Shadow Slave

?1483 Reaper’s Scythe

The Aspect Legacy Jet had received was similar to most Aspect Legacies — which were usually Memories uniquely suited for the Aspects of their wielders, or much more rarely powerful Echoes. However, that similarity was deceitful.

In truth, Soul Reaper’s Aspect Legacy was almost as weird as Sunny’s. Although it looked like a weapon, it was not a Memory… instead, it was an Innate Ability. Jet did not need essence, no matter how little, to summon the chilling mist and turn it into a scythe. The mist was simply a part of her soul now.

Its form was also not set in stone. The mist blade naturally manifested into a beautiful war scythe, but it could assume the shape of other weapons, as well — as they watched, Jet turned it into a khopesh, a misericorde, a bec de corbin, and an actual scythe. There seemed to be only five available forms, at least for now.

All five shapes were that of a weapon, and that weapon was soulbound — but not in the way that Sunny’s Marble Shell was soulbound.

In the case of the Marble Shell, its power was directly tied to the power of his soul. Jet’s scythe, however, was bound to the souls of those it killed.

...Or rather, those souls would become bound to it.

None of them knew what it meant, precisely. However, Soul Reaper was able to conclude a couple of things from reading the description of this strange Innate Ability.

First of all, the mist blade was able to absorb and contain the souls of its victims. The soul of the most powerful being killed souls of its victims. The soul of the most powerful being killed by it would become the basis of its power — so, if Jet slayed a Great Beast, her scythe would become akin to a Supreme Memory of the First Tier. If she killed an Unholy Titan… the scythe would become akin to a Divine Memory of the Seventh Tier.

Which was a bizarre and truly astonishing quality.

Secondly, the souls contained within the mist could be consumed, replenishing Jet’s essence. If all souls were consumed, leaving the mist blade empty, her own soul would become the basis of its power.

These were the things she knew. However, there were still many questions about her Aspect Legacy.

For example, how many souls could it contain? Would they only influence the mist blade’s power, or would they also infuse it with unique qualities akin to enchantments? If so… if Jet consumed all the bound souls, what unique quality would her own soul infuse?

Although there were no answers, Sunny felt like the souls of the victims would indeed infuse the mist blade with unique enchantments. He also suspected that the number of souls the mist could contain… was five, one for each of the forms it could take. Equal to the Supreme Rank of Jet’s Aspect.

He also suspected that if she consumed all five of the bound souls, the Aspect Legacy would become much more potent and dire.

The reason was rather simple… the only situation where Jet would burn both through her own essence and the souls stored inside the mist blade was a truly desperate situation. And those usually called for the most desperate solutions.

He wouldn’t be surprised to learn that if the mist blade was devoid of bound souls… it could allow Soul Reaper to consume her own soul in order to accomplish something truly dire.

’How sinister…’

The beautiful war scythe was a dreadful thing, indeed.

Effie’s Supreme Memory, meanwhile, was much less terrifying.

Which was not to say that it wasn’t wondrous.

When the huntress first summoned the Memory, no one knew what to make of it. It was not a weapon, nor was it an armor. In fact, it did not resemble a tool or a garment, either… at beast, it could pass for a charm.

The Memory looked like a large iron locket tied to a black leather cord. Inside the locket was a image of a meadow surrounded by tall hills, with a river running through it and a forest visible in the distance. A black dock was resting in the shade of a tall tree. The drawing was simple and crude, as if made by a child.

After looking at the weave of the Supreme Memory, Sunny was momentarily dazed. It was one of the most strange and intricate weaves he had ever seen.

There was something familiar about it, though. After pondering for a few moments, Sunny understood why he felt this sense of familiarity — it was because he had been studying the Covetous Coffer recently. And some parts of this startling new weave bore a distant resemblance to a few elements of what he had been staring at for the better part of the past week.

Effie confirmed his guess… the iron locket was a spatial storage Memory. However, it was entirely different from the Coffer.

That was because, unlike his toothy chest, the locket could store living beings.

Sunny was really surprised to hear that, but the vigorous huntress simply grinned and promptly demonstrated what she meant.

Before he knew it, the abyssal darkness of the vortex and the softly illuminated deck of the Chain Breaker disappeared. Instead, he was blinded by bright sunlight.

When Sunny was able to see again, he found himself standing on a green meadow.

There were tall hills in the distance, a forest to his right, and a river to his left. The only thing missing was a black dog.

For a few moments, he felt confused at the fact that there was only one sun in the sky. Where did the other six go?

Then, Sunny realized where he was and almost jumped in surprise.

He was just about to send his shadows to explore when Effie retrieved him from the Dog Locket. Suddenly, he was back on the deck of the Chain Breaker.

The huntress looked really curious.

”Oh… I see that you are alive. Good! Did it work?”

Sunny stared at her in outrage.

”Wha… what?! You weren’t certain it would?”

Effie coughed.

”This is the first time I summoned the locket, so how would I know? Well… I was mostly certain. Yeah, definitely.”

He shook his head in exasperation and took a deep breath.

”...Yes, it worked.”

Sunny described what he had experienced.

After a bit of exploration, they discovered that the space contained within the locket was not too big. It was about three kilometers across, encompassing the meadow, several hills, a part of the forest,and the river. Beyond the boundary, the world turned into a crude painting, and it was impossible to move further.

Nevertheless, living beings could indeed be stored in that space. There was even water for them to drink and berries for them to gather in the forest. Needless to say, such a space could be extremely useful.

Sunny had never seen such a bizarre Memory.

’Wow. Supreme Memories are really on another level…’

The Crown of Twilight was already mind-boggling enough, but Effie’s locket took the prize. Although it was not nearly as powerful as Daeron’s crown, just in terms of uniqueness, it was far ahead.

’What a great prize.’

After taking a short rest, the cohort concentrated on traveling deeper into the abyssal tunnel.