Shadow Slave

The shadows stared at Sunny, and Sunny stared at the shadows.

After a while, the situation became a bit awkward.

Sunny shifted a little, then hesitantly asked:

“Uh… are you guys not going to do anything?”

The shadows did not react, remaining as motionless and quiet as they had been from the start.

As a matter of fact, he didn’t see them move or show any sign of life at all. In that regard, they were even more lifeless than his Echo had been here in the Sea of Soul. Sunny scratched his head.

His initial fear was slowly disappearing. At first, he was scared out of his wits, but more so from being startled than from feeling an actual threat. This was his Soul Sea, after all. Very few things could harm him here.

Sunny was pretty sure that the shadows were not capable of doing anything, let alone attacking him. They seemed more like manifestations of some weird facet of his Aspect rather than actual beings. As such, they weren’t dangerous.

The question was… why did the shadows suddenly appear?

After briefly thinking about it, Sunny came to the conclusion that they did not actually appear, per se. Instead, they were always here, it’s just that he had not been able to see them.

But now, with his eyes changed by the strange transformation he had gone through, he could, just like he could see the diamond strings inside the Puppeteer’s Shroud.

Speaking of the Puppeteer’s Shroud…

Glancing at the silent shadows one last time to make sure that they would not lunge at him, Sunny frowned with suspicion and turned away. His back instantly began to tingle.

‘Just think of them as fashionable pieces of furniture. Who says Soul Seas don’t need a touch of interior design?’

Somewhat consoled, he walked closer to the shining spheres that represented Memories and summoned the Puppeteer’s Shroud. One of the spheres floated down and slowly dimmed, revealing the armor within.

Just like before, Sunny could see five glowing nexuses and countless strings permeating the grey fabric. They resembled miniature stars assembled into a constellation.

‘The Shroud came from a tyrant, which is a class of Nightmare Creatures with five soul cores. Five soul cores, fifth tier Memory, five nexuses… makes sense.’

For some reason, the number five moved something in his mind. Sunny scowled, not understanding the feeling of unease that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and disrupted the flow of his thoughts.

Trying to concentrate on the task at hand, he summoned the runes describing the Puppeteer’s Shroud. The familiar description appeared in the air around the armor:

Memory: [Puppeteer’s Shroud].

Memory Rank: Awakened.

Memory Tier: V.

Memory Type: Armor.

Memory Description: [A worm of doubt…]

The identification of the tier was new. It seems that the Spell decided to be helpful and incorporated Sunny’s new understanding of the inner workings of Memories into its… uh… interface?

Tiers were not something that humans had learned from the Spell. Instead, it was just an improvised way of differentiating Memories of different power levels within the same rank. It was often unreliable and outright wrong, but it was better than nothing.

But in the case of Sunny, the information was one hundred percent true. He could confirm it with his own two eyes just by counting the number of core remnants inside a Memory. He could even understand their purpose.

‘That might be extremely useful!’

However, his attention was drawn to something else. At the very bottom of the description, a new cluster of runes appeared.

Memory Enchantments: [Enhanced Durability], [Doubtless].

Sunny smiled. That was what he was hoping for. Previously, he had only been able to intuitively sense the special qualities of his Memories, with no way to learn their true nature and limits except for the trial and error approach. And using that method during a battle was not conducive to survival.

Now, however…

He concentrated on one of the enchantments.

Enchantment: [Doubtless].

Enchantment Description: [Provides the wearer with a small amount of protection against mind attacks.]

‘Good to know.’

The amount was “small” because it was just an Awakened Memory. Since “enhanced durability” was self-explanatory, Sunny dismissed the Puppeteer’s Shroud and summoned the Silver Bell.

The small bell had only one spark of light, which was much less bright than the ones inside the Puppeteer’s Shroud, at that. Studying the runes did not show anything interesting. It was a tier one dormant Memory with a single enchantment that increased the range at which its ringing could be heard to several kilometers.

Finally, it was time to take a look at the Midnight Shard. The graceful blade appeared in front of Sunny in all its austere beauty.

Memory: [Midnight Shard].

Memory Rank: Awakened.

Memory Tier: III.

Memory Description: [Forged from the shard of a fallen star, this stalwart blade is firm and unyielding. It favors those who are willing to fight to the last drop of blood and knows no surrender.]

Memory Enchantments: [Unbroken].

Enchantment Description: [This blade refuses to be broken, and thus is durable beyond reason. It will greatly enhance the power of its wielder when they are close to death, however only if the wielder is unwilling to surrender.]

Sunny sighed, simultaneously satisfied and disappointed. Now he knew how to access the well of power that hid in the deepest parts of his heart when the Midnight Shard was in his hand. However, it could only be done when he was at the death’s door, wounded and minutes away from perishing. It could either save him from a dire situation or create an opportunity for a very heroic last stand.

Sunny did not care for heroics, so the second option did not seem appealing at all. The first one was much more useful, but only in the case of him screwing up terribly and getting himself in a lethal amount of trouble.

In other words, it could only be used if he failed. In normal battles, the special qualities of the Midnight Shard were of no use at all.

‘A pity. But… an ace in your sleeve in case things really go south is not bad either.’

Done with his Memories, Sunny was ready to learn of the new Attribute he had received. Considering how much pain he had to go through to acquire the damn thing, he had pretty high expectations.

Looking for the cluster of runes representing his Attributes, Sunny focused his attention and carefully read their names.

There were five Attributes: [Fated], [Mark of Divinity], [Child of Shadows] and the new one, [Blood Weave].

Sunny was about to summon the description of the [Blood Weave], but then stopped.

Something was not right.

Something did not add up.

The feeling of unease from before had returned, now much stronger.

When did he first feel it?

For some reason, his thoughts were slow and murky. He felt a strong inclination to forget all about the strange feeling and concentrate on something else.

But this time, he did not.

‘It was… when I was studying the Puppeteer’s Shroud. And it was… connected… to the number five.’

Five? What meaning was there to the number five?

With his attention beginning to wane, Sunny bit his lip, causing drops of blood to roll down. A burst of pain cleared his mind for a moment.

There were five Attributes… [Fated], [Mark of Divinity], [Child of Shadows], and [Blood Weave].

‘What?’

There were… five… five Attributes!

But he only counted four.

Bewildered, Sunny stared at the runes.

He was sure that there was a fifth Attribute. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t read its name and description. Every time his gaze fell on the runes corresponding to the fifth Attribute, he would find himself distracted, his memory wiped clean of any mention of it.

Just remembering that there were five Attributes was incredibly hard. Clenching his teeth, Sunny tried to keep his concentration, not allowing himself to be distracted.

He was not going to forget!

“Five! It’s five! There’s five of them, damn it!”

Immediately after he said those words out loud, something changed. It was as though an invisible veil had fallen from his eyes. Or, rather, from his mind.

Sunny froze, shock and fear permeating his heart. He was remembering…

‘Didn’t I… didn’t I see a dream?’

Yes, of course… he saw Cassie standing over him with panic in her eyes. Begging him to remember the number five.

No, wait…

Was that a dream? At the time, he believed so.

But then, he forgot.

Just as he had forgotten what actually happened on that day.

On the day when Cassie woke him up to tell him something important…