As golden coins moved, revealing several rows of terrifying triangular teeth, Sunny recoiled… but it was too late. The heavy lid of the chest suddenly came to life and closed with astonishing speed, another row of fangs appearing from behind its edge.
'What…'
Just a fraction of a second before the creature sunk its teeth into his forearm, Sunny's other hand shot forward. The blade of the Cruel Sight slid between the falling guillotine of the chest's lid and the fabric of the Puppeteer's Shroud. A moment later, the chest closed, and Sunny screamed.
Because of his quick reaction, the creature failed to bite his whole hand off. However, its jaws turned out to be horribly powerful. With a sickening sound, the bones in his arms shattered. Neither the leather vambrace of the Puppeteer's Shroud nor the augmentation of the shadow managed to resist the terrible strength of the gluttonous chest.
Sunny found himself caught in the abomination's crushing maw, with the blade of Cruel Sight laying flat on top of his broken arm and protecting it from being pierced by the sharp teeth that protruded from the lid of the chest. From below, several triangular fangs were slowly sinking into his vambrace. There was no obvious way to free himself...
'What the hell is that thing?!'
As several coins fell out of the creature's mouth and rolled on the floor, the chest pressed down harder, making Sunny shriek from blinding pain.
"B—bastard! Let go of me, you vile piece of rotten wood!"
Instead of doing that, the chest moved closer, forcing Sunny to fall to his knees. Something wet and coarse touched his hand, and a disturbingly long and wide tongue emerged from beneath the golden coins, sliding across his arm and dripping with viscous saliva.
Then, the tongue moved toward his neck.
Sunny stared at the horrid sight in outrage, then screamed:
"What the Spell?!"
As the second shadow wrapped itself around his body, gifting him a vast boost in strength, Sunny tried to pull his broken arm out of the abomination's maw, but its bite was just too damn overbearing. All he accomplished was almost knocking himself out from the pain of bone shards scraping against each other.
"Argh! Crap!"
As the unnaturally long tongue of the chest almost reached Sunny's neck, he growled, and then commanded the Cruel Sight to turn into a spear. At the same time, he activated the [Dark Mirror] enchantment with a burst of shadow essence, embuing the silver blade with soul-destroying power.
The Memory extended inside the creature's mouth, hitting it in the back of the… whatever it had instead of a throat. The tip of the spear sunk into the adamantine wood only by a centimeter or two... the wound was by no means serious, but it must have hurt the chest a lot, because it suddenly let out a shrill shriek, and then spat Sunny's maimed arm out.
Sunny fell to the floor and rolled away, then rose to one knee.
'Yes!'
Before he could celebrate getting his freedom back, however, the chest suddenly swayed… and then rose into the air, revealing a gaunt and revolting body hiding beneath. More coins rolled on the floor.
The abomination must have been a masterful contortionist, because at its full height, it was almost three meters tall. Sunny had no idea how the creature managed to hide all that bony flesh inside the fake chest, even if the chest was large enough to swallow a human whole. Its long and emaciated limbs unfolded with repulsive cracking sounds, and then, it towered menacingly above Sunny, the long tongue dripping with saliva.
'Oh, curse it a…'
Before he could even react, the creature moved one of its long legs… and kicked him in the chest with the force of a derailing train.
Sunny's body shot back, smashed through the reinforced door of the armored compartment, and rolled into the corridor outside.
He tried to groan, but all the air had been knocked out of his lungs by the terrible collision. His skull seemed to be in one piece, as was his spine… barely. It did feel, however, as though his entire body had recently suffered from being stomped on by a whole herd of elephants.
In his disoriented state, Sunny couldn't help but think confusedly:
'...Elephant… what the hell is an elephant?'
Then, however, all thoughts disappeared from his head, because he noticed the vile creature falling on all fours, and then launching itself forward, the lid of the chest rising for another bite.
When the abomination landed, though, there was nothing to bite into. Sunny had used Shadow Step and fell out of a shadow ten meters further into the corridor, then landed awkwardly on his broken arm and whimpered.
'Oh, damn… that hurts…'
The toothy chest hovered in the air for a couple of moments, as if bewildered, then slowly turned to face him.
Sunny sighed, then picked himself up from the floor and tried to stand up.
His first attempt failed.
Gritting his teeth and hiding how much pain he was currently experiencing, Sunny threw a furious glance at the creature and growled:
"Come here, you bastard!"
With that, he used the Cruel Sight to help himself stand up, and then pointed the spear at the creature.
The chest tilted to the side.
'How come… it seems as though the bastard is grinning? How can a chest even grin?!'
But there was no mistaking it — the abomination was mocking him. It became especially apparent after a grating, high-pitched giggle escaped from somewhere inside it.
The sound of it was so offensive, both to Sunny's pride and his ears, that he would rather have his arm broken all over again that listen to it.
'Funny, is it?'
Sunny smiled, then unhurriedly lowered the spear…
And thrust it into one of the thick brown vines sprawled on the floorboards in front of him.
The abomination's giggle abruptly stopped.
It froze and stared at Sunny, as if utterly stunned.
…And then trembled.
'Not so funny now, huh?'
A moment later, the entire ship trembled, too.
Chapter 422: Rude Awakening
Whatever it was that slumbered in the cargo hold of the ancient ship did not like one of its vines being damaged, let alone having its soul cut by a sharp blade. As the whole wreck trembled, a strong gust of warm, pungent wind hit Sunny in the back, tousling his hair. The air became even murkier than it had been before.
The chest creature froze, staring at him with something that resembled a mortified expression. Even its tongue stopped swaying in the air and retreated back under the pile of golden coins.
Now, it was Sunny's turn to grin. An evil gleam appeared in his eyes. Retrieving the Cruel Sight, he said:
"Goodness gracious. How clumsy of me."
The abomination lingered for a few moments, gave him a hateful look, and turned slightly toward to door of the treasury. Then, however, it halted.
'Don't tell me…'
Faced with the terrible danger of facing the awakened master of the wreck, the creature was still hesitating. The prey was right in front of it…
To Sunny's misfortune, he and the bizarre monstrosity shared one fundamental character flaw.
Both were very, very greedy.
Before he could even blink, the abomination suddenly turned back and lunged at him with a shrill giggle rumbling from somewhere in the depths of it. All Sunny could do was spend more essence and use Shadow Step again, appearing on the spot where the creature had been a second ago.
As he slipped on the debris of the shattered door and fell, the abomination shot through the air and crushed into the wall of the corridor, pulverizing the wooden boards and getting entangled in the vines covering them. It huffed and puffed, then tried to extricate itself from the mess of glistening vines.
…However, they wouldn't let go.
In fact, as Sunny watched in horror, the whole corridor moved. The reddish-brown mass that it was overgrown with rippled, and the thick vines crawled toward the trapped creature, long thorns suddenly appearing on their vernicose surface.
The abomination giggled again, this time nervously, and doubled its efforts to free itself, slashing at the vines with its talons and biting into them with its terrifying teeth. As sickeningly pungent juice flowed into its maw, the creature shuddered.
'Crap, crap, crap…'
Turning on his stomach, Sunny lunged himself forward and rolled into the treasury. Here, there were no vines and no moss, only two empty chests and a scattering of gold coins gleaming on the floor.
As he hesitated, thinking of what to do next, something crashed with a deafening noise in the corridor behind him, and a moment later, the tall silhouette of the gaunt monstrosity appeared in the doorway.
Sunny's eyes widened, and he brandished the Cruel Sight, preparing to defend himself.
The abomination, however, did not pay him any attention anymore. Jumping over Sunny, it landed in the middle of the armored compartment… and then ran as fast as it could toward the breach in the back wall.
Without stopping even for a second, it reached the breach and dove through it, escaping the awakening wreck. Sunny followed its escape with his eyes, and then blinked.
'...Huh.'
Then, his gaze fell on the floor of the treasury.
The coins were still there, glinting in the bright sunlight. They didn't disappear or dissipate after the creature had run away. The coins… were real.
'They're real…'
As the ancient ship shook and trembled, and the mass of vines crawled toward the treasury, Sunny gritted his teeth and lunged toward the coins, grabbing them and pushing them into his pack.
'Real, they're real…'
He was in such a hurry to gather all the coins that he even cut himself slightly on the piece of mirror that was still stored in the pack.
"Ouch!"
'If these coins are real… then the rest of them inside that damned chest are real, too.'
Perhaps there weren't as many as he had thought, since the chest turned out to have a false… everything, but just the top layer that was visible to the naked eyes had to contain a thousand or more coins, at least.
As Sunny hunted down the last shiny golden disk left in the treasury, his attention was elsewhere.
It was concentrated on his shadow — the one he had hidden in the abomination's own shade when it jumped over him. Now, the shadow was following the bizarre creature as it ran toward the edge of the island, its gangly arms swaying in the air.
Sunny expected it to be assaulted by the Sailor Dolls, but the menacing wood wraiths seemed to be retreating from the wreck themselves. Some even dropped to the ground, turning back into piles of debris.
…The ground was moving.
'Well, what do you know…'
He thought that the Dolls learned to fall apart and reassemble themselves as a way to combat the Crushing, since many Nightmare Creatures on the Isles had adapted to its harsh reality in one way or another… but maybe, this peculiar ability had initially been just the means to hide themselves from the being that inhabited the wreck.
In any case, he couldn't let the chest escape. Not when a thousand shadow fragments were hidden inside the abominable thing!
Palming the last coin, Sunny threw the pack over his shoulder, then picked up the Cruel Sight and stood up. A determined expression appeared on his face.
The abomination was already halfway to the edge of the island.
"Where are you running, bastard?"
Diving into the shadows, he expended a large burst of essence and appeared out of his own shadow right in front of the creature. Since he could only use one hand now, the weapon Memory had turned back into a shortsword.
Before the abomination could react, the Cruel Sight lashed out and bit it into its thigh. The silver blade went all the way through, escaping from the back of it in a rain of black blood.
The chest let out a startled shriek… and then the monstrosity tumbled to the ground, rolling over its head and sending pieces of moss and mud flying into the air. The force of its crash was so fearsome that the ground trembled.
Or… was there another reason?
Before Sunny could do anything, brown vines shot from under the moss, wrapping themselves around the body of the bizarre abomination.
One of them, however, slid around his leg instead.
Chapter 423: Risk and Reward
'Not good…'
The vine wasn't as large as some of the ones Sunny had seen back on the ancient ship, but it was still as thick as a man's arm, with curved black thorns protruding from its glistening surface.
The vine brought the sickeningly sweet smell with it.
Sunny hacked at it with the Cruel Sight, but barely managed to break the vine's skin. As a fine aerosol of aromatic juice shot into the air, the damned thing moved.
His eyes widened.
The vine easily shredded the leather boot of the Puppeteer's Shroud, as if the Awakened armor of the fifth Tier was made out of tissue paper. Before the sharp thorns could saw off his foot, however, Sunny cursed and brought the Cruel Sight down once more, this time augmenting the silver blade with both of his shadows.
The shortsword hacked through the vine, severing the stretch of it that was wrapped around Sunny's leg. The rest of it didn't like being cut one bit: surging forward, it aimed at his torso. Several more appeared from beneath the most at shot at Sunny, too.
However, now that nothing was holding him, he could finally use Shadow Step again. Before the vines reached his body, Sunny turned into a shadow. Safe and sound in their tranquil embrace of the darkness… for now, at least… he slid a few meters away and stared at the struggling abomination.
The creature was entangled by several thick vines, which moved across its body, leaving bloody trails on it. Sparks flew as the black thorns scraped fruitlessly across the adamantine surface of the wooden chest, though. It seemed to be much tougher that the rest of the creature's body.
The monstrosity gathered its limbs underneath it, then pushed with all its might, trying to stand up. An angry shriek escaped from its maw.
The vines were trying to hold it down, but either they were much weaker here, far away from the wreck, or the abomination was much stronger than Sunny had thought. It raised to its knees, then lashed out with its talons, ripping two of the vines apart.
Suddenly liberated, the monstrosity crawled from underneath the remaining vines, and then dashed toward the edge of the island on all fours.
Sunny hissed.
'Crap!'
Why couldn't it just lay still and die?!
He escaped the shadow and ran after the unreasonably swift abomination… but it was too late.
Just a few moments later, the bizarre creature reached the very edge of the island and jumped off of it without slowing even for a moment. The lid of the chest clicked close as it plummeted down.
"What the hell!"
Sunny reached the edge a few seconds later and froze as he looked down.
A grim expression appeared on his face.
***
Some distance below, a gargantuan heavenly chain escaped from the mouth of a stone structure similar to the one Sunny had seen on the other side of the island. This one was slightly different, though, mainly because both of the massive stone pillars had broken and collapsed a long time ago.
…The chain itself was different, too.
Sunny had never seen such a thing on the Chained Isles. It seemed… sick, somehow. Weakened. The chain was covered in rust, its iron links dim and lifeless, robbed of their usual sense of indestructible stability.
This one was rather long, stretching for good ten kilometers or so into the distance. Because the Shipwreck Island continued to descend, it was slightly angled upward. Sunny could see a relatively small isle on the other end of the chain, far into the distance.
…And everywhere in between, grotesque Chain Worms were crawling all other the weakened heavenly chain.
Not that Sunny saw them alive, he understood that he had underestimated just how disturbing these creatures were. With their long serpentine tails, human-like torsos, and long muzzles that brimmed with dagger-like fangs, the demons looked like misshapen maggots devouring the dying chain.
…Or maybe it was already dead, and they were simply feasting on its corpse.
Some were thin like the one Sunny had seen before, some engorged on the rusty iron and bloated beyond any reasonable measure, towering above the damaged chain like small hills of flesh. The scales on the latter ones looked like they were now made out of steel, and shined as they reflected the sunlight. Those who had not satiated their hunger yet were much thinner and flew around, resembling giant metal dragonflies.
'...Crap.'
The damned chest creature landed directly on the rusted heavenly chain, gathered its long limbs, and dashed away from the Shipwreck Island, swaying dangerously as it went. From time to time, it fell to all fours and launched itself into the air, jumping from one link to another.
It wasn't long before the bizarre abomination encountered a Chain Worm. The winged creature lunged at it… only to be kicked in the muzzle and have one of its wings ruthlessly torn apart.
The chest creature tossed the maimed Chain Worm back toward the island, where its body was suddenly grabbed by a long root that lazily extended from the darkness of the Dark Side, then disappeared from view.
The abomination took in the terrible sight, giggled, then turned around, and continued running away.
Sunny hesitated.
His prize was getting away. But…
The small island he could see in the distance had to be the Twisted Rock — the isle directly bordering the Tear. There would be no more land to escape to if he went there.
And the only chain that connected Twisted Rock to the Chained Isles was currently being devoured by the demonic Worms. It didn't seem to be on the verge of collapse just yet, however… how would Sunny know? It's not like he had seen a heavenly chain break before.
Perhaps it was time to give up on his pursuit and turn back.
He lingered on the very edge of the island, sensing brown vines crawling closer and closer.
Risk it all or retreat and lose the chance to get his hands on the miraculous treasure forever? Nephis was about to become a devil in just a few days…
No matter what decision he was going to make, he had to make it right now.
In the end, Sunny had to silence his avarice and consider the situation objectively. Going after the bizarre abomination posed a huge risk… but it also promised a huge reward.
In the end, what made him decide was not greed, emotions, or even rational thought. It was his intuition.
For whatever reason, Sunny felt a strong aversion to the idea of turning back. It was as though Twisted Rock exerted an invisible pull on him, drawing him closer. He had never experienced something like this, at least not to this degree.
He knew that his intuition was not a simple thing. It was connected to the [Fated] Attribute and the special properties his eyes had inherited from Weaver. Somehow, Sunny was capable of perceiving the trembling of the strings of fate around him, from time to time.
Considering how strong his intuition was pushing him toward the Twisted Rock, something out there had to be of utmost importance to his fate, or at least have a connection to it.
'...Fine. Let's get those coins!'
With a grim expression, Sunny summoned the Dark Wing and dove into the empty abyss of the skies.
Chapter 424: Unlucky Streak
Sunny glided through the skies, tensely observing the underside of the Shipwreck Island through the eyes of his shadow. The chain ahead of him was teeming with a swarm of Fallen Demons, but behind him… he didn't even want to know what the thing hiding in the darkness was.
One thing became clear, though, and it was why none of the Chain Worms had tried to devour the iron giant that swayed in the wreckage of a broken heavenly chain… or rather, had succeeded in trying to bite a piece out of him. The dead colossus was like cheese in the mousetrap, attracting these vile creatures into the range at which the being that dwelled in the perpetual darkness could catch them.
Sunny was sure that many Chain Worms had attempted to feast on the iron giant, but ended up being the feast instead.
Currently, he was trying to avoid the same fate.
Luckily, the Dark Wing allowed him to glide diagonally away from the Shipwreck Island instead of plunging straight down, avoiding the attack range of the terrifying being. He reached the chain without attracting the attention of the bottom dweller, and instantly became a shadow, hiding on its underside.
Waiting for a few moments, Sunny studied the length of the heavenly tether in front of him.
'...Not too bad.'
A large section of the unusually long chain hung low, reaching the Sky Below. He would be able to ride most of it without being noticed by the Chain Worms. The last stretch of it, though… Sunny was going to have to use Shadow Step to jump from shadow to shadow if he wanted to avoid having to fight a swarm of the Fallen Demons.
The problem was that his reserves of shadow essence were already running low. Except for the short walk across the hull of the ancient ship, Sunny had no chance to really replenish it. In the meantime, he had used a lot to get to the wreck, fight the damnable chest abomination, and pursue it. Chances were, he would reach the Twisted Rock with no essence to spare whatsoever.
How was he even going to kill the vile chest, especially with one of his arms broken?
He hesitated for a bit, then rushed forward, swiftly reaching the section of the chain submerged into the Sky Below and continuing to fly through the darkness once there. To avoid tempting fate, Sunny remained on the underside of the gargantuan tether, where there were way fewer Worms crawling around.
He did, however, encounter several, and saw up close how they were tearing into the rusting iron of the chain as he silently flew past. The sight of it was simultaneously disturbing, fascinating… and strangely sad.
'All things must come to an end, I guess…'
Even as seemingly eternal as the miraculous heavenly chains.
...Soon, he caught up with the chest creature and followed it from the shadows. The bizarre monstrosity was still running as fast as it could, jumping from link to link and using its long gangly limbs to keep balance. From time to time, it got into a short and vicious fight with one of the Chain Worms and either left them severely wounded, or promptly escaped with a ghastly wound or two of its own. By now, its grating giggles grew somewhat miserable, as well as menacingly angry.
Sunny observed its fighting habits, thinking about how to deal with it best.
At the same time, he was meticulously calculating the amount of shadow essence he would have to spend to cross the last section of the way to the Twisted Rock, trying to find a way to keep his reserves as high as possible.
…His calculations, thought, had turned out to be for naught.
When both Sunny and the chest monstrosity were about halfway to the small island, a dreadful sound reached their ears.
It was the rattling of the chain.
Sunny froze for a moment, then glanced toward the goal of this journey.
'Oh, no…'
The Twisted Rock had entered its ascent phase, and was now rising quickly into the sky.
***
'Curse it all!'
Sunny remembered thinking that he was in luck today, and couldn't help but growl… mentally, of course, since he had no vocal cords currently.
Where the hell was this supposed luck?!
The fact that the Twisted Rock was ascending meant two things for him.
One was that he would have to act fast and try to kill the chest creature before the Crushing became too terrible, or somehow obliterate the damned thing while being weighed down by it.
The second was that the position of the heavenly chain was swiftly shifting, making it so that the stretch of it submerged into the Sky Below was becoming shorter and shorter.
This meant that he would have to spend much more essence to reach the island without attracting the attention of the swarm of Chain Worms. And he didn't have a lot of essence to spare, to begin with…
'Damn it!'
As the angle of the chain increased and the bizarre monstrosity swayed, then fell on all fours and rushed forward even faster, Sunny tried to deal with the resentment growing in his heart and followed it.
'...Was my intuition wrong?'
Things didn't seem too good for him right now.
Soon, the two of them emerged from the darkness of the Sky Below and saw the sunlight again. The chest creature seemed indifferent to it, but to Sunny, it was an ill omen.
Out here in the sunlit expanse of the Sky Above, the heavenly chain was not covered in an uninterrupted layer of shadows anymore. That meant that he couldn't move through it unobstructed. Instead, Sunny had to either step from one shadow to another, if they were close enough, or send his own forward and make use of it to jump over long stretches of brightly lit parts of the heavenly tether.
'Damn it...'
Knowing that there was no other choice now, Sunny burned through his essence in order to not fall behind the rushing monstrosity.
Soon, his reserves grew dangerously low. It was still enough to reach the Twisted Rock… probably… but once there, he would have to fight while both of his cores were nearly empty.
That meant no bursts of speed, strength, and resilience that he had already gotten used to.
No access to active enchantment like the [Dark Mirror].
No more using Shadow Step to escape dangerous situations, at least for a while.
…And added to all that, one of his arms was broken and completely useless.
Oh, and there was also the Crushing.
If Sunny had teeth in his shadow form — or a mouth, for that matter — he would have gritted them right now. Full of dark emotions, he thought:
'...Doesn't matter. I'm getting these coins even if it kills me!'
Chapter 425: Twisted Rock
Soon, the vile creature drew close to the Twisted Rock. It crouched near the vertical stone wall of the floating island, giggled, and then suddenly shot upward, jumping no less than twenty meters high. Its talons pierced the weathered stone, and the abomination nimbly climbed up, soon disappearing from view.
Far below, on the rusted surface of the damaged heavenly chain, a hunched human figure suddenly appeared from the deep shadows.
Sunny felt the chain sway as the island rose higher and higher, then looked up with a dark expression.
In this direction, Twisted Rock was the last piece of land before the empty expanse of the Tear. It also only had one iron tether connecting it to the rest of the Chained Isles, so now that the bizarre monstrosity was up there, it had nowhere else to run.
With a pained grimace, Sunny summoned the Moonlight Shard, cut one of the straps off his pack, then tied it around his neck to create a makeshift sling for his broken arm. He was going to have to set the bones and make a proper splint later, but for now, this was going to have to do.
With his arm secured and cradled against his chest, Sunny waited a few seconds for the sharp pain to subside, then activated the Dark Wing and used the Prowling Thorn to fly up the overhanging slope of the stone island.
The dragonfly cloak only allowed him to levitate if there was a surface beneath it to support the enchantment. If there wasn't, he was only able to slowly glide down instead of falling without any control. So, to travel up, he had to either push off of something or pull himself toward something. The Prowling Thorn made that process easier.
Due to the burden of the early stages of the Crushing, Sunny had to exert more strength than usual to propel himself upward. After using the heavy kunai to do so several times, he finally crested the edge of the Twisted Rock and soared a few meters above it.
The Twisted Rock… was a dreadful and miserable place.
The island was rather small, and all of its surface was nothing but an uneven expanse of dark stone. That stone, however, looked really strange. It was as if once, a long time ago, it had been melted by unimaginable heat and then abruptly solidified again, creating strange shapes and swirls.
…Here and there, blackened bones protruded from the molten stone, telling the tale of countless humans and beasts who had drowned in that scorching inferno. The sight of them was eerie and disturbing, like something torn from the actual hell.
Thrown down by the Crushing, Sunny landed heavily on the dark stone and swayed, then supported himself with the shaft of the Cruel Sight.
His graceless arrival made enough noise to attract the attention of the chest fiend, who was crouched a dozen or so meters away.
The creature froze, then turned around and faced him.
Sunny scowled.
…A mangled corpse of a Chain Worm was hanging from beneath the half-closed lid of the chest. As the creature turned, the tail and claws of the dead Fallen Demon scraped across the molten stone.
The bizarre abomination stared at Sunny for a few moments, then opened its maw and swallowed the remainder of the Chain Worm whole. Despite the fact that the demon was at least five times bigger than the chest that served the fiend as the head, it somehow disappeared inside without leaving a trace. The creature licked the blood off its sharp teeth and giggled.
This time, its laugh sounded rather hateful.
A cold smile appeared on Sunny's lips.
"Right back at you, bastard."
***
As the fiend rose to its feet, towering above Sunny menacingly at full three meters of height, the Cruel Sight shifted and turned into a somber shortsword. Its silver blade gleamed, seemingly absorbing the bright sunlight.
The heavenly chain rattled below, and as its rusted links scraped against each other, the Twisted Rock continued to ascend.
The smile disappeared from Sunny's face.
Staring at the gluttonous abomination, he couldn't help but feel a bit of fear. The thing was tall, fast, and incredibly strong… much stronger than he was, especially now that his reserves of shadow essence were almost completely drained. Despite the fact that it was heavily wounded, both by his sword and by the claws of the Chain Worms, it still appeared agile, vigorous, and full of murderous spite.
However, this fight was not going to be as suicidal as it might have seemed. There were three main reasons why Sunny felt confident in his chances of defeating the bizarre abomination.
The first one was hanging on a thread tied around his neck. It was a beautiful amulet in the form of a crimson flower… the Blood Blossom.
The fiend was bleeding heavily from the deep cut on its thigh, which had been left there by the sharp blade of the Cruel Sight, and from a multitude of ugly wounds delivered to the gaunt body of the monstrosity by the Chain Worms it had fought while traversing the heavenly chain.
The more black blood flowed from those wounds, the more the morbid charm Memory enhanced both the Puppeteer's Shroud and the Cruel Sight, as well as any other Memory Sunny would want to use.
The second reason was rather simple, and it was the fundamental difference between the two of them. The abomination might have been stronger and faster than Sunny, but it lacked his combat skill and insight. As long as the gap in power was not absolutely overwhelming, a polished technique could turn the tide of any battle. More than that, fighting things that were bigger and more powerful than him was more or less Sunny's specialty by now.
However, the third reason was the most important, and the one he hoped to exploit the most.
Yes, the fiend was stronger than Sunny… but it was also much, much larger and heavier than him. That meant that it was going to be affected by the Crushing much more. No matter how bad it was going to get for Sunny, it was going to be many times worse for the towering abomination.
Out here on the Chained Isles, being small and lithe was sometimes a great advantage.
Feeling the burden of the Crushing pressing down on him more and more, Sunny raised his sword and aimed it at the bizarre fiend.
'...Let's see which one of us is going to break first.'
Chapter 426: Most Terrible Battle
The fiend shifted its weight, then lunged forward with a shrill giggle. It was terrifyingly powerful and fast, but because its movements were clearly telegraphed, Sunny had plenty of time to react.
Diving under the long arm of the abomination, he narrowly avoided being torn apart by the sharp talons and lashed out with the Cruel Sight. As the silver blade bit into the abdomen of the creature, piercing its tough skin just under the ribs, he continued forward and spun.
Just a split second later, Sunny was already behind the enemy.
…However, he wasn't safe.
Without pausing ever for a moment, the bizarre monstrosity pressed its hands against the ground and then kicked back with both legs. There was enough power in that strike to shatter a small hill, but Sunny was already moving, getting out of range.
He had not observed how the fiend fought against the Chained Worms for nothing. He knew that the wretched thing could use all four of its limbs to attack, and that its joints seemed to be able to bend in any direction. Not only did he know what the abomination was capable of, he also knew what it liked and tended to do.
He also knew where it was most vulnerable, and where none of his weapons would be able to do any harm. That's why he had aimed for its gaunt body instead of the much larger and obvious target — the chest itself.
Sunny had always been very perceptive, and practicing Shadow Dance only sharpened his ability to observe and understand such things. Maybe it was thanks to that that he had managed to learn so much about the fiend so fast.
As the soles of his boots scraped against the dark stone, a fleeting thought passed through his mind:
'How would it feel to shadow a Nightmare Creature… I wonder…'
Then, he had no more time for unnecessary thoughts.
Crushing through blackened bones, the abomination bent its joints in the opposite direction of where they were supposed to turn, spun, and lunged at him once again. This time, it was moving on all fours, the lid of the chest serving as its lower jaw. That made it almost impossible for him to dodge out of the way.
…Sunny had no idea why the golden coins weren't spilling out, but luckily, they seemed to be held in place by some strange force.
Unable to use his maimed arm to help himself keep balance, he had no choice but to jump down and roll under the attacking fiend. The Cruel Sight flashed again, leaving a deep cut on the leg of the creature. At the same time, a pulse of sharp pain radiated through Sunny's entire body… even though he took care to protect his broken bones, he couldn't keep them from scraping against one another completely.
But the worse pain was still to come.
'That is going to hurt…'
Sunny had already known that he would not be able to get back to his feet before the next attack came. Due to the fact that the abomination would have to perform it from an awkward position, it was not going to be as devastating as the previous blows. The Crushing had also become considerable enough to slow down both of their movements…
But those long and sharp talons were absolutely deadly even if there was not much force behind them.
As the fiend pivoted and snapped one of its limbs in his direction, Sunny sent both of his shadows from his body to encompass the Puppeteer's Shroud. A moment later, the talons slashed across his torso… and slid from the lusterless black leather of the chest guard without piercing it.
The strike itself, however, was still powerful enough to throw Sunny flying back. He counted on that, though, and used the momentum to create distance between himself and the vile creature. Landing on his feet, Sunny suppressed a groan and brandished the Cruel Sight once again.
As the heavenly chain rattled, Twisted Rock rose even higher, and the burden of the Crushing suddenly pressed him down even more.
***
Some time later, Sunny was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion and pain.
"Argh! Curse you!"
He staggered back and hunched over, using the shaft of the Cruel Sight to keep himself standing upright. His breath was ragged and pained, and drops of both sweat and blood were rolling down his face.
Things… were not going great.
For the both of them, actually.
The ferocious clash between himself and the vile giggling fiend had gone for much longer than either of them had ever expected. After the first few minutes, it had become apparent that neither one could easily kill the other.
Sunny was too devious and slippery to be caught by the bizarre creature, and the damned chest monster was too vigorous and resilient to succumb to the dozens of shallow wounds that Sunny had delivered to it. What's worse, all of its vital organs seemed to be hidden inside the chest, which was nearly indestructible.
It was the most terrible battle of all…
A battle between two cockroaches!
As the result, their fight lasted for a simply stupid amount of time.
By now, both were in rough shape. Sunny was almost dead from exhaustion, bleeding from several ugly wounds, and in a world of pain. The abomination looked even worse. Its gaunt body seemed to have gone through a meat grinder, and its long tongue was hanging lifelessly over the edge of the chest, not even trying to move.
Neither was ready to give up, though.
The fiend panted heavily and stared at Sunny. Then, it giggled once again. This time, the giggle sounded tired, slightly bewildered… but mostly full of searing hatred.
The bastard really, really wanted to rip Sunny to shreds now.
Staggering forward, it tried to swipe at him with one hand, but crashed heavily to the ground instead. Lying there motionlessly, the bizarre creature let out a despondent growl.
The Crushing was almost unbearable by now. Sunny wasn't sure that he would be able to withstand it for much longer, so the abomination had to be having an extremely rough time, too. In fact, it was certainly being tortured by the oppressive force much more. Very soon, both of them were going to be completely immobilized.
He just had to kill it before that happened.
Not sure that he would be able to take another step, Sunny extended the Cruel Sight to its full length and thrust it forward. The silver blade pierced the skin of the fiend, causing more black blood to seep out.
'Good… bleed to death, you piece of crap!'
He could feel the enhancement of the Blood Blossom become a tiny bit stronger, but at this point, it was already meaningless. The charm was just an Awakened Memory of the second tier, after all. Whatever boost it could provide was not that substantial when dealing with Fallen Nightmare Creatures and Ascended weapons, especially past the point where the incremental increases in its potency were truly substantial.
The abomination tried to dodge the attack, but failed to move fast enough due to the merciless pressure of the Crushing. It tried to stand up… but failed.
A grim smile appeared on Sunny's face.
'Got you…'
His enemy, it seemed, was now completely helpless. But Sunny could still move… he could still attack... he had not even used any of the shadow essence that had been accumulating in his cores this whole time. The reserves weren't large, but there was some...
Retrieving his spear, he gathered his strength, and then thrust it forward again, delivering another wound to the bizarre creature. And then again, and then…
'Die, just die already…'
…And then, the fiend giggled mockingly, and suddenly gathered its limbs, which then disappeared into the bottom of the chest. A few seconds later, the whole body of the creature was out of sight, leaving only the adamantine, indestructible chest standing in the middle of the stone island. The tip of the spear scraped against the dark wood, not leaving even a scratch on it.
Sunny stared at it, dumbfounded.
Then, he let out a yelp, and as the power of the Crushing increased even further, fell to his knees.
"What the hell?! Come back here, you coward!"
His hands trembled from strain as he lifted the Cruel Sight and struck the chest once again, to no result whatsoever.
Sunny seemed to have overexerted himself with that last strike, because the spear fell out of his hands and plunged to the ground, striking the stone with enough force to send a few cracks through it. Then, it bounced and rolled away, finally getting caught on a piece of bone about two meters away.
He stared at the Cruel Sight with a shocked expression, and then dismissed the Memory instead of trying to walk… or crawl… that far to retrieve it.
Sunny turned to the chest and gritted his teeth. A moment later, sparks of light appeared around his hand again.
"Don't think that it's over!"
The lid of the chest trembled, and then rose a bit. The creature clearly strained to achieve even that much.
A gloating, hateful giggle emerged from the depths of it a moment later.
…That was the exact moment when Sunny tossed a polished crimson gem that had appeared in his hand toward the chest. Just a split second after the Broken Oath flew inside the abomination's maw, the lid snapped close, pressed down by the obliterating force of the Crushing.
A muffled sound resounded from within the chest, but no matter how much the lid trembled, it didn't rise again.
Sunny fell to the ground and laughed, then groaned and whimpered as he arduously crawled a few meters away and finally grew still just outside of the Broken Oath's soul-destroying reach.
Laying there in complete exhaustion, unable to move anymore, Sunny grinned.
"Who's laughing now? Try to swallow that, you bastard…"
Chapter 427: Death of a Mimic
The Twisted Rock soared higher and higher into the sky, and as it did, a terrible crushing force assaulted the two living beings that were pressed into its surface, separated only by a dozen meters of dark stone.
The large adamantine chest did not look too good. The wood was slowly losing its color, the strips of metal reinforcing it showed growing patches of rust. It seemed as though the creature was struck by some terrible disease. In a sense, it was… after all, the Broken Oath was currently destroying its soul bit by little bit.
Sunny did not look that much better, though.
He was laying on the hard stone, looking at the merciless skies, struggling to breathe and endure the pain. His armor was soaked in blood, and his broken arm was pressed tightly against his chest. His face was deathly pale, almost the same color as the tall and majestic Ivory Tower that floated high above the world, shrouded in the whitest of clouds.
Every breath was a torture.
Sunny knew that he was not going to bleed to death because of the Blood Weave, but the wounds still needed to be tended to. His broken bones, especially, were in need of attention. This Crushing was turning out to be tragically long, though, not giving him the chance to do so.
Well, that was not a surprise.
The single chain connecting the Twisted Rock to the rest of the Isles was much longer than most, which meant that the small island was going to rise very, very high. Higher than Sunny had ever been in this strange and deadly land.
The Crushing was not only going to last longer, but would also be vastly more terrible than the few previous times he had experienced it. By now, the hours of hardship he had endured together with Master Roan several days ago seemed like a pleasant walk in the park.
Now, it seemed as though he was being slowly crushed under the weight of the entirety of heaven.
Sunny was only alive because he didn't have to hide his powers anymore, and could use all of his abilities without restraint. Unlike on the day he had met the dashing griffin rider, both shadows were now tightly wrapped around his body, augmenting its resilience threefold. For that reason, he had not turned into a puddle of bloody goo yet. Although it certainly felt as though he was getting close…
If things became really unbearable, he could still escape into the shadows and either wait out the worst part of the Crushing or try to escape back to the heavenly chain before his shadow essence ran out. Since he had spent this whole time patiently circulating it through the coils of the Soul Serpent, there was a considerable amount flowing through his cores by now.
He had also spent this whole time waiting for the damn chest fiend to finally die, as well as considering his options on how to transport the gold coins back to the Sanctuary of Noctis.
Since it had turned out that only the upper layer of the treasure pile was real, he now had much more options… however, all of them required him to burn through a lot of essence to cross back through the swarm of Chain Worms. The problem was confounded by the fact that Twisted Rock was going to be destroyed soon, which meant that he could not risk making several trips to the Citadel and back. He had to carry his spoils away while the island was still attached to the rest of the Chained Isles.
For that reason, Sunny was trying to endure as much of the Crushing as he could before turning into a shadow.
…He also did not forget about the strange way his intuition had reacted to the dying island. Before the burden of the Crushing became too overbearing, he had sent one of his shadows to scour the whole place in search of anything that might have been important enough to affect the strings of fate.
However, there was literally nothing on the Twisted Rock except for barren stone and ancient, blackened bones. The shadow explored every nook and cranny of this miserable place, only to find nothing at all.
He had even sent it to take a look at the underside of the small isle, but it was as empty and desolate as the rest of it.
Sunny was left very confused by that turn of events. He was certain that there was nowhere on the Twisted Rock that he had failed to search. And yet, there was nothing on the island to cause his intuition to react so strongly. What was going on? Had he failed to notice something, or was he mistaken about the whole thing, to begin with?
Sadly, after a while, the Crushing had become too terrible for him to endure without the help of the second shadow, so he had to call it back.
And now, here they were.
A sudden sound attracted Sunny's attention. Glancing sideways, he noticed that a crack had appeared on the surface of the adamantine chest. Black blood seeped out of it, soon turning into a stream. A few seconds later, a second crack appeared near the first.
He would have smiled if not for the fact that even such a simple action was rather strenuous now, this high above the Sky Below.
'It's not going to be too long now…'
***
A few minutes later, there was a pool of black blood surrounding the large wooden chest.
Sunny endured the pain and counted the seconds.
Before he reached a thousand, the vile creature trembled slightly and giggled one last time, its grating voice full of doleful outrage. Then, the bizarre monstrosity shuddered and grew absolutely still.
It was finally dead!
Sunny couldn't help but grin slightly.
'Finally… all those coins… are mine!'
As the heavenly chain rattled and groaned, the voice of the Spell resounded above the hellish stone island. Its words sounded like music to his ears...
[You have slain a Fallen Devil, Mordant Mimic.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[...You have received a Memory.]
Chapter 428: Covetous Coffer
Despite the torturous burden of the Crushing, Sunny couldn't help but feel jubilant. Not only did he receive eight shadow fragments and a powerful Memory, he had also defeated a Fallen Devil all by himself, without even Saint providing him any help.
The Black Knight, too, had been a Fallen Devil. So killing one solo meant a lot to Sunny. It was a poignant milestone that made him feel like all his hard work and all the vile things he had gone through were not for nothing. He was accomplishing his goal.
Growing stronger.
…Of course, the Mordant Mimic was not as terrifying of a foe in battle as the guardian of the ruined cathedral had been. One was a creature that seemed to have been created solely for combat, while the other mostly relied on deceit and ambushing its prey to achieve victory. And yet, the chest fiend was by no means an easy foe. If anything, its devilish nature only made it that much more dangerous.
'Argh!'
As the Twisted Rock rose higher, the Crushing struck at Sunny with even more dreadful force, making his mirth dissipate in a wave of miserable suffering. A muffled groan escaped from his lips.
'Endure… just endure a bit more… this hell is going to end soon.'
For now, he had no choice but to keep suffering, wait, and stare at the distant silhouette of the Ivory Tower.
The beautiful pagoda seemed so close now that he could almost imagine himself reaching out and encompassing it in his fist.
With nothing else to do, Sunny summoned the runes and found the familiar cluster out of habit:
Shadow Fragments: [223/2000].
'I wonder how many coins are in that damned chest…'
Would he be able to create the third core with their help?
Shifting his gaze, Sunny found the runes describing his Memories. A new one was now shown at the end of the list.
His eyes glistened slightly as he concentrated on it and read the description:
Memory: [Covetous Coffer].
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Tier: IV.
'Huh…'
Sunny really couldn't believe his fortune. This was the second Ascended Memory of the fourth tier that he had acquired in a span of just a few days. Even without considering the main boon of the expedition — the miraculous coins — this journey had already proved to be incredibly fruitful.
But what kind of a Memory would the bizarre carnivorous chest leave behind?
Curious, he read on.
Memory Type: Tool.
'A utility Memory!'
While not as showy as armors and weapons, utility Memories were the foundation of every Awakened's arsenal. Take Sunny, for example — some of his most precious Memories were tools. Endless Spring, Ordinary Rock, Silver Bell… even Weaver's Mask.
Excited, he tried to forget about the obliterating pressure of the Crushing and concentrate on the runes.
Memory Description: ["You are very strange!" said Noctis. Why was his new friend so deathly afraid of chests? Why was he so timid and pale? "Don't be afraid, these are just my treasure chests. They won't bite. Well... except for this one. This one will eat you alive."]
Sunny blinked.
'That… is interesting.'
So Noctis of the Sanctuary of Noctis was a person, after all. What's more, he or she had apparently been in possession of several treasure chests, including one that could eat people alive.
Had the Mordant Mimic once been a pet of this Noctis? If so…
What kind of a person would keep a Fallen Devil as a pet?
Suddenly full of dread, Sunny continued to read.
Memory Enchantments: [Mendacious Coffer], [Capacious Chest], [Locomotive Chifonnier], [Lurid Trunk].
Sunny stared at the runes with a deadpan expression.
'What… do all these words… even mean?'
Struggling to understand the names of the enchantments, he wondered if the Spell was having a stroke and shifted his gaze to the descriptions.
[Mendacious Coffer] Enchantment Description: "This Memory can mimic the form of any inanimate object. The size and intricacy of the simulacrum are dependent on the wielder's Soul Core capacity."
'Makes sense. I am sure that the Mimic only assumed the form of a chest, instead of being born… created?... as one. I wonder what kind of a shape I can currently manage, though.'
He studied the runes again:
[Capacious Chest] Enchantment Description: "This Memory is bigger on the inside. It can be summoned and dismissed while storing inanimate items. The size of the storage space, as well as the maximum weight of stored items, are dependent on the wielder's Soul Core capacity."
Sunny suppressed the desire to grin.
'Yes!'
This was exactly what he needed right now. This enchantment solved the exact problem he was facing — the need to carry all the gold coins away before Twisted Rock was destroyed. Once again, luck was on his side!
But that wasn't all. The ability to store items in the Covetous Coffer, and then store the Coffer in his Soul Sea, opened up a sea of possibilities. In a sense, it was just like Effie's incredible bag, but better — the bag had to be carried around if there was anything inside of it, while the Coffer could be stashed away until needed.
And if so… could Sunny bring items from the Dream Realm to the real world with its help? He couldn't wait to find out.
Thinking of all the money he would make, Sunny turned his attention to the remaining enchantments:
[Locomotive Chiffonnier] Enchantment Description: [This Memory can move around and follow its wielder.]
'...Nice! That will solve the problem of having to carry all the items if I store too much inside. They are still going to weigh a ton, after all.'
[Lurid Trunk] Enchantment Description: "This Memory will protect itself against potential thieves. By eating them."
Sunny blinked.
'That is... a bit scary. I better remain on the good side of this bizarre Memory, huh?'
Overall, he was incredibly happy with the Covetous Coffer. This new utility Memory of his was simply fantastic! Not only was it capable of solving his current predicament, it would also make his future ventures into the Dream Realm much more comfortable and efficient. Not to mention the possibility of being able to bring soul shards into the real world with its help, and selling them there at a high price…
Soul shards meant money, and money meant being able to purchase Memories. With more Memories at his disposal, Sunny would be able to bring Saint to two hundred shadow fragments faster... which would hopefully make the two of them vastly more powerful.
Now, he just had to survive the Crushing.
…He was almost ready to give up and turn into a shadow when the heavenly chain finally drew taut, stopping the rise of the Twisted Rock. One more deafening rattle rolled through the air, and then, everything grew quiet.
The Crushing was at its peak now. Sunny was hurting terribly, but still able to withstand it. He just had to endure until the island entered the descent phase, and the pressure would slowly start to reduce.
Sunny strained his chest and drew in a hoarse breath.
'Thank gods…'
However, before he could feel any relief, the whole island suddenly shuddered, and a strange piercing noise assaulted his ears.
It sounded... it sounded like the sound of metal being torn apart.
Sunny's pupils widened.
'What… was that?!'
Chapter 429: Schism
A moment later, a deafening roar of massive iron links being torn apart rolled other the entire island, which then lurched up by a few meters and suddenly came to an abrupt stop.
Sunny yelped, feeling the Crushing assault him with even more obliterating force.
'The chain… the chain is failing!'
Why did it happen so soon?
For a few moments, he felt nothing but pure, bestial panic. Then, he forced himself to regain control over his mind and threw a desperate glance toward the not-so-distant edge of the Twisted Rock.
Would he be able to escape in time?
He lingered for a moment, then gritted his teeth and commanded one of the shadows to slide off his body onto the ground.
As soon as it did, a muffled scream escaped from his lips. It felt as though a giant hammer struck his body, making every bone in it shudder and groan. Sunny turned his head to the side and spat a mouthful of blood.
'Curse it all…'
The shadow flew to the edge of the island and slid over its edge, desperately trying to reach the dying chain.
…But it was too late.
As Sunny watched in horror, one of the links of the heavenly tether broke. Only one, the weakest of them all… but that was all it took.
'No!'
The chain that connected Twisted Rock to the rest of the Chained Isles snapped in two, and as ten kilometers of gargantuan iron links slowly fell toward the Sky Below, the island suddenly shot upward. Since it was still in the ascent phase, and now unrestrained by anything, the speed of its rise was simply terrifying.
'No, no, no!'
The Crushing struck at Sunny with such fury that he couldn't even scream. He felt himself being slowly broken, and feverishly tried to come up with a solution.
'Step through the shadows… jump down and try to glide to the Shipwreck Island…'
No, that would never work. There were more than ten kilometers separating these isles from one another, which was far outside the Dark Wing's capabilities. He could try to chase after the piece of the chain still connected to the Shipwreck Island, but chances of catching up with it were close to zero.
The length of the heavenly tether was falling deceitfully slow, but it was just an illusion caused by its colossal size. In truth, the torn end of it was flying through the air at tremendous speed, moving both down and away from the Twisted Rock.
The repulsive silhouettes of the gluttonous Chain Worms were growing smaller by the second.
Sunny was already late to rush in pursuit of it, and every moment that passed made the probability of success lower.
'Great! Goddamn great, you fool! You finally let your greed kill you!'
Sunny growled, full of fury at himself, but then suddenly stopped.
No, that didn't make any sense. He was not on this island because of greed. Even though Sunny had made several risky decisions in order to get to the miraculous coins, at the end of it, standing on the edge of the Shipwreck Island, he put his avarice aside and made a sober choice.
He came here because his intuition had told him that something on the Twisted Rock was very important to his future.
But what was it?! There was nothing but stone and bones in this damned place!
What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to survive?
Sunny tried to calm down and think. He summoned his shadow back, and briefly regained the ability to breathe.
It wasn't going to be for long, though. The Crushing was already overwhelming his physical ability to resist its lethal pressure. Sunny had a few dozen seconds, at most, before he would be forced to retreat into the shadows or die.
'Think… think… there has to be a way out. Hide inside the dead Mimic or the Covetous Coffer? No, the items inside the Memory maintain their weight, which means that they, too, will be affected by the Crushing. And even if not, what's the point? Even if the chest survives until the Twisted Rock itself is torn apart and plunges down into the Sky Below, I'll just be falling forever inside of a box instead of on my own… that's like dying inside of a coffin…'
And the Twisted Rock was going to be destroyed by the Crushing, inevitably and without a doubt. As it rose higher and higher, it was going to start to fall apart. When enough of it was destroyed to obliterate the mysterious force that kept the isles afloat, the remaining debris was going to fall down and eventually disappear into the Sky Below.
…Alongside what was going to remain of Sunny.
He lay motionlessly for a few seconds, then for a few seconds more. Another crack appeared on the corpse of the Mordant Mimic. Then, the stone beneath it cracked, too.
Sunny did not move at all.
The cracks on the stone widened and crawled in every direction.
A few moments later, a heavy sigh escaped from his lips.
Sunny had one last gamble left…
Gathering all of his strength, he groaned and pushed himself off the ground. Even though it felt as if he was lifting a mountain, and every muscle in his body trembled at the edge of bursting apart, he somehow managed to sit up.
Then, Sunny summoned Weaver's Mask.
After returning from the Forgotten Shore and deciding to create a separate persona to investigate the Sovereigns, as well as do all the things that Sunny didn't want to be associated with his name — the one which would then accidentally become known as the famous Lord Mongrel — he had decided to never use any of the equipment that it wielded if there was even the smallest chance of someone connecting him to the mysterious masked man.
But he had little choice right now.
His last hope was… fate. He knew that something had drawn him to the Twisted Rock, even though in the end he failed to find it. In the past, his intuition only reacted that strongly to the things that were connected to the gods, the Unknown… and Weaver. So, there was a high chance that Weaver's Mask would show him the way to salvation.
As the cool black wood caressed his kin, Sunny forced air into his lungs… and sent his shadow essence toward the mask.
He was going to do something that he dreaded doing for many months…
Activate the mysterious [???] enchantment of the divine Memory.
When the power of his soul poured into the Weaver's Mask, Sunny froze for a moment…
And then let out a horrible, inhuman scream.
Chapter 430: Tapestry of Fate
The moment Sunny's essence touched the black wooden surface of the divine Memory, Weaver's Mask suddenly reached into his very soul and hungrily drank more… and then more, and more, and more.
In a fraction of a second, all of his reserve of shadow essence was sucked dry, with only a tiny bit of it remaining… almost as if these pitiful drops were not even worth being consumed by the mask.
And even then, all it could achieve was activate the [???] enchantment for just a single moment.
…That single moment, however, was enough to almost drive Sunny insane.
Suddenly, a horrifying pain pierced his eyes and his mind, akin to the suffering he had experienced after consuming the Drop of Ichor, only so much worse.
Infinitely worse.
As he shrieked, all traces of intelligence disappearing from his voice, the world he saw changed.
Suddenly, all Sunny could see was an endless, beautiful eternity of twisting threads. Those threads transfixed everything in existence, connecting every living being and every object, every thought and every concept, every dream and every nightmare, stretching infinitely into every direction, as well as into the past, the present, and the future.
These were the Strings of Fate.
They were just like the threads of light that the Spell was woven of, but while the magnificent and inconceivably complex pattern that Sunny had seen twice in the empty void between dream and reality composed the function of the Spell, what he glimpsed right now connected… everything.
All of the universe as it had existed, was existing, and was going to exist.
...Much worse, when observing the weave of the Spell, Sunny could only sense and guess at its meaning. But the terrifying enchantment of Weaver's Mask not only allowed him to see the tapestry of Fate, but also forced the understanding of it onto him.
The knowledge of everything, everywhere, all at once…
Of course, such knowledge was too much for any human to endure. Just the tiniest, infinitesimal amount of it was enough to instantly destroy any living being… except, maybe, for a god.
...Or a daemon.
As blood streamed out of Sunny's nose, eyes, and mouth, and a silent scream died on his lips, he instinctively did the only thing that could save him from being obliterated by the sight of the Strings of Fate — he dissipated into the shadows.
This was, perhaps, the reason why his eyes did not turn into smoldering embers and his head did not just explode right there on the spot. Shadows had no eyes and no skulls, after all.
However…
Falling into the embrace of darkness, Sunny realized with cold horror that Weaver's Mask, somehow, was still resting on his face. When he turned into a shadow, it had turned into one, too. His vision shifted from that of a human to the colorless sight of a shadow, but he could still see the eternity of Strings of Fate.
There were especially many of them near him. The infinite threads were tightly wrapped around his body, as well as around his soul, encompassing and piercing it… it looked almost as if he was strung on them like a small marionette.
And among those threads, two shone much brighter than the rest.
One was made out of pure white flame and stretched far away into the distance, leading north, toward the Hollow Mountains.
The other was made out of beautiful golden light, and led… down.
Down and away from both the Shipwreck Island and the Twisted Rock, diving into the Tear and disappearing into the boundless darkness of the Sky Below.
…Although it seemed as though eons had passed, in reality, it was no more than a fraction of a second.
Sunny's head did not explode because he had turned into a shadow, but his mind was still on the verge of utter, irrevocable destruction. A fraction more, and it was going to be wiped out from existence by the divine knowledge of Fate.
'But what… what can I do… the mask is a shadow now…'
His thoughts were scattered and weak. And yet, he fought through the shock and managed to remember an important detail.
He could dismiss the Memory.
But that… would be too slow. Even if it took only a second, there would be nothing left of him by the end of it.
A wave of desperation rose from the depths of his heart.
And then, the shadow essence that Weaver's Mask had absorbed finally ran out.
Instantly, the enchantment deactivated, and the ruthless worlds of endless threads disappeared with it. Sunny could only see what all humans… and shadows… were meant to be able to see.
A piece of dark stone soaring into the sky as the merciless grinder of the Crushing was slowly breaking it apart.
Sunny sensed hazily that there was something urgent about the situation, but he was... was not entirely there.
Although the terrible visage of the Strings of Fate was gone, his mind was scattered and empty. He couldn't really lose conscience while in the form of a shadow, but not being able to think or even recognize the existence of his self was very close to it.
Soon, however, he started to slowly gather the pieces of his wounded, shattered mind back together. He was in dire danger, after all…
The entire Twisted Rock was shaking and rumbling as it rose higher and higher into the Sky Above. Wide cracks appeared on its surface, growing larger with each second. The blackened bones had already been turned into dust, and now, the only thing standing above the stone was the ramshackle, lop-sided, dead treasure chest.
The corpse of the Mordant Mimic, strangely, seemed to be much more sturdy than the ascending island itself. It was still in one piece, at least, and almost whole.
'...I need to come up with a plan.'
As this thought formed in Sunny's mind, he suddenly came to his senses... and realized several things.
One of them was what he had to do.
The other was that the pitiful drops of shadow essence left in his soul cores were about to evaporate, which meant that he would not be able to remain in the form of a shadow for much longer.
The third one was that he still had not retrieved the golden coins from inside the chest.
...Now, whether he lived or died depended on one thing — whether he would be forced out of the shadows and turned into a bloody puddle first, or whether the Twisted Rock would fall apart first.
Which would it be?
'Well… I might as well try, right?'
Flowing through the shadow cast by the treasure chest, he dismissed the Broken Oath. A tiny amount of shadow essence, from which the Memories were created, returned to his soul. Hiding on the surface of the dead Mimic, Sunny dismissed the Blood Blossom and the Puppeteer's Shroud, too.
Finally, he dismissed Weaver's Mask, which brought him much more essence than the previous three Memories combined… even if, in the grand scheme of things, that amount was still rather insignificant.
Still, if it could gift him even one second more, it was worth it.
Circulating his essence through the coils of the Soul Serpent to slow down its expenditure and enhance the speed of its regeneration, Sunny hid on the treasure chest and waited for his fate to be decided.
After something that felt like an eternity, when the Twisted Rock had soared so high above the Chained Isles that the Crushing started turning smaller pieces of stone into fine dust, the island finally shuddered... and cracked open.
One of the rifts that opened in the blackened stone was directly beneath Sunny and the dead Mimic. The whole section of the isle suddenly broke off, separating from it in a rain of rock shards. Sunny caught a glimpse of petrified bones encased in the solidified stone… and then the chest he was hiding on floated up.
For a few seconds, all of it — the remaining core of the island, the sea of stone debris, and the dead Mimic — continued to rise higher and higher. Larger pieces of rock were crushed into smaller ones, and then turned into dust. A deafening thunder filled the air.
But then, as if an invisible switch had been turned, the mysterious force that had kept the Twisted Rock floating between two skies for thousands of years was no more.
Suddenly, everything that was too heavy to be carried away by wind slowed in its ascent, froze in the air for a few moments, and fell down.
The cracked treasure chest tumbled down, too, falling toward the Sky Below. Sunny, who was still just a shadow adhered on its side, saw the world spin around.
The last drops of his shadow essence were about to disappear.
…But that was fine. They would last him long enough to reach the altitude where the Crushing wasn't immediately lethal anymore.
When it finally happened, Sunny suddenly appeared on the surface of the chest and held onto it for dear life. The pressure of the Crushing first threw him against the wood hard enough to break a few ribs, then tried to rip him away.
But Sunny would not let go.
His damned coins were in that damned chest!
Together, he and the dead Mimic fell lower and lower, until, finally, the Crushing weakened enough to allow Sunny to move.
Summoning the Dark Wing, he commanded it to turn into a blur and changed the direction of their fall.
However, he was not trying to move toward the distant silhouette of the Shipwreck Island out of desperation.
Instead, he was guiding the chest in the opposite direction, aiming it into the vast empty expanse of the Tear.