As they climbed the other leg of the giant, headless statue, the incandescent pyre of flames continued its disastrous attack on the metallic thread nest.
When they all finally found a suitable spot on the right shoulder of the warrior, all, without fail, stepped close to the edge, and gazed downwards.
For Ray and Sunny alike, seeing this destruction, this… somewhat beautiful, but similarly menacing power, rattled something deep within them both.
Both of them had some frictions with her philosophy and future plans, though, what they felt wasn't necessarily fear or anything in this direction.
At least it wasn't for Ray.
In the case, the two of them would ever actually stand on opposing sides, he knew that he would have his own methods to deal with basically anything the silver-haired young woman could throw at him.
If Nephis was the ultimate offense, at the moment, then he was the perfect defense.
Even just the most basic of his abilities allowed him to completely remove his trace of existence, after all. There was no saying, what kind of abilities he would be able to learn through the tome, or maybe even master on his own, later on.
Regardless of his own thoughts, down below, the metallic threads continued melting under the blazing heat of the white flames, soon combining into a liquid mess of metal and the very little remains of the nightmare creatures, which had withstood the onslaught until then.
Then came the flames next adversary, the black sea.
The eerie darkness came from below and continued to creep closer by the second. A real spectacle came when both of these opposing forces – one a white flame, nearly appearing divine, the other, utter darkness, bringing with it a feeling of despair – crashed into each other.
The moment both of these met, a fierce clash ensured. For just a single moment, it even seemed as if both of them were evenly matched, but the next instant, the flame lost this actually very uneven match-up.
It took the dark sea not even a full minute to fully gouge out the majestic flames, and drown the expanse below, once again, in an actual sea of darkness.
The whole clash also resulted in an enormous wave of steam drifting upwards, before dissipating into all directions, letting it seem, as if this clash had never even happened in the first place.
All the members of the cohort had watched this spectacle in complete silence, and only when the whole landscape had turned dark, did they avert their attentions.
It was Sunny that actually broke the silence, though. "So… now what?"
The de facto leader of the group, Nephis, looked at him for a second, letting her gaze linger on him a second longer than she may have wanted at first, before she replied.
"We have reached this place faster than I expected. There still remain two days, before we can actually act. We will rest tomorrow, and prepare the day after."
Upon hearing this, the spirits of most of them were quickly lifted. Especially, Effie seemed to enjoy hearing these words.
"Ugh, finally some goddamn rest. Finally time to eat, time to sleep, time to simply rest."
Following this relatable outburst, she even volunteered to take the first watch. What normally would've been seen as something noble, now seemed as truly selfish.
It was obvious, their pathfinder simply wanted the possibility to sleep in the next day, not wanting to bother waking up somewhere in between.
Nevertheless, no one actually complained, and after planning how the rest of the night watch was to be held, all – with the exception of Effie – went to sleep, in a matter of seconds. Most of them basically fell asleep, as soon as their heads hit whatever they used as pillows.
---
Like most of them before, the night went by without any incident. No one was suddenly drawn into the dark sea, no deep dwelling horror had decided to pay them a visit.
Therefore, most members of the cohort were actually rested by morning, with smaller signs of fatigue, like muscle soreness, starting to show. It simply made them be even more thankful, for the extra days of rest they had gotten.
When breakfast was ongoing, Effie seemed to come alive for merely a few dozen seconds, but then got handed a bit of the fleshy breakfast. She wolfed it down immediately, turned around and went back to sleep.
The food apparently having satisfied her for the time being. After that, due to no one having much interest in games or the like, that day, everyone merely did whatever they actually needed to, not spending any unnecessary energy, if it was possible.
Another thing that somehow, maybe even unconsciously happened, was the unspoken separation from the only 'outsider' in the group, Sunny. They young man must've also noticed it, but didn't seem go give it much thought.
It was around noon, when Ray's rest period was interrupted for the first time, that day.
---
He had been going over some movement patterns without his weapon memories for a change, when someone stepped closer to him.
With it not being the first time, that this particular person came to see him, these past days, he picked up on who it was, without even turning his head, or stopping his movements, at all.
"Well, what can I do for you now, Nephis?"
She kept her gaze on his body for a moment longer, by no means actually looking at it due to any kinds of carnal desire, merely… fascination.
"What you taught me back then, in the settlement, the thing about spears being an immovable force, was it a lie?"
This caused her to look at her in surprise. This question had really caught him off guard, and he now even paused his exercise.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
Her response did not make him wait long, "Ever since then, I have not seen you actually use this method of wielding your weapon like this, even once."
Realization, began dawning on him, though, it was followed by another wave of confusion.
"Wait. You're seriously asking me that, while simultaneously having never really used what you taught he me back then, too? I thought it was some unspoken agreement, where we would not teach the other our actual styles, but rather how one normally wields these weapons.
But then, over the process of fighting, we would show each other our actual styles regardless, which in itself, just presents another challenge. Weren't these your own thoughts, too?"
Even she couldn't stop the slight sign of surprise from appearing on her face.
It looked like her whole plan had been seen through from the very beginning, and instead of being upset about the incomplete teaching, had instead resulted in a contest even. At least somewhat.
"Oh. I suppose they were."
She quickly realized that she still needed more practice in tackling things without revealing too much of her intentions in the process.
Nevertheless, it also lifted at least some of the tension in her body. It was nearly refreshing to once again feel this peculiar sensation of somehow unspoken understanding. When she reached this point of thought, her gaze went towards Sunny, for just an instant.
"What do you think, the true essence of combat really is?" The words nearly came out of her mouth, by pure reflex, or possibly even coincidence.
Feeling something in her voice, his demeanor seemed to turn a tad bit more serious, and he gave his short answer in a matter of seconds.
"Proof."
"Does this answer satisfy you, Nephis? Or, should I call you Changing Star right now?" he himself normally disliked calling people by their true name, if they even had one, but he did so with her, as she, for some reason, decided on this rather serious topic.
It didn't take anymore explanation on his part, and she seemed to make her own conclusion about the meaning of this answer, gave him a short nod, before then turning around and beginning to leave.
She only stopped, when a voice echoed from behind her, "And you? What do you think, the true essence of combat really is?"
Changing Star, now standing merely a few meters from him, had her usual, somewhat neutral and detached look on beautiful face.
"Murder."
Only one word. No explanation, or anything. Just like he had done, a moment before.
Ray couldn't help but chuckle for a second, "Heh, that really does suit you."
With everything said, she resumed her walk again, while he, after thinking over her answer for another second, also resumed his what he had been doing previously.
---
The second, and last interruption for the day, came about an hour after Neph had come over.
Though, the visitor was slightly more surprising than her.
"Could you give me a moment of your time, Ray?"
Ray stirred up from where he had been preparing for a nap, "I just wanted to take a nap… whatever. Sure, what is it, Caster?"
The young legacy seemed even more serious than he normally did. It also looked like, as if he wasn't completely sure, how he wanted to say what he came here for.
"Come on, just say what you want."
"Alright. Ray. You are a legacy too, aren't you?"