42: vile thieving bird

It was about time. The month was almost over, and Jonathan needed to ensure that Sunny obtained the drop of ichor from the nest at the top of the cursed tree.

With the sun rising, he approached Sunny to ask for his help in collecting fruits. He used the excuse that they had already devoured all the ripe fruits from the lower and middle branches of the tree and needed to climb to the top.

Jonathan had already built the ship by the end of the week and had taken it to the hilltop in the west of Ashen Barrow with Nephis and Sasha. Despite the ship being made of awakened demon steel, he knew it would float since they used the same ship to escape in the novel.

He and Sunny were already climbing the tree, resting occasionally, eating fruits, and chatting as they went up. Sometimes Sunny asked why they were climbing so high, and Jonathan skillfully dodged the questions to avoid spoiling his plan.

...

After a long climb, it was already noon, and they were now searching for the nest with the egg Sunny had to kill.

Jonathan was tempted to kill the egg himself and receive a large amount of thread fragments, but he gave up since that thing could absorb the souls of those who approached it. Of course, except for Sunny, who was more special than the rest and whose soul could not be absorbed by the egg since he used shadow fragments.

After an hour of searching, they finally found it:

The nest was spherical, with a round hole in the center. Usually, such a nest would be made of grass and twigs, but this one was built with the branches of the great tree, each at least as thick as a man's arm. These branches were twisted and intertwined in a chaotic pattern, creating walls without gaps, of onyx black color.

In the center of the nest was an egg. A giant, ancient egg that was as tall as he was, gray and seemingly lifeless, as if time had turned it into stone.

Jonathan was fascinated by such a horror movie spectacle. It was very creepy even during the day, so he was glad not to search for it at night, like in the novel.

Both approached to investigate the large nest, and when they got a good look at the egg, Jonathan spoke to Sunny:

"What do you think about killing that thing?" He asked, feigning ignorance of the situation.

"I won't say I don't want to, but it's very strange that an egg is still alive after so much time. This place seems abandoned for millennia."

Sunny replied, somewhat hesitant to approach the egg.

Jonathan could not only hear the hesitation in his voice, he could also feel it from his soul. He was cautious and paranoid by nature, so he understood and decided to help him.

"Look, why don't you use your midnight fragment to pierce that egg? Maybe it'll give you a nice echo of an egg." Without saying more, he pushed Sunny from behind despite his protests, making him approach the egg.

A second before, he could feel his innate ability activate at full power, causing him to panic.

He quickly moved away to avoid being absorbed like something that gets absorbed.

"Okay, kill that thing. I just felt it would suck my damned soul." His voice was somewhat irritated by the terrible sensation the egg caused him.

"Did you just use me as bait? After killing this thing, I'll give you a good punch, you idiot." Sunny insulted, somewhat annoyed at being used this way.

He enhanced his sword with his shadow and delivered a strong blow to the egg's shell.

His blade pierced the egg's shell and sank deep into it.

Sunny had killed a...

[You have killed a great devil, the spawn of the vile thieving bird.]

[You have received a Memory: Drop of Ichor.]

Sunny felt a large number of soul fragments enter his body and was momentarily paralyzed by what had just happened.

Then, he quickly summoned his runes, despite always forgetting or getting distracted when thinking about doing such a mundane action.

He needed to check his shadow fragments and the new memory he had received.

Name: Sunless

True Name: Lost to the Light

Rank: Dreamer

Shadow Fragments: [460/1000].

After seeing the number, he initially felt dizzy with joy. But then Sunny frowned.

'Wait, that doesn't make any sense. I had ninety-six fragments before coming to Ashen Barrow. I just received sixty-four, making one hundred sixty. Where did the extra 300 fragments come from?... The fruits, they can't be, we've only been here a little over a week, to have 300 additional fragments, it should be at least a month, and that's assuming Jony kept giving me 6 fruits every day...'

But how could so much time pass without him realizing it? Yes, his memory had been strange lately… but…

Sunny tried to focus on the discrepancy, but for some reason, it was very difficult for him. The more he thought about it, the less clear it became what exactly he was thinking about.

'Uh… what was I trying to remember? Something about the shadow fragments? Yes…'

Not letting his friend continue with such thoughts, as he felt the fluctuation of his emotions in his soul, Jonathan spoke:

"Sunny? Did something happen with the egg? Did you receive essence or some echo or memory?" He asked so many questions because he would be forced to answer.

Sunny grimaced and then replied; "Yes... Something happened with the egg, yes. I killed it; it was a great devil. But I didn't receive an echo, I received... a memory. I also received a bunch of shadow fragments. But something doesn't make sense, it seems I received 64 fragments from the great devil, but when I checked my runes, I had an additional 300 fragments."

Jonathan looked at him with a complicated expression on his face before interrupting him and asking again;

"A memory from a great devil! Sunny, that's amazing! What kind of memory is it?" He asked so that Sunny would invoke the drop of ichor and finally obtain his new attribute.

"I don't know, let me summon it." White sparks appeared in front of Sunny, gathering into a small golden drop.

Sunny checked the runes of the memory and was puzzled by the unusual runes:

Memory: [Drop of Ichor].

Memory Rank: Unknown

Memory Type: Unknown

Memory Description: [The repulsive thieving bird was hated by both gods and -unknown-. However, it only cared about shiny things. Enamored with Weaver's beautiful eyes, it stole one on a dark and starless night. Impatient, the vile creature admired its generosity while still fleeing. However, when it saw the reflection of -unknown- frozen forever in the depths of Weaver's pupil, it went mad and screamed, lowering its gaze to the mortal realm below. All that was left in its greedy beak was a drop of pure golden ichor.]

Sunny inspected the drop of ichor in front of him, and the spell sounded again, but this time it seemed... excited?

[You have acquired a drop of ichor. Do you want to consume it?]

Consume a memory? He had never heard of something like that. He hesitated; memories were granted by the spell to the awakened. As such, they were generally only useful and almost never useless, so consuming the drop shouldn't be harmful, right?

Unknowingly, his thoughts were foolish and naive, being altered by the soul-devouring tree to prevent its enchanted ones from thinking complexly, so this Sunny was not the same as the unenchanted Sunny and made a foolish decision.

'Yes, I want to consume it.'

[As you wish.]

The golden sphere separated into two streams of beautiful, radiant liquid. The streams flowed through the air, approaching Sunny's face. He felt a gentle touch caress his cheeks.

Then, the golden liquid reached his eyes and flowed through them, entering his soul through his pupils.

Soon it disappeared.

Sunny was frozen, not knowing what to expect.

A second passed, then another.

He brought his trembling hands to his face and finally felt something.

The next moment, Sunny opened his mouth and let out a terrible scream as unimaginable, blinding pain tore through his entire being.