Sunny felt himself regaining consciousness as he groggily tried to get up but could not.
"Wakey wakey~" said a voice he couldn't pinpoint.
Forcing himself to wake up he opened his eyes to see he was in a cell. Next to him was Nephis who was still unconscious, still knocked out from the attack...
"Don't worry, she won't wake up for at least another hour."
Looking around he soon found a tall blond-haired man looking straight at him with a sinister smile spread across his face, Esteban.
"Well, well, look who's finally awake. I was starting to get worried you never would," he said, chuckling as he walked over to the cell door.
Opening it he made his way over to Sunny who was kneeling from the throbbing pain in his head. Blood Weave was trying its best to heal him, but it could only do so much as a minor healing factor. Standing tall, Esteban lowered his upper body until he was face to face with Sunny who looked at the man with disdain. Sunny tried to hit him in the face but was stopped by what he realized were chains wrapping around his hands and arm.
"I'm sure you have tons of questions little divine shadow, and I'll be happy to answer them since it wouldn't make a difference since you'll be dead soon enough."
Sunny would be damned if he died but he wouldn't let this opportunity of fishing information out of him pass.
"How?" Sunny asked, "I mean how did you catch us?" Sunny said after the man gave him a confused expression.
"Oh well it's quite simple," Esteban pointed to Neph and where her flower pin was, "that pin has an enchantment that allows me to track her. I was going to use it to kidnap her first but there's no need now since you both walked into my territory. I'm quite glad, you were an anxious bunch, never letting your guard down made it quite difficult to catch you by surprise. Plus, it's not like we can take her down like we can for you."
"What do you mean?" Sunny asked, wondering why they couldn't just kidnap them the moment they met.
"Aren't you a dumbass then for not figuring out she's a Nephilim. God I hate her kind, harrowing, and carrying the heavy stench of an especially harrowing one, I tell you I was surprised to realize there was still one around and especially with you. A divine shadow that has the stench of Weaver and a divine Nephilim, sounds something out of a love story."
Sunny blushed at the last part but it faded quickly as he focused.
"So what the hell has you under a mind hex, and I suppose we're next aren't we?"
At this Esteban laughed, not a light-hearted one that happens after a good joke but a maniacal joke only insane people do that filled Sunny with dread.
"You think the whole city is under a mind hex? Gods, you're more of a moron than I thought. But I can't blame you for thinking that, after all, you must've noticed how weird everyone acted." Esteban said as if it were the funniest thing in the world to him.
"The journal thought of you all to be a mind hex through..." Sunny said absentmindedly.
"That rubbish? I'm surprised it's still readable after I left it down there, but I guess my father must've bought a high-grade one."
"He's your father?!" Sunny asked stunned.
"Mhm, Esteban Noll is my full name and he was my father, or at least this person's father."
Sunny was confused, what was Esteban saying?
"What do you mean by this person's father?"
Esteban looked at him thoughtfully before Sunny realized his eyes were changing before him like a curtain being pulled. Esteban's eyes, which looked normal just before, now we're with a maddened look, a look that he knew all too well.
'Corruption, he's corrupted.'
As if hearing his thoughts, or maybe he did read them, Sunny wasn't sure at this point and was terrified.
"You see Sunless, when the Lord went down to go kill that creature that was causing trouble, that was me. I killed them all, and using my powers I was able to corrupt their pitiful souls and turn them into my puppets after they turned. I used illusions to cover them up and sent them back up to corrupt other souls and in turn, silently take over. This... body I'm using is merely an illusion of what used to be and under it is a creature, for my real body is safely underground. Even now the whole city is under an illusion that I put, I'm a puppeteer among puppets in a puppet show."
Turning to look at Nephis with disgust he continued,
"But I could not corrupt her soul, nor could I touch her without burning. She needed to be gone, killed. You reek in her scent that she unknowingly gave you which attracted, but also repelled creatures, it also made me unable to corrupt you immediately. But you could still be killed by me, but that won't be needed since you're still useful to me. You'll be more useful as food for my ascension after all. As for her, I'll need to see an effective way to kill her without her burning up in flames."
"How do you know about her flames? Why can't you just stab her with a weapon if you can't touch her? How do you know so much about us?" Sunny asked, visibly shaking and gritting his teeth in suppressed anger.
Esteban — or rather the thing controlling the nightmare creature that is under an illusion to look like Esteban — gave him a mock expression of empathy before turning to him and saying,
"Well to answer you in order most Nephilims have flame-related abilities or very destructive capacities, even at an infant age. Flames are just the most common. As to why I can't simply stab her with a weapon is that I want to see if she's truly uncorrupted before I kill her. Lastly, I've had spies watching you both and some of these beasts have seer capabilities or could gain insight for me. Truly being a ruler has its perks."
Sunny was going to ask another question but before he could Esteban unbuckled his chains, got back up, and started dragging him by the collar. Sunny tried to resist and make it as difficult for him to take him but he just seemed amused as they reached the cell door. Sunny saw Neph waking up and her slowly opening her eyes only to open them wide seeing Sunny getting taken away.
"Let him go, Esteban," Nephis called out weakly as they got further from her as he turned to look at her.
"Why should I listen to a horrid Nephilim like you? Wasn't it your kind that brought destruction to this place long ago?" Esteban said as he reached a control panel at the end of the room and placed Sunny next to it.
"But don't worry, I'll give you front row seats to see your precious companion to the depths of this place, where I first came."
Turning to look at Sunny he said,
"And if you manage to survive the fall I left a couple of surprises for you at the bottom."
Esteban pulled on a lever and Sunny felt the ground beneath him open up and fell into the pit below.
The last thing Sunny heard was Nephis calling out to him and the sickly laugh of the hollow vessel of once a young son before being sent to the deepest depths of the city.
***
"Sunny!" Nephis yelled as she watched Sunny get dropped by a trap door.
Esteban laughed as he pulled the lever back up to close the trap door. He made his way over to Nephis before grabbing the prison bars hard.
"You should be more worried about yourself Nephilim, after all, I am going to try and corrupt you while he dies and be consumed by me." He laughed horribly like he told the funniest joke.
But Nephis wasn't hearing him, she was furious, at herself for being unable to save Sunny. She tried to burn herself but the chains wrapping around her dulled her fire and put it out before anything could happen.
"Don't even try, I made those especially for you," Esteban said, venom dripping from his voice as he got closer to her.
Nephis tried harder, and harder, she was willing to do anything to get out, to reach him before he reached the bottom. Willing to burn herself and be in excruciating pain if it meant saving her beloved. Suddenly, as if she had always known, she started burning her soul core. At first, it started small with only one fragment being burnt, but by the time Esteban opened the cell gate she burnt through 2/4 of her devil core. Esteban looked at her with a confused expression, as if he could sense something was wrong although Nephis sat perfectly still while closing her eyes. As if peering into her soul he started to walk back slowly before bursting into a sprint, but it was too late.
A glass-shattering sound could be heard underneath the city as a sudden boom was followed by fire enveloping 1/4 of the city and causing buildings to crumble. Nephis, finally freed from her chains, went to the control panel but it was just a heap of liquid metal. She tried to budge the trap door open but it seemed unaffected by the flames and refused to open.
[You have killed a Dormant Beast, Vessel of the Mirage]
[Your soul burns brighter]
[You have unlocked your Aspect Legacy]
[You have inherited a seed of knowledge]
The spell whispered into her ear, almost mockingly to her.
Hearing footsteps behind her she turned around to see citizens surrounding her.
"Distasful Nephilim, I suppose I should have foreseen your trickery,"
The crowd said in unison,
"I will not make the same mistake."
Summoning [Dream Blade] and [Nameless Sun] she felt significantly weaker without her devil core but was strong nonetheless. She aimed the tip of her blade and motioned it to all of the citizens who were armed with a variety of weapons. They also seemed to be... blurry? There was a hazy image of a nightmare creature above each person and it was different for each. She would have thought she was mental but she couldn't feel anything at the moment, as if exploding had also burnt away her humanity and emotions. It made perfect sense since for a big explosion that got her out, the price was her soul and enormous pain, as if she was burning but healing over and over
But there was something else to come out of it, clarity. She had absolute clarity, nothing she had ever felt before.
"Any of you, all of you, come at me and be slain by my blade, or burnt to ashes by my flame."
As if following her orders they rained down on her as she ignited her sword with divine flames and swung towards them.
***
Sunny fell for what seemed like forever but in reality was a minute. When he saw the bottom he tried to minimize the fall damage by rolling, but unfortunately that did little as when he made contact at the bottom his legs crunched from the fall. Sunny screamed like never before and was temporarily paralyzed just from the pain alone, not even accounting that both his legs and upper torso were completely shattered. What made it worse was not knowing if Nephis was safe but after a few moments he heard an explosion from above.
'Must've been neph, how she caused such a big explosion I can only guess," Sunny thought, it brought him solace for just a moment before the pain returned.
He stayed there for a few minutes before deciding to see if there was a possible exit nearby. Sunny doubted there would be a sign saying 'Way out' with a staircase leading up left by the creature that seemed to control the city. Slowly he lifted himself onto a rock and looked around to see a passageway ahead of him, just wide enough for him to be able to crawl straight.
'Damnation this fucking hurts.'
Sunny gritted his teeth as he crawled his way over to the passage. Sunny has felt pain before, enough to fill lifetimes with pain and of every pain possible, but having his legs shattered and his lower chest fractured Sunny realized he was wrong. As he crawled through the passage he started hearing voices but when he looked around he saw no one.
'Must be one of his surprises, jokes on him, I don't mind having strange company. After all, I talk to my shadows for fun!'
His shadows looked at him funny which he ignored as the voices got louder the further he went and it was starting to bug him. Soon he reached a rather large room and the sound started to hurt his eyes to the point that he had to cover them just to stop himself from banging his head on the wall to make it stop. He knew the source of the sound was coming from here but when he looked around he only saw wet stone, rocks, fungus that grew on the walls, and spindly things on the ceiling he hoped he wouldn't have to get near. The walls of the cavern only seemed to echo the sound before another suddenly cut through it, like a rock thrown into a lake.
"Oh little divine shadow, where are you?" said a distant voice behind him.
Sunny felt a chill go down his spine as he realized it was the same voice he had heard from Esteban, but more ancient, more powerful.
'It's his real body! He mentioned it being down here... and that he'll feed on me.'
Just as Sunny started crawling forward a chain suddenly appeared behind him and went right through his chest and effectively holding him in place.
"FUCK!" Sunny shrieking as he coughed out blood, blood weave doing its best to hold back blood but failing more every second that passes.
"There you are," suddenly Sunny started getting pulled by the chain, towards whatever lay in the darkness.
Thinking on his feet he summoned his bow and quiver to his side and attempted to shoot at the ceiling to cause a cave-in. Each arrow broke upon impact and scattered wood chips around him as he tried to make a dent. Even with his shadows enhancing them he failed, and soon we were able to spot a silhouette of a figure in the distance. Sunny tried to damage the chain with [Midnight Shard] but it bounced back without leaving a scratch on it. Augmenting himself and the sword he swung again and was able to cut through as it flew back.
"Curses, you're a stubborn treacherous shadow aren't you?" the creature spat as it dashed towards Sunny.
Dodging, Sunny rolled to the side as a large arm slammed right next to him, leaving a small crater where he otherwise would've been splattered like a pancake.
"Damnation!"
Sunny rolled into a wall but instead of being hit by it he went phased through it.
Sunny kept rolling downwards until he reached a small cave and stopped at the center of it. Coughing out small amounts of blood, he stayed there for a minute before looking around. He turned to see where he had come from and saw it was a crawl space just barely big enough for him to roll into. He silently thanked his short height, something he never thought he would do, before looking around the room again. At the other end of the wall was a skeleton. But what caught his attention was what was on top of its head.
On it was a beautiful onyx colored half-crown.
***
I know y'all gonna say she can't be incorruptible until she becomes a master but let's just say she has some immunity to corruption if it's a nightmare creature trying to corrupt her cuz she's a Nephilim.