[ "Were there always that many?" ]
[ "No, there were much more. They seem to be almost done with the carcass. I doubt it will last until nightfall." ]
Not much later, both Sunny and Nephis could be seen on-screen, sitting on the edge of the headless statue, gazing at the scavengers below, while Sunny's shadow scouted a path to their next stop.
"I have to say, his ability is strangely well-fit for the Crimson Labyrinth. Almost like the perfect spot to use to its full potential." Effie commented.
"I guess that can be due to his [ Fated ] attribute, after all, what are the chances of landing on the region of the Dream Realm where your ability is the most useful?"
[ However, without scouting a path in advance, there was a chance of not making it to safety in time. Both options were risky. ]
[ Nephis frowned, seemingly thinking the same. ]
[ "I don't want Cassie to spend another night near this statue. Let's leave now." ]
"Yeah, standing around in the same place where you got a traumatic vision is not really healthy." Hel said. "That is why Mom insisted on me taking a walk if possible, it really helped."
Taking into consideration Hel's perspective, the rest of the room turned towards the screen.
They saw Sunny prepare to speak his opinion about the matter only to stop due to a commotion below. Looking towards where Sunny was himself looking, they found something quite surprising.
At the bottom of the receding sea, in the middle of the broken coral and the carcass of the shark-like monster, which was almost only bones at this point, something was shimmering in the mud.
Two extremely large, luminescent crystals.
[ "Are those…" ]
[ "Yes. Shards of two transcendent soul cores." ]
"This..." Luster couldn't believe it.
Even those that came out of the Forgotten Shore were astounded. Transcendent Soul Shards were hard to come by, because no one could kill something of that rank.
[ Suddenly, he was simultaneously filled with greed and fear. Greed because of how rare and precious transcendent soul shards were; fear because the giant shark turned to a be a corrupted devil, at least. ] (A/N: I don't know if G3 meant a Corrupted Monster at the time)
"This is not the time to be consumed by greed, fool. Listen to your fear!" Detective Sunless pleaded.
"But... those are transcendent soul shards!" Sunny said.
"How much can you fetch with them?" Sunless asked.
"Enough to be able to eat as you want for a month." Lost Sunny responded.
Sunless' eyes widened with greed as he suppressed the urge to drool.
[ "Should we…" ]
[ "Wait and listen." ]
"And here comes the catch." Detective Sunless said.
[
After a while, he noticed some disharmony in it.
Nephis suddenly tensed up.
"There."
]
"What the hell? Why are these things here?" Effie said before cursing under her breath.
The reason for her frustration was simple.
Carapace Centurions had appeared on screen.
They looked like scavengers but were much larger. A thicker carapace of a deep black and scarlet color, with spikes coming out of it. And instead of a pincer, two scythes stood in their place.
[
"What the hell are those things?"
"Monsters, I guess."
]
"I guess, she says." Kai said, bewildered.
"Princess... You are already struggling with normal scavengers, none of you have saturated even a hundred fragments yet. How can you deal with something like this?" Effie said.
"It is not impossible to defeat, therefore, it is not something to be afraid of."
[ 'What are they doing? Did they come to absorb the soul shards?' ]
And true to what he had thought, the two Centurions picked up the shards, one each, and left.
"That's it, why not absorb it?" Professor Julius was confused, a thoughtful expression crossing his face.
[
"Do we still leave now?"
"No. We'll go tomorrow."
]
"That might be for the better." Jet said.
[ "...Get your shadow to follow these two back." ]
"Hopefully to know where not to go, instead of hunting down, right?" Morgan said, looking at Nephis, who stayed silent.
[ They were going west. ]
[ After telling this to Nephis, there was pretty much nothing else for him to do. In the end, Sunny decided to simply rest—the next day was promising to be full of hardships and danger, so it was in his best interest to let his body recover as much as it could. ]
And as the narrator had said, they could see Sunny lying on his back, Cassie sitting beside him while Nephis, seemingly meditaded.
"Are you really meditating, princess."
"Yes, I was trying to grow used to my Flaw." Nephis explained.
[ "Sunny?" ]
[ "Yeah?" ]
[ "Do you… do you think we'll be able to return home?" ]
"This question always surfaces, doesn't it?" Seishan said, a complicated look on her face.
As someone who had spent years in the Forgotten Shore, that question had been asked, directly and indirectly, several times. It was one of the two greatest questions, more common in newcomers.
The other one being: "What are you going to do when you are back?"
[ "Sure." ]
[ "You really think so? Why?" ]
[ 'What's with all these questions?' ]
[ He sighed and tried to find the right words. ]
[ "Because of her." ]
Nephis frowned slightly, but she was not really mad.
In that hellhole of a region, she had been praised and worshipped like none other, even called Saint Nephis even before she became a Transcendent.
Much like the present day, she was hoping Sunny saw her as more of an equal rather than someone above him.
'No worries. I know how formidable he is. He is just starting, he'll eventually be the only one to be beside me.'
[ "I'm also not someone to die easily. In fact, I'm willing to bet that you couldn't have found a better duo of Sleepers to escort you across the Dream Realm. If anyone can survive this, it's us. So, yeah. I think that our chances of making it back are pretty high." ]
Hearing him say this, the Nephis from the Diverged Timeline, tried to reassure herself.
'That's right, if there is someone who can survive and come back, it's you. Sunny...'
[ "Aren't you a little too full of yourself? You were in the second to last place!" ]
[ "That's only because someone smart told me to keep a low profile. Otherwise, I would have ranked higher." ]
[ Then, with a grin, he added: ]
[ "Much higher! Third to last, at least!" ]
On-screen Cassie giggles, infesting the rooms like a wave.
The people in the Longing/Shadow Room were plenty surprised, some of them have not heard her laugh like this for a long, long while, if at all.
For them, the blind girl had always been silent and kept to herself. Which was fine, Gods, did the Song Sisters know how peculiar seers were.
[ The melodic sound of her laughter made Sunny feel much better—he had not heard anything like that ever since coming to the Dream Realm. It was nice to see that people were still able to preserve a bit of mirth even in this hellish place. ]
Cassie felt herself being filled with embarrassment. Since a long time ago, she had only laughed like that, or at least whatever similar laugh she could have nowadays, in the presence of Nephis, her family, and momentarily with Sunny, although much rarer due to the distance they put between themselves.
She also felt somewhat uncomfortable with Sunny finding comfort in her laugh.
Cassie felt a burning gaze on her side. She turned her head to look at Nephis, who was silently looking at her best friends, seemingly pondering a possibility that had never occurred before.
Unlike other members of the audience in this room, Cassie did not waver and look away.
"Something wrong, Neph?"
Nephis glare calmed down.
"No, I was just thinking of how you could stop laughing like that."
Cassie stopped at that moment. She knew that wasn't it, but that sentence had made her think.
She had thought that she was somewhat capable of laughing like that still.
Was she... wrong?
[ "What do you miss the most about home?" ]
[ "I don't particularly miss anything." ]
As if there was a balance to be kept, or simply because The Mask did not like them watching only happy stuff, a quite sensitive question was thrown by Cassie.
There was no way for her to know, well, except her vision, so no one blamed her.
But it was still something that wiped the smiles, the subtle grins, and the amused expressions from their faces.
[ "Really? Don't you miss your family?" ]
[ "I don't have a family. Well… I guess I have a sister somewhere. But we haven't seen each other in many years." ]
[ "Oh." ]
Rain hated these moments.
Every time, she felt like all of that was water under the bridge, there it was again.
'At least I'm building a resistance. No tears, no sobs, and no sensation of my heart being twisted. Just casual and ordinary depression,' she thought while Tamar patted her shoulder.
[ "I miss my family the most." ]
[ There was longing and sadness in her voice. Sunny didn't know what to say, so he stayed silent. ]
[ "Mom and dad must be really worried about me right now. No… no, actually, they wouldn't be worried. They would be heartbroken. They must think that I'm as well as dead already." ]
None of them knew what to say. Effie could not imagine what it was like for her son to be in such a bad position for seemingly no reason. Thankfully, Ling Ling was already a Saint.
Tyris and Roan, on the other hand, could vaguely empathize with Cassie's parents, although Telle was not in as bad of a position as Cassie, they felt that even if she was dropped in the middle of Bastion, they would still worry sick for her.
[ "You seem to care about them a lot." ]
[ "Of course. Isn't it normal?" ]
[ Sunny stared at the grey sky. The wind smelled of rain. ]
Rain's eyes twitched. Why was the narrator insisting on it?
[ "I wouldn't know." ]
Hearing him say this, she felt oddly irritated.
She merely crossed her arms and turned her face away with a "Hmph".
'See if I care, you... dumb... fool.'
After some time, the screen had sped up once again, revealing various images of Sunny and Cassie speaking with each other, sometimes involving Nephis as well.
Until eventually it showed a new scene, and the viewing went back to the normal speed. Sunny had practiced another thousand swings, they had eaten and slept, and now on a new morning they were preparing to leave the statue.
[ "Today will be different from before. There will be much more scavengers roaming in the labyrinth. We might not be able to create an ambush or avoid fighting several of them at once." ]
[ She looked at Sunny: ]
[ "If anything happens, your job is to bring Cassie away. We can retreat by using passages that are too narrow for the scavengers. If we get separated, proceed to the high point by yourselves. Don't wait for me. Do you understand?" ]
"What a thing to say with a prophecy that might entail your death." Noctis said.
With that they promptly began to descend. Like before, Nephis and Sunny helped Cassie get down, and once they were all on the ground, they entered the labyrinth, Sunny's shadow going in front to search for the right path.
They all saw their changed directions several times, right until a situation where they had no choice but to fight presented itself.
A pair of scavengers was in their way.
[ "If there's only two, we can take them." ]
[ "But there's no time to set up an ambush." ]
[ He wasn't quite sure how they could fight two scavengers at once. Despite how good of a teacher Nephis was, he only practiced with the sword for a day. Facing against a scavenger alone was risky. ]
"Well, since he killed one alone, with no weapons and no knowledge of their weaknesses, there should be a chance still. Even if it remains dangerous." Daeron recognized.
[ "It's almost the same. I'll attack first. You follow behind in the shadows and finish one off once they turn. Then, we kill the second one together." ]
[ The whole plan was based on the assumption that Nephis could survive under the onslaught of two scavengers, both attacking her simultaneously. Sunny was very impressed by her prowess, but he wasn't sure that it was possible. There was a large probability that Nephis would die. ]
[ He still remembered that she wasn't present in Cassie's first vision. ]
"Indeed, even if the vision could be incomplete, considering that she is just a Sleeper, this is enough to make one doubt."
[ "Alright." ]
[ After a short pause, Nephis summoned her sword. ]
[ Then, she stepped forward. ]
"Well, here comes another fight scene. Hope to something entertaining." Effie said.
"I hardly think we should find these things entertaining, especially since it's not that great of spectacle." Professor Julius commented.
They found a place to hide Cassie, and soon both Sunny and Nephis made their way to the two scavengers.
[ "Keep up." ]
[ Then, like a runner preparing for a race, she got down on one knee, inhaled deeply… and lunged forward. ]
[ 'Damn!' ]
"Wow, she is fast!" Sunless commented.
Coming from a mundane world, seeing Nephis go at such speed was amazing. The other Sunnys looked at him strangely.
After all, that speed could still be achieved by a mundane person, of course not by just anyone, but still possible.
[ Sunny dove into the deep shadow cast by the wall of the labyrinth and followed, running as fast as he could. However, the distance between them kept growing. ]
[ Suddenly, he remembered walking behind Nephis as they crossed the bridge to the Academy. Was it his fate to always follow behind her? ]
Nephis wondered if that was the reason why he had become so strong, a hint of pride settling in her chest.
Some people said that women liked to be pursued. Nephis never truly understood that, or other matters related to love for that matter, but she could not slightly understand it.
The feeling of her lover working hard to become her equal, to not just stand with her but beside her, brought a weird sensation of fulfillment that was hard to describe.
Shaking off those giddy feelings, she focused on the screen.
Like an arrow, on-screen Nephis sped forward, leaving Sunny behind. With madness burning in their eyes, the monsters screeched and charged forward. Nephis did not slow down, as though planning to ram them with her body.
Four pincers shot through the air.
"Wow, Princess, careful there!" Effie warned.
Nephis was not shaken, she could vaguely remember such a situation.
[ At the last moment, Nephis fell backward, falling on her side. The inertia carried her forward as she slid through the mud, passing between the scavengers. Then, she twisted her body and stopped herself by plunging the sword into the ground. ]
[ 'Crazy! She's crazy!' ]
"Wow!!" Ling Ling exclaimed.
Even younger Nephis stared at the screen with bright eyes. She had seen Sunny train before, and at the time she couldn't help but feel that combat was somewhat interesting.
Seeing her older self move like that, it made her feel eager to try it too.
After that incredible maneuver, one of the scavengers had already turned around. However, because of that risky move of hers, the second scavenger had lagged behind and had therefore been chosen by Sunny.
He ran towards it and aimed for the weak point. However, the beast suddenly moved, the blade missed the spot where the chitin plates converged, sliding uselessly across it.
[ 'Crap!' ]
[ Instead of killing the beast with one decisive blow, Sunny ended up dealing no damage at all. What's worse, he landed right on top of the scavenger, practically hugging it from behind. In the next moment, the scavenger shook its carapace, throwing the irritating human off. ]
"Oh, that's not good." Noctis said, a smile still on his face.
They saw as Sunny's body was flung sideways into the labyrinth's coral walls, eliciting some gasps. Luckily, he was able to roll away from the follow-up attack and regain his senses.
Sunny stood into a stance they recognized from his thousand swings.
[ 'Repetition. Experience…' ]
[ The shadow flowed from the Azure Blade to his hand, then spread to his arm, shoulder, and then finally covered his whole body. Sunny instantly felt stronger, faster, more resilient. ]
[ But was it enough? No. To survive, he would definitely also need some luck. ]
"Hopefully, [ Fated ] doesn't screw him over..." Kai said.
"Hey, both good and bad things are drawn to him, right? That means that he's both the luckiest and unluckiest person in the world." Jet commented.
"So he either survives or dies, nothing changed." Morgan added her own two cents.
On the screen, the fight ensued.
Pincers came from the right and left, he could not retreat or dodge, so instead, he jumped forward, leading Effie to scream "Yeah!" while pumping her fist upwards.
Once he was closer to the scavenger, he repeated the motion they had seen him perform several times.
It hit the joint of one of the scavenger's front legs and cleaved right through it.
[ Sunny had less than a second to be amazed. ]
[ 'I actually did it?' ]
The Saints across the rooms, and the Sovereigns as well, noted how Sunny had grasped the movement so well after just two days. Although swinging a sword a thousand times was helpful, some people lost focus on the exercise as they began to unconsciously repeat the movement without internalizing its process.
Which meant that the process of a thousand swings had to repeat several times.
But in such a short time, Sunny had been able to repeat the swing perfectly.
Still, the blow was far from fatal, and the audience awaited his performance for the rest of the encounter.
As the creature was brought down due to its imbalance, Sunny explored that opening. He thrust the Azure blade into its mouth.
The massive body of the Nightmare Creature convulsed before falling still.
[ It was dead. ]
[ Sunny slowly exhaled, only now feeling the pain in his chest and at the back of his head. He carefully touched it and grimaced. His hand came back wet with blood. ]
[ 'At least I'm alive.' ]
"That was well done." Kai complimented.
No injuries, and simply two strikes. With that, a Sleeper had brought down a nightmare creature two times his size and a rank above him.
Sunny's performance had been great for someone whose only fight experience was what was learned on the streets, which was hardly refined and apt for fighting nightmare creatures.
[
[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[You shadow grows stronger.]
[You have…]
]
"Huh? What was that at the end?" Effie asked, having failed to hear it.
However, no one answered, as they had missed it as well.
[ With no time to listen to the Spell, Sunny tugged on the sword to dislodge it from the monster's head and hurried to help Nephis. ]
[ However, it was too late. ]
The other scavenger was lying in the mud, clearly dead. Nephis had already finished the job, even if they couldn't see the past version of their Sovereign.
"Well, if doofus could do it, I don't see why princess couldn't, you two kind of go hand in hand in these kinds of things."
[ "D—don't… don't come any closer." ]
That made the audience blink.
Why was Nephis so guarded.
As for the person herself, she tried to recall why she had been in that position, however, being a memory related to Sunny, she had failed to do so.
"Is she perhaps trying to hide the offensive side of her Aspect?" Eunbin proposed.
"That could be it, she had only stated that it could heal, not revealing the rest of her arsenal." Seishan agreed.
Along the room, several nods repeated themselves as people realized that theory was quite sound.
[ In the deathly silence of the battle's aftermath, Changing Star's voice sounded strange and subdued. Sunny suddenly felt as though someone had squeezed his heart in a fist. Steeling himself, he took another step forward. ]
[ Nephis was standing in front of the dead scavenger, trying to catch her breath after the intense fight. There was a bloody gash on her shoulder. However, it didn't look life-threatening. ]
[ Sunny's attention, though, was instantly drawn to something else. ]
[ It seemed that at some point during the fight, the tall girl's makeshift seaweed top came apart, leaving her naked above the waist. She was covering her chest with one arm. Behind the arm, squished, the supple fullness of her… ]
Only for that theory to be completely wrong.
"Pfft-"
Effie's attempt at stopping her laughter was what broke the room from the stun that the image of their Sovereign covering her chest had left on the audience.
The men hurriedly turned away or had their eyes covered, Nightwalker's had to be forcefully covered by his son.
In the Nightmare room, Noctis simply said, "Oh my~", while Elyas and Daeron respectfully looked away.
In the Alter Room, several burning gazes echoed across the room, prompting everyone to look away, except for the Mad Prince.
And no one was willing to force him, what if he bit them or something?
[ Sunny flinched as though someone had stung him and hurriedly turned around. His face was burning. Without thinking about it, he even made his shadow look away. ]
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Effie finally broke.
The image of Sunny stumbling onto Nephis in such a situation and the face he made at the realization was something out of a rom-com, and to her, it was so funny to see the two teenagers being so embarrassed about it.
[ "Are... are you alright?" ]
[ "Yes." ]
[ "Good. Uh… good. I'll… uh… I'll go fetch Cassie then." ]
[ "... Alright." ]
The awkwardness in the air could be felt from the screen, making those with a sense of shame to cringe.
[ Feeling as though an army of monsters was chasing him, he walked forward on stiff legs and then quickened his step, barely holding himself from running. ]
[ 'Her fault! It's her fault! She should have communicated things clearer!' ]
'You were the one gawking!' Nephis complained in her mind.
The conflicting feelings of pride and embarrassment clashing in her head. Pride for having his attention so easily and embarrassment of the scene her subjects had just seen.
She would never be able to live out of it.
Embarassement was clearly winning.
'Thankfully, nothing more embarrassing than this will be shown.'
After all, she couldn't remember anything of the like to ever happen again...
Oh no.
[ By the time they returned, Nephis had already fixed her top and was wearing it as though nothing had happened. However, Sunny couldn't help but feel that the look she gave him was somewhat weird. ]
[ 'Forget it!' ]
[ After checking the wound on his head, Changing Star said. ]
[ "It's just a bleeder, nothing serious. Tell me if you feel dizzy and nauseous or have a strong headache, though." ]
"Say princess... Ever thought of being a nurse?" Effie asked teasingly.
"No." And Nephis gave a Nephis-response.
[ "Memory?" ]
[ He opened his mouth to say "no", but then fell silent. ]
"Right, the Spell was saying something else." Jet remembered.
[ Come to think of it, when he killed the scavenger, the Spell did say something else after informing him about the absorbed shadow fragments. At the time, he was too busy to pay it any attention. ]
[ "Let me check." ]
[ Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteers' Shroud], [Azure Blade]. ]
[ 'Hmm. Nothing new.' ]
"If it isn't a memory, then..." Kai started.
"Then it must surely be..." Morgan began to complete.
[ Then what was the Spell talking about? ]
[ Echoes: [Carapace Scavenger]. ]
"... An Echo."
[ 'Echo… it's an Echo…' ]
The vision of the screen suddenly shifted as Sunny entered his Soul Sea, the comfortable darkness where his shades and shadows normally rested becoming visible to them all.
[ Just like before, Sunny couldn't get rid of the feeling that something was stealthily moving just beyond the periphery of his vision. However, this time, he didn't pay it any attention. He wanted to see his Echo. ]
Just like memories, an echo was represented by a sphere of light, albeit bigger. As the sphere touched the dark waters of his Soul Sea, a hulking figure emerged, it was the Carapace Scavenger that Sunny had just killed.
[
Echo: [Carapace Scavenger].
Echo Type: Beast.
Echo Core: Awakened.
Echo Attributes: [Strong], [Armored].
Echo Description: [A cursed soldier of the fallen legion].
]
"Damn, it seemed that luck was so unnecessary during the fight that it bled out in another way." Effie joked.
"Either that, or he really is lucky."
[ With this Echo by their side, many things would become easier. ]
[ Following an impulse, Sunny raised a hand and brushed it against cold, black chitin. He just wanted to touch his new possession… ]
[ However, the moment his palm touched the scavenger, a strange thing happened. The Soul of Sea suddenly surged a little, and a new set of runes appeared: ]
[ [Transform Echo into a Shadow?] ]
As the runes appeared, the room fell into silence for a few moments.
"Shadows? Like those ones?" Morgan asked, looking at the silent shadows that had come with the Shadow Room.
The Shadows had shifted. Fiend and Nightmare had been uninterested on the screen for most of the time, however, their attention was now drawn to the screen.
Slayer remained unbothered and non-chalant.
Saint had been watching the screen all the time, without missing a single scene.
And now, for the first time since they had been brought to this place, Serpent rose from its slumber, its dark eyes watching the screen with great attention.
"Seems like it." Jet answered.
Meanwhile, Effie, as expected of her, tried to tease the shadows.
"Oh, it seems that you weren't the first shadows, huh?" She said while wiggling her eyebrows.
Fiend, Nightmare, Slayer, and Serpent remained unbothered.
However, Saint eyes shifted from the screen to Effie, the ruby flames of her eyes igniting with concealed anger.
'Ah, would you look at that? The knight can get as jealous as Princess.'
[ Sunny flinched and snatched his hand back. ]
[ 'What the hell is that about?' ]
[ He had never heard anything about transforming Echoes into something else, let alone "Shadows". Then again, he had never heard about Shadow Cores and fragments, too. ]
[ 'It seems my Aspect holds more secrets than I thought.' ]
Mordret silently saw the happening on the screen.
There were little things that he found interesting, but most of the time, he found himself quite bored.
This, however, was an interesting happening.
Each Divine Aspect user had a use for each of their cores.
He created Reflections, Changing Star imploded them, and now he had figured out what Sunny's did, they created Shadows. The ones he had been able to summon even before Supremacy, and capable of destroying some of his finest reflections at the time.
It was already a theory of his at the time, it wasn't that hard to figure out, after all, but it was good to have his suspicions confirmed.
Now it was merely a question of the requirement to do it. Did he have to sacrifice a Shadow Core to create these Shadows?
He watched the screen with interest.
[ Sunny licked his lips and hesitated. Then, he cautiously said: ]
[ "Yes." ]
The rooms waited and waited. But...
[ However, nothing happened. A moment later, the runes changed: ]
[
[Not enough Shadow Fragments to perform a transformation.]
[Shadow Fragments required: 24/100.]
]
"A hundred fragments to create a Shadow..." Morgan echoed.
She looked at the Shadows in the room. All of them were extraordinary powers of high rank and class. Trading a tenth of a core's saturation from a Divine Aspect, who could form various cores, for a echo-variant capable of such power was a great trade-off.
[ 'I see. So there is another use for the fragments. They can either enhance my own core or do something weird to Echoes. How do I know which use is more beneficial without knowing what a transformation actually does?' ]
[ An Echo was plenty useful by itself. Sunny felt that it would be wiser to concentrate on strengthening himself, at least for now. ]
[ 'I'll experiment with it later.' ]
"Ah, so it wasn't the first Shadow, huh?" Effie once again teased Saint.
The taciturn knight merely shifted her stance, seemingly straightening her back and sticking her chest out in a prideful show of superiority, as if she was claiming the place as hers.
Effie chuckled softly as her husband wondered if his wife had gone so mad that she had started teasing shadows.
[ Since he had spaced out for quite a bit, Nephis was looking at him with a silent question in her eyes. ]
[ "I got an Echo." ]
[ Her pupils slightly widened. ]
[ Cassie, on the other hand, was more expressive: ]
[ "An Echo? You actually got an Echo?!" ]
[ "Yes." ]
[ Since the larger group of monsters was now minutes away from catching up with them, Sunny didn't waste any time and summoned the Scavenger. ]
[ Nephis observed the Echo with an unreadable expression. Then, a corner of her lip slightly curled up. ]
[ "Good." ]
[ Sunny looked at her with a smile. ]
[ "I think we can task it with carrying Cassie. Outside of battle, it will help us the most." ]
[ "Carry me? Like… like a mount?" ]
"Oh right, the image showed Cassie mounting a scavenger, right?" Kai remembered.
"It was an echo, huh? How do you two remember this?" Jet asked.
Nephis thought about it for a few moments.
"I don't remember which of us, but the mind tells me one of us had gotten the echo, which is weird since the only one who was fighting was me, so only I could've had it." She answered.
"There are several inconsistencies in our lives due to the absence of Sunny in them." Cassie clarified.
[ He chuckled and slapped the scavenger on its carapace. ]
[ "This bad boy can fit a petite girl like you with no problem at all. Trust me! I've been clambering these things a lot for the past few days. It's actually quite spacious on top of them. Especially if they're not trying to kill you." ]
"Pfft-" Rain let out a snort.
"What is it, Rain?" Tamar asked.
"Sunny... looks like a PTV salesman." She answered, struggling to hold her laughter.
"Pfft- You are right, now I can't unsee it." Aiko chuckled along with Rain.
[ "Well… okay. If you think it's for the best." ]
[ Sunny and Nephis helped the blind girl to climb on top of the Echo. Then, they used the golden rope to create makeshift reins for Cassie to hold onto. ]
[ After quickly retrieving soul shards from the dead scavengers, the Sleepers hastily left the passage, narrowly avoiding another battle. ]
They saw as the trio began to travel more comfortably with an echo besides them, after all, there was a sense of reassurance now that one of the huge creatures was their weapon instead, some tension leaving their shoulders.
So much so that the narrator made it very clear.
[ For the first time since coming to this place, Sunny felt somewhat calm. ]
[ Of course, this calmness didn't last long. ]
[ At some point, he noticed that the wind had picked up a bit. Almost simultaneously, Cassie asked them to stop. ]
"Hm? What is it now? I don't see anything." Luster wondered.
"It's not like these things always show up, do they, Luster? Remember LO49?" Quentin reminded him.
Luster shivered.
"Yeah, you're right."
[ "What is it?" ]
[ "Do you hear anything?" ]
[ They looked at each other, then shook their heads. ]
[ "No. Why?" ]
[ "Help me get off this thing." ]
"What's happening with her?" Eunbin wondered.
[ After they helped her, she stood motionless for a while, listening. Her scowl deepened. Then the blind girl cautiously kneeled and put her ear to the ground. ]
[ "What do you hear?" ]
[ "It's murmuring." ]
As soon as she said that, the eyes of the survivors of the Forgotten Shore widened as they recognized such behavior.
"This..." Kai gritted his teeth.
"Now of all times? They aren't even close to their destination." Effie said and cursed under her breath.
"Do they have time?" Aiko wondered with a worried gaze.
"Huh? Time for what, sister?" Revel asked Seishan.
"... Before the storm hits." Seishan answered.
And with that a single drop fell into Sunny's head as the words of the Forgotten Shore survivors settled in the various rooms where they were in. Through Sunny's vision, they saw dark stormy clouds gathering in unnatural speed, covering the whole sky. And that included the sun.
Which would lead to bad things happening.
[ "We need to move, now." ]
[ As Nephis turned to him, Sunny grabbed Cassie and helped her stand up. His face was even paler than usual, and there was a panicked look in his eyes. ]
[ "Now! Help me get her back on the scavenger!" ]
"Is the storm going to call on the dark sea earlier?" Nightwalker asked.
"Yes. Storms were hard to predict, but they normally ruined every expedition on the crimson labyrinth." Cassie explained.
On the screen, hearing Sunny's words, Nephis looked at the sky and immediately understood his worries, she then began to help Sunny get Cassie onto the scavenger.
[ Cassie seemed a bit disoriented. She grabbed the reins and helplessly turned to her friend: ]
[ "Neph? What is going on?" ]
[ "A storm is coming." ]
The screen split, allowing them to see the perspective of Sunny's shadow as it was positioned on top of the corals, and they looked forward. They were too far away from the statue to go back but still far away from the next high point.
[ Going back now would have been suicide. ]
[ "We're about three or four kilometers away from the cliffs. Do… do you think we can make it?" ]
[ "If we take the most direct route. Maybe." ]
[ "What about the monsters?" ]
[ Changing Star looked ahead and gritted her teeth. ]
[ "We'll have to cut through." ]
"Unfortunately, they have no choice." Morgan said.
"If they are lucky, the nightmare creatures will be too busy trying to get to safety themselves." Seishan commented.
[ 'That's it? That's the plan?' ]
[ As he was fruitlessly trying to come up with some devious trick to save them, Nephis turned her head and glanced at him, puzzled. ]
[ "What are you waiting for? Run!" ]
"Yeah, there is no clever trick in this case, you just run towards safety as fast as you can and hope you were fast enough." Effie said, shaking her head.
Luckly, as Seishan had hoped, it seemed that the other creatures were too busy running from the water themselves, leaving the path clear for the trio of Sleepers to speed up in the direction of safety.
In the rare circumstance of a fight happening, just the mere show of resistance was enough to divert them away.
However, even if their speed compared to before was incredibly faster, the storm was much faster still, and so, they were quickly drowned in a downpour.
Even they who were not amidst the storm were having trouble distinguishing what lay ahead, even if there was a momentary lightning bolt from time to time.
[ In the darkness of the storm, Sunny saw Changing Star's face. She opened her mouth and shouted: ]
[ "Don't stop! Run!" ]
[ By the time Sunny began to move, the dark, salty water was already as high as his shins. He gritted his teeth. ]
[ The sea was coming back. ]
The survivors of the Forgotten Shore were immediately reminded of the siege that the Dreamer Army had gone through. As the battle went on, the dark waters rose as they struggled to approach the Spire.
Not pleasant memories, to say the least.
[ He couldn't determine where the water was coming from, but with each minute, it was rising higher. Soon, it was up to his knee, then up to his waist, making running almost impossible. The speed of the group slowed down considerably. ]
[ It was then, in a sudden flash of lightning, when they saw a dark mass of stone ahead. ]
[ They had made it to the cliffs. ]
"Come on, so close, just a little bit more!" Kai and others raised their voices in support.
The room trembled as the sound of rumbling echoed through its walls as a massive wall of dark water appeared from the depths of the labyrinth.
The trio couldn't be caught by that, an example of what would happen was the poor scavenger who was caught up by it and thrown against coral walls, becoming a splat.
[ 'Curses!' ]
[ "Time is up! Start climbing!' ]
[ She caught him by the arm. ]
[ "Dismiss your Echo!" ]
[ Sunny didn't know whether the scavenger could scale the cliff. In any case, Cassie wouldn't have been able to hold on if it did. He helped the blind girl get down and then sent the monster back to the Soul Sea. ]
[ Nephis lowered herself to let Cassie climb on her back, then tied them together with the golden rope. Not wasting any time, she gritted her teeth and stepped forward to grab onto the wet rocks of the cliff wall. ]
"Hey, princess, will you be alright with our little seer on your back?" Effie questioned, seemingly jokingly but real worry bleeding through.
"I was." Nephis said.
Not will, but was.
They began to climb up with great hurry, leaving the audience in great tension.
[ "Brace!" ]
The massive body of dark water crashed against rocks, making the whole cliff shudder. Somehow, the three of them managed to hang on.
They continued to climb and climb, running away from the black water as they rose and rose.
[ He frantically kept climbing, tearing his skin on sharp rocks. Every muscle in his body was in agony. If not for the shadow wrapped tightly around his body, Sunny would have been long dead. But even with its help, the surging dark water was getting closer and closer. ]
[ "Damn it! Damn it all!" ]
[ No matter how hard Sunny tried, he couldn't win back any distance. Soon, the water was at his feet. The sea slowly swallowed his legs, then his torso. He kept climbing, now fighting against the weight of the water and the force of the tide that was trying to tear him away from the cliff. ]
"He won't last long." Morgan said, a frown on her face.
[ But it was useless in the end. ]
"Hey, hey! What's with this narration!" Effie complained, as she and everyone else saw Sunny fall onto the water.
[ 'No!' ]
[ ...In the last second, a golden rope fell into the water beside him. Shaken, Sunny grabbed onto it and held with all his strength. The rope drew tight and lifted him out of the water. His feet touched the cliff wall again. ]
"Good timing, princess!"
Nephis let out a sigh of relief. The tension of the moment getting to her.
[ Not wasting any time, he resumed climbing with the help of the rope. Finally, a strong hand grabbed him from above and dragged his body over the edge of the cliff. ]
[ Sunny fell to the ground, struggling to breathe. After some time, he looked at Nephis, who was lying in a similar position to his right, equally as drained. She was still clutching the golden rope in her hand. Cassie was sitting a few steps away from them. ]
[ He wanted to laugh, but had no strength for it. ]
[ They survived. ]
"Wow, that was thrilling. Nothing better as a team exercise than running from an unyielding sea, huh?" Noctis joked, however, he was not met with any laughs.
They saw as Sunny just simply collapsed from exhaustion as he finished climbing, only taking note of the vague figures of Nephis and Cassie, who were also resting, nearby.
[ After some time, however, a feeling of uneasiness entered his mind. Something was off. Sunny scowled, trying to understand where that feeling was coming from. Finally, he realized that it was his shadow. It was trying to draw his attention to something. ]
[ 'Please, let me rest. I just want to rest.' ]
"Yeah, this is getting kind of ridiculous. I mean, some of us have lived through the disaster that place was, but they haven't been in it a full week!" Effie complained.
[ He was too tired to do anything. Both his body and mind were exhausted. However, the shadow was very persistent. It remained adamant. ]
[ In the end, Sunny moaned and rolled over on his stomach, then slowly stood up. Nephis turned her head and looked at him. ]
[ "What is it?" ]
[ "I don't know yet. Something feels wrong." ]
They saw things through Sunny's darkvision, however, even that was not enough to completely pierce the surrounding darkness. The only thing they could tell was that the ground was oddly uneven and sharp.
[ "Do you see anything?" ]
[ "Not really…" ]
[ At that moment, another lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the small island. His eyes widened. ]
"Oh... Oh Gods..." Eunbin murmured, exasperated.
"Just what more will Fate throw at them? Wasn't that whole thing enough?" Effie said as she held her head in disbelief.
In the other rooms, seriousness crossed all of their expressions, a certain dose of helplessness at seeing the next challenge.
That reaction was justified, as several carapace scavengers were revealed on that small instant.
[ Sunny froze, suddenly consumed by terror. The hairs on the back of his neck bristled and stood up on ends. One, two, three… he lost count because of panic and gritted his teeth. Seven… no, eight of them. ]
[ It seemed the three humans were not the only ones who thought of taking shelter from the dark sea on these cliffs. He trembled. ]
[ These cliffs were a death trap... ]
"They must have fled to the cliffs as well." Morgan hypothesised.
Meanwhile, Nephis was trying to remember such a thing happening, but, she couldn't. She remembered the cliffs and, naturally, the creature that was there and had seemed at the time like an insurmountable challenge.
[ Noticing something on his face, Nephis tensed: ]
[ "Sunny?" ]
[ "Don't speak. Don't move. Just… stay where you are." ]
Those who had lived lives away from such danger tensed as if listening to his order. The mundanes and the young ones, like Ling Ling and young Nephis, remained still.
On screen, both girls heeded his warning and stood still, despite their doubtful faces.
[ Sunny closed his eyes and breathed in, trying to calm his panicking mind down. There were no hopeless situations. Every problem had a solution. He just had to think of one… ]
The scavengers remained still, either sleeping or too exhausted from running away from the storm.
[ There was still hope. ]
[ Sunny opened his eyes and looked at the small island again. But this time, his perspective was different. He saw the deep darkness, the clamor of the storm that drowned out most of the sounds, the large distance between the scavenger. ]
"Hope? What is he planning to do?" Elyas wondered.
"He will kill the creatures while they are unaware." Ananke answered.
[ This was his territory. It was perfectly suited for a murderous shadow. Didn't he dream of becoming a silent assassin? Well, here was his chance. He just had to execute each step perfectly… crawl through the darkness, strike without alerting the enemy, kill each of them with one precise blow. ]
[ Rinse and repeat. He already knew their strengths and weaknesses—all that was left was to put that knowledge to practice. And even if he makes a mistake, there were other means to fall back onto. Echo and Nephis could do their part if he were to land himself in danger. ]
"This, might actually work." Ray said.
That kind of job was normally left to him, considering his aspect, so he was curious to see how his boss would fare in such a task.
[ Yes, that could work. It had to. ]
[ Sunny looked at Changing Star and Cassie. ]
[ "I'll take care of this." ]
They saw Sunny stealthily move in between the enormous creatures as he approached the scavenger that was the furthest from the others.
The scavenger remained still.
[ He only had one chance. ]
[ 'Do it right!' ]
[ With that thought, he silently lunged forward. ]
They could barely see as the Azure Blade flashed towards the still creature and pierced into it, the sound of the shattering chitin being drowned by the pouring rain.
[ It was done. ]
"Wait... where is the voice of the Spell?" Kai immediately noticed.
The others had as well. Their bodies subconsciously tensed, prepared for it to jump in response to Sunny's attack.
[ Sunny felt a sense of triumph appear in his heart and quickly suppressed it. This wasn't the right time to celebrate—seven targets were still waiting for him in the darkness. ]
[ He retrieved his sword and jumped down from the scavenger's corpse. ]
[ Then, Sunny frowned. ]
[ Why was the Spell silent? ]
However, no such attack came.
"There is no need to worry. The creature is dead." Nephis spoke.
"But... the Spell did not say... anything..." Effie started, but she soon began to reach a certain conclusion.
[ It didn't announce his kill, nor the absorption of the shadow fragments. ]
[ Feeling his skin crawl, Sunny turned around and looked at the scavenger. At first, he was afraid that the beast was still alive… but that wasn't the case. ]
"It was already dead..." Kai voiced what the others had also realized.
[ It was as dead as could be. ]
[ However, on closer inspection, Sunny noticed something that he had missed before. ]
[ And when he did, his face paled. ]
"It was killed beforehand." Morgan said with a frown.
[ The scavenger was dead. However, it wasn't Sunny's blade that killed it. ]
Now that Sunny was closer, they could see the enormous wound that had been inflicted on the creature. It was almost cut in half from the torso to the segmented legs.
[ Sunny gulped. ]
[ He might have felt awkward about performing a perfect ambush on a long-dead monster if not for the fear of whatever had killed it in the first place. ]
"It is pretty awkward, but you know, whatever killed the scavengers won't care about how awkward you feel, will it?" Windflower quipped.
[ Looking around, he hesitated and summoned the Azure Blade back, then wrapped himself in the shadow. ]
They saw as Sunny slowly checked on each of the remaining scavengers, confirming if they were in similar states. All of them had been killed before they got there.
[ When Sunny had first realized that the black shapes were, in fact, scavengers, he thought that the situation was as bad as it could get. Now, he wasn't sure anymore. ]
[ In fact, he was pretty convinced that things went from bad to worse. ]
"As it normally goes." Sunny commented to the agreement of the other Sunnys.
[ Standing near the last scavenger, Sunny observed his surroundings and thought about returning to Neph and Cassie. Maybe the terrifying killer had already left the island. They could just hide and hope for the best. He wouldn't be alone, at least. ]
[ However, not knowing what kind of danger was hiding in the darkness would drive him insane long before the morning came. Plus, with his Fated attribute, "hoping for the best" was a fool's errand. ]
"Whatever killed those creatures will only find them easier once the day comes, it will be better to prepare beforehand, and for that they need to know what to expect." Morgan agreed.
[ That's why, although his body was covered in cold sweat, Sunny gritted his teeth and slowly walked toward the ridge that was obscuring the rest of the island from him. Coming close, he started climbing, trying to be as quiet as possible. ]
[ The ridge wasn't very high, so he was able to scale it without much effort. Sticking close to the rocks, he raised his head a looked down. ]
[ Then, he immediately wanted to let go and fall to the ground. ]
Right beneath him, a dark figure was outlined against the rocks. A Carapace Centurion.
Effie groaned.
"It's one of those, huh?"
[ Sunny froze, afraid to move. He even stopped breathing. ]
[ 'So that's the killer.' ]
[ He remembered how the two creatures had cut through the horde of scavengers, killing or throwing aside any beast that got in their way. Slaughtering just seven of them would not pose a problem for something that deadly. ]
[ Not to mention getting rid of three Sleepers. ]
"Yeah, it would be a piece of cake." Effie said.
"You are starving, aren't you, Ma?" Ling Ling commented with a giggle.
"I am..."
[ Careful not to make a sound, Sunny slowly lowered himself down. His whole body was trembling. Moving his arms and legs with utmost precision, he began climbing down from the ridge, praying not to be heard, sensed, or noticed in some other way. ]
[ Luckily, the monster remained oblivious to his presence. ]
[ Reaching the ground, Sunny took a few steps back, still facing the ridge. He had to force himself to turn around. Feeling as though his back was being pierced by invisible needles, the young man stealthily moved in the direction where he had left his companions. ]
[ A couple of minutes later, he returned to Nephis and Cassie. The girls were tense and nervous, waiting for his return in the darkness. Before coming out of the shadows, Sunny let them know that he was approaching. ]
[ "It's me." ]
[ "What is the situation?" she said, careful to keep her voice low. ]
[ Sunny slowly exhaled, finally feeling a bit safer. For the first time, he was genuinely happy not to be alone in this cursed place. ]
Nephis felt a warmth spread in her chest, a longing to tell him that she was glad that she had been with him in that place surging through her body.
Meanwhile, Cassie's mind went to a certain expression she once heard.
Better alone than in bad company.
Of course, that phrase did not refer to one of the girls as the bad company. And it was pretty obvious which was which.
[ "There are eight scavengers around us. But they're all dead. The killer is one of those big monsters we saw, the thing with the crimson pattern on its carapace and scythes instead of pincers. It's hiding from the storm beneath a stone ridge not far from here." ]
[ A bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating everything around. In its aftermath, it looked as though two white sparks ignited in Changing Star's eyes. Soon, the reflection was gone, leaving them grey and inscrutable again. ]
"Oh~, I know that look~" Effie commented with a vicious grin.
Kai helplessly smiled. Cassie let out a small smile. And Jet let out an amused yet exasperated sigh.
Young Nephis looked to the past version of the alternate version of herself who was sitting beside her. The look that she sported on-screen was familiar. Where had she seen it before?
'Father's... Those are father's eyes.'
[ "An awakened monster." ]
[ "Yeah. So, what should we do?" ]
Hearing that question, Nephis shook her head as if the answer was obvious.
[ "Kill it." ]
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A/N: Another Chapter! Hope you like it and leave your opinion in the comments.
Check Out my other Fanfics:
Cursed Shadow (JJK/JJK Modulo x Shadow Slave Fic) [1st NM Arc]
Trailblazing Shadow (HSR x Shadow Slave Fic) [Jarilo-VI Arc]