The serpent made of shadows, though smaller, radiated the same feral madness as its counterpart of flesh and scales. Its eyes, dark as the deepest abyss, held no fear or doubt—only one purpose, one obsession. Kill.
Its fangs were long and sharp as daggers, capable of tearing through even the strongest materials. Its scales, a glistening onyx, seemed to drink in the light around it. Beneath its slithering form, the mantle of adamantine floated like a living armor, moving with it, reinforcing its presence as a creature born from the heart of darkness itself.
Before it, the blue serpent—once majestic—bore the marks of prolonged war. One eye was missing, ripped out in some recent battle, and the water around it was dyed red with its own blood. The sea, once serene, now resembled a battlefield sunken in time.
The shadows surrounding the black serpent danced as if they shared its hunger, its intent. This was the deciding moment. All or nothing. Defeat didn't just mean Sunny's death—it likely meant Nephis's as well. Failure was not an option.
And yet, even then, Sunny was still himself.
He had always been afraid of dying. Not that he admitted it, of course. But he was scared. Then again... what was the point of fearing death? Everyone did. Fear didn't make him weak—it just made him human.
But now, in the shape of his Manifestation, Sunny was no longer merely human.
He had taken another step in the Dance of Shadows. For days, he had studied the blue serpent. Observed it with terrifying precision. He knew every nuance of its rage, every ripple of its madness. He knew how it fought, how it hunted—even how hungry it always was.
And with all of that in mind, feeling the mounting pressure of the coming battle, he silently repeated his true name:
I am Lost from Light.
It wasn't just an affirmation. It was a prayer. An anchor to keep him from succumbing to the madness.
Despite being only a quarter the size of the original sea serpent, Sunny—shrouded in ancient shadows and reinforced by Nephis's pure flames—no longer held the strength of a mere Ascended.
No. He was something else now. Something darker. More dangerous.
Of course, the blue beast was still a monster. Bigger. Faster. More experienced in the arts of aquatic combat. But none of that mattered.
Because that creature had to die.
The battle began with a roar.
The blue serpent opened its bloodied jaws and let out a piercing, inhuman screech—a sound brimming with hatred and challenge. And then it saw it. A figure like itself, though smaller, wrapped in shifting shadow armor, rising from the water like a nightmare born of the night itself. It lunged forward like a deadly dart, its body sliding with lethal precision.
The screech of the black serpent—of Sunny—seemed to say only one thing:
Old serpent.
A condemnation. A declaration of war.
And yet, faced with the chilling cold of the ancient shadows—shadows once born from the God of Shadows, also known as the God of Death—the great sea serpent did not flinch.
It did not shudder. It did not falter.
Because it did not know fear.
On the contrary—it seemed to grow stronger. Its fangs gleamed brighter as Sunny fully submerged into the sea. As if his arrival, rather than sparking fear, only fueled the insatiable hunger of its madness.
As if every fiber of its being screamed one thing:
Finally... something worthy of being devoured.
The blue serpent launched itself at Sunny with infernal speed. Its massive body tore through the water like an arrow, and its gleaming, deadly fangs missed Sunny's shadow armor by a mere centimeter. One inch closer would have meant death. That's how brutal the difference between them was.
Yes, Sunny was slower. And weaker. But he had one advantage the creature did not possess.
Despite mimicking its form and feeling the devastating hunger that came with his new Manifestation... he was not a mindless beast.
He was a human. A strategist. A warrior of a different class.
And that changed everything.
Unlike his counterpart, Sunny analyzed his enemy. He calculated. He thought. He had memory, discipline, and will. That—more than anything—was the difference.
Of course, it was easier said than endured. The madness of the serpentine form whispered constantly in his mind, a seductive, relentless voice that urged him to surrender, to devour, to kill. But he stood firm. And in the critical moment, he reminded himself:
I am Lost from Light.
A phrase. A truth. A wall against the madness.
This form—his serpentine Manifestation—seemed to be the next step in the Dance of Shadows. Its evolution. The blooming of a power that had been growing since his first steps into the abyss. It was not just his ability—it was an extension of what he was.
True, much of that strength came from his memories... and from the blazing drive of Nephis's flames, likely responsible for ninety percent of his current power. Even so, his form now wasn't far from rivaling that of a transcendent Saint. It was something new. An overwhelming, untamed power.
Too bad it wasn't enough.
Because a Saint was a mere child compared to the creature in front of him.
Guided by the scent of blood and the flow of shadows, Sunny maneuvered through the sea with fluid grace. His long, slender body moved with surgical precision, using his smaller size and superior agility. Like a living spear, he approached the blue leviathan from a blind angle and sank his fangs into an open wound on the monster's flank.
Blood surged at once, dark and thick, staining the sea.
A second later—reluctantly—he pulled away from his prey. For a moment, the animal urge to tear more flesh, to feed, roared inside him... but he held back. Because just then, the blue serpent struck back. Its jaws snapped shut where he had been a second before.
A bite that would have been... well, painful is putting it mildly.
Sunny slipped between the currents, sliding along the leviathan's neck, escaping danger with the speed of liquid shadow.
But the blue serpent didn't stop.
It didn't care that its wound bled uncontrollably, or that its flesh hung in tatters. Driven by irrational fury, it rushed after Sunny at full speed.
And then it happened.
The two creatures collided.
From the depths of the sea, they rose like clashing titans. One, colossal, powerful, brutal. The other, smaller—but agile, elusive, and deadly.
And though Sunny was more fragile, he didn't escape unscathed. With every clash, his shadow armor cracked further. Dark fragments broke off with each impact. And worst of all, the blue serpent knew these waters. It ruled them. Sunny suspected it had been swimming here for years.
It was insane, yes. But it knew how to fight. It was a veteran.
In one of the clashes, the leviathan's wing struck Sunny's right side. He felt the crunch of flesh and bone, and his shell fractured.
The ripples of the collision shook the ocean, creating violent waves. It felt as though even the sea itself watched in silence... holding its breath before the fury of two nightmares locked in war.
Both serpents fought with savage majesty, as if each movement had been torn from an ancient legend. Their collisions shook the sea, shadows swirling around them, and the world itself seemed to hold its breath. But...
Sunny's mind—never the most stable even in his human form—was now on the verge of collapse. His will drowned beneath a single, burning desire.
Destroy.
He wanted to tear the blue leviathan apart. To rip it alive, make it pay with every fiber of its flesh. Even if it meant dying in the attempt.
His essence was at its limit. The Shadow Shell, his precious armor of darkness, was cracked all over. The shadows repaired what they could, hastily patching broken pieces, but it wasn't enough.
And still, Sunny continued.
He lunged again, sinking his fangs into the serpent's flank—right where bone showed through shredded flesh. A brutal, precise bite. But it came at a cost.
A whip of the tail struck him on his right side—where a rib would've been if he still had human anatomy. The blow was clean and devastating.
It hurt.
The impact tore part of his shadow armor away. The spiritual energy holding him together shuddered, and though the shadows absorbed much of the damage, Sunny felt the shock rattle deep into his awareness.
And that was just the beginning.
The two serpents dove once more into the depths. There, between the crushing pressure of the sea and unrelenting fury, they circled each other in a deadly spiral. Each clash a violent dance, a collision of opposing forces.
Until they emerged.
When they broke the surface again, night had fallen.
Darkness reigned. Shadows spread like part of the sea itself, stretching into the sky. The seven suns, once bathing the world in their unnatural light, were now just seven dark masses suspended above. In their place, the heavens were cloaked in a blackness deeper than death.
And then, the two serpents collided in midair.
The impact was so violent that the ocean roared when they crashed back down. But this time, something had gone wrong.
In that final collision, Sunny had been struck in the head.
He felt the vibration ring through his skull like a cracked bell. The world spun. The shadows trembled. His perception—once sharp as a blade—grew hazy.
For just a second, he was stunned. Disoriented.
But it was enough.
The blue serpent didn't hesitate. It opened its jaws, fangs sharp as spears, and lunged for him. Death was coming. And for the first time, Sunny wasn't ready to stop it.
He couldn't see clearly. He couldn't think.
He was about to die.
And then...
Two arrows streaked through the sky like falling stars. Silent. Lethal. Precise.
They struck the leviathan's last remaining eye.
A monstrous screech tore through the air. The serpent writhed, its massive body twisting in pain.
Sunny, still reeling, saw two figures emerge through the shadows in the sky: one radiant and wrapped in pale fire, the other forged of iron and ice, faceless but full of purpose.
Nephis and Saint.
They had come.
And the battle had just changed.
A black arrow, dark as night, and a white one, lovely as a moon at war, flew across the sea and struck the blue serpent. They distracted it, briefly. Sadly, they weren't enough to take its eye—it was only bathed in blood, turned even darker... even more terrifying. Now, the beast looked more monstrous than ever, its gaze blinded by rage alone.
Nephis was weakened; all her flame's power now burned in Sunny. She couldn't fight like before. Saint wasn't made for battle beneath the waves either—but that didn't matter.
Nephis had poisoned arrows. Saint held the strength of a transcendent demon. There was still a chance.
But Sunny wasn't thinking of strategies. Not now. He wanted to destroy the beast. To taste its blood. To watch its guts spill into the waves. He wanted to enjoy it.
He shook his head, internally. He had to resist. Maybe this was the final step in the Dance of Shadows: to mimic a nightmare creature without losing himself. To shape his mind as he shaped his body, to merge with his role without becoming a hollow shadow.
But now wasn't the time to think of the future.
He had to kill a serpent.
The once-mighty blue beast was now a mutilated horror. Its body was pierced with black and white arrows. Where wounds had once healed, flesh now hung loose. Where scales had been, only shattered fragments and congealed blood remained.
Sunny was just as broken.
And yet, he fought on.
His eyes, black as the void, burned with the white fire Nephis had given him. In them danced madness, fury, and finality. Anyone watching from afar would have come to a single conclusion:
The shadow serpent was terrifying. Not like a beast, but like an omen. Like death itself.
Because at that moment, Sunny had abandoned all self-preservation.
He had nearly forgotten who he was.
Only one word remained in his mind:
Kill.
Kill the blue serpent, no matter the cost.
He lunged. Bit down on its spine. His obsidian fangs cracked under the pressure... but regenerated with the last drops of essence he had. The leviathan's bones were like mountains, but Sunny didn't stop. Not when his consciousness began to fracture. Not when the serpent's tail smashed into him, darkening his vision.
He only wanted to kill it.
And he did.
The great blue serpent let out a final, agonizing shriek—its jaws closing on him just as Sunny shattered its spine. The crack was deafening. The beast writhed one last time... and fell.
The sea, bloodied and battered, finally stilled.
Two colossi drifted toward the surface, dragged down by mutual destruction. A mutilated, lifeless blue serpent sank into the waves. What remained of the shadow serpent, blackened and trembling, still floated... victorious.
But Sunny was no longer there.
His essence was gone.
And his mind was slowly slipping away.
The shadow's eyes began to close.
Until, suddenly, a silver figure fell from the sky, cloaked in flames. It plunged into the sea like a star falling from heaven, leaving a burning trail behind it.
It was strange. So very strange.
Sunny had experienced it before.
Only twice in his life.
And both times, salvation had come in fire.