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Chapter 59 Shadow Of The Crimson Spire

Jumping off the 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?"

During their journey through the labyrinth, they discovered that the scavengers were not the only creatures populating it. Different types of monsters lived in the crimson forest, hiding inside the reefs during the night and coming out to hunt once the sun was up.

There were sentient colonies of carnivorous worms that attacked from beneath the black mud, flesh-eating flowers that strangled their prey with bloodsucking vines, and weird transparent tentacles that they had once seen dragging a desperately resisting scavenger into a dark, cavernous crevice.

They still didn't know what type of creature had been hiding in the crevice. Sunny hoped that they would never find out.

In short, the labyrinth was home to all kinds of horrors, every one of them at least of the Awakened rank. They were all carrion eaters, living off the remains left behind by the monsters of the dark sea. Given the opportunity, they were also more than willing to devour each other — not to mention the three juicy humans.

Luckily, the carapace legion turned out to be extremely territorial and seemed to have the upper hand in this region of the crimson reef. While their armor, size and physical strength made the scavengers formidable opponents, dealing mostly with one type of creature was infinitely better than constantly facing unknown danger.

The centipede monsters were the latest enemy of the carapace legion they had met. Some of these critters were more than three meters long, with glistening red chitin and hundreds of tiny, scurrying legs. They were abhorrently fast and agile, being able to move through mud, climb the coral walls and even drop on the unsuspecting victims from above with incredible speed.

What's worse, their bodies were able to secret a corrosive black oil that melted through the strongest armor in seconds. The only redeeming quality of the centipede monsters was that their chitin shells weren't very tough and could be easily pierced by a sword.

Sunny answered without turning back:

"Yeah, six of them. And a few scavengers, too. We let them fight each other and then finished off the survivors."

Cassie gulped.

"Were you hurt?"

"Nothing our armor couldn't handle."

"What about the centurion?"

He glanced at the half-devoured carcass and smiled.

"It's not going to bother us again."

This was the second awakened monster they had slain after entering the Dream Realm. Compared to the first encounter, this battle went much smoother. No one died, no one was seriously injured.

The Echo even kept both of its pincers.

"How many soul shards did we get?"

Sunny counted.

"Should be eleven."

Now it was Cassie's turn to smile.

"That's our biggest haul so far! By a lot!"

He nodded.

"Yeah."

However, they had once again failed to receive a Memory. Sunny wasn't sure if his bad luck was to blame, but neither he nor Nephis had been able to acquire a single one for the past two weeks. It was almost as though the Spell had decided that they had already gotten enough.

'There can never be enough!'

He sighed.

One of the games he and Cassie liked to play during camp was to discuss what they would buy after coming back to the real world and becoming rich. However, he had to collect a few Memories to auction off first. Otherwise, where would the money come from?

Consumed by greed and avarice, Sunny approached the Echo and looked up at it with disapproval.

"Hey, you! Stop chewing!"

The scavenger obediently froze, a piece of meat still hanging from its mouth. f𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚠𝚎𝔟𝔫𝔬𝔳𝚎l.𝔠o𝔪

"Spit it out!"

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? Of all the Echoes in the world, why did I have to get stuck with a defective one?"

His shadow solemnly nodded, expressing that it completely understood his sentiment. Sunny squinted at it. What a rare show of solidarity. The shadow didn't have any Echoes, though…

What defective individual was it stuck with?

'Cheeky bastard…'

Cassie laughed.

"Don't badmouth my steed. He is a great Echo! I like him very much."

'It's a "he" now, huh?'

Sunny shook his head again and got to stripping the remaining meat off the centurion's carcass. Then, he placed the meat into the seaweed saddlebags attached to the scavenger. He had made these bags himself to increase the group's carrying capacity. After all, the scavenger was supposed to be extremely strong — not using it to their advantage would have been an oversight.

After that, Sunny sighed and got to the least pleasant task — harvesting the oil sacks from the centipede monsters' corpses. Each had two of them, connected to a special gland. The whole process was more disgusting than dangerous, since the corrosive effect was only achieved after the liquids from the two sacks were mixed.

They had not come up with a way to utilize the centipede oil yet, but Nephis insisted on collecting as much of it as possible. She was sure that it was going to be of use one day.

At the very least, the oil was highly flammable.

Speaking of Nephis, by the time Sunny was done collecting the sacks, she had already gathered all the soul shards and was standing in front of the Echo. He showed her his trophies and carefully placed them in a separate saddlebag.

"All done?"

She nodded.

Sunny looked at the sky, trying to determine the time. The sun was right above them, high in the grey sky. There was still plenty of daytime left.

"What do you think? We're right inbetween the Flat Hill and the Bone Ridge. Should we return or try to reach the Ridge today?"

The ground level of the labyrinth was not uniform. Some parts of it were situated higher than the others. Currently, they were in one such area. The dark sea was much more shallow here, which meant that there were more natural features that remained above water during the night. That made for shorter distance between them.

Nephis thought for a bit, then said:

"Let's push to the Bone Ridge."

They had already scouted most of the way to it yesterday, so there wasn't much danger of getting lost in the labyrinth and not making it on time. With the carapace centurion dead, the unpredictable element that had been making their lives harder for these past few days was also gone. Considering this, Changing Star's decision seemed proper.

Sunny nodded.

"Okay."

With that, he sent his shadow forward.

***

Some time later, they were approaching the Bone Ridge. The sun was preparing to set, but there was still enough time to get to safety. Sunny, however, felt alarmed and uncomfortable.

This feeling began to pursue him soon after they had left the cliffs. It always appeared close to the evening and persisted until the last minutes of the sunset, then disappeared, leaving him puzzled and uneasy. The further west they traveled, the stronger the feeling became.

It was as though something was not quite right with the world during that time. But no matter how hard Sunny tried to understand what that wrongness was, he couldn't.

In the end, he decided to share his uneasiness with the group. After listening to him, the girls were surprised. It seemed that they did not notice anything strange. Even Cassie, whose affinity to revelations provided her with an incredible intuition, didn't experience the strange feeling.

However, she did suggest a theory. Since Sunny was the only one susceptive to the feeling, it was logical to assume that there was something unique about him that made it possible. And the only difference he had from the girls in terms of perception was his shadow sense.

Which meant that the source of the wrongness, most likely, had something to do with the behavior of shadows.

Guided by her advice, Sunny was finally able to understand the reason for his discomfort. As it turns out, Cassie was right — in the hours closest to sunset, when the sun was hanging low in the western skies, a vast shadow moved through the labyrinth, affecting his senses and making his skin crawl.

The shadow was too distant and colossal to be seen, but he could still feel its presence.

When he told Cassie about the immense shadow, she nodded, as though it explained everything.

Then, she said:

"That is the shadow of the Crimson Spire."

Chapter 60 Bone Ridge

Back then, it took him a couple of seconds to realize what she was talking about.

"The spire from your vision? The one with seven seals?"

Cassie nodded.

"Yes. In my dream, it seemed to be as tall as a mountain. I could even see it from the walls of the human castle, looming in the distance like a crimson spear piercing the skies. When the sun sets, the Spire's vast shadow falls over the castle and stretches east, as far as you can see."

She was silent for a moment, then added:

"The feeling I got when looking at the Crimson Spire was very similar to what you had described, only much more intense."

Sunny frowned, trying to remember the exact words Cassie had used to describe her vision. Seven severed heads guarding seven seals… a dying angel being devoured by hungry shadows… feeling of extreme terror and loss…

What was the deal with that Spire, exactly?

"Is it crimson because it's made out of the same stuff as the labyrinth?"

The crimson "coral" surrounding them was not, in fact, coral. It's just what they called it based on some resemblance, for the sake of simplicity. The actual nature of the strange material remained a mystery.

Cassie hesitated.

"Maybe it's the other way around. Maybe the labyrinth is made from the same stuff as the Spire."

In other words, the Crimson Spire might have been the source of all this madness. Still, it was just a theory — there was too little information to confirm it.

However, Sunny did feel that the Spire was, in one way or another, at the center of all things that they had encountered. He just hoped that it wouldn't be their final destination.

Knowing the reason behind his restlessness, Sunny was able to endure it much better. He even found a hidden benefit to this situation — as long as he sensed the shadow of the Crimson Spire, he could pinpoint the direction to the human castle, since it was situated somewhere between their location and the source of the shadow.

In a sense, the Crimson Spire had become his inner compass.

"Get ready."

Neph's voice took Sunny out of his reverie. Shaking off the distracting thoughts, he focused on the task at hand.

They were getting close to the Bone Ridge.

This name came to their minds as soon as they had first laid their eyes on this towering landmark. It was visible from quite a distance, sharply contrasted against the crimson coral and the grey sky in all its ivory splendor.

The Bone Ridge was, in fact, made of bone. The skeletal remains of a colossal sea monster lay on an enormous mound of chaotically growing coral, with its arching spine protruding especially high above the ground. It was impossible to say what the terrifying creature had looked like while it was still alive, but one thing was certain — it was gargantuan even by the standards of the dark sea.

This wasn't the first giant skeleton they saw during their journey. In fact, the labyrinth was littered with remains of dead leviathans, their massive bones forming natural arches and palaces throughout it. They were easy to spot because the coral formations were especially tall and dense in their vicinity, as though trying to bury any sign of whiteness in the sea of crimson.

Sunny, however, had a feeling that the situation was actually reversed. To him, it seemed as though the coral was actually growing out of the old bones and spreading in every direction, slowly consuming the world. When he looked at the crimson mounds surrounding the colossal remains, he couldn't help but see them as rivers of ancient, solidified blood.

He was almost sure that if they were to dig deep enough into the black mud to find the roots of the crimson forest, they would find nothing but endless layers of bones.

What a scary image.

Regardless of what Sunny thought about the nature of the labyrinth, the beast whose remains formed the Bone Ridge was especially large. Thanks to that, a portion of its long spine was tall enough to remain above the water during the night. That's why they had chosen it as the next stop on their journey.

With the evening approaching, the next task was crucial. They had to scale the dead leviathan and make sure that no other creature had decided to take shelter in its remains.

If something did, they had no choice but to try and kill it, since there was no time to retreat to their previous safe haven.

The last step was often the riskiest.

Coming to the base of the coral mound, the group moved around it, searching for a convenient path up. Eventually, they arrived in front of the creature's cracked, misshapen skull. With its lower jaw missing or buried under the mud, the upper formed a vast, cavernous cave.

Feeling shivers running down his spine, Sunny passed beneath the terrifying palisade of teeth and entered the cave. With his shadow leading the way, they made way to the back of the creature's skull and soon entered the hollow expanse of its spine.

Inside the spine, the bone surface under their feet was as wide as a road. Actually, it looked a lot like a highway running through a long tunnel, with stark beams of light falling through the gaps between the massive vertebrae. The tunnel was inclined upward, most of its length hidden behind the bend of the ceiling.

When the Echo entered the spine, its chitin legs produced a loud, echoing clatter.

Nephis grimaced.

"Any movement?"

Sunny checked with the shadow and shook his head.

Changing Star looked forward and slightly lowered her chin.

"Let's proceed."

Despite the fact that the shadow had not noticed any danger, they still summoned their swords before moving forward. It was not their first time being ambushed at the edge of safety.

Luckily, their precautions turned out to be unnecessary. Nothing was hiding inside the gargantuan remains, so they were able to reach the highest point of the spine without having to cut their way through an unknown number of monsters.

By the time they got to safety, the sun was already setting. The dark sea was returning, filling the inside of the sea monster's spine with the echoing sound of rushing water. Sunny took the saddlebags off the Echo and dismissed it, making their camp instantly feel much roomier.

All three of them were in desperate need of a bath. Leaving the girls alone to give them an opportunity to wash themselves, Sunny walked some distance away and sat down, letting his tired body rest.

His shadow returned to the lower parts of the spine, watching the black, dim water slowly rise and devour the ivory whiteness. He had to make sure that nothing would crawl out of the water at the last minute.

With half of his mind preoccupied with observing the rising tide, the other half was free to wander. Sunny summoned the runes and checked the number of shadow fragments in his possession.

Shadow Fragments: [96/1000].

Not bad… he only had twelve at the beginning of all this. In less than a month, the amount increased dramatically. He was stronger and faster now. He was also more experienced.

However, that still left him far inferior to even the weakest Nightmare Creatures of the Forgotten Shore in terms of raw physical might, even with the help of the shadow.

'How long before I'm able to wrestle a scavenger with my bare hands?'

The answer was pretty obvious, not to mention extremely disappointing — not before his own Shadow Core had awakened, which could only happen after returning to the real world.

Sunny sighed.

Soon, it was his turn to wash. Taking the Bottle of Endless Water from refreshed, rosy Cassie, he walked back to his secluded spot and dismissed the Pupetter's Shroud.

A cold breeze touched his pale skin, making Sunny shiver. He looked down, shaking his head at the amount of dirt, sweat and dried blood that was covering his body.

Being an Awakened was not the cleanest of professions.

While he was washing up, Nephis used the remaining time before nightfall to make a fire and cook some meat. These days, they even had salt to season it. At first, the idea of using the sea salt left behind by the dark sea did not seem very appealing, but after a while, they grew accustomed to it.

Salt made every meal they had much tastier.

They ate in silence, too hungry and tired to talk. Soon, it was time to sleep.

Sunny took the first watch, planning to fit in some sword practice before it was his turn to rest. Going through the motions of the basic kata, he split his mind in two. One part was concentrating on the movements of his body, while the other, smaller part, was observing the surface of the black water through his shadow.

In the absence of wind, the dark circle covering the lower part of the spine was strangely calm. This was his first time seeing the black water without the constant undulation of waves, with its surface strangely flat and absolutely still.

It looked like a giant mirror, one that was made of pure darkness.

It was unnaturally mesmerizing. Suddenly, he felt a strong desire to come closer and take a look at his reflection.

However, Sunny didn't move. 𝐟𝗿𝖊𝖊𝘄𝖊𝐛𝐧𝖔𝘃𝖊𝗹.𝖈𝖔𝐦

He was terrified of what might look back.