Sunny turned his head toward the light in the distance, several kilometers away.
"Thank God that nothing changed from my previous life… otherwise I'd have to pretend I stumbled upon them by chance."
Nephis was there, standing on the hill… and maybe Cassie was with her. Sunny wasn't sure she was truly there, but he wanted to believe that nothing had changed.
A strong storm swept across the dark sea and was expected to last for hours. Sunny, however, didn't care. He was sheltering from the wind beneath the corpse of a shark. Its skin acted as a canopy, secured with bones driven deep into the platform. This was the shelter Sunny had built before the storm arrived. In the distance, a scavenger's carapace served as a bucket, collecting rainwater.
When the storm ended, the sun rose over the dark sea, causing it to recede and reveal the crimson labyrinth. The scavengers emerged from their caves and tunnels, searching for the remains of the creatures that had perished in the battles between the depth terrors.
Sunny descended the cliff and turned toward the hill. He killed a few scavengers along the way—there weren't many of them, only ten to thirteen scattered in groups of three or four. He didn't avoid them—in fact, he welcomed them. After all, they were just moving shadow fragments!
After a while, Sunny found what he was looking for. His shadow Has been spotted from a distance.
In a clear patch between the coral, there stood a tall girl with silver hair and pale skin. Nephis. She wore black armor that fit her perfectly, its curves flowing seamlessly with her body, and she seemed comfortable in it. Nephis and the armor together formed a strange mix of beauty—so much so that Sunny dazed out for a moment. Then he looked past her and saw that she was holding a golden rope, with a girl at the other end. Cassie.
Sunny felt relief knowing they hadn't separated. It would have been difficult to rebuild their old friendship if they hadn't lived through life and death together.
"Why did you stop, Nephis?!"
"There's a shadow… it's waving at us."
"A shadow? A human shadow? Are there people here?!" Cassie asked excitedly.
"No… just a shadow. There's no human casting it."
Nephis approached the gloomy shadow and began stabbing it. But the shadow watched her, seeming amused by the assault.
"Uh… hello? Could you stop stabbing my shadow?" Sunny decided it was time to intervene, having enjoyed watching Nephis try to kill his shadow for long enough.
"Sunny?! What are you doing here? Wait—how did you even know we were here?!"
Nephis bombarded him with questions, which made Sunny happy—she sounded like she was talking normally.
"Sunny? Where? Is he here, Neph? Is he here?!" Cassie repeated anxiously, hoping Nephis would answer.
"Well, you see, you lit a fire. Visible from kilometers away. I wanted to check it out, hoping I'd find someone here… I guess I got lucky. I found two beautiful girls."
A slight blush appeared on Nephis's cheeks. Cassie smiled widely… but that warmth was short-lived.
"Behind you!" Nephis suddenly shouted.
Sunny turned to find crab that had been following him. The crab let out a happy noise, thrilled to catch up with its master.
"Oh, don't worry about him. He's an Echo. His name's Crab, by the way. You should thank him—he's been an invaluable helper. He's carrying everything I got from the labyrinth."
Now it was Nephis's turn to widen her eyes in shock.
"An Echo?! How did you get it? Wait… didn't you used to have something like an Echo? You told me once."
For the first time since meeting Sunny again, Nephis's cold façade broke—shock and realization replacing it.
"Yeah, it's an Echo. I got it after killing about a hundred and seventy of its cousins. As for the thing that resembled an Echo? That's my loyal shadow. Look, it's right behind you."
Nephis turned her head and saw a four-meter-long serpent looking at her kindly.
"Ugh… Sunny, I don't understand you anymore. You have an Echo… and that thing you call a shadow—I can feel it. It's huge," Cassie added, stunned.
"You don't need to understand me. Come on, Cassie, hop on Crab."
"Crab?"
"Yeah, that's the Echo. His name is Crab."
Cassie didn't listen—she followed the sound of Sunny's voice, then wrapped him in a warm hug, tears flowing down her cheeks. She wore the cloak Nephis had given her, so everyone was clothed now—not in seaweed. That alone made Sunny happy.
"Sunny… I was scared…"
That was the only thing Cassie could say before pulling away from him. Soon, she was riding Crab, while Sunny and Nephis walked beside it.
"Where have you been, Sunny?" Nephis asked.
Sunny pointed off toward a distant statue of a knight.
"I was over there, from the very first day. I hunted in the mornings and kept watch at night, afraid something from the depths would come and kill me. Did you know, that on my first day, I fell into the sea with a Corrupted Devil behind me? It was running from something way scarier."
"How do you know it was a Corrupted Devil?" Nephis asked cautiously.
"I know because I killed it. Well, I didn't kill it—I just skinned it while it was dying. But the spell still gave me the kill."
Cassie and Nephis's expressions collapsed.
"You killed it?!"
"Killed it?!"
"Yeah, I told you. But I didn't get a Memory from it."
"The soul shards… where are the soul shards? Did you absorb them?" Nephis asked.
"No, I didn't. I can't absorb soul shards. They're useless to me. See that pouch? It's full of Awakened soul shards. You and Cassie can split them."
"You can't absorb soul shards?!"
"Yeah, it's related to my Aspect. I can only feel my core through killing. That's why I killed those poor scavengers. Ah, poor things…"
Cassie didn't react—Sunny had told her before. But Nephis was deeply surprised, even confused. Why was he sharing such important information with her? She still suspected he might be an assassin, yet here he was—giving her soul shards and revealing his Aspect like he didn't care.
"I'll let you kill every creature I injure from now on," she said as they moved through the crimson labyrinth, heading for the hill.
"By the way, Neph… why did you start a fire? Don't you know how dangerous that is?"
Nephis scowled, recalling the night they had made the fire. But it was Cassie who answered.
"We learned the hard way. When we lit the fire, first came the scavengers. Then… a creature from the depths. Nephis fought it for hours… until sunrise."
She shuddered as the memory resurfaced.
Once they reached the tall hill, Sunny lay down on the ground. He wasn't especially tired—after all, his core was half-full—but he did it simply because he wanted to. After they ate and drank, Sunny remained seated on the hill, staring westward in silence.
He stayed like that even after the sunset and the dark sea rose again… until Nephis joined him.
"Hey Sunny… what are you doing?" she asked, sitting a little distance from him, also staring out to the west.
"I was thinking about my goal… what I want in this world."
Nephis asked, "And what do you want, if you had the right to choose?"
"To be free. To protect those I care about. That's what I want. But my goals… I don't know. Maybe just to survive? Or to protect the world? I don't know. There are things I want, and there are things forced upon me. And then there are goals I set for myself to get what I want… but I don't know what I truly want."
Neph's eyes shimmered as she looked at Sunny. For some reason, his words touched her heart. He was… similar. He had desires and goals, but he didn't know what he truly wanted.
"Tell me, Neph… what do you want to do if you return to the waking world?"
"I want revenge. To conquer the nightmares…"
Sunny cut her off.
"No, I mean really. What do you truly want?"
"You don't know, do you…?
Don't be discouraged. That's how humans are. They have goals and desires… but nothing in their reality that they truly want."
The two of them stared westward in silence, lost in their thoughts, the only sound remaining the crashing of waves against the hill.