Finally, Cade returned to where the ice-clad serpent's Echo lay coiled. He climbed the enormous form of the Echo and his gaze immediately fell upon Maya's unconscious body.
"Huh..." he mused outwardly.
Cade had assumed that her body would've disappeared by now, considering she was unconscious and therefore unmoving. So, he'd expected her Innate Ability to have shrouded her completely.
But he'd been wrong. Maya was definitely unconscious, but not entirely still. Her chest rose and fell in slow, heavy breaths, each one drawn with effort. Cade even noticed a slight, almost imperceptible tremor run through her body, almost as if she were struggling to shiver because of the cold radiating from the Echo.
So, Maya hadn't turned invisible like Cade had expected her to.
However, her pale face was unnervingly still. If he didn't know any better, he might have thought she was merely asleep— undisturbed and unbothered by the horrors they had just endured.
Cade stared at her for a moment, thinking about their next move.
Should we just leave? he debated. The Echo can carry her, and I can walk on my own...
He shifted his gaze to the serpent's grotesquely large head, its eerie blue eyes empty yet unsettlingly watchful. The sight of them sent an involuntary chill down Cade's spine.
It was a creature without a soul, much like himself and Maya, but it wasn't alive. Still, the serpent made him feel quite uneasy. The thing seemed to possess a mind of its own.
Cade narrowed his eyes at the ice-clad abomination.
"You son of a bitch..." he muttered. "You're not gonna listen to me, are you?"
The Echo tilted its enormous head, the movement too slow, too deliberate— almost as if it were feigning confusion. Cade let out a tired sigh.
"Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It's not like I'm your master anyway."
Shaking his head, he jumped over the frozen scales of the Echo and dropped to the ground beside Maya's unconscious form. He lowered himself beside her and leaned back against the serpent's ice-cold scales. A sharp chill bit into his skin through his armor, but he forced himself to ignore it. He had endured far worse.
His gaze lingered on Maya. She looked almost lifeless, her face as pale as frost-kissed stone. He reached out and pressed a hand to her forehead— only to grimace at the sheer cold radiating from her skin. It was as if she had become part of the serpent's ice herself.
Cade exhaled sharply, withdrawing his hand. He summoned the Flameheart Forge and set it beside her. The small, flickering blue flame wavered weakly in the dim glow of the morning, its light reflecting off the frost that clung to her battered armor. The Forge would provide some heat, at least. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
"Wake up, Maya..." he murmured, voice barely above a whisper. "Quickly now. We have no idea what's out here."
For a long moment, he simply watched her, waiting for some sign of conscious movement, some flicker of awareness in her face. But there was nothing.
He let out a weary sigh and leaning back, he finally let the exhaustion clawing at him take hold. His limbs felt like lead. His body begged for rest. His eyelids dropped, the pull of unconsciousness heavy, irresistible—
No.
His breath hitched, and his eyes snapped open. He clenched his fists, forcing himself upright. He couldn't afford to sleep. Not here. Not while the two of them lay utterly exposed in the heart of this desolate land.
Sleep was a luxury. Survival was not.
So, instead, he chose to check his runes. He hadn't even had a chance to properly look at them after becoming a Monster:
Name: Arcadius.
True Name: Shroudkeeper.
Rank: Dreamer.
Class: Monster.
Abyssal Cores: [2/7]
Fragments of the Abyss: [400/2000]
Cade eyes widened slightly. But he quickly shrugged off the shock and exhaled through his nose, a tired but satisfied smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.
Monster at last, he thought. And four hundred fragments from that abyssal horror too…?
The Corrupted Tyrant he'd just slain had given him many more fragments than something of its Rank and Class should have.
Normally— well, as normal as this could get— for a Sleeper like Cade, who was of the Dormant Rank, a single Corrupted soul core would yield eight fragments, considering there was a difference of three Ranks between him and a Corrupted. And because a Tyrant possessed five defiled soul cores, the Malice of the Drowned Deep should have provided Cade with forty fragments.
However, he hadn't gotten forty fragments from the kill. Instead, he'd gotten four hundred.
Cade guessed that it was because the Tyrant was an inhabitant of the abyssal darkness of the Dark Sea. After all, the Dark Sea was full of True Darkness. It had come from what was most probably a creature of the Void. And whether he liked it or not, Cade seemed to be deeply connected to the Void.
His fate was deeply intertwined with the Forgotten God, after all, who slumbered in the Void. Also, void and abyss were all but synonymous. And he was an Abyssbreather. Adding to that was the fact that he had an Abyssal Void instead of a Soul Sea— granted he had fashioned that name himself.
In any case, he was also Stygian, a vessel for Darkness. The same Darkness that permeated the depths of the Dark Sea.
The hints were just too obvious to be ignored.
I still have no idea as what any of this means, though... he thought in mild annoyance.
Still, just like how Sunny received a lot of Shadow Fragments for killing shadow creatures, Cade seemed to receive a ton of fragments for killing the inhabitants of the Dark Sea.
Not that he was going to be killing another anytime soon. It was already crazy enough that he'd not only survived two encounters with the depth-dwellers but actually managed to slay one. He could go the rest of his life without encountering another and not complain about it.
So, in the end, the rewards of the adventure he and Maya had overtaken were nothing short of astonishing.
The decision to invade the Shadecoils' cavern had nearly cost them their lives, though. A single misstep, a moment of miscalculation, and they would have been nothing more than another pair of corpses swallowed by the Dark Sea.
But it seemed that [Fated] had decided to pull the strings of Fate once more, weaving its unseen will through the chaos. For whatever reason, it had allowed them to live— if only for a while longer.
Cade had never imagined that he'd actually feel grateful for possessing that godforsaken Attribute. After all, wasn't it also [Fated] that had steered them into the jaws of certain death to begin with?
And yet… they had survived.
Barely. Impossibly. But they had.
Never again, Cade thought bitterly, cursing his own arrogance and carelessness. I actually lulled myself into believing I could handle anything.
If it hadn't been for Maya— her unnatural grit, and her refusal to break— he would have died twice over.
Hell, both of them would have.
With that, Cade swore— no more.
No more dragging Maya into hopeless fights because of his own misguided sense of complacency. No more 'descending upon your enemy' with reckless confidence. No more 'waltzing into hordes of Nightmare Creatures' like death wouldn't come snapping at their heels.
They had been lucky today. But luck was fleeting.
They wouldn't be lucky every day.
He exhaled slowly, his gaze lingering on Maya's unconscious form.
"I'm sorry, Maya," he murmured. "I should've listened to you sooner."
Maybe then, she wouldn't be lying here, battered, broken and drained, caught between life and oblivion.
"I'm really sorry…" he muttered, his hands forming fists.
But regret wouldn't mend wounds. Frustration wouldn't change the past.
So, without succumbing to his emotions, Cade forced himself forward. He shifted his gaze to the runes, pushing aside the weight pressing on his chest.
After all, he had a new Memory to check out:
Memories: [Arcane Keystone], [Radiant Eye], [Voidfang], [Flameheart Forge], [Ebonveil Plate], [Crimson Guide], [Coral Relic], [Pearl of Breaking Tides], [Tidemark Whisper], [Drowned Eye], [Severance of the Deep].
He focused on the newest one:
Memory: [Severance of the Deep].
Memory Rank: Corrupted.
Memory Type: Weapon.
Cade's eyes widened in surprise.
A Corrupted— or a Transcendent, in the case of a normal Awakened— weapon-type Memory in the arsenal of a Sleeper?
It was unbelievable. No— it was downright unimaginable.
He recalled how Bright Lord Gunlaug had acquired a Transcendent Echo in much the same way that he had obtained this Memory. But Cade doubted that the Bright Lord's prize had been of the same Tier as this weapon.
This was a Corrupted weapon of the Fifth Tier— a rarity among rarities.
It stood on the same level as the Sin of Solace, the cursed blade Sunny had claimed after slaying the Remnant of the Jade Queen.
This was beyond monumental.
A weapon of such terrifying power... in the hands of a seasoned Battle Master like him?
Surviving in this godforsaken hell was going become much, much easier.
Cade's evolution into a Monster, the Echo of an Awakened Terror, a Corrupted weapon of the Fifth Tier— their struggles had paid off in the end.
But still— this wasn't something Cade was willing to repeat. Not ever. They had come too close to death. So very close.
And yet... wasn't this simply too powerful?!
Even Saints would struggle to claim a weapon of this caliber. What was the Spell thinking, bestowing such a terrifying thing upon a mere Sleeper? One that it seemingly loathed, no less?
Cade recalled how the Spell's usually venom-laced voice had sounded uncharacteristically excited when it gave him this Memory. He wondered why that was...
Still, he wasn't complaining. Far from it.
In fact, Cade was overjoyed. His fingers twitched with anticipation. He couldn't wait to summon the weapon. He couldn't wait to kill something with it.
He held his hand to the side, focusing on summoning the Memory... but then, suddenly, he stopped himself.
A thought surfaced— something unsettling.
Sunny's first Transcendent weapon— the Sin of Solace.
It, too, had been earned after slaying a Corrupted Tyrant. And it had come with a terrible cost. Slowly, insidiously, it had chipped away at Sunny's mind. It had unraveled his sanity bit by bit, until wielding it became a battle in and of itself.
The curse of the Sin of Solace had birthed a wraith which loathed Sunny with every fiber of its being. And even though Cade had thoroughly enjoyed reading their interactions, he didn't want something like that for himself.
After all, who was to say the Severance was any different?
What if it, too, harbored some dreadful curse? What if it poisoned Cade's mind, whispering temptations of blood and slaughter? What if that was the reason the Spell had sounded excited?
Cade was already someone without a soul and with far too many murderous tendencies.
What if the Severance didn't just amplify them, but unleashed them completely? What if it made him into a monster in truth? What if that's what the Spell wanted?
He knew he was capable of such things. He had always known. It was his own Flaw, after all.
So, he chose to hold off on summoning the weapon— at least until he was somewhere alone with nobody but himself and Nightmare Creatures around to hurt and kill. So, instead, he chose to check the Memory's description:
Memory Description: [The Severance is a sliver of Weaver's fury, a splinter of their wrath made tangible— an echo of vengeance that lingers still. The firstborn of the Forgotten God was not easily angered, nor quick to act. But when the cunning Thieving Bird stole their eye, something far worse than rage was unleashed. The heavens trembled, the earth cracked, and the mortal realms drowned beneath the weight of their ire, suffocating in the wake of Weaver's unrelenting retribution.]
Cade's jaw hung open. He rubbed his eyes, blinked hard, and looked at the shimmering runes once again.
He wasn't seeing things.
The description actually read: "Weaver's fury..."
A shiver crawled down his spine. Slowly, he dismissed the runes and gulped, his throat turning dry. He turned his gaze upward towards the sky.
"Weaver..." he muttered.
The name left his lips in a whisper, barely audible over the eerie silence surrounding him.
He had always suspected that the Forgotten Shore was somehow connected to the nebulous Demon of Fate. There had been too many coincidences, too many threads woven together.
Sunny had found the Vile Thieving Bird's Spawn here, nestled within the branches of the Soul Devourer. There, he had received the first piece of the Demon's Forbidden Lineage. He had also stumbled upon a Seventh Tier Divine Memory— Weaver's Mask— in the basement of a ruined cathedral in the Dark City.
And now...
Cade clenched his fists. His lips pressed into a thin line.
Had he, too, been caught in Weaver's web?
No... No, there's no way, he reassured himself. I'm not connected to that sinister Demon. It's just a stupid Memory, anyway. Anybody could've killed that thing...
But was he not [Fated] too? Just like Sunny, the heir of Weaver? Wasn't his fate deeply intertwined with that of the Dream God, the progenitor of the Demons? What did this mean? Was it not simply a coincidence that he had managed to salvage such a powerful Memory?
Somehow, he doubted that it was. After all, there were rarely coincidences in case of people like him, Maya or Sunny— people who were [Fated].
But sadly, he had no clue as to what this all meant.
There was obviously no denying it now. The Forgotten Shore and the Demon of Fate were connected.
How? That was a mystery Cade had no answer to.
But he wanted to know. Because if there was one thing Cade was, it was curious. Too curious, sometimes.
Yet he wasn't delusional. Weaver had been the master of lies, after all. They were an extremely elusive shadow woven into the fabric of legend. Anything tied to the nebulous Demon would be frustratingly difficult to unravel.
And Cade, unfortunately, was no detective.
Maybe I'll let Sunny take a look at the description, he thought.
A small smirk ghosted across his lips. If anyone could untangle this mystery, it was Sunny. That guy had a knack for uncovering the unknowable.
He might even be able to tell me what enchantments it possesses.
Still, now wasn't the time to obsess over a name, no matter how ominous.
Cade exhaled, pushing the thoughts away. He still had something else to deal with— the Arcane Keystone. He hadn't even had the chance to properly examine it after becoming a Monster.
______________________________________
Just something you ought to know— I've decided to cap Cade's knowledge of the novel at the chapter when Sunny returned from the Shadow Realm after becoming a Titan, i.e. chapter 2135. I had originally thought that I'll have him know about the entirety of Volume 9 but the reveal about the nature of Weaver's Lineage at the end would've made things too complicated for me.
Even still, all the things that will be revealed in the future regarding the power system, the world-building, the lore etc. will obviously be incorporated into the story of this fanfic but Cade only knows about the stuff that has happened till chapter 2135.
Also, even though I've said that Cade has read the novel close to twenty times, I obviously have not read it that many times. I have reread a couple times and I try not to make any mistakes regarding the established lore, but obviously, I'm not perfect. So, if you ever see any inconsistencies or mistakes, do point them out. I don't wanna contradict the original story; at least not in the parts that are well-known.
So, like always, any thoughts you'd like to share? Or suggestions? Or feedback? Don't hesitate to let me know!
Anyway, I hope you liked it. I know it wasn't all that, but the last few chapters were too action-packed. So, a moment of respite was necessary.
...Until next time, then! :]