Nephis was partly worried about leaving Sunny considering that he had most likely come up with a plan during the heat of the battle - and that he might not survive - but also because she wouldn't be there in case he sustained any injuries that would limit his mobility to escape if he failed to kill it. Nephis' mind wandered back to the last time they rested where Sunny had told her about his intuition acting up.
***
Sunny and Nephis were inside another hollow tree, but this time they had to dig out the inside, which took some time since the honey-like blood held it together like superglue — although no one used that since the dark ages. Nephis especially struggled because she only had her [Dream Blade] to use as an axe while he could turn Serpent into an axe. She could've used her flames but that would've attracted every nightmare creature in the nearby vicinity, which would be a pain to deal with considering their poor state of killing creatures that threaten to attack them while they traveled.
He almost collapsed when they finished and Nephis barely held herself together as she gently sat on the ground, but he could tell that she was close to passing out from exhaustion. Sunny then threw out the wood that was covered and soaked in its sticky blood and kept only the ones that were semi-dry and usable, which cut off almost 80% of the wood they dug up. Nephis meanwhile lit a fire with her flames and cut up the edible meat they were to scavenge. The keyword was edible since the creatures they found were barely palatable for consumption with how icky and slimy their meat was — even with Blood Weave helping cancel out any toxins they most definitely had.
'I hate that we're desperate enough to eat that. I just hope my future self isn't desperate enough to eat a Fallen Devil for example.' Sunny thought as he added more wood to the fire that raged below the meat before sitting down next to Neph.
Nephis meanwhile was busy tending to the meat, but he could tell she was annoyed that they ran out of salt since she kept glancing at where they normally stored salt in his storage container with a scowl. They were both silent to each other, and for a good reason since Sunny had told her something surprising before they started making camp-
"So, you're saying that you have purely a gut feeling that you should kill the monkey, but not that you would be able to?" Neph spoke up, breaking the silence.
"Yes, I know now is not a good time considering we're on the run, but I felt my intuition act up when I saw the monkey from far away. It was a similar feeling I felt when I found [Weaver's Mask] and knowing that I have to at least try to kill it. If there's a possibility I could get something valuable from it, then it's worth the risk of at least trying. Plus, I've already been preparing secretly for it even before I told you just now."
Sunny said in between bites of the meat Nephis dished out to both of them. Nephis simply frowned when he finished his rant, finding herself in disbelief that he was simply going off intuition. But hadn't she done the same many times? So, who was she to stop Sunny from at least attempting to unravel whatever fate had in store for him - whether good or bad... hopefully good though. She was confident in his ability to run away if the situation called for it like the cockroach he is...
'Now thinking about it, I can see why he saw that as an insult.' Nephis scolded herself for her lack of proper word choice.
"Fine, but at least tell me what you've planned so far, if you want to."
"Plan?"
"Yes, your plan on how you're going to kill it."
"... about that—I don't have an actual plan... yet." Nephis didn't know whether to be shocked, agitated at his carelessness, or regret the earlier praising she had done. Perhaps she should do all three as her stone-cold face almost had an expression.
"But," Sunny quickly said to snap her out of her thoughts, "like I said I've been planning this since I saw the creatures on the move. After all, I didn't decide to stop here for the night simply for rest, although it was nice to relax my arms after all the swinging."
She felt her lips frown slightly as she felt betrayed that he didn't tell her about his pre-planning and was about to ask him, but she stopped herself. If she pressed and he didn't want to answer, he would be forced to answer by force, even if she knew that he would most likely tell her anyway. Still, the urge to pout crossed her mind as she sighed from Sunny's mindset of working alone if he could. Even after all their time spent together Sunny still liked doing his own thing. That had changed gradually during their time in the Dark City and since the sewer-like city they worked in unison like one machine.
"Would you tell me then, Sunny?" Nephis said rather coldly, which got him to shake a little.
"Well, I'm using this break time to allow the monkey to catch up to us before we reach the seed, although I think it'll catch us before we reach the seed anyway. Us being on the ground is also attracting the mysterious deadly assassin who hides underground, or is the ground itself... the thing is a mystery."
Gulping down water from [Endless Spring] and passing it he continued.
"I made the contingency plan that if I failed to kill it due to how much stronger it had gotten or didn't have a plan on how to, then I'll simply pin it to the ground and give you prowling thorn to escape while I make sure it dies to the vile ground. I noticed that its survivors had stood still so I'm certain that it hunts with vibrations on the ground alone."
The fire they made crackled as it waned from the depleting firewood. Nephis felt... content that he had at least prepared to lose, but was worried that it could all go wrong considering everything else had mostly gone wrong or at least deterred from the plan.
"Just try not to get yourself killed Sunny," Nephis said at least, easing the atmosphere around them.
"I can't promise that, but I'll give it a try."
Nephis only nodded before lowering herself to the ground. She had been sore since they started running and she hadn't been able to stretch her legs, so they felt like jelly when they took a break. So once she laid on the ground she instantly felt a wave of exhaustion from the amount of arrows she shot and staying still consume her body and mind as she struggled to not fall asleep instantly. She felt a warm blanket cover her as she saw Sunny above her with the memory chest open behind him.
"I'm going to take a quick nap, if that's fine with you, Sunny."
"Sure, although it'll have to be a quick one since we don't have much time left before they arrive."
Nephis lost all decorum and simply nodded her head before surrendering herself to the dreamless sleep.
Sunny on the other hand simply watched as Nephis fell asleep on the floor before snoring. Sunny found it hilarious when he found out that Nephis actually snores in her sleep, but it wasn't so funny when she threatened to end him if he ever told anyone that particular fact. Shuddering from remembering the cold steel that was pressed against his neck during that, he turned his attention towards the campfire that was starting to go out. Sighing, he poured dirt onto the fire until it was smothered out. After making sure there were no creatures nearby and putting his shadows on guard duty - with gloomy giving him the finger but going without resistance, happy going joyfully, creepy going without much emotion, and haughty putting on a show of resistance - as he entered his soul sea.
Four suns loomed above him as Serpent and Saint rested inside his soul cores. Looking around he saw shadows of all the creatures he killed, from the distant past to the newly acquired ones. He had been busy ever since the temple so he hadn't had much time to go and inspect his soul sea out of habit. It was something he did often during the dark city and even now. He saw the Mountain King rising above the minion he had managed to kill with shifty and the other slaves. Next to those shadows were the Carapace Scavenger that he and Nephis had killed while they were both dormant beasts with Cassie.
The one Carapace Centurion he had killed with Nephis, the rock monster he got his glorious ordinary rock that got Caster killed. There were several other creatures he killed, with the most notable being Harper, Cursed Herald or better known as Spire Messenger, Forsaken Knight, Vile Thieving Bird's Spawn, Harus, and several thousand other creatures that he has killed.
Next, he summoned all the memories he wasn't familiar with yet and looked at their runes, enchantments, rank, and tiers. He wasn't going down memory lane simply for fun - although it did bring a sense of nostalgia - but to see if anything from his memories could help him plan for the upcoming battle. He had faced many creatures before, and if it were like any other he wouldn't be wasting his time studying past battles and instead cuddle up with Nephis. But it wasn't like any other creature they'd face, it was smart enough to run away when facing them - something no other creature of equal or higher intelligence he had faced had ever done before, although not impossible for an intelligent creature but very rare since most can't overcome their urge to snuff out the pure souls humans had.
Following the same train of logic it must've taken every ounce of self-control to stop itself from killing itself by facing them and instead retreat. There was also the possibility that it was just its instinct to run away like how the scavengers did whenever nightfall came. But Sunny didn't want to risk anything and wanted to plan even if it seemed trivial considering they killed countless creatures before them. He was confident that he would be able to get it killed though, but trying to steal the kill would be risky as it would be a coin flip odds if he would be able to succeed or not. Odds that weren't in his favor as he wasn't able to study either of the creatures in-depth so that plan was most likely to fail.
Eventually though Sunny cursed as he was unable to come up with a foolproof plan of being able to kill it himself without it having the opportunity to run away. The best he could do was try to control the area they fought which would hopefully be near or right next to the seed in case the creature proved to be fatal. He also wasn't confident with his earlier statement of being able to pin it down long enough for it to be consumed as it could've evolved into a Corrupted one from the looks of it — although he couldn't be sure of that since it was too far away for his eyes to see its soul.
Either way the best chance to defeat it would be with Neph and he doubted he would be able to kill it without her since they were only able to contend with Fallen Devils by studying them immensely and by working together. If neither of them were able to even pierce its skin then he would most likely have to let Nephis flee while he held it back since it would follow them to the seed if he let it.
Exiting his soul sea he turned to see Nephis still in the position she was before, so he sneakily got under the covers and sighed as he wrapped his hands around her warm waist.
'I'll just let it be tomorrow's problem.'
***
Nephis had a dust of pink on her cheeks when she remembered waking up to Sunny's hands around her waist which warmed up the air before she calmed down.
She regretted distracting herself with silly thoughts as she felt her left side explode with pain and she went flying to the side. She coughed out blood and gasped for air as she crashed into a tree hard before falling. White bright flames consumed her body as her mauled flesh quickly fixed itself as her body started to fix itself like a broken doll. Nephis fell down the tree, hitting every branch with her head and body as she continued to pass out and wake up with each branch she hit. Eventually, she summoned [Dream Blade] and plunged it into the tree quickly stopping her fall before she busted her head any more than it was.
Nephis gritted her teeth as she bit back the sting from the exposed flesh all over her body. Her left arm was bruised but unbroken, her right eye was slightly bleeding, both her legs felt like they would break if she moved them, her right leg thigh was cut up badly as it bled profusely, and to top it all of her ribs felt like they were crushed by an elephant. Nephis looked up as the flames licked her wounds to see a colossal figure standing above her. It was the previous temple standing high above with the trees, thousands upon thousands of small stringy vines tangled among each other that made up its legs.
'The moving temple...' Nephis realized as it stood there, almost menacingly.
After what felt like a stare down it started moving towards her with its dangly yet fortified vine legs crashed into the ground before bringing it back up and thrashing tons of dirt everywhere. Nephis tried to stand up using her sword but the pain from both her legs from the long painful fall brought itself to her attention as she fell pitifully back to the ground. Instead, she rolled to the side as soon as it tried to step on her and threw her blade at its leg - fully augmented by her flames - with [Evertwine] attached at the handle. It plunged deep into its leg - what would be its calf - as she felt the rope tug roughly at her waist which she wrapped the rope around.
Soon it lifted its leg and pulled Nephis along as she climbed to reach her blade which was still damaging the leg with her burning flames as it began to burn small vines. Once reaching it she summoned [Nameless Sun] which augmented her sword ever further, but it was still difficult to cut through the vines. So, Nephis climbed higher as the temple noticed her and started to try and shake her off like an annoying tick. The thorns protruding gave her a hard time as her hands bled from simply putting her hand over the razor-sharp thorns. The temple continued to walk as well, cutting down massive parts of the branches above and crashing into many enormous trees.
The everlasting sun burned brightly on her face as sunlight poured down from above. The shallow shadows grew darker in contrast with the sharp sunlight, almost as if the forest was finally waking up after long being dormant. Nephis paid little attention though, trying not to mingle herself anymore as she bit her lips from the burning pain she felt for augmenting her sword. Once reaching directly under the temple she started stabbing her sword rapidly as the vines burned to her pure flames. The temple was still trying to shake her off before what she guessed was it finally having enough as she had cut halfway through the connection of the vines to the temple in one leg.
It raised its back foot slowly as it then launched it straight towards her. Nephis only had enough time to summon a shield and press her shoulder against it as it smashed into the shield and sent her flying back with minimal damage as the shield blocked the spikes from cutting her into pieces. The wood was made of wood with a metal rim and plates covering the front, with a symbol of a shield in front. She had received it from Sunny as junk as he had no use for a shield as his preferred attack method was stealth, not direct combat.
Sadly the shield only held for a few moments as it wood shattered into wood splinters. The shield was only an Awakened of the first tier which was why she wasn't surprised when she heard the spell whisper that it was destroyed as all that was left were golden sparks. Nephis felt the vines smash into her chest but her body had adapted to the speed so neither the impact nor the speed they were going at didn't effect her as she was sent flying away once again as she summoned [Dark Wings]. She noticed a dark figure moving towards her as she flew past, but she immediately recognized the monkey from earlier—even if it was darker than last time. It was Sunny no doubt who had been able to kill it after all, although she expected no less from her one and only former apprentice.