'What?!'
Sunny could not even begin to wrap his head around Cassie's newest vision. Unlike her last one, this one was not straightforward. Was it the vision of the past or the future? What was this crimson spire at the end? The more he thought about it, the more confusing it all got. He glanced over at Nephis; she seemed just as confused as he was, her face betraying her feelings.
'Yeah, we should stay away from tall spires from now on.' Sunny thought.
"So… Anything?" Cassie said, her voice still slightly trembling, but much calmer than before. Nephis shook her head.
"No idea. It seems we'll have to figure it out as we go." Strangely, Nephis was convinced they would stumble across the truth of Cassie's vision someday. Thinking about this, dread settled in Sunny's heart.
'D-Don't tell me she's going to drag me away from the human castle and pursue the crimson spire.' Sunny cursed in his mind. Knowing Nephis, she would really drag him into a more dangerous place than even the Forgotten Shore to get stronger. That was not even the worst of it, though. What Sunny really hated about this was that he had to follow her, because if he did not become stronger… strong enough, he would not stay alive much longer.
Sunny nodded. "Maybe it's just a nightmare? Your attribute allows you to dream in the dream realm and receive visions, which is not normally possible. Maybe getting a nightmare once in a while is a side effect of that."
Cassie's blind eyes lit up. "You think so?" she asked. Sunny did not answer. Pain started assaulting his mind. It was mild at first, then slowly it grew unbearable. Finally, he said in a slightly rugged voice.
"It's a possibility." Sunny did not really believe in his theory himself. After all, most oracles with Aspects connected to fate would get a vision filled with symbolism. This did not mean that the vision was false or any less reliable, though, but the blind girl had only ever gotten straightforward visions, so the chance of this one being just a nightmare was not zero.
Cassie nodded and stood up. She was relatively fine now, compared to the state she was in yesterday, and even just a few moments ago, she had calmed down greatly. She spoke in a gentle voice.
"That was all I saw… I guess we should go now?" she asked. Nephis and Sunny nodded in unison before they departed, though Sunny stretched out his hand and asked.
"Water?"
Cassie summoned her ornate bottle memory, which produced endless water, and handed it to Sunny. Sunny sent his shadow off the statue to scout ahead and drank his share of water, handing the bottle to Nephis. She took the bottle off of him and drank to her heart's content, giving it to Cassie and letting her quench her thirst as well.
"Alright, let's go!" Sunny said, and the team moved towards the edge of the headless statue.
"We'll have to wait for a little bit for my sh-" Sunny's eyes suddenly widened, and his heart started beating faster.
"W-What is it?" Nephis asked in a seemingly calm tone that still betrayed her nervousness. Sunny pointed towards the shark monster's carcass.
"There!"
"Sunny… What about it?" Nephis looked confused, then her eyes widened as well. There were two monsters with armored carapaces digging through the carcass, unlike the scavengers, though, they were bigger, and instead of two pincers, they had two massive, sharp scythes. They were monsters, one class higher than the scavengers. Sunny shuddered slightly. Soon, the two had finished tearing flesh and fished four immensely radiant shards. Sunny let out a deep breath.
Immense greed and fear rose in Sunny's heart at the same time. Greed because those were four transcendent soul shards, something that even saints struggled to procure, and fear because…
"So that thing you encountered was a corrupted devil at least… and the tentacle monster was much stronger than it," Nephis said in a low voice, her face betraying a bit of fear. Truly, no sleeper, not even ones as strong as them, were supposed to survive in this place. She had perfectly explained the reason for Sunny's dread, and hers too, no doubt.
Cassie had started slightly shivering again. "D-Do you think we'll be able to make it out of this place?" she asked.
"Yes," Nephis said with confidence, all the fear that was in her eyes gone a moment after.
"What makes you think so?" Cassie asked her.
"Because that is our will." She said and left it at that.
***.
The three had already descended the statue and were navigating the labyrinth according to Sunny's route. They were aiming to reach a rocky outcrop towards the west. It was farther than the headless statue to the coral mound, but it was still a manageable distance away.
On the way, they had already fought a couple of scavengers, some on purpose, and some out of necessity.
[Shadow Fragments: 44/1000].
Sunny was progressing quite fast, and Nephis was progressing fast, too. Sunny did not absorb soul shards, rather shadow fragments, so almost all their shards went to Nephis, some occasionally going to Cassie as well.
Sunny glanced at Nephis. She was now wearing a pair of pauldrons made from carapace on her shoulders. It was a memory she got for one of her kills. Sunny heaved a sigh of relief when she first put them on. They were not armor that would fully cover her, but at least her shoulders were no longer exposed. He would no longer be as distracted every time he looked at her… and there was the defense, too.
Nephis had been disheartened seeing her new memory, though. One would assume an armor-type memory would be actual armor, covering every part of an awakened. This one was not. No doubt, Neph herself was also feeling awkward wearing the crude seaweed brassiere. Sometimes her voice would lose the conviction behind it and slow down when she noticed Sunny's gaze directed at her. Sunny himself tried as hard as he could to resist, but there was only so much he could do. Gods, he had even seen her cheeks redden up once. Could you believe it? Why was the spell being so stingy for the… spell's sake?
"Stop!" Sunny shouted, a sudden sight breaking him out of the unpleasant rabbit hole his thoughts were going through. Nephis glanced at him, a silent question hanging on her face.
"Uhh… there are scavengers ahead… two of them." Sunny responded.
Nephis nodded. "Can we circle around them?" She asked calmly.
Sunny shook his head. "Not this time, there is no other path."
"We'll have to fight them then…" She said, not losing her calm tone.
"I trust you won't die?" She added.
Sunny nodded confidently. "Don't worry about me, I can handle one just fine."
"Okay." She said, finding a hiding spot for Cassie and entering the clearing with Sunny.
In front of them were two massive centaur crab monsters, about the size of a shed. Instead of arms, they had two pincers that had enough power to crush steel. Sunny gulped. Seeing two side by side really highlighted how dreadful these creatures were. Among awakened beasts, they could be considered to be on the high end of power. And Sunny and Nephis were facing them. They were not injured like the first one he had killed, and they were not ambushing them like the rest… No, this one would be a real fight.
Sunny and Nephis moved, rushing towards their respective scavengers. They had already planned to carve their own battlefields where the other would not be able to intervene. Naturally, they were not too far from each other, so they could help if needed.
Sunny gripped the handle of [Azure Blade] harder, commanded his shadow to flow on him, and got ready to battle. At the same time, he extended his shadow sense, detecting the shadows of himself and his enemy. Nephis was on her own now. He would have to trust her. She could survive.
The battle had started. The scavenger in front of him moved like a large PTV aiming to ram into frail Sunny with its large body. Sunny sidestepped, dodging the beast's tackle and getting ready to swing. Before he got the chance to attack, though, he felt something with his shadow. The scavenger swung its massive pincer at him, but Sunny had already seen the attack and slid towards the beast's eight armored legs, avoiding it entirely.
'This is it!' He thought. He had gotten the perfect opening. He swung his azure blade at an unprotected point in one of the scavenger's armored legs and tore it off.
"W-What!?" Sunny was left pleasantly shocked. The combination of Shadow Gods' lineage, all the shadow fragments, and his own helper augmenting him was more than enough to tear off one of the beast's legs entirely.
'I-I guess I'm much stronger than I thought." Sunny smiled inwardly. Outside his mind, though, the battle was still raging on. The scavenger had lost an entire leg. It was going to take some time to adjust to the loss, but it still had seven others. Sunny had to end it quickly.
Sunny slid from under the scavenger to its back. The monster was tilting left and had lost its balance. He could not pay Sunny any attention right now. He took advantage of that. Sunny used all the strength he could muster to leap into the air and commanded his shadow to move from his body to his blade.
In a flash, his blade tore through the cavity in the back of the scavenger's head and tore through it until meeting the brain and stopped. Sunny twisted his sword, making sure the beast was done for. Azure blood spilled everywhere, and the scavenger shuddered, dropping dead.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[…Your Shadow Grows Stronger.]
[You have received a…]
"Don't- Don't come any closer."