In the tunnels beneath the hollow mountains, darkness loomed over their own realm. Sunny, along with the rest of her group, moved slowly forward in complete silence. No one had said they needed to remain silent, but for the same reason they'd gone so far as to seal their eyelids with wax, they wouldn't risk it. Still, Sunny couldn't help but long to hear the voices of his companions... or maybe not, he could spare himself Caster's annoying voice.
At that moment, Sunny stopped, coming face to face with the penultimate lost shadow of the First Lord's court. He still felt a strange sense of incongruity at encountering these traces of humanity left behind; so lonely, so lost, so... sad. With a feeling of emptiness, Sunny couldn't help but empathize with these shadows, for his very nature screamed that no shadow should be like this.
'Well, at least you'll be able to rest with your friends. You won't have to be alone anymore.' - Extending a hand, the shadow was absorbed.
Relieved, Sunny let out a sigh. Now he felt a small weight lifted. He just needed to find the Lord's own shadow, and he could get out of there…
It was in that instant that something changed. The entire pce remained the same, the shadows remained still, the air calm and without a trace of sound; but something beyond his common senses was shaken.
It started with Cassie, who stopped abruptly, acting anxious, scared, and lost all over again. As if she were that blind girl they met at the academy again.
Next was Sunny, who was overcome by a nauseating sensation, as if something was pulling at his body with hundreds of strings and his very existence was faltering.
Without hesitation, Sunny pushed away the overwhelming wave of terror screaming in his mind and tried to locate his enemy, but no action was quick enough. For in the next second, one end of the golden rope fell, along with the clinking sound of metal against rock.
Only the sound of the sleepers' bored breathing remained, followed by the thunder of Cassie falling to her knees.
"S-Sunny? Cassie?" Changing Star called hesitantly. When she got no answers, a heavy feeling of fear permeated the pce.
Seconds passed in suffocating anticipation, until out of nowhere, a new sound reappeared in the cavern, only unlike Sunny's silent footsteps, these were heavier, firmer, and more austere. With the scrape of stone against stone, the group of tense sleepers raised their weapons. The next moment, something lifted a sword from the ground.
…
Saint was confused, but also apathetic. She watched the group of tense warriors in front of her with some caution, but in the end, she gave greater importance to the strange sensation in her body. One moment, she was waiting, within the soul core she was reborn in, and then she found herself standing in that pce… without her master.
Her senses assaulted her with a certain sense of danger, which had forced her to keep her eyes closed upon his arrival. But whatever caused it seemed only to recede from her location. She couldn't pinpoint its nature, a creature of the shadows? The darkness? Nothingness? That didn't matter; what mattered was now.
Saint stopped, for the first time genuinely puzzled.
What was this? - She tilted her head slightly.
Her thoughts raced, trying to decipher the implications of those messages, but her response was short. It didn't matter. What should have her attention now was the fact that she was in hostile territory without her master.
Walking confidently, she quickly approached where her master had disappeared. There, a familiar dull steel sword awaited her, along with a golden rope and a seemingly ordinary key. She didn't hesitate to take all the items; she stowed the key inside her own shadow.
Her movements seemed to alert her master's companions, as each one stood guard against her. Strange... she felt no desire to attack them, but now she also didn't have that almost unconscious feeling of protecting them. A trait given by the will of her master, or rather, her former master.
Watching them closely, she wondered, should she kill them?
While that thought was running through her mind, a fsh of emotion burned in her soul. As if something else were calling to her. There, just a few feet away, a shadow moved, one unlike any other and also very familiar.
"I found you," she told herself.
Turning her back on the sleepers who were pointing their weapons at her, she moved forward with determination until she stood before that lost shadow. The shadow of her master.
…
She looked exactly the same as she had in life, at least as far as her own shadow sense could tell. Like everyone else, she kept her eyes closed.
The shadow seemed a mirror image of her former master, only more so... lost, lonely, lifeless. Before, that same shadow had acted with foolish joy, but now, it seemed disturbed and fearful of everything around it.
Without any specific thought, she raised her palm, and in turn, her master's shadow seemed to respond to her action, looking into her eyes with some surprise. Then, a look of relief lit his sober face.
< You have collected your master's lost shadow. 'Lost in the Light', you grow stronger. >
< You have inherited a shadow core. >
< You are evolving... >
Instantly, a sharp pain ran through her body and soul. Something strange that had never happened to her in her entire existence, except for...
She fell to her knees!
She smmed her sword into the stone floor with force. Her fists clenched fiercely, and her always calm mind was filled with uncertainty. Beside her, the group of Awakened seemed to have made a decision and approached, ready to fight.
She was fine with that. Gripping the steel weapon even tighter, she prepared to face them, but it soon became unnecessary. Taking a few steps forward, the blind girl, Cassie, stopped her companions.
"It's no use, just wait."
Uncertain, they wanted to retort, but their trust in the seer and the strange situation forced them to cling to the one person who could give them a sense of security in the face of the unknown. They lowered their weapons.
Only Cassie remained the same, watching her closely, just as Saint did with her. A strange proposition, considering neither of them was using their eyes.
The atmosphere in the cavern seemed to change as the shadows that poputed it seemed to react to the strange event occurring in Saint's soul. The wind howled, and without restraint, shadows crept in from all sides, filling her heart deeply.
Her body changed, adapting to her soul. Her height grew to almost two meters. Her armor darkened, losing all shine, and her once stone-gray skin became marble-white. Instantly, a feeling of new strength invaded her.
< You have become a demon! >
< You have obtained the attributes: [Recognized by Shadows] [Heart of Shadows] [Ember of Divinity] >
A feeling of etion ran through her body, but before she could complete a thought, another change occurred. The feeling of power faded, and a strange certainty struck her that something that should never have existed.
< You've inherited Weavel's blood... make sure you don't lose it this time... >
For the first time, Saint dropped her sword.