After the events of the day neither sunny nor Nephis had spoken to each other. The only conversation that took place upon their return was between one of them and Cassie. Cassie had also known something was up and she had also known the reason after all she was there. The blind seer couldn't help but feel a tinge of sadness when talking to Nephis. And even if she thought she had been covering it up masterfully. She wasn't. Nephis knew. But could she blame the oracle. She basically said that she'd be willing to kill them if her Goals needed it even after being friends for the expanse of time during the academy and now the forgotten shore.
Nephis had thought of approaching Sunny many times, but she had always seen him sitting with the numerous hands of darkness sprouting from his back. She knew he was making a memory and decided to not intervene.
The memory in question was an ugly thing. Similar in appearance to a purse it was made out of the plates of chitin that Shelly had decided to not eat and using the tendons as sewing string sunny created it. Using 3 awakened soul shards sunny made a storage memory which he dubbed the [Bag of Storage]
When sunny had returned from his focused state of weaving he looked at the Soul shards in his hands. 10 from today's shard spree and from the corpses of the dead scavengers lying on their platform he had another 8. 7 from the beasts and 2 from the one monster. So, in total he had 18 shards, or he would have if he didn't use 3. So now he had only 14. All of which entered into the bag of holding
'I need as much as possible to evolve Shelly'
When night had come and the Sea ravaged the forgotten shore again. Both girls were asleep. Summoning all 3 of his shadows sunny had told Shelly to stand guard for Cassie and Nephis as he walked together with knighty and serpent to the opposite end of the platform
" I'd prefer to not send you to away but it's necessary if I want to grow stronger"
Looking at the terrifying yet graceful shadows sunny equipped [crimson blood] to knighty and sent them off with very precise orders in the opposite direction of where they were going
His orders were simple
1) don't engage with any creatures above the class of monster
2) do not engage with creatures above the awakened rank
3) remove and store all soul shards into the [bag of storage]
4) come west and arrive at the dark city in 1 and a half months
With that knighty had saluted and patted Sunny's head as serpent nudged his face. The graceful knight mounted the fearsome serpent and set off into the cold waters. Sunny hoping that the
[Child of Darkness] and serpents [Predator Sense] will keep them safe
Sunny couldn't help but smile. With serpent and knighty out on a killing spree. When they returned sunny expected at least 2 things. One is that knighty will be close to tyrant hood. And 2 is that he will be rich with shards
Sunny understood the downsides of sending his 2 most powerful shadows away better than anyone in fact. In about 1 and a half months the dark god, Lightbringer and seer of fate were going to be uncomfortably close with a demon.
After pondering sunny came up with a plan. A simple and cruise plan. If they were going to fight a demon. He would get his own. Sunny decided that in the 1 and a half months that they get to the dammed tree. He would make Shelly a demon.
It was a simple task on paper yes, but it wouldn't be easy. After all, to become a monster sunny needed to feed Shelly 200 awakened memories. And to become a demon he needs to feed him 300 memories.
Normally this amount would be an issue. And worse is that he would be giving up 500 awakened soul shards that could push him closer to demon hood himself. Or it would have.
Sunny wouldn't be absorbing shards anytime soon. All of the shards would be going to memories. Which meant - 'I just need to kill twice as much'
Sunny couldn't help but laugh. If he had said that to his past self, he would have gotten smacked. But now sunny had a specific memory that would turn a large portion of the black sea into his personal slaughterhouse.
Once the synthetic sun rose again and the sea retreated. It was time for their journey to begin. Again.
Cassie had sat atop Shelly's head making use of the rope to not fall off as she made small talk with sunny. And sunny had spoken to mainly giving directions as once gloomier was out scouting. Nephis however was silent, more than usual
And it continued for ages
...
They had moved through the blood red forest of coral killing many Nightmare creatures. As per their agreement sunny didn't kill anything only assisting. He had also noticed how this had affected Nephis. Her mind became sharper as her style more precise as she had also somewhat adapted to the grueling pain of her flaw.
Sunny had been keeping count of the shards resting in the bag of holding. In total including the memories he had made all using some pathetic material gotten from their kills. They had collected about 405 soul shards. On average you could say to get this they had to kill at least 9 awakened per day.
Sunny's days were constantly filled. Their moving and hunting took almost 6 hours. And when choosing a high enough place to find moments of respite either Neph or sunny would take turns cooking day by day. During the few raining hours of the day sunny would make small talk with Cassie as Nephis either trained or joined. Sunny did notice that Nephis had been speaking more and smiling more. Genuine smiles not the fakes she put up.
As his days were full so we're his nights. Sunny was hunting for most of the nights only resting every 5 days or so.
Sunny couldn't help drowning himself in work. After all he had the mind of a supreme and not just any supreme. One that could manage 7 avatars and one who has seen the vast tapestry of fate. Paired with mind weave sunny had a mind stronger than any human existing through the realms
He knew that their journey in the sea was closing. They had been adventuring here for almost 1 and a half months with the same exact routine
The trip had been as perilous as the first time as exhausting and harrowing. But it was worth it
Looking at his Runes sunny had begun calculating
Whilst hunting at night sunny had killed about 100 awakened beasts and about 20 monsters. It became a lot easier when you had a transcendent Armor to fight with. He had also come across a few fallen beasts which he dealt with. He made sure to be careful. After all he didn't have the protection of deadly serpent.
Fortunately, the shocking screech had healed up well. It took about a month but now whist in the sea hunting became easier. She was the only reason that sunny had decided to take on the fallen beasts.
From his external source of fragments, he had guessed that serpent and knighty were out there on a murder spree in his honor. They had killed more. Much much more than him during his night hunts or with him and Nephis during the day.
As the spell would announce his kills sunny noticed from how the fragment count went up that serpent alone had killed 300 awakened beasts. And 130 awakened monsters. Knighty was a bit more difficult to calculate seeing as how he would steal half of the fragments, but it was slightly less than serpent. 210 awakened beasts and 50 monsters.
Sunnys Runes read
1378/2000
And in total he had oh him 545 shards or he should have and with serpent and knighty there should be another 870
During the journey sunny had made memories so often that it had become boring. He constantly made the same type of memory simply adding the weave that turns a object into a memory. On top of that it was frustrating as many of his dark needles would break
But in the end, it was beyond worth it. Right now. Shelly was already a demon. And on top of that he was already a fraction of the way to becoming a devil that is to say his Runes read
45/400
Aside from all the shard benefits sunny had gotten many memories. Al of which he didn't bother to check. Unfortunately, the 6 fallen beast he killed only gave him 1 single memory which was a trident that can emit electricity. Aside from that all the awakened memories he knew he would have gotten were all of the awakened rank and no more than tier 2 since his orders were to not kill any demons or devils etc.
He had heard some good ones but didn't bother too much. Some were axes. Which was new to him. Some were bows. Some spears. Even an Armor or 5
Looking at the growth of his trio.
Cassie had become much nimbler as she learnt to deal with her blindness. She was also much more comfortable and confident always bringing joy to the cohort.
As for Nephis sunny knew she wasn't very far off from becoming a monster now. But he didn't care about that.
Ever since Sunny's speech to her she seemed different always softer towards him and Cassie. She spoke less during the first 15 or so days but she changed slightly after. Often, she would talk to sunny as they would spar. Or she would sit close by when he and Cassie were speaking instead of going off to train in the side alone
Sunny didn't know what it was, but he had suspected it had something to do with Cassie's vision. As they were traveling Cassie had that God damned vision about the darkness and the angel of light. With the golden corpse on the throne.
Perhaps because Nephis realized she had actually ended up fighting with sunny she wanted to change that.
Sunny had also noted that Cassie didn't say anything about the vision. There was no suspicious behavior. No telling Nephis his other true name. Nothing.
All in all, sunny was proud of the girl's progress and his too