It didn't take much of a talk to convince Nephis to allow Sunny to come with them. Sunny was still shocked by the latest reveal of the young man's identity. He was still trying to make peace with the idea that always gloomy-looking blank-faced Edward was this expressive all of sudden.
He has various theories spurting out in his mind starting from his Flaws to even the possibility of being possessed by Nightmare Creature.
Their journey back to the tall hill did not take a lot of time. With Nephis leading the way, taking all the right turns at all the right places, there was no need to explore the labyrinth and backtrack after encountering a dead end. Additionally, there were no scavengers around.
In fact, they could have moved even quicker if not for Cassia, who walked slowly even with the help of her staff. Guided by the golden rope, she carefully explored the ground ahead before taking each step. The uneven paths of the crimson forest were not an ideal surface for a blind person to walk on.
Sunny also learned from Cassie that Edward possessed some busted weapon Memories allowed him even slay an awakened demon with ease.
'This bastard wasn't the villain but the main character!'
He looks at Edward with a weirded-out look who is walking beside Cassie making sure she is following them and nothing is following after them. Sunny didn't say much, even though the structure of the group was strange he kept his thoughts to himself. Still, no matter how he looked at it, Cassia seemed to be deadweight. Perhaps it was cruel to say, but in the merciless reality of the Dream Realm, misguided kindness was a sure way to end up dead.
Before meeting and observing the trio, he still had hope that Cassia's terrible Flaw hid an unexpected and powerful Aspect. But from what he saw, it wasn't the case. If she couldn't even walk properly, what kind of power was there to hide? Nothing could outweigh the ruthless fact that the blind girl couldn't protect herself, and thus would only drag her companions down.
One had to be a fool or not fond of living to allow that to happen. Somehow neither Edward nor Nephis didn't fit in any of these descriptions.
The sunset was not far off when they reached the hill. After climbing it and approaching the massive growth of coral, Nephis dismissed the golden rope and immediately summoned it again. This way, it was untied and appeared in her hands in a neat bundle.
'Ah. So it's a Memory.'
Sunny wondered what qualities the magical rope had. Soon, his curiosity was satisfied: right in front of his surprised eyes, the length of the rope suddenly began to increase. Soon, it was thrice as long as it was before.
Nephis calmly tied both ends of the rope into loops and then threw one of them into the air, accurately coiling it around a prominent protrusion near the top of the coral pillar. Then, she tested if the rope would hold, swiftly climbed up, and waved from above, giving Sunny the signal to follow.
After hesitating for a second, Sunny approached the rope and grabbed it.
As he climbed he glanced down and saw Edward who stayed beside Cassie to protect her looking up at him, no matter how expressive he had become his black eyes stayed as deep as the bottomless hole still giving him creeps whenever he looked at them. He couldn't help thinking that this would be the perfect opportunity to cut his head off. With him helpless while climbing and Nephis standing on the top of the pillar… yeah. The vivid picture appeared in his mind. And if he somehow survived that there is Edward to finish the job, he could see him finishing him off with a smile on his face... he just saw that picture so vividly.
'Stop being paranoid!' Sunny thought, trying to calm himself down.
It's not that he was sure of Changing Star's impeccable moral qualities. Instead, he was certain of one thing: if Nephis wanted to kill him, she wouldn't have needed to wait for an opportunity. She could have just cut him into ribbons whenever. The same is true with Edward, then again he doesn't know much about this young man who was with him since the day he started his First Nightmare. He might even throw his thunderspear memory right and right here.
So he just decided to shut down his brain for a moment to prevent himself from thinking these disturbing thoughts, Sunny nimbly climbed up and joined Nephis at the top of the coral mound. He then turned around and watched curiously, wondering how Cassia was going to get to them. He could understand Edward, he would just climb using the robe just like him but Cassie? Perhaps Edward will carry her on his back when he climbs?
The blind girl dismissed the wooden staff and approached the rope. Then she caught it in a hand, traced it down to the loop at the end, and placed her foot inside. As soon as she was done, Nephis grabbed the rope and started pulling, lifting Cassia little by little until she had reached the top. She only had to grab Nephis's hand and make a step to join them.
'Huh. Efficient. But what about Edward?'
His vision wanders towards Edward and he sees a rather terrifying scene of a man in a gray suit and scarf that's used as the mask climbing towards them, his slender fingers covered by his leather gloves digging into the coral walls of the pillar as if it was made of dirt not whatever it was made of. His speed of climbing wasn't even slow it was fast enough to match the speed he climbed maybe even faster.
'Is this guy supposed to be a Sleeper like us?!'
After everyone reached the top they headed to their temporary camp.
The coral mound was much larger than the circular stone platform of the giant knight's neck. In fact, it was almost like a small island. At the highest point of the island, hidden behind some coral blades, the trio had made a little camp. There were piles of seaweed to sleep on, strips of scavenger meat drying under the sun, and a fire pit.
Sunny pointed to the makeshift firepit.
"Was it you two nights ago? I've seen an orange light in the distance."
Cassia's face darkened.
"Yes, this was the first time we made a fire. But it turned out to be a really bad mistake."
"They almost become snacks for the leviathans of the dark sea."
Edward then sits on the seaweed pile assigned to himself which is a little farther from the girls.
"You weren't with them when they started a fire?"
Sunny asked curiously.
"Yup, I just joined them yesterday. You should have seen them when I first met them. Especially Nephis's reaction, it was-..."
Nephis looked at the sky and cleared her throat. Cutting off Edward's story and said coldly.
"It should be fine now. We still have time before the sun sets."
Edward raises his hand probably preparing to summon the infamous flaming sword he was hearing from Cassie during their travel.
"No need,"
After refusing Edward's help, she got busy making the fire. Cassia simply sat on a pile of seaweed and waited. Not knowing what to do, Sunny lowered himself to the ground and let his tired, bruised body rest. It seems like Edward's attempt to reveal her dark history upset her a lot.
After a while, he said:
"I have fresh meat in my rucksack. Do you have water?"
Cassia smiled.
"Yes!"
After that, she extended an arm to him. A second later, a beautiful bottle made of patterned blue glass appeared in her hand.
"That's a Memory I have. It's always full."
Sunny took the glass bottle and looked at it with envy.
'An endless supply of water, huh? Sure beats my super loud bell!'
She then becomes hesitant for a moment before saying weakly.
"Edward has the same one too."
His glare towards Edward becomes even more intense.
'Not only you are armed with fancy weapon-type memories but he also has so many survival-oriented ones too? What the hell Nightmare Spell?! Where the hell is the fairness in this?! Does he also have some super important hidden family background?! Is that why he doesn't wanna talk about his parents or others to meet them?!'
Edward has no idea in Sunny's mind he become something akin to a self-insert overpowered character who appears in some cheap webtoons.
***
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