Shadow Slave

The weave of a Shard Memory was subtly different from an ordinary one. They possessed some unique qualities, after all, like the ability to remain in existence after the owner's death, or the hidden purpose of manifesting the Oath Keys after all seven had been gathered in one place.

Luckily, Sunny possessed two Shard Memories of his own - the Midnight and Moonlight Shards - so he already knew how to find and isolate these sections of the tapestry, which was supposed to make the task of deciphering the rest of it easier.

...In theory.

In practice, the spellweave of a Shard Memory was even more labyrinthine than that of a normal Memory. Sunny had managed to gain a sufficient level of understanding of the Midnight Shard - enough so to apply a part of its enchantment to the Siege Souvenir - but the Moonlight Shard still remained beyond his grasp.

Which was a shame, because the ghostly stiletto possessed one of the most useful enchantments Sunny had ever seen - it was able to appear instantly, without wasting any time manifesting itself from the sparks of essence. If Sunny could master that single enchantment, all Memories he created would gain a lethal edge.

The more powerful a Memory was, the longer it took to manifest. So, as the Awakened reached higher Ranks of power, they had to be more and more strategic about when to summon their Memories.

Considering that he was unable to master the weave of the Moonlight Shard to this day, the Dawn Shard could very well prove to be a similarly tough nut to crack.

As Sunny stared at the vast tapestry of ethereal strings hidden within the band of bright metal, the corner of his eye twitched.

'Yeah...'

This... was not going to be easy.

'But I can do it.'

He was certain of it. Recreating the whole weave was out of the question, but modifying it... armed with the insights he had gained and would gain from Ananke's Mantle, he felt confident in his chances.

It was just going to take a lot of effort, and a lot of time.

'How do I transplant a new nexus without collapsing the whole weave? How do I ensure that superior essence actually produces a superior result? How do I prevent the less resilient sections of the weave from being torn apart by the increased burden on them?'

All these questions required answers... there were many more problems to solve, as well. Sunny had never tried something quite as ambitious as turning a powerful Ascended Memory into a tremendously more powerful Supreme Memory.

One thing was certain - it would require an inhuman level of finesse and precision. It would also require a lot of additional essence strings.

a lot of

not feel discouraged. Instead,

sails or drowning in a foul mood, at

aplustre, he moved the

seven suns rose from the water, Sunny felt like his head was on the

Sunny was holding the Dawn Shard in one hand. His

danced in the air and weaved strings from his flowing shadow essence. Those were manifested from the shadows, of

- it was not too hard for him, considering his experiences in the Second Nightmare. The most

studying the weave of the Crown of Dawn, though, he understood that the finesse he would need to alter it was not something a human could achieve. Two hands

same time had

was one thing to pull on the ropes to raise sails, or rip Nightmare Creatures to shreds. Those were crude actions that did not require a lot of finesse. Weaving, on the other hand, demanded absolute precision. Displacing a string by a hair's

end, Sunny had to dismiss two shadow arms and

around with only six arms? That's simply

from the lower deck, rubbing her face sleepily. She glanced at Sunny and nodded... then froze and looked

sighed, and continued on her way

smell of delicious food being cooked reached

He smiled.

breakfast, I

Sunny dismissed the Dawn Shard and went to find

ate in the shade of the sacred tree, enjoying the warm sunlight and the refreshing breeze. After a while, she

you going to

satisfied,

yet. I can go without sleep for a couple more days... there's a lot

spellweave of Dawn Shard, create Memories for Nightmare

She frowned a little.

fatigue will slow you down. Your mind

He smiled.

The same Dusk we are on our way