Chapter 86: Flame of Blasphemy
Chapter Summary: The family tree grows more confusing by the moment.
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It was a perfectly enjoyable morning.
The sun was bright yet not too hot; morning dew accumulated on the grass, reflecting the light in a beautiful pattern, and the breeze was just perfect, enough to refresh but not so much as to be a bother.
Combined with the company, she felt relaxed enough that she almost allowed herself to be lulled back to sleep. It was criminal just how comfortable the deck chair she was lounging on was.
If she wasn't so immersed in the conversation, she might just have.
"So I went ahead and—"
Nephis noticed it even before Sunny stopped talking.
The Bond granted her the ability to know where Sunny was at all times. This extended from his main body, which in her mind was the equivalent of a bright star, to his incarnations, which were comparable to lesser stars orbiting the main one.
A second ago, one of those lesser stars had almost blinked out, reduced to little more than a spark she could barely perceive.
Nephis stood up immediately, all sense of relaxation evaporating like the morning dew. She tugged at that mental connection, hoping that she had only imagined it.
Sunny dashed those hopes immediately afterward, his voice grim as he spoke.
"I lost connection to one of my shadows. The one watching over Rain."
Worry gripped her heart upon hearing it, and it was only the fact that she could still perceive it that stopped her from doing anything drastic.
"I can perceive it, though just barely," she replied, her voice just as grim despite the knowledge.
Sunny looked at her, a glimmer of hope appearing in his eyes, too.
A thoughtful frown crossed his face, lasting for just a moment before he acted. Shadows covered him, and he disappeared, likely teleporting to that incarnation's last known location.
Just as she was about to transform and follow, shadows enveloped her too, and she allowed herself to be teleported. A small, distant part of her was faintly amused by the almost sheepish motions of the shadows, as though their owner was embarrassed by having forgotten to take her along from the beginning.
She reappeared beside the riverbank, where Sunny was already crouched by the water, studying it with razor-sharp focus, the shadows around him writhing, reflecting his fury and nervousness. Serpent was beside him, its dark eyes peering at the water with deep animosity.
Besides them, there was only one other person: that girl, Tamar, whom Rain seemed quite fond of.
Nephis approached to get her account of the events while Sunny finished his inspection. Despite her calm steps, deep inside, a smoldering inferno of sheer, unadulterated wrath was already threatening to spill out.
A Nightmare Creature had dared to target her little sister, and she wasn't going to let it harm her or leave these lands alive.
"What happened?" she asked in a confident tone that showed none of her bubbling fury.
The ashen-haired girl straightened up the moment she addressed her, looking like a soldier facing their captain. Her attempt at putting a stoic expression on her face was surprisingly good, but in the end, she was still barely a teenager and couldn't hide the way she was trembling. Neither could she hide the tears of fright that were about to start falling.
"Awakened Rain and I were spending time together. We talked while she skipped rocks, and at the last throw..." The girl shivered. "A pale woman appeared behind her, and the next thing I knew, she was gone."
Nephis nodded, put a steadying hand on the girl's shoulder, and smiled as comfortingly as she could manage, which, fortunately, worked to some degree, as the girl relaxed slightly. No matter how angry she was, Tamar wasn't at fault here, nor could she, a mundane, have done anything about it.
"Don't worry. We'll take it from here," she said soothingly.
Inside, she was already planning how to rip the Nightmare Creature apart bit by bit.
"Will she..." Tamar hesitated. "Will she be all right?"
Nephis squeezed her shoulder warmly. "We'll make sure she is."
The girl nodded and rubbed her eyes to get rid of the tears that had started falling down her face.
"One of my shadows will bring you back to the Citadel and tell everyone to remain inside," Sunny said, entering the conversation. His expression was calm, but the fury smoldering behind his eyes could not be hidden. At least not from her. "Stay there, too. And if anyone tries to leave, tell them I will personally deal with them once I return."
Tamar nodded, determination burning in her eyes, and a moment later she disappeared within the embrace of shadows.
"What did you find out?" She asked, resisting the urge to clench her fists. Her hands were already itching to grab her sword.
Sunny did not answer immediately, turning his gaze back to the lake instead. A moment later, he shook his head.
"One of my incarnations was watching Rain. The moment that Nightmare Creature appeared, I lunged to intercept it, but lost connection the moment we touched Rain." He gritted his teeth. "I tried to find a clue here, but even now, I cannot feel its presence at all."
"I still can," she answered, anticipating his next question.
This time, she was the one to approach the lake. She crouched before it and invoked the Name of Water, hoping to glean a hint or two.
Nephis had finally mastered that Name two days ago, but the progress had been abysmal. The lake could tell that there was something that did not belong prowling its waters, but could not tell what it was or where it hid. With how recent this attack was -barely two minutes had passed- she hoped that it would be different this time.
Sure enough, the lake answered shortly afterward, though calling it an answer was a misnomer. More than words, what she received was akin to sensations, abstract images, and intentions. It almost felt like someone trying to explain colors to a blind person.
It told her that the one who did not belong was here, right beneath her nose. It told her of a being old enough to have seen stars be born and die, with a cruelty to match. It told her that its steps did not create ripples and that no drop of water had ever touched it. It told her that its mere existence was anathema to life itself. It also begged her to get rid of it, no matter the cost.
Following its guidance, she stepped onto the surface of the water and started walking across it through an application of her Will. Distantly, she heard Sunny follow.
Exactly nine meters away, she finally found it. It was invisible to the naked eye, and so small and inconspicuous that she would have missed it if she had not known exactly where to look. The best description she could come up with was that it was akin to two pieces of paper stapled together and pressed so tightly that the words had mixed into an unrecognizable mess in which she couldn't tell which word belonged to which paper.
She tried to touch the two "papers," but her hand went right through them as though she had just imagined them. Inserting essence produced no effect either, and it was only when she pushed with her Will that she received some feedback.
The sensation was akin to pushing against a closed door, one that she could just barely make budge. Nephis did not need anything else.
"I need your help," she said straightaway. "I found where it's hiding, but I won't be able to open a passage with my Will alone in a short time frame."
Sunny did not doubt even for a moment before answering as he stepped beside her and crouched, looking for what she had found.
"Show me," he ordered, eyes only burning more ferociously.
Nephis felt Sunny's Will brush against hers immediately. She guided it easily to where the small pocket of reality hid, and without needing another word, they started pushing together.
She felt the resistance increase instantly. The being in control of the folded space had noticed them and was actively resisting their efforts.
It managed to push them back for but a moment before they pushed back twice as hard. Their combined Wills, limited as they were as Saints, were too much for the Nightmare Creature to resist, and little by little, the "papers" started tearing apart.
She kept pushing against the foreign Will, her own focused down into a chisel that carved away at the resistance mercilessly, stripping the folded space bare.
Some quick calculations told her that it would be a matter of minutes before they could get inside. She could only hope that Sunny's shadow would last long enough for them to come to Rain's rescue.
If not... she wouldn't stop until the creature begged her to.
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"Welcome, Weaver and Shadow's little mongrel," the woman whispered in a thousand voices, smiling softly. "Long have I awaited your arrival, and now... you are finally here."
Sunny did not allow himself to react to the Nightmare Creature's words. It was unlikely to be bluffing if it apparently knew that much, but he didn't want to give any confirmation through his actions nonetheless.
Calmly, as if completely unbothered, he cast another gaze to gauge his surroundings.
It was the same as last time he looked. A lake that extended far beyond what he could see, a full moon in the sky, and nobody besides the two of them in sight. However, there was something that he had missed last time. The fact that he couldn't feel a single shadow.
Neither the pale woman, nor its reflection, nor the moon up in the sky projected a shadow. His consciousness had also been separated from the main body and the other incarnations.
The most infuriating part? He could practically hear Fate laughing in the back of his head.
It had been a trap, and he had fallen right into it.
Damnation.
Letting none of his thoughts show on his face, he stretched a little, rolling his shoulders as if to get rid of any stiffness in them, while at the same time hiding a hand behind his back. Slowly, more slowly than any time he had summoned a Memory before, he started summoning the [Shadow Lantern], which, spark by tiny spark, started to materialize within his grasp. Hopefully, the creature wouldn't notice it too soon if he did it like this.
Next, he shifted sight, and the pale woman's soul revealed itself. His pulse quickened immediately at the sight.
Both within the woman's body and in her reflection, seven dark suns resided, their size and quality telling him all he needed to know.
The creature before him was a Corrupted Titan.
Although... there was something wrong with its cores.
The origin of that sensation of wrongness made itself clear at a second glance. Rather than perfect, smooth spheres, their edges were jagged, with deep dents in some places and outright missing parts in others. It was a Corrupted Titan, of that he had no doubt, but there was more to it than that.
Assessments done, and with as much preparation as he could get away with in the current situation, he finally addressed the creature.
"Where is my sister?" he asked, modulating his voice to sound as calm and uncaring as possible.
The pale woman looked him up and down, a strange, cold light shining in its blue eyes.
"Safe and sound," it replied in a thousand voices that perfectly mirrored his own tone. "As long as you behave, that is."
Sunny kept his eyes fixed on the monster's while fighting the urge to sigh in relief. He had already suspected that the creature wanted something from him the moment it didn't attack on sight, but its words had just confirmed it.
Did he trust it? He knew that Nightmare Creatures of higher Classes were intelligent, and this one, capable of speech and all, seemed far smarter and more cognizant than any other he had ever met. However, a simple universal truth likely still applied.
The pale woman lived for one sole purpose: killing and devouring those who carried the tiniest of sparks of the Flame of Desire.
So, did he trust it? Not even close, but as long as he could keep it entertained long enough to find a way to rescue Rain and get out of here, that was more than enough.
"What does behaving imply?"
It smiled, a beautiful yet eerie, innocent smile that belonged on the face of a saintess rather than the horrid creature wearing the skin of a beautiful woman. Its reflection on the water grew even more grotesque the moment it did so.
"Nothing much," it replied lightly. "Being polite, not lying to me, no violence. Oh, and..." Its blue eyes became an icy tundra. "Not using that gate to the Shadow Realm you are hiding behind your back."
Sunny offered a sheepish smile and brought his hidden hand to the front, revealing the stone lantern. He dismissed it immediately afterward, and the Memory receded back into his soul.
"I apologize. It won't happen again," he said with complete honesty.
He didn't need it that much anymore, after all.
Sunny had known from the beginning that the creature would notice its summoning. Fortunately, it had waited long enough to call him out on it for him to extract some shadows and hide them beneath his clothes. They weren't enough, not even close, but at least he wasn't helpless anymore.
"No harm done," it replied magnanimously.
His back relaxed a fraction at that answer. The situation was going to end in violence still, but not just yet.
The more he could stall, the better. Both to find a way out and for the main body to arrive. That lazy bastard had better be on his way...
"What happened to everyone else you abducted?" he asked next, trying to keep the conversation going.
It put on the same innocent smile again. "They tasted delicious."
"Yeah, should have expected that," he replied indifferently, shrugging to further sell just how little it mattered to him.
Inwardly, he had to bite his tongue to stop himself from saying anything less… polite.
Human as the Nightmare Creature's form looked, it still was one. Its reflection more than proved it, and its words were all he needed to reinforce his resolve to kill it.
"I must say that the views are quite nice," he began in a casual tone. "The reflection of the moon on—"
"Come now, little mongrel," it interrupted, that creepy innocent smile still plastered over its face. "I know you want to ask. You may as well do so already."
This time, Sunny failed to hide his flinch, which the pale woman easily spotted. The innocent smile widened, growing eerier by the moment.
A dilemma presented itself to him right at that moment. On one hand, he really wanted to ask, and hopefully obtain some answers at last. On the other, he was sure that he wouldn't like the answers he was about to receive. Not in the slightest.
Besides, who was to say that it would give an answer that made sense? Or that it would tell the truth, to begin with? Sunny was quite sure that the good behavior rules only extended to him.
Spell, for all he knew, the creature could just spew utter nonsense, and he would have no way to tell.
In the end, and despite how much he resisted the idea, his curiosity won.
"How?" he asked, barely managing to keep his voice calm. "How did you know?"
The beautiful woman let out a brief chuckle that sounded like the chimes of a bell. Its reflection laughed too, and Sunny's blood froze at the sight.
"Would you rather receive the short answer or the long one?"
"Long," he answered instantly.
The creature took a lengthy, graceful step to the left, then another, and another still. Slowly, almost elegantly, it started pacing around him, almost like a predator circling its prey.
"Once upon a time, I was great. Though 'great' alone does no justice to what I was. I was more, Harbinger of Inevitability, so much more than you can possibly imagine," it said, a thousand voices speaking at the same time with a wistful tone. "I am old enough to remember a time when the Gods themselves were still young. Old enough to have personally met ******."
The last word came out garbled, as though he were watching a show on TV and a curse word had been censored. The creature grimaced at that, a resentful expression overtaking its eerie smile.
If his suspicions about who that referred to were right… then he was in a bigger mess than he had thought.
"Even now, the Will of the Gods remains, forbidding any and all from mentioning their greatest shame," it said, hate and fury tinging its voice. Immediately afterward, as though the last few seconds had not taken place, the innocent smile returned to its face. "No matter. Soon enough, it shall trouble me no more."
The last part filled Sunny with dread. Just barely, he managed to resist the urge to take a step back. It was a show of weakness that the Nightmare Creature would surely pounce on.
As he kept watching it pace around him, an idle part of him was thankful for the fact that he liked to use baggy clothes. It made it so that it wasn't too obvious when, piece by piece, he started summoning the [Onyx Shell] beneath them.
"When I met the One Whose Name Shall Not Be Known, mightiest among the Gods..." And now the voices were filled with joy. "He bestowed a boon most glorious upon me. One for which I shall forever be in debt. So when his glorious descendants rose in war against the treacherous Gods, so did I, laying devastation to their realms and followers."
The pit of dread in his gut was growing deeper and deeper with each word.
Here he was, face to face with a creature that had fought in the Doom war and somehow survived. Even that coward Merias did not dare do so, and that damn bird was an actual Divine.
The creature had paused briefly, and when it resumed speaking, pure venom oozed from all its voices.
"And then, that damnable Shadow God, may he rot forever in his own stomach, slew me personally, ripped my shadow and soul apart so I may never be one again." Impossibly, its voices grew even more hateful. "And now, what you see is all that remains. A corrupted sliver of a sliver of what I once was. Long did I despair, though that is not for you to know."
The voices proved him wrong one more time, for they grew even worse, every word carrying enough malice to almost become physical.
"Then, that treacherous Weaver came to me and offered me a deal I could not refuse. They shared many details with me, but most importantly, they spoke of a prophecy, one that would propel me back to my exalted past once more if I were to follow it."
The creature stopped its pacing and tilted its head, looking him up and down as though it were a butcher and he a particularly large slab of meat.
"'Far beyond the reach of our age, mine and Shadow's heir shall find his way to you. Should Fate lead you to meet him within the realm called the Chained Isles, you will place into the hands of his companion the blade entrusted to you by one descended from the Moon. Then you shall vanish from his path forever, never allowing your face to fall upon his eyes again.
But if my design is broken, and one bearing the blood of the Sun comes seeking the knife in his stead, you may do as you wish. Then journey beyond the Lands of Ever Winter, where, upon a lake wrought from tears, you shall meet him once more. When that hour arrives, you will know what must be done.'" It said, reciting each and every single word with a thousand voices filled with scorn and disgust.
Of course that bastard was behind this. At this point, he suspected that Weaver was behind even that one time he had stubbed his toe on a desk.
Surreptitiously, Sunny tensed, the shadows beneath his clothes already in position to turn into a barrier or a weapon at the slightest indication of danger. He didn't like how that last part sounded, much less the way that the pale woman was staring at him.
He could practically feel the tension in the air, so thick he could almost taste it.
"The boon bestowed upon me is seeing the truth in the heart of any upon whom I cast my gaze," it said, looking him up and down again. "Yours... it's glorious, little mongrel. Truly glorious. So much hate, rage, desperation, and yet at the same time I can see love, joy, even hope, pale as it might be. And your determination? It's beautiful, Harbinger of Inevitability, truly beautiful. Only the descendant of the Sun can compare." The pale woman shook its head sadly. "It's such a pity that you killed her."
Sunny just barely managed to hide his reaction to that last piece of information.
He had not killed Nephis, and he knew no one else -aside from Neph's hollow mother- who held the lineage of the Sun God. Did Weaver lie, or was it a misconception wrought by their changing of Fate?
"What's your point?" he asked, trying to change the topic before it could realize the truth.
If the creature thought its information was correct, it was bound to make mistakes by following erroneous assumptions. Mistakes that he could hopefully capitalize on.
"I can see your heart, little mongrel." It reiterated. "Look deeper than even you can. And what I just found there?" The pale woman laughed brightly, as though it had just been told it had earned the biggest prize of its life. "Oh, it's priceless."
The pacing resumed, faster this time, almost manic, as if the Nightmare Creature could barely hold itself back from pouncing.
"Many are the Divine Shadows I have met over my long life. Weak and strong. Brash and Cunning, though none with a bloodline as diverse as yours," it said lightly, then added as if on second thought, "Though I must also say this is the first time I have met one with such a sturdy shadow as yours. Were you not so weak, I might have even mistaken you for Shadow himself. Ah, but I digress."
The creature licked its lips hungrily, eyeing him like a starving outskirts rat would a tub of synthpaste. Maybe even more so.
"What interests me is the blood running through your veins." The smile became grotesque, almost splitting its face in two. "Weaver, Shadow, and the One Whose Name Shall Not Be Known."
What?
He had heard its words perfectly, and he still could not make sense of what he had just heard.
It… it made no sense. How? When?
A low, amused chuckle made him focus back on the pale woman, who looked at him as though he were a particularly slow child.
"You did not know," it said with condescending pity. "A blasphemy like no other. Despised by reality itself, and yet you are ignorant."
Like a flash of lightning, the description of the [Drop of Ichor] granted by his Aspect Legacy returned to him with perfect clarity.
[Memory Name: Drop of Ichor.]
[Memory Description: Many were the concepts the Gods forged in their war against the -Unknown-, yet none proved as dreadful as the one called Death. The final and most terrible of their creations, wrought from Shadow's own divine essence and rendered inescapable by the dominion of his elder sibling.
"Everything that ever was and ever will must end. Nobody, whether mundane, divine, or -unknown- is exempt from this rule. And even I, when the time comes, will find myself within the embrace of shadows." Thus spoke Shadow.
"So you have decreed, and so it shall be. For Fate suffers no defiance." The -Unknown- answered, its gaze fixed upon the infinite currents of its own design.
Armed with Death and guided by Fate, the divine siblings brought immeasurable ruin upon the -Unknown-, and in doing so sealed a covenant that neither time nor eternity would ever unmake.]
Yet another piece of the puzzle clicked into place next.
Shadow's words at the end of his Third Nightmare came back to him. He hadn't given them much thought at the moment, too preoccupied with the myriad emotions and revelations vying for his attention at that time.
"Don't you carry a piece of my lineage, defiled as it might be by that Daemon?"
Sunny's mind was working in overdrive, countless thoughts endlessly crashing against one another so fast that even his [Mind Weave]-reinforced brain could not keep up.
[Beloved child of Fate], the attribute had appeared before he consumed the [Drop of Ichor], but what was a few months to a being such as it was?
And finally, the last piece of the puzzle found its place, one that he had tried very hard not to think about.
Back at the Stormsea, when he had attempted to combine the sight granted by [Blood Weave] and [Endbringer], the usual black strings had turned into golden chains. The chains of Fate.
The Spell... the Spell had mixed Shadow's blood and the Forgotten God's blood. He didn't just hold the bloodline of its descendant, Weaver, but also that of the God itself.
"Ah, you realize now, do you?" the pale woman chuckled again. "Yours is a blasphemous existence, carrying the blood of the divine and the profane. Shadow and Weaver's divine blood, as well as the One Whose Name Shall Not Be Known's own corrupted blood. Even the Nephilim, abominable as they might be, cannot compare to the one who shall usher in the Flame of Blasphemy upon all of creation."
"What?" was all he could manage to utter after so many crushing revelations.
Sunny did not blink -he was sure of it- and yet one moment the pale woman was meters away, and the next it was right beside him, tenderly caressing his face like a loving mother.
"Do not feel ashamed, little blasphemy. Even I, who was once great, can barely tell." It licked its lips again, its innocent smile long gone, replaced by a hungry one. "Long ago, before the Gods themselves, there was only the Void, the cradle of all creation. Then, the Flame of Desire was born out of nothing but a want for more. Whether it be from those who inhabited it or the Void itself, more was wanted, and more was granted."
The pale woman leaned forward, its lips just barely brushing his ear.
"And now that there is more, why wouldn't it wish for less? Why wouldn't the Void want to recover what it's lost at the hands of Desire?"
The shadows beneath Sunny's clothes flowed outward into an odachi, and Sunny swung even before it finished forming, attempting to take the creature's head.
He missed, both because it took an airy step away in the nick of time, and because the thunder of his own heartbeat was almost deafening him and robbing him of balance.
The creature, uncaring of his plight, laughed again, arms held behind its back confidently as it circled him once again.
"Tell me, little blasphemy. What better candidate is there to usher in that new flame than the one who carries the blood of two who were born directly from the previous one?"
Sunny pounced, the tip of the odachi aiming straight at the creature's heart.
Surprisingly, it struck true, piercing with repugnant ease and bursting out the other side without making a single sound.
The pale woman did not flinch, did not move away. Instead, it raised both hands and held his face softly, almost lovingly.
"I have made a question, child." It whispered.
Sunny gritted his teeth, the pain of his flaw already threatening to become impossible to resist.
"M…me." He was forced to admit, glaring at the creature. He twisted the weapon, widening the wound in the woman's chest, and still it did not flinch. "But if you expect me to just accept doing such a thing, you are sorely mistaken."
"Ah, but I understand. I truly do," the creature said brightly, icy blue eyes looking at him with an amount of adoration that felt completely out of place. "You do not desire such a thing. The Flame of Blasphemy shall bring forth the end of everything that ever was and ever will, and you mortals have always been so fond of your meager lives."
It smiled one final time, so wide and grotesque that even its reflection could not match it.
"'When that hour arrives, you will know what must be done.' I doubted Weaver's claim, yet now… now I know them to be true." The water beneath their feet started to bubble, and Sunny noticed its ghastly reflection starting to emerge out of the water. "I must devour you, little by little. From every scrap of flesh down to the last drop of marrow. Next, I shall devour your soul and shadow. Only in doing so shall I rise to become the Flame of Blasphemy myself and be greater than I ever was."
Sunny jumped back, putting distance between the pale woman and its reflection.
The water beneath the Nightmare Creature started bubbling once more, and from inside, they emerged.
Legion upon legion of misshapen creatures, each one a parody of a human, and more disfigured than the last. One had too many eyes, another too many mouths, one's hair was made of rotten, yellowed teeth; instead of a head, one had a bulbous hive from which something akin to monstrous bees emerged. More and more horrors emerged from the lake, and it was then that he realized something.
He… he recognized one of them.
Liu, the swordsman, his limbs replaced with swords made of white bone. He recognized more of them next; every person that had disappeared was accounted for within the Corrupted Titan's ranks.
Sunny almost cried out of relief when he failed to find Rain among them, though that relief did not last much before the legion started moving, advancing upon him in a tide of flesh and bone.
The pale woman opened its arms welcomingly, almost like it was asking him to come and embrace her.
"Come, little mongrel. Long have I awaited your arrival, and now it finally is time to meet your fate."
He smirked, shadows unfurling around him. "I'll just have to change Fate once again, then."
The woman smirked too. "Good, the more you resist, the tastier you will be."