Sunny's blood froze when a massive fist passed mere millimetres away from his face.
The blow continued past him and struck the ground. For a fraction of a second, there was silence.
Another fraction passed, and a deafening boom rang in his ears and the world itself. The whole mountain shook under the might of the blow, and hurricane-force winds blew from the epicentre, almost blowing him away.
Were it not for the step back he had taken at the last possible moment, he would have been turned into a red mist.
Sunny did not hesitate; he grabbed Saint's shoulder and shadow-stepped both of them hundreds of meters away from the guardian.
"Do you think it's mad because I came without a gift?" He quipped, an attempt at a smirk thrown at Saint.
The taciturn shadow did not answer, nor was she looking at him. Her ruby eyes were fully focused forward, awaiting the next strike of the creature with a tight grip on her sword and shield.
"Yeah, I think that's it." He continued when she did not answer.
Sunny shook his head in an attempt to get rid of the ringing in his ears. The pressure alone had created a shrill, whistle-like drone, and it was slowly driving him crazy.
After shifting sight, he peered at the countless strings of life populating the peak of the mountain, and found with ease the one that belonged to the Guardian. It was, by far, the smallest and lightest one he had ever seen. Shifting sight back, he let out an exasperated sigh; with that size and colour, it wasn't even worth trying. It would take twice his current amount of essence to get worthwhile results.
"Why did you attack me?" He called out, both to gain time and hoping, despite himself, that the Guardian might have some degree of intelligence.
No answer was made.
Sunny frowned. Maybe not. It didn't matter; he knew the answer anyway.
[Attribute Name: Flame of Blasphemy.]
[Attribute Description: Your soul is aflame with the light of the divine and the profane. Rejected by both, your existence alone is the gravest of sins.]
The attribute had finally made itself known.
Up to now, Sunny hadn't faced any real consequence due to having it. He had been dealing solely with Nightmare Creatures for a long, long time. After that, there was Eirene, whose creeping corruption must have kept her too preoccupied to bother with his own blasphemous existence. Shadow God had been able to tell, and he assumed that so could Oblivion, but neither had given him any clue as to what it actually did. Finally, the people he interacted with ever since his return were probably unable to detect it.
The Guardian, however? It was so attuned to divinity that it could notice it back when he was still an aspirant and his divinity was little more than a spark. It did not seem to appreciate the change. Not at all, given the way it had attacked without provocation.
"I'm guessing the whole 'rejected by both' part wasn't just the Spell being dramatic, was it?" Sunny muttered, watching warily the seemingly empty space inhabited by the invisible guardian.
The sentinel did not give him any more time to ponder the situation before launching another attack.
Hurricane-force winds stirred once more, closely followed by the unmistakable smell of ozone. In less time than it took to blink, a black cloud had formed above Sunny's head, cracking menacingly.
He did not wait, shadow-stepping himself and Saint out of range once again. In the same instant, a thunderous crash could be heard as a bolt of lightning struck his previous position, further blackening the already dark stone.
After giving Saint a nod to go first, he started running in the direction of the Guardian, the shadows at his feet stirring to form shieldwall after shieldwall around them as the cloud kept erupting into more lightning strikes.
The mantle covering his back, made out of what looked like pure darkness, stilled despite the billowing winds and then expanded to twice its size into a pair of pitch-black arms that grabbed a lightning strike that had gotten through and absorbed it, granting him the essence stored inside.
[Memory Name: Mantle of Darkness.]
[Memory Description: A queen once ruled a proud city, its streets alive with wonder, its people untouched by sorrow until one day, rot crept in, choking every street and every corner until all was lost. Even as madness devoured her mind, her purpose endured, and the queen clung to her oath, guarding her goddess with a devotion that defied reason. Thus began the lonely vigil of Aleras' final citizen, loyally watching its defiled husk.
Until, on a fateful day, the once-glorious queen faced the treacherous Lost From Light in battle.
"I am become death, destroyer of worlds," the cowardly shadow proclaimed even as he hid behind his servants.
And true to that grim promise, treacherous Lost From Light -and the calamity that followed in his wake- brought her vigil to its end.]
It wasn't a memory he was fond of. The Spell, as usual, had not wasted the chance to mock him with its description. It also brought back bittersweet memories of someone who had been his friend in another life, with all of the complicated tangle of emotions that it entailed.
The enchantment, however, was simply too useful to pass up in this fight.
[Enchantment: Umbral Feast.]
[Umbral Feast: The hunger of the dark can be placated, but never satiated.]
The effect was as simple as it was horrifying; he could shape the mantle into any form he wanted, and whatever came into contact with that darkness was broken down into essence for him to use, dead or alive.
A loud rumbling above his head revealed another dark cloud taking shape, raining lightning on him so fast he barely had time to direct the dark arms to absorb it.
Acknowledging the danger they posed, Sunny incarnated one of his shadows and tasked it with keeping the lightning under control while he kept advancing, swiftly closing the distance with the Guardian. Three hundred meters away, a crackling sound could be heard coming from the creature.
It was only thanks to how many times he had fought beside Nephis that he managed to recognise it in time and step aside. A beam of golden fire, the size of an adult human, passed millimetres away from his chest, singeing his armour. When he dared to send one of the dark arms to absorb it, it was burned down to nothing.
Narrowing his eyes, Sunny shadow-stepped further out of the way, a troubling theory starting to take shape in his mind even as he expended essence to generate another arm.
Ahead, Saint -reinforced by three of his shadows and the [Wrathful Might] charm- collided with the guardian, the sheer pressure of their collision creating a miniature earthquake that shook the mountain once more.
A series of lightning-fast exchanges followed, sword meeting fists hundreds of times in a matter of seconds, each clash sending shockwaves outward that cracked the ground beneath Saint's feet and her weapons.
The duel continued for a few seconds more before it finally happened.
Sheathed in darkness, Saint's stone sword clashed one more time against the invisible being and shattered, its sheer strength too much to be resisted by the transcendent weapon. When she attempted to block the retaliation strike, her shield broke into a thousand fragments, too, leaving her unarmed.
Without fear, Saint manifested new ones out of the darkness and engaged the Guardian once more, only for the new pair to be broken twice as fast. So would she have been, were it not for one of his shadows incarnating to teleport her away.
When she reappeared beside him, she did not show any outward sign of what she was thinking, but Sunny could tell that she was furious.
"Tough bastard, huh?" He asked, idly blocking a lightning strike that had gotten past his avatar. "Stay here, I'll confront him myself."
A narrowing of her ruby eyes behind the helmet told him what she thought about the order, but she obeyed.
Instead of accepting the ones he offered, Saint manifested a bow and a quiver full of arrows out of the darkness that emanated from her armour and started unleashing volley after volley at the invisible creature.
Sunny started running again, closely avoiding another dozen beams of golden fire as he approached the Guardian.
Except that the guardian did not stop there; the rays of the moon coalesced around its invisible form, taking the shape of a myriad, strange and fascinating beasts.
Led by a silver stag with prongs the size of a small house, the beasts broke into a sprint of their own, running up to face him.
They were intercepted by the black arrows unleashed by Saint, inflicting the moonlight animals with ghastly wounds and killing a few. Sadly, their numbers were too large to be stopped by that alone.
Just before coming into contact with the leading stag, a spear manifested itself out of the ground and pierced its head, killing it in one blow. More spears bloomed right after, finishing the job that had been started by Saint.
However, instead of dissipating, the moonlight coalesced once more into the shape of the beasts that had just been killed, bringing them back to life.
Gritting his teeth, Sunny incarnated one of his shadows to deal with the silver beasts while he kept advancing on the Guardian. One hundred and fifty meters left to go.
Speaking of the creature, its tricks weren't over yet. Hundreds of spears manifested out of thin air, all of them aimed at him.
Without thinking twice, he manifested a volley of his own and launched them against the Guardians in a thunderous cacophony of weapons. Sunny grimaced when his counterattack proved woefully insufficient; every spear of the Guardian took twice the amount of his own to be destroyed, and it was only thanks to his quick reflexes that he managed to avoid being pincushioned by the surviving ones.
Another volley emerged right after, but this time it was blocked completely by his own.
A whole forest grew next before the Temple, its roots rippling through the ground with a speed that defied all sense and traversed the ground separating them so fast he almost failed to evade when they erupted out of the ground and tried to bind him.
Sunny incarnated yet another avatar to fight against the roots, and kept advancing; the distance separating him from the Guardian was reduced to two digits now.
"So the bastard has a blessing for each god," he muttered grimly beneath his breath, barely avoiding another beam of fire.
He had started suspecting it the moment it had begun throwing rays of fire around, a theory that had been confirmed with the appearance of the silver beasts and the forest.
The idea was more than a little troubling, especially considering the fact that it was unleashing all of them at once. That fact alone made the Guardian the most harrowing foe he had ever faced. And that was without mentioning its absurd physical might. At least it wasn't that smart; its use of the blessings was rather simplistic.
As if the Gods had heard his thought, the situation changed right at that moment.
High above, the clouds stopped raining lightning for a moment. When they resumed, instead of aiming at him, the lightning collided with the silver beasts, and their moonlight bodies swelled with crackling energy, their forms sharpening as electricity fused into them.
The lead stag grew monstrous, antlers branching into arcs of lightning before it charged, fast enough to leave thunder lagging behind.
"…Great," Sunny muttered, watching his avatar slipping aside as it tore past him and detonated the ground in its wake.
It didn't stop there. More and more of the enhanced beasts surged forward, their forms exploding with electricity when struck instead of dissipating. The avatar had to fight harder; his and Saint's efforts just barely enough to keep them at bay.
The bad news didn't stop there; the roots burst once more with renewed ferocity, bigger in number and coated with the same golden flames that the Guardian kept shooting at him.
When one of them managed to brush one of his fingers, he almost screamed in pain at the conflagration that erupted at the point of contact. That wasn't all, either; a strange sensation on the offending finger made him realise that there was something wrong with it.
Upon seeing a root burrowing its way inside, he cut it off without a second thought, too wary of the damage it could deal before [Blood Weave] dealt with it if it spread within his body.
With gritted teeth, he kept moving, just barely avoiding a volley of conjured daggers thrown at him while he was dealing with a silver beast that had broken past his avatar's chokepoint.
More and more combinations followed. The clouds above were raining fire instead of lightning, silver beasts made of deadly metal, roots that shaped themselves into horrific forms that crackled with lightning and wielded weapons longer than he was tall.
Sunny faced the onslaught of all of them and more, desperately evading while he kept closing the distance, his body battered by wound after wound despite his best efforts.
Just as he was considering slowing down despite the risk of alerting the Guardian of his plan, the shadows got into position, and a cold smirk appeared on Sunny's face.
A shadow step was all it took to come face to invisible face with the Guardian. An action he had been restraining himself from doing so far, while he waited for everything to be ready.
The change of pressure was his only warning about what was coming.
A massive fist blurred its way toward his face for a second time, and this time, Sunny did not move out of the way, choosing instead to stab his own odachi in the direction where he suspected its head to be.
The ground beneath the Guardian erupted outward as hundreds of black chains surged from beneath, pouncing on the invisible form of the Guardian. He had been amassing shadows in the crater created by its first attack all along, and only now were they numerous enough for him to be willing to risk it.
Just at that moment, it decided to reveal its final blessing, forcibly wrestling away his control over the manifested shadows.
…for all of a fraction of a second before they came back under his control of their own will.
Sunny smiled viciously. "Sorry, bastard, but they know better than going against their prince."
The chains resumed their motion, coiling around its form and stopping its strike millimetres away from crushing him into a paste. Sunny committed to his own attack, taking the way the chains groaned as a clear warning about how briefly they would be able to hold the creature still.
In a blur of steel, his odachi found the head of the creature, piercing its eye and into the brain, ending its life in a single strike.
Or at least, that was how it was supposed to go.
Instead, the creature had moved just in time, taking the blow on its impossibly thick forehead instead. The odachi only managed to carve a few millimetres deep before bouncing back, leaving the Guardian with nothing but a flesh wound.
A dumbfounded expression appeared on his face, failing to comprehend for a moment just how durable the creature was.
Another crackling sound came from the Guardian, and Sunny barely had time to twist to the left, avoiding most of the beam of fire; the part that hit him deeply seared his right side, bringing with it a horrendous pain that went beyond the physical.
The chains holding the guardian still groaned one final time and broke, another attack being launched by the hulking creature in the same instant. Sunny, still reeling from the burns, could only step slightly out of the way before it collided.
A harrowing sound echoed all around the mountain as his right arm was outright ripped off the rest of his body by the attack. He only had a fraction of a second to watch in horror as the appendage flew away before the creature reared up for another strike.
Sunny managed to shadow-step out of range before the follow-up could kill him, but it was a close thing.
Reappearing beside Saint, who kept unleashing arrows both at the silver beasts and the Guardian, he grimaced.
The burns on his side were actively growing worse, as if they were still burning. With Shadow Manifestation, he grew another arm to restore the one he had just lost, but it would be weaker than the original. And the original had failed to do anything but superficial damage.
Sunny regarded the situation with cold calculus.
The storm clouds were getting more numerous, raining lightning and fire in equal measure, so much so that the avatar tasked with defending against them was slowly getting overwhelmed.
The fire beams were predictable and not too hard to avoid, but the damage they dealt was severe, as well as growing worse over time. His side hurt so much that he was starting to consider cutting the flesh off just to get rid of it.
The silver beasts were, just barely, under control, but it took a great deal of essence to stave them off, and he was starting to run out of it.
The manifested weapons were probably the least dangerous, but their constant barrage and ever-changing patterns had almost ended him more times than he was willing to admit.
The roots were by far the biggest menace. They kept multiplying, already taking two of his avatars to handle them, and their combination with the other blessings only made them more harrowing.
He had nothing to fear from shadows, but the guardian could wrestle control away at critical moments to mess with his plans. It hadn't started using them in conjunction with the other blessings either.
Faced with all of these dangers, Sunny could do nothing but take the most logical choice…
Grabbing Saint's shoulder and recalling his shadows, Sunny teleported away from the mountain and straight back to the Ivory Tower.
…running away.
-------------------------------------------
Nephis hummed softly to herself as she passed to the next page.
The book was getting interesting. Lady Aria, a righteous knight who had vowed to fight against injustice, was just about to confront the evil patriarch of the clan she had once served. Accompanying her were Sir Nyx, cunning and dangerous but with a tender side, as well as Sir Lucis, bright and honourable to a fault yet not lacking in guile of his own.
She had been doubtful at first, but Revel's recommendation wasn't bad at all.
It was just as the confrontation was reaching its climax and the battle for the fate of the city they lived in was about to start, that a crash could be heard outside.
Inwardly lamenting the interruption, Nephis stood up and looked outside through the window to find out what had happened. All thoughts about the book were instantly banished when she saw the origin of the sound.
Lying on his back, breathing heavily, with his pale face morphed into a grimace of pain, was Sunny.
He was singed all over, especially his right side, where the armour had melted and was biting on the flesh. Dozens of wounds covered his body, though the worst part had to be his right arm, which had been torn off just above the elbow.
It only took a second to take on all of the details before she moved.
Nephis opened the window and vaulted over it without thinking twice. Her landing created a small cloud of dust, but she paid no attention to it before she broke into a sprint.
However, before she could reach Sunny, Saint intercepted her, standing in front of him protectively with sword and shield in hand. Nephis managed to stop herself two meters away and regarded the other woman warily.
"He needs healing." She stated that when Saint showed no hint of moving aside, struggling to keep her voice even and not just barreling past her.
The taciturn shadow did not answer, but in her red eyes, she saw a clear warning. If she stepped any closer, she would attack.
"I know that you don't trust me, and you have all the right to do so." She said through gritted teeth. "But he needs help more than he needs you to fight me right now."
Saint's grip on her weapon grew tighter, her posture screaming that she held no intention of moving.
Just as Nephis extended her arm to summon the [Blessing of the Moon], a pained cough was heard, coming from the man lying behind the taciturn shadow.
"Let her pass," Sunny said amidst more of the same pained coughs.
It took a moment for the order to register, a long, dangerous moment in which the knight could have pounced on her at any moment. When it finally did, she did not obey immediately; in fact, she looked just as unwilling to move as she had been before.
However, a single backward glance at him finally managed to convince her.
Sunny's armour had been dismissed, revealing even more wounds that had been hidden beneath, as well as his blackened skin, skin that was, before their own eyes, burning up even now, spreading to the rest of his body at a slow but steady pace.
With narrowed eyes, Saint stepped aside, her grip not lessening even a fraction. Nephis was sure that the shadow would strike her down on the spot if she displayed even a hint of having nefarious intentions.
Casting the thought aside, she closed the distance and kneeled beside him, gently placing a hand over his chest. The pained hiss he made at the contact was all it took to tell her just how bad it truly was. The fact that he was willingly allowing her to heal him already proved it.
Silver fire coated her hand and spread over his body, bringing him relief in the same breath it brought her burning agony. At this moment, she couldn't bring herself to mind the pain, not with the state he was in.
Agonisingly slow, the charred skin started to recover, the flames still licking at it, smothered by her own despite how much they were resisting. Her gaze went to his arm next, where flesh and bone started knitting themselves together, growing a new one.
However, what held most of her attention was his face. The strain eased little by little, his eyes growing more focused with each second that passed, breath evening out, a tentative, almost mesmerising peaceful expression falling over his features.
Nephis spent what felt like a long time, but was actually seconds like that, kneeling over his prone form, channelling her aspect without pause or complaint despite the harrowing pain it inflicted on her.
It took more effort than she had ever expended on healing someone, as if the injuries were actively resisting her attempts at healing Sunny, but in the end, she managed.
"What happened?" Nephis asked, her eyes roaming for anything she could have missed.
A small breath of relief escaped her when she found none, and finally allowed herself to let go of her aspect.
Letting out a final cough, Sunny smiled sardonically. "Nothing much, I just got into a fight with an unimaginably strong and ancient being."
"So the usual." She deadpanned.
He regarded her silently for a moment, dark eyes meeting her grey ones without comprehension, and then, he broke into a laugh.
"Yeah, the usual." He agreed before smirking arrogantly. "But you should have seen the other guy."
Nephis quirked an eyebrow.
His smirk faltered, but Sunny managed to keep it together. "I'm serious. By the time I was done, no trace could be seen of the bastard."
The eyebrow climbed higher.
"Yeah, I know. Pretty impressive, right?"
"That's not what happened."
Sunny made an indignant noise, but, quite tellingly, did not refute her words.
Nephis snorted despite herself. It was truly Sunny to paint what looked like a crushing defeat into a victory. She didn't even need to listen to his words; she knew him well enough to spot the irritation bleeding through the mock-indignation.
"By the way..." He began slowly, a little red painting his cheeks. "Do you intend to get off me?"
Confused, Nephis looked away from his face, blinked and then grew a little red herself. Without even realising, she had been moving closer during the healing process, and now, she was almost straddling him.
Without saying a word, she stood up and stepped away, fighting to keep her expression composed. From the corner of her eye, she spotted Saint glaring at her, but at this moment, the embarrassment she felt was far more scathing.
He stood up too, and a robe of shadows took shape, covering his naked chest.
Sunny opened his mouth to say something-
Before he could, the sound of a pair of feet quickly approaching interrupted him.
They turned in unison, just in time to see Kai approaching hurriedly.
"Sunny!" he exclaimed, concern clear in his face.
Close behind were Effie and some of her Firekeepers, confusion painted on their faces. Sunny waved cheerfully at them, his posture carefree despite the grievous injuries he had suffered.
Before he was engulfed by their chatter, he sent her a small, begrudging, thankful smile.
A smile of her own found its way to her face.
-------------------------------------------
Little by little, the temple grew smaller on the horizon as the Ivory Tower resumed its journey.
Sunny observed it without saying anything, feeling the gaze of the Guardian on him even now, watching him just as much as he watched it.
Weaver had told him that he would only find death atop the mountain. If he had continued fighting, he might very well have. Not only that, the bastard had told him to run away to his master, and that was what he had done in the end.
His jaw clenched so hard it hurt, shadows stirring at his feet in reaction to his emotions.
Above all, what infuriated him the most was proving Weaver right.
Slowly, he exhaled, trying to force his mind back under control before it could spiral into dangerous thoughts. He tried, and failed.
He had already been determined before, but this reinforced it.
He couldn't stop.
Not now. Not ever.
Weaver and Fate had more than proven it. He would never be free as long as there was someone stronger out there.
The solution was simple enough: he would just have to become a being so immensely powerful that the mere idea of challenging him would be ridiculous.
Deep within, a part of him despaired.
It was the same part that had only ever wished for a quiet, peaceful life: opening a café and memory shop, living a lavish life with his more than earned fortune, growing old and lazy, surrounded by friends and maybe even a family at some point.
Sunny hesitated, his mind lingering on that simple dream that seemed more impossible with each passing day. It wasn't too late. He could still do that.
The moment the thought came up, a flood of memories assaulted him.
Shadow and Oblivion.
Eirene, slowly being corrupted before his eyes while he was impotent to do anything.
Vaelkar's corrupted self, his mere gaze enough to almost kill him.
Staring at the tapestry of fate and its aftermath.
Running away from the Herald Devil.
"Survive. Until you come back to me, you must survive."
That part, Sunny crushed without mercy.
He couldn't stop.