A while later, the day was drawing to a close. Some of the Memories had already restored themselves, so almost everyone was wearing their clothes and armor.
Lucien was both relieved and disappointed by that. He was relieved because he no longer had to consciously force himself to look away. And disappointed because….
Moving on, something caught his attention from the far end of the marble arch.
Nephis and Caster were standing facing each other, with sharp swords in their hands. They were about to clash.
This was his chance. Without making a noise, Lucien walked up to the two legacies and sat down a safe distance away from them. Beside him, Sunny did the same.
Unlike Sunny, he had no interest in learning their fighting styles. He knew Casters' aspect had to do something with increasing his speed, and Nephis' allowed her to use fire to heal and kill. No, he was here for something different.
Caster glanced at them and frowned.
"What are you two doing here?"
Sunny shrugged.
"Watching. Why? Does this part of the arch belong to your clan or something?"
"What he said." Lucien lazily pointed towards Sunny.
The proud Legacy shook his head and turned away.
"Do as you wish."
Without wasting any more time, the two of them clashed in a whirlwind of steel. Lucien's eyes worked overtime to take in every detail as they clashed.
"Hey, Sunny." He said, without taking his eyes away from the fight.
"Hmm?"
"I'm trying to test something in my soul sea. Can you tell me how much time has passed when I'm back?"
Sunny frowned and looked at him, "Why?"
"I'll explain later, just help me with this."
"Fine," Sunny grumbled and began counting the seconds as soon as Lucien closed his eyes.
A moment later, he opened them again.
Lucien stared at the two fighters, his eyes glowing an ethereal purple as the world slowed to a crawl. Nephis moved like she was submerged in honey, slowly. Her sword moved to defend against an overhead swing from the legacy. Caster, on the other hand, moved like he was in water. Still slow, but faster than Nephis. Then, he dove into his soul sea.
Back under the three stars, he summoned his sword. He had time to kill, so why not start with his daily quota of a thousand slashes?
Normally, it took him anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour to finish them. But inside his soul sea, fatigue did not exist; as such, he finished the thousand slashes much faster.
If he had to guess, around thirty minutes should have passed. That was long enough.
Returning to his body, he immediately activated his aspect. The two combatants had moved. Nephis' sword was moving from the defensive position it was in right before Lucien had entered the soul sea. And Caster was preparing for another swing.
"So, how long has it been?" Lucien asked, turning to Sunny.
Sunny blinked. Was he already back? But it had only been a few seconds since he left. He frowned. Was he trying to pull his leg or something?
"It has been two seconds." He said, glancing at Lucien from the corner of his eyes, judging his expression.
Shock, satisfaction, and realization flashed past his face in a second. Then, he smiled, "Thanks, I'll leave you to watch them in peace then."
Sunny opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes were glued to Nephis' and Caster's fight. Whatever Lucien was doing, he'd ask him later.
'That confirms it.' Lucien grinned, 'Time moves slowly in my soul sea, incredibly slowly. Thirty minutes there equalled two seconds in the real world.'
This would be incredibly useful, especially in battle. If he entered his soul sea, he would have all the time in the world to think of a counterattack. Which was why he was heading towards Kai.
"Kai, old buddy. Can you do me a favour?" Lucien knelt down next to the archer, smiling widely.
Kai blinked, unsettled by that smile. Still, he agreed.
"Sure, what do you need?"
"Oh nothing much," Lucien said, and his smile died, "Spar with me."
"What?"
"Fight me with your sword." Lucien clarified, "Not the bow."
Kai frowned, "Why me? Don't you usually spar with Effie?"
Beside him, the huntress nodded, "I was about to ask that."
"Usually, yeah, but I'm trying to test something," He glanced at Effie and shivered, "If something goes wrong, she'll keep going and pummel me to the ground."
"No, I wouldn't," she protested.
"You absolutely would." Lucien shot back, before turning back to Kai, "So?"
Sighing, Kai stood up, "Sure? I'm not that good with my falcata though."
"Oh, please," Lucien scoffed, "You survived the catacombs with it. That alone makes you one of the best in the Dark City."
"If you say so," he said, still unsure. A moment later, a beautiful curved sword materialized in his hand.
Smiling, Lucien summoned his sword. The two combatants stared at each other. Their entire body tensed, ready to react in a split second.
Normally, Lucien would be the one initiating the attack, but his goal this time was different. He stayed on the defensive and watched, waiting.
Eventually, Kai made the first move. Hovering over the ground, the archer shot towards him, his sword arm cocked back to deliver a devastating stab.
Instead of using his aspect to speed himself up, Lucien dove into his soul sea. It would take Kai at least a second to finish his strike, which gave Lucien around ten minutes to think of a counter.
Intercepting the swing with his sword?
No, Kai was moving too fast, and unless he used his aspect, he wouldn't be able to avoid it.
Sidestepping?
That could be done. As dangerous as Kai's attack was, it was focused on a single point. If he could move just a bit to the side, he would dodge the attack completely.
Leaving his soul sea, Lucien prepared to jump to the side. But he had forgotten one key detail. He was not yet used to fighting right after exiting his soul sea; it left him disoriented for a split second and delayed his jump just enough that he couldn't fully dodge the attack.
While he dodged the blade, he was not fast enough to dodge Kai's body. The archer crashed into him, and Lucien was violently thrown to the ground. Kai barely managed to keep himself upright, courtesy of his aspect ability.
Lucien groaned as he sat up on the ground. He had been too excited about his new discovery, so much so that he had forgotten that key detail.
"Are you okay?" Kai floated down in front of him and offered him a hand.
Accepting the gesture, Lucien nodded, "I'm fine. I just…miscalculated."
Kai frowned, "Why didn't you use your aspect?"
Lucien shrugged, "I've grown too dependent on it. If in the future I'm unable to use my aspect, I'll be done for. Besides, as I said, I'm testing something. I don't want to use my aspect and skew the results."
Kai nodded in understanding. He himself hadn't been able to use his aspect at all inside the catacombs. If he hadn't learned to fight on the ground as well as he could in the air, he would never have survived the horde.
"Let's go again," Lucien said, picking up his sword from the ground.
Kai hesitated for a moment, then nodded and got back into position. This time, staying on the ground. If his opponent was not using his aspect, it was only fair for him to do the same.
They spent the rest of the night sparring. By the end of it, they were too tired even to talk anymore. Silently, they headed to the center of the marble arch and lay down beside the other members of the cohort.
Lucien was satisfied. In the few hours they sparred, he had gotten the hang of it. He was no longer disoriented when he returned from his soul sea. He could now jump back into combat the moment he returned to his body. Soon enough, he had switched from playing defensively to playing offensively.
That had gone terribly at the start. Entering his soul sea mid swing and losing even a second meant that he lost his momentum, and his attack harmlessly bounced off of Kai's falcata. Only after finishing the swing could he enter his soul sea safely.
It was an incredible boon to have the time to think for minutes during combat. Combined with his aspect ability…
Lucien shuddered; he would not want to fight himself.
The next morning, after Sunny's shenanigans with Effie, they set off to continue their journey into the depths of the Labyrinth.
Their goal this time was to reach the headless walker. A giant headless statue, one of the seven scattered around the shores, that walked from one end of the Labyrinth to the other.
They had to travel about a week's worth of time south to get the chance to climb atop the statue. The heights they were going to use on the way as shelters during the nights there were planned in advance with the help of the Forgotten Shore map Nephis had created.
To make sure that these shelters were really where the map showed and remove any possibility of ending up stranded in the middle of the Labyrinth with no way to escape the dark sea, she had even employed Kai during the week that Sunny had spent with Effie. The charming archer scouted the way ahead and confirmed that her map was correct.
Now, the only danger they really faced from the Forgotten Shore itself was that of a sudden storm. However, with a true oracle in the ranks of the cohort, this danger was dramatically diminished. Now that Cassie had grown into her powers and absorbed a lot of soul essence, she was often able to warn them in advance if something like that was going to happen.
There were also the usual perils of the Labyrinth, of course.
And as they went deeper into its deadly maze, the situation slowly began to turn from bad to worse
The iron spiders that had not been too threatening to the cohort of powerful, experienced Dark City hunters at the start of it all were growing more and more deadly with each step of the way. Their numbers grew exponentially, becoming a real danger pretty soon. More and more often, bigger and stronger monsters appeared at the head of the attacking beasts, bringing with them all sorts of problems.
What's worse, the spiderweb they used to trap their prey was changing, too. The metal wires from which it was woven became so thin that it was at times almost impossible to notice it, and sharp enough to cut through armor and bone — while maintaining the resilience of superb steel.
The whole Labyrinth was covered in it, turning from crimson to dull grey.
The cohort bled much more because of the invisible webs than they did because of the spiders themselves. Of course, the iron spiders were cunning creatures, too. More often than not, they only attacked once one of the humans was caught in their nets, leading to a few really harrowing experiences for the members of Changing Star's party.
And there was a wide variety of other terrifying creatures waiting to ambush them in the twisting pathways of the crimson coral, too. Even with Lucien's storm sense, they proved to be a threat. What made them so dangerous was that the cohort didn't know anything about their anatomy and abilities. Every fight was a gamble, often resulting in one or several of them sustaining serious wounds.
There were three things that made the situation somewhat bearable.
The first one was Nephis and her healing flames. Although using the Aspect Ability took a toll on their leader, it was often worth it, especially if one of the members of the cohort received wounds that limited their mobility.
One thing was far more dangerous than any Nightmare Creature that lived in the Labyrinth, and it was not reaching safety before the torrent of black water flooded the Forgotten Shore, bringing inconceivable horrors with it. Thanks to Neph, they didn't have to worry about anyone slowing the cohort down.
The second reason, unexpectedly, was the iron spiders themselves. Because of the peculiar way they hunted, a lot of creatures found their deaths in the cutting embrace of the wire spiderwebs. Finding these eviscerated corpses or cocoons containing old carcasses became a common occurrence once the party invaded the depths of the spider territory.
Thanks to that, seven dreamers were able to study and anticipate many of the monsters they had to face in this region of the Labyrinth. A lot of potentially deadly surprises had been avoided due to the cohort stumbling onto a corpse of a similar creature prior to fighting against a live one, and spending some time learning about its strengths and weaknesses.
The third reason was the Blood Arrow. In the hands of an experienced archer, it was almost as deadly as it would have been in the hands of an inexperienced one… the difference being that the latter would mostly be a danger to themselves, quickly turning into a bloodless husk.
The memory would drain the blood from anything it hit; even if the arrow grazed someone, it would drain all their blood. In the hands of an inexperienced archer, it would've meant the death of at least one of them.
In any case, with Nightingale in possession of the morbid Ascended Memory, their battles with iron spiders and other inhabitants of the Labyrinth became a bit less perilous. The Blood Arrow did not have any enchantments that needed to be activated by manipulating soul essence, so the charming archer could use it to its full potential.
Just like that, six more days passed by. Lucien gained no new memories during this time, but he had managed to earn thirty-seven more storm fragments. It wasn't going quite as fast as before, but that was to be expected. Their task wasn't to hunt this time, but to traverse the maze.
In the evening of the sixth day, bloodied and exhausted, the cohort had finally approached the goal of the first leg of their expedition.