Chapter 12: Filler

Third POV:

A while later, they were resting in the shadow of the giant statue. Every member of the cohort looked nothing short of terrible. Well, except for Sunny at least.

However, beneath the bloodied сlothes and broken armor, their bodies were whole and sound.

Nephis had healed them all, and now, she was the only one who was weak and exhausted. Using the white flame so much had taken a heavy toll on her.

Sitting in the mud, Sunny raised his head and looked at the familiar giant statue of the faceless woman. She was just like the last time he had seen her, slender and graceful, with her light flowing robe rippling in the wind, as though made out of actual fabric and not hard stone.

The statue was tilted slightly to the side, with its one remaining hand reaching high into the sky. A long time ago, on the night of their harrowing escape from the Ashen Barrow, Sunny, Cassie, and Nephis had taken shelter in her palm.

It was from its height that he had first seen the walls of the Dark City.

Looking down, Sunny stared at the other hand of the giant statue, which had broken off a long time ago and fell down, crushing through the dome of the underground chamber.

'Her statue has saved us two times, well Three times for me.'

Sadly, the cohort did not get a lot of time to rest. Despite the fact that it wasn't even noon yet, they had a lot of ground to cover before sunset.

The plan they had made at the start of the day was to leave the Dark City from the south by climbing the wall near the grandiose Main Gates and then travel through the Labyrinth to the next safe height, which was about ten kilometers away.

However, due to the fact that they had ended up in the catacombs instead and had to escape through the chamber belonging to the Lord of the Dead, the party was now to the east of the ruins, near the beautiful statue of the faceless woman. Not only did they have to circle around the city now, but there was also less time to reach safety before the flood of darkness devoured the Forgotten Shore once again.

Standing up in a chorus of disappointed groans, the cohort assumed the marching formation and set out south. Walking through the mud of the colossal crater was not easy, but for the time being, they had no other choice... unless they wanted to scale the monumental stone wall and return to the Dark City, of course.

Luckily, with both Sunny's shadow and Kai scouting the way ahead, they didn't have to worry about being ambushed by monsters. So, for the time being, the only thing the party had to struggle with was moving their feet through the wet dirt.

The monotonous silence was broken only by laborious breathing and slurping of mud.

...A while later, the impregnable and seemingly endless grey wall that loomed some distance away and above them slowly twisted, drifting away from the edge of the crater.

Far away, the floor of the gargantuan crater sharply rose, forming a tall slope. On it stood the unassailable wall of polished grey stone, firm and unyielding despite the thousands of years that had passed since the demise of its creators.

From where he stood, Sunny could see the flood of crimson coral swelling at its base, sharp blades powerlessly scraping against the cold stone in hopeless attempts to find purchase. It looked as though the city was being besieged by the land itself.

With a sigh, Sunny looked up and noticed a lone, bloodied human figure holding his shoulder while standing on the wall, watching them disappear into the distance. That figure was crooked and dark, emanating a cold feeling of foreboding.

'I Hope you liked my gift...'

A few moments later, it turned away and disappeared from view.

Harus had chosen to return to the Bright Castle.

Sunny lingered for a few seconds and then hurried to catch up with the group.

They were safe from him, at least...

'Or was it the other way around now?'

*****

Because the crater was too big, the bent of its edge was almost imperceptible. Only by looking far into the distance could one say that it was actually curved. Because of this, the cohort could have continued traveling through the crater for a long time without having to move farther away from the goal of today's journey, which lay to the southwest of their current position.

However, they had to leave the crater and return to the Labyrinth sooner or later — not only to escape the black water but also because there was nothing to hide behind on this vast muddy plain. If any flying Nightmare Creature decided to attack them from above, the cohort would have no defense against it.

The Labyrinth, while hiding its own fair share of terrifying threats, at least offered some measure of protection.

That's why, at some point, Nephis led the party to the sharp slope of the crater, and the six of them climbed out of it. With the help of Kai and the trusty golden rope, the task wasn't hard at all. But Sunny Simply dissolved into the shadows and appeared at the top of the slope.

For some time after that, they walked on the ridge separating the crater from the Labyrinth proper, but then, finally, had to turn west and enter the maze of crimson coral.

Sunny couldn't help but sigh once the familiar coral walls surrounded him once again. He didn't miss the first months of his infernal voyage into the Dream Realm at all.

The moment the cohort reached the strongholds of the spider-like creatures, they were attacked by four smaller versions of the original Fallen creatures that killed Saint within the walls of the Dark City.

As soon as the spiders attacked, the members of the cohort reacted with the deadly calmness of experienced Dark City hunters. Weapons flashed in the air, severing limbs and piercing through iron as though it was paper. Effie straight-up flattened one of the creatures with a devastating strike of her battered shield. The poor beast didn't even have time to understand what a huge mistake it had made.

The others were no less efficient. Sunny himself threw the Prowling Thorn and pulled on the invisible string as soon as it sunk into the flesh of one of the spiders, bringing its jump to an abrupt end and sending it crashing to the ground. Before the beast could stand up, Quiet Dancer streaked through the air and pierced its head clean through. As the Quiet Dancer was finishing off the one Sunny brought down, he quickly dashed forward killing a nearby two that were hidden from the cohort waiting for the right time to attack.

Just a few short seconds after the spiders had tried to ambush the group of humans, the battle was over, even those who didn't participate in the battle weren't spared by Sunny. Three dead Nightmare Creatures were sprawled in the mud, while the fourth one ended up pinned to a coral wall with several arrows. And three more in the distance.

They could have even shaved a second or two if it weren't for the need to look out for the spiderwebs.

Nephis cleaned the blade of her sword with a piece of cloth, listened to the silence for a few moments to make sure that nothing else was going to attack them, and then gave the cohort the go-ahead to start dressing the monsters down.

Soon, soul shards, strips of meat, and other useful parts were cut, cleaned, and put into Effie's enchanted bag. Everything was done with efficient speed and professionalism that could only come from a lot of experience.

Sunny could only shake his head again.

They were able to dispose of the iron spiders with such ease because of two reasons. First, as far as Nightmare Creatures went, these ones were not on the same level as, for example, carapace scavengers. They had a slight advantage in speed but were not nearly as strong, agile, and ridiculously tough.

After several more minor skirmishes with the iron spiders, they had finally reached their destination. Not too far away from them, colored pink by the evening sun, a magnificent arch of white marble rose high above the sea of crimson coral.

The giant structure was clearly created by the same people who had built the Bright Castle, and made from the same stone. It looked like a much larger sibling of the pristine arch that guarded the entrance to the white road which climbed all the way to the outer settlement.

Only this one was much more weathered, bleak, and damaged. Signs of corrosion and deep cracks covered its surface, with one of its sides being partially collapsed.

Sunny studied the arch and looked at Nephis:

"This is our stop for the night, right?"

She gave him a simple nod and said after a short pause:

"We need to pick up our pace. The night is close, and we might have to fight to clear the top of it."

Sunny turned to face her. It had been such a long exhausting day, but Nephis just looked as aloof and cool-headed as always.

Well not as always literally.....but just a few years younger. Just as he remembered.

However, he kept his mouth shut.

Changing Star was the most tired out of all of them... due to healing all their wounds, no less. And he had never seen her complaining. Which was sad on its own.

He contemplated the usage of the Mirror of Truth to relieve her from the pain but soon decided against it.

He will have to explain where he got it from, which wouldn't put him in a good position.

Which might make things escalate even further than just those questions.

'It is probably... just as awkward as telling the girl you're in love with that you killed her, not once but Twice.'

So it wasn't his place. No matter how much he hated seeing her hurting herself, he wouldn't allow himself to fall into situations that he would regret later.

To his left, Effie suddenly cursed and groaned:

"More fighting? Come on! When are we finally going to eat?"

Sunny blinked.

'Well... that works, too, I guess.'

Staring at the huntress, Nephis shook her head and silently walked forward.

Soon, they reached the giant arch. Kai summoned his bow and flew up, only to return a few minutes later and report that no terrible monster was nesting on top of the ancient structure.

With sighs of relief, the members of the cohort climbed the golden rope one after another and were soon standing far above the Labyrinth, silently watching as the flood of black water drowned it in the lightless depths.

As the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, they were left on a rectangular island made out of white marble. All around it, there was nothing but the undulating waves of the dark sea.

Sunny was once again surrounded from all sides by nothing but darkness and black water. He did not like the feeling.

******

Because everyone needed some time to rest and recuperate, they decided to spend a day on the marble arch and continue their journey tomorrow.

As a result, Sunny was currently staring at the sight that wasn't really funny but filled him with mirth nevertheless.

For the second time on that. He just couldn't get bored of it.

Back in the real world, when he had time to consume some entertainment, Sunny had noticed a certain popular trope. In most dramas, webtoons, and cartoons aimed at young boys and teenagers, the heroes would inevitably end up spending a day at the beach during their adventures.

He didn't quite know why such a trope existed but suspected that it was just an excuse to show the female characters in nothing but revealing swimsuits.

Not that he had anything against it...

In any case, Sunny had never imagined that he was going to end up in such an episode himself one day. But here he is, doing it for the second time.

'Am I Filler now? This is... simply hilarious!'

Barely holding himself from laughing out loud, Sunny glanced at his companions.

Because everyone's armor and weapons were damaged during the battle in the catacombs, they had to keep these Memories inside the Soul Sea for a bit of time to allow them to restore themselves — just like Saint, Fiend, Serpent, Nightmare, and Solace were currently doing in the depths of his Shadow Cores.

As a result, all of them — excluding Sunny wore his tunic— were currently wearing nothing except for some loincloths and, in the case of the girls, makeshift brassieres.

Provided, these crude undergarments weren't really swimsuits, and the marble arch could barely be considered a beach even at night... but still, the situation was funnily similar.

They were all half-naked and relaxing in the middle of a something that someone could call an adventure, so it was close enough.

'Ha!'

He was in a rather good mood.

Everyone was busy doing their thing. There was a fire in the middle of the arch, with roasting meat filling the air with an appetizing aroma. Effie was tending to it.

The tan and lean body of the muscular huntress looked like it was cut from stone as if she was a sculpture of an ancient goddess come to life. Sunny tried to count her abs and got distracted halfway through by... uh... not so stonelike parts of her robust figure.

After a couple of seconds of thoughtless bliss, Sunny had to hurriedly look away. The last thing he wanted was...to be teased by Effie and get his mood ruined.

He quickly glanced at Nephis, she seemed quite busy with the meat and didn't notice his gaze. Nephis was helping Effie with the breakfast. Next to the vigorous huntress, her figure seemed especially slender and lithe. However, she was also extremely athletic in appearance. Her ivory skin was pleasantly contrasted against the olive skin of their boisterous companion.

'What a sight to behold...'

Sunny almost caught himself drooling At the sight.

Finally Noticing his gaze Nephis slightly turned around glancing at Sunny her face twitching, in an attempt to....mimic something that resembled a smirk.

"Like what you're seeing?"

Caught off guard, Sunny almost choked on nothing but air. Eventually Sunny glanced up at Nephis. Her face was still twitching, trying to maintain her expression.

"I'm sure I am. But Neph You don't really need to listen to whatever that Vulgar giant tells you. And Honestly, you should just relax and let whatever you want to say come out on its own naturally without forcing it."

Sunny glanced back at the Huntress. Effie laughing, obviously enjoying herself while watching them struggle.

"Go on Doofus! Don't mind me!"

Sunny sighed. Glancing back up at Nephis, he noticed her face crumpling, it soon returned to its normal stiffness.

Panicking Sunny quickly looked around, the Sudden shift had made them become the center of attention, the other members of the cohort were currently staring at them....well except Cassie. Glancing back at Nephis who just stood there like a statue, her face was as stiff as a rock.

Sunny had somehow concluded that she was embarrassed. He almost felt like he just rejected her confession in public!

'Damnation.'

Unbeknown to Sunny's inner turmoil, Nephis just stood there thinking:

'What exactly is wrong with my smile?....'

Did it look weird?

Or Maybe he hates it?

She also concluded that the reason why he hated her smile was because of her admission the day Sunny left the Dark City.

'He must still be mad at me because of it...'

Two Socially Awkward individuals simply stared at each other. Each drowning in their own misguided thoughts.

Soon Sunny blurted out.

"Do you want a spar?"