{PLEIADES POV}
Slightly dazed, I stood up and heaved a sigh of relief. Looking around, I saw that all the strongest abominations were now dead, while the rest were being suppressed by the cohort.
It would have only taken about ten minutes at most for them to finish up. Sighing, I looked to my right and saw Regis staring at the Forsaken Knight with intrigue.
A little smile crept onto my face, and I gave the shadowy wolf a pat on the head. He shuddered and backed away.
"Don't scare me like that. I didn't do anything wrong."
Giving the wolf a deadpan look, I shook my head and scratched the back of it.
"I was... just gonna praise you for trying to help."
Regis gave me a suspicious look and squinted his eyes.
"Oh, alright. Sorry for trying to pet you. And sorry for the ice boulder. I'll treat you... as best as I can."
Regis looked a little surprised but gave me a wolfish grin.
"Oh really? So can I expect mor—"
"Don't push your luck."
He paused mid-sentence and raised a paw to his mouth in an attempt to clear his nonexistent one.
"Ahem. Alrighty."
Shaking my head, I walked over to the Forsaken Knight and looked him over. Tapping my knuckles against his breastplate, I examined the engravings up close, all while trying to avoid the knight's piercing gaze.
Still feeling his stare, I looked directly at him.
"You got a problem? You work under me now, and you can be sure I'll put you through the wringer."
Pausing for a bit, I pointed to Regis. "Ask him."
Regis nodded and made sure to add his own flair.
"Oh yeah, he's a fantastic boss. Real nurturing type. Sends you into near-death situations, forgets to feed you, occasionally drops ice boulders on your head—y'know, just classic positive reinforcement."
He sat down with a dramatic sigh, his tail lazily thudding against the cavern floor.
"But hey, at least you're tall, brooding, and mute. That already puts you way ahead of me on the 'favorite minion' list."
Then he looked up at the Forsaken Knight with mock seriousness.
"Good luck, tin can. You'll need it. Oh—and if he ever says, 'this'll be easy,' start digging your own grave."
Not bothering to reprimand him, I examined the knight and saw that he looked exactly as he had while alive.
Curious about his sword, I reached out to grab it—but the knight quickly pulled his hand back.
That made it clear that he still held a connection to the weapon. Activating Point of Interest, I saw that the sword was practically burning with sensitivity. That only confirmed what I suspected, the echo retained the traits of the original. Which meant the Sarcophagus worked well.
However, as I shifted my gaze to the inner structure of the Forsaken Knight, thanks to the enhanced vision from Blood Weave, my brain momentarily stalled.
Inside the armor, instead of four soul cores… there were only three.
Which meant the previously fallen Devil wasn't a Devil anymore. He was a fallen, well now it was cleard of corruption so it was now an ascended demon.
Scratching my chin, I examined his insid—his cores—once more. I confirmed it wasn't a mistake. He really did only have three.
"What's up? You've got that grimace on your face."
Looking at Regis, I frowned. "What grimace?"
"That one. You always make it when you find out something sucks. Like when you realized that a Nightmare Creature ate all the soul shards you left out in the open, or when you messed up making that ascended charm—like, six times."
He padded a little closer, lowering his voice conspiratorially as he glanced at the Forsaken Knight.
"So what's got you this hot and bothered?"
Unbothered by his teasing, I gave the knight a glance, then looked back at Regis.
"He's missing a soul core."
Regis seemed to consider that for a moment before grinning like a fool.
"So what is it? Did our new brooding buddy forget one of his soul cores? Maybe he pawned it for a shinier sword?"
He let out a short bark of laughter, clearly enjoying himself way too much.
Amused, I decided to play along.
"Or maybe he gave it to Saint as a proposal."
Regis snorted so hard he nearly choked on his own laughter, wheezing out, "Oh please, can you imagine? Big scary knight kneeling down like, 'My lady, I offer thee… my left soul core.'"
He kept laughing, and I chuckled along with him. After a moment, catching his breath, he added in a more serious tone.
"Jokes aside, though… a missing core? That's not an 'oops, I dropped my wallet' kind of problem. What do you think happened?"
Scratching my chin again, I circled the knight and thought back to the battle. In the novel, the red ruby had been taken out of him by Saint. That had also happened to him here, in this timeline.
So… could that have been part of it?
"Maybe when Saint took that red ruby out, it weakened him—and counted as him losing a soul core."
Nodding at the theory, Regis sniffed the knight's boots.
"So how did he so easily decimate that fallen demon?"
"Oh—well, while fighting those creatures, I noticed something. They were all different types of Nightmare Creatures. Unlike with the Tyrant, who led a single type—the Cavernous Stalkers—I think a Terror is controlling the corpses of Nightmare Creatures. Kind of like that one in the facility we… can't talk about. So I think all the thralls under this Terror are weaker than their original forms."
Looking a little confused, Regis thought for a moment. Then his mane flared slightly.
"Ohhh. Alright, I get it. So where's the Terror? You think maybe it's in that other tunnel?"
Pretending to ponder, I made a sneaky attempt to swipe the knight's sword while he was distracted, but all I got was empty air.
He moved it back far too quickly for me to react. Frowning at my failed attempt, I decided to give up on trying to take the sword and focused on something I'd been meaning to do.
As I concentrated, I began to create an ability.
Ability Name: Shadow Transformation
Description: The user can transform owned echoes into Shadows.
I made sure to visualize the specific kind of shadows Sunny would transform his echoes into. Once done, I placed my hand on the knight and activated the ability.
The knight was instantly enveloped in a surge of rushing shadows and consumed by them. Backing away, I stood beside Regis and waited.
While the shadows whipped around the knight's form, Regis added his thoughts in a dry tone.
"What a way to make me feel inadequate."
I tilted my head and looked down at the shadowy wolf.
"Just wait till the Vile Thieving Birds' spawn becomes a Shadow."
"Well gee golly shucks, thanks for reminding me."
Smiling dryly, I watched as the shadows subsided and the form of the knight emerged. This time, his appearance had changed slightly, one of his damaged horns was repaired, and his armor had gained a subtle sheen.
Nodding at the changes, I noticed a shadow glide across the ground.
Gloomy, now connected to my feet, looked as if he were wiping his forehead. He then glanced between me and the knight… and nodded in approval.
(Well, the enemies are dead, and no one died. Well aside from the traitors.)
[So, did you gain insight into Nephis' swordsmanship?]
(…Of course you'd know. I did, but I'm still trying to process it.)
[That's a good step forward. Anyway, what do you think about this guy?]
(Oh, you mean the hulking mountain of lustrous steel? Well, after getting a slight heart attack from seeing him in the corner of my eye while observing Nephis, I think he's neat.)
[So just a nice surprise?]
(No, I was shell-shocked for a moment when I saw the bastard. I just realized what probably happened a couple seconds later.)
[Well, let's just chalk it up to a "slight" surprise.]
(Haaa... alright, fine.)
Smiling to myself, I turned as I heard the cohort approaching.
They were all somewhat wounded. The worst off was Effie, a decent chunk had been taken out of her shoulder and a dozen scars bled profusely.
Caster's calf and left side of his chest were severely bleeding. Kai had only minor cuts, none of which marred his outrageously beautiful face.
Nephis, however, looked paler than a corpse. Her armor was tattered, and several pieces along the lower parts were completely gone.
Cassie looked as if she hadn't fought at all, only her boots were a bit muddy and wet.
"So, you had a successful battle?" I asked, and received a death stare from Nephis.
"Kidding. Come here—I'll heal you guys."
I quickly healed Effie and Kai. I left Caster a bit underhealed, especially his leg while using the excuse that I was too tired to finish the job.
When I looked back, I saw Effie inspecting the knight. Nephis spared him a glance, then turned her attention toward the path we came from, now covered in ice and lined with protruding spikes.
Cassie stood beside Effie, while Kai did his best to ignore the terrifying knight. Caster, standing behind me, hummed for a moment.
"My friend, it would seem you still have plenty of secrets up your sleeve."
"What's it to you? For all you know, me having this guy could be common knowledge."
Not sparing the Legacy a glance, I came up behind Nephis and deciding not to tease her, for the sake of keeping my hand, spoke gently.
"So… on a scale of one to ten, how bad are you feeling?"
She looked at me from the corner of her eye, then turned back with an empty expression.
"Bad."
[Alright, so we're at 'one-word-response' bad. Noted.]
(Try not to antagonize her. She's already had a rough enough day.)
>>Protecting your girlfriend? Our little femboy has gotten so mature.<<
(Forgive me for having empathy, you cruel beast. And... what's a femboy?)
>>Ah, well, you see, a fe—<<
[Regis, I swear to the dead gods, I'll make you go through what Old Dan did.]
>>Wow wow wow,Alright, alright, yeesh. I'll save the educational lecture for when you're not one bad mood away from stabbing something.<<
"And he expects to be treated like a saint."
Deciding not to prod the silver-haired calamity, I headed toward the Forsaken Knight, only to stop mid-step as I saw Effie smacking the knight's head.
"So this is the Fallen Devil you mentioned? But hey, isn't Sunny gonna get jealous now that his girlfriend has a better match?" Effie joked.
(Why that brutish piece o—)
"While I'm happy that you've introduced yourself to my new 24/7 bodyguard" I said dryly, "I'd like for you not to make Sunny mad. Also, Saint probably despises this guy more than anyone."
She raised an eyebrow at me, then looked over her shoulder—and sure enough, Saint was glaring daggers at the knight. In the background, the ever-loyal Krabs was diligently collecting all the scattered soul shards.
Blinking, Effie tilted her head at me. "Why?"
Shrugging, I looked proudly at Krabs. "Who knows."
Effie stared at the knight, then turned to me again.
"Say… how much would you sell this guy for? You know—him and the food and wine memory."
I gave her a flat look.
"Of course I'd sell him. For a better Echo, obviously. And also, the 'food and wine' memory doesn't just produce wine as a drink."
Effie groaned in defeat, and Regis padded over to her, patting her foot with his paw.
"You should give it up. You'd have a better chance haggling with a tree."
Then he glanced at the knight and added, "Besides, look at this guy. He's every Awakened's wet dream."
"Don't be so cra—"
I cut myself off mid-sentence, eyes snapping toward the tunnel entrance.
The knight instantly moved, raising his weapon. Saint stepped in front of me, shielding my body while Nephis backed away from the tunnel and raised her guard.
Kai drew his bow, nocking an arrow textured like tree bark, with an onyx head.
Regis growled, his fur bristling.
From within the tunnel, the shadows deepened, growing colder, darker and more alive. Then, almost like a veil was being lifted, a towering shape emerged from the abyss.
My eyes widened.
Deep within the monstrous figure, six cores pulsed, oozing corruption and profanity.
It was a Terror.
Not just any Terror.
It was a Fallen Terror.