Shadow Slave

Not too long after both of them woke up, Sunny found himself sitting on the stone floor, leaning on Neph’s bed… while she danced with the Blessing.

Honestly, he was feeling a little neglected. The damned sword seemed to have stolen all her attention. Still, he had gotten the opportunity to watch Neph’s lithe body move through the fluid motions of a beautiful sword dance, instead…

That, at least, was a consolation.

Of course, she was not really dancing — she was performing swift sequences of attacks and defensive movements to get acquainted with the soul sword. However, her style had always been graceful and fluid, so she might as well have been.

Her white tunic flew and fluttered with every swift motion, contouring the supple lines of her slender body, and her silver hair shone beautifully in the radiant sunlight. The lustrous blade was like a splendid haze, dancing alongside her.

It was quite a lovely view.

Sunny was still utterly drained and exhausted after forging the Blessing. It was hard to keep track of time in Godgrave, but the process had lasted many days, testing the limits of his physical and mental endurance both. So, for now, he allowed himself to relax and enjoy the sight.

His thoughts drifted lazily to what he had learned about the silver longsword.

Nephis had given him an opportunity to study the Blessing — impatient to try it out as she might have been — before pulling the sword out of his hands. She had also shared most of the information provided to her by the runes.

All except for the description… she seemed strangely reluctant to talk about that part of it.

In any case, Sunny had learned enough.

Now that the Blessing had been Bound to Nephis and became an Attribute, a literal part of her being, it was not a Memory anymore. Therefore, Sunny could not see its weave… only he could, somewhat, due to a special trait of one of the enchantments he had woven.

Having personally turned the Dawn Shard into the Crown of Dawn — a Supreme Memory of immense power — he did not wish to lose the potential synergy between his two great creations. So, he made sure that the Blessing retained some traits of a Memory while becoming an Attribute, and could thus be augmented by Neph’s crown.

So, he was able to confirm that the Spell had indeed improved upon his design, bringing its various elements together like a binding agent… much like his blood had done to the ingredients of the blessed alloy.

He was going to need some time to truly understand what changes it had made, but Sunny had no doubt. He would be able to master the crafting of soulbound Memories — no, shadowbound Memories — before too long.

The difference between the two was subtle, and not entirely important. In the end, Sunny did not manage to repeat what Nether had done — instead, he invented his own way of achieving the same result.

What mattered was that the Binding ended in success. One of the seven enchantments that the Blessing possessed was named accordingly, [Bound] — functionally the same as the trait of his Mantle. It made the silver longsword equal in Rank and Class to the soul of its wielder, meaning that at the moment, the Blessing was akin to a Transcendent Memory of the Seventh Tier.

Apart from being [Bound], it possessed two core and four auxiliary enchantments.

The fundamental enchantment of the silver longsword shared the name with the original blade that served as its source — the Dream Blade… a fitting name for a weapon meant to be wielded by a Dreamspawn, and earned by her for slaying herself to destroy a dream in the depths of a Nightmare.

The [Dream Blade] enchantment governed the form of the Blessing. Just like the Mantle possessed two forms — one passive, one active — so did the fiery sword. In its dormant state, the Blessing slumbered in Neph’s soul and bestowed several boons upon her.

Among them were increased resistance against soul attacks — now drastically more powerful than the original enchantment of the Dream Blade — as well as an increased rate of both soul essence replenishment and spirit essence absorption.

That last one… was curious. Sunny was not entirely sure how it functioned, but he had an idea. Neph’s source element was the longing she inspired in other people, and therefore, the more people were moved by her, the more plentiful the currents of her spirit essence grew. The [Dream Blade] obviously did not increase the number of those who had awoken to a deep yearning because of Nephis…

But if Sunny’s guess was correct, it did allow her to draw power from their dreams. In other words, the people ensnared by the web of her nascent Domain were adding to the stream of spirit essence even when they slept.

Which was strange and astonishing simply due to the fact that Sunny had neither woven such an enchantment, nor knew how to weave it.

Either the Spell added such a trait to the [Dream Blade] enchantment… or the Blessing itself did, already realizing the potential to learn Sunny had imbued it with.

In either case, it was a welcome surprise. One could never have enough essence, and this ability would only grow more powerful once Nephis became a Saint and fully manifested her Domain, turning a stream of spirit essence into a raging torrent.

For now, though, it was merely a pleasant bonus.

Needless to say, the Blessing was quite like the Mantle as far as augmenting it went, too. Since it was a part of Nephis, augmenting her body meant augmenting the Blessing, as well; therefore, all these traits would only grow stronger and more pronounced for as long as she was wreathed in the beautiful radiance of the soul flame. Ŕ𝔞ΝọʙЕⱾ

That was true for the dormant form of the Blessing, and for its awakened form, as well.

Once the silver blade awoke, naturally, it assumed the shape of a tangible sword.

Wielding the sword, Nephis lost the benefits of having it slumbering in her soul. However, she gained access to its remaining five enchantments, instead.

That concluded the effects of the first of the two core traits of the Blessing.

The four auxiliary enchantments were all formidable in their own regard, too.

They were [Flame Conduit], [Purifying Light], [Change]... and [Ruin].