Another week passed.
[Shadow fragments: 701/1000]
'This is taking too long…'
Sunny was currently sitting atop the statue of the Knight, lost in thought.
His hunts had slowed down substantially, as the area was populated with only Fallen now. Although he could probably take down a Fallen in a one on one fight, it wasn't guaranteed. Most of his kills had come from ambushes or finishing already weakened enemies, as fighting Fallen nightmare creatures at full strength while he was still a Sleeper just wasn't a great idea, even if he did have Serpent.
Something had to change soon, be it his location or his approach to gaining shadow fragments. Sunny decided to head east, into the opposite direction of the Ashen Barrow in hopes of finding more Awakened creatures he could slaughter rather than the tough Fallen that he faced here.
Sunny sprinted along the coral labyrinth, his stamina had finally reached an acceptable level in his eyes, and he was happy with his current strength.
But it still wasn't enough. Not until he had his monster core anyways.
If he wanted to guarantee beating the Soul Tree's guardian, he could try to form his demon core, so Serpent could fight it on even grounds, but it just wasn't a feasible idea. It was already taking him longer than he would like to form his monster core.
'Hah, look at me now… Upset that I can't form an entire core within two weeks.'
It had taken him a full year to form his monster core the first time around, and it took him several more years to reach the terror core afterwards, and he never even managed to form his titan core…
Before he could finish that thought, Sunny's gaze darkened.
He had reached a new area of the Forgotten Shore.
***
The forest of red coral had ended, instead there was seemingly a desert here.
'Is… this another crater?'
He had made it to a crater, it was nowhere near the size of the crater situated between the Ashen Barrow and the Dark City, but it was somehow even more eerie.
It seemed as if there had been more coral here once, but something seemingly crash landed here, crushing everything to dust and turning the place into a desolate wasteland. Sunny looked for nightmare creatures he could kill.
Spreading his shadow sense outwords, he was surprised to find…
'Nothing?'
There seemed to be nothing here.
All across the crater, nothing was moving.
Sunny sent his shadow scout to see if he could find anything, but there was still nothing.
'This feels dangerous…'
There had to be a reason there was nothing here…
He could think of two reasons off the top of his head, and neither of them were good.
'Either everything steers clear of this area at all costs, or everything that has entered it is dead.'
With that thought, Sunny turned around and left, deciding to head north instead.
…And unseen by Sunny, there was a small opening in the ground near the center of the crater. Nestled within, impossibly deep darkness sat silently.
***
This time, the coral labyrinth did not end.
But it did change.
Everything seemed a lot smoother here, almost steel like.
Sunny entered apprehensively, sending his shadow sense outwords. Here, he found all sorts of nightmare creatures that came in a multitude of sizes. But the creature he saw the most predominantly, was a strange, tall, jellyfish-like creature. They seemed to walk around on a multitude of appendages as they felt around for food with long appendages.
Sunny watched them move around with curiosity. It seemed as though they couldn't see, but rather, they used their multitude of appendages to sense the world through touch.
Most of them seemed quite weak, and the reason they were so dominant in this area was through sheer abundance. They were also quite hard to kill, seeing as most nightmare creatures didn't wield weapons like humans did. Rather, they attacked with their bodies, and from what Sunny could tell, these jellyfish looking beasts had quite a nasty sting.
A menacing smile found its way onto Sunny's face, all his razor sharp teeth showing.
Another thing he had found out about them however, was that almost all of them were Awakened Beasts.
***
Sunny made his way further and further into this new area that he had discovered, looking for a suitable place to set up camp. He didn't want to be swallowed up by the Dark Sea after all.
After finding a particularly tall, smoothed out pillar of grey coral to set up camp, Sunny began his hunt.
Sunny observed a small group of the jellyfish creatures he had set his sights on. One of them began to climb a small outcrop of rock, Sunny watched as it stuck itself on the rock and began to slowly slide its way up.
As the jellyfish slid up the rock, leaving a trail of slime, it found a small bit of rock jutting out of the outcrop. It immediately stuck an appendage onto it, and a sizzling sound emerged as the jellyfish seemingly released acid though its appendage. Once the bit of rock was no longer jutting out, the jellyfish stopped as it once again started sliding up the now smooth rock.
'Huh, so that's why everything here looks like that.'
Sunny looked around.
'Seems that acid also saps the colour out of everything.'
'No matter.'
Sunny began to walk towards one of the jellyfish that was still on the ground.
As he stepped closer and closer towards the jellyfish though however, it seemingly sensed him and an appendage shot towards him. Sunny was prepared for this and jumped backwards.
'Seems like they feel vibrations too. A range of about thirty meters.'
Sunny noted this observation as he began to think of a way to deal with these things.
***
Sunny stood on top of a smooth pillar of rock, looking at a lone jellyfish below him. He summoned a memory, as a pair of black, feathery wings appeared on his back.
Memory: [Herald's Cloak].
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Tier: I.
Memory Type: Tool.
Memory Description: [...And when the Cursed Heralds descended, doom came to all.]
Memory Enchantments: [Doom Descent]
Enchantment Description: [Allows the user to quickly glide. Attacks delivered while gliding will have their lethality increased.]
This was the memory Sunny had received from the Spire Messenger. Sunny was only using it for the first time today as a test run.
Sunny eyed his prey as he leapt from the pillar, the wings on his back spread out, the raven black feathers reminding Sunny of Nether's terrifying visage he once saw in the River of Time.
'Come to think of it, does the Sin of Solace's influence remain? Even though my mind and soul are much weaker now, the knowledge I hold hasn't corrupted me in the slightest…'
Perhaps he could make use of the fact…
Sunny shot towards his target below, readying his spear. And as he flew over the jellyfish, he flung his spear towards it.
The spear struck, going straight through what Sunny assumed was the head of the creature.
[You have an Awakened Beast, Caustic Lumen]
[...Your shadows grow stronger.]
'Good!'
Sunny hurriedly dismissed his spear so as to not let it get corroded by the remnants of the beast it had just slain.
Sunny continued gliding to another nearby pillar of rock, retaining his vantage point.
Feeling the trickle of shadow fragments entering his soul, Sunny felt great satisfaction. He just had to keep this up and he would reach his goal in no time!
And just has he thought that, something shot at him from the sky.
'Crap!'
It was another flying beast, this time it was not a Spire Messenger.
As its shadow fell over him, Sunny immediately dashed sideways, barely avoiding the ambush as he heard what sounded like several blades slash through the air. Sunny continued his sprint until he reached the edge of the pillar and jumped.
As he glided through the air as fast as he could, Sunny shot through the sky like a comet. Hearing a screech he turned back to get a better look at his enemy, it seemed to be a terrifying steel amalgamation in the rough shape of a raven.
'H-How does that thing even fly?!'
Shifting his vision, Sunny's body suddenly grew cold.
An Awakened Devil!
'Dangerous!'
He immediately tried to speed up even more, weaving around pillars of rock and coral, but the Devil was just a bit faster than him and it was quickly catching up.
Sunny's mind raced as he tried to come up with something, his initial idea being to cling on its back and summon Serpent to try to kill it in the same way he killed the Cursed Herald earlier, but seeing that it was a Devil he immediately shot down that idea.
He had no idea what kind of abilities it had! That steel could contain anything for all he knew!
Looking at the creepy steel covering its body, he had no desire to touch it, let alone get near it.
'What to do, what to do!'
He had about four seconds before the beast caught up with him.
Sunny turned around slightly, slowing down for a moment. Immediately, his spear shot through the air, aimed right at the eagle's eye. The eagle proceeded to bat away the spear easily with its steel wing, only slowing down for a moment.
Sunny groaned as he began to glide again, gaining only a tiny bit of distance between them.
Seeing as it was the size of a small house, Sunny knew what to do.
Immediately, he dove and shot downwards, gliding faster than ever before as he had gravity helping him. The eagle also began to fly downwards towards him, but Sunny shot down faster than it could reach him, disappearing into the complex network of smooth rock outcrops below.
The eagle flapped its wings in place as it looked on in frustration, a furious screech bellowed from its beak before it turned to fly away, having lost its prey.
***
Sunny, having redirected himself just before landing on the ground, slammed into the ground horizontally, tumbling like a fool.
As he lay on the ground catching his breath as he groaned in pain, he breathed a sigh of relief.
'Phew. Just barely…'
The reason Sunny had thrown his spear towards the eagle earlier was so he compared the size of the spear to the size of the Devil. Once he saw it was the size of a small house, he immediately decided to head to the ground as the eagle was too large to fit with the complex network of rock and coral below.
'Damnation…'
Just where had that beast come from?!
He still had no idea what its abilities were, or what it was. He only knew that his method of diving from the sky to kill the Caustic Lumen was no longer viable. He would have to remain on the ground to not attract that Devil's attention.
'So be it.'
He would simply just throw spears from smaller pillars instead!
The only reason he had even tested the flying method earlier was to test the power of the Herald's Cloak, which he was extremely happy with.
'This thing is fast!'
He had been able to temporarily flee from a whole Awakened Devil!
The lethality boost it gave to his aerial attacks was negligible, however. Perhaps if he was an archer it would've been more useful, but he hadn't even gotten another weapon yet! He was still stuck with his relatively weak spear.
That was fine though.
Because soon, Serpent would evolve and gain the [Soul Weapon] attribute once more.
There was even a high chance he would receive the Midnight Shard from the fallen demon guarding the Soul Devourer.
He wasn't sure if the Midnight Shard was in someone else's hands currently, but if it wasn't, Sunny was betting on the fact the Soul Devourers guardian would give it to him.
***
Sunny creeped up onto a group of unsuspecting Caustic Lumens. He watched as one of them began to climb a small pillar of rock, before taking aim and throwing his spear, pinning it straight into the wall.
[You have slain an awakened beast, Caustic Lumen.]
[...Your shadows grow stronger.]
He then proceeded to unsummon his spear, and summon it again.
Staring at the now panicking group of jellyfish, he took aim and threw his spear once more.
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
[...Your shadows grow stronger.]
'...Why didn't I just do this the first time?'
Sunny sighed as he unsummoned his spear before summoning it again, taking aim.
***
After a while, Sunny had done it.
[Shadow Fragments: 998/1000]
Readying his spear, he threw it once more.
[You have slain…]
[...Your shadow grows stronger.]
[...Your shadow is overflowing with power.]
[Your shadow is taking shape.]
Summoning Serpent to protect him, Sunny prepared himself.
Sunny gritted his teeth as his feet slid apart, as something inside him exploded, drowning his entire being in pain and suffering. However, Sunny did not allow himself to scream, he did not collapse, he did not buckle in pain.
In fact, bearing through the pain, Sunny stood upright, leaning his head upwards as the tortuous process of his shadow core forming continued.
With his fists clenched, Sunny felt the pain gradually pass, as the process was complete.
[Your shadow is complete.]
[...Your Shadow has evolved.]
Sunny looked up in surprise, realising that Serpent had actually evolved right alongside him. The towering serpent was gone, replaced with an even more towering and ferocious serpent.
'Phuuuuuu…'
Sunny sighed in exhaustion, relieved that the process was over.
Sunny looked down at his feet, seeing another shadow there now. The happy shadow.
"...Hey."
The shadow excitedly waved at him, happy to see its master.
"...Tone it down, bastard. We just met."
The shadow froze, before continuing to wave just as excitedly as before.
Once more, Sunny sighed.
He summoned Serpent as a weapon, expecting the familiar Odachi to appear in his hands.
But instead…
"...A spear?"
***
A Fallen Monster holding a single transcendent soul shard slowly made its way towards the Ashen Barrow. Unknowingly, it was being followed. Of course, it was being followed by Sunny.
Sunny was slightly ahead of it, waiting within a trap he had set. He carefully hid his killing intent and masked his presence as much as he could, awaiting his chance.
And just as the Carapace Centurion was nearing a particularly dark part of the labyrinth, a spear suddenly shot out of the darkness towards it.
Alert, the monster immediately attempted to dodge to the side, but it dodged too late and the spear plunged into its carapace, burying itself within one of its arms.
The centurion screeched, attempting to locate its ambusher. Until the next moment, when the spear that had plunged into its arm had suddenly come to life.
That spear of course, was the Soul Serpent. After becoming a monster, it had gotten the [Soul Weapon] attribute, meaning that Sunny at long last had a decent weapon.
The shadowy spear lodged within the centurion's arm shifted and it suddenly grew into a massive dark serpent, which immediately began to coil itself around the creature, intending to crush it alive.
The centurion screeched in panic, attempting to pry the serpent off itself, but its pincers only slid off the dark scales, barely leaving a scratch. Serpent was currently being enhanced with both the gloomy and happy shadows, so a mere Fallen Monster could barely even damage it.
The monster began to panic heavily as the serpent began to coil itself around its head, it could feel his carapace begin to crack and break under the stress of the mighty serpent's body. The only exposed part left of the centurion was its face, which in the next moment was not spared either as it had a spear driven straight through its eye, finally putting it out of its misery.
[You have slain a Fallen Monster, Carapace Centurion.]
[...Your shadows grow stronger.]
Sunny slowly walked up the corpse of the beast, retrieving happy and gloomy as Serpent slowly uncoiled itself and made its way to Sunny. The three of them watched as Sunny dug around the insides of its body, retrieving two soul shards, before then picking up the transcendent soul shard it had dropped earlier.
Sunny turned towards the Ashen Barrow, where he could just about see the red crown of leaves that decorated the Soul Devourer.
His gaze turned vicious.
'You're next.'
***
At the base of the Soul Devouring Tree, a Fallen Demon stood. It was a Carapace Praetorian, and it seemed to be waiting for something. Clicking its pincers impatiently, it stood there, its mighty steel carapace gleaming beneath the light of the sun. The tip of its scythe rested on the ground, ready for an attack at any time.
But finally, what it had been waiting for had arrived. It spotted its servant in the distance, slowly approaching with a gleaming soul shard held within its claw. The Praetorian immediately rushed forward to retrieve its bounty, while also intending to scold its tardy servant.
Only the moment it got close enough, it realised something was wrong. Its servant, while it still had the bright blue carapace it normally had, seemed to be completely black underneath, as if it were made of darkness.
The Praetorian immediately screeched, lunging at the deceiver, only to break through a hollow shell, as the makeshift disguise Sunny had placed atop Serpent fell apart. In the next moment, a mighty serpent attacked it from beneath the demon, biting at its legs, the Demon immediately screeched and swung its scythe downwards, intending to cut the snake in two.
Bang!
Only for the scythe to plant itself into the ground, as Sunny had dismissed Serpent.
With its intelligence, the Demon realised it had fallen into a trap… But why would its adversary distract it?
The demon immediately turned backwards.
The tree!
The demon shot towards its master, refusing to let anything come to harm it. And just as it began its mad dash, it spotted a small human making their way up the lower branches of the tree.
The Demon screeched, sprinting even faster as the human disappeared onto another branch of the tree, its eight legs clattering along the ground. It roared as it jumped onto the branch the human had been, chasing it up the tree.
It could not let it hurt the tree!
What the Praetorian didn't seem to know was that the human, Sunny, had practically zero ways of damaging the tree in any way. He was simply climbing it, and as he had lured the demon into a trap, it thought that he just needed to distract it for a moment to attack the tree.
But he didn't need that at all, he just needed the demon to climb the tree.
Sunny continued climbing the tree, feeling its influence slowly creep into his mind. He currently had one shadow wrapped around the Puppeteer's Shroud, and one around the Shackle Key, so he had as much protection against mind attacks as he possibly could.
Using a combination of the Deathweed Coil and Azure Spear, Sunny threw it to the next branch and used it to make his way towards it as quickly as he could. The Demon, not being able to jump far enough, proceeded to plant its legs into the side of the tree as it ran along the bark to chase Sunny.
Sunny looked at the Demon with slight animosity.
'Couldn't you be a little slower, bastard?!'
He was using all his strength just to climb slightly faster than it.
Sunny continued to climb higher and higher, and the demon continued to chase him. Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes turned to what felt like hours.
Sunny was panting in exhaustion, tired from climbing for so long. He looked back to the Demon — who wasn't as tired as him but was definitely slowing down- still chasing him.
Although Demons were supposedly smart, they were still demented and insane nightmare creatures.
'I can't believe this thing really followed me all the way up here.'
Although he had definitely exerted himself thoroughly, he did not believe he was in danger at any point. After all, he could've just jumped off and glided away at any time.
'This should be good enough.'
Sunny stopped on one of the bigger branches near the crown of the tree, he felt its influence on his mind slowly growing stronger.
'I need to get out of here soon.'
The Demon approached him, thinking it had finally cornered its prey. Sunny turned to face it, but walked backwards. The Demon crept closer and closer, readying its scythe. Sunny kept backing away, appearing frightened.
And just when the Praetorian reached a particularly thin section of the branch, Serpent emerged from the happy shadow which had been trailing right behind the Demon. As the happy shadow wrapped around Serpent while it was assuming its Soul Beast form, Sunny readied his spear. Not wanting the Praetorian to notice the serpent behind it, Sunny pretended to make a last ditch effort, yelling wildly as it rushed towards the Demon.
The Demon, seeing this, rushed towards him, its scarlet eyes ignited in fury as it had finally caught its prey.
Only for it to be batted aside by Serpent's tail a second later, falling off the tree into Ashen Barrow below.
'...'
Sunny stood still, watching the Praetorians body disappear into the world below.
It felt… strangely simple.
'Did I really need my monster core for this?'
Sure it was useful as it gave him an extra shadow, as well as empowering Serpent… But if he was going to use this kind of strategy anyways, was there really a po-
"SCREEEE!"
Sunny immediately dove to the ground, narrowly avoiding death as something massive flew over his head.
"Arghhhh!"
He could not avoid the ambush completely though, as steel talons cut his back open, sending blood flying through the air.
Sunny attempted to desperately scramble to safety before his adversary's second attack, only to see a steel talon come slamming down upon him the next moment. All he could do was desperately hold his spear out in hopes of not getting impaled. The talon pinned him down a second later, crushing his spear in an instant as all the air was knocked out of Sunny's lungs.
[Your Memory has been destroyed.]
Sunny struggled beneath the steel raven's mighty grip, but he was only a Dormant Monster, there was nothing he could do against the physical strength of an Awakened Devil. It was only a matter of seconds before it crushed him to death. He could already feel his bones starting to bend from the strain.
Sunny stared in terror as the raven's beak approached his skull.
'No!'
But at the last moment, Serpent came to his rescue, wrapping itself around the neck of the raven and pulling it off of him.
Feeling the immense weight be pulled off his chest, Sunny immediately gasped for air as he sucked in a deep breath, greedily filling his lungs once more. Shooting up a second later, Sunny looked up to see Serpent attempting to wrap itself around the raven as it was flying around wildly, screeching and slamming itself into the tree in an attempt to free itself.
'Kill that bastard!'
Sunny was far too weak to help in this fight, so he immediately tried to think of something. With his spear destroyed, he could no longer use the strategy he had used before to climb the tree, so Sunny abandoned all caution. Wrapping both shadows around himself, he clung to the side of the tree and began climbing it himself, his hands grasping at the grooves in the bark of the tree as he desperately climbed while searching for something.
'Where is it… where is it…'
Sunny continued to climb upwards as he heard the raven screeching as it tried to pry Serpent off of its body.
Around ten seconds later, Sunny found what he was looking for.
'There!'
Sunny immediately began climbing even more rapidly, aiming for a certain branch.
As he made his way onto it, he heard the raven screech once more. He looked over to see how Serpent was doing only to see the raven emitting lightning from every part of its body, delivering a terrible shock to Serpent.
'No!'
Sunny watched as Serpent slowly uncoiled itself from the raven's body, smoke drifting from its scales as electricity coursed through it, momentarily paralysing it. The raven shook its body, completely unwrapping itself from Serpent's grip as it fell onto one of the branches far below.
Now, Sunny was alone.
The raven slowly turned its head towards Sunny, a dark glint in its eye. Sunny landed on the branch he was aiming for, and immediately ran towards the edge of it.
The raven shot towards Sunny, landing on the base of the branch Sunny was currently running on, shaking it ferociously. It watched Sunny hungrily as it slowly stalked towards him, its talons wrapping around the thin branch and its weight made the branch shake. He continued to back away, inch by inch.
And as the raven got just close enough, Sunny grinned victoriously…
…Only for the raven to suddenly stop.
'...'
Sunny stared at it, apprehension lining his face, his look of triumph immediately gone.
The raven, seeing this, immediately began to back away.
It had seen what Sunny did to the Praetorian earlier. It did not intend to make itself his second victim.
Sunny's face got more and more twisted.
He dismissed Serpent, bringing it back to him. But now was not the time to bring it back out.
The raven backed away completely, observing Sunny closely.
No longer sensing any danger the raven screeched, then it proceeded to extend its wings outwards as a sphere of annihilating silver lightning began to coalesce within its beak.
Upon seeing this, Sunny seemingly gave up all hope, immediately jumping off the branch and shooting downwards, the Herald's Cloak spread out behind him as he glided as fast as he could.
The raven screeched upon seeing this, immediately stopping the attack it was preparing just now, as it shot towards him, cloaked in electricity.
The human was not going to get away this time!
Sunny continued to shoot downwards, maneuvering around several small branches, sometimes crashing into small nests of leaves. The raven was prepared this time, as its speed had seemingly doubled with the cloak of electricity it surrounded itself with. Silver light trailed behind the Devil as it rapidly gained on Sunny.
But as Sunny was descending, he had failed to maneuver properly and he crashed into a branch.
The branch miraculously didn't snap from his impact, but Sunny had still been hit badly, stopping his flight in an instant.
The raven, seeing this, immediately stopped its dive, spreading its wings outwards as it slowed down. It watched its prey carefully for a moment, somehow floating in place without needing to flap its wings. It saw the human laying face down on the small branch, no longer able to fight.
The human seemed to have been knocked out by the impact, or perhaps even killed.
As the steel amalgamation watched the human begin slowly sliding off the branch, completely unmoving, it decided that this was most likely not an act.
The raven gave one last victorious screech before it slowly descended to grab its bounty.
And as it reached out its talon to grab the body of its fallen foe though…
All the essence in its body was pulled out in an instant.
Sunny, laying face down next to the nest containing the egg of the Vile Thieving Bird, grinned.
The raven wasn't even able to screech as it began to fall. Its body completely frozen due to the sudden essence exhaustion. While humans could still somewhat function without essence, nightmare creatures of this size were completely defenseless without it, or without whatever Devils used for essence.
Perhaps they didn't even use essence at all, and the egg had simply sapped its profane power directly.
Sunny immediately let go of the branch and dove down after it, flying through the air for a couple seconds before landing on its beak.
Holding on to its falling body, Sunny summoned Serpent in the form of a spear. Still free falling through the air, Sunny gave the raven one last look, meeting its terrified eyes. Within them, he saw his own disheveled reflection.
But there was still a malefic grin plastered right on his face.
Slowly forcing the raven's beak open, Sunny felt its body shake slightly.
And in the next moment, his spear was driven straight through the roof of its throat.
"Scraaa…"
The Devil gave out one last hoarse squawk, the vile light disappearing from its eyes forever.
Sunny immediately let go of its body, dismissing Serpent as he slowly glided towards the tree before clinging to the side of it.
He watched its body slowly fall, the once majestic and powerful nightmare creature now unmoving.
[You have slain an Awakened Devil, Storm of Silver.]
[...Your shadows grow stronger.]
Sunny listened in quiet anticipation.
'...'
[You have received an Echo.]
'Yes!'
Catching his breath, Sunny moved gloomy and happy back to the Shackle Key and Puppeteers Shroud, Sunny began to climb back up to the branch he had just landed on, aiming to destroy the egg that rested there.
But while he was climbing up, he heard the sound of an explosion far below as a massive plume of dust was kicked up into the air.
[You have slain a Fallen Demon, Carapace Praetorian.]
[...Your shadows grow stronger.]
[You have received a memory.]
'Serves you right, bastard.'
His luck was finally getting better! He had gotten an Echo!
Sunny finished his climb, making his way over to the nest hidden behind a wall of leaves.