Sunny desperately kicked as an unstoppable force pulled him downwards. He reached out his hands, desperately trying to hold onto anything.
His mind focused to the absolute limit, Sunny absorbed every single detail around him through his shadow sense as he was pulled downwards with frightening speeds.
'There!'
He spotted a particularly tall coral tree, with a massive branch sticking out into the sky. Sunny immediately tried shifting his direction to some degree of success, attempting to stop his descent by clinging to the tree.
'Come on come on come on!'
And as he was nearing the sea floor, he lunged forward, planting himself on the massive branch as he wrapped all his limbs around, clinging to it fiercely.
Sunny gritted his teeth as he felt rushing water slam into his already injured back, he was in agony and yet he still held with just as much ferocity as before.
But thankfully, he did not have to endure the pain for long as the sound of rushing water faded, the Dark Sea continuing to sink further beneath him.
He had narrowly avoided disaster.
Sunny sighed in relief as he lay on his stomach, he turned slightly, remaining on his stomach so as to not injure his back further. Looking at the distant sun which had just finished its climb into the sky, he groaned.
"...You again."
Sunny grimaced, he was covered in all sorts of small scratches and bruises, especially on his back. Yet all his bones remained intact, and not a single drop of blood left his wounds. Sunny put his head back down and closed his eyes. Unwrapping gloomy from his body, he sent it out to scout the area while his physical body got some much needed rest.
But then immediately, Sunny groaned again as he realised he wasn't the only one who had clung to this tree to stop themselves from being pulled by the waters. There was another being here, a Nightmare Creature to be exact, it was also one that Sunny was intimately familiar with.
A Carapace Scavenger.
'How on earth did you end up here?!'
Sunny slowly pushed himself up, summoning the Puppeteers Shroud in the process. Sunny thought of how to deal with it, he had Serpent, but as it was still a beast, it did not possess the [Soul Weapon] attribute, so he had no weapons to speak of.
Sunny thought for a moment before he summoned Serpent. He looked at Serpent, before motioning his head in the direction of a particularly sharp and thin bit of coral jutting out of the branch.
'Thank the gods I didn't land on that.'
Serpent silently slid towards it, before coiling around the base of the small branch and tensing its muscles, snapping it.
Sunny picked up the spike-like branch, inspecting it for a moment before nodding. He dismissed Serpent and slowly made his way towards the Carapace Scavenger. It was currently located on a branch on the opposite side of the tree from him, but if it spotted him Sunny was sure that it would be able to reach him.
Sunny did not like being defenseless, so he chose to strike first.
He silently climbed the coral tree, its massive sizes made it so that there were plenty of small holes and ridges Sunny could climb on. Half a minute later, Sunny had made it to the same side as the Scavenger. The tree was huge, so there was enough space for Sunny to walk around comfortably on the branches. Sunny crouched, completely hidden. The sun was currently behind him, so the top of the tree covered this side of the branch, shrouding it entirely in shadow. Sunny observed it carefully, realising that it seemed to be gazing at something below. Sunny followed its gaze, just to see a large group of Carapace Scavengers below, feasting on a large carcass. It wasn't the same Devil that he saw before, but it was still quite sizable and would easily be there for another day before it was finished being eaten.
Seeing as the beast was distracted, Sunny carefully walked in a way that would keep him out of its vision, as he stealthily approached it. With his [Child of Shadows] attribute remaining evolved as [Lord of Shadows], the passive effects Sunny received from being in the shadows was boosted even further. His steps were completely silent as his body seemed to merge with surrounding darkness, not even the rustle of his clothes could be heard. Sunny creeped closer and closer to the unsuspecting beast, readying his makeshift blade as the Gloomy Shadow wrapped around his body.
Sunny was soon right behind the Scavenger, it still being completely unaware of his presence. Sunny then crouched down… and jumped, landing on the back of the Scavengers neck.
The Scavenger made confused clicking sounds as it turned around. And it died a second later, a coral blade driven straight through its eye and into its brain. The creature did not even make a sound, as it toppled over lifelessly.
[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[... Your shadow grows stronger.]
Sunny let out a breath as he jumped off the Scavengers lumbering corpse. Only slightly disappointed he didn't get a memory.
Sunny looked at its corpse, he thought back to the first nightmare creature he killed in the past…
'Was I always this sentimental?'
Sunny immediately dismissed his earlier thoughts. He had been reminiscing a lot as of late, and he felt that it was unbecoming of him.
Such a thing only brought him sorrow.
And he had to be strong.
Sunny shook his head and summoned Serpent again.
"Harvest some of its meat."
As Sunny did not want the scent of its corpse to attract any unwanted guests to his temporary shelter, he was only going to take a little bit of meat before kicking the corpse off the tree. Normally this move would be unwise, as some nightmare creatures would be able to put two and two together, curious to see who was on top of the tree above it. But from what Sunny observed earlier, this area seemed to only be filled with dumb beasts, so he had nothing to worry about.
Sunny summoned the runes.
[Shadow Fragments: 14/1000]
His gaze darkened.
'There's still a lot of work to do.'
But then he looked down to the horde of beasts below, and thought of how fast he was able to defeat the Scavenger just now.
A dark smile found its way onto his face.
***
Serpent finished harvesting the meat from the scavenger, which Sunny made it hold for now as he fished out its soul shard. Sunny looked at the small gem in his hand before pocketing it, he then turned to the corpse of the Scavenger before kicking a good kick as it tumbled off the slope of the branch into the labyrinth below.
'That settles that.'
Sunny dusted himself off as he dismissed the top half of the Puppeteers Shroud, as the fabric was irritating the wounds on his back. Sunny then moved his shadow to get a better look at his wounds.
'Hm. Not as bad as I thought.'
It seemed the pain was the biggest problem for him currently. Which was basically no problem at all as Sunny was no stranger to it. He did feel a little strange receiving this much pain from somewhat trivial wounds, but he just chalked it up to him being used to receiving grievous wounds and not feeling much back when he was an ascended, as those wounds meant a lot less to a being of that power.
Sunny made his way back to the center of the tree, remaining on the branch he was currently on. As he reached the center where the shadows populating the tree grew the deepest, he sat down to rest. But as he closed his eyes, he heard a small hiss in front of him. His eyes shot open, alert, only to see that it was Serpent who had still been following closely behind, in front of him expectantly as it still held a chunk of meat awkwardly within its mouth.
"Oh, right. Sorry buddy."
Although he wanted to scout first, he figured he shouldn't just leave Serpent hanging. Sunny felt the shadow of the tree that was cast on the ground and used it to judge how much time he had left in the day. Still having a good several hours, he began to prepare a meal, but he definitely needed to start moving soon to find land that would stay above the Dark Sea at night.
Sunny put together a makeshift fireplace, and took the meat from Serpent before he began to roast it while listening to the fire crackle silently.
'I'm thirsty…'
He thought back to a memory that he would often use to que-
Sunny slapped his cheek, dispelling his current thoughts before refocusing on the task at hand. Serpent, now back in its original form, gazed at Sunny silently with an indiscernible look in its eye.
'Come to think of it, me and Serpent never really were close, were we?'
Although he had often used it as a weapon and fought alongside it, by the time he had completed his Third Nightmare Serpent had actually been with Rain for longer than it had been with him. He also never really had any personal moments with it like how he had with Saint and Nightmare.
Sunny suddenly felt guilty, did he really have favourites among his shadows? Surely not…
Sunny then beckoned Serpent to come closer, and proceeded to pet its head again. Serpent blinked in confusion, not understanding what its master was doing.
"There!"
***
Sunny was chomping away at a stick of roasted meat.
'Ugh, so disgusting…'
Swallowing hard, he had finally finished the last of the meat he had finished and was now feeling a lot better than he had before.
Immediately standing up, Sunny made his way to the edge of the branch he was on before climbing down the tree. As he had been eating, Sunny had sent his shadow to scout the area, only to discover that he was actually in the same general area he had been in the last time he had been sent to the forgotten shore, he was just slightly of course.
Or maybe he was not, maybe he was actually in the same place, but as he was 10 years early, the landscape seemed different.
It made sense, as with such a large sea submerging and emerging everyday, there was bound to me a lot of erosion and movement of tectonic plates.
That is, if the Dream Realm even had tectonic plates…
Or maybe it was just the Crimson Terror rearranging the labyrinth a bit?
"Huff… huff…"
Sunny had finished his climb down from the massive coral tree, winded.
'Damn this weak body!'
He was used to having plenty of stamina and endurance, and this stark difference now infuriated him to no end. He had attempted to build up his endurance the month before, but with the catastrophic soul injury he sustained he only really had about two weeks of actual good training under his belt.
Luckily though, Blood Weave had come to rescue again, as after just taking a few deep breaths Sunny felt much better and was ready to continue his journey. He immediately began to make his way to the east, where he had spotted a tall hill with a massive coral pillar on top. The very same place Nephis, Cassie and him had once stayed.
While he was scouting though, he had made another discovery. With the [Lord of Shadows] attribute, the range limit of his Shadow Control on his shadow helper seems to have faded, allowing him to send his shadow basically anywhere and still see through it no matter the distance. Although it would not be a good idea to send it too far, as since he was still a Sleeper the speed at which his shadows glided was quite slow, so he might end up leaving himself without his valuable helpers in times of need.
'Useful. Very useful.'
The attribute just kept getting better. Although he didn't have the power to back up most of his benefits, like manifesting ancient and powerful shadows, it didn't matter. He would be able to do it again eventually anyways.
'I wonder if there's anything else my attributes do that I don't know about…'
Sunny decided he would experiment later.
As he made his way across the coral labyrinth, only sticking to the shadows, he was able to traverse it without much trouble. In fact, his biggest problem was that he was dead tired and his feet hurt.
Sunny looked up at the sky to see how much longer he had.
'I'll probably make it.'
***
Sunny found himself at the base of a certain statue, gasping for air.
"Ha.. ha.. Ha.. damn… nation…"
He had overestimated his stamina a little bit it seemed, as he was completely exhausted, having just finished his trek here. He glanced at the sky again, noting how much time he had left. The world around him was already darkening, so he needed to hurry up a bit.
Sunny gritted his teeth as he began climbing one grip and foothold at a time.
After a few minutes of excruciatingly exhausting climbing, he had made it to the top of the statue right as the Dark Sea began to emerge far below. Sunny was sprawled out on his stomach, lazily resting on a small platform.
Sitting up, Sunny looked at the sky. Looking at the starless night, he was overcome with emotion
'I'm really back in this damn hell.'
His face was lined with an unreadable expression as he stared at the dark abyss above him.
After looking at it for several minutes, Sunny laid back down to get some rest. And only a few minutes later, he was fast asleep. The gloomy shadow silently watched its master sleep, keeping an eye out for any abnormalities, as Serpent protectively coiled itself around Sunny, standing guard for night.
***
Sunny awoke groggily from his dreamless sleep to the sound of the Dark Sea retreating. He rubbed his eyes as he turned over and lay on his now healed back to look at the rising sun.
Sunny sighed as he slowly got up, summoning the top half of the Puppeteers Shroud. He glanced towards the west, in the direction of which the Dark City resided, glowering slightly.
'Not yet.'
He looked towards the ground below, as the last of the Dark Sea retreated beneath the ground.
Currently, he was still a dormant, meaning that slaying Awakened nightmare creatures gave him double the shadow fragments it normally did. This was an opportunity he could not waste.
Sunny did some light stretches before slowly making his way down the statue of the Knight, intending to reap a bountiful harvest today. But first…
'I'm so damn thirsty…'
…He needed some water.
***
After quenching his thirst with water he found collected within grooves of rock and coral, Sunny stored some away in a makeshift bottle he had made earlier. Looking around, he intended on finding another makeshift weapon.
'There.'
Finding a particularly long bone sticking out the ground, Sunny made his way over to it and picked it up, inspecting it as he weighed it in his hand.
'Perfect.'
He then used a stone he had picked up earlier to sharpen the tip into a spike. As he was preparing his weapon, Gloomy was out scouting for suitable targets.
'Found you...'
Sunny spotted a group of three Carapace Scavengers. There were two Awakened Beasts, and an Awakened Monster.
He grinned menacingly as he finished sharpening his weapon and made his way over to their location.
***
The group of Scavengers walked quietly, minding their own business as they searched for their meal of the day. The monster led the small group, as the two beasts followed closely behind.
"Krrcck!"
The two beasts stopped, as their leader signaled them to be alert. They looked ahead, finding that something was blocking their path, or rather - someone. A dark and terrifying serpent made itself known, hissing menacingly at the three. The two beasts backed up slightly as the monster leading them clicked its pincers, rushing forward as it intended to make the serpent its next meal.
And that's when Sunny struck.
"Krrck?!"
One of the beasts turned to its partner after hearing its confused scream, just to see it toppling to the ground, blood streaming out of its impaled eye as it died almost immediately. The beast began to panic as it looked around desperately for the perpetrator. And in the next second, it felt a sharp object being driven straight into the back of its neck, right between the plates of its hard carapace.
[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[...Your shadows grow stronger]
The monster, having heard the commotion, turned around to see what happened.
"Scree!"
It panicked.
It had only just started running towards its prey?! What happened?!
And in that moment of panic, Serpent struck from behind.
The Scavenger felt something constrict around its neck, as Serpent had lunged at it from behind, coiling around it. Serpent proceeded to yank its head backwards, exposing its vulnerable neck and in the next moment, Sunny finished the job.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Carapace Scavenger.]
[...Your shadows grow stronger]
'Come on…'
[You have received a memory.]
Sunny sighed in relief.
'Good.'
Sunny inspected his kills, proud of his work.
'Three strikes, three kills.'
But he was also disappointed as he was slightly winded from the exertion. He definitely needed to grow his strength fast. He had a lot he wanted to do, and the first step was to get his monster core, as well as unlock the third step of the Shadow Dance so that Serpent would evolve.
'I need a suitable target to shadow…'
He had a target in mind, the guardian of the Soul Devourer. That cursed tree was sure to have a powerful thrall protected. He doubted it was the same Awakened Demon he had once killed, but he was sure it would be something on the same level.
Sunny finished digging the soul shards out of the three corpses before hiding in a small gap between the rocks jutting out of the ground nearby before summoning the runes to inspect the new memory he just got.
'I hope it's a weapon…'
Memory: [Azure Spear].
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Tier: II.
Memory Type: Weapon.
Memory Description: [On this forgotten shore, only steel remembers.]
'Hm?'
Wasn't this just the Azure Blade… but as a spear instead?!
'What a scam!'
Why couldn't it just be a simple longsword, or an odachi, or even a dagger?!
Sunny sighed as he proceeded to check its enchantments.
Memory Enchantments: [Hard Steel], [Whetted Tip].
'Huuu, whatever…'
Both of them were passive enchantments that each enhanced the memories' durability or sharpness. The memory was nothing special, but it would do for now.
Sunny silently summoned it, the spear appeared within his hand, its cold steel weighing comfortably within his palm. Sunny spun it around and did some test swings to see how it felt to use.
Satisfied, Sunny took a look at the spear. It was pretty basic, with a long steel pole and a small blade at its tip, and nestled at where the pole met the blade was a small piece of blue cloth that hung from the spear.
'This will do. For now.'
Sunny gripped the spear with one hand for now as he looked up, his shadow spotting approaching nightmare creatures.
This time, it was a group of four scavengers, and they were all beasts. The scavengers approached the corpse of the monster first, poking it lightly to see if it was still alive.
Finding that it was not, the four scavengers proceeded to surround its corpse before digging in. The scavengers began to pull the plates off of the dead creature, intended to reach the soft meat beneath, only for one of them to immediately drop to the ground, dead. Sunny was standing on the back of its neck, his spear plunged deep into its body, as the body of the scavenger fell, he hid within its shadow as the other three scavengers quickly approached their fallen comrades body to see what happened. As they inched closer and closer, careful as to not be ambushed, they suddenly heard a loud hiss behind them, two of the scavengers turned around at the noise, as Sunny immediately lunged from his hiding spot at the only one that hadn't turned.
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
Hearing another one of its comrades fall, the two beasts that had turned just now turned back again, ignoring the hissing. However, Sunny was already lunging at his next target.
"Screeee!"
One of the scavengers failed to react as a spear was driven straight through its eye and brain, killing it instantly. The only living scavenger aggressively swung at Sunny, only to find its arm locked in place, as a serpent coiled around its body, holding its limbs in place.
Sunny struck once more.
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
[...Your shadows grow stronger.]
Sunny let out a breath, slightly tired from the powerful blows he had delivered. Feeling the shadow fragments trickle into his soul however, made it all worth it. Within the span of only around 15 minutes, he had already gotten sixteen shadow fragments.
'Don't get ahead of yourself.'
Sunny reminded himself of his current predicament, he was still a Dormant Beast in a land filled with Awakened and Fallen nightmare creatures, he could not grow complacent at any cost.
'I can only do this one or two more times before they start steering clear of this area because of the scent of death.'
Sunny dismissed his spear to get rid of the blood covering it as he stretched a little bit, before once again returning to his hiding spot.