Shadow Slave

The Dark Shaper was a Transcendent Memory of the Fourth Tier that Nephis had gained in Antarctica. It was one of the few she had chosen to keep - the rest either went to the Fire Keepers or were sold to acquire various equipment and resources.

Being the leader of a group of elite Awakened was not cheap. Even with the support of Clan Valor, Neph had to work hard to provide her followers with the best... everything. Perhaps it was a part of the King of Swords testing her competency, or perhaps the great clan simply didn't care to spend too much on the survivors of the Forgotten Shore before they proved themselves.

In any case, Nephis had decided to keep the Dark Shaper for herself.

The reason she had decided to hold on to the stone mallet was both because of its power and because its description mentioned the Demon of Dread.

The Dark Shaper looked more like a tool than a weapon. It had a handle of dark polished wood inlaid with dull silver. The hammerhead was fashioned out of perfectly black stone - which looked and felt rather familiar.

Sunny was almost certain that it was the same stone that the Tomb of Ariel had been built of.

The stone mallet's enchantments had to do with sculpting and changing the shape of things. Disturbingly, these things were not limited to stone, metal, and wood... if one wished, they could also shape flesh and bone, sculpting all kinds of nightmarish creations. The sinister Corrupted Devil Nephis had killed to receive the Dark Shaper was similarly revolting.

It was indeed a Memory worthy of being graced with the name of the Demon of Dread in its description.

And speaking of the description...

At first, Sunny simply studied the shimmering runes, finding them rather interesting.

They read:

Memory: [Dark Shaper].

Memory Rank: Transcendent.

Memory Tier: IV.

Memory Type: Tool.

cowered in fear. Only Ariel, the Demon of Dread, remained standing - he did not feel fear, for he was fear itself. Taking a step forward, he challenged the unholy titan, and the two battled under the azure sky. Their battle was fierce, their battle was fearsome. Their battle was

possessed an indestructible stone body and was invulnerable to all harm. As they fought, the land was shattered and the sky split apart. The Demon of Dread received many harrowing wounds, but

something to his enemy, and then cast the titan into the depths of

vapor and was scattered by the winds. The stone flesh of the titan instantly cooled, causing a tiny crack to appear on its heart - that tiny spot was the only part of the creature that had not been tempered, and was

one heartbeat, cracks appeared on its indestructible body. After two heartbeats, blood flowed from its wounds like a river. After three heartbeats, its body started

the seventh heartbeat, its heart shattered,

the unholy stone

out of the titan's blood, and built a pyramid out of its stone flesh.

The description ended.

reading that Sunny's eyes widened as an unbelievable guess

'Wait. No. No way...'

Ariel's battle with an Unholy Titan was indeed very interesting, not the least because it seemed as though the Demon of Dread had won due to a single whisper. More than that, it hinted at the answers to several questions that Sunny had been curious about. For example, who or what was the progenitor of the Minor Shard of the

pieces of knowledge were not what caused such a reaction from Sunny. What drew his attention was the abrupt end of the

Didn't it seem... incomplete?

was another part of it

seemed like a

summoned his own runes and found the name of