Pain. Unimaginable agonizing pain. As if someone were ripping into his very soul. It was a pain unlike any other. The pain he felt at the end of his first nightmare didn't compare.
Lucien's mind had gone blank, and all thoughts had been forced out. Even though he had probably released his hold on his sword and was flung away from the statue, he couldn't be bothered to care right now.
How could he, when even the simple act of thinking hurt?
The pain seemed to last for an eternity, and no time at all. Eventually, it died down, and Lucien could think again. But something was wrong, deeply wrong. His own body felt foreign to him, or was it the other way round?
As he lay atop the water, Lucien wanted nothing more than to pass out again.
Wait, water?!
Alarmed, he jumped up from his prone position and frantically looked around. Where was he? Had he been thrown into the dark sea?
He was standing on a sea of black water, much like the dark sea. Tenebrous clouds loomed overhead, drowning the world in shadows, if not for the three brilliant stars floating above him.
Three stars made of purple lightning bathed the world in their light, pushing away the darkness that had encroached on this place. Lucien stared at his inner world. This was not how he remembered his soul sea.
Something had happened to it, or rather him. After all, a soul sea was a reflection of one's self. For it to have undergone such a drastic change...
Just what had happened to him, all he remembered before passing out was a wall of darkness heading towards him. Did that somehow enter his soul sea?
Frowning, he knelt down and cupped a small amount of the water. It was pitch black, darker than the Dark Sea. No light seemed to permeate it.
Weird.
What about his cores?
Looking up, he stared at the three stars. Was it just his imagination, or had their purple hue gotten darker?
Somewhat apprehensive, he summoned his runes. If anything really had changed, the spell would tell him about it, right?
And there it was, a new attribute amongst his own. One that he didn't recognize.
Attributes: [Ember of Divinity] [The Tempest] [Stormborn] [Retainer of Darkness]
'What the hell?'
[Retainer of Darkness: You who have been touched by the dark, hearken its call. For such is your destiny.]
'I repeat, what the hell?!'
Was that why his soul sea had changed so drastically? Who was he kidding, of course it was! There was no other explanation for it!
That wall of darkness had irreversibly changed something in him, enough to give him a whole new attribute. And what did it mean by 'hearken its call.'
Was it possible that this new attribute let him control the darkness?
Eager to test out the possibility, Lucien raised his hand and visualized a dark mist swirling around it.
Seconds passed, then minutes, but nothing happened. Sighing, he put down his hand.
Clearly, it didn't allow him to control darkness. Perhaps it was a passive ability, like how [Stormborn] let him sense electricity. And there was no real way of testing that.
'Well, here's to hoping my body is still on the headless walker and not at the bottom of the dark sea.'
When he woke up, it was already morning.
Groaning, he sat up on the cold stone floor. Good, he was still atop the colossus. Somehow, he hadn't been thrown off.
Lucien's entire body felt sore, his muscles still screaming from the pain. He didn't know whether it was due to the pain brought by the wall of darkness or the strain of overexertion.
Considering what they had gone through, it very well could've been the latter. Thankfully, he hadn't been injured during the night. But the rest of the cohort hadn't been so lucky.
Each of them was either laying on the stone surface of the swaying platform or sitting with a lost look on their face. They were all wounded, tired, and wet.
Some of them had already started to move, most notably Effie. The tall huntress suddenly perked up and began walking over to him. An uncharacteristic visage of worry marred her face.
"Lucy?"
"That's me."
"You're alright?" She sat down beside him and scanned him from head to toe.
"Uh, I think so?" Lucien scratched the back of his head, "I feel alright, apart from the soreness."
"Nothing feels off?" Nephis asked, walking over to them. "You were hit by a wave of true darkness."
Lucien paused, considering whether to tell them about his new attribute. Cassie could see his attributes, and she'd tell them anyway. So, he decided to tell them about it.
"A new attribute," Sunny muttered to himself. That description was concerning.
"Yeah, I have no idea what it does, but hey, I'll take it."
"At least you're alright." Kai smiled, or tried to. In his battered state, it looked more like a grimace.
Lucien nodded back, before suddenly frowning, "Wait, what happened after I passed out?"
As the only one who could see in the dark, Sunny began explaining the events of last night.
After the wave of true darkness hit him, Lucien froze for a moment before screeching in pain. The sheen of lightning covering his body exploded outwards, before his voice suddenly cut off.
When the light died down, Lucien was bare. His armor had disappeared back into his soul sea, and so did his sword. The terrifying storm winds had thrown him off the pedestal, intent on dragging him away. Fortunately for him, Nephis had managed to grab ahold of him before he could be flung away.
By then, the storm had nearly died down. Still Changing Star only barely managed to hold on to him until it ended.
Lucien took a moment to digest that. Changing Star had saved him? The same Changing Star that would burn the Dark City and paint it red just to escape the shores?
Maybe she just needed him to stay alive to beat the Fallen Terror. Yeah, that had to be it.
After that, the members of the cohort split up again and chose to rest on the stone platform. They were tired, and they wouldn't get many more opportunities to rest.
Left alone, Lucien decided to take a look at his runes. After that battle with the swarms, he ought to have earned a lot of storm fragments.
Storm Fragments: [459/3000]
That was...a lot, even by his standards. He had gained almost four hundred fragments from their confrontation with the blood flowers and locusts. Granted, he had killed a lot of them by just paralyzing them and making them fall to their deaths.
But that wasn't the only thing that caught his attention. Something had changed with his memories. He hadn't gotten any new ones, a shame, but some of his existing memories were...different
Memories: [Stone Spear],[????? Blade],[????? Armorsuit], [Silk Yarn], [Iron Warbow], [Bone Arrows], [Starlight Pendant]
Furrowing his brows, Lucien focused on the memory that used to be Storm Blade.
Memory: [????? Blade]
Memory Rank: Dormant
Memory Tier: III
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Description: [And the ????????? raged against Destiny's scheme, refusing to be a pawn in their divine game.]
'What?'
He focused on the runes for Stone Armorsuit next.
Memory: ????? Armorsuit
Memory Rank: Dormant
Memory Tier: III
Memory Type: Armor
Memory Description: [When Nether made the first Stone Goliath, it was, in some ways, a failure. A terror it may have been, but it was much too weak. A single strike made the entire cavern tremble, but it also ruined its arm.
Yet, it was still a terror that held command over the lesser stone children. Ones that had been discarded by the daemon. One by one, they lunged at the goliath, their bodies melting as they touched the alabaster skin. Hundreds of stone children melded into the giant, thus forming this suit of armour that persisted even after the giant perished.]
'What the fuck?'
Wasting no time, Lucien jumped into his soul sea and summoned the memories one by one. The Storm Blade, which used to be a dull gray, had turned completely black. So black that even the light of his soul cores didn't dare shine on it. The constellation etched upon its crossguard would've been indistinguishable, if not for the storm essence trickling through it.
That was not even the biggest difference. Originally, the Storm Blade used to be a dormant memory of the first tier. It had jumped up two tiers and became a dormant memory of the third tier.
The Stone Armorsuit had also changed tremendously. Just like the Storm Blade, the armour had also become pitch black. But unlike the blade, the Stone Armorsuit had no storm essence running through it. As a result, it looked completely devoid of any light, leaving behind only pure darkness.
Lucien felt like he was looking at the absence of something, rather than a suit of armour. It was hard to describe, but it looked like someone had carved a hole into the world in the shape of the armour.
The memory itself, however, had regressed down to a Dormant memory of the second tier. It did not just drop down a rank; it also dropped down by three tiers. And that annoyed Lucien the most.
It had been of the sixth tier, dammit, and now it was nothing but a measly third tier. He had gone through so much to kill the goliath and gain the memory, only for it to become common loot!
At the same time, something else clicked in his mind. Why had the memories settled on that rank and class? The darkness that changed him had also changed the memories. Could it have perhaps bound them to his soul? After all, he was a Dormant Demon. It was too much of a coincidence. He'd need to test that theory out by awakening his fourth core.
By the middle of their second day of traveling through the Labyrinth atop the ancient colossus, an ominous dark line appeared on the horizon. With every minute, it slowly grew closer and more uneven. The Hollow Mountains.
The mountains seemed to serve as a border between the Forgotten Shore and the rest of the world. They were tall and jagged, piercing the skies like the fangs of a giant dragon. Their distant peaks were covered in pristine white snow and wrapped in a veil of mist that streamed into the ravines and onto the ridges below.
This was the place where the first lord of the Castle had disappeared all those years ago, as well as the goal of their own perilous journey.
Lucien did not remember much about him, only a vague silhouette. The man had not lived very long you see, at least not long enough for a baby to remember his face.
As the stone giant came closer to the mountains, the sheer size of it became apparent. Even the colossus himself looked like a tiny ant in front of these towering peaks. It was hard not to feel small and insignificant in their oppressive shadow.
Slowly, the terrain of the Labyrinth began to rise. The mounds of coral grew smaller, the distance between them increased, until finally there were as much black soil and stone outcroppings visible beneath as there were islands of vivid crimson. Finally, the blades of coral became scarce.
It was as though the Labyrinth was reluctant to approach the foothills of the misty mountains... or simply unable to.
As the gargantuan statue approached the border of the crimson forest, its steps slowed. The colossus seemed to be struggling to move any further. His body was slightly bent, as if he was fighting against strong wind or some invisible force that was relentlessly pulling him back into the Labyrinth.
Even his prodigious might was not enough to defeat the pull of the ancient curse.
Finally, the stone giant staggered and stopped.
This was the moment they were waiting for.