Sunny stood on the shore of the ocean, shivering and considering if he should fall down and take a long, relaxing rest in the cold water. His reserves of essence were utterly spent, and with it came the sickening feeling of fragility and weakness.
Awakened experienced a form of backlash when burning through all of their essence, but it was only a little bit harmful. The weakness would pass, and there would be no long-term harm done… he just had to weather the immediate consequence.
The more concerning aspect of the situation was that he did not even have enough essence to summon a single Memory. Looking down at the threadbare rags of his once-pristine black bodysuit, Sunny sighed.
For now, that was all that separated him from the bitter cold and the chilling winds of Antarctica.
'I need to get back to the convoy.'
Trying to get his tired mind to work properly, Sunny hesitated for a moment.
'...But first, I need to check on Nightmare.'
The stallion was nowhere to be seen, so he was afraid of what had happened to his steed. The runes were still shimmering in the air in front of Sunny, so he turned his attention back to them.
…Death Charge: [0/1000].
The charge of the Dying Wish was completely spent, but it had done its job…
The Undying Chain was gone.
Turning away from the list of Memories with a sigh, he looked at the status of his Shadows. The runes describing Nightmare shone as always, so the black steed was not destroyed.
'Then where is he?'
Sunny frowned, then softly hit himself on the forehead, remembering that he could simply check his innate connection to the Shadow. Without wasting any time, he reached inward and tried to sense it within his soul.
Soon, Sunny felt Nightmare's presence. The connection was not really meant to share information, but he could still tell that the black steed was nearby, and in the middle of a battle… the battle did not seem dire or dangerous, though.
The stallion was most likely dealing with stray Nightmare Creatures that could have attacked Sunny while he was still healing.
'...Good, then. We can get away from here as soon as he is finished.'
Sunny swayed a little, then glanced at his four shadows, who were all staring at him with different expressions. The happy shadow was beside itself… but strangely, the other three were also showing some degree of uncharacteristic positivity. Even the gloomy one appeared somewhat relieved.
He grinned.
"What, did you think that a mere titan would be enough to get rid of me? Dream on…"
With that, Sunny looked north, wondering how long it would take to catch up with the convoy, then took a couple steps forward and leaned down to pick up the Sin of Solace.
'That damned thing…'
The closer his fingers got to the jade hilt, the more it seemed as though the cursed sword was smiling ominously.
"Behind you."
Sunny scoffed.
"As if I would be gullible enough to…"
At that moment, a swift shape shot through the darkness and collided with him.
A tearing pain pierced Sunny's side, and he was sent flying into the water. Hitting the dark surface with a pained scream, he scraped his hands on the cold stones beneath and rolled, jumping to his feet a split second later.
A handful of sharp rocks flew in the direction of the unknown attacker, meant to slow whoever it was down. However, the creature was still standing in the spot where Sunny had been a few moments ago, staring at him with inhuman eyes.
Sunny staggered.
Briefly looking down, he saw that a sizable chunk of flesh was torn out of his side. Blood Weave had stemmed the bleeding, but the wound still looked gruesome.
Then, he glanced back at the bastard who had bitten him.
The creature… looked vaguely familiar. It was short, barely reaching Sunny's abdomen, with dark skin and bone plates covering its scrawny body like a suit of light armor. The damned goblin did not look too formidable, but it had a wide mouth full of sharp, triangular teeth.
…It was also missing two fingers on its right hand.
Sunny blinked a couple of times, remembering a tiny imp that he had once failed to finish off. The wretch had grown a lot since their last meeting… however, it was still on the smaller side.
Looking up, he noticed a lump of bleeding flesh in the abomination's mouth. His face contorted in anger.
Sunny clenched his fists and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything… the Scavenger seemed to grin spitefully, and then swallowed the lump of flesh with a look of pure hatred written on its ugly face.
Sunny's eyes widened.
"You… you wicked little shit!"
He had let the imp go once, but the bastard did not know his luck.
'That's great… I'll just kill him now!'
Full of fury, Sunny took a step forward, but then staggered. The world suddenly turned hazy, and his head spun.
'What the…'
His side somehow both growing numb and burning with terrible pain. His body felt even weaker than before.
Slowly looking down, he saw a strangely familiar black liquid flowing out of the gruesome wound. No… it was his blood, which was not stopping, for some reason. The blood had simply turned black.
His face paled.
'...Black Venom?'
How did he get poisoned with Black Venom?
Sunny froze for a split second.
'No way...'
The abomination in front of him was a Scavenger — a type of Nightmare Creature that inherited traits of that which it consumed. Had he feasted on the flesh of slain Black Tongues that the convoy had left floating in the mountain lake?
…Had the little bastard been following the convoy all that time, stuffing himself with all the corpses and carcasses that they had left behind?
Growing and waiting for a chance to avenge himself on Sunny?
Suddenly, he wanted to laugh.
"Bastard… you waited all that time, only to deliver yourself into my hands now…"
Sunny took another step forward, commanding the shadows to wrap themselves around his body.
Before he could, however…
The Scavenger suddenly dashed forward with tremendous speed, and a dreadful blow crashed into Sunny's abdomen. With the wind knocked out of him, he was thrown back and fell on his back.
A split second later, the abomination was on top of Sunny, two unexpectedly powerful hands wrapped around his neck, strangling him. A vicious, hateful snarl escaped from between the creature's bloodied teeth.
Sunny's head was pushed beneath the surface of the waves, and ice-cold water instantly filled his mouth and nose. He tried to push the Scavenger off, but his body was too weak to resist the furious fiend.
'Wait… wait…'
Before Sunny could come up with a single coherent thought, his consciousness started to fade, and a dangerous darkness encroached on his mind.
…And then, he got angry, too.