Chapter Summary: Sunny's main strategy consists of surviving until Sunny arrives.
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There was a tide of flesh and bone coming his way.
Sunny wished it was the first time. Spell, he wished it was just the tenth.
His wish, as always, did not come true, so he could do nothing but grit his teeth and deal with it.
At his command, what little shadows he had left answered, surging forward into countless strings thin enough to be almost invisible and sharper than razor wire.
The tide collided with the strings, and the leading champion slowed down until grinding to a standstill. It stood like that for a second longer, an expression that could pass for confusion settling into its misshapen face. Another second passed and then, all at once, it fell down in cleanly sliced parts.
[You have slain a Fallen...]
His eyes narrowed behind the helmet of the [Onyx Shell]. The creatures were still alive, rather than just puppets commanded by the pale woman, which meant that it would be able to fight too, rather than focus all its efforts on commanding the legions.
[You have slain...]
Behind the leading champion, more and more of the abominations fell, cut down into bloody chunks.
And still, the living tide kept charging, pushed forward by the tyrannical Will of their leader.
The second and third waves did not fare any better, cut into pieces by the shadow strings, but by the fourth, the strings started fraying, and by the fifth, they snapped, incapable of resisting the weight of the onslaught anymore.
Sunny grimaced. He hadn't expected the barrier to last long, but he had hoped for a little more time.
Beggars couldn't be choosers, so he cast the thought aside and moved on to the next step of the plan.
He personally engaged them, dancing in and out of their reach while his odachi moved swiftly, cutting down grasping limbs and reaping lives where he could.
Seconds that felt like an eternity later, the [Shadow Lantern] finished forming in his left hand, and he did not wait before opening the tiny gate. From within, an ocean of shadows emerged like a tide of ink.
The shadows morphed immediately, turning into countless weapons -swords, spears, maces…- before being launched against the monstrous legion, which met his wall of weapons with their own bodies, not a trace of self-preservation to be found among them.
Much could be said of their clash, but he did not bother paying attention to it before turning his attention back to the pale woman and its horrid reflection.
Under his command, shadows pooled at his feet and then spread wide and far, turning the shimmering surface of the lake into a scene that belonged on a canvas. One half of the lake shone, bathed in the silver rays of the moon, while the other was covered in shadows, as if an artist had taken a brush and painted it black.
Sunny shadow-stepped immediately and reemerged beside the pale woman's reflection, right out of one of the shadows he had scattered with the previous move.
The reflection met his attack head-on, deflecting it with a bone ridge growing straight out of its bulging left arm.
His black eyes met the blue ones of the reflection, and Sunny almost shivered at the sheer madness contained within. It was as though they had no end, as though all of reality was contained within them. A reality that wished for naught but the end and the defilement of everyone and everything.
Sunny forced himself to move past his unease and pressed the odachi harder against the bone ridge, only to find himself heavily outmuscled. The reflection was at least thrice his size, with muscles so large they could barely be contained beneath its greyish skin.
Never one to let himself be cowed, Sunny kept pushing and at the same time called for more shadows from inside the [Shadow Lantern]. They answered his call eagerly, surging out and coiling around the monstrosity that was beginning to push him back.
The shadows coalesced around its form, flowing like water across its body before solidifying into an iron maiden that covered the reflection from head to toe. Following his next command, countless spikes stabbed into the abomination.
A bone-chilling roar of pain erupted from inside, but Sunny did not have time to pay it any attention before moving on to the next step of his plan. The iron maiden wouldn't last long against that thing, and if the bone ridge was anything to go by, the reflection was too resilient to be seriously injured. But as long as it managed to keep it at bay for a while, it would be enough.
His eyes moved on to the pale woman next, who observed him with what could pass for amusement, as if the Nightmare Creature were a predator observing its prey struggling against what was ultimately inevitable.
Sunny moved forward, bringing his odachi in a swift arc of blackened steel, aiming to sever its head from its shoulders.
The blow connected perfectly and cut through flesh and bone so precisely that not a drop of blood managed to spurt out before its head flew off.
More shadows erupted even before the odachi finished its arc, encasing the body and the head both in two more iron maidens. Unlike its reflection, not a sound left the pale woman when under the assault of the spikes.
A thundering roar from behind stopped him from continuing the offense, and Sunny only had the chance to take a step aside before the reflection was upon him.
Despite his quick reaction, the bone ridge still managed to land a hit on his mid-section, and leave a deep scar on his chestplate that would have bisected him outright had he been just a fraction of a second slower.
Sunny called on more shadows, and they answered, turning into a mass of dark chains that pounced once more on the reflection. This time, however, it was done playing.
More bones erupted out of its grey skin, turning it into a serrated mass of bone blades that started spinning over itself at dizzying speed. Every chain that came into contact with the spinning monster was destroyed instantly, and even his odachi was shattered with ease when he attempted to attack.
The reflection did not content itself with just defending. It pounced on him like a maddened hurricane of bone blades, and Sunny just barely managed to get out of the way.
More scars appeared on his armor every time he failed to completely avoid its offensive, while he couldn't reciprocate the favor. It was just too fast and strong, shredding every shadow that attempted to attack the reflection.
The bad news did not end there. Sunny shadow stepped out of the way of an attack at his back, right in time to avoid the jaws of a monstrosity that held the dubious honor of owning four different sets of jaws, each more sinister than the last.
Sunny risked a quick glance and found out that the legion had destroyed his shadow constructs, and was now free to engage him once more.
The feel of a chill on his back was all the warning he got. It was enough, though just barely.
A chillingly cold hand pierced his back and erupted out of the other way amid blood and fragments of bone. Had he failed to heed the warning, it would have hit his heart rather than his left lung.
Resisting the urge to panic, Sunny sent a shadow tendril to cut out the arm piercing his back, and when it succeeded, he jumped away, just barely avoiding with nothing more than a nick on his shoulder the attack from the spinning reflection.
Sunny grimaced and painfully ripped the still wiggling arm out of his insides, feeling the blood and flesh weave starting to do their jobs. It was painful, maddeningly so.
He sliced with the odachi, and one of the aberrations fell to the ground in two clean slices; its ambush attempt failed. The grimace grew deeper. The hole in his torso had been jostled by the attack, magnifying the pain he felt.
Another tide of ink emerged from the [Shadow Lantern], pushing back the pale woman's legion and its horrid reflection while Sunny retreated.
Sunny cast a quick glance, assessing the situation.
Part of the legion was gone, torn to shreds by his shadows, but it was little more than a drop in the ocean compared to their sheer numbers. The reflection had stopped spinning, the distance between them too big to bother, though given the baleful glare it was giving him, it wouldn't be long until it decided to erase that distance.
Finally, there was the pale woman, the one whose arm had pierced his back. Surprisingly, the Nightmare Creature hadn't broken the iron maidens. They still clung to it in some parts, stabbing into its flesh while at the same time they seemed to be growing... smaller?
Yes, they were growing smaller, absorbed into its skin as though water being absorbed by a plant.
Held on its remaining hand, its head stared straight at him. It still stared at him as the creature placed its own head back atop its neck, where it lay placidly as though it had never left. The scar left by his attack lasted but a second longer before it disappeared, leaving nothing but pristine skin behind. A serene smile spread across its beautiful face, as though the current situation represented no menace to it.
Then, rather than growing the cut arm back like he expected, one of its minions approached and bowed reverently, offering its own limb as if on tribute. The pale woman grasped it without doubt and ripped it from its owner before placing it on its own empty socket, where it merged with what remained of its arm and instantly turned into a perfect copy of the other.
A bigger grimace appeared on his face.
None of his attacks so far had dealt any lasting damage to the pale woman. If anything, the only thing he had managed to do was amuse it. Meanwhile, he had already received a grievous wound that could decide the battle.
And its will? It was downright absurd. His had been colliding with the Nightmare Creature's all along, and he had failed to find any purchase. Spell he could barely keep himself from being suppressed in turn. Though he shouldn't have expected any less from a creature that had participated in the Doom War.
There was another worrying factor to consider. He still couldn't detect its shadow at all.
It had claimed that Shadow had personally ripped its soul and shadow apart. Which presented two possibilities.
The first was that the thing before him only had a chunk of it left, so small that it could hide it even from him. Challenging as it sounded, it was still the most favorable scenario for him.
The second was that Shadow had turned the pale woman into a deathless, in which case he was well and truly Spelled. It meant that there was no way to kill it, and even sealing it away seemed unlikely, given the way it seemed capable of absorbing his shadows.
Escape didn't seem like an option either. Barely a few minutes had passed since the hostilities began, but his shadows had already spread far into the creature's domain. If there was an end to it, he was yet to find it. Just like how he hadn't found a single hint of Rain's whereabouts just yet.
Which left him with only one choice. Keep trying.
Briefly, he considered summoning the [Gilded Mirror], the memory he had acquired from slaying Zephiras. He considered it, and then decided against it.
It could only be used once, and he couldn't afford to waste it this soon. The situation was bleak, but far from insurmountable.
Sunny dragged a hand across his hair, straightened despite the wave of pain coursing through his torso, and charged forward to meet the leading monstrosity of the legion.
He swore to kick himself in the family jewels if his lazy bastard of a main body wasn't coming to the rescue already.
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Seishan observed the crowd quietly.
Mundanes, Awakened, and Masters were there, mingling together with the kind of energy that she knew from experience would take only the slightest spark to ignite.
Nerves had already been tight before, and Sunless' order to stay together inside the citadel had drawn the tension taut. Awakened tended to be a proud bunch, and being ordered in no uncertain terms to hide in the safety of the citadel while he and Changing Star dealt with the situation had not landed well with them.
Young Tamar was trying to act as a peacemaker, helped by Rogar and her family's retainers after Sunless' incarnation had left to join the main body in his investigation. Though she was doing an admirable job, she was much too young to be taken seriously. The fact that she was still a mundane did not help, either.
The Firekeepers and Cassia were here too, which was probably the only reason no one had done something stupid just yet. They were unquestionably loyal to the Song heirs and had already had to step forward to stop some of the hot-blooded, though Seishan would rather call them idiots, Awakened from going out and taking matters into their own hands. Sadly, they were still seen as foreigners by the clans and Awakened gathered here and, as such, could not control the situation very well.
Sighing and lamenting once more that her vacation was being ruined, she stepped forward to the center of the room with all the arrogance and confidence expected of a princess of Song. Most gazes landed on her immediately, but the remaining ones stubbornly refused to, just as their owners refused to stop chattering away.
With a Herculean effort, she resisted the urge to sigh and released her transformation.
All eyes turned to her at once, and the room immediately fell silent at the sight. Some drew their weapons, some stepped back in fear, and one particularly cowardly Awakened nearly soiled himself.
Seishan could not quite blame them. Her transformed shape was a monstrous one, and even some of her Blood Maidens still shivered at the sight of it.
Its purpose served, she allowed the transformation to fade away and made sure to cast a judgmental stare across the room that successfully cowed most of the troublemakers.
"The heir has given an order," she said coldly. "You may like it or not, and I do not care. I only care that you follow it."
She met the resentful stares aimed at her without flinching. Her eyes had met Sunless' when he appeared carrying young Tamar, and the fury she had seen within them made the anger currently directed at her pale like a candle before the sun.
Casting a baleful glare of her own that finally cowed even the most foolhardy people in the room, Seishan suppressed the urge to sigh and prepared herself for a long and boring evening.
At least they didn't behave like frightened children anymore.
Barely a second of quiet passed before a sudden cry broke her from those musings.
She looked instantly toward its source, yet failed to find the origin of the scream.
More cries followed, and no matter how hard Seishan searched, she could not determine where they were coming from.
It took her only two seconds to realize another disturbing fact.
The crowd was... shrinking.
As the cries continued, so did the crowd, shrinking little by little. Mundanes, Awakened, and Masters alike disappeared one after another.
Realization struck her immediately.
The Nightmare Creature had never needed close contact with a body of water. It had only pretended to.
Seishan witnessed what happened next as if in slow motion. She spotted a pale hand emerge from behind an Awakened. She dashed forward with the intention to bring the man away from harm, yet she was too slow.
In the end, she only had enough time to feel a presence at her back before she too disappeared with a shocked cry.
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Rain paced nervously, the soft blue light emitted by her Memory the only company she had in the dark expanse.
She had appeared here right after the two hands touched her, and she was yet to find any clue as to how to get out. Though that wasn't her main source of concern.
No, that honor belonged to the disturbingly fleshy sounds her feet made with every step.
The ground beneath her was made of a mass of pale flesh, squirming so faintly that she had thought herself crazy the first three times she noticed before finally confirming it. Far above, at the edge of where the light from her Memory could reach, the ceiling could be seen, made of the same pale flesh. It, too, was squirming.
Rain was trying very hard to ignore just how reminiscent it all was of a stomach.
She kept walking forward, hoping to find either a landmark or a wall she could try to break. Although her attempts at destroying the fleshy ground hadn't been very successful...
A sudden cry made her flinch and whirl toward its source, an arrow already half-nocked in her bow. It was with relief that she realized it belonged to another person, an Awakened from Clan Sorrow whom she vaguely recognized.
More followed the first, and soon enough, dozens of people were crowding around her. Shouting started almost immediately afterward as the panicked newcomers demanded explanations that their neighbors couldn't give.
Fortunately, someone took charge before the panic could spread any further.
"That's enough," a cold voice commanded, cutting through the noise with surprising ease.
The woman who spoke was petite, probably the shortest person present if not for Tamar being so young, with blonde hair and a beautiful, doll-like face. Despite her short stature, she stood firm and steady, her presence like a monolith of confidence that cowed everyone present into silence with astounding ease. A rapier orbited around her, its tip pointed forward haughtily, as if challenging anyone to question its owner's authority. Behind her, the Firekeepers stood, offering their quiet support.
Rain had never expected to be so happy to see Cassie, especially after what she had discovered over the past few days, but she was willing to make an exception this one time.
"The situation is under control," the seer continued calmly once all eyes had settled on her. "Changing Star and Black Star are making their way inside this place as we speak, and they will be here shortly. Follow my lead, and no harm shall come to any of you."
Despite her words, the unease didn't disappear just yet, as the assorted Awakened and Mundanes looked at each other nervously.
Then, almost simultaneously, the crowd's gaze shifted toward Seishan, who stood among them with a complicated expression as she stared at the petite woman. Rain dearly hoped she wouldn't try to dispute Cassie's authority in such a precarious situation.
A few seconds that felt like an eternity later, the gray-skinned woman nodded.
"You all heard her," Seishan said calmly. "What must we do, Lady Elegy of the End?"
Repressing a sigh of relief, Rain looked back at Cassie, who offered Seishan a grateful nod before turning and looking straight at her.
"You have been here the longest. What can you tell us?"
Put in the spotlight so suddenly, Rain just barely resisted the urge to shrink back. She certainly wasn't happy to see Cassie anymore!
Hiding a shudder behind a cough, she straightened up and put on her best approximation of Big Sis... sister's voice.
"We seem to be inside a creature of gargantuan proportions." Despite hearing the shocked gasps, she continued. "I have found no other signs of life besides us, and all my attempts to break through either the floor or find a wall have been unsuccessful. Though now that there are so many of us here, we might be able to."
Cassie nodded confidently, her posture so assured that it looked as though she had already known all of it and simply wanted Rain to be the one to share it.
"Very well. Then we shall do the following..."
Rain watched in awe as the blonde woman quickly organized everything with such ease that she was convinced Cassie had already foreseen this situation and devised the optimal strategy. Not a second too soon, either.
The fleshy ground's squirming grew in intensity, slow at first, then faster and faster until it resembled an earthquake.
Only her quick activation of an epithet that improved her balance kept her from crashing to the ground, something not everyone present managed. The earthquake subsided a moment later, but the squirming continued.
A sense of foreboding washed over her, and she quickly closed ranks with the nearest Awakened, forming a tight defensive circle with the few Mundanes safely sheltered inside. Finding Tamar behind her, she lent the girl her bow and summoned a sword Memory instead.
Just as suddenly as it had begun, the squirming stopped, and from beneath the ground and high above, the mass of flesh started bulging in a revolting manner, almost resembling pustules on skin. Little more than a second passed before they erupted and Nightmare Creatures began to emerge from inside.
They were among the ugliest she had ever seen, all misshapen flesh and bone fused together in patterns that made her stomach shudder at the sight.
Rain met the first one's blow with a parry and, without breaking formation, pushed it back, the creature now missing its forelimbs.
More followed, and Rain could only hope that Sunny and Neph really were coming, just as Cassie had promised.
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"I must admit that you are a resilient one, little mongrel."
A strained smile found its way to his lips as he dodged. "What makes you say that?"
The pale woman, whose serene smile had never waned, looked him up and down before quirking an amused brow.
Sunny shrugged and came millimeters away from failing to hide the pain the motion caused him. He might be losing, but he wasn't going to give the Nightmare Creature the pleasure of admitting it.
He took a step back, then to the left, then to the right, and finally back again.
Before him, the minions that had tried to pincer him collided with each other in a tangle of deadly limbs and madness, having missed him by the narrowest of margins.
Sunny could have smiled at the sight if he had the concentration to spare. He didn't, as the pale woman's reflection kept attacking him, its bone blades having already carved countless wounds across his body.
While the pale woman seemed to enjoy playing the part of an assassin, striking from odd angles whenever he was busy dealing with something else, and inflicting a grievous wound each time, its reflection was more akin to a berserker. A maddened beast that was all relentless aggression and fury.
Its efforts weren't any less successful, either. The [Onyx Shell] lay in tatters, even the Transcendent metal failing to protect him from the Corrupted monstrosity. Though the most obvious example was his left arm, messily severed at the elbow and replaced by a shadow limb that the reflection barely had to exert any effort to break.
Another assault came his way, and Sunny's injuries made him a fraction of a second too slow to avoid it. His odachi shattered the moment it came into contact with the spinning monster, and immediately afterward, a bone blade buried itself in his gut, right beside the closing wound the pale woman had left.
He tried to retaliate, but the reflection caught his arm before he could put any force behind the strike. Its other arm -and the bone blade attached to it- left his gut and grasped his neck next, lifting him into the air, where, without anything to brace against, he could not generate enough leverage to put any strength into his attempts to break free. Even shadow stepping was stopped by the creature's Will, which crashed against his own with a weight and power he simply could not match.
The pale woman approached, skipping along as though she were taking a stroll through the park, the same serene smile still plastered across her face.
"Do not fret, child. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten," she said, her voice gentle and reassuring.
Sunny gritted his teeth, fruitlessly trying to gain leverage against the monstrosity holding him fast.
"I understand. I truly do," she continued, a fanatical edge beginning to color her voice. "When my lord's slumber is broken at last, I will be sure to tell him about the price you paid to make it possible."
"How about you let me live, and I do it myself?" he asked, trying to keep his voice light.
The pale woman threw her head back and laughed. While she did, she failed to notice the shadow creeping up behind her.
"You remind me of Weaver, child." Her blue eyes grew colder still. "They, too, liked to bluster. To act unconcerned. To jest even in the worst of situations. I hated that about them even before they betrayed us all."
Sunny smiled despite the pain he was in. "Tell me about it. I hate that smug bastard myself."
"I see," she said with glee. "Even Weaver's own heir despises the mighty Daemon of Fate."
Slowly, subtly, the shadow behind the pale woman started to grow. Its attention and that of its minions were focused solely on him, a mistake they would regret soon enough.
At the same time, he rotated his wrist as much as he could beneath the reflection's grip, leaving his palm facing upward.
"Why shouldn't I?" Sunny attempted to shrug, but the reflection held him too tightly for him to manage it. "The bastard keeps throwing me into absurdly dangerous situations and then still makes a point of mocking me for it. However... there is one thing I cannot complain about."
"What would that be?"
The pale woman leaned forward, eager to hear his answer. Fortunately, its reflection did the same, moving right into the range he needed.
"I always have the tools at hand to solve them."
The [Moonlight Shard] appeared in his hand instantly, piercing straight beneath the monstrous reflection's chin and punching into its brain.
At that same instant, Saint emerged from the shadow behind the pale woman, her stone sword already midway through a swing that would cut the Nightmare Creature in two. The creature tried to react, but it was much too slow to succeed and was bisected. The taciturn woman did not stop there, continuing to carve the creature into countless tiny pieces with relentless precision.
Sunny fell to the ground and barely suppressed the pained cry that threatened to tear its way from his chest. The reflection's body landed beside him with a thunderous crash, completely inert.
He had mortally wounded both before, but never at the same time. Hopefully, that was the trick to keep it down at least for a little while.
Sunny would like to claim that he got back to his feet under his own strength, but that would have been a lie.
Fortunately, Saint, dependable as ever, was there to pick him up. If only she hadn't chosen to carry him like a princess, everything would have been perfect.
"Thank you," he managed to say through pained coughs.
Saint nodded calmly and gently set him back on his feet, then supported him when his legs threatened to give out beneath him.
Only a brief moment of calm passed before realization struck him, followed by a series of events in quick succession.
First, he realized that the minions hadn't reacted at all to the apparent demise of the Corrupted Titan.
Second, the lake beneath him started to bubble violently.
Third, the monstrous reflection sat up, the ghastly wound beneath its chin already closing. At the same time, the countless tiny pieces that were all that remained of the pale woman began to merge together until, barely a second later, she was whole once more.
Fourth and last, the moon high above disappeared. In its place, a jagged wound in the fabric of reality appeared, splitting space itself apart. From within that wound, an ocean of shadows came crashing down, pouring onto the ground like a deadly rain that left deep, ghastly wounds across the Nightmare Creature and its minions.
Sunny allowed himself to slump against Saint.
It had taken him forever, but the lazy bastard was finally here.