The fiend shifted its weight, then lunged forward with a shrill giggle. It was terrifyingly powerful and fast, but because its movements were clearly telegraphed, Sunny had plenty of time to react.
Diving under the long arm of the abomination, he narrowly avoided being torn apart by the sharp talons and lashed out with the Cruel Sight. As the silver blade bit into the abdomen of the creature, piercing its tough skin just under the ribs, he continued forward and spun.
Just a split second later, Sunny was already behind the enemy.
…However, he wasn't safe.
Without pausing ever for a moment, the bizarre monstrosity pressed its hands against the ground and then kicked back with both legs. There was enough power in that strike to shatter a small hill, but Sunny was already moving, getting out of range.
He had not observed how the fiend fought against the Chained Worms for nothing. He knew that the wretched thing could use all four of its limbs to attack, and that its joints seemed to be able to bend in any direction. Not only did he know what the abomination was capable of, he also knew what it liked and tended to do.
He also knew where it was most vulnerable, and where none of his weapons would be able to do any harm. That's why he had aimed for its gaunt body instead of the much larger and obvious target — the chest itself.
Sunny had always been very perceptive, and practicing Shadow Dance only sharpened his ability to observe and understand such things. Maybe it was thanks to that that he had managed to learn so much about the fiend so fast.
As the soles of his boots scraped against the dark stone, a fleeting thought passed through his mind:
'How would it feel to shadow a Nightmare Creature… I wonder…'
Then, he had no more time for unnecessary thoughts.
Crushing through blackened bones, the abomination bent its joints in the opposite direction of where they were supposed to turn, spun, and lunged at him once again. This time, it was moving on all fours, the lid of the chest serving as its lower jaw. That made it almost impossible for him to dodge out of the way.
…Sunny had no idea why the golden coins weren't spilling out, but luckily, they seemed to be held in place by some strange force.
Unable to use his maimed arm to help himself keep balance, he had no choice but to jump down and roll under the attacking fiend. The Cruel Sight flashed again, leaving a deep cut on the leg of the creature. At the same time, a pulse of sharp pain radiated through Sunny's entire body… even though he took care to protect his broken bones, he couldn't keep them from scraping against one another completely.
But the worse pain was still to come.
'That is going to hurt…'
Sunny had already known that he would not be able to get back to his feet before the next attack came. Due to the fact that the abomination would have to perform it from an awkward position, it was not going to be as devastating as the previous blows. The Crushing had also become considerable enough to slow down both of their movements…
But those long and sharp talons were absolutely deadly even if there was not much force behind them.
As the fiend pivoted and snapped one of its limbs in his direction, Sunny sent both of his shadows from his body to encompass the Puppeteer's Shroud. A moment later, the talons slashed across his torso… and slid from the lusterless black leather of the chest guard without piercing it.
The strike itself, however, was still powerful enough to throw Sunny flying back. He counted on that, though, and used the momentum to create distance between himself and the vile creature. Landing on his feet, Sunny suppressed a groan and brandished the Cruel Sight once again.
As the heavenly chain rattled, Twisted Rock rose even higher, and the burden of the Crushing suddenly pressed him down even more.
***
Some time later, Sunny was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion and pain.
"Argh! Curse you!"
He staggered back and hunched over, using the shaft of the Cruel Sight to keep himself standing upright. His breath was ragged and pained, and drops of both sweat and blood were rolling down his face.
Things… were not going great.
For the both of them, actually.
The ferocious clash between himself and the vile giggling fiend had gone for much longer than either of them had ever expected. After the first few minutes, it had become apparent that neither one could easily kill the other.
Sunny was too devious and slippery to be caught by the bizarre creature, and the damned chest monster was too vigorous and resilient to succumb to the dozens of shallow wounds that Sunny had delivered to it. What's worse, all of its vital organs seemed to be hidden inside the chest, which was nearly indestructible.
It was the most terrible battle of all…
A battle between two cockroaches!
As the result, their fight lasted for a simply stupid amount of time.
By now, both were in rough shape. Sunny was almost dead from exhaustion, bleeding from several ugly wounds, and in a world of pain. The abomination looked even worse. Its gaunt body seemed to have gone through a meat grinder, and its long tongue was hanging lifelessly over the edge of the chest, not even trying to move.
Neither was ready to give up, though.
The fiend panted heavily and stared at Sunny. Then, it giggled once again. This time, the giggle sounded tired, slightly bewildered… but mostly full of searing hatred.
The bastard really, really wanted to rip Sunny to shreds now.
Staggering forward, it tried to swipe at him with one hand, but crashed heavily to the ground instead. Lying there motionlessly, the bizarre creature let out a despondent growl.
The Crushing was almost unbearable by now. Sunny wasn't sure that he would be able to withstand it for much longer, so the abomination had to be having an extremely rough time, too. In fact, it was certainly being tortured by the oppressive force much more. Very soon, both of them were going to be completely immobilized.
He just had to kill it before that happened.
Not sure that he would be able to take another step, Sunny extended the Cruel Sight to its full length and thrust it forward. The silver blade pierced the skin of the fiend, causing more black blood to seep out.
'Good… bleed to death, you piece of crap!'
He could feel the enhancement of the Blood Blossom become a tiny bit stronger, but at this point, it was already meaningless. The charm was just an Awakened Memory of the second tier, after all. Whatever boost it could provide was not that substantial when dealing with Fallen Nightmare Creatures and Ascended weapons, especially past the point where the incremental increases in its potency were truly substantial.
The abomination tried to dodge the attack, but failed to move fast enough due to the merciless pressure of the Crushing. It tried to stand up… but failed.
A grim smile appeared on Sunny's face.
'Got you…'
His enemy, it seemed, was now completely helpless. But Sunny could still move… he could still attack... he had not even used any of the shadow essence that had been accumulating in his cores this whole time. The reserves weren't large, but there was some...
Retrieving his spear, he gathered his strength, and then thrust it forward again, delivering another wound to the bizarre creature. And then again, and then…
'Die, just die already…'
…And then, the fiend giggled mockingly, and suddenly gathered its limbs, which then disappeared into the bottom of the chest. A few seconds later, the whole body of the creature was out of sight, leaving only the adamantine, indestructible chest standing in the middle of the stone island. The tip of the spear scraped against the dark wood, not leaving even a scratch on it.
Sunny stared at it, dumbfounded.
Then, he let out a yelp, and as the power of the Crushing increased even further, fell to his knees.
"What the hell?! Come back here, you coward!"
His hands trembled from strain as he lifted the Cruel Sight and struck the chest once again, to no result whatsoever.
Sunny seemed to have overexerted himself with that last strike, because the spear fell out of his hands and plunged to the ground, striking the stone with enough force to send a few cracks through it. Then, it bounced and rolled away, finally getting caught on a piece of bone about two meters away.
He stared at the Cruel Sight with a shocked expression, and then dismissed the Memory instead of trying to walk… or crawl… that far to retrieve it.
Sunny turned to the chest and gritted his teeth. A moment later, sparks of light appeared around his hand again.
"Don't think that it's over!"
The lid of the chest trembled, and then rose a bit. The creature clearly strained to achieve even that much.
A gloating, hateful giggle emerged from the depths of it a moment later.
…That was the exact moment when Sunny tossed a polished crimson gem that had appeared in his hand toward the chest. Just a split second after the Broken Oath flew inside the abomination's maw, the lid snapped close, pressed down by the obliterating force of the Crushing.
A muffled sound resounded from within the chest, but no matter how much the lid trembled, it didn't rise again.
Sunny fell to the ground and laughed, then groaned and whimpered as he arduously crawled a few meters away and finally grew still just outside of the Broken Oath's soul-destroying reach.
Laying there in complete exhaustion, unable to move anymore, Sunny grinned.
"Who's laughing now? Try to swallow that, you bastard…"
The Twisted Rock soared higher and higher into the sky, and as it did, a terrible crushing force assaulted the two living beings that were pressed into its surface, separated only by a dozen meters of dark stone.
The large adamantine chest did not look too good. The wood was slowly losing its color, the strips of metal reinforcing it showed growing patches of rust. It seemed as though the creature was struck by some terrible disease. In a sense, it was… after all, the Broken Oath was currently destroying its soul bit by little bit.
Sunny did not look that much better, though.
He was laying on the hard stone, looking at the merciless skies, struggling to breathe and endure the pain. His armor was soaked in blood, and his broken arm was pressed tightly against his chest. His face was deathly pale, almost the same color as the tall and majestic Ivory Tower that floated high above the world, shrouded in the whitest of clouds.
Every breath was a torture.
Sunny knew that he was not going to bleed to death because of the Blood Weave, but the wounds still needed to be tended to. His broken bones, especially, were in need of attention. This Crushing was turning out to be tragically long, though, not giving him the chance to do so.
Well, that was not a surprise.
The single chain connecting the Twisted Rock to the rest of the Isles was much longer than most, which meant that the small island was going to rise very, very high. Higher than Sunny had ever been in this strange and deadly land.
The Crushing was not only going to last longer, but would also be vastly more terrible than the few previous times he had experienced it. By now, the hours of hardship he had endured together with Master Roan several days ago seemed like a pleasant walk in the park.
Now, it seemed as though he was being slowly crushed under the weight of the entirety of heaven.
Sunny was only alive because he didn't have to hide his powers anymore, and could use all of his abilities without restraint. Unlike on the day he had met the dashing griffin rider, both shadows were now tightly wrapped around his body, augmenting its resilience threefold. For that reason, he had not turned into a puddle of bloody goo yet. Although it certainly felt as though he was getting close…
If things became really unbearable, he could still escape into the shadows and either wait out the worst part of the Crushing or try to escape back to the heavenly chain before his shadow essence ran out. Since he had spent this whole time patiently circulating it through the coils of the Soul Serpent, there was a considerable amount flowing through his cores by now.
He had also spent this whole time waiting for the damn chest fiend to finally die, as well as considering his options on how to transport the gold coins back to the Sanctuary of Noctis.
Since it had turned out that only the upper layer of the treasure pile was real, he now had much more options… however, all of them required him to burn through a lot of essence to cross back through the swarm of Chain Worms. The problem was confounded by the fact that Twisted Rock was going to be destroyed soon, which meant that he could not risk making several trips to the Citadel and back. He had to carry his spoils away while the island was still attached to the rest of the Chained Isles.
For that reason, Sunny was trying to endure as much of the Crushing as he could before turning into a shadow.
…He also did not forget about the strange way his intuition had reacted to the dying island. Before the burden of the Crushing became too overbearing, he had sent one of his shadows to scour the whole place in search of anything that might have been important enough to affect the strings of fate.
However, there was literally nothing on the Twisted Rock except for barren stone and ancient, blackened bones. The shadow explored every nook and cranny of this miserable place, only to find nothing at all.
He had even sent it to take a look at the underside of the small isle, but it was as empty and desolate as the rest of it.
Sunny was left very confused by that turn of events. He was certain that there was nowhere on the Twisted Rock that he had failed to search. And yet, there was nothing on the island to cause his intuition to react so strongly. What was going on? Had he failed to notice something, or was he mistaken about the whole thing, to begin with?
Sadly, after a while, the Crushing had become too terrible for him to endure without the help of the second shadow, so he had to call it back.
And now, here they were.
A sudden sound attracted Sunny's attention. Glancing sideways, he noticed that a crack had appeared on the surface of the adamantine chest. Black blood seeped out of it, soon turning into a stream. A few seconds later, a second crack appeared near the first.
He would have smiled if not for the fact that even such a simple action was rather strenuous now, this high above the Sky Below.
'It's not going to be too long now…'
***
A few minutes later, there was a pool of black blood surrounding the large wooden chest.
Sunny endured the pain and counted the seconds.
Before he reached a thousand, the vile creature trembled slightly and giggled one last time, its grating voice full of doleful outrage. Then, the bizarre monstrosity shuddered and grew absolutely still.
It was finally dead!
Sunny couldn't help but grin slightly.
'Finally… all those coins… are mine!'
As the heavenly chain rattled and groaned, the voice of the Spell resounded above the hellish stone island. Its words sounded like music to his ears...
[You have slain a Fallen Devil, Mordant Mimic.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[...You have received a Memory.]
Despite the torturous burden of the Crushing, Sunny couldn't help but feel jubilant. Not only did he receive eight shadow fragments and a powerful Memory, he had also defeated a Fallen Devil all by himself, without even Saint providing him any help.
The Black Knight, too, had been a Fallen Devil. So killing one solo meant a lot to Sunny. It was a poignant milestone that made him feel like all his hard work and all the vile things he had gone through were not for nothing. He was accomplishing his goal.
Growing stronger.
…Of course, the Mordant Mimic was not as terrifying of a foe in battle as the guardian of the ruined cathedral had been. One was a creature that seemed to have been created solely for combat, while the other mostly relied on deceit and ambushing its prey to achieve victory. And yet, the chest fiend was by no means an easy foe. If anything, its devilish nature only made it that much more dangerous.
'Argh!'
As the Twisted Rock rose higher, the Crushing struck at Sunny with even more dreadful force, making his mirth dissipate in a wave of miserable suffering. A muffled groan escaped from his lips.
'Endure… just endure a bit more… this hell is going to end soon.'
For now, he had no choice but to keep suffering, wait, and stare at the distant silhouette of the Ivory Tower.
The beautiful pagoda seemed so close now that he could almost imagine himself reaching out and encompassing it in his fist.
With nothing else to do, Sunny summoned the runes and found the familiar cluster out of habit:
Shadow Fragments: [223/2000].
'I wonder how many coins are in that damned chest…'
Would he be able to create the third core with their help?
Shifting his gaze, Sunny found the runes describing his Memories. A new one was now shown at the end of the list.
His eyes glistened slightly as he concentrated on it and read the description:
Memory: [Covetous Coffer].
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Tier: IV.
'Huh…'
Sunny really couldn't believe his fortune. This was the second Ascended Memory of the fourth tier that he had acquired in a span of just a few days. Even without considering the main boon of the expedition — the miraculous coins — this journey had already proved to be incredibly fruitful.
But what kind of a Memory would the bizarre carnivorous chest leave behind?
Curious, he read on.
Memory Type: Tool.
'A utility Memory!'
While not as showy as armors and weapons, utility Memories were the foundation of every Awakened's arsenal. Take Sunny, for example — some of his most precious Memories were tools. Endless Spring, Ordinary Rock, Silver Bell… even Weaver's Mask.
Excited, he tried to forget about the obliterating pressure of the Crushing and concentrate on the runes.
Memory Description: ["You are very strange!" said Noctis. Why was his new friend so deathly afraid of chests? Why was he so timid and pale? "Don't be afraid, these are just my treasure chests. They won't bite. Well... except for this one. This one will eat you alive."]
Sunny blinked.
'That… is interesting.'
So Noctis of the Sanctuary of Noctis was a person, after all. What's more, he or she had apparently been in possession of several treasure chests, including one that could eat people alive.
Had the Mordant Mimic once been a pet of this Noctis? If so…
What kind of a person would keep a Fallen Devil as a pet?
Suddenly full of dread, Sunny continued to read.
Memory Enchantments: [Mendacious Coffer], [Capacious Chest], [Locomotive Chifonnier], [Lurid Trunk].
Sunny stared at the runes with a deadpan expression.
'What… do all these words… even mean?'
Struggling to understand the names of the enchantments, he wondered if the Spell was having a stroke and shifted his gaze to the descriptions.
[Mendacious Coffer] Enchantment Description: "This Memory can mimic the form of any inanimate object. The size and intricacy of the simulacrum are dependent on the wielder's Soul Core capacity."
'Makes sense. I am sure that the Mimic only assumed the form of a chest, instead of being born… created?... as one. I wonder what kind of a shape I can currently manage, though.'
He studied the runes again:
[Capacious Chest] Enchantment Description: "This Memory is bigger on the inside. It can be summoned and dismissed while storing inanimate items. The size of the storage space, as well as the maximum weight of stored items, are dependent on the wielder's Soul Core capacity."
Sunny suppressed the desire to grin.
'Yes!'
This was exactly what he needed right now. This enchantment solved the exact problem he was facing — the need to carry all the gold coins away before Twisted Rock was destroyed. Once again, luck was on his side!
But that wasn't all. The ability to store items in the Covetous Coffer, and then store the Coffer in his Soul Sea, opened up a sea of possibilities. In a sense, it was just like Effie's incredible bag, but better — the bag had to be carried around if there was anything inside of it, while the Coffer could be stashed away until needed.
And if so… could Sunny bring items from the Dream Realm to the real world with its help? He couldn't wait to find out.
Thinking of all the money he would make, Sunny turned his attention to the remaining enchantments:
[Locomotive Chiffonnier] Enchantment Description: [This Memory can move around and follow its wielder.]
'...Nice! That will solve the problem of having to carry all the items if I store too much inside. They are still going to weigh a ton, after all.'
[Lurid Trunk] Enchantment Description: "This Memory will protect itself against potential thieves. By eating them."
Sunny blinked.
'That is... a bit scary. I better remain on the good side of this bizarre Memory, huh?'
Overall, he was incredibly happy with the Covetous Coffer. This new utility Memory of his was simply fantastic! Not only was it capable of solving his current predicament, it would also make his future ventures into the Dream Realm much more comfortable and efficient. Not to mention the possibility of being able to bring soul shards into the real world with its help, and selling them there at a high price…
Soul shards meant money, and money meant being able to purchase Memories. With more Memories at his disposal, Sunny would be able to bring Saint to two hundred shadow fragments faster... which would hopefully make the two of them vastly more powerful.
Now, he just had to survive the Crushing.
…He was almost ready to give up and turn into a shadow when the heavenly chain finally drew taut, stopping the rise of the Twisted Rock. One more deafening rattle rolled through the air, and then, everything grew quiet.
The Crushing was at its peak now. Sunny was hurting terribly, but still able to withstand it. He just had to endure until the island entered the descent phase, and the pressure would slowly start to reduce.
Sunny strained his chest and drew in a hoarse breath.
'Thank gods…'
However, before he could feel any relief, the whole island suddenly shuddered, and a strange piercing noise assaulted his ears.
It sounded... it sounded like the sound of metal being torn apart.
Sunny's pupils widened.
'What… was that?!'