I hope you liked this chapter, I tried to parallel the original, to show how far the changes have come.
If you want to see something in this fic just say so!
Any feedback is welcome.
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The ancient lighthouse must have once been a proud and awe-inspiring sight. Maybe, in the distant past, it had stood as a defiant spear against the endless night — its beacon blazing through the darkness, a testament to the stubborn will of the people who had built this cursed city. A promise that light could survive even here.
But that promise had long since been broken.
Now, the lighthouse was nothing more than a carcass. A shattered monument to a civilization swallowed whole by the dark. The proud tower had collapsed sideways, its bones scattered, weathered by centuries of eternal night and endless sorrow. And the people who had built it? Gone. Not even their bones remained.
Sunny stood in the shadow of the ruined titan, a cold, heavy feeling settling in his chest. He let out a quiet sigh, his breath barely stirring the thick, stagnant air.
"Where to now?" he asked, voice low.
Effie, crouched beside him in the rubble of a half-collapsed building, nodded toward the wreck of the lighthouse. Her expression was grim, shadowed by the faint gleam of her eyes in the dimness.
"Inside," she said simply.
Sunny grimaced. He glanced around. This part of the Dark City was no friendlier than the rest — if anything, it was worse. A tribe of particularly vile Nightmare Creatures prowled these ruins, drawn by the scent of old magic and older sins. Getting caught out here would be a death sentence, even for them.
Effie leaned closer, her voice a whisper:
"Call your shadows back and keep it close. Once we're inside… we move fast. No mistakes."
Sunny shivered — not from fear, exactly, but from something colder. Even Harus, the monstrous assassin, had spoken of this place with unease. If he was unsettled, then it was a bad, bad place.
But they had a mission to complete. Kido had given them strange sacks filled with spore seeds, precious fuel for some future plan — and failing to plant them would be worse than death.
He called Gloom back to his side with a silent command, the shadow clinging tightly to him like a second skin.
Without another word, the six of them rose from their hiding place and darted toward the broken tower. Keeping low, every movement tight and efficient, they crossed the open ground like shadows themselves, hearts pounding in sync.
They found a breach in the ruined lighthouse's wall and slipped through it one by one. Inside, Effie summoned her radiant Memory — a sphere of soft golden light that burst into existence in her hand, casting long, uncertain shadows against the broken stone.
Because the tower had collapsed onto its side, the inside now resembled a massive, sprawling tunnel — a hollowed-out ribcage of ancient stone and broken dreams.
Effie didn't waste time.
She turned, her face drawn tight with seriousness.
"Listen up," she said, her voice carrying that same rare tone Sunny had only heard a few times before — when things were truly dire.
"Stick close. No wandering off. Keep your weapons ready."
She hesitated for a second, her mouth twisting into a grimace.
"The things living here… they're special. Not strong. But strange. Don't try to kill them. Just defend yourself if you have to, and keep moving. If you stop? You're dead. If you slow down and get surrounded? You're dead."
Sunny stared at her.
Dead if you stop. Dead if you slow down. Great. Sounds lovely.
Effie pressed her lips together and added, almost under her breath:
"If we hold formation, we might make it out."
We might.
Sunny opened his mouth to unleash some well-earned outrage — but before he could, a gust of cold, stale air hit them.
They had arrived.
Before them, the "floor" of the sideways tunnel was broken wide open. A deep, narrow crevice yawned at their feet, plunging down into bottomless blackness. Sunny strained his eyes, but even with the radiant light, he could not see the bottom. The darkness was almost alive, swallowing the light before it even touched the unseen depths.
He took a cautious step back, a sinking feeling clawing at his gut.
Effie gave him a dry look, raising one eyebrow.
"What are you waiting for, doofus? Jump!"
Sunny stared at her like she had grown a second head.
"You want me to jump… into that?!" he repeated incredulously, pointing at the abyss.
Effie just shrugged, as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world.
Beside him, Kai let out the most soulful sigh Sunny had ever heard. He looked down at his gleaming armor — armor he had spent a ridiculous amount of time cleaning and polishing just this morning — and a look of profound heartbreak crossed his beautiful face.
Like a man watching his favorite designer outfit get thrown into a garbage fire.
"Oh, well," Kai muttered with tragic acceptance. "Here we go again..."
Sunny groaned under his breath, feeling the invisible hand of fate pushing him forward toward yet another bad idea. He flexed his fingers, readying himself.
Only in the Dark City, he thought grimly, do you get asked to leap into a lightless death pit and just have to say, 'Sure, why not.'
He squared his shoulders.
And jumped.
'*'
Without wasting a second, Nephis silently leapt into the yawning crevice.
Just before her lithe body vanished into the abyss, a flicker of white flame ignited in her silver eyes, burning like twin stars against the crushing darkness.
And then she was gone — swallowed whole by the black maw, as though some unseen beast had devoured her without a sound.
Sunny stared after her for a heartbeat, then muttered under his breath:
"Damnation."
Grimacing resentfully, he stepped forward.
But before he could reach the edge, Harus moved past him with a grunt, flashing Sunny a brief, unreadable look — a silent gesture to let *him* go first.
Without hesitation, the hunchback dropped into the darkness and disappeared.
Sunny lingered for a moment, glancing back instinctively.
He wanted to check if Cassie needed help — but paused when he saw that someone had already beaten him to it.
Kai was gently cradling Cassie in his arms, holding her as though she were something precious and fragile.
Without so much as disturbing her balance, he rose into the air, his body buoyed by some unseen force, and hovered there for a breath before gliding gracefully into the depths.
Sunny blinked in disbelief and shook his head.
*Ever the gentleman...*
Effie was the next to move, her figure vanishing into the black as she carried her radiant Memory with her — the golden light shrinking, then vanishing like a dying star.
Left alone in the pitch dark, Sunny rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck with a grimace, and wrapped himself in a cloak of shadows.
He took one last breath of stale air…
…and jumped.
He fell for several long, heavy seconds — the fall dragging at his stomach — and then hit hard stone with a jarring impact that rattled his bones, though no real harm was done.
Grunting, Sunny straightened up, taking in his surroundings.
He had landed in a narrow, claustrophobic tunnel.
The walls, slick with moisture and age, were clearly carved by human hands long, long ago — though time had not been kind to them.
The rest of the cohort was already there, preparing for battle with grim efficiency.
Nephis stood like a sentinel, her Bagh Nakhs summoned into existence.
Because the tunnel was too narrow to wield her weapon of choice ,, she instead equipped the tigers claws on both hands — the blades slipping through her fingers letting her cut, block, redirect and thrusts.
Harus was ready too, his claw-tipped chains already uncoiling around his arms.
Unlike Nephis' grace, his weapons were purely utilitarian — savage, iron-bone things built for ruthless, ugly work.
Sunny knew them well, having spent hours helping Harus adjust to the new set of clawed chains he now wielded.
He didn't know the tier of the Memory, but he *did* know this — he had seen those chains crush steel and tear through flesh as easily as wet paper.
For now, Harus had wrapped the chains tight around his forearms, gripping the ends like wicked karambit knives — an intimate, brutal stance.
And something else.
Harus had summoned his Echo.
Sunny's mouth twisted slightly at the sight.
The hunchback's Echo was nothing short of a nightmare — a towering two-meter rat stitched together from countless smaller rats, each head writhing grotesquely.
Atop its misshapen form sat a grotesque "crown" fashioned from rat skulls, giving the monstrous creature a foul semblance of royalty.
Even for Sunny, who had seen his share of horrors, it was among the most disturbing things he'd ever laid eyes on.
Effie had readied her equipment, too.
She bore her massive round shield, its surface battle-worn and imposing.
Her ancient bronze spear remained dormant in the Soul Sea — there was no room for it here.
In these cramped confines, her herculean strength paired with the shield would be far deadlier.
Kai, meanwhile, looked decidedly less enthusiastic.
Casting a tragic glance over his shoulder — specifically at the fletching of the heavy arrows he now couldn't use — he let out a mournful sigh.
With a reluctant flourish, he summoned an elegant falcata into his hand instead.
The beautiful curve of the blade caught the light, gleaming like a shard of moonlight in the gloom.
Last of all was Cassie.
The blind girl, silent and composed, unsheathed a slender rapier from the scabbard at her side… and then, with a casual flick of her wrist, let it go.
Instead of clattering to the ground, the rapier floated in the air, suspended by invisible threads.
Moments later, a second sword — a flambard saber — joined it, dancing in a silent orbit around her.
[Quiet Dancer] shifted into an aggressive stance, while [Bold Hoofer] hovered protectively close to her body.
Sunny also caught a glimpse of a small, familiar brooch gleaming on her cloak — [Moment of Mori] — the one he had given her.
He allowed himself a small, private smile.
Before the moment could stretch into something awkward, Effie's voice cut through the air, teasing and loud:
"Hey, Sunny! Now would be the *perfect* time to invite your girlfriend to join us!"
The cohort chuckled — all except for Harus and Kai, who simply exchanged confused glances, utterly missing the joke.
Rolling his eyes, Sunny summoned Saint without a word.
She appeared behind Effie in an instant — the towering knight radiating silent menace.
With mechanical precision, Saint reached out and shoved Effie lightly.
The huntress stumbled forward with a squawk of protest, while the others snickered.
Saint's burning crimson gaze — visible through the slits of her helmet — swept briefly over the gathered warriors before turning away, indifferent, to stare into the dark.
Just like that, their small cohort of six had swelled to ten —
…well, if one counted two flying swords and a giant rat abomination as "members."
For a heartbeat, there was only silence.
Then — a distant noise echoed through the darkness.
A faint, awful skittering.
Everyone froze.
Effie's expression darkened.
Without looking back, she murmured:
"Right. We've wasted enough time already.
Follow me... and be ready."
Without hesitation, she led the way into the tunnel.
Sunny fell into step behind her, sending a silent command for Stone Saint to stay close to Kai and Cassie.
The deeper they moved into the bowels of the earth, the more oppressive the atmosphere became.
The air was heavy with the scent of damp stone, mold, and something older — something *wrong*.
Crunch.
Sunny glanced down, frowning.
Under his boot was a shattered bone — distinctly human.
A bad feeling prickled along his spine.
"What *is* this place?" he asked.
Effie glanced back over her shoulder, her face cast in shadow.
"The catacombs," she said grimly.
Sunny narrowed his eyes.
"Since when are there catacombs beneath the Dark City? Why have I never heard you mention them?"
Effie hesitated before answering.
"They've always been here.
The whole damn city is built on them.
But most of the tunnels collapsed centuries ago.
Hunters don't talk about the catacombs because…"
She shrugged.
"Almost nobody who enters ever comes back."
Her voice was casual, but it carried a razor edge of seriousness that made Sunny's gut twist tighter.
Bones littered the ground now, scattered like the aftermath of some ancient massacre.
Skulls grinned from the shadows, ribcages and femurs cracked and broken underfoot.
Sunny glanced up sharply.
"Can we go back to that part where you said almost no one comes back alive?
*Why*, exactly?"
Effie opened her mouth, looking grim.
"That's because—"
She didn't finish.
Something stirred ahead.
Out of the dark, something shuffled forward — halting, creaking.
Sunny raised his twin Yagagans ,[The Honorbound] instinctively, bracing for combat.
Out of the gloom, a figure emerged — skeletal, eyeless, wearing only the tattered remnants of long-forgotten clothing.
A human skeleton.
No, not quite.
Somehow, impossibly, the bare bones *moved* — animated by some twisted mockery of life.
With a clatter, it lunged toward them, teeth bared in a soundless, hungry grin.
Sunny tightened his grip on his swords, feeling his heartbeat hammer against his ribs.
Defying all sense and reason, the skeletal creature lunged at Effie with a blistering speed that even Sunny wasn't sure he could match on his own. It should have been impossible — with no sinew, no muscle to knit its bones together — and yet the monstrous thing not only remained upright, but moved with vicious, unnatural power, propelled by some grotesque, unseen will.
A heartbeat before it could crash into them, Effie shouted:
"Stay together!"
Without missing a beat, she pivoted her body and smashed her shield into the onrushing horror. There was a deafening crack — like a tree trunk splitting in a storm — as the skeletal abomination was hurled backward. Its skull burst apart, fragments of bone spraying through the tunnel like shards of glass, while its ribcage collapsed inward with a sickening crunch. The monstrosity crumpled to the ground in a formless heap, more puppet than corpse now.
Sunny stared at the scattered remains in bafflement, blinking as if the gruesome display had not quite registered.
'Wait... that's it?'
Before the thought could fully settle, Effie's sharp voice cut through the stagnant air:
"Don't stop, move!"
Jolted from his reverie, Sunny rushed after her, the cohort surging deeper into the catacombs. As he darted past the shattered remains, a flicker of motion at the corner of his eye made him tense. Glancing down, he felt a cold stab of dread lance through his chest.
The bones were stirring.
Before his foot had even touched the ground beyond, one skeletal hand jerked upright, its jagged fingers clawing at his leg with desperate, malevolent intent. Only his reflexes — honed by countless battles — saved him. In one fluid motion, Sunny brought down the [Honorbound], crushing the grasping appendage into splintered dust.
For a moment, the sundered hand twitched weakly… and then, impossibly, began to crawl back toward the pile of bones, dragged along by an unseen, monstrous force.
Sunny felt his stomach knot with revulsion. He watched, wide-eyed, as the scattered remnants of the creature inexorably pulled themselves together. Shattered pieces were replaced without hesitation by other bones littering the ground, as though the catacombs themselves were offering a bounty to rebuild the abomination.
There would be no end to them.
A chilling realization settled over him like a heavy shroud — **this** was why Effie had commanded them not to linger, why she hadn't wasted a breath celebrating the creature's defeat.
They weren't fighting monsters that could be killed.
They were fighting monsters that refused to **die**.
A sick, creeping dread gnawed at his thoughts. His body, tempered and reinforced by [Trinity], could endure far longer than any normal human… but it was not limitless. **No one** was limitless. In time, fatigue would drag them all down — and when that happened, these abominations would still be here. Waiting.
As that grim thought took hold, a new sound reached Sunny's ears — faint at first, but swelling with every heartbeat.
A dry, rasping scrape. Hundreds of feet — no, **thousands** — dragging themselves across the cold stone of the catacombs, converging on their position like a tide of rattling death.
For one terrible instant, Sunny thought it might be the dark sea itself, somehow slithering into the tunnels to claim them. But no — this was not the abyssal hunger of the cursed waters.
It was worse.
It was the sound of an endless army of the dead, coming to tear them limb from limb.
Jaw tightening, Sunny gritted his teeth, the leather of his gauntlets creaking as he gripped [the Honorbound] tighter. A grimace of dark resentment twisted his face. Without hesitation, he turned and sprinted after the rest of the cohort, the skeletal storm building behind him with every desperate step.
'*'
It wasn't long before the dead were upon them.
At first, the skeletal monsters came in isolated ones and twos, emerging from the darkness like scattered specters. But soon, they grew bolder, and the narrow tunnel swarmed with small hunting packs. From the lightless depths of the catacombs, the creatures hurled themselves at the cohort — a nightmarish tide of gnashing teeth and splintering claws, each bearing the same hollow, grinning skull.
Harus's revolting composite rat had fractured into a host of lesser bodies, each furiously scurrying and scrambling across the stone. The plague of rats swarmed the frontline, doing their best to trip, hinder, and harass the advancing Cadavers, slowing the monsters just enough for the humans to meet them on their own terms.
At the vanguard, Effie and Nephis bore the brunt of the assault.
Effie was a force of nature unleashed — a living battering ram clad in iron and fury. Channeling her inhuman strength, she plowed through the skeletal ranks like a juggernaut of old. Her heavy round shield became an instrument of annihilation, each swing crushing bones to dust and sending fragments skittering across the floor like deadly shrapnel.
Beside her, Nephis moved with an eerie grace — less like a soldier, and more like a river of silver fire. Yet there was nothing delicate about her strikes. Gripping her agh Nakhs she struck like a tiger fast and brutal. The weapons became an extension of her will, each blow precise, relentless, devastating. Pale flames flickered in her eyes as she flowed between enemies, deflecting clawed strikes with liquid efficiency before shattering skulls with a sharp, merciless economy of motion.
If any abomination managed to slip past them, Harus was there — a pale, hunched specter of violence.
The hunchback fought with a savage sort of elegance, his claw-blades and twisted fists ripping through bone as though striking rotted wood. He moved with deceptive laziness, each strike landing with such brutal precision that the skeletons were broken and rendered harmless before they even had a chance to counterattack. Where he stood, the Cadavers fell in pieces, strewn like discarded marionettes.
The three powerhouses carved a path through the horde, making it seem almost effortless… but Sunny knew better. Every skeleton they shattered moved faster, struck harder, than any living human. Their resilience bordered on grotesque. It took immense skill, unyielding resolve, and ironclad coordination to cut through the endless onslaught without faltering for even a heartbeat.
And soon enough, Sunny got his first bitter taste of what it meant to be caught in this grim storm.
For a time, he, Cassie, and Kai were relatively sheltered, protected by the deadly barrier formed by Nephis and her two ferocious champions. But the catacombs were treacherous — a labyrinth of tunnels and hidden passageways. Before long, the paths ahead began to split and twist, opening into crossroads and shadowed corridors.
It was then that the true nightmare began.
Undead creatures began to lunge at them from the sides, bypassing the stalwart defense of the vanguard entirely. Worse still, the shattered skeletons that Effie, Nephis, and Harus had destroyed moments before began to stir once more, their sundered remains crawling and knitting themselves back together. In no time, the cohort found themselves under assault from every direction — from the front, the flanks, and the rear.
The nightmare had fully taken shape.
When the first skeletal straggler hurled itself at Sunny from a side tunnel, he met it with calm precision born of relentless training. Without hesitation, he raised [The Honorbound] and slashed, the blade whistling through the stagnant air and cleanly severing the abomination's skull from its spine.
The Twin Yatagans followed, cutting through the brittle bones like knives through brittle clay.
Sunny knew decapitation alone wouldn't stop the thing. Even as the headless body staggered forward, he shifted his weight and delivered a brutal kick to its chest. Empowered by the enchantments of [Nevermore's Embrace], his strike possessed the force of a Fallen's might — the skeletal torso exploded into burning fragments under the impact.
And yet...
No whispering voice accompanied the destruction. No familiar announcement of a defeated enemy.
There would be no shadow fragments. No rewards. No sense of triumph.
Only the silent, cold truth of these abominations' existence: they could not truly die.
Suppressing a grimace, Sunny stepped away from the ruined creature, casting a wary glance over his shoulder at the endless dark of the tunnels beyond.
He sighed wearily, tightening his grip on his blade.
There would be no rest here. Only the endless march of the dead.
'*'
Once the cohort found themselves surrounded on all sides, Sunny, Cassie, and Kai had no choice but to fully join the battle.
Sunny, at least, wasn't too worried about the blind girl and the young archer. Both were guarded by his most reliable allies — the Stone Saint and the floating Sabers.
His Stalwart Sentinel was a nightmare incarnate for the bloodthirsty skeletons. She moved with chilling, mechanical precision, an emotionless engine of war. Her heavy sword and shield wove an unbreakable web of death around Cassie and Kai, deflecting and obliterating any foe foolish enough to come close.
Watching her was like witnessing a devastating ballet — each step graceful, each motion brutally final. Her stone armor gleamed faintly in the darkness, the edge of her sword flashing in perfect arcs as skeleton after skeleton was shattered beneath her blows.
Above her, the [Quiet Dancer] and the [Bold Hoofer] zipped through the air like streaks of gleaming metal, weaving between strikes, bolstering the Stone Knight's iron defense. They darted in to sever limbs, split skulls, and close any gaps that might have formed in the seamless barrier of steel she projected around the two vulnerable humans.
If somehow a creature still managed to breach the three layers of protection, Kai was there — all smiling determination and desperate grace. He wielded his curved falcata like a woodsman's axe, hewing down the skeletal monsters with quick, brutal chops.
At the same time, he kept his free hand clasped tightly around Cassie's — guiding her through the treacherous maze of darkness and death. Yet even blind, Cassie moved with a subtle poise. Her head tilted toward the approaching threats, and more than once she danced away from a lunging claw or swinging bone club before Kai could even pull her aside.
Sunny, glancing at them, felt an unexpected pang in his chest.
They looked… perfect. Like something torn from the cover of a storybook — two breathtakingly beautiful figures moving hand-in-hand through the gloom, a graceful warrior guiding an ethereal maiden. Even surrounded by monsters and shadow, there was something luminous about the way they moved together.
And Sunny…
He was not part of that painting. He was the cold and distant Duke, a figure carved in iron and brutally , infamous for his ruthlessnes even within the grim ranks of the Host. Not a human among humans, but a tyrant no less feared than the Golden Serpent himself.
Well… at least he had his shadows. His Fallen. His faithful Ordinary Rock.
Still, there was no time for self-pity.
Sunny had a role to play — and it was a crucial one. Holding the rear of the cohort alone, ensuring that none of the undead could harry or overrun their escape route.
'Let me show you what the dark Duke is really capable of...'
The number of skeletons rising from the ground was steadily increasing. The corpses that Effie, Nephis, and Harus left broken in their wake twisted and reassembled themselves, lurching after the fleeing cohort with renewed hunger.
At first, the battle at the rear was manageable. The skeletal abominations, for all their unnatural vitality, were simple creatures — mindless, predictable. They attacked with brute force, throwing themselves forward with no thought for strategy or feints. Any untrained fighter would have been overwhelmed and torn apart long ago.
But Sunny was no untrained novice.
The Forgotten Shore had forged him in suffering and battle, honing him into a grim and cunning Devil. His will was a sharpened blade, his instincts tempered in the fire of survival.
In truth, these skeletal creatures were vicious — but compared to him, they were tame.
Enveloping [The Honorbound] in the shadows of one of his four faithful companions, Sunny made the blade an instrument of pure carnage. He unleashed every lesson, every hard-earned skill he had stolen from his battles with Caster, Nephis, Stone Saint, Harus,and the countless abominations he had faced.
He wove it all together — the paradoxical styles, the contradictions of elegance and brutality — into a seamless dance of death. His twin blades slashed, stabbed, and cleaved through the undead, sending fragments of bone clattering across the stone.
The skeletal monsters fell before him like wheat before a scythe.
Still, it was far from easy. Sunny had grown used to fighting alongside partners who instinctively matched his wild and fluid tempo — Nephis, who adapted to his every twitch; Saint, who moved with silent synchronicity; Harus, who simply tore forward and let Sunny slip into the gaps.
Now, he fought on the defensive, shielding Cassie and Kai. Their movements were foreign to him — slower, more deliberate — and he couldn't simply force himself to match their rhythm without sacrificing the deadly momentum he needed.
And yet… he managed.
He had anticipated such a situation, preparing his style to remain flexible enough to face it. Now, that foresight paid off. He wove protection and offense into one — adapting, improvising, evolving.
The hard truths beaten into him during training blazed in his blood now, solidifying into instinct. Just like Nephis had said: one real fight was worth a thousand hours of practice.
After a dozen abominations had fallen at his feet, the tempo of the battle suddenly shifted.
Two skeletons lunged at him simultaneously, one from each side. Sunny cursed under his breath — and then moved.
His twin blades lashed out in a vicious, snapping arc, backed by the enhanced strength of his enchanted armor. The weapons met bone, and with twin cracks like gunshots, the skeletal monsters shattered, their remains hurled backward by the force of his strikes.
But more were coming.
Effie, Nephis, and Harus pressed forward, prioritizing speed and trusting Sunny to cover the cohort's flank.
Snarling under his breath, Sunny dashed forward. He twisted his body, slamming one skeleton in the chest with a brutal kick that sent it reeling — and used the recoil to propel himself toward another. In a flicker of motion, he unleashed a devastating downward slash, splitting the monster's skull like a rotten gourd.
Bone fragments rained down, and the edge of [The Honorbound] scraped against the stone, casting a spray of brilliant sparks into the gloom.
Sunny didn't try to stop his momentum. He surrendered to it, rolling over his shoulder and flowing back onto his feet in one smooth, feral movement. In the same motion, he let his twin blades carve a wide, savage arc, meeting the next wave of skeletal attackers head-on.
Steel screamed against bone — and then silence, as shattered corpses crashed to the stone.
Sunny straightened slowly, the dim light catching the hard glint in his eyes.
He was the rear guard of the cohort — and for as long as he stood, no monster would pass.
'*'
The battle against the reanimated skeletons raged on, a furious storm of steel, bone, and relentless motion.
Sunless moved at the heart of the chaos, cutting and crushing through swaths of cadavers. His blades whirled in a fluid rhythm, slicing through yellowed bone and rotted sinew as he danced among the dead. The skeletons lunged with blunt claws and rusted weapons, but their attacks slid harmlessly across the black surface of [Nevermore's Embrace], sparking harmlessly against the enchanted armor.
He moved like a living shadow, a phantom in dark steel. His speed — enhanced by one of his shadows — turned him into a blur of cold efficiency. Each strike flowed into the next, each dodge and parry woven seamlessly into his grim ballet. A swipe meant to sever his neck was casually deflected by the flat of his blade; a claw aimed at his back was knocked aside with a twist of his shoulder.
Sunless didn't just fight for survival — he fought to protect. Every step he took placed him between the horde and his friends. Every blade that turned aside an attack did so a hair's breadth before it could reach Kai or Cassie.
It was methodical. Precise. Steady.
And, after a time… boring.
Through the constant connection to the shadows, he had already begun reading the movements of the skeletons. Their stiff patterns. Their mindless aggression. Their lack of creativity. Each clash began to feel the same. Their strikes predictable, their charges mechanical.
And worse — this slow war of attrition was dragging the cohort down.
It needed to end.
Sunless narrowed his eyes, his dark hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. A familiar, savage grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Come on!" he bellowed, his voice ringing against the stone walls of the catacombs. "Give me everything you've got!"
He thrust himself forward, reckless and loud — bait.
Six skeletons immediately lunged at him, responding to the challenge. Bared teeth, splintered claws, rusted blades — they surged like a tidal wave, desperate to tear him apart.
Sunless didn't stand his ground.
Instead, he led them.
He retreated just fast enough to keep ahead of them, weaving through broken pillars and shattered debris. He shaped the battlefield to his will, driving the mindless creatures toward a section of wall where the stone jutted out sharply, almost like a ramp.
As they closed in with mindless hunger, he made his move.
Sunless sprinted toward the wall, gathering speed. At the last possible moment, he planted a foot against the rough stone and ran up it, momentum carrying him halfway up the vertical surface. Then, with a sharp twist of his core, he kicked off — flipping backwards over the skeletons.
Time seemed to slow for a heartbeat.
Upside down, framed by the flickering torchlight and the gloom of the catacombs, Sunless lashed out with both blades.
Twin arcs of death.
The steel cleaved through brittle skulls with a hollow crunch. Two skeletons crumpled to the floor, their heads split like melons.
Sunless landed lightly behind the remaining four, his knees bending to absorb the impact. He moved immediately, letting momentum carry him into a spinning sweep. His blade flashed low, severing femurs and shins. Three skeletons toppled, losing their balance and collapsing in heaps of snapping bone.
The last one twisted toward him, snarling in frustration.
Sunless met its wild charge with calm brutality. He sidestepped the lunge, grabbed the skeleton's rusted breastplate, and hurled it over his shoulder, smashing it headfirst into the ground. Without pausing, he brought [The Honorbound] down in a brutal executioner's arc, reducing the monster's skull to dust.
Breathing hard, he straightened, his blades dripping with marrow dust.
But there was no time to rest.
More skeletons were swarming toward him from the darkness, clattering over the bones of their fallen kin.
With a grim smile, Sunless spun his blades once to shake the dust free and plunged back into the fray.
He darted into the next wave like a viper, blades flashing.
One skeleton swung a broken sword at him — Sunless ducked low, feeling the rush of air above his head, and retaliated with an upward slash that split the creature's ribcage wide open.
Another came from behind, but he sensed it through the whisper of its shadow and twisted at the last instant, driving his elbow into the thing's sternum with a sickening crack before finishing it off with a stab through the eye socket.
They came faster now. Packs of five, six, seven.
Sunless fought like a man possessed, a blur of black steel and cold rage. His style, normally adaptive and responsive, shifted into a ruthless offense. He carved through the horde with a grim finality, making sure that none of them ever got close to his friends.
Not one.
Bone and dust filled the air like a blizzard. The floor was already slick with the remains of a dozen fallen enemies. Somewhere nearby, the Stone Saint and the floating sabers continued their unyielding vigil, Cassie and Kai still moving forward.
And behind them, in the growing darkness, Sunless fought alone.
"*"
A wave of pure white light suddenly lit up the cave.
Sunless instinctively glanced over his shoulder — and saw Nephis at last unleash her flames. The burning radiance flowed into the claws she wore, into the battered remains of her armor, wrapping her in an aura of blinding incandescence. Just like the day they had fought against the spectral army, her very presence seemed to split the darkness apart.
Faced with the brilliance of her incandescent blades, the skeletons faltered. Their brittle forms, exposed by the harsh light, seemed almost to melt where the flames touched them, limbs shattering and crumbling into ash.
Perfect timing.
Using the brief moment of disorientation among the enemy, Sunny dashed backward, slipping through the chaos with practiced ease. As he retreated, he barked a silent command to the Stone Saint, signaling her to switch places with him.
As they passed each other in the midst of battle, he sent two of his shadows flowing from his own body onto hers.
The transformation was immediate.
The Stone Saint's blank gaze flared with deep carmine light. A dark radiance seeped from her stony skin, and wisps of ghostly gray mist rose from the gaps in her armor, curling through the air like smoke from unseen flames. The darkness of the catacombs seemed to thicken and embrace her, cloaking her form in a mantle of deeper night.
We got our own tricks.
A heartbeat later, the shadow-clad knight crashed into the undead with devastating force, her heavy frame moving with deadly precision. Splinters of bone and torn limbs flew in every direction as she tore through the enemy ranks. She became a storm of darkness and destruction, a relentless force carving a path through the throng.
Taking her place near Kai and Cassie, Sunny finally allowed himself to catch his breath — if only for a few seconds.
He took the moment to assess the condition of the cohort.
It wasn't good... but it wasn't disastrous, either.
Changing Star and Effie had it the worst. Their Awakened Memories were showing signs of strain. Nephis's armor was battered and torn from the sustained battle, though she herself remained unbloodied, standing proud beneath her radiance.
Effie's shield, however, looked on the verge of collapse, barely holding together against the constant battering.
Harus was difficult to read, hidden beneath his black cloak. But his labored breathing betrayed the limits of his stamina. Even he would not last forever.
Kai wasn't doing much better. He was pale, his normally neat auburn hair disheveled and soaked with sweat. Fatigue clung to him like a second skin.
Only Cassie remained untouched — the image of a pristine Saint amid the chaos. No enemy had gotten close enough to harm her. She had been shielded, guarded like a sacred treasure.
They'll need more, Sunny thought grimly. Something better.
He had a few Ascended Rank Memories still in reserve. Months spent under the Soul-Devouring Tree had not been wasted: he had carefully built up a private arsenal by orchestrating the deaths of the Fallen — ensuring that he dealt the killing blow, and thus claimed the spoils. Some of the Ascended Memories he had fed to Saint, strengthening her beyond normal limits. Others — those with active enchantments that drained essence — he had traded to Gunlaug to maintain appearances and secure favor.
But the Memories with passive enchantments? The ones that didn't demand constant feeding? Those, he had kept.
And there were still a few left.
A sudden movement at the edge of his vision snapped him back into the present. A skeleton lunged at him from a side passage, a jagged bone blade raised high. Without hesitation, Sunny moved, his sword flashing as he cut it down with a single, clean stroke.
He turned, scanning the battlefield, then shouted above the clash of combat:
"Hey! Effie! How far are we from the exit from this damned place?! When is this going to end?!"
Across the cave, Effie smashed another undead with a ferocious blow, then threw him a quick, exasperated grin.
"What do you mean, 'end'?!"
Sunny blinked, sidestepping a swipe from another skeleton.
What do you mean what do I mean? Isn't it obvious?!
Before he could voice the thought, Effie swung her battered shield into another enemy's face and yelled back, laughter in her voice:
"What end?! This was just a warm-up!"
'*'
Sunny cursed under his breath and steeled himself for the worst.
A few moments later, their short respite shattered.
With a sound like rushing water, a terrifying wave of undead monsters crashed into their formation, threatening to break it apart. The pressure was overwhelming, a tide of rotting bones and ravenous hatred.
Effie braced herself and met the furious onslaught head-on, her battered shield absorbing the first crushing impact. Gritting her teeth, she somehow managed to hold firm — and then, with a surge of strength, split the wave in two.
On one side, Changing Star dove into the torrent of skeletal wraiths, her incandescent sword slicing through them like a beam of pure sunlight carving the darkness. On the other, Harus unleashed his chains, the deadly links weaving a tapestry of death as they spilled ruin into the horde.
Sunny cast a quick glance at Kai and said in a hoarse, urgent voice:
"Prepare yourself."
There was no more time for words.
The next moment, the wave was upon them.
"Effie! Switch with me!" Sunny commanded — not asked, commanded.
She was in far worse shape than he was, and he could do more good at the frontlines now. Being the experienced fighter she was, Effie recognized it immediately and shifted positions without hesitation, trusting his judgment.
Now standing at the forefront, Sunny knew he could only rely on his own ability, cunning, and technique. No armor wall or shield between him and death. Just him... and them.
He dashed forward, meeting the first skeleton in a blur of motion. His swords flashed like twin streaks of silver lightning, and a headless corpse fell at his feet, its bony claws still grasping blindly at the stones.
Without pause, he called upon two of his shadows, merging their strength into the twin blades, and activated the enhancement woven into his armor.
All stray thoughts were obliterated by the sheer force of his will, leaving only two truths.
Kill your enemy. Prevent the enemy from killing you.
With ruthless clarity, he entered the flow state.
His perception expanded, sharpening to an unnatural degree. He absorbed every detail — every footfall, every twitch of an enemy's broken limbs — until the chaos of battle unfolded before him as a web of simple, inevitable consequences.
His thoughts accelerated. His reactions sharpened. The madness around him became a stark, predictable pattern of cause and effect.
…Sssshimmm!
With a soft hissing sound, [the Honorbound] carved through the air, slicing cleanly across a cluster of skeletal torsos. The monsters crumbled, their bodies splitting diagonally, brittle bones shattering against the stone floor.
Sunny didn't waste a heartbeat admiring his handiwork.
Before the fragments had even touched the ground, he lunged at the next enemy. His movements were fluid and unpredictable, shifting from sweeping arcs to sudden sharp thrusts — but they were also grounded and firm, every step calculated, every strike measured to deliver maximum devastation while conserving strength.
This was no mindless slaughter. It was a perfect blend of all the battle styles he had ever studied, refined through brutal necessity into something greater.
This was Shadow Dance.
And Sunny danced across the battlefield like a living shadow, weaving between the countless undead, his swords striking down one after another with tireless precision.
[The Honorbound] were not unimaginably sharp, like the Fallen claws chained to Harus's deadly weapons. Nor did they burn with annihilating white flame like Nephis's radiant bagh nakhs.
But their single enchantment — density beyond natural limits — made them utterly unbreakable. Even now, even after countless strikes fueled by the augmented strength of his Ascended armor, not a single dent marred the surface of the twin yatagans.
They were close to the end, he could feel it through his shadow sense.
After several more minutes of furious fighting, the tunnel they were moving through suddenly opened into a large cavern. A few meters in front of them, the floor of the catacombs was broken, collapsing into a vast, seemingly bottomless chasm. That terrifying abyss was filled with darkness that even Sunny's sight couldn't pierce.
The chasm was no less than forty meters across and stretched far into the distance to both left and right, like a dark border separating the world of the living from the world of the dead. A rickety rope bridge was drawn across it, connecting to a similar-looking tunnel at the other end of the abyssal chasm.
The rope bridge looked like a derelict of ancient times. It was flimsy, slippery, and rotten through and through.
'She doesn't expect us to actually use it, does she? It's so obvious that this thing will collapse as soon as we step on it! Has she not seen any sageuk?! Even if others somehow survive, there's no chance that I, with that damn [Fated] Attribute, will make it to the other end...'
Sunny turned to Effie and scowled, really hoping to be surprised by her answer.
"So, what now?"
The huntress looked at him in confusion.
"What else? We cross the bridge!"
'*'
Sunny sighed, the weight of their situation pressing down on him like a suffocating fog. Of course, they had to cross the bridge. Why had he even bothered to ask?
Great. Just great.
At least the damn thing was empty of skeletons. The path to the other side of the chasm was clear for the moment, but that was a fleeting blessing.
Nephis and the Stone Saint were still engaged in combat, fighting with everything they had. The relentless pressure of the undead horde had grown heavier, but the two of them were holding steady, certain in their strength, even as the tide of skeletal monsters threatened to overwhelm them.
Two figures — one cloaked in shadows, the other illuminated by blinding, pure white light — were slowly buckling under the furious onslaught of the undead. The weight of the battle was wearing them down, inch by inch.
Sunny's teeth ground together in frustration. There was no time to waste.
With a grim expression, he turned to Effie and said, his voice tight:
"Go."
The huntress, her body already battered and weary, weakly shook her head as she leaned on her spear for support.
"Someone will have to hold them off long enough for everyone to get to the other side," she said, her voice strained but steady. "You should—"
Sunny didn't let her finish. He cut her off with a steely resolve.
"I'll be the last one to cross. Don't worry... I have a plan."
A crazy plan. But when did he ever not have one?
Effie looked at him for a long, searching moment. Her eyes softened for just a second before she nodded, reluctant but understanding.
"Alright. Stay alive, Sunny."
He chuckled softly, his voice wry despite the circumstances.
"Aww, I didn't know you cared."
Effie stared at him for a beat, her expression flat, before she responded in her usual deadpan tone:
"No, it's just that if you die, I'll have to fight your scrawny corpse soon enough. So… don't do that. Okay?"
With that, she turned, motioning for the others to follow her, and stepped onto the rickety bridge. Sunny blinked a couple of times, watching her go, before turning back to face the chasm.
Sigh. What else did I expect?
There was no turning back now.
Brandishing his twin swords, he dashed forward to join Changing Star and the Shadow Saint in their battle.
He fought like a storm, cutting down a pair of skeletons that tried to flank him, before turning to Nephis with a grim warning.
"Retreat to the bridge. Saint and I will hold them off!"
Nephis's eyes burned with white flames from within the visor of her Starlight Legion Armor's helmet. Her voice, hoarse from exertion, reached him a moment later.
"Make it back… please."
Sunny didn't pause in his strikes, ducking and weaving between the attacking monsters as his swords sliced through bone and flesh. He bashed aside a particularly ferocious creature with the back of one of his blades, shouting:
"Yes! But…"
Another undead creature fell to his blows.
"...When you get to the other side, you need to destroy the supports of the bridge. Do you understand?"
There was a brief pause, and then Changing Star, moving fluidly as always, asked without hesitation:
"What about you?"
Sunny let out a short, bitter laugh.
"Don't worry about it. I have a way to get across!"
Nephis's reply came after a long silence, one filled with doubt and concern. Finally, she spoke, her voice firm but quiet:
"Alright."
Without wasting another word, Changing Star slipped into action. The moment an opening appeared, she silently retreated, allowing Sunny to take her place at the frontline.
Now for the fun part.
With Nephis gone, the monsters turned their full attention on him and the Stone Saint. Sunny cursed, feeling the pressure mount as the horde descended upon them with renewed vigor. Every strike was a struggle to keep them at bay, every inch fought for with blood and bone.
The onslaught of the undead reminded him of the Spectral Legion, relentless and unyielding, each wave crashing against their defenses, determined to drown them in sheer numbers. But Sunny wasn't going to go down without a fight.
Not prone to heroic displays, he used the Shadow Saint as a shield — or maybe stone shield was more appropriate — retreating behind her as she absorbed blows with her already battered shield. For all her stoic silence, she was a steadfast ally, holding the line with unwavering strength.
The two of them fought in perfect synchronization, almost as if they shared a single mind.
Well, what else did I expect? He thought, a wry smile tugging at his lips. She's my Shadow, after all.
The armor of the silent knight was still intact, and Sunny knew there was no need to hold anything back now. There was no point in preserving his strength anymore. It was time to burn through every last bit of his energy and just survive long enough for the others to make it across.
A furious growl escaped him as he sliced through another skeleton. But then, as he moved to strike again, an undead monster's claw caught him across his already wounded side. He stumbled back, pain flaring through him, but before he could fully recover, the Shadow Saint stepped forward, taking the brunt of the next wave.
"Damnation! How slow are you guys?!" he yelled, frustration rising in his chest.
But just as he spoke, a loud rattle followed by a thunderous boom echoed through the catacombs. The bridge — their only means of escape — had been destroyed.
Now, there was nothing but the chasm, the abyss separating him from the rest of the cohort, and the endless tide of undead that still surged forward.
Finally.
Turning his back to the horde, Sunny took a long, last look at the cohort waiting for him on the other side. He could almost feel their gaze on him, their hope mingling with his own.
He lingered for a moment, his chest heaving with exertion, before turning toward the abyss. With a final, determined breath, he ran to the edge.
The Shadow Saint, her strength momentarily renewed, slipped from her stone form and wrapped itself around Sunny. The taciturn knight, holding the monsters at bay for just a fraction of a second longer, finally dissolved into the Soul Sea, her dark essence returning to its resting place.
Now, with no obstacles left, the flood of skeletons lunged forward, claws outstretched, desperate to tear him apart. They were so close now, just a meter or two away.
Ha! You missed!
Sunny reached the edge of the abyss, glancing one last time into the darkness that awaited him below. He didn't hesitate. Not even for a second.
Without breaking his stride, he leaped off the edge of the chasm