Cold, vile, and unforgiving waters were the first thing to meet Sunny in the Dream Realm.
But that was nothing new.
He was used to the Spell’s stupid sense of humor by now, so he was prepared.
He stilled his body for a second, his mind going numb, and spread his senses, his shadow already wrapping around him.
The next second, he turned in the water and shot upward — or what he now believed was upward.
His relatively weak body — compared to his old one — took a fair amount of time to break the surface of the sea.
He took a long, heavy breath, still with his eyes closed, his senses spreading to their limits.
Finally, his eyelids opened slowly and he took a look around.
What met him was the familiar endlessness of the Dark Sea and the dark, starless sky.
What troubled him most, however, was that in this unending — seemingly identical in all directions — expanse, he could not see the headless statue he had taken refuge on the last time.
His Shadow Sense was working in overdrive, and still…
still he could not feel anything.
‘That is bad…’ He had been relatively lucky so far — the sea’s denizens had taken no interest in him yet.
But how long would it take until his luck ran out?..
‘Not long enough,’ he knew.
And so he chose the only viable solution.
He decided to trust his gut and picked a direction.
Sooner or later, he was bound to find high ground, he mused, as he swam.
He wasn’t sure he would have enough time for that, though.
And he was being proved right…
At the periphery of his senses, he could feel some of the naval Nightmare Creatures starting to behave strangely, seemingly sensing him.
He quickened his pace, trying to outswim them, if only by a little.
Maybe his luck wasn’t so terrible today…
Maybe…
His luck wasn’t that terrible in that regard, indeed.
After a minute or two of making his way through the unforgiving waters of the Dark Sea, he finally felt the pack of Creatures slowly changing direction, seemingly finding easier prey — or simply not being interested in him to begin with.
He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief — the immediate danger had passed — but something stopped him.
Now that he took a moment to think, it seemed strange.
After all, uncorrupted, weak humans were a much more preferable meal for any Nightmare Creature than whatever things inhabited these waters…
Unless…
He slowed down and concentrated, trying to confirm his guess.
As it was still night and he was in the water rather than on land, it was a bit troublesome…
But finally he felt it — a small human figure, violently thrashing not far from him…
In the very direction the pack of monsters was heading.
He bit his lip, hesitating.
If he were on land, or even a rank higher than he was now, he would have tried to help the person without question.
Now, however…
He was a weak, frail Sleeper too, after all and against a flock of naval Nightmare Creatures in their own domain, no less.
And he still had no idea where the closest high ground was.
If he were to try and save them, the odds were that he wouldn’t make it back.
And everything would be for nothing…
The thought of simply leaving the unfortunate person to die didn’t sit right with him either.
Though he hadn’t been the most empathetic person before, life had taught him a few valuable and painful lessons.
He regretted quite a lot of things, and had made quite a few unforgivable decisions, every living moment filled with a bottomless well of guilt, regret, and self-loathing.
And now that he had another chance and had made a promise — to Jet; to his dead friends; and to an unbearable, unforgivable bastard he called himself — to make everything better, it would be sickening to turn back at the very first sign of trouble.
And yet…
Well, if he had learned anything from the Antarctica Campaign, it was that even an unwinnable and seemingly impossible situation could be overcome with will.
‘If it’s my will, who dares stop me, huh?’
So he took a deep breath, turned in the direction of his dive, concentrated, and shot forward.
The dark shadow still wrapped around him shifted toward his feet, slowly solidifying into a pair of flippers.
That was another ability of his [Shadow’s Claim] attribute — one he had figured out during his thieving escapade in the Academy over the past three days.
In ordinary circumstances it wasn’t particularly useful, since the more of his shadow was transformed, the more amplification it drained.
And as the shadow itself was not yet dense enough to serve as a weapon, it was generally a poor trade.
Right now, though…
The speed it added to his swimming was a fair bit more than what he lost from the amplification.
And so as he made his way to the unfortunate Sleeper — his brows furrowed, his expression cold and calculating — he could finally read the person’s shadow a little better.
His heart tightened.
‘No way…
Spell, you’ve got to be kidding me.’ But as he got closer, he became more and more certain.
He clenched his teeth, almost painfully.
‘Well, okay, that’s exactly something the Spell would do…’ He swore.
‘Just my luck, I guess.’
Soon after, he took a long breath and dove deep into the Sea, guiding himself only by his Shadow Sense and his sharpened intuition.
It took him a bit more then a dozen of seconds to reach the person and take hold of them.
The Sleeper — who at first glance seemed already out of air and too exhausted to struggle — suddenly started thrashing again, apparently feeling him approach.
So the first thing Sunny did was take hold of the young woman’s face with his unmistakably human hand and flick her on the nose with the other.
That seemed to do the job.
The girl suddenly stopped, and he could imagine her eyes going wide.
She moaned something, but Sunny had already wrapped an arm around her back — something he was deeply uncomfortable with— and was pulling them both upward.
As they rose to the surface, he didn’t divert his attention from his Sense for even a second.
‘They are too close…
Damn, no way we’re outrunning them.’ If he were alone, he could possibly slip away, if only barely.
But he wasn’t…
And the flock, sensing not one but two helpless humans in one place, dramatically increased its speed with renewed vigor.
‘What to do?!’ He swore mentally, his mind racing at a thousand thoughts per second.
As they broke the surface, the Sleeper inhaled deeply and started coughing violently.
Then she turned her gaze to him, her unseeing eyes wide with gratitude and desperation.
“Sunny? Is that really you?” she whispered in disbelief, still trying to catch her breath between coughs.
After he made an affirmative sound, she sighed in relief, silent tears welling in the corners of her eyes.
“I thought I was going to die… I can’t thank you enough, really…”
“Shush, Cas. I’m thinking,” he mumbled, biting his lip.
There were a few problems with their situation right now.
First — though he could finally feel high ground at the periphery of his Sense — they were too far away, and there was no way they would make it in time with an exhausted Cassie weighing him down.
Second — he would not only have to fight, but also protect someone who was no fighter at all.
And finally — there were too many of them.
Nine Awakened-rank creatures in their own domain against one heavily restricted Dormant Human, albeit a rather crazy and experienced one.
It wouldn’t be a fight — it would be a slaughter.
There was one more problem, though.
When he had told Jet he didn’t need a weapon — since he would reacquire the Serpent soon enough — he had forgotten one key thing…
He was only a Beast now.
‘Damnation, what a stupid oversight…’ And by the time he faced that fact after progressing in his Shadow Dance, it was already too late.
Jet was already being dispatched and had no time to find him a weapon, and he wouldn’t take her spares.
As most sane Awakened do when they outgrow their previous Memories — Jet had simply sold them.
‘Well, there was a whip…’ He didn’t want to know for what reasons Soul Reaper had needed that particular Memory…
And there they were.
Sunny, of course, still had [Shapeless Thief], but he really, really didn’t want to turn into a greedy lunatic mid-battle in a particularly hostile environment with another person’s life depending on him.
So it was a difficult predicament…
And as his thoughts ran wild, the pack was steadily approaching.
‘Damn-damn-damn!
I have to fight, there is no other way…’
Suddenly his thoughts took an unexpected turn.
He looked at Cassie and bit his lip.
‘That…
that could actually work.’
“Cas, do you happen to have a Memory that can summon or control the winds?”
“How?.. Ye.. yeah, I d-do, I do have such a Memory,” she said, shivering from the cold, still not quite calm — and a fair bit embarrassed about her current state.
‘Well, I guess I’m starting to understand Nephis,’ he thought as he put a hand on her shoulder — separating his shadow from himself in the process — and transferred the [Puppeteer’s Shroud] to her.
“Wha—”
“Summon it! We have a flock of very hungry Nightmare Creatures on our tail — that’s our only chance. And… cover yourself with the armor I gave you. Questions later, okay?”
Cassie blushed a bit more but — to his relief — did not hesitate for even a second.
In a burst of bright sparks, the wooden staff he remembered materialized in her hand, and she silently passed it to him.
He hadn’t been wasting his time, either.
As he separated Gloomy from himself, he ordered him to take the shape of a boat with a single mast.
It was pathetically small, barely fit for one person, but they had no choice but to make do.
He helped Cassie sit first, his senses already screaming at him about the oncoming danger.
As he jumped onto the boat, his heart pounding, he immediately summoned a gust of wind, filling the shadow-sail with it.
The little boat shot forward.
It was light — weighing almost nothing — made of nothing but shadow and Will, and far faster than any boat of that size had any right to be and Gloomy himself was carefully guiding them toward their safe haven.
It was not fast enough, though…
Driven by the excitement of the hunt, the naval creatures were chasing them like the mad beasts they were, and the distance between them kept shrinking.
As he strained his vision, he could already barely make out their silhouettes, not that far behind…
They still wouldn’t make it.
By the feel of the shadows, most were Awakened Beasts, with a few Monsters.
Leading them, however, was an Awakened Devil.
‘Damn it…’
He looked at his Serpent tattoo wearily.
There was a way to stall them, of course…
He could summon Serpent in his [Soul Beast] form and distract them long enough for the two of them to reach high ground.
The chances were, however, that he would never see his faithful Shadow again.
No matter how experienced and strong Serpent was, he was still just an Awakened Beast against a whole flock of creatures of the same rank, some of them even heavily outclassing him.
If they were on land…
His heart squeezed with a painful reminder.
He had already lost every single one of them in his mad state…
He couldn’t — wouldn’t!
— ever let that happen again!
He gritted his teeth and looked at Cassie.
She was silent and very nervous.
They were sitting in an extremely awkward position, with him being stark naked, adding considerably to the girl’s embarrassment.
She couldn’t see, of course.
But she could feel…
Sunny wasn’t particularly bothered, but he didn’t like it either.
He looked at the ocean once more and passed the Memory back to Cassie, indicating the direction to summon the winds toward and whispering simple instructions.
Then he turned back.
He awkwardly shifted his position, half-kneeling, and started to summon the Memory.
Black smoke materialized, quickly shifting shapes as it hovered over Sunny’s open palm.
He waited.
The silhouettes drew closer and closer with every passing moment.
Still, he waited.
As the creatures drew near, he could finally hear the sound of water cutting past the jagged edges of their chitin.
Sunny took a breath and closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, determination burning in his gaze.
‘It’s time.’
With that thought, the smoke finally started taking shape.
The pull of the weapon’s curse attacked his mind immediately, but this time he was a bit more prepared.
A few moments after landing on the shadow boat, Sunny had summoned a Memory he had received from Jet — [Voice of Reason].
He had already suspected he might be forced to draw his trump card.
Even so, as it was an Ascended Memory, it had a relatively modest effect in negating [Thief’s Instinct] — but it was still far better than having no protection at all.
The smoke finally finished taking shape, and into Sunny’s waiting hand fell a spear with a wide, sharp spearhead, the shaft slowly spiralling towards the tip.
It was a copy of the Memory — [Heaven’s Promise] — he had made as a birthday gift for Rain before…
Well, before everything.
It had a few helpful enchantments, that one…
But currently his mind was fixed on only one in particular.
It was a Memory created to train determination and Will and while he had just a fraction of the latter…
The former was like a boundless ocean contained within his mortal shell.
He raised it over his shoulder.
“Prepare for a rough landing!” he screamed, trying to shout over the howling wind and his pounding heart.
The way Cassie tensed the next moment told him he had managed.
The enchantment had a poetic name, reflecting his own inner turmoil, fractured foundation, and existential crisis.
Sunny inhaled, quickly circulating his meager amounts of essence — poor Serpent was working in overdrive too.
That much would not even come close to showing the true might of his creation.
Against the opponents in front of him, though…
It would still be overkill.
As the deformed heads of the Creatures finally broke the surface and their mad, starving eyes met his, Sunny threw the spear at the Devil leading them and poured every last drop of essence he had into it.
As it flew, he increased its weight — as much as he could with his meager Will — and hugged Cassie tightly from behind.
He dismissed the shadow boat, instantly wrapping Gloomy around himself, the blind girl tensing even more at the impact with the water at high speed.
As the spear was about to collide with the Devil’s head, he finally activated the [Price for Freedom] enchantment.
For a moment, nothing much happened.
Then the sudden stillness covered the space into it’s embrace.
The world began to shift.
Slowly at first.
Then it started gaining momentum, quickly.
The surface of the Dark Sea began to dissolve into droplets, and like metal to a magnet, it slowly moved toward the spearhead.
Wait — did the distance start to shrink, too?
It was as if the spear was pulling space itself inward.
In reality, the whole phenomenon took less than a thousandth of a second.
But Sunny could have told you about every last detail.
Because he had created it himself, after all.
The next moment the spearhead connected with the Devil’s head, destroying it completely, and continued in its path without slowing for an instant.
Then the space twisted around the tip, a blinding light shone through absolute darkness.
And after that… It exploded.
Obliterating everything in its vicinity and continuing its destructive path like a comet’s tail deep into the Sea.
The blast wave threw Cassie and Sunny into the air and toward the marble platform.
The Spell was narrating his kills in his ear.
The blind seer was shouting something he wasn’t paying attention to.
He turned them in the air and gritted his teeth.
‘That’s going to hurt like a bitch…’
And then they finally met the ground.
‘Careful what you wish for!’ — Sunny thought, growling as he absorbed most of the impact on his back.
They rolled for a few meters and then stopped with a groan.
Everything went silent for a moment, like nothing ever happened just a few seconds ago.
Maybe only just the weaves were a bit unusually large.
He exhaled, coughing painfully, as the Spell continued to narrate his kills; he frowned.
There were even a few Memories in the haul, which was a good thing, he mused.
‘Even you got infected by that greedy Bird’s curse, huh,’ he thought, dismissing [Shapeless Thief].
Finally, he felt the pull of the curse stop as suddenly as it had begun.
Sunny grunted hoarsely, pulling himself upright.
He briefly checked his condition, and to his surprise, nothing seemed to be broken.
There would be a few bruises, but he could endure it, he mused.
He took a few breaths, steadying himself, and looked at Cassie.
She was staring at him with her unseeing eyes, mouth agape, slowly opening and closing it again, expression beyond shocked.
He chuckled.
It seemed she was fine.
‘[Puppeteer’s Shroud] looks much better on her than on me, huh…’ She suddenly composed herself and then jumped forward, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into a tight hug.
“Thank you… Thank you! Thank you so much!” she whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I thought I was going to die for sure,” she whimpered.
“I have no idea how you’ve found me, but thank you…” He chuckled, awkwardly stroking her back.
Then he remembered his current state, coughed, and turned Gloomy into a pair of shorts — something he was decidedly unhappy about.
‘I know what you want, you perverted, depressing idiot.
I will not let you turn into a dress for her — don’t even think about it!’
“I promised, didn’t I?” he chuckled, pulling away and finally trying to stand up.
She smiled at that and then giggled.
“You did, yes.” She grew quiet for a moment, trying to even her breathing, as Sunny took a look around.
“But Sunny, what the Spell was that?”
He rubbed his brows, gathering his thoughts as he felt his Flaw starting to burn.
He hadn’t anticipated that even with his damned luck he would be forced to draw [Shapeless Thief] within his very first hour in the Dream Realm!
What kind of rotten luck did he have?!
He could still feel the aftereffects of the curse clouding his mind — much stronger than usual for such a short time spent using it.
All because he had pushed it a little too far.
He exhaled wearily and slowly looked at her, then finally answered with a slight hesitation in his voice.
“Well, that was… a contingency plan?” he said, a bit unsure, but truthfully enough that his Flaw didn’t protest.
“A contingency plan…” she mumbled, rolling the words around on her tongue.
Then she chuckled.
“Only you, Sunny, only you…”
A comfortable silence settled over them after that.
He checked his Sense and found absolutely nothing around them.
‘It seemed the [Heaven’s Promise] performance had scared absolutely shitless every living creature within a radius of several kilometers.’ He chuckled at that, pride rising in his chest.
‘Of course — I’m the one who made it, after all!’
A small pang of hurt rose in his heart, but he squeezed it down.
‘It’s fine.
She’s alive and well.
I won’t let this ever happen again.
Over my dead body.’
Sunny looked around again.
There was not much to see beyond this massive square marble platform.
He had, however, explored the Forgotten Shore thoroughly during his years of madness.
And if his guess was correct…
‘We’re on the border of another Death Zone.
Everything has gone from bad to worse.’ And not only did it lie much further, in terms if pure distance, than the first time around — it was also located to the west of the Bright Castle.
Meaning they wouldn’t be crossing the Soul Devouring Tree, which was a boon in normal circumstances.
However, it also meant he wouldn’t be able to claim the [Blood Weave] any time soon…
if he could even consume it at this point.
He clicked his tongue in irritation.
There was also one more, deeper problem…
The monsters here were much, much stronger than the ones they had faced on the way to the Dark City last time.
Was anything ever easy in his life?
He exhaled slowly, then cursed.
“Damnation…”
Hello there.
Did I say that I would post this Wednesday?
Pfft.
If that’s my will, who dares stop me!
Even my boss…
Well, that was unexpected even to me to be honest.
Just had a few spare hours during work, and then few more after too…
Well, thats a good thing, I guess!
Maybe I’ll even post on Wednesday still, who knows.
I’m not sure about my schedule right now.
So, whats your thoughts about first action chapter?
Well, it was meant to be a bit different kind of action, but I liked how the flow went, so I decided to write that chapter next.
So there are a few action scenes I will have to cover in the next chapters.
No Shapeless Thief (or Heaven’s Promise) there stealing all the fun.
Thanks for reading and see y’all soon!
Bye.