45: getting to know the huntress

Sunny looked at Jonathan through the darkness while steering the boat and asked, in an unusually threatening tone:

"I think you owe us all an explanation, don't you?"

Jony didn't respond as he directed his attention to the sea.

"I'll answer that later. Isaac, I need to ask you a big favor. Would you be willing to transfer your sword to Sunny?"

In the darkness, where only Sunny could see clearly, he was the only one who could defend them if something emerged from the dark sea to attack.

"If it's really necessary, I'll be willing to do it. But Sunny must return the sword, no matter the situation," Isaac replied, his tone calm but with a slight hint of warning that no one missed.

"Sunny, would you return Isaac's transcendent sword after what is about to happen?" Jonathan questioned Sunny.

After a few seconds, Sunny replied, "Yes."

"Isaac, please give him the sword. That thing could come at any moment or never come at all, but if it emerges from the water, Sunny is the only one capable of fighting in this darkness, and your sword is the strongest we have right now."

The others remained silent during this exchange, still confused about how much Jonathan knew about what was going to happen.

Extending his hand towards Sunny, Isaac touched his shoulder and a spark traveled from his chest to Sunny's.

Sunny felt the transfer of a memory and summoned the runes, curious about Isaac's sword.

Memory: Cursed Oath

Memory Type: Weapon

Memory Rank: Transcendent

Memory Level: VII

Memory Description: [A vow made to -UNKNOWN- by a human who will be plagued by misfortune.]

Charms: [Growth] [Curse] [Bound]

Growth: [This sword can grow with the souls of those killed by it. Souls consumed (89/5000).]

Curse: [Any being cut by this sword will start to go insane the more they are cut.]

Bound: [This sword will always return to its rightful owner.]

'This sword is very powerful, even without using its charms. It's as sharp and strong as a corrupted titan's... What the hell did you do to get something of this level?'

Still thinking about the sword, Sunny was interrupted by a deep, ancient shadow emerging from the depths and heading towards their location.

He quickly looked at Jonathan, who seemed to sense the same thing before shouting:

"EVERYONE, PREPARE TO HOLD ON! Sunny! You must hold out as long as you can. Cassia, keep using the staff, we must advance to the statue. The rest, get ready for the attack," Jonathan yelled, aware of what was approaching.

Not even five seconds after issuing the command, a dozen tentacles emerged from the ocean, all directed at the weak boat moving through the black sea.

"SUNNY!" Jonathan shouted, as he transformed his entire armor into chains that wrapped around the boat, holding it together more firmly.

The tentacles attacked the boat, but Sunny easily cut them with Isaac's sword, though some managed to hit the boat, making it tremble under the powerful blows.

Luckily, Jonathan's ascended armor held the pieces of the boat firmly together, preventing it from being destroyed as easily as in the novel.

Sunny stopped steering the boat and Ludwin took his position. Sasha boosted everyone with her ability, and Nephis drew her silver sword, which was also capable of damaging the tentacles. She used her flames to create some light and defend the boat alongside Sunny.

"Don't fall no matter what! If you fall, I won't be able to save you!" Jonathan shouted, making Sasha and Cassia cling more tightly as they resisted the attack of the tentacled monster.

Sunny and Nephis couldn't hold back all the tentacles by themselves, so many hits were taken against the boat, and Jonathan's armor was being severely damaged.

After at least a kilometer of advancing and constantly defending the boat, the monster seemed to give up the attack and its tentacles descended back into the black sea.

Sunny and Nephis collapsed onto the boat, exhausted.

Both were injured from the fight, but Sunny still had to steer the boat in the right direction, so he bit his lip and began to navigate again.

Jonathan removed his armor and put it back on to cover his naked body.

Sasha fell to her knees and her defect began.

She spent five whole minutes lying down, leaning on Jony.

After many more kilometers, where they were luckily not attacked by anything else, they managed to see the outer walls of the castle.

***

The boat stopped near the hand of a statue that protruded from the black water and everyone on the boat disembarked and climbed to safety atop the giant hand.

Despite Sunny managing to see the castle walls, they couldn't continue navigating the black sea.

Not now that the boat was about to break apart. Even though it had been reinforced by the armor, it still suffered severe damage and wouldn't last much longer. They also couldn't risk it breaking in the middle of the journey, so they decided to stop at the statue and continue on foot in the morning.

They all climbed onto the palm of the hand and, as the water was close to its surface, decided to spread out across the fingers.

Everyone remained silent until dawn.

***

It was time to head to the promised castle.

Nephis offered to heal everyone, but since they were just exhausted and not injured except for her and Sunny, they declined her offer and she only healed Sunny's wounds.

He seemed to feel guilty for making her use her aspect and quickly moved aside once she finished healing his wound.

"Alright, it's time to go to the castle. Be careful when you descend."

Thus, everyone slowly climbed down the statue of the woman with her hand towards the sky and touched the muddy ground.

When they touched the soft mud, Nephis told them:

"Stay alert."

There was no need to say it; everyone already knew that at this moment, in the final stretch towards their goal, many things could go wrong if they allowed themselves to relax.

So no one did, and they all walked silently through the mud towards the walls.

A while after they started walking, Jonathan told them to stop for a second and turned to look at the statue that had saved their lives.

There, on the slope of the colossal crater, slightly tilted to one side, a giant statue of a slender woman dressed in a light, airy robe stood above the black mud.

She was charming, with a slim waist and delicate arms extended towards the sky, as if trying to embrace it.

At least that's how she once looked, a long time ago. Now, one of the arms was broken, leaving only the shoulder in place.

Fortunately, the other arm was still there and had served as a safe refuge for the seven Sleepers in their moment of desperate need.

And as he expected, seven stars marked her chest.

The seven heroes of the dark city, the leaders of the Starlight Legion, who once led the now corrupted shell scavengers who were once human.

"I just wanted to see the statue, it's nothing important, let's go."

So, everyone resumed their journey westward. As they approached the nearly vertical slope, something dangerous finally happened...

Just as Sunny was about to step on a wide stone buried in the mud, the stone suddenly moved and rolled to the side.

A terrible roar echoed in the vast void of the colossal crater, making it tremble with fear.

Jonathan watched this event with a slight expression of amusement. Of course, he had sensed the soul of that rock long ago, but he knew it was Sunny's prey, so he deliberately led them there so Sunny could kill it.

Sunny made a great leap to the side and summoned the fragment of midnight, stabbing the hard stone layer of the rock.

[You have killed an awakened monster, Rolling Stone.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

[You have received a memory.]

Everyone watched this event tensely, then confused by Sunny's expression.

Nephis looked at him for a second more before asking,

"Sunny? Are you okay?" A rare expression of concern showed on her usually expressionless face.

Sunny blinked and then looked at Nephis.

"Oh, yes. I just received a memory."

Nephis relaxed a bit and her expressionless face returned before she spoke again.

"Oh, that's good. What kind of memory is it?"

Sunny looked at her for a second before responding.

"It's an ordinary rock."

Not knowing how to react to that answer, everyone fell silent.

"Alright, that's great and all, but we need to keep moving. There will be time for that when we're safe in the castle," Jonathan decided to intervene before the situation became awkward.

...

They were climbing the nearly vertical slope that led to the gray walls of the castle.

When they finally reached the top, they were greeted by the incredible walls of polished gray rock that seemed capable of withstanding the powerful waves of the black sea for thousands of years.

"Well, it's not worth going around and looking for an entrance. We better climb up, get ready," said Jonathan.

With that, Jonathan was the first to start scaling the stone wall.

When someone couldn't find a place to grip, they used their weapons to stab into the small crevices of the wall and use them as handholds.

After a while of climbing, they managed to reach the top of the wall that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see.

Along the wall's corridor, watchtowers rose at intervals.

Below them, an enormous city lay in ruins. The beautiful stone buildings were broken and shattered, many reduced to mere heaps of rubble.

There were no people walking the wide streets, no clamor of voices to chase away the silence. Under the cold gray sky, the ruined city seemed dead and sad.

It was impossible to say what terrible disaster had occurred here, but it was clear that it wasn't natural. Many of the collapsed houses were blackened by fire, with claw marks carved into the fragments of walls still standing.

Here and there, monstrous bones of ancient horrors protruded from the ground, telling stories of desperate battles that must have taken place on these streets once, long ago.

There was a magnificent castle on a hill amidst the ruins. It seemed... something out of a legend.

Its walls were built with radiant white stone and had tall towers. It loomed over the city like a... a symbol of hope, the only thing in this hell that seemed untouched by darkness.

"Do you want to go down or investigate the nearest tower?" Jonathan asked, directing his question to Nephis and Sunny.

"Cassia mentioned in her vision that the city outside the castle was surrounded by monsters. I don't think it's a good idea to go down now," Sunny said, hesitant to descend at this moment.

"Sunny's right. Let's go to the nearest tower," Nephis said, looking at a tower about a hundred meters away from where they were.

"The princess is right. If we go down now, the wall will block us and we won't have an exit if we encounter monsters," Ludwin said after that, taking the first step towards the nearby tower. The rest followed alongside him or a few steps behind him.

They followed the slightly curved wall to the north.

As they approached the tower, they heard something that made them stop in their tracks.

It sounded like... like something was being devoured there, flesh and bones being crushed by sharp teeth. The nauseating sound of torn and chewed meat made them grimace.

Knowing who was making those nauseating sounds, Jonathan advanced towards the tower and saw that gluttonous woman.

The young woman was tall and attractive. She had hazel eyes and beautiful brown hair, currently tied in a simple braid.

Her build was extremely athletic, with perfectly defined lean muscles rolling under the wet olive skin with every movement. And there was... um... a lot of skin on display, as she was wearing only a provocatively short white tunic, enhanced with bronze greaves, bracers, and a breastplate.

Noticing Jonathan's presence out of nowhere, the girl threw a sharp bone towards the direction of the sudden presence.

If it weren't for his skill, the bone would have deeply pierced Jonathan's head, who managed to dodge the bone a second before it pierced his head.

He raised his hands and spoke, to show that he was human.

"WOAH, WOAH, calm down. I'm a human," his voice was loud for the huntress to hear clearly and loudly as human.

"Oh, another person. I never saw you in the castle, are you new?" The girl asked, still sitting while she cooked another piece of meat over a fire.

"Yes, we just arrived here. I didn't expect to find another person so soon. My name is Jonathan and I came with six other people."

The rest of the group entered the tower, showing themselves and showing the girl that they had no bad intentions since they were not carrying weapons.

"Wow, you're a big group. Welcome to the Dark City, I'm Effie," Effie said, still chewing on a piece of meat and smiling relaxedly at the new guests.

"They are Sasha, Ludwin, Isaac, Sunny, and Nephis. We just arrived and would like to reach the castle. Could you guide us to it and use the entrance gate?" Jonathan quickly asked.

He received a strange look from Nephis and Sunny, well, from his whole group, really. It seemed that they were telling him that he was too hasty in asking about the castle and the gateway.

Jonathan could feel the feeling of pity and compassion rising from Effie's soul at the mention of the castle and the gateway.

"I can take you to the castle, but there is no entrance gate there. In fact, there is no way out of this cursed hell. I have been trapped here for three years already. So... welcome to the Dark City, I guess. Abandon hope all ye who enter here, and all that..."

Jonathan could feel from the souls of his friends how despair arose at the huntress's words.

Sunny felt the same, but he also felt anger and desolation.

Nephis, she seemed angry and some other feeling that she couldn't identify.

"Are... Are you sure there's no way out of here? None?" Nephis asked, her fists clenched and white from the pressure.

Effie looked at her with pity before answering, in a tone that seemed to want to console Nephis.

"Yes. Nowhere in this city is there a gateway. No one has managed to escape from this place since the first inhabitants. But it's not as bad a place as it may seem, at least to me, it's better than the real world."

After Effie told them all that, she invited them to eat, which they accepted since they hadn't eaten anything for two days and were hungry.

They talked a little about the situation before Jonathan asked another important question.

"Effie, can you tell me more about the castle? You mentioned something about the first inhabitants, what happened to them? If there's no gateway, why would they inhabit this place?"

Effie looked at him for a second as she finished swallowing a piece of bone before answering.

"Sure, about the first inhabitants, it was about fifteen years ago, a group of powerful and desperate Sleepers managed to reach this city and claim the castle for themselves. Not because it had a Portal, but because it was the only place that could keep them safe. At least for a while."

She chewed another piece of meat and then continued.

"Since then, some lucky or resourceful people found their way to the castle at each solstice, only to be trapped here with the rest of us."

Nephis was silent for a moment before speaking.

"You said there... was no portal or exit. So why didn't you leave?"

"...Leave? And go where?"

The meat was about to burn, so she leaned over the fire and took out the skewers, then replaced them with a couple of new ones. Then, with a sigh, she turned to Changing Star and said:

"You've been to the Labyrinth, so you know what it's like. There's nothing but that damn coral and the damn sea for months of travel in every direction. You can't walk there, you can't swim. You can't even fly, because there are swarms of terrible flying abominations hidden in the clouds. But trying to leave? Yes, many have tried. Actually, that's how the initial master of the castle died.

Sunny clenched his hands and then asked:

"So, what? Do you just hide in the castle and wait for death?"

The beautiful girl laughed.

"Of course not, silly!"

Then, she turned to him, with an unexpectedly somber look in her hazel eyes and said:

"Most of us can't even get into the castle. The king demands his tribute, you know? So we just wait for death outside."

Sunny stared at her, trying to understand the meaning behind those strange words.

"What do you mean?"

Effie shrugged.

"The castle belongs to a man named Gunlaug. If you want to enter and live within the safety of the castle walls, protected and attended by his hunters, you must pay a tribute. A fragment every week."

They were all silent, each with their own thoughts on this.

After that, she told them a little about how things worked here.

In summary; the castle was divided into two parts. The inside area of the walls, where those who paid the tribute resided. The second, outside the walls there was a settlement where those who could not pay in tributes, barely survived.

At some point, Nephis asked why they hadn't killed Gunlaug if he was a tyrant who treated people so badly and Effie mentioned that no one could kill him.

She said he was practically immortal and that everyone who had challenged him, now their skulls were displayed at the castle gates.

Nephis seemed very thoughtful after all this conversation and then remained silent.

They decided to spend the night there until the next morning and then leave, guided by Effie.