Lightning crashed in the background as they clashed.
The fight had been going on for a while now, and Sunny had not been able to gain any ground. While he had been able to land some decent blows, the fearsome Saint was able to dodge the attacks from his Shadows near effortlessly, seemingly seeing all of their attacks in advance. Endless torrents of blood left her body, shooting out like jets of magma, though his Shadows remained mostly unharmed.
'I just have to accumulate enough damage… Even if I can't land a lethal blow, it doesn't matter if she can't either.'
Sunny simply had to drain her essence. Even if the difference in essence capacity of an Ascended and Transcendent were like night and day, Sunny still had the numbers advantage so he wasn't spending nearly as much essence during the fight. Shifting his vision, Sunny could also see that Aranea wasn't currently absorbing any Spirit Essence either, so her essence had to be draining fast.
Sunny barely dodged a swipe of blood, the five deep red slashes clipping his wings. Aranea attempted to follow-up on her attack, only to fly backwards a moment later, barely avoiding being torn in half from Shrike's steel wing.
Despite his advantages, Sunny still needed to be wary. For whatever reason, he found it extremely taxing to maintain his Shell. He'd needed to dismiss and rebuild his Shell several times now just to ease the burden on his mind. On top of the fact that he had to maintain a clear mind to ensure he didn't lose himself in the Shadow Dance, Sunny wasn't having a great time.
'Just what is she doing to me…'
The shadows forming his Shell shifted and rippled, in the place of a monstrous butterfly, a dark human now floated. Twisting his body, he manifested a throwing spear and threw it towards Aranea, the arm of his form cracking and warping from the sheer might of his throw.
"Hm!"
Aranea only seemed to notice it at the last moment, flapping her wings and ascending in an attempt to dodge. The spear slammed into her stomach, leaving a small dent in her midnight armour. The armour in question was now cracking intensely with blue lightning, several dents littered its many plates, but it had not broken anywhere just yet.
Aranea grunted as black winds slashed through her, wounding her soul and slowing her movements. Just then, another spear was launched towards her.
"Coward!"
Raising her bare forearm, she swung it and deflected the spear with a wave of blood.
'Does she have an affinity for blood or storms? I really can't tell anymore…'
Sunny had originally thought he'd be facing a frail oracle, but what faced him was a fearsome warrior with chillingly sharp instincts and a brutal battle art. Most of her offensive and defensive power came from her blood abilities, and she inexplicably also had all sorts of lightning related abilities. From their lengthy clash, Sunny had surmised that she was able to actually travel through electricity, while also being largely immune to its destructive effects. He had no idea what the eerie halo of lightning around her head did too, and he didn't intend on finding out.
Flying forward once more, they met in a brutal clash.
***
'This…'
The fight was taking too long.
Feeling the ivory knife in his hand, Sunny had an idea.
Shifting again, Sunny returned to being a monstrous butterfly, flapping his wings to gain some distance. Serpent and Shrike immediately picked up the pace to give him some room, focusing their attacks on the miniscule figure of Aranea. Gaining sufficient distance, Sunny dismissed his Shell, temporarily returning to his human form to conserve his essence as he let his Shadows fight in his stead.
…Unseen to Sunny, the Saint grinned madly.
Flapping her wings, a large sphere of blood exploded outwards from her body, pushing back Shrike and Serpent only slightly. But in that single moment, the lightning coursing through her armour vanished.
With a flash of white, lightning exploded outwards.
Blue arcs of electricity extended in all directions like a gargantuan firework, terrifying buzzing sounds filled the void around them, temporarily lighting up the abyss. The lightning was swiftly pulled into Shrike, causing the inside of its body to shine a slight blue.
Shrike screeched in dark joy at the meal.
Except… Aranea was gone.
Serpent and Shrike both turned to their Master at the same time.
A hand wrapped around Sunny's throat.
"What strange blood you have…"
With grievous wounds covering her body, Aranea had appeared before him. The armour she had been wearing was seemingly destroyed in the attack she had unleashed just now, revealing her mutilated body beneath, its nakedness only covered by torrents of lightning-filled blood.
"A-Ah…"
Sunny struggled to breath as he kicked his legs at her torso in an attempt to free himself. Bone Weave and the Marble Shell struggled fiercely against her grip, his neck only barely holding on.
A hand holding a small knife shot towards the now exposed body of the Saint, just for a terrible blow to send it flying, causing Sunny's arm to fracture in the process.
"No!"
He turned his head, watching the knife fall into the abyss.
"Huhuh..."
Black winds appeared around them, slowing the Saints movements.
Shrike and Serpent were still flying towards him at top speed, but neither of them were going to make it in time, and neither of them could use their powerful ranged attacks, lest they catch Sunny in the crossfire.
A clawed hand reared back, pulsing with death.
The empty eye sockets of Aranea looked at him with vicious glee, her blindfold having been incinerated during their fight.
"Goodnight."
The hand shot forward.
Shik!
'...Got you.'
White sparks drifted from Sunny's face as a small knife held by a long black tongue emerged from his mouth, stabbing into Aranea's wrist.
She froze in horror, realising what had just happened.
"You!"
Aranea immediately let go of Sunny's neck, reaching for the knife embedded onto her wrist, only for it to quickly crumble into small white shards.
"No no no no no no… No! You little fucking rat!"
She looked at Sunny in rage at the realisation of what he had done.
She was going to kill him!
Before she died, she absolutely had to kill him! No matter what!
Sunny had already fallen quite a distance after making himself as heavy as possible. He watched the Saint with a somber expression, a large red handprint on his neck.
"...Tch."
With a flap of her bloody wings, Aranea shot into the sky.
'Wha…'
Where was she going?
Although her wounds were extremely grievous, she could still survive for some time even without her immortality. It didn't matter though, as the knife all but sealed her fate still. But strangely…
She was flying towards the storm.
'No!'
Sunny had a bad premonition.
He still didn't know what the storm was for, but he absolutely couldn't let her reach it!
With a surge of shadows, a monstrous butterfly took his place, shooting towards the woman.
And just then, the halo of lightning around her head exploded, a low pulse of electricity washed over Sunny only a moment later.
'Urgh!'
Sunny was immediately paralysed, falling uselessly into the void.
"Shrike!"
With a screech, blue and silver lightning cloaked the Devil, causing its speed to massively increase. Shrike streaked through the air like a comet, light trailing behind it. It was gaining on the Saint, and would reach her within seconds.
Aranea seemed to realise that too.
"Ah…"
Her flight had already been slowing down as weakness overtook her body.
She wasn't going to make it.
The Saint sighed.
"Damn…"
Her flight came to a stop and she slowly began falling, closing her eyes.
The steel wing of Shrike zoomed past her a second later, bisecting her at the torso. The raging storm seemed to wail in pain, thunder roaring louder than it ever had before.
'...'
Sunny floated in silence, watching the two halves of Aranea fall into the abyss below.
[You have slain a Transcendent Human, Aranea.]
He closed his eyes a moment later, sighing deeply.
Killing humans never felt good. Especially a great and mighty Saint like her.
[...You have received a Memory.]
'I don't know what kind of person you were, but… I know it shouldn't have ended this way. Rest now, find peace within me.'
With the paralysis now wearing off, Sunny flapped his monstrous wings and flew up to Shrike, dismissing his Shell and landing on its back. Serpent had already been recalled, now coiling around his skin and filling his cores with essence.
Flying out from underneath the island, Sunny saw that the storm had ended. And when it did…
'Am… am I some sort of idiot?'
…He felt his clarity return.
***
The room was silent.
"...Another Chain Lord has died."
Four Chain Lords sat in a dark room, the moon outside hanging overhead.
Semos and Aidre had mournful expressions on their faces, saddened by the death of a comrade. Sevras had a look of deep rage and frustration, while Noctis… didn't seem to think anything at all. His face was blank and unfeeling.
"Noctis…"
Sevras was trying his best to remain calm as he spoke.
"What happened? Why didn't Aranea come here?"
Noctis shrugged, smiling like a fool.
"She told me she had a plan. I guess it failed?"
A fist slammed into the table.
"You guess?! You guess it failed?! Noctis… What was this plan? Suicide?!"
Kicking his feet on the table, Noctis leaned back.
"Agh! Quiet down, will you? I don't know either."
But then, he smiled.
"What I do know is that she left this with me…"
Noctis placed a small vial of blood on the table before him.
"She told me, if she died… Something would happen."
And just as he said that, the blood in the jar surged with lightning.
Four ethereal droplets floated upwards, before shooting into the foreheads of the Chain Lords, causing them to gasp. Their vision faded, making way for another…
Falling into a haze, they saw…
A dark figure wearing the face of a snarling demon, standing behind a blindfolded woman in a grey silken robe.
"How many more times are you going to say that?"
***
"...Hm."
Standing perfectly upright on the underside of the Northern Island, Solvane looked at the Night Temple. Or at least, what remained of it. Stone and wood crackled into smoldering embers, the skeleton of the cathedral now falling in on itself. The sight was as terrifying as it was sad.
Looking around, she couldn't spot any signs of fighting, aside from the obliterated cathedral, of course.
Entering the cathedral, she took slow, measured steps, searching for any signs of life within its charred halls. Entering what was left of the bell tower, she glanced at the abyss below. Looking down, she saw echoes of lightning, blood, and shadows, lingering within the air. Shadow and Aranea were long gone now, and only remnants of their deadly battle remained.
'...So that witch died then.'
Although it was subtle, the stench of death permeated the air. Something powerful had died here very recently. If Shadow's Imposter had died, Aranea wouldn't have been missing, so the result of their clash was clear.
Solvane sighed, smiling to herself slightly.
'Impressive work…'
Shadow's imposter was only getting more and more interesting.
***
In the Sky Below, Sunny was sitting on Shrike's back as they flew with no particular destination in mind.
'...Gods.'
Sunny's face was currently buried in his palms.
'Am I seriously this dumb?'
Why on earth did he kill her?! No, why on earth did he talk to her even? And to attack her in such a brutish fashion? Too many of his actions hadn't made sense. Only now that the thunderstorm had cleared did Sunny realise what happened.
'The rain… it had be that. It was impairing my thinking.'
It was as if the storm had been preventing him from realising his own mistakes.
Many of his actions had been foolish and impulsive, for one, their conversation could have gone much better. He had been spouting complete idiocy the entire time!
'Was she trying to get answers from me?'
The Saint had said… she didn't know how he resisted telling her. Was the rain supposed to lower his guard and make him truthful? If so… Aranea was quite unlucky. Sunny physically couldn't have told her the truth, even if he wanted to. He might've even taken off his mask if he hadn't done something so out of character for himself, leaving his choice up to luck…
Sunny sighed.
'That really could have gone better.'
There wasn't truly a need for him and the Chain Lords to fight, he wasn't certain if he could kill Hope while her chains were still intact, but he definitely should have found out before he killed one of them.
'...Too late now.'
With a second Shackle broken, the rest of the Chain Lords were sure to see him as a hostile entity. If they found him, he'd either be imprisoned or killed.
Most likely, he no longer had a choice in how to proceed in the Nightmare.
Since the beginning of the Nightmare, he had unintentionally killed a Chain Lord, and now, through a series of bad decisions, he had killed another. There was no going back.
'Ah… They wouldn't believe me even if I told them.'
Sunny lamented the thought.
Holding the glass knife in his hands, he tried to think of a path forward.
'I don't know about Solvane… But I presume the other Chain Lords are in Ivory City, or back at their own islands. First off, I should pay Sevras a visit. No, wait…'
There wasn't a need to be so hasty, with the oracle down, Sunny wasn't immediately at risk of being found anymore. For now, he could relax.
'Hm… What should I do first?'
Should he go retrieve his beloved Shadow Chair from Noctis' Sanctuary? Or perhaps visit the Heart Grove and find something useful? If Aidre was there, retrieving the wooden knife would definitely be in his best interest. He was actually quite surprised Solvane hadn't shown up during their fight, as it had taken far too long to slay his adversary. Embarrassingly long in fact, they had been fighting for nearly an hour.
Maybe he would simply explore the region. Chances like this were few and far between, after all. The current Chained Isles had far more islands, and far more people, as Hope's Poison had only just begun seeping out. The Ivory City's forces and Solvane's War Zealots weren't even at war. The biggest threats out there were the Corrupted and random bandits, strangely enough. The Nightmare was almost… peaceful.
Sadly, Sunny couldn't remain too long.
With two Shackles gone, Hope's Poison would begin to strengthen, messing with the minds of every person in the region. There was also the fact Valor could strike the Immortal Flame Clan at any moment back in the Waking World.
'I really should've just naturally Ascended…'
He was beginning to think the Nightmare was just a waste of time, spurred on by his greed.
Sunny rubbed his face slightly.
'Oh well.'
He'd do better next time. Maybe.
Summoning his runes, he looked at the new memory he had received.
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud],... [Celestial Fragment].
'Celestial Fragment…'
Staring at his new memory, Sunny thought of Aranea for a moment.
As impressive as the High Priestess had been, when they had fought, her moves seemed… strangely sloppy. Almost as if she neglected polishing her skills, and only ever relied on the power of her Aspect.
'I think… I know her Flaw might've been.'
Although it didn't matter anymore since she was dead, Sunny couldn't help but try to guess.
'Her Flaw… was that she was lazy.'
The thought sounded ridiculous, but… it made sense. In the first version of his Nightmare, Aranea at some point had become completely apathetic due to Hope's Poison, only ever warning her people of oncoming dangers. From what Cassie had told him, she didn't even bathe or feed herself, and her attendants had been in charge of that.
Another thing that convinced Sunny was the fact that at the end… she had given up. Even the laziest of people would struggle fiercely on death's door, but Aranea had simply given up, not even attempting one final attack.
'...I suppose it's not the worst Flaw to have?'
It would've definitely been a struggle, to have to force yourself to do everything. Sunny tried to imagine himself with the Flaw, to have to force himself to do every little thing, for every action to require far more effort than it should've.
'...Okay yeah it's pretty bad. I doubt it's just simple laziness.'
It was more akin to a mental illness, and a near debilitating one at that.
'I'm getting off track.'
Summoning the memory, a simple sphere appeared in his hand.
'...What.'
Inspecting it, Sunny saw nothing particularly interesting. It was just a ball made from stone…
'Wait!'
Shifting his vision, he saw… divinity!
The ball wasn't a ball at all. Remembering the statue of the Storm God he had seen in the Ebony Tower, Sunny realised it was a star!
He hurriedly summoned the Covetous Coffer, pulling out the stone bolt he had pilfered from the Night Temple in the future.
Holding the two together, Sunny saw a subtle link form between the two.
'They're a pair… I see! So I was missing the other piece!'
After inspecting them for a while, he deduced that he would still need something else. Not another piece, but perhaps some sort of ritual or sacrifice that activated the dormant divinity inside of it.
'Oh Spell… I take it all back. You are too kind!'
Dismissing the star and tossing the bolt back into the Coffer, Sunny looked at the Memory's description.
'Now… tell me how I can use you. Please?'
Strangely, there was no rank or tier present in the Memory description, nor were there any enchantments. There was only a description.
'Huh.'
Memory description:
[The Night hovered over the Dark Waters, looking at the Black Skies.
"Why?"
Below, a demon stood.
"Why won't you look at me?"
The Night did not respond.
"Why won't you answer my questions?"
The demon looked on in rage at the unresponsive form of the Night.
"Why won't you tell me anything?"
The Night did not move.
"Why…"
The Night did not speak.
"Why?!"
The demon's rage moved the sea and tore the skies.
The Night was silent.
Furious, the demon left. Returning to its Tower, it descended into a Shrine.
Standing before a statue of the Night, the demon brandished a blade in anger.
And so, the demon cut out its eyes, so as to never see again.
Then, the demon cut out its heart, so as to never feel again.
At the demon's plight, the Night turned.
"...Because you are our Flaw."]
'...'
Sunny stared in silence for a while.
'...Damn.'
This… was most likely an interaction between the Storm God and Nether. Actually, Sunny quite literally couldn't imagine this being anything else. The Spell was quite particular with its names, after all, it wouldn't just call anything 'The Night'. Everything the Spell said always had a meaning.
'So…'
Sunny reread the description.
'...I need to cut out my eyes and heart?!'
He held his forehead at the thought.
'I… no way?'
He would be just fine without his eyes, but his heart… even with Blood Weave, he could only survive for so long without a heart.
'And it said the demon would never see or feel again, that won't happen to me, will it?'
Sunny hummed in thought.
Most likely, it wouldn't. Nether had cut out his eyes and heart for the purpose of those things, but Sunny was merely doing it to complete the ritual he had just learned. Emotions weren't in the Domain of the Storm God, so he wasn't too worried, at worst he'd just lose his heart or eyes.
Nodding, Sunny remembered a certain Memory in his possession.
'Wait, I also have that!'
Memory: [Dark Soul].
It was the healing memory he had received from the Forsaken Knight back in the Forgotten Shore. The Dark Soul grew more potent the more darkness it gathered, and Sunny had left it within the darkness of the Ruined Cathedral for several months now. Having retrieved it before entering the Nightmare, Sunny found that it had indeed gathered a sufficient amount of darkness. Healing a heart and eyes was definitely something it could do.
Sunny smiled.
'It's still gonna hurt like hell…'
Still, he would do it. Pain was an old friend.
The only problem was…
'How am I going to enter the Ebony Tower?'
The memory had specifically shown Nether returning to his Tower and entering the Shrine he had made of the Storm God, it definitely wasn't a coincidence. Sunny would definitely have to perform the ritual there if he wanted any results, whatever they may be.
'Maybe I'll get something like the Guiding Light? That was Storm God's thing… I think? Guidance, travel, depths, oceans, darkness, stars, disaster…'
'Or maybe I'll receive some sort of blessing, who knows? Heheh…'
'An Echo wouldn't be bad… A Memory is fine too! Just give me something good!'
First though, he'd have to figure out how to enter the Ebony Tower. The tear was much, much smaller currently, so descending into was out of the question. Even if he could, he'd have to be a complete idiot to undo the seal on the tower, as that would unleash the harrowing Rot that was sure to be far less starved currently, if it was even there at all.
So, his only option was to enter through the Ivory Tower.
'I'll save that for later…'
Ivory City would be his final destination in the Nightmare, he'd pay a visit to the islands of the Chain Lords first.
'Now… Sanctuary or Grove?'
Both of them were quite close to each other, so he could realistically choose either.
'...I'll go to the Grove first.'
Patting Shrike's back, Sunny asked to be flown up.
Now floating high above the island, he deduced where he was.
"Okay… That way! I think…"
With a shriek, Shrike took off.