[You have killed a human, Gunlaug the Bright Lord.]
[You have gained—]
The Spell's voice arrived the way it always did after a kill. Leon stood in the silence it left behind and listened to his own breathing.
Changing Star.
The copper taste was still faint on his tongue. His mind was still screaming at him.
The crowd around them hadn't moved. The walls were cracked. The floor had fractured in a wide radius from where he and Gunlaug had been, stone split along the fault lines.
Nephis took a step forward.
Leon's grip tightened on the katana.
The crown was still warm on his head, still cycling through whatever remained in it
The ground had been deforming since the moment the fight with Gunlaug began, taking every impact quietly, accumulating damage.
Now it looked like it was going to collapse.
Ember dissipated at a frightening rate, as the crown glowed brighter by the second — not healing him, just charging up for a big attack.
His lips curled upward.
He knew it wasn't righteous. He knew it wasn't necessary. Gunlaug was dead, the rebellion had won, and the sensible thing — the obvious thing — was to let this moment be what it was, and start thinking about what came after.
He knew all of that.
But when he looked at her, all he could find was the image of rain. Cold rain, and her fists. The fight with Gunlaug had burned through whatever part of him was capable of sensible thinking, and what was left wasn't interested in reason.
The heat dissipating from the crown nearly singed his hair, yet he did not stop, and kept... charging for something big.
Nephis gripped the longsword in her hand, and prepared herself for whatever was to come.
"CHANGING STAAAAR"
The ember fell on her like a pillar of light. A singular, terrifying column that turned the smoke and debris of the ruined throne room into wisps of air.
Nephis got out of the epicenter by a margin that was nearly impossible.
White flames covered her body, as Nephis lunged forward through the smoke and whisps of flame. White flames covered her immediately, and she came through the smoke already moving.
A palm grabbed her face and pinned her to the ground.
The ground finally shattered beneath them, giving in to the pressure.
Leon and Nephis fell into a large pit beneath the castle.
They fell through it together, the stone parting beneath them. The pit beneath the castle was dark and cold and deep.
They hit the ground at the same time. They were on their feet in almost the same instant, and their blades met in the dark.
There were no witnesses here. Only a certain Aspect ghost, and somewhere in the darkness, a lone shadow watching without sound.
Leon covered himself in white flames and pressed forward, fighting through pain that had long since passed the point of being bearable.
Nephis slowly lost more and more ground, as her body accumulated shallow and deep cuts because of Leon.
Leon switched the halo from form to form — katana, rapier, whatever the angle required — and pushed her back across the dark stone.
The crown responded to his call this time, activating its essence.
The crown answered when he called it. He brought the sword down on her shoulder in a clean arc, Soul Shear threading through the blade at contact.
Nephis winced. Her knee hit the ground
Through his Gaze, he could see the three soul cores burning inside her, bright as small suns. He could see the full depth of a divine aspect user's potential, every shining layer of it — and she wasn't using any of it.
"IS THIS WHAT I LOST TO?"
The question rang off the stone walls and disappeared.
He stood over her. "Let's settle this. Just you and me!"
Nephis gasped for air, and pushed herself back up.
Leon conjured a mace and hit her across the jaw with it.
"Why? Why do you refuse to fight me!?"
Her silence was starting to get under his skin. He wanted to defeat her — no. He needed to. He needed this rematch specifically, needed to win it, needed—
"ANSWER ME, NEPHIS!"
Nephis slowly lifted her head.
She smiled.
Not the careful, mechanical expression she used to make. A genuine smile, soft and warm and entirely out of place in a pit beneath a ruined castle, with blood on her face and his sword in the air above her.
He looked into her eyes and grew still.
Affection.
Worry.
Sorrrow.
'Why...WHY?'
There was no anger. Where was the Changing Star who had tried to kill him? Where had the Nephis who would burn the world down for revenge disappeared to?
Had she changed?
Leon staggered back one step, then another, as Nephis stood up. The katana slipped from his palm, falling to the ground.
She took a step forward, and pulled him into a warm embrace.
'What?'
Nephis had... changed.
And he was stuck on revenge. He was still stuck as the same arrogant man he was.
The people around him had already stepped forward.
White flames covered his body that weren't his, slowly caressing every wound.
Nephis slowly released him, and moved her eyes over his entire body, checking for any other injuries.
Leon still didn't know what to say, he just stood there, confused.
"Let's go." Her voice was soft, and soothing. "Sunny and Kai were worried sick about you."
"Sunny and... Kai?"
She nodded.
He wanted to know how they survived, he wanted to—
He fell unconscious.
***
Leon was falling down.
He slowly looked around.
Only a vast gray sky in every direction, and below him an abyss so complete, it stopped being darkness and became something else — an absence. Nothingness.
Thunder cracked.
Giant bodies of cloud moved around him, slow and enormous, gray and heavy with rain they hadn't released yet. Another crack of thunder, closer this time — and in the flash of it, he saw the shape.
A bird, so immense — watching him from behind a curtain of cloud with slow patience.
The thunder came again, and the Cursed Devil emerged from the clouds, massive and inevitable, its silhouette swallowing the gray sky piece by piece.
The very same Cursed Devil that threw him across a Death Zone.
Leon gritted his teeth.
His figure, next to it, was nothing. Tiny, insignificant, he could get lost between its feathers.
The vast shape moved forward and he was simply inside it the next moment, consumed without another thought.
***
He shot out of the bed he was in, with cold sweat pouring down his face. Leon looked around, and found himself inside a small room, lying on a soft bed.
Cassie was asleep in a chair beside him, her head resting on the edge of the mattress. Her hair had come loose. She looked smaller than he remembered.
"That was a long time to sleep."
Leon turned around to greet his own image — or rather, the image from his past. His own past, sitting in a chair with its arms crossed.
Noah.
"Well... I feel rather refreshed to be honest."
Noah nodded.
"To recap." He shifted in his seat. "Sunny, Nephis and Seishan are handling everyone in the castle. Tessai died." A pause. "And it's been about two weeks since you killed Gunlaug."
Leon blinked. "Wha—"
The sound of Cassie's breathing changed.
He stopped.
She lifted her head slowly, eyes half-closed, hair falling across her face in every direction. Her eyes focused in his direction.
She lunged forward, grabbed his shirt in both hands, and pressed her face into his chest.
Leon was startled. His shirt...wait shirt?
His armor and cape were...gone?
Cassie's hands tightly grasped the fabric of it, while she was shaking slightly.
He raised one hand and placed it carefully on the back of her head.
"Hey... Cas."
The last time he had seen her was before he had a falling out with Nephis. He didn't even get to say a proper goodbye... or maybe he didn't.
He stroked her hair and waited until the shaking stopped.
"I'm not going anywhere," he said.
He thought about the dojo at the academy. About a blind girl who apologized for everything.
***
[You have slain a Fallen Devil, Forsaken Knight]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
Sunny smiled.
'Anything else you want to add? A Memory? An Echo perhaps?'
The cathedral was quiet. Sunny kneeled in front of the Fallen Devil, while Saint stood a few steps from him, her blade plunged into the Forsaken Knight's heart.
It had nearly killed him. He'd regretted the decision to challenge it alone approximately thirty seconds into the fight, and many times after that. But then, at the final moment—
Shadow Dance Mastery Level: [1/7]
A moment later, he forgot all about the Spell. A cold shiver ran down his spine.
Something very strange was happening to shadow, the Stone Saint.
Sunny had previously turned his knight Echo into a Shadow, during the journey to the Dawn Shard. It cost him a lot of shadow fragments.
Saint's hand was raised, frozen in the same position as when she had pierced the heart of the living darkness with her fist. And in it, a strange, beautiful and ominous gem.
It was utterly black, as though the black surface seemed to devour light, turning the vast hall of the ruined cathedral even darker than before.
It was pulsating with a slow and bizarre ryth,, drowning everything in dim red light.
'What the hell is that?'
A soul?
As Sunny watched in stunned silence, the Shadow finally moved. Bringing the black gem close to her face, she lingered for a moment. And then, the Stone Saint... swallowed it.
Sunny blinked.
'What?'
The shadow opened her mouth, bit into the eerie crystal, and swallowed it.
'Has nobody taught her not to eat random things! Especially a heart from a Fallen Devil!'
And a moment after that, the Stone Saint fell into the shadows and disappeared.
He commanded Gloomy to stay vigilant, and dove into his Soul Sea.
The tranquil expanse of the still water met with familiar silence. Sunny noticed that the Black Knight had joined their ranks.
With a dark expression, Sunny turned away and walked to stand beneath the black sun of his shadow core. Then, he summoned the Stone Saint.
But nothing happened.
He checked his runes, and she was still listed as his Shadow.
Sunny made it expand and read:
Shadow: Stone Saint
Shadow Rank: Awakened
Shadow Attributes: [Battle Master], [Stalwart], [Spark of Divinity]
Shadow Fragments: [50/200]
So far, everything was the same.
However, there was a new string of runes shimmering beneath that number, where nothing had been before.
The runes read:
[...The Stone Saint is evolving.]
What kind of transformation was Saint going through? He would have to wait to find out. He exhaled slowly and exited his Soul Sea a moment later.
The battle against the fallen devil was not as harsh as he had expected. After fighting so many vile abominations in the dark city, his strength had grown at a considerable rate.
Sunny was breathing heavily as blood flowed from every part of his body.
His second soul core was almost half full.
Looking at his own body, he noted that his arms were practically a pile of goo by now. Clashing so much with the devil had broken all his bones. If not for his shadow wrapping around him, the midnight shard's weird nature, and his two soul cores, he would not have stood a chance.
Sighing slowly, he looked ahead at the statue of the goddess.
He slowly stood up, shaking off the pain and walked forward.
Leon had given him a rusty old key long ago, when they had just entered the Dark City. And he had a feeling it would be useful here.
Walking past the statue of the goddess, he entered the temple's inner sanctum. He had never really been there, so this was new.
Walking through the rooms, he looked around and noted that everything was pretty much destroyed and ruined.
He stopped in front of a certain wall, and tilted his head.
Sunny could feel a heavy mass of shadows hiding behind the wall, as though the space was hollow. After a while, he found a hidden lever and pressed it.
Nothing happened so he used the midnight and forcefully slid the wall aside. The air rushed past him as he began walking down the stairs, that seemed to lead him deep underground.
'I wonder what treasures lie here...'
***
Cassie had stopped shaking by then. The tears were slower now, quieter.
"I saw a vision," she said finally, her face still pressed into his chest.
"What vision, Cas. Breathe."
She tightened her grip on his shirt. "It's about Sunny."
Across the room, Noah's eyes moved slightly.
Leon kept his hand moving slowly through her hair. Cassie lingered another moment, then pulled back and sat up. She wiped her face with the back of her hand, took a breath that shuddered only a little, and composed herself
"How did you all even find each other?"
"I had a vision about one of the statue moving toward the Hollow Mountains. With its help, we would reach there by 4, or less than 4 days." She paused a little. "I also had a vision about Sunny and Kai already near the mountains..."
Leon smiled faintly. A warm breeze came through the open window, carrying the smell of open air
"I see he circled back for you."
Cassie tilted her head slightly. "What do you mean?"
"We traveled on the same statue to get there."
The room was quiet for a moment.
Cassie lowered her gaze, and something changed in her expression.
"Sunny will kill you."
Leon and Noah both flinched at the same time. "What?"
Cassie pulled his hand into both of hers and leaned closer, dropping her voice.
"I saw it in a vision. Sunny, standing over you while you were—" Her jaw tightened. "Bleeding to death. And he was—" She stopped. Swallowed once. "He was laughing, Leon. I don't know what it means. I don't know why he does it, but—"
She pulled herself closer and pressed her face against his chest again, smaller now than before.
"I can't lose you again and again." Her eyes reddened. "I'll die if you—"
Leon put a palm on Cassie's mouth, his expression already shifting into something thoughtful.
"Don't."
Cassie lowered his hand herself. Her eyes were reddened.
"Lost from Light."
Noah clenched his fist tightly, looking outside the window.
"You have to remember that, Leon. He killed Harper. I don't know exactly what it does but it—"
"Cas."
She lifted her gaze.
"What is wrong with y—"
Before he could finish his words, the door opened, and Nephis stepped through.
Nephis stepped through, saw the position Leon and Cassie were in — his arm around her, her hands in his, their faces close — and blinked once.
She stepped back out. The door closed with a quiet, precise click.
"Umm..."
***
Leon was eating.
The word eating perhaps understated the situation. It was messier than that and faster than that, and the only person in the hall who matched his pace was Effie herself.
The four of them occupied the table — Leon, Effie, Nephis, Cassie.
"I must say, Leon. You've exceeded my expectations! Killing Gunlaug all by yourself..." Effie said, her mouth still full of food. She looked at Leon with a rather questionable gaze and continued. "Very impressive."
Leon nodded. "Indeed it is."
Nephis calmly ate her own food, without adding much to the conversation, and neither did Cassie.
Leon eventually finished his food and stood up. "Well then, I have things to tend to. If you'll excuse me."
And before anyone could question him, he vanished from their eyes.
Effie leaned back and sighed softly. "Cassie... you have a real handful to deal with."
Cassie raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
Effie smirked. "Nothing."
***
Leon stood on top of the castle walls. The sun shone on his skin, as the wind caressed his hair.
He had come up here instead for what he was telling himself was fresh air, which it was, partially.
'Maybe I should have told her first...'
Cassie would just worry again.
But what weighed on his mind right now, was the vision Cassie had mentioned.
'Why would Sunny kill me?'
Revenge was the obvious answer. For the Cursed Devil incident — which he still didn't have the full picture of.
But jumping to conclusions would be foolish.
He'd talk to Kai and Sunny first.
But...
The question ate at him, combined with his attribute [Omen of Insight] turning restless in his chest. He clicked his tongue while looking at the sky.
That was when the bright idea arrived. It was, in every sense of the word, bright.
He could just see the vision himself.
"Are you fucking kidding me," Noah said.
Leon ignored him, as always, and turned his attention toward the pattern of Cassie's Aspect.
It was difficult to say the least. The pattern for her Aspect was complicated nonetheless. He did remember Noah saying it was a Sacred Aspect, but this was rather complex.
He remembered how she looked during visions. The sudden vacancy in her eyes, the way they went dull and distant, like the light had gone somewhere deeper.
He remembered her panicking afterward each time.
He couldn't quite make it connect.
Leon sat down in a meditation pose, back straight, and breathed. Long and slow, and then again. The sun moved slowly.
After nearly an hour of sitting like that, he finally gave up
One moment, he saw the sunlit walls, the next, nothing, not even the memory of light. Leon's eye opened wide, on reflex, and found only dark.
He had gone blind.
'Wha—'
***
The crimson corals rose across the Forgotten Shore like the peaks of a drowned mountain range, red and jagged and ancient.
Between them, moving through the gaps and across the soft mud, a vast number of things walked forward.
Carapace Scavengers. Carapace Centurions. Centipede monsters. Spire Messengers drifting low overhead. Humans moving alongside the creatures, shoulder to shoulder, eyes empty, their flesh rotting.
None of the Nightmare Creatures looked alive either. They walked, or flew, without so much as a wasted motion.
An army of hundreds. Humans and creatures, marching together toward the same point on the horizon.
And behind them, something that didn't have a clean description. An amalgamation of flesh pulled itself forward through the mud with slow, enormous patience, leaving a trail through the soft ground, its outline hazed in a thin line of fog that clung to it like a second skin.
From it, one head protruded. A singular red eye. Beside it, a gray one. Both of them mismatched.
It smiled.
Ahead of them, several hundred miles: the Crimson Spire, rising from the Shore.
The Bright Castle lay directly in their path.
The head tilted slowly upward, and smiled. The creature was marching forward with an army of the dead — humans and Nightmare Creatures both, which meant every ability those creatures had carried in life was still somewhere with them.
Leon stood up and headed back toward the castle.
He had an army of undead to deal with. A foe to actually achieve his revenge with. And somewhere in the fog creature's mass of borrowed flesh, something that had once been his.
An eye.
His expression had gone cold.
***
Sunny was walking back to the castle when his shadow flinched.
Leon pulled his hood down and came forward, his expression grim
The two stopped a few steps from each other.
"You're awake."
Leon was quiet for a moment. "How did you..."
Sunny lowered his gaze and thought back to that day.
"The Great Titan was dead. Something had killed it — I never found out what. I took Kai and started running before anything else found us." He paused. "That's the short version."
Leon summoned the endless spring and tossed it to Sunny, while he used his crown to heal all the injuries.
"Thanks. Anyways. We later stumbled into Nephis, Cassie, Effie and... Caster."
"He's alive?"
Sunny nodded. "Thankfully, me and Kai were close to the place you'd mentioned. Nephis was going for the Dawn Shard as well. We picked it up and came back."
His gaze grew darker. "Well, we thought you actually died this time."
---
Sunny remembered entering the bright castle with a really crappy mood. Which was his usual mood for the past 2-3 months.
But as soon as they entered the outer settlement, news about the duel between Mad Scythe and the Bright Lord spread like wildfire.
The cohort rushed to the castle as fast as they could.
Nephis stepped in first, but Leon already began fighting her.
Sunny wanted to stop them, but had to deal with Tessai.
---
"I see."
"Where were you?"
Leon explained his side of the events to Sunny. Sunny stood there, and just stared at him.
"Glad to have you back, bastard."
Leon let out a short laugh, and nodded once. Then the humor left his face, replaced by something darker.
"We need a meeting." He looked at Sunny. "Tonight. It's urgent."
***
The underground chamber was quiet.
Seishan sat in the position next to him, her gaze fixed onto Leon. "Are you alright?"
"For the third time, Shan. Yes."
"Did you rest well?"
"I did."
"Did you eat?"
He turned to look at her directly. "What is with the questions today?"
Seishan shrugged, with her usual serenity. Her beautiful figure sitting gracefully on the chair.
Kai covered a smile with his hand. "She's just worried. We all are."
"Right." Leon leaned forward. "So let's begin."
He looked at the faces around the table. "We start the siege soon. I mean we leave tomorrow."
Everyone remained silent for a long moment.
They all knew what it meant to go for the Crimson Spire. Hundreds would die, even more would be injured.
The odds of survival was low, and the odds of getting back to the Waking Realm was...
"But why?"
Leon opened his mouth.
He thought about the fog creature. The smile on the single head. The army of dead — hundreds of them, with abilities intact — marching across the Forgotten Shore in the direction of the Spire
He knew there weren't enough people or manpower to siege the spire with less casualties in the first place.
He thought about the faces at this table. What that information would do to them before he had a plan.
He closed his mouth.
He exhaled once.
"Just trust me."