The trio calmed down after some time, refusing to talk about what had happened. Eventually, Amon sighed and glanced at them with a serious look.
"So, all of us..."
They nodded solemnly. For a moment, they remained cold and serious, but then their expressions cracked, and soon they were laughing.
"I'm going after demonesses. No way I'm passing up this opportunity. Here I come, Song Domain! Giggity, giggity... Gigg-ggity!"
"Nah, I'm going to create a fake history about myself, like I'm some kind of mysterious god."
"Meh, I don't know, for real. It's hard to decide yet."
Amon coughed into his fist, holding back laughter.
"So, I've got Error, guys. What about you, Medici?"
Medici leaned back, if not his appearance, his expression already giving it away.
"Of course, I've got the Red Priest pathway as my aspect."
Amon gave him a thumbs-up, and Medici grinned. Then both of them froze, their eyes snapping over to Luna, who was calmly sipping her juice.
"Wait... What did you get? Don't tell me it's from the Moon or Mother pathways…"
"Calm down, Medici. It's definitely Demoness or Darkness."
Luna sighed and leaned back, clearly irritated.
"It's... Hanged Man."
They exchanged stunned looks and then glanced back at her.
"I beg your pardon?"
"What did you say?"
Amon didn't like that... Hanged Man was one of the most dangerous pathways there was. It could drive people mad so easily that it was practically a pathway to corruption.
"Well... You should've just let us name you."
"No shit. Now she's cooked."
Luna stood up and stretched with a yawn, clearly unfazed.
"But you guys forgot one thing. This world isn't as dangerous as that of Lord of Mysteries. In Shadow Slave, there are no outer gods, no secret existences or anything like that. Just a forgotten god sleeping in the void, and void creatures... bums locked up there as well. Not to mention, Spell is giving me protection against corruption."
They blinked, it strangely made sense. But Amon was still a bit suspicious.
"So your flaw is...?"
Luna nodded, forcing a strained smile.
"Yep. Chances of me getting corrupted are just higher..."
That was a dangerous flaw. Amon's own flaw didn't seem strange or dangerous, at least from what he could decipher from Spell's cryptic words.
Then he glanced at Medici, who shrugged, yawned, leaned back, and smirked with a smug, self-satisfied smile.
"My flaw is Wrath. Practically... I now have anger issues."
Both Luna and Amon were dumbfounded. Medici? Calm and composed. The kind of guy who'd silently endure even getting beaten up. And now he had anger issues?
But then Amon frowned, glancing at Medici and then at Luna with a strange, bizarre look.
"So… my nanny and daddy?"
Luna spat out the juice she was sipping, staring at him in disbelief as she coughed, while Medici just froze.
"Shut up! As if I'm Ancient Sun God… Wait, that's kinda cool."
Medici nodded, stroking an imaginary beard before grinning.
Amon felt chills run down his spine as he saw that grin and hesitantly crawled back, flames beginning to dance around Medici's fingers.
"Come to nanny dearest…"
"Wait! Let me tell you something! Let me tell you-"
... Amon's hair got cooked. Simple as that.
Later, Amon sat still as Luna cut his long hair. It wasn't exactly short now, but nowhere near as long as before. If before it flowed down his back, now it barely reached his shoulders.
Medici laughed, sitting smugly on the bed.
"Now you're a proper Lil' Raven."
Amon smirked.
"…Hmm, maybe I should start my plan and nurture the next Alista Tudor."
Now it was Medici's turn to freeze, but Luna had had enough nonsense, her sharp glare made them both shut up immediately.
"We need to discuss our abilities. What can we actually do?" She folded her arms. "For now, I can manipulate my flesh and blood. Menstrual cycle? Not a problem anymore. Honestly, that might be the best part. I can manipulate my cells directly and have all the abilities of Rose Bishop's as well."
Amon nodded, though his expression was a bit confused. The core skill of the Hanged Man pathway was clearly Grazing... so why flesh and blood manipulation? Rose Bishop's abilities were powerful, sure, but that wasn't exactly the core skill of that pathway.
He glanced at Luna with a questioning look. She caught it and sighed.
"I know. I didn't get Shepherd's or Shadow Ascetic's abilities... it's strange. But Aspects work differently from pathways, so maybe I'll unlock those later."
Amon nodded, he was in the same boat. The only ability he'd gotten was Theft, and even that was a flawed, watered-down version that could only steal artifacts.
Medici had been listening quietly, a bit awkward, until a faint smile crept onto his face.
"Well… I've got Pyromaniac's abilities," he said casually. "Plus the Hunter attribute, which makes me exceptional at tracking prey. Anyway, I have the whole Pyromaniac toolkit; Fire Armour, Delayed Explosion, Compression, you name it. What about you?"
Amon pursed his lips, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed. This was… awkward. His entire skill set boiled down to stealing and deception. Not exactly top-tier in the Dream Realm when facing an Abomination. Still, he had a lot of Memories tucked away, and there was that theory he planned to test tomorrow. If it worked, then… heh. No one would be safe.
"I can steal Memories… and maybe Echoes, I think. Not sure yet."
Both Luna and Medici stared at him in disbelief. That was it? No combat skills? Just theft? And not even the strong kind that let you steal abilities, just a knock-off pickpocket version?
"That's it?"
"For real?"
Amon sighed. It wasn't like he wanted to be the weakest among them, but what choice did he have? Until he ascended and evolved his abilities, there was nothing he could do. That was just how the pathways of the so-called "cowardly trio" worked. At first, they seemed unassuming, ordinary compared to others but the further you advanced, the more the Door, Error, and Fool pathways turned into something truly terrifying.
They spoke about other things too, like their memories. Luna only had a Bow, which wasn't of much use to her without arrows, while Medici's was a utility-type memories: a iron wire and a pot.
Amon nodded in understanding. Not everyone could be as amazing as him, after all.
Than Luna smiled smugly, standing with her hands on her hips.
"So… do you guys know what I got? True Name! Can you believe that?"
Amon and Medici exchanged a glance, then leaned back with composed, self-satisfied smiles.
"Do you hear this nonsense?"
"I can, besto friendo."
Amon waved a hand dismissively and chuckled.
"Of course we all have True Names. We're the protagonists of this era, after all."
Medici laughed and nodded, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, then looked back at Luna.
"So what did you get?"
Luna laughed, clearly satisfied with herself.
"I'm the True Creator. What about you guys?"
Amon shrugged, considering her Hanged Man pathway, it wasn't hard to guess she'd get something like that.
Medici sighed, looking a little awkward.
"My True Name is… b-blood… Blood Son of Heaven…"
Amon blinked, then burst into laughter, pointing a finger at Medici.
"Hahaha... you got the title of Alista? The guy who cooked your goat? Bahahahah..."
Luna stifled a laugh, avoiding Medici's gaze. Medici groaned and leaned back in irritation.
"So, what did you get?"
Amon smirked deviously, already cooking up diabolical plans in his head.
"Heh, I'm Blasphemer."
Luna and Medici stared at him blankly. What on earth had this maniac done in the Nightmare to earn a True Name like that? But before they could ask, Amon's curiosity got the better of him, and he asked them instead.
"So, what happened in your nightmares?"
Medici blinked, then coughed awkwardly, wearing a sheepish smile.
"Well… nothing much, really. I was possessing the body of some boy in a village that was under the threat of being destroyed by a dragon. Naturally, I assumed that was the goal: find the dragon, kill it, save the day. Spell showed me the 'future', a burned village and scorched corpses, so i knew what happened. That's why I set out on a heroic journey. After a week, I finally found the dragon… except it was already dead. Old. Very, very dead."
He paused, glanced between them, then sighed.
"Apparently, the villagers had been too scared to ever check on the thing. The real danger wasn't the dead dragon, it was its egg, just waiting to hatch and burn everything down. So I… uh… killed the unhatched dragon. And then I cooked it. Along with the old one."
Amon stared at him. "That's how your nightmare ended?"
Medici nodded solemnly. "Yes. Heroism tastes a lot like overcooked omelet."
Luna and Amon both stared at Medici in disbelief and maybe a little indignation. That easy? Well… it sounded easy, but it wasn't. The courage to face a dragon, even a dead one, was nothing to sneeze at. Almost anyone else would've run in terror instead of checking. After all, what kind of ordinary person could stand against a dragon?
Then Luna sighed, shaking her head with a bitter expression.
"Well, my nightmare was a bit different. I didn't have to fight anyone… I was just being sacrificed."
Amon blinked. "Pardon?"
Medici frowned. "What?"
Luna nodded with a faint, sardonic smile on her lips.
"Thing is, I was in a clan. That clan had a tradition, sacrificing the purest maidens to their god. Not one of the six main gods, mind you, but some other deity. And I… ended up in the body of that so-called 'pure' girl. Which is bullshit, by the way. What's so pure about me?"
She spat the words with open contempt, then scoffed.
"Anyway, I wasn't the only 'pure' one there. The body I possessed had a sister just as 'pure' as me, apparently. Logically, the smart thing to do would've been to let them sacrifice her and save myself… but I couldn't. I just couldn't kill a five-year-old girl. Back in our world, I was studying biomedical science to save lives, not take them. So instead of her…"
She paused, eyes lowering for a moment before she lifted them again with cold, bitter look.
"I told them I would take her place. But I was wrong. My 'sister' ran away before ritual started, leaving me behind to die. I can't really judge her, i understand how terrified she must've been. She was just a child, after all. But… I was wrong about everything. They didn't want to sacrifice the pure. They wanted to sacrifice the one who betrayed another. So they caught her, nailed her hands and feet to a cross, and drove a spear through her chest… while I was locked in a cage and forced to watch how she was tortured and killed... That's how my nightmare ended."
Amon stayed quiet for a while, eyes lowered. Well… that got dark fast. He wanted to say something comforting, but that wasn't exactly his area of expertise. Annoying people? Mocking them? Sure. Comforting? Yeah, he had no clue where to start.
Luna let out a sigh, leaning back with a forced smile before giving him a curious look.
"What about you? What happened in your nightmare that lasted five months?"
Amon blinked, then noticed the expectant looks from his friends. He grinned, stood up, and spread his arms.
"Are you ready to hear the Great Adventure of Amon?"
Luna shrugged and nodded, resting her cheek against her palm. Medici got more comfortable, hugging a pillow.
Amon gave them a solemn nod and began.
"Once upon a time…"