Shadow Slave

Sunny looked at the black mask and the darkness hiding in its eyes. Its features were not as much contorted as fearsome by nature. It was simultaneously fearsome and somber, bestial and regal. As though existing at the border of all things.

But most of all, the striking mask radiated a sense of mystery.

The vicious fangs, the twisting horns, the black lacquered wood of it all… once again, his intuition was silent. There was nothing he felt toward the black mask, as though it didn't even exist.

'How strange.'

Sunny waited for a few moments, then picked up the mask and brought it to his face to take a closer look at it.

But just a moment after his fingers touched the sleek surface of the polished wood, the mask suddenly disintegrated into a swarm of countless white sparks. Acting like water, the stream of light flowed toward Sunny's chest and entered into his body, disappearing into the dark depths of his shadow core.

The voice of the Spell thundered suddenly, louder than it had ever been before:

[You have received a Memory.]

***

Sunny remained motionless for a few seconds, thinking about what just happened.

By now, he knew that some Memories could exist outside of the soul cores, just like how Shard Memories did.

Was the black mask one of them? Somehow, he felt that it wasn't.

'Why I am even guessing? Let's… let's just take a look?'

The reason he was lingering was because of the magnitude of the situation. Sunny didn't know anything about the mysterious mask, but he believed that this relic of the past was truly unusual. The circumstances that had led to its discovery were too extraordinary, and the place it was hidden in was too uncanny to think otherwise.

So he was understandably apprehensive.

With a bit of tension, Sunny dove into his Soul Sea and looked up at the spheres of light floating around the black sun of the Shadow Core. There was a new one there, which seemed to be much brighter than the rest.

Summoning it down, he soon found himself looking into the eyes of the dark mask that hovered in front of him. It was as though he was facing an invisible person wearing it. Shifting uncomfortably, Sunny lowered his gaze a little and looked beneath the black lacquered wood.

A moment later, he had to suppress the involuntary desire to cover his eyes with a hand.

Inside the black mask, seven radiant embers were burning with such intensity that it almost blinded him. All around them, incalculable ethereal strings were weaved into a pattern so vast and intricate that it almost seemed boundless.

'Seven anchors… gods!'

Stunned by the visage of the mask's spellweave, Sunny hesitated for a bit and summoned the runes that described it. What he saw made him take a step back and gasp.

Memory: [Weaver's Mask].

Memory Rank: Divine.

Memory Tier: VII.

Memory Type: Tool.

Memory Description: [Weaver believed that knowledge was the origin of power and so always hid behind numerous lies, wearing them as a mantle. No one knew Weaver's thoughts, Weaver's face, and Weaver's heart. Even the gods could not see what hid behind the mask.]

Memory Enchantments: [Mantle of Lies], [???], [Simple Trick].

Sunny had to look away for a moment to take a breath.

'Divine Memory of the seventh tier… holy hell!'

Words weren't enough to describe his astonishment. He was, however, surprised to see that the mask only had three enchantments. Sunny expected such a powerful Memory to have dozens of them — judging by how boundless and insanely complicated the weave of it was, there had to be that much, at least.

Just what were these three enchantments to require a myriad of diamond strings to support them?

Turning back to the runes, he concentrated on the enchantments and read further:

Enchantment: [Mantle of Lies].

Enchantment Description: [Hides the identity of its master.]

That description sounded very simple, but looking at the spellweave of the black mask, Sunny could tell that this enchantment was anything but. In fact, it was so vast and powerful that his mind was failing to even comprehend the scale of it.

The enchantment was indeed designed to protect the identity of the person wearing the mask from prying eyes, but what it actually meant was that any form of detection was powerless against it. And Sunny suspected that "any" was not a figure of speech in this case, but simply a constatation of fact.

For example, Cassie's Aspect Ability, which allowed her to see a person's Attributes, would not work on someone wearing the mask. There were countless similar abilities among the Awakened... none of which would work either.

'I guess that explains why my intuition was silent about the prisoner and the mask itself. Whatever kind of fate-related sixth sense I have is also countered by that thing.'

Even more terrifying was the fact that the enchantment was not aimed at just the Awakened. The description of the Weaver's Mask stated that even the gods could not see through it, and it was honest truth. Nothing could penetrate the barriers of the Mantle of Lies, not even the sight of a god.

Sunny gulped.

'...Scarry.'

But then, this incredible and frightening enchantment did not even take up a tenth of the volume of the ethereal diamond strings hiding beneath the surface of the black lacquered mask.

The second enchantment was much the same.

It was called [???], by which the Spell was telling Sunny that it wasn't going to say anything about it. Its description was also empty.

However, Sunny could tell that it had something to do with sight just by looking at the weave. He could also tell that it was not a passive enchantment, but an active one, meaning that currently, he could not access it.

Usually, that would mean that he would be able to once he became a true Awakened, but in this case, the amount of soul essence required to keep the enchantment activated for more than a fraction of a second was so vast that no Awakened would have been able to. Only a Saint would, perhaps.

However, Sunny was not sure that he wanted to try even if he had the ability. The things Weaver saw were capable of driving Unholy creatures insane, so it was wise to avoid going anywhere near that enchantment in the future… most likely.

...Most of the spellweave of the Weaver's Mask, however, was dedicated to the third enchantment, one that was called a "Simple Trick". Judging by the mind-boggling complexity of the pattern that made it possible, that trick of Weaver's was anything but simple, though.

It was the most bizarre, intricate, and ingenious thing that Sunny had ever seen.

Curious, he glanced at the description… and froze, his eyes opened wide.

The runes gleaming in the air read:

Enchantment: [Simple Trick].

Enchantment Description: [Reverses the effect of one's Flaw.]