[22]Beacon Of Despair

By the time Sunny made it down to the tree, through a mix of jumping down branches and climbing down dangerous sections, Nephis and Cassie were awake.

Nephis glared daggers into Sunny.

"Where the Spell have you been Sunny? We were supposed to start the plan, and you somehow gained a ridiculous amount of Shadow Fragments and another Lineage Memory?"

Sunny sighed. Nephis could read his runes, so it was natural for her to learn what he was up to.

"I went up the tree to get a better vantage point of any escape routes or ways to go. We actually have to talk about that later."

Nephis gave him a stern look.

"How did you gain so many Shadow Fragments?"

"I found an egg. It would have killed me the moment I touched it, but I have a Shadow Core and not a Soul Core. Apart from that being the only reason I'm alive, I got angry after realizing how close I was to death, and stabbed it with all my might. Turns out it was a starved an unborn Great Devil that was probably starved for a few thousand years. I even got a strange Memory, which you call a Lineage Memory, and even an entirely useless echo! That's my damned Fated attribute at work, I think."

Nephis and Cassie were flabbergasted. Who the Spell just goes and accidentally finds a Great Devil, just so happens to meet the exact perfect conditions to kill it, even though they were much , much weaker, and then gets a Lineage Memory and an ECHO?

Sunny was Fate's favored child, surely. . . 

Sunny, however, had now focused his attention towards the carapace demon. Luckily, the girls were far too stunned to speak.

"Do you have the bone torch ready Nephis?"

Nephis stared at him for a few seconds. Finally, as if she were a computer rebooting, she shook her head a few times, and pulled out a torch made from dried seaweed, oil from the venomous dagger, and a bone.

Sunny nodded in her direction, and then he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Hey ugly bastard! Go and shove that claw up your ass!"

The carapace demon did not appreciate that. In fact, it shot up and ran to the tree branch Sunny and the others were on. Sunny promptly threw two clay pots at it. They splashed against the metallic armor of the demon. While they were mixing and creating corrosive fluids, Nephis had already lit the bone torch and chucked it at the carapace demon.

Sunny began to smile from ear to ear. Watching the giant metal monstrocity burst into bright flames, he felt strangely happy.

'Damn it, when did I pick up Neph's pyromaniac tendencies?'

Sunny was smiling ear to ear when he saw the giant carapace monster try to roll around and douse out the flames. He was even more happy when he saw it suddenly stop and turn towards the seemingly endless abyss of the Dark Sea. All traces of a smile left his face soon after though.

Sunny heard Cassie's voice.

He froze in horror.

Because she gave him an unfamiliar warning. The desperation and fear in her voice gave him chills to his bone.

"SUNNY! NEPH! We have to climb! Climb! Hurry if you want to live!"

***

Nephis was the first to react. She wasted no time summoning the golden rope and grabbing the blind girl. Sunny helped Cassie onto Neph's back, and then they were off. Sunny was terrified.  What did Cassie mean? Why were they climbing? Where did he change the past enough to change what happened to them?

As Sunny climbed for about a minute, he felt an enormous impact hit the Soul Devourer and shake it. Sunny looked down, and through the darkness of the night, he saw it laid out in a bloody mess. Sunny was flabbergasted.

'Just what the fucking Spell have we summoned?'

Another moment later, a tidal wave of dark water washed over the Soul Devourer. The worst part? if the three of them had stayed on the branch they were on before, they would have been caught in that tidal walk of black water.

Sunny took stock of what he saw next. It was a mass of remains of creatures and seaweed. The bones were conjoined in random places like a jigsaw puzzle of horror. There were eyes and flesh joining the bones and seaweed. In fact, looking at the creature reminded Sunny of the Lord of the Dead under the Dark City. The main difference seemed to be that this creature was mostly made up between seaweed and the remains of several nightmare creatures. It was also smaller and as far as Sunny could tell, it wasn't up to the Tyrant class, so it had no minions. It was also part flesh, and just looking at it made Sunny want to puke.

Currently, the carapace demon was fighting for its life. Whatever that bone flesh thing was, it was terrifying. Sunny cursed. 

'We need the Midnight Shard from that damnable thing! I know we called you, but don't steal my prey, bitch!'

The fight lasted for minutes. Every time the bone monstrocity would get a good hold on the carapace demon, it would cut away the parts of seaweed and bone that strangled it with its scythes. Finally, there was a break in the fight. 

The carapace demon was all banged up, but it had managed to save all four of its limbs, and despite the utter exhaustion and some cracks in its shell, it was okay. Sunny was surprised by its tenacity again, even though he had already experienced once just how tough this bastard was.

Just as Sunny was resigned for an even tougher fight than his previous timeline, he saw an unnatural fog in the distance. He knew what that meant, and shut his eyes. A moment later, Cassie covered his face with her hands. Her desperate whisper made its way into his ears.

"Don't look! both of you, shut your eyes!"

Sunny hoped things would go the same way as they had when Sunny first encountered the creature.

The three of them waited for minutes. Just the same as before, Sunny encountered the horrible whispers and shouts to open his eyes, all from Cassie's voice. The demon fought the mysterious creature from the fog, but this time it was not alone. The bone abomination fought with it too. Eventually the three way battle ended when the fog retreated.

Sunny and Nephis opened their eyes to find the island ravaged by battle. The bone abomination and the carapace demon were still alive. Sunny grit his teeth. The carapace demon had lost almost all of its legs, making it basically immobile, and the seaweed creature was at death's door. The bad news was that the carapace demon had somehow preserved both of its scythes and one of its pincers, which would make it extremely difficult to kill by sword. 

They could not afford to light the creatures on fire again, and both creatures were basically immobile, so Sunny and Nephis had to use the golden rope to climb down.

Both nightmare creature turned to Nephis and Sunny. He mumbled under his breath and summoned the Azure Blade.

It was time to kill some demons.