Devourer of the Drowned

Sunny found himself blind and drowning… just as he expected.

But after being thrown into deep water so many times, instinct took over. Without panic, without hesitation, he oriented himself and swam toward the surface.

As his head broke through the waves, he took a sharp breath and glanced around.

A familiar sight greeted him—the vast, endless expanse of jet-black water stretching into the horizon, restless and undulating beneath the empty sky.

Sunny exhaled slowly.

It had been a long time since he last saw the Forgotten Shore.

For a fleeting moment, he allowed himself to bask in the wave of nostalgia. The eerie stillness, the ink-dark ocean, the oppressive weight of fate pressing down on his soul… It was all just as he remembered.

Then, he shoved the sentiment aside. A distant sound caught his attention. 

Sunny turned his head and saw it.

A lone, triangular dorsal fin cutting through the water, moving swiftly toward him.

There it is.

His old friend.

The shark devil that had scared the living lights out of him the last time he was here.

Back then, he had no choice but to flee. What ordinary Sleeper could hope to stand against a corrupted monstrosity from the depths?

…But he wasn't an ordinary Sleeper anymore. Far from it. No, now he was the predator. And this time, he wasn't running.

The Spell rewarded divergence.

The further one strayed from the intended flow of fate, the greater the reward. Its entire appraisal system was based on this one principle. 

And the fate of the Forgotten Shore was as unyielding as steel. If he wanted to break it, he couldn't afford to simply survive. He had to shatter expectations.

To rip apart the predetermined course of events, nail by nail, brick by brick, until the prison of fate itself crumbled beneath his defiance.

Running won't change anything. But killing a corrupted devil instead of fleeing for his life? Now that… that would be a nail in the coffin.

Sunny raised his hand— And bit down. Pain flared as blood welled up from the wound, crimson drops falling into the water.

Ouch.

His shadow stirred beneath him, responding to his intent. In the next instant, it wrapped around his body, and he surged forward—racing in the opposite direction of the approaching shark.

White sparks of light flickered around him, coalescing into the embrace of Puppeteer's shroud.

The shark was fast.

But he wasn't slow either.

Sixty-eight shadow fragments pulsed within him—power humming in his veins, far greater than the mere twelve he had last time. 

He had spent a month preparing for this, studying the nightmare creatures of the sea, learning their weaknesses, and planning for every possibility. 

Now, it was time to put that knowledge to use.

As he crossed the halfway point between his initial position and the stone platform, white sparks danced around his palm— And the silver bell materialized in his grasp. The moment his fingers wrapped around its handle, a deep, sonorous chime rang out across the endless sea.

The sound spread in all directions, reverberating through the water. For anyone within a kilometre of his location… 

It was an open invitation. A challenge. A declaration.

Come and get me.

In the dark and silent ocean of the Forgotten Shore, such an act was akin to signing his own death warrant. But Sunny had spent long days planning for this moment.

'Any second now.'

The dorsal fin sliced through the water, closing in—ninety meters, eighty, seventy—when a subtle shift in the ocean sent a shiver down his spine.

Then, he felt it. A deep, abyssal gaze fixated on him from below. Then another. And another.

Until he was surrounded.

Monsters lurked in the depths, circling him on all sides, drawn by the scent of his blood and the resonance of the silver bell.

Sunny exhaled through his nose.

Just a little longer…

He braced himself, concentrating on the trickle of essence flowing through his body with Serpent's help, keeping his movements precise. A second passed. Then another.

The silence was absolute—except for the sound of his frantic paddling and the ominous hum of the approaching dorsal fin. 

The stone platform was barely a stone's throw away. So was the beast behind him. Or rather… the beast running from something even worse.

Then— 

The ocean rippled.

And in the next heartbeat, the silence shattered into chaos. A massive tentacle surged from the depths, slicing through the air like a whip. Another followed. Then another—

And then it rose. A grotesque leviathan, its flesh a shifting nightmare of claws and razors, erupted from the abyss.

From the opposite side, an abomination with jagged fangs and lidless, soulless eyes lunged toward him, its gaping maw stretching impossibly wide.

Now.

Sunny halted—then pushed down with all his might. He rose slightly in the air, and landed on the beast's teeth, barely balancing atop the serrated death trap. 

Then, pouring every drop of gathered essence into his legs, he launched himself skyward. Behind him, the colossal jaws snapped shut, missing him by a hair's breadth. 

A tentacle lashed through the air where he had been, striking the creature instead, sending it thrashing into the depths.

Another coiled toward him— 

Sunny twisted midair, rolling into a sharp spin, barely evading the strike.

He crashed onto the stone platform, rolled across the rough surface, and then scrambled to his feet, breathing hard. He dismissed the silver bell, and looked up—

Then, he smiled.

The sight he beheld next was nothing short of amazing. The ocean was now a battlefield of nightmare creatures.

A dozen monstrosities, each a grotesque perversion of life, clashed in a symphony of violence— Fangs ripping into flesh, tentacles constricting around writhing bodies, jagged claws carving through scales.

The water churned with blood, turning the black waves into a swirling maelstrom of gore. Any other Sleeper—or even an Awakened—would have been paralyzed by terror at the sight of such carnage.

They would have been thinking only of escape. Certainly, the thought of diving into the chaos would never have crossed their minds.

But Sunny? He wasn't here to run. His gaze swept across the battlefield, sharp and predatory, searching—

Where is my prey?

Then, he saw it. 

The shark devil.

Its massive form thrashed violently, entangled in the grip of the leviathan's tentacle. Its jaws snapped wildly, trying to shred the monstrous limb coiling around it. But it was helpless, trapped, being dismembered by the giant tentacle monster it was running away from, slowly, painfully.

However, the monster couldn't drag its prey to the bottom of the ocean. Not when other predators had already laid their claim.

And Sunny… Sunny had first dibs.

He crouched, analyzing the beast's writhing figure, watching it convulse in agony, its life ebbing away second by second.

His fingers clenched into a fist. His lips curled.

Time to get to work.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Sunny dashed toward the edge of the stone platform. Pouring essence into his legs, he leaped. The world blurred as he shot through the air—straight into the gaping maw of the shark devil.

Sunny had spent countless hours studying the Nightmare Creatures of the Storm Sea. Their compositions, strengths, and—most importantly—their weaknesses.

This particular abomination might not have been identical to those deep-sea horrors, but it bore enough similarities. Even its internal structure was reminiscent of the shark devils responsible for the extermination of countless ships during the mass evacuations of North America.

And Sunny knew exactly where to strike.

As he landed in the giant maw of the abominable shark, pain exploded through his body.

The Puppeteer's Shroud strained under the corrosive pressure of the creature's inner walls. The shark's titanic jaws, half-shredded and dangling at an unnatural angle, had lost their ability to snap shut—but that didn't make them harmless. Even in their ruined state, the jagged fangs still exuded a lethal presence, their mere touch capable of slicing him apart, if not for his armour. It held on, if only barely

But Sunny didn't have long. He had to move. Fast.

Without hesitation, he forced his way deeper, shoving aside rotting chunks of flesh and viscous fluids, wading through the half-digested remains of past victims. 

The air was thick with a revolting stench, the suffocating heat of the beast's insides pressing down on him like a living grave.

Sunny grimaced. 

'Is this even blood?'

He had seen all sorts of disgusting things, but this viscous, black ooze was in a league of its own.

As he took another step, the world tilted. For a moment, he was weightless—then slammed onto a pulsing, fleshy surface. 

Outside, the sounds of battle raged on.

The shark was thrashing violently, its body being torn apart piece by piece—ripped and shredded by the abominations battling for their claim over its meat.

Sunny clenched his teeth. He had little time. But he didn't need much. He had already reached his destination.

'So this is an aquatic monster's core.'

He had seen diagrams. Read descriptions. But none of them had prepared him for the reality of it. The grotesque, bulging mass before him pulsated erratically, its unnatural rhythm sending shudders through the beast's broken body.

Disgusting.

But he had no choice.

Sunny grabbed onto a nearby bone protrusion, bracing himself. The shark was nearing its final moments, its body seconds away from being ripped apart—exposing him to the merciless depths of the ocean.

He had to act now. But there was a problem. A big one. 

Sunny didn't have a weapon.

Not a single Memory—not even an Awakened blade—capable of cutting through the flesh of a Corrupted monstrosity.

Come to think of it…

Had he ever received one during his entire time on the Forgotten Shore?

A bitter chuckle escaped his lips.

Figures.

'Could Moonlight Shard have done it?' 

Maybe. Maybe not.

Sunny was certain his nails or teeth wouldn't be enough for the job. Breaking apart the bone protrusions to use as a makeshift blade was out of the question, too—they were simply too strong, even with the augmentation of his shadow and 68 soul fragments.

No matter.

Every step of his plan had worked perfectly so far. There was no reason for that to change now.

Sparks of white light flickered around his arm. A shard of mirrored glass, encased in dark eldritch metal, materialized in his grasp. It was one of the memories the Mad Prince had delivered to him.

Sunny had no doubt that lunatic had elaborate plans for him—and this particular Memory was likely the most important piece of them all. It had to be at least a Transcendent memory, if not higher. Something of that caliber would require materials harvested from at least a Corrupted Nightmare Creature.

Whatever its true purpose was, one thing was certain— It was an amazing Memory.

Sunny sneered. 

'I hope you're watching this, you mad bastard!'

He gripped the shard tightly, flipped it in his hand— And drove it straight into the beast's heart.

The motion was swift, almost effortless. The first stab sank deep. The second tore into the pulsating mass. The third sent cracks rippling through the grotesque, bulging flesh.

It didn't matter that the shard wasn't meant to be a weapon. Against a stationary target—one as fragile as a living heart—it was more than enough.

A sickening joy twisted in his chest.

He had taken a piece of the Mad Prince's masterwork… and used it as a butcher's knife.

Then, with a final, violent thrust— The heart burst. A deluge of vile, bluish-black ichor exploded outward. The delightful fruit of his labor.

Unfortunately, there was no time to savour the moment. 

The next second, the world tore apart. The ceiling split open. An onslaught of black water surged inward, rushing to swallow him whole.

Sunny didn't wait to confirm his kill. He couldn't.

With a grimace, he kicked off, hurtling out of the collapsing corpse before the tentacled monstrosity could seize him. He swam upward, faster and faster, sparing a single glance downward—

And saw the massive, ruined body of the shark devil being ripped apart completely. 

He had escaped. Now, he just needed to reach the stone platform before anything noticed him.

Not that it would be difficult. The Nightmare Creatures were too preoccupied with tearing each other to shreds to pay attention to a single Sleeper slipping through their midst.

But that wasn't what worried Sunny.

'Why hasn't the Spell announced my kill yet?'

His heart clenched.

'Don't tell me…'

Did the tentacled monstrosity steal his kill? After everything he had done? After all the planning, all the effort, all the pain—

'How dare it?!'

A furious snarl twisted his lips. That damn creature— 

Then, as if sensing his doubt, the familiar, soothing voice of the Spell whispered in his ear.

[You have slain a Corrupted Devil, Nhal'Zir – Devourer of the Drowned.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

[You have received a Memory.]

Sunny grinned.

'Damn right, I did.'