They sat on the ground beneath the starless sky, all three waiting for someone to speak first.
Cassie broke the silence.
"We can't. We have to find another way around."
A moment of silence followed. Nephis glanced up before replying calmly.
"We can kill it."
Sunny remained quiet, simply listening. He was confident in his strength, but not confident enough to face an Awakened Demon.
Of course, there was Nephis—a Legacy like himself—but even with her help, he doubted they could defeat that thing in a direct fight. Sunny also had Serpent now, his new shadow.
Considering all those factors, there was a slight chance they could win.
But the risk was far too high.
"...until we witness the spark of life in it reduced to ash."
Sunny had mostly tuned out the discussion between Nephis and Cassie. It was only at those words that he looked up, seeing flames dancing in Nephis's eyes.
"What do you mean?" he asked, confusion clear on his face.
"We burn it and let the horrors of the sea do the rest."
Sunny's eyes widened.
"Are you crazy?" He shook his head. "That's never going to work. And even if it did, who's to say we'll survive the sea horrors?"
Nephis stared at him blankly.
"We'll have to try."
"No, we can't. It's too dangerous. For you two and for me. I'd just be a sitting duck," Cassie said, crossing her arms and legs like a pouting child.
Sunny glanced at her, then back at Nephis.
After a brief pause, he copied her.
The two sat motionless.
In Nephis's eyes, they looked incredibly stupid.
Neither moved.
A minute passed before Nephis finally sighed and stood, walking toward the edge of the platform.
As her footsteps faded away, Cassie turned toward where Sunny's voice should have been.
"Do you think we convinced her?" she asked, relaxing slightly.
"From what I've learned about her personality and her stubbornness, probably not," Sunny replied.
He lay back on the stone floor and stared up at the sky.
Cassie nodded, her brilliant blue eyes slowly closing.
Sunny sighed, rolled onto his side, and drifted off to sleep.
⸻
The morning light woke him.
Sunny groaned, rolling onto his back before sitting up.
His eyes swept across the platform.
Cassie was already awake, seated not far away.
Nephis, however, was nowhere to be seen.
The last daughter of the Immortal Flame Clan was gone.
"Cas—"
Sunny was about to ask Cassie about it when the blind oracle interrupted him.
"I don't know where she went. As soon as I heard the water rushing, her footsteps slowly disappeared."
Sunny rubbed his forehead.
This was going to be a headache.
He was supposed to have been woken up for the midnight watch, like they had done countless times before, yet Nephis had simply left.
Standing up, Sunny looked down at the only one who could be blamed.
"Why didn't you wake me?" he asked, crossing his arms and glaring at the shadow with murderous intent.
The shadow merely shrugged and turned away.
"Sunny, who are you talking to?" Cassie asked as she stood and walked toward his voice.
"My shadow," Sunny replied simply.
Then he added,
"I'm going to go look for the straggler. Want to come?"
Cassie gave him a strange look before nodding.
⸻
Nephis hadn't made it very far.
Even with Cassie accompanying him, they managed to catch up to the white-haired girl within two hours thanks to Gloomy.
She had made it just under halfway to the Ashen Barrow before Sunny called out.
"Hey, Neph! Where are you going?"
She looked back to find Cassie standing nearby and Sunny leaning against the carcass of a Carapace Scavenger she had killed only minutes earlier.
"Surely you're not planning to face that thing alone?"
Sunny studied the emotionless girl suspiciously.
Well, he wouldn't really call her emotionless anymore.
Over the days they had spent together, he had learned to read Nephis like an open book.
Yet this still puzzled him.
'Surely she isn't that stupid...'
"I knew you would follow me."
It was a simple answer.
And it was true.
Sunny's eye twitched.
Apparently, she wasn't the only one growing accustomed to how they acted.
"I want to kill that abomination, and I believe we can. You want to get out of this too, don't you?"
"Of course I do. That's obvious. But not at the cost of my life."
"Umm... guys..."
Cassie's small voice interrupted the argument before it could truly begin.
Both of them turned to look at her.
"I was going to tell you, Sunny, but I thought it would be better to wait until Neph was here too."
She took a deep breath before continuing.
"I had another vision. A vision about the Carapace Demon..."
_________________________________
Morning came and went once again.
Now the sun hung low on the horizon, slowly descending toward the endless sea.
Across the ash-covered sands, a simple snake slithered forward.
Perhaps...
It was suicidal.
Atop the Ashen Barrow, the Carapace Demon stirred and rose from the grey sands. Its shining armor glistened in the fading sunlight. Encased in bright metal and crowned with twisted horns, the demon looked both fearsome and sinister.
The towering abomination gazed down at the lone serpent, lingering for a few moments.
Then two dark scarlet embers ignited deep within its eyes.
Shifting its terrifying scythes, the giant monster stepped forward and slowly descended the hill to face the strange visitor.
The snake shuddered slightly as it watched the demon approach.
The Carapace Demon stopped several meters away and observed the suspicious creature.
Clearly, it understood that such a pathetic appearance could be a trap.
The Dark City was filled with unimaginable dangers. Rashly approaching an unknown enemy was not something an Awakened Demon with its own form of intelligence would do.
At least, that was what the three Sleepers had assumed.
They were wrong.
Without warning, the demon lunged forward with the might of a Third-Tier Awakened.
Fortunately, Serpent was ready.
Between the two, the shadow snake was far more agile. It twisted its body and narrowly dodged the massive scythe that descended toward it.
Yet instead of counterattacking, Serpent simply turned and slithered away.
The abomination, however, had no intention of letting its prey escape so easily.
It prepared to strike again—
Only for the snake to suddenly disperse into shadows and vanish.
Nothing remained behind.
⸻
On the opposite side of the Ashen Barrow, Sunny sprinted up the slope with all his might.
He had been forced to dismiss Serpent a little earlier than expected.
The timing wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.
"Hey, Neph," Sunny called between breaths.
The white-haired girl glanced back.
"It might be a little faster than expected."
Nephis nodded and immediately increased her pace.
Groaning, Sunny followed.
It wasn't as though he was slower than Nephis.
In fact, he was faster.
The problem was the blind oracle riding on his back.
"Sunny! I can hear Neph's footsteps getting farther away!" Cassie complained, tugging lightly on his hair.
'Just how did I end up like this?'
⸻
"Hey, Sunny. Let's race."
Nephis's sudden proposal had caught him off guard.
Still, he nodded.
"Sure."
In the end, Sunny had won.
Standing at the finish line, he panted heavily while looking back at the similarly exhausted Nephis.
A smug grin slowly spread across his face.
Before he could make a comment about his victory, however, Nephis spoke.
"Since you're faster, you can carry Cassie tomorrow."
Sunny froze.
His eye twitched.
Was that what the race had been about?
A vein bulged on the side of his forehead.
'Had she lost by that much and decided to turn it into a trap? Or had she planed it from the start?'
The worst part was that he couldn't even argue with her logic.
⸻
Grinding his teeth, Sunny pushed himself even harder.
The shadow augmenting Serpent detached and fell to the ground the moment the snake was dismissed.
The demon looked down at the insignificant shadow.
Then, using one of its massive pincers, it stabbed downward.
Gloomy calmly crossed his arms.
The pincer passed straight through him.
It couldn't touch an intangible shadow.
Gloomy looked down at where the attack should have skewered him before raising his gaze toward the demon.
If Sunny had been there, he would have felt the confidence radiating from his shadow.
Unfortunately for Gloomy, the demon quickly lost interest.
It simply ignored him and continued forward.
At that moment, Sunny wanted to cry.
The Awakened Demon was catching up to them at a speed he had only ever seen from his sisters.
'Damnation.'
They finally reached the top of the Ashen Barrow.
After setting Cassie down, Sunny and Nephis quickly helped her climb into the tree using the rope.
But as Sunny borrowed Gloomy's senses, a chill ran down his spine.
The demon was already upon them.
Turning around, he saw the towering abomination standing motionless.
Watching.
Two Sleepers stood on the ground.
One sat hidden in the tree above.
'Damn you, Fated.'
Sunny couldn't help but curse.
Summoning the Memory, [The Crymych], he tightened his grip.
There was no longer any choice.
They would have to fight.
Then, suddenly, Sunny remembered another Memory.
One he had received after his First Nightmare.
A gift from a certain Auro of the Nine.
Summoning it, he quickly glanced at its runes.
One enchantment immediately caught his eye.
[Cloudy Mi—]
Before he could finish reading, Sunny activated it.
The next moment, darkness swallowed everything.