Ash sighed after finishing telling everything that had happened to the three who were most affected by the influence of the fallen Terror.
A tense and uncomfortable silence settled on the demonic boat that continued cutting through the dark sea towards the west. No sound was heard except the creaking of bones and the slap of water against the metallic hull reinforced with golden rope.
Finally, after a few minutes, Sunny broke the silence.
"I'm sorry for, well, you know, trying to kill you before," Sunny said, somewhat embarrassed.
Ash rolled his single eye.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You two are really annoying when you fight together. You don't know what it cost me to defeat you with one eye and no weapons."
Despite everything that had happened and the terrible experience with the fallen Terror, Ash wasn't entirely upset. Sure, he had lost one of his eyes, but he would use Nephis to heal him and be as good as new again.
That, added to the fact that he had become stronger and somehow his fighting style had improved enormously, and the fragments he obtained from eating the fruit, totally worth the risk.
He was getting closer every day to having a second Soul Core.
The four remained silent for a while, each lost in their own thoughts.
Ash for the moment found no direct threat. The nightmare creatures passing under the boat ignored it, deciding to go to the Soul Tree to the East, which was on fire, to eat and fight.
Ash thought about how it was possible that he could read the enchantments of the memories he obtained.
Initially, Sleepers or Awakened didn't know the enchantments their memories possessed. Sunny, of course, was the exception, having the blood of the demon of fate in his body that prevented him from bleeding out and neutralizing anything strange.
There was also Nephis, but he was sure that was more related to her divine lineage from the Sun God.
If all holders of divine lineages could read the enchantments of their weapons and armor, it would give them a great advantage.
Although he didn't know if this only applied to them or if there was another factor that allowed Awakened lacking high-rank Aspects to see enchantments.
It was certainly something to think about.
Ash, in all this time, had come to a conclusion: being blessed with [Nothing] somehow allowed him to see the enchantments of his memory.
Even so, he only obtained the blessing after passing his first nightmare, and during his first nightmare he could see them.
'How confusing.'
Ash looked ahead towards the west. He could feel that the distance between them and the Dark City was constantly decreasing. It would only take him a few hours, enough time to rest for a while and recover.
The hours passed with the boat still moving quickly.
Ash decided to switch with Sunny, whose wound had been more or less closed with Nephis's healing flames, leaving him in better shape.
Ash simply closed his eyes for a few moments until disaster struck.
One moment the waters were calm, and the next second a tentacle shot out, lifting enormous amounts of water.
Black tentacles enveloped the demonic boat, shattering the metal with terrifying ease.
Ash felt one of the tentacles grab his leg, dragging him into the depths. All he saw was darkness as well as feeling the water pressure increase.
Closing his eyes, he summoned the Seven's Sword, which had just barely repaired itself, and without hesitation, stabbed it into the tentacle.
Immediately, he activated the Blood Sacrifice enchantment.
He felt how the sword quickly drank the black blood of the tentacle, causing his body to begin to repair itself completely. All his wounds closed in a matter of seconds. He felt a burning in his right eye due to the regeneration of the complete eye.
The burns disappeared, the dizziness and weakness vanished, leaving him completely healthy.
Even with his eyes closed, he used the first enchantment, managing to free himself from the tentacle and swim desperately towards the surface.
He swam as fast as he could. After an eternity or seconds, he emerged from the dark sea, breathing deeply. He was a few hundred meters from where he had been. In the distance, he saw the stone hand.
Feeling the tentacles trying to catch him, Ash began to swim desperately.
Ash kept swimming without stopping, even when the black water turned white from a searing light, he stopped swimming.
Finally, Ash reached the outstretched hand, tired and exhausted. Using the last of his strength, he climbed the hand until another hand grabbed him, pulling him up.
Letting out a cough, he spat the salty water from his system. He looked at Sunny, who was equally exhausted, and on the ground, Cassie was sitting with an expression between fear and worry.
A few more seconds passed until Ash and Sunny saw a pale hand grip the rock tightly. A tall figure slowly dragged itself onto the open palm.
"What's happening?" asked Cassie.
"It's Nephis," Sunny replied.
"Neph?! Is she okay?!"
"No, she's not okay."
Ash felt a bit of disgust seeing the deplorable state of Changing Star as she struggled against part of the extension of the great titan that inhabited the dark sea.
Ash watched with fascination the resurrection of Changing Star. Furious white flames began to restore her entire body in a display that was disgusting and fascinating at the same time.
After a heart-rending scream that surely extended for dozens of meters coming from Nephis, her body was completely healed.
Once healed, Changing Star finally fell unconscious to the ground.
After the macabre exhibition, the cursed sun finally decided it was time to rise into the world once more.
"She's unconscious," said Ash after examining Nephis's condition.
"How long do you think it'll take her to wake up?"
"About two days, I think. I'm not a doctor, you know?"
Sunny rolled his eyes before raising an eyebrow seeing how Ash was intact. In fact, he was in perfect condition, without scars and with his eye back.
"How did you heal?"
"Oh, my sword has a special enchantment. It uses the blood of other things to heal me and return my strength, and well, that tentacle had a lot, so I took the opportunity to heal myself completely," Ash replied, sitting on the ground.
Sunny nodded without asking anything else. Everyone was simply too tired to even speak.
In the end, three full days passed until Nephis woke up.
Her eyes observed two familiar faces: Ash and Sunny. The latter had a smile on his face, and the former had a calm look, his two yellow eyes simply blinking with curious observation.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" asked Nephis.
"Oh, just noticing how useful your healing flames are. There isn't a single scar."
Sunny decided that moment to speak.
"Also, why don't you look behind you?"
After a few seconds, Nephis sighed, turning around, observing the great crater and with it an enormous wall of white stone that rose at the edge of the crater, capable of withstanding countless years of the dark sea.
Those walls were none other than the walls of the city that Cassie mentioned in her visions and towards which Ash had been guiding them since the Crimson Labyrinth.
They had done it.
They had finally reached the city.