Shadow Slave

Sunny sat in the darkness for a while, thinking. At first, he wanted to immediately put on his new magnificent onyx armor, but then dismissed that idea. There would be time later… for now, he was too tired. The effects of the stimulant were slowly wearing off, and he had spent too much shadow essence already.

He did, however, note a few things about the Mantle of the Underworld.

The first fact he noticed was that it shared two enchantments with Saint. However, there were subtle, but important differences between the versions of [Stalwart] and [Underworld Armament] possessed by the onyx armor and the taciturn demon.

The Memory offered better protection against physical and elemental attacks, but lacked the complete immunity to mind and soul attacks, possessing a moderate amount of protection against those rare and fearsome types of damage instead. Overall, this was an advantageous trade-off, since most Nightmare Creatures relied on more common ways of destroying Awakened.

...Unless they didn't.

The more interesting difference, however, was hidden in the description of the [Underworld Armament]. While Saint's armor could accommodate a Charm Memory to inherit its enchantments, the Mantle of the Underworld could both inherit… and enhance them. Just one word made for so much difference. Sunny couldn't wait to explore this subtle trait of his new Memory.

[Living Stone] and [Feather of Truth], meanwhile, were pretty obvious. That didn't mean, however, that these enchantments did not have a lot to offer. He could already see many interesting ways to apply both in battle. The downside was that both were active enchantments, and as such, would require a constant flow of essence to function. What's worse, the armor couldn't even be used without activating the first one.

But the most interesting enchantment was, without a doubt, [Prince of the Underworld].

'A growing Memory…'

Pondering about that strange and miraculous enchantment, Sunny couldn't help but think about the First Lord of the Bright Castle, who had supposedly been the first master of the Mantle of the Underworld.

What tier and Rank was the onyx armor when he had first found it? How many of the vanquished foes had been defeated by his hand? Was the Mantle of the Underworld one of the reasons for his legendary achievements?

For the longest time, Sunny had wondered about how an Ascended Memory of the Sixth Tier had ended up in the hands of humans in the Dark City. It had to have come from destroying a Fallen Terror… or so he had thought. Now, there were other possibilities.

But all these questions were doomed to be left unanswered. Sadly…

The First Lord and his companions had taken the answers with them to the grave.

Remembering the lonely cairn in the Hollow Mountains, Sunny sighed. Then, his thoughts wandered to something else.

'The Goddess of the Black Skies… Storm God?'

Teacher Julius had described Storm God as being the deity of the depths, of the oceans, of darkness, stars, travel, guidance, and disaster. He also said that the gender of the gods was subject to change. Stars, darkness, and storms were somewhat related to black skies…

Frowning, Sunny remembered the runes describing the Mantle of the Underworld. Indeed, "black skies" could also be translated as skies covered by storm clouds, or the night sky.

'Interesting...'

Translating the runes reminded him of something. Opening his communicator, Sunny found a note he made during his conversation with Effie and Kai.

There, their True Names were written down in runic language.

'Nightingale…'

Kai's True Name was pretty simple to understand, but the Spell chose to interpret it rather creatively. Even though Sunny had no idea if the Dream Realm had actual nightingales, the runes described a pretty similar bird… probably. Translated literally, they meant Sings Beautifully from the Night Skies. Which could mean either Enchanting Siren of the Night, or simply a nocturnal bird.

'Huh…'

Effie's True Name was more straightforward, but also far more morbid. Raised by Wolves could mean just that, but a more direct translation had a different meaning.

Born from Wolves, or... Born from Being Eaten Alive.

Sunny shivered, then deactivated the communicator and closed his eyes for a second.

There was one more thing he could do…

Summoning the runes once again, he found the description of Weaver's Mask and read:

Memory Enchantments: [Mantle of Lies], [???], [Simple Trick].

Now that he was an Awakened, he could try to activate the mysterious enchantment marked by three question marks. Even if all of his essence would be only enough to keep it working for a split second, he could.

…But he was reluctant to.

Sunny knew nothing about the enchantment, but from the boundless, inconceivable pattern of the mask's weave, he got a feeling that it was somehow connected to eyes, vision, and sight.

He suspected that the Vile Thieving Bird was a Cursed Devil — at least... and it had been driven mad by just one glance at the reflection in the Weaver's eye. Would something similar happen to him?

There were things, after all, that humans weren't meant to see.

Even gods struggled with looking at some truths, it seemed.

'...No. Not now.'

Sunny was somewhat willing to risk it, but doing so right now would have been really unwise. What if he passed out from shock? That would transport him to a random spot in the Dream Realm, and knowing his luck, that spot would be populated by horrors beyond imagination.

With a sigh, he dismissed the runes and took out another stimulant patch.

'Some other day… when I am much, much stronger.'

With that, he removed the old patch and put another one in its place.

'Time to put all I learned together and make the final decision. What should I choose? Stability or danger?'

Safer road... or an unknown path?

***

Two days later, Sunny was sitting on a bench opposite the entrance to the Academy hospital complex with a cup of bitter dark coffee in his hand. In his other hand, he was holding a slick communicator.

Taking a sip of the terrible drink, Sunny grimaced, then lingered for a few moments and sighed.

Finally, he pressed the call button to contact Master Jet.

She answered after a couple of seconds. Her voice sounded a little tense, and there were strange, barely audible whispers mixing with the background noise of the call.

"Ah! Awakened Sunless. What… wait, give me a second…"

Something crackled violently, and in the next moment, the background noise was gone.

"Much better. So… have you decided?"

Sunny took another sip of coffee and said:

"Yeah."

He hesitated for a bit, then added:

"As far as joining the Legacy clans or the government… I've decided against it. I don't know enough and have no leverage to ensure a good deal. Plus, that option will remain open for me in the future even if I stay independent for now. The reverse, however, won't necessarily be true. In any case, it's a serious matter, one that should not be decided upon in a span of just a few days, while suffering from sleep deprivation and stimulant abuse, to boot."

Master Jet turned on the video function of the call and smiled. The smile was bright and beautiful, but Sunny couldn't help but notice that right behind her, something was currently on fire.

"Makes sense. So then… which Citadel?"

That was the real question. While Sunny decided to remain independent for now, while leaving himself an opportunity to join a powerful faction later, his choice of an anchor was going to limit which factions he would be able to interact with later on.

He was silent for a bit, then said:

"Clan Valor territory."

Master Jet nodded.

"Solid choice. Bastion? Or a smaller Citadel?"

Sunny drank some more coffee, then spoke the name of the Citadel he had chosen into the communicator.

Jet's eyes widened slightly. She didn't say anything for a while, then asked with a bit of surprise in her voice:

"Are you… absolutely sure?"

He nodded.

"Yeah. I thought about it long and hard."

Master Jet stared at him with a slight frown for a few moments, then shrugged.

"Well, okay then. But, uh… that might take a couple of days to arrange. The place is too far north, and there's not a lot of Saints in those parts. But I'll find a way."

Sunny smiled.

"Thanks. I really owe you one."

She smiled in response and then winked at him.

"Be careful with what you say, Sunless. I might just take you up on the offer and come knocking on your door one day, asking for a favor."

He took a sip of coffee and shrugged.

"Sure. No problem. Oh… and call me Sunny, please. Everyone does."

Master Jet blinked a couple of times, then grinned.

"Alright."

Turning away from the camera, she quickly glanced at something beyond the screen, and then added:

"...Chained Isles, huh? Good luck, Sunny. I hear it's a real hell."