229 The Passenger

The colossus rose from beneath the turbulent waves, rivers of black water streaming down his stone body. Now that the walking statue had climbed out of the canyon, the cursed sea was barely up to its abdomen… for the moment.

Once the dark waters reached higher, the giant would be submerged in them up to his shoulders once again.

Sunny had to get rid of the unwelcomed passenger until then.

Far below, flattened against the chest of the colossus, a strange creature had attached itself to the ancient statue. It looked like a cross between a translucent jellyfish and an eel. However, Sunny could see a deformed skeleton of a giant humanoid being trapped within the transparent flesh of the repulsive abomination.

He shivered.

Compared to the stone giant, the eel looked rather small… however, this was just an illusion. Really, the creature was as large as a train. Its jaws were full of sharp fangs and wide enough to swallow a human whole.

'Curses.'

If there was one good thing about the situation, it was that the eel did not seem to be a Corrupted Nightmare Creature, but merely a Fallen one. Perhaps it survived in the cursed sea by attaching itself to the true terrors of the depths and feeding off the remains of their prey.

As soon as Nephis spoke, Sunny noticed long feelers of the creature tremble and move, as though reacting to the sudden sound. The eel turned its head slightly in their direction.

When he answered, the feelers rippled once again, and the monstrosity turned its head once more, this time staring directly at Sunny.

'Crap…'

A moment later, translucent tentacles appeared from beneath the abomination's body and shot up, finding cracks in the weathered stone and pulling it toward the neck of the colossus.

…Where the cohort was.

Changing Star must have felt something, because tiny white sparks suddenly ignited in the depths of her eyes.

Sunny put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

"Don't."

Stone giant or not, lighting a beacon in the middle of the cursed sea was not the best of ideas. Now that it had escaped the confines of the canyon, the real horrors were out and about. Just like the cohort had discussed before, light was their last resort, something they would summon only if the moment came where there was no other choice but for all of them to fight.

And whether Sunny liked it or not, that moment was not upon them yet.

With a reluctant scowl, he turned away and said:

"I'll handle it."

…The giant eel was his problem to solve.

'Yeah, that's great and all. But how the Spell am I supposed to get rid of this thing?'

Looking down, Sunny calculated that he had a dozen or so seconds left before it was time to act. The repulsive abomination was slowly crawling toward them, scaling the torso of the giant statue at a disturbingly steady pace.

'Think, think…'

Several seconds later, Sunny approached Effie and kneeled by her side. Taking the huntress by the hand, he put something into her palm and said:

"Do you feel the colossus moving up and down? That's his steps. I need you to start counting them. If I'm not back after thirty steps, throw the thing I gave you in that direction as hard as you can. Alright?"

Effie gave him a nod. Her usual humor was gone, replaced by grim determination.

"Good. Well… wish me luck."

The huntress lingered for a moment and then said:

"Good luck."

When he was ready to walk away, she suddenly gripped his arm.

Sunny stopped and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

Effie hesitated before speaking.

"Listen, Sunny… if… if you die… I can have your soul shards, right?"

He stared at her for a second, his face twitching.

'This wench!'

"Absolutely not! If I die, all my shards are to be thrown into the sea. No one is to get anything, understand?"

With that, he left the cohort behind and walked to the edge of the swaying stone platform.

'...Here goes nothing.'

Jumping dowm, Sunny slid to the giant's shoulder and caught himself from falling all the way into the raging waves by grabbing onto a crack in the stone. To his right, the shoulder was slowly moving as the colossus swung his hand. To his left, a curved path of stone led all the way across the chest of the statue to its other shoulder.

This curving path was, in fact, the collar of the giant's tunic, carved masterfully from stone by the unknown sculptor. Stepping on it, Sunny struggled to keep his balance on the swaying slippery surface and hurried forward.

Soon, he was directly above the climbing eel. The abomination was already close, allowing Sunny to discern every repugnant detail of its translucent, giant body.

'What the hell. Why does everything have to be so disgusting?'

A moment later, he sighed.

'Let's… try this.'

Summoning the Prowling Thorn, Sunny gritted his teeth and cut his forearm, smearing some blood on the blade of the kunai. Then, he used all the strength he had in his body to hurl the dagger down.

The Prowling Thorn spun in the air and hit the giant eel right in the place where its eye should have been. Sunny did not notice any visual organs on the creature's body, but on the deformed humanoid skull hiding beneath the flesh, that's where the eye socket was.

The kunai wedged itself deep into the monster's head, causing a small fountain of crimson blood to erupt upward. Of course, such a tiny wound was nothing for a creature of this size. For a moment, everything became silent.

…Then, hundreds of slender tentacles suddenly exploded from the eel's flesh and shoot in Sunny's direction in a chaotic, slithering mass of translucent flesh.

'Damn it!'

Forced to dismiss the Prowling Thorn to avoid being thrown off the ledge, Sunny lunged forward. A moment later, the tentacles reached his previous position and crashed into the stone, sending shards flying into the air.

Sunny kept running, knowing that the tentacles were just a second away from piercing him. The sounds of breaking stone were thundering just behind his back, getting closer and closer with each moment. The Prowling Thorn appeared in his hand one again.

Reaching the end of the path and with nowhere left to run, Sunny cursed… and jumped straight into the darkness.