The northern march was a lesson in vigilance. Sunny hadn't traveled this direction in his past, and some weeks had been spent searching for their mark.
The coral labyrinth had long since abandoned any attempt to resemble solid ground — twisting veins of pulsing red coral hissed underfoot, with rotting bones of dead leviathans strewn about. The air was heavy with a brine mist, and the black mud coating the ground oozed rancid odors when disturbed.
Caution and prudence went far to keep the fledgling cohort safe. Having the accumulated experience of his past life, Sunny no longer found the Forgotten Shore a terrifying land of death. Rather, it was more akin to an inhospitable wilderness— vicious, yes, but somewhat predictable in its brutality. Sunny was no longer the same Sleeper as before, and carried a calm self-assurance with him that persisted no matter the harrowing foes encountered.
Kai and Aiko wore their tension like ill-fitted armor. Kai, though having assisted with hunts in the Dark City, had spent much of his time within the safety of Bright Castle. He cast wary glances to their flanks and behind them, unable to relax. Aiko, even less accustomed to the dangers beyond the walls, clutched her weapon too tightly, her small frame jarring at every noise, taut as a bowstring.
Effie, by contrast, whistled a tuneless melody between her teeth. Caster strolled along with the grim nonchalance of a man commuting through a minefield. Cassie walked just behind Sunny, silent, but steady in her steps.
Creatures were denser in this region, competing more fiercely for food. The Forgotten Shore was being eaten alive by its own children — an ecosystem no longer sustained by life, but by pure corruption. The heavy atmosphere pressed down on them, as though even the very air had given up remembering what clean existence was.
Still, they pressed forward. After weeks of careful movement and methodical battle, they found their target.
Sunny knelt atop a low hill, his gaze lingering on the statue below. He hadn't seen this monument in his original timeline, and he studied it now with an appraiser's eye.
The coral maze ended abruptly — a clearing where the labyrinth's grasping fingers refused to grow. At its center stood the statue of the Slayer: beheaded like all the others, but still imposing. The remains depicted a feminine figure, half-concealed by a short cape. Her left arm pulled the garment close, while her right hand, hidden behind her back, held a ghostly stiletto.
At the base of the monument, two figures resided.
The first was a towering abomination, stitched together from despair and hatred. Nearly three meters tall, the pitch-black humanoid's limbs were stretched too long in some places, twisted too short in others — as if assembled by a child blindly matching together mismatched bodies. Its face was horrifying: an endlessly deep grey void yawning wide where a mouth should have been, and two weeping, white eyes bleeding streams of blood down its gaunt cheeks. Through its chest, a sword pierced where its heart should have been — a delicate blade that looked far too slender to bring down such a monstrous creature.
The second figure was no less strange.
A faintly glowing girl in broken shackles danced slowly around the statue's feet. She wore sun-blanched ceremonial robes that fluttered about as she spun, arms outstretched, head tilting back as though lost in some soundless, mournful music. Her translucent form touched the ground, though she left no footprints or marks in the silt below.
When the girl drifted too near the towering giant, its body shimmered — a heat-haze ripple that distorted the world around it for a fraction of a heartbeat.
Sunny frowned.
He studied them intently, committing every oddity to memory. These two were wrong. Their presence poisoned the clearing. Even the coral — relentless and greedy — refused to approach.
"Come look," Sunny said quietly. "But don't stare directly. They'll feel it. Keep them in the edges of your vision."
One by one, the others joined him at the hill's crest. For a time, nobody spoke.
The weeping giant stood motionless. The girl spun endlessly. The clearing below seemed frozen, the world itself holding its breath.
Cassie shifted beside him.
"...The big one," she whispered, "it's... it's not just one creature. It's many, mashed together. Broken."
She hesitated, then tilted her head slightly.
"As for the second, I can't make any sense about what it might be, except that it is pressed up against the first."
Sunny nodded. "The second the sword impaling the giant. In my first timeline, I encountered it as an Echo that took the form of a sentient flying rapier. Most likely, it comes alive when we engage them, and the dancing girl is an illusion conjured by it."
Kai shifted uncomfortably. "I think the shimmer around the big one only happens when the girl gets close," he murmured. "I can't tell how it's linked."
Effie shrugged, tearing off a strip of dried meat with her teeth. "The coral is scared of them. My gut says it's because of the tall one."
"Highly territorial, most likely," Caster muttered. "And the land's barren. Feels like some kind of ritual site."
Aiko stuttered, "The mouth on the big one is really creepy. Something about it feels wrong."
Sunny listened without looking at them, his mind racing through possibilities. The Quiet Dancer Echo clearly came from the blade, and the creature would award the Moonlight Shard.
Still though, the pair was exceptionally odd. The coral breaking away from the clearing. The stillness. The strange way the girl spun — not aimlessly, but to some eerie pulsing rhythm. He wanted more information.
"We're not rushing in," Sunny said finally. "We observe longer. Watch for patterns."
Around him, the others settled in to wait.
Time dragged on. The Dark Sea rose and fell.
The humanoid monster did not move.
The girl spun tirelessly, as if the world around her was irrelevant.
***
The group had not gotten any closer to answers. Nightmare Creatures avoided the clearing like it was cursed. Even the Dark Sea, gluttonous and insatiable elsewhere, avoided it come nightfall.
Sunny had sent Gloomy in to scout closer, but even then no new revelations surfaced. The giant was a Fallen Beast. The rapier, an Awakened Devil. By rank alone, they were manageable prey, but without Nephis to heal wounds, even a small mistake would cripple them. Further still, their highly anomalous nature made them unpredictable and potentially dangerous.
It was Aiko who cracked first.
"Doesn't that mouth creep you out?" she blurted, hugging her knife tighter. "Every noise it makes... it's like it's under my skin!"
That earned a few skeptical glances — and a sudden sharpening of attention. After a few tense questions, they pieced it together. Aiko heard the creature's breath — a noise skimming the edge of human hearing, too high pitched to be perceived by most. Kai could catch it if he strained; years of musical training left him sensitive to sub-harmonics and faint sounds.
When Kai focused closely, he noticed something peculiar.
"The girl," Kai murmured. "She's spinning... to its breathing."
Sunny brought a hand to his face in thought.
"Interesting. You two are the only ones who can hear it — so help with the girl. If the sword moves, it'll be tied to her somehow. Caster, you're the only one fast enough to keep up with it, so watch closely. Cassie, Effie, and I will handle the Fallen one with our Echoes."
***
When the attack came, it was sudden and precise.
From three angles, the assault began: Kai's Blood Arrow whistled through the air from the right, Aiko's Prowling Thorn arced from the left, and Caster's sling cracked a slug straight from the front.
Effie, Saint, and the Carapace Scavenger Echo charged forward to meet the monstrosity directly. In the shadow of the ruined statue, Sunny and Cassie slipped through statue's shadow to approach from behind.
For a heartbeat, it seemed the projectiles would strike true.
But then, at the last instant, the creature twisted — a subtle motion. The Blood Arrow sank into its shoulder instead of head.
[Restitution] Enchantment Description: [If the arrow finds its mark, it will drink the blood of the prey and restore that which had been taken from the archer. If it misses, the archer's blood will be lost forever.]
Despite the clean strike, the arrow drank nothing. The creature's bleeding white eyes wept down its cheeks, but there was no true blood within to steal.
Aiko's Prowling Thorn was redirected mid-flight to graze the Quiet Dancer — a shallow, unsatisfying strike. Caster's shot missed entirely, ricocheting into the ruins beyond.
From the two that hit, there was no sign of pain or damage. The dancing ghost froze in place, lurched forward, and then snapped her gaze towards the intruders.
Turning slowly toward the sky, the larger abomination let out an inhuman shriek. A cacophony of endlessly layered voices rang out, screaming in directionless rage. The sound was raw, vast and primal, spreading outward like a ruinous tsunami. Silt underfoot stirred in waves, and the noise broadened in pitch until it morphed into pure, overwhelming static.
The world shuddered in its wake.
Somewhere in the distance, a low, thunderous rumble answered — then another, and another, until the ground itself seemed to writhe. The world answered back, with countless creatures stirring and charging towards the clearing.
From the epicenter of the sound, the Quiet Dancer retracted from the horror's heart, and darted impossibly quickly into the hands of the ghost girl. Caster sped forward to meet her, blades clashing in sharp rings. Kai and Aiko moved to pincer towards the engagement.
The rest of the cohort closed in on the abomination from every side. There would be only moments to fight before the stampede arrived. Effie, Saint, and the Scavenger Echo struck first.
And with that first clash — the battle unraveled into chaos.
The abomination moved.
It crashed into Effie, Saint, and the Carapace Scavenger Echo like a collapsing avalanche — mass and momentum overwhelming all pretense of subtlety.
Effie braced and was still driven back, boots carving trenches through the silt, before being flung onto her back. Saint slashed, but the creature bent backward in a grotesque arc, dodging impossibly. The Scavenger's attacks struck harmlessly, unable to pierce its hide.
Sunny, watching from the shadows, chose the moment to strike.
He surged forward, shadow empowering Serpent in Soul Weapon form. But, just as he crossed the killing threshold, the creature shimmered and vanished.
It reappeared a moment later behind the vanguard trio, silt billowing outward from the displaced air. Before anyone could react, it screamed again — louder, shriller, cutting through the roar of battle.
At that same instant, the Quiet Dancer blurred. One moment, it was locked against Caster's blade — the next, it simply vanished with the scream.
Caster twisted violently aside, but not fast enough. A burning line opened across his ribs, the edge of the Quiet Dancer's blade scoring him deep as it passed.
He reeled back, buying space — but the rapier-ghost did not relent. It pressed forward in a relentless cascade of slashes, faster than even his enhanced speed could fully answer.
Across the clearing, the larger abomination turned on Effie.
Its limb lashed out with horrifying force.
The Carapace Scavenger Echo lunged to intercept — and was shattered instantly, its shell torn apart in a spray of broken chitin and soul mist.
Saint moved to block the next blow with her shield. There was a terrible impact — stone pulverized in a deafening explosion, as her arm gave way with an audible, brutal crack. Before she could recover, another blow hammered into her torso, lifting her body and hurling her across the clearing like a broken doll.
She hit the ground hard, ruby dust pouring from the wound. Sunny immediately dismissed her. The Echo wouldn't have survived a second longer.
His stomach twisted. Everything had fallen out of control.
At the clearing's edges, the first wave of nightmare creatures broke through the coral barrier. Effie vanished under the tide, swallowed by the stampede. Caster, pinned by the Quiet Dancer's relentless assault, was driven farther and farther back — until the blade, growing bored of him, abandoned the pursuit.
In the chaos, Caster turned — and was met by the other side of the stampede, before being promptly enveloped.
In the center, Kai and Aiko stood paralyzed. They watched in mute horror as the Quiet Dancer shot toward them, a silver streak barely visible to the naked eye.
The abomination's eldritch shriek faded — and only then did the rapier's movements slow enough to fully perceive. But it was far too late. The Quiet Dancer struck for Kai's heart. Neither he nor Aiko could move, terror rooted them where they stood.
The blade pierced his flesh.
Across the clearing, the mutant body of the larger abomination sprinted wildly toward Sunny and Cassie. Its flailing limbs carved gashes through the air, dragging the sound of shrieking ruin behind them.
Sunny and Cassie reeled, horrified at the collapse of the battlefield — before raising their blades, reflexively, as the screaming giant drew close.