Wren stared at the two skeletons in front of him, then at the one who spoke, and then at Selina, who was staring at the one who spoke.
"Am I that good to look at?"
Wren blinked.
"This skeleton just spoke... didn't he?"
Selina nodded.
They walked closer to the ancient tree. The two skeletons were now closer in view, both were weathered, and their bones had lost their original white colour, now dull and covered in rags.
Before Wren could observe them more, the other skeleton groaned and moved a little, letting out a venomous voice.
"Stay away from me, you vile hideous being."
The other skeleton chimed in.
"Ah Azarax, don't be so rude to these two young beings..."
The previous skeleton, Azarax, then said in his deep, rude voice, full of rage.
"Can't you smell the stench of a daemon on this abomination? He's one of the Weaver's, you bastard."
Wren was silent for a moment while Selina was taken aback.
'He's one of the Weaver's? Is he perhaps... no... this can't be possible.'
Suddenly, someone laughed, it was Wren.
"So what? Even if I am one of the Weaver, so what? Ah, let me tell you for a fact, what you said is a little true."
Both the skeletons were silent for a moment.
"Indeed, I am somewhat related to Weaver in a sense, considering he created a few things for me... But this stench you say is not from me, it is from my comrade, the inheritor of Weaver, you fucking skeleton."
Azarax was silent for a moment and then spoke.
"Inheritor of Weaver? What impossible things you are talking about, you abominable creature of the Void. Daemons were forbidden from having children. Weaver split their lineage, but it was lost."
Selina then took her step.
"Lost? Or just hidden in the strings of Fate?"
The two skeletons diverted their gaze towards her.
"My, oh my, you shouldn't say things so easily, you are no less in the position as this young void creature beside you is. Though tell me, why do my hands itch so much to slit your throat?"
Wren stood in front of Selina.
"I think you are in no position to say these words..."
He stared at the ancient tree.
"You are cursed, aren't you? Did the Shadow God do this to you? If they did, then that might be a good choice probably."
Suddenly the air around them became thicker, making both Wren and Selina a little uncomfortable.
"My, oh my, I wouldn't want to remember those bitter memories. Ah... my apologies."
The pressure was gone, making Wren sigh in relief, meanwhile, Selina said calmly.
"My name is Selina and this is my companion, Wren, may we get the honour to know your names?"
The skeletons were silent. Azarax was the one who broke it first, his voice was deep and full of pride.
"I am Azarax the Mighty, the Plague of Steel, King of Kings, conqueror of a hundred thrones!"
Then the other skeleton said.
"I am just a humble slave. As for my name, I think I had one... yes I did have one it was... Eurys of the Nine."
***
It was nighttime, the cohort had taken shelter in one of the red coral mounds, eating the meat grilled by Nephis in the silence of the starry night.
Everyone except Sunny was in deep thought, mostly because of Wren's sudden disappearance, Effie who had just finished her hefty meal, turned her attention to Nephis, coughed and then said.
"Princess, do you know where your butler disappeared to?"
Nephis replied with a calm tone.
"I don't know."
Effie was about to say something, but then Kai interrupted with his own words.
"Lady Nephis, I don't know if I should say this, but your butler, I think he harbours ill intentions toward you."
His words caught the attention of Nephis, of everyone. Effie turned her gaze towards him, raising her brows in confusion and asked:
"Ill intentions? What do you mean?"
Kai said with a nervous expression.
"You know that my flaw allows me to detect lies. I asked Sir Wren a few questions out of curiosity; most of them were regarding his loyalty towards Lady Nephis, and each answer he gave was a lie, except one. It was regarding his severed arm. I asked who did this to him, if they were alive or how he planned to deal with them."
Sunny shuddered at Kai's statement. He looked towards Nephis; her eyes were calm, but the few beads of sweat on her forehead betrayed her expression.
"What did he tell you?"
Kai hesitated at Nephis's question but then replied.
"He said that the person was someone he knew; he also said they were alive and that person would pay for this in a very brutal way. Sir Wren's eyes also shifted to a heterochromic colour of black and grey. He at that moment was very dangerous."
Everyone was silent.
"Does anyone know about his aspect?"
It was Cassie who asked about it.
"His Aspect is related to darkness; that is all I know."
Sunny answered.
"We all know that, but we don't know his aspect full capabilities aside from the fact he can materialize darkness into shapes."
Caster stated.
"Maybe that is all his Aspect provides him?"
Kai replied with a shrug.
"It can be a possibility, but it might be one of his attributes. Wren never used his aspect at full power, or maybe he did when he killed a fallen tyrant in the dark sea alone."
Sunny replied, but his words made everyone silent.
"H-h-he... killed...a fallen t-t-tyrant."
Effie said in a shaky voice.
"But he is a Sleeper like all of us, even princess wouldn't be able to kill a fallen tyrant with our help. He did it alone. Just who the hell is he?"
Effie retorted.
"You want to know? Should I reveal the truth, Lady Nephis?"
Caster asked in a calm voice. He looked towards Nephis for her approvement, she gave him a nod. Taking a deep breath, Caster began.
"Sir Wren is not the butler of Lady Nephis. He is just playing that role for the plan he built before entering the dark city. He is the one who made Lady Nephis the leader of this revolt instead of taking the position himself."
Effie and Kai were stunned, but what Caster said after left them frozen.
"I shall introduce him with his real identity, he is the Heir of Abyss from the Valor clan."
***
"Finally, we have reached the Dark city."
Wren turned his head toward Selina, who had just lifted her hood off, observing her surroundings with amazement.
"What do you think? Had they reached this place by now?"
Wren shook his head in agreement.
"They should have reached a little earlier than us, might be fighting the fallen devil in the cathedral."
Selina then stood beside him.
"We should not go there."
Wren sighed.
"It is still hard for me to understand your statement sometimes, but anyway, let's go. We don't have much to do right now anyway."
In a different direction, they silently sprinted towards the ruined cathedral. Arriving at the spot in a few moments, they stared at the cathedral in front of them.
There were few sounds coming inside from the cathedral, it was the sound of battles and a little bit of yelling from a certain treacherous shadow.
"Looks like they are still fighting. We should go inside and take a closer look."
Selina didn't reply and started to move forward, leaving Wren a little behind. She was more interested in meeting the original trio than anything, Wren sighed.
'Ah, she is going to leave me behind at this rate.'
Wren moved to Selina's side. They entered the ruined cathedral together, only to be met by darkness, not that is affected them much, as both can see in the darkness.
Moving further inside the cathedral, they both saw sparks of white flames. It was Nephis fighting against a knight.
The darkness inside was much less comparable to the outside, the others clashed at the fallen devil but failed to do any damage. The fiend was more powerful than them.
'I feel bad for them, but I feel more bad for the nightmare creature.'
When Wren saw the fiend surrounded by the cohort and fending off their attacks made something inside of him move, he wanted to push the cohort off and protect the Knight.
Selina stared at Wren.
'I bet he wants to save the Forsaken Knight, his attribute [Prince of Darkness] must be forcing him to do this.'
The battle at the start was favourable to the cohort, but the tides soon changed when the knight started to overpower them brutally.
Nephis was his target, he was focused on killing Nephis the most.
The fight raged on, and even with cohort members joining the battle again, they can't stop the Black Knight. He was dead set to kill Nephis, he was unstoppable, and their attacks achieved nothing except annoying a little.
"I am going to close my eyes for few moments, wake me up when the Black Knight is near death."
Wren said to Selina, who was too engulfed in the fight in front of her eyes. She nodded without looking back.
'She might get more experience.'
Wren sighed and walked towards the nearby wall. He stood near the wall, resting his head on it, closing his eyes and was soon lost in his thoughts.
His and Selina's meeting with the two skeletons went well. Azarax was usually silent, but Eurys wasn't, he was like a wise old man... well, a wise old slave, giving little information to them.
'I am surprised a little.'
Both Azarax and Eurys were aware of the Void, though they seemed to only have a little knowledge considering the knowledge was scarce in their era, and this information is now extinct in his era.
'I am a being of Void. I don't know what this truly means... maybe they both felt a similar presence from me, or maybe it was something else. But I still don't understand Selina's existence. There is something about her that makes her presence affect me this much. From her aspect description, she is an apostle of mine, she is the second one on top of that.'
Wren sighed mentally.
'Does this mean I am following the steps of Abyss God? But where will this lead me? Astatroth told me I would meet the second divine darkness in my second nightmare. The information he gave me about the dream realm is also terrifying. To think this realm is a divine realm of a corrupted god, which had devoured all other realms except two. The War god's realm and the Shadow god's realm.'
Shifting his head a little to get comfort, Wren was dwelling deeper and deeper in his thoughts.
'There were mortal realms, but they too were devoured by the Dream Realm. Then maybe the Void is a realm, too? A point of origin... of everything, perhaps. Maybe Selina is also from a different realm, she was not within the academy, and her aspect is related to void. Some of her information is blurred for me by the Spell.'
Wren opened one of his eyes and watched Selina for few seconds, and then closed it.
'She also seems to be aware of things she shouldn't know until she watched it herself. I noticed her gaze when she saw those two skeletons, it was as if she knew them. I guess she knows something, she will tell me someday, maybe.'
Finishing his thoughts, Wren left the wall. Standing beside Selina, who had little stars in her eyes, the Black Knight's armor was worn off, revealing a ghost colossus made of darkness.
He was going to attack the taciturn monster with his claws, but she instantly dodged the claws of the apparition, which had bent to shatter the living statue once and for all. Then, she took a step forward.
The Stone Saint was right beneath the leaning devil now.
'This is bad. I want to save that being of darkness.'
Wren had already moved without giving it any thought. He appeared behind the apparition and put a hand on his ghostly shoulder, the apparition stopped his movements like he was frozen.
Wren opened his mouth.
"That's enough. It's time for you to rest."
At that time, the stone saint used this as an opportunity, her ruby eyes flashed with ruthlessness, she lunged forward and delivered a crushing blow to his chest.
Her gauntlet tore through the breastplate of the rusted armor and sank deep into
the living darkness, right where a human heart would have been.
...Or a soul core.
A moment later, the crimson flames burning in the depths of the dark creature exploded into a wave of blinding red light.
...And disappeared.
The dark essence of the devil dissipated like a fog, and its remnants were vanquished by Changing Star's radiance, or that is what everyone thought. The remnants were vanquished, true, but most of the dark essence was absorbed by the black bracelets on Wren's wrists.
[You have received a being of darkness.]
Wren's eyes widened slightly, he wanted to check his runes, but he didn't have the time for that.
"Wren?"
Sunny asked hesitantly as if he couldn't believe it was him standing in front.
Wren grinned.
"Hey there, buddy. Missed me?"