However, without scouting a path in advance, there was a chance of not making it to safety in time. Both options were risky.
Nephis frowned, seemingly thinking the same.
After a while, she said:
"I don't want Cassie to spend another night near this statue. Let's leave now."
Sunny thought for a while, then opened his mouth to offer his own opinion. However, a sudden commotion below prevented him from speaking.
Down at the bottom of the disappearing sea, amidst mounds of broken coral, the carcass of the giant shark-like monster — the remaining half of it, to be precise — was almost stripped of meat. And between its white bones, something was shimmering in the mud.
Two extremely large, luminescent crystals.
Sunny's eyes widened.
"Are those…"
"Yes. Shards of two transcendent soul cores."
Transcendent… two of them…
Suddenly, he was simultaneously filled with greed and fear. Greed because of how rare and precious transcendent soul shards were; fear because the giant shark turned to a be a corrupted devil, at least.
One corrupted devil, if not stopped by a Saint or a large number of Awakened, could potentially destroy an entire city. Sunny belatedly realized that he was much closer to death on that first night than he had previously thought.
"Should we…"
"Wait and listen."
He stared at Nephis and then obediently listened to the distant, barely audible clamor of the scavengers.
After a while, he noticed some disharmony in it.
Nephis suddenly tensed up.
"There."
She pointed in the direction of the labyrinth. After concentrating on it, Sunny was finally able to notice two massive shadows stepping out of a particularly wide passage.
A second later, the creatures casting those shadows appeared in sight. Sunny gulped.
'Damn.'
The monsters looked like the scavengers, but not quite. To start with, they were much larger, towering above the surroundings at more than three meters of height. Their carapace seemed to be thicker. It was colored in deep black and scarlet, like an ancient armor drenched in blood. Here and there, vicious-looking spikes were growing out of the carapace, making their every move much more dangerous.
Additionally, instead of heavy pincers, their upper arms ended with long, curved, terrifying bone scythes.
Sunny felt cold sweat running down his spine.
"What the hell are those things?"
Nephis tilted her head.
"Monsters, I guess."
Nightmare Creatures with one soul core were called "beasts". They were dangerous and strong, but mindless. If they were able to develop or were created with a second core, they became "monsters". Monsters were much more devastating and possessed some rudimentary, warped form of intelligence. They were the next step in a Nightmare Beast's evolution.
And these two seemed to be bigger, deadlier versions of carapace scavengers.
Sunny and Nephis watched as the two monsters approached the carcass. The scavengers were visibly afraid of them, rushing to get out of the way. Those who were two slow were mercilessly thrown to the side or cut apart by the bone scythes. Rivers of azure blood were flowing into the mud.
'What are they doing? Did they come to absorb the soul shards?'
Finally, the monsters reached the carcass. Each of them took one of the shards. However, instead of absorbing them, they simply turned around and carried the precious crystals away. The scavengers made way, following the shards with their little, hungry eyes.
Sunny blinked and looked at Nephis.
"Do we still leave now?"
Changing Star frowned and hesitated. A few moments later, she shook her head.
"No. We'll go tomorrow."
Then, she turned west and observed the retreating monsters.
"...Get your shadow to follow these two back."