The way south, meant for the giant colossus to cross nearly the entire expanse of the crater. Neph's fire had made the giant take a short detour, as it seemed at least.
Now, he was back on his track. Continuing his mindless, and possibly even aimless, life of infinite round tours, until he would one day simply collapse under the strain of time.
Cassie and Nephis had told them a bit about the statue, but nothing too important for their current situation was among the information they shared.
The most interesting of them, was definitely that the giant seemed to have been walking across the forgotten shore, for thousands of years.
Right now, though, this seemed as uninteresting as it could be. Everyone was pressing themselves against the flat, cut surface of the weathered stone, holding on for life, as the water around them splashed into their faces, and wind howled around them.
All around them, only the darkness of the night remained, after Nephis had redrawn the incandescent light from her sword. This also meant that every member of the cohort was, once again, completely blind.
All, but Sunny, who currently served as the eyes of the entire group.
As they began feeling the water rise to the level of the severed neck, slight panic began to spread among them. Though, only Effie voiced it.
"Sunny?!"
The young man looked at her, lingered for a moment, and finally responded with a yell, "Prepare yourselves! We're going to be underwater for a few minutes, at least."
"Damn!"
"For fuck's sake!"
Upon hearing this, most couldn't hold back, and cursed, but afterwards immediately prepared themselves for the 'diving session'.
Ray had a somewhat bad feeling, so he did not hesitate and instead of simply holding onto the stone with his hands, summoned [Oblivion's Thread], in the form of a Claymore, to gain a more stable hold.
When it was finally in his hands, he promptly raised his sword hand, before bringing it down with as much force as he could muster, embedding the blade into the stone, until the guard nearly touched the stone.
Noticing the water already on the height of his shoulders, he looked around, and saw that everyone's face was grim. He also noticed how Kai had connected himself to Cassie, right next to him.
"Hey, Kai! Throw over one end of the rope!" Ray called over to his friend, who did not hesitate and did what he was asked to, due to having noticed Ray's extra security in place.
A moment before the water was about to swallow them all, they each took their last breath, and began praying to the dead gods that everything would work out.
The second, the platform was about to plunge completely into the water, they felt the masses of dark water crash into them.
All of it felt so cold and salty, as if they were at just a normal beach, going for a swim. Though, that the water in question here, was just so more dangerous, than most beaches in the waking world.
Now, with the dark water everywhere around them, they could all feel the movements of the colossus even better. Every step of it, felt like a tremor was running through their body.
All that they could do now, was hold on to the cracks in the surface of the stone giant, and do so for dear life.
Thankfully, everyone present had a physical strength that was already surpassing the pinnacle a normal human could reach. This gave them all a very realistic chance to make it through a few minutes underwater. Hopefully.
Soon, the minutes began to trickle by, but the much longed for resurfacing never happened. With each minute, their lungs began burning more and more. The first few minutes were relatively easy, the rest… not so much.
'Come on…! How long is this going to take?'
Ray grumbled inwardly, it must've been nearly ten minutes at this point. He couldn't help but worry about Effie, her physical needs were far higher than a normal human's, that should also include the need for oxygen…
The wait continued, nothing changed, until… Ray suddenly felt a pull from the rope, bound around his waist. Either Cassie, or Kai had went unconscious and had let go of the platform. Now, they were simply hanging limp, as the rope was keeping them together.
'Damn…'
As his mind also slowly became hazy, with him merely holding on through sheer muscular reflexes, there was a sudden shift around all of them. From one moment to the other, they were violently pushed down on to the weathered stone platform, some extreme weight pressing them against it.
'How… how can this shit, become even worse…?'
Second later, the torture was finally over, and the entire colossus resurfaced, giving them all the much needed air, to finally breath again.
The moment everyone was back, above the water's surface, they all gasped for air. For the moment, there was only the sound of them breathing heavily.
Still being slumped on the ground, Ray pulled on the rope, which was still tightly bound around his waist, and pulled Kai back, away from the edge of the stone platform they were on.
Being unable to see anything, besides darkness, he could be called surprised by the words he was hearing next.
"Sunny? What is it?"
That must've been Nephis, but had something already happened again…?
Only a moment later, Sunny's words confirmed the suspicion.
"...we have a passenger."
'Curses!'
---
After that first revelation, Ray continued listening. The words weren't all making entirely sense, but he could, more or less, make out the situation they were in.
"Don't."
"..."
"I'll handle it."
There was silence after that, which lasted for at least several seconds, before the next voices could be heard. But, right now, it looked as if Nephis was about to fight their 'passenger', only to be stopped by Sunny, who then took than upon himself.
'Since, when was he that selfless…?'
Ignoring his thoughts, he continued listening.
"Do you fell the colossus moving? That's his steps. I need you to start counting them. If I'm not back after thirty steps, throw the thing I gave you in that direction. Got it?"
"…"
"Good. Well… wish me luck."
"Good Luck."
"What?"
"Listen, Sunny, if… if you die… I can have you Soul Shard, right?"
"Absolutely not! If I die, all my shards are to be thrown into the sea. No one gets anything, is that understood?"
After that last sentence, only silence remained, signifying that Sunny had, indeed, went to deal with the unwanted passenger.
Ray also realized how stupid it felt, if one only heard voices, without the faces and all that. He couldn't help but somewhat sympathize with their blind seer, which literal flaw was to be blind.
Untying the knot, which kept the rope secure around his waist, Ray carefully made his way over to where he had heard Effie's voice, and after many tense seconds, found her, before sitting down next to her.
"What he said, he wouldn't know about his shards, right?"
Even if he couldn't see it, Effie's tense face eased a bit for the moment, before it turned back to concentrated.
"Alright, but in all seriousness. You only said it to ease his mind, didn't you?"
"…"
He didn't receive an answer, Effie seemed to still be concentrated on her task at hand.
For a short while after that, only faint sounds of metal hitting something hard echoed. That was until Ray noticed Effie shifting.
The next moment, she seemed to strain her muscles, and then hurled whatever was in her hand as far as she could.
A moment later, a shout rang out in the darkness, "Thirty Steps!"
Not much later, a splash could be heard, where previously only the sounds of the battle had been. Either, Sunny won the fight, and repelled the nightmare creature, or…
Once again, there was mostly silence all around, with the water being the only exception. But, after half a minute, or so, there was something else too; labored breaths. And then, finally something that could've been just as well a wet sack, fell to the ground, right next to them all.
It was Kai, who had woken up, sometime during the fight, who asked what was on the mind of most of them, "Sunny? Are you alright?"
"...I'm alive." Came as a response.
Nephis was next to ask, "What were you fighting?"
Sunny, grimaced slightly, but then spoke, "A big ugly worm. I threw him back into the water."
After that, he seemed to sit up, and direct his gaze somewhere they were unable to see.
"It's gone now, so rest up. I'll take the first watch."