Shall we? That 'somewhat safe' path I mentioned is already looking less appealing in the light of day."
He pointed to a narrow ledge that wound its way down the sheer coral face. It looked like it had been carved by a madman. One wrong step and it was a very long, very final drop.
"Lead the way," I said, my voice tighter than I wanted it to be, something I tried to rectify with a joke. "And try not to feed the Labyrinth."
The easy chatter died as we moved deeper into the canyon-like corridor. The oppressive weight of the place demanded silence. Sasrir walked slightly ahead, his head tilted, his entire being focused on the subtle currents of sound I couldn't hear. I could almost see him manually filtering out the Labyrinth's background psychic scream, narrowing his focus down to the immediate hundred feet or so around us.
"It's like a radar, but made of whispers," he finally murmured, his voice a low hum in the stagnant air. "I can hear the scrape of chitin on coral. The drip of water. Nothing close. For now."
A relief. It meant we wouldn't be blindsided by a Scavenger leaping from underneath us like Sunny had been. Small victories.
"An Azure Blade," I whispered, more to myself than to him, my eyes scanning the eerie red walls. "That's the first thing I want to claim here. A real Memory, not just this." I hefted the Unshadowed Crucifix. It was powerful, but it felt... borrowed. An Azure Blade would be mine.
A sudden, damp chill seeped through my naked heel and foot. I shivered, the cold and the clammy moisture a constant, unpleasant reminder of where we were. It sparked a thought.
"Hey, Sassy," I said, keeping my voice low. "You're made of shadow, right? Can you, I don't know... make things? Like clothes?"
He glanced back, a flicker of amusement in his dark eyes. "Shadow Shaping. A basic application of the Hanged Man's authority. In theory, yes. I am... not particularly proficient yet. The results may be... minimalist."
"Minimalist is better than hypothermia. Give it a shot. Just a simple cloak or something."
He nodded, stopping for a moment. He held out a hand, and the shadows around his feet seemed to stir, flowing up his arm like liquid darkness. They pooled in his palm, churning and coalescing. It was a slow, deliberate process, like watching a spider carefully spin a web. After a moment, he was holding a jet black cloth and he handed it to me.
It was a simple, hooded cloak and a set of form-fitting underclothes, the robe matching his own. They were cool to the touch, not with the damp cold of the Labyrinth, but with a neutral, soothing coolness. As I pulled them on over my gear, the shivering stopped instantly. The shadow-cloth was surprisingly light and moved without rustling, perfect for stealth.
"Whoa," I said, running a hand over the impossibly smooth material. "This is... actually really good. For a novice."
"Do not get used to it," he said, though I caught a hint of pride in his mental tone. "More complex shapes are currently beyond me. And it is still just concentrated shadow. It will not stop a blade."
"Doesn't need to. It just needs to stop me from freezing my ass off. Thanks." It was a small thing, but in the soul-crushing gloom of the Labyrinth, a small comfort felt like a major triumph. We were adapting! Take that, Nightmare Spell, Dream Realm!
The walk continued on uneventfully for some more minutes. Whether it was my luck or not, we seemed to have landed in a section with few inhabitants, but I knew they would be a few. The Starlight Legion wasn't just a fancy name: they were a literal legion, with probably hundreds of members at one point. I couldn't remember if Nightmare Creatures had the ability-or the physique-to reproduce, nor how many were Corrupted here, but I wasn't keen to find out. Actually, what were the Legion doing here? The Seven Heroes committed suicide to fuel to Artificial Sun, but why was their Legion scattered here, rather than in the Dark City? Hmm, very strange now that I think abut it.
"Trouble ahead" Sasrir suddenly spoke out.
Sasrir went rigid beside me, his hand snapping up in a silent signal to stop. The casual air vanished, replaced by a predator's stillness. "Thirty meters ahead. Around the next bend. Something... feeding."
My grip tightened on the Unshadowed Crucifix. "Plan?"
"I go first. You hang back. Be ready with the light."
I nodded. It was the smart play. He was the scout, the ambusher. I was the artillery. As he melted into the shadows on the wall, becoming a two-dimensional smear of darkness, I focused on the Memory in my hands. I could feel its potential, a dormant sun waiting to be unleashed. With my current strength, I couldn't access its true, demigod-level wrath—that required a blood price I wasn't willing to pay yet. But I could channel a lesser echo of its power, the powers of a Sequence 7 Solar High Priest, for just a meagre tribute of blood.
Creeping forward, I peered around the jagged coral edge.
The scene was grotesque. A Carapace Scavenger, its beetle-like shell glistening wetly in the dim light, was hunched over another of its kind. The rending and wet chewing sounds were nauseating. Cannibalism. Charming. It was completely focused on its meal, unaware of us.
A patch of darkness on the ground near it shifted. Sasrir, in his shadow form, flowed across the ground like spilled ink, impossibly fast and silent. He reached the shadow cast by the feasting abomination and didn't hesitate. He didn't emerge; he simply lunged into the creature's own shadow.
The effect was instantaneous and horrifying.
The Scavenger's shadow on the coral wall suddenly writhed and bubbled like boiling tar. The beast itself stiffened mid-bite, a choked gurgle escaping its maw. Then it shrieked, a sound of pure, agonizing torment that echoed off the narrow walls. Thick, putrid black blood began to seep from its eyes, its mandibles, its joints—every orifice it had. It flailed wildly, claws scraping furrows in the hard coral, crashing into the walls in a blind frenzy. The struggle was violent but short-lived. After a dozen horrific seconds, its movements became jerky, then ceased entirely. It collapsed onto the remains of its meal, utterly still.
At the same moment, a familiar, coldly efficient notification appeared in the corner of my vision.
[You have defeated an Awakened Beast: Carapace Scavenger.]
[You have received a Memory: Azure Blade.]
The shadow pooled beneath the dead creature for a moment before flowing back across the ground and rising to form Sasrir next to me. He looked... pleased, if moderately drained.
"Efficient," he remarked, glancing at the corpse. "The Hanged Man's Pathway has its uses."
I gaped in shock for a moment before the sight settled in. "Jesus Christ, you just slaughtered that thing in seconds?!"
"My Shadow form allows for soul attacks," Sasrir reminded me. "It takes more out of me than you might think, but as long as it's not much stronger than an Awakened Demon then I should be able to Curse it through its' own shadow. Still, attaching myself for too long can cause Corruption: if I can't beat it in twenty seconds, I need to detach and escape. Thankfully, most things here lack the ability to actually harm me in that state."
"Still, that's bloody amazing" I praised, and Sasrir allowed himself a faint smile .
....
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