The huntress' shack was full of silence. The creaking of the wooden structure was just barely audible over the overwhelming furious howling of the wind.
The two outcasts were taking shelter from what Sunny assumed was the Shadow Realm's version of a sandstorm.
Except like almost everything in the Shadow Realm the sandstorm was significantly more deadly than usual because the 'sand' in this realm was much denser.
When he had first arrived in the Shadow Realm Sunny had noticed that when he picked up a handful of sand that it had cut his palm in several places.
Thankfully his transcendent physique had made him immune to the 'sand's' unnatural sharpness. Not that he was planning on entering the sandstorm anytime soon.
Sunny put a palm to his face.
'And here I thought I'd escaped the outskirts.'
For some reason his exasperation must have been hilarious to the huntress as she broke out into nigh on hysterical laughter.
He must have been the greatest form of entertainment that the huntress has seen in thousands of years and was none too happy about that.
She must have sensed the scowl on his face as she took pity on him letting her laughter die down and cast what almost looked like an apologetic gaze towards him.
The smile still never left her face.
"Fine fine, I'll actually teach you something. To stop those abominations from tracking you based on the smell of your soul you'll need to seal the essence that you naturally leak."
The scowl hadn't left his face. "Even I could have guessed that. So how do you actually perform this sealing?"
The huntress' smile only grew.
"How should I know?"
The frown on his face morphed into a snarl.
"Ok ok, while I don't exactly know how you will accomplish the feat considering your unique essence, the general idea should be about the same."
Just as the snarl was about to leave his face the huntress couldn't help but tease him further.
"I think."
Before Sunny could respond Orphne elaborated.
"There was a reason I'm only teaching this to you now after you learned how to refine your essence."
Orphne ran a hand through her hair in her best attempt to tame the wild mane.
"Think of essence refinement as a prerequisite to this technique. While having you attract monsters was part of the reason it was mostly because it'd be much harder to teach you something this advanced when you didn't even know the basics."
Her smile dimmed yet it became no less brilliant as she propped up her face with a fist and gave him a rather sincere look that made him feel warm inside.
Sunny's eyes could only widen. 'D-don't tell me she cares about me.'
"So, you can get over your indignation already because although you might not believe me there is always a method to my madness."
Just as she said that he let go of any remnant anger that was brewing inside of him.
A nostalgic feeling started to well up inside of him.
'Wh-why does this feel good? I-I thought I'd given up on this kind of warmth.'
The sight of this interaction must have appeared very strange to most people but for Sunny this was the closest thing he felt to filial bonding since he had left Rain at the orphanage so long ago.
Sunny blinked and as he opened his eyes, he swore he saw his mother's visage superimposed on Orphne's figure.
The moment of kinship ended abruptly as Sunny's gaze caught the shadows that were consuming the huntress inch closer to her soul core.
Suddenly a slightly alert look dawned on the huntress' face which must have been because she felt the infection spreading.
The alarmed look left her face just as quickly as it had appeared as Orphne spoke to him in a slightly rushed tone.
He quirked an eyebrow thinking her behavior was a bit strange but he wrote it off because since he was talking to Orphne that was the name of the game.
"It's fortunate that you have a master otherwise not only would you not be able to learn how to suppress the scent of your soul but you would also slowly be dying here in the Shadow Realm."
A deep frown made its way onto Sunny's face.
'What the hell is she on about?'
He took offense to her saying that there was anything fortunate about him being enslaved and was about to rebuke her but Orphne's eyes were darting to the side as she interrupted him.
"Ju-just listen to me closely. Any shadow without a master within the Shadow Realm naturally starts to corrode away under the laws of the realm."
His eyebrows furrowed as he remembered the specks of light slowly seeping out of the shadows that he had encountered with Orphne on her hunts.
'Since I've been here for five months, I doubt that I would have survived that long as my soul was slowly crumbling. It still won't make me feel even the slightest bit better about the [Shadow Bond]. If anything, it makes me feel more bitter that there are some benefits that make it harder to hate.'
Perhaps he had a natural contrarian in him.
Orphne seemed to have a habit of bringing up seemingly unrelated topics when teaching something but by now Sunny knew that she was somehow going to use this to help him further his understanding as he asked her to elaborate.
"This law isn't something unique to the Shadow Realm. Essence is well the essence of everything. Embarking on the path of ascension improves one's lifespan because they gain access to essence and gradually learn how to stop leaking it. So, everyone is naturally leaking essence. The Shadow Realm just speeds up this process."
Sunny pursed his lips as he contemplated the deep complications behind everything Orphne just told him. He then shelved those thoughts as it wasn't all that important now.
"So, what you're telling me is that I am still naturally leaking essence and I need to stop that if I want to mask the scent of my soul?"
The huntress gave him a smile, as if he was some form of talent that, he found almost condescending at this point.
He scoffed, 'If she places me just a step away from the finish line why does she always have to act all surprised when I cross it.'
Orphne's smile suddenly dimmed and that's when his Shadow Sense finally caught up with the huntress' senses as it detected an abomination at the very edge of its detection range.
Sunny frowned as recalled how Orphne had been acting.
'The look of alarm, her slightly rushed tone and the lack of any of her usual banter. She knew it was coming. How are her senses so extraordinary?'
He stood up and was about to prepare himself for yet another hunt but when he swept his gaze past Orphne he stopped in his tracks.
The huntress was wearing a rather grim expression devoid of the usual confidence she had just before hunting.
Noticing his gaze Orphne quickly wiped the look from her face as she met his eyes and she suddenly seemed so full of determination and some other emotion he couldn't quite place.
She stood up so fast that he could hardly track her movements He was still getting used to having transcended so his eyes hadn't quite caught up to his physique.
Orphne really had shown no mercy in demonstrating the difference between her and the average saint.
She moved her gaze to him as if she had been waiting for him to finally notice their visitor and gestured for him to lead the way.
Sunny sighed reluctantly and moved towards the door and opened to hear the howling of the wind intensify manifold as it assaulted his senses.
Walking out several paces from her shack he looked back and was surprised to see that Orphne was still gathering her equipment.
The huntress crouched down and pried open one of the floorboards and pulled out a jar filled with a strange liquid that resembled permafrost and a pair of unique gloves that he could only assume were meant to handle that substance.
She donned the gloves and removed her quiver from where it was hanging on the door and meticulously coated each of her arrows with the liquid and proceeded to do the same for her dual blades.
'Why have I never seen her use that liquid before? It must be poison.'
Orphne returned her blades to their sheaths on her belt and let the familiar weight of her bow and quiver settle onto her back once again as she moved to Sunny's side.
Sunny noticed something strange and shifted his attention back to their visitor.
His eyes were blown wide open as he started to concentrate all his mental faculties on the thing that had caused the detached huntress to become more alarmed than he had ever seen her before.
Whatever it was, that fact alone made him incredibly apprehensive of it.
'Damnation. I was being too conservative with my Shadow Sense, afraid that I'd overload my mind. I have to break that mindset if I want to survive here. I can't afford to be holding myself back.'
Ever since he had entered the Shadow Realm, he had been restraining his Shadow Sense as there was little to no light meaning that his mind was constantly at war with the overflow of sensory data.
Sunny shook his head to wipe the regret from his head. He had already made up his mind to focus on the present and future seeing as he couldn't change the past.
The shadow of the intruder was strange.
Strange was an understatement really.
It was constantly moving and morphing almost as if the shadow was trying to break free from its master. It even threw a hateful glare towards the spot where it must have been connected to said master.
He could not see its physical figure yet but it was obvious from the shadow alone that their movements were misaligned.
A shadow that seemed almost as independent as his one was a little odd considering he had never seen one like that, his own not included, but at this point that alone wasn't enough for him to consider something strange.
He had seen enough that his definition of strange had changed drastically from where it had previously been.
The strange part about that abomination's shadow was that there were multiple of these shadows that were trying to separate from it.
So many that it had taken him quite a while to separate that first shadow from the mass of other writhing shadows begrudgingly attached to that monster.
'That shadow must have been its original. It seems deeper and darker than all the others while also seeming like the most thoroughly attached.'
Monster really was the only word he could use to describe whatever that thing was.
'It's using those extra shadows as substitutes to endure the laws of the realm.'
Perhaps the reason why the spell called him the treacherous lost from light was not only because admittingly he was a little treacherous but also because a trait like that was remarkable among shadows.
Shadows were a loyal sort which made Sunny share not only a sense of kinship with those shadows tied to the intruder but as well as dread as to what possibly could have caused not only what must have been others captured shadows but its own shadow as well to want to flee.
'Why does that monster need those shadows to withstand the deterioration of the Shadow Realm? Since those shadows are attached to it, they shouldn't be subject to the realm's laws. Is it because those shadows no longer recognize it as their master?'
Sunny looked down as he realized that his body had unconsciously already taken one step back. He took two steps forward hoping the huntress didn't catch his lack of courage.
He hardened his gaze as he turned it towards the invader ready to see its silhouette appear on the horizon.
'What kind of monster can make even its own shadow want to abandon it. I've never seen the like before, it's unprecedented. I've seen the worst of humanity and abominations yet never have I seen a shadow in fear of its own master.'
As Sunny squinted his eyes, he finally noticed a light just barely visible in the distance sandstorm.
The light made the figure's shadows starker and deeper. They reminded him of some of the arrogant ancient shadows that still refused his commands.
He could tell a lot about someone based on their shadow and the picture that those shadows were painting had an unmistakable dreariness that made Sunny want to flee.
If it was possible for his eyes to narrow any more than their already squinted state then they would have.
What surprised him the most was that the figure in the distance was clearly human.
For some reason, despite the presence of numerous human shadows, he had expected the intruder to have been some form of abomination.
The figures' appearance didn't calm his nerves in the slightest. If anything, he only became more wary of them.
'Just my luck it's the worst type of monster.'
He turned his gaze to Orphne about to tell her off for jinxing him earlier but he was startled to see that the huntress was shaking.
Sunny tilted his head in confusion.
'To get such a reaction out of her, clearly she recognizes whoever or whatever that is.'
He took a few steps towards Orphne a put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. That seemed to break her out of her fear as she moved her gaze to his hand.
The familiar warmth that her eyes were usually so full of returned to them as she let the tension leave her body and took several steps towards the invader.
In a softer and quieter tone than Sunny had ever heard come from the huntress she just spoke one singular word.
"Run."