Shadow Slave

The night passed with no incidents. In the morning, Sunny was woken up by the sound of the surging waves and opened his eyes to see the sun slowly rising from beyond the horizon.

Rubbing his face, he sat up and looked around, noticing that most of the cohort was still asleep. Only Kai, who had been the last one to stand watch, was awake, sitting on the edge of the arch and admiring the dawn with a dreamy look on his face.

Sunny wanted to call out to him and warn the charming archer not to sit this close to the edge, but then remembered that Kai could fly.

'Yeah. Like I would forget it again!'

Using the opportunity, he dove into the Soul Sea and summoned Stone Saint from the depths of the Shadow Core, where she was sleeping in the embrace of nurturing black flames. Just like before, the Shadow did not appear from a sphere of light like an Echo would, but stepped out from a whirlpool of dark fire.

Then, she stood motionlessly in front of Sunny like an actual statue, seemingly indifferent both to his presence and the wounds covering her body.

Sunny walked around the Stone Saint, studying the extent of damage done to her by the undead horde. The armor of the taciturn knight was battered and broken, pierced in several places by the claws of the countless skeletons she had fought. The ruby dust wasn't flowing from the breaches anymore, but he could see deep gashes on her smooth, grey skin.

'Bastards.'

Who dares to hurt his Shadow?

Shaking his head, Sunny dismissed the Saint, sending her back into the restorative darkness of the Shadow Core.

The damage, while extensive, was not really threatening to her existence. In a couple of days, his pet monster should fully recover.

In fact, she already looked better than she had yesterday.

Leaving the Soul Sea, Sunny inhaled the fresh air, lingered for a few moments, and then turned to Kai:

"Hey, Night. Are you stupid? Don't sit this close to the edge!"

The charming archer looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"I can fly, remember? If I fall…"

Sunny scoffed.

"I'm not worried about you falling into the cursed sea. I am worried about something dragging you off into it. That'd be terrible, right?"

Quite happy with himself, he grinned and turned away.

'What a nice way to start the day…'

***

Because everyone needed some time to rest and recuperate, they decided to spend a day on the marble arch and continue their journey tomorrow.

As the result, Sunny was currently staring at the sight that wasn't really funny, but filled him with mirth nevertheless.

Back in the real world, when he had time to consume some entertainment, Sunny had noticed a certain popular trope. In most dramas, webtoons, and cartoons aimed at young boys and teenagers, the heroes would inevitably end up spending a day at the beach during their adventures.

He didn't quite know why such a trope existed, but suspected that it was just an excuse to show the female characters in nothing but revealing swimsuits.

Not that he had anything against it…

In any case, Sunny had never imagined that he was going to end up in such an episode himself one day.

'This is… simply hilarious!'

Barely holding himself from laughing out loud, Sunny glanced at his companions.

Because everyone's armor and weapons were damaged during the battle in the catacombs, they had to keep these Memories inside the Soul Sea for a bit of time to allow them to restore themselves — just like Stone Saint was currently doing in the depths of his Shadow Core.

As the result, all of them — including Sunny himself — were currently wearing nothing except for some loincloths and, in the case of the girls, makeshift brassieres.

Provided, these crude undergarments weren't really swimsuits, and the marble arch could barely be considered a beach even at night… but still, the situation was funnily similar.

They were all half-naked and relaxing in the middle of a something that someone could call an adventure, so it was close enough.

'Ha!'

He was in a rather good mood.

Everyone was busy doing their thing. There was a fire in the middle of the arch, with roasting meat filling the air with an appetizing aroma. Effie was tending to it.

The tan and lean body of the muscular huntress looked like it was cut from stone, as if she was a sculpture of an ancient goddess come to life. Sunny tried to count her abs and got distracted halfway through by… uh… not so stonelike parts of her robust figure.

After a couple of seconds of thoughtless bliss, Sunny had to hurriedly look away. The last thing he wanted was…

'Pure thoughts!'

Nephis was helping Effie with the breakfast. Next to the vigorous huntress, her figure seemed especially slender and lithe. However, she was also extremely athletic in appearance. Her ivory skin was pleasantly contrasted against the olive skin of their boisterous pathfinder.

'What a sight to behold...'

Uh… from a purely aesthetic standpoint, of course.

Seeing Changing Star like that reminded Sunny of the early days of their stay in the Dream Realm. Things had been much simpler back then.

Suddenly wistful, he looked away and checked what Cassie was doing. The blind girl was resting near the fire, wrapped in her beautiful cloak. With her delicate features and small stature, she looked extremely lovely.

And then… there were Kai and Caster.

Sunny sighed and looked down at his own scrawny body. Honestly, after all these months spent hunting monsters, eating meat and absorbing shadow fragments, he looked much better than he used to. In fact, by human standards, he was nothing short of… well, above average.

Even as far as Awakened went, he could probably compete with some in the looks department.

…But those two specimens were simply on another level!

Kai was tall and shaped like a young god, with lean muscles rolling under his flawless skin and a svelte figure that begged to be sculpted into a marble masterpiece. Sunny could swear that even sunlight was attracted to him, illuminating the charming archer in just a way to make him look as gorgeous as possible.

Currently, Kai was tending to his arrows, somehow managing to make even that simple task look glamorous.

Caster was much the same, with a perfect body and broad shoulders that simply screamed of power, appeal and potency. With a darker skin to match his gallant and manly image, he was basically the epitome of masculinity. This was contrasted by a handsome, but gentle face and humorous green eyes, creating a rather tempting visage.

Sunny grimaced and turned away.

'You know what? To hell with this beach day nonsense! Let's do something productive…'