Hero

Auro of the Nine, called Hero by Sunny, is an Awakened swordsman serving a militant empire near the end of the Dream Realm's Golden Age. He saves Sunny from a larva and leads the survivors of the Mountain King's attack, but eventually chooses duty over mercy and tries to kill the young slave. Sunny lures the Tyrant to their confrontation, causing Auro's death. (Chapters 4–14 and 1443)

Biography

Imperial escort and mountain flight

Auro is the young soldier who returns to the shattered slave caravan and kills the larva threatening Sunny. He then confronts the Mountain King directly, buying time for the remaining slaves and soldiers. When the Tyrant overwhelms the Imperials, Auro joins Sunny, Scholar, and Shifty in pushing a chained wagon over the cliff. He assumes practical leadership afterward, distributes supplies, and guides the flight toward the mountain pass. (Chapters 4–9)

His disciplined exterior survives the deaths around him. Auro remains calm, tends his sword, carries more weight when Shifty weakens, and initially refuses the most obvious proposal to discard Sunny. When Scholar argues that a bleeding victim must mislead the pursuing Tyrant, however, Auro accepts the premise while substituting the sicker Scholar. He wounds and abandons the older slave, returning with the supplies and explaining that the sacrifice was necessary. (Chapters 9–12)

Alone with Sunny, Auro admits that he plans to kill the boy in his sleep so that the death will be painless. He claims he would otherwise face the monster for Sunny, but an overriding duty means his life is not his alone. Sunny reveals that he poisoned the survivors' water with Bloodbane because he expected betrayal. The toxin sickens Auro but cannot kill someone whose soul core Awakened long ago, leaving Sunny apparently helpless in a direct fight. (Chapters 12–13)

Sunny exploits knowledge Auro lacks: the Mountain King is blind and hunts by sound. He rings the Silver Bell, remains silent, and lets the approaching Tyrant target the swordsman. Auro fights with great skill but is ultimately killed; the Spell identifies him as Auro of the Nine and rewards Sunny for slaying an Awakened human. His death leaves Sunny free to reach Shadow God's ruined temple and complete the Nightmare. (Chapters 13–14)

Name and later significance

Sunny later remembers Auro as both the First Nightmare's “Hero” and a measure of practiced lethality when evaluating modern fighters. Much later, meeting Aletheia of the Nine reveals that Auro's epithet probably connects him to an ancient group rather than functioning as an isolated surname. He had lived during the twilight of the Golden Age, served a conquering empire that worshiped War God, and achieved natural Awakening at an impressively young age. (Chapters 19–25 and 1443)

The local corpus does not establish Auro's family, the identity or purpose of the Nine, or the duty he considered more important than Sunny's life. Because the First Nightmare reconstructs an ancient past and can be changed by its challenger, the exact historical Auro's death is not independently confirmed. What the Spell preserves is that he was the only person in that Nightmare important enough to be identified by name. (Chapters 14 and 1443)

Appearance and personality

Auro is a tall, handsome young man with a noble, perfectly shaped face and the controlled bearing of an elite soldier. He carries an immaculate sword and usually appears composed enough that Sunny likens him to a saint. His body is far stronger and more resilient than a mundane human's; even weakened by poison and exhaustion, a single blow from him breaks Sunny's ribs and throws him into stone. (Chapters 4–14)

He is brave, disciplined, observant, and capable of protecting strangers, but his morality is hierarchical. Auro is ashamed of killing Sunny and wants to spare him pain, yet treats an unnamed duty as sufficient authority to do it. Sunny despises this combination more than Shifty's naked selfishness or Scholar's manipulation, calling Auro a slave who trusts his slaver. The conflict makes him compassionate in feeling but ruthless in action. (Chapters 9–13)

Abilities and Aspect

Naturally Awakened body and soul

Auro possesses an Awakened soul core and says he has slain many enemies and absorbed their power. His strength, speed, durability, and resistance allow him to slaughter larvae, survive Bloodbane that would kill mundane men, overpower Sunny instantly, and contend briefly with the Mountain King. The corpus does not name an Aspect, Flaw, soul-core class, or formal Ability, and the Nightmare predates the mature Spell's familiar advancement system. (Chapters 4–14 and 1443)

Swordsmanship and presence sense

Auro is a highly trained swordsman with experience calculated into every movement. He can perceive or feel people even in complete darkness, noticing that Sunny registers like an absence among the shadows. The text does not determine whether this perception comes from an Aspect, sharpened senses, or combat training. It also has limits: he cannot detect the silent, blind Mountain King in time to avoid Sunny's bell trap. (Chapters 4–14 and 21)

Limits

Awakening makes Auro superhuman, not invulnerable. Bloodbane causes pain and weakness even though it cannot finish him, and a Tyrant remains far beyond his power in sustained combat. His strongest tactical weakness is incomplete information: he assumes Sunny is helpless, does not know the Mountain King tracks sound, and responds to the bell before understanding why Sunny has stopped breathing and speaking. (Chapters 13–14)

Relationships

Sunny

Auro saves Sunny, accepts his plans, carries him through part of the escape, and recognizes his affinity with shadows. Sunny respects his strength but anticipates that duty will eventually override kindness. Each tries to kill the other while describing the act as survival: Auro intends a painless execution, whereas Sunny poisons him and engineers his death through the Tyrant. Auro remains one of Sunny's earliest lessons in the danger of principled obedience. (Chapters 4–14 and 19–25)

Scholar and Shifty

Auro leads the two mundane survivors and initially bears more of their burdens. He watches Shifty die after poison and exposure ruin his strength. When Scholar proposes sacrificing Sunny, Auro turns the argument back on its author and personally leaves Scholar as bait. His decisions preserve Auro and Sunny for one more night but destroy the last pretense that the group remains a fellowship. (Chapters 5–12)

Aletheia

Aletheia lives in a much later era and never meets Auro on page, but her title “of the Nine” makes Sunny recall him. Both are naturally Awakened people from the ancient Dream Realm associated with the same unexplained Nine. The corpus supplies no blood relationship, shared membership details, chronology of the institution, or evidence that either knew the other personally. (Chapter 1443)

Items

Imperial sword

Auro carries a carefully maintained sword suited to his elite training. It kills Mountain King's larvae and wounds the Tyrant, and Auro attends to it at camp until the moral strain before Sunny's intended murder distracts him from the ritual. Its name, material, enchantments, and later fate are not stated; it is not described as a Memory. (Chapters 4–14)

Silver Bell

The Silver Bell belongs to Sunny, not Auro. Sunny receives it for killing the first larva and later rings it to summon the blind Mountain King toward their confrontation. Its far-carrying sound turns Auro's superior strength into a liability by attracting an enemy he cannot defeat. The item is included here because it directly causes his final battle, not because he ever owns or uses it. (Chapters 4 and 13–14)