Sunny found himself inside a body of water, his entire body submerged in the cold
'The Dark Sea huh...'
Sunny naturally knew where he was sent to, he had known beforehand, which is why he made sure his mouth was closed to prevent any of the salty water from entering his lungs
'Teacher Julius, I wish you a long life.' He thought, thankful to the old man
Immediately after breaching the surface he turned in the opposite direction of where he had faced when he came up and with Gloomy wrapped around his body, he began to swim full speed towards the tower
Sunny knew very well the threat that was currently charging at him as well as the threat charging at it without even looking
Using shadow sense he felt the shadow of the titanic being cutting through the water gaining on him moment after moment both of them moving towards the platform but he also felt the tentacle's shadow moving up through the dark waters which added to his anxiety
Thankfully he had already reached the platform and a little over 5 seconds later the shark-like creature had made its way to the platform as well only for the titanic tentacle to ascend from the sea and into the air
It was like a looming tower of doom as it crashed down, slamming into the water while simultaneously wrapping around the creature, dragging it into the depths as the surface water writhed and churned, settling back into its calm appearance.
Sunny, with his heart pumping slightly faster than its normal slow pace, heaved his wet self towards the center of the platform while shaking his wet hair to dry it.
Once he had slapped most of the water on his body off, he summoned the puppeteer's shroud around his body
It was so odd that even the cold temperatures of the dark waters weren't able to alter his already corpse-cold body temperature, and even the warmth that the puppeteers' shroud brought did nothing either
Sunny sat there in the middle of the platform for a few seconds and then the realization hit
'There's nothing i can do...'
He groaned and laid back on the ground—'I could just sleep...'
He had a few plans that he would like to execute in the morning when the sea retreats from the sun and honestly, getting rest when he was able to was a very good idea, especially since he knew that nothing would come up onto his platform
Unless he did something stupid
'Well, there's not even anything stupid for me to do anyway.' He said, looking up at the black sky
He closed his eyes slowly and allowed himself to slip into sleep
...
Sunny groaned as he woke up from his sleep atop the statue—his ears followed the sounds of the retreating black water.
He stood up and stretched and immediately allowed a smile to grace his face
He walked towards the edge of the platform and looked down before he got down himself, sliding down carefully
He was going on a hunt
The carapace scavengers would burrow into the ground as they sought safety from the sea; now they were coming up from the ground slowly, attracted by the corpse of the now-dead nightmare creature
They were coming out slowly from the ground, and a few had already turned their gazes towards the corpse, moving to rip it apart and get a meal, but on the edges far from the corpse, many were still getting out of the ground.
Those were the ones that Sunny killed
The carapace scavengers got out of the ground and sniffed the air, turning to the corpse
But when it turned to move towards the corpse, they were immediately met with Serpent in its [Soul Beast] form immediately killing it by grabbing onto its skull and crushing it within her mouth spraying chitin and brain matter around
Serpent was an Ascended Beast right now, so it was an entire rank above the scavengers. Serpent was also a being born from the mark of shadow god belonging to said god's heir.
That was to say, even amongst Ascended Beasts Serpent was and would be the dominant opponent
Sunny had used the sneak tactic of striking those far from the corpse in order to not draw the attention of all 100 or so scavengers.
[Your shadow grows deeper.]
[Your shadow grows deeper.]
[Your shadow grows deeper.]
While Serpent made light work of the scavengers Sunny moved to the corpses in order to take out the shards but realized that he had no means of doing so
'...When will I get the Azure Blade?'
They had killed roughly 14 Carapace Scavengers so far, which meant that he had gained 24 Shadow fragments, which would double once he got the shards from the corpses, which is why he did not want to leave it behind
'Oh yeah, I forgot.' He let out a sly smile as a Knight, 8 ft tall, appeared behind him
"Can you take out the shards from these?" Sunny pointed towards the targets in question
Shadow Knight looked at him and nodded. Sunny watched as a mass of shadows flowed from the creature's body onto his hand and form into a longsword, which dug into the scavenger's chitin armor
The knight then dug its hand into the wound and pulled, holding a glistening soul shard.
It turned and handed it to Sunny before turning around to harvest the rest
Sunny stood there for a few seconds, Serpent returning to him and sliding back to his body, taking its tattoo form, wrapping around his arm
He looked at his arm and then back at the knight, who continued its task
'...The legacy parents have more than enough resources to provide their kids with echoes...'
What was the reason they did not?
Because they wanted to forge fighters and not raise children, they made their kids go through the first nightmare despite the supremes being able to suppress the seed from blooming within them
Sunny began to crush the shards in his hand and looked up into the sky
He knew of the supremes; he knew what they have done, what they were doing right now and what they will do
and he couldn't help but wait for the time to shove his blade back through Anvil's throat and for Nephis to burn Ki Song away
His eyes narrowed; the sky above the forgotten shore did not have a moon but he pictured the moon from the waking world, where the last one of the three was waiting, biding his time
'Well, he will die too.'
He turned around after crushing all the shards and started to walk back towards the statue, preparing for the sea to return
He was not really hungry since he ate enough for 10 people less than 24 hours ago but he wished there was food he could eat
He was planning to take the meat from the scavenger but he had no way to cook the meat; even if he wanted to dry the meat, he was not able to since the sun of the forgotten shore did not emit heat—only light
With a sigh he dismissed the Knight back into his soul sea and started to scale the statue, which admittedly took a lot longer than he wished
But he managed to make it up the structure after a long while of climbing up using the crevasses and cracks as hand and foot holds
He moved to the center of the platform once more and watched as the sun began to fall just in time as the sea began to crash in
But he paid not the slightest bit of attention to it.
He had already begun to analyze his runes
Rank: Dreamer.
Shadow Core: Dormant.
Shadow Fragments: 79/1000
How long had it taken his past self after the start of entering the dream realm to reach this point in his progression to becoming a monster?
He had reached a similar fragment count when he had shoved the scavengers of the cliff into the dark sea, which was roughly 1 month from today after they began moving towards the dark city
Naturally once he meets up with Nephis the progress would slow down slightly since the shards would be evenly distributed between himself, Cassie, and her
But for today and tomorrow and the time he would spend alone in the dark city
How much would his progress speed up?
Right now he had a dormant devil and an ascended beast; when he reached the forgotten shore, he would get Saint back as well, who was an awakened monster. With the 3 of them and his own skills, how fast could he increase his count?
Incomparably fast compared to his old self
He laid down on the ground with a smile and turned towards a particular direction
The last time, there was an orange light flickering in the dark, but now there was nothing, just deep darkness paired with the sound of the sea
'Good, they listened.'
He was going to go to them the morning after tomorrow as he originally did and using the moment that the scavengers crawl out from their holes, he would slaughter them and gain his fragments.
'...This is the first step to change.'
He thought, closing his eyes once more