Sunny watched from the corals the almost non-existent carcass of the shark; at this point only the tendons remained, a bit of flesh here and there, and even the bones were already cracked.
Beside him, Nephis was staring intently at the large number of scavengers.
"How many?"
Sunny focused for a moment, extended his sense of the shadows and began to count; his face went serious and a killer glint appeared in his dark, deep eyes.
"Around 200, maybe a little more; although some look injured, overall most are in good condition."
Nephis kept looking at the scavengers impassively, as if hearing the large number meant nothing — though for them, maybe it really was nothing.
"Alright, we should hurry to form our second core."
Sunny smiled at Nephis and stood up.
"Of course."
He began to walk calmly toward the clearing inside the maze; the shadows swirled and fused to create a great serpent to his left, and to his right a crab appeared amid a shower of sparks.
Nephis stood and discarded her armor; her eyes ignited with pristine flames and her skin began to radiate intense light and heat.
The pristine flames and the shadows danced down the passage toward the clearing, happy to see their masters fight again. The pale sun of the Forgotten Coast stopped the beautiful dance when they emerged into the clearing, at the same time hundreds of awakened creatures noticed their presence.
A sea of crazy eyes looked with murderous fury at the pair of sleepers; a thunderous shriek echoed for miles and miles inside the maze.
The army of corrupted creatures began its attack; dust rose and the world shook, but that pair of sleepers didn't seem to care. Without warning, the shadow and the nephilim advanced, unleashing a massive slaughter behind them.
- - -
The clearing became a sea of violence, starring Sunny and Serpent, while the echo and Nephis stayed in the rear.
The army of abominations enveloped the group, but they were held back by the great destructive capacity of the Shadow and the echo, and by the perfect combat mastery of the two sleepers.
Of course, it wouldn't last long, but Sunny didn't need it to.
The beasts trampled over each other driven by their ferocious bloodlust; Sunny managed to stop them with difficulty, dodging and landing precise blows.
But it seemed impossible: when one scavenger was killed, two more took its place — and it had only just begun.
A claw fell from the sky intending to slice off his head.
Sunny stepped to the right, dodging the claw by inches; the next moment the scavenger's head was pierced and torn by his sword.
An instant later two more scavengers were on him. He crouched and spun over his back, using the momentum to cut one's stomach; he pulled back just in time to avoid being crushed by its body.
Just as he got up he slashed to his left to block a giant leg threatening to split him in half; his feet dug into the ground and every muscle screamed. He managed to divert the crab's weight and, with masterful precision, cut the leg. He ran along the side, cutting another limb as he went, jumped onto the scavenger and plunged his sword into a weak plate of chitin.
He leaped and did a somersault, just in time to avoid being run over by another scavenger; he landed on the ground smoothly, raised his sword and delivered a quick cut to the right to finish off the beast with its belly sliced open.
Around him a mountain of corpses was already forming, enough to slow the scavengers' advance.
"Nephis!"
At his signal, both Nephis and the echo moved closer.
Sunny, Serpent and the echo formed a triangle around Nephis, fighting as they rotated around her.
The fight became harder and far more lethal than before, but they only needed a few seconds.
Although he didn't show it, Sunny was very tired — only yesterday he'd had to fight for his life and he'd pushed his body hard, and today he was facing an even greater punishment.
His muscles tensed with every small move; each movement felt deliberate and his head felt like it was made of lead. He already had several minor wounds across his body and his vision was blurring — he could feel it: the scythe of death pressing his throat, a sensation he hadn't felt in a very long time.
A wicked smile carved onto his face.
'Yes... This is better, much better.'
The next moment his body burst into motion; with each passing second a scavenger died by his hand, every swing of his sword added another shadow to his army, and every drop of splashed blood was fuel for his soul.
In the middle of the formation, Nephis was almost finishing her work, gathering all the soul fragments she could.
She cut the scavengers' bodies like butter, with surgical precision to find the fragment and toss it onto the pile before moving on.
Finally, she collected all the necessary pieces.
"Sunny!!"
She put her hands on the heap and summoned her pristine flames; they consumed the fragments and grew in power. When she finished devouring everything, she recited the true names of fire and destruction.
The white flames rose and emitted a terrifying fire; Nephis closed her eyes and ordered them to disperse — and they did.
As an omen of annihilation, the flames flew out and began to burn everything in their path: scavengers, corpses, sand and the crimson coral itself. All was consumed to ash by the flames of the soul.
Sunny pushed his companions aside and moved close to Nephis, who covered him with her embrace.
The next moment everything around them became hell; radiant heat surrounded them, only held back by Nephis to prevent Sunny from being consumed.
The chitin melted, the flesh turned to ash and the bones cracked — the scavengers died one by one.
After a few minutes the fire dwindled little by little, until the last abomination was consumed and surrendered to death's embrace.
Even Sunny got chills, even if it had been his idea.
- - -
"What can you do?"
Cassie asked calmly; she tried to hide her surprise, but her trembling eyebrow and pressed lips betrayed her — Nephis had just dropped a bomb.
"My flames — I can control them at will. I can choose what I want them to burn, their length, their height, their temperature, everything."
Sunny watched from a distance, puzzled by the possibilities of Nephis' Aspect; according to her, she now had total control over her flames.
Beforehand she was deadly on her own; she could empower her body and her weapons, even other people, but now no intermediary was necessary — the flames themselves could wreak unprecedented devastation.
The sun had long since disappeared; now they were only surrounded by deep darkness. The atmosphere would be oppressive, if it weren't for his ability to see in the dark.
Night had long been his friend, and this deep darkness granted him incredible strength.
He looked ahead, at his greatest companions, those who had been with him for a very, very long time.
"Hey Neph, I have an idea — what if we..."
They were about to cause a disaster.
- - -
The area at the foot of the warrior statue had become a gray desert, like the ashen mound; only in the far horizon could one still see the coral.
The wind howled across the Forgotten Coast, carrying ash with it.
The sand shifted in one area, and with an explosion of dust two figures burst from the ground; both fell from several meters and crashed heavily onto the surface.
Sunny looked at Nephis' face as she slowly opened her eyes; there, lying in the ash, the Shadow and the Nephilim looked into each other's eyes.
"That... was impressive."
She said nothing, staring straight at him — no, she wasn't looking at him, she was looking at his lips.
They both froze, wanting each other; Nephis cupped his face in her hands and brought it closer to hers, their lips met and they could feel each other's love.
Sunny wanted to enjoy the moment, but he couldn't do anything because Nephis pulled away quickly.
"I didn't expect that either, though we had our rewards — I gained 80 fragments, and no memories or echoes."
Sunny set aside the previous moment, but promised revenge; he glanced at his runes.
Shadow Fragments: [289/1000]
"Huh, I gained 100 fragments and..."
He turned his attention to his memories and echoes.
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Rebellion], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Azure Sword]
Echoes: [Shelled Scavenger]
"Nothing."
They looked around for a moment; all the destruction they caused left no clues to what they sought, then they looked at each other.
"I'll search this side..."
"Sure."
They separated and began to sift through the ash; all this havoc had been caused by a single thing.
Time passed, the sun lowered and it was nearly night when Sunny touched something hard with his hand.
He quickly cleared the sand and saw a bright glint — it was one of the shark's transcendent fragments.
The corners of his mouth rose; the others couldn't be far.
"Nephis! This way!"
He immediately put all his effort into finding the second transcendent fragment.
After an hour he had the fragments in his hands.
But he wasn't happy — in fact, he was running for his life.
On the horizon the sun was already hiding and the dark sea was wetting their feet.
Nephis and Sunny ran with all their strength, as if their lives depended on it — because they did.
The ash and the dark sea water mixed into mud that gripped Sunny's feet tightly.
After minutes of running they reached the base of the statue; Sunny grabbed Nephis in a strong embrace.
"Hold on."
The next moment he ordered his shadow to wrap around him.
His physical strength grew immensely; he crouched and tensed muscles that seemed about to burst.
He released all the stored force and shot up from the ground like a spring.
He grabbed his sword and drove it into a crack in the statue; he and Nephis hung several meters above the ground.
Without waiting, they separated and began to climb the statue, which wasn't too difficult.
The water was already touching Sunny's feet when he finally reached the severed neck of the warrior; he lay down on the stone exhausted — he'd had a couple very tiring days. Every muscle ached, his bones trembled from all the blows and his skin was red from Nephis' flames.
His ragged breathing became steadier; he crawled to the center of the statue and, after making sure Nephis and Cassie were okay, fell asleep like a stone.
Meanwhile, Nephis approached Sunny's motionless body.
"Sun—"
Cassie hissed beside her in a whisper.
"He's asleep."
Nephis nodded, turned to her companion and then back to Sunny; although she couldn't see his face, from the sound of his breathing she knew he was in a deep sleep.
"We should sleep too."
Cassie nodded and prepared to sleep.
- - -
Sunny woke a little dizzy; his body, though sore, felt less heavy. His head felt light and he only had to deal with mild muscle aches from sleeping on a rock.
'I miss my bed...'
He got up and stretched his arms, letting out a yawn as he looked around; it was well into the day — the sun had been up for a long time and everything looked bright.
He looked down at the crimson maze — now a great gray desert spanning a couple kilometers in diameter.
"Huh, it looked bigger yesterday."
A pair of soft arms wrapped around him from behind and a head rested on his; the straight hair tickled him and the touch made him feel something indescribable.
"Who are you talking to?"
Sunny grabbed Nephis' hands.
"Just talking to myself."
Nephis let out a small laugh and then pulled away, which disappointed him.
"There we left your food; let's rest today, tomorrow we leave."
Sunny nodded and took a stick with pieces of meat, sat on the edge of the broken statue's neck and stared into the void while he ate.
He was a little annoyed — being mundane was very unpleasant for him. In a few days on the Forgotten Coast he'd nearly died and had to push himself to the limit, but the same thing had happened in his past life.
Just at a different scale: once he almost died because of a single scavenger, but this time he nearly died facing hundreds and hundreds.
Experience and knowledge were far more powerful than brute force — that was something he knew well. He already had a quarter of a core after just a few days.
He looked west, where the Dark City awaited; a smile formed on his face.
'This time I'll only need a couple months... maybe less.'
It had already been a month since they arrived at the Forgotten Coast; their fights were really simple — they hunted dozens of scavengers every day. Sunny was the closest to completing his second core, partly because he had two companions collecting fragments for him and because he didn't share fragments with anyone.
Besides, he had spent about 20 fragments to buy a memory that lets Cassie improve her senses — she still couldn't fight with them, but it wasn't necessary to be over her all the time anymore.
Apart from this and a centurion here and there, they hadn't found any more useful memories or echoes; most of them Sunny kept, saving them for when he had Santa with him.
Really, they hadn't encountered bigger problems; Sunny had no doubt that even they could defeat a Needle messenger without much difficulty.
The three rested on a coral mound; right now Sunny and Nephis were talking about their next move.
"This whole area is almost completely free of Scavengers, we should move to the next one."
Sunny frowned at a map they'd been putting together little by little; they were now only two locations from the ashen mound, where the soul devourer was.
Sunny didn't have very good memories of that place, but he knew they had no choice — it was inevitable.
'Shit, I wanted to complete the second core before getting to the Dark City.'
Sunny shuffled through a couple more options, but knew this was the best one.
"Alright, let's go for that—"
"Sunny, Neph!"
They both summoned their memories quickly, expecting to find a hellish beast on their faces, but instead they found something completely different.
Cassie ran over smiling, sat in front of them and said very happily,
"I had a vision!"
Both tensed — until now Cassie hadn't had a single vision; they thought it might be their fault. Fate shouldn't be too happy with her return in time.
They looked at each other for a moment, sat down and Nephis spoke.
"Tell us what you saw, Cass."
The corners of her mouth lifted even more.
"Well, the first thing I saw was a city and a king..."