The Sacred Tree

The next morning they start retracing the path that Sunny took the other day to get back to the statue and encounter a lone carapace scavenger. Nephis distracts the scavenger while Sunny goes for the back of it's head. With the combined enhancement of Sunny's shadow and Wyatt's ability, Sunny is able to easily push the azure blade through the thin spot on the back of the scavengers skull, ending the fight in less than a minute.They carve the soul shard out of the scavenger and Nephis asks how they plan to split the shards up. Wyatt motions Sunny to trade the soul shards for swordsmanship lessons. Sunny agrees with little resistance however Nephis refuses to teach Sunny in exchange for the soul shards he will receive on their journey to the Bright Castle. Wyatt realizes that this is due to his outburst the day before, and that Nephis doesn't trust him yet. While thinking of how to get her to trust him he come to a conclusion that brings a pit into his stomach.'She'd probably trust us if she knew our worst vulnerability.'He comes to realize that this may be the only way to guarantee that Nephis doesn't kill him in his sleep. Coming up with various justifications to himself like how useful it would be to possibly use Nephis's powers as well, along with the fact that he doesn't remember her ever abusing the power, he decides to come up with a plan to discreetly tell her. Although this didn't directly interfere with his plans, he knew it would be troublesome if Sunny found out that these two know his true name. Fortunately for him, he remembers that Cassie is supposed to find out about his true name from him killing Harper. He knows this would probably end up just like in the webnovel where Cassie tells Nephis, and Sunny doesn't realize until the very end. He goes through his memories of the book to see if there were any real drawbacks to having Nephis know Sunny's true name and he realizes that it would be the best option for everyone involved.'Heh, "best". How pathetic, when did I become someone who takes the easy way out?'Seeing no better choice he decides to let this happen, no matter how horrible it makes him feel.

For the next few days, they travel through the maze together. Nephis and Sunny split the work of taking down the carapace scavengers, with Nephis acting as the bait and Sunny getting the killing blow. Wyatt pushes them to travel faster through the maze causing them to meet more lone scavengers than in the novel. At one point Sunny catches a glimpse of a carapace centurion through his shadow which Wyatt makes sure to avoid. They are able to keep relatively safe with Wyatt boosting Sunny's abilities. These advantages allow them to take out 10 scavengers in four days, giving Sunny an extra 20 shadow fragments along with 10 more soul shards that had to be split evenly with Nephis. While Nephis shared half of hers with Cassie, Wyatt kept the soul shards he earned in makeshift pockets on his armor, leaving him lugging around 6 soul shards as he couldn't absorb them yet.'Is it really worth it to give so many of your soul shards to a blind girl, and CAN YOU PLEASE ACCEPT OUR DEAL!!! I'm tired of carrying these damn things! Pleeeaaase!!'Throughout the journey, Nephis becomes slightly better at talking to people, with her practicing nearly every day by getting into conversations with everyone else. She also practices other facets of human interaction such as emotion, such as facial expressions, with her smiles often looking forced and akward.

One night while they are resting Cassie wakes up screaming, when Wyatt comes over to calm her she seems scared of him for a moment before regaining her composure. Nephis is awoken by the noises that Cassie made and asks her whats wrong. Cassie sqeaks out that she had a vision before going quiet. Wyatt immediately knows that this is the vision that allowed her to see the ending of the battle of the spire and comes to the conclusion that she probably had the vision of Sunny killing Harper already considering how scared she was when she saw him, this gives Wyatt the confidence that Nephis would accept the deal now that she knows Sunny's True Name. Wyatt also knows that he can't exactly reveal he knows about that yet so he decides to practice his acting skills when talking to Nephis."Hey Neph, what do you think she saw that got her so worked up, must've been quite something eh?""Yes, it probably was."Wyatt sarcastically gasps while seemingly holding back a laugh."She's speaking in sentences now, what lovely developments, I wonder how long until her fake smiles look nearly as radiant as her real ones.""Shut up""Alright. I'll go talk to her."Wyatt walks up to Cassie. "Hey Cass, what did you see, you can tell me and I'll help you figure it out. I bet I know a bit about it."'(Why are you acting so nice now?)''[What do you mean?]''(You started acting mean when Nephis refused you. Why are you suddenly switching from rude and distant to compassionate?)''[Because I get the feeling that she won't refuse the next time I ask her.]''(And why do you feel that way?)''[Just 'cause, I suppose.]'Cassie starts to feel reassured and talks about it with Wyatt."Oh Gods, it was terrible. I saw a horrifying war leaving blood everywhere, no matter where I looked. There was a huge spire and at its base, an army one hundred strong fighting a horde of abominations, every second someone dying. In the center of it all, I saw a woman with a bronze spear holding back dozens of monsters and in the sky a lone archer firing from above. And then, in the end, I saw a broken angel getting consumed by shadows. When I saw it happen, it felt like I lost something that meant more to me than the world itself. At last, I saw a sun illuminating the entire shore and everything caught in its light dying an agonizing death."'(Well, what do you make of this.)''[I'm gonna be completely honest here. I wouldn't worry about it at all.]''(What! Have you not been paying attention.)''[I have and I stand by my words, now let me talk to her.]'Wyatt begins talking to Cassie."Alright, here's the breakdown of your dream, and don't forget, I can't reveal fate, so I can't tell you too much, got it.""I understand.""Okay here goes. On the topic of the fight with the moster horde, there isn't much I can say so I'll place you in a scenario that's already happened and you'll have to interpret the story yourself. Imagine you're an East Berliner stuck behind the Berlin Wall while trying to enter West Berlin, but a sudden change means your government doesn't have the political power necessary to keep the wall up, causing its fall. What would you do?""I'd leave of course.""So was there anything in your vision that could've caused this change, perhaps something not being in the way anymore or... someone, not being in the way anymore.""Now that you mention it, I saw a set of golden armor lying limp on a throne. I think maybe the tyrant king you talked about might have died."Cassie seems much more excited when Wyatt starts helping her solve her visions, enough so that she starts smiling."Alright, we've solved why people are fighting the horde you mentioned. So we just need to figure out who those two ugly bastards you mentioned were.""You sound somewhat insecure about this, those two seemed pretty attractive when I saw them."Wyatt is confused about this. "Wait, you can see your visions? Like, with your eyes?"This line of questioning makes Cassie confused."Not with my eyes but I can see them. My flaw makes me blind it doesn't mean I can't see in dreams.""Oh, that makes sense, sorry about that. Anyway, there is someone in the Bright Castle that fights with a spear, it's a woman named Effie, she's mean but she's strong so I guess she's alright. The one in the sky is a surprise for later, the good kind of surprise though. I'm not gonna tell you until you meet him yourself."Cassie now has even more questions."Do you know them? Are they friends of yours!""Hehe, they will be." Wyatt says with an evil smile on his face."Thats great, I can wait to meet them." Cassie's face then turns somber."But what about the vision of the angel getting eaten by a shadow."Nephis starts to pay close attention to Wyatt's answer."First of all I'm offended. I'm sure we all know who the shadow and angel are."Wyatt looks towards Nephis."But why do you assume that the shadow is winning. I'll bet all the soul shards I'm carrying on me that I couldn't beat her in a fight. And do you know why.""Because she is a legacy?""Forget about her being a legacy, forget about any skills, memories, or backing. In a fight there is one reason that I would lose no matter how many times I try."Wyatt leans into Cassie's ear and whispers his answer."Because she has a Divine Aspect that's focused on fighting."Nephis, despite being a few feet away, goes wide-eyed after hearing this. Cassie begins laughing thinking that this is a joke until she realizes that he was being completely serious."What's yours." Nephis demands."Alas, it's only supreme, for both me and Sunny actually, which would be amazing if I wasn't getting 'overshadowed', pardon the pun, by both of you."Wyatt then turns back to Cassie."I'm willing to bet that you didn't check in on the shadow, but if you did I'm sure you'd find it was just as broken and battered as your dear angel. Not that I blame you of course. I'm sure you're vision terrified you, and terrified people don't make for the best judges of a situation. But overall, despite what you saw, and based off of what I know you saw, there isn't much to be worried about, except for that sun thing you mentioned. Although it's possible I might have missed something, the daemons in the details and all that. Say do you want to hear the story about that sun thing."Cassie just nods."So a few hundred, or few thousand years ago, it doesn't matter much, there was a civilization which I think lived around the area where the Bright Castle is. One day a darkness fell upon the land so these people started becoming desperate. They got some Awakened heroes to help out and these heroes built this spire, that contained their new building project. And I just want to make it clear that I've forgotten alot of the details, so please forgive me, but anyway, these people tried to create a sun. They got a person to become their new sun, but this new person-sun was hungry and needed a ton of energy, so it ate the heroes, which sated it for a while, then a few more people, then a few more, and then even more. This continued until nobody was left and nowadays the sun is just waiting for more energy. Curiously enough I think the sun also kept this dark sea away permanently. The sea around here is actually a great titan, did you know that?"No answer comes as Cassie and Nephis are still pondering the story and its implications, along with his final claim about the sea."But hey, thats old news, and not something I know all too well about. But while we're on the topic of evil suns that can cause agonizing deaths, have you ever heard of SCP-001?""No, why?""I just thought that it would make for a good distraction, you seem curious about the 2000's too. So we can talk about whatever you want until day break."After a few hours Cassie's nervousness is almost entirely gone, and she feels that she's gotten to know Wyatt even better."So you're telling me that the worst part of the pandemic, was the lack of toilet paper at the beginning?" Cassie says barely holding back her laugh."It would've made more sense if you lived through it." Wyatt responds indignantly."Really?" Cassie asks."No." Wyatt can already imagine the response from Cassie."Pfft, hahahaha"'Yup, there it is.'"Well anyway, the sun's up so let's get moving."

Following their conversation, they continue their journey westward slaying scavengers and avoiding centurions which are starting to become more common, although not enough to risk running into them if they stay catious. They manage to make it to another safe point before nightfall and Wyatt turns to face Nephis."Hey Neph, about our deal earlier, have you though about it?""Yes, I will agree to teach you swordsmanship in exhange for all the soul shards you recieve until we reach BrightCastle."'I knew it.'"Actually, I don't like that deal anymore. Your indecisiveness made me carry these eight soul shards for the last five days. So, my new deal is this, swordsmanship in exchange for all my soul shards, until the awakened demon blocking our way is killed." Wyatt begins smiling on the inside as plans are forming inside his mind. Meanwhile, Nephis starts to check to her surroundings to find the awakened creature that Wyatt just mentioned."No, not here, but a carapace demon is between us and the Bright Castle, so we need to kill it.""How long until we reach it?""I'm already pushing the limits of what I can tell you, but I swear on the good name of Sunny's Brilliant Emporium that it's close enough to the Bright Castle."'(Sunny's brilliant emporium, what kind of dumb name is that?)''[It'll grow on you, I promise.]'"Very well, here's my first lesson, Cassie you listen too."Nephis continues when Cassie has gotten close enough."What do you think the essence of combat is."Wyatt is quick to answer."Murder.""Yes, the fundamental goal of all combat is to keep yourself alive and to kill your opponent, all outside is secondary."'[Alright, I've skipped the dialogue for you. You're the one with a sword so go ask her questions. I'll even give you some of my 'body time' for free if you practice, just pound this into your bones, got it?]''(Yes.)'Sunny asks some questions about his type of sword and Nephis gives him some pointers and then tells him to swing the sword a few thousand times since he doesn't have to sleep. Sunny feels betrayed when he tries to give Wyatt control of his body but Wyatt chooses to stay quiet. In the early hours of the morning, when Sunny is done training, Wyatt picks up the sword that Sunny didn't unsummon and begins to practice for himself. Since Sunny's muscle memory is also considered his own, Wyatt manages to copy it quickly although neither as fast nor to the level that Sunny was able to.'Tsk, damn prodigies the lot of 'em, only a few hours and I'm already getting outpaced.'Wyatt spends the next few hours swinging the sword like Sunny did until he feels comfortable wielding it.The next few days go by with few problems and Sunny managing to get the scavenger echo from the book. The scavenger, while spending most of it's time as a mount for Cassie, takes a far more active role in fighting at Wyatt's suggestion. Due to Wyatt's extremely aggresive policy and high confidence, the cohort take down far more scavengers than they usually would, occasionally taking on groups of three scavengers, with Wyatt and Sunny ambushing one using the coral labyrinths as cover, the echo distracting another, and Nephis and Sunny taking down a third one using their usual method. The echo is occasionally able to win on its own against another scavenger due in part to it developing a personality of its own, and learning over time how to kill other scavengers. They also encounter other monsters, including the caterpillars that secrete flammable liquid and some spiders, whose iron webs can be tied into a bag to carry everything. After twenty days in the Forgotten Shore, Sunny is able to increase his shadow fragment count to about eighty, with Nephis' growth being slower due to her sharing her soul shards with Cassie. On their twenty first day however, a storm approaches and Sunny yells at everyone to get back to the hill they were on the night before as fast as possible due to how worried Wyatt sounded when he warned him. Sunny tells the shadow to check their hill and he sees that something else climbed on while they were gone. A Carapace Centurion. Wyatt tells him that their chances of fighting it and making it out alive are higher than their chances of surviving the storm while in the labyrinth. Sunny warns the group and tells them to prepare for a fight as they run to their hill, all three of them preparing whatever armor or weapons they have.When they make it back onto the hill they notice a Carapace scavenger fighting the Carapace Centurion with the scavenger getting easily beaten. This is when the cohort realize just how difficult it will be face off against this creature. Even in such a horrible situation Wyatt can't help but feel amazed at seeing such a creature, with beautiful dark crimson chitin and two scythes instead of pincers. With little other choice, they decide to adopt an ambush strategy. With the Centurion being passive and not actively wandering the hill, the cohort is able to plan their attack on the monster. It is decided that the echo will be used to distract the Centurion from the front, while Nephis and Sunny each take down a scythe to leave the creature with little means of attack and to kill it shortly affter that.The echo begins to walk into the Centurions line of sight and while the Centurion stays motionless at first it immediately defends itself when it realizes the scavenger is trying to attack it. The Centurion is faster that the echo so it quickly switches from defense to offense. In less than a minute, the echo is already missing an pincer and has a hole through its torso. It is at this point that Sunny and Nephis decide to attack, both of them swinging at a seperate arm of the Centurion with less that a second between them, Nephis is able cut the arm off of the Centurion, however in the split second before Sunny was able to cut of its arm, the monster turns slightly to look check what cut it's other arm off, causing Sunny's strike to cut through the surrounding chitin, giving the Centurion a chance to use its scythe to cut halfway through Sunny's gut, throwing him back to the edge of the hill, on the brink of death. Due to the loss of its arm and Sunny's cut making the other one almost unusable, Nephis and the echo are able to kill it shortly after.'Dammit, dammit, dammit. Not again!! I won't die again! Weaver himself will have to come for my soul.'Sunny has already lost his consciousness leaving Wyatt in control of the body, and with what little remaining strength he has left, he yells out to Nephis."I'M DYING, HEAL ME!!!" Although with his stomach torn open, it comes out as a shriek, and causes more blood to spill out.Fortunately for Wyatt, Nephis heard his plea and quickly comes to his aid. Without hesitation, she uses her flames to close the wound on Sunny's body.After a few minutes of rest, Wyatt makes sure to thank Nephis for her timely rescue. At this point both Nephis and Cassie can easily tell whether it is Sunny or Wyatt speaking, so Nephis uses her chance to ask how Wyatt knew her ability to heal as well."I thought I told you, I know alot of things about alot of people, and I trusted you would help me if I ever needed it. By the way, that's some nice armor, did you get it from the Centurion?""Yes." Nephis knows she won't get a straight answer out of him."Now then, do you see that tree in the distance?"The Soul Devouring Tree can be see from where they are resting, protruding out of the ground like a giant landmark, surrounded by what appears to be some kind of red sand."Yes, I can."From Wyatt's estimate, it appears to be about three days of travel away, and since he can see it, he assumes that the process of enthrallment is already starting."That's where the demon is located."Nephis due to not being truly affected by the tree yet, decides to ask about it."How can a tree survive in this place, are you sure it isn't dangerous?""Oh Nephis, do you even hear yourself, how could a tree possibly be dangerous?" Wyatt says while using his shadow to enhance the Puppeteer's Shroud, increasing his mental resistance.'Sorry, but I need that eye, even if I have to risk my life, besides even if I can't resist it, I can play along with it for everything but the most important part.'Wyatt begins indoctrinating himself to begin the most insane gamble he's ever taken.

'The tree is good, the tree gives food, the tree must be protected, it's seeds must spread.'

This continues for a while until Wyatt creates an escape plan that the tree wouldn't be removed from his mind.

'The tree is sacred.''The tree should be protected by all.''As it's most devoted follower, I will protect it from everything and will never eat a fruit from my blessed tree.''I will only harvest the seeds, and when the time comes, I will leave the tree to plant them far and wide.''May my sacred tree take care of me too.'

End Chapter 9