The next day, they trio took Alice and Caspian to the place of a battle between the carapace legion and the centipede monsters. It seems that a few days earlier, they had lured a carapace centurion there 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 five 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, Sunny 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.
—
What followed was… tedious.
And strange.
And, at times, absurd.
"Hold it steady!"
"I'm holding it!"
"You're not holding it, it's slipping!"
"It's covered in mud, what do you expect?!"
—
Alice tried to suppress a laugh as she watched Caspian and Sunny wrestle with one of the massive chitin plates.
The two of them stood knee-deep in gray sludge, attempting to separate a curved section of the centurion's shell.
—
Nephis, for her part, worked in silence.
From time to time, she would look on the rest, but her gaze felt on Caspian more than it should, and with a more sharp eyes on top of that, like she was deciding something.
—
Cassie sat nearby, hands resting on her lap, listening.
Occasionally giving directions.
"To your left… a bit more… yes, there."
"What are you doing?"
Sunny asked her, since she was just saying things that didn't made sense for what it was happening.
"Oh..well..since i can't help, i wanted to make me feel included...so i'm giving orders like i can actually see what's happening..."
—
Hours passed.
—
Piece by piece—
The corpse was dismantled.
—
Legs.
Torso plates.
Scythe fragments.
—
Everything they could use—
They took it.
—
By the time the sun began its slow descent, they had assembled something… questionable.
—
It stood there.
Crooked.
Uneven.
A mockery of the terrifying creature it was meant to resemble.
—
Sunny crossed his arms, staring at it critically.
"...It's beautiful."
Caspian snorted.
"It looks drunk."
"It is drunk." Sunny replied instantly. "That's part of the charm."
—
Alice tilted her head.
—
"I'm not sure 'charm' is the word I'd use."
"Yeah, and you act like you are the artist, i'm the one who glued everything together."
Caspian used mud and water to glue the creature down, using his aspect he could harden the water, 'freezing' the parts together.
"I'm the architect, you are just the contruction worker."
—
Close to the evening, with the sun tiredly descending toward the horizon, a strange creature walked out of the colorless remains of the labyrinth. If "walking" was even the right word.
Dragging its legs in the sand, the creature somehow floated forward without moving them. It looked like a carapace centurion, or at least a close approximation of one.
All the necessary parts were in place. The creature had a black carapace with a menacing crimson pattern on it, a humanoid torso, eight segmented legs and two arms ending with formidable bone scythes. However, all these parts looked mismatched and strange, as though put together by some clumsy sculptor.
Additionally, the centurion moved as if it was seriously drunk.
—
A perceptive observer would have noticed that the creature seemed to possess two shadows.
The first shadow was as one would expect, its shape identical to the creature itself. The second one resembled a human. It briefly showed itself from beneath the larger shadow when the centurion abandoned the runaway limb.
And an even more perceptive observer would have notice that on the big shadow of the centurion, the sand lookes like it was moving, like something was hiding and digging inside of it.
—
The whole situation was nothing short of being completely bizarre. But, for better or worse, there was nobody around to notice the weird creature.
Unobstructed, it traversed the wasteland, moving in the direction of the Ashen Barrow. Soon, it was almost at the footstep of the tall hill.
The sunset was approaching.
The strange centurion plopped on the ground at the base of the Ashen Barrow and stopped moving completely. Awkward and lopsided, it looked like a parody of the other monster of its kind who had kneeled gracefully at the same spot a few days prior.
Additionally, it arrived without a tribute. There was no transcendent soul shard in sight. Added to the disrespectful pose, this transgression was more than enough to get the centurion killed.
Perhaps… it was suicidal.
—
On top of the barrow, the Carapace Demon moved and rose from the ashen sand.
His shining armor glistened, reflecting the light of the setting sun. Encased in bright metal, with a crown of horns adorning his head, the demon looked fearsome and sinister.
Gazing down, he lingered for a few moments.
Two dark scarlet embers ignited in the depths of the demon's eyes.
Shifting his terrifying scythes, the giant monster walked forward, slowly descending from the hill to face the strange visitor.
The ground shook as he approached. However, the bizarre centurion did not even flinch. In fact, it remained completely motionless.
The Carapace Demon stopped some distance away from the suspicious creature. He observed it, clearly understanding that its pathetic appearance might be a trap.
The labyrinth was full of unimaginable dangers. Rashly approaching an unknown foe was not something an awakened demon, who possessed his own form of intelligence, would do.
At least that was what the five Sleepers had assumed.
However, they were wrong.
Just a second later, the Carapace Demon lunged forward. Its scythe flashed through the air, severing the centurion's torso in half. The adamantine chitin was cut apart as though it was made of butter. The upper half of the monster's torso flew off, revealing… only emptiness inside.
—
On the other side of the Ashen Barrow, Sunny, who was running up the slope with all his might, cursed under his breath.
That was too soon!
He thought that they would have more time. Who knew that the Carapace Demon would turn out to be such a daredevil? He didn't even hesitate before going all out!
With Cassie riding piggyback on his back, Sunny gritted his teeth and tried to run even faster.
It was time to switch to plan B…
A moment later, the weird centurion's carapace came apart, setting the Echo that had been hiding underneath it free. Pushing the pieces of chitin away with its powerful pincers, the scavenger rushed toward the towering demon. It was aiming to duck underneath it and, hopefully, mess up the giant's legs.
—
The first part of Sunny's plan was rather simple. They were going to use the remains of a dead carapace centurion to disguise the Echo, which was much smaller in comparison, as one of the officers of the carapace legion.
Then, they would send it to the base of the Ashen Barrow to lure the demon away. The five of them were going to circle the hill and hide themselves under the grey sand in advance, then run up the slope and to the center of the island as soon as the demon had left.
The Echo was supposed to buy them enough time to climb the great tree and conceal themselves in its branches. Then, Sunny would dismiss the Echo, thus finishing the first stage of the plan. He never intended for the scavenger to actually fight the fearsome demon!
—
However, the Carapace Demon's unusually swift act of aggression had messed up the timing of the whole thing. The decoy was already destroyed, yet they weren't even halfway to the tree.
In this situation, there was no choice but to order the Echo to attack, hoping that it could stall the giant monster. That way, of course, Sunny was putting his scavenger at risk…
But there was no other choice.
Just as he was about to reach the crest of the hill, the Echo tried to hide itself beneath the Carapace Demon's massive body. Trying to turn its size againts it.
But the demon knew its intentions.
Moving with incredible speed, he shifted his torso and struck out with a pincer. The scavenger was swatted away like an irritating insect, flying through the air and heavily crashing onto the ground. Its carapace had almost cracked.
In that moment, two fast and agile humanoid rabbits appeared besides the demon, jumping from beneatg the sand, turning it attention again beetween its legs.
Sunny dismissed the echo in that moment, it was way too valuable to let it die like that.
The rabbits seemed to be able to keep the demon in check, even when the only thing they could do was avoid the deadly pincers and schythes from the absurdly fast creature.
—
The first one to reach the trunk of the tree was Alice, who was riding her centipede horse, climbed the tree with ease, and a golden rope fell down, the next ones to reach the tree were Caspian, Nephis and Sunny—who was out of breath while carrying Cassie.
They grabbed onto the rope and went up.
—
Meanwhile the demon was fighting off the humanoid rabbits.
Well, fighting off might be a word too great for the humanoid rodents, it was more similar to trying to swap away a couple of house flies than a fight, since they could never dream of damaging the demon.
—
When the group was finally complete on the branches of the tree, Sunny, recovering his breath, talked.
"Okay, time for phase two..."