Day and Audrey started to climb faster.
Day could hear it, and Audrey certainly could too. Something was climbing up. It was fast, and powerful.
'No, it's true… It's useless, we are going to die! We can't escape, no matter what we do! Something is coming up! '
Day's emotions poured out in a torrent of sorrow, rage, but most of all: Fear.
He climbed, and climbed, and climbed, as fast as he possibly could, but it was no use.
The creature had already overtook the veil and emerged from the sea beneath to greet them. Its claws dug into the walls, and it was moving up quickly, unceasingly, like the climb was nothing to it.
That notion suffused Day with a palpable maelstrom of pure, unadulterated fear.
Fear that he couldn't run from, no matter how hard he tried.
Not because he wasn't mentally strong, but because his mundane body wasn't fast enough to escape it.
The creature was terrifying. It resembled Envien in one striking way; its limbs. They were long and lanky, and not unlike its wide body in the fact that it was covered in a pitch black fur. Its face had a long snout, and its mouth was open, revealing not one but two dastardly rows of razor sharp canines. Its eyes were crimson red, completing the creature with a poisonous cherry that gave him all but solace when he looked at its eyes.
'It's not a shadow creature! No… No! Even if we reach the top… It'll chase us on open land and tear us apart! Why now?!'
He looked back up to the edge of the canyon that was quickly approaching. Tears were streaming down his face. He didn't want to look back down anymore, he couldn't face his grim reality face to face, he had to run from it.
He reached the top moments later, and pulled himself up onto the coarse ground with a small roll. Audrey had already started to move away, but she was tired, and trying to catch her breath.
Day soon caught up to where she stood. She started to scream and cry at him.
"Something is coming! Something is coming! Envien was a- Day, we are going to die!"
Day reached up and pulled on his hair. Audrey's horror-filled cries pained his heart to a degree that he couldn't put into words.
"I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry… I promised you that I would…"
"I promised you that I would make sure you didn't suffer… so run, run far away, until I'm torn apart and this damned trial shatters to pieces. You and your mother won't ever have to suffer again, I promise… Just survive until I die, and everything will be okay."
Audrey opened her mouth to speak, but choked on her words.
She looked like she had so many words she wanted to say, but both of them knew what wasting time would entail.
"Okay…. Thank you, Day. "
She started to run. Their final moments together were short, and anything but sweet… But Day didn't care.
Day walked a few dozen steps forward, and then slumped down to his knees. He kept his eyes on Audrey's slowly furthering figure for a few moments; Then he slammed his head into the floor and cried.
"I did everything I could… Damn the Spell. It's a curse. It didn't matter how hard I tried, it didn't matter what I did in an attempt to be better, to make not just me, but also Audrey happy, all of it was futile."
Planting his toes onto the floor, he pushed down with all his might until it began to hurt.
"There's no running anymore… At the very least, I have to hold true to my promise to make sure she doesn't suffer. What else can I do? Nothing… I'm powerless. Useless. I couldn't even save my own life after everything I've been through.. Ah, damn it all… Why? Why do I need to be so useless? Why do I need to be so powerless? This isn't fair… This isn't fair! I didn't ask to be infected by the Spell! I should've been granted something, anything for my efforts, but no! No! I have no memories of note! I have no Aspect Ability! I have nothing! Even my own attempts to be selfless worked against me! Trust this, trust that… I trusted Jacob, it nearly got me killed, I trusted someone else, and … and now it's getting me killed! I can't win! Is this just fate? In the end, is this all I amount to? Is this the destiny foretold for me? To do everything in my power but still get nothing out of it?"
He drove his fingernails into his cheeks. His eyes shut even harder as they began to dig into his mundane flesh.
He pushed his broken nose against the floor below, and bit into his lip until it started to bleed.
The pressure he put upon his face irritated his destroyed eye, until it was burning under the influence of a raging flame.
" Fine then, Spell! Take my life if you want it so much, and damn me to an eternal rest even more deep than the unbreakable one you already put me into."
"I'll face it with open arms, so that the grip that it holds on me won't feel icy, but instead warm. I'll die knowing I stayed true to my promise, at the very least… If that's all I'm worth, and this is the punishment you want to give me for being selfish… then so be it."
"I've dealt with enough, and done enough. This sort of life… It isn't my calling."
The creature roared, and he could hear its claws digging into the bone-like floor, a drastically different sound from what it sounded like when they lodged into the walls of the rocky canyon.
He could hear the creature getting closer and closer, and mere moments later, he was suddenly flipped onto his back.
Towering over him was a terrible creature. Its eyes were burning with ravenous malice. Its claws were looming over him like catalysts of death.
And then, those catalysts began to lodge themselves into his body.
First, a claw dug into his thigh, then, another into his waist, for the next two, they impaled him in his stomach and chest, narrowly missing his fervently beating heart.
He groaned in anguish, but bit back against the pain.
As his body was destroyed, his remaining hopes began to be completely destroyed with it…
Until they were no more.
'Ah… I understand now. In the end, the creature that I spared not a passing thought will be the one to end my life…'
It raised him into the air.
Day's breathing was getting shorter. His body was beginning to numb. It didn't take long before his eyes began to flutter.
Just as he was about to close his eyes for the last time…
That was when he saw it.
The source of the radiant light dressing everything from the horizon to where he was being torn apart in an insidious, but warm glow.
The Sun.
Not even a moment after he witnessed it, the most beautiful voice he had ever heard in his life resounded in his failing mind.
[You have completed your trial. Your gracious sacrifice has not gone unnoticed.]
[Let your destiny foreseen allow your benevolent nature to grow to heights never before seen.]
[Let your Guiding Light shine brilliantly upon all who may call in the depths of despair.]
[Congratulations, Aspirant Day. No good deed goes unrewarded.]
Suddenly, the Sun shattered and dissolved in a storm of white sparks, and then the world went completely dark.
[You have slain an Awakened Devil: Devourer of Hope.]
[Your Light has been spread to those in need.]
[Wake up, Day! Your Nightmare is over.]
Day opened his eyes in between the known and unknown. There was a legion of stars held together by strings of light bathing the endless expanse of darkness in a dazzling glow.
The strings formed together into something eerily coherent. Something that Day, in his stupor, couldn't help but gape at.
'Beautiful…
[Prepare for appraisal…]
[A Child of Helios wandered through a barren land in search of a destination that was forever unknown, only finding solace in the thought of the end of his dreadful expedition. This benevolent boy showered his grace onto a child in need, and journeyed across a canyon drowned in an unpierceable darkness to embrace his conviction and keep her safe. He fought off monsters and humans alike, and even when the boy made a mistake, his nature shined true. In a sacrifice worthy of being recounted for time uncountable, the boy shattered the past itself and shined a borrowed light onto the lost Children of Helios, forever allowing their lands to be safe and sound from any conjuration of darkness or Nightmare Creature that could ever attempt to taint their home with blood.]
[You have slain a Dormant Beast: Tenebrous Conjuration of the Drowned Chasm.]
[You have slain an Awakened Devil: Devourer of Hope.]
[You have destroyed the past and aided the birth of a new future.]
[You have achieved the impossible!]
[Final appraisal: glorious. There is not a soul as benign as you!]
' Shattered the future? An Awakened Devil?! Appraisal… Glorious? Benign? I- I'm nothing close to benign, and I'm damn sure I didn't kill an Awakened Devil.'
Day's head was spinning.
None of it made sense. How was this possible?
How could a mundane orphan boy have done something so inane?
Better yet, how had Day, who was supposed to be dead, have done something like that in such a short time?
[Dreamer Day, receive your boon!]
Day's frown deepened.
'So I'm a Dreamer now… '
[You have received a True Name: Harbinger of a New Horizon.]
'No way…A True Name? That can't be! I'm not worthy of such a benefit…'
Grimacing, he was reminded of the scene from moments before where he was being impaled by the Awakened Devil's claws.
'How could I ever be? All I did was sacrifice my own useless life after killing someone and failing to do something as simple as keep me and my companion safe from betrayal…'
[Your Aspect is ready to evolve. Evolve Aspect?]
Day didn't answer at first. He should have been elated. Should have been jumping in joy; If he could jump currently.
But he wasn't… he was melancholic.
He had failed.
He actually hadn't, but to him, he had.
'What is the worth of a True Name or a glorious appraisal if it comes from nothing but luck?'
Nothing, that was what.
He had done nothing worthy of actual note. Nothing worthy of the praise the Spell was giving him.
But there was something deep in his shattered mind that was crawling, trying to lift itself over the rubble of a crumbling wall that was holding it back. Telling him that everything he had done thus far wasn't for no reason, and that he needed to live on. To right his wrongs.
So he had no choice but to live with his failure and do better in the future. He had to assure that not him nor anyone he wished to protect would ever have to deal with what he and his temporary companion went through again.
He had to make sure that people who wished to could have their lives in their own hands, something he, throughout his entire first Nightmare, didn't have the luxury of.
Therefore, he couldn't stay here forever, wallowing in despair over his own failures. His dream was too vast for this to halt him completely.
"Yes."
[Your Attributes are evolving…]
[New Attribute: Dawn of a New Day.]
[New Attribute: Herald of Light.]
[Dormant Aspect Child of Helios is evolving…]
[New Aspect acquired.]
[Aspect Rank: Divine.]
[Aspect Name: The Guiding Light.]
' A Divine Aspect…?'
[Aspect: The Guiding Light.]
[Aspect Rank: Divine.]
Aspect Description, [You are a benevolent being with a destiny to bring solace to people in need, guiding them to a light that your people before you could never truly reach. As someone who holds the title Child of Helios, you have an unbelievable affinity to light and its many wonders.]
That had never been seen before in history! A Divine Aspect was the most powerful aspect anyone could obtain…
But once more, Day was far from euphoric.
Clenching his fists, he burned with rage.
'This is an insult, to be granted such things when I did nothing real of note. I don't know what the hell the spell is talking about. Shattering the past? Killing an Awakened Devil alone as an Aspirant? That's not possible. What the hell is the Spell planning, giving me such boons in a manner such as this?'
It pissed Day off to no end. He had just finished getting torn apart by a Nightmare Creature. He was in anything but a good mood.
It felt like his sorrow and unceasing rage would never dissipate, but alas, it didn't last for half as long as Day expected.
[The First seal is broken…]
[Awakening Dormant powers…]
Suddenly, Day's body began to be overcome with a profound change. He began to feel stronger. He began to feel like his body was filled with life, like there was something pouring into him and altering his body in all sorts of ways that he couldn't even begin to comprehend. His bones began to strengthen. Followed by his organs, muscles, and tissues. Eventually, even his blood itself began to flow more freely. His nose set itself back into place, his eye regenerated, every single bruise on his battered body faded away.
He couldn't help but let out a breath of pleasure at the feelings enveloping his being. It was like his soul and body were being caressed and fed with an energy that benefited not just those two aspects of him, but also his mind, allowing him to feel more empowered and in control. The voices that were plaguing him, telling him he wasn't good enough, telling him he failed, telling him he wasn't worthy of anything he gained. They were all gone, replaced with a blissful quiet.
' So calm… '
Day let out all of the air that he was holding in his lungs.
'It's finally over.'
The space started to shift, and he was bathed in a warmth unlike anything he had ever felt before. He didn't truly know this feeling, but this was the only thing he could attribute it to: Home.
It felt like home.
He knew what this was, but it was difficult to come to terms with.
'My soul sea…?'
His soul was different. He could tell. From what he understood, the visual representation of his soul core was supposed to be warm and bright, but his was different. It felt infinitely more full, like if you got close to it you would be consumed completely while bathing in the soothing embrace of its radiant light.
He felt an odd sensation, like there was a foreign force surrounding him that was providing his soul core with the energy necessary to keep this light going. The foreign presence felt genial, like it was there by choice.
For that reason, he felt like it would never go away.
He sank down onto his knees and closed his eyes.
There was still a finite amount of rage laying deep beneath his now calm demeanor, but he felt better now.
Much better, like he was an entirely different person from before.
No… He was an entirely different person from before.
[Aspect Ability acquired…]
[Aspect Ability name: Light Formation]
The Spell didn't speak for a few moments after uttering these words, as if waiting for something, but Day stayed still, with his eyes completely closed, basking in the warmth of his new-found soul sea, so the Spell spoke once more:
[Even the most beautiful of souls have their blemishes.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
Suddenly, it felt like his soul sea had become noticeably colder.
Day opened his eyes and willed his runes into existence. They shimmered into existence in a whirlwind of sparkles and laid themselves bare for him to read.
[Name: Day]
[True Name: Harbinger of a New Horizon.]
[Rank: Dreamer]
[Light Core: Dormant]
[Remnants of Kindness: 0/1000]
'Light core? Remnants of Kindness? My soul core certainly is different. Is it really that different? I'll explore that later… My flaw! Where's my flaw? I need to look at it. Oh man… A Divine Aspect? Doesn't that mean my flaw is going to be… Don't think about it, just read!'
Day's eyes continued down, and eventually, his eyes landed on his flaw.
He started to read it with anxious eyes… Then he froze.
'What the hell is this flaw…?'