.... Finally, one of the spiders fell heavily to the ground and twitched, drawing its last breath. The remaining beast lunged at the staggered stone monster, its countless eyes burning with fury.
The round black shield rose one last time and then flew aside, torn away along with the right arm of the stalwart living statue. However, almost at the same time, the blade of her sword pierced through the massive beast's skull, ending its life just a moment before breaking apart and turning to stone.
The living statue fell to the ground.
As the dust settled, Sunny abandoned his hiding spot on the roof of one of the buildings surrounding the square and jumped down. Avoiding the puddles of fetid blood, he walked among the corpses littering the ground and approached the dying stone monster.
Two crimson gems that served her as eyes slowly moved, focusing on Sunny. There was no particular expression in them, just tired stillness. The flames that used to burn inside were slowly dimming.
He kneeled in front of her while summoning [Blessing].
Sunny smiled.
"Welcome back, Sain."
With this, he strike with [Blessing], he thrust it through the visor of the dying Saint helm.
....
[You have received an Echo: Stone Saint.]
Without wasting any time, he dove into his soul sea.
The soul sea was a mix of his and Nephis's soul seas. He had seen it many times so he ignored it and directly went to his Saint.
The silent shadows were still there, standing motionless at the edge of darkness. Compared to before, their ranks had swelled. Monsters of all shapes and sizes were among them now, making Sunny's collection of slain enemies look increasingly impressive, and he had double the amount of slain creatures than his previous Forgotten Shore version.
Suddenly Sunny stumbled and stopped. Not too far away from him, there should be a gaunt shadow standing among the menagerie of terrifying creatures, silently staring at him with empty eyes.
But this time around... there was no gaunt shadow among his shadows. A small smile formed on his face as he came in front of Saint.
Then... Nephis also entered the soul sea and came to his side of the area. She was just curious to see the transformation to a Shadow creature.
There was only one Echo in h...their soul seas because before leaving the outer settlement he gave the Scavenger Echo to Cassie.
Nephis then stand at little distance from Saint, she felt a bit... emotional seeing Saint. Because in her second nightmare she was a stone saint too with other stone saints. And... it didn't end well.
Saint, meanwhile, was coming to life under one of the black suns. Two magenta flames ignited in her gemstone eyes. The stone of her armor suddenly gleamed with a subtle metal shine, the smooth surface of her granite skin turned slightly less rigid. Silently turning her head, the Saint gazed at Sunny through the narrow split of her helmet's visor.
Saint... his oldest shadow, plus she was with him for the longest time than anyone else in the world if we don't count Gloomy.
"Let's... let's do this."
Taking a step forward, he confidently put his hand on the breastplate of the Stone Saint's armor, right across from the place where the main nexus of her Spell Weave was situated.
A new string of runes appeared in the air in front of him.
[Transform Echo into a Shadow?]
"Yes!"
In these months both of them fill up their second core and now were demons in class. Sunny now have [467/3000] shadow fragments and Neph have [276/3000] soul fragments.
Nephis looked with wonder as two dark beams descended from the depths of the Shadow Core. One of them fell on the Echo, while the other landed on one of the silent shadows that stood motionlessly behind his back, as though connecting them together.
Bathed in the dark light, the shadow of the dead Stone Saint slowly dissolved into it.
The light falling from the Shadow Core seemed to seep into the flesh of the stone creature, making it shine with dark radiance. Wisps of shadowy fog emanated from beneath her impervious plate armor, slowly merging with it. It looked as though the Stone Saint was engulfed in ghostly black flame, being remade by it.
What little color there was on her body was washed away and replaced with nothing but darkness. Only two crimson fires burning in her ruby eyes remained, slightly changing their hue and becoming more menacing.
...
The transformation finally came to an end.
YouhavecreatedaShadowMonster:StoneSaint.You have created a Shadow Monster: Stone Saint.YouhavecreatedaShadowMonster:StoneSaint.
Sunny nervously smiled.
"Ah... hey? Remember me? Remember all the stuff we did together in... the past?" Sunny's voice cracked a little with emotion.
Saint stared at him. Then... struck the rim of her shield twice with an unknown emotion in her ruby eyes...
Sunny released a breath he didn't know he was holding. Nephis from behind asked with indifference.
"Everything went well?"
He turned toward her and nodded with a smirk.
"Yeah. Everything went smoothly and Saint also seems to possess the memories of the past timeline like Serpent. Though because of lower class and rank, she couldn't, of course, express her emotions or anything."
Nephis nodded. After a bit of talk she left their soul seas because currently the outer settlement was planning for a big hunt today so they needed her.
Sunny also exited the soul sea.
...
At night.
In a group, six Sleepers were traveling by the wild. They were Gunlaug's people. On the hand of their leader there was a map as they navigated.
Suddenly a hush sound came from a bush. The group took a defensive formation with the leader in front. From the bush a majestic giant serpent came out, its mighty body covered in adamantine jet-black scales and as thick as a tree trunk.
Loud screams resonated through the wild, painful and cries for help before the screams were quickly consumed by the darkness of night.
...
Sunny approached a large building that had been magnificent once. Sunny climbed over the collapsed wall and found himself in a dark and secluded courtyard.
In the center of the courtyard, there was a well. Its round mouth loomed like an open wound in the stone, filled with nothing but empty blackness. The well was covered with a strange, ornate iron grate. It must have weighed several tons at least, as though someone desperately wanted to prevent anything from ever lifting it from its place and leaving the well open.
He smiled as he advanced toward the well and stopped in front of it. From here he had to repeat all his previous timeline lines so his and Kai's relation didn't change.
Picking up a small stone, Sunny dropped it down. The black mouth of the well swallowed the stone, making it disappear.
Many seconds passed, but there was no sound of the rock hitting anything.
And then, as last time... the well spoke.
A melodic, strangely enchanting voice resounded from its dark depths, filling Sunny's ears with sweetness.
"Ah, a guest..."
Hearing Kai's voice, a bitter smile appeared on his face. Remembering again how he failed his friends, how his power was not enough no matter what he did.
And that made him remember again that no one alone can do things that people together can. So he didn't just have to increase his and Nephis's power more than last times.
He also had to make his friends stronger than their previous versions too. It was impossible for him and Neph to babysit them all the time.
While he was thinking, Kai's voice again came from down the well.
"How wonderful. I haven't been fed in a long, long time..."
Sunny chuckled, remembering how much he was scared last time.
'Ahh... good old days... why do I just sounded like a grandpa?'
He shake his head and continue the conversation with Kai, repeating everything. And... getting a little bit frustrated because how paranoid Kai is.
'Like... I know caution and paranoia is great for most survival chance but... come on! It not like you have a option or anything!'
Finally after sometime Saint remove the cover of well and Kai flew out of the well and land on ground.
Sunny is currently suppressing strong urge to take Kai in embrace and tightly hug him.
Meanwhile, Kai noticed the Shadow Saint's burning ruby eyes, which were the only source of light in the absolute darkness of the night, and flinched back with a paled expression on his face.
"Oh no! It's a demon after all!"
Sunny cough and say.
"I'm behind you, idiot."