221 Zenith

In front of them, the ground was shattered, creating a titanic fracture. The canyon was so deep and vast that Sunny had to strain his eyes to see the other side of it. Crimson coral clung to its walls, spilling over the edge like a torrent of blood.

A long time ago, a graceful bridge of white stone connected the two sides of the canyon together. Now, however, it was broken, with only its base remaining in place.

Looking at the bridge, Sunny realized that there must have been an ancient road somewhere beneath their feet. It led directly to the main gates of the ancient city, moving across the colossal canyon by means of the miraculous bridge and passing beneath the grandiose arch of white marble.

Come to think of it, the headless knight, the Ashen Barrow, and the graceful woman whose hands had saved him twice were also situated in a straight line. Perhaps there was another road leading east, too.

However, this thought disappeared from his head as quickly as it had appeared. All his attention was drawn to the remnants of the stone bridge, where...

Stood another giant statue.

Right above the weathered ruins stood a colossal stone warrior. He was clad in an archaic cuirass, with a beautiful spear resting on his shoulder. The warrior was facing south, as though greeting the travelers who traveled on the road to reach the ancient city.

…Of course, his head was missing.

More than that, the whole statue was covered in vast sheets of dull grey spiderweb, as if dressed in a solemn burial shroud. Sunny shivered, afraid to imagine what kind of creature was capable of creating the thick metal cables of the web that encompassed the stone colossus.

Noticing his expression, Effie smiled.

"Scary, huh?"

Sunny gave her a nod, hoping against all hope that they would not have to find out the answer to his question.

For once, his hopes were not shattered to pieces.

The vivacious huntress sighed.

"I haven't seen it myself, but I heard stories of the creature that used to make its nest here. It was the mother of all these damnable spiders we've been dealing with for the past week. A huge menace of a Nightmare Creature, as big as a house and utterly deadly. Armored like a hover tank, too."

Sunny gulped and cast a sideways look at Nephis.

"What's a hover tank?"

Effie blinked a couple of times, then answered in an amused tone:

"Oh, right! You're a school dropout, I almost forgot. You've seen a PTV before, right? PTV stands for a "personal transport vehicle", as you know. I hope. Well, a tank is sort of like that, only much bigger and heavier, with thick armor and a kinetic or energy cannon installed on it. The government sometimes employs them to support Awakened when a Gate opens near populated areas."

Sunny tried to imagine such a vehicle and hazily remembered seeing something like this on the news when he was a kid. Mostly, these tanks Effie had described were shown opened like tin cans, with their crews pulled out and eaten by attacking monsters.

He shivered. Mundane people had no business fighting against Nightmare Creatures.

To be completely honest, even Awakened were had no business facing them. It's just that they had no other choice.

"...We're not going to try and kill that big spider, are we?"

Effie laughed.

"Actually, it's you lucky day. We won't be meeting the Spider Mommy. In fact, no one ever will. She's long dead."

Sunny sighed with relief and glanced at the huntress:

"Yeah, great. But how do you know?"

She shrugged.

"She was killed by the second ruler of the Bright Castle — before he went and got himself killed trying to conquer the Crimson Spire. The huntress who showed me the ropes when I arrived on the Forgotten Shore had actually been one of the members of his cohort once, if you can believe it. In fact, she was the one who dealt the finishing blow to that abomination."

Effie looked at the giant mass of spiderwebs and shook her head.

"It must have been one hell of a battle, huh? Anyway, I'm glad that she did. That's how she received the Zenith Shard, which I then inherited."

Sunny frowned.

"What exactly are you talking about?"

The huntress leaned on her beautiful bronze spear and patted its shaft.

"My spear. It's a tier-five Awakened Memory, so the big bad spider was an awakened tyrant, I guess. Can you imagine? All these creepy crawlers serving a sentient commander. Thank gods it's dead."

Sunny looked at her with a dubious expression.

"Why would that mentor of your gave away such a treasure?"

Effie was silent for a few moments, then smiled.

"Ah, we were kind of close. Plus, she had no idea how to use a spear. Sorcerers, am I right? In any case, she gave the Zenith Shard to me."

Despite her carefree tone, he could tell that that smile was fake. Effie did not let it show, but Sunny could tell that the death of this huntress whose name he didn't even know had met affected her more than she was telling.

Who knows. Since Effie's original cohort had perished in the catacombs, their corpses might still be somewhere there, in those cursed tunnels.

However, something else was on his mind.

Sunny furrowed his brow. Midnight Shard, Zenith Shard. Was there a connection? He didn't know.

There might have been. He had received the Midnight Shard from Nephis, who had gotten it after killing the Carapace Demon.

The Demon, even though it had been enthralled by the Soul Devourer, appeared as the leader of the Nightmare Creature in that region of the Labyrinth… just like the brood mother of the iron spiders had been.

Two headless statues, two powerful abominations, two Memories with similar names. Wasn't it a little bit too much to be a coincidence?

Glancing at Effie, he asked:

"Was your spear forged from a shard of a fallen star, by chance?"

Just as he said it, Cassie slightly turned her head, listening to their conversation. That small detail told Sunny everything he wanted to know.

The huntress raised her eyebrows.

"It was, at least according to its description. Who told you?"

A corner of Sunny's lips slightly curled upward.

"No one. I just guessed."

With that, he left Effie alone and walked forward.

It seemed as though he was right. There was some hidden meaning behind the names of these two Memories. Cassie seemed to know something about it, and that meant that Nephis did, too.

And yet, they chose to keep it from Sunny and the rest of the cohort.

He sighed.

'So this expedition is not as simple as it seems.'

Not that it ever seemed particularly simple, to begin with.

He had guessed a long time ago that Changing Star had some hidden motive to want to leave the Dark City, but now, his suspicions were as good as confirmed.

The smile disappeared from Sunny's face.

He didn't like being kept in the dark at all.

'Kept in the dark, huh. Oh, the irony…'

At that moment, his shadow reached the base of the giant statue. With a deep frown, Sunny summoned the Midnight Shard and glanced at Nephis, putting all needless thought aside.

"There's a nest ahead. We will have to destroy it to access the statue. Lots of spiders... some bigger ones, too."

She gave him a nod and turned to face the others.

"We need to clear the nest and climb the statue before the sun sets. Prepare for battle..."