Cutting into the Scavengers shell was unpleasant to say the least, but it yielded results that made it worth the effort. Sunny dug into the flesh of the dead Scavenger and placed the edible bits into his makeshift sack of seaweed. After retrieving the soul shard, he began his journey back to the knight statue. By now, the sun was nearing the horizon line, soon the Dark Sea would return.
Traveling back, he had Gloomy continue to scout the surrounding area around him for any stragglers or greater threats. Luckily, the area seemed clear. Many of the Scavengers still fought over the massive severed corpse, leaving the labyrinth empty for the most part. The bright light shined through the coral canopy, almost making the hellish land seem deceptively peaceful. It was quite lulling, in Sunny's eyes.
Quietly to Gloomy, sunny rambled about the specifics to reach the Dark City.
"See, we know the route there is not so bad, more so its time consuming. Ah, we can save time at Ashen Burrow and the Soul Tree too by not eating those damn fruits. Give or take two-month journey there then? If Fated does not interfere, that is."
Sunny knew very well that Fated not making his life more difficult was unlikely though.
Gloomy, who had just returned a few minutes prior from his scouting shot Sunny an almost curious glance. Shaking his head in dismay, Sunny grinned to himself and continued to traverse through the labyrinth back to safety.
Grimacing as he climbed, Sunny inched up the statue slowly. Going down was certainly a lot easier than going up. One arm at a time, he scaled the two-hundred-meter-tall statue. Thankfully the elements were not there to increase the risk for once. Swinging an arm over the edge, he pulled himself up and over and let out an exhausted heave.
'Damn this body of mine, still too weak even with Gloomy's help!'
But complaining wouldn't solve his problems now, would it? So, with some grumpiness, Sunny moved past his physical struggles and laid down his seaweed sack of goodies. Sifting through the meat, he prepared to cook a nice dinner up for himself. Soon, the smell of burning Carapace Scavenger flesh wafted in the air.
"Back in the day I thought this stuff was rather terrible, but who would've guessed I'd eat much worse? Ah never mind, you wouldn't get it Gloomy."
Sitting down and enjoying the meal, Sunny gazed out to the distant horizon where the orange light had originated from. Tomorrow, he would travel there. He would travel East, just to travel back West shortly after.
***
The bright sun began its descent and in tow the roar of the Dark Sea filled the silent air. Laying down comfortably on the stone surface, Sunny summoned his reward from the Carapace Scavenger.
In a flash of sparks, the Azure Blade materialized into his hands, its familiar sleek design was still as beautiful as the day he received it. The blade was straight and single-edged, ending in an angular tip. It was forged out of azure steel, and an elegant yet simple layered pattern traced the blade.
How nostalgic it was to hold it again, he had missed his old Memories.
Without much further consideration, he let the memory fade back into nothingness and closed his eyes. There would be many more opportunities to admire the weapon soon enough.
Awoken from his comfy slumber by a raging storm, Sunny spent the next few hours cursing his existence as he struggled to remain on the headless statue in one piece. He had forgotten that about the damned storm that took place shortly after he had first arrived in the Forgotten Shore, thus he arrived unprepared to deal with it.
Though, Sunny wasn't sure how he could've prepared for the storm even if he had remembered.
The storm ended up passing by without too much struggle — though the Puppeteer Shroud would argue otherwise — and Sunny managed to scrape by with a few bruises and scratches. He gathered his seaweed sack and began scaling down the statue once more after the Dark Sea receded.
Nimbly making his way down he reached the bottom and patted himself off. Now the arguably more dangerous portion of his journey would commence. Sunny secretly couldn't help but feel excited too, he would finally be able to reunite with Neph and Cass! In a more permanent sense too, the three would have all the time in the world to be together again.
Without much of a hitch, a few hours into his travel Sunny managed to spot Neph with relative ease. However something was amiss. Only Nephis was wandering through the muddied lands, and her expression was unlike herself. No doubt it was taxing on Nephis to keep track of where she was as well as any hostiles, but the constant scowl did not match her normal nonchalance.
Regardless, deciding to play a little game, Gloomy pealed off of Sunny and stood beside him.
"Okay, you see Neph over there?" Sunny pointed off into the distance to where she was traveling.
"You're going to sneak up to her and scare her. Sound good? Oh and, don't get caught. She's rather serious with her threats."
If Gloomy had eyes, they surely would have been rolling, but alas the shadow was well... a shadow.
Without any success in reasoning with his master, Gloomy set off. It wasn't long before he had reached Nephis. Still remaining in cover behind some especially thick coral roots, Gloomy peeked through the deep blood red brush, and in turn Sunny saw her finally up close.
How beautiful Nephis was even without fully awakening, especially those enticing lips...
'Ah! Where was I..?'
Sunny chuckled to himself and sighed, he knew damn well he was a lost cause.
The surprise gift went as he expected, the moment Gloomy moved from the branches of coral, Nephis pinpointed his location and before orienting herself to fight, immediately recognized the shadow. Stopping her stride, she looked around confused.
"Come out Sunny, there's no time for these antics right now." A small upwards twitch in her lips betrayed her serious tone as Gloomy pointed off in the direction Sunny was watching them from.
Within moments, she finally met Sunny face to face. There was certainly a lot of emotion raging through Sunny's mind as he closed the distance between them, eventually coming to a stop mere feet away.
"You did say 'right now' implying there will be time later?" Sunny grinned cheekily as he watched Nephis pause in confusion before she realized he was responding to her earlier chastising.
"No." She lightly shook her head in disproval and looked at their surroundings. Still on guard as always.
"Shall we head back to your side of things?"
Sunny looked back west to where the old decapitated statue was, and shrugs.
"Sure, but shouldn't we get Cass?"
Nephis faced Sunny, and a dark look met his gaze.
"She didn't come with me. In fact, she's nowhere to be found. I searched all around the area, but couldn't find her."
That was... unexpected. So far, everything had played out the same as the past, and here already the trio had been cut down to a duo. What had happened?
"Well. That's not good. Not good at all." Sunny mumbled quietly as he sunk deeper into thought.
Had Fate pulled another twist on them?
A tendril of worry began to warp through his mind. Cassie wasn't anywhere near her former strength let alone comfortable with her Flaw. If she was anywhere else in the Forgotten Shore alone, Sunny didn't want to think about the implications.
As resourceful as Cass is, there was a limit to her dependance on her ridiculous intellect.
'Hopefully it's not what I think.'
"Well, how should we proceed? I am in favor of heading West." Nephis searched the nearby Coral branches absentmindedly before quickly adding:
"Only because I spent the better part of yesterday searching for Cass already."
Sunny turned to face Neph again and let out a tired sigh, this journey might have already been going awry.
"I agree, if she was here you would have found her by now. Hopefully, we can learn more about her whereabouts as we reach the Dark Castle."
With a simple nod — one that seemed to hold a lot of buried anxiety — Neph began walking West. Following in suit, Sunny began to walk too. The journey was uneventful, partially due to Sunny's scouting but they were a day earlier than the past. A lot of Scavengers were still occupied on the body.
Oddly, the two had barely exchanged any words on the way, too caught up in their own thoughts. Yet a silent longing lingered between the two. One hopefully they could answer once things began to sort out more. Without a need for further guidance, Nephis began to climb the statue. Sunny for once outpaced her monstrous strength and beat her to the top.
That honestly concerned him more.
Breaking the silence, Sunny sat down and glanced at Neph.
"You holding up okay Neph?"
Copying him, she sat down on the uneven stone and leaned back on her arms for support, staring off into the horizon line where the last traces of the sun were disappearing.
"Honestly, I don't... know."
There was a pause, before she looked over to Sunny.
"I think I'm to worried about Cass to be okay. We both know that this is not the time for her to be alone. For something to happen to her."
A trace of raw emotion laced her usually cold voice, her eyes yielding to her emotions as the usual calm grey raged against her tepid restraint.
"I see, we share the same concern." Sunny frowned and stared off into the horizon, red streaks gleaming over the distorted landscape.
Quietly whispering out in hopes of comforting the stressed Changing Star — or perhaps hoping to believe his own affirmation, he could not tell — Sunny took a breath.
"She'll be okay. She's dealt with much worse."
'She has to be.'
Nephis did not respond, instead laying down completely and closed her eyes slowly. The low rumble of the Dark Sea might have caused Sunny stress in the past, but now it sort of lulled him into a sleepy state, and soon he found himself a few feet apart from Neph.
"Come here."
The words didn't come out as commanding, but felt rather compelling to Sunny.
He inched over to be closer to her and managed to lay an arm under her head to act as a pillow — despite the discomfort, Sunny deemed it worth it — and the two shared a long silence.
Neph turned on her side to face Sunny and a small smile traced her lips as she quietly gazed at his features. A small smile appeared on his face as well. It felt improper for the two to have a moment of peace, almost wrong.
But Sunny quieted his mind and closed his eyes, letting Gloomy watch over them as they rested through the night.