Shadow Slave

Throughout the rest of the loop, Cassie continued to be a little off. The changes were subtle, but Sunny could easily spot them. After all, he had been going through these tribulations for a long time now... anything that was different from how things were supposed to go drew his attention.

Cassie was clearly in a slightly dazed state - not unlike how he had been the first time around. Otherwise, she would have realized that having a persistent sense of déjà vu on an island where time endlessly repeated itself had to mean something.

Then again, she might have simply attributed it to the time loop and moved on. It was only Sunny who knew that the blind girl was acting differently from how she had in the previous revolutions.

"Why is this happening?"

Cassie was distracted because of her strange mental state, while Sunny was distracted because of Cassie. The cohort had slain the Cavern Terror, traversed the system of caves, and obliterated the swarm of black millipedes.

Finally, they climbed out of the chasm and ventured into the misty forest.

Now that it was submerged in darkness, Sunny found it much easier to move forward. He was in his element. He could also track the movements of the Nightmare Creatures populating this part of the island, not to mention the fact that he already knew what they were capable of.

Some abominations had to be avoided at all costs, some could be challenged. It was easier to avoid the former, and not as hard to slay the latter. Armed with knowledge and the element of surprise, the cohort made swift progress.

Eventually, there came a moment when Sunny told everyone to slow down and took the lead. Banishing the mist from a small area in front of them, he called:

"Effie! Do not..."

As soon as he spoke, a grey spear flashed toward him with tremendous speed, as if shot from a devastating siege engine.

Holding back a sigh, Sunny moved to the side and effortlessly caught the spear with his bare hand. The power of Effie's throw was scary enough to drag him back a few steps, but he easily kept his balance.

"...throw that damned spear at me!"

Nephis and Jet had barely had any time to react. They both stared at the deadly weapon held in his hand with astonishment.

soft lips moved, as

was already revealed, standing in the

"D-doofus?"

Sunny scoffed.

Come, take your spear

was in no mood to try anything dangerous, anyway -

time, he

put off a little at the start, noticing that he was not reacting to her teasing. But after Jet explained the nature of the loop to her, she

hair behind her

you've heard all these jokes already? Dozens of times? Uh... crap... I

there to be flustered in his place. Watching the huntress explain what had

stupid thing, what she had done. Getting pregnant in the middle of a war was not exactly smart. Even if it had not been intentional, the result was

somewhat. Passions were high on the battlefield, and even the smartest people were prone to making mistakes when they were not thinking straight. Gods

prevent this exact situation from happening, but

if that was not the

how the hell had she ended up being pregnant

really. An avalanche of misfortune that started with a single

heavy sigh escaped

Effie had never had any intentions of challenging the Third Nightmare. She was only here because of a series of tragic

never meant to participate in a large-scale battle. They were simply there as observers... and yet, when the Great Gates opened during the Battle of the Black Skull, Effie had no choice but to escape into the Dream Realm, just like the rest of the

plans of challenging a Seed then. Their goal was to reach the Black Pyramid... Effie must have thought that they would either escape or die in

had all perished in the catacombs below the Dark City. The thought of

chose to remain with

that point, the only choice Effie had was

latter, the members of the cohort would have definitely not allowed her to commit suicide

And here they were.