It was the embodiment of her most precious, most ardent desire.
With a sigh, Sunny reached forward, grasped the lotus flower in his hand...
And crushed it.
The azure petals broke and dissolved into blinding light, illuminating the vast darkness of his soul. The pure light reflected in the still waters... drowning in them...
Sunny suddenly felt that something was wrong.
'What...'
Before he could finish the thought, the Spell suddenly whispered into his ear, its voice insidious and quiet:
[You Memory has been destroyed.]
[...Your shadow grows stronger.].
And then, he felt a flood of shadow fragments entered his soul, containing enough of them to drown it.
His eyes widened.
'Wait, wait...'
Thrown off balance by the sudden influx of shadow fragments, he couldn't even summon the runes. All he knew was that there were much more fragments pouring into his soul than killing a Transcendent human could have given him. There were more of them than even a normal Awakened would have received, let alone someone like Sunny.
Most soul fragments were lost when one Awakened killed another, after all. Although the killer received a fair share, most of it was wasted.
But not now...
It was as if Wind Flower's entire soul had been contained within the azure flower, and was now being used as fuel to empower his own.
'Wait! At this rate...'
Sunny hurriedly dove out of the Soul Sea and opened his eyes, staring at the blazing pyre in front of him. The fire was still burning, the body of the beautiful Saint turned to ash.
Taking a panicked breath, Sunny jumped away.
It was then that he felt it...
The familiar sensation of his soul shuddering in harrowing pain.
At the same time, the Spell whispered again:
[Your shadow is overflowing with power.]
[Your shadow is taking shape...]
Sunny let out a muffled groan and fell to his knees.
Deep in the darkness of his soul, a new Shadow Core was being born.