The air was stale, sterile of all conceivable life. It made Sunny's lungs ache as they approached the tree. In truth, not much planning had changed from their original strategy to kill the Carapace Demon. They had gathered plenty of oil to douse the Nightmare Creature in, and were more than capable of fighting the injured Demon.
It was simply a matter of execution.
That, of course, was exactly the sort of sentence Fate loved to hear.
Sunny remained flat against the ashen earth at the edge of the Barrow, his cold gaze fixed on the monstrous guardian beneath the Soul Tree. The thing was even more revolting up close than he remembered.
Though of course what he remembered had been years ago.
Its immense shell gleamed like polished alloy in the dim light, lustrous yet cold, while the twisted humanoid torso rising from the carapace created an unnerving mockery of what humanity call dignity.
It stood beneath the black trunk in silence, one great pincer hanging at its side, the other slowly turning a gleaming soul shard over and over as though the crystal itself were something holy.
As if it was something to behold. The tree's influence would make it so to the creature.
Above it, scarlet leaves rustled faintly.
Sunny narrowed his eyes.
Even after everything, the sight of that damned tree still soured his mood. The Soul Devourer stood there in all its false glory, roots spread like ancient black veins through the ashen ground, bearing those deceptively beautiful fruits that had nearly destroyed them once before.
Not this time. No, this time would be different.
Nephis shifted beside him, close enough that Sunny could feel the faint glimmer of warmth from her shoulder through the leather of the Puppeteer's Shroud. Her expression was calm, but there was a familiar edge to it.
She looked the way she always did before violence.
Still, cold, hardened, and yet somehow more alive for it.
"Same plan?" she asked quietly.
Sunny nodded without taking his eyes off the Demon.
"More or less. Gloomy draws it around the trunk. We climb while it's distracted. I dump the oil. You make it regret being birthed into this hell more than it already does."
Nephis glanced at him, her expression already anticipating Sunny's shenanigans.
"I thought you planned to make it regret that yourself."
A small grin tugged loosely at Sunny's lips.
"I am, I am. I just thought I'd let you have the final say. I'm generous like that."
She looked at him for a second longer, then shook her head faintly.
"Don't be reckless, generous one."
That made him wince a little.
It was a simple warning. Quite a reasonable one at that. And yet, with Nephis, every reminder of his recent blunder somehow managed to feel like a blade slid between the ribs. Her tone always brought the twist of the blade with it.
Sunny coughed softly and tried to salvage what little dignity he had left, if any remained.
"I'll only be moderately reckless."
Nephis gave him a flat look.
That was, apparently, the wrong answer.
Sunny cleared his throat.
"Fine. I'll behave."
That earned him the ghost of a smile.
Good enough for now.
Sunny extended a thread of will toward Gloomy, who had been sulking in his usual manner along the length of Sunny's shadow. The living shadow detached itself soundlessly and slithered into the ashen shade of the Barrow, gliding toward the far side of the Soul Tree.
Sunny watched as Gloomy moved around the colossal roots, a certain fluidity and silence to his movements.
The Carapace Demon did not react at first.
It simply stood there, basking in its own vastness with a arrogant patience, facing the trunk of the terrible tree as though in worship.
Then Gloomy made his first move.
A flicker of shadow darted across the roots. Subtle. Barely noticeable or even perceptible to the trained eye.
One scarlet ember ignited deep inside the demon's helm-like face.
There it is.
The monster shifted, breaking the illusion of its worship.
Gloomy darted again, this time much more bolder, skimming over one of the roots and vanishing around the vast trunk. The Demon lurched after him with a sudden burst of speed, its enormous body carried forward by those pillar-like legs in a way that never failed to look terrifying.
Too smooth. Too purposeful.
Sunny rose at immediately.
"Now."
The two of them rushed forward in a low sprint, boots and bare feet eating up the ashen ground. The black roots of the Soul Tree were as broad as roads, slick and cold beneath Sunny's palms as he grabbed one and hauled himself upward.
Nephis was already ahead of him, climbing with infuriating grace.
Show-off.
Sunny followed fast, the seaweed pack of oil sacks smacking faintly against his hip while his injured side protested every pull. The bark of the Soul Tree felt dead. Not dry, dead. It was like touching a corpse that had somehow learned to grow even in its own decay.
He hated it.
Repulsive. All of it.
Below the duo, the Demon rounded the trunk in pursuit of Gloomy and let out a shrill, metallic shriek in frustration. The sound reverberated through the roots and up the branches, making Sunny's skin crawl and hairs prick.
"He bought it," Sunny muttered to himself.
Nephis climbed to a thick branch and looked down.
"Not for long."
No sooner had she spoken than the Demon stopped.
Its one burning eye turned slowly upward, its gaze crawling up the trunk of the tree.
Sunny's heart dropped.
The thing had not truly lost them. It had simply chosen the more irritating and prominent target first.
"Of course," he whispered bitterly. "Why wouldn't you be smart?"
The Demon reared back, its torso angling toward the branches. One pincer rose.
Sunny acted without further hesitation. He tore a sack free, bit through the seaweed binding, and hurled it downward.
The greasy oil contents splattered across the creature's shell and shoulders, coating it.
Then another.
And another.
The Carapace Demon screamed, unaware of the danger that now sat on its very carapace.
If anything, it seemed Sunny's actions only agitated it further.
It surged toward the trunk with terrifying force, pincer limbs tearing grooves into the bark as it began its attempt to climb. Not gracefully in any regard, either. The whole monstrous thing forced itself upward through sheer violence fueled by its frustration, splintering branches and crushing growth beneath its encumbering weight.
Sunny swore.
"Neph!"
She was already moving, seemingly having had predicted such a scenario.
White fire ignited around her blade.
Not only the blade, it bathed her entire being.
Not flames in the ordinary sense, but a pure, terrible radiance. It licked up the length of her sword and bathed her pale skin in a fierce glow, making the scarlet leaves all around them look nothing but dull by comparison.
Sunny could almost feel her Flaw pulsate from where he stood, even if he couldn't truly sense it. The agony those flames brought her was written only in the tension of her jaw and the brutal focus in her eyes.
Clearly the years of training and hardships had diminished the fury within the flames.
Then Nephis lunged.
She fell upon the Demon like a javelin of white sunlight thrown from the heavens themselves. She hurtled through the crimson branches with little care for their existence.
For one stunning moment, everything seemed stopped to a stand still.
Then she drove her sword into the old fractured wound on the Demon's chest.
Light exploded outward from within the monster's shell, illuminating the dull sky.
The white flames ran through the hairline cracks in its armor, bursting from joints and seams like imprisoned starlight. The Demon reeled, shrieking in agony, and nearly lost its hold on the trunk.
Nearly.
But unlike before, unlike that memory from a path forged through long ago, this one was not dying when they found it. Wounded, yes. Weakened and vulnerable, perhaps. But still monstrous in an unknown capacity.
Its pincer lashed out with terrifying speed for an injured creature.
What the?
Nephis twisted in the air, but not far enough from the assault. The side of the blow clipped her and hurled her into a branch hard enough to crack it. She hit the dead bark, tumbled down, and landed without grace in a crouch lower down the trunk.
Alive.
Sunny exhaled sharply.
Then the Demon turned its blazing gaze toward him.
"...Ah."
The thing lunged.
Sunny threw himself sideways just as a pincer scythed through the branch where he had been. The whole limb shattered, dropping scarlet leaves in a storm around him. He fell with them, hit another branch on his back.
Sunny quickly rolled, ignoring the pain and caught himself on an ancient branch thick as a wall.
His ribs screamed in protest.
Wonderful. Thank you for this absolutely lovely change of plan.
He summoned Last Prayer without delay. While doing so, he recalled Gloomy to himself.
The transcendent blade appeared in his hand with a unnerving whisper, dark and solemn. Even shackled by his current rank, it felt wrong in a way only truly great Memories did. It was too heavy with meaning to belong in the hands of a mere Sleeper.
Yet, Sunless was no mere Sleeper.
The Demon came at him again, dragging half its body up the trunk with a vicious pace.
Sunny met the descending pincer with black steel and shadow.
Gloomy wrapped around the blade just as it struck.
The clash rang out deafeningly through the Barrow.
Sunny's arms nearly went numb from the power behind the strike, but Last Prayer bit into the creature's joint instead of shattering as any other blade would have. It carved an angrily glowing line through the metal-like shell, yet it was not deep enough.
Not even close. But enough to make the Demon pause, even just for a moment.
Nephis did not waste that pause.
Having recovered from her fall, she darted across the trunk and drove her burning sword into one of the monster's legs. White flame spilled over the limb, forcing the creature to rear up with a furious shriek.
"Sunny!"
"I know!"
Sunny jumped down from the branch.
Using another smaller branch as leverage, Sunny launched himself onto the Demon's back and slammed Last Prayer into a fissure in its shell. The blade sank grotesquely only a handspan deep, but Reaper's Soliloquy delivered its payload regardless.
Even dulled by Sunny's weakness, the passive enchantment carried a vicious efficiency to it. The Carapace Demon convulsed immediately as though something deeper, more raw than flesh had been torn asunder.
Familiar azure blood erupted from the wound.
Sunny ripped the blade free and barely rolled away in time to avoid being impaled by a wild backward thrust of the monster's pincer arm.
He landed hard on a root meters below the beast.
Above him, the Demon finally lost patience with climbing.
It hurled itself off the tree in fury.
The great body crashed down onto the ashen ground in an avalanche of splintered bark and shattered roots, out of view from Sunny. He saw Nephis leap after it without a moments hesitation, furious white flame trailing in her wake.
Of course she would.
He cursed and got back to his feet, sprinting after to the battle.
The landing had jarred his whole body. His left leg nearly buckled, but he forced it straight and sprinted over the roots as the Demon and Nephis collided in a blur of fire and metal.
The fight turned savage, ugly in its exchanges.
There was no more patience in it. No more elegant calculation from the previous Saint of humanity. Only killing intent remained.
The Demon gladly met her intent with its own monstrous hatred.
It's pincer carved jaggedly into the ashen earth and smashed roots apart as if they were clay as it tried to crush Nephis beneath raw force. She weaved through it like pale lightning, sword flashing brightly, flame bursting against armor joints and the old wound on its chest whenever she could reach it.
Sunny circled wide, looking for openings. Admittedly, he enjoyed watching the two fight.
But he could not stay watching, there was an extraordinary strength to this Nightmare Creature that was beyond their past. It was dangerous, even to them.
He found one when the creature overextended in a lunge, trying to skewer Nephis to a particularly bulging root.
He lunged from the side and hacked at the same limb he had wounded earlier.
Last Prayer sheared through half the joint cleanly this time.
The monster staggered, shock evident in its movements.
Nephis slipped in beneath one pincer, drove her shoulder into the ruined chest plate, and thrust upward. Her sword sank deeper than before, with more force backing it. For a heartbeat, Sunny thought that would be enough.
Then the Demon struck her down with its torso itself, ramming into her like a siege engine.
Nephis flew. Quite literally.
She rag dolled over the ground, and did not rise after coming to a stop against the trunk.
Something cold flashed through Sunny's veins.
The Carapace Demon sensed the dynamic in the battle shift and turned toward her, its eyes flashing greedily.
No.
Sunny moved before thought could catch up.
He darted straight in front of the monster and did the stupidest thing available to him — which, in fairness, had become something of a specialty these days.
He looked up at the towering abomination, raised Last Prayer in defiance, and shouted:
"Just how tough of an ugly bastard are you?"
The contempt filled gaze fixed on him.
Then the Demon charged.
For one stretched, beautiful, idiotic second, Sunny truly believed he had just sentenced himself to death.
He waited anyway.
Waited.
Waited until the moment he needed passed.
Then Gloomy rose from the Demon's own shadow and wrapped itself around the creature's own eyes.
The monster stumbled for a moment, swatting its pincers wildly. Then Gloomy was gone once more.
It was only a little.
Only enough.
But enough was all Sunny had ever needed in his accursed life.
He slipped aside at the last instant, brought Last Prayer down with both hands, and severed the weakened limb completely.
The Carapace Demon collapsed to one side with a scream that seemed to tear the air itself.
Nephis was already there to finish the fight.
She rose from the ash like something born of flame, silver hair disheveled, face pale decorated with flecks of crimson blood. Her grey eyes burning with merciless resolve. The white fire around her sword blazed brighter than before, violent enough that even Sunny had to shield his eyes for a moment.
She took three measured steps.
Then she thrust.
The radiant blade pierced straight through the old wound and into the monster's heart.
This time there was no resistance, no counterattack to the duo's assault.
The white flames flooded the Demon's shell from within. Cracks webbed across its chest, then spread farther, light pouring through them in blinding lines. The creature convulsed violently, pincer limbs striking blindly at the air. And for a terrible moment Sunny thought it might still tear Nephis apart before dying.
Instead, the great body shuddered.
Its limbs faltered.
The scarlet glow in its eyes dimmed.
The Carapace Demon swayed once, twice, then slumped heavily against the roots of the Soul Tree. The ground trembled from the impact, the vibrations reaching Sunny.
Silence descended upon the battle ground.
True silence. Not the waiting sort. The kind left behind after something ancient and hateful finally dies its deserved death.
Sunny remained where he was for a moment, chest heaving wearily, sword slick with azure blood that decorated the intertwined serpents.
Then the Spell whispered into the stillness.
He heard it, but barely registered the words.
His gaze was locked on Nephis.
She stood a few paces from the corpse, sword hanging loosely at her side, her flames now gone. Without them, she looked suddenly too slight beside the dead giant.
Too pale. Far too tired.
Then her knees gave way.
Sunny was already moving before she finished falling.
He caught her awkwardly, nearly dropping both of them as his bruised side erupted in pain. Nephis leaned into him just enough to make staying upright difficult.
"Easy," he muttered, his expression a mix of concern and pain.
"I'm fine."
"You're collapsing so very convincingly for someone that's fine."
A breath that might have been a laugh escaped her lips.
Sunny helped lower her to the roots. Then, when he was certain she could remain sitting without toppling over, he collapsed beside her and let Last Prayer dissolve back into his soul sea.
For a while, neither of them spoke. Too much had just happened to let even thoughts roam freely.
Their breathing slowly evened out.
The scarlet leaves above rustled quietly.
Sunny stared at the dead Demon, then at the black trunk of the Soul Tree towering behind it. The thing looked as majestic as ever, and yet it stood as arrogantly as ever.
The leaves rustling almost felt akin to the tree laughing at their struggle.
Nephis leaned her head back against the root and closed her eyes for a moment.
"Well," she said at last, voice hoarse. "That was unpleasant."
Sunny chuckled, his gaze distant now.
"Understatement of the century, Neph."
She opened one eye and glanced at him.
"You distracted it, not Gloomy."
"You say that like it was planned."
"It wasn't?"
Sunny looked down at her, a trace of offense lining his battered expression.
"Neph. Please. I am extremely deliberate."
Her gaze shifted to his battered leg, then to the fresh tear in his sleeve, then to the blood running down one side of his face.
"...Right."
He scoffed, then let out a long breath and tilted his head back.
Times like this really remind me why my flaw sucks.
Then for a moment, he allowed himself to feel it.
The relief.
The quiet triumph.
The ugly, childish satisfaction of seeing that damned guardian dead at last, even if it was a second experience.
No soul-devouring fruit. No forgotten weeks. No hollowed longing gnawing holes into their minds.
This time, they had come to the Barrow with open eyes.
This time, they had won properly. All that was missing from the moment was Cassie.
Sunny turned his face toward the tree.
Its branches stretched high into the grey sky, black and terrible, scarlet leaves whispering like a thousand secrets. Somewhere above, hidden amid those cursed boughs, lay what he had come for.
Weaver's Lineage.
Or rather, another piece of it.
Something in his chest tightened.
Not fear. Not entirely. More like anticipation wrapped in old bitterness. Weaver had never given without taking. Whatever iteration of Fate that now played with Sunny and Neph had proven even worse.
Beside him, Nephis followed his gaze.
"So," she whispered softly. "The tree."
Sunny nodded.
"The tree."
A beat passed.
Then he added, with all the solemnity he could muster:
"And for the record, if you even think about biting one of those fruits, I'm throwing you into the sea."
That made her lips twitch upward slightly.
"I was going to say the same thing."
"Good. Then surprisingly, we're both being sensible for once."
They sat there a little longer beneath the dead guardian's shadow, recovering strength while the Soul Tree loomed over them.
Then, high above, hidden somewhere in the scarlet canopy, Sunny caught the faintest glimmer of gold between the branches.
His smile wanned.
There you are.
He pushed himself to his feet, dusting off the damaged Puppeteer's Shroud and offered Nephis a hand.
She took it without a word.
Behind them, the corpse of the Carapace Demon cooled in the ash.
Before them, the black and crimson tree awaited.