A.N: Someone asked for an image for the knight statue.
Unfortunately, no official art exits for it as far as I know, but I managed to make a half-decent image using AI.
(Image)
P.S: Sorry about the delay, shit happened.
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When she closed her eyes, the first thing that greeted her was seven symbols of light holding back a boundless sea of darkness that filled her with a familiar feeling of dread.
Inside that darkness, she felt something churning and roiling while bidding its time. She didn't dare to look at it directly since a part of her feared that her sanity would break if she did.
Cassie could sense the entity's rage and malignity as it tried to break free of the seals that held it at bay.
To her horror, the seals began breaking one by one slowly until only one remained. Then, that too broke, and the darkness surged forth.
After that, she felt her mind shatter into countless shards. Each shard showed her something different from the other.
Some of the visions were too dreadful for her to put into words and some she had forgotten as soon as she went to the next shard.
Yet, it was one shard that stole her full attention once she laid eyes on it.
Inside the shard, she saw the human castle from her vision again. However, this time, it was nighttime.
In the black canvas of the night sky, a sole silver star burned alone while under its aloof light, the castle began burning as rivers of blood flowed down its halls.
In the throne room of the castle, the blind oracle saw a corpse entombed in its golden armor while stubbornly holding onto the throne it was on.
Next, her vision took her away from the castle and onto a chaotic battlefield. Her eyes caught the vision of a woman holding back a tide of abominable monsters alone while her bronze spear bathed in their blood.
Also, she glimpsed the sight of an archer desperately trying to piece the skies that were falling on him.
At the end of the vision, she saw a collosal crimson spire that seemed to be the sole pillar holding the world together. At its base, the blond girl witnessed seven bodiless heads guarding seven locks.
Moreover, at the top of the horrifying spire, she saw a figure that was vaguely familiar to her from her previous vision.
A winged being of light, an angel, was bleeding incandescent blood while being mercilessly devoured by hungry shadows.
That was when she felt something wrong; not with the vision but with herself.
She felt like she should be feeling pain and sorrow when looking at the dying angel, as if something very precious was being taken from her.
Yet, she didn't.
Maybe it was because she didn't feel attached to the angel-like figure or maybe because of her spite against it for not helping the caged bird in the previous vision.
Whatever the reason may be, Cassie couldn't summon a figment of emotion at the angel's demise. Rather, her eyes wandered around the vision in search of something - or rather someone.
As if it had discovered the dissonance in her actions, the vision abruptly ended and shattered into a million pieces.
However, if Cassie had only a few more seconds, then she would've managed to see a discretely hidden crimson star burning chaotically at the far corner of the vision and would pulse regularly like a beating heart.
With every pulse, the vision would change momentarily before returning back to normal immediately.
Unfortunately, the blind girl was ignorant of this fact as she her eyes snapped awake, and the lingering horror of the previous dreadful visions caught up to her mind, causing her to let out an ear piercing scream.
####################################
William sat cross-legged as he kept his night vigil. The others had already gone to sleep a few hours ago; yet, he was fully awake, thanks to his special constitution, as he kept a wary eye onto the black waters of the Dark Sea.
Sadly, the knight statue was only a meter or so above the sea level. Thus, they could be attacked by the creatures living in the water at any moment if they let their guard down.
However, the white-haired youth discovered that time moved at a turtle's pace on land when he wasn't abusing his mind for power.
Of course, Sunny's shadow was also keeping a vigil with him, but it tended to keep itself far away from William's vicinity. Thus, it had kept to itself and watched over its master's body.
He sighed in exasperation, 'I can believe that I am in a horrifying fantasy world, yet I still feel bored.'
With but a single mental command, an old iron locket manifested in his hand from thin air. William opened the [Soldier's Locket] and came face to face with dearest people to his heart.
A small smile of nostalgia began developing on his lips before immediately turning into a grimace as he remembered what that voice told him earlier today.
His eyes moved towards the sleeping form of their group's blind oracle for a moment before turning his attention back to the image - to Sarah's image in particular.
A pang of pain erupted from an old scar on his heart that not even his healing factor could heal. After all, it was not a physical injury but an emotional one.
People told him that all wounds heal over time, but this one only festered and grew more painful each passing day; especially when he sat alone on the dinner table that once used to be filled with excited chatter and melodious laughter.
He may have seen parts of his sister in Cassia; particularly when he saw her sitting alone and despressed in the Academy, but that didn't mean that he thought of the blond girl as Sarah!
That would be neither be fair for her nor for his departed sister.
'What should I do, mother?' he looked imploringly at the beautiful woman in the image as if expecting it to answer him. After a few seconds staring at the image, William closed the locket with a sigh and dismissed the memory.
Then, he looked over at his runes, particularly the memories.
********************************************
Memories: [Osseous Exoarmor], [Teardrop Talisman], [Soldier's Locket], [Azure Sword], [Scout's Sack], [Sea Shell x2], [Azure Blade], [Azure Rapier], [Whetstone], [Azure Spear], [Azure Warhammer]
********************************************
'Is there a whole Azure series for weapons or what?' he thought in wonder as he looked over at weapon memories he had. In his current arsenal, in addition to Frostmourne, he had a sword, blade, rapier, spear, and warhammer from the Azure series that had the same enchantment on all of them.
'Well, if you consider them as mass-produced infantry weapons,' hypothesized the youth, 'then it makes sense for all of them to have the same craftsmanship. Huh, maybe the rapier could be a nice gift to Cassie- '
He went silent for a moment as he mentally facepalmed himself, 'Right.... she's blind.'
Out of embarrassment, he just skipped over the weapons to check on the other memories.
He scratched his head as he looked over to see that he had two seashell memories.
'Is this some sort of joke memory? What is its use? Why make a memory of it?'
After a while of deep thought, nothing came to mind; thus, he promptly moved on.
His eyes landed on the runes of the [Whetstone] memory he got from the six scavenger ambush.
A grey stone, the size of his palm, manifested in his hand as he read its runes.
(Image)
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[Whetstone: A well maintained weapon is an effective weapon.]
Memory Name: Whetstone
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: Tool
Memory Enchantment: [Maintenance]
[Maintenance]
Enchantment Description: Slightly increases the sharpness of a weapon for a certain duration.
*********************************
'It seems useful, but how do I use it?' wondered the cerulean-eyes Sleeper as he weighed the stone in his hand. Fortunately, he knew someone who may be familiar with this type of stuff.
A beautiful necklace with a blue teardrop gem manifested around his neck; then, two motes of light emerged from the gem and turned to the forms of Arthas Menethil and Jaina Proudmoore.
The two looked around their vicinity for a moment before zeroing in their attention on William.
"Good to see you again, William," the sorceress said with a smile while Arthas simply nodded in confirmation.
William's hand glowed as he casted [Prestidigitation], causing words to manifest in the air above his open palm. Also, he used his big frame to cover the dim glow of the words so as not to make Sunny's shadow suspicious.
"Sorry, I can't speak unless I wake up my companions."
"No problem, my student," she replied, "we can talk like this. So, is there any reason for summoning us, I wonder?"
The words began to morph and change to form a new sentence.
"Thank you. Yes, but it mainly concerns Arthas."
The ex-Lich King raised his eyebrow at that, "What's your question?"
"How do you use a whetstone?" Then, he lifted the stone in his palm for the spirits to see.
"A whetstone, huh?" muttered the blond paladin as he rubbed his chin in thought.
From nowhere, he manifested a longsword and a similar piece of stone as William's in his hands, "Pay attention to how I do it and you shall learn."
Then, the paladin began maintaining his spectral sword with his spectral whetstone. He could've just explained the whole process to his young student, but from the month he spent training him, he learned that it was better to show him what to do rather than tell him.
The living undead boy watched the whole process with utmost concentration until it was done.
"I suggest you don't try it on Frostmourne, as it abhores being maintained by mundane equipment," advised his teacher.
Thus, William opted to summon his [Azure Sword] instead and began maintaining it with his [Whetstone].
The regularity of the process lulled William's intrusive thoughts and helped his mind relax somewhat. However, every good thing had an end.
When he finished, he observed the sword in his hands. Its blade appeared sharper than before he started. Then, he looked at its runes.
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[Azure Sword: In the cursed lands of the Forgotten shore, only steel remembers.]
Memory Name: Azure Sword
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Enchantment: [Warforged], [Well Maintained (Temporary)]
[Warforged]
Enchantment Description: Forged for war, this weapon is slightly tougher and sharper.
[Well Maintained]
Enchantment Description: This weapon is slightly sharper than normal.
***********************************
William was satisfied with the results and dismissed his two memories.
Word manifested in his hands by his elementary spell:
"Thank you for your guidance."
Arthas nodded his head, "Think nothing of it."
It was then that Jaina decided to speak, "By the way, in regards to your friend's condition."
"What of it?" The words expressed the curious expression on William's face.
"I may have found a way for her to have vision."
"How?"
"By using the Familiar Spell."
"A familiar?"
Following his question, the sorceress began to explain, "A familiar is a creature born of one's soul and has an intrinsic connection with them. This connection allows for the familiar's master to see and hear through them as long as they are not too far from one another. However, there is a catch; since familiars are born from one's soul, having one be killed will result in serious damage that may sometimes cripple said soul."
William gulped, "That sounds extremely dangerous."
"It is but that is the price your friend has to pay to get some form of vision back," she agreed in a solemn tone, "many blind seers and oracles in our world used to have familiar to help them. What do you say?"
William scratched the back of his neck in confusion before words sprung from his palm, "I don't really know. I guess I could ask Cassie about her own opinion about it somehow. However, there is a more pressing problem; I have no Familiar spells in my grimoire."
"Yes, that is correct. But I have the spell memorized here," she pointed at her head, "the only problem is to modify it so that it can react with this 'essence' you use instead of mana."
"How long will it take?"
Honestly, even though William was her student, he had next to zero idea what she meant by modifying a spell, but he decided to trust the one dubbed as the strongest human sorceress of her time.
"Since I have already observed how your body reacts to casting magic from your grimoire and considering the calculations needed.....," the blond woman entered in a series of unintelligible mutterings. William and Arthas looked at each other and shrugged; neither of them knew what the hell she was talking about.
"I will need a few weeks at the earliest or a few months at the latest," she replied with a confident smile.
"That's good, I guess?"
"Now, if you excuse me, I have research to do," saying that, she turned into a mote of light and flew into the teardrop gem.
"Trust her, kid. If anyone knows magic inside-out, it is her. Now, farewell and don't skip on your training," with that Arthas, too, retreated back to the necklace.
Again, William was left alone to his thoughts as he gazed upon the roiling waves of the Dark Sea.
With nothing to do, William summoned the [Azure Sword] and [Whetstone] memories and began maintaining the weapon even though it didn't really need it. He just needed something to busy himself with.
Like before, the process seemed to be strangely relaxing as he slid the whetstone against the blade's edge, making a soft Shhng! sound.
William was so engrossed and concentrated on this action that he didn't even notice that he was not the only one awake anymore.
################################
Nephis had once been a deep sleeper during her childhood. Her sleep was so deep, in fact, that she remembered her caretaker complaining that she wouldn't wake up even if a titan was directly next to her.
However, that was when she was but a child about three to four years of age. The events that happened later in her life after the hollow status of her mother and the death of her father caused her to lose those childhood habits.
After she had been asleep for her usual four hours, the Changing Star opened her eyes and gazed upon the dark canopy of the sky. It was time to change night watch shifts.
Rising up to a sitting position, she first checked on the rest of her companions.
It was too dark for her to see their faces, but she could see the figures of Sunny and Cassie still deep into their sleep.
She breathed out a sigh of relief, 'At least we weren't ambushed yet.'
It was then that she heard an old familiar sound. It was the sound of stone on metal.
The silver-haired followed the sound and found its source.
She saw her white-haired companion, sitting a few feet away from the edge of the platform while sliding a piece of stone onto the edge of an azure-colored sword in his hand.
With every swipe of the stone, a soft Shhng! would reverberate in the air. William looked to be so focused on the task in his hands that he didn't even notice her standing right next to him.
As Nephis gaed at the boy with her grey-eyes, she remembered a memory from long ago in her childhood.
Even though they were a Legacy Clan with a veritable vault of memories to their name, her father, Broken Sword, enjoyed collecting traditional mundane swords as a hobby.
Oft times, she would fall asleep to the sound of her father sliding a whetstone against the blade of his swords.
Just like that, her journey on the nostalgia train ended, and she returned back to the present.
William was still lost in his own little world, and she had to get him out.
She outstretched her arm and gently shook his armored shoulder.
That seemed to do the trick.
"Uh, who....?" his eyes fluttered as if he just awoke from a daydream. Then, he noticed her presence.
"Princess?" he uttered the nickname he had chosen for her in a confused tone before promptly returning back to his normal cheerful persona.
"What can I help you with?"
"Shift change," she replied curtly.
"Hmmm, nah, I can manage just fine," he brushed her off, "you can go back to get a few more hours of beauty sleep. Girls need that, I think?"
"No."
"No, as in you don't need beauty sleep; or, no, as in girls in general don't need beauty sleep?"
The female Sleeper immediately shut her mouth; she didn't know what to answer.
Nephis knew she had bad socializing skills. She knew that the moment she stepped into the academy and was bombarded by the attempts of Caster to curry favor with her.
Even Sunless, as brash as he was, walked on eggshells around her due to her status - or maybe due to her ability to cut him down.
Yet, here she was, standing speechless in front of this guy who she couldn't get a read on for the life of her.
"Go sleep," she tried sounding as commanding as she could, just as she remembered from her childhood lessons.
"Don't wanna," he replied, and right then and there, went back to sharpening his sword.
She went silent again.
'This is getting ridiculous,' she thought as a blood vessel threatened to pop on her forehead.
Taking in a deep breath to calm herself.
"Suit yourself."
Like that, the two Sleepers both ended up doing the night watch with only the sound of waves drowning the awkward silence between them.
Thankfully, Nephis had gotten used to situations such as this, so she kept her mouth shut and kept a wary eye out for any monster attacks.
Thankfully, not too long after the watch started, the skies began to lighten up - a sign that dawn was coming.
Then, came the scream.
Cassie let out an ear-piercing frightened scream that caused the both of them to jump to their feet in alarm.
Nephis summoned her silver sword while William gripped tightly onto his own sword.
Before they knew it, they heard Sunny yell, "I got her!"
#################################
"Shhh, shhh, it will be alright, Cass. I got you. Calm down..." William whispered to the frightened oracle as he held her in his arms. She was just a few steps away from falling off the edge of the platform.
Thankfully, Sunny could see in the dark and was able to pull her back before she did.
William wanted to kick himself upside the head for not remembering that this would happen on their early days on the Forgotten Shore.
Truth be told, so much shit happens in Shadow Slave that it is very hard to remember each and every minor event.
The blind girl was crying her heart out while desperately clinging to him. The words that she uttered randomly were muffled and drowned by her tears.
William didn't really know how to deal with this situation, so he did the thing that his mother always did to calm him down: he gently stroked her head.
Thankfully, this seemed to work since her crying reduced to mere sniffling as he continued doing so.
...
....
...
"Y-You can let me go now," William heard Cassie's stammering voice squeak out after a good while.
"Are you sure?" he asked as he observed her face that had become flushed from continuous crying.
"Y-Yes, I'll be fine."
"If you say so," he said uncertainly as he rose up to his feet.
When Cassie felt his absence, she hugged her knees to her chest and began looking at the ground with a vacant gaze.
William sighed upon seeing her state. Did a vision really cause this much distress?
'I guess reading about it is not the same as seeing it first hand,' he thought as he moved towards Sunny and Nephis, who were staring at them a bit farther away.
"What's the situation?" Nephis asked, her eyes looking in concern at the shaking girl.
"She saw something when she slept and it caused her to have a panic attack," replied the white-haired Sleeper before turning his attention to the dark-haired one.
"By the way, thank you for stopping her from falling, Sunny."
The outskirts kid seemed to have his mind elsewhere as he looked at Cassie, "Saw something? A vision?"
"Probably," William shrugged, "whatever it was, it was like nothing she ever had before - or so she says. I say we give her some space to gather her thoughts."
"Are you sure it is the right choice to leave her like that?" Sunny didn't seem to be confident about William suggestion.
"Cassie is stronger than she looks. She'll be fine," said the Changing Star in a confident tone.
Sunless looked at the silver-haired girl strangely before sighing, "Whatever. So, what do we do now?"
"Right, Sunny, since we have time on our hands, let's get started with your next lesson in combat."
This immediately caught the shorter male's attention, "What lesson?"
Nephis also seemed to be mildly interested.
"Summon your memory first."
Sunny did as requested and manifested his [Azure Blade] in his hands. William also did the same and summoned his [Azure Sword].
"Now swing it at me as if you are trying to kill me," he said naturally as he entered the defensive stance Arthas taught him.
Sunny's smile faltered upon hearing the request, "Are you sure?"
"It'll be fine," he brushed off his student's concerns before giving him a cheeky smile, "it will be a cold day in hell when you actually manage to kill me."
This statement irritated Sunny for some reason, and suddenly, he didn't feel so concerned about accidentally cutting away one of William's arms.
Holding the weapon in his hand, Sunny's slashed down at the cheeky bastard. However, as soon as the blade got near William, the [Azure Sword] in his hands moved like a blur and parried the attack out of the way.
Sunny felt his arm go numb.
"*Tsk* *Tsk* *Tsk* Sunny, my brother, use both hands when wielding your weapon," tutted the tall Sleeper as he shook his head in disappointment, "especially when against an opponent who's strength is unknown to you. Now, do it again."
Mildly irritated, Sunny attacked again - this time while holding the blade with both hands. Yet, it was still parried.
"Put more weight behind your attacks!" ordered William much akin to a drill instructor.
"Your weapon is made for cutting and severing, so put your whole body weight behind your attacks!"
This back and forth continued until Sunless managed to perform an attack that satified William.
"Now that's a proper attack," complimented the cerulean-eyed youth.
Sunny was slightly out of breath but still had a victorious smile over him face.
"Now repeat that same attack two thousand times."
Sunny's expression morphed as if he had just eaten a while sour lemon.
"Two...thousand?" he uttered in disbelief.
"Do you want me to make it into three thousand?" the instructor low-key threatened.
Hearing the threat, Sunless gritted his teeth and started doing the reps.
Nephis, meanwhile, watched the whole lesson unfold with her usual poker face, but the glint in her eyes couldn't hide her curiosity.
"Hey, princess," called William, "up for a friendly spar?"
She tilted her head in confusion before a look of realization came upon her. The Changing Star nodded and summoned her silvery longsword from thin air.
The young man moved to an appropriate distance from her and poised his [Azure Sword] in a style very similar to Nephis.
Upon seeing this, her grey-colored eyes widened before narrowing dangerously.
"So you noticed, huh? Let's see if I got down your fighting style or not."
Nephis only huffed at his audacity. Then, in a heartbeat, both Sleepers charged at each other and a loud metallic Clang! rang out in the clearing, attracting the attention of both Cassie and Sunless.
Soon, they disengaged and attacked each other again. To Sunny, who was observing the spar, it was akin to someone fighting against a mirror copy of themselves.
However, the question in his mind was: Who was the original, and who was the copy?
The clanging of swords continued for the better part of an hour. Even though their technique and moves were almost identical, Nephis was finding herself to be at a disadvantage.
She was getting overpowered by William even though they were both Sleepers.
Also, after an hour of continuous, intense clashing, her body was getting tired, and her muscles were starting to get sore.
The Changing Star observed her sparring partner's countenance; William was in no different situation than when they started. Hell, he didn't look even slightly winded - not to mention tired.
William also noticed his grey-eyed companion's physical state.
"This is where the spar ends," he said casually as he dismissed his [Azure Sword].
"I can continue," replied the heiress of the Immortal Flame clan; although, the sweat that had been trickling down her face told a different story.
"Nah, this was a spar. Not a fight to the death," he stated while walking away, "we can spar any other time. Plus, I got what I wanted."
Nephis didn't like the fact that she got beaten by someone who had just copied her fighting style by seeing it once.
Yet, she had to begrudgingly agree that it was better to stop the spar at that point lest anyone gets injured for the day.
Thus, the Changing Star let out a tired sigh and dismissed her weapon. Then, she sat down on the ground to rest.
Sunny resumed his two thousand sword swing reps while replaying William and Nephis's spar in his mind. Every time he watched the way William mirror the silver-haired Sleeper's moves, he felt a faint, weird tingling coming from somewhere deep in him.
By the time Sunny had finished his 'training', the sun was already fully risen, and Cassie was finally able to tell them about what she saw.