They relaxed for the rest of the day. Nephis felt, like so often nowadays, frustrated with the pace things were progressing. Since entering the Dark City she had always felt like she should be doing more and accomplishing more — more, and better, and faster. If this was to be her rewrite of the things that had happened, she could not laze around. Every hour, every minute... brought them closer to the eventual demise of the people of the Earth — to Antarctica, Chain of Nightmares, Domain War and everything horrible that had happened since. She had no time to waste.
Yet here they were. It wouldn't make sense to start the journey back to the city without resting and recuperating first. They had to eat, sleep and do all the things that humans did... and the others didn't have the grit and the willpower that Nephis herself possessed.
In the end, Nephis decided it might do some good even for her to participate in these human activities. There were times coming when such patches of carefree life would be scarce - especially if Sunny accepted her offer and left Nephis behind on the Forgotten Shore again. He still hadn't given her an answer but Nephis saw no need to press the issue. They had plenty of time.
The next morning — or whatever time it was — marked the beginning of their march back to the city. The beginning of the end, Nephis thought to herself. Or... the end of the beginning?
She gave up on the metaphor and concentrated on returning back to the surface. Sunny steered them through the eerie labyrinth of Nothing and then they crossed the river. It wasn't long before they were back at the base hills of Hollow Mountains. Looking north they could see the endless expanse of dark crimson straight ahead. On and on it went and Nephis could almost hear Effie sighing in frustration.
"What is there to be afraid of?" Nephis tried to cheer them up. "More distance between us and the Dark City just means more monsters to kill and more opportunities to grow stronger. Then we will be all the more ready to topple Gunlaug and his Host."
Kai perked up at her words. "Ha! I didn't know you had comical talent inside you as well, Nephis!"
Comical...?
"There is much you don't know", Nephis said. "But I thank you... I guess?"
Cassie giggled. "Let's go. I can't wait to grow even stronger than I currently am... "
*******
The days of their mirage followed one after another with no noticeable difference between them. A calm air had settled arounf the cohort. They did not have to think much, just act — the level of cohesion they had accomplished was such that no words were needed between them anymore, at least when it came to really important things (like battling nightmare creatures or marching in a tight formation, wary of every possible threat). Sometimes they told stories at the campsite, or played games. Nephis told her companions some of her favourite stories and even some things that had happened to them in her past life — but she could tell that those stories made her friends feel uneasy. Kai told group about his time as an artist and celebrity — funnily enough, Nephis knew some of them already. But she was pleasantly surprised that she didn't yet know everything.
Often there was was just mellow talking with tired voices, the members of the cohort too weary to engage in anything else. But every day they got stronger. Kai, Effie and Cassie all managed to saturate their cores, although most of Cassie's gains came from the charity, so to speak. Sunny's Shadow, Marble Saint, was growing incrementally stronger as well as Sunny fed her some of his more useless memories.
And then there was one spectacular incident near the end of their second week in the labyrinth.
*******
The cohort was camping on top of a tall stone pillar with not a lot of space to work with at the top. They had reached the place earlier than expected and there was some time still left before nighfall. An idea came to Nephis and she walked over to Sunny.
"Would you spar with me, Sunny? We have not had much time for training lately."
Sunny had been staring at nothing, probably reading his runes, and it took a second for him to snap back to reality.
"Nephis... That's because we have been fighting non-stop. And besides, is it wise to spar up here? What if one of us falls?"
"Are you planning to fall?"
"Obviously not."
"Then I don't see the problem since I am not planning to do so, either."
Of course there was risk involved but Nephis counted on his and Sunny's skill to avoid it.
"That, and Doofus should be the last person to talk about being wise", Effie chimed in from the other side of the platform. "In any case, it would be an interesting match... "
"I could catch you if one of you falls", Kai reassured.
Sunny rolled his eyes but stood up nevertheless. "Fine, fine. I'm ready."
Nephis looked at him and smiled.
"Are you really?"
Sunny said nothing, but the Crown of Ice as well as the midnight shard suddenly materialized from thin air. Then Sunny lunged forward, and that was an answer enough.
What followed was a whirlwind of steel. They joined in deadly harmony, neither using their Aspects to augment their bodies. To onlookers their battle looked both ferocious and beautiful at the same time... as well as horribly dangerous. They were sparring with real weapons after all, but both trusted that their partner would not let themselves be killed. Nephis held back just enough and so the battle fluctuated between them, neither one gaining the upper hand.
That was until something in Sunny changed.
Suddenly his movements became more fluid. His attacks came faster, stronger and more unpredictable and his defense was more grounded. At the same time his shadow flowed upwards, joining its owner. Nephis looked at her opponent and saw a shadow of herself... of her past self, perhaps.
She smiled and used one of her new tricks...
Clang!
Midnight Shard flew out of Sunny's hand and, propelled by Nephis's strike, fell down towards the distant ground. Sunny stopped. He looked at Nephis like one coming out of a trance, stupified.
The other were stupified as well.
"That was impressive, by both of you!" Kai exclaimed. "Of course, I expected nothing less!"
Nephis nodded.
"You did it", she said to Sunny. She knew it to be true when Sunny absent-mindedly nodded and began to frantically scroll through his runes. After a while he lowered himself to the ground an continued to study the air, mesmerized by whatever it was he was seeing.
Of course, Nephis knew what he was seeing. She had learnt all of Sunny's runes by heart during his alone-time in the Nightmare Desert, as she now remembered.
Sunny looked at his hand quizzically. Second later he dismissed the upper part of puppeteer's shroud, leaving him only with his black pants on. Effie's eyebrows shot to the sky.
"Excuse me? Doofus?"
"Don't say anything!"
"What's with that black snake?"
And sure enough, Sunny had the soul serpent etched into his skin now like it had been in the future. The onyx snake was completely black and it seemed to be moving just slightly beneath the skin.
Nephis was hit with an unexpected wave of emotions: nostalgia, wistfulness and pride, like that a teacher might have for his student. She suddenly remembered that this was indeed Lord of Shadows she was dealing with, not just any outskirts rat. Of course she had known that all along... but seeing the soul serpent like she had seen it on their first real date somehow bridged the gap between the past, present and future.
Sunny was not aware of Nephis's inner turmoil. He looked annoyedly at Effie.
"It's my Aspect Legacy, you punk!"
Kai blinked. "Could you... please repeat that?"
Sunny cast a long look at the archer. "I could. But I'm not going to."
"That's cool and all", Effie smirked. "But you could have chosen a better place to show it off. I mean, there's others beside Nephis as well here... "
Sunny threw a sonorous bell at her.
Little smile bloomed on Nephis's face. Now that Sunny had soul serpent, certain new things would be possible. She should indeed talk with Sunny soon... but perhaps not right now. Otherwise Effie would be having too much fun.
*******
Few minutes later Sunny had swallowed her frustration at Effie. After all, he had entirely too much fun to be sour right now.
Look at me! Look at all these beautiful... shiny... runes!
He had mastered the first step of his Aspect Legacy, Shadow Dance. And he had gotten his first Legacy Relic. As a sleeper! An achievement of this kind was borderline unthinkable and he was sure he would become a legend if he ever made it back to the waking world and shared his story... not that he would ever want to draw that much attention to himself.
It had not been easy, accomplishing that breakthrough. It had required fighting against nightmare creatures on daily basis, sparring with Saint and with other cohort members and, he had to begrudgingly admit, several ruthlessly delivered nuggets of wisdom from Nephis. It had also required long nights of arguing with his shadow about this and that technical detail and trying to decipher the strange insights his hadow sense offered when fighting.
He had also had to use both his shadow enhancement as well as the passive enchantment of the Crown of Ice.
After absorbing the Blood Weave Sunny had noticed something really peculiar: he could see inside memories now. Not only could he perceive the strange and nebulous weaves that were hidden at the heart of every one of them, but he could also outright read their enchantments. It was a really useful ability to have.
The Crown of Ice had two passive enchantments and an active one and all of them were useful in their own ways. The two passive enchantments allowed him to breathe underwater and also to... somehow... slow down time, or at least his own perception of time, for a miniscule amount. It had allowed him to analyze Nephis's movements better and thus had made him able to shadow her battle style.
The crown's active enchantment Sunny hadn't been able to utilize yet. But with the help of the Soul Serpent's [Shadow Guide]-attribute... Maybe he could? In any case, Sunny was not sure what to make of it.
Enchantment Description: "An action of wrath will be paid in blood while an unmoving heart shall freeze your enemies."
The description seemed to indicate that the enchantment could be used only if the wielder's heart was unmoving... but what did that even mean? It sounded far too obscure for Sunny's taste. Could the condition just be that the user of the crown had to have no mercy for the enemy in order to activate the enchantment? That would suit him just fine...
But somehow he doubted things would that easy. They never were.
Nevertheless, tomorrow he would begin exploring the new possibilities. He had tried to use the Soul Serpent and had felt... something. Like a slight tingle, a memory of the feeling he had experienced after his first nightmare while awakening. The feeling in question must have been a tiny trickle of soul essence... and that was really promising.
*******
The journey continued one day after another. Nephis was burning with desire to be back at the Dark City. She could almost smell the end of this first ordeal coming closer.
Dawn Shard, Dusk Shard, Midnight Shard, Moonlight Shard, Zenith Shard, Sunlight Shard... only Starlight Shard remained out of her hands, and that was a thought that plagued Nephis day and night.
Where was the mysterious killer now? A creature of true darkness, powerful enough to kill the Lord of Dead and take its place as the guardian of the memory. Had it escaped into dark tunnels that sprawled beneath the floor of the city? Was it somewhere in the dark depths of the Underworld or in the deadly reaches of the Burned Forest? There was no way to know. But Nephis felt that it could not be too far. Fate was not broken that badly yet, was it? It would surely try to throw the killer and Nephis on a collision course once more.
Nevertheless, the only thing they could do right now was to make haste and grow stronger, and that they did. Nephis inched closer and closer to becoming devil, although she would not be one yet by the time they would reach the city. She could still feel the steady progress as she assimilated more and more soul fragments.
The last week of their expedition brought one more boon to the cohort. It was after a battle against the steel spiders, not far from the clutches of the city now. Sunny had been fighting like a madman — the horde they were facing was large and demanded utmost effort on their part - and his Shadow had had a reaper's day as well.
Without any warning, as Marble Saint sliced off the head of the last of the spiders, Sunny collapsed with a scream. Kai was immediately by his side. He looked down at Sunny, clearly concerned. Effie on the other hand looked around, searching for threat. Nephis just opened Sunny's runes and checked them to confirm what she had already suspected.
"Make way. It's nothing dangerous."
"What the hell do you mean it's nothing dangerous?" Effie hissed. Sunny was laying on ground, deathly pale, and clutching his sword so hard his knuckles were white.
"You'll see. We just have to wait."
Sunny convulsed in pain as Nephis sat beside him and offer him her flame. He catched her hand and gripped it with feverish strength. Nephis remained silent through the whoel ordeal even as everyone else looked at him with blatant worry... well, everyone but Cassie. And in time, it stopped. Sunny sat up, spatting blood, and looked around.
"What are you fools looking at? I'm completely okay!"
"You're not lying... but how can you be okay?" Kai asked. "You just fell down and started screaming."
Sunny sighed and massaged his forehead. "It's just something about my Aspect. Nephis told me all about it... "
Nephis nodded. "He's right." Then he looked at Sunny. "Did the flames help?"
"Maybe? You know that I don't have any frame of reference."
"Well, I hope they did."
Sunny stood up abruptly. He wiped blood off his hand onto the puppeteer's shroud dismissed his sword. "You shouldn't suffer for my sake, you know."
Effie grinned. "Look who's noble now... "
"It doesn't have anything to do with being noble!"
He had two shadows shaking their heads at his feet.
*******
AN: I just realized that, as the story is mainly about Nephis, the chapter titles should be much less elaborate and much more to the point (like "Check: Dawn Shard", "Check: Soul Serpent", Check: Caster's death" and so on...)