Standing atop a particularly large bone which seemed to belong to the ribcage of some unknown colossal leviathan. Nephis, sunny and Cassie looked at the scavenger monster carrying a glistening soul shard in its freakishly large arms
"I killed that devil that shard is mine" - Sunny couldn't help but grumble his anger
Nephis and Cassie were both confused, however - "What?"
Sunny looked at hem sighed and began to explain - "The shard that monster is holding is from the corrupted devil I killed my first night here. I couldn't get the shards because they were to large and I needed to come find you"
Nephis looked at him and nodded and so did Cassie. Looking at the odd behavior of the monster Nephis asked - "sunny can you send your shadow to follow it".
"Already did princess"
Cassie couldn't help but snicker. After the recent 1 and a half months she couldn't help but notice how close Nephis had become to the 2. Especially how she tried to become closer to sunny through sparring, hunting anything really.
It was also a delight when she had asked Nephis what sunny looked like since she was blind. To say Nephis described him as if he were some really feminine beauty was an understatement
Her exact words were - "his eyes are like 2 endless pools that when I look at Its like I can't look away. His skin is smooth pale and flawless. He's really short too. 5 foot seven inches at best. His hands are delicate and small despite his strength. His hair is black as night and silky " - and the list went on
Cassie was confused since Nephis really had described him as if she admired every minute detail of his figure, yet she said so with barely any emotion as if the words she used clearly didn't show that she had indeed been stealing glances. Even if she did so unconsciously
Cassie was also worried for her friends. She had long understood her vision, and something told her sunny did too. He did say he had an affinity for fate and his attributes suggested so to. But she didn't worry. Maybe yes sunny and Nephis would end up fighting, but they would have a good reason. And one thing she knew is that sunny wouldn't hurt Nephis without cause and nor with Nephis hurt sunny.
She simply pushed the vision aside as if it was just a single possibility instead of a soon coming reality. After all she had not known that her visions was the exact future nor that fate could only be altered by the slightest amount with the upmost effort.
Coming back from her thoughts Cassie heard sunny speaking
"there's a piece of land barren of life up front. The soil every thing like ash. That is aside from the blood red tree in the middle"
Cassie had instantly realized that the tree was without a doubt a nightmare creature so she wondered what its abilities were since they would naturally be going in that direction as it was west but then she shuddered when she heard his next words.
"And there's an awakened demon guarding it"
"What?" - came Nephis response
"Hmm? What do you mean"
" You said there's an awakened demon guarding the tree"
"... Yes?"
Before Nephis could speak Cassie did this time
"and you don't think that's weird?"
" Cassie you're sitting on a exact copy of that demon right now. Only mine has a ton more attributes and strength. This is the nightmare realm. Nothing is weird because there's no such thing as normal"
Both girls sighed - "fair enough"
"Any way. We have an hour or 2 of sunlight. Wanna go kill that demon and steal its home?"
Cassie couldn't help but giggle - "You say that as if we're the villains when you know it would kill us just for fun"
Sunny laughed. He looked at Nephis who for what ever reason was looking in the opposite direction of his face. Her ears having a slight rosy tint to them
"Okay that's enough chit chat"
Sunny smirked like a little devil or in his case a little monster
Nephis looked at him. A ghost of a smile appearing on her face to - "so what's the plan sunny?"
"What else? We move in and kill it while Cass waits close by. Then we bring her over once the demons on the ground and we have a feast"
Cassie just like last time spoke similar words which faced sunny to experience some nostalgia - "should we really be eating a demon...? They have intelligence right"
Only this time sunny wasn't passing up demon meat. It was good - "yeah true but as you said. They would gobble us up in a heartbeat"
"Yeah, you're right" - she paused for a few seconds a wide smile growing
"Sunny you're cooking today, right?"
"Yeah. Why you look so happy though"
"Nothing I like your cooking"
Nephis felt a bit offended -"You've never complimented my cooking"
Cass rushed to salvage the situation - "Yours is good to, but Sunny's feels like home"
Sunny laughed again. This time Nephis not looking away
"If you want, we can make something together"
Sunny looked at her wiping the tears from his eyes - "Well princess your humble prince will cook for you whenever you wish"
With that sunny slid down the bone rib and landed on the ground with gloomy returning to his master's feet looking distastefully at happy who was trying to hug his returned sibling
As sunny began to walk he made sure that the monster was long gone out of the ashen barrow and yelled
"SIT TIGHT CASS WE'LL BE BACK SOON"
Then with a thud Shelly jumped down and began to sprint towards his master and soon sunny heard the graceful landing of Nephis. Soon sunny reached the outer banks of the ashen barrow just at its tip. He waited for Shelly to arrive and then Nephis who's blush didn't go unnoticed despite her trying to masterfully disguise it
"let's go kill a demon"
She smiled "your insane"
"Nope, I'm just sick of scavenger beast. I need that demon"
"Fair enough"
And then. They moved in
...
Nephis stood in the ashen barrow. Her eyes full of a raging sea of emotions, sunny had already gone to get Cassie from her seat atop the bone rip and currently her only companion standing beside her was the carapace shadow
Raising her head Nephis looked around her. The ash grey land dented in several places with splotches of blood lying around her. Not far off from here, a mere meter or two lied the corpse of a gargantuan demon. The carapace demon lied on the ground dead and continuing to bleed through its wounds
She shuddered slightly at the battle.
Both sunny and her had walked into the barrow together. Their gazes were tense prepared for battle. When they approached the line and stepped past it. The demon came out to honor its guests
Moving faster than a being of its size should it charged at the duo with its scythes at the ready intending to kill them. Nephis and sunny had taken up battle stances and engaged with the demon as did the carapace shadow.
But moments before blades clashed with chitin
The monsters came
Both of the carapace monsters came to deliver what she assumed to be the last remaining shards from the corrupted sunny killed. Seeing their evolved from being attacked they began to charge from the back there was no options, no retreat.
She had began to calculate. Her mind rushing and trying to find the best solution to this dilemma
Till sunny yelled. He commanded his shadow to attack and kill the monster. 1 demon VS 2 monsters, would be a close match the only difference being their size so she knew that Shelly did run a chance of being destroyed
But she saw the face of the scavenger churn. It's eyes holding a crazed malice whilst it's Jaws and pinches moved into a twisted grueling smile. A charged. She however had no chance to worry about the battle raging behind her as she was focused on the one in front
Sunny stood 2 meters to her left and charging at them was the demon. It's body large as a house. When it got there her mind seemed to blank. Everything cut out, even the pain of her flaw.
Sunny and her and fought and wounded the demon more than any sleepers should be capable of but as they to had their strokes of luck so did the demon
Perhaps it was a lucky hit but it managed to slash at her. She vaguely heard sunny telling her to dodge but she was a step to late. The cold scythe reached her gut and disemboweled her. She held her hands to her stomach region and felt her intestines gushing out
Using her flames she healed herself the pain from both her would and her flames consuming her yet allowing her to become aware of the sounds around her
Still not completely focused she turned back and saw Shelly standing above the corpse of one of the monsters while he lifted the other with his scythe and using the other slit it's head og it's broad neck
The sight of the monster dying got her out of her stupor reminding her of the possibility of death looming over her also known as the carapace demon
Turning her head, she saw something. She saw a devil
The devil looked at her his eyes a twist of emotions but when it turned to look at the scavenger only one emotion remained. Rage. It wasn't a rage you could see simply in his eyes. His rage seemed to be palpable
A gut-wrenching scream was heard or Nephis could have been hearing wrong because shortly it turned into a sinister laugh
Through the sounds of hatred coming from the demon she heard the devil speak his voice making her able to realize he had a smile on. A crazed wide smile
"You have a lot of nerve to touch what's not yours you pathetic crab... id tell you to think about your actions, but you should do it from the shadow realm"
Looking at sunny Nephis readied dream blade to charge again. Her healing factor practically ensured victory. But before she could charge, she saw sunny looking at her
"Princess. Do you think its life is a sufficient price to pay?"
The smile on Sunny's face and the glint in his eyes caused an insurmountable number of emotions to overcome her. Looking into his eyes she once found endearing she now felt the cold feeling of inferiority
Sunny didn't wait for a reply rather he charged at the demon. Jumping to dodge the scythe aimed directly where he once stood sunny landed on the demons arm and with a fluid leaped and plunged his blade into the demons eye
From the wound Nephis saw him dismiss and resummon the blade. But the wound inflicted seemed to continue bleeding. As if inducing a frenzy the demon became more ferocious determined to kill sunny.
Watching the demon charge again Nephis moved her flamed dancing on the edge of her blade. Slashing at where she believed the demons Achilles heel should be she struck severing its thick carapace Armor and it's flesh removing one of its legs
Moving out of the way she saw sunny still with the crazed smile a spear in his hand as he launched it into the demon's other eye. Charging again Nephis saw the silver glint of his blade darken. First it was a slight shady black which quickly turned into a black the color of the night sky
Not only his blade. Sunnys very body seemed to become darker slightly - 'his shadows'
It was true sunny recalled the shadow of happy from Shelly who stood in the back per Sunny's orders not engaging. And with gloomy wrapped around blade of blood her recalled him to. Wrapping both of them around his body and using the darkness to reinforce his blade sunny slid under a falling claw and the demons' legs and severed its other leg opposite of where Nephis had.
Its balance seemed to be tipped over
2 lost feet but 2 remained
2 lost eyes yet 2 remained
Nephis and sunny continued to battle like that lost as if in a dance. Soon the shadow was weak. Sunny had made a joke which she agreed to but now didn't know how to feel about it.
He had said that he would bring the demon to her and allow her to have the first kill
And so he did
What Nephis didn't expect was to see him battle the demon himself. Severing all of its arms but one and its remaining legs
The demon was the size of a house, and something told Nephis it was heavier. So, when it used it's one remaining arm to prop itself up she was surprised
The demon still clung to life it's eyes burning with the flames of hatred. But then it's eyes fell on sunny
Sunny stared the demon down and Nephis saw it. The demon felt the same feeling she did. The feeling of inferiority. Of being below. Of being the prey. But it seems something different too. Looking into Sunny's eyes the demons' eyes suddenly shine with a light of unparalleled dread. It visibly shuddered and it's eyes the shone with hope. Turning around with its remaining scythe it tried to claw its retreat
And sunny moved again. His blade dragging lazily alongside him he raised the enhanced weapon and severed the demons last hand
Nephis stood there. A mixture of awe and fear floating within her mind. She heard the thumps of steps and from the side of her eye saw Shelly walking to her dragging his half devoured trophys. Dropping them he walked to sunny
No words were spoken but it seemed to know what sunny wanted. Digging it's claw into the stump of what used to be a leg Shelly dragged the demon to get as it screeched and thrashed in pain and fear
"Here you go Nephis. One demon. For you"
Smiling at her she looked at him. His smile was so kind, so warm, so inviting
Nothing like the smile she had seem mere moments ago
Walking onto the demons back she made her way to the back of its head and with her flames on her blade dug it into the demon's skull. It convulsed on the floor for a moment of two and then with the spells announcement she knew they succeeded
[ you have slain an awakened demon: Carapace demon]
[your soul shines brighter]
[you have revived a memory. Midnight shard]
"We did it"
He replied simply - "yeah we did"
Walking over to her he removed the small lock of her short her covering her eyes and tucked it behind her ear
"I'm going to get Cassie. You can harvest the shards and Shelly will enjoy his meal. But uh make sure he keeps some demon and monster meat for us"
And then he walked off
Nephis stood there looking at he corpse of the demon which continued to bleed even in death and then shifted her eyes to Shelly who seemed to have decided to eat the monsters before the demon
After harvesting the shards and a decent amount of meat she looked at the great tree and it's crimson colored leaves
Seeing sunny and Cassie approaching she waved at them and remembered what sunny said. When she sees them coming climb the tree with their supplies
Shelly and it's colossal size had his orders too. Following her with the corpse of the demon he used his pincers and launched the demon into the tree and it seemed to have landed on a large branch and stayed there.
Looking back it seemed sunny dismissed Shelly as he had already reached her
Looking at sunny and Cassie who was speaking Nephis did to
"This tree truly is wonderful isn't it"