The bird stood around his camp like it owned the place.
Juno kept himself very low and very still, hiding behind the outcrop he had made weeks ago. Clearly, it was a great idea; otherwise, he would have had to fight that thing immediately. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the hiding bird, Juno became slightly more afraid than he already was.
At its shoulders, it stood four meters tall, easily ten or eleven meters from the hooked beak all the way down that dragging, feathered tail. Its body was sleek in the way predators were sleek, all coiled lines and heavy muscle, like a small tyrannosaur that had decided wings were a good idea after all.
Black. Completely, utterly black.
Its feathers swallowed the dim light, turning it into a shifting, liquid darkness every time it moved. Even the horns that curled back from the sides of its skull were the same shade, a matte obsidian that made Juno's fingers itch to see how Execution would look biting into them.
Only its eyes had color.
Two dusky coals burned faintly in its skull, half‑lidded now as it stood there, long legs barely holding its body, wings draped like a cloak. The tail was the only thing that really moved, twitching every now and then in slow, lazy sweeps.
'Big bird,' Juno thought silently. 'Very big bird… Tired bird too.'
His mind, now adapting to the dangerous environment around him, immediately went to numbers.
It had crawled out of the water like it owned the place. It being inside the Dark Sea at all meant it was of high Rank and Class, though clearly not a water-type Nightmare Creature. Its natural presence also hid itself, meaning that it at least had a special Attribute. Maybe it was the Ability, but considering how it was passive, Juno doubted it. Granted, he hadn't seen any Devils or Demons to compare.
All in all, Juno believed this creature to be an Awakened Demon that was close to becoming a Devil. A dangerous foe indeed.
'A very delicious foe too,' Juno thought, both his nature and his Flaw acting up.
Sure, he had never fought a Demon, but he was confident in his chances. He had an Ascended weapon, one that could easily pierce any Awakened hide. He also had the sneak attack advantage, and those usually ended up in the assassin's favor. Finally, the inside of Bongo was not meant for birds. It was large, but not large enough to fly in.
If Juno struck first, he was sure he'd win. Simple as that.
At least, that was what he told himself while his fingers dug into the stone hard enough to hurt. His Flaw was making him overconfident.
'I need to start meditating, holy shit.'
How about taking accountability for the things that aren't your Flaw, eh?
'It's my Flaw! It's making me really greedy and less thoughtful!'
…Sure…
Big Bird did not move like a patrolling predator. It shook itself a couple of times, sending curtains of dark water flying in every direction, then folded down as if it had finally reached home. It now looked like a loafing cat, with wings and horns.
'Ah, I miss having cats. When I get back from the Dream Realm, I'm definitely getting some cats…'
Then, the bird did something entirely unexpected for a Nightmare Creature. It yawned.
It was going to sleep.
In Junos camp.
Juno watched in shocked silence as the creature lay its head down and slowed its breathing, each rise and fall of the broad chest becoming deeper, more regular. The dusk‑colored eyes slipped fully shut beneath the shadow of a horned brow. Only the occasional, tiny twitch of a feather betrayed that it was alive at all.
'You are joking,' Juno thought. 'Nightmare Creatures yawn?! And sleep?!'
The insult sank into his bones and turned into something hot and sharp. Discomfort and fear thinned, giving way to a clean, bright desire: to carve this arrogant thing apart, to drag its soul into his Sea, to turn its existence into a neat little line on his Runes.
He forced himself to wait.
Minutes dripped away. The Forgotten Shore shifted from bruised dusk into full, starless night. The sounds of the outside world faded into the background thrum of his senses while he focused on the rhythm of the bird's breathing.
Slow. Steady. Unaware.
By the time an hour had passed, the tail no longer twitched. After the second, even the faint feather‑quivers of shallow sleep disappeared.
Deep enough.
Juno slid back from the outcrop and began to move.
Keeping a tight grip on Execution, Juno crawled along the bony wall that bordered his camp. The familiar handholds he'd carved over the last weeks felt different tonight: smaller, more fragile, like the bone might crumble if he trusted it too much. The new boots didn't help at all.
Paranoia was truly a bizarre thing.
He reached the top of the ridge and flattened himself against the cold stone, forcing his breath to stay quiet. For a few heartbeats, he just stood there, listening.
Juno inched forward until he could see the very top of the bird.
He traced a line in the air with one finger, aiming. Two ridges down from the base of the neck, slightly off center.
He crouched slightly, strengthening himself both mentally and physically.
Then, he stepped off the ledge.
The drop wasn't far, but in that heartbeat of falling, he felt every inch of it. Wind rushed past his ears. The world tilted: ridge, sky, bird, camp. Execution held right at the perfect height to bite into the back of the Demon as easily as breathing. The blade seemed as eager as he was.
Then he hit.
Boots crashed into hard muscle; his knees bent, absorbing the impact. The giant bird's back shuddered under him, but it didn't wake fast enough. Juno put everything he had behind the sword and drove Execution straight down.
Steel met flesh with a brutal, satisfying squelch.
Blood Fang seemed delighted at its new food, clearly starved for blood. When it ate the blood at a slow pace before, now Juno could see just how the blade swallowed the blood.
The bird was now fully awake. Juno could tell because it was swinging its body wildly now, forcing Juno to hop off from the comfortable position he was in back to the ground. It couldn't be that easy after all.
As he stood up from his fall, Juno beheld the sight of the behemoth in front of him. It was beautiful and harrowing. Luckily, the bird seemed not to have noticed its attacker, only being focused on the thing in its back.
Juno was about to say something snarky, but the words died in his throat.
He caught a glimpse of motion: the near wing whipping backward, feathers flaring, the end of it…splitting. A jointed claw slid out from the long primary feathers, slick and black, fingers ending in a hooked talon.
"Oh, come on," he hissed.
The wing‑claw grabbed Execution's hilt.
"Oh, come on!" He yelled, trying to distract the beast.
It was too late.
The wing‑claw wrenched Execution free in a spray of blood, then tossed the sword aside with a sharp, irritated flick. The blade clanged against bone somewhere in front of Juno, skidding out of sight on the far side of the camp.
Between him and it stood several tons of a very angry bird.
Juno swallowed a very violent curse and went still.
The Mask did its work, if only barely. The bird's head snapped left and right, searching for an attacker that, as far as its senses were concerned, did not exist yet at the same time did. Part of its attention stayed glued to the wound, tearing open along its spine, to the hot pain of steel that had been there a moment ago.
Good.
He dropped into a low crouch and began to move, circling.
Careful steps, keeping to the edges of its vision. Every time the horned head jerked a little too close, he froze, letting the Mask smooth his presence into the background. The sword's faint outline glimmered in his mind, just beyond the bird's far shoulder.
Almost there.
Big Bird twitched.
Then, without warning, it lost what little patience it had.
The wings slammed down. Talons carved wild arcs in the air. Erratically, it started lashing out in every direction, trying to find the thing that had hurt it. Juno had half a heartbeat to realize he was suddenly in the kill zone.
It was a little too late.
A hooked talon caught him right in the side, the black bone thing somehow easily tearing into the Azure Carapace and the soft flesh below. The hit picked him up and flung him like a kicked puppet.
He flew—
—thankfully, the right way.
He crashed hard into the ground, skidding over the rough bone and into the wall. He was now inches away from the water, but also inches away from something very familiar.
King's Execution.
Fingers closed around the hilt on reflex.
He sucked in a ragged breath, rolled to his knees, and looked up just in time to see the bird's head turn toward him, those dusk‑colored eyes finally locking onto something they could see.
The Mask wasn't enough anymore.
It was at that moment, too, that Juno realized this thing was no Demon.
Big Bird opened its mouth, as if about to let out a screech, but something much worse came out.
Pure, inky darkness rolled out from the maw of the Devil.
Juno was up against a damn Awakened Devil.
…
Execution shuddered in his grip as the talons crashed against it, not from almost breaking but from the incompetence of its wielder.
Juno's stance almost broke. The force behind the blow was stupid; it felt like he was trying to prop up a collapsing building. Steel screamed, his arms screamed, his cut screamed, and his boots dug a little deeper into unseen bone.
Keyword unseen.
He twisted free and staggered sideways, sucking in air that felt too thin and far too cold. It was like he was on top of Everest in only his undies.
The darkness crushed everything.
Sight was gone. Sound came through late and muffled. Even smells felt distant, smothered under a layer of freezing nothing. Every breath scraped his lungs like he was inhaling broken glass straight from a freezer.
'What a great…' Juno thought sluggishly, 'Devil Ability.' He concluded. 'Trully… how fucking fair… This shit isn't even a mind attack!'
Suddenly, on his left, the ground shuddered. Sure, the darkness blurred his senses, but a multi-ton bird walking around was hard to miss, especially with his senses on the max. On instinct, Juno raised Execution and blocked the talons that came down on him, his wrists aching from the blow.
He let the hit slide him away, boots skidding. Something huge passed through the air where he'd just been, cold wind raking his face.
If not for the cold and the "I will die" part, this would have been almost fun. It was literally training!
Instead, the black air chewed on his thoughts. Everything that was usually his weapon, be it the Mask or his senses, was now dulled. Doubly, a problem was the cold, since he could feel it to an extreme, unable to lower his sensitivity, or else he would lose the ability to feel vibrations properly.
There was also the pain. Pain of imperfection.
His side burned where the talon had ripped him open. Bruises throbbed across his ribs. His fingers were numb around the hilt.
The Devil did not slow, clearly not affected by its own ability.
"Come on," Juno yelled through chattering teeth. "Dismiss this fog so you can see your doom properly!"
The ground jolted again as Big Bird lunged.
As he had always done with big prey, Juno lunged into the blow.
Feeling the rush of air around him, Juno guessed the beak was coming at him. He dodged as low as he could and slashed up and left, where that long neck had to be.
He missed.
The bird retreated once again. It was now getting more and more used to how Juno could attack within the fog, so he needed to finish it up soon.
After a couple more seconds, Juno felt the vibrations once again and swung up to block the talons inevitably coming at him.
He missed the block by mere centimeters.
The claws of the bird dug right into his left and right forearms, puncturing the armor and puncturing his flesh. Within one attack, the tables had turned massively against Juno.
Caught off guard and now in pain, the tail of the beast slammed into him and threw him backward.
He landed right next to the water, his toes barely going in.
It was at that moment that Juno thought of running away. He could take his chances in the Dark Sea. He could swim out of the Bone Ridge and climb up it. Lay around the place he had on his first day in the Forgotten Shore.
Juno almost did it, too.
'Go back?' He thought. 'Go back where?! I would be in no better position here than there!'
He would not go back, damn it. He would not!
He was Juno, the Sun Chaser! He was not a man who would let himself run from a battle. If not for glory, then for riches!
Letting out a couple of coughs, Juno screamed out in rage.
The sound ripped something loose inside him. The cold bit just as hard, the darkness pressed just as heavily, but his thoughts sharpened around a single, furious point.
Run? Into the Dark Sea? Into nothing?
No.
He forced his legs under him and pushed upright. His forearms screamed where the talons had punched through; wet warmth slid down his hands, reminding him just how much he had overestimated himself.
Big Bird's weight rolled through the bone as it turned, hunting for him at the edge of the water.
"Come on then!" Juno roared. "You want me, Devil? Here I am!"
The ground shivered: three beats, each heavier than the last. The air to his right pulled in sharply and fast as the beak cut through it.
This time, he didn't try to dodge the strike.
He stepped under it.
Where before he had slashed at nothing, he now slashed at something. His mind made it all so clear. It gave him all the dots, and he just simply had to connect them.
The hide of the Nightmare Creature parted. An Awakened skin could never resist the cut of an Ascended weapon. Especially not the skin on the neck.
The impact jolted Juno's forearms, threatening to have them lose all strength and let Execution fly out from his hands.
Juno did not let that happen.
Hot blood exploded across his face and chest, blinding and glorious.
The Devil convulsed with a strangled, gargling shriek.
The black air shuddered around them. For the first time since the Ability had started, Juno felt the world flinch.
"Got you," he hissed through bloody teeth.
Big Bird tried to run away, beat its wings, and retreat, but Juno didn't let it. He ran with the Devil, making Execution slide deeper and deeper into the throat of his adversary. The wound opened from a stab to a gash. Blood poured out, hissing where it hit the now frozen ground.
Slowly and just as painfully, the darkness started to peel back layer by layer.
The Devil staggered.
One foreleg folded. Its chest dipped, then caught as another leg slammed down to brace. Wings flared wide, trying to steady the fall.
Juno didn't let it.
He charged the dipping side, boots slipping in blood, and threw all his remaining strength into a final, brutal swing at the same ravaged line along the neck.
King's Execution carved through the meat, through the muscle, and right into the bone.
For a heartbeat, everything held.
Finally, the Devil's head sagged, its eyes dimming. The massive body followed. Big Bird toppled sideways in a slow, theatrical collapse, as if playing the role of a dying villain in a play.
Juno stumbled back, barely clearing the fall. The impact shook the ridge, rattling his teeth. A last gust of black, freezing breath rushed out of the Devil's beak—and with it, the Ability died.
The inky fog tore apart, sucked back into nothing. Only the honest darkness of the Forgotten Shore remained.
The Spell rolled in after it.
[You have slain an Awakened Devil, Spawn of the Dusk Crow.]
Great satisfaction rolled through Juno. He had done it. Devil. Not a monster or even a Demon. By himself, he had killed an Awakened Devil as a Sleeper. A damn, fully functional and fine Devil.
He barked out a short, broken laugh that hurt his ribs.
Another line flickered into being.
[You have received an Echo!]
Even exhausted, he felt a vicious grin tug at his lips. An Echo. From a Devil. His Flaw purred in greedy delight, already spinning fantasies.
The last message settled over everything like a seal.
[Your Desire sharpens.]
The moment the Spell finished, Juno collapsed against the wall. He was hurt badly.
From what he could feel, he had bruised ribs, sprained wrists, a cut on his left side, holes in his forearms, and he was freezing, the tips of his fingers almost in hypothermia.
Even though he would now have to spend at least a week in recovery, he didn't mind. An Echo was an Echo.