Chapter 353: Light Bringer
The runes shimred in the tranquil darkness of the silent sea.
Na: Nephis.
True Na: Changing Star.
Just as Sunny had suspected, that True Na hid many anings. It didn't describe a star that was always changing, but instead a star that caused change. However, there were a lot of words for change in the runic language, each hiding a unique aning.
The one used here ant a cataclysmic change that brought ruin and disaster; sotis bad and sotis good, but always cruel and calamitous, wreathed in misfortune.
So, in a sense, Nephis was neither a Star of Change nor a Star of Ruin, but both; the two went hand in hand, inseparable, destined to bring both salvation and damnation to those touched by her light.
…Just like what had happened to the dood Drears of the Dark City.
The Spell was really good at giving nas, it seed.
Thinking of his own True Na somberly, Sunny read further:
Rank: Drear.
Class: Demon.
Soul Cores: [3/7].
Soul Fragnts: [2749/3000].
He stared at the last two strings, a dark expression written on his face.
'So this… this is how far ahead of
you are.'
Then, with a heavy sigh, he looked away.
Many events of the past few months made sense now. During the fight against Gunlaug, Nephis had already been a Dormant Monster — just like he was right now, a Drear in possession of two Cores. It was because she had known that killing the Bright Lord would push her toward the third that she asked him to prevent Caster from attacking her in that mont of weakness.
…And in the ti since, Changing Star had almost reached the fourth.
'How was she so fast?'
Sunny had made a conscious choice to avoid saturating his core during the civil war in the Bright Castle. In hindsight, this decision had turned out to be a wrong one… or maybe not. If he had collected all thousand shadow fragnts back then, he might have been dead already, killed by one of Tessai's Guards or a Nightmare Creature while completely incapacitated by the formation of the second Shadow Core.
Hell, he would have been crushed to death by a piece of falling granite if not for the [Soul Conduit] suppressing the process at the best possible mont.
…Just as always, terrible misfortune had co together with incredible luck.
But even if he had co to possess the Monster Core back then, he would have never managed to create a third, let alone get this close to the fourth one.
It was because Nephis had one big advantage over him in the matter of collecting essence.
Like every Awakened except for Sunny, she received a certain portion of the enemy's accumulated soul essence when killing a fellow human, while he received only a single shadow fragnt… or a few, at best, if the enemy was of the higher Rank than him. Which hadn't happened yet, but was inevitably going to, considering his luck.
The war against Tessai and Gemma must have been a true feast for Changing Star. Especially when slaying those experienced mbers of the Host that had long saturated their cores themselves.
She was always on the frontline, after all. Fighting, killing, leading her followers…
Sunny grimly stared into the darkness for a while, then slowly turned back to the runes. His eyes slid lower…
mories: [Dream Blade], [Starlight Legion Armor], [Dawn Shard], [Dark Wing], [Naless Sun]...
There were a few utility mories, too, including [Evertwine] — the golden rope he knew so well. But Sunny did not pay them a lot of attention. His sight was attracted to the Naless Sun. What was that mory and why hadn't he seen or heard of it before?
mory: [Naless Sun].
mory Rank: Ascended.
mory Tier: VI.
mory Type: Weapon.
mory Description: [For a long ti, the Naless Sun suffered in solitude, longing for all the things that were lost. Only when she lost that longing, too, was the Crimson Terror of the Forgotten Shore finally born.]
His eyes narrowed.
'So… she received a mory after killing the Vessel, after all.'
An Ascended weapon of the sixth tier… Sunny wished that he could see its weave and learn what enchantnts that terrible mory held. Whatever they were, however, the Naless Sun was bound to be extrely powerful.
But was it enough to help Nephis survive in the ruthless hellscape of the Dream Realm? He did not know.
Frowning, Sunny continued to read the runes.
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Dreamspawn], [Nephilim], [Fla of Divinity], [The Fire].
[Dreamspawn] Attribute Description: "You are born of two worlds, belonging to both, but welcod in neither. Your soul exists on the edge between nightmare and reality."
[Nephilim] Attribute Description: "There once were terrible creatures born of an unholy union between the divine and the profane. Nephilim were the most beautiful, and the most harrowing of them all."
[Fla of Divinity] Attribute Description: "Your soul is afla with the light of divinity."
[The Fire] Attribute Description: "You have inherited the lineage of Sun God."
He hesitated for a bit, studying Neph's Attributes.
'So that's how it is…'
Sunny had always wondered what was her innate Attribute — the one that was at the center of all the rest, the core of her being, just like his [Fated] trait. He often thought that it was tied to drive, battle prowess, or will.
But it was not.
Instead, Neph's innate Attribute was called [Dreamspawn] and tied to her nature as a child of a Hollow mother. In a sense, she was connected to the Dream Realm — and the Nightmare Spell — from before she had even been born.
Her core trait was duality.
If his guess was correct, that duality was further expressed after Nephis had conquered her First Nightmare and received her Aspect, as well as a new Attribute — [Nephilim]. Once again, it described a half-blood creature: half divine, half profane.
Half deific, half… Unknown?
Suddenly, he rembered how Changing Star had stopped and stared at the depiction of a radiant being engraved into the walls of the ancient mine below the Hollow Mountains.
Was that creature one of the nephilim? Or a fallen angel, from whom nephilim were supposed to be born? After all, the similarity between that creature and her own powers was hard to deny.
And then there was the last Attribute, [The Fire].
Sunny rubbed his face.
A Lineage Attribute, sowhat similar to his own Blood Weave. Finally, the aning behind that word beca clear: Lineage mories akin to the [Drop of Ichor] were able to impart Awakened with unique Attributes that, unlike the usual ones, seed to be hereditary. They could be passed down through a bloodline, and at least one of the great Legacy clans — the almost destroyed Immortal Fla — possessed one.
Did all great Legacy clans — like Song or Valor — possessed one, too? Was that what allowed them to rise to the very top of humanity and claim their place as great clans, in the first place?
'Those bastards have so many secrets.'
Sunny also couldn't help but notice a slight difference between [Blood Weave] and [The Fire]. While the latter was described simply as "lineage
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