An Echo was the most beautiful thing Juno had ever owned. Maybe it was just his Echo, but it didn't matter. It was divine!
Dusky collected an average of six Soul Fragments every hour. During its typical twelve-hour daily hunts, this added up to seventy Soul Fragments collected each day.
Fucking seventy!
The first couple of days, Juno felt like he was dreaming. What took him more than two weeks to collect, Dusky managed to do in two days.
Coupling this with Juno deciding he was well enough to hunt meant he was getting straight bank. On day twenty-five, he had earned an all-time high of one hundred and four Soul Fragments, coming from a total of forty-four Awakened Nightmare Creatures. Sadly, after that day, Dusky had apparently slowed down on his killing spree because his hunting grounds ran dry.
Anyway, by the time day twenty-eight rolled around, Juno had a magnificent, holy number in his Runes.
[Soul Fragment: 880/1000]
Rolling out of his cot, he wore the kind of grin that would've gotten him punched back in the real world. Most would think it was a lecherous type of smile, but Juno liked to think of it as his happy face.
Life had been good since Dusky arrived. Truly, he couldn't understand why Sunny didn't just send his Shadows to hunt for him. As long as Juno didn't get lazy, it was just free income.
He enjoyed a rare, chill morning—stretching, checking bandages, warming up the joints that had been getting much less exercise than usual. Finally, he headed out with a particular section of the crimson labyrinth in mind.
If it was still waiting for him, then a certain Carapace Centurion was waiting for him.
Today would be the third day it had gotten to know Juno, and two days had passed since it had started harassing it. For two days now, nicking here and there, then retreating into someone else's territory while the Monster raged and chased other prey instead. Today, he finished the job.
The Centurion was larger than the Scavengers, with jagged spikes growing out of its thick carapace. Its chitin was black and crimson, like ancient armor splattered with fresh blood. Instead of pincers, two terrifying bone scythes jutted from the joints of its arms.
Beautiful.
The final fight was short and vicious.
By this point in time, Juno had gotten the method of killing large Nightmare Creatures down to a science. Sure, that science was easy to perfect when his opponent's intelligence was like that of a toddler, but still.
As usual, the Centurion came at him like a charging boulder, each step making the surrounding area tremble and giving all the Scavengers within earshot a reason to back off and stay away. Juno met the first rush with distance, backpedaling, baiting swings, letting the monster waste strength on empty air and bone pillars. It was also highly effective, as it caused the monster's wounds to fester again.
When the Centurion slashed, Execution knocked one scythe aside and turned the other just enough that it bit stone instead of flesh. Each glancing blow chipped its own weapons, sending tiny fractures through the ancient armor it bore.
Bit by bit, the Centurion slipped off into eternal rest.
Finally, it overcommitted.
Seeing him "stumble" near a half‑crumbled spur of bone, the Centurion lunged with everything it had, both scythes sweeping in for the kill. Juno dropped low, rolled toward its blind side, and came up inside the arc of its arms.
Execution flashed three times.
First cut: behind the leading leg, slicing through a tendon and dumping weight forward. Second: along the seam of the chest plate, widening a crack he'd been nursing for minutes. Third: straight up into the exposed gap as the Monster crashed down, driving steel into the soft things hidden under all that chitin.
The Centurion spasmed, scythes gouging uselessly at the ground. It tried to rise and failed, body shuddering as its own weight tore the ruined leg apart.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Carapace Centurion.]
[Your desire sharpens.]
Juno let the Centurion twitch the last couple of times, then stepped right onto it and began to harvest. Soul Shards were one thing, but meat was just as important. He had about 210 gallons of water left, but he was running out of meat.
Cracking open an Awakened Monster was always a little more annoying than dealing with Beasts. The carapace was thicker, the shell somehow more stubborn even after death. Still, Execution made short work of it. He split the chest, pried plates apart, and began to dig through the mess with practiced efficiency.
The first Soul Shard gleamed out at him from a nest of shattered chitin and cooling meat. He plucked it free, wiped it once on a cleaner bit of armor out of habit, then pressed it to his chest.
Warmth flooded into him.
The familiar rush of Soul power slid through his veins and sank down toward his Cores, tugging at his Runes. Juno let his eyes close for a heartbeat, savoring the feeling, then opened them and went hunting for the second.
It took a bit longer to lodge deep near the spine, but it was there. He pried it loose, feeling the weight of it in his palm.
After the second wave of power went into him, Juno began to butcher the monster whilst lost in thought.
Honestly, Awakened Monsters were not that bad.
Yeah, they hit a little harder and were a little tougher, but nothing else was too different. From his perspective, Juno couldn't call their increase in intelligence truly meaningful, since it went from like no intelligence to like a stupid dog. Pretty much the same.
Ultimately, they were marginally better Beasts with double the shards.
But on the other hand, maybe it was just Juno who was too good.
"Part of that is you," he told Execution fondly. "Ascended, blessed, blood‑drinking cheat that you are."
He knocked the flat of the blade lightly against his chest.
"And part of it is me. Look at this physique. Iron Boots, Azure Carapace, and an unreasonably handsome core. Monsters don't stand a chance."
The corpse didn't argue.
Truly, if his pride was as large as his greed, Juno would have said that he could, at this point, easily take on multiple Awakened Beasts at a time. Luckily, he was not so stupid as to believe that.
…
Charging through the crimson labyrinth, Juno was inwardly crying.
'Why,' he thought as a massive creature slammed through the wall right behind him, joining the duo already chasing him, 'do there have to fucking be three Scavengers?!'
Their legs clattered on bone in a deafening chorus. The nearest one shrieked, a wet, chittering sound, and scissored its pincers at his heels. Shards of crimson coral exploded where they snapped shut.
Juno vaulted a low ridge, boots crunching on scattered fragments, and dove sideways as a second Scavenger burst from a side tunnel to cut him off. Its black‑and‑crimson carapace filled the passage, bone claws gouging deep furrows into the floor.
He ducked under its first swing and rolled, feeling the wind of its pincer pass over his back.
'Okay,' he thought, scrambling upright. 'One at a time was fine. Three is just rude.'
They didn't care.
There was really only one way Juno could survive this battle, even if it was a little dirty.
One of the Scavengers swiped at him again, barely missing. That convinced Juno to let go of his desires and fight as he had before.
Switching his grip on Execution, he swiftly turned around and launched it at the chest of the nearest Scavenger. It slid into the carapace easily, going in all the way until the start of the handle.
Due to it now having a sword in its chest, the Scavenger toppled over, flailing its massive limbs all around and nicking one of its buddies in the side.
It didn't care. Juno could tell by the madness in its eyes that it only cared about killing and eating the delicious human in front of it.
As Juno continued running, he prayed that the Scavenger would die quicker so he could re-summon his weapon. Luckily, it seemed that the extra eight hundred something Soul Fragments let Juno throw Execution hard enough for it to impale a major organ, as the Spell announced his kill in less than ten seconds.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[Your desire sharpens.]
Juno didn't slow.
One down. Two to go.
Unsummoning Execution, Juno had to face the bad feeling of summoning it again. Truly, summoning an Ascended memory as a Dreamer sucked.
Juno spun on his heel.
The new lead Scavenger was mid‑lunge, pincers wide, all terrible momentum and no brakes. It mirrored the actions of so many of its kin; it was kind of sad.
Juno stepped in.
He went low, almost into a slide, letting the monstrous body sail over him by a hair. As it did, he shoved Execution up and back, ramming the blade deep into the softer chitin between its rear plates.
The impact nearly tore his arms out of their sockets, but the sword went in.
The Scavenger screeched, legs tangling. It crashed down hard, momentum driving the blade even deeper into its abdomen. Azure blood gouted out around the steel.
Juno rolled clear, yanked Execution free in a wet arc, and came up facing the last one.
The third Scavenger hesitated for half a heartbeat, apparently surprised to find its two packmates suddenly flailing and bleeding instead of conveniently cornering its meal.
That was all he needed.
For once, he didn't bother with tricks. No baiting, no long dance. Just a straight, fast rush whilst it was off‑balance.
The monster snapped its pincers shut too early, biting empty air in front of him. Juno ducked inside the arc, planted a boot on a jut of bone, and jumped, twisting his whole body with the motion.
Execution carved across the cluster of black eyes, shearing half of them away in a spray of blood, then bit into the softer joint where the head met the thorax.
The beast howled, rearing back.
Juno hit the ground and immediately lunged again, this time driving the point up through the ruined eye cluster and deep into its brain. The body spasmed. Legs hammered the ground in a brief storm, then went still.
Within a couple of strikes, he managed to kill three Scavengers. If he had told his old self barely a month ago of this conquest… he would have one hundred percent believed him.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[You have slain a Fallen Beast, Lone Head of the Sea.]
[Your desire sharpens.]
'Wow, Dusky and I killed guys at the same time! How nice.'
If his past self, the one who was scared to fight a lone and heavily injured scavenger on his second day, were to see him now, he would not believe it! Juno was killing multiple Awakened and Fallen Nightmare Creatures all at once!
By tomorrow or the next day, he would get his Monster Core and unlock a whole new level of power!
…
The rest of the day passed almost lazily.
Juno hunted a bit more, but nothing serious—just a couple of lone Scavengers too dumb to run when they smelled blood. Most of the time, he spent walking, letting the ache in his muscles settle into a comfortable hum while he watched numbers tick up in his Runes.
[Soul Fragments: 932/1000]
By the time the Nameless Sun began to sink, the crimson labyrinth around Bone Ridge was painted in long, deep shadows. Juno decided that was enough.
"Tomorrow," he told the empty air, "I hit a thousand."
The empty air did not argue. It would not dare.
Soon, the familiar yawning maw of Bongo appeared ahead, teeth of broken stone jutting from the cliff face.
Home.
He stepped up to the metallic wire strung across the entrance and flicked it with a knuckle. A clear, metallic ring echoed into the darkness.
A heartbeat later, his mock-echolocation stirred up something.
He sharpened himself and his senses at once. If there were creatures in his camp again, it would mean another fight.
Ringing the iron silk again, Juno better felt the beings inside his camp. The moment he registered three shapes, he relaxed.
No, he didn't just relax. He god damn jumped in his spot, excited as hell.
They finally made it here.
Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie.
They were in Bone Ridge.
Juno was about to start running up the bone highway to greet them, but then he stopped. Truly, what type of person would he be if he did just that? He needed to give them a warm welcome!
Grinning even wider, Juno adjusted his Mask and started to carefully walk up Bone Ridge. Even if the Memory lowered his presence, noises could still be heard, and that would ruin everything.
He slipped into Bongo's throat, moving along the wall, boots whispering softly on stone. The air inside was warmer than outside, faintly smoky; someone had a fire going deeper in.
Voices reached him as he crept closer.
"…telling you, something's off," Sunny was saying, sounding more tired than Juno remembered.
It seemed like his companies didn't share his thoughts as they ignored him.
Poor Sunny.
Juno hugged the shadow of a jutting rock and waited for them to settle.
They did, eventually: Sunny dropping down by the fire, Nephis standing nearby like a white‑haired statue, Cassie sitting with her back to the wall. All facing the entrance. All watching.
All were missing him completely.
'Hehehe!'
Juno edged closer.
Five meters. Three.
Finally, he ended up right where he wanted to be. He was right behind Sunny. Truly, an Awakened Memory that scaled with the number of beings, not their collective power, was frightening. Pairing that with the fact that this group was all Dreamers, left them completely oblivious to Juno.
Slowly, Juno leaned in, dropped his voice as low and ominous as he could, and whispered directly into Sunny's ear.
"Doom," he intoned, "shall come to you… who rests inside Bongoooooo…..."
The face that greeted Juno from this performance was magnificent. Sadly, the blade at his throat was not.