Chapter XVIII: Once Upon an Awkward Stormy Night

By the power given unto me by my keyboard, I hear by dictate that Sunny and Nephis shall join up with the Mc and Cassie for further adventures as per popular demand.

Just so you know, a fictional character died before it was even born because of you lot. I hope you are proud of yourselves. *sniff* I'll never forget you, Unnamed Character.

Anyways, let's get back to the program. Also, thanks for giving your opinions and comments.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'How did things get to this?' thought William as he gazed at the situation before his eyes.

Thunder boomed, and the pitter patter of the rain drops falling onto a surface indicated the intensity of the current storm raging.

Inside a shell made of the bone of his [Osseous Exoarmor], three people were staring at each other.

Actually, one of the said people was Spell-certified blind and was fast asleep with her head lying on William's shoulder; thus, only two were doing the staring contest - it was not even the first time that they were doing it.

Bright cerulean pupils stared at cold, steel grey ones as they measured up one another. The youth would never have thought that he would be sharing a storm shelter with the only remaining member of the Immortal Flame legacy clan, so the atmosphere was extremely awkward.

Of course, the fact that he was nude waist up didn't help the matters.

################################

{8 hours before nightfall}

The Carapace Scavenger smashed down with its jagged pincer to crush the pest before it. However, William's feet dug into the soft mud underneath as a circular white shield of osseous material sprang forth from his shoulder and bore the brunt of the attack.

He had noticed something after fighting several of these creatures for a while. Even though they are stronger than their rank and class indicates, their movements are sluggish and don't have much room for finesse.

Thus, heavy-pincered attacks like these leave them open for attack for a brief window.

Utilizing this fact to his advantage, the white-haired Sleeper gripped Frostmourne tightly in his hand and made an upward slash against the scavenger's arm.

Another hint about fighting these buggers was to disarm them of their pincers as soon as you can.

The creature spit viscous mucus as it reeled back from having its arm chopped off like a twig. However, the monster's pain seemed to be more than physical, as if something intrinsic inside had also been damaged with the attack.

Frostmourne's single activated rune glowed ominously, urging its user to kill the monster so that it can feed.

William took in a deep breath and then breathed out, Arthas told him about Frostmourne's less than pleasant quirks after being fed several souls after its long period of slumber. The sword was akin to a starving beast salivating at the sight of a sumptuous buffet.

However, William made it explicitly clear for himself: He is the master and it is but a tool he uses. He will use it for his goals and not the other way around.

Fortunately for it, their goals seem to be aligned for the moment.

William gave a mental order, and from the coral wall behind the monster, hidden from sight, emerged two of his Corpse Scavengers.

Without a shred of mercy, the two undead creatures used their own pincers to smash into the wounded nightmare creature's legs. A resounding Crack! and Snap! two of its hind legs were shattered upon impact.

The now severely crippled creature was then immediately held to the ground securely by four pincers as it watched the human it was fighting approach it with his giant sword in hand.

Two conflicting instincts fought inside the creature: 1- the want to devour the prey that gave off such an appetizing smell and 2- the desire to flee for its life at the sight of the wretched blade.

In the end, it couldn't act on neither as the mourneblade was embedded deep into its skull and straight through its brain - it died.

[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.] (D20 = 9)

[Your soul grows stronger.]

'That's the third one today,' thought William as he ordered his minions to rip out the dead creature's soul shard. Meanwhile, Frostmourne relished in the new soul that it just got served.

(Drop stats of the previous 2 encounters. I know that it is unnecessary but I like doing it, so y'now. D20 = 3, 13)

Sending out another mental command, the coral further off from his location rustled, and a Corpse Scavenger emerged carrying the blind oracle on its back. It was flanked by an additional Corpse Scavenger on each side for extra protection.

"William, are you injured?" she immediately asked in concern as the group reached him.

'Thankfully, she seemed to have returned to her normal self,' noticed the youth as he let out a mirthful chuckle.

"Nope, thankfully. My armor came to my rescue in the nick of time."

Just then, he was delivered a soul shard by one of his minions, which he gave to Cassie, "Here, Cass, have this."

"Again?" she asked incredulously. This was the third soul shard she absorbed today, not counting the ten shards she got yesterday, "What about you?"

"I absorbed my share already. This is for you," he said, a modified version of the truth that seemed to satisfy his female companion. She held onto the soul shard and started absorbing it.

'I wonder where Arthas and Jaina are? They have been away for some time,' the youth wondered as he held onto the [Teardrop Amulet] around his neck.

#############################

In a location about 80 meters away from William, two spirits floated side by side in midair while staring at the scenery of the Coral Labyrinth before them.

Jaina had just arrived here after she was mentally called by her lover. The two hero fragments discovered that they had some telepathic bond between them. Alas, this bond did not extend to their young protégé.

"Arthas, darling, why are you looking so broody?"

Arthas let out a deep sigh as he turned to look at the face of the love of his life - well, previous life - but it still stands.

"It's just.... knowing that your whole life's been some part of children's game begs the question of whether the choices that we made were really ours?" he asked in a somber tone before looking her in the eye. "What about the feelings of love I hold for you? Are they all artificial like the rest of our world?"

Jaina, who was initially surprised by the sudden existential question, softened her expression and embraced the paladin's head to her bossom.

"Awww, and here I was wondering what happened to make you so serious. Yet, it was only this, how cute," she cooed in a soft, teasing voice.

"Jaina, I'm serious," the blond male spirit exclaimed as he tried to escape from her cleavage; keyword, tried. As soon as his face was lifted, it promptly returned its original position with a surprising show of strength.

"And so am I, Arthas Menethil," she retorted in a cold tone that sent a chill down his ethereal spine, "I ripped a part of my soul and bound it to an amulet made from an angel tear, which I had to go through hell and back to get it, to keep the last part of you company for eternity only for you to question the feelings I have for you."

Arthas gulped non-existent saliva, awaiting her voice to become colder, but, to his utter surprise, her hand began patting his head.

"I know what it feels like to have those kinds of questions. I had it too after what William told us when we first came out of the necklace.

After several days of deep thought, I came to a realization: It doesn't matter if our world or even universe was just a game made for entertainment; what we lived through and experience was certainly real. All the laughter, tears, and memories we made together and with our family and friends. Do you really believe that they are artificial?

Don't try to hide behind the excuse of being a game character, Arthas. What you did as the Lich King will forever haunt you, and you'll have to live with it. After all, that's what it means to be alive. We have to carry the consequences of our actions. Now, tell me, Arthas, is your whole life fake?"

"I-," Arthas tried to speak but was interrupted by Jaina sealing his lips with hers.

"Here," she said as they parted, "we are not in the game. Do you still think I am forced into loving you."

The ex-Lich King was shell shocked for a moment before a fond smile spread on his lips, "No, of course not."

"Come on, I know how to make you never ask that question ever again," Jaina said with a suggestive expression while grabbing his ghostly hand. "Bye the way, what made you suddenly have these questions? We already knew that information for more than a month."

Arthas rubbed the back of his head, "The questions didn't prop up to me as much when I was training William, but after coming here and seeing all this. It made the questions much more prominent in my head."

Then, he suddenly remembered their job, "Wait, shouldn't we be scouting the are for threats?"

"I already scouted most of the area before you called me. There is nothing new other than the passing Carapace Scavenger. I'm sure William will be fine since he has five of those creatures as undead anyway. What's the worst that can happen," she said offhandedly, apparently eager for what is to come.

"Plus, are you truly going to choose scouting this dreadful landscape over this," she said in a sultry tone as she accentuated her gracious curves, especially her posterior.

Arthas, with his eyes on the prize, shut his mouth and followed obediently, silently apologizing to William in his heart.

##############################

The group of two Sleepers and five Corpse Scavengers were about to continue on their journey when both Sleepers entered a fully alert state as their slightly enhanced hearing detected the sound of the coral being moved and rustled.

Immediately, William began giving the usual orders for combat engagement.

The three undead scavengers that acted as Cassie's bodyguards retreated back to the coral and hid themselves in the thick ridges. Also, the other two scavengers scampered off to their hide in their ambush spots and await further orders.

Thus, only William himself and the brutalized corpse of the Carapace Scavenger remained in sight. The coral before him shook more as if something was trying to get through it using force. William summoned Frostmourne, and as the mourneblade's reassuring weight was felt in his palms, he felt what little nervousness he had vanish.

Holding a legendary cursed sword does wonders for battle fright, it seemed.

The air thickened with tension as the rustling grew louder and louder until....

The first thing he saw was her short, slightly wild hair, which was the color of molten silver, and with it her clear, steel-grey eyes. She was dressed in a simple tunic with leather sandals on her feet and a cloak the color of seawaves draped around her shoulders.

Whatever skin that was not covered by the armor had the color of unblemished ivory, and her figure appeared to be lithe and athletic. In her hand, she gripped the longsword that she used to cut through the coral.

'F-Fuck....why?' was the thought that passed through William's mind as their eyes met for the first time.

#############################

Nephis had many expectations on what she would find after deciding to brave through the coral labyrinth.

However, what she actually found was not within those expectations.

After cutting through the red coral walls with her memory, she came across a bizarre sight.

A clearing entered her vision. In said clearing, sticking out like a sore thumb, was a single boy with a very peculiar appearance, to say the least.

The first thing she noticed was his height. He was tall - about 2 meters - she reckoned. Then came his hair that fell to his shoulders and had the color of freshly driven snow. After that, she noticed that his blue eyes seemed to give off some sort of imperceptible glow.

'A trick of the light,' she thought dismissively as she continued her examination. Covering his entire body from neck to feet was a set of armor that seemed to be made of bones. Around his neck was some sort of necklace with a tear-shaped blue gem in the middle.

She wondered where he got such armor and necklace before moving on.

From what exposed skin she saw, he was pale but not the sickly kind that she had seen in hospitals. He appeared to be rather healthy.

Then she noticed the elephant in the clearing - or rather two elephants. Firstly, the brutalized corpse of the Carapace Scavenger that was just chilling in the clearing next to the boy.

'Did he kill it alone?' she wondered incredulously. She had fought against them before, and she had to admit that they are in a higher grade than most creatures of such rank and class.

Second, her eyes immediately darted to the weapon in his hands. It was a sword like nothing she had seen before. If she had to describe it in one word, it would be: sinister.

Suspicion immediately arose in her heart. This was not a weapon a normal sleeper would have.

'Is he....,' she stared at the boy, and he did so in kind.

None of them moved, and the atmosphere became so thick that it could be cut with a knife.

This staring competition continued for ten whole minutes without either party blinking when suddenly, the boy dismissed his weapon and raised his open palms in the air.

'Some sort of trick?' she thought with suspicion but didn't allow none of it to show on her poker face. 'Never let your enemies know what you think.'

"Are we going to continue this staring competition, or are you going to introduce yourself?" he asked in an exasperated tone.

She remained silent.

Being greeted with silence, the boy adopted a conflicted expression before sighing.

"Look, we can stand all day doing this and then be consumed by the Dark Sea, or we each can go our separate ways."

He was right, she had to admit, but that didn't mean she was going to trust him. Yet, she decided to take a gamble. Whatever methods he has to potentially harm her; they were all going to fail. After all, she trusted the heritage she that was left for her by her parents.

"Nephis."

"So you can talk! And you are not deaf too! Fantastic!" he exclaimed with subtle sarcasm in his words. The way he talked seemed to irk her somehow.

"Anyways, my name is William. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have things to do, monsters to slay. You know how it is," the boy stated as he took a step to turn.

She wouldn't have that. Nephis can't possibly let a potential legacy clan assassin escape from her grasp.

"Don't. Move," the words came out in a practiced cold and hard tone.

The white-haired boy immediately stopped, "Well, Ms. Nephis, why do you have to bring us back to square one?"

She didn't know the answer to that question either, so she opted for her usual silence.

"Welp, I guess I have no choice," the boy shrugged in a lax manner, which caused Nephis to become on high alert.

'What trick is he going to pull.'

"Hey Cass!" he yelled to the coral wall a few meters behind him. "You can come out now!"

Nephis tightened her grip on her sword and clenched her teeth in tension.

'Shit,' she thought of an un-legacy like word, 'I didn't expect him to have a companion.'

She glanced over at William's face to see him wearing a shit-eating grin. She was really starting to not like him.

A few moments later, she heard a female sounding voice from the coral as it began to shake and rustle. Then, from it, emerged a blond girl wearing some sort of old leather armor.

What puzzled her was that the way the girl was walking was not right. It was as if she couldn't see what was before her.

"Ms. Warden," she heard William call her by a weird name, "can I go help my blind friend."

He didn't even wait for her response before rushing towards the fumbling girl.

"Blind?" she muttered to herself. Then, she remembered that there was that one girl at the academy that they said was blind due to her flaw.

She was surprised that she was even alive.

She watched as the youth helped the poor girl. However, due to the difference in height, he couldn't support her by his shoulder, so he opted for an unorthodox method for a princess carry.

"So let's start with the introductions again," he said after bringing the girl to his previous position. "Nephis, this is Cassia. Cassia, this is our new tyrant ruler, Nephis."

"Warden?" Cassia looked confused. Meanwhile, she was getting more and more irked.

"He's saying nonsense," she answered to salvage the situation; however, that seemed to only add fuel to the fire.

"OOOhhh!" he exclaimed in mock enthusiasm. "Look, Cass, she used more than two words! She's learning fast."

'This is it!' Nephis thought angrily and was about to attack him damned be the consequences.

Thankfully, it didn't need to come to this - for now.

The heir of the Immortal Flame clan saw the blond girl pull at the boy's cheek before scolding him, "Don't be rude!"

"She pointing a sword at us, and you think I'm being rude!?" he cried incredulously, his expression saying that he didn't believe what was happening to him.

This scene managed to somehow lessen her suspicion of him - by a miniscule degree. In the end, it could all be a big play to lure her into a trap.

Cassia released her hold onto William's cheek and turned to look at Nephis.

She noticed that the girl was looking more at her general direction than directly at her. 'So, she really is blind, huh....'

"I'm sorry about how my companion acted towards you. Can you find it in your heart to forgive him?" she asked earnestly. This managed to shave off some more suspicion.

She heard William mutter some things under his breath: ....omen.....blame....en...every...

'Whatever he says is of no consequence,' she decided.

"Of course," came her concise reply.

"Wonderful," Cassia said as she clapped her hands. "Now, if you would be so kind to let us go on our way. We still need to reach a citadel or gate somehow."

What she said immediately reminded Nephis on my she even ventured out of her relative safe zone. She needed people to travel with.

Even though she still had her suspicions, she could travel with them - as long as she kept an eye out for any underhanded tricks.

The problem was: How can she ask to join them?

William didn't have the best impression of her already due to their encounter, and Cassia looked to be the nicer of the two, but she doubted she had any influence due to her condition.

Just as they were about to go, she decided to swallow whatever social awkwardness she had and just wing it, "Can I come with you?"

"Excuse me?" was William's incredulous reply. If she were being honest, she could hardly blame him. She can hardly believe that she just asked that.

"Why?" On the other hand, Cassia's question was laden thick with suspicion.

She didn't know how she could realistically answer that. They didn't have any obligation to help her, and from what she had seen here, it seemed William knew how to handle himself somewhat.

The silence ensued for a whole minute before Cassia spoke again, "Why not. It's actually to have another female join the group."

Unbeknownst to her, Nephis let out a silent sigh of relief.

William seemed to be conflicted about something, but after hearing Cassia's reply, he just sighed.

"Yeah, sure, why the fuck not. Just keep that sword pointed at the nightmare creatures and we'll be fast friends." He then looked around before stating, "Let's get out of here before we meet our neighbors."

On that they all agreed.

#####################################

'Damn it! She had already seen Frostmourne!' he lamented in his mind while walking a few paces ahead of the girls that seemed to have engaged in an age-old tradition of girl talk.

'Thankfully, I was able to hide the Corpse Scavengers.' He had ordered the Corpse Scavengers to scour around the labyrinth in search of prey. Coincidentally, he wanted to experiment with his ability a bit.

He didn't have to wait long as the results showed themselves immediately.

[Your Corpse Scavenger has slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.] (D20 = 18)

[You have gained a memory: Scout's Sack]

He then checked his runes to confirm his Soul Fragments but unfortunately they hadn't increased and neither did the soul count on Frostmourne.

'So this method allows me to gain memories but not soul fragments for myself or souls for Frostmourne. Interesting but unfortunate. I guess I can't just sit back and let my minions do all the work.'

As the sun passed through the grey skies of the Forgotten Shore, the group happened upon three more stray Carapace Scavengers. William opted to deal with them and told Nephis to guard Cassie, which she agreed to with surprising willingness.

She had already seen Frostmourne, so there was no point in hiding it away. Plus, he needed to feed it to activate more runes.

Also, he fought with only the swordsmanship he learned from Arthas and his [Mantle of Death] ability. He wanted her to believe that that was his current ability rather than the [Raise Undead] and he discreetly instructed Cassie to not speak any word about his traits, abilities, or his minions.

Thankfully, the blond easily agreed to his request and even promised it on her life. It seemed like she was taking the part of gaining his trust seriously - as good as that was going to be.

That was good enough for him - for now. God knows what Nephis would do if she knew he was able to make a theoretically infinite army to fight off the Great Legacy Clans.

William didn't want any part in that poisoned pie - at least, until he built up his foundations first.

Meanwhile, his undead boys managed to bag in four more nightmare creatures.

( 3 personal encounters. 4 minion encounters. D20 = 14, 8, 14, 11, 18, 2, 9)

[You have gained a memory: Sea Shell] (New memory descriptions in Auxiliary Chapter.)

Eventually, the sun began to set and William noticed the dark clouds rolling in too.

He had tried to search for some sort of material to make some form of protective cover against the rain but unfortunately, he only found coral and black sea weed.

Thus he had to resort to his plan B which drastically changed by the addition of Nephis.

Also, both Jaina and Arthas had returned a few hours after she joined and they only said that there was a very dangerous beast they were scouting out and not a peep more.

"My day's just getting better and better," he muttered under his breath as he moved towards a rising rocky uprising that seemed high enough to evade the worst of the rising sea level.

############################

{Back to the present}

'Damn, I had to use half of my armor to have enough material to create this shell and instead of a thank you kindly, she molests me with her eyes,' thought William wearily as he still engaged in the staring competition.

In the end, Willaim simply shut his eyes and went to sleep. Leaving only Nephis awake to hear the pitter patter of the rain and the booming of thunder.

After watching the sleeping duo for a while, Nephis let out a sigh and in turn went to sleep too. She needed all her energy to survive the next day in the Dream Realm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AAAAAAAAAAAnnnnnndddddddd that's a wrap fellas.

How was Nephis's introduction into the group. Was it too forced or was it in par with her character.

I believe that I personally did a somewhat okay job to convey her inner thoughts since in the beginning of the story she is not a leader yet. Hell, she is just a socially awkward teenager even after the first arc.

Anyways, be ready to meet the Shadowy Cockroach of Shadows himself next chapter.

Until next time, happy reading and have a nice day!