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].

from the treasury of clan Valor after being adopted by them. However, she could not reveal the fact that she possessed a Divine Aspect and multiple soul cores - requesting more than a thousand would have

had been going from 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,

had received in the recent battle, then turned his attention back to the

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

wandering the Dream Realm and challenging the Second Nightmare... in fact, Sunny could learn

he held himself back. Perhaps it was

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

though. He felt 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 -

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

need it for a

about it

dreadful image, Sunny continued

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

union between the divine and the profane. Nephilim were the most beautiful, and the most harrowing of them

Description: "Your soul

Fire] Attribute Description: "You have

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,

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

Sunny who was

Serpent, and turned back to the shimmering

was banished and doomed to exist in the

Description: "You can directly absorb a portion of the soul essence of any Nightmare Creature destroyed by your flames, as well as of any

Manipulation], [Longing].[Soul Flame] Ability Description: "Your soul burns with the purest of flames. That flame can both restore and destroy, and is both a blessing

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

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

"You can bend

fire did not have to be her own - although she could produce flames if there were none around at the cost of feeling

the other hand... was