The days continued to pass by with a relatively peaceful atmosphere, only encountering a dozen or so variety of awakened beasts. Well, maybe not entirely peaceful. Sunny had to suffer the constant barrage of verbal — and physical —chastising from Nephis over their last encounter with the Carapace Centurion.
She still had not moved on from his... mistake.
Though to her it was more of an idiotic attempt to look cool than a mistake.
But much to Sunny's benefit, she was somewhat placated by the Memory she received from the Carapace Centurion. Once again, she adorned herself in the Starlight Legion Armor. Sunny was not sure if Memory's were predetermined when killing a Nightmare Creature, yet it seemed rather impossible for her to get the same Memory twice. Did that mean that the same Carapace Centurion from their past had been following their path?
Or rather, following them?
These thoughts had plagued Sunny over the last few days, unable to come to a concise conclusion despite his best efforts. There was too little to go off of really. However, if Memory's are predetermined, Sunny inferred that it could mean the same for Echoes. And if that was in fact the case, Sunny knew he could find Saint once more.
The thought put a little cheer into his dampened mood.
Orange hue sun rays of light seeped through the dense forest growth of dried bones and crimson coral the idiosyncratic duo was traversing through, providing a tender glow of light. Although Sunny did not necessarily need the light, it was a subtle comfort for Nephis to enjoy regardless.
With Gloomy pathing the way ahead for them, Sunny could take half of his mind away from more current matters and wander. They still had a few hours before they made it to the bone ridge ahead.
Something that caught his mind after his... incident was Puppeteers Shroud. The armor had done little to save him from the Carapace Centurion's throw, in fact it was as if he was not wearing any armor at all. Sunny's ribs had managed to pierce through — albeit weakly — the armor from the force of the impact.
This led Sunny to theorize that maybe the Nightmare Creatures were stronger somehow. He also guessed that possibly it was related to only him and Nephis, perhaps relating to their regression. There was no doubt in Sunny's mind that the Carapace Centurion was powerful, however in the past the monster could barely manage to damage the armor itself.
It just didn't quite add up to him.
Sunny was almost tempted to test the theory out, however he would have to when Nephis wasn't watching or else he'd have to... listen to more long winded rants about being careful.
She wasn't wrong though, Sunny was nothing if not reckless at times.
With Gloomy spotting something off in the distance, Sunny's mind snapped out of its reverie and refocused on their current journey. It seemed that his moody faithful shadow had found something odd ahead of them. Focusing in on Gloomy's sight, Sunny made out a shadowy figure walking decrepitly — hobbling even — in their direction. The figure was no taller than Sunny, but wielded a blade half it's size.
Suddenly, the figure's head snapped to Gloomy making eye contact with Sunny, or rather it felt like it. The figure had no human or descriptive details, just wispy shadows and pitch black simplistic armor piece donning its chest.
"Hey Nephis, there's something ahead. I can only describe it as uh, a shadow guy? It's a little odd, but it knows we're here already. Should we avoid it?"
Nephis glanced at Sunny with a raised eyebrow before summoning her longsword.
"You said it knows we're here? Then it is pointless to try avoiding it."
With a sigh, Sunny summoned his beloved Azure blade, and the two of them began to cautiously continuing their way forward. Recalling Gloomy from his post ahead to himself, Sunny felt unease settle within him for once.
They had never seen a Nightmare Creature like this in the Forgotten Shore before. Or ever really for that matter.
Was it another Sleeper?
A few moments later, they laid their eyes upon the mysterious figure. It was still hobbling slowly forward towards them, a raw screechy sound emitting from it every few moments, as if in pain.
Or maybe it was anger; Sunny had a hard time differing the sounds these days when it came to Nightmare Creatures, they all seemed starved and hateful.
"Don't die, Sunny."
Nephis let out a breathe before she stopped. Striking a defensive pose, she waited. Sunny followed her lead and fused Gloomy with his blade. There was no telling how strong this thing really was.
"You too." Sunny whispered out in a low breath. He doubted anything could kill them, but injure? There was no guarantee after their last encounter.
Suddenly, the shadowy creature halted in place, its face — or what should have been a face — was constantly churning with wispy shadows emitting off of its voided form. The creature let out a ear piercing scream and disappeared into the shadows of the coral growth.
'Huh?'
Before Sunny could make out exactly what he was seeing, the hairs on the back of his neck pricked up and he spun around, raising his blade barely in time block the ridiculously large sword bearing down on him. The creature despite being so small wielded immense strength, nearly crushing Sunny under his own blade. But to his rescue, Nephis dashed in from behind and struck viscously at the Shadow, forcing it to back off.
The creature now a few feet away from the duo paused for a moment, before shrieking again, this time Sunny could denote a deep rage in its tone. The shadow creature dashed forward again, swinging heavily down at Sunny.
Parrying the blow the shadow gracefully blocked, before wielding another strike at Sunny. Nephis circled behind it again, and swung down at its exposed back. However all her longsword met was a liquid shadow spike sprouting from the mud, before melting away.
Furrowing his brows, Sunny did not miss this. However he could not think further about it, continuing to dance with the shadow. Sweat began flying off of his face as the two traded blows viscously, Sunny seemingly losing each exchange in the battle of strength.
"Sunny, I can't get to you it keeps blocking me off!"
Nephis yelled out, gritting her teeth from somewhere behind the shadowy figure, but Sunny was too engrossed in combat to respond. Despite using Shadow Dance to try and learn the creature's moves, Sunny felt as if he was drowning in a vast sea of calculations.
For every move he predicted and countered, another three possibilities opened up.
Grunting with frustration, the creature landed another heavy blow on the Azure blade's flat side, forcing Sunny to press his forearm against it to hold it up.
"Just what are you?" Sunny growled out, to no avail.
The creature's churning face closed in on Sunny, the wispy shadows licking against Sunny, as if trying to embrace his face. He instinctively moved his head back, before letting his blade fall deftly to the mud and rolling out of the way of the creature's heavy blade.
The massive sword sunk into the mud deeply where he just was, and the Shadow turned its head to Sunny, pausing for a moment again. It screeched once more, the sound raw like chalk against a board — though Sunny did not know exactly what chalk was or did, he understood that people hated it's sound in the past. — scratching Sunny's eardrums painfully.
Then it disappeared into the shadows again, leaving Nephis and Sunny panting for breath. The two made eye contact briefly, before Neph's eyes widened. Sunny instinctively threw himself to the ground while reaching for his sword. Barely missing being impaled by the pitch black blade, Sunny scrambled to his feet.
Ordering Gloomy off of his sword, he felt a surge of power as his shadow enveloped himself. Feeling his peak strength return, Sunny tried to press the offensive. Utilizing Shadow Dance to weave a fighting path, the nightmarish creature and Sunny danced around each other as if following a script.
It almost felt like for just a moment Sunny was fighting a raw, rage filled version of himself.
Sunny managed to catch a glimpse of Nephis in the background fighting off a duo of Carapace Scavengers — he had forgotten in the heat of the fight about all the sound they were making — and it seemed she was fine for the moment.
However he paid for that glance away from combat dearly, the creature momentarily disarmed Sunny with brute strength and struck upwards, cutting into the Puppeteers Shroud's leather armor at his shoulder.
Pain radiated deeply in his right arm, causing him to grunt in pain as he jumped back clutching it.
'Damnation, what the Spell is this thing and why is it so strong?'
A eerily familiar sense of fear began to seep into Sunny's mind. Despite countless fights in his life, this one had humbled him greatly. The creature matched whatever he tried. Shadow Dance was his only saving grace, allowing him to copy and use some of the insane moves the creature threw at him.
It was exhaustive to follow though.
For a moment, the two stared at one another, Sunny feared the shadow would ignore him and try to go after Nephis who was occupied with a increasingly growing number of Carapace Scavengers swarming her. Yet, the Shadow never broke eye contact — or what Sunny felt was eye contact, as the creature had no visible eyes — with him.
Recalling the Azure blade, he decided to make a gamble. At this rate, he was going to lose. The most powerful Saint of the world was going to die at the hands of some unknown creature, this was something that Sunny could not except.
Whether it was his hubris, or his pettiness, Sunny was reminded about how he lived in the past; his will driven by the simple yet powerful notion of spite. Spite of the world, and spite of the Spell.
Here he was again, driven by the spite within himself to kill or be killed by the world. He could not accept such an end, nor would he.
Mustering his meager reserves of Essence — his ace card Shadow Serpent really was a gamble at this stage — Sunny gapped the distance with frightening speed. And just as the creature let out a bloodcurdling screech while moving to block with its massive blade, Sunny summoned his shadow Odachi, shattering through the creatures massive blade and piercing its simplistic black armor.
Sunny's face was mere inches away from the dying creatures wispy face, and for a moment neither of them moved, the creature frozen as if in a reverie of its own. Then, with a low whisper the Spell fulfilled the end of the duel.
[You have slain a Fallen Devil, Whisper of Fate.]
[...Your shadow grows stronger.]
'A Fallen Devil?'
Before Sunny could process what just happened, the creature faded away leaving no trace of it's existence. For a moment, Sunny stood there dumbfounded, before snapping out of his own reverie. The Spell whispered one last sentence, but he had no time to waste.
Nephis was still fighting off what must have been a dozen scavengers. Summoning his Azure blade once more, it materialized just in time as he swung at the exposed back of a scavenger, slicing into its spine severing it.
[... Your shadow grows stronger.]
The spell continued to rain messages down as Sunny felled scavengers flawlessly. The fight with the Whisper of Fate had awoken something inside Sunny again. It beckoned at him to fight, to fight harder than he ever had.
It was eerily reminiscent of the aura the Mad Prince had.
Pushing the noise aside, Sunny continued his massacre of the Carapace legion, finally reaching Nephis in the center.
[... Your shadow grows stronger.]
[... Your shadow grows stronger.]
[... Your shadow grows stronger.]
It was over.
Around them lay two dozen awakened beasts, some cleanly sliced up, while other brutally cut up from the waist higher. Sunny felt euphoric in his adrenaline rush, somehow able to pierce the Scavengers hardened shells.
"You okay?"
Nephis sat down half-heartedly and looked up at Sunny. With a tug at her lips she answered:
"Could be better, you?
Sunny grinned tiredly as he copied her and sat down and leaned against the corpse of a dead scavenger.
"I'm great, actually better than great. I think I got a clue to our regression."