Chapter XXII: Struggles of the Fateless

After William went to sleep, Sunless and Nephis were the only ones who remained awake in the darkness of the night.

The boy had many questions he wanted to ask, but he quickly dismissed such notions. He wasn't at the best standing with the silver-haired girl currently, and he didn't know whether she would answer his queries or not.

Thus, the shadow master went back to sleep.

Meanwhile, Nephis kept her silent vigil - her sword resting in her hands, its weight bringing her comfort - as she gazed at the dark expanse with a determined expression.

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Soon enough, the skies began to brighten as the sun rose, and the Dark Sea retreated in fear of its incandescent might.

As soon as the rays of sunlight made contact with his eyelids, William immediately awoke from his sleep. No, grogginess, no lethargy, not even the instinctual human desire to go back to sleep. He was simply awake and conscious.

Nephis hadn't moved from her position from last night.

He looked at her for a few seconds, taking in the appearance of a character he just associated with a bunch of adjectives only a month prior.

"Good morning," greeted the white-haired youth as he rose from his position and moved towards the dead campfire. A subtle glow shone from his hands, and the campfire roared back to life.

'Time to make some makeshift breakfast.'

If the Changing Star was surprised by the sudden greeting, she did a good job of hiding it as she returned it, "Good morning."

She watched as William summoned his sack of provisions and began rummaging around in it. She noticed that the campfire was already lit and raging, which extremely puzzled her.

"What do you want for breakfast? We have... crab-centaur meat and..... Look! More crab-centaur meat," he announced as he took some chunks of meat, pierced sticked through them, and arranged them next to the flames.

Shortly after, the smell of cooked meat awoke Sunny from his sleep.

"So what's our plan for the day?" the dark-haired youth inquired curiously as his gaze alternated between the white-haired and silver-haired Sleepers.

"Well, the nightmare creatures have been strangely sparse for the last few days," said William with feigned ignorance while cooking the tender meat.

"Now that you mention it, that is indeed strange. I don't know where we are in the dream realm but from what I had read and learned, this Coral Labyrinth seems to be strangely vacant," added Nephis while adopting a thoughtful expression on her flawless face.

"I may have the answer to that," stated Sunny with no small amount of pride and smugness in his voice, "when I arrived at the dream realm, I got dropped into the Dark Sea with a monster on my tail."

Nephis's eyes widened slightly while William remained impassive as he gave his utmost concentration not to overcook their breakfast.

"I barely managed to escape by climbing onto that statue over there," Sunny continued as he pointed to a headless, sword-holding, armored statue in the distance to the west. "Luckily, a tentacled monster attacked the one that was pursuing me. When the sun rose and the waters receded, I saw the carcass of a giant shark-like creature that was being devoured by thousands of monsters. I believe that's why the nightmare creature presence has been scarce for you."

After digesting the information Sunless provided, Nephis looked at the direction of the aforementioned statue, "How many days do you think they will need to finish their feast?"

Sunny scrunched his brows in concentration, "From the size of the carcass and their progress in devouring it for the last three days. I give them two or three more days before they finish."

"So we would do our best to avoid the west and explore the east for more safe positions for camping," she formulated prior to adding in an afterthought, "we could go north or south but it won't put as much distance between us and the monsters then."

"We don't even know where we are," stated Sunless a hint of panic infiltrating his voice, "much less if there is even a citadel or gate near here to get back to earth."

Nephis went silent. She knew that he was right.

This was uncharted territory. None of the texts she read about the Dream Realm talked of environment and geography such as this.

"We are in some form of cursed lands called the Forgotten Shore," William stated in a matter of factly tone while changing the meat he was done cooking for another one.

"How do you know?" Nephis asked, in equal parts, curious and suspicious.

"What do you mean cursed!?"

Meanwhile, Sunny was asking the real important questions.

William didn't reply immediately but rather summoned his [Azure Sword] memory, "This memory's description told me: In the cursed lands of the Forgotten Shore, only steel remembers."

Then, he dismissed the memory and returned to cooking breakfast.

It was then that moment that Cassie immediately sat up straight. Her eyes were widened and her face was pale as a sheet of paper. She seemed to be both nervous and excited.

'So, it still came,' thought William as he watched the blond girl collect herself.

Nephis looked at the oracle with worry-filled eyes, "Cassie? What's the matter."

The blind girl turned her face towards them. She had a genuine smile on her face.

"A vision... I had a vision!"

Sunny looked at her strangely as if coming to terms with someone being able to see the future or past.

On the other hand, Nephis immediately went into alert mode. Her hand was outstretched and ready to summon her sword on a moment's notice. "Are we in danger?"

Meanwhile, William took advantage of the moment everyone was concentrated on Cassie to cast [Prestidigitation] on the cooked crab meat.

Cassie shook her head, "No, it's not that. People! I saw a castle full of people!"

This piece of news elated both Sleepers for a moment before they saw the direction the blond oracle was pointing at.

"I don't know how far it is, but I'm sure that it is in that direction," she said excitedly while pointing to the west.

"This..."

Both Sunny and Nephis looked at each other with difficult expressions as they didn't know whether to be glad or petrified.

"Good job, Cass! See, I told you that you were not useless!"

The white-haired youth's joyful voice cut through the stiffling silence as he gave the blind girl a friendly pat on the head. Then, he placed a piece of freshly cooked crab meat on a stick close to her mouth, "Here, eat breakfast while it's still hot."

William saw the heat radiating from the meat caused Cassie's fair cheeks to get reddened before she promptly lowered her head to enjoy her meal.

However, she soon noticed the silence coming from the other two group members, "What's wrong?"

Sunny scratched the back of his head in an effort to find a way to say what he wanted to nicely, but in the end, he just sighed and gave up on the notion.

"No, nothing's wrong. It's just that we don't want to go in that particular direction. That's where I came from. There are a lot of scavengers there."

The brilliant smile that had graced Cassie's delicate face fell apart rather fast upon hearing that, "Oh."

"Now, now," placated William gently, "I'm sure we can figure something out. Come on, you saw me fight, I can fight off a few scavies, no sweat."

If it was anyone else, Sunny would've scoffed at them due to their bragging, but he had already seen the end result of his fight. Even someone as cynical as him would have to admit that it was reassuring to be traveling with him. Plus, if he asked nicely, maybe he would teach him how to wield the sword properly.

Sure, there was also Nephis, but as someone who lived in the outskirts, he had his own subtle prejudice against the legacies. Moreover, it seemed to him that William was more likely to agree to train him rather than the silver-haired girl.

While Sunless was lost in his own thoughts, Nephis looked at Cassie with an indecipherable expression, "Tell us more about that castle."

A hint of her previous excitement returned to her expression. With a firm nod, she began describing her vision.

"I dreamt of a vast, ruined city built of weathered stone. It was surrounded by tall, impregnable walls. Various monsters were wandering its narrow streets. In the center of the city, there was a hill, and on that hill stood a magnificent castle."

A sweet smile adorned her doll-like face.

"But there were no monsters in the castle! Instead, it was full of people. I think... no, I'm sure that they were Awakened. Some were guarding the walls, and some were going about their lives without a care in the world. There was food, safety, and laughter!"

William let out a contemptuous chuckle internally, 'What a sweet picture painted by the brush of fate. If only it were that easy. The scariest monsters in these lands are already inside that castle. Yet, it is also where our way out is.'

"Did you see anything else?" asked Sunless after she finished.

Cassie frowned as she tried to recall the fleeting vision, and then her face cleared.

"Yes! I saw Nephis and Sunny leading me through the gates of the castle! It means that we're going to reach it!" she said in excitement, not noticing that she her vision forgot to include someone.

'Hm?' William turned to look at the excited blond with a curious expression, 'weird, why did the vision change from the original? Wasn't it supposed to only show Sunny leading her through the gates.'

In his perspective, it was normal for him not to be mentioned in the vision since due to his [Fateless] attribute. However, unbeknownst to him, a dark-haired Sleeper and a silver-haired Sleeper looked at his back with complicated expressions as they noticed how he was omitted out of the vision.

They exchanged a quick glance between each other, but neither held the answer the other was looking for.

"Alright!" exclaimed William in an excited tone as he clapped his hands, "let's fill up our bellies and start our journey to the west!"

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Sunny has come to a few realizations about his new companions when he saw them interacting while eating breakfast.

The first and the most obvious one by far was how he misjudged the heiress of the Immortal Flame Clan. When he first laid eyes on her at the Academy gates, he thought that she looked aloof, cold, and distant as if she was apart from the world itself.

It didn't help that, during his observation of her at the academy, she had sparse contact with other people and usually adopted her cold and silent persona when talking to someone.

However, his assumptions couldn't be farther from the truth; in actuality, Nephis was just extremely socially awkward. It was so bad that she often struggled to find the right words to use or the even forgot to add intonations into her speech that led to it being cut in the middle or even come out as statements when she didn't mean to.

Thus, she had just chosen to stay silent than to embarrass herself due to her introverted nature.

Next was their resident oracle, who just showed them a vision provided by her ability a while ago. Sunny would be lying if he didn't feel weirded out by knowing that someone could peer into the unknown future and the forgotten past. However, he had to concede that as a price for such an ability, the poor girl was blind to the present.

Moreover, he noticed how attached and dependent she was on a certain white-haired member of their group. He scoffed at it internally since he had seen many people in the outskirts leeching off of stronger people to survive. He was fairly sure that she was doing the same thing despite how innocent her appearance may seem.

Finally, he observed the tallest Sleeper in their group who was animatedly talking with the blond girl while eating his breakfast. Sunny had to admit that his fellow outskirts boy was the most enigmatic out of all of them.

His mannerism, his relaxed attitude, his fighting prowess, and the way he charged at monsters without a fear in his eyes all felt very strange and perplexing for the resident shadow master.

It couldn't be just because of training since he hadn't seen him train with the instructors even once when he was snooping around with his shadow.

If Master Jet hadn't confirmed William's outskirts status, Sunny would've been more inclined to believe that William was a Legacy rather than the introverted Nephis, but reality truly seemed stranger than fiction.

Also, he couldn't forget the time he spied on him talking to himself in his room. The William of that time and the William before him differed like night and day.

Yet, he could shake off the gut feeling that there was something eerie about the white-haired boy that even made his shadow become warry of him.

In the end, Sunless's plans didn't change much due to his recent insight. He was still going to survive this no matter the cost - whether by hook, or crook.

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"Skrieeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

The Carapace Scavenger screeched with its dying breath as the blade of Frostmourne that was imbedded in its chest glowed ominously and swallowed up its soul.

The voice of the spell rang in his ears.

[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.] (D20 = 9)

[Your soul grows....]

Unfortunately for William, he couldn't focus on it as he rolled to the side to avoid the sharp pincer that threatened to disembowel him.

William skimmed over his assailant. It was another Carapace Scavenger, but this one looked worse for wear with some deep cuts on its armor that were dripping azure blood.

'This one was supposed to be handled by Nephis,' he noted, then quickly looked over to see the Changing Star charging at it from behind with a rare irritated look on her face.

Even though the wounded monster was focused on William, it was bound to notice the squelching sounds made from the silver-haired Sleeper's advance. Thus, he had to prevent that from happening.

Thus, the young man activated his [Mantle of Death] ability. The monstrous crab creature was stunned still momentarily by the horrific visions it was experiencing.

Thankfully, those few moments were all the Legacy awakened needed to finish the job and slay the creature, and immediately, the scavenger was consumed by hot, white flames.

The Changing Star watched the burning monster, her face not betraying the fact that she just felt her whole body burn as part of her flaw. With a strained and slightly apologetic voice, she said, "Sorry."

She had wanted to apologize for letting the monster escape her grasp and attack him.

"No worries," he assured her with a smile, "no one got hurt, and we removed the threat."

William didn't notice the subtle shift in the Changing Star's expression since he was immersed in his own thoughts.

Of course, anyone else would have berated the girl extensively for her mistake, but he couldn't do it in good conscience since he knew why the scavenger opted to target him specifically.

Also, it was also hypocritical of him to do so since the reason why the nightmare creatures seem to always find them is due to his attribute [Fateless], regardless of how good Sunny's scouting was. He had opted not to use Arthas and Jaina as scouts so as to not arouse needless suspicion.

As a result, it was the sixth Carapace Scavenger they had to content with since they left their campsite this morning; not to mention the four other monsters that his undead minions managed to ward off.

{3 previous personal kills + 4 minion kills. D20 = 2, 16, 2, 5, 20, 2, 3}

They kept swarming around them like flies on shit. Well, at least he got a memory and an echo out of it.

'Speaking of echoes...'

"I believe it is safe to call the others to get out of their hiding place," noted the youth as he stared at the smoking Carapace Scavenger.

Nephis seemed to want to say something but couldn't get the chance as William yelled out into the coral, "It's safe to come out now!"

At first, there was silence, then came rustling as the coral parted to show another Carapace Scavenger, but this one was not a nightmare creature but rather an echo.

His mind flashed with the information he read from its runes when he got it.

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Echo Type: Beast

Echo Core: Awakened

Echo Attributes: [Strong], [Armored]

Echo Description: [A cursed soldier of the Fallen Legion.]

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If he were being honest, the echo was a bit lackluster since he had five better versions already under his control roaming the labyrinth. Thus, under the shocked gazes of the other three Sleepers, he had gifted the echo to the blond oracle.

It was not much, but it could protect her from danger if the need arose. Also, it helped that it could carry the blind girl so that their traveling pace could pick up.

As the echo came nearer, the two Sleepers saw the passengers on its back come into view.

"Thank you for your hard work," Cassie thanked them. Meanwhile, Sunless got off the back of the scavenger echo and summoned his [Azure Blade]. He then started dismantling the carcasses as he extracted the soul shards from inside them.

He also didn't forget to take some meat, too, since they needed their provisions.

The dark-haired boy gave Nephis one of the two soul shards he extracted and then glanced at William with a disgruntled expression while holding the second shard.

"As per our agreement, it is your share," the white-haired youth nodded his head at the shorter boy who immediately stashed the soul shard in his makeshift seaweed bag.

Before they started the day's journey, William proposed a deal to the outskirts kid. In exchange for acting as a bodyguard for their resident oracle, William offered him forty percent of his share of the day's soul shards.

William knew that soul shards meant jack shit for Sunless other than some minor monetary value, but the dark-haired boy wanted that fact to be kept a secret. Thus, he begrudgingly agreed to the deal since what awakened would turn down free soul shards.

William felt slightly bad for taking advantage of his fellow Sleeper, but he needed the extra security for the oracle, especially with the heat that his attribute was attracting continuously.

"I can't believe it," muttered Sunless audibly, "no matter what paths my shadow secures, we always end up with nightmare creatures attacking us! And we have not even traveled that much into the west!"

"We'll manage," was the grey-eyed girl's curt answer. Sunless fell silent as if he was regretting his life decisions before sighing and sending his shadow to scout ahead again.

William silently apologized to them in his heart.

Thus, after collecting the spoils of the battle, the group of four Sleepers continued on their journey west.

Thankfully, this time, they had managed to travel a good distance without being ambushed, but soon their luck seemed to have run out.

"Halt!" Sunny suddenly whispered to them sharply, causing them to get into full alert mode with their weapons summoned and ready.

 Sweat trickled down his forehead as he observed the group of scavengers that his shadow had found.

'Fuck!' the boy thought in panic.

These scavengers seemed similar to the first scavenger he had slain: losers of the pack. Their carapace armor had many injuries on it but none seemed too severe or pronounced. Each one seemed to be a more dangerous threat than the mangled one he managed to kill with a makeshift wooden spear, especially since their was half a dozen of them.

"Sunny, what do you see?" he heard William ask from beside him.

"Half a dozen scavengers are closing in on us fast!"

Nephis had a calculating look on her face as she gazed at the direction Sunless was pointing at, "Did they already devour the carcass?"

"No, that's not it," he shook his head, "there probably isn't enough for all of them to eat anymore so stragglers are forced to leave with an empty stomach."

Nephis thought for a moment before declaring while pointing at a nearby branching path, "We'll circle around them."

"That won't do," William immediately shot down the idea.

"Why not?" Nephis inquired, a hint of confusion laced with her voice.

'Because I'm with you,' thought the tall youth.

"I'm not suggesting that it is a bad idea, it's just that we have limited time to reach the statue before the Dark Sea returned. If we continuously take detours to avoid the scavengers then we are never going to reach it by nightfall."

The Changing Star could see the wisdom in her companion's words but that didn't change the fact that the scavengers still outnumbered them.

"Then," she spoke again after a moment of deliberation, "what do you suggest?"

Thankfully, William had thought of a plan but it was extremely risky, particularly for himself but it could work if they did it right.

"I have a plan but its gonna need both you and Sunny to be able to one-shot a scavenger each," explained the white-haired boy as he looked at his companions.

Sunless and Nephis looked at each other before returning their curious gazes towards William.

"Me?" the dark-haired boy pointed at himself with uncertainty.

"Continue," was all that Nephis said.

"Ok, look," said the man with the plan as he used a stick to illustrate his plan in the mud, "I'll act as a bait and focus all the scavies' attentions on me while you two circle around them from the side. Then I will activate my ability and stun them momentarily. We will use that moment to strike and if we do this correctly, we can cut their numbers in half. It's not a genius plan, but it's what I got."

"No! You can't do that!" Cassie was the first one who expressed her clear displeasure with the plan.

"Cass, it's our only way to reach our destination before nightfall," he tried to placate her.

"But can't you use-" she was interrupted by William raising his voice.

"Cass," he interrupeted her, "it's the only way!"

His tone carried a hint of warning which caused the blond oracle to promptly go silent. She knew that she was about to fuck up.

Ignoring the lover's drama that happened before him, Sunny asked, "How do you propose we fight those monsters? Even if you two are skilled with the sword, did you forget that they are still a whole rank above us?"

"Then, we used their weak points," both Nephis and William expressed in unison.

"Weak points?"

The two awakened looked at each other before William gestured for her to continue, "After you, princess."

She huffed before stating:

"From what I gathered while fighting Scavengers, they have three weak points that can be exploited. Their joints, gaps in armor between the joints and torso, and an area at their backs approximately at the level of their eyes."

She then looked at William for confirmation, "Exactly. Now, what I want you to target when they are stunned is that area on their backs. It is a slightly concave, discolored part of their armor where several plates come together. The chitin there is comparatively thinner than the rest of the body. Thus, one good strike and you can directly damage their brains."

Naturally, this was not only knowledge that he had read from the novel but it also came with the practical experience of fighting several of these creatures.

Sunny and Nephis stayed silent after they were told the plan. If they were being honest, it sounded feasible but that was exactly the problem - it SOUNDED feasible.

"What about the rest?" asked the dark-haired boy.

William shrugged.

"We'll take care of them one-on-one. I believe you have already slain one already. Just do it again."

'Easy for you to say,' thought he as his gaze turned to the only one who hadn't said her opinion about the plan.

Nephis was silent for a few more seconds before she looked at William in the eye and nodded her head slightly, "Let's do it."

"Great," the white-haired boy clapped his armored hands, "where did you say the scavies were coming from again?"

"Over there," Sunless pointed at a particular direction ahead of them before following behind Nephis who had already started doing her part of the ambush.

With the two of them gone, William turned to the silent blond girl who was sitting on the back of the Carapace Scavenger echo.

"Cass, don't hesitate to use your echo to defend yourself if need be," advised William as he was about to go towards the direction of the group nightmare creatures; however, he stopped midstep when he heard Cassie's voice.

"I can also help," she said in a low voice.

William had a difficult expression on his face as he turned to look at his companion, "Cass, its too dangerous for you-"

"And it's not for you!" she cut him off and then raised her head.

A pang of pain struck his heart when he saw her saddened expression.

"You know better than anyone that I can handle it just fine. Plus, it is kind of my responsibility to do so," he assuaged before turning his back to her. Then, he continued in a lower voice.

"After all, it's my fault we're in this mess in the first place."

"No, no...." she continued to deny what he was saying but it fell on deaf ears.

"Cass, do me a favor and keep yourself safe. Alright?"

This was all William said before rushing towards the direction of the six incoming scavengers.

Cassia was left alone on the back of her echo with glistening tears running down her delicate features.

"Please keep him safe," she prayed to whatever being that would listen. Unfortunately, no such beings remained in the Dream Realm and definitely not in the Forgotten Shore.

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Sunny continued to monitor the group of Carapace Scavengers as he followed behind Nephis.

"Do you really believe William's plan will work?"

Nephis didn't answer immediately, "Maybe."

"Then why are we risking ourselves then?" he asked incredulously.

"I moved. You followed," Nephis said curtly.

Sunny opened his mouth to retort but closed it immediately when he realized that he didn't have anything to retort with.

An awkward silence spread between them.

Thankfully, they soon reached an appropriate site for the ambush. They only had to wait for William to do his part for them to move.

They didn't have to wait for long.