Sunny stared in horror at the immense number of web cocoons hanging from the walls and ceilings, each housing the remains of nightmare creatures. Their thin, almost skeletal bodies gave the cocoons irregular shapes, varying in size depending on the creature trapped within.
However, Sunny wasn't looking at the common cocoons. He stood momentarily frozen in shock, staring at two in particular. The first seemed to contain a completely motionless human figure, likely a sleeper, although he couldn't be sure. But it was the second cocoon that made his heart race: it also held a human form, but this one was restlessly writhing within the webbing.
"It can't be… right?" he thought, a lump forming in his throat.
Wasting no time, Sunny reinforced his tachi with his shadow and, despite the exhaustion weighing on his body, ran towards the cocoon, slashing it open with a clean cut.
The cocoon contracted before releasing a female figure who fell heavily to the ground. The woman, clad in metal plate armor, had light brown hair matted with sweat, and her face was contorted with pain. Under her pale, delicate skin, small, restless bulges could be seen moving.
Sunny felt a wave of intense nausea and the urge to vomit.
The woman, seemingly trapped in an indescribable torment, didn't register her release and fainted upon hitting the ground, while tears continued streaming down her face. Her body weakly convulsed.
Without hesitation, Sunny lifted her onto his back, strengthening his own body with the shadow and discarding his tachi to move with greater agility. He ran full speed through the web-covered area, the weight of the woman intensifying the urgency of each step. Upon reaching his companions, Sunny called out, breathless from the effort.
"Nephis! Where's Nephis?!" he frantically shouted, feeling the woman twitching more intensely on his back.
From a corner veiled in webs, Nephis quickly appeared at the sound of her name. When she saw the woman Sunny was carrying, she froze for a moment before rushing to help.
"You need to heal her fast! She has spider eggs under her skin!" Sunny said, his voice betraying his disgust and urgency.
Nephis carefully laid the woman on the ground. She placed her hands on the plate armor, and a pure flame emerged from her palms, enveloping the woman with a warm, purifying glow.
For several seconds, dozens of small spiders frantically emerged from the girl's skin, trying to escape the flames. But Nephis maintained her concentration, controlling the flames to mercilessly incinerate each creature, while the woman's flesh regenerated under the intense but careful purification.
When all the spiders were eradicated, the girl's body was completely healed, her convulsions ceased, and her breathing steadied. Sunny let out a sigh of relief, his body trembling from the accumulated effort and tension.
Effie examined the unconscious girl on the ground more closely and asked aloud, "Does anyone know her? I haven't seen her around the castle. She must have come with you."
Nephis rose to her feet and looked at her seriously. "No, I don't recall anyone like her."
Sunny, seated on the ground a few steps away from Sara, was resting after the exhausting battle against the iron spiders. He was still weary from carrying the girl to the Changing Star.
Caster approached, casting a look of recognition at the young woman. "I saw her among the top ten ranked at the academy. She's a sleeper who was there with us."
Nephis's usually expressionless face showed a slight frown. "Strange, I don't remember anyone like her."
From behind, Kai interrupted, "Guys, shouldn't we move her to a safer place? Night is falling, and we still need to climb to the statue."
Nephis looked outside the iron spider's nest, assessing the situation, and then nodded. "Take her to the top first. We'll follow shortly."
Kai nodded and carefully lifted Sara in his arms before taking flight, leaving the nest and ascending to the top.
Still inside the nest, Nephis turned to Sunny, "Is there anything else we should know in there?"
Sunny looked up, meeting her gaze with seriousness. "I saw another sleeper, but… it was certain he was dead."
Caster moved forward, walking towards the cocoon area, followed by Sunny, Effie, and Nephis. As they advanced, Caster voiced his concern, "If it's another sleeper from the academy, then it could be one of the three who didn't reach the castle."
Sunny felt uneasy at the thought of finding more bodies. Those companions, even if they were arrogant and held high status, didn't deserve such a fate.
Soon, they reached the cocoon area and found just one more: Stephen, a follower of Caster at the academy. With a solemn expression, Caster murmured his name, a shadow crossing his face.
After deliberation, they decided to give him a proper burial. Nephis asked them to climb to the statue, promising to follow shortly.
As the group began to ascend, a suffocating heat emanated from the nest, accompanied by an intense white glow. Nephis appeared shortly after, tired and visibly drained from the effort she had just made.
...
When night fell and Sunny was on guard, watching the ominous black sea, something subtle caught his attention.
The girl they had found seemed to move slightly. No one else, except him, who had left a shadow keeping watch over her the entire time, could have noticed it.
Then, the girl woke up.
"Watch out!" she shouted first, springing to her feet, extending her hand to summon her weapon.
Her face was marked by fear, her eyes darting frantically in all directions, scanning Sunny's cohort, who were awakening one by one after her shout.
Cassie was the first to react.
"Sunny? What's happening? I heard a shout."
Then, Changing Star asked a question into the darkness, "An enemy?"
Sunny continued observing the girl's change in demeanor, but his defect compelled him to answer the questions. "No, Cassie. The girl woke up. There's no enemy."
Sara scanned each of the people present, who were now fully awake, instinctively summoning their weapons upon waking up in the middle of the night. She looked at each of them, one by one, with palpable confusion until her eyes met Sunny's, which disappeared into the darkness around him.
It seemed strange, almost as if she could also see in the gloom.
Or can she? Sunny wondered.
"What is she doing?" Nephis asked, looking in the direction of Sunny's voice.
"She's watching us," he replied.
Sara hesitated before speaking. "W-Who are you? Where am I now? Where is he?"
Effie, Kai, Caster, and Cassie remained silent, attentive to the commotion.
Nephis approached cautiously towards the source of the voice, responding with a calm tone, "We are a group of sleepers. Some of us came from the academy, others from a city many miles away."
Sara looked at her with distrust and confusion as Nephis approached slowly.
Seeing Nephis's eyes, a painful memory burst into Sara's mind: Grey's last gaze. There was a pure white spark in those eyes that seemed terrifyingly familiar.
The emotional blow was overwhelming. Sara felt a lump in her throat, despair threatening to consume her. She couldn't accept it. She couldn't believe she had lost someone dear once again. It hadn't even been a year since she met Grey, but their bond had grown immensely.
Perhaps it was due to their circumstances. He, a boy with no memories, no past. And she, carrying the painful memories of her friends from the orphanage, whom she had lost due to a category 2 gate.
She didn't fully understand it, but she didn't care either. All she knew was that she couldn't accept losing everything once more, and her anger towards the spell only increased.
She directed a defiant look at Nephis, who seemed to relive the shadow of someone else in her eyes. Sara spoke with a choked voice. "Don't come any closer. My name is Sara, and I arrived here on the winter solstice."
She hesitated for a moment before continuing. "I came with someone else. His name was Grey."
Nephis froze, stopped in her tracks. Her eyes, lost in the darkness, stared in the direction of Sara's voice.
Sunny watched Sara again, and so did the others, as all of them knew Grey. The Legacy of Ruin, second-ranked in the academy and the one who had defeated Nephis and Caster in direct combat.
Nephis hesitated for an instant before asking the question, her voice laden with restrained emotion, "And where is he?"