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].

being adopted by them. However, she could not reveal the fact that she possessed a Divine Aspect and multiple soul cores - requesting

from one dire battle to another almost every day in the Antarctic Center, either, so her progress was slow as of late. Now that

soul fragments she had received in the recent battle,

Armor], [Dawn Shard], [Dark Wing], [Nameless

of Memories. Some of them she had received while wandering the Dream Realm and challenging the Second Nightmare... in fact, Sunny

he held himself back. Perhaps it was stupid, but... he did not want to

thing trust was... it had taken a lot for him to extend his own trust toward Effie and Kai. Before that, his friends had respected his desire to remain silent and did not push

had provided to 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

he really wanted to borrow a few to study their weaves. He just did

Neph, could you please take off your armor? I need it for a couple of weeks...

about it

image, Sunny continued

Description: "You are born of two worlds, belonging to both, but welcomed in neither. Your soul

the divine and the profane. Nephilim were the most beautiful, and the

soul is

Attribute Description: "You have

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, and possessed unique requirements for acquiring

Saints, with an even smaller number doing so

Sunny who was an

sighed wistfully, thinking of Serpent, and turned back

that was banished and doomed to exist in the darkness. You bring radiance and warmth to wherever you

Ability Description: "You can directly absorb a portion of the soul essence of any Nightmare Creature

of flames. That flame can both restore and destroy,

grown slightly more versatile since the Forgotten Shore, now augmenting the soul, as well, but otherwise

other two Abilities - her Awakened and Ascended ones, respectively -

Ability Description: "You can bend all fire

did not have to be her own - although she could produce flames

Ability, on the other hand... was a