Into the abyss

Sunny woke up to the smell of meat getting cooked. Getting out of Nephis' sleeping bag, he put on [Puppeteer's Shroud] and saw Nephis cooking monster meat on a pan. But even with Nephis doing something so mundane, he couldn't pull his eyes away. The way her hair shimmered by the fire made it even brighter, the way she moved her delicate yet strong hands to move the meat around, and her face that seemed to have a tint of orange over it like a blanket. Sunny stared at her for a full minute before snapping back and closing his hanging jaw as Nephis turned to him and gave him a small smile.

"Hey, Sunny"

"Hey Neph, what are you cooking?" Sunny asked, trying to make small talk as he sat beside her.

"Just some monster meat, and coffee for both of us. I'm still very tired from yesterday, and we'll need it for today."

"Yeah I just hope they were all killed in the fall, it'll be a hassle if one or two survived."

Sunny and Nephis had planned to go back to the pit where they killed the army, but more importantly, get the shards from the corpses. Sunny had estimated that with those shards they would be able to get Nephis to tyrant-hood which would increase their strength before going deeper into the sewers to reach west. They had spent the day sewing rope out of seaweed they had found washed up in the Sewers after their soccer match. Sunny was surprisingly good at the task and was able to complete the task with nephis only after 4 hours, which mostly consisted of collecting enough seaweed. They had no idea how deep down it was but worse worst-case scenario was that they ran out and had to climb the rest of the way down.

After breakfast, they stuffed the rope in his satchel as they made their way towards the pit. They had encountered monsters, ranging from dormant creatures to fallen and even a corrupted creature which they had to run away from, but they made quick work of them. Sunny especially got better at fighting after unlocking his third step of his Aspect legacy which now allowed him to be able to predict how a creature will behave and even use their styles, although most were chaotic unless they were a demon or above.

Overall though Sunny made sure to collect shadows as they went with [Shadow Lantern] since they might prove their use later.

'Speaking of Aspect legacies...'

"Hey Neph, you know how I have an Aspect legacy?"

"Yeah... what about it? If it's about the memory you happened to get from it I know about it, I saw it in your runes when I carried you."

Nephis gave him a glance with a look that he couldn't tell what it meant.

"I still find it... frustrating that you now possess two divine memories, although-"

Nephis gave Sunny a sly smirk,

"-I'm glad that their tools instead of world-ending memories. Only Gods will know what you would do with such power."

"Hey that's uncalled for and not true-"

His flaw perked up and sent a shock of pain throughout his body.

"Fuck, okay fine but still uncalled for! And no that wasn't what I wanted to talk about."

"Then what is it?"

Sunny looked ahead to make sure there were no creatures ahead, before asking.

"I was thinking... since I have an Aspect legacy, does that mean I could form a clan?"

"Yes and no, it's complicated."

Sunny gave her a look for her to continue before turning away, which she did albeit looking a bit uncertain.

"At first when spell came and the first generation came, it meant establishing a plot that was free of creatures and having sole ownership. Later, it meant owning a citadel although they weren't able to claim it until much later when Saint-hood was shown to be possible. And somewhere between that, we were able to find and gain divine lineages from the dead gods. As you know I have the Sun gods' lineage, you have both Shadow's and Weaver's, one of which shouldn't even exist, and the other wasn't discovered till now. Beast lineage is with Song, War lineage is with Valor, Storm lineage is with House of Night, and I heard from rumors that Aster has the Heart lineage though I'm not certain.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that what makes a clan a clan is hard to say. It could be just having a lineage which wouldn't be wrong, but it could also be having your own citadel which isn't wrong either, or having both. Either way, you could create your clan but it'll start small and the other clans would crush you before you get too big, just like House of Night."

"I thought House of Night was on the level of the other great clans?"

"They were at one point, but because they never birthed a sovereign they were left behind and could even be called a lesser clan. I could see you owning your clan one day but I suggest you do it once we're saints and when the sovereigns are killed."

Sunny digested all this information Neph had given him, but he was struggling to do so. Nephis had just told him that to even start a clan they had to beat one that was the pinnacle and symbol of what awakened's can do. Sunny almost felt helpless if it wasn't for the fact that nephis was already planning on killing the sovereigns.

"Though you are in luck, Sunny."

Sunny turned to her confused,

"How so?"

"Well, we'll only need to get rid of two sovereigns, Anvil and Ki, since Aster's whereabouts are... unknown."

"Oh great, looks like we don't need to defeat three powerful sovereigns, we just need to defeat two very powerful sovereigns. It should be a cake walk then, whatever cake was." Sunny said, heavily lacing it with sarcasm.

"Yeah well, I guess we'll need to achieve sovereignty then," Nephis said in a matter-of-fact voice as they walked.

"I guess we will, if it means making a clan with you, I'll even fight the dead gods for it," Sunny said grumbling, not expecting Nephis to hear.

Which was unfortunate for him since Neph had heard him and blushed a little. Fortunately for him, she didn't bring it up, leaving him oblivious that she had heard him. As they got close the ground got wetter and wetter, with puddles forming in small patches. And soon after they saw it, a pitch black pit with no bottom in sight. They soon got to work setting up nails into the ground with the rope tied to them. Soon they were done and both of them had a vest connected to the rope. Sure, they could've just used the rope without wearing a vest connected to it but they could lose their footing and fall, or they might need to take a break in case it takes all day.

"Ready Neph?"

"Ready."

They then threw the rope down, and Sunny went first by grabbing onto the rope and putting his back out while walking downward with his feet on the wall. Neph followed suit above him as she mimicked his movement before going down with him. Sunny sent his Shadows down to scout ahead and make sure it's clear of creatures, especially flying ones since only Neph could really fight them. Luckily it seemed that the sewer creatures hadn't gone down to eat the corpses yet as he spotted nothing for now.

It was going to be quite a way down but Sunny was prepared for this, and in all honesty he could use this time to gather his thoughts and plan for the future. He was still thinking about whether he should start or clan and if it's worth the trouble and stress. On one hand, a clan will allow him to spread his power and grow it, and have people work under him. He wasn't sure if he would help out the waking world like the great clans since he doesn't have much care for it aside from it being where Rain lived. But he decided to do it anyway, gates would bring materials and shards for his clan and it would protect said sister.

But managing a clan would take time and energy which would make his dreams of owning a memory shop or restaurant difficult.

'Am I willing to leave it all for power?'

Sunny had once seen hope as poison, and dreams as a torment for something that he desired but was unattainable in the Dark City. Now though... if they were able to escape, Sunny would be able to achieve his dreams

'I'll decide when it's time, for now, I should focus on actually trying to get out of the Dream Realm.'

As they continued climbing down Sunny looked at his runes to pass the time. When that got boring he studied the beautiful weave in his memories, then he scouted, then he studied another memory.

'How deep is this pit-'

Sunny saw through his shadows corpses lying on the ground, mutilated, torn, and seemingly splattered like pancakes. Sunny unbluckled himself from his vest after making sure there was no threat hiding in the shadows. He looked around and soon after helped Neph take off the vest and gently placed her next to him.

"Well let's get to work, Neph."

Nephis nodded as she started summoning weapons to cut up the corpses, but Sunny wasn't paying attention as he tried to look for one specific corpse, the king. As he looked around he noticed something... there weren't nearly as many creatures as there had been when he fought the army. He estimated there were only half as many creatures he fought here, which was strange to say the least.

'Maybe a nightmare creature did find the corpses...'

"Sunny come and see this." nephis called out to him while waving his hand to signal him to come over.

He complied and went over to see what she needed him to see. Once he arrived and stepped over a corpse, she pointed at one she had cut up and there was nothing there but a cut exposing the innards of the creature.

"What's the problem? There's nothing there."

"That's the problem, there's nothing there where the soul shard should be."

"That is weird... but maybe they never have soul shards since they might be like the knight we killed in the cathedral."

"That sounds plausible I suppose, well let's just collect some meat then since we're running low."

They started butchering and chopping up the creatures to carve out the meat and eventually, they gathered enough that their refrigerator was filled. They checked the other bodies to be sure that, like the first corpse, had no soul shards which they also didn't.

***

"It's a bummer isn't it" Sunny said as he strapped up to his vest and was read to start climbing.

"It is, I had hope to reach tyrant-hood before venturing deeper into the sewers but we'll have to do without it."

Soon they started the long climb back up.

But if they had stayed for a moment longer they would have noticed one of the corpses being eaten seemingly by the ground, almost as if absorbed.