*Pant*
*Pant*
*Pant*
Sunny and Nephis were dashing down a cave tunnel as the sounds of rocks being smashed echoed behind them.
"Keep running Sunless," Nephis said behind him as she burnt up in her flames as she caught up to him.
"Yeah..." Sunny was about to retort but decided not to. After all, he needed to save energy and could do that later anyway.
They ran as the sounds of roars and rocks being smashed got closer to them. As it almost caught up they turned the corner and Sunny nearly cried as he saw what was at the end of the tunnel leading up.
It was a dim light that illuminated the surface of the ruined city.
***
*cling*
Sunny's sword deflected a bolt aimed at her head with some struggle as Nephis got up close and personal with the creature to distract it. Nephis had burnt the creature over and over again for the past five minutes, but each time it seemed to die, it would put itself back together annoyingly. Sunny himself was knitting himself back together each time, but even he was getting tired.
'And I thought I was an unkillable cockroach,' Sunny thought, dodging another bolt as he got close again to the illusionist.
Nephis looked like a burning sun from where he was, which she probably was to it. The illusionist tried to create distance but Nephis continued applying pressure onto it, not allowing any chance of it escaping. Of course, Sunny was fine with that, after all he wanted to kill the bastard, but Nephis' flames had begun to weaken a while ago while the illusionist never seemed to falter once. Getting back up Sunny ran to Nephis's side as he tried to create an opening for Nephis to use.
It tried to slash at them both with its claw but Sunny's sword met it with sparks and steel as they clashed. Nephis herself wasn't being ideal as she used a large rock to make up her height and reached its stomach before gutting and slicing it open. It roared as it tried to shake her off but Nephis grudingly held on for dear life as it soon slammed her into the walls of the dim cave. She kept pouring her flames onto her sword which then transferred and burnt the illusionist from the inside out.
They had done this every time they fought, and the illusionist got back up in all of them.
Sunny had stopped healing himself a while back, only using it on grave injuries, and letting Blood Weave deal with scratches and areas of blunt force trauma. Even so, he felt tired physically, mentally, and another form of tired he couldn't exactly name or knew what it was from. The best he could describe it was spiritually, or tired of expressing himself. As the illusionist burned Sunny called Saint to him.
Saint was not in a better state than him despite taking fewer hits. Her helmet had cracked a while ago from a bolt and red dust covered her perfect humanoid face as she hit her sword twice when she stood in front of him. The chestplate was battered and on the verge of falling off, her braces had broke after taking a hit without her shield, and her sword had deep incisions and the left cross guard was destroyed.
Sunny's armor wasn't doing any better, the breastplate was all but destroyed, and it opened up his chest to be gutted. Sunny had to summon Weaver's mask to replace his helmet, although it seemed to be effective as it hadn't even received a single scratch. Sunny turned to Saint who was waiting for his command.
"Hold out the next wave until Nephis and I can help," Sunny said, making sure he took off Weaver's mask each time he spoke to not get fucked over by the mask. Even while talking telepathically to Nephis he still needed to take it off for a moment to speak properly.
She nodded as she moved with diligence towards the front of the cave where hordes of minions poured in every now and then. Sunny needed Saint to hold back to new wave that Sunny knew was coming from their shadows, and they still needed time to kill the bastard.
'Let's see which one of us dies first bastard'
Sunny thought as he ran towards Nephis' aid who was now dangling from the edge of her sword. The illusionist swept across her chest, and not wanting to lose an arm, she let go. Sunny dashed and slid under them and caught Neph before fully sliding under it. The illusionist tried to squash them but Sunny evaded and threw a dagger at its back which caused it to roar in anger. Sunny dropped Neph after making some distance away and both of them dashed back into battle.
'So what's the plan Nephis?' Sunny asked as he ducked as a woosh sounded above him as he dodged a claw.
'I have no plan, not yet at least.' Nephis said it straightforwardly as golden sparks of her sword began to form.
'So were fucked then.' Sunny said as he climbed onto the illusionist's arm and ran up it towards its head.
'I'm working on it Sunless,' Nephis said, although even with her burning her humanity away Sunny could sense a hint of embarrassment in her voice.
Sunny didn't bless her with a response as he had to quickly dodge the volley of slashes that came from the illusionist as Sunny made his way to the head. Nephis herself finished summoning her sword and dashed under the creature. In one swift moment, Nephis slashed and cut its leg off perfectly which made it lose its balance. Pressing on, Sunny blocked its claw before slashing at its neck, throwing a dagger at each eye, and gravely injuring it before retreating to Nephis' side.
'Well, I do, we need to meet Saint before it comes out of its stupor.'
Sunny could've easily killed it and decapitated it but doing so would just allow it to reform, so Sunny decided to stall for time by injuring but not outright killing it. Sunny had figured out that it had some type of healing factor, but more importantly was the simple truth that they weren't strong enough to kill it, for now at least. As much as Sunny wanted to maul and kill it over and over Sunny knew it was a pointless endeavor that would kill both of them. That doesn't mean Sunny would forget about this though, after all if one thing hadn't changed since the fall of the sun it was that Sunny would never forget his grudges. But for now, he admitted defeat.
As they reached Saint Sunny and Nephis dealt with the puppets as the abomination stumbled like a broken machine. Once they finished Nephis looked at Sunny expectantly.
'What's the plan?'
Sunny grinned as he grabbed her hand, dismissed Saint, and dismissed Weaver's mask before saying, 'When in doubt, you run, and I don't know about you but I have doubts of beating that pile of shit.'
'That sounds like a Sunny thing to do, I guess the Dark City taught you well, but I agree let's go.'
Sunny nodded as the creature slowly made its way towards them, one of its eyes already healing despite being destroyed. They ran down the bright tunnels due to Neph's divine flames as they cleared hoard after hoard that dared to be in their way.
Sunny sent out Gloomy but not before taking a look at them both. Surprisingly, their crowns looked shockingly similar, with the only difference being that vines had started growing on the crown and encasing it in a beautiful pattern. As they ran Sunny used this time to the blunt force trauma that ached in his leg and thigh. It wasn't anything serious but it was really pissing him off. Nephis herself was still without a scratch, but she had dismissed her flames the next second which slowed her speed by half. Sunny gifted her two shadows as they matched speeds one more as they raced down tunnels and passages.
After a few minutes of running, they felt the path going slightly up as a roaring and walls shattering echoed behind them. Sunny cursed internally as they sped up and simply leaped from the wall to not slow down at each corner.
Eventually, they entered a hallway with a light revealing the exit of the cave.
***
'There's the exit!' Sunny exhaled and started running towards it at full speed, with Nephis behind him.
They ran full speed but halfway through the illusionist appeared behind them and sprinted quicker than they could run.
'cmon, cmon...' Sunny thoughts as they quickly reached the end of the tunnel.
Sunny pushed himself and Nephis to the side as two claws appeared from their previous position where they would have been gutted cleanly. Rolling to stop they got up as the illusionist walked out of the tunnel as puppets slowly blocked off the streets. Sunny formed a wall of vines and shadows between them and the illusionist as it dashed at them. It held it back for only a moment, luckily that was all they needed as both Saint and Nephis [Dark Wings] finished being summoned. Grabbing tightly onto Nephis, Saint threw them both high in the air, away from where they were as the wall finally crumbled under the pressure and the illusionist growled.
Sunny unsummoner Saint as he felt a vine spike poking slightly at his head. Sunny picked it off annoyed and forgot about it as they landed quickly at the shore of the grand lake. It didn't reflect them since there was no light source Sunny noted before looking at Neph.
"So where exactly did you say the exit was, it was in the center deep under?" Sunny asked with curiosity.
"Correct so follow me and try not to drown," Nephis responded as she got ready and dipped into the cold water.
'I'm really starting to hate water,' Sunny sulked before going in himself but not before making himself as light as possible with [Feather of Truth]. By now his strength was enough to carry the mantle without essence but that didn't mean it didn't still wight heavy. As Sunny dipped in the lake a shiver went down his spine from the sudden coldness of the water. Spending a few moments to orient himself he soon reached Nephis who had already reached halfway under the lake as they swam together.
Soon they reached the underwater ground and found a metal Gate seemingly covering up something. Sunny swam towards it and tried to tear it open but to no avail.
'Sunny you'll break your back if you try to open it like that. The water pressure from the lake is too strong for us to brute force it.' Nephis said as she moved to his side and pulled him back.
'So then... how do we open it?' Sunny asked.
'We don't.' Nephis said
'...'
'...'
'Can you elaborate on that?' Sunny asked mildly confused by her antics.
'Just watch.' Nephis said as she swam towards the center of the metal plug.
Putting her hands on it she ignited her hands with her aspects as the water nearby quickly rose towards the boiling point. Sunny himself was not spared as he quickly felt the water near him heat up and even start to burn him a little. The metal Nephis was touching had turned into a bright fiery orange as Nephis started to bend it and create a small hole.
'Nephis you might want to go a little faster,' Sunny said.
Sunny had told her to hurry because at the edge of his Shadow sense, he could feel a large amount of shadows moving towards them. They were of course the illusionist and his army moving towards them and although Sunny doubted they could swim under and still fight effectively he wasn't exactly enthusiastic to test that theory out. Sunny summoned several tenticals to help Nephis out so as not to stay ideal but every tentical was burnt to a crisp after a few moments. Suddenly an arrow whisked passed them, then another, then until one turned to two then four then 8, and so on.
A volley of arrows shot afterward as Sunny quickly built up a wall to protect Nephis as she worked. Sunny himself had to keep the wall stable while cutting down arrows that managed to pass. He was tempted to summon Saint or Serpent but was reluctant. These arrows had managed to keep their speed even though the water should make them lose it only after a few moments which meant these were magical and deadly. Plus they both were still healing in his soul although Serpent hadn't taken much damage he was still in bad shape from having helped them during their fight in the cave.
Sunny grabbed an arrow that almost hit the back of Neph's head and crushed it into splinters. Not wasting any time Sunny continued to hold back the onslaught of arrows, grabbing or cutting down all of them. Nephis was halfway through when the first of the puppets went into the water, quickly sinking to the bottom floor where they started dashing towards him as if unaffected by the water or the laws of physics. Sunny blocked and parried an attack before cutting its head cleanly off one of the monsters before moving to the next. Sunny battled the monsters and although he was at a disadvantage he managed to kill a few of them and hold back the rest. Sunny summoned Saint who appeared next to him and fought alongside him.
It was a new experience for Sunny to fight underwater but he adapted quickly, using and making water currents to his advantage. The clash between steel, claws, tails, and weapons was all muffled by the water so it was eerily quiet throughout it all, though that didn't mean it wasn't deadly. Sunny moved through them like a shadow as he stabbed into thighs, cut heads off, and killed the ones he could while leaving Saint to kill the stragglers. Sunny had blocked an especially powerful beast when the next cohort of monsters started making their way down, along with them the illusionist.
'Nephis how much longer-' Sunny began to ask before it was answered by the sudden pull backward.
Turning around Sunny saw a giant hole in the center of the metal plug that was draining the water of the lake at a massive rate. Sunny tried to make himself as heavy as possible with [Feather of Truth] to not get sucked in but failed as it slowly picked him up and dragged him back. Before he was sucked into the forming vortex at the center of it all Nephis caught his wrist in her hand, and had stabbed her sword into the ground to ground them both from being sucked in. Saint herself made herself heavy and stood in place nonchalantly, unaffected by the vortex.
'Nephis...' Sunny said weakly as his grip loosened lightly from Nephis's hand.
'Don't... don't say it,' Nephis said statmently, 'I won't let you go.'
'...'
'You do know that with my shadow sense, I could feel that it's safe right? Plus that's the exit so we got a good chance to escape if we go while the enemy is distracted.' Sunny said with a smirk on his face as he saw Nephis slightly flustered.
'Right, I knew that.'
As the water drained some more they looked each other in the eye as Saint was dismissed. Pulling Sunny up Nephis gave him a passionate kiss before releasing her grip on her sword and holding him close as they fell into the vortex of water.