Next morning, as soon as the dark sea receded to God-know-where, they set forward to move in the direction that they had decided upon the last night.
Sunny had spent hours observing the very plain that they were transversing right now. And, thanks to that, they met with no nightmare creature that could have posed a threat to any of them.
That is until they did.
They had moved a good kilometer far from the statue that they had spent the last night. And were taking a wide pathway. But it was rather safe seeing as all the nightmare creatures were enjoying a breakfast, and the path did not branch out in many directions.
Perhaps that was what made them careless. Or, it was Sunny who was careless and not Percy.
Sunny was looking around at the walls of the corals as they were transversing through the Labyrinth of the Red.
And, a huge pincer shot out of the ground right next to him aimed at his torse.
'Crap!'
This was the only thought in his head, till he was suddenly pulled back.
Percy had grabbed him by the back of Puppeteer's Shroud and pulled him back in the nick of time.
Sunny looked down at his perfectly intact torse, and yet, felt the visage of it being torn apart and being devoured by this creature.
He landed on his butt.
Fighting against this creature, unarmed, seemed like a near impossible ordeal for Sunless, until the realization set in in his mind that he would not have to.
After pulling him back, Percy had taken the front against the nightmare creature. His trusted pen in sword-form in his right hand.
This time the pincer was aimed for Percy in a jab. But Percy side-stepped it narrowly. And, simultaneously made a swing at the joints of the pincer that aimed for him. The joint was guarded under heavy armor, yet it caved in rather easily under the strike of the blade.
The sword swing tore through the armor of the nightmare creature, and went past the joint to the pincer itself. The part of the pincer that was rendered open by the swing, from underneath it leaked the blood and chunks of sickly pale flesh of the abomination.
The nightmare creature drew the pincer back only to aim it at Percy once more. However, this time instead of closing in on it, Percy stepped back.
For some time, they both stood in their place. And, then the pincer monster lunged forward. Its large body making ripples across the ground and mud with each of its movements.
It was only then that Sunny saw the abomination in its entirety. The Nightmare Creature was over three meters tall and a hulking beast in itself, and the speed at which it moved was astounding as well. But the creature was not fine by any means. The armor of the creature was damaged in multiple places, and the flesh under the armor clearly visible. One of its two pincers was also missing. Sunny could also see some small stubs under it. It must have had eight legs, but was missing half of them right now.
Sunny looked at the way that the nightmare creature and Percy went at each other. It looked like some cheap movie that had been remade more times than it had been seen by the fans.
From where he looked, it seemed like the creature was being bullied by Percy.
For each swing that the creature made, Percy either dodged the swing, or made a counter of his arm. And, nearly all the times, his counter led to an injury for the armored giant. After a few repeats of the same, Sunny felt sorry for the nightmare creature.
The creature's movements were growing slower and slower with each strike that it made or it was met with. Right now, it could barely hold his pincer straight.
At that moment, Percy made a run for the creature while it was still tired and dazed with pain. He slid across the mud and closed in on its torse.
Drawing his sword-arm back and with full force, he thrusted his sword in the exposed torso. But he did not stop just there. He pulled back very soon. And, it was the perfect choice seeing as the place that he was standing, was stuck by the pincer once more.
Percy made a foothold of the pincer and jumped high in the air towards the creature. He swiftly landed on what might be called its shoulders, and thrusted his sword in the tiny slits of the creature's eyes.
And, with that the creature slumped down on the ground in a heap of armored flesh.
Percy jumped off the beast and made his way towards Sunny.
And just as he reached Sunny, a sword materialized in his hands.
For a few seconds, Percy looked at the sword with a confused expression on his face. Then at Sunny. And, pushed the sword towards him.
Sunny looked at the sword in his hands in wonder. It was a thin blade, but of sizable length. Had a pristine blade, single edged and had an angular tip.
'This rude bastard, he got a memory on killing that broken creature?'
Very soon the sword in his hands disappeared.
'This audacious one! Did he want to gloat?'
Sunny looked at the boy only to see him looking at him with wide eyes. He did not look like he was gloating or anything.
Suny closed his eyes momentarily and dived into his Soul Sea.
In his Soul Sea, there was a new addition.
Memory: [Azure Blade]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Description: [On this forgotten shore, only steel remembers.]
Sunny summoned the blade, and it appeared in his hands. He looked at Percy to see him still looking at him.
'He gave me a memory. An actual memory, for nothing?'
He told Percy to wait for a bit and got down to doing what was necessary to be done. With a blade, it was made only easier.
Using the blade, he dug into the corpse of the nightmare creature. While using the blade to cut the armor of the creature, he could clearly feel the hardness of the armor.
He took the soul shard of the nightmare creature, and a chunk of the tender meat that belonged to the now-dead abomination.
He made a makeshift rucksack out of the seaweed laying nearby and put the meat and soul shard into it.
Sunny motioned for Percy to move, and they continued on their way towards where they intended to go in the first place.
'Just what kind of hell I ended up into now!!?!'
These were the honest thoughts that were going through Percy's head.
'First, the dark sea and this Nico-wannabe. And now, all of this.'
Percy had not eaten anything in a day and a half. But he had stayed hungry longer. More pressing issue was that he did not know this place at all.
This place did not have a moon or stars. And, the strange feeling that Percy kept on having about all this ordeal was unnerving himself.
'It feels like a dream.'
But in some strange manner, it felt real as well.
He wanted to bombard this Sunny with questions. But, every time he looked at him, he just stared eerily in his eyes, and said nothing. He even had the gall to look annoyed. And, that in turn, made Percy annoyed.
But he would admit that too, he himself was not in his right mind.
Too much had happened in too short of a time.
'…Go back. I want to go back.'
it had not even been two full days, yet the surprise of being in a different place was slowly waning down. And, the premise of the problems that were related to this very place was weighing down on him more and more.
He had just killed a giant crab. And, when he did it, it felt as if there was a strange whisper in his mind. He could not understand it, not make it out clearly, yet it was there.
'Is this what Sunny meant by Spell?'
Seeing a fellow human like him butchering a dead monster was a perplexing sight overall. Also, there was this Soul Shard thing. Percy gave that all to Sunny. He did not understand what those things even did. Also, he had no intention of touching anything that came after ripping a monster apart.
He wanted to get out of this place. As soon as possible.
Citadel or gateway was a possible escape. However, there was also a possibility that he did not want to entertain.
Percy dared not voice it out loud even in his thoughts. He dreaded the very thought of that.
'Well, no rest for the wicked.'
The journey of near about 6 kilometers that should have taken a normal person only a little over an hour walking casually, took them hours.
The path was not made to be travelled on in any manner. There was mud and more mud, it went all the way up to one's shin even in the driest of places. And, all the way to one's thighs when mis-stepped.
Sunny believed that they had walked for about three hours. They were in the clear sight of a tall hill.
'…should be about here.'
"This is the exact hill over which fire was lit in the night.", Sunny said standing at the very heel of the hill.
Sunny sent his Shadow to the top of the hill, and sensed it quite clearly. There were two human shadows on the hill.
When his Shadow reached the top, he got a clear view of the top.
There were indeed two Sleepers on the top. Both girls. And, both familiar to him.
Just with a bit lacking in clothes. And, the sight was quite… Extreme? Interesting?
Sunny stalled his mind some unsavory thoughts started to make home in his mind.
He coughed lightly and turned to Percy.
"Humans… two girls are over there."
"Let's start climbing, then."
Sunny stayed quiet about the state of their modesty. But he had thoughts of his own.
If two boys were to scale the hill that two girls were staying on, it would seem creepy as hell.
Hence, Sunny opted for sending his Shadow forward to the duo to alert them of their presence.
The presence of his strange shadow, cast over a stone with no actual source was quickly noticed by the girls.
And, after a small exchange that only involved signals and hand-gestures, one of the girls becked them to climb up the hill.
Obviously, he knew the names of both of them.
The Changing Star and Cassia.
While climbing, Sunny realized just how tall the hill was. And, climbing it was no easy task.
Everything was wet and slippery. Although there were many thigs that could be held on to, not all could support his weight or were stable enough to be held on to.
There were even instances when he slipped and nearly fell over, but with himself augmented by his Shadow he was able to reach the top. Although he was helped by Percy along the way quite a few times.
When the two reached the top of the hill, Sunny felt relief for the first time, or maybe second time, since ending up in the Nightmare.