It was finally dawn, Sunny was walking right next to Andreas. Nephis was some distance ahead. While moving through the city, they had decided that Sunny and Andreas would remain in the back in case something attacked them from behind. It would only be during the battles that they'd go in the front and face the nightmare creatures.
As they walked, the mood was silent. No one wanted to talk unnecessarily while traversing a land full of hostile creatures, each capable of ripping every human present there with ease.
Sunny was walking with his eyes glued to Nephis, if anything attacked her, he'd need to rush in quickly to help her out.
His shadows in the meantime were close by, observing the other three directions with keen eyes, or keen whatever they saw with.
After a while, Andreas turned to Sunny.
"So, the immortal flame clan is actually gone huh."
Sunny raised his head towards him, a slight confused expression appearing on his face.
"Uh yeah, atleast practically it is. There's still a single master that swears loyalty to Nephis tho. So it's not completely gone."
Andreas sighed, a gloomy expression forming on his face. "It was the greatest clan when I was young you know, it seemed like the pinnacle of the human world. It was undefeatable, infallible...or atleast it appeared to be.
I...wanted to be a vassal of the immortal flame clan too, when I became awakened, but sadly before I even did...it was gone..."
Andreas wanted to speak more, but he couldn't find the correct words to continue. After some time of thinking, he simply fell silent again.
Sunny returned his gaze towards Nephis, his face already having returned to stoic, almost bored.
"You can join it still you know, all you have to do is escape this place alive, and make sure Nephis does too."
Andreas smiled weakly. "And you? Do you want to be a part of it as well?"
Finally, a smile tugged on Sunny's lips as well. "No, infact I want to make my own clan. I might ask Nephis for the immortal flame clan to integrate with it though."
Andreas turned to look at him, his face practically yelling 'I knew it!'. But he didn't voice his thoughts.
***
"Behind you!"
THWACK!
A blood feind's body fell limp on the ground as it's head burst into a pulp of blood.
Sunny retracted his fist from behind him, his eyes not moving from the awakened demon during this whole time.
He didn't move his head to respond to the person who shouted either, instead he simply opened his mouth while moving towards the demon.
At the same time, the spell rang.
"Don't worry about me, I can see them all."
[You have slain an Awakened monster: Blood Feind.]
The demon moved too.
As the two demons approached each other, one corrupted and one shadow, the ground shook and then broke.
And a gigantic worm emerged.
Throwing debris everywhere and shaking both sunny and the horse like demon off balance, the huge Nightmare creature made an arc and dove towards the direction perpendicular to both.
At the end of its path, Effie was standing facing a couple of carapace beasts.
For a moment, time seemed to slow down as it looked like the worm would devour Effie whole.
But then the next moment, a furious wing slash coated with lightning connected with the worm's neck, or whatever it was where a human's neck should have been.
And sent the worm flying sideways, towards Sunny of all people.
Penthesilea had struck a nightmare creature with her aspect.
Sunny frowned for a moment as the worm wiggled and dug a hole to disappear again.
Sunny lowered his body slightly, preparing for quick movement. From some distance, the voice of their current leader rang out.
"We have attracted the attention of a fallen one. All aces remain vigilant! Everyone else make sure to avoid it when it makes itself visible!"
Ace was the term used by the outer settlement's hunters to refer to those who could face fallen ones.
Sunny knew that both Gemma and Tessai had accomplished slaying a fallen creature before even his regression, obviously gunlaug, harus and seishan were also capable of that.
However, prior to Nephis coming into the dark city, there were no hunters who could kill a fallen one.
Effie perhaps could, if she had a cohort to act as her meat shield.
But now after his regression, things had changed. Andreas had the strength to perhaps fell a fallen beast alone already, his cohort members could even take on a monster together.
This was how he and his cohort had kept gunlaug from erasing all hints of power other than him. By hunting a fallen every one or two hunts and sometimes earning a memory for it.
Ofcourse, even with Sunny and Nephis added to the equation, they were not capable of mass hunting these creatures like Nephis originally had with the dawn shard.
That was subject to change ofcourse, when Sunny finally gained Saint. But that was for the future, as for now he had to stay vigilant for the fallen monster.
But he couldn't remain in silence. As the awakened demon horse was still alive.
The six legged horror rushed at him again, as if having forgotten the fear it felt from the fallen already, the madness of corruption was rushing within it. Causing it to abandon self preservation.
But the blood of two primordial powers was also flowing through Sunny.
And so, the nightmare creature was out of luck today. Before it could even reach Sunny, two arrows landed on it's front legs, forcing it to fall on its knees and slide towards him.
The hunter who had asked him a question before had shot the arrows, before turning to face some other creature close by.
Sunny smiled, and raised Defiance. Then with all the strength of his body, he threw it at the demon.
Slurrrch!
The blade slid into the demon's brain effortlessly. Instantly killing it.
[You have slain an Awakened demon: Steed of the forsaken knight.]
'Wait seriously?' Sunny's thoughts were interrupted as another hole opened right beside him.
This time the fallen worm arrived right next to effie too, who was diagonal to Sunny.
This time thankfully she had gotten rid of the beasts around her, and was already spinning her spear— the Zenith Shard at the worm.
Sunny took a step ahead, and then without hesitation he punched the thick fallen hide of the grotesque monstrosity.
Sunny was a dormant creature. A demon sure, and with several physical augmentations. But still a dormant one nonetheless.
No matter how strong he got, his bare muscles weren't capable of ripping apart fallen flesh.
They were capable of annoying their owner though.
The fallen worm turned it's giant maw towards the human who had dared strike it, as it did, it opened it's maw even wider in anger.
The terrifying sight of the monster would have made anyone scared, but not Sunny.
Because he had already planned for this moment.
Before the worm could even descend upon it's new found prey.
Before Effie could even begin to try and help Sunny by attacking the worm.
Before the Sunny himself could even take in a breath in anticipation.
BOOOM!!!
a single blade fell from the skies at the back of the creature, ripping it apart like paper.
It drove through the various internal organs of the vile creature and then, ripped out of it, from right below it's maw.
It was the ascended blade of the fourth tier. Executioner's Judgement, wrapped in a single shadow of its master.
Before the brilliant sword hit the ground however, it turned. And flew towards Sunny with the same speed it had descended.
Sunny had already opened his hand waiting, and simply grabbed the sword using pure intuition of its arrival.
The fallen monster had been brutally injured, it's insides torn apart, two gaping holes in its body.
And yet the worm would have continued descending upon Sunny simply due to the law of gravity.
As such, he needed to get away from the monster, and the Executioner's Judgement did that job perfectly.
Much better than Sunny ever could by jumping back or running.
However, there was another danger, even if Sunny escaped the near proximity of the fallen monster, it would get up and chase after him.
No matter how brutally it was wounded, the holes themselves were small, and it's death would take time. It could leap towards Sunny in that given time.
However, Sunny had already punched the creature, and as such, his attribute [The Solace] had already weakened the creature's will by a bit.
As Sunny flew back being practically shoved away by his memory, the blade spun around and rotated Sunny 180 degrees.
It then left his grip and flew straight into the wriggling creature on the ground and thrust into its body again.
The creature convulsed, it's heart growing weak.
And then finally.
[You have slain a fallen monster: Shallow dirt worm.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
The monster was dead.
Another fallen added to Sunny's kill count.
Some distance away, Andreas looked over with a strange feeling in his heart.
He had been trying to rush over and help fight the fallen creature, but before he could even take a couple of steps, Sunny...that boy had already killed the creature.
All by himself.
Andreas had suspected him to be a powerful warrior...but now he knew the truth.
Sunny was no warrior. He was a king.
Comparable only to Gunlaug and him, perhaps even stronger than him...that was the power of this seemingly inexperienced youngling.
In the aftermath of all this, nobody had still started to cut the meat of the creatures nor had anyone tried to retrieve the soul shards.
Everyone was just staring at the fallen minster's corpse. Fascinated. Glad. Even. Scared.
Aside from Andreas, only one other person was looking at Sunny.
Nephis.
She had tried the same thing as him, trying to reach Sunny's location to help him, but just like Andreas, she had been too late.
However the emotion she felt seeing Sunny standing triumphant over the fallen creature's corpse, wasn't of happiness or amazement. No.
She was upset.
Upset that she hadn't been there for him.
That she hadn't been able to fight with him.
That she wasn't available to help him should he have required it.
Finally, Sunny broke the silence.
"When are we going to harvest the meat and soul shards?"
His question wasn't a literal question, it was a reminder for everyone to start working on their jobs.
As if awoken from some deep slumber by his words, the human party moved like a hundred parts of the same machine working in harmony.
Soon they had looted everything worth looting and were taking a few minutes break to cool off.
Noticing something, the sleeper who had helped sunny fight the Awakened demon spoke up.
"If that fallen creature was digging holes through the floor, how come this part of the city has remained intact after so many years?"
A wave of murmurs overtook the crowd, it seemed that everyone was partaking in coming up with theories about how it had all worked.
Some were logical, some were ridiculous.
"Maybe it excreted the materials it ate to reform the holes?"
"Or maybe it only used a set number of holes and we just happened to disturb it's lair."
"What if the entire city is a giant Nightmare creature and it regenerates everytime it's damaged!?"
"What!? Are you serious right now? If it was a giant creature then how would we still be alive?"
"Maybe we are too weak for it to notice us yet?"
"Is that why Gunlaug himself never hunts in the dark city? Because he's afraid of being devoured?"
"That's such a-"
"I will check it out." Sunny raised his hand quietly. Instantly, everyone's eyes fell on Sunny.
"What do you mean?" That same hunter who had started this whole thing asked again.
"First of all, what's your name?"
"It's samwell...uh sir." Samwell didn't know why he had chosen to refer to Sunny as sir, but he felt that some form of respect was deserved.
"Well Sam, do you mind telling me why do you have so many questions? Its not that I mind it's just that you've asked a dozen questions by the time I've first seen you and that doesn't seem natural."
Sunny didn't mean to disrespect the person in front of him, he was simply curious as are all researchers. But due to his average conversation skills he ran the risk of offending people anyways, so he tried to make himself as clear as possible.
"No not at all, I don't mind..." Samwell waved both his hands around in a panicking like tone...and then grew silent again.
Sunny sighed inwardly, the pale man infront of him seemed to have very loose skin, as if he had been a fat kid before he came to the forgotten shore and had lost a lot of weight.
Somehow Sunny didn't blame it on the harsh conditions of the forgotten shore...but instead on the idea that samwell must have been punished before for being annoying by taking away his rations or something.
Noticing the continued stare at him, samwell scrambled to speak again.
"Aah ahhh you see it has to do with my flaw, I've been cursed with insatiable curiosity."
Closing his eyes in understanding, Sunny nodded and rose from his place.
"Uhm but sir...where are you going?"
"I'm gonna jump inside to check the hole's depth."
A series of shocked yelps and surprised voices overtook the crowd.
Nephis simply looked up at Sunny, her expression twisting into a worried frown.
Andreas however, wasn't so reserved. He instantly called out to him.
"Sunny wait, that's dangerous-" But sunny had already jumped in.
Falling inside, Sunny used the sides of the hole to repeatedly jump below diagonally. Thus keeping himself from gaining momentum and crashing into his death.
He reached the bottom surprisingly quickly. From there, he summoned his flying sword and grabbed onto it for rising up again. It was hard for him to fly this way, but outside of combat, it was a sustainable process to use.
Eventually he got out, and turned to the crowed, focusing specifically at Samwell.
"Looks like the holes were too shallow to have any real effect on the city's infrastructure."
Samwell however, was too stunned to speak right away, as was almost everyone else.
Right in front of their eyes, this man had jumped into what was basically a death sentence and climbed out only for a mundane question practically asked to pass the time.
Eventually, some words escaped Samwell's mouth.
"That's fascinating, but why did you even do that? That was dangerous."
Sunny smiled and turned around. "Because my friend, that was an interesting question." With that, he started walking away.
Towards his next destination.
"That's cool and all but we are headed this way not that." Zeo called out to Sunny with an amused expression.
***
They came across a few more fights that they quickly handled, fortunately no new fallen creatures emerged.
All in all, there were no losses in the entire time the group of humans was out hunting. Eventually, they arrived in front of a large building.
"Is this where your shadow saw them?" Nephis turned to Sunny. Being in the front lines with Effie and Zeo, she arrived at the place before he or Andreas did.
"Yeah, apparently there's a carapace devil inside...I think the spell called the one I killed before a dux? There's also several centurions and scavengers. No tribunes tho.
But if we get this one done, we will have enough food for everyone."
Sunny replied to her non chalantly.
It had been two days since they had started their hunt, by now the party had returned to the outer settlement twice for distribution and resting.
Everyone has already grown accustomed to Sunny's mindboggling revelations, so no one even reacted to him having already killed a carapace dux.
It was finally time for them to finish this hunt too, for the next two to three weeks everyone's stomachs would be filled.
It had both been much faster and easier with the two demons added to the hunting party, but even then, there was a risk of annihilation if one was not careful.
No matter how strong the humans were, every single creature inside the tall building was of the Awakened rank and could tear them apart in an instant if they got the chance to.
Not to mention, fighting in a closed space would be problematic compared to in the open.
Nonetheless, the human party made their formation.
With Andreas, Effie, Nephis and Sunny in the front, followed behind by Quentin and Zeo on the left and Penthesilea, Mira and Jubei on the right, along with many other sleepers some steps away in the centre, the human force finally broke into the building.
It wasn't Nephis sending a massive ball of flames at the gates or Effie simply flinging her spear and breaking it in two, it wasn't Andreas Cleaving through it like butter or Sunny cutting it open with some treacherous memory either.
It was instead, simply a sleeper who went and opened the doors normally and then ran backwards, the sleeper had a type of super speed as his aspect, though nowhere as fast as Caster's, it was enough to avoid any injury in what followed next.
Nephis did send a massive ball of flames at the gates, meanwhile Effie did fling her spear into the opened path.
Andreas did dash inside next, hoping to crush whatever came his way and Sunny did send in Executioner's Judgement to cut open any Nightmare creatures he could find.
However, they quickly had to improvise as the ball of flames was hurled back at them, Effie's memory disappeared into the incandescent waves of molesting fury and she had to unsummon it before losing it forever.
Meanwhile Andreas halted and took a step back, then realising the inevitable, he braced for impact.
Thankfully for him, the moment never came, as Nephis simply manipulated her flames to avoid and dance around him, returning to her as seven spheres of molten heat.
Sunny simply weaved his shadow encased memory around those flames in a dance of light and shadow.
As the party members entered the building and distributed around to avoid overcrowding, they realised why Neph's flames had been redirected.
There it was, standing in the middle of the ground floor, a carapace dux. There was a thin veil of a transparent shield in front of him..or her.
The shield was like a force field, covering a large rectangular area in front of him, the forcefield seemed to be the devil power of this particular dux.
"Isn't that's gonna be a hassle." Zeo laughed at the dux, before curling his arm back and shooting his fist forward like a ranged punch.
Electric sparks emerged from his whole body and slowly coalesced into a ring of pure white lightning around his shoulder, moving through his arm it detached and rushed at the devil from his fist.
The ring of lightning broke through the rectangular forcefield and collided with the devil, causing a burnt mark to appear on the devil's skin. The devil screamed in pain, but was not moved from its place.
Sunny found himself being encircled by three centurions and several scavengers around the humans.
There were other centurions around the stronger members of the party too. And some carapace creatures were observing from the broken ceiling, they were on the first floor.
At the given time, it seemed that only zeo could penetrate the dux's defences without somehow encircling the area and attacking it from behind.
'I'd have to send Judgement flying behind it then, piece of cake.'
Just as Sunny thought those words, the devil raised it's face and roared furiously. It's eyes turning hazel completely without any iris whatsoever.
The forcefield surged, and turned into a dome that covered less area but covered the devil himself entirely, even if it left it's own kin vulnerable.
Truly a power befitting a devil.
'Damnation!'. With no way to attack the awakened devil, Sunny had no choice but to focus on the other Nightmare creatures around.
He summoned Serpent as a Beast, and summoned Defiance. In this tight space, Skybeak wasn't gonna be very helpful.
As he held his sword in hand, his gaze fell on zeo, his eyes turning pure dark purple. His grin widening like a beast, like a demon had possessed him.
That was the last thing Sunny could see.
And then all hell broke lose.