Author: (Sorry for the late chapter, I accidentally deleted the draft.)
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Sunless!
Sunny felt cold, the black water surrounded him oppressively, he could not see anything and was confused, the salty water entered his mouth.
'Some things never change…'
A smile crossed his face before composing himself.
He was ready, he wrapped himself with his shadow and swam towards the surface, the surface of the water broke and from it came a black-haired boy, of course, no one was there to see him.
He turned his head searching for the stone platform, and he saw it in the distance, he started swimming quickly towards it.
A fear ran through him, he felt the strong presence of a creature approaching him.
Behind him, a few dozen meters away, a large triangular fin was heading dangerously towards him.
Although he had faced far more horrible and stronger things, right now he was just a sleeper, a corrupted creature would kill him without him even noticing.
Sunny, although wrapped in his shadow and in the deep darkness of the forgotten coast, was still slower than the corrupted creature.
Luckily, he had the advantage, he was not desperate, almost calm, he knew he would reach the platform first, and so he did.
His hands touched the cold rock and he jumped onto the platform, he turned his head towards the dark sea, the abomination would take a few more seconds to strike.
Sunny hesitated a little but decided to try something, he summoned Rebellion and the serpent, the tattoo of the serpent moved down his arm and when it reached his hand it transformed into a large odachi, Sunny wrapped his shadow around it.
He raised his sword above his head, focused, and poured all his will into it, Rebellion acted and an unnatural force enveloped the sword, making it sharper, stronger, deadlier.
When the shark got close enough, Sunny slashed downward, as he had done thousands of times in his life, his sword struck the shark's skin at the same time the creature crashed against the statue, the ground trembled and his sword did not move, cutting the nightmare creature was almost impossible, he barely managed to make a cut on the surface.
He fell onto himself and looked at the creature, which only had a small cut on its head, he clicked his tongue in disappointment.
'Of course, I expected that.'
The water began to boil and from it came countless tentacles, they grabbed the corrupted shark firmly and pulled it into the depths of the abyss.
Sunny ordered the serpent to return to its normal form, discarded the collar, and summoned the Puppeteer's Shroud.
He lay down on the ground and told the serpent to protect him.
The serpent hissed, slithered across the ground, and wrapped itself around its master.
Sunny woke up with the sound of the dark sea receding, the faint rays of the ashen sun hitting his skin.
He sat sleepily, petted his Shadow and then ordered it to return to his soul sea.
He stood up and looked over the edge of the stone, there he saw something he did not miss much, a giant crimson labyrinth stretched as far as the eye could see.
He frowned, remembering all the bad times he spent in this forgotten place.
He shook his head, the past was the past.
'Or rather, is the future the past?'
He laughed and then looked down, there was the shark's corpse, it wasn't full of scavengers yet, but some were already arriving.
He wasted no time and began to descend the statue, which was not very difficult, now he was stronger and faster, so it didn't take him more than a few minutes to touch the ground.
He sent his shadow into the labyrinth and began to follow it.
He walked through the labyrinth a bit relaxed, if he encountered a scavenger he was sure he could defeat it.
But just in case, he had summoned Serpent, now holding it in his hand in the form of a fearsome odachi.
After a few hours, he found what he was looking for, there were a couple of scavengers heading towards the shark's corpse.
Sunny hid inside a coral cavity and ordered Serpent to face them, wrapped in a Shadow, enhanced by Sunny's innate ability and by Rebellion, it was not much weaker than a Fallen creature.
The scavengers saw it and immediately jumped on it, the one in front launched its pincer, the serpent easily dodged and then coiled around the creature's limb, the chitin cracked and shattered into pieces, when the beast tried to launch its other pincer, the serpent opened its mouth and bit down on the pincer, crushing it.
Defenseless, it could only await death, and so it was, the last thing Sunny heard of the beast was a terrifying screech before its head was devoured in one bite.
[You have killed an Awakened beast, Shell Scavenger.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
The other crab did not fare any better, its body was turned into mush by the enormous serpent.
[You have killed an Awakened beast, Shell Scavenger.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[You have received a memory.]
A smile spread across Sunny's face, he had regained his first weapon.
He summoned his new memory, an odachi formed in his palm, it had a captivating blue color that made him feel a little nostalgic.
"You and I will slay many creatures again."
After that, he felt another group of scavengers heading their way.
Sunny smiled, today was going to be a fruitful day.
---
The dark sea began to rise and crashed against the stone of a warrior statue, at its highest part, instead of a head, there was a stone platform.
A small hand appeared, followed by a black-haired boy, he wore a Shroud of black cloth and leather, on his back was a large seaweed backpack containing some glowing stones.
He lay down on the hard stone, today had been a tiring but productive day.
His smile widened as he saw his runes.
Shadow Fragments: [85/1000]
Today he had killed 32 scavengers, unfortunately, he had not obtained more memories, and still had not found an Echo, but it didn't matter, because tomorrow he was going to slaughter several dozen more scavengers.
He took out a couple of strips of meat from his seaweed backpack and looked into the distance while eating, there in total darkness a small star lit up and faded as quickly as it appeared.
That was Nephis' signal that everything had gone well.
Sunny sighed, although he had pushed it to the corner of his mind, he was still worried about the girls, especially Cassie, she still hadn't adapted to her flaw.
The next day, many scavengers were already gathered around the corrupted creature's corpse, dozens were nearby and many more waiting to take a piece.
The calm was broken by the sound of something dragging through the sand, all the scavengers turned towards the sound, and found a huge black serpent, it had a powerful aura.
During that brief distraction, a small creature silently finished off a couple of scavengers.
Sunny had sent his shadow around Serpent, who was going to act as a tank, taking the attacks while he finished off as many scavengers as he could.
The silence was broken by a scavenger that lunged at the serpent, after that many others followed, unaware that a dozen of their brothers had already fallen.
Serpent moved nimbly among the beasts, finishing off some when the opportunity arose.
A leg fell trying to crush it, it moved its body to the side and then bit the limb, crushing it and turning it into a mash of meat with glowing dust.
Another scavenger took the chance and grabbed it with its pincer, the serpent coiled around its body and crushed it, when it was about to finish the crab it was grabbed by another pincer.
The Shadow was overwhelmed by attacks, it was hit, bitten, grabbed, and pierced by the beasts.
It tried to fight back, coiling, striking with its tail and biting, but could only take a few scavengers down with it.
Only a few minutes had passed and the Shadow was already on the verge of death, it had multiple blows, cuts, and several pierced parts, the scavengers attacked without rest.
A scavenger raised one of its pincers, preparing to drop it on the serpent's head, it let its pincer fall and to its surprise only struck the ashen sand.
Then it simply fell to the ground, behind it, a young sleeper pulled her sword from the chitinous corpse.
The other scavengers turned and when they saw him, they charged at him, Sunny wrapped himself in his shadow and started running.
'There are still too many!'
He ran in the opposite direction, luckily most of the beasts were dead, only a dozen remained, but that was enough to kill him, no matter how strong he was, he was still a simple sleeper.
To buy time, he decided to summon his latest acquisition, the last crab he killed had given him an old friend.
Behind Sunny, a scavenger formed from glowing particles, it stood between the killer crabs and him.
Sunny kept running until he reached the shark's corpse, once there, he wrapped his shadows around his sword, at the same time strengthened it with Rebellion and began to cut.
Further back, the Echo was engaged in a desperate battle against the awakened abominations, the only reason it was still alive was because they were already injured, thanks to the Serpent.
It had already lost a pincer and a couple of legs, then Sunny decided to discard it, racing against time, he finished cutting the last piece of meat from the corpse.
Two large glowing stones appeared, Sunny grabbed them and threw them into his full backpack, then ran off again, enveloping his will over himself.
Behind him, it was no longer just a few scavengers, but dozens, and soon hundreds.
Sunny's plan was very simple.
When he was deep enough into the coral, he jumped with all his strength, landed on the coral walls, and began jumping from one to another.
The sound of the coral cracking warned him they were still coming, he had drawn a considerable number of scavengers.
'I guess I'm appetizing after all…'
He pushed those thoughts aside and kept jumping on the coral.
It was already late, about an hour remained before the dark sea rose again.
Sunny was breathing heavily, he was tired, the fight had taken its toll, his muscles burned, but he did not stop, because if he did, he would die.
He looked into the distance at a mountain, in that direction was the star he had seen yesterday, thinking of Nephis filled him with energy, he kept fleeing from the horde of hungry beasts.
---
Nephis looked westward, bored, Sunny was supposed to arrive today, but he was taking longer than usual.
She frowned.
'He did something stupid again.'
She wasn't really worried about his safety… not much, but if he delayed any longer she would have to go into the labyrinth alone with Cassie.
She turned her head back, Cassie was roasting the last batch of scavenger meat, after all, they couldn't cook at night.
Cassie wore the armor she had given her, despite refusing to accept it, Nephis as always insisted until Cassie simply gave in.
Luckily, this time she didn't have to wear seaweed, now she wore a leather armor she bought at the memory market, it was an awakened memory that had cost her several dozen scavenger corpses and a few fragments, but it was better than nothing.
She snapped out of her distraction and looked back at the crimson labyrinth, for several minutes nothing happened, until she heard a disturbance ahead, she squinted and saw a horde of scavengers toppling the coral, desperate.
A little further ahead, a small figure jumped over the coral.
Nephis smiled, he was like that, constantly doing stupid things.
A voice called her from behind.
"Nephis? W-what's happening?"
She remained silent for a few seconds and then said as warmly as she could.
"Nothing."
Strangely, Cassie seemed even more nervous, but she didn't ask again.
She looked back at the labyrinth but something had changed, the farther monsters stopped attacking and began to hide.
Then the world trembled and the dark water began to rise, slowly flooding the land, little by little the other scavengers began to retreat, until the last one simply lost momentum and gave up.
The water began to rise and the sun hid, Nephis leaned over and saw Sunny resting on a mound, he noticed her and raised a hand with a thumbs up.
The corners of Nephis' mouth lifted.
'Definitely a cockroach.'