Just like Dreamers gained the ability to perceive and interact with Soul Cores, Awakened were able to interact with Soul Essence. By channeling it inside their bodies, they were able to utilize it more efficiently and achieve greater results.

The ability to channel soul essence was also vital to unlocking the full potential of higher rank Memories. Besides the general rarity of such Memories, there was another reason why Legacy clans did not just equip their scions with weapons of tremendous power and let them sail to the Gateway without meeting any resistance.

It was because Sleepers simply had no way to activate powerful enchantments. Even Gunlaug was mostly using his Transcendent armor just for its durability, with a single passive enchantment serving as a nice, but unimportant bonus. In the hand of an Awakened with the ability to channel soul essence into it, the golden armor would have been far more formidable. Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

Which is where the paradox that rendered the onyx armor unusable came into play.

From his experience dealing with the Stone Saint, Sunny knew that her armor, just like the strange creature itself, had a very special spellweave. It was, in essence, a living armament. Unlike most Memories that could function on their own, it was simply a piece of dead stone when the main enchantment wasn't active.

So, after the onyx armor was damaged, it had to be awoken with soul essence to assume its true form and repair itself. However, there was no human on the Forgotten Shore capable of channeling soul essence, and so it remanded broken, which in turn made it useless to all the humans here.

'What a shame… that I'll be able to buy it for a measly sum of soul shards from these fools and feed it to my Shadow, ha!'

Sunny didn't really care whether the armor was intact or not. All he cared about was that it had six Ascended embers that his Stone Saint could devour. Maybe she'll even gain something extra because of her close affinity with the armor… after all, they came from the same source!

For a moment, Sunny considered the idea that his Shadow might refuse to destroy the Memory for the same reason… but then discarded it. She was just a Shadow, after all. His will was her will, right?

Now all that remained was to make the purchase…

Sunny scoffed.

"So it's, uh… just a decoration? How tacky."

Shaking his head, he threw one last glance at the onyx armor, forced himself to turn away, and continued to walk around the Memory Market.

Ten minutes later, he walked over to Kai and silently handed him the rucksack. Then, he named the Memories he wanted him to buy.

The charming young men blinked a couple of times, then said:

"Wait… you weren't joking? You really want to buy t—ten Memories?"

Sunny frowned at him and hissed:

"Keep your voice down! We need people to think that you are the one buying them, remember?"

Kai hesitated, then massaged his temples.

"Sunny, my friend… don't take it the wrong way, but you do know how much Memories cost, right?"

Instead of answering, Sunny gestured to the rucksack.

"Open it, you idiot."

The archer sighed and opened the clasp of the rucksack.

Then, he almost dropped it.

Inside the crude backpack, dozens of soul shards were softly glowing in the dark. There were around seventy of them in there, at least.

Kai's hands trembled. Raising his head, he stared at Sunny with wide eyes and whispered with horror:

"S—Sunny! Where did you get all these shards?!"

Seventy shards was more than most of the people in the Dark City would see in their lifetime. The contents of the unassuming rucksack were enough to start a chain of bloody conflicts that could culminate in a small war.

Sunny stared at him and shrugged.

"What do you mean? They were just gathering dust in my bedroom. I would bring more, but the rest wouldn't fit in the rucksack."

Kai looked as though he was on the verge of fainting. Then, he blushed in embarrassment.

'Ah, I bet he's remembering how he was bragging about being rich and tried to bribe me with a promise of ten whole shards, which, in his words, was a small fortune. Ha!'

While Sunny was silently gloating, a sudden shadow ran over the beautiful archer's face. In a small voice, he said:

"Wait, Sunny. Did you say "bedroom"?"

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"Sure. Why?"

Kai shut his eyes.

"So you actually live in that cathedral?"

There was no point in denying it anymore, really.

"That's right."

Looking at Sunny with a pleading expression, the charming young man asked:

"Then what about the Fallen Devil? Is there really a Fallen Devil in that cathedral?"

Sunny looked at him with confusion.

"That bastard? Yup, he's there. What about him?"

A shaky breath escaped from Kai's mouth. Looking weak and defeated, he shook his head, opened his mouth, then closed it again and simply stared at a wall for some time.

He had the look of a man who suddenly realized that nothing in the world made sense anymore.

When Kai finally regained his ability to speak, his enchanting voice sounded strangely listless.

"I'll… I'll go buy the Memories, I guess."

Sunny offered him a bright smile.

"That'd be great! Thanks!"

Shaking his head, the archer called Stev over and slowly listed the Memories that Sunny told him to buy — including the damaged onyx armor.

With each next one he named, Stev's expression grew weirder and weirder. By the end, he was almost green.

"...Uh. Night, buddy. I really don't want to offend our friend Sunny and your choice of advisers… but you literally chose the ten worst Memories I have in the inventory, by far! If it was anyone else, I would have been ecstatic to get rid of them. But… but… I simply can't do this to you! Please, reconsider!"

Kai glanced at Sunny, asking what to do. It seemed that he didn't want to see his new friend make a terrible mistake.

Sunny smiled.

"Worst, you say? You said it yourself, right? Everyone heard that? I guess you'll give us a big discount then!"

Stev stared at him with a bizarre expression on his face. Then, he said:

"I don't think you understand. When I say worst, what I mean is that they're… trash! Complete trash! You do understand what trash means, right?"

Sunny shrugged.

"Well, you know what they say. One man's trash… is another man's breakfast. Wait, no. Another man's… uh… treasure? Yeah, treasure. That's right…"

***

Some time later, in an empty corridor of the Bright Castle, Kai took Sunny by the hand. A moment later, several sparks of energy traveled between them.

Sunny tilted his head and listened to the silence. Soon, he heard the faintly familiar voice of the Spell whisper:

[You have received a Memory…]

[You have received a Memory…]

[You have received a Memory…]

After the tenth announcement, everything grew quiet again.

Sunny grinned. Just like that, he had gained ten Memories to feed to his Shadow. He even managed to purchase a tier-six Ascended armor for the laughable sum of seven soul shards.

What a bargain.

'Ah, it's good to be rich!'

However, soon the grin disappeared from his face. Instead, something dark glistened in his eyes.

It was time to have a talk with Nephis.