Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie had started packing up and erasing their traces. Who knew if there was a nightmare creature in this region that could track them using the remnants of their camp. Better safe than sorry.
Sunny used his shadow to lead in front and started descending from the coral, helping Cassie in the process. After descending from the cliff, they immediately started following the route Sunny's invaluable helper had scouted.
They were making quick progress, with the blind girl tied to them by the golden rope. She did not slow them down much. Unfortunately, their swift advances slowed soon. Sunny's shadow had noticed multiple injured scavengers in front of him.
"Stop." Sunny said in a whisper. She stopped immediately and gave him a look.
"What is it, Sunny?" Her voice was extremely dull and bland, making her question sound more like a sentence. Sunny did not mind it. He responded in a whisper.
"A group of scavengers ahead, about six of them." He had stopped speaking and held up his hand, signaling to wait. Then he spoke again. "Ah, there. I have found another route."
Nephis nodded and started following the new route. On the way, though, they had met many groups of scavengers. Each time they would have to reroute. Because of this, their quick progress had come to a halt.
Nephis glanced at Sunny and raise her eyebrow. "Did the scavengers finish devouring the carcass?" she asked.
Sunny shook his head. "No. It's just that the meat is not enough for everyone anymore. It seems they fought over this, and the groups we are stumbling upon are the ones that got unlucky. That's why they are all injured."
He sighed. "It seems like we'll have to fight them. If we hit them in the concave cavity on the back of their heads, we can kill them in one hit."
Nephis nodded at him. "Right. That's what I thought too. We'll pick the smallest group of scavengers we can… preferably lone stragglers. I'll be the bait, and you land the final blow." She gave him a weird glance. 'It looks like she has not improved in this aspect at all.' Sunny sighed in his mind. Nephis was letting him get the final hit so he could absorb shadow fragments. Only, she could not say it out loud. Luckily, Cassie was blind, so she could not see the obvious abnormality on Neph's face.
He smiled. 'Is- is she looking out for me? That's so sweet.' Changing Stars perpetually aloof gaze did not fool him one bit. It was obvious she wanted him to become stronger. On one hand, he was going to be helping her with achieving her goal, but on the other hand, one that Sunny hoped was more important to her, was that his chance of dying would be much lower each time he got stronger.
This had surprisingly brought him solace.
Even after everything that had happened to them, him leaving without a word. Their bond was stronger than ever.
Cassie, though, was very worried. "Y- You guys are actually going to fight?"
Sunny nodded. "Yeah. Don't worry, we'll make sure not to die. You can just hide somewhere among the corals."
Sunny found Cassie a hiding spot, making sure she would not be found. After that, he started executing their plan.
Soon, Sunny had climbed a coral, hiding in the shadows. Nephis was already in her position too. She was already seen by their target —a lone injured scavenger. The carapace monster immediately started chasing her. Nephis had the lead, but the scavenger was fast —faster than her— if this continued, Nephis would eventually lose her advantage, and the beast would attack her. Luckily for them, she did not have to run very far. After she reached the corner, she turned and stopped. The scavenger followed her and swung one of its pincers, aiming to catch its prey. Not noticing Sunny hiding in the shadows behind him.
Sunny leaped from his hiding spot. Augmented by his shadow, he shrank the distance between him and the scavenger. He was fast, not as fast as Caster, but faster than most sleepers. He aimed the Azure Blade at the weak spot of his prey and pierced it.
Azure blood spilled around Sunny like a fountain. The armored beast shuddered and dropped to the ground, dead.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[…Your Shadow Grows Stronger.]
Sunny immediately felt the change.
[Shadow Fragments: 16/1000].
He had killed an awakened beast, gaining two shadow fragments for each of its cores. In this case, that was only one.
'That Easy?' Surprisingly, killing the fearsome awakened beast was easy. Sunny had barely exerted himself, and Nephis had not even received a bruise on her perfect alabaster skin.
The team continued in the labyrinth. Each time they met a enemy they could not move past, they fought and killed it quickly. Eventually, they started hunting scavengers on purpose. It was hard to remember, but the real danger was not in the hell that was the forgotten shore, but what lay beyond it. The real world was much more dangerous than this place. Carapace scavengers were awakened, but in the real world, it was not awakened who wanted them dead, but supremes.
They had to get as strong as possible.
By the time they reached the headless statue, they had slain about a dozen scavengers. Most were killed by Sunny, and for some, Nephis had landed the final hit. When their prey died, Nephis would quickly fish out the shard and consume it. Rarely, Nephis would give them to Cassie to absorb.
[Shadow Fragments: 38/100].
Sunny looked at the line of runes. He had gotten considerably stronger. One shard was a small increase, but when added up, it made all the difference. He felt that there was still a lot to go until they reached the castle. If this pace kept up, he would be much stronger than a peak human, crossing far into superhuman. Nephis, though, would get there before him. With her innate ability, those scavengers she had killed had granted her more fragments than all his kills combined, added onto the shards she consumed. Her rate of growth was staggering. Scary even.
He was fully sure that she would reach the one-thousand mark much, much before him. 'I wonder what will happen then?' Sunny wondered.
Then the sound of sizzling snapped him out of his thoughts. He was cooking again, and the carapace steak was still the only thing on the menu, but this time it came with salt. Nephis had suggested taking the salt extracts left by the dark sea's constant movement, and they had extracted some from the water they could get their hands on as well. It seemed that Changing Star did not like the taste of unsalted meat, even if she would not like to admit it.
"Sunny, salt is important. Without sodium, we won't survive for long." She told him with the same face she usually wore. To others, this performance would be convincing, but Sunny knew Nephis too well. She just did not like the taste and texture of meat without salt. While everything she said was true, they could substitute dark sea salt with seaweed rather than risk it. But of course, she would not settle for anything else, because she really hated the taste.
Luckily, a carapace scavenger seemed to be fine after consuming the heavily salted corpse they had left behind. Granted, the nightmare creatures were not necessarily humans, but that was a risk Sunny was willing to make because he hated the taste too.
The meat came out much better than the last time. It was crazy how much some salt could change. The meat actually had a crust now. Sunny started salivating as he placed a piece of meat on Cassie's makeshift plate he had carved. Nephis was eyeing the meat with a gluttonous light behind her eyes until he had placed one on her plate as well. He had kept his for last.
Nephis ate her steak immediately. She even took a second piece. After all, she had been dancing and running around scavengers all day without eating. She was bound to get hungry. The same went for Sunny, even if all he did was jump out of the shadows and land one blow. He still had to expend energy. Cassie ate her share slowly, though, not only because she was blind and needed to be careful, but also because she had not been nearly as hungry as they were. Nephis had offered her help, but the blind girl insisted on learning independence, or at least the small amount of it a blind person could have.
Seeing her was disheartening, but also strangely comforting. Her will to survive and grow stronger, despite her circumstances, was truly inspiring. But he also pitied her… no, rather, he pitied everyone —every human who was forced into fighting with no choice of their own, and every human who had something important taken from them by the nightmare spell.
A lot had been taken from him too, but the most had been taken from Nephis. He wished that everything could have been different, that they could have grown up together, safely, with no threat looming over them, no one who wanted them dead. Nephis, she had changed so much over the years. Sunny would give everything to put that smile she always wore during their childhood back on her. He wished that everything could go back to the way it was, when they were both happy, but that could not happen.
Sunny could not change the past, but he could change the future. The sovereigns are going to die. He was going to make sure of that. They had taken everything from him, and as if it were not enough, they tried to hurt the people most important to him.
Sunny was a very spiteful person. He would never let go of this grudge. Ever! Even if he were to die, he would make sure to return as a spiteful ghost and fulfill his mission. It was his will. Nothing would stop him.