveler forged a spear so that he would never forget the blood that had restored light to a dying land.
But the light was greedy and demanded more.
In the end, the spear was taken from his hand... and the traveler's blood joined the others.]
'That sounds like the false sun and its sacrifices.'
Yoru didn't remember the Forgotten Shore's lore in perfect detail, but he was fairly confident that was what the description referred to.
Still, the information was largely useless to him, since he already knew the general history of this region.
More importantly, he had another reward to inspect.
He moved onto the armour eagerly, as not only had he finally gotten his hands on some, but it was one of the Ascended rank no less!
First, he read the description.
Memory: [Armament of the Heir].
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Type: Armor.
Memory Description: ["He freed my people, my father and myself. I would lay waste to a thousand empires, disregard my own life, and even rebel against the gods for that man. After all... there is no greater cause than his."]
Yoru blinked.
That was... a bit much.
He couldn't help but wonder what kind of person could inspire such loyalty.
'Maybe they were lovers or something…'
Then, he finally summoned it and a rain of blue sparks began to coalesce around him, quickly materialising into an armour.
First, Yoru was encased in a layer of black fabric - similar to the body suit beneath Nephis' Starlight legion armour.
Lustreless black steel plates began to envelop his arms, torso and legs, all of these parts were smooth and refined, seamlessly linking to each other like a chain. The chest plate was engraved with faint golden patterns that resembled a regalia, giving the impression that the armour belonged to some royalty.
And beneath it, a ragged black mantle hung from his waist like a tattered skirt, embroidered with delicate gold threads that formed into more intricate patterns.
The last part of the armour to materialise was a dark hood, which was also frayed and tattered, giving him quite the sinister appearance.
The others silently examined his new look.
Eventually, Sunny said:
"You look… like a homeless prince."
Yoru couldn't even be mad. That was the most accurate description he could think of as well.
"I'll just ignore the 'homeless' part and say thank you."
Yoru paused and added:
"So, Nephis… do you want the armour? You're our main offense. It would make sense for you to have the best equipment."
Nephis shook her head.
"You defeated the serpent. It's yours. Besides… I think the armour is quite ugly."
Excellent! Yoru didn't want to have to part with the armour so Nephis turning down his offer was the best case scenario. In fact he would thank her for that…
And he knew exactly how!
"Wow. So our socially inept leader is brave enough to call me ugly, huh?"
Nephis blinked.
"No, I wasn't referring to you-"
"So you think I'm handsome? Well that's just great news! I always knew you had fabulous taste Nephis."
She frowned.
"That's not what-"
"Alas! My beauty is too much. If I allowed a single woman to tie me down, I'm afraid the entire waking world would collapse in envy."
Nephis's expression slowly hardened into a cold stare.
It probably would have sent shivers down Yoru's spine… if she hadn't simply stood up and walked away.
Sunny gave him a "seriously? " look and shook his head before following her toward the western edge of the cliff.
That left Yoru alone with Cassie who was quietly sitting in a chair, listening to him tease Nephis and wearing a content smile.
"You are very strange. I don't think many people would try and tease Nephis."
Yoru sat down on the ground and sighed.
"You're strange as well. Somehow, I've seen you smiling more in this god forsaken place than back in the academy."
Cassie tilted her head slightly.
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
Soon the two of them settled into a comfortable silence.
In that moment of peace, Yoru began to reflect.
He had arrived a little over a month ago and he fought against several opponents capable of killing him with ease. He had slain them all of course but it was a surreal thought.
What made this possible was the unique synergy between the Mauraders Love and his attribute Tyranny.
The glove had boosted his arrogance tenfold, and that allowed for Tyranny to essentially turn each of his spears into a lightning rod in his fight last night against the Prior.
But the cost was growing heavier with each passing day.
His bloodlust was always aimed towards whichever dreadful abomination he was facing at the time, but last night… he had felt that way towards one of his allies.
Now he was facing the dilemma of whether he continued using the glove or not.
There was no telling who's blood he would spill the next time he wore it and Yoru was afraid to take such a risk, as beneficial as it was…
Yet the battle against the Prior had proven its value beyond doubt. Without the ability to weaponise lightning, they likely would have died.
'Ahhh, I really don't know what to do…'
At that moment, Cassie interrupted his thoughts.
"Yoru?"
"Yeah…?"
She hesitated, gently brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
"I've been meaning to ask you this for a while but never found the chance to…"
'Woah, what- ! What the hell is up with her body language right now? Is this a confession?!'
Yoru found himself growing hot and flustered at the situation and was very thankful that the girl was blind.
'What a twisted thought... Curse me and my good looks!.'
Cassie continued:
"It's just…"
'Please don't say it!'
"What is that attribute of yours?"
He blinked.
"…Huh."