Only visible to Sunny, he could see the bright castle towering over them in ruins. Most of its mighty walls had been burnt to the ground or collapsed from the lack of support. The castle on the other hand was even more unfortunate as it all had burnt to the ground leaving nothing but dust, debris, and smoke.
"Your followers did a real good job on burning down the castle. So good of a job we can't even use it for shelter and is probably infested with fallen creatures by now"
"I never told them to burn it down and as for shelter we can find someplace else."
"I have a place we can stay at. It's where I lived while staying in the dark city and it's the safest place to stay here. You've seen it before, the cathedral where the fallen devil was, that's where I stayed"
"I always found it weird that you would choose to live with a fallen devil."
"Well, I lived there to spite the fallen devil after it gutted me. It would've killed me even if midnight shard didn't have [unbroken] on it. It also served as a great bodyguard for wandering creatures."
"How...like you to sleep on top of someone's house to spite them."
They continued to walk together side by side. Sometimes talking but most of the time peaceful silence reigned before reaching the dark city walls. Sunny has come up with a solid plan...which was to strap Nephis to his back while he climbed. After telling her the plan, he could have sworn he saw a light shade of pink on her cheeks, she agreed to it.
Sunny asked Nephis to summon [evertwine] and fashioned it into a harness for Nephis. After Nephis put it on she put her hands around his neck and her legs around his waist. 'Pure thoughts sunny, pure thoughts!' Sunny reminded himself as he secured the straps from the harness onto himself before starting to climb. Sunny and Nephis made a comical site as Nephis was taller than him by a head and a half so her head rested on his without struggle.
'Damn it why is she so god damn heavy! And I'm supposed to be the second strongest sleeper in history most likely!' Although carrying Nephis was a tough task he couldn't deny that he didn't like it, especially since he felt her chest to his back...' PURE THOUGHTS SUNNY!' Eventually though Sunny reached the top of the wall after an unknown amount of time, most likely two hours Sunny guessed.
Nephis un-summoned the rope and slid off his back before tumbling off the wall. Well, she would've if Sunny hadn't caught her hand and pulled her away from the wall and into his arms. Hugging Nephis, Sunny quickly let go of her as both of them developed a tint of red in their cheeks before disappearing.
"I should be able to use [Dark wing] to glide ourselves down at a steady past if we're not attacked," Sunny said looking at Nephis as he started summoning his memory. Nephis looked at the golden sparks forming the memory before meeting his eyes.
"I doubt anything will attack us in the air, Sunny. Instead, we should focus on when we're about to land on the ground. The golden sparks from summoning the memory will attract attention"
"Who says we're going to land on the ground anytime soon? There won't be any stops too so try not to barf on me"
"Wait what do you me-"
Before Nephis could finish her sentence Sunny wrapped a hand around her waist before jumping off the wall. His wings started flapping but they were still dropping at a fast rate and would've splat to the ground if Sunny didn't have a little trick. Summoning [Prowling Thorn], it fully materialized seconds before hitting the ground. Throwing the dagger and sticking it inside a crack inside a house he used it to swing, his feet just inches off the ground before being flung back up into the air. Nephis, during all of this, had been tense and yelped from being thrown and then almost touching the ground under them.
Sunny swung around like Spider-Man, though he had no idea why spider people were ever a thing. Eventually, he flung them onto the roof of the cathedral... where Sunny patted Nephis back while she vomited. 'I should have gone slower if I knew she was easily motion sick.'
"I'm sorry Neph, I'll make sure to warn you next time," Sunny said patting her back and taking a drink of [Endless Spring], offering it to her with a smile. Nephis took the bottle with a weak small smirk and nodded before taking a huge sip from the bottle, afterward giving it back to Sunny. Sunny led Nephis into the cathedral and led her into the priestess's room before then lighting up the candles around the room with Nephis's help.
Eventually, they found themselves sitting on the bed together side by side lost in thought, until Sunny broke the silence.
"Nephis...you've already seen my ruins haven't you?" Sunny said turning to his side to get a clear view of her. The way blood had stained her face Sunny admitted looked cool. Her beaten armor looked like it went through thousands of wars but held as her skin remained pure of cuts.
"Yes I have, Sunny, and...I have a few questions," Nephis said with a stoic stare deep into his eyes.
"Well then ask away, I have a couple of questions and a request to ask you too"
"First things first, you also have a divine aspect? I thought I was the only one to ever get one." Although her voice remained leveled, Sunny could hear the slightly higher voice indicating she was baffled. Sunny also decided that he would reveal everything to Nephis. Making sure no secret stays hidden anymore since they'll be stuck together for a very long time.
"Well at first I didn't, it's a long story but at the end of my first nightmare, my aspect evolved. It turned from [Temple Slave] to [Shadow Slave] which was ranked divine. It evolved because I spilled my blood on a sacred pedestal which caught Shadow's attention and he gave me a blessing that turned into my aspect."
"Interesting...and yet that barely scratches the surface like as to why you have a Daemon's, weaver's, forbidden lineage in your blood."
"Ahh, great question..." Sunny held his words for a moment before saying it dramatically "I simply got it from killing a great devil!" as soon as the words "great devil" left Sunny's lips Nephis eyes widened slightly as her mouth opened slightly to add to the comical effect. Sunny chuckled as he stared at Nephis's deadpanned face as she stared at him trying to believe he was lying. But Nephis already knew he couldn't lie so he had to be telling the truth, 'HE KILLED A GREAT DEVIL AS A SLEEPER? WHEN? HOW? I DON'T REMEMBER SEEING ANY WANDERING GREAT DEVILS IN THE DARK CITY'. It was a safe bet to say that Nephis mind was in shambles from the news as she couldn't conceive how incredulous it was.
"H-How did you kill a great devil sunny! And as a sleeper no less!" Nephis voice was getting louder every second as her mind tried to wrap around the fact he killed something so powerful.
"Ah well it was more of a one-sided fight as I just killed it in a single strike." technically it was true as it was a one-sided fight because it couldn't attack back since it was still unhatched and couldn't drain his soul. And he did kill it with one strike too but only because [Midnight Shard] had [Unbroken], if it didn't, it would've shattered. Nephis paled when he said he had killed it in a single strike, and then Nephis realized maybe the creature was already almost dead like how Gunlaug had killed a corrupted creature.
"Sunny, did you kill the creature when it was almost on the verge of death perchance?" Nephis had reformed her stoic mask by the time she asked her question.
"Kinda ahh I guess you saw right through me. The creature I killed was an egg that had yet to hatch because it needed to drain the souls that touched it. So I would've died when I touched it if not for my soul sea being different from everyone else, letting me survive its attack or else I wouldn't be here. After that, I used [midnight Shard], augmented it with my shadow, and killed it. Oh and this was when we were being mind attacked by the soul devourer tree as I found the eggs nest on one of the branches."
Nephis collected this information and fully calmed down after knowing how it all happen. 'What a lucky bastard', Nephis thought as a small smile formed on her face which Sunny noticed and returned with one of his own. "Oh and after I killed it I got a drop of ichor which I consumed with entered my eyes. It was really painful while it happened but eventually, it subsided and I was able to see the world on a "deeper" level. Oh! And I almost forgot but I'm now able to see the weaves and memory enchantments of memories."
Upon hearing the last part Nephis quickly asked, "Wait so does that mean you can see the enchantments of my memories too?"
"I was going to ask you to let me tell you the enchantments of the weapon you got from killing the fallen terror I saw in your runes."
"I see no reason to not let you." Sunny waited for a moment and looked at Neph waiting for her to transfer the memory to him.
And another second,
And another second,
And another.
"Neph...I need the memory in my soul sea to see it I can't see its enchantments in your runss."
"Oh here," Neph reached out her hand and tried to find his hand but failed spectacularly as she missed it entirely. Trying not to laugh Sunny reached for Neph's hand and grabbed it before feeling the same sensation he'd felt a couple of times. Sunny felt a warm feeling inside his soul as Neph transferred the weapon to his soul sea. After it was done Sunny let go of her hand and opened his runes,
Memory: [Nameless Sun]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: VI
Memory Type: weapon
Memory Description: [For a long time, the Nameless Sun suffered in solitude, longing for all the things that were lost. Only when she lost that longing, too, was the Crimson Terror of the Forgotten Shore finally born.]
This would normally be the end of the runes for everyone but Sunny, with his enhanced eyes, saw more runes under them.
Memory Enchantments: [Soul Eater], [lighting], [undying desire], [unaffected], [formless]
[Soul Eater]: this weapon is able to penetrate through physical barriers and attack directly to the soul.
[lighting]: it is able to consume light or fire and store it, it can channeled and used onto the blade or released.
[undying desire]: the weapon gives its wielder sublime power equal to how much desire they have.
[Unaffected]: gives moderate protection against corruption.
[formless]: it imbues itself with other weapons and enhances them with its power.
Finishing read in the descriptions he put his arm out and tried to summon the weapon but nothing happened. 'So it really doesn't have a form of its own then," Sunny then summoned [Midnight Shard]. With the familiar tachi in his hands, he then tried to summon and imbue it with the blade. A soft glow emitted from the Tachi as he felt the power of his blade strengthen and grow. 'This feels like my shadows whenever I augment something. [Midnight blade] feels twice, no three times more powerful now...like to the power of a transcendent ranked weapon!" Sunny marveled over this newfound discovery and almost drooled if Neph hadn't closed his mouth.
"So?" Nephis looked at him with an expected look
"Well your weapon is pretty unique Neph, it imbues and empowers other weapons instead of being a weapon itself. It also can do direct soul damage and supposedly give you moderate protection against corruption though I find it unlikely it'll be useful. It's also able to absorb light and fire and release it in a burst or channel it, it'll be a good fit for you since fire is kinda your thing. It also powers you up based on your desire for something though how it actually works seems vague."
Reaching out his hand he held Neph's hand and transferred the memory back into her soul sea. Right as he was about to pull back though she held his hand firmly before white fire soon washed over sunny. The white flames outlined him as it healed his wounds...until it consumed him entirety after healing him.
"GAH!" Sunny yelped as the then threw himself on the ground and started rolling side to side. Neph stared at him, eyes wide as she almost laughed at the scene before realizing he was being burnt alive. Before she can un-summoned her flames Sunny stopped rolling and looked up at her. "Neph since when can you agument others?!"
"I can't? Wait you're saying my flames are augmenting you at this moment?"
"Yeah they are it feels similar when my shadows augment me."
Sunny and Neph then spent the next several minutes testing out this revelation. Eventually, they concluded a couple of things from their testing: they can both augment each other and their memories with their respective aspects. Augmenting the same thing with their aspects multiplies the augmentation by around 1.5x. So if Sunny used both of his shadows and Neph used all of her flames it wouldn't augment it six times but instead augment him nine times. It seemed like his shadows and Neph's flames resonated with each other which caused this to happen.
The both of them took turns augmenting themselves nine times as a result of this knowledge. They both enjoyed the blissful feeling of feeling and looking like an abyssal spirit. "Best feeling ever," Sunny had said dreamily when they were all done. Just as Neph and Sunny stopped their experiments Sunny wished he could feeling the empowerment for just a little more time...it was safe to say he was drunk on power.
"So Nephis," Sunny said staring at Neph's cold, calculated eyes. Staring back at him, Neph looked at him thoughtfully.
"So what Sunny?
"So... what are you going to do with your newfound power of me as your slave?"