We walk, or everyone else walks while I sit on my cold echo. Nobody can even ask to ride it because of how cold it is.
Effie had asked but she couldn't stand the cold. She did give me quite the look, so I gave her another pack of beef jerky to appease her. I may talk a big game but I am not being got by a pissed off Effie.
It feels weird, really weird to he returning here, where it all started. This time I'm far stronger. I see Sunny stop and then speed up to catch up to us.
"What?"
"That's hunchback was watching us. He left though"
I scoff
"I still think we'd beat his ass."
We finally enter the crimson labyrinth i look up at it
"I'm back"
Nephis looks back at me
"your back?"
I nod
"This is where I got thrown back when I first got here, the rulers around here are iron spiders, annoying buggers that's for sure"
Nephis nods at that seemingly taking note of what nightmare creatures we'll find around here.
I notice a few heat signatures coming closer. I look up at the enemies I've dealt with before.
The iron spiders. I summon my daggers and I jump on the thing, how nice it feels to be the hunter and these big bitches to be the hunted. I duck down avoiding its biting me and I stab once in each eye taking down the beat easily.
[You have slain an awakened beast, iron spider. Your cold grows deeper]
It's been so so long since I've killed these 8-legged abominations. It's been so damn long. It feels nice to know that I won't be too weak to defend myself.
We start butchering the bodies incredibly quickly. I claim a lot of meat and I collect some soul shards too.
We then get to moving. Sometimes fighting the things. We soon get to a large white arch. We climb up, or they climb up while I sit on my echo with a smug expression that they can't see but by the way Effie, Sunny, and even legacy are looking at me, they know I'm quite smug about it.
I jump off my echo once I'm at the top watching as the black sea rushes in. I take out some blankets and pillows from my satchel, the storage memory, and I sleep under my echo, or is it an echo anymore? I turned it to ice, so it's an ice shard now, so it's my ice shard now.
The next day everyone decides to stay here for a day to recuperate. I thought, I got a very different idea. I climb on my ice shard, Legacy looks at me confused
"What are you doing?"
I grin not that he can see
"I'm hunting."
Before anyone could stop me it jumps and I go for a good old hunt. All by myself and without the worries of people.
Me and my ice shard promptly start killing as many spiders as we can, looting their bodies each time of course.
After about half a day we head back. We climb up and are met with not-so-happy looks from everyone.
"I'm backkkkk"
Legacy is the first to speak
"You shouldn't have ran off by yourself you're being irresponsible"
I scoff as I desummon my ice shard.
"No he's right you shouldn't be doing that overconfidence gets you killed"
"I'm aware, I'm also aware of the nightmare creatures quite well plus I have an ascended demon echo I'll be fine."
I then notice, none of them are in proper clothes, I look down at myself, and my armor isn't in a very good shape. I sigh as I desummon my armor. I'm still in full clothes, I had fixed up my underclothes on my night shift after all. So I'm in full clothes while their in... less than good makeshift clothes
"Pfft, what the hell are you all wearing?"
Sunny looks at me with a good amount of jealousy
"Where did you even get all that?"
I tilt my head
"I made it? I took wilderness survival at the academy and one of the courses was on how to make clothes."
He looks at me with shock
"Hey I took that class"
"Oh shit you too? How's the teacher doing?"
"He's doing well I have to say"
I smile, teacher was really the only person I ever talked with during the academy part of my life. I summon my notebook showing it to sunny
"so when I get back do you think he'll be happy with this? I made notes on everything I could find about the nightmare creatures I killed or even just saw quite a bit"
he nods
"I plan on making a exploration report, maybe we could put the two together"
I nod with quite some interest
"yeah both detailed depictions of the nightmare creatures and the lore of this hell. I think teacher would love it"
I pat his shoulder to which he jumps back "Stop doing that you cold bastard!"
I stare at him for a second
"I forgot"
he looks at me with a look of a mix of shock and hate
"How did you forget that?"
I blink at him
"How did you forget to cut your hair"
he glares at me with a look of annoyance. Anyways
"so you take junk memories right?"
Sunny gets quite the greedy look in his eyes
"I do and because of how good of friends we are I'll give you a go-"
"I don't want soul shards." I grab his hand and he keeps trying to pull away very quickly. I transfer any memories I don't want to him, then I let go and sunny scampers off trying to warm up his hand.
"I don't need any more memories. Normally I'd give them to healer to sell but there's no healer and I don't need soul shards much."
I get a few weird looks
"I still want some but half can go to.... singer, yeah that guy"
After a few hours, I walk over to Effie showing off my satchel.
"Hey I've got a ton of meat from my hunt, I can't cook for anything so you can have it"
Effie grins
"Well? Hand it over"
I pour out all of the meat I've gathered. I went on a lot of hunts in the city, that doesn't mean I killed everything I brought back, a lot of the time I'd scare off whatever killed it and drag the thing back.
"Hey, we're friends right?"
I look up at her
"That's your title to give me"
She looks confused for a second then goes back to grinning
"Good, if you go on any more of those hunts then please do bring the meat to me"
I nod, I can't cook so why would I keep it?
Later I walk over to singer
"You. I'm hiring you"
he looks at me confused
"What?"
"I'm hiring you, tell me if someone lies to me, obviously."
He stares some more
"Uh, okay?"
I then dump out half of the soul shards I gathered from my hunt about 8 in total. He looks up at me then back at them, he shakes his head
"I'd do it for free I don't need them"
I tilt my head
"More?" He gives me a dumbfounded expression
"No.... I don't need any for me to tell you if you're being lied to."
I shrug and push them towards him
"You can have them anyway, I don't need them"
I then walk away.
"Wait, you keep calling me singer... do you remember my name"
I glare at him
"Yes I do, I am good with names"
I then power walk away. Both lies and we both know that but I'm not going to admit it.
Later as I'm redoing my first sketch of the Iron Spiders legacy comes up to me. I look up from under a pair of ice sunglasses. Their for the looks but who cares?
"If you aren't a legacy why are you so strong?"
I dramatically take off the sunglasses making them break.
"Because I've been here for 4 whole years Legacy, nobody weak can do that"
I point i him cutting him off "For the rest of my soul shards I'd like to hire you as well Legacy"
he stares at me with a confused expression
"For?"
"Combat training. I'm not actually very versed in non-aspect combat"
"Ah, combat training."
I put both of my arms in the air
"yeah"
he turns his head probably thinking for a while.
"I agree. What weapons are you already well-versed in?"
I give him a toothy grin
"I know a bit of the shield, the halberd, sword, dual daggers, and throwing knives."
He raises an eyebrow
"That's a very odd assortment of weapons"
"I learned the shield and halberd from my old cohort who all died 2 years before you got here"
he purses his lips
"Is that so?" "Yeah, I just said it ask singer if you think I lied."
He sighs shaking his head
"No I don't think you are. Now can I have my payment"
I then dump out 8 more soul shards. He grabs them and nods looking at them.
"Nice to do business with you legacy"
he starts walking away
"that's not my name."
I laugh
"I know"
Even later Cass comes up to me
"How did you get that echo?"
I look at her confused "I killed a fallen demon?"
She shakes her head
"No how did you learn of it and how did you kill it?"
I make an oh noise
"I learned of it from my old cohort, it was in a city hall. Luke, the mage of the cohort, got his non-dominant hand burned to all hell by it a year before I got there and Kelly, the shielder, promised to kill it. I took it into my own hands when they got killed."
Caas nods at that slowly.
"I'm sorry for your loss"
I stare at her confused
"Why? You didn't kill them"
she sighs
"because it's sad that it happened and you must be upset because of it."
"Yeah, I guess I am. That's why I'm going to get out of here. They will be remembered. I'll make sure of it"
she sighs at it. I lean forward
"Cass. What are we doing? I wasn't listening."
"It's Cassie and we're going to where the first bright lord disappeared to get something he left behind"
I shap
"yeah that. Oh cool echo by the way."
She smiles and nods
"Yes quiet dancer is quite cool."
I lean back on a pillow I brought with me. I think for a second before pulling out another pillow handing it to her
"Huh?"
"Sorry for getting your name wrong, here's a pillow"
After a while Nephis comes up to me, I don't normally talk with her and all.
"Yeah?" I can't read her face, that's pretty normal I can't read most people's faces anyway
"I've never asked but who's the girl that lived with you?"
I blink a few times
"That's healer, a hired healer, well she did most things, I just killed things and helped take them apart. I think that's why I got such a reputation, I never really left the hovel unless to hunt."
She nods, with understanding I think, how funny would it be if changing star also didn't like talking with new people.
"So you hired her to be able to just stay inside all the time?"
"Of course I did. She got half of all of the soul shards so she's loaded."
"Half of them? That's quite a lot but I guess it does make sense for a personal healer."
I nod then I squint at her
"So what's like the rumors about me?"
"The rumors?"
"Yeah what do people think of me"
she blinks then speaks
"most everyone even the host think your incredibly sinister and only out for yourself"
I grin
"so everyone thinks im super cool, hell yeah"
she blinks, im pretty sure she even smiles for a second
"im sure it is"
she then starts to leave before she looks back
"call me neph"
I had resummoned my echo and was now leaning on it once again this time it's sunny who comes up to me
"That's a really nice echo"
I do finger guns
"I know it is. Yours is pretty cool too, how'd you get it?"
He grins
"Well the moving statues had gotten killed by a bunch of fallen nightmare creatures. She was the last one left after killing two fallen versions of those spiders"
I stare at him, I probably made a face because he takes a good step back
"Did one have its left leg missing and its right eye as well?"
Sunny thinks for a bit before he nods. I laugh, I doubt it's anything but hollow
"Well give her my thanks. That's the spider that killed my cohort"
he nods a few times looking a bit uncomfortable I think. I should probably lift the mood.
"You know the rumors about you are some real weird ones. It's that you are some feral little dirty beast of a sleeper that lives in the ruined city."
He looks almost offended
"I am not feral, maybe a little crazy but still."
"Not even going to deny you're little and dirty?"
He scoffs
"I in fact am. I'm not that dirty"
I roll my eyes
"Sure sunny if that's what you tell yourself."
It's already night by the time everyone is done talking with me. I roll myself up in my blanket while my ice shard protects me from the wind. Kai had moved himself over to also use it to hide from the wind, not that I care.
I can never kill the spider that killed them. It's dead now and I didn't even see it happen. I couldn't even get revenge for them.
I guess that's an ambition I'll never get to do. I can still give their families the things they wrote in the notebook. They deserve that much. Thus I won't die and I'll get out of here, as much for me as for them. For everyone who died here unjustly. None should have died, none. I'll make sure as many people as possible get out of this place.
We get to walking, day after day it gets more and more annoying. I personally don't really have to deal with the webs because I can feel with heat sense when they get close but everyone else does. Each night I train with Legacy, who's still a bit annoyed I wont call him bt his name but he got over it.
More and more powerful monsters make their appearance to try the little group of humans. Not that any ever lived to see the next day of course. It takes quite some time for us to get to the nest, I grit my teeth, I want no, need to burn it all down.
We're going for an arch, it's next to a large statue, the statue is covered in webs. Its the nest. The main spider was killed a long time ago by Effie's teacher.
Everyone gets ready for a massive battle with countless iron spiders. I summon my daggers while sitting on my ice shard. Ill kill them all, ill kill every single spider i can. I wont let anyone in my cohort die, I wont let it happen. Sunny rings a memory bell, the spiders come rushing out and the fight starts. I jump right into the middle on my echo, Legacy and Nephis take the side and sunny takes the back.
I rip apart any I get my hands on, I make ice spikes to spear into their undersides. As the spiders get their bearings cassy makes her move using her staff to make a massive gust of wind, making countless iron threads shake it disoriented all of the spiders.
We slaughter the spiders with renewed vigor. Me and my echo are the first to kill the enemies so I jump on the closet ones, the ones attacking Legacy. I rip one apart as Legacy kills another. Ice shard aids Effie.
[You have slain an awakened beast, iron spider. Your cold grows deeper]
Finally every spider is dead, my ice shard is mostly fine. Everyone starts to butcher the spiders. I shove a lot of it into my satchel. I collect some of the hide, im going to make a thing for everyone to ride on.
Soon everyone is done. I yawn laying on my ice shard. Soon we set off to get in the nest. When we get in we see the massive body of the spiders queen. I promptly walk over and kick the body hurting my foot, but fuck it. I hate it, I hate the damn spider.
We keep walking around, the cocoons around us aren't for food but for their babies. How completely gross. Sunny calls over and we all see a human one. Legacy cuts it open, apparently Sunny, Cassie, Legacy and neph knows this sleeper.
I pat Legacy on the back, this is no doubt a horrible sight for him. Soon we leave and Neph lights it all on fire. We climb to the top and we watch the flames consume it as the black water rushes in. I dont feel any joy. I should feel joy, those abominations that haunted me for so long are gone.
2 days later we prepare to jump, apparently we're going to jump and ride on a moving statue. Its a statue thats absolutely massive. Its of the builder. We all jump in top and hold onto it, we're going to be underwater for a bit so I hold on for dear life.
We go underwater, I close my eyes focusing on holding on, and on my heat sense. I have some trouble making sense of it for a few seconds then I finally make sense of it all.
I watch them with it, Singer ends up floating off, he lives because he had attached himself to the blind girl. Its kinda funny to know that hes the one who floated off.
When I was going to pass out we finally get above water. We have a guest though. Sunny jumps down to deal with it. Soon Effie throws a object, that weird talking rock sunny has, it screams in his voice
"29 steps"
soon sunny reappears and flops down.he tells everyone to go to sleep while he keeps watch.