A/N: It's gonna take a sec for the adaptors for all my cables to ship, and Icl my grandparent have some wack ass wifi out here in Osaka so I've been using my hotspot and my airpods charger to make due for now with my laptop.
If there's a notcible drop in quality then feel free to tell me— especially with spelling since my grammerly doesn't work on webnovel's writing software for some reason.
Enjoy the chapter.
(Btw should I keep using the underscores and dashes as line breaks or should I switch back to the asterisks. I remember that some of the audio readers had issues with one of them, but I just didn't remember which one.)
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BOOOM
Sunny and Nephis landed on the floor with a rather loud thud.
Despite having been dropped from god knows how far up, they were unharmed thanks to the Staright cocoon Audun had wrapped them in prior to tossing them overboard.
Lying down eagle spread— Sunny clenched his fist and slammed it against the ground.
"FUCK!"
A small quake shook the spire as a basketball sized crater was pushed into the ground.
Nephis, propping herself up, stared at him.
"... What should we do now?"
Sunny grit his teeth.
"There's no 'we' this time. Caster— or whatever he turned into, is clearly after you right now."
He continued.
"If you go out there, Audun won't be able to protect you... But I'm different. I'm going out there to help him— You stay put and go help the rest of the sleepers get through the gateway."
Sunny pushed himself off the ground— but before he could move anywhere, Nephis grabbed his arm.
Sunny tried to shake himself free of her grip, but Nephis didn't budge.
"Let me go."
She shook her head.
"No."
Sunny scowled.
"I wasn't asking, Neph. Let me go."
Nephis's response didn't change.
Instead she gripped his arm tighter.
"Stop it, Sunny."
She glared at him.
"You're being too rash."
The Child of Shadows snarled.
"Then what do you proprose then? If we leave Audun to fight that thing alone, he'll die!"
Nephis shook her head.
"You don't know that."
"YES I DO!"
Sunny forcefully shook off Nephis's grasp.
"He dragged that bastard into the sun, and did you not see the state he was in?!!!"
Nephis sucked in a deep breath as she moved closer to the livid sleeper.
This time she grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look deep in her eyes.
"Look— We should find Cassie and see if she's awake. She might know something that we don't."
Sunny frowned.
"And what if she's not awake— or even better— what if she's got no clue what to do?"
"What then?"
Nephis inhaled deeply.
"... We'll make that decision when we get there."
Sunny sighed and tried to yank himself free one more time.
Nephis didn't budge.
"It doesn't matter, regardless. Going out there right now is suicide. We'd only get in his way."
She gave him a hard stare.
"Audun won't go down that easily. Have faith in him, Sunny."
The Child of Shadow's gaze turned complicated as Nephis's silver eyes bore into him.
A small bout of silence fell over the two, but it didn't take long for Sunny to finally cave.
"... Fine. But let's hurry."
*****
***
**
*
If Audun wasn't so preoccupied trying not to die, he would've been cursing himself out for getting so lax.
For the past few months, after acquring his 3rd and 4th star during his time with Sunny, he had basically ceased his own personal training, instead opting to focus on other tasks— like training Nephis and the rest of the sleeper army.
He had been convinced that he had gathered enough individual strength— that helping others grow would be a better use of his time as opposed to treking down the arduous path of a swordmaster.
And now— he was being faced with the consequences of that negligence.
Caster— or whatever was left at him at this point— had now honed his control over the Mutilators authority, making him borderline unkillable.
His heart and his brain had been hidden within the colossal form he currently inhabited, making damaging either of the two quite difficult.
To make things worse— even if Audun managed to locate either of Caster's weakpoints, the demonic legacy would merely reorient the structure of his 'body' and move them to a different area.
If Audun was currently capable of firing off an attack powerful enough to eliminate Caster in a single blow like he had during his time as the Star of Solitude, this game of cat and mouse wouldn't have gone on for so long.
Unfortunately for the swordsman, his stars were purely utility and lacked any real offensive capabilities.
The Star of Memory gave him the ability to remember, the Star of Vocalization gave his voice the ability to enhance things, the Star of Detachment allowed him to employ the concept of 'detaching' to a limited degree, and the Star of Judgement just gave his attacks more potency against the spawn of the abyss.
In simple terms, he possessed two passive skills, a buff, and a debuff— while his opponent had infinite regeneration.
The only solution that Audun had been able to come up with earlier was dragging Caster into the Soul annihlating light of the sun— though, unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the checkmate he thought it was.
As a partially demonic entity, the corrupted legacy had an innate resistence to soul harming effects.
Infact, it seemed that Caster had inherited most of the demon's resistances.
Shrouded in pure starlight, the swordsman deflected the chunks of flesh flying at him.
Caster had once again split himself into a violent cloud of red mist, making it nearly impossible for Audun to even touch him.
'This is some straight bull shit!'
Gritting his teeth, Audun let a wave of aura explode out from his body, temporarily pushing back the gruesome swarm of red.
'Why is that bastard even able to use his aspect ability so freely with that horned twit's authority?!'
Utilizing the Star of Detachment, Audun temporarily detached the part of the world Caster's misty form currently resided in.
A sphere-shaped void was left as Audun compressed the space— forcing the whole, titanic form of the demonized Caster to immediately rematerialize.
The swordsman's eyes glew with blinding light as the Star of Memory activated.
Since the battle began— more specifically around the time Caster began to do all the moving heart and brain shennanigans— Audun had started his download of the legacy's habits and patterns.
'If I'm right it should be...'
Thrusting the [Midnight Shard] forward with all his strength, Audun pierced straight through the chest of the massive creature.
Unfortunately however, he had missed once more.
Caster had once again used his aspect to accelerate the movement of his heart and brain— moving them to a much safer part of his grotesque form.
Audun cursed silently as he leaped back.
'I know the path his vitals travel along, but it doesn't even fucking matter since he can just change the tempo of their movement.'
He grimaced as the deadlock resumed.
'I have to use every tool at my disposal to even force him into a winable situation— and even when I manage it, I'm just forced to gamble.'
This exact situation had played out four times already, and Audun didn't exactly have the luxury of time on his side.
The Mutilator's decent was imminent, and his own stars were beginning to dim.
His strong yet imperfect body was heavily fatigued—with heavy beads of sweat accumulating at his brow.
In a certain sense, this was the closest he had come to death since his rebirth.
"Ah~ You look rather tense, Sir Audun."
From somewhere within the profane mass of flesh before him, Caster's voice echoed rather joyfully.
Audun didn't respond, instead leveling his blade as he wracked his brain for something that he could do.
'Hah... I don't think I can kill this bastard right now, and I don't think I can last much longer either.'
'I can't use sealing magic, nor can I completely destroy Caster's physical body— all I can do is stall and hope that the others can get out of here in time...'
'But even if I managed that, the mutilator will descend— and if that happens— will humanity even be able to stand against it?'
'In a world without Excalibur, a demon of the Mutilator's calibur would be effectively unkillable... Though, there might be someone among humanity's highest eschelon that might be able to deal with them.'
'...But.'
'If the Mutilator was capable of contracting with a human from this world, other demons might be able to as well...'
Audun drew in a deep breath as he considered that grim possiblity
'If a demon with 8 stars were to arrive, what about a demon with 9— or even 10 stars?'
'Caster is only a sleeper, but if a Master or a Saint were to contract with a being like that— and if that being were to descend using their body...'
'...'
'I have to win.'
'But how?'
'I'd need a miracle to even get out of here alive— huh?'
In that critical moment, the spell whispered something in Audun's ear.
[Your Aspect Legacy mastery level has increased.]
[You have the right to claim a Legacy Relic.]
**********
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***
"Are you two ready?"
The Star of Solitude peered to his sides.
Standing beside him was the Staff of Selection and the Star of Dawn.
The Star of Dawn nodded his head lightly as he raised his hand.
A sword burning with brilliant starlight materialized within his grasp.
Excalibur.
"I'm ready whenever you are."
The Star of Solitude nodded as he turned to The Staff of Selection.
The Staff of Selection responded with a hesitant look.
"Are you sure you still want to do this Alfy?"
She still had her doubts about this so called plan of his.
It was borderline insanity.
The Star of Solitude shook his head lightly with a small smile.
"I've already summoned the resolve to accept the outcome— be it a failure or a success."
He let out a small breath.
The Star of Solitude placed a hand over his chest and drew something from within his heart.
It was a small fragment of platinum light— one too small to be considered a star.
Yet, it gleamed incomparibly brighter then the collective light of the Star of Solitude's constellation.
The Staff of Selection's eyes widened in surprise.
"I have see this through to the end... No matter what."
"So."
"I must ask you to cast aside whatever hesitations you have left."
The Star of Solitude bowed his head to the two in front of him.
"Please help me this one last time."
The Star of Dawn rested a hand on the Staff of Selections shoulder and gave her a look she knew all too well.
"I beg of you. Help me make this beautiful possibility a reality."