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Chapter 3070: Mystical Tactics

Sunny had become a towering colossus, his imposing figure encased in a suit of fearsome armor. Blinding radiance shone from beneath the Jade Mantle, illuminating the shattered stones around him.

A moment later, he caught the fallen Stone Saint's war hammer in an iron grip. Actually, Sunny first made a sidestep to avoid the blow, but immediately after, the space around him twisted, placing him square in the path of the enemy's weapon once again. But, having expected that — counted on that, in fact — he managed to catch the war hammer just in time.

That was true mastery of combat, after all. Not only following the cadence of battle, but dictating it.

Sunny knew the Children of Nether well, so he could easily read what his opponent would do from the movements of his shadow. Right now, for example, the abomination was not at all rattled by the failure of his blow. Instead, the fallen Stone Saint immediately pressed the attack, intending to slam the rim of his shield into Sunny's helmet.

'Steady...'

Pulling the war hammer to throw the enemy off balance, Sunny bent to avoid the devastating shield. Now that he had become a source of light, there were shadows on the fractured ground — reaching into them, he pulled a sharp sword out of the darkness.

A moment later, the blade of the black sword swelled with brilliant radiance, pushing the true darkness further away. With that, his luck had run out. The Space Saint had fathomed the unexpected transformation of his prey and changed his stance, leaving Sunny no openings. The Children of Nether were already terribly durable, their armor very tough to breach — and with the addition of a shield, getting past all their defences seemed all but impossible.

‘Will it work, I wonder?'

Instead of trying to bypass the enemy's shield and find a crack in his armor, Sunny pushed forward, sidestepped...

And plunged his shining sword into the abomination's shadow.

As soon as he did, the fallen Stone Saint shuddered, and a fountain of ruby dust exploded from within his helmet.

[You have slain a Great Demon...]

Saint was immune to soul attacks, and her kin were bound to be at least highly resistant to them. However, what Sunny attacked was not the creature's soul, but its shadow — he wasn't sure if the distinction would matter, but it did, and to calamitous result at that.

Very few beings knew how to guard their shadows.

‘Five to go.’

Sunny spun, in a rush to come to Saint's aid. By then, the four Great Demons had reached her, unleashing a storm of devastating attacks.

Ice covered the joints of her armor, slowing her movements down. At the same time, the stones beneath her feet turned into a mire, pulling her down and trying to trap her.

A devastating flood of inky-black water crashed into her, and a moment later, a towering figure whose visor burned with infernal flames broke through it, the tip of his radiant sword a split second away from piercing Saint's armor — or at least attempting to pierce it.

At the same time, the crushing wave twisted, turning into a second stonelike abomination. That one had already passed Saint, ready to deliver a second lethal blow from the side.

Slowed down, immobilized, Saint had little hope of evading either attack. She could try to block one with her shield and deflect the other with her sword...

Instead, she turned into a torrent of darkness and rushed past the Fire Saint, assuming her material form far behind him, near the abomination who had encased her armor in a layer of debilitating ice.

Her sword plummeted down like the blade of a guillotine, landing on the base of the fallen Stone Saint's neck.

This time, she failed to behead the enemy, but she did breach their armor, dealing the abomination a deep wound.

By then, the miraculous flames had already mended Neph's broken body, leaving it pristine and brimming with incinerating power. Despite being separated from the battle by the vast span of the square, she raised the Blessing and pointed its tip forward.

In the next moment, a ray of pure white light shot from the radiant sword, instantly breaching the distance between her and the enemy.

Her aim wasn't precise enough to take out any of the fallen Children of Nether, but it did paint the square in a stark combination of white and black, allowing Sunny to step through the shadows and appear next to Saint.

Now, it was the two of them against four Great Demons.

Sunny quite liked these odds.

The ruined settlement quaked and collapsed as the battle raged on, each second summoning indescribable destruction into the world.

While battling the fallen Stone Saints, Sunny swiftly came to realize a fascinating detail about how they fought. That detail had to do with their indomitable, malevolent Will. What made these abominations so deadly was not only their fearsome power, their daunting resilience, and their sublime armaments. It was also their martial skill — and the fact that they not only possessed potent Wills, but also effortlessly expressed them as a collective instead of individuals.

As a result, the combined power of their Wills was far more formidable and oppressive than it was meant to be. Possessing a powerful Will and knowing how to express it were entirely different skills. The latter was the core of Supreme Battle Arts, which incorporated Will techniques into one's martial style. Sunny and Nephis had been developing their own Supreme Battle Arts for quite some time now, but it was not something that could be accomplished with only training and ingenuity.

Perfecting a Supreme Battle Art demanded time and experience, and while Sunny and Nephis were powerful, they had only been Supreme for a few years. They had not reached the level of combat mastery the King of Swords and the Queen of Worms had possessed, as far as expressing their Will in refined ways was concerned. Sovereigns were solitary beings by definition, and Great Nightmare Creatures did not usually possess enough sanity to employ strategy and showcase refined skill. So, this was the first time Sunny saw a collective Will technique — and such a seamless one, at that.

This was not even a Supreme Battle Art... this was more akin to weaving the Will into a tactical formation.

Even as Sunny fought for his life against the fallen Stone Saints, he was absorbing their singular skill like a sponge.

He was thrilled to see such a profound and startling Will technique in action...

But, mostly, he was concerned with how to survive it.

Comments 47

  1. Offline
    + 00 -
    What if in order to turn his shades into Shadows Sunny has to sacrifice fragments like when he did so with his echoes? Or sac a core?
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    1. Offline
      + 00 -
      he can only have 7 shadows as far as i know.
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  2. Offline
    + 35 -
    Seeing the Saints, who are used to hunting creatures far above their own level as a group, die like mere fodder was honestly disappointing. Shouldn't they have put up a much tougher fight?

    (Yeah, I know Neph had already been beaten like this before—back on the boat in FS—but even so, it still didn't feel satisfying.)
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    1. Offline
      + 30 -
      Gng they almost squad wiped not even a minute in, and sunny and co does that shit all the time too🥀
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    2. Offline
      + 10 -
      Well Sunny and Neph are just that deadly ig
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  3. Online Offline
    + 280 -
    3071

    3071 Limits of Strength

    The Children of Nether were powerful, supremely skilled, and fierce. They wielded their powers with profound mastery, and their Will washed over the devastated square like a tide. Fighting them felt like fighting Saint — theirs was a grounded, methodical, and indomitable battle style. It revealed the depths of their malevolent resolve and felt suffocating in its relentless inevitability.

    However, today, they had met their match. Sunny, Nephis, and Saint were overwhelmingly powerful themselves. In fact, it was astonishing that a group of Great Nightmare Creatures could pressure them — having always fought across Ranks, Sunny had grown used to only being wary of Cursed abominations. A Great Nightmare Creature had to be at least a Terror to make him feel tense.

    For now, their strength was evenly matched...

    But that was only because the Great Devil who commanded the other Tainted Saints had not joined the battle yet. He was still motionless, observing the battle while resting his greatsword on the ground. Sunny was waiting for the moment when the eerie abominations would attack with somber anticipation, knowing that they would suffer as a result.

    But even as the battle progressed, the Devil remained still.

    And because he did not move, his warriors fell one by one.

    The Fire Saint was the most fearsome and devastating among them, his flames capable of melting steel and turning stone into rivers of lava. However, he was also the unluckiest. And luck, too, dictated the limits of one's strength.

    It would be difficult to find three enemies he was less suited to fight. Saint was extremely resistant to all elemental attacks, after all, so she was all but impervious to his flames. Sunny, meanwhile, had assumed the form of the Jade Titan, inheriting the same resilient trait.

    Naturally, there was no point in even mentioning Nephis. As a Supreme Titan who had inherited the Fire of Sun God, trying to burn her was an exercise in futility.

    So, the Fire Saint fell first. Saint caught him mid-swing, throwing the towering abomination off balance and sending him crashing to the ground with a push of her shield. Then, she destroyed him in the most brutal fashion — knowing that the enemy would protect the weak points of his armor even while prone, she simply raised her shield and repeatedly brought it down on his helmet.

    After the first blow, the helmet bent. After the second, it cracked. After the third, it exploded into a cloud of shrapnel, stone fragments, and ruby dust. The Fire Saint's head was entirely crushed.

    The Ice Saint had not fared much better. This one had a slimmer figure, unmistakably female. Her power was both potent and insidious, capable of rendering most terrible foes weak and vulnerable... however, the lethal cold she emanated was easily vanquished by Neph's immolating heat.

    In some ways, she was even worse off than the Fire Saint in this battle — her power was not only ineffective against the enemy, it was directly countered by one of them.

    She fell second. Nephis unleashed her flames to envelop the Ice Saint, and even if her armor managed to withstand the impossible heat, it began to glow with incandescent radiance, having turned softer and weaker. Saint used that weakness to pierce her fallen kin's chest, ending her profane existence with one decisive strike.

    The third of the Tainted Saints, who commanded stone, faced Sunny. His power was formidable and profoundly versatile, but its main application was denying the enemy sure footing — which, of course, was a death sentence on most battlefields, where footwork and the ability to push against the earth to generate force reigned.

    Sunny, however, had become both a source of light and a champion of shadows. As long as there were shadows around him, he could step through them to avoid being caught in the trap of liquid stone. He could also summon more of them from the Shadow Lantern and manifest them into a layer of matter atop the ground.

    His enemy could have shifted to a different strategy, most likely, but Sunny did not give him the chance. After witnessing the death of the Space Saint, the rest of them knew to guard their shadows — so, this time, he simply used brute force to bat the opponent's shield aside and drive his sword into his unprotected armpit.

    That might not have been a fatal wound, but it became one when Sunny infused the blade of his sword with Death Will.

    The Water Saint was the last to die. She was swift and elusive, both fleeting and devastating, but her tidal form could not contend against Neph's flame and the power granted to Saint by Sunny's augmentation. In the end, she was diminished by the heat, caged by the shadows, and killed by Sunny's slaying blade.

    All four could have unleashed far more devastation if not for the field of annulment summoned by Saint.

    But then again, the same could be said about Sunny and Nephis — if their powers weren't suppressed, it wouldn't be just the square of the crumbling settlement that had ended up utterly destroyed. It would have been the settlement itself.

    The square had become a scene of chilling devastation... but the tall obelisk at its center still stood.


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    The last of the Tainted Saints still stood in the shadow of the obelisk, as well.

    In truth, the battle was over at this point. No matter how powerful that Great Devil was, he could not be powerful enough to win against Sunny, Nephis, and Saint.

    More than that, Sunny had not used all of his powers. If he wished to, he could have swayed the scales of battle in their favor even earlier — all six of the Children of Nether had been slain by him or Saint, after all.

    That meant that their shades were now under his command. The rest of the Shadow Legion was engaged in the war against the Barrow Wraiths on the Forgotten Shore, but these new recruits could be summoned at any time.

    And yet, he did not summon them.

    In fact, after receiving a dark look from Saint, he remained motionless and held Nephis back, as well.

    Saint walked toward the last defender of the crumbling settlement with confident steps. It seemed that she wanted to bring down this Great Devil, her equal, alone.
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    1. Online Offline
      + 250 -
      Chapter 3072


      3072 Stalwart Beings

      A Supreme Devil was preparing to challenge a Great Devil. Both of them were Children of Nether, even if the vicissitudes of history had led them to different paths.

      Saint was a Shadow now, while her adversary was a Nightmare Creature.

      Their battle could end swiftly or rage for a long time, but either way, it was going to leave a bitter taste.

      Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then chose to respect Saint's wishes and called his second incarnation back. Devoid of his support, she would only be able to rely on her own power in the clash against this fearsome foe.

      Sunny could not say that he wasn't worried... but he wasn't worried that much, either. It would take more than a Great Devil to shake his confidence in Saint.

      Standing by his side, Nephis frowned, but made no move to attack the Devil. She seemed to understand the poignant meaning of this clash.

      Saint had not shown any doubt or hesitation when slaying the rest of the Children of Nether — in fact, she had been especially cold and ruthless while dealing with them. But now, it was apparent that she did view this battle as special.

      Both she and her enemy wielded power over nothingness, so there was no telling how their clash would go...

      But what transpired next was entirely beyond Sunny's expectations.

      Something strange happened.

      When Saint approached, the Great Devil finally moved. He had remained motionless before, even when his kin were being killed — but now, the towering colossus slowly removed one of his hands from the hilt of his immense sword.

      Sunny frowned.

      There was something odd about how the Tainted Saint moved. His movements were strained and unsure, as if he were bearing an impossible weight.

      The Great Devil and Saint were still for a few long moments, looking at each other in cold silence. There were crimson flames burning behind the visor of Saint's helmet, while the helmet of her enemy only brimmed with darkness.

      Then, the Tainted Saint slowly raised his hand...

      And brought it down upon the blade of his great sword, shattering it.

      As the shards of the giant blade fell to the ground, he arduously lowered himself to one knee and looked up, peering at Saint. Their silence seemed to say a lot, infused with unknown meaning.

      Saint lingered for a few moments, then lowered her head slightly in a nod.

      A moment later, her sword flashed forward, its blade plunging into the narrow crack of the Tainted Saint's visor. It tore through the back of his helmet next.

      This time, there was no ruby dust spilling from the black blade.

      The Great Devil swayed. Then, his armor collapsed and fell apart, as if there had never been anything inside it at all.

      The Spell whispered into Sunny's ear.

      [You have slain a Great Devil, Absence.]

      [Your shadow grows stronger.]

      The battle was over.

      Sunny stared at the empty suit of armor with a stunned expression.

      He released the Jade Titan form, turning back into a human.

      "What just happened?"

      In front of him, Saint stared at the remains of the Great Devil, motionless. She leaned down, picked up his helmet, and silently placed it at the base of the towering stele. Sunny looked at Nephis.

      "Did that Nightmare Creature just... surrender?"

      Nephis did not answer for a few moments, then shook her head.

      "He did not surrender."

      Sunny frowned.

      If the Great Devil had not surrendered, then why had he allowed Saint to kill him without a fight?

      His movements had seemed... strained, as if he was struggling against something.

      An impossible suspicion settled in Sunny's mind. He hesitated for a long while, unsure if he could even believe in something so far-fetched.

      But no matter how he thought about it, the suspicion only grew stronger.

      ‘Was he resisting... Corruption?'

      It was strange that the Great Devil had remained motionless throughout the entire battle, even when the other Tainted Saints were being slain. All he had done was subject Nephis, Sunny, and Saint to the power of annulment.

      But if he had been resisting the urge to attack them that whole time, fighting a silent battle within himself, his actions suddenly had meaning.

      That Devil had not held himself back because of Sunny or Nephis, most likely. Rather... he must have recognized Saint as a member of their kind — the last Child of Nether who walked the earth free of Corruption, even if it was as a Shadow.

      She was a Stone Saint who had reached Supremacy while walking the Path of Ascension, and therefore had deserved his recognition.

      So, the Great Devil chose to resist in the last moments of his life, rebelling against his very nature. Sunny had never met a Nightmare Creature who could deny the demented frenzy of Corruption, even for a little bit — the Puppeteer came the closest, albeit in the case of the Spirit of Doubt, that resistance was nothing more than pretense meant to lull its enemies into lowering their guard.

      However, the Stone Saints were stalwart beings. There was hardly anyone more stalwart, in fact. It was their unshakeable resolve that made them immune to mental attacks... so if anyone could push back the power of Corruption for a few fleeting moments, it was them.

      Sunny looked at the remains of the Great Devil, feeling a hint of begrudging respect. He sighed deeply, then turned to Nephis.

      “Are you alright?"


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      The blow of a Tainted Saint's war hammer had nearly destroyed her Supreme body. The harrowing wounds might have healed, washed away by her miraculous flames, but the pain — both of being crushed by the enemy's blow and of being restored — must have burdened her.

      Nephis nodded.

      “I'm fine."

      She lingered for a moment, then looked around.

      "We might not be fine, though. These abominations were probably keeping the Creature of Darkness away from the settlement, but now that they are gone, we are exposed.”

      Sunny studied her quietly.

      “That is not entirely a problem."

      Some distance away, Saint was standing beneath the towering black obelisk, looking up at the runes carved into its surface in solemn silence.

      Then, however, the darkness around her moved.

      Seven towering figures rose from the shadows, assembling into a wedge formation behind her.

      They were the shades of the Tainted Saints. The shadow of the stalwart Great Devil was among them, as well.

      Now, these fallen creations of Nether were Saint's soldiers.
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      1. Offline
        Lrb
        + 21 -
        Se Saint deter o comando direto dessas novas sombras sem precisar de Sunny ela pode virar uma suprema? ou tirano, não lembro. Talvez seja isso que falte para uma Sombra ser capaz de virar um tirano, ter controle direto sobre seus semelhantes ou soldados, mas aí tô doidão ou até que faz sentido?
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        1. Online Offline
          + 10 -
          He is a commander in Sunny's army; she can even summon shadows with his permission (but only if he is present, if I'm not mistaken, and I think I am). I would say that she would first need a core of shadows, gaining independence and becoming a creature of shadows.
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      2. Offline
        + 10 -
        PEAAAAAAAAAK
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      3. Offline
        + 00 -
        Ts so peak!!!!!!!! ehh
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    2. Offline
      JR3
      + 71 -
      Thank you
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  4. Offline
    + 22 -
    Now, it was the two of them against four Great Demons.

    I don't get this at all, sunny can't summon any sacreds ATM? also he just acquired 2 great stone demons; don't want to call out the new guys without the spell introductions yet?
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    1. Online Offline
      + 10 -
      No shadows around for the summons to be made of
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    2. Offline
      JR3
      + 10 -
      If you've been reading, you would probably think that; Sunny's sacred shades are likely in the huge war with nightmares creatures.

      But even if they aren't the ones he has left wouldn't be too useful. The jade saints, I agree he should summon them in to help if needed.
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    3. Offline
      + 00 -
      Summoning those shades is burdensome, and he currently needs his strength and concentration in multiple places
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  5. Offline
    + 21 -
    With Saint not being limited to one aspect - what if she absorbed all of these saints cores after the battle... could she gain all of their aspects and also strengthen her nothingness? And if she did - Sunny could get to know those aspects much more intricately and weave them into his shadow dance...
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    1. Offline
      + 40 -
      the amount of source elements that can be chosen are probably limited, and intuitively it would be to the amount of soul cores possessed, but I wonder if maybe that ability was created by Nether with just two slots or something.

      Mainly saying this because Saint and Sunny both seemed to choose exactly two sources for some reason. But it may just be that Saint only defeated and absorbed two source element gems to draw it from and that Sunny is only connected to - and using - two sources.
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      1. Offline
        + 20 -
        And there is always the tradeoff with having more elements- not being able to master one. A pair is still quite manageable, and depending on the pair they can be far stronger than either one due to synergy. But it's harder to maintain an overall synergy with a third, and far harder with adding more. So we've seen dual sources with Sunny's shadowing here combining Light and Shadow, and Saint's Darkness and Nothingness- both closely related pairs. Maybe Spacetime can be added to Saint because of it's relation to her elements, but it's much more of something than Nothing. I don't think she's taking any new elements from this fight, but I look forward to finding out what she does get.
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  6. Offline
    + 10 -
    Was it ever explained why Cassie’s eye couldn’t be healed?
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    1. Offline
      + 80 -
      so that she can tame VTB in the future and cosplay Odin
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    2. Offline
      + 20 -
      Watsonian reason, something Asterion did at first, but now its cuz the pain it causes when she uses her powers keeps her from disassociating (because it's hard to stay yourself when most of your memories aren't your own).
      Doylist reason, its so Cassie can be a cool Odin reference with one eye and future sight. And yeah maybe tame VTB cuz Odin also has ravens.
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    3. Offline
      + 00 -
      I would say it's due to her flaw...
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    4. Offline
      + 00 -
      Cassie's left eye that was left when she lost her right eye right?

      It was meant to be transplanted with weaver's divine eye but sacred VTB absconded with the loot.
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  7. Offline
    + 20 -
    As soon as he did, the fallen Stone Saint shuddered, and a fountain of ruby dust exploded from within his helmet.

    [You have slain a Great Demon...]


    2 out of 3, Sunny just needs to add the last Knight with the Great Sword, then he will get new Shades with: Time, Space, and Annulment abilities. This is [Fated] at work. oru2x
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  8. Online Offline
    + 30 -
    I was wondering early do you think Sunny will ever actually find Weaver’s eye? I know he’s not really looking for it but surely his mask would lead him to the eye whenever he’s strong enough to use it with no issues at all. Or will finding weavers eye actually lead to Weaver himself, assuming he found his own eye?
    Do you think it’ll play a part in the story like finding weavers lineages or no?
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    1. Offline
      + 20 -
      I don't think finding weavers eye will lead sunny to them, cuz it's been repeated so many times that both the gods and the demons are dead, and slayer also killed weaver twice once in the normal realm and once in the shadow realm, and if weavers eye is found I think it would rather be a powerfull charm rather than a weapon like his mask I think the eye would have s strong/better ability similar to the wheres my eye enchantmen
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    2. Offline
      + 10 -
      I remember sunny getting a sacred memory from the bird, that could be weavers eye, if VTB stole it before weaver became divine
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      1. Offline
        + 11 -
        it's also possible VTB never took weaver's eyes to begin with, it's all fabricated lies of the weaver of lies meant to discredit the birdbrain
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        1. Offline
          Lrb
          + 10 -
          Afinal Weaver é um mentiroso de primeira mentirosiedade, quando vê o "aspecto" dele tem a ver com mentiras e ele mentiu para o VTB que roubou seu olho... endoidei butwhy
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    3. Offline
      + 20 -
      my brain keeps whispering me that cassie will have weaver's eye to replace her lost eye .
      I initially thought that would happen when they killed VTB.
      VTB would drop weaver's eye, they gave it to cassie-> cassie's mind is shattered and triggers a rank up due to all the eldritch knowledge which would explain all of the pov we had with cassie. This didn't come to pass so consider me bamboozled XD
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    4. Offline
      + 20 -
      Never thought about this actually. "Where's my eye?" being an enchantment that can find his stolen eye sounds very plausible. But the only thing missing from Weavers lineage is the Shadow Weave after all, so what would it do for him?

      but omg. It would be INSANELY cool if CASSIE is supposed to find it and replace her missing eye with it... talk about an eye capable of perceiving fate!
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      1. Online Offline
        + 00 -
        chapters up there
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        1. Offline
          + 00 -
          I'm not sure I get what you mean, are you being snarky? lol
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          1. Online Offline
            + 10 -
            No, I posted it in the comments (I don't know if you've seen it yet).
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            1. Offline
              + 10 -
              Oh shi I thought you were saying my comment was dumb and to go read the chapter lol

              Thank you so much for that, you're my goat
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              1. Online Offline
                + 10 -
                I don't think Weaver needed an enchanted mask to find his own eye, and besides, the Weaver's mask has such an absurd enchantment that I wouldn't doubt if it, After Sunny gathered all of Weaver's bloodline, she transformed into the Weaver's Eye. And giving Sunny attributes that allow him to hide from clairvoyance, that allow him to see the strings of fate, I think the Weaver's Mask was created from the beginning as something destined to be found by the one who would reunite the Weaver's lineage.
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  9. Offline
    + 30 -
    Ok, shadow attacks bypass soul resistance completely. Kinda OP.

    Also, isn't it strange that sunny is doing better than Nephis in this fight, at least so far? Not that I aint enjoying it tho
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    1. Offline
      + 30 -
      Like a much more harder version of Jet's soul attacks to block
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  10. Offline
    + 30 -
    By all means, Sunny should be the fastest to mastering the Will and making a complete Supreme Battle style among the current sovereigns. I think I have an idea of how his battle style evolves over time

    Like Sunny's Transcendent battle style, he had to master it by having experience in battling with multiple incarnations at once.

    For his Supreme Battle style, he should perhaps be able to reach the point in using the 5th step across different incarnations at the same time. Like how the Mad Prince did against Asterion.

    Sacred Battle Style, perhaps is shaping the Will in different manners and forms across multiple incarnations. E.g. using the form of Nephis's Will in one incarnation, Anvil's for another, Cassie's Will etc. He can do this also with the Will of Sacred or Cursed.

    Divine Battle Style, basically every single incarnation of Sunny would be like a complete unique being with attributes, the Will and aspect powers at the same time.
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