Shadow Slave - After the Third Nightmare - A different Story

There was a slight change to routine. Sunny decided to reserve at least two day a week strictly for meditation. Two days a week of full stillness, regenerating all lost essence to the full capacity, and looking for Soul Sea instead of doing it only occasionally between times when he doesn't have much to do.
Of course, he could be running around slaying more Corrupted creatures, but upon consideration it couldn't lead him closer to regaining lost abilities or any goals he had in mind. In the end his potent sorcery can't do that for him. If the Spell is able to make everyone dive into his Soul Sea, why would it even bother making a Memory that can make one able to do that? There's no shortcuts.
But there are still nice tricks he could safely apply here. He took Cassie's words to heart, and looked for a good way to cut off his senses. And that seemed to be incredibly hard, because Saint's senses are sharp as hell.
Sealing his eyes with wax was still an option. The same couldn't be said about hearing, touch, and smell. Saints had an exceptionally sharp sense of hearing. When he tried meditating in his underground dojo, he could still discern all the sounds around. Blocking ears couldn't do much here. Even if his eyes were sealed, his shadow sense would make him perceive space through the shape of the shadows around. Ironically this great boon was now his worst obstacle. He could think of two solutions to this.
The first was to find, or make a place devoid of shadows. Shadows by nature were formed by the lack of light. If there was enough light, there would be no shadows. Sunny abandoned that idea for how much work it would take to make a space without the shadows. But it was definitely something he could do. His Covetous Coffer was incredibly spacious inside, so it was possible to turn its inner walls completely white, and then somehow light it up.
The second idea was to find a place where the shadows are completely formless. If there was an empty space that is huge enough, the light of the sun would disperse to the point it can't illuminate anything anymore. It would seem like the second option is much harder to realize, but it wasn't true at all. After the deal he struck with Nephis it was the easiest thing in the world. He had only to jump from the Tower of Longing into the infinite void, and enjoy free fall.
With help of Nephis he figured out how to return to the waking world on his own, and how to place his anchor in NQSC. He could fall for as long as he wanted, and then easily return to NQSC for supper. While doing this all his avatars were deactivated to prevent avatars' senses from reaching him.
There was only him, and an endless nothingness of familiar abyss, the most extreme seclusion it was possible to go into. Only there he could be really sure nothing can distract him from the task of looking into himself, and he couldn't confuse anything he saw with something that is himself. Absolute lack of stimuli. Some years ago it could drive him insane. Now as he was already insane, there was nothing to worry about. He could spend a day like this without any problem. Solved.
Once he stabilized himself he could summon a white wooden ring that made him unable to move.
Sunny managed to master the enchantment. A few days of intense examination turned out to be enough. It was one of more complicated enchantments, but the potential to pay off was even greater than he thought before.
[Prolonged Rest] was turning the capacity of the will to move the body into essence. That had very serious implications. While the Memory was already considerable in hands of an Awakened, the being with more potent will could extract more essence.
Fire Keepers, for an instance, were known for their uncompromising passion, and the desire to follow Nephis. Therefore they pushed their bodies very far, and one could extract a lot of essence from it. It was only natural that Sunny could extract even more essence from it.
Unfortunately there was also a limit to how much essence the Memory could make from a human. The input, and output were too low to fully make up for Sunny's capacity. It also couldn't keep up with Sunny's body. Just after he made one copy, he already started working on its more potent version.
In cooperation with Shakti, and Kaor, two Fire Keepers he procured a nice piece of wood from a Sacred Tree, carved a ring out of it, and infused its insides with essences extracted from the white flowers gathered carefully at the desolate islands, and then make it as sturdy as possible. With Sunny's weaving he devised a transcendent version, one that could fill his reserves in just a few hours. Thanks to that he finally established an equilibrium between obtaining, and expending essence. Every session he had full reserves of essence, and nothing he could do with it.
If there was a time he lacked essence, he could stop whatever he was doing, throw himself off the pagoda, and try exploration. If there was something bad in this it was that he had some problems keeping track of time.
[Sunny, you spent a whole day there.]
It was Cassie's voice that resounded in his mind.
"Thanks for the reminder. Any idea if I'm any closer?"
[I don't know, Sunless. You're the first man trying something like this I know. Meditation usually isn't so brutal.]
"That's not encouraging. And you're really overestimating the atmosphere. It's boring as hell."
[If not for that I see no future for you perhaps I could tell if you're going to make it. At least, now it's really exciting.]
"Only for you."
Cassie was the one keeping track of time for him. Her abilities as a Saint were best suited for the task. With her assistance he could look for the Soul Sea unbothered about the possibility of something bad happening.
'What is this called? Sensory deprivation? I heard many people pay serious money to experience something like this. I have it for free.'
Reflecting on things he's doing lately he starts to believe he just takes a lot of holidays. There are fights, but mostly not worth mentioning. He can always return to the luxurious citadel or even more luxurious home in the NQSC. He's a bit hungry while falling, but it's all by his choice. Not by any lack of food. Beyond everything it's safe. In aesthetic clash with the sight of maws, and mandibles trying to get a piece of him the nothingness still would take the prize. It was nothing compared to the River in the Tomb or even dreadful auroras he witnessed in Antarctica, but at least the sense of safety this time couldn't betray him. Probably.
The number of orders completed for Fire Keepers was also slowly increasing while making them ready to fight more dangerous abominations. With them there was also an influx of new Memories.
Aiko's management of the new business skyrocketed their incomes. Aiko was now making a few Awakened soul shards a day, which she was diligently reinvesting into bettering particular branches. Soon he noticed a bizarre thing for which he would never suspect Aiko. He spotted her crushing some of the soul shards to absorb essence.
Aiko never actually cared about being an Awakened. Her aspect was weak. Her weapon mastery was nonexistent. The fact she survived the Forgotten Shore could be founded as a stroke of luck rather than a skill. She also never looked for trouble in the Dream Realm. She never treated it as a sane option. The potency of her dormant powers wasn't good enough to move a sword while her awakened powers were more potent, because she could use them with essence, but still weak.
While it was a strange sight he decided to support her desire to grow, no matter how weak it is. For that reason he revealed she can become a Master, if she finds a way to refine her essence using the access to Soul Sea. Even if it's going to take her a very long time, there seems to be no reason to not want her to do that. Especially with Rain needing someone who would set an example of how to become a Master after becoming an awakened.
Perhaps he himself is working on another way to become an Awakened for Rain. Upon consideration there's some parallels between what he's trying to do to reach his Soul Sea, and some methods to obtain control over the soul essence mentioned by Ananke, like building a unity between the mind, and the soul. Is it really that different from finding a way to the Soul Sea?
And if it's really this way it also means that on a path of ascension it's the step that cannot be skipped. So if he finds his Soul Sea there's also a chance he'll be able to impart that ability to Rain. That's also his great motivation why he's working very intensively on it. He wants to pave the path for his sister so he can guide her better.
For him the lack of access to the Soul Sea is mostly an obstacle in his ambitions to turn his Covetous Coffer into his Shadow. The process of turning an Echo into a Shadow as far as he remembers it was something that occurred in his Soul Sea.
Two beams of darkness unleashed from the shadow core. The first one transforming the Echo, the second one connecting the Shadow to the shadow behind him. Another reason to believe that the transformation requires to reserve one shadow core for his Shadow, and at most he can only have seven of them. All in all he cannot do that without the visage of the shadow core.
His Shadows were all in different places.
The Fiend was consuming the skeleton of Sevirax that was still wrapped around the Tower of Longing. Some Fire Keepers were unhappy about such inference into panorama, but they were soon silenced when Nephis pointed out that the skeleton wrapped around the tower is very impractical despite looking very cool. It would fall down during a battle, and then they would need to dispose of it anyway. Someone doing that for them is a good turnover. Sunny considered the skeleton as one of the best materials he could give the Fiend to eat. The Saint was a carrier of the bloodline of the Fire God. That divine characteristics should still leave some vestiges in the skeleton.
Nightmare was busy somewhere developing his [Dream Curse]. He was lulling creatures to sleep. Since unlocking it his black steed was even more deadly than it was before. It could hide somewhere, made enemy sleep, and then torment it till its mind is broken. If there was something that can't be broken, well, sleeping before the enemy is a recipe for death. His Soul Serpent, and the Onyx Saint were capable of putting them to sleep with ease, which was especially helpful in case of Corrupted, whose minds seemed to have a resilience toward the abilities of the Ascended Terror.
The cooperation of the three was effective enough to bring him close to one hundred fragments, and fulfilling the first condition to create a Shadow. For the rest... he will figure out it somehow. With the support of his friends his possibilites are broader. If he was alone with this... he can't even imagine how much greater his struggle would be.