{PLEIADES POV}
Running across the cavern floor, I activated Caster's dormant ability and zoomed straight to a scorpion-like abomination.
Empowered by the two shadows, four cores brimming with power, and boosted by Load Amplifier, I drove my fist straight into its head. The carapace shattered, and a shockwave tore through its body, flinging its shredded remains across the battlefield.
"Damn!"
I ducked just in time to avoid the slash of a tall, lanky humanoid draped in tattered garments and wielding a broken sword and shortsword.
Backing off, I froze the soles of its feet and leapt overhead. With one clean stroke, I sliced the abomination from top to bottom. As its body collapsed, the shadowy ink veiling it dissipated, revealing a skeleton that quickly turned to dust—leaving behind two pristine soul shards.
Oddly, the spell didn't alert me of its death.
Looking around, I spotted Kai floating above the battlefield. He nocked an arrow and aimed it at a horned abomination towering over the others. Releasing the arrow, it shot through the air without a sound—gaining momentum mid-flight—and pierced the creature's skull clean through.
[Sunny, remind me to ask Kai for help with my bowmanship.]
(I'll remind you to duck.)
Crouching, I narrowly avoided the pincer of what resembled a Carapace Scavenger. Another pincer lashed out, but I activated Ironed Out, and the limb shattered against my indestructible skin.
The scavenger didn't hesitate to attack again, but I closed the gap. Using Point of Interest, I identified a weak spot beneath its shell and stabbed through it. It staggered, the ink dripping from its body, leaving behind an empty husk.
Wrenching my blade free, I made my way toward Kai. He floated about five meters above me.
"KAI!" I shouted.
After loosing another arrow, he looked down at me, a bit flustered.
"What? I'm kinda busy" he snapped, readying another shot at a beast crawling along the cavern ceiling.
"It'll take just a second. Come down here and give me your hand."
He looked down in confusion, clearly unsure whether to trust me.
"Why do you want my hand? You're not actually gonna take it… right?"
I scowled. "Oh yeah, I'll slice it off and make it into stew. Come on. Just get down here."
Still looking mildly horrified but somewhat reassured he descended.
"So, what do y—"
Before he could finish, I grabbed his hand and gave him the three arrows I had received. It hurt to hear the spell notify me of the loss of the memories, but I endured.
"You'll pay me back for that later. Now hop to it, fly and shoot these bastards down."
Not waiting for a reply, I turned and sprinted toward Nephis.
A couple of abominations broke through the chaos and lunged at me, but they fell in two or three swift strikes.
As I neared Nephis, I recalled Shadow Dance. Even with only one shadow augmenting me, it wouldn't hinder me much if sunny decided to shadow Nephis.
Shadow Dance would grant Sunny not only Soul Serpent but also Shadow God's Lineage, which i could maybe prevent from being destroyed by Blood Weave.
[Sunny, connect one shadow to Nephis and study her fighting style.]
Sunny was quiet for a moment as he processed the request. Just as I came face-to-face with a hulking humanoid Nightmare Creature with the head of a bull, fangs and curled horns like a ram.
Hurling the kord into its chest, it shrieked, sounding like a horrific mix of a cow and a man. As its head came down, I grabbed both lower and upper parts of the jaw and with a bit of force, ripped its lower jaw clean off.
Yanking the kord free, I drove it up through its brain and it dissolved like the others.
Jumping over its disintegrating corpse i rushed toward the front lines, where Nephis was cutting down the most dangerous abominations.
(Why? You'll be less powerful.)
Piercing through the hide of a monstrous fusion of a bear and a boar, I tore out its spine and set it ablaze from within.
[I'm already powerful enough. I'll focus on fighting. You focus on swordsmanship.]
Sunny hesitated, then responded:
(Alright. But I won't be able to watch your back.)
[Aww, you're worried about me? That's adorable.]
(Please. If you die, I die. I'm looking after myself.)
As we talked, my strength dipped. A shadow glided from me across the cavern floor, connecting to Nephis.
[Before you go, summon the Mantle of the Underworld. I'll get the enemy counter as high as I can.]
Sunny didn't respond, but the dark shroud covering me dissolved into countless sparks—replaced by a sleek, lustrous black armor.
"Alright… might as well get some sword practice in."
Rushing forward, I gave Nephis a sidelong glance. Though she was still in combat, she glanced back. I nodded, hoping she'd understand.
Then I leapt into the air and brought my blade down—cleaving a massive, three-headed humanoid abomination clean in two.
Without sparing it a glance, I plunged deeper into the horde.
Finding the perfect opening, I dropped into a basic sword stance. Before me stood multiple high-ranking abominations, the strongest among them, a Fallen Demon.
"Ah, damn. I really wish I had Saint and Krabs to help me out right now."
Just as I was about to begin the fight, the gentle voice of the spell echoed in my ears:
[You have received an Echo.]
Eyes wide, I pivoted just in time to dodge a massive attack from a tree-sized abomination. It used one grotesque arm as a bow and the other shaped like a massive, severed hand as the arrow. It launched it, then regenerated the missing limb seconds later.
I grinned, even as exhaustion crept in.
"Alright… now it's about to get real interesting."
Sneering, I looked over my runes:
Name:Pleiades
True Name:Celestial Worthy Of Fate
Rank:Sleeper
Soul Core:Dormant
Soul Cores:[2/7]
Soul Fragments:1907/2000
Attributes:[Star of Divinity],[Lucky],[Revival],[Weaving],[Soul Weave],[Anti-Divination],[Stalwart],[Coordinated],[-Unknown- Slayer],[Godkiller],[Worm of Time],[Spellcraft Invocation]
Aspect:[Beyonder]
Aspect Rank:Divine
Aspect Description:[You are a Entity unbound by fate. As a Divine Entity,you possess plenty of strange and wondrous powers.]
Innate Ability:[Plunderer]
Ability Description:[You can directly absorb all of the soul essence of any human you kill,you are also able to take all the memories and echoes of any human slain.]
Aspect Abilities:[Envisioning]
Aspect Ability Description:[You possess the ability to manipulate reality through your imagiantion,even conjuring objects and living beings from nothing.]
Memories:[Sublime Banquet],[Covetous Luggage],[Bottomless Spring],[Dark Warblade],[Moonlight Shard],[Scavangers Apparel],[Deadly Whistle],[Rigid Sarcophagus]…
Echoes:[Forsaken Knight]
While scanning the runes, I also took stock of the over fifty new memories I had plundered from the traitors.
"Saint and Krabs are gonna have a whole buffet!"
I shouted excitedly, parrying the stinger of a massive wasp-like creature. Forming an ice spike in my hand, I blasted it into the thing's head, and its skull popped like an overripe melon.
Without wasting time, I transmitted a message to Regis.
[Hey buddy, I'd appreciate some help.]
A moment later, Regis scoffed.
>>Oh, I'll try. You know I've got a bit of a limp, so do understand if I'm too late to save your sorry ass from getting eaten by some cannibalistic cow or whatever.<<
'Ahhh, I'll never hear the end of this.'
[You're acting like a child. It was an accident, I swear.]
>>And if I did that to you on accident, what kind of treatment would I receive?<<
[Oh for fuck's sake—I'll give you as many soul shards as you can eat before you explode from overfeeding!]
>>Uhh… it'd be pretty cool if I could explode.<<
[So… you want to explode now?]
(CAN YOU GUYS NOT DISTRACT ME!)
Sunny's sudden outburst caught me off guard and in that moment of distraction, I failed to dodge. A mantis-like Nightmare Creature slammed its blade-arm through my stomach.
It lifted me into the air and let out a piercing screech right into my face.
"WAAAAAAAHHH to you too, bastard!"
Swinging my blade, I let loose a slash that whistled through the air and cleaved the mantis in half.
Pulling its scythe-arm from my gut, a spray of blood followed—but thankfully, nothing fatal. I activated my healing soul flames, and the wound vanished before my eyes.
Still healing, I turned to face two more abominations charging in.
I jumped onto the back of a Fallen Beast made of onyx-black stone and activated Pause!
The beast stopped cold. Using Point of Interest, I saw the weak spot and stabbed deep into its rocky hide, it shattered and crumbled beneath me.
Leaping from its collapsing remains, I hit the ground running, slid under a creature woven from dark vines, and jammed my blade right into its weak point. As it fell, I rolled aside, narrowly avoiding being crushed.
Then, without missing a beat, I unleashed a slash that tore through the vine-canopy that made up its upper body.
Breathing hard, I looked to the side and froze.
A new Nightmare Creature was approaching.
It looked like a warped, elongated human, with a small deformed head protruding from its side. It walked on three spiked legs. Two long, thin arms wielded a deadly naginata, and a third, thick and muscular arm jutted from its back gripping a massive claymore.
"That's a Fallen Demon, alright."
As soon as it spotted me, it sprinted forward. In the blink of an eye, it was right in front of me, its naginata tearing through the air, aiming straight for my side.
I barely parried and the follow-up came immediately with an overhead claymore strike. I raised my hand instinctively and coated it in Indestructible Steel. The massive blade connected with a deafening clang, sparks flying as its weight forced me to one knee.
Cracks spread out beneath me like a spiderweb, and the sheer force behind the blow made my bones rattle. My whole body shivered from the impact and i barely managed to keep standing.
I released Tyranny, a wave of terror rippling through the space between us. The demon staggered, missing what would've been a fatal naginata strike, its blade sliced the air just above my head and crashed into the stone floor.
Growling, I swapped positions with a nearby boulder. My lungs burned as i dropped to one knee a meter or two behind the demon, i stripped the steel from my arm, and massaged it.
Behind me, a crash sounded and i spun around.
A plume of smoke was rising and from within it, the demon burst forward like a cannonball.
Bracing, I coated my whole body in steel.
It slammed into me like a truck. I was launched backward, crashing into the cavern wall with a loud, grinding crack. Gritting my teeth, I raised my hand and unleashed a barrage of ice spikes.
The demon dodged them all. Effortlessly. Inhumanly.
It lunged—one more strike, and—
Its head snapped sideways. It twisted mid-charge, raising both naginata and claymore in defense.
And the shadowy wolf slammed into it.
The demon reeled from the impact as Regis landed, snarling, his form rippling with shadow and flame. His purple mane burned with energy, and glowing runes flared across his body.
"I expect at least a hundred soul shards" he growled, eyes never leaving the demon.
The demon narrowed its eyes and lowered into a grounded stance, posture firm, both weapons raised. Regis stepped in front of me protectively, his limbs taut and his flames never waned.
"Don't worry," I muttered, climbing back to my feet. "This guy's gonna fight something more worth his time."
Regis glanced at me, confused.
And then… he froze.
So did the demon.
All of us turned our gaze across the battlefield.
Four Fallen Beasts and two monsters lay dead. Their remains crumbled to dust.
From their midst, a single figure stood—a towering black knight, drenched in dark ichor. His armor was like living shadow, and even standing still, his presence was crushing.
A cursed wind stirred. The darkness of the cavern seemed to deepen around him. And his eyes burned like embers and locked onto the demon.
The Forsaken Knight gripped his massive sword and took a single, deliberate step forward.
The demon responded immediately. It spun its naginata into a defensive arc and lowered into a tight stance.
Then it charged like a thunderclap.
It's naginata flashed like lightning, aimed for the Knight's visor. But the Forsaken Knight parried the strike effortlessly.
Then, in one fluid motion, he released the hilt with one hand and uppercutted the demon with his gauntlet. The impact shook the air and the demon stumbled back, dazed.
The Knight grabbed his blade again with both hands and swung for the neck.
CLANG!—blocked, just in time by the demon's claymore.
But the Knight didn't even hesitate.
He raised his sword again and this time the claymore shattered.
The Knight's blade sank deep into the demon's neck. The head fell. A second later, so did the body.
Ink-like liquid poured down as the corpse dissolved and bone turned to ash.
With a simple flick of his sword, the Knight whipped the black blood from the blade. It splattered against the far cavern wall in a dark arc.
I sat there, stunned, and unable to speak.
Regis, however, didn't miss a beat.
"… Show Off"
Then He turned to me with a wolfish grin.
"Bet he practiced that move in the mirror."