S: Wouldn't getting out of her sound better?
K: I promise you, Sunny, if you were to promise cake or something like that to the rest of the people here after eating your cooking, they would run over themselves to hear your command.
S: That means a lot, Kai, but there is no reason for you to be so.
K: No, Sunny, I promise you, your cooking could very much make you very rich.
Sunny smiled to himself and sighed.
S: One more reason to get stronger.
S: Tomorrow, Seishan will come here. I will give both of you a special training.
K: Alright.
When the next day came, both Seishan and Kai met in front of the cathedral.
Sh: Knight? What are you doing here?
K: Well, training, I suppose.
Sheishan had her serpent's tail still on her back, but its head was moved to her chest, and so it was barely visible.
Kai had his coiled around his strong forearm.
Sunny came out of the cathedral and motioned them to follow him inside.
K: I thought we were about to train.
S: You are. This is a very important part, tho, so I need you to come inside.
He dispersed his shadows to guard every possible entrance and eliminate any intruder.
They were sitting inside the cathedra, cross-legged, when Sunny said.
S: Alright, any ideas on what I'm going to teach you?
K: Breathing control?
Sh: I was thinking the same.
S: No. Tell me, what do you need to do to become awakened?
K&Sh: beat this hell hole?
S: People who don't know better, yes. Not for you.
K&Sh: What?
S: For you to ascend, you simply need a vast amount of essence to form your soul core, making it awaken manually.
This revelation shocked them, but they composed themselves.
Sh: Yes, but to do that we would have to hunt a vast number of abominations, wouldn't we?
K: Unless there is a way no one else knows about.
S: You will now become one of the 5 that know how to absorb essence from the world itself.
This stunned them, making them unable to speak from excitement.
Sh: Hold on, is it like Saints?
S: No, Saint and Supremes can absorb essence from their source element, but I am going to teach you how to absorb essence from the world itself.
S: It might seem far-fetched, but I will show you my runes, so you should be able to see them now.
What spell told to Kai and Seishan?
Title: King
Name: Sunny
True name: Lost from light
Aspect Rank: Divine
Rank: awakened
Class: Demon
Sh: y-you are a divine aspect holder?
K: I didn't even know that such a rank existed, and what is your class? Demon means.
S: Well, Divine aspect holders have the possibility to have multiple soul cores, just like nightmare creatures, for me. Each class grants me a shadow's avatar.
K: Oh, so that's why you have 3 of your helpers?
S: Exactly.
K: What is the final one…is it 7? I remember that someone of them said something about Titan, and that would be 7, right?
S: Yes, excellent observation.
Sh: Your rank is really awakened. So it is possible. This is incredible.
K: How long did it take you?
S: I don't know. A couple of months? But does it matter? It just proves my point that it is possible, so I wanted to teach you how to do it passively and then move to your personal training, which you will be doing while maintaining control over world essence gain.
They both looked at him with stars in their eyes, gleaming in happiness.
And so their training began. After long exhausting hours of hard work, they started to understand it, but it required their full attention.
S: I will give you 5 days to master it so we can move to the next step.
Kai stopped, drenched in sweat, and asked Sunny
K: How long did it take you?
S: I can't remember. I'd say a day, but it was probably way less.
Sh: Also, your title is. King?
S: Please don't ever call me that, I really mean it, please don't.
Sh: Can I ask for something?
S: depends on what you are asking for?
Sh: Could you show us your full power?
S: I mean, I already did, when Nephis wanted to fight me again. So I could show you my presence instead, will that be fine as well?
Sh: Of course. I am just a little curious about something.
Sunny thought about it, but smiled with mischief creeping up into his smile.
S: Sure, why not?
Sunny called back his 3 scouting shadows, and even if anyone would find something, they would not be able to tell what is happening anyway.
?: Alright, guards are gone now, I just need to get a little closer.
He ordered his owl echo to get closer to the dark city, but suddenly silence.
Sp to ?: Your echo was destroyed.
?: What? How?
Gunlaug turned to him and asked.
Gun: What happened?
?: My echo was destroyed. I couldn't get close enough to see anything. All I can tell is that something is definitely going on, and most probably, the dark city, the cathedral, is the source.
Gun: There is a fallen devil inside. Even if there is someone crazy enough to go there. It would be a death sentence to send others there. Monitor it closely.
Meanwhile, in the cathedral.
Sunny stepped away from them, creating a bit of distance and faced them with a spin bowing politely.
While he is doing that motion, he is saying that the shadows around him get darker, slightly consuming space behind him.
S: I am Lost from Light, The Heir of The Shadow God. It is a pleasure to meet you.
His presence that was directed to them was dreadfully powerful in their eyes, still, it felt peaceful even tho it looked dangerous. It looked as if shadows were seeping from him like steam, making a larger silhouette of Sunny.
S: That's about it.
He suppressed his power again and walked back to them.
Seishan was smiling and said.
Sh: your power. Can we feel your intent behind it?
S: Oh? Yeah. I think you could distinguish between harmless and harmful intent.
Sh: It was similar, slightly to the last one. You were not fully serious last time, were you?
Kai snapped his head at her.
K: w-what?
Happy was now leaning on one of the pillars to their side and said calmly.
Ha: Why of course. As he is right now, that was barely one-third of his power.
K: o-oh. I am glad we are not enemies in that case.
Seishan looked at Happy and asked with a smile.
Sh: Hey, so are you still Sunny or?
Ha: No, I am a different entity. Master can influence us, but it doesn't work the other way around.
She pulled on her clothes by her chest pulling them lower a little.
Sh: Are you interested in me?
Ha: me? No.
Kai laughed
Seishan's eye twitched.
Sh: second time. This is the second time.
Ha: it is for a different reason from my master's, tho.
Sh: Oh? What, is it my age?
Ha: age is something I don't understand since I don't age at all.
Ha: No, it's your power. You are far too weak. We are not compatible. Why would I want to be with someone that is weak? I believe you understand my logic.
Sh: Although it hurts my pride. I understand you.
Ha: Well, in that case, get stronger. We need strong members in our clan.
Sh: Can you teach me?
Happy stared her up and down, slowly moving his eyes, not stopping at any part of her body in particular and shook his head.
Ha: Creepy would be a better match with you. You use Gautles, aren't you?
Sh: Yes.
Creepy appeared on the other side of the pillar, facing Seishan from the other side. His eyes, still covered by his messy hair
Cr: her?
Cr: I don't know.
He scratched his neck with his gauntlets, making blood thick as black ink flow from it but heal incredibly quickly.
Cr: She has to finish at least 3 steps of Shadow dance for me to even start with her. Still, I could imagine training another fellow Gauthlet user.
Sh: Then I won't disappoint you.
Creepy scoffed and disappeared with Happy into the shadows.
Sh: What is your plan for now?
S: I want to make Gunlaug suspicious.
Sh: How so?
S: My range of what I sense is pretty good, you know.
K: How good.
S: I can cover it from here to the border with the Slums.
Sh: In every direction?
S: Of course.
Sh: So basically, this territory of Dark City is under your control?
S: Yes.
K: So cool.
Sh: I can almost imagine it. 2 kingdoms, one on the hill. The Bright Castle and here the Dark City. The name suits you as well. Since you control shadows.
S: While we are at it. How does your flaw work? Is it like you have to drink blood or you will die? Or something different.
Sh: I won't die per say, but if I am hurt, I get….thirsty for it.
S: By any chance, are you attracted to my blood?
Sh: I didn't see you bleed once, so I can't say.
Sunny summoned his sword and slashed his wris,t making drops of blood drop on the ground. He did it so nonchalantly is shocked both Kai and Seishan. Sunny walked up to her and said.
S: Open your hands.
Sh: not mouth?
K: You are wasting your time, he is not gonna get it.
S: Absolutely not.
Sh: Now I look like an idiot.
K: You sure do.
Nonetheless, she opened her hands and let some of it drop land oh her palm.
Sh: Why only this much?
S: Let me try something.
Sunny concentrated on the shadows made from pillars, and in that moment, something strange happened. Shadowswrapped themselves around Sunny's arm and dove into his open wound, sealing it slowly.
S: Nice. Although it is consuming begging for quite a lot of my concentration.
K: Did you just heal yourself?
S: sort of. It is quite difficult to explain. I mean, I know. It is more or less patched. Not healed. I prevented it from bleeding, but I didn't regenerate my blood, and the scar will still be there. See?
He showed him his palm.
K: Why are you so calm about this? Doesn't it hurt?
S: Of course it does, but if I were to flinch at any sign of pain, I would just make an enemy think they have an advantage over me.
K: That's something I need to learn, I guess.
S: You will, it is incredibly important for archers not to get distracted under any circumstances. We will get to it once you master this.
K: Alright.
They look at Seishan, who licked the blood from her hand, cleaning her hand in a process, and suddenly her eyes widen.
As she did that, Creepy appeared from her shadow and said.
Cr: so hot.
Sunny and Kai faced him.
K: Sunny?
S: We are different entities, Kai. Also Creepy?
Cr: What? That was super hot from a hot chick like her to do something so creepy? Why didn't I think of doing something like that?
Sh: Your blood is incredibly sweet. I … her smile froze because suddenly she started to shake and cough uncontrollably, coughing up black blood.
S: You were saying?
Sunny crouched to Seishan, who was still shaking and was visibly pale.
Sh: That was not fun.
Sunny touched the black blood, which formed a round shape, absorbing it back into him.
S: I just wanted to make sure you won't drink my blood. If you were to drink it fully.
Sh: I would die.
S: Yes. You see, my blood is special. Well, with that out of the way.
Seishan looked at Creepy, blushing. A lot.
Creepy was crouching behind her, watching her creepily.
Sh: You are so adorable when you look at me like that.
Creepy froze and fell on his back into the shadows.