High above, the sky was broken. Tendrils of nothingness seeped through the fissures, slowly consuming the vast expanse of the firmament. Rivers of liquid light flowed across the fractured ice like molten gold, cascading endlessly into the depths of an imprisoned ocean. The air shimmered with a quiet, oppressive stillness as though the world itself was holding its breath.
Amidst that eerie wasteland, a tenebrous figure walked. Their dark armor marred by something terrible, a tattered mantle hung on their shoulders fluttering weakly in the dead wind, they stopped near the golden lake, looking down with cold indifference..
The golden current flowed quietly into the depths below, its faint light flickering across the broken plain. Sunny watched in silence, his gaze following the molten river.
"Ichor," he muttered, recognizing it instantly. Even after a millennia , it still flowed. That was good for him since he was here for a purpose. This was the battlefield where Weaver and Ariel had once spoken, a moment he had seen during the Death Game.
His jade-helmed head turned as he surveyed the wasteland. It wasn't his first time here. Back then, he'd sent only two incarnations to retrieve the Sphere of the Divine Champion as a gift meant for Effie. With so few, he hadn't been able to explore much. But things were different now. Five incarnations stood ready, and the ruin before him felt far less empty than it had once been.
He streched his shadow sense far and wide, however he couldn't sense far, it was as if the landscape was resisting his sense,a quiet sigh escaped his lips.
He raised a hand,dark wisps gathered around his outstretched hand, weaving themselves into the shape of a small and intricate lantern. Its surface seemingly carved from ancient darkwood, torrents of vast and unfathomable shadows spilled from the lantern devouring the ancient wasteland until it was covered in utter darkness, and in the darkness he felt omniscient.
Torrents of information surged in his vast mind.
"There it is…" A bright smile bloomed on his beautiful face beneath the jade helm. He took a step forward and vanished from the lakeside, in the next instant, he stood hundreds of miles away.
In front of him lay a corpse.
It was enormous, its body half-buried in the fractured plain. Golden blood still flowed from deep gashes across its chest, winding through the cracks and running toward the distant lake. The flesh was pale and smooth, almost translucent, and the faint shimmer of lingering power clung to it like mist. Whatever it once was, even death hadn't stripped it of its majesty.
Sunny manifested the rest of his incarnations. All were clad in jade mantles and tattered robes. Two of them were severely mutilated, missing limbs and pieces of flesh.
An eerie voice echoed across the silent battlefield as the five spoke in unison.
"Found you."
Then one incarnation dissolved into shadow, its form twisting and condensing until it became a knife. The others followed, the turned into shadows that wrapped around the blade.
The knife looked as if it could cut the world itself its edge drank in the light, and from it seeped a dreadful aura of death.
This was a technique Sunny had mastered after obtaining Mind Weave. He had tried it once as a Saint, but that hadn't ended well. Now, however, he could turn into inanimate objects with little to no consequence and even in that form, he could wield Death Will.
Crouching beside the giant corpse, Sunny drove the blade into a deep gash across its chest. Shadows surged around him ,with curse enhancing his death will , merging with the will of the knife and the strength of three shadows. The corpse resisted, but slowly, painfully, it yielded beneath his hand.
After long effort, something within caught his eye. Buried deep in the torn flesh, a massive shard pulsed with blinding light, bright as a star trapped in ruin.
Sunny's smile widened beneath the jade helm as he reached forward and pulled the Divine Soul Shard free, and disappeared without a trace.
****
The dark sky stretched endlessly, casting the land beneath it into eternal night. Amidst that lightless expanse, a dark castle rose toward the heavens, its spires like blades trying to pierce the sky itself.
Below it sprawled a vast city of shadow. It streets filled with dark silhouettes, thier eyes devoid of life, until each and every one of them halted in unison casting their eerie gaze at the dark castle above.
High above, within the dark castle, silence reigned. Its halls were vast and cold, built from black stone that drank in all light.
Beneath those cavernous halls, seven figures stood beside the blinding Divine Shard and seven others that shone a little less brightly and even more . Each of them had the same beautiful ivory face, dark hair, and eyes like polished onyx. All of them had eight hands which moved in perfect harmony, their motions fluid and precise, like an elegant dance.
But sweat ran down their pale skin, and their bloodshot eyes betrayed the strain beneath their grace.After what felt like an eternity, all but one collapsed onto the cold ground, their bodies dissolving into pools of shadow. A chilling laugh echoed through the dark castle, shattering the heavy silence. Outside, a cold wind swept across the lightless lands.
The beautiful young man remained standing. In his hands was something formless, it seemed to exist everywhere and nowhere, blinking in and out of time itself.
Cracks spread across his ivory skin, glowing faintly with the same strange light, as though the thing's essence was bleeding into him. Yet his expression remained serene, his lips curling into a faint smile that carried no warmth.
Then, he poured his essence into it ,torrents of boundless power flowing from his core. The formless thing drank greedily, devouring everything he gave, until even his inexhaustible reserves began to dim.
And then,Silence.He was somewhere else.
There was no light. No sound. No life. Only endless nothingness stretching beyond thought,and it cracked,through that wound spilled a myriad golden threads, flowing like rivers of memory and destiny intertwined.
His vast mind trembled, on the verge of shattering beneath the weight of what he saw. Blood poured from his eyes, his shadows flickering, his form dimming with each heartbeat. Yet he did not let go.
With both hands, he seized a single golden thread.
And pulled.
****
Somewhere else..
The underground dojo was submerged in darkness, and as soon as Sunny willed the drop of ichor to manifest itself into reality, that darkness suddenly came to life. Countless shadows moved and danced around him, forming an invisible whirlpool. Their movements were strange and erratic, fraught with anticipation, excitement, and longing.
Slowly, golden sparks of light appeared in the air in front of him and then shot toward a single point in space, coalescing into a small radiant dot. However, the Memory did not appear yet. Instead, more and more sparks flew into it, thousands upon thousands of them, until, at last, it seemed as though wide streams of brilliant golden light were constantly flowing into the slowly growing sphere of radiance.
This continued for almost an entire minute, and when the sparks finally disappeared, a brilliant drop of golden liquid was floating in the air in front of Sunny. It was suffused with a beautiful light that didn't seem blinding, but was somehow able to illuminate the entire expanse of the dojo.
…However, there was also something dark about the shining drop of divine blood. Contrasted against its golden radiance, the shadows around him were now suddenly much deeper, darker, and starkly pronounced. All their movement ceased, as though they were frozen still by awe and reverence.
He hesitated, then glanced at the radiant drop of golden liquid once again.
Immediately, the Spell spoke. This time, however, its voice did not sound subtly excited.
[You have acquired a drop of ichor. Do you wish to consume it?]
Before Sunny could respond, the entire dojo trembled. A deafening crack split the air , space itself tore apart as a colossal rift opened in the middle of the chamber tearing the house apart. The walls of the underground hall twisted and warped, drawn toward the fracture like water pulled into a drain.
Shadows screamed. The floor buckled beneath his feet, fragments of reality breaking away and dissolving into the howling void beyond. From within the rift, golden light and utter darkness bled together, writhing like living things.
'D-damnation.., what in the nightmare gate is this'
Sunny staggered, his instincts flaring. The ichor drop pulsed violently, responding to the disturbance, its light wavered, then brightened to a blinding intensity. The Spell's voice cut through the chaos once more, distorted and urgent.
[Warning: Dimensional interference detected.]
[Stabilization failing.]
The dojo was collapsing into the rift. Even the shadows his own , were being dragged toward it, stretching thin as if reality itself was rejecting their existence until it devoured him.
****
The suffocating radiance of the sun scorched an endless expanse of white sand. Heat shimmered in the air like a mirage, each breath dry and searing. The desert stretched infinitely in every direction, lifeless and still, its silence broken only by the whisper of the wind scraping across dunes.
Far in the distance, a colossal black pyramid rose against the horizon. Its surface devoured the sunlight, casting a long shadow that seemed to stretch forever.
In that unforgiving wasteland, a young woman walked alone. Her long silver hair was tangled by the dry wind, her gray eyes dull yet bottomless, reflecting suffocating loneliness. She carried a sword in one hand,its blade chipped, its hilt worn smooth by time.
Her steps were slow, heavy. Each one left a faint print in the white sand that the wind soon erased. There was no hesitation in her movement, but no purpose either only persistence.
Then, the air behind her tore apart.
A vast rift split open in the fabric of the world, black and seething, bleeding tendrils of darkness into the scorched light. The desert quaked beneath her feet as the soundless storm of shadows burst outward, devouring the horizon.
The woman stopped. Her eyes lifted slightly, the faintest trace of emotion flickering across her face, she raised her sword as if to fight the world itself for the countless trial she had to endure her eyes filled with disdain towards everything, yet it was futile, as the rift devoured her all the same..