Anvil kept chopping away, creating a path as he did Sunny entered his soul sea while he followed along.
He entered his soul sea just in time to see the Dark Warden appear. However, for some reason, he didn't look like the other shades. His color had hints of white still on him instead of the slick darkness that all shades seemed to possess.
The Dark Wardens eyes snapped open causing Sunny to take a step back.
"What?" Sunny said.
But before anything could happen, the Dark Warden started to disintegrate. His hand stretched out, but before long, he turned into a stream of essence.
'I expected something like this to happen,' Sunny thought as he relaxed.
The Wardens can't live outside the Annihilation. That meant even if he did get a shade of one of them. They would all die regardless. Yet, for some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling of Deja Vu.
'These Wardens, they remind me of something, but what could it possibly be?' Sunny thought. It was nagging him much more this time.
Before long, Sunny decided to ponder the matter another time and pull his attention back since he couldn't figure it out.
"I see five more Wardens. They all appear to be fully white." Kai said, and just like they continued.
In the end, Sunny would find out that there were way more White Wardens than the Dark Wardens near the Nothingness of the Hollow Mountains. However, it was all a balance since one Dark Warden would give plenty of them plenty of fragments.
The hours flew by, and Anvil spoke.
"The Wardens' strength increases as we get closer to the Underworld. It's because in this area there are more Dark Wardens." Anvil said.
Thinking about it, Sunny spoke.
"Could it be because we're closer to the elemental Darkness that the Dark Wardens are more likely to show up?" Sunny asked.
Shaking his head, Anvil replied.
"That's what we had thought in the beginning, but we were wrong. The annihilation border is a perfect split that creates Wardens equally everywhere; it's just that the Dark Wardens end up near the Underworld for a few reasons. One of them being, the creatures near the Underworld are stronger, and they come to try and slay them." Anvil said.
"They go to the Underworld to hunt stronger creatures?" Sunny asked.
Looking back for a moment as Anvil cut a path, he answered.
"The stronger creatures they kill, the more they change and become perfect. Perfection means a perfect split. Some Dark Wardens used to be White Wardens, and some perfect True Wardens used to be Dark Wardens." Anvil said.
As they went forward, they were all silent. Kai was busy observing the area as Sunny tried to think. It didn't really make sense. If True Wardens were perfect, how come they couldn't leave? This thought was running laps in his head as Kai spoke.
It felt like an inevitability to run into a True Warden. Anvil had said that he and his cohort got lucky when they travelled to their seed.
"Up ahead. It's a few Dark Wardens." Kai said.
Sunny looked ahead. Typically, Dark Wardens strength ranged from Great Devil to Great Terror.
"These ones look a bit weaker?" Sunny asked, squinting.
Kai's eyes truly did go much farther, and he confirmed Sunny's suspicion.
"Yeah, only one seems to be a Great Tyrant. The rest are Great Devils." Kai said.
Sunny and Kai, along with the Shadow Cohort, killed all the Dark Wardens. Even the ones that came after that.
Now they were reaching the end of the Annihilation Border before Kai spoke.
"A True Warden," Kai said.
Both Anvil and Sunny stopped in their tracks.
Along the way, Anvil told them what he knew about the True Warden. Which was nothing. He and his group threw a Supreme Terror echo that they managed to procure. That had killed the creature in the Hollow Mountains. It truly was an amazing achievement and showed the prowess of the previous generation.
That Supreme Terror seemed to be able to create gaps and fight within the mist. Anvil had said that it was destroyed fairly quickly. They didn't get to look at the battle since there was a horde of Dark Wardens, around thirty of them hot on their heels. The Supreme Terror only lasted around a minute. At the time, that was all they needed to get the exit.
So they had decided that if they spotted a True Warden, even Anvil would join the battle since its strength was definitely greater than Supreme Terror.
Sunny watched as the True Warden approached. His color was a perfect blend instead of the two colors. His body was also slim compared to the normal Warden and looked far closer to human. However, he was still extremely muscular for human standards.
The True Warden was around four meters tall. Nearly three times bigger than anyone. Sunny could feel his strength emanating as Kai spoke up.
"The gap, it's starting to repair," Kai said, looking around.
True to his words, Anvil sliced once more, enlarging the gap. The True Warden was near now and stood still to look at them.
For a moment, there was silence as the two parties watched each other. The True Warden slightly tilted its head as if curious what exactly it was looking at.
Then it raised its hand.
Sunny readied his blade, and Anvil had six enchanted swords flowing behind him. Kai pulled on his bowstring.
To their horror, something totally unexpected happened.
The True Warden's two hands clasped together and slowly drew far from each other. A chaotic whirlwind of essence started to take shape in the gap between its hands.
The essence spiraled faster and faster. The size kept increasing. At this point, Sunny had a feeling that they definitely couldn't take on whatever the creature threw at him. Yet, he found himself feeling deja vu again.
'Not now!' Sunny thought as he entered battle clarity. This feeling of constant deja vu was starting to get irraiting.
Anvil sword started to slice by itself in multiple directions. increasing the area they could maneuver.
Sunny's eyes widened as he watched the essence get larger and larger. He was ready to react.
Soon, the essence turned into a small twister. As it grew larger. The wind was starting to get violent.
"What is that?!" Kai asked, bewildered.
Then, finally, as if understanding it finally clicked.
The strange nature of the Annihilation Border, the disintegrating properties, and the properties that permanently damage a soul to make someone cease to exist
"I can't believe it, it's an essence storm," Sunny said. Both Anvil and Kai looked at him.
Sunny finally understood the attack the True Warden was making. He knew that head-on it would be impossible to dodge. It would be dangerous to even be near it. It was the perfect attack.
"We need to run away from the this True Warden right now!" Sunny declared.