In the outskirts of the Shadow Realm five months after his arrival inside a noticeably shabbier hut, Sunny was looking at his runes in a daze.
Name: Sunless
True Name: Lost From Light
Rank: Transcendent
Class: Devil
Shadow Cores: [4/7]
Shadow Fragments: [2029/4000]
Sunny stared at his rank slowly coming to terms with having transcended.
A memory surfaced of when he began his training with Orphne.
Orphne kicked the log where Sunny had just been sitting sending it flying. "Get into a meditating position kid."
He was taken aback, 'I guess I'll have to get used to her calling me kid. Comparatively to her I basically am one.'
Naturally defiant he remained standing and stared Orphne down, only to get the same treatment as the log.
"Alright kid you're too weak for the Shadow Realm. That beast your just saw me defeat, it was on the weaker end as far as abominations around here goes."
Sunny furrowed his brow, 'Weaker end, you've got to be kidding me. That creature was at the bare minimum similar to a corrupted nightmare creature.'
Orphne glared at him until he eventually got into a meditating form.
"Despite your nature as a shadow currently you are entirely not built for the Shadow Realm so, I am going to remedy that fact by teaching you how to transcend so that you might have a small chance of survival."
He thought of these memories fondly. They reminded him of when he had just entered the Dark City and learned from Effie how to survive there.
Sunny shook his head trying to stop his train of thoughts because perhaps it would be best for forget that past.
Thinking of the past had never been a habit of his, especially in recent days since he had become so focused on the present and the future.
He didn't entirely know how to react to his transcendence but before he even realized it, he had moved his gaze down towards Nephis' runes.
Master: Changing Star
The word master caused a bitter expression to surface on his face like always.
Name: Nephis
True Name: Changing Star
Rank: Ascended
Class: Tyrant
Soul Cores: [5/7]
Soul Fragments: [432/5000]
Sunny rubbed his eyes, 'I-I lapped her.'
He let out a dry hollow laugh with no warmth behind it much less a sense of victory he had thought this moment would hold.
'What is the point anyway? So, what if I'm a rank ahead of her. One word from her and I'm finished so it's meaningless if I ever actually have to fight her.'
It was a pyrrhic victory. This situation was all too similar to when Nephis had still been stuck on the Forgotten Shore as a dreamer.
Sunny couldn't find it in himself to celebrate a victory that came at the cost of the [Shadow Bond].
What only soured his victory even more was that he more or less cheated.
His smile morphed into a sneer, 'So what if used all my cards and naturally transcended. I won. Serves her right with her unfair Innate Ability and not having Shadow Fragments.'
He wasn't bitter about her still being a class above him despite having surpassed her in rank because that would be petty and he was not a petty person, not that he could say that out loud.
'Rank matters more anyways.'
His sneer morphed into a frown upon seeing that her fragment counter hadn't gone up.
'What is she doing? She hasn't gained a fragment since I started training.'
Although he would never admit it out loud, he was a little worried for her.
In just five months he had managed to transcend naturally thanks in no small part to Serpent's [Shadow Guide] and [Spirit Guide] attributes which allowed him to progress much faster than awakened in ancient times did.
Speaking of which Sunny looked further down to the runes for Shadow Dance.
Aspect Legacy: [Shadow Dance]
Shadow Dance Mastery Level: [4/7]
First Relic: Claimed
Second Relic: Claimed
Third Relic: Claimed
Fourth Relic: Claimed
Fifth Relic: Unearned…
Sixth Relic: Unearned…
Seventh Relic: Unearned…
He smiled while looking at the next greatest fruit of his training with Orphne.
'Now this, this is something I can celebrate.'
'I couldn't have been more correct. She really is the perfect partner for mastering Shadow Dance.'
Granted somewhere along the line in his training his understanding of Shadow Dance had plateaued partially because he had fought all the creatures Orphne was capable of transforming into and he was still missing something.
He had a feeling that he needed real experience in a life-or-death battle to progress further.
'Training is great and all but it can't fully replace the progress made through hard won fights.'
The fourth relic had proved to be a disappointment to him after he got over the awe of possessing a fragment of a god's domain.
A bitter expression appeared on his face as he thought about it, 'I have a feeling that that relic won't prove useful to me anytime soon. Hell, I probably shouldn't even summon it in the Shadow Realm what would be the point. It'd probably just end up merging with the realm and become beyond my control. I can't let that happen. What do I look like some kind of charity?'
He shook his head to dismiss such thoughts and returned his gaze to the huntress.
Orphne had brought him along with her when she hunted to help but it just wasn't the same. Having her covering for him left him feeling too secure in the hunts and even though she pretended like she wouldn't intervene when he was in a pinch, he knew that she would save him.
It was serving as a mental block in his training as Sunny knew he was the kind of person that performs best in desperate situations. 'I guess the old saying from before the dark times is true, pressure makes diamonds.'
The struggle to survive had always helped him compartmentalize all his knowledge. He could still remember the day on the forgotten shore when he gained clarity when he and Nephis fought the carapace centurion.
Shadow Dance had always been proven to be the same as this was the first time he had advanced a step outside of a fight with real consequences.
Orphne knocked her knuckles against the table to get his attention and when that failed, she waved her hand in front of his face passing through the spell's intangible runes. "Hello, is anyone there?"
Sunny dismissed his runes with a sigh as he turned his gaze to Orphne with a forlorn look.
Although the huntress never told him about her condition he could tell there was something very wrong with her.
Over the course of his five months training he had begun to notice that her form was slowly being consumed by shadows.
He hadn't noticed it at first but if he had to guess it must have started with her legs and arms and over the course of his stay the shadows had slowly been making their way to her brilliant soul core.
What only made the infection even more insidious was the black haze that had started surrounding the shadow infected locations.
The haze would make it harder to distinguish between her flesh and the shadows that infested her. He had long given up on trying to tell where the line that separated them was without blood weave's augmented vision.
It was subtle but he swore that she smelled like death as well.
She was withering away…
He had a guess to the reason as to why her condition had been worsening so rapidly ever since he had met her but he had been burying it in the back of his mind as the thought was too cruel.
Orphne gave him a wistful smile that said she knew his train of thoughts as she squeezed his shoulder only to recoil with a clearly exaggerated expression of disgust.
"You reek; we're going to have to fix that smell you're leaking because it's the reason that all these beasts have found us."
He blinked repeatedly then raised his armpit to smell himself, 'Maybe a little ripe but I wouldn't say I reek.'
Sunny narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "You're one to talk, you can't smell much better than me."
He had wanted to say that she smelled too but he knew that he was deluding himself and he wasn't coldhearted enough to tell her that she smelled like death. Even that smell was faint and could have easily been covered by hygiene products in short supply here.
Ever since he first saw her fight all the way to know he envied the way that she somehow always managed to avoid getting herself that dirty.
It was simply unfair.
Orphne laughed, "Not like that. Although now that you mention that you reek in that regard too."
Sunny's face soured as he asked her to elaborate.
"This is something I probably should have taught you sooner but wellll… it was convenient for your training, so I have been holding off on doing so."
Maintaining the same expression Sunny quirked an eyebrow giving her the signal to continue, 'I knew she was holding out on me, but I can already tell this is something important that will make me mad.'
Orphne gave him a smile that seemed to say this was her revenge for his withholding of information during her interrogation. "What I meant is that your soul stinks. I need to teach you how to mask its smell since you've been attracting these abominations ever since you reached the Shadow Realm."
His face began twitching as he asked in the calmest voice he could currently muster, "And why exactly are you only teaching me this now?"
The smile on the huntress' face only grew making Sunny want to wipe it off her face.
"Isn't it obvious? You gained actual experience and knowledge about what you'll be up against."
'As much as I hate to admit it, there is some wisdom to her logic.' His face continued twitching despite his concession.
Orphne rubbed her temples. "To be honest I'm not sure how effective my methods will be for you. On one hand the scent of your soul is naturally stronger than most since you have multiple cores. Normally it would be much harder for you to mask the scent of your soul. Yet on the other hand the unique nature of your essence makes you blend in perfectly here."
The huntress scoffed and then pointed an accusatory finger at him. "This is all your fault. Why do you have to be so hard to teach? Anyone else would have given up on teaching you a long time ago. Ahh what a troublesome disciple I've found."
Sunny shot a glare at her. "Just the other day you were praising my talent and how I'm the fastest person you've ever seen transcend."
Before he could continue his tirade, he saw the darkness move just marginally closer to Orphne's soul core.
He knew that if he switched his vision to the sight granted via weaver's lineage and squinted hard enough, he would see her soul core being besieged by the shadows.
Sunny's eyes softened as he couldn't bring himself to be mad at the huntress any longer.
'It's a miracle that she is still conscious. She's keeping herself together through sheer force of will alone.'
He moved his sight up towards her head only to see that everything above her neck had somehow managed to escape from the spreading infection.
'It's no wonder, her head was already corrupted a long time ago.'
The treacherous shadow opened his mouth wanting to breach the topic but the huntress much have read something on his face as she quickly interrupted him with the same nostalgic wistful smile.
It was always like this. It was not like he had not tried to discuss Orphne's condition with her; it was just that whenever he attempted to discuss it with the huntress, she would stop him.
His persistence was wearing thin. Sunny's past experience had taught him it wasn't best to let a landmine like this fester, but something told him in this situation it was best to follow her lead.
When he had initially discovered her condition, he had thought he might be able to help her since the shadows laid within his realm of sudo expertise.
Considering Orphne herself he had to throw out this preliminary conclusion. He had never forgotten that she had connections with a Shadow Slave before. If there was a way he could help her, he was sure that the huntress would have asked.
'I hate this feeling of helplessness.'
He wanted more time to bask in this feeling as a lesson to himself, but he knew Orphne wouldn't let him and true to form she opened her mouth to say something he had no doubt would shake him out of his self-depreciating thoughts.
He recognized Orphne donning the same smile that she always wore right before she said something that made him mad.
"I forgot to mention something else. The reason I said that the monsters you've been facing thus far are on the weaker end is because we are in the outskirts of the Shadow Realm. The creatures you'll face as you approach the center are needless to say much stronger."
As if that vague warning wasn't enough for him the huntress' smile only grew.
"Hell, the gods and daemons are dead. Knowing your luck, you might very well cross paths with their shadows."
He gave Orphne a deadpan look.
Even with the huntress' incredible sense of hearing she could just barely catch the word that escaped his lips.
"Damnation."