At first glance, the stars seemed to be disappearing before new ones took their place. At the second glance, once Sunny recognized how many stars there were and their respective brightness, it became obvious that the stars were simply reappearing. At the third glance, it was clear that the stars were repeating certain patterns repeatedly.
…Not that Sunny knew what he was looking at. He couldn't quite figure out what the stars were supposed to symbolize. They didn't form any runes that he knew of, even after he considered the possibility that the constellation in the sky was formed of multiple scripts.
'What does an intelligent individual such as myself do in such a situation?'
The ground around him began to rumble, answering his question. Sunny grimaced as he became a shadow, gliding far away from his original position. Sliding his shadowy figure onto the wall of a vast canyon — one that seemed to sprout strange star-shaped plants — he sent out the Happy shadow to serve as his eyes, the jubilant fellow taking on the task with boundless enthusiasm.
Not to far from where he had previously stood, a titanic amount of dirt was kicked up into the air. The force caused a small earthquake in the surrounding areas, causing large chasms and irreversible environmental changes. The walls of the canyon Sunny was hiding on started to crumble into boulders and dust, the entire dirt avalanche taking an excruciatingly long amount of time to reach the bottom.
In the impact zone, Sunny detected a vast and infinitely deep shadow, the depths of which he did not even dare to gaze into. What he did dare to do, however, was peer into the soul of the shadow's owner, which the Happy shadow could barely see from within the cloud of dust.
Four, blindingly bright Soul Cores stared back at him — not even remotely as bright as the swordsman in white robes that had attempted to slay Seele, but brighter than any Saint he had ever encountered. Although he didn't have a measure for how strong one would be, or what their Soul Cores looked like, it was safe to say that it was a Supreme Devil.
…A Supreme Devil. A creature that should be stronger than the strongest of humanity's warriors — those that were publicly known, at least. If a Sovereign was what he thought they were, then that fact would be completely overwritten.
'I just got casually tossed into a Death Zone…'
Areas that not even Saints could survive for long. The Hollow Mountains, Godgrave, the Forgotten Shore, the Nightmare Desert. Places infested with large amounts of Corrupted, and sometimes even Great, abominations. Some were designated as Death Zones due to the sheer cruelty of the environment itself.
From what Sunny knew, Godgrave has a sun that annihilates all life that is unfortunate enough to be under its rays.
These were just compiling the known Death Zones, which humans have at least somewhat explored and survived the tale. The tale of the Forgotten Shore and how over two hundred out of a thousand or so Sleepers managed to return to the Waking World was a phenomenon unseen in history. Such a thing cannot be replicated.
As Sunny understood it, the Forgotten Shore was only considered a Death Zone due to the many Corrupted Nightmare Creatures that came with the dark sea that rose at night. In the day, the worst were of the Fallen Rank… which was still too extreme for mere Sleepers, who should only be facing Dormant Beasts and Monsters, if anything.
In the Nightmare Desert, it has been estimated that even a few thousand Saints wouldn't be able to survive against the horrors that lay there.
And these were only the places that were known. It was possible that not even ten percent of the Dream Realm has been explored, even less if the theories of an underground layer spanning over the entirety of it were true.
Of course, the Waking World has its own Death Zones. Back on Earth, Sunny had heard that North and South America were one, while the oceans and Antarctica were another. Looking back on it, he had no idea how the horrid City he lived in was even standing.
The main point was that he had been thrown somewhere even Saints would have no business being in. Earlier, he had seen two other Supreme beings, equal to Great abominations. One of which was a Monster, and had been some kind of floating fish — one of normal size, at least, he believed so. It had swam through the air, its scales transitioning between countless hues.
The other had been an oversized stag beetle. A Supreme Beast that was as tall as ten humans. That's it.
Just a big bug.
And yet, they were so, so very different from the Nightmare Creatures he was familiar with. Noble Creatures, as Herta had called them when ordering him to not overly disrupt the ecosystem, weren't overly violent, weren't revolting to even look at, and didn't bear the signature mark of vileness that Nightmare Creatures had on their souls.
They ate eachother every once in a while, sure, but it seems to stem from a biological need rather than an urge to devour as much souls as possible. Some of them… were herbivores.
In fact, Sunny had stood before a random Awakened Beast, which only earned him a cautious stare.
The Supreme Noble Creatures didn't even seem to have a desire to eat. After watching the beetle for an hour or so, he realized that it had simply been strolling around as it passed by so many easy meals.
It was as if… their mere beings were enough to sustain themselves.
On the other hand, Great Nightmare Creatures would have ran the place to extinction.
'Let's take a look…'
As the dust cleared up, Sunny took in the appearance of the third Supreme creature he had seen that day…