Sylvie was having a complicated day.
Right now she was flying over the city in her dragon form, at great speed.
Thanks to her fame and recognition, the people of the Walking World, instead of being frightened when they saw such a figure in the skies, applauded her and even took photos with their communicators. At another moment she would have noticed this detail, but that was not the case now.
Designated with an SS classification, obtaining a True Name and being adopted by one of the great Clans, since she returned from the Dream Realm her life changed drastically. It's not like she has really lived that long either. Physically she has the appearance of an eighteen-year-old girl, but in reality she has only had consciousness for around a year and a half.
A large part of her memories do not belong to her either, most of them were Arthur's.
And now without him, Sylvie feels lost.
She feels weak.
Flaw: [Solitary Weakness]
Flaw Description: [You draw resolve from protecting others, but when alone, your strength falters.]
Her Flaw does not only speak about physically protecting others, but also that she feels that she protects someone. For that same reason, she feels weaker and weaker. Her purpose had been to protect Arthur and prevent him from doing something crazy, but now without his presence, everything is different.
While she could try to convince herself to protect another person, she knows it would not work. Not because the Flaw would not allow it, but because she could not protect someone with all her capacity knowing that she could not be there to help Arthur.
The problem was not only that, she also did not have a special chemistry with anyone.
Even though now she has almost countless sisters and all of them support her, it is not the same as when she was by Arthur's side. He understood her without the need to speak, without the need to look at each other, and she understood him the same way.
The truth is that even though she is very grateful to Seishan and the rest of the Song sisters, none of them have managed to form that feeling.
Obviously she gets along great with Seishan, but their relationship has also changed now. Both of them are obsessed with becoming stronger. In fact thanks to the Queen they already know which Seed they will challenge to become Masters in a few months.
The cohort consists of Ceres, Siord, Seishan and her.
The first two are talented Awakened from lesser Legacy Clans affiliated with the Song Clan.
A strange thing is that the sisters she has had the most interactions with are precisely the ones who had already Transcended.
Moonveil, Hel and occasionally Silent Stalker personally took charge of training her, and that is one of the main reasons why she is having a complicated day. The three women are crazy!
Sylvie had already gotten used to seeing Seishan occasionally with a few drops of blood from time to time, but the princess was always very careful about it. If Sylvie ever saw her in that state it was more because Seishan trusted her than anything else.
But! Hel is the complete opposite!
The young girl who has a beautiful face with a touch of innocence walks through the rooms with a serenity that completely contrasts with her hands and clothes full of blood after performing her rituals, and not to mention her visions!
On the other hand the other two were much more reserved. Even if one did not pay attention one would not notice Silent Stalker at all, and Moonveil for her part, although she was more noticeable than Selene, she was even quieter and more reserved.
Something Sylvie learned is that although Selene's True Name was Silent Stalker, she herself was not very quiet that's for sure… the woman never missed an opportunity to curse out loud and add comments whenever she could.
Another thing she learned is that Moonveil was just called that, and that her name was Yuna, although everyone called her Moonveil.
But those are not the reasons why Sylvie thinks the three women are crazy. It is because they are addicted to battles and training!
The three of them are completely ruthless and never miss an opportunity to let Sylvie know when she made a mistake. Of the three, Hel is the one who holds back the most, probably thanks to the fact that she sees Sylvie as a little sister and only teaches her so she can learn how to protect herself.
Her training is varied but she focuses more on helping her train the handling of her Aspect. Sylvie believed she had already reached a good level using it, but with Hel's help she realized she still lacked a lot. She also helped her with her Awakened Ability which fortunately was not very difficult to understand.
[Mana Mark]
Description: [You can mark an individual or object with your mana. While the mark exists, you can sense its condition and reinforce it with mana from afar.]
It is not an offensive ability but it suits her perfectly. Right now Sylvie has marked Arthur's entire family and Seishan.
Although no limit is mentioned regarding how many people she can mark, after some time experimenting she came to the conclusion that she can only place seven marks.
After that Moonveil took charge of teaching her swordsmanship. Her skill was beautiful and polished to a state close to perfection, wielding her saber as if it were an extension of her body.
Among the sisters she was one of the best at handling the sword, mainly thanks to the fact that her Aspect allows her to negate her opponent's at the cost of her own. So her skill has to be superior and perfect.
Curiously for Sylvie, Yuna's level was very high, yes. But when she compares it with the memories she has of Arthur, their levels are not very different. If the difference in ranks were not taken into account and they fought using only swords.
Sylvie is very sure that Arthur could defeat Moonveil.
And lastly Silent Stalker took charge of teaching her how to use the bow. Selene is the best hunter and killer among the sisters, and her training is the harshest at the same time.
Since she started training with the three of them, she has probably only had six or seven days off, and those were thanks to the Queen forcing the other three to let her rest for a while.
On the other hand, Sylvie completely lost contact with the guys from the Cohort.
She knew — thanks to Arthur — that Nephis had a strange relationship with the great Clans, and since she returned this has become even more noticeable. In fact she thought that now that they already knew each other, Changing Star and the rest would join the Song Clan, but to her surprise that was not what happened.
Since they returned to the Walking World, Nephis, Cassie, Kai, Effie and their famous Fire Keepers settled in the old mansion of the Immortal Flame Clan and have started acting as a group of independent Awakened.
The Fire Keepers are around eighty Awakened who decided to follow Nephis after escaping the Forgotten Shore.
Obviously the great Clans and the government — although the latter with less intensity — have been fighting and sending offers to obtain the service of this group, but for the moment they have not accepted any. But eventually they will have to.
The rest of the Dreamer Army that survived split into three other groups.
The first consists of those who decided to remain independent or retire. In this group were people such as Kido and Gemma. After escaping that hell, both of them decided to lower the intensity of their lives and form a life together.
Another group consists of those who decided to follow Arthur.
Therefore they ended up integrating into the Song Clan but not completely, all their members permanently wear a violet cloth on their armor as a mark that their loyalty is with their King and no one else. This group is formed mostly by those who were guards and hunters of the castle.
They called themselves the King's Wardens.
The offensive power of this group is devastating, around seventy Awakened with offensive and defensive Aspects under Seishan's command. Obviously she is also the leader of the Handmaidens, the other group that formed from the Dreamer Army.
Curiously the King's Wardens treat her as their Queen. Although several times she has repeated that she is not in a relationship with Arthur, they do not care and keep treating her that way.
But returning to the reason why she was having a complicated day.
In the morning she had a training session with her three sisters and they did not go easy on her. In fact until a few hours ago she was still sore and her reserves of Mana and Essence were at their minimum.
Even so she forced herself to move because thanks to her [Mana Mark] she could feel that Ellie was quite agitated.
After feeling this, she tried to communicate with her through her communicator but received no response. This could mean many things. Maybe she simply had no signal or no battery in her communicator. Basic situations.
But after thinking more deeply, Sylvie realized the reason and after a call to the member of the Song Clan who keeps a record of the Gates that opened, her fear increased and this led her to her current situation.
Currently she is flying over the city at maximum speed in the direction of Ellie's school, because a Gate has just appeared a few blocks away.
***
Nephis was having a complicated day.
Standing in front of the Gate with [Cruel Sight] in her hand and [Undying Chain] slowly forming over her body, she began to analyze the events of the day.
Her morning had been mostly uneventful. She woke up in her personal room in the Sanctuary of Noctis and immediately went out to appreciate the view. To her discomfort, she had to admit that the Citadel of the White Feather Clan was very beautiful.
It was a shame that the Clan was affiliated with Valor. Even if it was not a public affiliation, she could not help but feel uncomfortable anchoring herself in a Citadel belonging to that Domain, even if it was a completely remote one.
At first Nephis simply did not want to do it, but she had to swallow her pride because this was the Citadel closest to the Forgotten Shore. In theory, only the Hollow Mountains separated it from Sunny. Another factor was Cassie's insistence on anchoring here. She understands the Blind Seer, she also lost something very valuable that day.
And what she lost changed her. Now Cassie feels as if she is not really present. Always one step behind the rest, always keeping information about her visions to herself, and Nephis wants to understand her. She is her best friend — of course she wants to understand her. But every attempt to take a step forward is met with a slight step back from her.
At first she thought Cassie was angry with her, but later she analyzed the way she interacted with the others and then she understood. Cassie was acting the same way with everyone. So from that moment on she simply decided to give her space and accept her decision.
Since then the only thing they have done is grow stronger and search for a Seed to challenge the Second Nightmare. Supposedly, according to Cassie, the Cohort is moving in the right direction and in a few months they could already challenge it.
After admiring the view from Sanctuary of Noctis, she headed toward the altar that would transport her to the Waking World.
On the way she noticed a recruiter from Clan Valor, and she simply pretended not to notice him. Walking past him without even deigning to look at him, she continued toward the altar.
Another thing that had been bothering her since she Awakened was that they took her decision to anchor in one of their Citadels as a sign that she was going to align herself with Valor, and they could not have been more wrong. At least until they challenge the Second Nightmare and become Masters.
Then she would have a bit more room to negotiate, and if something happened she would at least be able to defend herself. Although it would not matter at all if they simply sent a Saint to deal with her. For that reason she had tried to avoid Saint Tyris as much as possible since anchoring herself in her Citadel.
Nephis did not know much about the silent Saint, and what she did know did not give her any reason to distrust her, but one never knows, and it was better to keep her at a distance.
With that, she reached the altar, and seconds later she found herself opening her eyes in her mansion.
A strange sensation ran through her body when she did. Even though it was the mansion of her Clan, at the same time it felt as if it did not belong to her. Rather, it felt as if she did not belong to this world.
Since returning to the Waking World she had felt the same way — empty.
The only things keeping her standing were her goals, her Cohort, and the future promise she had made to herself to fix her differences with Sunny.
But the rest? Nothing. She could not care less about the rest.
Even though she felt this way, she could not express it. Or rather, it would not be convenient for her to express it. She was the leader of nearly eighty Awakened. All of them depended on her. They were her subordinates, and she had to guide them. She could not show doubts or weakness.
Something similar happened with the Cohort. Even though they were her friends and she was very grateful for everything they did, they were still her subordinates.
She would love to have a peer, someone who stood at the same height as her, someone with whom she could share aspirations and goals.
Sadly, that person was abandoned in a death zone because of her.
Fortunately, at that moment her communicator rang. It was a message from Jet, asking how much longer she was going to take.
'Oh right.'
Today they were going to go to Rain's school to give a talk about the responsibilities of the Awakened.
Obviously it was an excuse to establish first contact with the girl so that in the future she could train her and prepare her for when she would have to come into contact with the Nightmare Spell.
The information about Rain had been obtained thanks to Master Jet, whom fortunately they had run into one day when the entire Cohort went to visit Sunny. The moment they met had been somewhat tense at first, but fortunately Kai had been with them that day and he confirmed that they were telling the truth.
Of course, she could have distrusted Kai, but everyone knew the poor man would not lie even if he were forced to.
After that day, Master Jet agreed to help them find her, and a few weeks ago they got results. Nephis wanted to go immediately and connect with Rain right away, but Effie and Cassie convinced her that that was not how one dealt with young people, so she simply decided to accept it.
Curiously, this date had been chosen by Cassie, because supposedly today was going to be a special day. Nephis did not understand that either — to her every day was the same — but she accepted it as well.
While walking through the mansion toward the PTV that would take them to Rain's school, she passed a few Fire Keepers who kept the mansion running. In a sense, she had come out on the losing side compared to the King's Wardens. The group that decided to follow Arthur and therefore join the Song Clan had been formed mainly by guards and hunters from the castle.
But the Fire Keepers consisted mainly of the survivors from the outer settlement. Yes, the numbers were similar, but if she compared the strength of both groups, the result would not be one she would like.
Her Fire Keepers were excellent — the best of the best. But the King's Wardens had been together for much longer, and most of them had Aspects related to combat. In addition, they had the support of a great Clan behind them.
Arriving at the front courtyard of the mansion, she found Sid and Shim waiting for her with the PTV already prepared to leave.
The trip was calm as always. The Immortal Flame Manor was quite far from civilization, so the journey took almost an hour and a half.
During it she had no choice but to look at her communicator or continue analyzing her runes. She spent an hour browsing the web and found nothing interesting — a complete waste of time. She could have been training during that time.
Then she opened her runes.
Class: Tyrant.
Soul Cores: [5/7]
Soul Fragments: [1207/5000]
Since they returned they had gone from battle to battle, becoming stronger. One foolish concern she had was that at this rate they would end up killing all the Nightmare Creatures in the Chained Isles, but of course that was not the case.
Seeing that she was already a Tyrant, her thoughts drifted to Arthur. She knew he was already a Devil even before the Siege, and during it he could easily have completed his core. If she was not mistaken, Arthur should already be a Terror.
Although there was also the possibility that he was not, and that they had agreed that only Sunny would take the kills while Arthur would simply consume the Shards. Actually, thinking about it better, that possibility made more sense, and in that case Arthur would not be a Terror. Maybe she had already surpassed him.
Then she continued reviewing her new Memories, and finally her eyes fell on Sunny's.
Slave: [Lost from Light]
Class: Demon.
Shadow Cores: [3/7]
Shadow Fragments: [2845/3000]
Nephis did not know how to feel about this. On one hand she was happy that he was doing well and continuing to grow stronger, but on the other she was also worried about him, about all the things he had to endure because of her.
She was also surprised by how much he had grown. In just a few months he was already about to form his Devil core, and she knew how difficult it was for him to form new cores. The hairs on her arms rose slightly as she thought about all the creatures he must have had to face nonstop to almost become a Devil, and a small curve formed on her lips as she imagined how strong he would be when he returned.
But it immediately disappeared, because Neph knew that if he returned, the first person he would come to visit would be her and it would not be on good terms.
Even though she wished it would be. That he would give her the chance to explain herself and try to resolve their problems.
In an uncomfortable way she was also glad that Arthur had stayed behind with him. She knew he was not a bad influence and that perhaps he could convince Sunny to give her a chance.
In any case, she was also working on it. When he returned, she wanted to be waiting for him with a proper apology and a good gift.
Giving a small nod to herself, she closed her eyes and decided to meditate until they reached Rain's school.
***
Rain was having a complicated day.
Sitting in class, she began to look around and noticed Ellie about to fall asleep.
'Normal' she thought.
Her friend had been like that for months now, constantly sleeping in class and not paying attention.
At first she wondered if maybe she had been infected by the Spell, but she discarded the idea after remembering that they were fourteen years old and still had two years left before entering the age range of being infected. Even so, she asked her about it, and the answer left her with more questions than answers.
At that moment she discovered that her friend's brother was incredibly famous! And handsome too — although she did not tell her that part.
She had read on her communicator about the feats of all the survivors of the Forgotten Shore. She even knew that they were planning to make a movie about them! Rain was very excited to go see it. The director used the testimonies of the survivors to make it as realistic as possible, and the trailer looked very good!
The two most prominent stories in the movie were going to be the ones related to Lady Nephis and Lord Arthur.
According to a couple of rumors that circulated on the web, it was said that there was going to be quite a lot of romance! A smile appeared on Rain's face as she thought about the possible ships! — and then reading about them on the web.
Returning to Ellie, at the same time that she found out that her friend's brother was so famous, she also learned the reason why Ellie had been so tired lately. It seemed that her brother had a very close friend on the Forgotten Shore, and when she returned, as a way to thank him she took charge of training his sister.
Because of that, for months now Ellie had been training every day in different places with Arthur's friend. Rain tried to get the name of who that friend was, but Ellie simply refused to tell her. Supposedly this woman preferred that her training remain between the two of them.
'Well, too bad!' Rain thought.
But one negative aspect that came from this was the fact that now she felt like she was falling behind her friend. That Ellie was moving forward, being trained by an Awakened, while she was only at school.
At first their levels during sparring had been quite similar, but over these past months Ellie's skill had grown a lot while hers had not changed at all.
Rain was thinking about asking her parents to hire some private tutor to teach her so she would not fall behind her friend.
This also brought the problem that now they did not spend as much time together. Strange, considering they lived two houses away from each other, but the time Ellie used to have to hang out together she now spent training, and Rain missed her friend.
Curiously, some time ago someone had moved into the house between hers and the Leywin family's.
When she heard the news about a new neighbor, her mother prepared a pie and sent her to welcome her.
When she did, a woman with a slender figure, tall with shoulder-length black hair received her. Her skin was alabaster and she had completely black eyes. Upon seeing her, Rain could not help but think that she looked just like her! Except for the fact that the woman was a Awakened.
The new neighbor, who called herself Nectis — although she did not sound very convinced when she said it — was quite awkward, and the situation was a bit strange. Rain even felt as if Nectis already knew her, although that would not make sense because she had never seen the woman before. Still, she did not give it much importance. Most Awakened were weird.
She was going to keep dissociating when suddenly the sound of everyone's communicators started going off and immediately the school alarm turned on. Opening her communicator, she received the notification.
GATE ACTIVITY DETECTED IN YOUR PROXIMITY
ETA: 18 MINUTES
EVACUATE AS SWIFTLY AS POSSIBLE AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS
***
One hour later, the Gate crisis had already ended. The fight was intense but at the same time quick and a complete success. No Awakened present lost their life and all civilians were evacuated in time.
Currently Sylvie was leaning against a wall at a distance from the reporters and the rest of the Awakened. She arrived just as the Gate opened, and luckily when she did the government was already positioned and ready. In addition to this, there were the King's Wardens and also a Master present.
She knew her from Arthur's memories — she was Master Jet. Curiously, Nephis was also there accompanied by two Fire Keepers. In fact, those two Fire Keepers with the King's Wardens were the ones who evacuated Ellie. Why? She did not know. In any case she had to go thank them.
Pushing herself off the wall, she walked toward Nephis's group, which consisted of her, Master Jet, and the two Fire Keepers.
When she was a few meters away, she exchanged glances with Changing Star and received a nod accompanied by a smile.
When she reached the group she bowed slightly forward and greeted them.
"Good afternoon Lady Nephis, Master Jet and… Fire Keepers. A pleasure to meet you, my name is Sylvie."
Master Jet was the first to respond.
"Well, if it isn't Heart of Ouroboros. It's an honor to meet you." She made a small bow.
"Please, I insist on Sylvie. Formalities aren't necessary," she said with a smile.
Master Jet looked at her for a few seconds and added,
"Then just call me Jet."
"Perfect," Sylvie added with a smile. Then she turned her head and noticed that the Fire Keepers had moved away and only the three of them remained. At that moment Nephis asked:
"Why did you come to the Gate, Sylvie? I don't think the Song Clan would be interested in a simple Gate."
She remained silent for a few seconds, debating whether she should say that she came because of Ellie or not. She did not know Nephis that well, but her hatred toward the Great Clans was quite obvious to anyone who observed her. Besides, she knew thanks to Arthur that they had tried to kill her since she was a child.
Obviously she should not know that, and in fact Arthur did not want to tell her, but he had anticipated precisely this situation when returning. The situation where Nephis might begin to distrust them again for joining the Song Clan.
How did Arthur earn her trust? By being honest…
Sylvie scratched the back of her neck and answered,
"Actually I came without their permission," she admitted. "Arthur's sister attends this school, and I came to protect her."
Nephis was about to say something, but Jet spoke first.
"Ellie attends this school?" she asked.
Sylvie nodded.
"Yes. In fact she was one of the first to be evacuated thanks to the two Fire Keepers." Then she looked at Nephis. "Actually I wanted to thank them, but they left before I could do it."
"I'll go see her," Jet said, separating from them. As she did, she began giving orders to other Awakened, but Sylvie could not hear them thanks to the noise-canceling Memory Nephis had summoned.
Nephis spoke now.
"I'll tell them you sent your thanks." Seconds later she added while looking toward Ellie's position, "So that girl is Arthur's sister."
"They don't look alike at all, right?" Sylvie asked, following her gaze.
She shook her head.
"No… actually Arthur looks more like you than like his sister."
Sylvie nodded.
"Let's do this. I'll tell you the reason if you tell me your relationship with Ellie's friend." She said this while focusing on Rain, who was standing next to Ellie. "Deal?"
Nephis stopped looking at the girls and turned back to her.
"Okay. You first."
"No. You first," Sylvie argued.
Changing Star stayed silent for a moment. Eventually she sighed and turned to look at Rain.
"That girl who is friends with Arthur's sister is named Rain." She looked back at Sylvie. "She's Sunny's sister."
Sylvie's eyes widened at the revelation and she looked back at the young girl.
Now that she looked at her again, it made a lot of sense. They were identical!
'How had she not realized before!?' Sylvie wondered.
'They're even almost the same height!'
Eventually she responded.
"I see. How curious that their sisters are friends while they are together in that damned place." She continued, "It's almost as if Fate wanted it that way."
Neph raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
Both of them remained looking at the girls who were now talking with Master Jet.
A few seconds later Sylvie said,
"Arthur's appearance changed after his First Nightmare. I'd say it's simply coincidence that we look alike."
Nephis looked at her and nodded, then said, "You once said you could see Arthur's Runes." With a softer voice she asked, "Would you tell me how many Cores he has?"
She looked at her and then opened Arthur's runes. In the end, she was curious too.
Class: Devil
Aether Core: [4/7]
Aether Fragments: [3478/4000]
'Still only a Devil? Did something happen to him?' she wondered.
Sylvie answered a few seconds later,
"He is still a Devil."
Nephis simply nodded as if she had expected it.
"I thought you would react differently. Did you already know?"
She shrugged, "Sunny can't absorb Shards, so I assumed Arthur would let him take the kills while he absorbed them." Then she added, "Knowing he is still a Devil confirms my theory."
Sylvie let out a small "Oh," and they remained silent for a moment. Both looked again at Ellie and Rain, who were now being helped into a PTV by Jet herself to take them home.
"Well, I'll have to go," Changing Star said.
Sylvie nodded.
"Yes, me too. See you later, Neph."
At that moment Nephis dismissed the noise-canceling Memory and both of them left in opposite directions.