Shadow Slave

There had been a time when Sunny studied Changing Star's runes like a man obsessed. His whole life had been built around the desire to overtake her on the path to power.

He might have even done a few careless things in that pursuit.

At some point, however, Sunny had lost the desire to compare himself to Nephis, at least in this way. The first change had happened because of her return from the Dream Realm. The second... sometime in the Antarctic Center, he had lost the habit of summoning her runes every day.

Shadow fragments, soul fragments - those were not a true measure of strength, anyway. Sunny had seen countless mundane soldiers stand and fight against the Nightmare Creatures, never surrendering despite the dire disparity of power between them. If those people were weak, then he did not know whom to call strong.

And so, at some point, he had stopped paying constant attention to Neph's runes without even noticing it.

Now, however, Sunny had the Mirror of Truth. So, he decided that it was worth taking another look.

The familiar symbols shimmered, forming into strings:

Name: Nephis.True Name: Changing Star.Rank: Ascended.Class: Tyrant.Soul Cores: [5/7].

He stared at that number for a few moments.

After years of lagging behind, Sunny had finally caught up to her... wasn't it so very funny that he had only been able to do so after stopping caring about the race?

A light smile appeared on his face.

'Whatever... she still has more fragments than I do. She'll be a Terror sooner than me.'

But did it really matter? In the end, they would both be Titans. That day was not as far away as it had once seemed, now.

Sunny continued to read:

Soul Fragments: [2719/5000].

reveal the fact that she possessed a Divine Aspect and multiple soul cores

hunting down many Nightmare Creatures while Sunny had been going from one dire battle to another almost every day in the Antarctic Center, either, so her progress was slow

had received in the recent battle, then

Legion Armor],

long list of Memories. Some of them she had received while wandering the Dream Realm and challenging the Second Nightmare... in fact, Sunny could learn a few things about what kind of trial she had faced from reading their

he held himself back. Perhaps it was

herself. Sunny knew what a precious and fragile thing trust was... it had taken a lot for him to extend his own trust toward Effie and Kai. Before that, his friends

Neph. They were incredible Memories, indeed, no less outstanding than Morgan's Warbow - each crafted for the specific purpose of slaughtering Nightmare Creatures and tailored to the

wanted to borrow a few to study their weaves. He just did not know how to phrase

Neph, could you please take off your armor? I need it for a couple of weeks... no, no I won't wear

about it

image, Sunny continued

two worlds, belonging to both, but welcomed in neither. Your soul

unholy union between the divine and the profane.

"Your soul is aflame with

have inherited the lineage

had not changed. Sunny himself had received a couple new Attributes in the past years, but Nephis had not. Neither had she unlocked her Aspect Legacy... which was not very surprising. Each Aspect was unique, after all,

who received their Legacies were rare, and most only accomplished that feat after becoming Saints, with an even smaller number doing so as Masters. Otherwise, there

Sunny

Serpent, and turned back

and doomed to exist in

absorb a portion of the soul essence of any Nightmare Creature destroyed by your flames,

soul burns with the purest of

Abilities - it had grown slightly more versatile since the Forgotten Shore, now augmenting the soul,

her Awakened and Ascended ones, respectively - were new. The Awakened Ability was

Description: "You can

have to be her own - although she could produce flames if there were none around at the cost of feeling terrible

on the other hand...