"Wake," Sunny yelled, "the fuck," Sunny slapped, "up!"
Juno's head snapped to the side. For a second, all he saw was red—inside his eyelids, behind his eyes, smeared across the blurry shape looming over him.
Then the ringing in his ears sharpened into Sunny's voice.
"Okay, okay," Juno groaned, blinking. "I'm awake. Stop assaulting the patient before I sue."
Sunny froze, his hand brought back, ready to strike once again.
"Oh," he managed.
Juno just blinked up at him. He wasn't all the way there or here, so he was struggling to focus.
Luckily, it seemed like he had some sort of breakthrough during his fight with the demon, so he adapted quickly. The branch under his back came into focus first. Overhead, the ever‑present canopy of scarlet leaves glowed in the dim light. To his right, the curve of the Evil Tree's trunk loomed like an enormous rib.
"Did we win?" he asked. "Or is this the part where my punishment is having to listen to you yell forever?"
Sunny let out a breath that was too shaky to be a laugh.
"Yeah," he said. "We won."
Nephis' voice came from his left, calm as ever. "You killed the Demon," she said. "Then you lost consciousness. Again."
Groaning slightly, Juno managed to sit up. He wasn't in as much pain as he expected, but it was still there. Deciding it wasn't rude enough, Juno asked about it.
"Neph, why didn't you heal me fully?"
Seemingly, the reason had been discussed right before Juno had awoken, because Nephis and Sunny exchanged a puzzled and concerned look.
"Well," Sunny began slowly. "Apparently, there is some… resistance. When Neph tried to heal you, she got a really severe pain in her head, so she stopped."
Juno frowned. That wasn't supposed to happen. At this point, Juno didn't know what the hell his Attributes did, but he suspected it wasn't [Indomitable Humanity] that did this.
He glanced down at himself. No obvious curse marks. No ominous glowing. Just bruises, bandages, and a faint, lingering ache knitting his insides together.
'Ah, but there is some sort of curse where I can't see it…'
Looking back up, Juno scratched his chin before speaking again. When he did, it was directed at Nephis.
"Did you try to heal one of my horns?"
Nephis nodded.
"The left one was chipped, so I put my hands on it, and when I activated my Aspect, I got that pain and stopped."
Slowly, Juno nodded. His guess was right. The horns were not human or even human-related; they were Nightmare Creatures. Touching them, let alone interacting with them, would hurt the one doing it. Of course, Neph got hurt by them.
Grinning slightly, Juno shook his head and began to slowly stand up.
"Well then," he said with a grunt, now looking down on the duo. "Don't worry about it. They heal up on their own, and please don't touch them from now on. They are… quite sensitive."
Sunny squinted. "Why shouldn't we worry about it? And, since we're on this topic, why the hell do you have horns? I've never heard of people having those types of things!"
Juno tilted his head, flashing a great smile. "It's cause I'm stylish."
Sunny didn't smile. In fact, he seemed to grow colder. "I didn't ask before," he said, "because you never talk deeply about your first Nightmare or where you came from. But, you know—outskirts rat kills a Master, has a True Name, and now we find out your skull tries to murder healers. Kinda curious."
Nephis' eyes narrowed a fraction. "I am also curious," she said. "Your constitution is… unusual. Even among Legacies."
Cassie, still curled near the trunk, hugged her staff a little closer. "And you feel strange," she murmured. "Different, every time I look at you."
Juno held all three gazes for a beat, then sighed, all theatrics gone.
"I'll tell you, guys, later," he said. "And I don't break promises… Besides, when I lie, but that isn't right now."
Sunny opened his mouth.
"And besides," Juno said smoothly. "Doesn't everyone have secrets. Like you, big brother, don't you have secrets you don't want to share right now?"
Sunny visibly flinched, then grimaced. "…Yes," he admitted.
"Great," Juno said. "Then we can all feel very mutually mysterious together. Call it a bonding exercise. An icebreaker even."
He let his words hang in the air as everyone processed that thought. Really, who were they to ask something so personal?
Juno took this time to glance around the branch they were on. It was the same one they spent the night at, but that wasn't what got Juno's attention. It was the fact that Sunny didn't have his sword out anymore.
'Right, his sword broke.'
Coincidentally, Juno had gotten a new sword. Summoning his Runes, Juno quickly read the enchantment on the Midnight Shard.
Memory Enchantments: [Unbroken].
Enchantment Description: [This blade refuses to be broken, and thus is durable beyond reason. It will greatly enhance the power of its wielder when they are close to death, however, only if the wielder is unwilling to surrender.]
'Ah, right. Shame I already have Execution, or else I would've kept this thing. Now, how to profit…'
"Sunny," Juno said. "Everyone's armed except you. Why?"
Sunny's expression soured. "Because my sword got destroyed," he said. "The Demon snapped it."
Juno clicked his tongue. "Perfect."
Sunny stared. "How," he asked slowly, "is that 'perfect'?"
Juno just grinned. "I had gotten a Memory from that Carapace Demon, and it's a sword."
Sunny's eyes went wide, all previous annoyance forgotten. "You—"
"I'm willing to trade."
Sunny did not take it. "Trade for what?"
Juno smiled, all teeth.
"Two favors," he said. "Nothing suicidal and nothing that goes against your morals. I will call them in later. You do your best to fulfill them."
Sunny stared at Juno. "You're serious?"
"Very," Juno said. "I already have a weapon, and so does everyone else. You, on the other hand, don't. You need this way more than I do, but a regular trade would be unfair. We might be brothers, but selling things to each other is a sibling norm, so get used to it."
Sunny exhaled through his nose.
"Two favors," he repeated. "And nothing that would harm me?"
"Scout's honor," Juno said blandly. "I was never a scout, but you are so close enough."
"Fine," he said quietly. "I agree."
At this, Juno grinned widely and put his hand on Sunny's shoulder. The next moment, the Spell announced the loss of his Memory.
[Your Memory has been given away.]
"Excellent," he said. "Congratulations on your upgrade. Try not to die before I can cash in."
You're insane," he muttered. "But… thanks."
"Don't mention it," Juno said, easing himself back down.
He closed his eyes, feeling the tree's slow hum under his spine, the faint pull of something hungry in the roots.
"Now," he added, voice already starting to slur with exhaustion, "some of us have just killed an Awakened Demon. Wake me if the Sea comes back, or if one of you starts growing bark."
"Are you really going back to sleep?" Sunny asked.
"Absolutely," Juno mumbled. "And I guess I'll tell you all some stuff when I wake up."
He didn't know yet that the next time he woke, they wouldn't be able to hear a word he said.
…
"Ah, I never miss this place."
Juno was now inside his Soul Sea. Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie had moved away from him, clearly trying to give him some space. They seemed to have moved higher up the tree, closer to the fruits and Soul Shards of the tree.
Cold, grey water received him, familiar by now. The surface rippled gently around his floating form, reflecting a sky that wasn't a sky at all. He lay there, on his back on nothing, staring up at the ghostly outline of his runes hanging like constellations.
"Right," he muttered. "Let's think."
Fragments of the fight drifted in his mind. He thought about the clarity he had received before he charged, the extra presence watching from beyond the world, Nephis recoiling from his horn.
Juno didn't realize when, but something had changed inside of him. Slightly grinning, Juno scratched his chin as he thought out loud.
"My memories are gone… some of my memories are definitely gone. Not only that, but my actions seemed to have been altered in some way. Now, the question is, what have I lost and what have I gained?"
He tried to remember the very start of his First Nightmare, but he failed. He tried to remember individual parts of the novel, but he failed. He tried to remember some conversations he had had, but that failed too.
It seemed like he wasn't strong enough to remember yet.
"Talking about that."
Juno willed his Runes into existence, trying to see how far he was away from his Monster Core. He had told Dusky to lay off on the hunting for a bit, but to still continue it.
It seemed like the timing was perfect.
[Soul Fragments: 996/1000]
"Four," Juno said to the emptiness. "That's not a lot."
He lay there, letting the cool waters touch his skin and armor. It was a little weird that he didn't fall through the grey waters, but it was whatever. He had seen stranger things, after all.
He was now feeling out his Flaw.
It was a raging beast, asking him to go and kill some Awakened Beast as quickly as possible to become a Monster sooner, but that was a little too much work for him. It was easy, currently, to quell his greed and let himself laze around.
Time blurred.
His time in the Soul Sea was blurry, with so many thoughts. He thought about what he was going to do for over a month at the Soul Devourer Tree. He thought of how to hint at Sunny's and Nephis's Aspect Legacies. He thought about the presence he had felt, and how he didn't believe it was Fate but rather someone else. He thought about how as soon as he finished with his Dormant Ability, he was going to come clean to his friends about Dusky.
[You have slain an Awakened Demon, Sluggish Moth]
"Almost," he whispered.
He waited.
Eventually, the last faint trickle of essence slid into place. The number shifted one final time.
[SoulFragments: 1000 / 1000]
The Soul Sea went very, very still.
The Spell's voice rolled through the depths of him, bright and cold.
[Your desire is overflowing with power.]
[...Your blade is taking shape.]
The world of water shuddered.