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

one dire battle to another almost every day in the Antarctic Center, either, so her progress was slow as of late. Now that Changing Star had arrived in Antarctica, though, that

wondered how many soul fragments she had received in the recent battle, then turned his

[Dream Blade], [Starlight Legion Armor], [Dawn Shard],

the Second Nightmare... in fact, Sunny could learn a few things about what kind of trial she had faced from reading their

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

own trust toward Effie and Kai. Before that, his

no qualms about studying the Memories that clan Valor 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 to

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

could you please take off your armor? I need it for a couple of

about it made him

image, Sunny continued to study the

Divinity], [The Fire].[Dreamspawn] Attribute Description: "You are born of two worlds, belonging to both,

the divine and the profane.

of Divinity] Attribute Description: "Your soul is aflame

Attribute Description: "You have inherited

in the past years, but Nephis had not. Neither had she unlocked her Aspect Legacy... which was not

and most only accomplished that feat after becoming Saints, with an even smaller number doing so as Masters. Otherwise, there would have been

it was Sunny who

sighed wistfully, thinking of Serpent, and turned back to the shimmering

and doomed to exist in the darkness. You bring radiance

soul essence of any Nightmare

Flame] Ability Description: "Your soul burns with the purest of flames. That flame can both restore and destroy, and

Neph's three Aspect Abilities - it had grown slightly more versatile since the Forgotten Shore, now augmenting the soul, as

other two Abilities - her Awakened and Ascended ones, respectively - were new. The Awakened Ability

"You can bend all fire to your

able to control fire, turning it into her weapon. That fire did not have to be her own - although she could produce flames if there were none around

Ability, on the other