After parking the flying ship two islands away from the Night Temple, three Awakened left the ship, leaving their companions to guard and be prepared in case of need.
Nephis and Cassie went down, the former using [Dark Wing] and the latter using the Quiet Dancer as a way to propel her upwards while she fell. Sunny meanwhile transformed into a shadow and used Nephis' shadow as a way to go with her.
It felt natural to become one with her shadow, differently from others, her shadow welcomed him much more, not treating him as an outsider. That could also be said about Revel's and Seishan's shadows, it mostly had to do with their Connection. Sunny could only imagine what other things his Innate Ability would grant him.
Either way, when Nephis reached the ground, Sunny rose up from her shadow and started walking behind them. The reason he did so was to preserve essence, regardless if he had six Divine cores and that Serpent was in its tattoo form on his body, Sunny was still an Awakened, as such, his Awakened Ability was too taxing on his essence.
But even then, after becoming a Terror, Serpent also changed somewhat, he felt the essence efficiency also increased, much more than normal…
'I wonder if the Watchers also received some kind of buff… Talk about timing, to become a Terror right after they left… Well, to be fair, I could just have them wait for a bit. Maybe I should build a Connection with one of them, Kira and Motza come to mind, but Mei is also an option, then again, if we talk about being optimal, Lauma is probably the best option.'
The three passed through the islands with ease, walking in the massive chains connecting them carefully.
Sunny figured it was a good time to check on his runes, understanding that he'll have to hide in the shadows for a long time.
Name: Sunless Song.
True Name: Hollow Death.
Rank: Awakened.
Class: Terror.
Shadow Core: [6/7]
Shadow Fragments: [0/6000]
'Well, I doubt that will grow anytime soon. Thank you mom, if it weren't for you, I would take so much time to fill this.'
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Nine's Regret], [BloodRaven], [Ordinary Rock], [Midnight Shard], [Prowling Thorn], [Chain-Sword], [Mantle of Shadows] [Moonlight Shard], [Remembrance of the Moon], [Different Style], [Shadow Lantern], [Last Sight], [Promise of Mercy], [Weaver's Mask].
If Sunny was being honest, some of his Memories were here just for keepsake, [Ordinary Rock] was just there because Motza said it was a good distraction, he even used it against Harus, somehow. He was keeping [Puppeteer's Shroud] for Rain, and because it represented the triumph of his First Nightmare, other than that, he didn't use it.
[Prowling Thorn] still had its uses and was pretty versatile. If there was one Memory he was close to getting rid of was [Midnight Shard], as even its enchantment was very, very situational, the only time he could have used it against the Forsaken Knight he didn't have time to summon it. If it had [Moonlight Shard]'s enchantment as well, he would keep it.
Shadows: [Soul Serpent], [Dark Wraith], [Marble Saint], [Marble Saint], [Soul-Devouring Tree], [Dreadwing of the Black Storm], [Remnant].
Upon looking at his Shadows, a thought pooped in Sunny's head: 'how will I evolve them constantly?'. Now that he knew Shadows could evolve Classes given the right circumstances, he needed a way to actually keep evolving. An even better question was if any, other than the Saints, could evolve.
Up until now, the only ones to change Class were Serpent, who evolved with him, and Saint and Igris, who used True Darkness and some other element creatures respectfully. He hoped he could evolve them, especially Wraith. Despite being a good wolf and passing through solid material, he didn't really have Abilities.
'I still wonder how I was able to make him a Shadow without using any shades… Maybe he was a Shadow being before he became an Echo?'
Attributes: [Fated], [Flame of Divinity], [Heir of Shadows], [The Shadow], [The Blood's Shadow], [Embodiment of Death and Solace], [Executor of Death], [Monarch of the Shadow], [Vessel of Mystery], [Stone Shell].
It still hurt that he wouldn't be able to really use [Vessel of Mystery], but he still became a Terror, he was faster, stronger, and had more essence.
He looked around, understanding it would take a while before getting to the destination and continued reading, going to his Shadows.
Shadow: [Dark Wraith]
Rank: Ascended.
Class: Demon
[180/200]
Shadow attributes: [Ghost Body], [Longing for Companionship], [Authority of the Undead].
It felt weird that Wraith was the only one without any Abilities, he would chalk it up for him being a Demon, but seeing the Shadow Saints didn't back that up. Other than that, he could now understand the [Authority of the Undead],it wasn't really that he commanded undead beings, he would need to be a Tyrant for that, but he got stronger after consuming things like wraiths, ghosts, nightmare creatures that should be dead, but are walking, 'living'. In a way, Ki Song would count in that category, but it's not like Sunny will order Wraith to kill his mother.
Shadow: [Soul Serpent.]
Shadow Rank: Ascended.
Shadow Class: Terror.
Now, Serpent was a Terror, arguably his strongest Shadow, and it seemed to have gained one ability.
Shadow attributes: [Shadow Guide], [Soul Weapon], [Soul Beast].
Shadow abilities: [Serpentine Steel], [Soul Reaver], [Formless], [Mark of Shadow], [Mark of Shadows].
[Mark of Shadows]
Ability Description: "Soul Serpent allows the Heir of Shadows to mark his vassals."
This was similar, but not the same as the [Mark of Shadow] of the Shadow Watchers, he still had to test it, but the simple difference of a letter made it clear that it was different. Probably a weaker version for the lesser vassals- well, future vassals.
'Maybe I could make all the operatives of the Clan stronger just by marking them… It's exciting.'
Shadow: Marble Saint
Shadow Rank: Ascended.
Shadow Class: Demon.
Shadow Fragments: 10/200
Shadow Attributes: [Battle Master], [Stalwart], [Spark of Divinity].
Shadow abilities: [Weapon Sage], [Underworld Armament].
It's funny he has two Shadows with the exact same description.
Shadow: Soul-Devouring Tree.
Shadow Rank: Ascended.
Shadow Class: Terror.
Shadow Fragments: 0/200.
Shadow Attributes: [Enthralling Tree], [Bewitching Soul].
Shadow abilities: [Devourer of Souls], [Territory of Thralls], [Expanding Roots].
'This will be especially useful in the Nightmare, since there probably won't be anything especially more powerful than an Ascended Terror… Would a Corrupted appear in a Second Nightmare? Maybe, his sisters' Nightmares did have one or two but they didn't pass the Devil Class from what he remembered.'
Shadow: [Dreadwing of the Black Storm]
Shadow Rank: Ascended.
Shadow Class: Devil.
Shadow Fragments: 0/200.
Shadow Attributes: [Death Raven], [Born for the Night], [Lightning Scarred], [Life of Solace].
Shadow abilities: [Conduit of Storms], [Bond Iron Armor], [Mother of Wings], [Eyes of Protection].
Sunny was really interested in the [Mother of Wings] ability, the idea of his Shadow creating spawns was really- for the lack of a better term- cool. He just needed to figure out how to do it, the description didn't really help with that.
He had also left Dreadwing in the flying ship since it wouldn't really help in the Night Temple.
"Sunny, it 's time."
He finally took his eyes off his runes and looked up to see the Citadel.
The stone stairs they traveled in transformed into a hanging bridge as soon as it turned horizontal, attached to a stone structure above by rusty chains. After all, the Citadel wasn't on the center of the island, but below it.
Some distance away, a magnificent structure protruded from under the floating island. Made out of black stone, it resembled a tall, somber cathedral that was somehow built upside down and hovered above the abyss of impenetrable darkness.
The sunlight never reached it since it was beneath the isle, being shrouded in eternal shadows…
The perfect place for the Heir of Shadows.
Almost immediately, Sunny activated Shadow Step and melded into Nephis' shadow once again, slowly but surely, his essence began to drain, but with the essence efficiency granted by Serpent, it would be a long time before his cores ran out.
And so, as two bells sounded in the distance indicating that they could pass, a Nephilim and a Priestess of Fate began walking to the Night Temple, a Divine Shadow shrouded in the eternal darkness of the island.
—
Approaching the gates, there was not much to say, they all already decided on what to do.
Although they hadn't been on the Night Temple, Nephis, in a manner of speaking, had arranged for a meeting regarding the Hollow Mountains, feigning interest and requesting for a Saint with experience in the Death Zone to escort her, saying one of her followers had an Aspect that would help in the exploration of the Zone.
From what Sunny understood, Valor accepted more to gain a connection to Changing Star than anything else. From their point of view, they would lose her to Song sooner rather than later, after all, they were non-the-wiser that Nephis wanted to join the Great Clan… Just on her own terms. To them, Nephis had conquered the Forgotten Shore with the assistance of two children of Song, and was dating, or at least close to dating, their Prince thanks to the movie and rumors.
So gaining any trust from Changing Star was necessary. After all, they needed the talent from the Forgotten Shore.
Well, 'needed' is a strong word, more like 'wanted'. Sunny could not forget that regardless of how powerful his mother, sisters and the Saints of Song were, Valor was still ahead when it came to influence, power and numbers thanks to taking more from the Immortal Flame Clan, which created a cascade effect that led them to have more resources and influence, making Valor a much more enticing Clan to join than Song. And that will only grow when Nephis joins them, regardless if she is on his side.
Maybe that's why his mother wants to get the upperhand through Antarctica…
'I have to finish this Nightmare quickly and then become a Master. Get as many Echoes as I can, especially from special nightmare creatures like the Stone Saints, if there are any like them for that matter. That is, if [Fated] is feeling generous and actually gives me any Echoes, or my friends for that matter.'
Getting back to reality, Cassie quietly reminded Nephis of the rules of the Night Temple.
"We won't be allowed to summon any Memories or Echoes inside the Citadel. We can only go into the allowed areas, unless a Master is escorting us. We may not speak with the inhabitants of the temple unless they address us first…"
Nephis nodded to everything, but the next couple of words made him stiffen a little.
"… Additionally, all items we bring inside have to be inspected."
"Does that include our storage Memories?"
Both Sunny and Cassie stared at Changing Star humorlessly. Sunny through the shadows and Cassie… She just stared with her blind eyes.
"Yes Neph."
Nephis shivered, not that she made it obvious, cursing herself for not emptying her storage of… Important things that a certain person gave to her.
As they finally approached the ornate gates, two middle aged sentinels stood in front of them, two Lost, in fact, every one in the one hundred Awakened in the Night Temple were one one of the Lost, people who lost their original body of the waking world and were forced to live in the Dream Realm forever, or at least be forced to do the Second Nightmare before doing so.
Sunny had encountered some of them before, Song had a few of them after all and compared the ones he knew to these… They weren't that different, seasoned, veteran, experienced. They all saw a lot in their life, it reminded him of the veterans of the Forgotten Shore.
That didn't surprise him, what did was why keep one hundred of these elite soldiers here?
One of the sentinels stepped forward, raising a hand to stop the two approaching women, he studied them with a scrutinizing gaze before addressing them, well, one of them.
"Lady Changing Star, its an honor to meet you, Lord Cormac not present, but he will return soon to have an audience with you."
Nephis put on a practiced, pleasant smile.
"That is not a problem, may we see Lord Pierce or Lady Welthe then?"
The sentinels looked at each other, before the male one entered the gates, asking them to wait.
The female sentinel looked then looked at Cassie.
"And who might this be? I don't remember her being one of your trusted companions.
Nephis waved her hand as if dismissing the importance of Cassie, the practiced smile never leaving her, with a gentle, calm voice.
"She's just a follower with an Aspect that could help in the Hollow Mountains."
The answer seemed to satisfy the sentinel, who didn't ask any other questions.
Sunny couldn't help but smile, just as expected, none noticed his presence. He used the time to message Nephis to complement her.
[Shadow]: "Your acting is getting better."
[Light]: "It wasn't good before?"
[Shadow]: "Not really, before, I could easily tell what you were thinking. Now? Not so much."
It was brief, but Sunny could swear he saw a flash of pride passing through her eyes before it quickly vanished.
The guard soon returned, beckoning them to follow him, in doing so, Cassie and Nephis were led into a small room right beside the gate and carefully handing them simple, yet neatly made garments that were obviously made beforehand.
They closed the door, leaving the two women inside.
"So… We are changing…"
Cassie nodded.
"No Memories allowed…"
There was only one problem.
Nephis looked at her shadow, where someone she was very, VERY, embarrassed about could see her body.
Sunny immediately shot the idea down.
"I'll leave, stay on the outside, it's not like they can see me anyway."
Sunny left the comfort of Nephis' shadow and proceeded to leave the room still in his shadow form.
A barely contained blush passed through both of their faces, but the one on Nephis was much more intense.
"He could have left one here-"
"Don't give him ideas Cass!"
Alone, the two girls started to change, dismissing their armors and putting on the garments.
"Oh, and don't worry about bugs, they aren't listening."
As Cassie took her silver blindfold off, she sighed, already reaching for the clothes they gave them.
"Cass, how much do you know?"
The question caght the seer by surprise.
"What?"
"Ever since the Forgotten Shore… No, even before that, you seem different, colder, not caring for what may or may not happen, so, how much do you know?"
Cassie hesitated, before she grabbed the shirt and started wearing it.
"I told you before Neph, Fate is not set in stone, what I see are merely possibilities of what could happen, what is more likely to happen, the more I see the same occurrence, the more I know it could be true."
"Did you know Caster would die?"
Cassie didn't… Couldn't answer that.
Nephis sighed.
"You changed."
But that only made Song of the Fallen chuckle.
"How could I not? I already witnessed hundreds, if not thousands of past, present and future. Everyday I see something new, a new possibility, a new potential failure…"
She smiled humorlessly.
"I now understand Lady Death Singer… Being a seer, the Heir of Fate for that matter, is truly hell. Who knows, maybe I already lost a part of myself… Maybe I will be broken forever, like a mirror that was broken, I'll never be the same."
Nephis stayed quiet, and finished getting ready along with Cassie, both then left the room.
Sunny melded once again with Nephis' shadow.
—
The interior of the somber cathedral was as bizarre as its exterior. Usually one would expect the actual floors to be constructed properly, and some of the corridors they walked through were. But other parts of Night Temple were upside-down, so the flat floors serving as ceilings and the arching ceiling serving as uneven floors.
It made Sunny wonder why they didn't just create platforms to walk.
Yet what really made no sense to him was why every single member of the Night Temple was a battlehardened Lost Awakened.
'What makes this place so different? A hundred Awakened that need to be Lost, two Masters and a Saint. Is there a nightmare creature that steals bodies?'
He shook his non-existing head in the shadows, deciding to send some of his shadows to scout the Temple, using the shadows of the Citadel to make them indetectable.
Soon, the Awakened sentinel led them into a bigger room with a big table in the middle.
The sentinel stood in front of the table, then decided to speak in the gentlest way possible for a dark man like him.
"Sir Pierce is on his way, present all your items for inspection, please."
Cassie put her belt and scabbard on the table, then turned to Nephis and did a signal to tell him about the Memory.
That made Sunny furrow his non-existing brows, why was Cassie so insistent on the storage Memory? It's not like they had a way to know Nephis had a storage Memory.
Sighing, Changing Star looked at the sentinel evenly.
"My items are in my storage Memory."
The Awakened furrowed his brows a little, but tried to maintain his calm and pleasant demeanor.
"Lady Changing Star, if you could summon it, please."
She nodded and took a step forward, summoning a wooden looking box that easily opened.
The Awakened slowly let his weapon down and used both hands to carefully search the storage Memory, what he found was…
The guards present and Sunny himself in shadow form stared at the ever increasing pile of books that kept being taken out of the storage Memory, the worst part was… Sunny recognized all of them.
'The Dark Lord's love'? 'Living a double life with an Assassin'? 'I'm the one for the Emperor'?
They were almost all Revel's books! When did she give it to Nephis? Why did she give them to Nephis? Why did Nephis have them in the first place?!?!
'That one… 'Shadow Empire'? That's my book! I've been looking for it for ages! You gave it to her?!'
Nephis was obviously, at least for Sunny, trying to hide a blush, the whole thing was extremely embarrassing for her, but she kept her face as indifferent and stoic as possible.
The inspector tried to do the same, the image he had of Changing Star slowly crumbling as he began to see a girl with a very specific hobby.
There were other things in the Memory, of course, but they were all overshadowed by the novels.
Eventually, the door opened to reveal a man with sharp features and steely eyes came in, dark hair forming some bangs. Wearing a scale armor forged out of lusterless blue steel, and exuding a relaxed confidence of an experienced killer.
Master Pierce. He was stronger than the Master Sunny killed in the Chained Isles, a true Knight of Valor. But Sunny still thought he could kill him.
The Master exchanged pleasantries with Changing Star right after processing the pile of books on the table that was somehow getting bigger.
But in the middle of everything, Sunny heard the small voice of Cassie talking to herself…
Curiosity got the better of him, and he quickly switched from Nephis' shadow to Cassie's as he heard her talk..
"You have your chance… Do whatever you want…
Prince Mordret."
Sunless froze as he heard those words, and he pieced everything together.
The reason his mother let him come, why his teacher told his story, why Cassie wanted to come here, why every single Awakened here was a Lost…
This was a prison.
For his teacher's past student.
The inspecting sentinel then pulled a shard of broken glass from the storage Memory, something that made Master Pierce pale.
"Lady Nephis, where did you get that?!"
She looked at the Master with a frown, but answered.
"I picked it up after slaying a strange creature."
The Master stared at her for a moment, and then his face suddenly changed. It became pale and motionless, as if aged by ten years. His eyes grew wide and glassy, he opened his mouth in horror.
Because he was terrified.
A thin crack appeared on the shard in his hand.
And in the next moment, all they could hear was the sound of breaking mirrors.
The Prince of Nothing had escaped.
— —
Eunbin opened the doors of the house without any care of hiding herself.
She walked calmly, the cosmetic Memories long gone, letting her whole beauty reveal.
Her steps were slow, deliberate, her brows furrowed in disgust and anger. She knew what had happened, and knew the ones responsible for it.
Step by step, she walked, reaching the stairs and making sure her high-heels made a sound when hitting the wooden floor of the stairwell to pretend she was none the wiser of the presence of the Awakened. The subtle smell of blood and corpses made it clear what had happened, and the fact the four Awakened had yet to move made it clear their target included someone else, yet the cries of Rain's little brother were still loud, coming from the same room the four Awakened were.
Eunbin gritted her teeth.
'To use a newborn as bait. You don't even deserve to be my thralls.'
The only reason she was able to notice all these things was because she was a Saint, her advanced senses made conventional tactics of hiding smells and presence useless. If it had been Rain coming up these stairs…
Eunbin reached the room where the poor baby was crying, the door was closed, the four Awakened were there.
And Beastmaster's anger could no longer be contained.
She grabbed the door handle and pulled, it was a door that you were meant to push, but she cared little for that, not even twisting the handle.
She pulled so hard the screws came off, and the door was ripped out, being tossed to the side with the absolute force of a Saint with a Divine Lineage.
She walked forward, entering the room and immediately raising her hand to easily block an attack of a dagger.
The blade broke on contact.
The owner of the blade widened his eyes, recognizing the one he had just attacked.
"Pull back! She—!"
It was already too late, by merely laying eyes on the beauty, he was enthralled.
Her face seemed to be perfectly made, her deep eyes, her red lips… Undying loyalty immediately rose up in the assassin, even if his new mistress hated him with a passion, he would die for her.
Turning, he deflected a knife aimed for her with his broken blade and ran towards the one who attacked his queen.
"Wind, what are you doing?!"
His past comrades seemed confused by his sudden action, but the other assassin had no choice but to defend herself after being attacked.
"Wind, snap out of it!"
The other two assassins were by the other side of the room, but while one turned to his companion, the other laid her eyes on the target…
"Forget it Amber, he's gone nuts! Pearl kill the…"
The assassin called 'Pearl' had already been enthralled.
She dashed against who was supposed to be her leader with killing intent. Now he was the enemy, the only enemy.
Beastmaster walked as the four Awakened that were once comrades in arms were now fighting each other to the death. She could have enthralled the other two, but she didn't care about that right now.
As the mundane house was destroyed around her, consequence of the battle of four elite Awakened, Eunbin simply walked, ignoring the walls breaking, the mobilia ripping apart. All of it became useless noise, she only focused on the cries of the baby that lost his parents…
She got close to the crib, there wasn't too much blood on the scene, the assassins were professionals, but that didn't stop them from dumping the bodies of the baby's parents right beneath the crib.
The father was laying with his back against the floor, a big wound on his chest, arms stretched out as if protecting someone behind him.
The mother had her hand stretched out to the crib, as if trying to reach her son before her back was torn apart by a thin dagger.
Eunbin looked at the scene with a somber expression. In a way, it was her fault this had happened.
If she hadn't been selfish, if she didn't push Sunny to go meet Rain, if they had thought this through…
Regardless if they abandoned Sunny or not, they didn't deserve this…
The cries of the little baby seemed to get louder in her head, prompting Eunbin to get to the crib.
"You… Didn't deserve this…"
Eunbin knew very well the pain of losing one's parents, but to lose them this young? Will he even remember them?
Will he remember the love of his mother as she held him in her arms?
The strong arms of his father as he protected the little boy?
Eunbin got to the crib and leaned in, passing her eyes through the boy…
He was so small, so delicate, so fragile…
His little hands kept reaching out, searching for something, trying to grap something… Comfort, love, family…
Eunbin reached her hand, and let the little hand grab her finger.
He still cried, but she could feel the baby got a little calmer.
So she reached her other hand and wrapped it around the little body of the newborn. Holding him easily, but gently, to not hurt the little one in any way… She could have used her Aspect to calm him down, but that didn't feel right.
Slowly… The baby stopped crying, and he went to sleep.
Eunbin held him close, emotion building up inside her, she began to walk, slowly, wanting to leave the building.
As she walked down the stairs, the little baby still held in her arms, she saw the four Awakened on the ground floor, their battle must have led them down.
As expected, her thralls had won.
The ones under her control pinned the other two down, wounded, but not dead.
The one that seemed like their leader struggled, cursing the name of Beastmaster.
"You bitch! A coward that uses others to fight your battl–"
"Shut it."
The leader immediately closed his mouth upon hearing the beautiful and enchanting voice of his new mistress.
"You will kill whoever is involved in this assassination that is still in this perimeter, then, you will report back to me and explain how this happened."
Her words were like gospel, immediately, the two assassins that were pinned down were realised, and the four Awakened were once again allies. Just this time, serving someone else.
As they left through the back doors, Eunbin walked to the front door, she hesitated, but opened.
Rain was there, being held by Marcus as she stared at what was once her home…
As soon as she saw Eunbin getting out with a little baby in her arms, she understood what had happened.
Tears started building up in her eyes as the mute driver tried his best to comfort her…
Eunbin got close, and said the only words she could muster while she held the little boy in her hands.
"I'm sorry Rain…"