After a while, everyone began to share what had been missed in almost two years, talking about the separation of the most famous band, the movie they made about it, called Dark Salvation, which was highly praised for its action, camaraderie, fights, comedy, and sadness, leading critics to give it a very high rating.
Of course, Uriel would meet with the director to threaten him and get money for using his image, but he would do that later.
Then Uriel heard the story, which was largely the same, except with the difference that Nephis was with him on the Chained Isles, away from the prying eyes of the Valor clan who were pressuring her to join them.
After that came the discovery of an ancient flying ship that Cassie and members of Shadow Garden repaired, Sunny discovering the Ebony Tower in the Sky Below, then the knife that could kill immortal saints, and later on the surface, the incident with the Valor clan.
Uriel assumed that was the escape of Mordret, since Nephis hadn't said Sunny's true name on the Forgotten Shore. He thought that this time, Sunny wasn't Nephis's slave.
He quickly dismissed that thought. Mordret also knew the true name from being reflected by his mirror beast, and he wouldn't hesitate to use it to enslave Sunny. Probably Cassie told this to Nephis, who, to save Sunny, became his Mistress. Or so he assumed.
When the talk ended, Uriel was lost in his thoughts. The sun was setting and it would soon be night.
....
"Wow, you all had quite an exciting adventure. I'm a bit jealous I wasn't there," he said, puffing out his cheeks a little like a child.
After a few moments, Uriel looked through the café's holographic window veins showing the outside.
"It's getting late."
"True. You need to rest a bit. We can continue the chat tomorrow; by then the government should be done with all the procedures. Have you thought about where you want to go? Staying here on the Chain is also an option, of course."
Sunny paused.
"Uh... I feel stupid asking this, but... do you have a place to stay? Do you have money?" Sunny asked.
"Uhm, no, I don't have a place to stay for now, so maybe I'll stay at the Academy. As for money..." Uriel, using his shadow storage, showed a pile of transcendent soul shards.
"I have a few thousand of these transcendent soul shards in my shadow storage. Maybe I'll sell them, oh, or perhaps some of the transcendent Memories I got during the Nightmare," said Uriel, bored, looking at a shard with disinterest.
Since he had reached the Titan rank, they were no longer useful to him. He just kept them out of habit in his shadow storage, along with the seven divine shards.
Uriel looked at Sunny, who was smiling.
"How about we make a little deal? You can stay at my house, and in exchange, you give me some of these shards."
"Is this from your Glorious Emporium?"
"Yes, and it's just for today."
"Well, that's fine. They're useless to me anyway."
"Useless?" asked Nephis.
Uriel simply showed the number seven.
Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie's eyes widened, knowing what it meant. He had reached the rank of an Ascended Titan.
"How many do you have exactly?" asked Nephis curiously.
"No idea. I lost count after ten thousand."
A thud was heard. Everyone saw it was Kai, unable to handle that last revelation.
And so, the conversation had ended.
Finally, after a while, everyone said goodbye to Uriel to do their own things, leaving Uriel alone. He headed to his room at the Academy, which was still his.
Upon entering, he took a shower and then entered his mental space, leaving Shade to watch his Gothic Stripper videos and human reproduction videos, for purely scientific purposes, of course.
The next day, Uriel had been successfully registered early in the morning, so he simply relaxed in the Academy cafeteria, getting looks from the Awakened who whispered about him and took photos.
After a quick breakfast, after a while, the court returned. The members of Shadow Garden had returned to their other companions to give the news of his return, as well as prepare some things for a sort of welcome party.
Uriel eventually accepted Sunny's proposal to stay at his house for a while. After all, Effie lived with him and he had a free room.
In a strange twist of events, Kai was the one driving the PTV.
After a while, the vehicle stopped in a quiet neighborhood full of beautiful terraces and parked near a grayish two-story house with a cozy synthetic wood porch. Sunny got out first.
"Well, welcome to my humble abode, I guess. It has designer lamps and a state-of-the-art refrigerator, among other things..." he explained.
"You're not good at detailing things, are you?"
"Nope."
The six of them entered the house. Uriel observed everything curiously. The alloy walls were strangely bent, as if they had been hit by a wild and furious beast.
"What happened to the walls?"
"Effie happened."
"Oh," said Uriel, approaching one of the walls with curiosity, touching it several times, feeling the reinforced material.
"Haven't you ever been in a house?" asked Effie.
"Well, yes, but not in years," replied Uriel.
"And what does that mean?"
"Well, I slept in alleys next to rats and trash bins, even... no, never mind," Uriel expressed, disinterested.
"You are the strangest."
Uriel shrugged. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"Anyway," Sunny said, interrupting the chat, "make yourselves comfortable. I'll make something to eat."
The five headed to the living room while Sunny went to his kitchen.
As the smell of food filled the room, Uriel listened to what happened with Mordret and the Valor clan.
"And that's what happened. Shadow Garden has immense value, and the great clans aren't willing to let us go so easily. Now that you've returned, the clans will move faster."
Uriel nodded while observing a transcendent soul shard.
"In short, the current situation is shit. Those two are at each other's throats trying to get us to join them. They'll possibly try to kidnap me. A crazy guy who moves through reflections is loose..." said Uriel calmly.
"You're taking it pretty calmly," said Kai.
"Well, I've been through a lot. I haven't even told you about the things I went through."
Effie shook her head.
"Do you have any plan for all this?"
"Well, I do, in fact," he said, making everyone look at him.
"As I see it, there are two paths to take: either I join the Valor clan, bringing all of Shadow Garden with me, or I join the Great House Revenheart. But there's also a third path."
"And what's that?" asked Nephis, curious.
"Simply go to another continent. Antarctica sounds pretty good. Oh, maybe I'll go to America," he expressed.
"What does Antarctica have to do with any of this?"
"You'll know in a few months. Anyway, Cassie, you mentioned that this Mordret could enter the souls of living beings, right?"
"Yes, even into Echoes," said the girl.
"I see. Well, that sounds a bit annoying. But only a bit."
Uriel yawned.
"What do you think, Shade?" Uriel asked aloud.
Shade was sitting on the ceiling with a calm expression.
"I think many things. Anyway, we have time to make a decision. Since we are Masters and technically the boss of a huge organization spread throughout the Dream Realm, it will be difficult for them to make a public move," he explained.
"So there's no point in worrying now. We just need to relax."
"That's it? Just relax?" asked Effie.
"Exactly. Worrying about things that haven't happened yet will just give you a headache. First, do what you can, and the rest will be resolved with time."
At that moment, Sunny approached, holding eight plates, two in his hands and the other six with hands made of shadows. He gave a plate to each, and then two huge plates full of fried rice to Effie.
Then he dropped onto a soft cushion.
"Wait? Start eating before it gets cold," he said, beginning to devour his plate. Soon after, everyone was eating the delicious food.
...
Slowly, the food disappeared from the plates.
"So what do you think about all this?"
"Honestly, all this is giving me a headache."
"This is serious, Uriel," said Cassie.
"Hey, I'm taking this very seriously. But from everything you've told me about this mirror stalker, it's safe to say his goal is clearly to destroy something. Perhaps the Valor clan that had him sealed."
"He's going to look for allies," said Nephis, making Sunny's expression turn dark.
While Uriel ate, he listened to their exchange without saying anything.
'Hey, Uriel, now that I think about it, didn't they NTR Anvil?' Shade said in Uriel's mind.
Uriel wrinkled his face.
'I think so. We both got to where the Sun Prince war ended, so I guess yes. There are some things that are getting a bit blurry.'
Uriel entered his mental space, walking toward the huge shelf. He grabbed the books he remembered were the novel, ignoring the first nine volumes, and focused on the last one he had read. And as expected, the words were a bit fuzzy.
"It seems we are forgetting it," said Uriel.
"Yes," said Shade.
"How long do you think it will take?"
"Well, at the current speed, maybe ten years, perhaps a bit less."
"Do we tell Soul to seal part of the knowledge in the future so we don't forget?"
"Yes, but that will be when we leave Ariel's Tomb. There will be a gap of about six or seven years before the domains of the two Supremes clash and the war begins."
"But what will we do in that time?"
"Prepare in secret. At the end of the volume, it's mentioned that guy is alive on the moon and won't stay there when the two Supremes fall. So his return is inevitable."
"Did you just use a Thanos quote?"
"Oh, of course I did." Uriel left his mental space, blinking back into reality.
"Seems he's back," said Effie.
"Sorry, I was discussing something with Shade," said Uriel.
"And what would that be?" asked Nephis.
"Just a war between two idiots. Nothing really important."
Of course, no one believed it wasn't important. Since Uriel mentioned it, it meant something big would happen.
"And in which Citadel will you anchor yourself?" asked Effie.
"Hm. Well, given recent events, I'd better anchor myself in your flying tower. Later I'll conquer my own Citadel, maybe some flying castle or something like that."
"You know getting a Citadel isn't that easy. You have to defeat the guardians protecting the gate and cleanse it of abominations," said Sunny. "We were lucky because the Ivory Tower is in the sky and gravity destroys everything below it."
"I know," said Uriel.
"Oh, right, I didn't mention it before, but I have to give you some things," he said, making everyone look at him.
"Are they Memories?" asked Sunny.
"Correct. They're all transcendent, levels one to three. I got them by killing some corrupt things. So feel grateful, mortals. The mighty Uriel will empower you with mystical objects."
Everyone broke out in a sweat upon hearing Uriel's words.
"Sunny, give me your hand," said Uriel.
After they shook hands, Sunny received the transcendent Memory, studying it immediately, and then opened his eyes.
"Kai," he said, passing him the Memory.
He did the same with Effie, then with Nephis, and finally with Cassie. They all read the descriptions and enchantments of their weapons, more than surprised.
"How did you get all this?"
"I already told you, I killed corrupt things. I think I still have a couple of Memories left, but those are for resisting soul damage, so I can't give them to you."
Nephis summoned the lantern, testing it. It released white flames that stored inside the lantern, and then she controlled them.
Her eyes shone strangely.
Sunny summoned a fairly simple necklace. In fact, that was its name. It had two enchantments: the first was to increase the essence recovery rate and make the user have a clear and unclouded mind in stressful situations.
Kai summoned his bow, a bow that seemed carved from a black tree that absorbed light. Its enchantments were for precision, as well as the ability to create arrows of the same rank at the cost of a good amount of essence.
Effie, for her part, summoned a bronze spear with sharp blades. It was the Warrior's Spear. Its enchantments were linked to increasing endurance and dexterity in battle.
Finally, it was Cassie, who received new armor but decided not to summon it.
"Well, those were my dark gifts. I truly am an incredible person. You have no idea how cool I am," he said proudly.
"More like insane," said Effie.
"I was going to give you a thousand transcendent shards, but I guess I won't," said Uriel. Effie immediately retracted her words.
"Sorry for my rudeness. You are a benevolent being. Please give me those thousand transcendent shards."
Uriel laughed hard.
"Excellent. For your devotion, I'll give you fifteen hundred shards." The darkness rippled, forming a mound. A moment later, a pile of bright shards was on the carpet. Effie's eyes shone with greed upon seeing the transcendent shards.
"Oh, right. I found something while exploring the dark city," said Uriel seriously.
"And what would that be?" asked Sunny. At this point, nothing would surprise him.
"Oh, nothing really..." said Uriel with an amused chuckle. "I just found a sacred soul shard."
[Note: I generally prefer short chapters of around 1,000 to 1,500 words, but... well, here are your longer chapters, both exceeding 2,000 words. Give me a power stone for the extra effort, don't be stingy.]