Immediately after hearing the Spell's greeting, Sunny found himself blind and drowning. As he instinctively tried to open his mouth to scream, saltwater flooded him, choking and twisting him.
Even more, he couldn't see anything. No, it wasn't that he couldn't see, it was just that there was no light source around. Normally, darkness wasn't a problem for Sunny, but for some reason, his sight no longer worked. Maybe the seawater he was submerged in was blocking it.
If it weren't for the special spatial perception granted by his affinity for shadows, he would have been completely disoriented. With its help, however, he barely managed to distinguish which side was down and which was up.
In a few long, tense seconds, his head emerged from the water. Sunny finally took a deep breath and hoarsely said:
"Breathe, breathe! You're still alive!"
After inhaling enough air to calm the burning in his lungs and regain his composure, Sunny carefully spun in the water, trying to take in his surroundings.
Is this... a sea? An ocean? Have I been dropped in the middle of an ocean?
No, it couldn't be. There had to be land nearby!
As momentary panic washed over him, a remote sound suddenly drew his attention. Sunny turned and saw a triangular dorsal fin moving in his direction. Luckily, it was still hundreds and hundreds of meters away.
Despite being submerged in the water, Sunny felt as if he was suddenly covered in cold sweat. He estimated that dorsal fin was at least five meters long. It was approaching rapidly, visibly growing with each passing second.
With eyes full of horror, Sunny turned again, desperately searching for anything, whatever it was!, to save himself. And there, a short distance away, he finally noticed a black mass sticking slightly out of the water.
He immediately started swimming, but just as he barely began to move towards what seemed like his salvation, he heard a scream.
He didn't deduce it immediately, but he recognized a human scream. Apparently, someone else had the misfortune of ending up in the middle of the sea.
The voice kept sounding. Making the most of his vision, he looked for where it came from until, in all the chaos, he spotted its source.
A few tens of meters away, a figure was barely afloat, flailing their arms as if being swallowed by the water.
"Shit." She was drowning. Sunny found himself in a dilemma that, for some, would be something they wouldn't hesitate to do for a moment: should he help her?
He had already gotten the idea that he couldn't survive alone. He would help her without hesitation if the situation wasn't so critical.
All these thoughts passed through Sunny's mind in just a couple of seconds. Despite that, the creature advanced noticeably.
Taking one last regretful look at the figure, he prepared to move on, leaving whoever it was behind.
That would have happened if Sunny hadn't recognized the figure after a few moments of doubt.
"Shit, shit, shit, damn it, damn it!" The figure was none other than the blind girl he had lived with for the past month: Cassie.
First, she felt like she was floating in nothingness, then she felt the sensation of falling. Then came the cold. Very cold. She felt wet. She tried to breathe and move, but swallowed water as she felt her movements were slowed.
The realization hit her after a few moments of trance. Apparently, she was in the water.
She felt panic, horror, and a range of feelings she couldn't recognize right now. She was about to collapse.
In a desperate attempt to survive, she kicked towards where she thought the surface would be. Fortunately, she floated up.
She screamed for help as loud as she could. She did it while clumsily kicking.
Her legs flailed awkwardly and she flapped her arms in desperation. She was never a good swimmer. She had swimming lessons with Professor Julius and Sunny, but in her desperation, she lost control.
There she was, half-afloat, gulping down mouthfuls of water. She felt it was her end. It was over. Everything she prepared for...
She remembered her parents, her life before the first nightmare, happy moments.
She also remembered her stay at the academy, her loneliness, the world's indifference towards her. In the end, everyone was right. She was doomed.
Sunny... her mind wandered to her friend's name. Today is his birthday. She wondered where the Spell would have sent him. She wished him somewhere safe. Far from here. Where she wouldn't have to find his body.
She didn't want to give up. Sunny gave her strength not to. But the situation overwhelmed her.
Something grabbed her and wrapped around her. Primitive instincts awakened in her.
She scratched, writhed, bit, and hit whatever took her. She didn't want to die devoured without at least putting up a fight.
Determined to at least scratch the creature, another scream pulled her back to reality:
"CASSIE!" The force of the scream stopped her mind.
She immediately recognized his voice.
XXX
After spotting the girl, Sunny, without a second thought, swam towards her at full speed.
Of all places, he had to fall here?
As he got closer, Sunny shouted: "Cassie, listen to me!" He shouted her name a couple more times, which seemed to have no impact on her. He suspected she was losing consciousness.
When he was close enough, he wrapped his arms around her to try and lift her out of the water so she could breathe.
But he was met with scratches and blows.
He wanted to suppress his grunts of pain, but in desperation and panic at seeing the beast closer, he shouted her name.
She stopped attacking him. She offered no more resistance, and that was it. Without waiting for anything else, he wrapped his right arm around her neck.
He stroked with his left arm, advancing noticeably slower. Cassie quickly realized what was happening, so she kicked too.
Once he noticed Cassie regaining her senses, he shifted his grip from her neck to her shoulders, to help her orient herself.
Not wanting to glance at the distance separating them from the beast, he advanced without looking back.
His vision totally focused on the black mass, his goal.
It felt eternal. His progress felt like a snail trying to reach the other side of the world.
Seconds before the unknown behemoth reached him, Sunny arrived at the black mass. He emerged from the water, throwing Cassie out first.
Grabbing onto the rocky surface, he dragged himself as best he could onto the solid ground.
He was halfway up when he felt pain and a crunch.
The enormous beast caught his left leg.
A scream of agony escaped his mouth. He clenched his fists and felt himself losing strength.
He looked back. It hadn't severed his leg, but it was pierced by teeth and twisted at unnatural angles.
He kicked with his good leg, with all his might, ignoring the terrible pain he felt in his mangled leg.
He felt like an ant trying to break a rock by hitting it.
A colossal tentacle suddenly burst from the water and rose into the air like a strange black tower. Soon, it fell, entangling the owner of the giant jaws.
The blow caused the pressure on his leg to increase, but then it loosened, leaving its teeth ajar. Taking the opportunity, he pulled his leg from the beast, twisting his expression in pain, and with a grunt, managed to pull it out... if it could still be called a leg.
He crawled away from the shore, to be near the girl.
He watched as the enormous beast was pulled by the tentacle into the depths.
He sat there, paralyzed. He was so bewildered he barely managed to hear the last thing that was said:
[… Your shadow grows stronger.]
Once whatever took that beast disappeared, only silence remained.
Which was quickly broken by the girl he saved.
"Sunny, is that you?" she uttered those words with fear and a broken voice.
Straining, he turned to look at her.
"You screamed... are you okay?" His voice seemed to break even more with the concern in his tone.
Her soaked hair looked like a golden waterfall, her blue eyes brimming with deep terror, with tears falling like rivers.
His flaw forced him to speak.
He gritted his teeth before saying:
"Yes, it's me... and I'm not okay. The nightmare creature that was chasing us bit my left leg... it's mangled."
He cursed his flaw when the girl's already frightened face turned into one of atrocious horror and guilt.
Cassie slowly approached, raising one arm to locate him and crawling with the other. Once she touched his shoulder, she quickly lunged to hug him.
Between sobs, she said: "I'm sorry... it's my fault, I'm sorry..." She continued to insult herself as she clung to the boy as if he would disappear, crying on his shoulder.
Sunny said nothing. Not out of annoyance, but because as the adrenaline dissipated, the pain he felt grew stronger, along with the harsh reality hitting him like lightning.
All the days he had spent at the academy with the girl crying and clinging to him were like a distant dream, or at least that's how they felt to him. He had let himself be fooled by the tranquility of academic life and as soon as life had the chance... it gave Sunny a reality check.
Many thoughts were running through his head right now, but one stood out:
I'm doomed.
His chest hurt. He was breathing heavily. Panic. He was panicking.
What would he do now? Now they were two cripples in the middle of the sea. Not even Awakened. Just Sleepers.
Shit, damn it, hell!
He was about to collapse, but Cassie didn't let him when she asked:
"Why did you save me?"
It was a silly question, but in her uninterrupted self-loathing, she just said it.
His flaw again forced him to respond:
"Because I like you."
For both of them, that answer pulled them out of where their minds were.
She stopped her self-loathing and tensed. Sunny was embarrassed. Clarifying what the Spell forced him to say, he commented:
"You're my friend. I wouldn't have let you die."
An awkward silence lingered for a while.
"Thanks again, Sunny." She said that with her head down, with melancholy, which didn't last long.
Her eyes brightened and her face wrinkled in concern.
"Your leg! You need treatment right now."
Cassie, seemingly gaining courage out of nowhere, began to give the boy's leg first aid with the few tools she had. She used a Memory that was a golden rope to cut off the blood circulation and prevent him from bleeding out.
While Cassie performed the makeshift tourniquet, Sunny only then noticed his state of complete nudity.
He saw more than he should have, and it took him longer than it should have to look away.
He muttered softly: "L-like pendulums..."
Then, mustering his courage, casting aside his shame, he told her:
"Cassie... I don't know if you noticed, but we're naked."
When he told her that, she was tightening his leg with her rope. At that moment, Sunny thought that if the beast's bite hadn't torn off his leg, Cassie would with the pressure of her rope.
XXX
After correctly applying the tourniquet, they talked. Her face was red, trying to hide her intimacy with her hands.
He felt dizzy. He had lost a lot of blood. If it weren't for Cassie and her Memory, which prevented the blood from flowing, he would be dead in a few more minutes.
He tried to compose himself but failed spectacularly. He fell to the ground on his back, gasping. He felt very weak. He was cold.
'An infection is likely if I'm not careful,' he thought. But what care could he have in this situation?
He wouldn't die anytime soon, but he felt terrible. All those discomforts, plus the pain, mercilessly assaulted him once the adrenaline completely wore off.
As a Sleeper, he was stronger than a normal human, but it wasn't an abysmal difference. He was still almost as vulnerable as a common human.
'Maybe if I hadn't gone for her, I wouldn't be half-dead.'
He lifted his head and saw her again. Her beautiful hair, her eyes, her skin...
He dispelled any regret he might have had.
'...It was worth it.'
He wouldn't stay awake much longer. Sleep was calling him.
Sunny hesitated before speaking.
"Cassie, give me your hand. I won't look at you."
She hesitated before taking her hands off her chest and extending them towards the sound of his voice.
He took her hand and a voice spoke to her:
[You have received a Memory: The Puppeteer's Shroud]
Cassie read the runes and her eyes widened.
"B-but... why are you giving me your armor?"
"It's temporary. It'll be to cover you. When I have to fight, you'll give it back to me. Besides, you can't see me... only I can see you."
With that, the discussion about clothes ended. She equipped the Memory.
Sunny mentally cursed.
He watched as dark gray garments covered Cassie's body.
It even came with a pair of soft-soled leather high boots. Dressed in gray fabric and dull leather...
He had tried on the armor Memory before, but seeing it on her only enhanced her youthful beauty and her curves.
Sighing, he discarded those thoughts. They had more important things to talk about.
Wanting to discuss what to do, he tried to speak, but Cassie spoke first.
"How do you feel?"
Sunny hated that she always asked difficult questions to answer, but he hated his flaw even more, which forced him to speak. Worsening the mood, he said:
"Terrible. I feel dizzy, I'm cold due to blood loss, and the pain is awful."
He would have wanted to say he was fine, not to make her feel bad.
She opened her mouth trying to say something, but closed it and moved.
She approached him, searched for him again with her hands, and hugged him from behind, pressing their bodies together.
He gave in. He didn't question or say anything. Exhaustion overwhelmed him more with each moment he was surrounded by her warm embrace.
"Do you feel better like this?" Her tone of voice was almost maternal. He felt safe for the first time in a long time.
He couldn't bear the weight of his eyelids. Before passing out, he replied:
"Not bad."
He slept.
And then he woke up. Something happened. His shadow woke him up. He found himself still hugging. Over time, their posture changed and she lay beside him, but he was leaning on her, his head on her chest.
Before jumping up and moving away from her out of respect, he felt something.
Sunny perceived a slight change in the sound of the sea. It was as if something was changing.
He noticed a corner of the sky slowly turning gray. Soon, a pale sun was seen rising above the horizon.
A new day had arrived in the starless void.
And with it, the dark sea suddenly stirred.
The opaque black water suddenly stirred and boiled, as if a living being was desperately trying to avoid the pale light of the impending dawn. Sunny emerged from the warm embrace, waking Cassie in the process. He slowly crawled, and after a moment's thought, carefully approached the edge of the stone platform.
Looking down, he blinked and knelt to make sure what he was seeing was not an illusion.
The sea seemed to be receding.