Sunny slowly descended the tree branch by branch all whilst having a stupidly happy smile plastered on his face.
His journey this time around paired with the sacrifice of all those fruits and shards that would have enabled him to reach demon hood was worth it as well
None of Sunny's actions. His every existence will be invisible to the forgotten God. His actions, his fame won't contribute to the dream gods awakening even if he becomes famous
Sunny had originally only ascended the great true with the hopes of retrieving the completed version of blood weave that he believed he once had
But now
Not only did he have weavers exact blood running through his shadowy veins. His blood also now gained a poisonous factor. And he wouldn't have to worry about him being a heir of weaver contributing to the forgotten ones awakening
And on top of all that he had the echo of a great beast siting in his soul waiting for his command
Reaching the lower branches of the tree sunny saw Nephis sluggishly building the boat as if she didn't want to but was doing it for some odd reason that her subconscious wanted
'Well, that would mean I'm her subconscious. She's only doing it because I asked'
Sunny was glad. They were league's closer than they were at his time previously
Sunny batted away the trees annoying voice and looked around spotting Cassie. The blind seer was walking around with the aiding a large branch helping Nephis catcher strong tree pieces. For their boat.
Sunny spotted them and walked over
"Hey I'm back"
"where'd you go sunny" - Cassie lazily replied.
"I went away for a bit"
At the mention of away sunny saw how Cassie eyes seemed to glaze over. Her mind shifting any thoughts away from the tree out of her mind
Sunny couldn't help but sigh
"Nephis how's the little project coming along"
"it's going good... I should be done by the afternoon... But sunny why exactly am I making a boat"
"I just thought it would look cool on the tree, no?"
Nephis shook her head lazily a small smile trickling her lips - "You have a weird choice of decor"
Sunny laughed - "You should see my house. It has royal items flooding every inch it"
Nephis laughed slightly but then her smile became strained. Sunny couldn't lie. But he just claimed to have a home. Where could he have stayed?
Again. Sunny viewed the trees' treacherous ability in full swing. The mention of another place seemed to glaze her eyes over and she slowly returned to building the boat forgetting sunny was there
Sunny was slowly becoming tired of sighing but did so any way. He would have to either manage to convince them with some stupid scheme or knock them out. Both terrible options since he needed Cassie wind staff and he didn't want to knock them out even though that was a simple option
Sunny sat there as he listened to the spell as his little shadows slaughtered beasts and harvested their shards.
Sunny laid his back against the bark of a tree. And soon his eyes closed and mind did to.
...
Sunny awoke to the sound of the great titan flooding he region once more. It's boundless depths returning once more teeming with thousands of harrowing creatures
Sunnys got up and saw Nephis who stood next to the finished boat. A crude little thing but strong and sturdy enough for a voyage across the sea. Or at least that's what he had hoped
He looked at Cassie who was yawning tiredly clearly preparing for a nap.
Walking towards the boat sunny wondered what updates the spell would have given him.
Looking towards Shelly sunny shuddered and halted his steps. Instantly
Summoning shells Runes fell on his back and began to laugh happiness and joy flowing through him
...
Carapace Shadow
Shadow Rank: Ascended
Shadow Class: Demon
....
Dismissing the shadow sunny walked over to the girls vowing to analyze the details of his shadow's transformation soon. Hopefully after getting of this damn tree
"Hey sunny the boat is finished"
"Yeah, good job Neph"
Thankfully the hex seemed to keep her from realizing that sunny had used a different nickname. Holding Cassie by her arm sunny put her sleepy self into the boat
"Come Neph get it"
Nephis hesitated
"Please go in the boat Neph. We're going to hunt and get shards for the tree" - sunny smiled sweetly
"... Okay"
Sunny didn't expect that to work. I fact he was fully prepared to form chains of darkness and tie her up. Maybe their relationship and closeness were allowing her to blindly follow his advice and commands
Once they were in sunny asked to summon the golden rope as well as the staff as they set of.
Sunny didn't waste a moment. He knew once the tree sensed their departure it would start to react. After all, right now even the tree didn't know that sunny was not under its hex
Once they were in the water sunny summoned his armor and got into the water.
Initially they had spent over a month trapped on the tree yet this time they spent a mere 3 days or so.
They had skipped engaging with the creature of nothingness as well as skipped a lot of unnecessary banter between themselves too
Sunny was curious to know what changes would happen now since he would be arriving at the dark city a month earlier than intended. Would he meet Effie as planned? Would they be able to avoid the tentacle beast that capsized them the last time around. He didn't know
But regardless sunny pushed the boat into the water covering its entirety in layers of darkness in hopes to help camouflage themselves. Paired with the attribute of Nephis Armor making it less likely for enemies to sense them it was a great reassurance
But just in case sunny decided to summon the devourer of the depths and kept it in its pendant form over the puppeteer's shroud in the case he needed to become the propeller for the boat
Once they were far enough from the tree Cassie and Nephis seemed to have woken up again despite never being asleep
Nephis was the first to respond her mind trying to comprehend where a boat came from
"The tree has a mind hex on it. It brainwashed you 2 into not wanting to leave. One of my attributes made me practically immune to mind attacks so I pretended to be brainwashed as I planned to leave"
Sunny wasted no Time bothering to sugar coat anything. Unlike the girls sitting beside him they couldn't sense the vast shadows swimming in the deep below them.
"What do you mean we were under a hex" - Nephis responded first
"The tree has a mind spell that traps things to serve it"
Cassie responded next her voice a mix of gratitude and fear - "Thank you for saving us"
Her smile was genuine full of gratitude, after all, no one wanted to be a mindless thrall for a tree
"Where did the boat come from" - Nephis asked - her hands gliding on the boat
"You made it" - Sunny responded to Nephis with a smile on his face before continuing
"Even in the hex you 2 still seemed to trust me - Princess"
Both girls prepared to respond before noticing Sunny's face pale in the dim light of Nephis luminous memory
"HOLD THE BOAT"
that was all they heard before the boat toppled upside down in the water.
Sunny believed that they would escape the clutches of the tentacle monster from his last life, but the dammed beast seemed to be there still
While in the water the devourer of the depths activated and grew shifting to cover his body.
Sunny looked around and saw Nephis holding onto the boat. Thankfully this time it seemed she managed to hear him and escaped the clutches of the beast
Cassie however didn't react in time. Sunny looked around before realizing what had happened. Once More the beast had Cassie in its slimy tentacle as it dragged, he into the depths
Sunny charged under not bothering to summon a memory or the darkness. He simply charged like am insane nightmare creature in a frenzy. He saw Cassie flailing in the arm of the creature and looking further down saw its appearance.
It wasn't some overgrown octopus. It was a colossus. It's face resembling that of a lizard. Sunny saw 2 arms amongst the seemingly endless tentacles. It's eyes staring at him
Charging sunny got to Cassie and used the claws of the Armor ripping through the tentacle piece by piece. Eventually before she had lost consciousness the chunk of flesh came loose. Sunny with his attribute and the armor heard the beast roar under the water. It attempted to catch them but sunny summoned a spear of darkness and launched it.
Diving into the creature's eye sunny felt the water around him churn in various directions. Unknown currents appearing. The beast was waving its tentacles in a fury pulling the water in all directions
With Cassie in his hand sunny sawm up to the boat and crashed into it. Flipping it onto the right side. Nephis wasted no time. She had already got in. Sunny threw Cassie at her and the blind girl began to cough up masses of water.
Sunny however didn't stop to check on her. He had yelled at them to ready he staff for movement and to throw him the rope. Fastening it to a construct of darkness at the helm of the boat sunny held it in his hands and began to charge west
He could feel the shadow of the creature moving attempting to grab them. He in turn sped up. The boat made sounds clearly unable to keep with his speed, but he didn't stop he continued his charge and continued and continued undeterred
Not long after sunny had felt the vast shadow of the creature stop chasing them. Possibly going for an easier meal. But he didn't stop
After hours of constant movement sunny saw, it. The vast walls of the dark city standing surrounded by the dark sea.
Charging towards it sunny yelled at the girls to hold onto the boat as tight as possible. The he leaped out of the water. The armor shifting back into a necklace its transcendent strength leaving him. But it didn't matter
His momentum in his jump had already carried the boat with the girls holding tightly onto it high into the air. And so, it leaped with him
Plummeting down the boat crashed onto the cold hard stone. Breaking into numerous wooden shards it sent the girls rolling and so did sunny. Only he rolled a bit further
Soon everyone stood up. Wary of their surroundings. Ad that a nightmare creature would have heard them
And one did
Sunny looked down at his pant leg if the puppeteers shroud and saw an odd rock biting onto it
Nephis looked confused and disoriented from the journey. She did not possess the mind of a Supreme nor the attribute of a daemons mind.
Summoning the Azure blade sunny stabbed it into the rock and heard the spell announce
[you have slain an awakened monster: Ordinary rock]
[you have received a memory]
Sunny smiled.
'How good it is to be back'