"What was that lizard?"
Well… shit.
He'd expected the question , just not this soon. It wasn't that he didn't have an answer; it was that giving one would be a pain.
Still, Sunny hadn't spent all that time thinking for nothing; for he had prepared the perfect lie…
Well, not a lie. He couldn't lie.
Just… a vague enough truth.
"Ah, that… that lizard is my Echo."
Nephis stared at him, her lips pressed into a thin line. Confusion flickered across her face, then something colder than betrayal.
Of course she'd feel that way. Sunny had been hiding a massive advantage from them.
He felt the weight of her gaze settle on him like a blade pressed to his throat.
With a stony face, Nephis opened her mouth to speak, but Sunny cut her off.
"Look, I hid it because I wasn't sure I could trust you," he said, keeping his tone slow and measured.
Her eyes hardened, the warmth fading like the last ember in an empty hearth. "Cassie and I didn't know if we could trust you either," she said. "But we still shared everything we had."
Sunny stayed quiet for a long moment. Then, his voice came out soft, almost hesitant. "My family told me to. I don't even know why. They just said… never trust anyone fully. Not even allies."
'This should work…'
Did Sunny feel bad about taking advantage of a Socially inept person?
Kinda.
But did he see this as necessary?
Also yes.
Nephis's expression shifted, she wasn't looking at him anymore, more like she was looking past him.
Eventually her gaze focused back onto him.
"Your family… must be worried about you."
Sunny exhaled, relief pooling in his chest. He forced a faint, mournful smile onto his face. "Yeah… they sure are."
Nephis's expression softened. The frost in her eyes thawed, replaced by something quieter — almost sad. She looked away, her gaze falling toward the red coral plain below.
"At least you have someone to miss you," she murmured.
Sunny didn't answer.
***
[Your shadow grows stronger]
CRAAAAAAACCCCKKKK!
The sound tore through the silence. Sunny turned toward the noise and saw the scavenger Echo crouched over the corpses, tearing through remains and pulling shards from the centurion and other fallen creatures.
The thing was also chewing on the centurion's flesh.
Scowling, Sunny walked closer and frowned. "Hey, you! Stop chewing!"
The scavenger froze mid-bite, a string of meat still hanging from its mouth.
"Spit it out!"
He shook his head and muttered, "This weirdo actually ate half the centurion. What's wrong with it? Out of all the Echoes in existence, I had to get stuck with a defective one."
His shadow nodded solemnly, which was a rare show of solidarity considering…
Sunny squinted. "Oh, so now you're on my side? You don't even have any Echoes. What defective person are you stuck with?"
'Cheeky bastard'
Cassie approached, Nephis leading her. She was laughing.
"Don't badmouth my steed," Cassie said. "He's a great Echo!"
Sunny frowned. "Don't go naming 'him,' either. I don't like calling my other Echo 'Scaley.'"
Cassie pouted. "What's wrong with Scaley?"
At that moment, Scaley slithered from the shadows of the coral, pieces of chitin and streaks of blue blood still clinging to his jaws.
Sunny gestured toward him. "Well… it doesn't sound very fearsome."
"Scaley is extremely intimidating, I'll have you know," Cassie said, crossing her arms.
"Whatever you say." Sunny sighed and got to work on the least pleasant task of all — harvesting the oil sacs from the centipede corpses. Each creature had two, connected to a strange gland. The process wasn't dangerous, just revolting. The oil only became corrosive when both sacs mixed, but the smell alone made him gag.
Nephis insisted it might be valuable later. Sunny shrugged, he didn't see the use.
With his hands busy, his mind wandered. He summoned the runes and checked his fragments.
[Shadow Fragments: 141/1000]
He had long since gathered enough to turn the scavenger Echo into a Shadow. But that would cost a hundred fragments, too risky as he needed to grow stronger himself first.
His mind wandered for a moment, landing on Lonesome Howl, the energetic huntress who detested anyone relying on memories or echoes.
Which was why she'd refused to give him any he hadn't earned himself.
…Yeah, thinking about her always made his jaw clench a little tighter.
'Damn woman! Why couldn't she just give me a couple…'
To make things worse, he hadn't even gotten a single memory aside from the Azure blade!
When the last of the centipede oil was packed away, he stored it in Scaley's makeshift seaweed saddlebag and climbed onto the creature's back. Nephis had mostly forgiven him for keeping the Echo secret, and Cassie was just delighted to have another one in their group.
Cassie settled onto the scavenger's back while Sunny and Nephis rode on Scaley, having more than two people on the scavenger slowed it, while the strength of Scaley was considerable since he was a class above the Scavenger.
"I'm guessing we're trying for the Bone Ridge today?" he asked.
Nephis considered for a moment before nodding. "Yes."
***
"What in the god-awful fuck is that?"
When most people woke up, they made breakfast, maybe chatted, maybe complained about work.
Sunny woke up, shook sand from his hair, cursed at his shadow for waking him early and stared at a colossal tree looming in the distance.
"It appears to be… a tree," Nephis said flatly.
Sunny frowned at her. "Top-tier education you legacies have."
He turned back toward it.
Against the dull gray sky, the crimson crown of the massive tree seemed almost alive — pulsing, rich, and unsettlingly beautiful. Its bark was darker than the sea, and its leaves glowed like blood caught in sunlight.
Then, something glimmered beneath it ,a faint flash, like sunlight bouncing off a mirror. It vanished, then appeared again seconds later.
'A mirror…'
Sunny felt a chill crawl up his spine, remembering the night before. Somehow, that shimmer didn't seem harmless anymore.
After a moment, he asked quietly, "What do you think?"
Nephis lingered before answering. Her eyes traced the barren wasteland ahead. "It's the only way west."
Sunny grimaced and looked away. "So we're going?"
She faced the tree again, hesitated as though affected by its grandeur, then gave a small shrug. "Do we have a choice?"
Sunny sighed. "No. I suppose we don't."