Unease.
Sunny suppressed that feeling as he continued to slaughter spider after spider, the Midnight Shard was enhanced by two of his shadows while he himself was wrapped in the comfortable and empowering embrace of two dark silhouettes, on his feets no shadow remained to scout ahead, yet with his ability to see in the Dark and empowered senses, he didn't quite need another.
'But I wouldn't complain about getting another one.' He idly noted.
The austere tachi danced with ease, cutting through the flesh of the nightmare creatures like butter. The sharpness of the blade Sunny wielded had dramatically rose over time as the amount of core he possessed augmented. Along with that, his skill with a blade reached unseen heights due to [Shadow Dance] and the teachings of Baldr.
'So why?'
Why was that extreme unease not receding? Even as he played the Awakened Beasts like toys... why was it?
Sunny thoughts wandered yet it did not change his impact on the quick assault of the arachnids nest rather, it noticeably improved much to the dismay of some members of his cohort. Effie couldn't care less but he saw Nephis gaze fill with an emotion unknown to him.
His prowess with a sword was starting to catch up with hers.
Caster eyes shone with envy at the techniques both him and Nephis were displaying while Baldr, protecting their whole rear by himself acknowledged his improvements with a devilish smile.
'For Spell's sake, don't tell he plans to harden the training regiment.'
Lamenting at his fate and distracted by a multitude of thoughts, Sunny ignored the knot of unease that remained in his guts.
■■■
Caster eyes shone with steely resolve at Sunless's power. Not long ago he had still only considered the treacherous Sleeper like a somewhat lucky scout that at least had some use to back up his addition to the cohort.
But said scout was outperforming him at every step except speed, even possesing a plethora of Ascended Memories one of which he generously gifted Night. He possessed more might than a Sleeper had any rights to have, they all did.
Changing Star, Baldr and finally Sunless.
Those three were abnormalities trampling on all he had been taught, showing power even some — nevermind, most Awakeneds couldn't as Sleepers. Their unreasonable Aspects and constitution, whatever those might be, warranted some equally as bad Flaws.
The tenebrous scout probably had a True Name as well, along with a reason for not revealing it. Sunless had made himself particularly small at the Academy but his lack of presence itself warranted the attention of the most trained Legacies such as he.
Either he was someone sent by a Great Clan too, which Caster really doubted or it was because of a glaring weakness the small teen still hadn't adapted to at the time.
One might accuse him of going in the wrong direction or rushing but again. he was trained to find the weaknesses of his enemies, his enemy. He had cracked Changing Star weakness and, felt himself close to opening Sunless's too.
'Think Caster, what could this scoundrel possibly hide...!'
Everyone knew Night's infamous 'Flaw' which let him know when someone was lying. Apart from Baldr the person he seemed to be the closest with was Sunless. Anytime the tenebrous scout told a crazy story the handsome archer would react weirdly as if the mad stories were true.
'But what if they were?'
Caster turned back the hourglass and picked up speed killing with ferocity. At some point the cohort had separated in groups of two each wandering through a tunnel to clear it faster. Overall they hadn't been here for longer than a good dozen of minutes yet they were already upon the end of the nest.
The silk had long turned into a steely color only dyeing the world in crimson in the places old Beasts unfortunate enough to have made it this far and be caught by a thread stuck at.
Changing Star and Athena took the leftmost tunnel while Cassia and Baldr took the center one. The teams were divided by order of importance and by who needed protection the most.
Changing Star would stay close to Athena since, as the Pathfinder she served a crucial role and would possibly need to be healed if she ever was injured.
Cassia as the one basically leading them forward in this goose chase for the Memory Shards Baldr was seeking stuck to him where no harm could befall her before the sea creatures rose from the depth of the ocean.
'We have about half a day or so before the waters come crashing down.' Measured Caster.
That left him, Night and Sunless.
Fortunately no surprise arose and they quickly finished exploring their own tunnel, blanketing it with spiders corpses. This one was a dead end so they had to go back, on the way, Caster found himself wordlessly paying close attention to both Sleepers as Sunless story unfolded.
"...And then I tell you, I killed the Great Devil for daring to try and absorb my essence. He did put me in great pain after though, stupid child."
Night simply shuddered and smiled, hesitatingly putting distance between himself and the treacherous Sleeper. From what Caster could tell Night's Flaw didn't register universal truths, only what people believed as true.
So either Sunless was a complete madman that always spouted nonsense he wholeheartedly believed. Something the young Legacy of Han Li really doubted as he had showed himself quite the cautious type on multiple occasions.
Someone who believed himself to be able to slay Great Nightmare Creatures as a Sleeper would not care for how to approach ones of a lesser rank than Corrupted since they would already influence the rank above with ease.
Or he was twisting the truth in such a bizarre way that it was both true and untrue at the same time. For the purpose of... of...
'Of hiding his Flaw!'
Caster's breath quickened as both a terrifying and gleeful emotion spread throughout his whole body. He had finally grasped it.
Sunless couldn't lie.
There was one easy way to verify how true his hypothesis was, face it against the subject itself.
"By the way Sunny, how is your family doing?"
Something so personal that Caster himself had no right to ask, the obvious choice would be to tell him to screw off which even he would understand as being reminded of one's family in such harrowing situation as this expeditiob could lead to hesitation against death.
But hesitation itself meant death.
Night looked at him weirdly, both because of the nickname he used for Sunless and the question that came out of his mouth. Yet Caster paid him no mind, instead focusing his whole attention on the treacherous Sleeper...
Who was glaring at him with such seething hatred that Caster had to double take if he didn't accidentally ask such a thing as "Would you like to get dismembered?"
A strange thing happened, Sunless seemed to hold his tongue but each second his body trembled with more force to the point a vein appeared on his temple before he finally burst out.
"My mother is dead. My father is dead and oh well, my sister is doing well, having completly forgotten my existence."
A few tense seconds passed, they had long stopped walking, having been the first to arrive at the place where the tunnels divided. Sunless hand twitched, the Midnight Shard still in hand but as sound arrived from the other tunnels he relented turning back after spitting one venomous sentence at the young Legacy.
"I hope you die miserably Caster."
A crude insult but the one he adressed paid no mind to it, after all. Caster had just found out one of the most glaring weakness within Changing Star and Baldr schemes.
Yet as if Fate itself whispered in his ear, Caster couldn't help but think the scout hid another, even more glaring weakness. Somewhere in a plane above, the shimmering golden strings weaved by someone drew taut.
■■■
Looking at the makeshift funeral pyre conjured by Nephis flames, Baldr lazily rested on a rock, letting the heat wash over him in angry waves, the rest of the cohort also did nothing to protect themselves from the heat, trusting that they had already retreated to a safe distance.
Nephis came out a few minutes after, seemingly mightier than before. Her presence had been sharpened it seemed possibly due to filling most of her four Soul Cores by now, if this trend continued, she'd become a Tyrant before Baldr obtained his fourth Soul Core.
The fault was partly on him but, he hoped to fill the Soul Cores of every last one of the Sleepers to maximise their survival chances, hence some sacrifices had to be made.
He did not regret it though, eventually he would reach his full potential, that was inevitable at the very least.
'Around a year before the raid.'
That's the date he had finally come up with, his presence and actions had served as a sort of snowball effect here, as he empowered himself and others, eliminating the greater threats and letting the Sleepers sharpen themselves against the ones left, their power dramatically rose leading to them having the ability to once again hunt faster.
It was a cycle of some sort and it's end, that being every Sleeper becoming able to hold their own against at least two awakened Beasts or more by themselves. Would be reached sooner rather than later.
Baldr quite frankly had no idea on what to do after such a thing, maybe go in the Dreamscape just to see how he measured against other individuals of the Awakened rank as well as participate in that one tournament Kai kept pestering him about.
But currently...
"The statue of the Builder should come in a day or so, let's get a little altitude."
He briefly said before stepping up to the statue of the Hunter with the Golden rope strapped over one shoulder. He had never mentioned it but jumping on air was an exhilarating thing.
The slight pressure that expanded beneath his foot as they took hold of the air to give him a footing before releasing into a seemingly endless ripple across the air when he finally let go while jumping.
It was much funnier and faster to do so rather than simply walking up the air like stairs, the action also possessed the benefit of consuming less essence for him. Kai followed suite, swiftly ascending faster than even Baldr to scout the headless statues perimeter.
The wandering stone giant would arrive in the next day or so give or take a few hours. That was the date Cassie had originally given them at least.
After a while everyone was at the top, doing their own things while waiting for the dark waters below to snuff out the pyre. They churned and with a little difficulty extinguished the fire that had consumed the whole nest.
A small tension was present in the air or rather, it seemed something had happened between Sunny and Caster originating mainly from Sunny. The treacherous Sleeper was quite capable when it came to hiding his emotions but something seemed to have crawled under his skin when he, Kai and Caster were alone.
They all seemed to ignore it though, instead simply talking about their lives, telling stories of what they had done before coming here. Sunny and Kai did at least, Caster simply listened intently.
Nephis and Cassie were also present having decided to keep away from the trio instead talking and scheming between themselves. Baldr had never told anyone about the Winds, the mischevious manifestations told him about the grim things both were sharing, or that Cassie was sharing.
Sunny True Name.
Baldr had long been ruminating over how Cassie learned his name and he finally deducted that a vision had come to her, what she told Nephis simply confirmed that.
He didn't hear how it would happen but he knew it would be soon, Cassie had told her to watch out during this expedition.
Baldr wasn't dumb, the obvious choice was either Caster or somehow Harper, if that last one was even possible at this point I'm time.
So he would have to watch out for when the insidious legacy made his move.
Now wasn't the time though, he had enough of worrying about other people for a while, it was time for him to improve upon his ability.
Since obtaining his third core, speaking was not necessary to properly convey his thoughts to the World around him and with his senses enhanced, multiple elements of the higher end, if one could call them that came in contact with him.
Before that the only elements he could talk to were Fire, Lightning, Water in the right situations then Earth and Wind, those were the big categories if he didn't differentiate between a stone and a canyon for example.
Now though, something even more present than air endlessly stalked him. Never saying a word, he tried communicating with it before but no response came, Space itself was kind of a loner it seemed.
Or it didn't think him strong enough to even talk to it, as Lightning had once been hesitant to let him handle it. From what he understood it all came from a place of love, all those elements were simply worried about harming him as if he was still cripplingly vulnerable.
In a sense he was, being a Sleeper and all that.
'It doesn't make it less frustrating though.' Baldr idly noted.
Apart from the ever elusive Space, other elements did come up but most seemed once again to ignore him. One he could barely perceive was Light, then Shadows who seemed ever silent even though their presence was the most strikingly obvious here, partly due to being so different from every other element. Overall those guys were all frustrating as he knew they existed but they played dumb and ignored him, making Baldr smile a little strained.
With the road to become a bootleg avatar restrained at the moment, Baldr focused inward on his own swordsmanship, since receiving his Aspect he took the time when he could to ponder on it, seeing what could be improved and used specifically in tandem with his Aspect and so on. He also planned a few moves to be specifically used with certain elements when he wielded them. Mainly Lightning as it was the only one he could not wield carefree of danger at the moment.
Most of those had to do with simply listening to where it would fall then wield it as it struck down with the intent of harming an opponent somewhere, but now that he had another core, maybe he could try handling it...
Distance was not a problem with it, all he had to do was perceive the enemy and the terrifying speed of the strike would make it reach said target in a heartbeat.
"What are you even brooding about all on your own?" Effie said behind him.
She had been tying his long hair into a tight bun, Baldr didn't cut his hair since he came back from his Nightmare since the short hair reminded him of the time spent in the chamber, he instead opted to let them wildly grow and, as his attribute would have it. The length of his hair did nothing to impede his beauty, instead enhancing it somewhat.
"Hesitating to put space in a chokehold so it responds to my calls." Jokingly replied the radiant man before standing up.
The sky had long darkened, the waters churning with evil intent both due to the creatures inside of it and the Great Titan himself who's body covered most of the Forgotten Shore at night. Rain fell in great amounts threatening to fill every crevices that were in a place to high for the Dark Sea to attain.
Baldr looked down with barely restrained excitement, his smile growing wider with each second.
He needed to fill his Soul Core, see what was next in store for himself and act accordingly. For that he could only look into the depth of the Dark Sea, waiting for any creature to show up it's head.
And that they did.
Four sharks of Fallen Rank were circling around the statue, the living golem in the image of the builder would not come until sunrise and the abominable creatures seemed eager enough that they would jump up to take a bite off of them.
Thunder didn't rumble above, but the dark clouds seemed to be a precursor to their arrival, if he so wanted, Baldr could still summon them.
And that he would.
He walked with a carefree and graceful gait as if nothing in the world could press him to go faster, summoning the parts of the armor he had dismissed before along with changing the form of the Formless Toga to wrap around his joints in a protective manner, Baldr stepped off the platform, walking on something invisible and omniscient.
Sensing the change in atmosphere the rest of the cohort sent him an inquisitive, while he simply smiled at them, his walk continuing forward as space itself supported him.
Not talking to an element didn't mean he couldn't interact with it, True Names simply granted him great dominion over them as well as allowing him to wield them offensively and efficiently.
Compared to when he walked on air, Space acted different. Like stepping across an unperturbable lake every step he did produced a small ripple that spread in all directions but was snuffed out quickly. Compared to the circular and turbulent ripple he produced with the winds Baldr found them to be quite unimpressive.
Or maybe it was simply because his power was far from being high enough to do more than that. With a whisper from him something in the sky seemed to affectionately respond.
Putting the space issue asside, it was time to fill his Soul Cores.
■■■
It was unfair.
Sunny looked ahead with amazement and a not so subtle amount of jealousy in his eyes, as did most people here. After a while Sunny thought he understood the kind of character Baldr was.
A deeply prideful person, the radiant man was one of the few people that stayed aloof in almost all situations. Even now a wide smile was present on his face, as he faced four creatures of the Fallen Rank alone.
Even after achieving the first step, Sunny was still in the process of completly learning Baldr's style and integrate it into his own. Learning directly from him was hard as the Sleeper could seamlessly integrate his abilities into his fighting style.
And how jealous he was of those abilities.
"Better dismiss your armor if it's made of metal guys." Said radiant man quickly notes as he raised his arm up high. To Sunny's surprise nothing happened yet, even as Baldr waited with his arm, raised up high.
What Sunny forgot to mention was that, the pride of Baldr existed for a reason, in this world currently, he didn't think many could match him I'm versatility or raw power.
'Both divine aspect holders and what I get is you guys?' He somberly looked down at his own shadow, the other three were wrapped around him as both his weapon and armor were dismissed, fortunately the under suit hid their existence to those of the cohort that didn't know about his shadow helpers, most of all Caster.
Thinking about the contemptuous Legacy Sunny blood boiled once again as his expression turned somber, yet after a while he let it go his expression turning tranquil.
'He's going to die anyway, why should I care about him?'
After Nephis mentioned that she thought he was the assassin after a meeting between the divine trio, Baldr mentioned his plan for the Crimson Spire, having already told both of them about the elusive nature of the Citadel along with it's deranged Components.
Caster would become the sacrificial lamb that allowed all of them to return.
The method Baldr had mentioned was easy yet so brutal at the same time that it made even Sunny shiver at the thought.
A flash of light caught his attention and Sunny finally looked up. The radiant man he had just been ruminating about was holding something that danced vividly. in his hands.
"It's so fucking unfair." Sunny groaned as he simply looked down once again, this time toward the four Fallen sharks in the Dark Sea.
Baldr disappeared in a flash moving so fast only Caster could really follow, compared to normally his moves where a little clumsier, seemingly not used to this speed.
Then there were three.
The Lightning danced wildly with glee within Baldr's hand as another creature came toward him.
Then there were two.
Seemingly finally feeling the strain of handling such an element or possibly due to an idea he had gotten Baldr threw the javelin at one of the two last shark, the javelin seemingly teleported directly on it's target from his perspective.
Then there was one.
The last of the creature seemed stronger than the others, possibly a Fallen Demon if Sunny was to judge compared to all those he fought in the Dark City.
It lunged at him all the same though, such a rank didn't yet warrant human like intelligence or cunning in general for all that mattered.
Baldr simply raised his left hand, the one that didn't seem to tremble like the right which had gripped the Lightning.
As the call of thunder was once again made, said force of nature responded eagerly, almost too eargerly probbably. The previous actions had rendered it brimming with energy and joy from seeing Baldr handle it.
Sunny only saw it for an instant but the Lightning strike that came down looked more like a pillar of electricity. Baldr seemed to understand he'd have a hard time handling it as he was too.
So he simply palmed the Lightning, curving it's trajectory toward the last shark.
And then there were none.
While the radiant man stepped down to go collect the Soul Shards, Sunny couldn't help but looking at Effie.
"Does this guy ever gets tired of showing stupid powers?"
Sunny cursed inwardly, even the webcomics he read when he was younger didn't make the protagonist as stupidly powerful as this, as a Sleeper no less, truly it was like the World itself was a bad fanfiction revolving around Baldr.
Effie simply smiled at that question before responding with a tone that made Sunny remember why he never talked about the aforementioned radiant man with her.
"Not really I mean even when we're alone I sometimes get overwhelmed by his intensity..."
Why had he even asked?
■■■
Oh Happy New Years guys, kinda late ik but hope yall have a great year n shii.
Sorry if there's grammatical errors, I'll correct them when I'm well rested.