[20]Bone Ridge/ Ashen Barrow

Jumping off a dead scavenger, Sunny retrieved his sword and whistled, letting Cassie know that it was safe to come out. Soon, she crawled out of a small opening in the coral wall and carefully put her feet on the ground. Leaning on her staff, the blind girl stood up and slightly turned her head, listening to the light sound of his footsteps.

Sunny approached Cassie and took her hand, gently placing it on his shoulder. Then, carefully avoiding puddles of blood, he guided the blind girl to the Echo. They talked on the way.

"Did those centipedes show up?"

"Yeah. It was quite helpful actually. They helped us take down that Centurion and the scavengers following it. All we had to do was clean up and collect our prizes."

"Really? How many Shards did we get this time?"

"Eleven. It was our best haul in one go, I think."

Cassie giggled. Her mood was bright. Sunny was actually collecting a lot of Shadow Fragments and Shards. Those centipede monsters had turned out not to be Soul Serpent's equal either. Not in speed, or precision.

Their corrosive venom might have been effective on it. Sunny didn't know. Soul Serpent could appear out of Sunny's shadow, so ambushes on the centipedes were easy.

Ever since Sunny had figured out that since ninety percent of things in the labyrinth couldn't hurt Sunny's shadow, it started go right up to the weak points of the creatures, unable to be hurt even if it was noticed, and Soul Serpent could appear next to them and kill them without having to bypass their defenses.

As a result. Nephis and his fragments looked like this:

[Shadow Fragments:132/1000]

[Soul Essence:248/1000]

Sunny was also able to lead the girls in mostly a straight path to each high point this way. It was basically a given that they would make it to the Soul Devourer now. Sunny didn't let Nephis or Cassie see his worried face. It was only the biggest hurdle that they would overcome  before they made it to the city. No sweat, right?

In other news, Sunny had received a dagger memory from one of the centipede monsters:

[Venomous slasher]

[Memory type: Weapon]

[Memory Rank: Awakened]

[Memory Tier: I]

[Enchantments:Corrosive, Oily]

Basically, Sunny could make the blade secrete a flammable oil, and he could either make it corrosive or just slick.

. . . The three of them were using it as a fuel source for their meal fires. The dagger was propped up and set to drip oil into the fire pit, and then once there was enough oil, they would cook.

It was also handy for butchering corpses. It would damage the meat when it cut into a scavenger or centurion's shell, but the venom itself would disappear with the blade.

Sunny was actually very happy he got this small black dagger for his plan to take down the awakened demon guarding that blasted tree.

Sunny noticed that his scavenger echo had somehow still developed quite taste for centurion meat.

"Hey you! Don't eat our meals damn it!"

The scavenger echo froze, and then dropped the meat it was holding in its pincers.

Shaking his head, Sunny helped Cassie climb to her seat and handed her the reigns.

"This weirdo actually gobbled up almost half of the centurion. What's up with that? Is it female?"

Gloomy the shadow looked at Sunny. He felt something like pity through their connection.

Cassie tilted her head in confusion.

"Why would eating half a centurion make the scavenger a female?"

Sunny froze. Cold sweat dripped down the back of his head. Nephis was looking at him, and even Cassie had accurately found his exact position with her blind gaze.

Sunny quickly changed the subject.

"It's just a random feeling Cassie. More importantly, let's just go ahead to the Bone Ridge."

The girls weren't convinced, and they acted a little irritated with Sunny for a bit, but the three of them made it to the Bone Ridge quite easily.

They found no monsters nesting there when they came in, and they spent the night in peace. Sunny did make sure to warn Nephis not to stare directly into the water.

In the morning, Sunny woke up feeling grim and uneasy. Sleeping next to the still dark water sure brought back memories.

"Good morning."

The sound of his voice was almost drowned by the echoing noise of rushing water. With the sun rising, the dark sea was in a hurry to retreat. Sunny was finally able to relax a little.

"Morning."

Nephis had been guarding the camp during the latter part of the night, so she was already awake. As usual, she was meditating with her eyes closed — in the absolute darkness of the night, "watching over" something actually meant listening for suspicious sounds, so keeping one's eyes open was not that useful.

For everyone except Sunny, that is, who had perfect night vision thanks to his Attributes.

Hearing him stand up, Changing Star slowly opened her eyes. A soft afterglow left behind by the dancing white flame could still be seen in their depth, quickly disappearing as her sight adjusted to the twilight of dawn. She looked at Sunny and offered him a polite smile.

'No fair, she's been getting better.'

Nephis was receiving tips and pointers from Sunny about social cues on the whole trip to the bone ridge.

. . . She was also training to endure her flaw, which tugged at Sunny's heartstrings.

Finally, the three of them ate breakfast, and then went to the highest point on top of the bones instead of in the vertebrae where they slept.

Sunny and Nephis both saw the Ashen Barrow. Neither said a word. Finally, Sunny spoke.

"It's annoying. That giant tree is probably doing something to the labyrinth around it. It's probably something terrifying, but I don't see any other way west."

Nephis turned to him.

"Why do you think the tree is causing. . . all of that?"

"Sunny looked at her. He shook his head. We can see the trunk and crown of the massive tree, but where are the roots? I'm thinking that this whole wasteland area is probably existing because the tree is doing something to absorb life from the labyrinth around it."

Nephis' frown grew deeper as they spoke. She looked him in the eye.

"It's not exactly as if we have a choice."

Sunny nodded.

"Indeed."

***

Sunny led the girls into the labyrinth,  and then to the ashen sands. It took an hour or two, but it wasn't exactly a problem. Once there, Sunny led them to the knoll where they had hid from the centurion in the previous timeline.

It came around midday, and Sunny told the girls to hide. There was no centurion coming. It was too early for that. The reason they were hiding was much, much worse.

Sunny had finally let his shadow lay eyes on the metal carapace demon.

Sunny told the girls what he saw, and their mood quickly turned sour. The more Sunny described the awakened demon, the more agitated Nephis became. Her face was in a tight grimace now.

Sunny led the girls back to the Bone Ridge. Nephis wanted to go and fight it, of course,  but Sunny convinced her when he said he would come up with a plan to kill it. In fact, she was surprisingly agreeable about it. It was nice to Sunny to see proof that she valued his opinion.

So, after the three of them went back to the Bone Ridge, they began to come up with a plan to take down the demon.