The white haired beauty stood in the fields of bloody red coral. She couldn't help but lament the spell. It had sent her atop a giant statue surrounded by a black ocean. And then when the sun rose the sea seemed to escape to some vast area she could not see.
That night she couldn't help but wonder why the boy sunless had warned her not to cause a fire. But in the morning, she understood. Standing atop the statue she peered to a random direction only to see large beasts that seemed to be ravaging the corpse of a beast she could not distinguish
She descended the mountain by luck without getting hurt to bad and looked around. Her senses were still on high alert despite doing nothing but stare into the expanse of the dark waters. She had no memories to swim so she really didn't have a choice to make and if the morning came she would have to swim. Which is why she was relieved when the Sea retreated.
Whilst walking around she came across one of the beasts. And had a tough battle with it. Once she had noticed areas on the carapace that seemed weak, she attacked it till she succeeded in killing it
She was tired. Cuts lined her body despite her dodging skills. And her appearance was disheveled not that she cared for such things. Using her flames and enduring her harrowing flaw she healed herself and began to walk away before other beasts which heard her battle come looking for scraps
While walking through the eerily beautiful coral she heard a rumbling sound approaching. She pinpointed the direction of the sound and summoned [dream blade] and got into a battle stance waiting.
However the moment the beast came into view she wished she had retreated. It was midnight black. Eyes of purple that seemed to look into her soul. It had a horn on its snout that seemed it could pierce her flesh and bone as a pencil through paper. It's long body that despite some of it still being in the reaches behind the body seemed endless. This beast was not a foe she could best right now. And he knew it
Just before shifting her weight to retreat she noticed something. 2 people were on the terrifying magnificent beast. One with bright blonde hair that seemed to catch the sun. Her body small and slightly tanned. Blue eyes that seemed glossy
'Cassia... Is that Cassie'
And then her eyes fell on the body behind Cassie - A boy hair and eyes as black as the serpent itself. His pale skin and small but built body making him seem like a legacy
'Sunny' - she felt slightly relieved. 2 people she knew weren't her killers but companions.
Even though she called him sunless. She heard Cassie calling him sunny and wanted to as well, so she did it in her mind when she thought of him. Which she did often seeing as how he bested her and half the class. Had an odd echo. Knew her assassin and wanted her friendship. And from. What she heard he was a outskirts rat.
"Sunless is that you?"
.....
'Oh, thank the dead gods we didn't miss her'
"Yes, lady Nephis. A pleasure to see you here"
Nephis was slightly saddened at his nonchalant attitude. Meeting a friend in a nightmare was always a happy thing m even if they weren't so close
"yes it is"
The atmosphere was awkward and silent neither side knowing what to say. Which is why sunny was so thankful for his little blind seer sister - "Nephis it's so good to hear your voice. It's amazing we're all together! Now we have a better chance of survival the top 1 and top 2 together..."
The thoughts of not being a help seemed to rise again but with sunny placing his hand on her shoulder she didn't wasn't to have the lecture again, so she started speaking again
"So... Um what... What do we do now"
Sunny responded - "we go to the statue Nephis was on. Its closer serpent is too tired to go back the way we came right now"
"How do you know I was on a statue" - she trusted him to a degree but was still puzzled on how he knew
Sunny responded. He added a bit of humor into his voice showing friendliness to Nephis which surprised her since he always seemed to have a little hate toward her - "because. I assume you didn't sleep in the Sea not wanting to burn out and all "
Her face contorted a little. It reddened slightly but no one would have noticed her embarrassment aside from sunny he knew her honestly better than she knew herself at this point
"I'm teasing Nephis. Cassie and I spent the night on a statue, and I assumed you did to. We came in this direction hoping to find you since I knew wed meet you here. I just got sidetracked with a few of those beasts"
"Oh yeah sunny you said that you were going to get us food did you find any"
Nephis had momentarily paused. When he had said that he came to look for her he specifically said her. She decided to let it go since during one of the conversations she heard between him and Cassie at the academy he said he had something according to prophecies. But what made her really curious was that he claimed to have went hunting. She decided that he had just used an echo. Since he seemed to be way to clean for someone who claimed to just finish a battle
That thought evaporated though with his next words - "oh yeah I got a ton of meat from the scavengers. Since I left serpent to guard you it took a bit longer, but shadow knight took out about 22 scavengers, and I took on about 20"
Nephis grew pale. He took on 20 of those awakened beasts. Went into battle without the serpent she assumed he was riding. And went in with only the odd knight
She couldn't find words, but Cassie did - "scavengers?" she tilted her head cutely like a curious puppy - "seeing as how you killed 20, they must have been hard. I honestly expected you to say you killed a thousand. So, uh what rank were those
"No these were awakened beasts. I actually don't think we will find dormant creatures here" - Cassie was slightly stunned
"Awakened... You fought awakened? Sunny did you get hurt? Are you okay? Wait Knighty wasn't with you did he get killed?" - Cassie bombarded him with questions
"Calm down Cass. Yeah, there were a lot but 'knighty' as you called him attacked from a distance coming in towards the battle only at the end while I was fighting them up close. He's fine and reading in my soul and I am fine to so again. Don't worry"
Cassie sighed. Nephis came out of her stupor slightly
"Sunle--"
Sunny interjected - "Sunny, you can call me Sunny"
Nephis was happy in her heart a bit after hearing him her confusion and disbelief going away slightly - "Sunny. How many creatures did you kill since coming here"
Quickly looking at the Runes for the dark souls sunny responded - "oh so far about a hundred and forty-one... No, it's a few more. There are a lot of nightmare creatures in the sea"
Nephis fainted
"Sunny what was that thud" - Cassie asked confused
"What thud?" - he asked equally confused
"The one that came from that direction" - She responded pointing in the direction she heard it from
"Ah, Nephis fainted Cass"
"What!?What happened."
"I think she couldn't take the 'you're a sleeper but and have been here for a day but you killed 130 creatures' statement I made that and the fact that I hunted in the sea"
After the worry faded from them both pit on comically serious faces
"Ah is see understandable reaction. If I didn't know you, I would've fainted too. But really 141 is a lot"
"Yes, I suppose my good lady"
They spoke in serious faces and then and began to laugh as if there wasn't a literal fainted girl a few feet away
Sunny got of serpent and walked to Nephis unconscious body. He picked her up and walked to serpent again - "here can you hold her while you do to the statue"
"Yeah okay" - she mock saluted him causing him to let out a chuckle
Sunny had stayed behind because it was around here that he received a certain echo. Of course he hadn't told Cassie this rather he just said that he will be back soon.
As he was walking through the blood red forest and checking the sun making sure he still had a long while before it sets. A few scavengers attacked him. They were not numerous or difficult since they were already injured heavily. So sunny dispatched them
After the usual updates from the spell about
[a fragment of your post power returns] so far and so forth. Sunny had killed 7 scavengers and noticing there was no more remaining he waited a second or 2 for an update but when he didn't get any, he closed his eyes and sighed. An opportunity the scavenger that was hiding behind the coral took gratefully. Lunging at sunny it raised its pincer in attempts to stab him
While still in the air sunny couldn't help but pity the fool. Willing it the darkness from his soul moved from his body to the floor and coalesced into a spear casing the already falling scavenger to be impaled
And then. He heard the message he had waited for
[you have revived an echo]
Smiling sunny had stripped the carcasses of the scavengers of their cores and made his way slowly towards the statue. As he walked sunny summoned his new echo and sat atop his head. And whilst he did he began crushing the soul cores he got before reaching the statue. He warned the echo to be on extra high guard while he checks his soul sea. And when he entered. First checking on shadow knight making sure the injuries were healing he looked at his counter
597/1000
Naturally this was including the 42 shards from the earlier hunt and now these 7
Upon reaching the top of the statue and noticing he still had 1 hour remaining before nightfall sunny made his way over to Cassie. And naturally serpent as well as the unconscious girl besides her who lay asleep on the floor
"hey Cass I'm back"
In return the blinding smile of the seer made his heart warm. He had vowed to himself that he will protect her from fate this time and said vow had just now been reinforced
"welcome back sunny. Are you okay?"
"yeah just hunted a bit more. More meat and stuff. I see serpent and you are still close as ever"
"heh yeah. She's sweet"
Sunny decided to leave out the fact that anyone who would actually be able to see serpent would disagree viewing the majestic creature as the personification of death. But he decided against telling Cassie that. It wasn't as if he disagreed with Cassie entirely. Serpent was a beautiful beast
Sunny had quickly made a fire close to them and had quickly cooked some of the scavenger meat. A bit more than he would have since he didn't want it to spoil since he got so many already. While cooking sunny couldn't help but lament the fact that he had no spices to season the food with. The damn academy always had seasoned food and never gave any salt or pepper shakers.
As soon as the meat was done sunny quickly extinguished the fire by engulfing the dry coral in darkness. Thankfully that worked. He didn't want to keep the fire burning long especially when he remembered what Cassie and Neph had told him in the last life
While in the midst of his cooking sunny had been making small talk with Cassie. So, when he completed the dish, he offered it to her in kind
"Eat up Cass"
"Sunny this... This is so much food did. Did you keep any for you or Nephis i know it seems you don't trust her, but we can't exactly let her starve while we eat and we need to keep rations"
Sunny smiled - "yes Cass. I took enough meat for a month from my kills. I saved enough in my memory. I got a lot last night and saved a lot of it for later. There's enough for us all m including Nephis. I did account for her as well as myself. This is just your share for the today. There is still a lot left"
Cassie was stumped so she responded brilliantly - "oh"
Sunny laughed - "Okay now eat up I'm gonna go put the rest of the meat into the bag of holding"
Cassie nodded and began to eat satisfaction showing clearly on her face
Sunny had decided to leave serpent out to keep Cassie company as he decided to walk around the tower and just make sure that there were no Nightmare creatures that saw the fire. After confirming it was safe he sat down and ate his portion of the food. Once more regretting the lack of seasoning
He sat there in his spot and saw a the figure sleeping on the floor shift. Nephis had woke up and with a startle she jumped up and summoned her blade looking around.
She saw Cassie sitting beside with her head resting on the echo which she didn't. Even know whom it belonged to or where they got it. And as she looked around she saw sunny sitting in the middle looking at her with a smirk as if teasing her
"had a nice sleep princess? "
Before she could respond the sun had fully set. And with it the roar of the black Sea came back as it flooded the region. Drowning out sound. And once more Nephis was blind in the darkness