Sunny let out a tired sigh.
Even the seventh incarnation rolled its eyes in exasperation.
'Well, of course…'
Honestly, he had expected to hear something like that. After all, he was still in the Shadow Realm, and while the imminent danger had seemingly passed, it would be foolish to expect that new perils would not reveal themselves soon.
After cursing his fate — or lack thereof — for a few moments quietly, he asked in a resigned tone:
"Oh? What is it now?"
The ancient skull stared at him with empty eye sockets. When Eurys spoke, his creaky voice sounded a bit wistful:
"Look at me carefully, boy. How do you think I ended up in this state?"
Sunny studied the skeleton silently.
Eurys was sprawled on the ground, surrounded by broken pieces of ivory bones and half-buried in the obsidian dust. The bone fragments belonged to the remains of a Soul Serpent, but the human skeleton, too, was not intact.
Half of his ribs were broken, one of his arms was entirely missing, and his legs were completely crushed. He was in quite a sorry state…
Sunny did not know how powerful Eurys was, exactly, but he shuddered to imagine what kind of creature could have mutilated him so thoroughly.
He glanced down, at the shadow archer.
"...I gather it wasn't this one here who did such a number on you?"
The skeleton laughed.
"No."
Eurys paused for a few moments, then spoke in a friendly tone:
"As I mentioned before, there is an entrance to the Shadow Realm hidden in the Abyss of the Underworld. We are not too far from that entrance, meaning that these are the outer edges of the Shadow Realm. This is where the shadows of living beings arrive after death before undertaking a pilgrimage to the heart of the Land of the Dead."
He sighed.
"I was attempting the same, but… oh well. You can see how I ended up."
Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"What lies at the heart of the Shadow Realm, then?"
The ancient skeleton struggled to shrug.
"That, I do not know. I was curious to see,though! Such a tantalizing mystery. Since I am more or less dead, it would be a shame to miss the chance..."
After chuckling with mirth, he grew more serious:
"In any case, the outer edges of the Shadow Realm hide their own perils. Like the Creatures of Darkness who sometimes crawl out of the Abyss… one of them is drawing closer and closer, by the way. I thought I should let you know."
Sunny cursed.
'Damnation.'
Right… there had been the fourth dark drifter, the Wolf, pursuing the shadow of Condemnation. Sunny had assumed that it was destroyed by the essence storm, but the creature seemed to have survived. Considering that it had been on the ground when the storm hit...
'Did it burrow into the dust to avoid the currents of essence?'
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