"Ooo-heave!"
"Ooo-heave!"
Sunny was scaling the colossal outer walls of the Dark City with Cassie clinging to his back as though she had made her home there.
The blind seer kept her arms anchored around his neck, her head resting against the back of his hair. Her slender nose breathed in his scent softly, as if continually reassuring herself that he was truly there—real, alive, and right beside her.
'I really gave her a fright, didn't I?'
Sunny couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt, turning his head slightly to look at her while maintaining his steady, rhythmic climb up the stone.
Ever since they had stepped off the palm of that giant statue when the dark sea receded at dawn the day after, neither Nephis nor Cassie had stopped holding onto him, almost as though they feared he might vanish into thin air if they let go for even a single second.
'And speaking of Changing Star...'
Looking up, he caught sight of her a few meters ahead. The freshly stitched dress made of sea-kelp that she was wearing left dangerously, agonizingly little to the imagination.
'Okay, we have a problem,' Sunny sighed internally.
<
Unfortunately, over the seven weeks they had spent traversing the coral labyrinth of the Forgotten Shore, they hadn't managed to obtain even a single, miserable piece of Memory Armor for Changing Star.
Both he and Nephis were thoroughly reluctant to strip Cassie of the [Starlight Legion Armor] she was currently wearing. Sunny could have easily relinquished his own, but what would he wear then? He could always lend her the [Crimson Cloak], but aside from the fact that a cloak hardly constituted a full outfit, there was also the lingering issue of its troubling [Blind Glory] enchantment—which gradually drove its wearer into a state of battle-frenzied madness the longer they fought while draped in its folds.
'And then there's the small, cursed matter of its description...'
Sunny recalled it with a cold shiver running down his spine.
The memory of reading that description still made him feel an unprecedented wave of awkward embarrassment.
---
Memory: [Crimson Cloak].
Memory Rank: Ascendant.
Memory Tier: I.
Memory Type: Garment.
Memory Enchantments: [Growth], [Tough Fabric], [Blind Glory].
Memory Description: [Once, there was a boy blessed by Heart, who lost his world to the Empire's flame. In the frantic pursuit of vengeance, he lost himself. He abandoned the green fields of his people to embrace the crimson of war. The boy—proclaimed a Champion by the War God—became the very monster he sought to destroy. He was not corrupted by the Void, but by his own bottomless, insatiable thirst for slaughter. For years he marched, draped in the blood-stained banner of his own making.
Until, one day, the Champion met the most harrowing foe ever existed. A treacherous shadow—a demon wearing a man's face.
"You want me to kill you?" the shadow said.
"So be it, Goliath—Champion of War, Child of Heart. But know this. There will be no epic battle. No honor. No joy. There will only be you, begging me, pleading for an end to your agony. You will spend your final moments repenting for every sin, thinking of your creators in the afterlife—who will look down upon you with nothing but overflowing disappointment. This is not a promise, Goliath. It's simply your unavoidable solace."
The words of the treacherous shadow cut deeper than any blade, carving through the Champion's honor until nothing remained. And on the following day, faithful to its word, the treacherous shadow brought the Champion's corpse before his Gods—but denied him the grace of prayer.]
---
<
Hearing that, Sunny paused his climb for a moment, feeling his stomach churn at the sheer awkwardness of it all, earning a soft "look" of concern from the blind seer clinging to his back.
...
'Now that I think about it, I still need to sacrifice those shades to forge my second core,' Sunny mused after a short while, firmly forcing a change of subject in his mind as he resumed his ascent behind Nephis, who kept pushing steadily ahead.
***
"Give me your hand."
Nephis reached down, extending her grip to hoist Sunny up. Finally, the three of them stood atop the outer ramparts of the Dark City.
The colossal wall was crumbling and scarred by time, yet it remained remarkably intact. Looking down from the stone ledge, the citadel unfolded beneath them in all its gloomy, ancient magnificence.
"Sunny, Nephis... what do you see?"
Cassie asked softly, holding onto Sunny as both he and Nephis surveyed the ruined landscape below to assess their situation.
Hearing her, Sunny scratched the back of his head and turned toward her. "Well, Cassie... how do I put this..."
He hesitated for a second, picking his words carefully.
"The city you saw in your vision is here. The abominations inhabiting it are here too. But... I don't see any Awakened or alike occupying the ruins."
At his words, a heavy silence fell over them.
Cassie lowered her head slightly, carefully digesting his explanation.
"I see."
"Could they be deeper inside the citadel?" Nephis chimed in. "After all, this is only the outermost perimeter of the city."
Changing Star turned her gaze stoically toward the distant horizon, fixing her eyes on the Bright Castle.
"I see a fortress over there, and I think I can spot fires burning around its base. If we climb down and head deeper into the ruins, we'll probably run into someone."
Her suggestion brought a small spark of joy back to the blind seer's face. Sunny offered a simple smile as well, though behind his calm demeanor lay the crushing weight of the truth.
'There are no Awakened here, nor is there an easy portal home. The Dark City is nothing more than a meat grinder where hundreds of Sleepers have carved out a desperate existence over time, forming a twisted hierarchy in the middle of a death zone. Sitting at the absolute peak of that pyramid is a tyrant known as Gunlag.'
'Beneath him are five lieutenants, each controlling a faction responsible for maintaining order and enforcing his rule. Yet, what truly makes the current ruler of the Bright Castle unshakeable is his armor—a Transcendent Echo that coats him in an impenetrable golden shell capable of inflicting an insidious mental hex on anyone who looks directly at it.'
Everlasting Gloom recalled all of this and more as he stared at the majestic castle on the horizon.
Meanwhile, Nephis and Cassie were already stepping forward to scout a path down the ramparts.
'There's only one way to truly leave this place,' Sunny continued his internal monologue. 'Since the surrounding regions are strictly off-limits for mere Sleepers—even if I'm technically an Awakened now—and challenging a Nightmare Seed is completely out of the question for the time being.'
'Collect seven Memory Shards, put them together, and receive the key to unlock the Crimson Spire. Once the gate is opened, climb to the top and find the gateway back to the waking world—all while a literal sun tries to incinerate your soul from above. And that's not even counting the small issue of the portal.'
Cassie's soft, sweet voice gently pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Sunny? Aren't you coming?"
"Huh?"
Sunny blinked, looking over at the two girls waiting for him. He was standing with his thumb resting beneath his chin, elbow supported by his opposite arm.
Both of them had turned back to wait for him.
Shaking his head to clear his mind, Sunny focused back on the present. "Sorry, I got caught up in my own thoughts. Let's go."
He stepped forward to join them. As he caught up, Cassie delicately intertwined her fingers with his right hand, while Nephis cautiously took his left.
Together, the three marched along the wall, searching for a way down into the ruins.
It was in that exact moment that a strangely unsettling sound caught his ears.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH. MUNCH. MUNCH.
"Did you hear that?" Sunny blurted out.
"Hear what?" Nephis asked, genuinely confused. On his other side, Cassie mirrored her bewildered expression.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
BUUURP!
The ravenous, loud chewing continued unabated. Neither of the girls seemed to hear a thing.
A sudden, icy shiver ran down Sunny's spine, making his dark silhouette visibly tremble.
'Oh, no. Don't tell me—'
Directly ahead stood an arched wooden doorway leading inside one of the gate towers that punctuated the outer wall.
Right behind that weathered wooden door, those obnoxious, loud chewing noises were originating.
'Here we go,' Sunny mused, almost facepalming.
It seemed he was about to make the acquaintance of the very last character he ever wanted to meet after the Dreamspawn.
Effie.