In godgrave nephis and the fire keepers were slowly aproaching the citadel under command of lord of shadows. They were taking their time because they needed rest after how long the sky was clear without break.
They knew the lord of shadows was gonna come for them so they weren't worried about something killing them because they could already see a silhouette swiftly aproaching them. They knew it was him because nephis told them he was comming and because they were staring at him the whole time the sky was clear, luckily this time it wasnt as long as the first time they came here, but it was nevertheless tiresome and annoying.
As sunny was aproaching nephs mouth began to curl upwards because she hasn't seen him in a few days, she was happy even if they couldn't reveal their relationship in front of the fire keepers they could atleast be together, and that is all it mattered. The nature of the visit was to make nephis get closer to lord of shadows and make more planing for war etc. Naphi and sunny already did all of that thanks to cassies abilitie so they could just hang out for a few days and be on their way.
When sunny aproached them he said with a cold but welcoming voice:"lady nephis, it is nice to see you, it would be my pleasure to escort you to my citadel." Sunny was weaeing definetely not me so he had no problem saying the truth and he didnt have to be scared because cassie already knew aboit his identity.
Nephis looked at him and smiled slightly and said:"Thank you for picking us up lord of shadows, we will gladly take you up on your offer."
It took them about a day to get ro the nameless temple while they had to fight some abominations nothing severe happaned so their jurney was quikc and easy. When they got there, the fire keepers got to work and started setting up camp and making some food. Meanwhile sunny and nephis were in the nameless temple going downstaits because sunny had something to show ro nephis.
Nephis looked at the wall and than to sunny and asked:"how and why is there a hole in the wall."
Sunny loked at her and nervously said with a little dilay:"i...uh..i got mad at my shadow and...uh.. kicked him at the wall. As for why, its because i got mad and needed something so let my anger out on...so i kicked him and found the hole and dug a little deeper and the rest you will se for your self.
Neph stared at him suprised and said in a slightly confused tone:"you named a supreme devil "imp" and kicked him at the wall and made a hole in it an your only telling me now after days of chatting while using cassie's ability"
Sunny in a sorry voice said:" yes, and to be fair i had saint dig deeper because just as i found the hole, cassie told me you were close, so i decided to explore it together with you after coming back and i wanted to keep it to myself until you got here.....so do you want to go or not."
Nephis looked back at the hole and as she took a step towards it she said in an even tone:" lets just go"
When both of them got inside, all they could se was a dark and empty room with nothing but an altarquite big and taking about half the room, made of some different kind of obsidian they ussualy encountered coverd with runes that looked like they were put here yesterday, except a few rocks from the busted hole in the wall that was all of the things inside. Both sunny and cassie who were looking at the runes were dumbfounded, because they never saw these runes ever anywhere, and only a few were similar bot not the same. After a few minutes sunny just decided it was enough because he knew it was pointless and told nephis to take a step back, because he was gonna use whatever those runes were able to do.
At first sunny tought he just had to pour some blood and it was gonna work, but to his suprise it didnt, so then he tried using essence, but that didn't work either, but then he noticed that the blood he put on the altar was shining even if a little. After sunny saw that and told nephis to help him with some of her blood as well, afraid that he was gonna faint if he tried to cover the altar whole wirh only his blood. When the altar was mostly covered sunny and nephis made all of their essence go into the altar, they saw the blood shine and after all their essence was gone they moved away and for a moment nothing happaned. But sunny after closing his eyes and wanting to sit on the floor exausted he heaed a voice announcing something in his head.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]