Sunny trailed behind the girl, carefully observing her daily routine. She performed various menial tasks and wrote detailed notes for her superiors. Sunny watched as she attended two meetings exclusively focused on managing the town's mounting problems. Through this, Sunny pieced together the full situation: the town was facing severe financial debt from hiring hundreds of mercenaries to fend off a Corrupted Tyrant. Lacking a transcendent to defend them, they had no other options.
The town, currently stable, was burdened by debt, and tax hikes had caused citizens to voice their anger. Sunny noticed this unrest firsthand in the town square, hearing people condemn the increased taxes. Realizing how tense things were, Sunny decided against sneaking into the town; he understood he would be treated as a threat, especially given that the townspeople were still traumatized from the attack a year ago.
'I was hoping to cash out on that favor from Alex, but I guess I'll need to do it some other time in the night.'
His shadow that was in the town square soon returned to him, also around the time that the wandering shadow reached the hill that everyone seemed to avoid. Reaching the top, he noticed there were charred pieces of wood that seemed to be made for a house's pillar. There was also a very thin layer of ash that covered the grass, which made him wonder if there had been a house here before it was burnt. Perhaps the town was superstitious about the house burning being a sign of the family or land being cursed... but he doubted that was the case.
Soon, the sun once again went below the horizon as the moon came up, which wasn't all that different from Earth's, aside from being a bit bigger. He set up camp far away from the town and lit a campfire before heating up a stick of meat over the fire. Despite mostly sitting down all day, he was still hungry as his new body required far more food than the average person would ever need in a day. He also used this time to rest his mind that was heavily strained from the multiple perspectives he was seeing from, although it was certainly getting easier and easier to adapt to each shadow.
Raising his head, two shadows appeared in front of him before they formed into Saint and Bitey. Saint was as stoic and silent as ever - not showing even an ounce of emotion on her face - while Bitey looked annoyed as if Sunny had pulled him out of some important meeting.
"You two go out and find nightmare creatures to kill, but don't attempt to kill anything above a Fallen Monster." Sunny mentally commanded and warned them as they both separated in opposite directions into the dark forest. He did this to clear the forest of trivial dangers, to find more food, and to passively get stronger while he stayed idle. He remembered when he planned on using Saint to kill creatures for him while he reaped the rewards safely away in a liverish condo in the city as a memory merchant or of the sort. Of course, he never planned to spend almost a year in two death zones with a... a girl with a short fuse who can sometimes act strangely, whom he called his gf.
All alone now, aside from all four of his shadows, which he recalled from town, he began to think about everything he learnt today about the town. While thinking he remembered the fact that when the woman talked about the priest, they neglected to mention or even reference the beast that seemingly followed the priestess around like a loyal dog, according to Nephis. He came up with two ideas: either the priestess hadn't met the beast yet - in which Sunny will most likely attempt to kill her before she grows in power - or the beast was somehow hidden from the prying eyes of the government that seemingly had it out for her.
There was also no doubt that the seed they had entered was based on the part of the forest he had been in not too long ago.
Sighing, Sunny finally accepted the conditions he was given and was at least grateful he wasn't facing any Corrupted-ranked beasts yet. Taking a bite of the meat, he thought back to the pictures Neph saw in the temple - specifically the first that depicted the burning home. He was certain that the witch's home that burnt down was the same one that Sunny found remains of on top of the hill. That was why he was certain that the townspeople weren't staying away from the hill merely because of superstition, but instead because that was where the priestess had lived until the house burnt down and she became an orphan.
Knowing this, if he decided to go meet the witch would have two choices: he could try to find her and help with whatever goal she had, as it seemed the whole nightmare revolved around her, or he could try to kill her, and potentially end the nightmare quicker if she was the problem they needed to solve. However, even if neither ends the nightmare directly, he was sure that the witch played a huge part since he doubted the trial would put him far away from the objective, and because he knew enough to infer that conclusion.
In the future, the forest had turned into a jungle that was the size of a country, and there were no remains of any town from what he and Nephis explored. It was both dangerous and dreadful as they had almost died many times on their voyage, but at least he had tall tales to tell Kai all about. Sunny thought about his decision all night as the bright gray moon glided across the sky until the morning sun shone from the horizon, as it was now the second day inside the nightmare, as well as the second day he hadn't slept due to not feeling safe sleeping in such a vulnerable state.
His shadows were competent, but if the town were to send out their hunting parties, which he learnt about, that consisted of an ascended and a group of awakened, then he would want to already be awake and empowered before they could even notice him. It also definitely had nothing to do with it being the first time in a long time not having someone else with him to take turns guarding each other through the night.
Sighing, he realized just how much having Nephis's silent determination and courageous aura around had grown on him. He wondered if that's what everyone in the dreamer army felt when they saw their deity, that was Changing Star, when they marched to the castle, went into a bloody civil war, and charged into certain death for most of them during the battle of the Spire.
'With everything that has already happened to me as a Sleeper, someone could make a movie out of it.' Sunny quietly chuckled in the moonlight to himself, as it would be funny to see someone pretending to be the socially awkward Neph.After making sure to smooth out the ashes from the campfire with the dirt to make the whole place seem untouched by humans, Sunny set out into the deeper parts of the forest to search for the witch. The tree swayed with its large and small branches of fine dark bark with the wind, and all around him, he could hear all types of regular animals. He wondered if that's how the waking world's forests had sounded like before the nightmare spell and even before that.
He wasn't too attentive to the sounds around, but it was a nice change of sound from the constant roars and fighting he was used to hearing while wandering the future jungle. He walked for a long time with his intuition being all but mute as he wandered in a circle around the village - or at least he guessed, since his shadows didn't travel that far to see the village - since it was situated at the center of the forest.
After resting for a bit, he started scratching faint but noticeable markings onto the trees in order not to get lost or in case he ever needed to run back the way he came from. He had also decided to use this method so it wouldn't be so easy to search an area twice by mistake.
It was around noon when something interesting happened, right as he stopped dead in his tracks and simply stood there without making a peep.
'Now it makes sense why they never found her.' Sunny had passed by one of the trees he had marked about five times by now. He knew that this must've been the work of a talented sorcerer... or perhaps a certain witch who was possibly knowledgeable in runes like the ones he saw beneath the cathedral. It was undeniable what was happening now; he was going in a loop. Sunny was getting annoyed after the tenth loop as he looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was still moving in the sky, which indicated that time was still moving forward, but space wasn't.People from the village most likely wouldn't have noticed the loop since they never went into the forest anymore unless an invasive nightmare creature decided to make a home in the forest. Tyrants and terrors were monstrous in strength and powers, but what made them terrifying was the face they could make a mindless, uncontrolled hoard of weaker creatures into somewhat of an organized army. Even worse was that, just like the Mountain King, they could create an army themselves, which was what had happened with the Corrupted Tyrant that had almost killed off the village.
Sunny was determined to force his way in, but after spending more than three hours with no significant progress, he tried a different approach. He started digging up the dirt, rocks, and even checking the trees as he tried to look for any runes that could have hidden the enchantment keeping him out, but he found nothing. Soon the sun started to set as he called it a day, and after resetting the loop, he turned back the way he came from to come up with a new approach tomorrow.
However, he proved to be a fool as when he tried to leave, he ended up returning to the marked tree. Cursing, he tried to leave again, running as worry filled him along with dread, and when that failed, he tried again, and again, and again... and failing each time.
No matter how many times he tried to leave, he ended up at the marked tree. Sunny was cursing his bad luck; after all, he ended up being stuck in a time loop, after all, unknowingly. Sunny tried going in different directions; he tried flying with Serpent and even tried to focus his attention on the far distance to not be redirected if it was simply a space manipulation enchantment, but none of it worked either.
While flying desperately with Serpent, he noticed that there was a faint white dot that was almost completely hidden. He normally wouldn't have noticed it, but his senses - including his eyes -had been sharpened with all the attributes and ichor he consumed; he was able to spot it among the green background. Commanding Serpent to land, Sunny got off him as he returned into his tattoo form before walking behind the mundane tree.
Looking behind the tree, he felt himself stagger, and after composing himself, he turned back to look at what was in front of him. The area was covered in piles of bones of all types, monsters, humans, large bones, small bones, skulls, and more; they were all there. The smallest were the human remains, while the largest seemed to come from a huge nightmare creature, most likely a Fallen creature of the size.
'So, I guess this loop doesn't discriminate from whatever wanders into its zone.' Sunny thought depressingly as he realized that if a Corrupted creature came wandering in, then Sunny would most likely be dead since he was missing his Saint and Bitey. Still, the sight of so many decayed bodies shook him a little. He has never seen such a large pile of remains aside from the battle at the crimson tower, but those bodies were still fresh and weren't decomposed like the bones scattered on the ground.
What disturbed Sunny wasn't the pile of bones, though; it was the fact that the remnants were piled and organized nearly, as if someone had purposefully placed them like this. Sunny felt the hairs on his back tingle a little as he quickly looked around and tried to spot if anything was around, a hunter or perhaps a devious nightmare creature. However, he spotted nothing and couldn't sense anything more than just an eerie feeling as he returned to study the bones while having his shadows on patrol, keeping one near him.
Walking up to a partially large one, he noticed that the bone showed signs of brute force trauma from the top of the skull and small, tiny holes from the sides that most likely came from an arrow. He had no way of knowing what caused each injury, but he was sure the small ones were created by a human archer since a broken bow was lying near a humanoid skeleton. Sunny continued to look through all the skeletal remains to see if any of them held anything useful for whoever managed the bones, but he ended up just storing the bones that belonged to the Fallen creatures.
Sunny started pacing around the marked tree, trying to come up with a plan to escape. He couldn't communicate with Saint or Bitey since he had sent them to hunt with no way of knowing when they would return, or if they could even sense him to return. However, even if they found him, it was likely they would fall victim to the loop too, thus leading him nowhere close to escaping. He was also worried that even if whatever wandered in didn't kill him, hunger surely would, as most corrupted creatures were barely considered edible to begin with, with blood weave playing a huge role in most of the variety of creatures he could eat.
Sunny continued to wander about in search of anything useful but came out empty-handed as night soon fell upon them. Sunny lazily made a fire and sat on Serpent, who was in his beast form. Raising his head, he looked up at the night sky with a confused yet curious expression.'Wait, how come there's a day-night cycle here but its perminantly day in the future? Did the Sun God have a bad day and curse this land?' Sunny thought the last part jokingly, but he was indeed curious as to why there was such a stark difference.
Sunny would have expected the nightmare to be ten times harder than what it really came out to be, and who could blame him anyway? The past seemed a lot more tame than the future, but obviously, that was due to the fact that the ancient humans were still around. However, he wouldn't be able to get any of the answers he wanted as he barely knew what he was doing right now.
The orange flames burned with dignity as they crackled in the soundless dark night. Just as Sunny was about to head to sleep after getting his shadows to guard him, he saw one of the flames kick out of the rock formation and start burning the grass. Sunny - not wanting to create a forest fire and potentially attract anything within a mile - quickly attempted to put out the wild flames that started to grow.
However, Sunny was shocked to see that the flames didn't spread out randomly, instead it was going in a straight line with intent, as Sunny was bewildered at what he was seeing. Intrigued by what was happening, he followed the flames as a blazing trail formed. After walking for a minute, the line of fire stopped in a certain spot, neither spreading nor dying. Curious, he used his four arms and quickly dug through the dirt until his hands felt something warm underneath.
Embarrassingly, his tail started to wag a little as his eyes had brightened up from seeing that underneath the dirt was a row of runes and symbols similar to the ones from beneath the cathedral. They were carved into smooth stone that looked untouched and unblemished, and the warm radiance from the runes seemed to emit a dizzying effect as he felt himself become a bit uncorrelated when he touched the runes. Shaking off the effects, Sunny tried to decipher what they meant, but was disappointed when he couldn't even find a correlating or similar rune that he could possibly translate or decipher.
'Well, I guess that only leaves me one option.' Sunny's eyes grew devilish as he summoned a charm to enhance himself as well as augment himself with his shadows before stabbing Serpent into the runes.
Luckily, it didn't prove to be a challenge as Serpent easily went through the smooth stone that runes were carved into, and they started blinking rapidly.
'Damn-' Before he could finish his cursing, the runes flashed as bright as the sun before sending a giant shockwave, sending him back a few yards before landing onto a patch of grass. After the shockwave came the immense pain that came as a repercussion for destroying the runes. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and perhaps they were as he saw smoke leaving his mouth. His left arm had almost been blown off, and he could feel blood dripping from all parts of his body as he tried to stand up.
'If I weren't in this new body, I certainly would've died just now.'
Looking around, he saw the trees nearby had lost most, if not all, their leaves as Sunny had fully realized the extent of what he had just done. Limping back to the runes, he saw them dim significantly as they were on the brink of shutting down completely. Behind the runes, he could see the way back from previously; however, he had no intention of returning so soon.
'I will not let this chance pass by me; it's time to pay that damn priestess a visit.' Sunny harbored a slight hatred towards whoever he was sure was the cause of his being stuck in a loop.Sunny turned around and quickly walked forward before passing by the tree he had previously marked. Before he could get far, though, he fell to one knee as he let out a beastial growl as he clutched his shoulder. Stuck on his shoulder was an arrow, and with it was black blood pouring out of the wound.
He composed himself as he summoned Serpent to hand and tried to sense for whatever had shot the arrow, but he sensed nothing.
woosh
Another arrow from a different direction flew at high speeds, but was intercepted by Sunny, who had spotted it with the help of [Ashwake].
'Gotcha,'A hidden figure that was completely covered by a green hood and mask was on top of a high branch, looking at the feral and wounded Shadowspawn behind a couple of leaves as they notched another arrow into their bow. But before they could deal the finishing blow, a shadow human with a dagger appeared behind them and attempted to stab them. Surprised, they tried to dodge, but the shadow human was able to slash into its hood and pierce its skin.The hooded figure grabbed the shadow, pulled it into a hug, and kicked it into its stomach before backing up and kicking it again off the tree as it fell. The shadow stabbed its dagger into the bark of the tree before launching itself upward back onto the branch. The assailant was already gone by the time it reached the branch again. Sunny wasn't far behind as he quickly climbed the tree with surprising speed, considering his battered body, and stood side by side with the shadow human.
'Good job, Harper, you damn assassin,' Sunny thought as shadow Harper morphed back into Serpent before returning to tattoo form.
Sunny noticed that a piece of green cloth was left behind by the mysterious archer, and it was covered in red blood conforming that whatever was trapped inside the loop was indeed human. He grabbed it before storing it inside his chest as he climbed back down and went along the path he had previously been unable to.
'I'm really starting to miss Nephis's healing... damn it, I should've kept the healing memory!'
***
I'm sorry for being gone for a while, but I promise I'll try to post more consistently if I can.