"He is still going."
Saint Frostblade was in the throne room of the Queen. Reporting the status of the Queen's son.
Ki Song was watching him, she always did, all her children were in constant supervision when they entered the Dream Realm to make sure nothing bad happened to them.
She could also do that in the waking world, but it cost her, she had to constantly fight her own world to even be there. So she only did it on certain occasions.
This was one of those occasions.
Ki Song could see her son, she had been watching for a while…
After he figured out the secret of his intense training, he went to it without hesitation, killing Eunbin's enthralled creatures for hours. She had lost track of time a while ago.
"How long?"
"7 hours."
Frostblade stated.
"He needs to rest, a sleeper body can't handle that amount of constant stress."
"Hm…"
Ki Song closed her eyes and thought about the situation. Hiding the truth from Sunny was to avoid this exact problem, he won't stop until he has his core fully saturated.
He is too emotional when it comes to his sisters.
And of course he would be, on top of that, he can finally find his long, lost sister.
'That's why you are fighting so hard, right?
We really are…'
"Let him finish."
Frostblade sharpened her eyes, staring at her Sovereign.
"He is killing himself!"
"And he just needs to kill one more to saturate his core…"
Frostblade took a step back.
"What? Already?"
Ki Song chuckled lightly.
"Yes, go see."
Frostblade immediately pulled on her tether and went to the waking world, leaving the Queen alone.
"You were right Lunae, but I can't help but wonder… How will they change this world…"
She smiled, but it was full of sadness.
"Unfortunately… I don't think I'll be able to witness it…"
—
[BloodRaven] pierced the neck of the giant nightmare creature that looked like a bear covered in bone armor.
The creature that was already on the ground stopped moving, light leaving its corrupted eyes.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Grizzly Grimm]
[Your Shadow grows stronger…]
'Finally, a complete core…'
Sunless was tired, exhausted even, he got down from the creature and walked towards his sisters.
Bin and Revel had been there to make sure nothing bad happend…
Sunny just now noticed that Moon and Stalker were there too.
"Is it done?"
Moon asked with a worried expression.
"Yes… it is-"
Suddenly, a great pain roamed his entire body, something was happening. He grasped his chest and groaned in agony, failing to his knees.
'What the…?'
[...Your Shadow is overflowing with power.]
[Your Shadow is taking shape.]
He read the runes but he didn't register them. The pain was too much, his body was already destroyed after hours of fighting, and to put this on top?
He was weak.
"Sunny!"
He looked up to see his sisters rushing to him… Weird, was Shan always there?
He could only hear the Spell as he went unconscious.
[Your Shadow is complete.]
—
Sunless woke up on his bed, the sun was pouring light on his face. His room, once filled with only dark shadows, was now illuminated.
He sat up only to notice a person resting her head on the side of the bed, sleeping. It was Eunbin.
He reached out his hand to caress her head, passing through her silk like hair.
She slowly woke up to see Sunny awake, her eyes were brought back to life as she got up to check on him.
"Sunny! You are awake! Are you okay?"
Her voice cracked with worry.
He smiled and answered as best as he could.
"Yes, yes I am fine… more than fine actually."
Sunny felt like he was in the best condition possible, even more than that, he felt stronger.
Suddenly, the door opened and Saint Frostblade came in unannounced.
"Good, you are up."
She grabbed another chair and sat on the corner of the room with her arms and legs crossed.
"What happened?"
Eunbin stood up, anger visible in her eyes.
"Frostblade, he just woke up!"
"It's fine Bin, really."
Eunbin wanted to argue, but then remembered his flaw.
"Are you really okay?"
"Yes… Frostblade, what do you need?"
The Saint studied him then closed her eyes and asked.
"What happened?"
"I fell unconscious due to pain and exhaustion, I guess all the stress caught up with my body."
Frostblade opened her eyes, a questioning look plastered on her beautiful face.
"That doesn't explain why you have two shadows."
Sunless looked at her confused. A second shadow? As he looked at it, a gloomy one could be seen looking like he was annoyed at something. That something was the other shadow that seemed like it wanted to talk with someone.
The happy shadow then turned to his master and waved happily…
Eunbin looked at the interaction of the shadows as she said.
"Yes, it is weird."
Sunless looked at his sister with a weird expression, then at his runes.
Name: Sunless Song
True Name: Hollow Death
Rank: Dreamer
Class: Monster
Shadow Cores: [2/7]
He kept reading again and again, processing what was happening.
'Your Shadow is taking shape… Your shadow is complete…'
That's what the Spell said…
"I… Am a Monster…?"
Eunbin sighed.
"Sunny, you are not a monster, you…"
"I mean the Class. I just ascended my Class. I have two soul cores now…"
"..."
There was a long silence after he said that.
Eventually, Revel entered the room, then Moon and Stalker, even Howl and Hel.
Normally, the more people in one room, the more noise comes out of it, but strangely… The more people there were in Sunny's room, the more silence there was.
—
-Terror Slayed-
'Well that was hard…'
Sunless was playing a video game in the theater room, it was a hard game, but he liked the challenge.
The room itself was like a miniature cinema, having the best projector and best chairs. In the past few months, it had become Sunless's favourite place to be in when not in training.
When it was just him, he played video games of various styles and types. From turn base games to multiplayer.
On the rare occasions that his sisters were free, they watched some movies and played some games, it was fun…
He put the controller down and sighed, leaning on the armchair.
'What a day…'
And he hadn't even told them about his new 'friends'.
After the revelation, most of his sisters had to go on assignments, Hel and Moon were still here, but he had no idea how to talk with them.
Frostblade ordered him to rest, no training the whole day. If she said someone had to rest, it meant it was serious…
Sunless looked at his runes.
Name: Sunless Song
True Name: Hollow Death
Rank: Dreamer
Class: Monster
Shadow Core: Dormant
Shadow Core: [2/7]
Shadow Fragments: [1/2000]
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Nine's Regret], [BloodRaven], [Bone Fang], [Steelbone armor], [Endless Torture], [Weak Link].
Shadows: [Soul Serpent], [Dire Wraith]
Echos: -
Attributes: [Fated], [Ember of Divinity], [Child of Shadows], [The Blood's Shadow]
Aspect: [Shadow Purpose]
Aspect Rank: [Divine]
Aspect Ability: [Shadow Control]
[Your shadow is more independent than most. It is an invaluable helper.]
'2000 fragments… What a bother.'
It meant that the more cores he got, the more he had to kill to get a new one. And the way he got fragments was too slow, inefficient, but he had potential, worthy of being Divine Rank.
Humans were limited to having one soul core, the best they could do was saturate it, but not much else, strictly speaking, they would always lose to a nightmare creature of the same Rank but higher Class. But thanks to their aspects, humans could level the playing field.
Sunless however, could evolve His Class, even become a Titan one day.
'One day…'
For the time being, he looked at the Memories he had.
[Bone Fang], [Steelbone armor], [Endless Torture] and [Weak Link] were the ones he had chosen to keep from his training with Bin.
[Bone Fang] was a poisoned dagger he got for killing an Awakened Monster.
[Steelbone armor] was from an Awakened Demon from the same type of nightmare creature, that one was a really hard fight, Bin almost stepped in.
At least it made him realize how much luck played a factor in his First Nightmare, maybe the Mountain King was already tired from fighting the soldiers, Auro was Awakened after all. Plus there was the big fall.
[Endless Torture] was a bag with a seemenly infinite number of throwing knifes.
[Weak Link] was just a set of chains.
The rest of the memories were given to Wraith.
Speaking of the wolf…
He looked at the runes of his Shadow.
Shadow: [Dire Wraith]
Rank: Awakened.
Class: Demon
[179/200]
Description: [A lone wolf got exiled from his pack, it roamed the world until it died to a hunter, but fueled by revenge, it got back up and destroyed the hunter and the pack that abandoned him.]
Sunless could see the shadow's attributes, just like Serpent.
Shadow attributes: [Wraith Body], [Longing for Companionship].
[Wraith Body]: "This shadow was once a ghost of vengeance, as such, its body is capable of becoming intangible."
[Longing for Companionship]: "This shadow wishes to be loved, to have a pack, it will respond and protect whoever its master cherishes."
'Almost…'
Sunless had given it so many memories…
Well, he did kill a lot of nightmare creatures so it did make some sense.
Serpent on the other hand had become a Dormant Monster, it seemed like it evolved with him, which was good to know.
As he was reading the runes, Saint Jin entered the room.
"Having fun Sunny?"
He looked at the Saint, his eyes screaming exhaustion.
"Kind of, I guess."
Jin chuckled as he sat on an armchair that was on the corner.
"Did you talk with Hel?"
Sunless sighed.
"No, not yet."
The Seer nodded, a sad smile still on his face.
"How did you know it wasn't me?"
Sunny looked at him confused.
"What do you mean?"
"How did you know it was Hel who made the divination and not me?"
"Because you haven't made a divination like that since Seishan went to the Dream Realm."
"Ha… So you knew…"
Ever since Seishan, he stopped seeing the future of any person, merely using it to predict battles.
Maybe if he hadn't foresaw her future, it would have been different.
"Fate works in mysterious ways, who knows, seeing the future just consolidates it…"
Sunless looked at the ceiling, lost in thought.
Saint Jin stood up and began to walk out of the room.
"You're being a hypocrite."
The Saint looked at Sunny one last time before getting out.
"I know. But it makes me sleep better, thinking I'm ignorant."
Alone in the room, the Prince sighed.
"It's not your fault, you can't let guilt consume you teacher…
It's something we both need to learn."