Are You Crazy!

Sunny POV

The morning comes and the cohort continues moving towards the tree, they start approaching a scavenger and prepare to take it down. When Sunny tries to augment his sword, he finds that the shadow moves back to his armor after a few seconds.'(Hey we're fighting now, stop controlling the shadow.)''[...]''Where is he, why isn't he responding. That crazy bastard had me working day and night for the past two months and now he goes silent?''(Hey, if you're giving up, then at least take the shadow off my armor.)''We're fighting a damn scavenger and his only concern is to keep the armor strengthened.''What could possibly be around here that warrants all this. It's like as soon as he saw the demon he got scared. Although personally I don't trust that tree, nothing harmless could possibly survive this place.'(Clang)Sunny's strike is deflected by the scavenger's chitin.'Ack, the sword would have gone through easily if he would just let me use my shadow.'Nephis is forced to run in and finish the monster from the front due to Sunny's failure to cut through. She manages to destroy the scavenger and then demands to know whats wrong."I don't know what's wrong, but Wyatt is hijacking my abilities, and even worse, he's not responding at all.""Hijacking how?""He's only strenghtening my armor and not my sword at all. No matter how much I try he wont let me."'I don't want to tell her all this but it's my only chance at not having to fight these monsters, we'll have to slow our pace but thats alright, as long as we survive nothing else matters.'"What about your scouting, don't you need the shadow wrapped around your armor for that?"'Thats right, we might actually die if we can't see ahead.'"Yes, I can't scout.""Then we must slow our pace, we'll have to check every corner to make sure we won't get ambushed. I estimate it will take another 6-7 days to arrive at the tree, we can worry about what happened to Wyatt when we aren't in danger."'What! More than twice as long. If that's what's necessary we will have to do it though.''[Unacceptable.]''!!!''Did he just say something!''[Use your shadow to scout, but at all other times you need to put it on the armor. It's better if it's you putting it on the armor, that way it'll be stronger.]''(Why do we need it on the armor?... Answer me!!)''[...]''Tsk, fine, have it your way.'"Hey guys, it seems like he wants us to get there quickly, he's letting me use my shadow for scouting."'Unbelievable, why do I need permission to use my own ability.'"What about using it on your sword?" Nephis asks.Sunny tries to move the shadow to the sword but he can feel Wyatt trying to usurp control of the shadow from him. While it's not nearly enough to wrestle control from him when he's concentrating on it, he can tell that once he reduces his hold on the shadow, it will slip back to his armor.'I might be going crazy, but is my shadow also trying to disobey me and move to the armor, it seems anxious whenever it's not on it.'"No, he won't let me use the sword properly."Nephis uses this opportunity to teach Sunny another sword lesson."Why do you need someone else to use your sword properly, I though I taught you better than that?""Because it's better to use everything at your disposal when killing these creatures, and I'd say his added strength works wonders.""If you're relying on strength to kill your opponents, then you're just a brute who'll fail at the first sight of something stronger than you. Experience is the best teacher you can have, it'll teach you that technique and an understanding of what your opponent will do, are far more important than mere strength. Although, I actually find it kind of funny."Sunny looks around to find where the humor that Nephis is talking about is, when he gives up he decides to ask why."Well, we're all sleepers, fighting against awakened beasts. I can't imagine a better place to get experience, after all, it's impossible for a cohort of sleepers to be able to 4v3 awakened creatures on a basis of strength."Cassie joins in at this."Actually it's more like a 2v3, we all know I'm not much help in battle, neither is Wyatt directly fighting but rather supporting, but it is amazing, like the kind of stuff you'd read about in a webnovel."'[Kukukuku]'Sunny feels a sharp pain in his head when Wyatt snickers.'How could he possibly have revealed fate by laughing?! Did she say something I missed, she was just talking about webnovels wasn't she?'Nephis continues with what Cassie said."Yes, so how is it that we can take them down so easily, if we continue at this rate we'll be taking down Saints as Awakened. Our skills should have to be top notch to take down these scavengers, and yet, yours almost seem... lacking. You must have an amazing ability to be able to strengthen yourself, or your memories, while also being able to scout so far out, and see in the dark. Those could all be their own Aspect Ability, it almost seems too versatile to be a simple Supreme rank Aspect Ability."'Simple?! She's not wrong, but how could she possibly refer to a Supreme rank ability as weak?'"Don't forget, my family used to run a large clan. I've seen abilities of all types, even a Sacred ranked one a long time ago. Yet they don't compare to yours, so tell me, what is your true Aspect Rank?"'...''Damnation.'Sunny tries to stop the answer from coming out for as long as possible, going so far as to bite down on his tongue to disract himself from the mounting pain in his head. After thirty seconds of silence, it becomes so much that he almost faints, and when he loses his ability to voluntarily keep his mouth closed, it opens subconsciously."divine" He says, in an almost whisper, just loud enough for Nephis and Cassie to hear.'Fuck, Fuck, FUCK!!! There's no way they won't ask if I have a true name after that.'Sunny puts an arm behind his back, and begins to summon his sword, preparing to take them both down, support from Wyatt be damned."Anthing else you wish to know?" He asks, bearing a calm smile that is proven false through the clearly gritted teeth he spoke through.Nephis however shows no interest in knowing his true name."I only want to know your abilities because it is better for  your training if I can push you past your limits, and I can only do that if I know what your limits are. I now understand why you struggled so little against those scavengers, so we'll be adding a challenge, we're going to take down the demon in the next three days."'Are you crazy?!'This challenge shock sunny so much that he immediately stops acting threatening and instead tries to dissuade Nephis from such an insane plan. In the end Sunny fails in his endevours and is forced go along with his "increased training regiment" which includes fighting scavengers without his shadow and moving to the tree as fast as possible. At night Sunny pretends to fall asleep but stays awake the whole time to make sure neither of them ask his true name, just in case he's forced to say it when sleeping too. Despite nothing happening, Sunny doesn't sleep a wink that night, and only when the sea retracts he urges them to move as quickly as possible toward the tree, so that neither Nephis nor Cassie have time to ask any incriminating questions. Although he still never lets his guard down, he wonders just what they're thinking and how much they know. He ponders over the possibility that they know his true name but determines it to be impossible as the only time he ever said was in the middle of a forest with no witnesses. He's sure there's no way to trace any of that back to him, that forest was a monument to the forest titan that it was born from, and has a strict policy on no devices within the area as one of the last few forests in human territory.Even considering the possibility that Cassie can somehow hear the conversations between him and Wyatt, he thinks it to be too far of a stretch.He decides to stay twice as vigilant before talking to the other two again to make sure they'll never find out his true name.'Wyatt talked enough for the both of us anyway.'

Nephis POV

'Another Divine Aspect, just like mine.' 'No, perhaps even more useful. He can actually use his.'For the past few months, Nephis has experienced surprise after surprise. From getting selected by the spell, to fighting an Awakened Tyrant, to awakening a Divine Aspect, to meeting a crazy kid spouting insane stories. Yet, if asked which of these events Nephis considered the most life changing, she would say that meeting that same kid was the greatest moment of luck in her life. Her getting selected was all but guaranteed by her upbringing and her Divine Aspect held almost no power outside of healing with her inability to use it in battle.'And that damn kid even has a voice in his head that gives him another Divine Aspect.'That's right, while never outright said, she was able to figure out that Wyatt's ability might also be Divine rank. At first she figured it might genuinely be supreme due to the fact that strenghtening abilities are not particularly uncommon. Eventually though, she realized that Wyatt's ability was not just a strenghtening of Sunny's body as she originally assumed, but that it was doubling Sunny's ability in every way, his memories, his scouting range, his strength, anything that included his shadow got a significant buff. Although in her mind she could still justify Wyatt's ability being sacred, she knew in her heart that if Sunny's ability was divine, Wyatt's ability to double it, and more importantly use it, would probably be as well.'But if his ability is based on support, how could he be a more effective oracle than an actual oracle? It doesn't make any sense, he'd need to gather his knowledge from somewhere but according to him, his flaw prevents him from telling anyone where.'In her mind she comes to two conclusions, either Wyatt's ability includes both doubling and copying, while also being an oracle, his true flaw being that he's stuck sharing someone else body, and him getting his information from the Sovereigns, making him the true assassin. Or what Wyatt's saying is true and his knowledge of the future being based off of his mark of fate, as Cassie called it.After a few minutes of thinking she decides that it is likely that Wyatt is saying the truth, as his attribute was losing his body, according to Cassie. Although she's not sure quite how much that helps him out, she does see that being able to put his complete focus on another body without worry for him own, would be great for a supporting aspect ability.'This leaves me as... perhaps the least useful member of the group.' Nephis frowns'Cassie is telling us where to go and what to avoid, Sunny and his echo are helping to kill all the scavengers in our way, Wyatt's doing both, and I'm stuck here acting as bait. Somehow, I'm not even growing as fast as Sunny, he's not absorbing a single shard, and yet I can tell that his improvement is far greater than mine. When Wyatt is around it's even worse, he seems to treat this whole thing as a giant joke, as though a corrupted creature can't just end our lives at any moment, is this what all people from a time of peace would act like? Although it was funny to see his reaction when I said that I could tell the two apart easily, as if his completely different accent and his cheeky little grins aren't giant flags.' Nephis almost smiles as she remembers the face he made, as though somehow expecting to be indistinguishable from Sunny.'For now I'll trust them, although what is Sunny's flaw? Ah, I got it, it must be that he has to tell the truth, it would explain why he tried so hard yesterday to stop himself from saying that he had a Divine Aspect. It also lines up perfectly with what Cassie was saying, although she mentioned it occured at Brightcastle, someone asked for his true name and he killed them then said it in a whisper, 'lost from light', after holding it in. He was clearly trying to hide his true name by killing him and by trying not to say he had such a powerful aspect. But why? Having a true name as a sleeper is a great boon, it woulsd have gotten him much more support, although with Wyatt around that might have been unnecessary, perhaps Wyatt even has his own true name. So many questions and so few answers, although I am getting there, I'll figure it all out eventually, and then they can help me fight those goddamn Sovereigns.'Nephis frown come back full force as she remembers all the pain they caused her. While walking forward she realizes that they haven't run into any scavengers all day, probably due to Sunny making sure he doesn't have to fight them without Wyatt's added strength.'There must be something up with that tree, there's no way he would be pushing us there if there wasn't, with his knowledge he must know a way around.'"Hey Cassie' Nephis whispers."What?" Cassie whispers back."Do you trust them?""Yes, I do."Nephis seems surprised by that answer."Why? We know far less than they do, how do we know they aren't just using us?"Cassie appears offended."What do you mean, just because I'm not all knowing doesn't mean I can't piece together a puzzle. I have visions almost everyday now, and whenever they include something Wyatt's told us about, it always lines up, mostly."Nephis latches onto Cassie's last word."Mostly still leaves some room for him to betray us, what was different?""Well, it's just strange. You know how my visions aren't very useful right now?"Nephis quickly denies this and supports her friend."Don't say that, you're visions have always been useful."Cassie chuckles."Well thanks for the encouragement but I feel like my prophecies are slowly getting less and less accurate, I can even give you an example. Remember when Sunny got his echo.""Yeah, afterward he said that Wyatt hinted to him that he would get an echo soon, that why he didn't look that surprised.""A few days ago I got a vision, it was of Sunny obtaining his echo, but he seemed as bewildered as the both of us, we were also much more bruised and battered in the vision than we actually were in real life.""You're saying that fate got changed?""That's not all, when I got a vision of the past, it was of us at night, it included Sunny and Wyatt switching between who controlled the body.""Okay, they do that every night, what's so special here?""When Wyatt took control, it's as though he got blurred out from my memory, I can't genuinely remember what he did in the vision, don't you see the problem here?""That he can both apparently change fate from what an oracle saw, which is something that no other person is able to do, and be immune from your divination?""My powers are very strong, you have to understand that Neph. If I can't find out what he's doing with my abilities, I don't think anyone else can either. Even worse though, do you remember why I told you Sunny's true name?""Because you thought it might save me when I have to fight Sunny.""But what if you don't have to fight him, what if we could settle this peacefully?""Do you trust him enough to settle it peacefully?""I have to try, don't I? You don't know everything I've seen Neph. If he can change it all, I'm more than willing to give anything, everything for his help." Cassie pleads with Nephis and then continues."When I first got my powers, I saw many thing that I would give the world to prevent. I thought I could change nothing. I thought that knowledge was the heaviest burden one could carry, but now I see that I was ignorant, it's the lack of knowledge that makes what little I do know, an impossibly large weight on my shoulders. It's useless to know when everyone dies if you don't know how to change it, but he clearly knows more, perhaps enough to help me."'So we all want his help, how pathetic. If he knew what we were thinking he'd be asking for payment for his knowledge.'Despite Wyatt's good hearted nature, he had shown himself to be quite greedy on multiple occasions when like he tried to trade his knowledge for memories that Nephis obtained, or for Cassie's water bottle. Despite how Nephis usually felt about Wyatt, she couldn't help but feel slightly disgusted whenever he showed her the side of him that she felt belonged to only the worst people in the world such as the Sovereigns, the vultures who tried to gain what little benefits they could from the fall of her family's clan, and the one she felt Wyatt most belonged to, the humanity of the past that constantly fought useless wars, allowing the Spell to come and destroy what little was left. She would've been able to accept it from Sunny, an outskirts rat who had to be greedy to survive, but on Wyatt she felt it was just a trait that he was born with due to him not needing for anything in his past. She hated it, she didn't hate Sunny, she didn't even hate Wyatt, she actually rather enjoyed the extroverts company, but she had a deep distaste for the kind of person who would try to gouge out benefits from others when stuck in a life or death situation. In the end, she couldn't bring herself to truly hate him when she knew, she wanted him on her side, perhaps as a strategist, perhaps as support, perhaps even as just another person with a Divine Aspect, but she knew that he would be useful in whatever endeavors she put her mind on. Snapping her out of her thoughts was Sunny's voice."Everyone stop!"Five hundred meters away, a crab like creature the size of a house could be seen standing in front of a tree as large as a skysrcraper.'That must be the Carapace Demon. What a revolting creature.'To call it crab like would be insulting to any creature with a chitinous exoskeleton. It's appendages carried the appearance of a crab, but that was where the similarities ended, it's body appeared more similar to that of an insect, while it's face took on the likeness of a human face, if said human face were made up of only two eyes, a nose and a mouth connected by a straight line, without even a skull to soften it's features.'The quicker it dies, the better.'Nephis quickly assumes the role of the leader."We need to find a way to kill it, does anyone have any ideas?""Not yet." Sunny says."Me neither." Cassie follows.Nephis wonders what can be done to destroy the creature when she notices a strange look on Sunny's face.This goes on for a while until finally, in a slightly southern accent that she almost missed, she can hear him say:"He might not have one, but I do."

Cassie POV

'Is he back!' 'No, I have to seem like I didn't miss him.'"You said you had a plan?" Cassie asks nonchalantly."Yes, I have to kill that disgusting creature. I have to protect my tree from such an obvious threat." Wyatt says very matter of factly."Your tree? Do you know anything important about the tree?" Nephis wonders aloud."Of course I do, the tree is the creator of one of the only safe spots in this cursed realm."'Cursed? He always seemed to enjoy this place... somehow. I guess even he doesn't truly enjoy the Dream Realm.'"Are you okay, you seem different after you went silent for the past two days?" Nephis asks.Cassie also noticed something off about Wyatt's behavior but was too happy about his return to care."Of course I'm fine, better than fine even. Actually ever since two days ago I started realizing the true greatness of the tree, ever since then I couldn't stop thinking about it. Dreaming about it. Wanting it. Needing it. I NEED to protect my blessed tree. I NEED to spread it's seeds."At around this point, everyone realizes something is extremely wrong. Although Wyatt can sometimes act in a manner considered crazy, he's never acted this deranged. Cassie feels forced to point this out."Why do you feel you need to protect it so badly?"But Wyatt's answer only leaves them with more questions."Because I am but a caretaker, no, a humble servant to my tree. It's only right for me to feel this way."Cassie then whispers into Nephis's ear."do you see a way to avoid the tree, i dont trust it""no, we just need to kill the demon as fast as we can and leave" Nephis whispers back."Now then about that plan, I propose we get the flammable liquid we collected earlier and light a signal at night for a bunch of sea creatures to kill it. First we distract the demon with the echo to climb onto a branch of the tree. We throw the liquid from the branches of the tree, onto of the demon. Sea creatures help kill the demon, we win. Easy enough right."'Oh thank god, he hasn't changed at all, the plans are still as life-threatening as always.'After a few minutes of trying to come up with any alternative, the cohort settles on Wyatt's plan. They wait until dusk to start their attack.While hiding behind a ridge about two hundred meters away to stay out of sight of the demon, they send out Sunny's echo to walk to the other side of the tree while also catching the attention of the demon. When the demon takes notice, it starts walking near the echo cautiously, although it's sole purpose is to protect the tree, it can't tell whether the scavenger is a freind or foe as its keeping it'sdistance from the tree. When the demon is finally out of sight, they start making their way towards the tree. After only thirty seconds they manage to make it to the tree. Nephis is the first to climb up the tree, after making it to the lowest branch about twenty meters up, she extends the rope to Cassie, Sunny helps to make sure Cassie is holding on properly. After Cassie get up, it's Sunny's turn, he decides to send his shadow to check up on his echo and sees it stuck in that same stare down with the demon. The demon however manages to notice the stray shadow moving around and starts running towards it. Sunny, realizing hes been found immediately de-summons the echo and starts climbing up the tree to meet up with Nephis and Cassie. While the echo is being de-summoned, he can hear the sound of chiting clashing agianst chitin, and thinks with a heavy heart that he just lost his echo, although he breathes a sigh of relief when he recieves no message of his echo being destroyed.As he's halfway up, the demon comes into Sunny's view causing him to start climbing even faster. As the house-sized creature gets close enough to start swiping at Sunny, he finally manages to escape it's reach. Nephis then passes the oil-like substance to Sunny so that he can throw it onto their dreaded foe.When the creature is properly coated in the liquid, Nephis grabs a branch and sets in on fire. As she's preparing to throw it onto the demon, Sunny stops her and tells Nephis to give the branch to him, while she's unsure of what to do, Sunny grabs the lit branch and throws it. The blaze formed when the fire came in contact with the demon was bright enough to be seen by anything within a few kilometers. Although Cassie herself  couldn't see the result, she could still hear the peircing shriek of the creature being burned alive. The noise outside however quickly faded to nothing, which she could recognize as the start of another vision.The vision was far nicer than any other she ever had, she could feel herself lying in the sun without a worry in her mind, she then opened her eyes and saw a tree in her view. A perk of having such vivid visions, her ability to see in them despite her flaw. When she got up she could see both Sunny and Nephis wandering around with a smile on their face.'Ah, what a pleasant future. Perhaps this is what Wyatt meant when he said this place was a safe spot. It feels like heaven.'Looking at Sunny she could see him holding a fruit while walking towards her."Hey Cass, want a fruit?""Yes, thank you."'How nice of him, going to gather me a fruit.'Cassie takes a bite of her fruit and enjoys it somewhat, it's juicy and sweet, although it seems to have a rather watery and starchy aftertaste.Taking a close look at Sunny she sees just five attributes. She figures she can still see Wyatt's attributes until she realizes that his current attributes are different from what she remembers.'Blood Weave, and.... Enthralled?' 'That's a new one, I wonder what that does?'She thinks for a second, her mind feeling slightly foggy, until she checks her own attributes.'Wait, I have Enthralled too!! Why do I have it, what does it do?'She realizes much to her horror, that her new attribute was given to her by the tree, and it's role is to make them all its mindless servants.She now knows what must have happened to Wyatt, coming to the understanding that someone who is only a mind without a body, would be much more vulnerable to mind attacks.While running around trying to escape her new nightmare, she trips over a bag filled with acorn sized seeds. She estimates that there must be hundreds in that bag. Knowing that these must be the seeds Wyatt plans to spread, she asks Sunny where they came from. Her belief was confirmed when he states that he doesn't know what their origin was, unkown things occurring in her visions is the best way to assure herself that Wyatt's actions led to this.After her vision, only a few seconds pass in the real world and she pleads to Sunny to remember the simplest thing he can, she tells him to remember five, that he had five attributes, thats all he'd need to know to remember, and she prays that his mind would be strong enough to resist the evil tree better than she could.Unfortunately for her, the sounds of the burning demon start to fade once more, bringing her into another one of her visions.This time it seems to be of them still in the tree, although now she can see the horrifying visage of the demon. This appears to not be the only thing surrounding the tree, as she can see a great many abominations approaching the demon, as a lioness would approach a gazelle. All except for one, a blob spread out on the ground, slowly approaching the cohort. It gets nearest to Sunny and start to demand that he open his eyes. This is made even creepier by the fact that the blob is starting to take on an appearance that can slowly be described as humanoid while standing right in front of Sunny's face, just wanting for him to slip up and take a peek. When it becomes clear Sunny won't do so, it takes on a voice Cassie recognizes as her own. First asking kindly then forcefully, until it's yelling at Sunny to open his eyes.Cassie is able to see no more as she is thrust out of her vision. She then wastes no time telling Sunny to keep his eyes closed no matter what, even if he hears her asking to open them again. Sunny tells her that he will, and at this point Cassie is so tired that she lies down, and falls asleep, even though she knows whats waiting for her when she wakes up, she finds that she's to tired to truly care, and decides to leave matters up to Sunny and Wyatt to survive.

The next morning she wakes up on the ground, quickly being noticed by Nephis who offers her a fruit which she gladly accepts. She tries it and finds it's far tastier than she remembers in her vision, with no negative aftertaste either. Sunny is the next to arrive and Cassie is quick to offer a bite, although strangely Sunny refuses it.'I wonder why, I never thought he'd refuse free food. He's almost acting like it's poisoned or something.''What a funny thought. Anything that comes from this tree being bad, that's just not possible.'

End Chapter 10