Status Quo

'That went miserably.'

Nico reclined back on his bed, hair splayed across the pillow like tendrils of silk. He rubbed his temple tiredly. Exhaustion bit at him — a raw, irritable, and peeled scab that wouldn't heal.

'I'll think about it tomorrow.'

His eyes snapped shut as he rolled to the side. Lately, he had done little more than hunt, fight, and sleep — the latter the most. Ever since he turned his Echo into a Specter, that is.

'The Spell...'

It had tricked him. Using his Innate Ability was more a sickening curse than benefit. Not only had his body and soul been damaged by the rebirth, but his very spirit too, and in a way that somehow left him reeling long after the other parts had recovered. Nothing he had ever been tormented by compared to that gut-wrenching overexertion: the fission of his most fundamental being.

But, in return, he had received a Specter. And it was overwhelming. It hadn't gained power, but it had become complete. Its flaming nodes were transformed into true cores, and its fake sentience was replaced by real life.

'Real life...'

His jaw slacked slightly. True, pristine sentience. Not unlike his own. An Awakened Devil reforged from the ethereal crucible of human spirit. His very spirit, fractured and purified to construct it, condensed and reformed by his Soul Tree to become something anew, and molded by the Spell to embody the Echo's being.

Following its birth, he had recognized a faint gratitude. Emanating in waves, it returned after he resummoned the Specter to save him, mixed with eerie awe and worry.

The Specter could not speak because it lacked a mouth, but his Attribute worked fine, and he discovered the Devil viewed him as some sort of... parent? He didn't know exactly, but that was how he interpreted it.

Other than that, its body had remained visible, but not corporeal. The mist was more like an illusory concept than anything tangible. It was, after all, the dew of his Soul Cores evaporated into mist that comprised its body.

After becoming a being with its own Soul Cores, its home was no longer his Soul Sea, but it could enter freely despite that.

With that final thought passing his mind, Nico felt himself falling asleep and released the tension in his body, trying to ignore the pulsing throb that marked the wound in his spirit.

***

Awakening with a husky groan, Nico pulled himself up.

He felt slightly better than last night.

'Doesn't mean this wound will go away any time soon. In fact, it's only gotten worse as time's gone by.'

Letting fatigue wash over him for a moment, he opened his eyes lazily as his soul sense shifted, a powerful presence revealed. His Specter, Shaman, had used his hex to keep his Attribute at bay, and right now, his mist seeped out from under his clothes, becoming a formless blob with two crimson flames pointed directly at him.

Nico flexed his fingers.

Everything was so difficult now: forming his third core, aiding Shaman, making allies — hell, even getting out of bed was irritating.

He breathed, then summoned his runes.

Name: Nico.

True Name: Eternal Dawn.

Rank: Dreamer.

Class: Monster.

Soul Cores: [2/7].

Soul Fragments: [653/2000].

Memories: [Silver Wraith], [Mourning Star], [Song of Steel], [Wrathful Crescent], [Winter's Vase], [Glass Torch]. [Severed Vertebra].

Echoes: —

Specters: [Barrow Wraith Shaman].

'Much more impressive.'

Over the long, grueling three months that had passed, he'd upped the ante quite a bit. Despite having plenty of things to do, he managed to hunt down one Awakened creature per day. Usually a Monster. After that, he'd drag it back to the Bright Castle using Shaman and send his Specter out to go possess and kill a Fallen creature. Sometimes, when he had enough free time, he went with him, and together, they took out a Fallen Monster.

But when he didn't, he just had Shaman bring the Fallen to the base of the hill, then absorb the shards after slaying it himself.

Several new Memories decorated his arsenal due to that. [Wrathful Crescent] was the best — an Ascended weapon on the First-Tier that manifested as a glaive with a pale blade soaked in blood-red moonlight and connected to a shaft of dark wood. With it, he hardly had any reason to keep the [Wilted Dagger] around anymore, so he sold it.

The other three Memories were all tools. The first two were Awakened.

[Winter's Vase] was a black clay pot that built up a suspiciously large reservoir of snow whenever left summoned. He assumed it absorbed the moisture in the air after noticing how dry it had been near his house.

[Glass Torch] was, deceptively, not glass. But, its flame had pale and translucent light, and wherever it touched, the space became distorted and hazy to those outside its range. It helped Nico stay hidden easier.

The last one was an Ascended Memory as well, and the first one he had received. [Severed Vertebra] was just that: a single, gnarled chunk of bone about the size of a cinder block detached from an enormous spine. The Spell's description was too plain to decipher its use.

After lazily recounting all the times he'd summoned it and watched it do nothing, he checked Shaman's runes.

Specter: [Barrow Wraith Shaman].

Specter Rank: Awakened.

Specter Class: Devil.

Specter Attributes: [Wraith], [Hunter], [Specter], [Flame of Divinity].

Specter Abilities: [Enthrallment], [Possession].

Soul Shards: [20/1000].

That might've been the strangest, but most expected part of his new Specter: it could grow. Unlike Echoes, which were stagnant and dead creatures, his Specter appeared to absorb soul shards like anything else could. Since he saw that string of runes, he'd fed the shards from the times they hunted Fallen Monsters to it and none more.

The idea of what might happen when the Specter fulfilled its counter was enticing, but he needed as much power as he could gather for himself, and he figured that soon, there wouldn't be as much impulsive hunting as he'd been used to.

Nico ran his fingers through his hair.

'There's also that other new Attribute.'

He wasn't sure but assumed that the Specter matched his level of divinity because it was born from a remade part of him. Still... what did divinity even mean? His lineage was partially discoverable, but the Attribute was elusive. 

Shrugging it off, he rose to his feet and headed to the door.

'Now that girl, Nephis, is here... I think it's about time to retrieve Kido.'