'That... certainly wasn't ominous. Not at all.'
Sunny's thought was a mixture of sarcasm and rising anxiety.
"What do you mean I might have to live without my eyes?"
He wasn't shouting. Not exactly. But it came out louder than he intended.
Nephis stirred slightly at his side, her head shifting to find a more comfortable spot on his shoulder.
Sunny froze.
To wake the sleeping beauty? He wouldn't dare.
Cassie, of course, giggled.
"Don't worry too much about it," she said, far too nonchalantly for someone dropping cryptic prophecies. "After all, you don't really need eyes to see."
Sunny grimaced.
Of course that was true. His shadow sense was a more than capable substitute. In some cases, it was even better than normal sight. But that didn't make the idea of being blind any more pleasant.
'Just what the hell did she see...?'
"Does it last for multiple days?"
"Probably. I don't know."
The Echo suddenly jerked into motion.
With a bone-jarring leap, it sprang into the air, cleaving two Scavengers clean in half mid-flight.
Their twisted corpses crumbled as soul shards were effortlessly extracted.
Then it surged forward again, the sound of its footsteps echoing behind them like a war drum.
The sun dipped toward the horizon, washing the world in a pale lilac hue. Shadows stretched long across the sand and bone, casting everything in hues of dying light.
Sunny sat still, his eyes half-lidded, but his senses fully awake. He didn't turn his head, only flicked his gaze sideways from time to time. He was trying to feel something.
And then, at last-he did. A faint prickle. A slow coiling chill in the pit of his stomach.
The shadow of the Crimson Spire.
'Strange...'
It took far too long for that presence to make itself known. And more importantly, why did it feel so weak?
In his previous life, he'd started feeling its oppressive aura days in advance.
And now?
Now they were nearly at the bone ridge-one final stop before the Ashen Barrow-and he was only just feeling its influence. Even then, it wasn't nearly as suffocating. Not terrifying. Not maddening.
Just... dull. Distant. As if someone had taken a cauldron of boiling malice and smothered it, reducing it to a flickering clay lamp.
'Is it because I've already faced things far worse?'
After what his past self had become, after the things he'd fought in forgotten corners of the world and within dreadful nightmares... maybe the Crimson Spire just didn't seem that intimidating anymore.
It wasn't a threat anymore. It was just a shadow. An overgrown remnant of a nightmare long since faded. Just another nuisance in a life full of them.
Sunny exhaled, slow and bitter.
'...I certainly don't want to live a life like that again.'
A life of endless trials. Of suffering, loss, and madness. Of death lurking in every corner, and him becoming a monster just to survive it.
No.
He wanted peace. A quiet life. Time with his friends. With her.
And to secure that future, he would go to any length, cross any line, destroy any obstacle that stood in his path. Even if the obstacle was his own twisted, corrupted self.
Because deep down, he had a gut feeling. A terrible, gnawing certainty.
Whatever that mad bastard had planned for him- It would make the Terror of the Crimson Spire look like a frightened child, lost in the dark.
"You certainly seem in a good mood," Cassie's voice floated back, light but with something sharper beneath. "I thought you'd be pestering me endlessly about what I just said."
Sunny shook his head. "I have a few ideas..."
He had faced enemies before that robbed him of sight.
Harus. Gunlaug's deadliest commander.
His Aspect had been troublesome-robbing the vision of those who fought him.
But Sunny wasn't worried about that. Between his shadow sense and the ability to see through his shadoe's eyes, or whatever it had in place of them, he had ways around it.
No, the problem wasn't Harus.
It was the other one.
His voice grew quieter.
"...Did your vision show me fighting alone?"
Cassie didn't answer right away. Her smile faded. The teasing left her face.
"...Yes."
Sunny's jaw clenched.
That... That was going to be a problem.
The Forsaken Knight.
That damned abomination wasn't just strong. It was something worse- his natural enemy.
Its ability was true darkness-not just the absence of light, but the existence of an entirely new element that devoured it.
Last time, he'd only survived thanks to luck, and only defeated it with the entire cohort being with him. Nephis's flames had been its only real counter-light that wasn't just bright, but pure.
That fight had been brutal. Hard-fought. But it had been winnable.
This time... if Cassie's vision was right...
He would be alone. And possibly for multiple days.
But why? Why would he even fight the Forsaken Knight again?
Back then, it had been personal-revenge. The Knight had ambushed him, eviscerated him, and left him to rot in a ditch. As a proud noble cockroach of the outskirts, he'd had no choice but to return the hospitality with equal warmth.
Now, though? Things were different.
He knew where the church was, where the Knight waited. He wouldn't walk through the church's front doors like a fool again.
There was no reason to provoke the Knight. No blood feud. No need for the fight to ever happen again.
...Or is it because of what happened to Saint?
Before Sunny could follow that thread further, the ground shifted violently beneath them. The world tilted. Rock groaned and gave way.
The Centurion Echo stumbled, losing traction as the ground suddenly dipped.
Stone cracked and rubble cascaded as it slid down a steep incline, descending into a small crater hidden by coral and bone.
Sunny's balance shifted. His body moved on instinct.
Nephis stirred on his shoulder, her eyes still closed. Her brow furrowed, lips twitching in a faint grimace, like she was having a bad dream. She mumbled something intelligible in her sleep, soft and troubled.
Immediately, Sunny cradled her in his arms. He pulled her close, shielding her from the rough jolts of the descent.
He bent close, whispering near her ear.
"Everything's fine," he said gently. "Go back to sleep."
Nephis tensed for a moment... then the lines on her face faded. Her body relaxed in his arms, as if her bad dream had passed away.
Sunny's own breath caught in his throat-for a heartbeat, he just watched her. And then he looked up. Dozens of eyes stared back at him.
The sides of the crater were riddled with dark tunnels, like the gouged-out tentacles of an abomination. Inside them, abominations slithered and crawled.
They peered out-Twisted, insectoid horrors. Their shapes varied-some sleek, others bloated-but every single one of them radiated hunger. And every single one had their eyes locked on him.
Slithering limbs. Clicking mandibles. Thorned limbs and twitching antennae.
Abominations.
His stomach twisted, and not from fear. Of all the times to stumble upon a nest of these vermin...
He clenched his jaw, his voice low but sharp as steel.
"If any of you dare disturb her sleep," he whispered, loud enough for them to hear, "I will hunt every last one of your accursed kin to the ends of this hell... and slaughter you like the wretched filth you are."
The creatures stilled.
Something stirred in the darkness of their holes. A ripple ran through the horde. Then-without a sound-they began to withdraw.
One after another, eyes vanished. Limbs retreated. Not a single abomination advanced, even as the Echo thundered past their thresholds.
Not one stinger twitched. Not one thorn lifted.
Sunny blinked. His brow furrowed.
That worked? They actually listened?
A strange churn stirred in his gut-something between suspicion and disbelief. Since when did nightmare creatures heed warnings... or understand threats?
He didn't like it.
He didn't lower his guard.
He adjusted Nephis carefully, keeping one arm wrapped around her sleeping form. In his other hand, he summoned the Azure Blade. Its blue edge gleamed dimly, pulsing with power.
The nest hadn't attacked-not yet. But something about this felt... wrong.
He scanned the walls of the crater as the Echo continued to descend. Every hole. Every twitch. Every flicker of malformed movement.
He tightened his grip on the sword.
They were watching him. All of them. Three souls. One of them sleeping. Another blind. And one very, very angry.
On the other shoulder, Cassie shifted closer, her fingers curling around the Centurion Echo's neck for support. In response, the Echo raised its massive scythe slightly, as if promising silent vengeance. If anything so much as twitched toward her from the pit's walls, it would be carved into twitching shreds.
Step by step, the Echo descended deeper into the crater, until the sun finally dipped below the rim, and shadows swallowed them whole.
Sunny's brows furrowed.
The crater wasn't deep. A hollow no more than a few dozen meters across, maybe less in depth. Whether it was luck, or something more enigmatic, the horrors lining the pit made no move.
They just... watched.
Not a claw twitched. Not a fang bared. It was like they were witnessing a scene play out on a screen, not observing prey descending into their den.
At last, the Echo reached the center-a flat expanse of stone, not nearly as riddled with tunnels as the walls. Strangely, not many nightmare creatures lingered here. Sunny looked up and met the countless eyes of abominations lining the upper crater, watching in grim silence. Scores of them. Maybe more.
But not one made a move.
It was absurd. Like they'd stumbled upon a peaceful congregation. A civilized gathering of abominations who abhorred violence.
Sunny snorted under his breath.
'Yeah. Right.'
Without warning, he swung his blade. A swift, clean cut. One of the critters had crept too close. It dropped to the ground, cleaved in half.
A second one rushed forward-maybe to retaliate, maybe to mourn-and met the same fate.
[You have slain a Dormant Demon, Arakin's Spawn.]
[You have slain a Dormant Demon, Arakin's Spawn.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
Sunny frowned.
Dormant?
That made no sense.
Dormant Nightmare Creatures didn't survive here-not on this part of the dream realm. They were too weak. Too slow. They either died or evolved quickly... or got eaten by something bigger that did.
So how were these still alive?
Well... at least that explained their hesitation. They must have been terrified of the pressure radiating from his Awakened Echo.
Still...
As they dashed past the corpses, a cloud of dust erupted behind them. Sunny glanced back-and froze.
A congregation had formed around the two fallen abominations. The rest of the creatures had emerged from their holes now, limbs raised in strange, ritualistic gestures. Like... like a funeral procession. Mourning their dead.
But not a single one approached. Not a sting. Not a pincer. Not a cry. Just glares. Cold, burning glares aimed at the three of them as they fled.
Damned nightmare creatures... Sunny thought grimly. What in the spell are you planning?
He kept one arm around Nephis, sword in the other, as the Centurion Echo began to ascend.
It dug its twin scythes into the wall and climbed, rising with terrifying speed. Moments later, they crested the edge of the crater and returned to open ground. The warm glow of the sinking sun returned, casting the wasteland in shades of fire and rust.
Sunny didn't breathe until the crater was far behind them.
"...What was that?" he muttered aloud.
He turned to Cassie-only to see her shrug. Her eyes, pale and empty, were lowered toward the earth.
"I didn't even see what happened," she admitted, softly.
Sunny sighed.
He was too used to her having the answers. Too reliant on the certainty her visions brought. But the truth was, she only saw glimpses of major events-the kind that affected their fate tremendously.
This? This was nothing. A strange pit. A few passive creatures. Hardly an omen of cataclysm.
...Right?
Then why did he feel so wrong?
As far as he remembered, there was no crater like that on the Forgotten Shore. Not in this region. Not anywhere near the Bone Ridge.
The only crater he knew was the vast chasm near the Ashen Barrow... the one where the dark sea supposedly emerged from. But that was ginormous in size, unlike this tiny hole, and didn't house a colony of dormant creatures.
And those holes in the crater walls...
They hadn't looked like mere tunnels. They'd looked like tentacles, too familiar. And they looked fresh.
A movement from his side drew his attention. Nephis stirred, her eyes fluttering open, irises gleaming faintly in the dim light.
Her voice was soft. A little dazed.
"...Where... am I?"
She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the dim light as she scanned her surroundings. First, the broad neck of the Centurion Echo to her right, then Cassie perched casually beside it, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.
And to her left... Sunny. He was watching her with a strange brightness in his eyes, only to avert his gaze the moment their eyes met. On his shoulder, the fabric of his shroud was wrinkled-creased in the exact shape of a head that had rested there for far too long.
"Good morning... uh, evening," Sunny said, clearing his throat awkwardly. "Did you sleep well?"
Nephis froze. Her breath hitched.
She had been asleep? All this time? Against him?
A sudden wave of heat climbed up her neck, blooming across her cheeks in a fierce blush. Her head spun a little-not from exhaustion, but something else entirely.
"...Yes," she whispered.
Then, with a jerk, she turned her head away, letting her hair fall like a curtain to shield her face. Maybe this was still a dream. Maybe she would wake up by beside a cold firepit, with Cassie curled up nearby and Sunny sleeping somewhere close, none of this ever having happened.
Cassie's voice shattered the illusion like glass.
"Sunny did his best to make your sleep comfortable," she said with a giggle. "You should probably thank him, don't you think?"
Nephis felt as though a noose had slipped around her neck and pulled tight.
Her head turned back, slowly, painfully. She looked at Sunny with the same expression one might wear walking into a guillotine.
"...T-thank you," she stammered, voice brittle.
Sunny coughed, clearly flustered.
"It's the least I could do," he said, reaching up to gently tap her shoulder. "After all the trouble you went through... protecting us from the scavenger mob."
A weight sank into her chest.
Her arms folded tightly across her stomach, as though she could shield the guilt that stirred beneath. She cast him a quick, shame-tinged glance.
"About that-" she mumbled softly, biting her lip.
But Sunny had already turned his gaze forward, eyes sharpening.
"We're almost there."
A vast, bone-white shape had appeared on the horizon-looming like a relic of a forgotten era. The Bone Ridge.
Nephis followed his gaze, her breath catching as the full scale of the massive skeleton came into view. Her lips parted slightly in awe.
"That... must have been a rather large abomination."
Sunny nodded grimly.
Gargantuan was putting it lightly. The thing had likely dwarfed most creatures of the dark sea. It was impossible to imagine its true form now-only bone and myth remained.
This was their final shelter. The last place to rest before they reached the Ashen Barrow. And perhaps, the final night of peace they would know for a long time.
The Echo slowed, coming to a cautious stop near the colossal remains. It circled the base, seeking a viable path upward. Before long, they found what was left of the creature's shattered skull.
Sunny felt something stir in his chest as they began to traverse the hollow expanse of the spine-an echo of memory, both bitter and nostalgic.
'This brings me back.'
They got down the Echo and summoned their weapons, moving carefully. There was little left on this part of the Shore that could pose a real threat... but caution was always a wiser companion than arrogance.
Fortunately, there were no surprises. No lurking horrors. Just silence, bones, and the slow crawl of dusk.
Eventually, the trio reached the top of the ridge and made camp, lighting a small fire and sharing a quiet meal. The sun still lingered on the horizon, bleeding its final light across the desolate sky.
With about an hour of daylight left, Sunny stood and stepped to the edge of the ridge, Azure Blade in hand. His gaze lingered on the distant crater-barely a smudge against the horizon now.
Something about that place gnawed at him. Something deeper than the quiet.
Something wrong.
"I hope my suspicions aren't true," he muttered to the wind as Gloomy detached from his feet and slithered away into the distance.
AN: Leave your thoughts in the comments.