The freezing waters drew Sunny out of his daze, instantly his senses were blotted out by the Dark Sea. However, the sudden lack of light did not impede too severely on Sunny's senses like it had in the past, instead he swiftly navigated his way to the surface.
Surfacing, Sunny sucked in air greedily. Gathering his bearings, he looked around, and as expected he had finally returned to the Forgotten Shore.
In the same fashion too, of course.
'Damn the Spell and its humor.'
As Sunny cursed the Spell silently, he spotted his old friend, the massive fin quickly making its way over to him.
Without much time to think about anything else, Sunny began to swim. Wrapping Gloomy around his body, he instantly felt his muscles gain another layer of strength. Propelling himself forward with renewed strength, Sunny aimed for the dark silhouette sticking out in the Sea. Barely reaching it in time, he climbed onto the rocky surface.
Just as the fin began to rise, revealing a massive jaw full of teeth each the size of Sunny, a massive tentacle burst from the water, and wrapped around the abomination. With one swift movement, it dragged the creature under the surface.
Just like that, Sunny had survived the first obstacle.
Lying flat against the wet stone surface, Sunny breathed out raggedly trying to catch his breath. It was going to be a long journey. But so far, nothing was varying from his past. That was comforting at least.
Then the chilly breeze hit him, quickly reminding Sunny he was… Exposed.
'Ha- I forgot about that part.'
Summoning Puppeteer's Shroud, Sunny began to warm up again. Although the cold wasn't terribly harsh to him, it was still nice to enjoy something so comforting as warmth.
Sitting up, Sunny inspected his old armor. It's dark-grey garments covered his slim frame perfectly, the boots themselves matched himself rather well too in his humble opinion. It had been through quite the ordeal with him, saving his skin on more than one occasion. Hell, he remembered how excited he was to go out into the Dream Realm with it and slay dozens of Dormant Beasts safely by wielding this powerful armor.
'Oh, how that had panned out huh.'
After calming his body down, Sunny sat and waited for morning to come. There wasn't much for him to do aside from set his priorities straight.
Ideally, he and Nephis both returned to their original spots in the Forgotten Shore. If Neph didn't...
Well then Cassie would be alone, blind right now, and he would be without another powerhouse. Not to mention he uh, missed her.
Although they were a priority to reach, Sunny had to grow stronger, and fast. His lack of additional weaponry aside from Serpent - which was his last resort - did serve to hinder him, but Sunny wasn't worried about it. More so, he was armed with enough experience in combat to last many lifetimes, a weapon was the least of his combative concerns. What Sunny did feel, was the pressure.
This regression had a lot riding on it. Given this chance, he already decided to save as many lives as possible, and that mission starts here in the Forgotten Shore.
Soon dawn began to replace the starless night, the Sea began to swell and surge erratically as it drained. As it swelled, a pale light peaked over the horizon illuminating everything its light touched.
It did make for a stunning sunrise, really. But Sunny knew what laid behind the source of that very same sunrise.
Standing up, he walked over to the edge of the stone rubble platform and peaked over the edge. The sea was nowhere in sight now, instead replaced by a massive labyrinth of crimson red coral. The labyrinth spanned out as far as Sunny could see, reaching the horizon line. Here and there coral branches longer and taller than the rest broke through and dotted the vast red canopy.
Sunny also spotted the carcass of the abomination that tried to have him for dinner last night, ripped in half below him. Hundreds of Carapace Scavengers scurried around it, vying to steal a bite of its flesh. Occasionally he spotted the Scavengers clashing over their feast, more often than not resulting in the death of a few.
With a begrudged sigh, Sunny sent Gloomy to scale the statue and scout the labyrinth. It was going to be a process of trial and error, as Sunny no longer remembered the paths to take. Sitting down on the wet stone floor of the statue's decapitated throat, Sunny observed the area through Gloomy.
Ah the nostalgia this brought back to Sunny. It wasn't particularly wanted though.
Hours passed as Sunny scoured the area, more than once he spotted rogue Carapace Scavengers roaming the coral ridden land. Every time he did, he took a mental note of which ones were isolated enough to potentially kill. In the back of his mind, Sunny was also anxious to see if Nephis too had landed in the same place in the Dream Realm.
"Argh, all this searching feels so taxing on me. Maybe because my mind is no longer that of a Saints? Doesn't help that I'm hungry now too."
Sunny pouted aloud to no one, rubbing his face in frustration. Maybe maintaining multiple personas had... Eroded his sanity a tad.
As the sun began to set, Sunny recalled Gloomy from his adventures, and settled down for the night. Soon enough, the feasting Carapace Scavengers vacated the shark-like corpse and fled to seek shelter. There was a subtle rumble, followed by the sound of roaring water. An hour later, the Dark Sea returned to its full glory, the water swashing against the stone of Sunny's humble island.
Overall, he had managed to acquire a fuzzy familiarity of his surroundings through Gloomy. The range for Shadow Control was limited due to his rank, however it was more than enough to get a general glimpse into the surrounding labyrinth.
Laying down in the middle of the platform, Sunny waved to Gloomy and said:
"Wake me up if anything happens, alright? Especially if there is a light!"
Gloomy crossed his arms and shook his head, as if disappointed in his master's laziness. Disregarding his shadow, Sunny closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep in while he could.
But not long after falling asleep, a sudden impulse stirred him awake. Sunny jumped to his feet, his groggy mind instantly filled with tension. Had some unknown horror spotted his little island?
Or maybe some other horror from the depths had sensed him and decided to stop by and say hi? Sunny hoped that wasn't the case.
However, much to his fortune, the sea was quiet and calm. He didn't hear any abnormalities around the knight's statue.
"What is it?" Sunny turned to ask Gloomy.
The shadow silently gave him a judging stare, as if skeptical of something, before he pointed him in a particular direction.
A few kilometers out from Sunny's abode, in the starless abyss shined a dim light. As dim as it was, it stood out like a star in the lightless night. Its orange reflection shimmered vaguely in the waves as they rose and fell.
But soon after Gloomy had alerted Sunny to the familiar light, it went out. Almost like a simple hello to Sunny from Changing Star.
"Well, I guess that settles that uncertainty. Wouldn't you agree, Gloomy?"
Gloomy turned to face Sunny and stared. Maybe he was still growing used to his "name", let alone his master's far from normal antics. Shaking his head, Sunny sat laid back down and rolled on his side. There would be more time to get Gloomy accustomed to his master in the future, but now was time for rest.
***
Despite knowing what to do, it still didn't make Sunny's headache go away. He had to solve his thirst issue, as well as eat something soon. The pangs of hunger came and went without much issue, but his throat had become parched rather quickly.
In order to rectify these problems, he had to leave the safety of the platform. Looking over the edge, he spotted the swathes of Carapace Scavengers swarming the now degrading abomination corpse. Specifically, though, he spotted some stragglers who couldn't quite take on the competition at the feast and were resorting to ambushing one another in the outskirts.
Today, they were to be his prey.
Yesterday, Sunny had scouted out a reasonable way down the statue, in preparation for today's adventure. It had taken some time to locate suitable footholds and crevasses in the statue to rely on, but the effort had been necessary much to Sunny's chagrin.
Oh, what he would do to be able to travel through shadows again.
Nimbly climbing down the chipped and weathered stone statue, Sunny reached the bottom by around midday. Looking around, the immediate area was silent and without life.
Detaching Gloomy from his shadow, he sent him forward. Moving nimbly from shadow to shadow, Gloomy led the way for Sunny as he traversed into the depths of the labyrinth. Although confident in his abilities to perceive any threats nearby, Sunny did not dare lower his guard.
He was still extremely vulnerable, after all.
An hour passed before Sunny found his first mark of the day, and potentially his only due to time constraints. The Carapace Scavenger was resting away from the nearby feast under the shade of a particularly dense coral "tree", and at first glance appeared to be injured. However, Sunny new better than to trust such observations right now.
He observed the abomination from a nearby coral pillar for a few minutes before creeping up on it. But before Sunny could reach its shell cased back, the creature whipped its body around with an unexpected swiftness. Immediately, Sunny was forced to duck its pincer arms as it swung over his head, and side stepped to create space. Calling back Gloomy, Sunny weaved and bobbed the clunky attacks of the Scavenger.
To no avail, the Scavenger could not land a blow on Sunny. More than once a pincer or leg would come close to crushing him, but he was always one step ahead.
Frustrated, the Scavenger began to pick up the pace of the attacks, at the expense of its positioning which had prevented Sunny from landing a critical blow yet. More so, Sunny had yet to throw any punches.
Primarily because he was simply waiting to draw Serpent out and expend his meager Essence on this kill, but Sunny found that more importantly he was having... Fun?
It had been many weeks since he last recalled engaging in real combat at Godgrave. His spars with unexperienced sleepers and Neph had yielded little thrill in their fights, and no grit. Yet here, in front of what he once feared and avoided so desperately all those years ago, he found himself actively drawing the engagement out longer.
'Is it arrogance that drives me to do this or simple stupidity. Ha, maybe both!'
But alas, Sunny was tiring. His body could only go so far, and the Scavenger was slowly encroaching upon his fighting space. So, as the Scavenger slammed its pincer arms down to crush Sunny, he wove out of the way and twisted his body over the sides of the pincers. As he did, he summoned Serpent in his form of a wispy shadow Odachi, and sliced at the head of the abomination.
The blade barely manifested before it cut clean through the carapace shell of the Scavenger, much to Sunny's surprise. He had expected to encounter some resistance and yet was met by none. He wasn't about to complain though, the easier the kill the better.
[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger.]
[You have received a Memory: Azure Blade.]
[... Your shadow grows stronger.]
Standing straight again and letting Serpent return to its tattoo form, Sunny inspected his kill. The creature had put up a good fight for its strength. With a grin, Sunny took a peek at his new, or rather old Memory.
Memory: [Azure Blade].
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Type: Weapon.
Memory Description: [On this forgotten shore, only steel remembers.]
[Shadow Fragments: 14/1000].
"Progress at last!"
Sunny hummed an enthusiastic tune as he viewed his newfound progression. Ah, time was too short though to celebrate. He still had to procure some meat from his kill, as well as take its soul shards. On top of that, he still had to return to the statue before nightfall. With a belated sigh, Sunny got to work.