The forgotten shore was a harrowing place; this was information known to all whom were unfortunate enough to find their way here - at least for those who survived.
Surrounded by creatures of such terrifying proportions paired with the sea which was a great titan it was only natural. God's even the dark city which was the only humanly inhabitable place was teeming with nightmare creatures of various ranks though non above fallen.
Thankfully.
Within the dark city stood the bright castle. A safe haven where the creatures would never go. A somewhat peaceful. Place despite being ruled by a tyrant - not a literal tyrant just more so in the monarch sense.
The bright lord. Gunlaug, had many followers. Many of which were arguably the strongest people in this place. But outside the Castle existed the outskirts. A sad and life less place where people struggled to survive.
But it was within this very place that arguably the strongest people of the forgotten shore resided.
A tent stood posted in the area. It was naturally rudely crafted given the lack of material but it was clearly better than many other homes around showing the owner had decent crafting skills
Within that tent were quite important figures, both now and the future
The person who was the leader of this little cohort was naturally changing star. One of the very few to posses a true name especially after a first nightmare
Besides her sat the girl who became one of her most important people. Cassia
Opposite the seat of Nephis and Cassie sat the legacy, Caster and beside him sat the pathfinder. Effie
"So, princess another successful hunt mind telling me why we're bothering to feed these people?" - Effie spoke.
Athena had been the last to join the cohort so far. And was often stumped at Nephis biz are actions
Purposely going and hunting powerful creatures. Giving out food. Helping and protecting the people
"Do you think they are undeserving Effie?" - Nephis spoke back a monotone evident making communication hard
Before Effie could speak. Caster did
"I understand the sentiment to help people but lady Effie is correct. We're wasting our time for no reason"
Nephis shifted her eyes and let them land on caster she had attempted to speak but he interrupted her
"You make us hunt in the dark city... You may not say it but we know its in hopes for seeing the star of darkness again.... But it's been 5 months he's... I hate to say it but it's very likely he is dead"
Nephis eyes seemed to grow sharper. Colder despite a flame wielder
"I hunt for strength, and I help the people because that is what I wish. Sunny will return from his journey when he is prepared and he is alive. If you are unsatisfied with my actions you may leave - and if you think he died you're a fool"
Caster was momentarily stumped
'Hah as if anyone else would be able to help you... Still, I should keep this facade up a while more'
"I meant not to speak out of turn lady Nephis"
Nephis nodded before Effie who was enjoying the show with a but if meat spoke
"don't blame her Caster. The Princess needs her prince."
The tent continued with both trivial and important topics. All this was heard by someone close by who heard the conversation a random helper
Through out the outskirts nephis had become something akin to a hero. One who helps people for nothing in return and her cohort was viewed just as she was.
But while her visge spread through the outskirts. There was another.
One who's reputation swooped even into the bright castle and even into the minds of the main division heads like Harus and the bright lord himself
He was darkness. A darkness that threatened to devour everything when people thought of him they imagined the grand image similar to that of a god
From the discussions nephis had with caster and Effie who wished to rehear them. Cater and all the eves droppers heard of the deeds performed by the star of darkness.
To have braved not just the coral labyrinth but also the depths of the dark sea. To have slain a house sized demon and escaped the mind hex of a ancient horror.
The fact that he possessed thousands of soul shards to stay but still left created the persona of someone who was absolutely crazy or someone with ambition.
He was a name known by all in the forgotten shore many even wondered if the nightmare creatures feared him too.
The Star of darkness - Sunless
When people heard of his departure, they assumed he was already long dead. But from the reactions of Nephis he was clearly living. He was a monster. A devil
They knew not if he still breathed only that he may be out there. And will soon return though no one knew how and many doubted it
But then somewhere in the dark city. Besides a stone well stood a man. A man who was surrounded by 5 corpses. All humans
...
Sunny had spent the last 8 months out of the dark city in the expanse of the forgotten shore.
He accomplished many of his tasks. All of them infact
In regard to the hunting of the shard memories sunny had already got the one from the bone lord under the dark city as well as the [Blood Arrow] as well as a variety of others including the prowling thorn and eye.
He had collected the [Dawn Shard] from the hollow mountain.
Of which there was a few transcendent monsters guarding the area. Sunny had deduced that the corpse of the beast that was their last time when everyone went. It had most likely killed or chased them away last time. But fortunately, they were there this time. Because sunny got memories from the [Frost Spiders] residing there.
With regards to his slaughter for his personal growth as well as the growth of his shadows. Sunny had made many leaps and jumps with this task as well. He himself had reached titan hood.
Becoming a titan was a extremely long process but in no way was it difficult. Sunnys shadows had made the task as simple as possible. And naturally with the becoming of a titan sunny acquired many other things as well.
He had gained an incredible number of memories. He had gained an incredible number of shards. And naturally with the number of shards he had grown his shadows too by forging memories.
His first shadow of this life was serpent. With his acquirement of titan hood. Serpent became a titan too
An ascended titan. A being on the same level as Goliath from Antarctica.
Her body became terrifying in every sense.
Her eyes had that endless purple glow whilst her head had two forward pointing horns. Her head was massive in proportion to her body.
And this was her full size now.
In the past serpent as a transcendent titan reached impossible lengths
That was the same size as what she was now, and she was a mere ascended. Sunny could only imagine her size when she regains her past rank and even when she becomes great.
He couldn't wait to see.
One may think that it was odd. How could serpent grow this much more fearsome?
The answer was simple. Shadow gods full lineage
Serpent was tied to sunnys aspect legacy and thus his aspect. With the procurement of shadow gods ichor serpent too became more powerful. It was only natural.
Sunny became the heir of shadow god. Someone who had the qualifications to sit on and surpass his throne. A chosen heir.
It was only natural that his aid, serpent, would be powerful too.
Looking at his other shadows there were also many gains.
Of this life. His first shadow. Shadow knight had made it a difficult task to grow him.
Knighty would only be able to grow by killing a nightmare creature. And that too would take much longer since sunny would get half of the spoils.
But that kind of problem had a simple solution.
Kill more
And kill they did. It took ages hunting them down across the lands during the day and more so using serpent in the sea to bring half dead nightmare creatures for Knighty to kill.
And using that method. 8570 awakened creatures were killed.
3285/5000
He had become an awakened tyrant Unfortunately he was still but a awakened and had become Sunny's weakest despite becoming so strong
It was a funny thing to call Shadow Knight weak. Many people didn't have echos in the first place and especially not a sleeper who was able to get one in their first nightmare. Aside from that this particular 'echo' has the capabilities of human echos yet it also possessed Nightmare creature qualities
Firstly was the fact that Knighy seemed to have had some ability tied to shadows. Aside from being a shadow creature all his abilities linked at this too. But there was also the fact that he possessed an inhuman strength and body composition. 2 meters tall, no blood in his body, and seemed to be unable to remove his Armour. Simply put
He was a powerhouse.
But sunny didn't have only one knight.
Saint too had grown more powerful. It was unfortunate that she was still a monster and hadn't raised her class yet but in terms of rank.
Saint had become sunnys only transcendent echo. Inferior only to birdys existence.
It was a horrifying ordeal and incredibly difficult but sunny found a way to procure the shards even if it had been spring on him randomly
In fact sunnys estimate was crude
During their journey thousands of creatures died at their hand.
Roughly 10000 awakened creatures died all of various ranks. Some of them were in hoards that were killed in a wide scale attack. Some were hunted activey and some were schemed against.
But there were more too.
During their journey about 2 thousand or so fallen creatures were killed as well as a transcendent or more.
Sunny alone was possibly the richest person in terms of awakened and even those lone ascended in the world.
Not only did he possess 5 supreme shards. But he had a decent sum of awakened shards that exceeded 10 thousand and even had more than 2 thousand fallen shards. And even a handful of transcendent shards here and there.
All the slaughter also gave sunny a tremendous amount of memories and a decent amount of echos.
It was a long while back but sunnys carapace shadow. Shelly too had become a titan. An ascended titan.
Sunny couldn't help but lament this development even though it was a extreme raise to his battle strength
Anyone would be happy to possess a ascended titan. But there was a downside
Sunny needed to hide his true strength and he needed to hide it well. With Shelly becoming a titan and not having serpents ability to change size sunny had a collosal creature that would most likely crush everything in its sight
Aside from that sunny could also feel that Shelly was decently close to attaining transcendence too. He would simply need to eat more corrupted corpses. Alot more but it was not something difficult with sunnys life course.
As for his last shadow. The vile thieving bird spawn. It did not grow at all in terms of rank and class rather it grew in size. Once as tall as sunnys waist it grew to 3 meters tall. It's wingspan was slightly larger and it's body bulkier.
If anyone heard what sunny had they would most likely die from. Shock. He was currently the strongest person on the forgotten shore and that would most likely not change even if others grew stronger. In fact sunny had he ability to contend with saints in the outside world using his echos. So naturally awakened and masters were little trouble.
Sunny became a titan but had not yet reached complete saturation rather he had 5800/7000
Sunny got so many memories almost 400 ascended as well as a 1000 awakened. Adding the previous 200 he had on 1200 awakened memories roughly.
He had far surpassed stev in terms of memories
He had also naturally made sure to kill many enemies too enough so to have gained the [soul bound] aspect of the mantle of the underworld
Sunny paused at the memory
"Stupid weak dormant soul" - he grumbled
The once awakened memory had become a weak dormant one since it bonded with Sunny's soul which was currently dormant
Sunny alone now had the power to leave the forgotten shore alone
But that was not the plan. Rather he wanted to stay a while longer make nephis grow as well as kill a bit more gain more allies. And set a few other things in motion.
Sunny was glad. Ecstatic even. He had acquired many echoes as well. Some were the poison antlike creatures that Bridy had burnt their entire nest. Another was a frost spider killed again by birdy
There were also a few other random awakened and ascended creatures.
From within the sea sunny had acquired a few echoes but he was most glad for one singular echo one that the memory of acquiring it making him shudder. It was a fallen.
A fallen titan