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Chapter 63 Lord Of Ashes

Moving through the ashen sand and piles of fallen leaves, a giant monster was coming down the hill.

Sunny gulped, his expression turning dark.

The creature was as large as a house, with its eight segmented legs resembling tall pillars. Its form was similar to that of scavengers and centurions, comprised of a crab-like carapace and a protruding, somewhat humanoid torso. However, this was where the similarities between them ended.

Instead of chitin, the behemoth's shell was seemingly made out of polished, lustrous metal. It was as though its whole body had been once submerged into a crucible of molten steel, emerging from it encased in an impenetrable suit of shining armor.

Beams of sunlight were reflecting from the chrome surface of the carapace, creating the bright glimmer Sunny had noticed. Massive but strangely elegant, the steel monster resembled a giant knight. Sunny was ready to swear that he had noticed the shapes of seven stars carved into its chest.

However, that knight was corrupted and evil. It radiated a sinister aura, like a demon summoned from hell to sow death and slaughter. The polished armor of the creature was covered with long, jagged spikes. Its humanoid torso had four mighty arms, two ending with powerful pincers, the other two — with razor-sharp, terrifying scythes.

The demon's head was more pronounced than that of a scavenger and crowned with several tall, sharp horns. Its metal face was almost human-like, but simultaneously repulsively monstrous and bestial. Just looking at it made Sunny's skin crawl.

'That thing… is scary.'

Whatever that creature was, its rank within the carapace legion was clearly higher than that of a centurion, not to mention of a lowly scavenger. It was the next step in their evolution. A general or a commander, perhaps. What were they called… legates? Praetorians?

Holding his breath, Sunny watched as the Carapace Demon descended from the Ashen Barrow. Stopping in front of the transcendent soul shard, it looked briefly at the kneeling centurion.

The deadly awakened monster shrank under its gaze, as if terrified of the larger Nightmare Creature. Sunny knew how it felt, since he did the same when the behemoth's eyes had briefly glided past his shadow's hiding place.

Not paying the centurion any attention, the Carapace Demon picked up the gleaming crystal and turned around. Then, it unhurriedly returned to the shade of the giant tree's branches.

Sunny slowly exhaled.

"Sunny? What is happening?"

He looked at Cassie, whose face was full of worry and curiosity. After hesitating for a little while, he said:

"There's a new threat. Stay quiet a bit longer, I'll explain later."

Back at the footsteps of the tall hill, the carapace centurion was finally ready to stand up again. Sunny was in a dilemma. He had to follow the monster to make sure that it doesn't stumble on their hiding place on its way back to the labyrinth.

However, he was also extremely curious to see what the Carapace Demon was up to in its lair on the top of the Ashen Barrow.

There was no time to think things through properly.

Making a hasty decision, Sunny sent his shadow sliding over the grey sand. It masterfully avoided the carapace centurion's eyes and was already climbing the tall hill a few seconds later.

'One look. I'll just take one look.'

Hiding in the deep shade cast by the majestic tree's scarlet crown, the shadow glided up the slope and approached the place where the Carapace Demon had disappeared from its sight.

On top of the hill, the ground was covered with fallen leaves. The Ashen Barrow was indeed larger than any high natural feature they had encountered before, vast and spacious as an actual island. However, the traces left behind by the massive creature's pillar-like legs could be easily seen.

They led the shadow to the center of the island, where the obsidian tree's enormous trunk was rising from the ground, with its broad roots stretching in all directions.

The Carapace Demon was standing beneath the tree, looking up at its lower branches. The transcendent shard was still clenched in its pincer.

'What is it looking at?'

Sunny made the shadow trace the creature's gaze and noticed several round, appetizing fruits hanging between the scarlet leaves. One of them looked especially ripe.

Suddenly, the demon dropped the soul shard into the sand and, completely forgetting about it, raised its body. It stretched a pincer up and gently grasped the fruit, then pulled on it.

Without any resistance, the fruit tore off the branch. Holding it as something fragile and extremely precious, the massive creature slowly lowered itself to the ground. Then, it carefully brought the fruit to its mouth and took a small bite.

'Its… eating fruits? This abomination is vegetarian?!'

Bewildered and not quite sure of what he had just seen, Sunny had no choice but to command his shadow to leave and hurry to the base of the hill. The time was up, and if he wanted to catch up with the carapace centurion, he had to act with haste.

Gliding over the fallen leaves, the shadow descended from the Ashen Barrow and flew back in the direction of the labyrinth, soon catching up with the retreating monster.

'Phew.'

Feeling a lot of relief, Sunny made sure that the centurion's route would not put him on the collision course with the knoll they had been hiding behind and finally allowed himself to relax... slightly.

He waited until the scythe-wielding monster was completely gone before slowly rising back to his feet.

"It's safe to come out now."

Nephis and Cassie stood up, stretching and massaging their limbs. Suddenly remembering how tightly they were pressed against each other while hiding behind the knoll, Sunny just barely avoided turning red with embarrassment.

'That's… uh… was a necessary measure!'

He was almost glad that the Carapace Demon had appeared at the perfect moment to take his thought away from that situation.

"What happened?"

Nephis looked at him and raised an eyebrow. For once, her expression of indifference did not look very convincing.

Sunny glanced at the not-so-distant Ashen Barrow and shivered.

"There's danger ahead. We need to return to the Bone Ridge. I'll explain everything once we're safe and sound, back at the camp."

She opened her mouth to say something, but then thought better of it and remained silent, simply giving him a nod. The trust they had built was enough for that much, at least. 𝙛𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝓮𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Sunny summoned the Echo, tied the golden rope around its torso, placed Cassie's makeshift saddle back on its carapace and helped the blind girl climb to her seat.

Picking up the saddlebags, he fixed them back onto the scavenger and took a step away. They were ready to go.

Before that, however, Sunny had one more thing to do. Coming close to the knoll, he used his hands to brush the sand off its surface.

Soon, the onyx black surface was revealed beneath. It was the same exact color as the bark of the colossal tree growing from the center of the Ashen Barrow.

The knoll was, in fact, just a small portion of one of the tree's giant roots, raised slightly above the ground in this part of the wasteland.

Sunny looked around, trying to calculate the size of this sea of ash. Finally, he was starting to understand what had drained all life from the giant patch of the crimson labyrinth.

***

Back inside the Bone Ridge, they were sitting around the fire. The delicious smell of roasting meat filled the air, making Sunny's stomach produce embarrassing sounds. However, it wasn't time to eat yet. He was in the middle of telling the girls about what he had seen.

"... after the centurion kneeled, another carapace creature came from the top of the Ashen Barrow. Only this one was not one of those we had seen before. It was easily twice the size of the centurion, six or seven meters tall. I can't even imagine how much it weighs. It looked like a moving house."

Nephis frowned, clearly not happy to know that there was such a behemoth barring their way.

"What's more, its carapace is not made of chitin. Instead, it looks like some strange metal alloy. I don't think we'll be able to cut through it. I also didn't notice any gaps in that monstrosity's armor, not even around the joints."

Cassie gulped, turning her head to her friend. Changing Star, however, remained silent.

Sunny sighed.

"In addition, that thing has four arms instead of the usual two, a pair with pincers and a pair with scythes. They're even bigger than the centurion's. Its carapace is littered with spikes, and it has long horns on its head. It also looks… uh… more human-like. It almost got a face, albeit an extremely ugly one. And its eyes… well, I think that it is more sentient than anything we had faced before."

Nephis was thoughtful. After a while, she said:

"It is probably an awakened demon."

Nightmare Creatures with one soul core were called "beasts", the ones with two cores were called "monsters". Three cores belonged to a class of creatures known as "demons", with "devils" right above them with four cores.

Sunny gave her a nod, indicating that he was in agreement with her conclusion.

"Or maybe a devil. In any case, I think we should avoid that scary bastard at all cost."

Changing Star stared at him, tilting her head a little. For a minute or so, there was only silence.

Sunny gritted his teeth, then sighed, then blinked a couple of times. Finally, he gave her a doomed, crooked smile.

"Let me guess. You want to kill it..."

Chapter 64 Pursued By Demons

"Let me guess. You want to kill it…"

Nephis continued to stare at him with her usual unreadable expression. After a while, Sunny chuckled and shook his head in disbelief.

"You really are crazy. That's… that's an awakened demon we're talking about, remember? Have you forgotten that we're just Sleepers?"

Then he frowned and scratched his head.

"W—wait a second. I feel like we already had this conversation before. Doesn't it feel familiar?"

Cassie glanced at the two of them and politely cleared her throat.

"Actually, you had said pretty much the exact same thing right before we decided to attack that first carapace centurion."

Sunny beamed.

"Yes! Exactly! And how did that end up? I almost got killed!"

Nephis shrugged indifferently.

"You survived, didn't you?"

He froze with his mouth open, too flabbergasted by the sheer audacity of her remark to answer immediately. A few seconds later, Sunny was finally able to speak again.

"That's not the point!"

Cassie gently touched her friend on the shoulder and whispered.

"Neph! That's not a very nice thing to say."

Changing Star's face flushed a little. Glancing aside, she hesitated and said:

"What I meant to say is… uh… we've won in the end, didn't we? It was a risk we had to take, and it paid off. We've grown stronger since then."

Sunny had a feeling that the fight against the Carapace Demon was already inevitable, but couldn't bring himself to stop protesting, solely out of principle.

"But that thing… it's huge! It's so tall you won't even be able to poke it with your sword! What are we going to do, ask the bastard politely to lower itself to our level?"

Neph frowned and looked at him with displeasure.

"It's just an…"

"...awakened demon, I know!"

Sunny sighed and shook his head again, feeling like he was talking to a stone wall.

Changing Star's mind was still a mystery to him. He had realized a long time ago that there was a deep dark well hidden behind her seemingly radiant exterior. No one pushed themselves that hard, endured that much, went that far unless they were being pursued by demons of their own… he knew that from experience.

And judging by how far ahead of everyone he had ever known Nephis was, her personal demons were especially dreadful. Much more dreadful than the terrifying Carapace Demon, at least. But although Sunny understood that she was running from something, he had no idea what destination she was so desperate to reach.

Just why was she so hellbent on finding that damned human castle, even more so than Sunny himself? His burning desire to come back to reality and rip all the rewards that the world owed him was so intense that it would frighten most people to death. There were very few things that he wasn't willing to do to achieve his dream.

However, it only had meaning for as long as he stayed alive. Nephis, on the other hand, seemed to pursue a goal that held more meaning than her life. Why else would she be so willing to risk it? Sunny just couldn't understand that logic. It was irrational and paradoxical! What can be more important than your life? If you die, you won't be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor anyway.

He looked Nephis in the eyes and said:

"Back when we agreed to fight the carapace centurion, we did so because there was no other choice. We were literally stuck on a rock with it. What about now? Don't we have a choice to avoid the Ashen Barrow?"

She stared at him for a while and then simply said:

"That's the only way west."

Sunny laughed.

'That is the truth, I'll give you that.'

When his laughter died down, he wiped the corner of his eye and said:

"Alright. Alright. That makes sense. But believe me when I say it, as the only one who actually saw the Carapace Demon… we won't be able to defeat it in a fight."

Nephis scowled.

"Your point?"

Sunny spread his hands.

"Don't misunderstand. Yes, we can't defeat it. But…"

A dark smile appeared on his face.

"That doesn't mean that we can't kill it."

Changing Star thought about it, then raised an eyebrow and asked:

"You have a plan?"

Sunny shook his head.

"Not yet, not entirely. Let me sleep on it. However, there's one thing I know for sure."

He looked west, remembering the Carapace Demon's disturbing, bestial face. In the ensuing silence, Cassie turned her head to face him and asked with curiosity:

"What is it?"

Sunny blinked.

"Ah? Oh, yes. It's pretty simple, really. Unlike the scavengers and centurions, that thing appears to be rather intelligent. Which means that it can be deceived."

***

They spent another uneventful night inside the dead leviathan's spine. As far as their camps went, this one was probably the safest. There was a certain comfort in being surrounded by walls from all sides, even if they were made out of bone. Sleeping on top of cliffs and coral mounds, just meters away from the surface of the dark sea, exposed to elements, was not very restful.

Sunny even entertained the thought of suggesting to Nephis that they should stay here for a while, a few weeks, or even months if needed. They could slowly explore the surrounding areas, hunt monsters and grow stronger.

Then, after absorbing hundreds of soul shards and shadow fragments, armed with dozens of Memories and even a few more Echoes, perhaps, they could attack the Carapace Demon and be more sure of success.

However, he quickly realized that it was a bad idea. The Forgotten Shore was perilous and unpredictable. They were rather successful in conquering its dangers so far, but it was too easy for the situation to change. One moment of bad luck was enough to doom them.

One wrong turn, one unfortunate encounter, one more enemy than they were able to handle, and their lives would be over. And that was only in regard to the usual menagerie of abominable horrors they had to fight on the daily basis. The labyrinth hid much more terrifying secrets and existences, not to mention the unimaginable terrors of the deep dark sea.

Every additional day they spent here gave a chance for something fatal and unavoidable to happen. Their best hope of survival was to face the Carapace Demon as soon as possible.

Maybe after defeating it, they would finally be able to see the tall walls of the promised castle.

Sunny tossed and turned the whole night, thinking about the giant creature and trying to give shape to the nascent seed of the idea of how to kill it.

Close to the morning, he was finally able to fall asleep — only to be awakened by Cassie carefully shaking his shoulder half an hour later.

Sunny blinked, looking at the blind girl in confusion.

"What is it?"

She gestured to Nephis, asking her to come closer. Then, a little pale, she gathered her courage and said:

"I had another vision. A vision about the Carapace Demon…"

Chapter 65 Lights In The Darkness

Sunny was instantly wide awake. Sitting up, he hurriedly rubbed his eyes and then glanced at the blind girl, ready to listen.

Nephis approached them and sat down, her face barely visible in the dim light of the early dawn.

"Past or future?"

Sunny blinked.

'Right. I should have asked myself.'

Cassie thought for a bit and then hesitantly answered:

"Past… I think."

After a short pause, her expression changed to that of certainty.

"No, I'm sure of it."

Changing Star slightly tilted her head.

"That's good. So… what did you see?"

Cassie deeply inhaled and fell silent for several seconds, remembering. Her face paled a little, but this time, she was ready to face her fear.

"I saw the Ashen Barrow deep at night, enveloped in a raging storm. The winds were bending the branches of the great tree, as if desperate to break them. The island was illuminated by the constant barrage of thundering lightning bolts, with rain falling from the skies like a flood."

She paused, catching her breath, and continued:

"The Carapace Demon was there, standing in the middle of the storm like an unshakable fortress made of polished steel. Arcs of electricity were dancing between the spikes on his armor, but the demon did not pay it any attention. He was just as Sunny described… prideful, sinister and terrifying."

Cassie closed her eyes.

"When I looked into his eyes, I felt… a sense of emptiness and corruption. He observed the storm until it began to dissipate. The winds weakened, the rain stopped. The great tree stood unbroken, just as magnificent as it was before. But then, the last bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck the ground beside it."

Sunny was listening to her tale with great attention, hopeful to hear a piece of useful information.

'So, that monstrosity is not afraid of lightning. Shame. With its metal carapace, I was almost tempted to try and lure it from under the tree during a storm.'

Apparently, that wouldn't work.

Meanwhile, Cassie was ready to carry on:

"That bolt of lightning could never hurt the Carapace Demon, let alone the miraculous tree. However, when it hit the ground, it ignited the fallen leaves that cover the Ashen Barrow's surface. Soon, a large part of the island was engulfed in fire. In the absolute darkness of the night, it shone like a beacon."

Sunny perked up, remembering something. Back when the three of them first met at the beginning of their deadly adventure through the Dream Realm, the girls mentioned that the light he had seen from the giant knight's statue a few nights prior was indeed made by them.

However, making that fire had turned out to be a big mistake. At night, any source of light was like a lure for the monsters of the Forgotten Shore… including the terrifying creatures that lurked in the depths of the dark sea. That's why, ever since, they were careful to never light a fire after sunset, preferring to endure the darkness instead of attracting unknown horrors from beneath the waves.

Having a guess of what had happened next in Cassie's vision, he waited for the blind girl to continue. Her voice trembled a little.

"Before the flames died down, the dark sea surged, and a… a thing crawled out of it, covering almost the entire slope of the Ashen Barrow with its body. It looked like a… like a mass of bones and rotten flesh connected by black seaweed, with thousands of horrible eyes staring at me hungrily from beneath, coiling tentacles seething as it pushed itself toward the great tree."

Her face turned slightly green. Just remembering the abomination made Cassie feel nauseated, but she gritted her teeth and did not stop speaking.

"That was the most repulsive creature I've ever seen. However, it seemed slow and clumsy, as though being ashore, outside of the black water, was weakening it. The Carapace Demon did not hesitate to lunge at the creature, completely ignoring the fact that it was at least ten times his size. It was like… like he completely lost his mind, enraged by the intrusion on the island."

Nephis suddenly spoke:

"How did the demon survive?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The blind girl hesitated.

"I… I don't know. I didn't see the battle itself, only its beginning and its end. At the break of dawn, the Carapace Demon crawled back into the shade of the great tee. He was severely wounded, with several of his legs missing and his scythes covered by a spiderweb of cracks. The fire was gone, and there was no sign of the sea creature anywhere in sight."

She paused for a moment and then said in a quiet voice:

"The most terrible wound was on his chest. The steel armor of the demon was fractured and split apart, revealing the beating heart inside. Rivers of azure blood were flowing from the wound, mixing with the ashen sand. The demon crawled to the base of the tree and laid his broken body between its roots."

Cassie sighed.

"The last thing I saw was the passage of time. I don't know how long it took, but eventually, the Carapace Demon was able to recover from his wounds. His scythes restored themselves, his legs grew back. The fracture on his chest was the last to heal. However, it wasn't healed completely. Hidden from sight, there's still a weakness in his armor."

Both Sunny and Nephis were silent for a long time, thinking.

Changing Star was the first to break the silence.

"So it's not impenetrable after all."

Then she looked at Sunny and asked:

"How's your plan coming along?"

He blinked, extricating himself from the swarm of thoughts. Glancing at his companions, Sunny smiled.

"Pretty well. I already had an inkling of how we should proceed, but Cassie's vision gave me additional inspiration."

Nephis raised an eyebrow.

"Is that so?"

He gave her a confident nod.

"Yeah. It's a wild idea, but it might just work. Well… maybe. In any case, it's going to be risky. And we'll have to make some preparations."

Both Cassie and Nephis looked at him expectantly. The blind girl cautiously asked.

"So… what's your plan? How are we going to deceive the demon?"

Sunny crossed his arms.

"It's not very complicated. Actually, I got the idea from that ancient fellow Neph likes to talk about. We're going to build…"

He took a dramatic pause, and then said with a mysterious smile:

"... a trojan ass."

However, their reaction was not what he had expected. Both girls blinked, then stared at him with complicated expressions. Well, Cassie did not stare, since she was blind, but her face was exactly the same as Changing Star's.

Strange.

"...A what now?"

Sunny scratched the back of his head, somewhat embarrassed, and cleared his throat.

"Uh… did I use the wrong word? I thought that Odysseus guy built a wooden animal? A… uh… donkey?"

Nephis raised a hand and put it on her forehead, closing her eyes.

'Weird. Does she have a headache?'

"Uh, are you alright?"

She sighed deeply, then said in a flat tone:

"A horse. It was a horse…"

***

The next day, they returned to the place of the battle between the carapace legion and the centipede monsters. A few days earlier, they had lured a carapace centurion here to ambush it, but ended up causing a massive confrontation between the two tribes of Nightmare Creatures.

The carcasses of some of the monsters were still there, buried slightly in the mud.

Of course, there was no meat left on their skeletons. The inhabitants of the labyrinth were for the most part carrion eaters, after all.

However, the three Sleepers were not interested in meat. They came for something else.

Stopping in front of the centurion's empty shell, cleaned of any flesh by some unknown beasts, he looked at the black and crimson carapace in satisfaction.

Nephis walked over and stood by his side, an unreadable expression on her face.

"Is this what you wanted?"

Sunny smiled.

"Yeah, exactly. I knew that nothing would be insane enough to chew on the chitin, but… in this place, you never know. I wasn't sure about its condition."

But the condition was good.

In fact, it was perfect.