After the fateful encounter with Nephis, their newly formed cohort continued their journey toward the Dark City the very next day, being too much on edge to stay so close to the horde of abominations and their master.
Three and a half weeks had already passed since then.
Now that they had not one, but two experienced fighters in their group, their speed had increased dramatically.
The physical load became a fair bit easier too, now that he and Changing Star could take shifts carrying Cassie through the labyrinth.
To be fair to the blind girl — she was orienting far better in space, moving much faster, and becoming less of a burden with each passing day.
They were still not fast enough, though.
His initial prediction of traveling for more than half a year had shifted a bit, true — however, it would still take them a huge amount of time to reach the human settlement.
Time that they did not have…
They were also facing a problem with Nightmare Creatures.
Though they had finally crossed the boundary he considered most dangerous — where there was a real chance of running into a Corrupted abomination — there was still the problem of the Tyrant and his pack.
And what a bastard that Tyrant was…
The problem they had at hand was that, though the abomination hadn’t attacked them immediately with all its forces, it didn’t let them go either.
It sent small groups of Nightmares after them almost every passing day — groups they had no particular trouble dispatching at first — but the tempo had been increasing considerably over the past week.
The Tyrant was playing with them…
And all of them knew this game would be reaching its end soon.
They had even tried taking a risk one night and gaining an advantage in distance by traveling at night on their shadow-boat, but he was, obviously, asking too much of Gloomy — the tiny vessel sank almost immediately, unable to withstand the weight of three full-grown humans and having nowhere near enough space for all of them.
He even tried dismissing the mast of the boat to increase its space and strengthen it a bit, but it still wasn’t enough.
That solution had another problem too — his initial idea of replacing the sail with a propeller had failed miserably, as his current control and overall shadow strength weren’t enough to reach even half the speed their sail gave.
They could have possibly traveled in pairs, making two trips to move them all to the closest high ground, but it was too much of a risk — the aquatic abominations were not stupid, and that much movement was bound to attract their attention.
So they had no other choice but to travel on foot and fight, fight, and fight again.
There was also the problem of interactions within the group.
Well, the problem was mostly with him.
After all, he had deeply conflicting emotions about both of the other members — or, more accurately, about the future versions of them…
and there was also the matter of their youth.
Right now, the difference in age between Nephis — physically the oldest of the cohort — and himself was more than a decade.
Considering that she was also a generally awkward and socially inept person, it was hard…
And then there was Cassie…
He didn’t know how to feel about her, to be honest.
The Cassie he knew — the one who had given his Name away, schemed behind his back, and ultimately caused him to lose his Fate — he understandably despised, though those thoughts were complicated too.
This one, though…
He shifted his gaze to the girl in question for a second and suppressed the desire to sigh heavily.
Yeah, it was complicated.
To be honest, he didn’t dislike her.
She was still young and innocent — never been forced to make the terrible choice of saving one best friend and condemning the other, not yet burdened by her visions…
She wasn’t the one who had betrayed and manipulated him endlessly.
But did he like her, though?
Hmm…
Maybe he did.
She reminded him too much of the time he had taken care of her other version — the one he had loved as his own sister, all those years ago.
It was a nostalgic feeling.
But it was different, anyway…
He shook those thoughts from his head and concentrated on a different topic.
There were her visions too, after all…
or rather, their absence.
Though both Nephis and Cassie were unaware of it, by now the seer should have already received a few very unsettling visions.
But she hadn’t.
The only substantial one she’d had was about the Dark City and a brief prologue of the Forgotten Shore’s history — a few days after Neph joined them.
And as they were already moving in the general direction of the Bright Castle, it hadn’t done much for her self-esteem.
It was also a bit more vague than he remembered — and it worried him deeply.
Oh — he was also wearing the [Puppeteer’s Shroud] now.
They had exchanged armors with Cassie the morning after he brought Neph back.
It was a bit of an awkward process, as he had to give his up first and wait in nothing but his shadow while the seer finished changing.
It was a bit unfair that both his armors looked much better on her than on him, but he knew better than to be jealous…
There was a significant glow-up waiting for him after his Transcendence.
He had finally reached the third step in his Shadow Dance — the last step he could take until he became a Master — and claimed the [Shadow Lantern].
It was a pretty useless relic for him as a Sleeper, though.
He didn’t feel any different at all too.
His battle prowess, senses, and overall mastery of style remained exactly the same as they had been two weeks before he heard the announcement.
It seemed that the Spell just wanted to see him struggle as long as possible before rewarding him with anything meaningful.
He and Nephis had taken some time to adjust in their fights together, but were now one hell of a deadly duo.
Not as deadly as in their previous life — Changing Star was still inexperienced, hadn’t progressed in her swordsmanship that much, and didn’t completely trust him yet.
So, to build some bridges between them, Sunny had decided to teach Nephis some basic human interactions.
She was deeply surprised when he made the offer, apparently not having expected to be seen through so easily.
She was hesitant, as expected, trying to deny it immediately.
He didn’t push.
But he gave tips here and there from time to time, anyway — at first in terms of combat, but then the lessons slowly shifted to more mundane subjects too: how to identify your opponent’s emotions, how to react to them, how to lead a conversation, how to smile without scaring the hell out of those around you.
And many other things.
There were problems, of course, especially when the topic turned to humor.
All in all, Sunny had taught her a lot over these past weeks — some of it, though, in very…
Sunny ways.
“…and in that case you should just cut the bastard’s balls and be done with it,” he finished sagely, looking at the very attentive Changing Star sitting in front of him with her legs crossed, her eyebrows thoughtfully narrowed.
She nodded slowly, seemingly agreeing with him.
The only thing that broke the atmosphere was a violent coughing that burst suddenly from their side.
Both Sunny and Nephis simultaneously looked at the blind girl in question and slightly tilted their heads to the side.
The synchronicity of their movement was almost comical.
If Cassie could see this, she would have definitely questioned whether they shared the same brain cell.
“Sunny…” Cassie started slowly between her coughs, unsure whether she should be amused or exasperated.
“Don’t you think that you’re teaching her… not quite the right things?”
“But it’s a fair reaction!” he answered immediately, a bit too agitated.
“I would have done so myself.”
Well, he actually had done exactly that, once or twice…
Nephis nodded to him, her expression stern, and then turned to face the blind girl once again.
Cassie opened her mouth to retort, then stopped and closed it, then opened it again but no sound escaped her lips.
She exhaled wearily and shook her head, an amused smile on her face.
“Both of you are ridiculous…” she mumbled, barely audible, and then asked, changing the topic.
“Okay, let’s talk about something different! Hmm…” she said, scratching her chin thoughtfully.
“Oh! What are you guys planning to do next? I mean, after we return to the waking world?” Sunny blinked, surprised by the sudden change of subject.
Hadn’t they had a similar conversation in their first run too?
He murmured thoughtfully, trying to compose his thoughts and not let something slip that he would later regret.
Nephis, on the other hand, answered almost immediately, as if she had already been waiting for this question.
“Rebuild my clan’s name and fight the Spell… among some other things,” she answered simply, not clarifying her last statement.
He already knew, of course, what she meant by it.
‘Wage a war against the Great Clans, somewhere in the future…’ Cassie nodded with a smile, accepting her answer without a second thought.
“I don’t actually have all that grand ambitions right now,” the blind girl took the lead of the conversation next, hesitantly.
“To be honest, I’m not sure what I would do after awakening. Maybe join you two in whatever quest you’ll pursue? Or pick a comparatively safe Citadel and live my life as best I can, all things considered. My Aspect, as you know… is not really fit for combat…” she finished, her voice growing a bit shaky toward the end.
Sunny sighed internally.
‘Here we go again…
Her constant self-doubt is not improving at all,’ he mused.
‘It is probably becoming even worse…’
As Cassie had not had that many visions, her usefulness to the group — or lack of it, in her own eyes — was pressing more heavily on her mind.
The problem was that neither he nor Nephis thought of her as useless.
Even though she hadn’t had any grand revelations in this run, her intuition and general foresight had let them escape a few close calls and battles with enemies that none of them were sure they would have won.
Literally in the first week after they had crossed paths with Changing Star, they could have run into a Corrupted Nightmare Creature — and even if they had a small chance of winning if he pulled the [Shapeless Thief], he would never wager on his luck.
The general insight she gave on their enemies was useful too.
Even though he could technically read their shadows, it took time to build understanding, and most of the abominations they’d met along the way were unfamiliar to him — either dead by the time he had started to explore the region, or long since migrated elsewhere.
So she wasn’t useless, no matter how you thought about it.
To convince her of that, though…
was not an easy task at all.
‘It’s so hard to build connections with teenagers!’ he contemplated with irritation.
Especially when one of those teenagers was a sheltered princess with barely any human interactions and a massive trauma behind her back, and the other was a girl who had lost her sight recently and was being thrown from one life-or-death situation to the next, relying solely on two strangers with hero complexes…
At least, that was how it looked from her perspective.
“What about you, Sunny?” Cassie asked, interrupting his musings.
“What are your plans after we reach the City?”
“Well…” he lifted his eyes to the sky for a moment, thoughtfully, and then started carefully.
“There are a lot of things, I guess.
A long time ago — in another life, more likely,” he chuckled bitterly at that, “I wanted a simple life too.
A life full of luxury, free of concerns.
To be honest, I wanted to open a small Memory Boutique and a Café…” Both girls mumbled agreeably — they liked his cooking very much, after all.
He turned his face toward the Sea.
The first rays of sunlight had already begun to break through the edge of the horizon.
The world started trembling slightly, notifying them of the slowly receding Dark Sea.
“But that was a long, long time ago. Now, though…” he closed his eyes for a second and took a deep, shaky breath.
“Now, I’m going to fight,” he said firmly.
“…to let this doomed world live a bit longer, to fix a lot of my mistakes and not repeat them again. To not let down the people that are dear to me. Or die trying, I guess…” he said somberly, but then shook his head and forced a smile onto his face.
“Maybe in the end, I would even get that peace I yearned for, so long ago…” He let the words sink in a bit, and then continued more brightly.
“But after I return, one of the first things on my priority list — is to reconnect with my sister. She was adopted into a family when we were kids, and most likely doesn’t even remember me at all. But I want to. It’s time to stop being a coward…” he finished, his gaze distant, thoughts running wild in his head.
Then he exhaled and turned to face them.
Nephis’s unreadable expression had finally developed a few cracks.
Some emotions he could still read, even after all these years: respect and understanding were the most evident.
There was also weariness somewhere deeper.
Everything else was out of his reach — too much time had passed.
She composed herself quickly and made an acknowledging gesture to him.
Cassie, on the other hand, he couldn’t read at all.
Her expression was absolutely blank, eyes distant and breathing even.
The three of them stood still for a few seconds, neither moving nor making any sound.
He massaged his brows wearily.
Why was that so hard?
He knew both of them quite well, after all — by all means it should be easier for him to connect with them!
“The younger me had some kind of charm that I lost along the way…” he mumbled, irritated.
Both of the young women blinked simultaneously; he cursed silently.
“Nevermind. Sorry, I ruined the mood, I guess… I think it’s time to get ready. We should move out in half an hour or so, as soon as the Sea recedes,” he said, standing up and stretching his back a little.
And so they started to prepare, silently, the awkward atmosphere not going anywhere.
As Sunny put away the leftovers of their dinner in his storage Memory, he let his thoughts run over their current situation.
It didn’t look good at all. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
They still had months of travel to cover before reaching the Dark City, and he was less and less sure with each passing day that they would make it at all.
Yesterday’s ambush — the hardest one yet to overcome — had consisted of only five Nightmare Creatures, but only one of them was of Awakened Rank, a Devil at that; the rest were Fallen, two of them Monsters.
It seemed the bastard not only enjoyed playing with them, but had been using the initial attacks to cull the weakest members of his flock.
And not only that — he had replaced those fallen soldiers with much stronger abominations.
If his guess was right, his ranks had grown in numbers too.
Where in the beginning he had had around two dozen creatures under his command with more than half of them Awakened, now — according to Cassie’s visions, Gloomy’s scouting, and his gut — it was closer to fifty, and most of them were Fallen.
If the Tyrant were to attack with all his forces, they would be doomed, no matter how he looked at it.
But he would not attack them all at once — of that he was sure.
Over the almost-month he had been chasing them, he had gotten a good read on the bastard’s personality.
He didn’t simply want to kill them.
He wanted them to hurt; to despair; to lose all hope; to beg for mercy.
He wouldn’t get that, though — no matter how hard he tried.
And he was starting to understand that too.
‘No more than a week…
no, probably even less.’ That was how much time he believed they had to come up with something.
The chase was coming to an end…
And then there was something else…
Something he couldn’t put his finger on.
That nostalgic feeling had grown harder each day since they arrived on the Forgotten Shore, and its source had been coming closer and closer…
until it wasn’t.
Now the presence was close enough for his Shadow Sense to barely feel it, but it wasn’t approaching any nearer.
It also worried him immensely.
Not only was it something far stronger than all of them combined, but it also seemed to know exactly how far his Sense spread — as he consumed more Fragments, grew stronger, and expanded his range, it avoided him each day.
The first few times he could almost believe it was coincidence — well, maybe he wouldn’t, he was paranoid after all.
But that presence had stopped approaching more than a week ago, staying just beyond the edge of his perception.
He also believed it had come from the Hollow Mountains, or even beyond.
And it scared him a bit too.
The speed with which it had covered such distance was astonishing — and it also meant it was not only fast, but strong, as it would have inevitably met resistance along the way.
A thought that seemed to be confirmed by the occasional fresh corpse they would find.
Or two.
He should have been terrified, considering everything.
A powerful Nightmare Creature — possibly of Corrupted Rank — that had taken a particular interest in them should have been at the forefront of his mind.
And it was, but…
He didn’t feel particularly threatened for some reason.
It did direct a chilling killing intent at him from time to time, but mostly…
it was similar to longing?
He wasn’t sure.
He had felt something similar himself over these past weeks, after all.
It was a very, very complicated and unsettling feeling…
He exhaled, anticipating the upcoming headache.
As he dismissed the Memory and was about to give the command to move, he heard a short gasp behind him.
He turned around — already knowing what was happening — moving to catch Cassie before she fell, but there was no need.
Nephis had already done it, apparently.
As Cassie hung unconscious in her arms, they stared at each other for a moment, in complete silence, the awkward atmosphere filling the space once again.
He was about to say something, but stopped.
What should he even say in such situations?
“Damnation, maybe it’s my social skills that have deteriorated too much?” he mumbled under his breath as he ran a hand through his hair.
“Was my hair always that short?”
It took them a few moments of uncomfortable silence before Cassie’s eyelids fluttered open and she uttered what both he and Neph had already predicted.
“They’re coming.”
***
As it turned out, his initial guess was right — the Tyrant had finally grown tired of the chase and decided to finish the hunt.
According to his memories and confirmed by Gloomy’s shadow scouting, there were two routes to the next high ground.
And both of them were being used as an ambush by the Tyrant at this very moment.
From what they could piece together from Cassie’s vision, the bastard had split his forces across both paths.
The much larger part he had positioned on the northern route — almost thirty abominations, all of Fallen Rank.
The rest — a smaller group that still contained some Awakened Creatures — he had directed to the southern one.
But there were nuances…
He had split that group too.
As there was essentially a single road to the southern refuge in this part of the labyrinth, he had placed the weaker half — a horde of twelve abominations — somewhere toward the middle.
Half of them were Awakened, the only Awakened ones he had left.
The main force he led himself, of course, positioned just before the high ground and consisting of Fallen only.
The king and his generals…
There was no way out — they had to fight.
He had hoped they had at least a few more days before the Tyrant would show his hand — time he would have spent thinking for a solution.
But he should have known better.
After all, life had given him many bitter and painful lessons with the same result: that there is no such thing as hope in his life.
They could of course return to the previous refuge, but that would put them even further behind schedule than they already were, as they would have to completely recalculate their path — there weren’t that many high grounds overall, and the distance between most of them was simply impossible to cover in their circumstances within a day.
And even if they decided to return, it would be suicide too — the bastard had positioned his forces in a way that would give him an easy opportunity to encircle them if they didn’t appear before him.
It was a very, very smart Nightmare Creature — smarter, to be honest, than most Great ones and even some Cursed ones he had fought in his previous life.
They were in check.
No matter which way they chose, only death awaited them.
He gritted his teeth, cold rage overtaking him, but in the end he composed himself.
They had to choose…
Well, there was nothing to choose, really — there was only one way.
“We have to face the Tyrant,” he said simply, looking over his companions.
Nephis nodded, her expression somber.
Cassie strained, but nodded too.
All of them understood.
“All of our options lead to certain death, but this one is a bit less assured.” He took a shaky breath in, and then cursed anyway.
“Fuck!”
If they had just a few more days, he could probably unlock his second Core, and then they would have tried to outrun the bastard on an enlarged shadow-boat — but now…
Even if he pulled out the [Shapeless Thief] in the fight with the smaller group and added the fragment boost it gave, he would still be short by just under a hundred Fragments — and that was assuming his calculations were correct.
But even if he had somehow managed to unlock his Monster Core today, they still wouldn’t be able to escape.
The bastard had positioned his forces at such a distance that they wouldn’t have time to make it back.
There was only one way — forward…
toward him.
He believed they would manage to overcome the first group, but it would be one hell of a battle — one that would leave them tired and injured.
The second group was less of a concern, thanks to Nephis, no matter how much he hated the idea.
They wouldn’t be at their best, and the despicable abomination knew that too.
He wanted them to despair that much.
That bastard was rising on the pedestal of his most hated beings.
He wouldn’t make it to the top, of course — first place was split between himself and the Vile Thieving Bird, after all.
He considered whether he should use [Heaven’s Promise] in their second battle.
There was a problem with that thought, of course — the creature was too smart.
It wouldn’t place all its subordinates close together; it would spread them, encircle them, grind their morale down as much as it could.
If he were to use it, he should do so at the very start — probably to kill the Tyrant himself.
For a second or two after the throw, he would be completely without essence and under heavy mental drain, assaulted by [Thief’s Instinct], at least until the weapon had stolen enough essence from the bastard’s body.
But that delay would probably kill him — and no matter how much he believed in Neph, there was no way she would survive alone against a dozen more Fallen abominations.
Let alone what would happen to Cassie afterwards.
If he had to use the [Thief], he would need to turn it into something far more destructive, with a wide range of attacks — something that countered [Thief’s Instinct] too, if that was possible.
Coincidentally, there was one such weapon…
But the current him had no way to control it, no way to use it at anything close to its full might.
‘Damn, I wanted to postpone this until at least I had my Demon Core.’ But even after that, he would probably die too.
It was too destructive and uncontrollable for this body to handle.
So he would have to make not one, but three suicide decisions in a single day.
First — which road to take toward their death.
The last two…
whatever he needed to do to let Nephis and Cassie live to see another day.
That was a record, even for him.
He exhaled wearily.
“We need to move now — otherwise even if we win, the Sea will consume us anyway.” Both of his companions nodded simultaneously and began to move.
“There is one more thing, though…” He swallowed nervously.
“Once it starts, we won’t have any time to talk.
So when we reach the Tyrant — and if everything goes to hell — I want you, Neph,” he looked directly into her eyes, “to take Cassie and run back as fast as you can.” Her eyes widened — the first easily readable emotion he had seen from her since his last life.
Cassie gasped, her expression stricken with horror.
“Sunny, have you gone ma—” she stopped, as if catching herself asking something obvious.
She knew he had.
“We won’t leave you. Right, Neph?” Nephis nodded immediately.
“I refuse such a request,” she said, her brows furrowed, dead serious.
“No — you don’t understand… Cas, remember the first night on the shore? The explosion?” She nodded shakily — it was hard to forget.
“I… I have a Memory. A very, very powerful one…” he continued, licking his lips.
“But if I were to use it, there is a high chance you would be caught in the crossfire. If everything goes to hell, I need you both as far away as possible,” he said, dead serious.
He let the words sink in for a second.
Then a small, nervous smile appeared on his face.
“You know, my Flaw is called ‘Clear Conscience’ — it literally means that I cannot lie.” Both of them blinked, shock evident on their faces.
“I used to think my Flaw was bad, before I met you both, but now… But I digress,” he clapped his hands.
“It means that if I say I’m not planning to die there, I won’t. And I don’t plan to — didn’t I tell you just an hour ago that I still have a lot of things to do?”
There was silence after his last words for a few seconds, his cheerful remark not quite reaching their hearts.
Then Nephis took a step forward, then another, until she stood right in front of him — a mere foot or so separating them — and put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it almost painfully.
“Promise me… Sunny, promise me…” she started, her voice so sharp it could probably cut the stone beneath their feet.
“If I were to do that — promise me you would come back.” She looked into his eyes, searching for any deception.
He could probably find some words, twist a lie into a truth, but in the end he answered as truthfully as he could.
“I will do everything I can — fight tooth and nail to do that. I don’t want to die yet. As I said, I have a lot to do.” He swallowed, uncomfortable at their close proximity.
“I can promise you that I will try with every bit of my being,” he said simply.
“Is that enough?”
She looked at him for a while after that, and then simply nodded.
“Neph, you wouldn’t do that, would you?” Cassie’s voice drew their attention.
“He… Sunny… No matter how strong, he would die alone!” she cried.
Nephis hesitated for a second, then determination ignited in her eyes.
“He promised, didn’t he?” she asked simply.
And not waiting for a reply, she shifted her gaze back to him, the corner of her lip lifting slightly.
“After all… if that’s his will, who dares stop him?”
It took them almost half a day to reach the first group of abominations.
Sunny and Nephis had already summoned their weapons and were determinedly making their way toward the adversaries.
They had left Cassie a few hundred meters back in a relatively safe place.
Nephis suddenly shifted her gaze to him as the first abominations became visible in the distance, rapidly approaching.
“Ready?” she asked simply.
He didn’t answer at first.
Eyes closed, a deeply concentrated expression on his face — shifting painfully, though barely noticeably.
He was very busy at that moment.
All of his thoughts were running in a single direction.
His mind dove deeper into itself, toward his past; toward his death; toward the most painful memories he had.
The whispers filled his mind — of those he had loved; of those he had failed; of those…
he could have loved too.
He gritted his teeth.
‘Deeper!’
So he dove.
Whispers intensified.
Images flashed.
Rage grew.
Eyes burned.
The life he had forsaken; the life he had lost; the life he had never had.
‘Deeper, damn it!’
He felt so much pain.
So much sorrow.
So much regret.
But he fed them.
Cultivated them.
Compressed all those feelings and turned them into fuel.
Yet it wasn’t enough.
So he dove deeper and deeper and deeper again — until his mind was nothing more than a mess of feeling.
He couldn’t even think anymore.
What was he doing?
Why was he torturing himself so much?
But the purpose…
he never lost it.
So he dove anyway.
Until there was nowhere to dive.
He hit the bottom.
At the bottom lay a naked figure of something that had once been human.
Well, he wouldn’t call it human.
It was more of a beast.
Its once-handsome face was almost unrecognizable.
Its once beautiful raven hair was unkempt and disheveled.
Skin ash-white, thick black veins bulging beneath it.
The figure had six hands, with seven fingers on each.
But the most discernible feature was its eyes.
Even as they were closed, you could tell that something deep, something mad, something malicious lay hidden behind those eyelids.
Something corrupted.
The figure was sleeping.
Sunny looked at the figure — well, more like a monster — with palpable disgust, yet he approached it still.
He squatted down in front of it.
If a look could set something on fire, this one would have turned the figure to ash instantly.
He concentrated all of the sorrow, regret, and hate he had into his hand.
And then…
he slapped the monster across the face.
The air stilled in that imaginary space.
The figure’s eyelids fluttered.
“Wake up, despicable bastard. We have some work to do…”
Sunny breathed out slowly and opened his eyes.
The shadows fluttered around them.
He smiled.
And that smile sent a shiver down Nephis’s spine.
Deep in his eyes — imperceptibly to most — small, ember-like sparks danced.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
And then he shot forward, not waiting for her to reply.
The first in his path was a Fallen Beast — a ferocious, humanoid figure more than seven feet tall, with two hands bearing three sharp fingers on each.
This one also possessed a second mouth on its belly and a tail tipped with a spike dripping deadly poison.
Its head was some disgusting amalgam of human and ant, with multiple rows of teeth protruding from both jaws.
It leapt at Sunny with its mouths open and hands outstretched — it wanted him to dive sideways, so it could sting him with its tail and then tear him apart at leisure.
Sunny knew this, because his mind was already in the shadows — in all of their shadows.
So he knew what they wanted.
How they thought.
How they ticked.
So he dove forward too, then downward, dodging the abomination’s hands.
[Knight’s Oath]’s steel whistled through the air, finding the second mouth of the Beast and driving toward its roof — a weakness no sane person would dare to explore, but he wasn’t sane, was he?
— the tip tore through flesh and drove deeper until the guard nearly touched the teeth.
Sunny let go of the handle and sidestepped, then struck the monster under the knee joint, breaking its balance and forcing it onto its stomach, driving the edge of the sword deeper until it met the heart.
He didn’t register the Spell’s whisper as he jumped to the left, dismissing and already re-summoning the Memory.
The Awakened Demon didn’t wait, though.
It looked similar to the Beast he had just killed — a foot or so smaller, no second mouth and no tail — far less dangerous, but without an obvious weakness to exploit.
It attempted some imitation of a martial art — Sunny giggled at that, crazily — he caught its arm between his elbow and forearm as the abomination moved to rip his heart out, then pulled, sidestepping to the left.
He let of the creature’s arm and jumped, his right leg swinging toward the back of the Demon’s neck and wrapping around it.
He sent a little essence into the muscles of that leg and squeezed tighter.
And after that…
he twisted himself around it, laughing like a child at an amusement park, as the creature’s neck snapped.
He relaxed his leg and let gravity pull him as he tucked himself in the air and wrapped Gloomy around himself instead of the [Puppeteer’s Shroud].
As he hit the ground he rolled immediately, narrowly dodging two more Demons.
[Knight’s Oath] had already finished materializing.
He attacked the one to the left, cutting the tendon behind its left knee.
A paired feint to the right, letting his weight shift at the last moment and stepping back as the two monsters collided in a mess of limbs and wails.
He finished them both with one swing.
Something tingled at the back of his mind.
He dropped to the ground — spreading his stance as wide and low as possible without losing balance — as the last Demon flew over his head.
Nephis had already slain one a few seconds earlier and was making short work of another Fallen.
He struck upward from below, gutting it, covering himself from head to toe in its foul blood.
He shifted his balance, rolling again as the Fallen Monster came at him.
This one was more dangerous — its back was covered with long, thick spikes, and if you were unfortunate enough to end up behind it — as Sunny now was — you would soon learn that the bastard could fire them.
Sunny already knew, though.
“Neph, down!” he called as he leapt like a beast onto all fours immediately after his roll, then rolled again and finally came to his feet.
He successfully evaded most of the spikes, deflecting a few more with his blade, but one buried itself deep into his right thigh and another into his shoulder on the same side.
He ignored them completely — this much was nothing.
Nephis, on the other hand, was far enough to evade them all and had even managed to use her Beast as a shield, buying herself enough time to finish it off.
As the idiotic Monster expended all its spikes in one volley, Sunny covered the bastard in cuts, successfully dodging the nearby Beast’s attack, and finished it off by driving [Knight’s Oath] deep into its eye socket.
As the sword was momentarily stuck, Sunny snatched two spikes from the ground and sidestepped another lunge — not completely, though; the Beast opened a deep cut across his chest.
As it moved to press the attack, he finally struck from the side, driving one spike under its armpit and the other deep into its neck.
As the creature wailed and thrashed in madness, he finally had the moment he needed to wrench the sword free from the Monster’s skull.
And then everything fell into flow.
As he finished the wounded Beast, Nephis had just slain her own — and then two more monsters came from the other side of the labyrinth.
He couldn’t say it was easy, but it wasn’t that difficult a battle, all things considered — just two Sleepers against a dozen Nightmare Creatures, half of them Fallen.
He could name no one crazy enough to pull that off besides himself and Nephis.
The Tyrant had also made it easier by sending his most incompetent soldiers first.
He wanted to face them himself, after all, and had no need for weaklings in his ranks.
The real battle that awaited them next…
‘It’s going to be a mess.’
He quickly checked his runes.
He had received no Memories.
And his Fragments, well…
Shadow Fragments: [782/1000].
As he looked at the counter, a somber feeling ran through his body.
He didn’t want to go down that path this early — not before he even had his second Core.
But it seemed there was no other way.
“Three suicide decisions in a day, indeed,” he mumbled, making Nephis shift her gaze to him.
She was breathing heavily, a few wounds here and there — covered in sticky monster blood, she looked, somehow, like a Goddess of War returning from a campaign.
‘Well, not that Goddess of War,’ he chuckled internally.
Her expression was a bit different than usual, though.
Concern was evident on her face.
“Sunny, what the Spell was that?!” Nephis asked, losing her composure for a moment, her voice just the faintest bit shaken.
He chuckled — then giggled — wiping the sweat and monster blood from his forehead.
“That… ” he started, still giggling.
“That is what true madness looks like”
Hi everyone.
I’m back.
Those were hard two days, ngl.
Maybe I’m gonna post tomorrow, too.
But most likely not.
Though I hope to write two chaps over the weekend.
Next one is going to be ve-e-ery surprising, and, hopefuly, fun to write.
Would like to hear your thoughts, as usual.
Some parts were a bit hard to write in this chap.
It’s 2 am here, and I was on my last breath as I was finishing the last scene.
Hope you liked it, though.
See you soon!