A/N: Only time I'll do this, but this is kind of a montage series of events of the cannon search for the first lord's body. There wasn't a whole lot I could think to change when I wrote this, and honestly, I'd rather do it this way than procrastinate writing the chapter for weeks, so this is gonna be a little short. Sorry :[
Kallen
"Kai told me that you fought a dragon, did you really blow it out of the sky with lightning?" Seren asked. Below them, the walking colossus they rested on moved through the dark sea with effort.
Kallen shuddered, thinking of the insanity of Nephis's plan. If he'd known this was how she was going to cross the sea…
"I did blast it out of the sky, but it's still alive." He paused for a moment, sending Kai an odd glance. "And I thought you only referred to him by his title, Night. Since when were you on a first name basis with a pop star?"
Seren blushed, turning her head to hide an embarrassed look.
"She's afraid of losing you again," Ariel said. Among other things.
Kallen remembered what the daemon had told him the last time he'd seen Nephis and Sunny. Both of their fears had been the same.
"He's afraid you'll find out."
"She's afraid you'll find out."
The thing about Ariel's whispers, was that they were typically the most immediate and malleable types of fears. At least from what Kallen could discern. He didn't often learn the deepest hidden, or most buried fear, but the one that was laid most bare. The one thought of the most.
And this was new.
He pretended not to think about it, even as Caster sent him an odd glance. Kallen must have been making an equally odd face. Seren was staring at him silently.
He had just gone silent after all.
"Are you—"
"All good," Kallen said, interrupting his Sister's question. "Just thinking about how to take that dragon down once it comes back."
She smiled faintly. "Okay."
~~~
The days of sitting on the stone colossus passed in an odd sort of dreamlike trance. Kallen was delirious, recovering from his near death at the hands of the Corrupted Devil, and guilt was devouring his mind.
He would have to kill Nephis. One way or another—if only he could stop placing himself in her debt.
Seren had noticed a shift in his mood. Sunny, Caster, and likely Nephis had caught it as well.
He still needed to talk to Caster about his mission. Their mission, really. But there was no time and no room to do so. There was always a crowd around them, and soon, the days of relative peace had ended.
~~~
Greek fire spilled from Kallen's gladius. He took a step and bisected a giant locust creature. He shone a beacon amongst the other sleepers, slashing and thrusting through foes. Those that escaped his blade were torn to shreds by his aspect.
Rain fell by the gallon. He had dismissed his armor to better allow it to coat his skin, alleviating him from his flaw, and pushing him near the max of his combat potency.
With a ready source of water available and his flaw satiated, Kallen didn't discount himself in any battle against any Sleeper on the Forgotten Shore. Perhaps he could rival even Nephis herself.
Digging his feet into the ground, he shaped the rain falling overhead into a thin barrier meant to rob the falling beasts of their momentum as they dove.
They'd hit the water wall, slow down briefly, and be cut through by Kallen, speared by Effie, slashed by Sunny or Caster or Nephis.
Quiet Dancer, Cassie's Echo hummed through the air.
Around them was a scene straight from a horror film. Hundreds of monstrous bugs lay writing on the stone colossus. Their blood only had moments to trickle down the statue before Kallen stole it to reinforce the wall above their heads.
[... slain an awakened beast, Flesh Reaver.]
Kallen diced through another.
He couldn't use his aspect for much else other than the wall. Simple bullets of rain or an extra sword in his offhand for but a moment was all he could manage while keeping the shape. His consciousness was split between several things, all the while holding a barrier that was constantly shifting in volume, position, density, shape…
But still he managed.
~~~
Kallen felt a strange connection to the cloud of tenebrous darkness that was approaching them. That darkness spilling from the terror of the deep's body—the one the stone colossus had smashed with its hammer—was somehow visibly dissimilar to normal darkness. Normal shadow.
He was lost in its wretched visage when Sunny shouted from his left, "Neph! Light!"
There was no more than a second left before the wave of darkness crashed into them, but Nephis did not hesitate or consider Sunny's words. She just summoned her flames and channeled them through her sword.
Kallen almost felt disappointed when the white radiance forced the blackness back. He wanted to reach out and grasp that darkness. He felt something with it that he suspected no one else shared.
In the end, he did nothing, and simply waited for the intense longing to pass.
When the veil of clouds was torn apart and light was returned to his eyes, there was a metaphorical hole in his chest. A pit.
He wondered what that meant.
~~~
A few new Memories found their way into Kallen's soul arsenal, but all were useless. His Scale count had nearly doubled after his time hunting, added by his killing of a few sea creatures that had hijacked the colossus.
He checked his runes.
Scales: [303/1000].
A truth began to shimmer in his mind about his scales, however. After observing the way he got them—by way of killing what the spell liked to deem: Leviathans, the number tended to jump dramatically. More so than just the potency of the soul core.
He suspected that the count included a portion of anything that 'Leviathan' had killed and absorbed throughout its lifetime as well. Meaning, that though he couldn't gain anything from most Nightmare Creatures, the ones that could gift him scales gave him a lot.
Especially the Tyrants, Terrors, and Titans. Creatures that lived long lives and kill numerous other horrors.
Presumably, that dragon would, if not fill it completely, get him pretty damn close to that thousand mark. Not that he really knew what would happen if he got there or anything.
He wondered if it was connected to his tideforms. Would he unlock a second if he reached a thousand, or would that happen when he awakened? Would Puddle grow stronger, or would that also only happen when he Awakened?
Would Puddle ever get any stronger?
Surely he had to.
~~~
Kallen descended through the blackness of the mine's well. He touched down, pale bone crunching beneath him. A few yards away, the remains of a giant, very dead, creature lay shattered on the ground.
"Sunny?" Nephis said, glancing at the creature.
He shook his head. "It's dead. Nothing is moving out here."
As they moved out, Kallen found himself wondering just how powerful the cohort of the first lord of the bright castle was. If they had defeated that creature back at the quarry, and defeated that giant… worm thing, then how had they died in the end?
And would that same thing kill him and Nephis's cohort?
Going deeper, they found an abandoned campsite and took their time to relax, eat, and recuperate.
But Kallen couldn't shake the thought that they were heading toward their deaths.
~~~
There was a solitary skeleton sat on the shore of the river. Kallen looked at what used to be the first lord of the Forgotten Shore, feeling a melancholy that he couldn't explain.
That very well could have been him if not for Cassie's perception, and Sunny, or Seren's ability to guide them through the calm waters of the river.
Or… perhaps they would not have gone on this expedition if not for Cassie. She had divined the journey and come back with the knowledge that it wouldn't be too dangerous.
Kallen had an odd feeling about her. It wasn't one he'd gotten back at the academy, but rather, ever since conversing and interacting with her afterward. She treated him oddly. As though he'd done something to her that she couldn't forgive.
Well it was obvious. Wasn't it?
He had killed her best friend, wasn't that it?
Or, the future him would. But if so, wouldn't she tell Nephis of this?
And then it hit him…
Ariel continued to whisper that Cassie was afraid of him. He had assumed it was because of him attacking the cohort when they had arrived at the spider nest.
But what if it was because of something he would do. Something he was capable of? What was he capable of?
There was a sense of unease that followed him from then on. Because Ariel kept telling him that both Sunny and Nephis were afraid of him 'finding out.'
Was it because they knew that he was ordered to kill Nephis? He was almost certain. And that did not bode well for the future…
Seren… he thought, a frown twisting his features. Is she even safe with them anymore? Now that they know?
A hot sort of panic filled him. Surely they weren't ruthless enough to use her against him? Unless they knew that her flaw was the reason…
Snapping him from his downward spiral, Nephis knelt down and took the strip of metal off of the First Lord's head. A crown.
A moment later, the band suddenly broke into countless sparks of light, which then disappeared, absorbed into her soul core.
It was… a Memory.