Sunny entered Aria's chambers after a quiet knock, seeing her hunched over a table as she looked at a map of the area surrounding the Crimson Spire.
She turned to look at him.
"What now? Did something happen?"
"No. Summon the Zenith and Starlight Shard."
Aria listened, summoning it a moment later, as Sunny summoned five memories, a large whirling of sparks appearing around him.
Aria's eyes widened at the sight.
"You got all of them? You… Nevermind. What now?"
Sunny raised a hand, telling her to just wait.
And a moment later, a beam shot out of the seven memories, colliding with each other. In the middle of those beams, the shape of a key coalesced.
Seven keys forged of lustrous metal appeared, seven shining stars engraved on their surface, before five of them shot towards Sunny, and two towards Aria.
[...You have received an Oath Key.]
[... You have…]
"Now give me the Oath Keys you just received.
Aria nodded, sending it to him immediately.
Sunny looked at his runes, satisfied, before leaving.
"That will be all."
***
"You…you really were just borrowing it?"
Seishan looked at Sunny with confusion.
He'd only just taken it thirty minutes ago!
"Yep. You can have it back now."
Seishan looked at him, still clearly suspecting he was up to something.
"You'll be wanting your shards back then?"
"No, you can keep it."
"Alright. Thanks."
Seishan replied promptly, not giving him any time to change his mind.
'Rude…'
Sunny turned to leave.
"Wait."
Sunny turned his head with a questioning glance.
"What?"
"Are you… from the outskirts?"
'How the hell…'
"...I am. Why?"
"No reason in particular… I was just curious. But, if we do end up conquering the Crimson Spire, would you be interested in joining Clan Song?"
"..."
'Huh? Where did that come from!?'
Feeling the pain is his Flaw building up, Sunny responded:
"Maybe. I'll think about it."
Seishan nodded, his answer being good enough.
Leaving with no interruptions this time, Sunny walked away while in deep thought.
'The Sovereigns should've become Supremes at most five years ago seeing as that's around the time Broken Sword died… Their Domains must be quite weak right now, and there are far fewer Saints currently.'
'Hmmm… I still won't be able to defeat them. The gap in power is simply too large, even if they didn't have a Domain.'
Not to mention…
'Asterion should still be active currently.'
Sunny shivered at the thought.
He did not know where he was or what kind of person he was. He only knew that his name had been scrubbed from most history books, and the last of his traces had disappeared some years before Sunny's awakening.
'Damn ghouls…'
It seemed Sunny was going to have to try even harder now to hide his traces.
Besides his closest and most trustworthy allies, no one could know him. No one could know what he was doing, and no one could know where he was going.
Sunny thought about the invitation he had just received.
'Do I have to kill her?'
Seishan had sharp wits, she'd already noticed there was more to him than meets the eye. It was not easy to deceive a princess of Song.
'I'm just going to have to try harder for now.'
Sunny decided not to, feeling like it would be a waste to get rid of such a talent.
***
"Urgh!"
Sunny grunted as he slammed a pickaxe into the ground.
'This… sucks…'
Sunny was digging a hole.
Or more actually, he was digging multiple holes.
Where?
'To think I'd be back here like this…'
The Ruined Cathedral, the place Sunny had once called home.
Clang!
Sunny tossed the pickaxe aside, his task done. He was currently on the roof of the cathedral, trying to weaken the ceiling as much as possible in preparation to fight the Forsaken Knight.
Wiping the sweat off his face, Sunny grinned.
'Get ready to die, wretch.'
***
Step… Step… Step…
The Forsaken Knight was going on its usual path within the grand hall of the cathedral. Walking the same patrol that it repeated every day and every night for thousands of years.
But as it walked through a particularly wide corridor within the grand hall, it looked up.
It thought it heard a distant rumbling…
BOOM!
The ceiling came crashing down the next moment, dark lightning raining down ferociously.
The knight immediately called upon the darkness surrounding the hall, intending to repel its attacker.
Only in the next moment, the massive raven made of dark steel flying above the cathedral flapped its wings.
Fwoooosh!
A massive gust of wind blew past, and all the dust that had come from the crumbling rock was blown away.
The dark knight seemed to let out a silent scream, as in the next moment rays of sunshine poured down, seemingly burning it alive as its metal sizzled, smoke rising from its plates.
The knight immediately tried to flee, running for the door it had come through earlier, but in the next moment, Sunny attacked.
Holding the Dusk Shard, Sunny slammed downwards at where the knight held its greatsword, intending to disarm it. But a Fallen Devil could react fast, it quickly stepped back.
But not fast enough, as the extremely heavy shield Sunny was holding crashed down onto the tip of the blade, lodging into the ground.
The Devil immediately freed one of its hands and tried to grab Sunny, only for a massive bolt of lightning to strike a second later, temporarily freezing it place as electrical currents flowed throughout its armour.
All this happened as the light of the sun was still ferociously burning the knight, incinerating the top layer of its armour.
Sunny backed away and hid, as the knight shook off the paralysis a few seconds later.
Giving up on dislodging its sword temporarily, the knight raised a fist, aiming to punch the ground.
It intended to destroy the floor, to escape into the darkness below.
Bang!
It struck the ground, a net of cracks spreading.
Bang!
It struck once more, its armour starting to rust.
But as it raised its fist to strike a third time…
The maw of a mighty serpent broke through the ground below, destroying an entire section of the building as it grabbed the knight, springing into the air.
The knight tried to struggle, slamming its fist into the side of Serpent's head over and over again, but now… it was outside. It was severely weakened by the daylight. Not to a fatal level, but to the point where it could not escape from Serpent's grasp.
The knight finally got a proper grip on its blade, it reared its arm back, aiming for Serpent's eye. Only in the next moment, Serpent swung its head, tossing the knight up into the air, just as another massive lightning bolt crashed down onto it.
Paralysed, the knight could not stop its fall as it crashed into the ground in front of the cathedral, weakly trying to get up.
Bang!
Serpent swung its body and batted it down, crushing it as it left an imprint on the dirt.
Bang!
Serpent slammed it down again, the knight could only weakly raise its arm as it turned its head towards the entrance of the cathedral.
Bang!
This time, the knight did not move anymore.
'Just for good measure…'
Bang!
"..."
Sunny watched as the dust settled, the knights sword and armour now completely pulverised as it lay unmoving.
[You have slain a Fallen Devil, Forsaken Knight.]
[...Your shadows grow stronger.]
[You have received a Memory.]
'Phew.'
The last time Sunny killed this thing, the revenant controlling it had come out as its vessel was about to be destroyed.
But this time, it didn't even get a chance to. Dying alongside the suit of armour it possessed.
Sunny walked up to its body, its burning red eyes now completely extinguished as its armour lay in pieces. This time, as Saint did not pull its soul out and eat it, and there were four slightly glimmer soul shards peeking out through the gaps of its destroyed armour.
'I didn't expect the sun to be so effective against it…'
He originally had a different plan in mind, but changed it halfway through when he saw how weakened the Knight had become due to the sunlight.
'So that's why it never left the cathedral then.'
Picking up the shards, Sunny made his way through the entrance and into the grand hall.
Passing the statue of the Nameless Goddess, passing by the rooms all the priests and priestesses once lived, passing by the multitude of dark corridors, Sunny found what he was looking for.
Stabbing the Midnight Shard into the small gap of the hidden door, Sunny pried it open as the door opened slowly, scraping across the ground with a loud groan.
Entering the dark corridor behind it, Sunny slowly made his way down the spiraling stone steps.
***
A few minutes later, Sunny was standing before a black steel door, ancient shadows populating the room as two ghostly torches burned on his sides.
Sunny walked past them, right up to the door, not bothering to leave behind his shadows, as he knew the enchantment here wasn't created to stop things from entering, but from exiting. But the runic circle powering the enchantment was long broken anyways.
Putting the key he had retrieved into the keyhole of the door, Sunny twisted and opened it.
The torches that burned behind him were still.
Heaving a deep sigh, Sunny walked in.
He did not know what he wanted to see.
'...'
But what he saw… was nothing.
There was nobody here.
Empty shackles lay on the ground.
There was no prisoner, no Weavers Mask.
Nothing.
'Damn. I wanted to at least get a look at their face…'
Sunny already expected the mask to be gone, but the prisoner too?
'Strange… So strange!'
Sunny's face darkened.
Looking at the runes on the ground, Sunny immediately felt a splitting headache, his dormant mind struggling to receive the information
.
But Sunny, with his mind permanently altered by the [Hideous Truth] enchantment was still able to read them.
Focusing his mind as much as he could, Sunny read:
[Thus spoke Weaver
"They will open the Gates"
And they did
Calling forth doom and destruction upon us
Now, in the ruins
Gods lay dead
And the daemons have fallen
The Forgotten One comes
Wide awake
To consume them].
"..."
Sunny did not know what to think.
He had desperately wanted to know what had happened in the Doom War, what happened to the Daemons and Gods.
But…
"Both sides died…?"
If both sides died, then that only left one…
"The Firstborn of the Forgotten God…"
Weaver.
'Weaver said that 'they' would open the gates…'
Did that mean Weaver themself? Or something else…
The gates obviously referred to the nightmare gates, and the Forgotten One being the Dream God.
'Consume us all?'
Sunny was pretty sure he hadn't been consumed yet, so the Forgotten God must not be fully awake yet.
'... No one knew where Weaver went or what they did… until it was too late.'
Was it Weaver who unsealed the void? Sunny could remember the dream he'd experienced in the Tomb of Ariel, he had dreamt of being Weaver as they desperately ran away from an opened gate…
'Damn Weaver…'
Not wanting to remain here another second, Sunny turned and left, leaving the underground cell for perhaps the last time.
***
Sunny arrived in his old room.
It was actually his first time here, as Sunny had felt somewhat reluctant to return here.
He felt a deep sense of nostalgia as looked around, his eyes gazed longingly as his figure was drowned in deep shadow.
He looked at the wall he had once carved the days on, now smooth and untouched.
He looked at the place he once carved his name into.
And then, he looked at his bed, which he promptly lay down on.
'So soft…'
Sunny thought quietly to himself as he drifted off into sleep, his chest rising and falling softly.
***
Waking up the next day, Sunny reluctantly left his bed.
'I wish I could take it with me…'
But without the Covetous Coffer, Sunny had no spatial storage memories to speak of.
He sighed.
"I'll come back for you one day."
Sunny left the cathedral, beginning another day.
Slowly making his way back to the Bright Castle, Sunny summoned the runes to check what kind of memory he had gotten yesterday.
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteers Shroud], [Weaver's Mask], [Drop of Ichor], [Shackle Key], [Heralds Cloak], [Midnight Shard], [Mantle of the Underworld], [Stone Sword], [Dusk Shard], [Dawn Shard], [Moonlight Shard], [Oath Key: 7], [Dark Soul].
'...Dark Soul?'
What a familiar name…
Summoning the memory, a small red gem appeared in his hand, radiating an intense glow.
'This is…'
It was the very same soul that Saint had once pulled from the darkness contained inside the knight's armour. With four crimson flames burning within its depths, it seemed to be the Forsaken Knight's very soul.
Memory rank: Ascended.
Memory tier: IV
Memory description: [Kneeling before the Nameless Goddess, a knight swore to serve her eternally. But when the Nameless Goddess became the sun, the knight was forsaken, cursed to ever wander the halls of her home.]
Memory Enchantment: [Restoring Darkness].
Enchantment Description: [This memory gathers darkness over time. The darkness within can be consumed to heal the user.]
'A healing memory! Great!'
Despite being an Ascended memory, its potency was quite good as well, as the power of its healing depended on how much darkness it could gather rather than the essence sent into it. If Sunny could fill it completely, it could very well save his life.
'It's an active enchantment though…'
Sunny did not know how long it would take for the enchantment to gather enough darkness, but it did not matter as he couldn't use it anyway.
'All the more reason to continue trying to control my essence.'
Sunny had only made a tiny bit of progress in that department, he had managed to move a little bit of shadow essence, but it was only inside his soul core. He could not send it out into his body, nor into memories.
Something needed to change soon, his plan would not work if he could not control his essence at least somewhat.
Continuing his trek back to the Bright Castle, Sunny lowered his head in thought.
***
Sunny looked below at the bustling activity, many humans were hard at work building a temporary camp.
All the nightmare creatures surrounding the Bright Castle had now been slain, and the area around it was now safe aside from the occasional Spire Messenger. In fact, around half of all the nightmare creatures within the Dark City had now been killed, with every single sleeper now joining the mission of conquering the spire.
Sunny observed them with curiosity. He did not know most of the sleepers here, with him only really knowing the names of some particularly strong talents, or people directly under Aria's command.
He did not feel the closeness he once felt with the Dreamer Army of the past, he had barely even spent any time with all of them within the Bright Castle, as his presence was simply not needed there. When he looked at the small army of sleepers, he only felt as if they were his responsibility.
'I'll get all of you out of here, just wait…'
But first, Sunny needed to control his essence.
Seeing that the people below did not need him, Sunny left.
***
Sunny found himself back at the Ruined Cathedral.
There wasn't anything he needed in particular, but rather there was a place he needed to be.
Entering through a hidden door, Sunny walked down a spiraling staircase, and soon, he was back in front of the black steel doors deep underground.
He was not here to enter the small prison again, but rather, he was here for the ancient shadows populating the area.
Sitting before the flickering ghostly torches, Sunny sat down and meditated.
He meditated for a long time…
***
Sunny's eyes shot open, as he sucked in a deep breath.
"I-... I got it!"
He had finally managed to control his essence!
He had been able to send some of it outwards towards his arms. He had only sent out a miniscule amount of essence, but that experience seemed to unlock something in his mind, as Sunny immediately felt like floodgates were opening within his body as shadow essence poured out into every part of his body.
Laughing slightly, Sunny stood up.
Only to immediately collapse, his legs unable to bear his weight.
Groaning in exhaustion on the floor, Sunny muttered:
"Just how long have I been meditating…?"
For his legs to fail on him like that when he stood… He must have been meditating for at least several days now.
'Ah! This thirst is killing me!'
After summoning the Dark Soul and leaving in darkness present in the halls the Forsaken Knight once wandered, Sunny made his way out of the Ruined Cathedral, making his way to the Bright Castle to check on the progress of the sleepers there.
As he was walking through the now barren streets of the Dark City, he checked his runes.
Name: —
True Name: —
Rank: Dreamer.
Shadow Cores: Monster.
Shadow Fragments: [812/2000]
Echoes: —
Shadows: [Soul Serpent], [Shadow Amalgam].
Attributes: [Flame of Divinity], [Lord of Shadows], [Blood Weave], [Bone Weave], [Soul Weave], [██].
Aspect: [Shadow Slave].
'Phew…'
Although he could now control his essence, he was still classified as a Dormant. Given that he hadn't managed to unseal Shadow Step yet, Sunny didn't question this much.
Because now, there was something else he was going to do.
Aspect Legacy: [Shadow Dance].
Shadow Dance Mastery Level: [3/7].
First Relic: Claimed.
Second Relic: Claimed.
Third Relic: [Claim].
"Claim."
[You have received a memory.]
Now that he could control his essence somewhat, he could finally use active enchantments. He could now use the Mantle of the Underworld, the Stone Sword, the Dark Soul, and now the Shadow Lantern.
Of course he would have to use them extremely sparingly, as they were all powerful memories, and his essence was still at the level of a Dormant Monster. He suspected that activating the Shadow Lantern for even a few seconds would drain most of his essence. Although he had Soul Weave as well as two shadow cores, it could not make up for his lacking rank.
'No matter.'
This was enough, this was what he was waiting for.
Now he was ready.
Ready to conquer the Crimson Spire.
***
"..."
Arriving at the Bright Castle, Sunny looked around.
"...Where is everyone?"
He only saw a couple people lounging around, resting. But… Everyone else was gone, even Aria.
"They… They didn't raid the spire without me did they?"
Surely not! Aria was not that stupid…
Then, Sunny facepalmed.
"Right…"
They were probably hunting in the surrounding labyrinth now. Seeing that the Dark City was mostly cleared out, only the ones that were experts at staying hidden remained. With Sunny having cleared out the most dangerous of abominations there, they had barely even suffered any casualties. From the day Sunny had arrived to the Dark City to now, less than twenty people died. This was partially due to the fact that they actually had two decently powerful healers, as well as due to the fact Sunny had gotten rid of the monsters they stood absolutely no chance against.
'My efforts… They weren't in vain.'
These thoughts brought Sunny some comfort, but until they killed the Crimson Terror and got the hell out of here, he wouldn't be content.
Sunny decided to survey the surrounding area to see the progress of Aria's army.
***
Sunny looked down at the labyrinth surrounding the Dark City.
'These guys are pretty good.'
Although many of the Sleepers had taken a lot of coercing to join the fight, all of them did in the end. The Awakened below traveled in groups ranging from five to ten people, fighting awakened nightmare creatures and more.
They were actually doing a lot better than Sunny expected.
They all moved with seamless cooperation and deadly lethality. After all, every single Awakened there was there by their own choice.
Some chose to fight out of pride, some out of fear, but many chose to fight only to survive, and nothing was more dangerous than an animal that desperately wanted to live.
Sunny observed a small group ruthlessly slaying a group of four Awakened Monsters.
'Impressive.'
They could comfortably kill nightmare creatures above their ranks as long as they worked together.
'This. This is the power of humanity…'
To work together, to learn from each other, to fight for each other.
Nightmare creatures could never do that.
And that was how they were going to win.
Seeing enough, Sunny summoned Shrike and took flight.
He was going to the Crimson Spire.
***
Aria was sitting atop a rock, cleaning her spear.
'Where is Sunny?'
He had been gone for over a week now, and she had heard nothing from him.
Seeing how her oath counter hadn't decreased, she knew he was still alive. She wondered if he had seen their progress, or if he thought it was enough to conquer the spire.
Lowering her head, Aria thought quietly to herself as her cohort collected the soul shards from the group of Fallen Beasts they had just slain.
'We've gotten so strong now…'
Aria couldn't even dream of killing this many nightmare creatures before.
If she had her original cohort, she could've done it. But now…
'...'
Aria looked down at the photo contained within the frame of the Eternal Moment.
'Will we be able to do it…?'
Aria heaved a deep sigh, dismissing the memory.
'If Silver believed in you, then so will I. Please… Get us out of this damn hell, Sunless.'
She resolved herself to her fate. If she died during the final battle, so be it. As long as even one of them escaped this place, she would be happy.
'But still…'
Looking at the Sleepers around her, she saw plenty without fully saturated cores, and plenty who she thought were still weak.
'We may need more time…'
She hoped she could convince Sunny to extend the deadline of their siege, even if she was the one who had set it in the first place. There was a week until the end of the two months she had originally set, and she felt like she still needed more time. Just enough to feel like everyone was ready.
Aria raised her head again, standing up to fight once more.
***
Sunny surveyed the area surrounding the Crimson Spire, careful to not get too close.
He was here to kill only the most dangerous of nightmare creatures before their siege. He searched for the Fallen, the Demons, the Devils, and the ones he considered the most lethal.
Spotting several suitable targets, Sunny thought to himself:
'Time to get to work.'
A spear shot towards a crimson mound that sat at the base of the tower.
Bang!
[You have slain a Fallen…]
The moment Sunny made his first kill, he felt an imperceptible shudder run through him.
The dark waters within the moat surrounding the spire surged, thunder echoed in the distance.
Sunny threw another spear.
[You have…]
The crimson mounds began exploding outwards, the nightmare creatures under the control of the Crimson Terror began to crawl outwards, aiming to kill Sunny.
Sunny threw his spear once more.
Bang!
[You have…]
'Okay! I'm getting the hell outta here!'
This was a lot more dangerous than he expected, the Crimson Terror immediately started going all out the moment he arrived…
Commanding Shrike to fly away, Sunny did not look back.
But if he did, he would've seen all the nightmare creatures go still, staring at him intensely, an infinite amount of malice contained within their eyes…
***
'I… might have made a mistake.'
The Nameless Sun seemed to be keenly aware of his presence. It had reacted the moment he had arrived even though he hadn't done anything to anger it specifically.
'Just why? Does it know I am the one with the keys or something? I don't understand…'
The first time he had been here, Sunny ran past every single nightmare creature and made it straight to the base of the spire. Would that work again?
'There may need to be a change of plans…'
Looking back at the spire, Sunny fell deep into thought.
'It… really, really wants to kill me…'
Sunny was no stranger to such a thing, in fact…
'I can use this.'
A menacing grin appeared on his face, the shadows around deepened and swirled in excitement, Sunny's deadly will inciting a response from them.
The heir of death was truly a treacherous fellow…
***
Five days later, within the Bright Castle.
"How are things?"
Aria looked up at Sunny, who had suddenly appeared in her room.
"...Where the hell have you been?"
"Killing abominations. Now tell me, how are things?"
Aria sighed, and turned to face him.
"I still need more time, we aren't strong enough yet."
"Okay. You get two more weeks."
Sunny turned to leave.
"Wait, really? I though-"
"Yes, really. Gather as many soul shards and memories as you can, and create as many steel arrows or javelins as you can make. I'll tell you the plan in a few days."
"...Understood."
Sunny once again turned to leave, this time uninterrupted.
Although it did make Sunny a little guilty to be so dismissive of someone who clearly only wanted the best for him, he had to draw a clear line between.
He was just a fool that didn't belong to this era, and they were not supposed to know him.
Maybe one day the walls between them would be broken down, but not now. Perhaps not ever.
Sunny left to hunt once more.
The siege was going to begin soon.