Somewhere in the darkness of the afterlife—a place where all things went, no matter how mighty they had been—a thunderous noise could be heard. It was the sound of something that, even in death, still held influence over the world. The thunderous noise sounded once more before quiet reigned again in this lifeless realm. If there had been anyone to interpret the noise, they would have said that it was the scream of plans made a millennium ago crumbling to dust.
_____________________
Fate, like death, is a constant that can be found in the universe. Everything that exists has a fate—a string in the great cosmos. Once the string is set, nothing can change it.
This was not the case today. A string, relatively young and strong, severed itself. Not at the beginning, where life was brought into this world, but in the middle, where the present is represented. The end had been let go and had disappeared. The surrounding strings that were connected to the discarded part rushed to be connected again, placing themselves in places they were not supposed to be.
Other strings—strings that had nothing to do with the original plan for this life—forced their way into the central string and solidified themselves. All these strings represented various objects, people, and events, both large and small. A new end grew from the string, regenerating the cut as if it were never there, completing the cycle of this life. Every string eventually has its end, no matter how mighty it had been.
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Digging.
Digging was something old. The concept of digging was as old as time, or at least older than Sunny. Dirt covered his face. Dirt covered his hands. Dirt covered his pants. Dirt covered everything. Sunny was the dirt, and the dirt was Sunny.
A week. That was the amount of time it had taken to gather everything. All the carcasses of the Nightmare Creatures. A large stone. The corpses. All four hundred bodies of the Sleepers who hadn't made it.
"Is this deep enough?" Sunny asked Saint, who, like him, was digging the hole. The grave. The Sleepers who didn't make it—their final resting place. Sunny did not know about graves. He did not know what their shapes were supposed to be. He did not know what size they were supposed to be. And most importantly, he did not know how deep they were supposed to be.
In the outskirts, where he was born and spent most of his life until the Nightmare Spell infected him, nobody was buried. At least no one he knew; not even his parents had a grave. Sunny remembered the tree in that desolate park where life was barely holding on.
Those three lines. Those lines would be the proof that I existed. That they existed. Even if they didn't have a grave, Sunny thought with a faint smile on his face. Returning from his thoughts, Sunny looked at Saint. The Awakened Demon was quietly looking at him.
"Yes, I agree; maybe we should keep digging a little more," Sunny said, letting out a huffed breath.
While digging, Sunny's mind went back to the events of the Crimson Spire and his fight with Nephis—or more accurately, the jumping he had received from both Nephis and Cassie. He remembered that day every time he closed his eyes.
Just remembering what had happened filled him with an immense rage that helped him dig faster. It was so unfair. They hadn't even given me the chance for a one-on-one. And the rapier—was it really necessary for Cassie to stab me? Is she crazy? Sunny's hands dug faster, empowered by the anger that overcame him.
Of course I was going to let Nephis win. In fact, from the kneeling position Nephis was in, she could have kicked my right leg, making me fall forward. Sunny had set up his defeat perfectly. He had put all his weight forward, making him vulnerable to having his legs kicked from under him, where he would hit the floor and fake an injury or pretend that he was knocked out by hitting his head. Sunny wasn't sure how he would have ended the fight if Cassie hadn't interrupted.
That wasn't even the worst thing. His True Name. Nephis had said his True Name, making him a slave. Her slave. And the reason? Just wanting to drink some water. Can't a man drink some water after being stabbed in the leg? Sunny thought in frustration, tears streaming from his eyes.
Even though he had intended to stay behind, it still hurt. It hurt that he couldn't do it on his own terms. It hurt that after everything he had done to hide his True Name, Sunny had still become a slave. But it hurt more that it came from those two.
Sunny's hands stopped digging. They had turned into trembling fists. Sunny's body started to shake, and ragged breaths started coming out of him. It was becoming hard to breathe. Sunny's chest started rising and falling with breaths that seemed to escape him. A whimper that he couldn't suppress came out of him.
Saint stopped digging and looked at him.
Sunny turned his head, not wanting Saint to see him like this.
"I—I'm fine. Please continue digging, Saint," Sunny said, his head still turned. Saint nodded and continued digging.
Composing himself, Sunny continued digging. His mind went back to the fight, focusing on the moment that Cassie was dragging Nephis towards the portal. He still couldn't understand why they had seemed so surprised that Caster had been killed by his hand.
Did they think Caster was stronger than me? Sunny thought. He had to admit that they were partially right, since what had killed him was his own Flaw. Still, those faces were too complex to only express surprise about his unexpected victory over a stronger, better-trained opponent.
If there was one thing Sunny was sure of, it was that Cassie was a crazy junkie. I mean, think about it. She tackled me to the ground like a crazy woman who hadn't had her fix yet, and her visions consisted of images that needed to be interpreted.
"A black shadow consuming a bright star... I mean, come on, if that doesn't sound like a withdrawal dream, I don't know what does," Sunny finished his thoughts out loud.
Sunny didn't have much experience with seers, but what he did have experience with were addicts high on anything they could get their hands on. Thinking about drugs made him remember that one time a man with no pants and no shirt, who was high on NikisPikis—a drug that came from plastic and rubber, Sunny didn't know much more—had told him that a broken mirror would be his downfall.
In retrospect, that man's vision had been clearer than any of Cassie's.
"Maybe she should learn a thing or two from that pantless man," Sunny said through his teeth.
An hour passed, and the hole was deep enough for Sunny's satisfaction.
"Swords, shields, spears, and many other weapons, but not a single shovel," Sunny said with exasperation.
"What's wrong with shovels? They are a very respectable weapon. Convenient, too. You can kill and bury your enemies with the same tool. Truly. I can't think of a more versatile weapon," Sunny said, shaking his head.
"What do you think?" Sunny turned to Gloomy and his new shadow, Happy. Gloomy just shrugged and made a movement like he was kicking a rock. Happy gave him a thumbs up.
"I totally agree. This has to be an act of discrimination." After making these very informative statements, Sunny and Saint started placing the bodies inside the grave; this, plus covering the grave, took another hour. To finish the monument, Saint placed the large stone on top of the recently covered hole, and Sunny pulled out the Moonlight Shard, writing the well-deserved words:
[Your nightmare is over]
"Let nobody say that I didn't do anything nice for other people," Sunny said proudly, and turned to Saint, looking for a high five.
The Awakened Demon looked at him and leaned her head to the side slightly.
"We'll work on that," Sunny said, putting down his hand.
Raising his head to the sky, he saw the sun starting to set.
"How about we go home and clean up before tonight's hunt?" Sunny asked, looking at Saint, Gloomy, and Happy.
Saint nodded slightly.
Gloomy shrugged his shoulders.
Happy did the cha-cha, even though Sunny didn't know what the cha-cha was. Sunny didn't even know what dancing was.
"You guys are right. I should also eat something before going out tonight," Sunny said with a sagely nod.
"I'm glad I have you three here watching out for me," Sunny said with a wide smile, and started heading home.
__________________
After taking something that resembled a shower using the Endless Spring and eating some unseasoned monster meat, Sunny headed out to start the night collection. After the destruction of the artificial sun two months ago, the Dark Sea had been sealed away. That meant that when night fell, the world was no longer covered by that dark ocean.
Sunny had felt relief when he first saw that not a single drop of dark water had appeared on the night after the battle where Saint was forced to carry him. When the Crimson Spire had imploded, Sunny was sent flying. While in midair, his second core had started to form. The pain was indescribable, and combined with his previous wounds, he had blacked out.
When he woke up, Saint was running with him in her arms, and night had fallen. From there, nothing much had happened. Happy had appeared with his second core, and he had gained a snake tattoo. From what Sunny understood, the Serpent was his reward for gaining the first mastery level of Shadow Dance—which, ironically enough, he had gotten during the fight against Nephis.
"At least something good came out of that situation," Sunny had thought at the time.
Sunny exited the cathedral and walked through the shadows like he expected. Nightmare creatures had not been hard to find. After the Dark Sea stopped showing its ugly face, Nightmare Creatures, which would normally hide at night out of fear, started to move freely, entering and exiting the Dark City at their leisure.
For Sunny, this situation was perfect, since at night he was the second deadliest thing in this city. The first being Saint. After he had recovered from his wounds and taken a few more days to sleep away the tears and rage that came when he thought of Nephis and Cassie, he had started this routine of hunting down every Nightmare Creature he came across. Or, more accurately, Sunny fought the Nightmare Creatures that he encountered while looking for chairs.
Sunny had developed a strange infatuation with finding a comfortable chair. He couldn't explain why. And most of the chairs were inside of buildings, which, coincidentally, Nightmare Creatures were also in.
Two days ago, while quenching his thirst for chairs, Sunny had encountered a horrendous Nightmare Creature. It was disgustingly glued to the wall, its flesh becoming one with the building. When it saw Sunny, it released a high-pitched scream that made Sunny fall to his knees, blood leaking from his ears.
Fortunately, Saint had smacked it silly, making the scream stop. Sunny didn't waste any time and stabbed it in the eye with the Moonlight Shard. For the temporary loss of hearing, he got a storage Memory:
[The Avarice of Hoarders] [0/100 Shadow Fragments]
[There was once a man who collected anything and everything. He didn't care if it was in the possession of the rich or the poor; if he wanted it, he would take it. His vault overflowed with both extravagant and mundane things. In a pile they laid. One day, the hoarder opened the vault and the pile fell on him, killing him. The number of items was nearly infinite.]
Sunny had jumped for joy when he saw the Memory, since he couldn't exactly carry many Soul Shards in a cloth bag. This Memory had pushed Sunny to go above and beyond in his monster hunting.
"I'M GOING TO BE RICH! RICH, I'M TELLING YOU!" Sunny shouted at both his shadows and Saint as he saw hundreds of Soul Shards enter the Memory without filling it.
But no matter how good the Dark City was as a hunting ground, Sunny had decided that tonight would be his last night there. It was time to move forward and start searching for a portal back home.
But that was for tomorrow. For tonight, he would hunt with his trusty companion, Saint—who would never betray him.
No! Don't think about them. Focus, Sunless. Focus, Sunny said to himself before he could fall into the dark parts of his mind. With a deep breath, he relaxed and cleared his mind. Putting on Weaver's Mask, he looked at Saint.
"Let's start," Sunny said, running forward.
__________________
Thirty minutes. Thirty minutes was the amount of time that it would take for Nephis's core to be completely emptied of essence because of Master's Watchful Eye. For the past two months, Nephis's world had centered around those thirty minutes.
The first time Nephis had used it was in the room with Sunny's pod. She was on the floor; her legs had given out under her, unable to support her weight at the realization that Sunny had killed Caster. That after the hug in the hall of the Crimson Spire, Sunny—like always—had covered her back.
Sunny had stayed at the bottom of the stairs, the last one to climb up. The look that he had given Caster was not one of collaboration, but of waiting for an opportunity. Sunny had fought Caster, a Sleeper from an established clan. Caster, who had countless years of training over Sunny. Caster, whose Aspect granted him incomprehensible speed—speed Nephis needed her full concentration to overcome.
Sunny.
Sunny had fought Caster under those conditions, plus having to watch his back for Nightmare Creatures. And Sunny had won. He had killed Caster. Sunny had done it for her.
How could she ever have doubted him? How could she have thought so lowly of him that he would attack Cassie from behind? How could she have dared to use his weakness against him and then feel relief at his submission? Nephis wasn't the bright star in Cassie's vision. No. Nephis was the shadow, and Sunny had been consumed by her.
She should have pushed back. Nephis should have refused and scolded Cassie for even coming up with the idea that Sunny would be so low as to work with the likes of Caster. She should have been reasonable. Nephis shouldn't have let what happened to her parents dictate her decisions. Her mind had been so clouded by the idea that if her parents were killed—betrayed by their lifelong friends, assassinated by those Nephis called uncles and aunts...
The headaches had started then, and with them came the revelation of the Shadow Bond. After clearing the tears from her eyes that would not stop coming, she started pushing essence into the Master's Watchful Eye ability.
Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of her, similar to her rune page but bigger. Startled, she looked at Cassie, who was still rocking back and forth, her hands pressed tightly against her chest as if her soul were shattering and she was trying to keep the pieces together.
Nephis realized that Cassie could not see the screen. A muffled sound came from the screen's direction. Nephis turned rapidly, looking at the screen. Only darkness could be seen, but what she heard would haunt her day and night.
It started as a slight gasp, as if he were trying to breathe in but not being able to. Then a moan, long and tortured, emanated from the screen.
Nephis's body started shivering, and her breathing began to become labored.
"Wh-What is happening?" Nephis said in a small, trembling, broken voice—the voice of a little girl who had come home to see her grandmother on the floor, crying uncontrollably. The voice of a girl who could only offer tears in a situation she couldn't understand, and much less solve.
The sound of a scream came next—guttural and blood-churning. Nephis put her hands over her ears and curled on the floor in the fetal position. She wanted the noise to stop. She wanted the painful screams, the sound of bones breaking and realigning, to end. Nephis covered her ears, but that did nothing to stop the noises. They were being transmitted directly into her brain.
With tears in her eyes and desperation already sinking its claws deep into her heart, she tried to stop the essence from being pushed into the ability.
She failed.
For the next twenty-nine minutes, Nephis was subjected to hearing every scream. Every breath. Every bone that broke and put itself back together. Unknowingly, Nephis was listening to the creation of Sunny's second core and all his body was being put through to be able to house it.
That was her first experience with Master's Watchful Eye. The ability subjected her to listening and seeing whatever Sunny was doing or whatever was happening to Sunny, without the control to turn it off. Only a timer remained: thirty minutes for her cores to be completely emptied, and then the ability would turn off
That had been two months ago, and since then, Nephis had based her day around those thirty minutes. For her cores to be completely full again, it took two hours without aid of any kind. Nephis used those two hours for her chores—whichever they might be—but when the time came, when her two hours were up, Nephis would drop everything.
Cleaning. Buying. Speaking. Showering. Planning. The Firekeepers had expressed concern at her behavior. Nephis didn't care. Those thirty minutes had become the center of her universe. They were her reason to keep waking up in the morning, the thing that gave her strength to help Cassie in the Chain Isles when she just wanted to crumble at the memory of the face Sunny had made when she said those cursed words.
Those thirty minutes had become her reason to live in these past two months.
_________
It started with visiting him every four days.
Then it turned into visiting him every two days.
Then every day.
Then every twelve hours.
Then every five.
Nephis couldn't handle it. Those thirty minutes were not enough.
It ended with her sleeping every night on the floor of Sunny's pod room. Nephis didn't care that she wasn't truly sleeping next to Sunny. The need to be next to him followed her all the way back to the Dream Realm, and she hoped that by doing this, that need would be satiated. It worked, but it was not meant to last.
The ghouls and their clans had started to move, either to recruit her or kill her. They had not done anything drastic yet, merely sending letters that promised the world but didn't mention the price. The Firekeepers had noticed the shift in atmosphere. At the beginning, people recognized them as part of the Sleeper army and talked to them cheerfully. In comparison, the Firekeepers now felt watched every time they left Nephis's manor—their center of operations—by eyes that were not especially friendly.
This had prevented Nephis from going to Sunny's room under the academy. Her desperation was growing; the need to see him, to have him near, was tearing her apart. Nephis had grown desperate and did something she might regret later. But right now... right now, the need was too strong. Strong enough that Nephis couldn't think straight. She needed him. She needed a part of him.
Without thinking twice, Nephis grabbed a pair of scissors and bolted out of her manor in the direction of the academy. She entered Sunny's chamber and stopped before his pod. He was sleeping, just as he had been doing for the past four months. Nephis looked at him and slowly opened his pod.
Sunny was as pristine as the day he had lain down in this pod. Nephis touched his face. Sunny's skin was soft and warm, reminding her of the private moment they had shared in the Crimson Spire. Her cheeks grew hot. Nephis's hand trailed down to his lips, softly rubbing her thumb over them. Nephis's need grew in that instant, and she almost kissed Sunny, but at the last moment, she managed to stop herself.
No. Not this. Not like this. I won't do this to him. Nephis's eyes filled with tears. Denying herself this hurt, but she knew that it was wrong. She knew that if she did this, she would not just have taken his free will away, but also would have abused his vulnerable state.
"I want to. I really want to," Nephis let out in a small voice. Tears were falling from her eyes, and her hand curled by her side, shaking with the self-control she was imposing on herself and the need that told her that if she did it, the feeling would go away. But that was a lie. If she gave in, it would be much worse next time. Next time, it wouldn't be satisfied with a simple kiss.
Nephis took multiple deep breaths until the shaking stopped. She knew this was only temporary. Without wasting time, Nephis grabbed a lock of Sunny's hair and smelled it.
The smell brought her peace. Her mind cleared, and the need receded. The smell brought her the comfort of protection. It smelled like him. No matter how much sweat, blood, and grime had covered Sunny, this smell was stronger than all of them combined.
Slowly and with great effort, Nephis let the strand of hair fall from her hand. Slowly reaching into her pocket, she brought out a red silk string. Gently, Nephis gathered some of Sunny's hair—more than last time—and tied it. With that done, Nephis pulled out the scissors and looked at the scene.
Is—is this really okay? Nephis asked herself internally, but she already knew the answer. She knew this was, if not as severe, still a violation of Sunny's person. The idea of cutting a lock of hair was actually not Nephis's, but her mother's.
Two days ago, she had been walking through the manor and happened to enter what was previously her parents' room. Looking around while remembering her childhood—at least the good parts of it—she found a little sky-blue box. Inside, a black picture with white marks and a lock of black hair tied with a blue string could be seen.
Pulling the picture out, Nephis saw that it was an echograph. On the back of the picture, something was written:
My little Nephis's first picture.
A broken sob came out of Nephis, and her vision grew blurry. She pulled the picture to her chest, hugging it gently. Nephis stayed in that position for a while, the picture close to her chest while she breathed in and out slowly with her eyes closed.
Opening her eyes again, she looked down at the box and picked up the lock of hair. For some reason she couldn't describe, Nephis knew that it wasn't her hair, and her mother wasn't a vain enough person to have her own hair locked away like this. That only left her father.
Nephis touched the texture, and without any doubt, she knew. It was her father's hair. Nephis could recall a distant memory from one morning when her father's hair seemed to have become slightly shorter. When Nephis asked her father about it, he didn't know what she was talking about. She later asked her mother about her father's hair. Nephis's mother only smiled at her, not answering the question. She now understood that her mother had cut the hair while her father was sleeping.
"It seems crazy runs in the family," Nephis whispered and cut Sunny's hair. She picked it up. It was a good lock of hair, about five inches in length, with strong and healthy strands. Most importantly... Nephis brought the lock of hair close.
It smells like him, Nephis thought, her eyes closed.
Cold overtook Nephis's body. She quickly opened her eyes and turned around, but saw no one. She kept looking in the direction of the door. Nephis had forgotten to close it when she came in, since she didn't think anyone would be around this late at night.
There was someone at the door just now, Nephis thought while closing Sunny's pod and tucking the lock of hair away. Nephis didn't summon her weapon because the alarm systems would go off. The academy had a complex security system in this part of the building that would set off a silent alarm if a Memory were to be summoned. That was all Nephis knew, since the technology had been made by the government.
Walking out into the hall, she didn't find anyone in either direction. Nephis turned to look at Sunny one last time before she closed the door and left as quietly as she had come in, a new prized possession hidden in her pocket.
_________________
Sunny's preparations were completed. To be honest, there was not much to prepare for, since most of his stuff had always been stored in The Avarice of Hoarders since he had acquired it. It was the middle of the afternoon, and he was walking toward the west gate to head out of the Dark City.
After much deliberation, Sunny had decided to look for a Gateway to the west; when he thought about looking in the other directions, his mind screamed "instant death." In contrast, the west only screamed "death." From his perspective, that was progress.
"Do you guys think we will find a good chair west?" Sunny asked Saint and his Shadows.
The Awakened Demon just looked at him silently and stolidly. Happy gave him a thumbs up. Gloomy just shrugged his shoulders.
"Hmm, very interesting. Why do you think that, Happy?"
Happy just pumped his arms up as if in celebration.
"You are right! The humidity of the Dark Sea is the reason the chairs here are bad. So if I go to a place with less humidity, the chairs will be better. Happy, you are a genius!" Sunny answered excitedly.
The two Shadows, Saint, and he reached a building next to the west gate and hid there, observing the situation. There were Nightmare Creatures blocking the path forward. Normally, Sunny would have just fought them, but it was the middle of the day, and he didn't want to make noise and bring more Nightmare Creatures to the area. Fortunately, he had the perfect helper for this situation.
He summoned a Memory. The Ordinary Rock appeared in his hand. Sunny still couldn't believe that he had received a Memory with no enchantments, but somehow this rock had become his most used tool when he needed to escape a situation.
Sunny stood up and threw the rock to the right, away from the gate. He quickly crouched down before the rock could hit the ground, creating a loud impact sound.
The beasts, like many times before, fell for the trick and went running toward the sound. Sunny didn't waste any time and ran toward the exit. He made it past the walls of the Dark City and could see the expansive wasteland. He felt victorious that everything had gone according to plan.
A monstrous screech could be heard from behind Sunny. Turning his head back, he saw a Carapace Scavenger turning the corner from the building he had hidden in. It was now running toward him. More importantly, it was making a lot of noise. Suddenly and without explanation, around fifty other Nightmare Creatures appeared and were now viewing Sunny as their next meal.
"RUN, SAINT, RUN!" Sunny shouted while wrapping Gloomy around him and Happy around Saint.
Sunny ran with all his might, Saint next to him, for what felt like hours. At some point, the sun had passed from being in the middle of the sky to starting to set.
We can't keep going like this, Sunny thought, and armed himself with courage. With a fighting scream, he turned around, ready to face the wave of monsters.
There were no monsters.
More accurately, the monsters had stopped chasing them. Sunny could see them standing still a yard away, looking at him with resentment. He relaxed his stance and looked at the creatures, confusion on his face.
What's happening? Why did they stop? Sunny thought. He was still confused, but somewhat glad that he didn't have to face the monsters. Still, he didn't understand what had happened. Sunny looked around and felt like he knew this place. Looking through his memories, he recognized it.
"The Coral Labyrinth?" Sunny whispered. He was standing in the middle of the Coral Labyrinth, only it wasn't a labyrinth anymore, nor did it have any coral. It was now a field of ash. It seemed to Sunny that with the destruction of the Crimson Spire, the labyrinth had withered and crumbled, turning into this gray ash that covered the land as far as Sunny could see.
There was still one question. Why won't the Nightmare Creatures follow me? Sunny pondered.
He got his answer soon after.
Sunny turned his back on the Nightmare Creatures, confident that their fear was stronger than their hunger. The sky had turned completely dark with night as Sunny continued walking after that strange event. Eventually, he found a place in the middle of nowhere to set up camp.
Sunny would have preferred a more secluded place, but there were no caves or bushes nearby, so he would have to settle for sleeping in the open.
"At least I got you guys, huh?" Sunny told his companions. He at least felt safe with Saint and his two Shadows covering his back while he slept.
Sunny looked at the ground covered in ash. In the moonlight, it had a mysterious shine. Teacher Julius would be very interested in how ash could possibly shine, Sunny thought, and extended his index finger to touch it.
"AAARGH!" Sunny screamed and fell back, Saint catching him before he hit the ground. His world turned to irreversible agony. It was a torrent of pain that hit him all at once, the strongest of it being a wildfire of blinding white flame that, to Sunny's horror, was spreading all too slowly. It felt like the pain was conscious—like it could think and decide how fast it wanted to spread. It felt like it was enjoying Sunny's pain.
"HELP ME, SAINT! HELP ME!" Sunny screamed at the top of his lungs as he thrashed against Saint's chest.
Saint moved quickly, not a single doubt in her shadowy head. The marble creature grabbed Sunny's arm with one hand and his index finger with the other. The sound of bone breaking resounded over the wasteland along with Sunny's screams. The task not finished, Sunny—in a moment of pained clarity—summoned the Moonlight Shard. With a single, swift arc, the finger was cut off.
The torrent of agony turned into a single point of pain.
Saint sat cross-legged on the ground and brought Sunny into her lap. He lost consciousness the moment his head rested on Saint's chest.
__________
Someone has to be mocking me. That was the thought currently on Sunny's mind.
Whoever is in charge of fate must think I'm a joke, Sunny thought with distaste. And how could he not? After all, look at the situation he was currently in. Sunny looked to the side. There, he could see a blue trident floating as if gravity had never been discovered.
Sunny let out a tired sigh and looked at his hands. There were nine fingers where before there were ten. It had been two days since that horrible experience where he learned that the ash was some kind of parasite. That had been the reason the Nightmare Creatures would not follow him. The parasite could only transfer through skin-to-ash contact, which was why he had not been infected while walking.
Sunny would have to give thanks to the person who created the first shoe when he returned to the waking world.
For two days, Sunny had to sleep on Saint's lap, since the Awakened Demon didn't seem to be affected by sitting on the ash. Sunny felt somewhat humiliated at first, but after yesterday, he stopped thinking about it.
The start of this morning had been uneventful. Since no Nightmare Creature dared step on the ash, Sunny didn't have much else to do but walk.
The problem had come five minutes ago with the discovery of an egg. But not just any normal egg. Sunny dragged his hand across his face and looked at the announcement of the Spell.
[You have slain a Corrupted Demon: Egg of the Deep Consumer of Despair.]
[You have gained a Memory: Transcendent Weapon, Third Tier — Lament of the Depths.]
Sunny let out a frustrated breath. He felt like Fate, Weaver, or whoever was in charge now was trying to buy his love with expensive gifts. How could they not? He was stranded in this land with no escape in sight, completely alone. And to top it all off, he had lost a finger after experiencing the second-worst pain he had ever felt in all of his life.
"This feels like an abusive parent who brings you gifts after beating you with all their adult strength. Always promising they won't do it again. Always breaking that promise," Sunny murmured.
He kept looking at his hands, where there were nine fingers where before there were ten.