Few months before the rebellion bombing
"Are you crazy?"
A voice spoke out inside the underground room. Normally, you would think it was Sunny. Except it was the vampire princess, Song Seishan.
She looked at Leon as if he had asked for her children.
"The Dawn Shard, is wherever the First Lord's corpse is. Which means we have to journey all the way to wherever he went, and retrieve one other shard. We cannot access the gateway otherwise."
Seishan frowned. "But why only the three of you?"
Sunny shrugged. "Is there anyone else we can trust? Besides, you have to be in the Bright Castle."
She lowered her gaze and bit her lips.
The plan was simple. Go get the Dawn Shard, and then the other shard, and come back. Easy. Nothing could go wrong during the journey right? Of course not!
The entire journey would be a total of six months.
Seishan sighed. "What about your group of rebels?"
"They can handle themselves."
She slowly nodded, and got up. "I'll take my leave then."
Seishan walked out of the underground room without another word. Kai sighed softly and looked at Leon and Sunny.
"Maybe I should go talk to her."
Leon nodded. "Sure."
Sunny and Leon sat in silence for a moment.
"Nephis is looking for me apparently," Sunny said in a calm voice.
"And?"
He shrugged. "Thought I'd let you know."
Leon nodded. "Did you prepare everything to leave?"
"We might not come back from this. Are you sure the three of us are enough?"
Leon turned toward Sunny. "We don't have time, Sunny. Nephis is growing stronger by the day, Gunlaug still sits on his throne and the final solstice is nearing."
He slowly stood up, and began walking toward the exit. "If not now, then never."
"I'm just saying, maybe there's an easier way to do this which we don't know about."
"Then you have all of today to figure it out," Leon said, as he left the underground room.
He was frustrated lately. Very, very frustrated.
His training had hit a limit. There was only so much he could copy from others. Their aspects, their fighting styles, their attributes.
Copying people's Aspects took a lot of strain, and remembering each and every Aspect would fry his brain, which is why he only copied a couple of people till now.
Copying attributes was still out of the question, because he couldn't figure out the pattern behind every single attribute he saw.
He also couldn't saturate his soul core fast enough.
Noah had given him the bright idea to find insects to quickly farm fragments, but there were a few problems with that. This was a death zone, so there weren't many species of bugs to kill. Even if it were Earth, Leon felt like it was beneath him to kill bugs to grow stronger.
He still couldn't unlock essence.
Which meant he was technically the weakest Sleeper in terms of raw strength.
Leon summoned the runes for a Memory he had stashed away from a long while.
[Drop of Ichor]
Memory Rank: unknown
Memory Type: unknown
Memory Description: [The loathsome Thieving Bird was hated both by the gods and -unknown-. However, it only cared about shiny things. Enamored by Weaver's beautiful eyes, it stole one of them on a dark, starless night. Impatient, the vile creature looked at its bounty while still in flight. However, when it saw the reflection of -unknown- forever frozen in the depths of Weaver's pupil, it went mad and screamed, dropping the eye on the mortal realm below. All that was left in its greedy beak was one drop of pure, golden ichor.]
Enchantments: unknown
[Would you like to consume Drop of Ichor?]
He stared at the runes for a while. This was a way he could grow stronger...
As he stared at the runes, Leon suddenly felt something.
'Something's here—'
The thought was cut short as a sudden force lifted him off the ground and hurled him back.
Summoning the Broken Halo mid-fall, he used Shadow Sense.
A cold blade pressed against his neck.
He gritted his teeth, and tried to sense the person, but there was no shadow.
'The Fog Creature?'
"What are you doing?"
Leon flinched.
He slowly raised his head and looked at Sunny, who was a few steps behind him.
"Huh?"
He looked around hurriedly. Where was the enemy? Where was the cold blade pressing against his neck?
"Did you finally go insane?"
Leon narrowed his eyes, and slowly stood up.
After checking his surroundings with shadow sense once more, he looked up at Sunny and shook his head.
"Nothing. Let's go."
Noah stared at Leon with an expressionless face.
***
The three of them headed south, cautiously traversing the cursed city. Leon was walking at the front, his pale gray cloak swaying with each step. Kai was a step behind him, with his bow ready.
Sunny was at the very back, cautiously checking their surroundings with his shadow and shadow sense.
"I think dark chocolate is better than milk." Kai said, slowly eyeing around the place.
Leon shook his head. "You don't get it. Dark chocolate ruins the taste. It's too bitter."
"Why are we talking about chocolates while travelling through a dangerous city?" Sunny grumbled.
Leon and Kai both shrugged.
Sunny froze. He slowly turned around, and commanded his shadow to travel north.
Kai and Leon similarly stopped walking, and waited for Sunny to say something.
Leon could see it — Sunny had frozen in fear. He couldn't see his eyes, but his body said everything he needed to know.
"It's... the damn hunchback. He's following us."
'Harus? But how?'
Leon narrowed his eyes.
'Did Seishan betray us? No... I don't think so...'
Kai frowned. "Is he alone?"
Sunny shook his head. "There are a few people following him. Seven or eight."
"What do we do?" Kai's voice was shaky. He had put all his strength into standing still, and not shudder in fear at the mention of Harus.
Leon's lips curled upward. "We're gonna kill him."
Kai froze at his words, but Sunny slowly turned around with a similar grin on his face.
"I have a plan. But you have to stall Harus and his men for a while."
Sunny nodded. "We'll need Raven and Lyka."
"Raven?"
"You think I'll call such a magnificent bird as Birdie?" Sunny said as he shrugged.
Noah let out a quiet laugh. "How did Sunny's naming sense become this good?"
Leon sighed as he summoned his two Traces.
"Ten minutes."
He slowly put on his hood and disappeared. Sunny and Kai both sighed and turned around.
"Ready, Kai?"
Kai swallowed. "To die? Not really."
Sunny chuckled, as he glanced at his runes.
Shadow Fragments: [995/1000]
***
Harus and his group of seven men were travelling south.
He usually didn't travel around with anyone, but after the eye-patch had humiliated him, Harus had been training hard. He picked a few elites from the hunters group, and began dueling with them everyday.
The seven men had sworn complete loyalty to Harus, though he had never used his aspect against them. After all, no one who had seen his aspect was left alive to see it again... with the sole exception being the eye-patch.
And today, he would get to kill him once and for all. Thanks to a certain someone he had not expected to see.
He had never thought the person would cooperate with him, much less give away the location of the eye-patch.
Harus grinned, and he quickened his pace. "If the eye-patch doesn't die today, you are all dying."
He didn't believe that person at first, but Harus had no other leads.
The seven men grew tense. They knew Harus very well. Everyone who didn't manage to keep up with him, help him improve or disobeyed him, had already ended up dead.
They continued walking, steeling their resolve quietly.
But right on the way, Sunny suddenly jumped down from one of the buildings.
"Hunchback."
Smiling darkly, he continued:
"...How wonderful. I finally get to kill you."
The hunchback stopped, tilted his head and stared at him with his glassy eyes, not saying anything. The seven men around him summoned their Memories.
"What, no reaction? Well, fair enough. Allow me to introduce myself then. My name is Sunny… and I've been craving to kill you for a long, long time."
Harus remained motionless, looking at him with the same indifferent, bored expression. A hint of anger appeared on Sunny's face.
"Have I left you speechless, oh spineless one?" He said with a soft chuckle.
"I don't know who you are, brat. Move out of my way. Today is rather special for me, so I will let you live for now."
Sunny laughed. His laughter echoed through the vast darkness of the city. The eight people ahead of him simply stared back.
He summoned the Midnight Shard, and gripped it tightly.
"It is special, because it will be the last one." He said with a smile on his face.
Harus sighed, and waved his hand, motioning the men around him to attack.
Everyone dashed toward Sunny, as he prepared himself.
'Where is he...'
Straining his body, Sunny skillfully evaded every single strike from the few men attacking him. Their strikes were heavy, but it was nothing compared to the countless abominations he faced in the Dark City.
'Bastard must have consumed a mountain of soul shards for them...'
Harus just stared, as Sunny fought seven people. He was slightly amused. Never had he seen a Sleeper fight seven others with nearly half-saturated soul cores.
What could possibly top this? Probably a Saint fighting 13 other Saints. Yeah, right, as if that could ever happen.
As they all were about to attack Sunny again, a loud noise erupted from a distance.
Harus froze, as he turned around to look at the source of the noise.
Arrows rained upon the seven people. Kai stood on top of Birdie as he repeatedly shot whatever Memories he had. Lyka, meanwhile, was already poisoning all seven men, except Harus.
Because Sunny didn't need poison to defeat Harus.
Harus let out a slow breath, tightening his grip on the blade. He turned and aimed at Kai.
Kai reacted instantly, this time aiming at Harus. But as soon as he did, his vision went dark. He froze, trying to look around, but nothing... No vision, no sound, no awareness whatsoever.
He was then suddenly yanked back when Birdie tried to dodge a blade hurled at him by Harus.
Sunny drove his blade into one of the men, then kicked him off, ripping the weapon free.
He immediately turned to the next person, clashed blades, and hoped for Leon to get here early.
Harus had already grown tired. He stepped forward, but then froze again. 'What is it this time...'
Another noise cut through the chaos. He turned toward it.
What he saw made him pause, and grin slowly.
"Eye-patch..."
There was Leon, running from a horde of stone-like warriors, barely dodging their arrows, making his way toward Harus and his men.
Leon's plan was simple.
Sunny would distract Harus right before he arrived with the group of stone saints. The stone warriors would then clash against Harus and his army, while Sunny and Leon would deal with Harus from the sidelines.
The group of men saw Sunny disappear into the shadows as their attention split for a quick second. Seeing Harus tense, they immediately switched their targets to the stone saints.
But one of them exclaimed. "Those are Awakened Monsters!"
Harus straightened slightly, and the others followed. After all, they were his private army.
What were a few Awakened Monsters to them?
Leon quickly dashed aside, disappearing into the shadows, while the stone saints looked at Harus and his men.
Around five to six stone saints were marching toward them.
As the men engaged the stone saints, Harus scanned the battlefield for Sunny and Leon. He didn't bother using his Aspect — the creatures were only Awakened.
A sharp whistle cut through the chaos.
Leon's scythe tore through the air, aimed straight for his neck.
Harus reacted instantly. He used his blade to block the scythe, then his chains shot upward and lashed around the scythe's shaft.
He then pulled on the chains, dragging the scythe along with it, tossing it aside.
Leon's scythe was ripped from his grasp, as he stepped in, closing the distance for hand-to-hand.
Harus grinned as he drove Leon back with his overwhelming strength. Each blow was heavy enough to break a few bones in Leon's arms. Every block sent a jolt through him.
Something in the shadows shifted beside Harus.
Sunny attacked from the side, his Midnight Shard carving an arc toward the hunchback's shoulder.
Harus turned just in time. He swiped his arm covered in chains, sending the blade aside, and threw his fist at Sunny.
Leon stepped in again, forcing another clash. Sunny followed a second later, their attacks overlapping — but not quite aligning.
Harus fought the two, with sharp, controlled movements. He didn't falter, forcing them back with each blow.
Fighting through Shadow Sense was not easy for either of them.
Behind them, the private army was being wiped out by the stone knights. What had seemed like mere Awakened monsters crushed all of the Harus-trained-men.
Leon gritted his teeth as the last of the men fell.
"Retreat!"
He vanished beneath his cloak.
Sunny grimaced in anger, but kept clashing with Harus.
Chains coiled around his legs, and before Sunny could react, his leg was pulled forward.
Sunny fell onto the ground. Before Harus could plunge his blade into him, the stone saints began attacking Harus next.
Harus's eyes flickered toward them. His chains snapped, launching at the Awakened Monsters.
His men were dead. Three stone knights were attacking him — blind but relentless.
Sunny groaned in pain, trying to force himself up.
A stone knight swung at him. He used the Midnight Shard and blocked the incoming blow, but was soon kicked away.
Leon observed everything, and tried to help Sunny—
—but a brutal blow hit his jaw, sending his head snapping backwards.
He clutched his face, looking around for what struck him. That's when he saw the man responsible.
Caster.
Caster was smiling, staring down at Leon, while Leon stared back.
"Leonar. You have humiliated me, and my clan for far too long. Today, you will die."
Leon chuckled, as he slowly got up.
"I was wondering how Harus found us. Well then, lil pup, hope you are ready."
His gaze grew dark, as he gripped the Broken Halo.
"Because if you think to kill me, you must be prepared to die yourself."
***
Harus unleashed his Aspect and began tearing through the Stone Saints. At first, they fell easily. But as time passed, they began adapting to the blindness.
It didn't matter.
Harus, a Sleeper with a fully saturated soul core, cut them down anyway.
Sunny wrapped himself with his shadow. A kunai materialized in his palm, as he faced the stone saint.
The creature advanced without hesitation, relentless and precise.
Harus was too cunning. He had made sure not to use his Aspect on the one creature Sunny was facing.
Time was ticking however, Harus would have soon dealt with a large number of them, while Sunny was still stuck fighting one.
The situation felt grim.
Gritting his teeth, Sunny slipped past one of the stone knight's attacks, and drove the Midnight Shard into its armor. At the moment before impact, his shadow wrapped around the blade, shattering the stone armor and plunging into the knight's abdomen.
The stone saint staggered, but soon drove her blade onto Sunny's shoulders.
Leaving the hilt of the midnight shard, Sunny side stepped, twisted his body and drove a kick onto its chest, using the recoil to launch himself back.
Before the creature could recover, he summoned the Carapace Scavenger Echo right on top of it. The Echo formed just in time, pinning the stone knight in place.
Lunging forward, he grabbed the Midnight Shard and forcefully pulled it out.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Stone Saint.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[You have received an Echo.]
Sunny grinned madly, as he noticed Harus kill the last of the stone saints.
Leon was seen overpowering his own foe... wait... Caster?!
'What is he doing here? Damnation!'
Trusting that Leon could deal with the fodder on his own, Sunny rushed to fight Harus.
'He must be weakened by now.'
Sunny had not expected Harus to finish off the stone saints that fast. But it couldn't have been without effort.
Gripping his blade tightly in one hand, Sunny dropped a rock that materialized from his arm, and rushed forward.
Harus noticed Sunny approaching and immediately activated his aspect. Sunny in return, activated shadow sense.
The two drove their blades at each other again.
"Why is the mad scythe's dog even fighting with me?"
Harus exclaimed, sensing that even Sunny could fight him through his aspect.
But he could clearly sense Sunny's movements becoming slower, less accurate, as though he was looking through a different pair of eyes.
Sunny grasped the hilt of the Midnight Shard with both hands and took a step forward, piercing the hunchback with a furious gaze.
"You embody everything that I despise. The mere fact of your existence offends me. You sicken me, and for that reason alone I am going to end you. You don't deserve to live."
Harus blinked and continued staring at him, motionless. Sunny stopped a few meters away and snarled, frustrated at the lack of response.
"Do you have any idea what I had to do, what I had to sacrifice, how many things I had to let go of to save myself from becoming someone's slave? And here you are... living as one of your own free will… bastard, what gives you the right? Who gave you the idea that you can breathe the same air as I do?!"
The hunchback finally showed a sign that he had heard Sunny. With a slightly irritated expression, he shook his head and said:
"Talk, talk, talk. You talk too much, little worm."
Sunny grinned. "Yeah? Well, what are you going to do about it?"
Harus smiled too.
"Break you. Apart. You will have to die, anyway. All of you will."
Sunny let out a sharp breath and said in a sarcastic tone:
"Because that is the will of the bright lord?"
Harus stared at him in confusion. With a pitiful expression on his face.
"Poor worm. You don't even understand what loyalty means, do you?"
Sunny grinned, as he licked the blood flowing down his head.
"I will enjoy killing you."
With the heavy chain wrapped around his fists, Harus lunged at Sunny.
Sunny smiled. He felt as though the hunchback and he were destined to fight.
Harus simply embodied everything Sunny despised.
So that was why he would die today.
***
Leon gripped the katana in his hands tightly, as the jarring vibrations of the blades clashing travelled up his arm. The jian and katana left sparks behind, every time they clashed.
Caster would use his Aspect in short bursts, but Leon had already predicted his simpleton pattern.
Caster noticed this. He poured all of his strength into a single strike.
Leon's katana was knocked out of his hands.
The jian slashed toward his neck.
Leon planted his feet firmly, and fell back, barely dodging the jian. He felt Effie's copied augmentation leave his body at that moment.
Caster changed directions mid-swing, and brought the blade down again.
Leon caught the strike off-angle with one hand, and deflected it. The jian was thrown out of Caster's arms. Leon planted his remaining hand on the ground, launched back up, and used the momentum to drive a punch straight into Caster's face.
Caster staggered, but recovered immediately.
They clashed again, this time with their fists.
Straining every muscle in his body, Leon remembered all the times Caster had used his Aspect, and copied it.
One of Leon's fists seemed to skip whatever distance was there between it and Caster's face, and punched him hard.
Caster froze for a moment, and stumbled back.
"Come on lil pup, you like being fast don't you?" Leon said, raising both his arms into a fighting position.
"Isn't that why your girlfriend left you? Because you were too fast? Is that why you try to satisfy people with your words instead?" Leon said, chuckling slowly.
Caster gritted his teeth in anger, realizing Leon's ability to copy Aspects. He leaned forward, using all his strength, and unleashed a flurry of rapid punches at him.
Leon grinned, as he did the same, countering each punch with his own.
A storm of punches exploded between them.
Every single bone on Leon's arm felt like they were screaming in agony.
Leon met each punch head-on, his grin widening as his fists moved in sync — countering, matching, mirroring.
But he could see it. He drove his Aspect to such an extent, that he could see each punch from Caster clearly, and countered each one.
Leon's nose bled, as he counted every ten iterations of milliseconds passing.
To an outside eye, it lasted less than a second.
To them, it was an eternity of blows.
The entire exchange looked like it had barely lasted a second, but the two had nearly thrown 343 punches in that short span.
And in the end, Leon had won the exchange. He managed to land the last few punches at Caster, with the final one being a kick to his crotch.
Caster grimaced in agony, as the pain of that final kick took a few seconds to hit in. His eyes narrowed uncontrollably, as he fell to his knees.
A strained, wordless sound escaped him, like he couldn't produce words for what he felt. He looked at Leon with a mix of anger and disdain in his eyes one last time, and then fell unconscious.
Leon breathed heavily, as he watched Caster fall down, and he too fell to his knees, unable to bear the pain induced by the overusage of his Aspect.
***
Harus laughed.
"Is this what you wanted to show me, worm?"
Sunny didn't answer.
He stepped in and swung. But it was too sloppy.
Harus took the opportunity, and swung his blade in a clean arc.
The blade slid into Sunny's shoulder, and he felt a sea of pain rush through him.
'Damnation!'
Harus's smile deepened, dark and satisfied. This had gone on longer than expected... but he didn't mind. Breaking him would be worth it.
But right then, Harus heard a voice:
"I bow down to no one."
Harus froze for just a split second. It was the voice of Changing Star of the Immortal Flame clan.
How was she here? Were the eye-patch and Changing Star together the entire time?
But that brief moment was all that Sunny needed.
Even as the blade remained buried in his shoulder, he immediately summoned his new Echo, the Stone Saint, right behind Harus.
The saint manifested instantly. The hunchback failed to notice.
He mentally commanded the stone-like warrior to swing at Harus.
Sunny moved at the same time, hurling his blade to force Harus's attention forward. Harus immediately noticed Sunny's blade and parried it with his chains.
Smiling darkly, his hand moved to rip the blade out of Sunny's shoulders. But before he could...
A sharp pain shot through his neck. The stone saint had swept her sword through the neck. Sunny's shadow wrapped around her at the last moment.
For a fraction of a second, Harus stood still.
His head slid from his shoulders, and dropped to the ground.
[You have slain a Dormant Human, Harus the Hunchback]
"You can go keep your lord company in hell, bastard."
Sunny spoke with a hoarse breath as he fell to his knees, clutching the wound to his side.
He looked up. In the distance, Leon finally managed to kill... or rather immobilize Caster.
Sunny sighed a breath of relief as he fell to the ground.
His muscles ached everywhere.
Shaking, he used a wall to stand up and looked at the dead butcher with a strange mix of hatred, triumph and contempt.
He had always wanted to kill Harus himself after seeing the similarities between them. A future version of him gone wrong, or maybe an inevitable one.
Now that he had finally achieved that goal, Sunny felt empty — as if his goal was not completely earned by him.
Sunny exhaled sharply as he licked his lips.
'Pride is for the dead.'
The same pride and loyalty were something Harus embodied, and look where that got him today.
***
Leon stood up groggily as he used the last few charges on his crown to heal Sunny.
He dropped to his knees with a pained groan.
His vision spun around, and the world looked like it was falling apart. His ears rang violently, cutting through all of the noise, all but Noah's.
A metallic taste filled his mouth.
His mouth grew moist, and eventually warmed liquid slipped past his lips.
'Blood?'
His eyes burned like they were on fire... or perhaps they were because of the crown... he didn't know.
He was tired.
He wanted to sleep.
As his thoughts felt groggy and slow, he soon fell to the ground and fell unconscious... probably for the 40th time in this book.
***
Sunny watched Leon fall to the ground. He pushed himself up, and walked towards him.
As he put one foot in front of another, his foot was suddenly bit by... A rock...
Sunny gritted his teeth, and commanded the stone saint to kill the rock. Wrapping his shadow around her, she lunged the sword right on top of the rock.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Rolling Stone.]
Sunny sighed, and took another step—
[...Your shadow is overflowing with power]
[Your shadow is taking shape]
'Shit—'