With no time to listen to the Spell, Sunny tugged on the sword to dislodge it from the monster's head and hurried to help Nephis.
However, it was too late.
The other scavenger was lying in the mud, clearly dead. His limbs were still twitching, indicating that the fatal blow was delivered just moments ago. It seemed like Nephis had managed to sever its spine by piercing the weak spot at the base of the beast's torso with her longsword.
He couldn't see the silver-haired girl behind the bulky carcass. As Sunny approached it, he heard the sound of rugged, strained breathing. Then a shaky voice came from behind the scavenger:
"D—don't… don't come any closer."
In the deathly silence of the battle's aftermath, Changing Star's voice sounded strange and subdued. Sunny suddenly felt as though someone had squeezed his heart in a fist. Steeling himself, he took another step forward.
Nephis was standing in front of the dead scavenger, trying to catch her breath after the intense fight. There was a bloody gash on her shoulder. However, it didn't look life-threatening.
Sunny's attention, though, was instantly drawn to something else.
It seemed that at some point during the fight, the tall girl's makeshift seaweed top came apart, leaving her naked above the waist. She was covering her chest with one arm. Behind the arm, squished, the supple fullness of her…
Sunny flinched as though someone had stung him and hurriedly turned around. His face was burning. Without thinking about it, he even made his shadow look away.
An awkward silence followed. After some time, Sunny forced himself to speak:
"Are... are you alright?"
Nephis was slow to answer.
"Yes."
"Good. Uh… good. I'll… uh… I'll go fetch Cassie then."
"... Alright."
Feeling as though an army of monsters was chasing him, he walked forward on stiff legs and then quickened his step, barely holding himself from running.
'Her fault! It's her fault! She should have communicated things clearer!'
Trying to get the vivid image out of his head, Sunny hurried to the place where Cassie was waiting for them.
By the time they returned, Nephis had already fixed her top and was wearing it as though nothing had happened. However, Sunny couldn't help but feel that the look she gave him was somewhat weird.
'Forget it!'
After checking the wound on his head, Changing Star said.
"It's just a bleeder, nothing serious. Tell me if you feel dizzy and nauseous or have a strong headache, though."
Since Sunny had none of these symptoms, he kept quiet.
Nephis looked down at his clothes and sighed.
"Memory?"
He opened his mouth to say "no", but then fell silent.
Come to think of it, when he killed the scavenger, the Spell did say something else after informing him about the absorbed shadow fragments. At the time, he was too busy to pay it any attention.
"Let me check."
He summoned be runes and quickly found the cluster representing his Memories.
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteers' Shroud], [Azure Blade].
'Hmm. Nothing new.'
Then what was the Spell talking about?
Suddenly, he noticed a new set of runes in the neighboring cluster. His eyes widened.
Echoes: [Carapace Scavenger].