Lua's eyes opened, wincing slightly at how bright the false sun in the sky was. She sat up and stretched, the small segmented plates of her armor stretching slightly. Moving off the cool marble, she paced over to where Sunny and Kai were talking.
"Hey, Night. Are you stupid? Don't sit this close to the edge!"
Lua listened to Sunny yelling at Kai.
The charming archer looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"I can fly, remember? If I fall…"
Sunny scoffed.
"I'm not worried about you falling into the cursed sea. I am worried about something dragging you off into it. That'd be terrible, right?"
Lua sighed at Sunny's behaviour, he acted like he didn't care about them, but ultimately he did. 'Such a tsundere'
***
Due to the… rather exciting events yesterday, the group decided to rest for the day. Lua stood at the far end of the platform, wearing the Blood Relic and cycling essence into the Blood Rune to form enough blood for the armour to repair.
The armour had taken far too many hits during their catacombs adventure. Recalling the armour into her soul sea would have been the best decision, but due to the damage that her cloak took, she would have nothing to wear besides seaweed cloths. And she'd rather not do that.
She had half contemplated just jumping down and exploring the labyrinth herself, but Nephis, seemingly having predicted her train of thought, chewed her out for 'reckless decision making'. Whatever that was.
Instead, she summoned Wolf and sent it down into the labyrinth. Given the unique existence that was her Eidolon, she had yet to uncover everything it could do. But she did discover she could augment it with her essence, similar to how she'd observed Nephis' flames and Sunny's shadow.
This not only allowed her to increase the power of the eidolon three fold, based on her core count, but also allowed her to somewhat remotely control the eidolon. Of course, it wasn't like she became the wolf, but instead guiding it like playing an old video game from the NQSC.
Instructing the wolf and guiding its attacks and decision making. Unlike normal echoes, the Aetherium Wolf seemed fully sentient but had yet to develop an ego, and of course, couldn't speak.
'A talking dog…' Lua frowned, the image of a golden retriever with golden rimmed glasses round its neck briefly popping up in her mind.
Lua shut her eyes, sharing the 'senses' with the wolf. It wasn't so much seeing out the eidolon's eyes as it was using echolocation or sonar to navigate. Lua 'felt' the labyrinth walls. The coral's odd shapes confused her slightly, given their unusual forms.
The wolf shot through the coral maze, it was augmented by all three of her essence creations, effectively giving it a threefold power boost. Prowling round the corner in search of prey, Wolf used [Aetheric Leap] and launched into the center of a group of seven iron spiders.
Stomping its four paws into the ground, Wolf swung its tail, sending an iron spider careening into the walls.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[Your soul grows purer]
Two spiders sprung their legs forward into the Wolf's side, but it went straight through. Lua had discovered this a while ago, but it was rather hard to actually damage the eidolon. This was completely due to the [Aether Veil] attribute.
The two ways Lua had figured out how to damage it, was to either hit its soul, or be the same or higher rank or class than the Eidelon. Which meant the iron spiders, which could do neither, passed harmlessly through Wolf's body.
Raising its paws it slashed out. [Stellar Talons] tore through the spider's lightly armoured bodies, dismembering them with minimal effort.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Iron Spider.]
[You have slain….]
The spells whispered repeatedly in her ear as she watched Wolf demolish the local population. Eventually though, a change happened, a large swarm of twelve normal iron spiders appeared, leading them was a much larger spider.
Lua winced slightly as through her connection she felt the leader's rank and class 'Shit, a tyrant.' It was utterly massive iron spiders, as big as a house and utterly deadly. It was armored like a damn hover tank.
Wolf backed up a few steps and used [Aetheric Leap] again. Passing through the gap in space, Wolf appeared behind the lead spider and bit down. [Aetheric Maw] crushed the spider's heavy armour.
The augmented fangs sunk deep into the armour, causing blood to flow, but failing to deliver a fatal strike. Jumping back Wolf used [Elliptical] to shift into the form of mist. The [Elliptical] ability was powerful but drained Lua's cores rather quickly.
Wolf was no slouch, using the precious few seconds it could, it tore through the tyrant's escort.
[You have slain….]
By the time [Elliptical] was deactivated only 4 regular iron spiders remained. Wolf fell back, putting some distance between the injured tyrant, and its inconsequential escort. The iron spiders couldn't even harm Wolf. But the tyrant could.
'Ignore the escort, focus on the big one.' Lua mental commanded as she strained her mind, two bright essence blades formed in front of Wolf. Lua used Wolf as a remote point to conjure her blades.
Sending the two blades in different directions, both blades cut through the spider escorts with relative ease.
[You have slain….]
Wolf shot forward, biting into one of the tyrant's legs, it twisted its neck and flung it into the coral. With a resounding crash that made Nephis, who was watching the fight from their platform wince, the large spider sank deep into the wall.
Wolf dove onto it, using both [Aetheric Maw] and [Stellar Talons] Wolf tore through the tyrant's tank like armour, ripping it to shreds. After almost thirty seconds of feeling Wolf dig into the tyrant, the Spell's voice responded.
[You have slain a Dormant Tyrant, Iron Spider Sciscon.]
[Your soul grows purer]
[You have received a Memory.]
Lua gave the Wolf one last command before severing the link between them 'Return.' The sudden disconnection caused Lua to half collapse backwards, getting caught by Nephis. "Thanks."
"Did it go well?" Nephis asked after a second.
"Very well." Lua sat down as she half felt Wolf returning to her.
'Nineteen awakened beasts and a dormant tyrant against an ascended devil really isn't fair.' Lua thought happily to herself.
Masters could typically move through dozens of awakened nightmare creatures, so an ascended devil forcing its way through a pack of twenty was not unheard of.
She watched from the platform as Wolf used [Aetheric Leap] multiple times and returned before jumping into Lua's body. [Astral Bond] went back to full power as Lua golden pupils bled into a deep magenta colour.
Lua watched as Nephis sat down next to her, "How many were there?"
"Nineteen awakened beasts and a dormant tyrant." Lua responded with a half shrug. Ordinarily, these feats would have been impossible to achieve as a sleeper, but Lua was an exception, having a divine aspect and receiving Sky's Gift from her mother was really the only reason she could pull off these feats.
Nephis' eyes widened slightly before narrowing. "That's good, how close are you to your fourth?"
Lua looked down and called on her runes.
Soul Fragments: [1494/3000]
"Half way." She responded calmly. "And you?"
Nephis only nodded. "Almost formed my third, around one third the way there."
"That's good."
Lua leaned back, "there are quite a lot of spiders down there, given that my echo was ambushed by twenty of them within only two hours of exploration. But I suppose an ascended devil is bound to draw more attention."
"Maybe best to keep it summoned when we need to kill a lot." Nephis tapped her on the shoulder and stood, walking over to the others.
Lua dove into her soul sea. Standing in the familiar space she gazed up at the 3 purple suns and their ethereal light that rained down on her. Stepping forward over the still water she called on the new memory.
From her core a pendant around the size of a water bottle floated down. It was an intricate flower made of gold and its stalk carved from wood. Decorating the stalk were countless runes, each glowing a soft light blue colour.
Lua could half read the runes and could tell they related to soul essence. To clarify, she called the spell.
Memories: [Winter's Blessing], [Knight's Crest], [Sky's Gift], [Scale Suit], [Talon of Unrest], [Eventide], [Papyrus Scarab], [Sky Cleaver], [Valhalla], [Broken], [Blood Rune], [Nature's Gift]
[Nature's Gift]
Memory Rank: Dormant
Memory Tier: V
Memory Type: Tool
Memory Description: [A relic crafted from the heartwood of an ancient, long-forgotten tree, Nature's Gift hums with the quiet rhythm of life itself. Etched with intricate runes and imbued with the essence of flowing growth, this dormant tool eases the burden of memories, hastens recovery, and weaves a current of renewal through those who wield it. When held in stillness, its energies converge, granting unparalleled restoration to both body and spirit—an enduring testament to nature's boundless generosity.]
Memory Enchantments: [Whisper of Austeris], [Font of the Ever Flowing], [Vitality's Embrace], [Flowing Conduit], [Still Heart Nexus]
[Whisper of Austeris]
Enchantment Description: [This Memory reduces the essence needed for enchantments.]
[Font of the Ever Flowing]
Enchantment Description: [This Memory increases essence regeneration.]
[Vitality's Embrace]
Enchantment Description: [This Memory increases physical recovery speed.]
[Flowing Conduit]
Enchantment Description: [This Memory increases the essence regeneration of others.]
[Still Heart Nexus]
Enchantment Description: [This Memory increases essence and physical regeneration when stationary.]
'It's perfect for me.' Lua smiled to herself, whilst she could manipulate essence, it was still limited by her three dormant cores. In addition, although she had the [Asura] attribute, which augmented her body massively, she still was partly lacking when it came to regeneration, both physical and essence wise.
She only had her passive regeneration which she had noticed only extended to healing a small limb back, and her essence regeneration was only due to Wolf, which she needed to remember to summon to have its benefits.
She decided it would probably be wise to rearrange her armaments for the greatest efficiency.
[Knight's Crest]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: Charm
Memory Description: [The lost knight wonders alone. Its soul forever empty.]
Memory Enchantments: [Receptacle]
[Receptacle]
Enchantment Description: Stores up soul essence and releases it on command.
'Knight's Crest is fully recharged' the ascended charm could comfortably refill a master's core. So it could easily refill all three of Lua's cores. 'The Mystic Beacon will also be useful, especially its ability to augment the soul defence of Wolf, removing natural weaknesses is too useful.'
[Mystic Beacon]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: II
Memory Type: Tool
Memory Enchantments: [Empowered]
[Empowered]
Enchantment Description: [This memory provides minimal protection against soul attacks.]
Lua spent a few minutes rearranging her memories and making sure Scale Suit was still assimilated into the Blood Relic. Slipping out of her soul sea she first summoned Nature's Gift, the intricate flower of gold and its carved wooden stalk.
Knight's Crest was next. A silver coat of arms about the size of her hand appeared from the white sparks.
On its face two simple swords were crossed over the shield-like shape. Next came Mystic Beacon, which she draped around Wolf's neck. It was a finely wrought amulet, its centerpiece a luminous, iridescent gem that seems to capture the very essence of twilight.
Lastly she summoned Winter's Warmth, the elegant, ceremonial cloak weaving itself into existence over the Blood Relic. It's comforting warmth being just the thing Lua needed.
Clipping the two new memories onto her belt next to the Blood Rune she felt content with how her arsenal was advancing. She had to thank the Blood Relic for being an exceptional armour.
Despite only currently being an awakened tier armour. It could take hits from fallen creatures and comfortably shrug off hits from awakened creatures, not to mention that it would follow her mastery of her legacy and match her class. Truly deserving the origin of a legacy relic. Much better than that useless griffen her Mother had.
She had multiple ascended memories and even two transcendent ones. She could comfortably take on awakened and lower classed fallen nightmare creatures. Lua could comfortably be described as the near pinnacle of what a sleeper or an awakened could be.