The dark depths of the water began to retreat, sinking back into whatever abominable place they had emerged from. As the sun lit up the sky, the world slowly became clearer.
Beneath where the sea had been lay a vast crimson labyrinth. Everything below was red in color, twisted and jagged, with constant movement crawling through its winding paths.
Half an hour later, utterly shocked, Sunny stared down and realized that the sea was completely gone. If not for the black seaweed hanging from wet rocks and the scarlet pillars of coral jutting upward, he would have doubted the ocean had ever existed at all.
Sunny's eyes narrowed when he noticed that there was movement, and where it was all being directed at.
It was toward the shark-like abomination that had been dragged into the dark depths of the water.
From his position, it could be seen almost clearly, only then did Sunny realise the sheer size of the abomination. But it was only when Sunny looked directly down did he see the drop, it was nearly a hundred meters, and he stood on the highest point of land... or stone... in the area.
Sunny glanced at his shadow and gave it a devilish smirk, pointing downward.
"Go."
Gloomy stood still for a moment, as if hesitating, before reluctantly making its way down the towering drop.
Sunny snickered at his shadow's misfortune at having a master like him, but the amusement was wiped from his face almost immediately.
'It really seems like the Spell wants me dead...'
He looked toward the horizon, where the crimson labyrinth stretched endlessly.
'I've been dropped straight into a death zone, it seems, and an unexplored one at that...'
"Damnation. Just my luck," Sunny muttered, now cursing his fate in earnest.
He had suspected this the moment he arrived in this hellhole, but he had pushed the thought aside. Now, reality was finally sinking in.
But his thoughts were quickly cut of.
Once Gloomy reached the bottom, Sunny used their shared connection to observe the area.
He sent Gloomy toward the massive corpse, keeping it at a careful distance. Sunny didn't know if his shadow could be struck or harmed. He doubted it—but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Through Gloomy's eyes, Sunny watched awakened beasts tear into one another over the food, more and more of them emerging as time passed.
'They seem like awakened... possibly beasts by how they act' Sunny thought for a second before looking around some more only to see more of them coming and going, 'Seems awakened beasts make up the majority of the population here...'
They were ripping apart the flesh of the gigantic abomination—the same shark-like creature that had nearly killed him the night before.
'Looks like whatever killed it did so for fun, not for food... serves it right,' Sunny thought grimly, snickering at the corpse being devoured.
He studied the maddened creatures swarming the body, each of them looking like ants compared to the massive remains they fed upon.
They had four pairs of long, segmented legs that ended in scythe-like protrusions. From the center of their carapaces protruded human-like torsos clad in thick, chitinous armor. Their heads—if that was even the right word—sat directly atop their torsos with no neck in between. Narrow eye slits stared lifelessly above viscous mouths filled with slimy mandibles. Instead of hands, they wielded enormous pincers.
Sunny observed each of them carefully and came to a single conclusion.
Sunny sighed. He could defeat an Awakened beast in a one-on-one fight, but facing two at once would already be pushing his limits.
With so many clustered so close together, he would have to move soon.
Sunny exhaled slowly.
Then, through Gloomy's vision, something changed.
The shadow turned back toward the direction it had come from—and a looming figure filled its sight.
Sunny swallowed.
An ancient, colossal statue towered behind Gloomy, at least two hundred meters tall. Its sheer scale was mind-boggling. From what Sunny could see, it depicted a knight clad in elaborate plate armor, seven shining stars carved into its breastplate. In its hands, the statue held a gargantuan sword, the blade pointed toward the ground.
However, the most striking detail was that the stone knight was missing its head.
In fact, the roughly circular platform Sunny stood upon turned out to be the top of its neck. And the head hadn't been removed by design—it looked as though something, or someone, had violently torn it off in the distant past.
Sunny walked around the platform, peering down from every angle, but saw no sign of the missing head anywhere nearby.
His chest felt tight.
'What in the Dream World is this place?'