Yo, I am done with the new chapter "Good day for Cassie." Lmk when to upload it lol.
Anyways, my exams are over, and I did so fucking bad in them; I am literally failing everything.
But at least the new chapter is done right?
You better pray for me to get good grades in my finals, because there would be no new chapters if I end up unemployed.
***
After the sun rose and everyone woke up, they ate breakfast and decided to scout their surroundings.
Sunny left his Echo and Shadow behind to protect Cassie and just in case something happened. Then he followed behind the other two.
Reinhard climbed the gargantuan spine of the dead monster first, followed by Nephis. Then he threw down the golden rope Memory for Sunny to climb up with.
Expecting to see the usual picture—an endless expanse of the crimson labyrinth, dotted here and there with rare high points—Sunny turned west.
However, what he saw left him speechless.
Some distance away, the labyrinth seemed to lose its color.
The crimson blades of coral stood grey and misshapen, as though struck by some unknown disease and drained of all life. The stone-like material looked brittle and fragile, ready to crumble into dust at any moment.
The patch of dead coral spread as far as the eye could see. Further away, the walls of the labyrinth seemed to have collapsed into a sea of ash-grey sand. This ashen wasteland looked so alien and strange after weeks of seeing only the endless crimson pathways that Sunny felt a shiver run down his spine.
Not being able to see a single monster moving through the mud beneath made him feel even more disturbed.
As if that wasn't enough, Reinhard's voice entered his ears.
"There is no Nightmare Creature in the whole area ahead, except there."
He paused for a moment, staring silently at something.
Sunny followed his gaze.
Far away in the distance, the ground rose, forming a tall hill. The hill was probably the largest he had seen, easily capable of becoming a real island once the water rose in the night.
Covered in the grey sand left behind by the dead coral, the hill resembled a mountain of ash. That mountain was crowned by a giant tree.
The tree rose into the sky like a tower, its branches wide enough to cover the whole island in their shade. The bark of the giant tree was as black as the water of the Dark Sea, while its leaves were red as blood.
Contrasted against the grey sky, the crimson crown of the majestic tree looked incredibly vibrant and magnificent.
"Beneath that tree is an Awakened Demon, the next stage for a Carapace Centurion."
What?
While Sunny stood there stunned, taking in the bad news, Nephis turned towards Reinhard and spoke.
"What is it doing there?"
"Nothing..."
After replying, Reinhard paused for a moment, as if contemplating whether he should say something more or not. Then he continued.
"That tree is special. My detection tells me it's a living thing. I don't know if it's a Nightmare Creature, though."
"So what makes it special besides the obvious?" Sunny questioned.
The obvious thing being the fact that it could grow at a place like this at all.
"I'm not sure. However, since this is the only place with such an appearance, it's safe to assume it could be because of the tree. Maybe it absorbed all the nutrients from the ground to grow this big. That area is a good spot to stay for the night, but the Awakened Demon roaming around it even during the day is strange."
Hearing Reinhard's deduction, Nephis nodded.
"That could be the case."
While both of them went into thought, Sunny stood there bewildered.
"How do we avoid the Awakened Demon, then?"
Nephis looked at him with a deadpan expression.
"We have to kill it—"
"If it doesn't leave that area, that is," Reinhard clarified.
He was interested in fighting, yes, but there was still some caution left in him. He would rather avoid fighting the Awakened Demon if it was possible.
Seeing Reinhard consider the idea of not fighting the demon relieved Sunny a bit. However, there was still a chance it could happen. Trying his best to remove that possibility, Sunny spoke up in a hurry.
"But even if the demon moves away, isn't the tree still an anomaly?! We have to be careful!"
"It's the only way west."
Nephis hammered down his whole argument.
Fuck!
"We will continue this discussion after going back."
Before they could waste more time, Reinhard took hold of the situation, already moving to climb down to where Cassie was waiting for them.
Nephis watched him move, then glanced at Sunny for a second before following behind him.
I have a feeling the fight is unavoidable now.
Sunny grimaced.
***
"So a carapace demon and a weird tree, right?"
"Yeah, other than them, there is no other nightmare creature in the whole area."
While Sunless was recounting everything he found out to Cassie, Reinhard was still thinking about that tree.
Being unable to see any information on it troubled him; only one reason for that was coming to his mind.
Was it a nightmare creature of a rank too far above him?
That was a troubling idea.
Reinhard broke out of his thought when he heard someone addressing him.
He looked up. Nephis Cassie and Sunless were looking at him.
In a quick second, he recalled what Sunless had asked him a few seconds ago.
Did you see how it looks?
Reinhard immediately thought of an answer and spoke up.
"I only saw its silhouette since it wasn't in my direct line of sight, but it's definitely a lot larger than a carapace centurion; its armor looks more bulky, and it has eight segmented legs and four arms, two of them pincers, and the other two scythes. Targeting the area behind its neck in a direct fight or while distracting it in the way we do with scavengers is nearly impossible."
Then he took a pause and turned towards Sunless, whose face had already turned paler, just like Cassie's.
"We should still first observe how it looks through your shadow before planning about how to kill it."
"Wait, kill it?! I thought you said we will look for another way."
Reinhard deadpanned.
"Don't twist my words; I never said that."
"It's the only way west too."
She's just repeating the same line...
Though what she said was true, that was the only way west; Sunless knew it too.
"Are you crazy? We are just sleepers; killing awakened beasts and monsters is already beyond ordinary. Now thinking about killing an Awakened Demon is just plain stupid!"
Look at my face. You don't see no fear.
Also, am I the only one coming up with creative and intelligent responses or something?
They are just repeating the same shit.
But Sunless apparently had some self-awareness; he frowned and scratched his head like a dumbass.
"W—wait a second. I feel like we already had this kind of conversation before. Doesn't it feel familiar?"
Cassie glanced at the three of them and politely cleared her throat.
"Actually, you said something similar right before we decided to attack those carapace centurions."
Sunny beamed.
"Yes! Exactly! And how did that end up? I almost got killed!"
Nephis shrugged indifferently.
"You survived, didn't you?"
Plus, I was the one who had to fight one all alone; my back hurts a bit from all the carrying.
Sunless froze with his mouth open, too flabbergasted by the sheer audacity of her remark to answer immediately. A few seconds later, he was finally able to speak again.
"That's not the point!"
Cassie gently touched Nephis on the shoulder and whispered.
"Neph! That's not a very nice thing to say."
Changing stars' faces flushed slightly, glancing aside, she ended up making eye contact with Reinhard, who was sitting at the corner like always.
Her eyes flashed with hope as she continued staring for a few seconds.
We don't have the kind of relationship that would warrant me to save you from this situation, sorry.
But still, they had been shitting bull for too long, so it was time for him to end this.
Reinhard slightly cleared his throat, as Sunless and Cassie's attention diverted towards him too.
"Having to kill the demon doesn't mean we have to fight it in the first place."
He didn't have any plans on how it could be done just yet, but how hard to figure out could it be?
Plus, if he was the one who had to do it, there was enough time until they were going to see the awakened demon later today anyways.
With curiosity in her gaze, Nephis asked him.
"What are you suggesting?"
"Anything, from trapping it to luring some nightmare creatures, burning it with fire, or lighting up the tree on fire during nighttime." Then he looked at her and continued. "If I recall correctly, you once said lighting a fire at night attracted monsters from the dark sea; that could help us defeat the carapace demon too."
Cassie smiled and spoke.
"That's a good plan. Like you said before, we could first scout the surroundings of the tree before thinking of using one of those methods."
After hearing that, Nephis nodded as well. There was no reason for her to have any problem with that.
That only left Sunless.
Since Reinhard's words already showed how much caution he was willing to show when they decided to kill the demon, plus Sunless knew having to deal with the demon was inevitable one way or another, he couldn't do anything but agree as well.
"Fine then, that's what we will do," he said, even though there was some reluctance in his tone.
***
Some time later, they abandoned the remains of the giant sea monster and moved west, ready to act on their plan.
Sunless's shadow was moving ahead, scouting the area they were going to travel on, while Reinhard was keeping tabs on the nightmare creatures around, which were none.
It didn't take them long to reach the point where the walls of the labyrinth had crumbled into dust. Now, there was nothing but a vast expanse of grey sand between them, the hill crowned by the suspicious tree, and its resident beneath.
Reinhard would be lying if he said he didn't feel unusual walking in the flat area. His perception attribute allowed them quite an advantage when it came to detecting nightmare creatures long before they could detect them. If any hoard of nightmare creatures came to this area, they wouldn't have that advantage. Even though there were no nightmare creatures close by, he was still being slightly paranoid.
He was sure the others were thinking along the same lines too.
As if on cue, Sunless's low voice came from behind.
"I don't like this."
Reinhard didn't reply, but Nephis glanced at him from his side and simply said.
"Stay alert."
Not really that important since I can see all nightmare creatures around anyways.
They continued forward in silence, sand squeaking under their feet.
A dozen or so minutes later, Nephis turned towards him and asked.
"Will your detection ability be able to detect creatures underground?"
"It should be able to; there's nothing beneath us," he replied.
Then she looked at Sunless.
"And has your shadow noticed anything ahead?"
Sunless shook his head.
"No. There are some irregularities here and there, like small knolls or shallow pits, but nothing is moving. Mostly, it just seems flat and lifeless."
Nephis nodded and looked ahead once again, thinking.
Silence once again settled over the group.
Reinhard was routinely checking for nightmare creatures from the way they had entered the ashen land too; as he turned behind after traveling a few dozen meters for another look, he saw the silhouette of a carapace centurion.
There was still a bit of time before it would come out to the open land.
Perhaps something on his face gave it away, but Sunless, who was walking behind him, suddenly asked.
"Did something happen?"
Hearing that, Nephis also glanced sideways at them.
Reinhard replied.
"A carapace centurion is approaching from the labyrinth; it is holding a transcendent soul shard."
Sunless's and Cassie's faces paled, changing stars' look darkened as well.
As Reinhard glanced ahead, he saw and remembered the knoll around thirty meters in front of them.
He knew an awakened monster wouldn't even be a problem for him to solo, and with the other two they could win pretty easily; however, having Cassie watch them fight while she was meters away in the open was a bad idea.
"Let's go there to discuss; it can be a hiding place for Cassie as well," he said, pointing towards the knoll.
The other three quickly agreed, and they hurried there.
Fortunately, now that she had her new sense, Cassie could even run and jog in the rough terrain of this area.
However, as they were getting closer, Reinhard turned around to check the situation once.
The scene behind left his eyes wide open; the carapace centurion was still there; however, there was something else.
A flying creature, similar to what they had seen on the cliffs before, was in the distance. It wasn't exactly approaching their current direction, but if they stayed in the open for much longer, it would easily be able to see them.
Holy shits.
"Hide, fast!" Reinhard hissed with urgency.
Seeing his reaction, the others knew it was serious. Their speed increased, and Reinhard turned around to do what Sunless was already attempting too.
He slowed down and quickly approached Cassie. Seeing him, she slowed too. He took her in a princess carry and dashed again, following behind Sunless, who was ahead of him now.
Quickly running past him even with Cassie in hand, Reinhard crouched behind the knoll at the same time as Nephis, who approached the knoll from the left while he did from the right.
The knoll wasn't very big. Seeing there wouldn't be enough space for Sunless to quickly hide in, Reinhard, who still had Cassie sitting close to him, wrapped his right hand around her stomach and dragged her back to make more space.
Cassie let out a small, startled sound at the sudden movement, and something soft brushed against his forearm as he pulled her closer. Reinhard froze for half a heartbeat, his mind registering the sensation before he deliberately ignored it. The motion left her back tightly pressed against his chest.
Sunless, who had already reached them, saw the empty space and quickly buried himself between the three of them.
His breath quickened and his eyes were frantic, as if a smaller creature had just escaped from the maws of a vastly stronger one, which was true in a sense, for all four of them.
As everyone caught their breath, Nephis quickly turned towards him and asked,
"What is it?"
"The same flying one from the cliffs. It didn't show up in my detection for some reason."
That was the part that troubled him the most.
In fact, now that he thought about it, even the first time he had seen the flying creature had been due to his enhanced vision and not his attribute. He just hadn't noticed it at the time.
There was no doubt that the flying monster was a nightmare creature, which suddenly gave rise to another possibility in his mind.
First of all, what could be the reason for him not being able to see the flying creature's silhouette? It couldn't be distance. That left one main possibility: a difference in rank.
If that was the case, then he also knew that the crimson tree was special, and the Awakened Demon staying near it was suspicious in itself. Could that mean the tree was also a Nightmare Creature? And considering he couldn't see it with his Echo perception either...
It was of a certain rank that was higher than an Awakened Demon.
That was a troubling conclusion to come up with.
What's with this rotten luck of ours?
Reinhard cursed their situation internally.
On the other end of the knoll, Nephis was also frowning as she thought about their situation.
But the two Sleepers in between them had completely different worries.
Next to Nephis, Sunless was having trouble focusing. The reason was simple: Changing Star's back was tightly pressed against his.
This is so stupid! I don't have time to think about this!
But—
FLYING MONSTER!
As he dragged his mind out of the gutter, his attention shifted forward. In any other situation, the sight in front of him might have made him burst out laughing.
But this was hardly the time for that.
Next to him, Reinhard was sitting on his knees near the corner of the knoll, his face turned towards the other side as he remained deep in thought.
Since the knoll barely had enough comfortable space for two people, Cassie was sitting in the narrow space between his legs. Her back was pressed tightly against his chest, while his right arm remained wrapped around her stomach, keeping her close enough for both of them to remain hidden.
And she was blushing heavily.
Cassie's entire body had gone rigid. She seemed too embarrassed to move even an inch, perhaps afraid that even the smallest movement would make the already awkward situation even worse.
Reinhard, meanwhile, seemed completely oblivious.
His attention was entirely focused on the flying creature and the possibilities he had just thought of, his expression serious as he stared past the edge of the knoll.
Cassie could only sit there silently, her face burning.
Sunny watched her for a moment.
Lucky for her.
...
Wait, it's lucky for her because she would find this situation lucky for herself, not because I find the situation lucky.
He clarified, just in case someone was reading his mind and might misunderstand him.
"It's over." Reinhard suddenly turned his head and spoke, breaking Sunny out of his useless thoughts.
"What happened?" Nephis asked from his side.
"It killed the centurion and flew away with some of its meat."
After all of them stood up from their hiding spot, Sunny suddenly asked.
"Now what are we supposed to do? What if it comes back?!"
"Command your shadow to scout the tree and the awakened demon. I've learned something as well. We will discuss further plans after getting back."
***
Back inside the bone ridge, they were sitting around the fire. The delicious smell of roasting meat filled the air. Sunless was currently describing the awakened demon he saw in greater detail.
A giant demon as large as a house, with a shell made out of polished, lustrious metal.
That was what they were up against, just four sleepers with not even fully filled cores.
Technically just 3.
Reinhard thought, while the girls were listening to everything Sunless was describing with great detail, having stopped eating, he continued to eat with only paying a little attention to him.
His mind was on something else.
Mainly, what the deal with the tree was and how they were supposed to fight the awakened demon.
Since Reinhard was the strongest here, any fighting plan they came up with would involve him at the position of greatest risk.
Perhaps the inpenetrable shell of the awakened demon could also only be pierced by Axiom of Virtue.
That was where the other problem came in.
If the axiom of virtue was drawable against Carapace centurions, it would be safe to assume it could also be done against Carapace demons since they were above centurions. Unfortunately, for some reason the sword had only drawn itself against the fight with the first centurion he had fought; after that day they had hunted another centurion, against which the sword showed no reaction like always.
What did being worthy even mean exactly?
Fuck me! Every time there is a strong enemy, every question ends up leading to why they aren't worthy of this fucking sword?
It was seriously getting annoying by now.
Reinhard broke out of his thoughts a moment later, since it was soon his turn to debrief about his findings.
When the other three turned towards him with expectant looks, Reinhard prepared himself to drop the ultimate bombshell of the day.
"Due to the flying monster encounter today, I now found out that my detection ability does not work against nightmare creatures above a certain rank; the limit seems to be off an awakened demon for now, seeing how I could detect the carapace demon."
He paused for a second, taking in everyone's reactions.
There wasn't much difference in Cassie and Nephis's faces, but Sunless seemed to be the most disappointed.
The fuck is your problem?
Reinhard threw some strays at Sunless for emotional management and then continued.
"That leads me to the conclusion that, just like the flying monster, that huge tree is also some kind of nightmare creature, above the rank of an awakened demon at that."
As the news of the day dropped, there were finally some interesting faces to see.
And as expected, the first one to start complaining was none other than the resident cockroach.
"Are you serious!?"
I fucking knew it.
***
Thanks for reading the chapter.
Anyways, I am curious about something.
What do you all think Reinhard's Source element is?
A basic defination for Source element: A Source Element is the core concept tied to an Awakened's nature — it lets them replenish Spirit Essence and serves as the basis for their Domain at Supreme Rank.
For example: Sunless's source element is Shadows and his Domain is also related to that and its effect on the world, and Nephis's is Longing with her Domain showing a sort of manifestation of that.
I already have an interesting idea for his source element, but just curious to hear your thoughts.