NOVEL WEB Chapter 241: Departure
A rotting island drifted above the void, suspended by iron chains that groaned as it rose and fell. Below it yawned the Sky Below — an endless, star-lit abyss.
On the mountaintop of this drifting stone, the Awakened Demon crawled. It's three twisted Soul Cores pulsed within it's soul, inked with defilement. Four massive chains from other isles tunneled into the air above, tethering this piece of nightmare to the ever-moving ring.
It lashed through spiny roots and blackened moss, each step tearing through a land of corruption. Fungal ichor dripped from it's limbs. Above the ruin of an ancient altar, the creature's jaws clicked, testing fresh air for prey.
It paused — sensing prey.
Perched atop a broken spire, stood a lone figure. Light glinted from her bow, voice silent, breath steady.
An arrow flew.
It hung momentarily in the air, then struck the beast's throat.
Wide-eyed, throat frozen mid-roar, the Demon staggered. Icy petals bloomed across it's flesh — black fissures spreading like cracks in glass.
The second arrow found the chest sac. It started to collapse in the face of frosty oblivion.
The third arrow — the final blow — pierced it's skull. Darkness writhed, a dying smoke that slithered from earth to sky.
The beast tumbled, limbs flailing against gravity, and struck the ground in a thunderous collapse.
March lowered her bow, staring at the indescribable abomination with disgust as she dropped down from her perch.
Sunny, on the other hand, did not even waste a second as he went to harvest the Soul Shards. Nimbly cutting open the Nightmare Creature's chest, he pulled out three Soul Shards. He tossed them to Dan Heng, who absorbed one before handing the remaining two to March.
She hesitated for a moment, sending a dubious look at the inky liquid that was now coating her hands, before crushing them. In the distance, Seele could be seen trying to pull her scythe out of a strange moss-like corpse.
Sunny looked up towards the Sky Above. The island they were on was connected by four chains, and all four islands surrounding the island were currently descending after having been stuck in the Crushing for a couple of hours. Although the four of them couldn't move due to this, they spent their time gathering Soul Shards to saturate their Cores — at least in March and Dan Heng's case. Sunny and Seele needed to kill things to saturate their unusual Cores.
They'll most likely need as much power as they can get.
Within Sunny's Soul Sea, the obsidian knife was sitting amongst other miscellaneous items in the Covetous Coffer. He had left behind a message at base of the White Feather clan, stating that he'd be borrowing it for a while.
After all, they were going to the Ivory Tower to challenge the Second Nightmare.
After months of preparation, strange encounters, and abnormal occurrences, they were finally ready to proceed. All they needed to do was reach the now-operating flying ship that the Abyss Watchers repaired.
In reality, the ship had been repaired over a month ago, but according to a message Sparkle had sent Sunny through one of his employees, she… wanted to give it a makeover?
Either way, it was just the four of them heading towards the center of the Chained Isles, where the Tear was. Once they got on the ship, they'd take a trip to the Ebony Tower below the sea of divine flame. Then, they'd use the special mechanism to reach the Ivory Tower, before challenging the Seed of Nightmare.
Overall, Sunny was quite satisfied with his personal preparations. He had spent most of his time cultivating his arsenal of Memories, the saturation of his Shadow Cores, and the strength of his Shadow Creatures.
He was well aware that most of that was due to his unique circumstances and channels. Sunny was able to use his identity as Mongrel to hide his face when interacting with criminals like Constance. Plus, due to [Fated] he was much more likely to gain powerful Memories than other people.
That wasn't to say that he was particularly worried about what the others had. After all, Dan Heng and March must have recieved a Memory or two from the Dream Tournament, and Seele… actually, he didn't have much hope for her.
It wasn't like he cared about every minor thing that occurred in their lives. Even if there weren't any special trump cards that they had been hiding for a stupidly excessive amount of time, it wouldn't be the end of everything. A lot of Awakened didn't have deep bags — a downside of being unaffiliated. As long as nobody dies in there, did it really matter if they were well-equipped?
'…Wouldn't being well-equipped help in not dying?'
By the time the chain connecting to the next island flattened enough for safe traversal, Sunny had a bit of a pale complexion — more pale than usual, he meant.
'Seele and Veliona are newbies, and one of them is crazy, March is stupid, Sparkle is also crazy, and Dan Heng is a reasonable individual! Crap! What have I done?!'
How come nobody in this glued-together team have both intelligence and the perfect level of sanity — enough to perform risky stunts while still being aware of their limits? Sunny was really the piece of tape holding these losers together!
'Maybe I should have went solo…'
At least he'd have good meat shields.
The one silver lining was that nothing bad would happen before they entered the Nightmare, right?