[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Carapace Centurion.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[You have received an Echo.]
Sunny smiled wider than he expected.
Finally. At long last.
He had received an Echo.
The urge to immediately examine its runes surged in his mind, but he pushed it aside. There was something more important to do right now.
Extending his shadow sense, he scanned the surroundings. Beneath the stormy sky, through the endless torrent of rain and darkness, he felt it—a familiar presence. A faint shadow, trembling and exhausted, curled up on the ground near a jagged rock in the distance. Panting. Heaving.
'Cassie...'
Crawling away with what little strength she had left, her body was racked with pain. Her armor had protected her from most injuries, but her face was a mess of dirt and blood, and her delicate figure trembled under the cold rain.
Sunny let out a breath and darted toward her.
The blind girl flinched at the sudden movement, but when she heard his voice, she stilled.
"It's me," he said softly. "The fight is over. You're safe now."
His voice was barely audible beneath the howling storm, but Cassie's hearing was sharper than most. Even so, her expression remained unchanged—frozen in a deep grimace, her lips pressed into a tight line.
As if she were feeling a pain far worse than just the wounds on her body.
Sunny bit his lip.
She looked... broken. Like a fragile doll, discarded and left to rot in solitude until time reduced it to dust.
'This won't do.'
A bitter expression settled on his face as he carefully helped her lean against the jagged rock. Cassie coughed, wiping away the blood smeared across her lips.
"I'm fine," she said hoarsely.
Sunny didn't need Kai's flaw to tell it was a lie.
Her voice was hollow—numb, detached. As if something weighed so heavily on her mind that she no longer had the energy to feel anything at all.
"Go help Nephis," she added.
Sunny studied her for a moment, then exhaled.
She was still trapped in the lingering nightmare of her vision. The things she had seen... they had shaken her to her core. She didn't need to endure this on top of that.
His gaze darkened.
Turning away, he extended his shadow sense once more—scanning the island, combing through every inch of darkness. And then...
There. A familiar presence.
An abomination, lurking in the depths of the storm. The last remaining Centurion.
A wry smile tugged at his lips.
This wasn't over. Not yet. One of those cursed bastards still lived. And it would pay. For every wound Cassie suffered. For every drop of blood she spilled. For the sins of its brethren.
At that moment, another shadow appeared in his periphery. Nephis.
She was approaching, her burning eyes cutting through the darkness—glowing with light, with warmth, even in this wretched night.
Sunny's expression remained cold.
"I'll be back soon," he murmured. Then, without another word, he turned to walk in her direction. Silently, he mumbled, "I'll take revenge for you."
...
As Sunny approached Nephis, he noticed something different.
Nephis was no longer wearing the armor Memory he had given her—the one that could shift into a cloak, a regal dress, or a suit of armor. Instead, a familiar silver plating covered her body.
The Starlight Legion Armor.
Nephis met his gaze, a flicker of emotion crossing her face—pain, relief, something in between. Without a word, she reached out and grasped his arm.
A soothing warmth spread through him. His wounds knitted together. The fatigue that had been gnawing at his bones faded.
Sunny exhaled, savoring the fleeting reprieve, then finally met her eyes. Noticing his gaze, she added, almost hesitantly.
"I got this after killing the first Centurion."
Sunny nodded. Of course. He remembered. But what was that subtle guilt in her tone? Did she not want to keep it because she killed it using my weapon?
Sunny shook his head, then shoved these thoughts away. His expression darkened.
"What happened to the tentacled bastard?"
Nephis hesitated. Her fingers tightened around his arm. Then, with a sigh, she lowered her head slightly—her voice tinged with something rare.
Embarrassment.
"It... ran away after I severed one of its limbs."
Sunny clicked his tongue. A familiar warmth entered his soul—Nephis silently returning Abyssfang to him.
"That's bad," he muttered. "Do you realize who that bastard was?"
Nephis frowned, her expression growing distant. Then her eyes widened.
"The same creature," she murmured. "The one that stalked us when we fought the Scavenger horde?"
Sunny nodded. "How much do you think that's a coincidence?"
She didn't answer. She didn't need to.
The most probable conclusion was that the abomination had been following them all this time, lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
'It's intelligent.'
It even knew when it was outmatched. Instead of throwing itself into a losing battle, it retreated. That alone meant it was, at the very least, a Devil.
Or worse.
But that wasn't the most unsettling part.
'How did it find us?'
The creature shouldn't have been able to track them when the Dark Sea receded. And mere Sleeper souls weren't potent enough to draw this kind of attention.
'Did it mark us somehow?'
Or was something else leading it straight to them?
Sunny clicked his tongue in irritation. No time for this. There was still something he needed to take care of first.
Grabbing Nephis's hand, he pointed into the distance.
"Let's go," he said flatly. His lips curled into a sharp, predatory smile. "We still have a crab to crush."
...
A tall, monstrous figure stalked the cliffside, its scythe-like limbs carving through jagged stone, sending shards of rock and debris tumbling into the abyss below.
It had fled in fear of a greater abomination.
Humiliation burned in its mind, the memory of retreat festering like a wound. But hunger drowned out all else. Hunger and rage. It needed to hunt. It needed to kill, to pierce, to feast.
Yet there was no prey in sight.
A guttural screech tore from its maw, echoing through the stormy night. But there was nothing.
Frustration coiled in its body. It had to eat. Had to devour. It was on the verge of slipping into restless slumber when—
A shape emerged from the darkness. A living creature. An uncorrupted soul. A prey.
The creature's many eyes fixated on the lone figure standing before it. It was the same prey, the one it had been forced to abandon.
But now, it had returned. Of its own free will.
Two swords materialized in the prey's hands, crossed before its chest. A smile curled on the human's lips.
A thrill of madness surged through the abomination. It was about to lunge forward when a second sound cut through the storm.
Another uncorrupted soul stepped forward from the darkness.
The soul, burning against the dark void, walked toward it with steady, unhurried steps. This one carried a single blade. But the madness in its eyes...
That was a madness the creature understood. A twisted hunger. A desire to tear, to torment, to devour.
The creature's frenzy soared. Two prey. Two living, breathing offerings marching willingly into its grasp. This would be a glorious hunt. It couldn't believe its fortune.
It was about to charge—
Then its world froze. Because in that moment, a third presence loomed from the shadows.
Another creature. Another soul. Bigger. Brighter. Another abomination stepped forward from the darkness, its monstrous form mirroring its own.
This was no mere prey. It was its kin. Yet its stance was wrong. It was walking toward the abomination not as an ally, but as an enemy.
The creature hesitated, a momentary confusion breaking through its hunger.
No. They were prey. All three of them were prey.
The three figures advanced, their steps measured, blades gleaming with murderous intent.
The madness in the creature's mind twisted into something unrecognizable.
So much food. So much prey. It could no longer contain itself. It lunged for the brightest soul, the biggest prey. Scythes raised. Madness in its heart.
And in the next moment, it realized something. It wasn't the hunter here. It was the hunted.
A feral snarl tore from its throat.
The world flipped.
The moment its scythe fell, the 'prey' met its charge with a lunge of its own. A force slammed into it with crushing weight, driving it to the ground. It writhed, but its scythes were pinned beneath a monstrous strength.
Then the other two came. The smaller prey. The weak ones. Except they weren't weak.
They came at it with the same madness, with the same ravenous hunger it had once used to torment weaker creatures within the Labyrinth.
But now, it was the one writhing.
A searing pain bloomed in its right pincer as something hacked through its chitinous armor—again and again—until its limb was nothing more than a mutilated stump.
A burning agony tore into its left limb, searing through chitin and flesh.
SHHHRIIEEK!
Its piercing cry ripped through the storm.
The pain was unbearable. The agony only deepened.
The abomination thrashed—desperately trying to carve apart the kin holding it down—But its efforts were worthless. For some reason, its kin was stronger, much stronger, like it had the strength of not one, but two of its kind.
The creature's scythes were gone. Half its legs were gone. The searing cuts came again and again. And soon, the hunger that had once controlled it was gone. It was replaced by something it had felt only recently.
Fear.
The abomination tried to flee. Tried to crawl. Tried to escape. But there was nothing left to move. All its limbs were gone. And now, its torso was being torn apart.
All that remained was pain and suffering.
Its vision blurred. Its head sagged. Through the storm, two piercing, black eyes glared down at it. Eyes filled with contempt. With mirth. With spite.
A final, wrathful voice roared into its fading consciousness.
"Die, you bastard!"
That was the last thing it saw. The last thing it heard. Before its pitiful existence was erased from this world.
...
After eliminating the last Centurion, the three of them finally settled down, sitting in a loose circle. The storm had subsided, leaving only the steady rhythm of the waves crashing against the cliffs in the distance.
Sunny glanced at Cassie. She sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, her expression unreadable. She hadn't spoken a word since the fight ended, her blind eyes fixed sightlessly on the ground.
Nephis sat beside her, a hand resting lightly on her shoulder, offering silent comfort. But Cassie remained unmoving. What was going on in her mind was a mystery as great as any.
Sunny sighed.
"Let's get some rest," he said, his voice quieter than usual. "She'll be better in the morning."
Nephis nodded, though her gaze lingered on Cassie for a moment longer.
With nothing else to do, the two of them approached the mangled remains of the Centurions and began the grisly task of scavenging their bodies.
Excluding the two that had been lost to the ocean, five Centurion corpses remained. From them, they recovered ten Awakened shards—glowing fragments of condensed essence, pulsing with power.
Sunny stared at the shimmering shards in his palm, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.
Even if he couldn't absorb them directly, soul shards were still invaluable. If he had the Weaver's Lineage, he could have used them to create powerful Memories. But in his current state... they were useless to him.
With a quiet sigh, he handed them to Nephis.
"Take them all," he said as she instinctively moved to share them with Cassie.
Nephis hesitated.
"Sunny—"
"We need you as strong as possible," he cut her off. His voice was firm, but not unkind.
It was a tough decision.
At their current pace, they would reach the Ashen Barrow in just a few days. And waiting for them there... was the Demon.
The last time, they had survived by luring a horror of the depths to fight it in their place. But this time, that was too great a risk.
There's no guarantee what will come from the ocean.
The encounter with the tentacled abomination had proven one thing: this timeline was not identical to his previous life. There were too many unknowns. Too many variables shifting in unseen ways.
If they lit another fire, hoping to summon the Whispering Horror... There was no telling if it would be the same entity that came.
What if that tentacled abomination crawled out of the abyss instead?
It had proven to be following them, and it was at least a fallen demon. They couldn't hope to even scratch it on land. They couldn't afford to gamble.
Which meant they would have to fight the Carapace Demon themselves.
Sunny clenched his jaw.
He was almost strong enough to face a Centurion alone. With Nephis at his side, they could take one down without much trouble. And now, they even had an Echo. The Echo of the Carapace Centurion.
With careful planning, preparation, and a well-executed ambush, their odds of victory were... decent. Not great. But possible. And every shred of strength they could gather along the way would make a difference.
That was why Nephis needed those shards.
"But—" she began reluctantly.
Sunny clicked his tongue. "I know it feels like we're leaving her behind. You don't like it. Neither do I."
His gaze flickered toward Cassie, his expression darkening.
"Seeing her like this..." He exhaled sharply. "It hurts me as much as it hurts you. But the enemies we're going to face will only get worse."
Nephis lowered her head slightly, her hands tightening into fists.
"Cassie is strong," Sunny continued, his voice softer now. "But her strength doesn't lie in battle. That responsibility falls on us. If we want to protect her... we need to be as strong as we can be."
His words landed like a blade, sharp and undeniable. Nephis closed her eyes for a moment, then sighed. Finally, she nodded.
"Alright," she murmured. Then, as she accepted the shards, she added, "But promise me one thing."
She met his gaze, the stormy silver depths burning with quiet intensity.
"No matter what her vision reveals... no matter what kind of creature tried to kill her... you won't give up on her."
Sunny blinked, momentarily taken aback. It was unlike her to speak so openly, to voice something with such sincerity.
Maybe the situation had pushed her past her usual restraint. Maybe seeing Cassie's condition affected her on a deeper level.
For a moment, he was silent. Then, a small, lopsided smile formed on his lips.
His black eyes gleamed with unwavering resolve.
"I won't give up on her," he said, his voice steady as stone. "Even if that thing is an unfathomable horror from the depths of hell itself."
AN: Lemme know your thoughts in the comments. Let's aim for 7 comments this time (tftc and peak not included :))