Chapter Summary: What luck giveth, luck taketh.
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Nephis stepped out of the Ivory Tower and into the soaked grass of the island.
Immediately after, she realized that she had sorely underestimated the situation.
From inside the tower, the flock had looked vast. Standing beneath the open sky, however, its true scale became chilling, as what had been hundreds a moment before turned into thousands. Nightmare Creatures filled every direction she looked, circling the flying island in countless layers. It didn't stop there, as more shapes emerged from the dark clouds every few moments, joining the ever-growing mass surrounding them.
For a fleeting moment, Nephis felt like a canary trapped in a cage made of flesh and feathers.
Thousands of wings beat in the dark sky above, illuminated solely by the occasional lightning strike and the gargantuan golden orbs.
Countless eyes remained fixed on the island below. The entire flock moved with eerie coordination, maintaining its formation as it tightened the circle around the Ivory Tower. And still, not a single one looked like it was about to attack.
It was almost as though they were waiting for them to make the first move.
Nephis' brows furrowed in concern. Creatures of higher Classes possessed intelligence, even more so when they were of a high Rank. A Great Terror couldn't be anything but dangerously sharp.
The familiar runes appeared before her eyes, through which she navigated quickly as she kept walking, until finally she reached the most recent Memory she had received.
[Memory Name: Halcyon Days.]
[Memory Description: Once upon a time, the noble Zephiras governed with wisdom and grace beneath the dark skies. The young bird, born of the union between Merias the Golden and his loathsome mate, labored without respite, and through its and its countless descendants' devotion ushered in an age of unparalleled prosperity. Yet fate proved fickle. On one ill-starred night, the sins of its wretched mother brought that gilded era tumbling into ruin, casting all that had been built into corruption and madness.]
Her gaze swept across its description quickly, reviewing what she had read days before.
Zephiras was likely to be the Great Terror and patriarch of the flock that had been besieging them all along. The description spoke of someone who must have been both capable and intelligent, which was bad news for them.
By the time she was done reading, both she and Sunny had reached Ki Song.
The Sovereign stood near the edge of the island, both heads tilted upward toward the immense shape hidden among the storm clouds, beady eyes tracing the still Terror without difficulty.
Nephis studied her briefly.
Ki Song looked wary, but not frightened. It was, despite herself, reassuring in a way. For once, they wouldn't have to face an impossible challenge on their own.
"Can you invoke your Dream Gate?" Nephis asked calmly.
"I can't," Ki Song replied without hesitation, her gaze never leaving the Terror. "Just as I assume you two can't return to the Waking World, either."
Sunny smiled faintly. "Can't be that easy, huh?"
The Raven chuckled softly. "What is life without some excitement from time to time?"
He gave her a flat look. "Peaceful."
"Exactly. Boring." She continued cheerfully, acting as though she hadn't heard him.
Sunny rolled his eyes, irritation clear on his pale face.
Nephis felt a little amused despite the situation. His annoyed expression had always been a little funny, after all. She wiped all traces of amusement from her face when he turned toward her, more than aware that he could tell even though her expression had barely changed.
"What?"
"Nothing," she said hurriedly.
Sunny shot her a disbelieving look, and she chose to switch topics before he could dig deeper.
"You couldn't feel them coming?"
Sunny hesitated briefly before answering. "I could, but... It's strange. I was perfectly aware of the approach of countless shadows. I just kept dismissing them as unimportant."
Nephis blinked. That was unexpected.
Sunny was not the type to ignore such a thing easily; if anything, he was the opposite. If he had sensed the flock and still failed to react appropriately, then there was likely more at work than simple carelessness.
He appeared to reach a similar conclusion soon after. He remained silent for a moment before shaking his head.
"Can you defeat it?" he asked Ki Song, his own gaze drifting toward the Terror hanging in the air.
The Sovereign hummed thoughtfully, the sound vaguely ominous coming from her corvid vocal cords. "If I were within my Domain and had proper vessels? Probably. Here, within the heart of its domain and surrounded by thousands of its spawn?" She shrugged. "I'll see what I can do."
Sunny looked unconvinced, probably just as much as Nephis herself was.
He glanced toward her next, and she understood immediately what he was thinking. Probably because she was thinking the exact same thing.
"Then we retreat."
Their voices overlapped perfectly.
The decision was obvious.
The flock already numbered in the thousands, and it continued growing with every passing moment. Most of the creatures were of the Fallen Rank, but she could already spot several Corrupted and Great ones hidden among them.
It simply wasn't worth the risk. The Ivory Tower was valuable, but their lives were more valuable.
They could always return later with reinforcements and a proper strategy, after all.
Ki Song nodded approvingly. "Good. I was going to suggest the same." She spread her wings wide. "I'll distract their leader. You two open up a path and run."
Before either of them could respond, the Raven launched herself into the sky.
As she rose higher, hundreds of figures appeared around her, manifesting like mirages in the desert.
There were hundreds of them, most of which Nephis could easily recognize. They were, after all, the very creatures they had been slaying during their journey across the Stormsea. Ki Song had been storing them inside her Soul Sea all along.
For a brief moment, they drifted motionless in the rain, and then they moved, spreading across the air in tight formations that would maximize their effectiveness.
The sky erupted into chaos soon after, as Ki Song's forces collided with the surrounding flock.
Nephis watched thoughtfully.
The ability was quite impressive, and the more she could learn about it now, the better. It was a pity that Ki Song was so secretive about it. All of her attempts to glean information had failed so far.
Before she could dwell on the matter any further, her shadow shifted as Nightmare answered her call.
The black stallion emerged from within, burning red eyes, quickly analyzing the situation before letting out an exasperated huff. She patted his neck affectionately, and after letting out another exasperated huff, Nightmare set to work as subtle waves of his dream curse started spreading.
Sunny's shadow distorted next, and from within, Saint emerged in all of her armored glory.
She inclined her head respectfully toward him before raising her sword and shield. She ringed them against each other twice and, with wings made of darkness, shot into the sky. She kept getting better at shaping the elemental darkness she wielded now.
Nephis drew a slow breath next, bracing herself for the familiar pain that would follow. Wings of pure white flame unfolded from her back, while at the same time, searing pain began crossing every millimeter of her body.
Across from her, shadows gathered around Sunny as shadow wings appeared behind him. At the same time, her flames surrounded him, magnifying his strength, just as half of his shadows coiled around her.
Lastly, they shared a long, commiserating look, and then they launched themselves into the sky as well.
The storm rushed past as they ascended, moving through the relentless rain and sharp winds. It didn't take long for Nightmare Creatures to start attacking, as countless avian horrors descended upon them, screeching madly.
Nephis scanned the flock while accelerating toward her closest opponent, already searching for the weakest section of the encirclement.
The [Blessing of the Moon] flashed through the rain, intercepting the charge of the Corrupted Demon mid-motion and forcing the creature aside, opening a path forward.
Nephis pressed onward without slowing, her eyes still searching for the best way out.
Yet even as she focused on the battle ahead, a strange sensation lingered in the back of her mind. It had been there even before she had stepped outside.
The feeling that she was being watched.
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Ki Song rose through the storm swiftly, wings swimming through the rain and wind as though neither dared obstruct her passage.
Below, the Ivory Tower had already become a shrinking silhouette swallowed by the relentless rain and chaos, and above it, the sky was filled with the battle between her vessels and the flock.
The Great Terror was there, looming like a dark god over the war taking place.
It was already changing, shifting between forms in a manner that made even Ki Song tempted to recoil in disgust. She had seen its kin morph before, but their patriarch's transformation was even more harrowing to witness.
She had tried to probe it already. Tried being the keyword.
Every attempt had been met with the same answer: a living wall of Corrupted and Great horrors, a flock that surged into existence whenever she sought to close the distance, as if the creature couldn't be bothered to meet her challenge personally. Her own vessels were already engaged across the stormfront, tearing through the lesser ranks wherever they could, but none of them had been granted the opportunity to carve a path clean enough to matter.
It was rather irritating. Fighting was a failure in her eyes, and having to directly fight an enemy without knowing exactly what to expect from them beforehand was even more so.
She had stronger vessels, of course. Vessels that could punch through the barriers the Terror liked to hide behind so much. But they were needed elsewhere. Gone were the days when she could bring her full might to bear in battle. Nowadays, her territories spanned too large an area to leave undefended, and every vessel had to be used to the fullest.
Only if things became truly dire would she risk withdrawing them.
"A single scratch is all I need," she thought idly while directing her army. "A single scratch, and I will paint the sky red with its blood."
It was a pity that the strongest of the flock were only Great Beasts. It meant that the Corrupted Titan she currently inhabited remained her most powerful instrument here, which was almost stifling in comparison to her stronger vessels.
The storm did not help.
It pressed in from every angle, as though the world itself had decided to interfere. Lightning struck continuously wherever she was in deafening, blinding flashes. Meanwhile, the rain fell with a heaviness that had nothing to do with its previous intensity. And then there was the wind, blowing against her as if she had personally insulted it.
She turned one of her heads warily toward the golden orbs. Was it their doing, perhaps?
Still, despite the constant inconveniences, Ki Song advanced.
She moved through the chaos of battle unhurriedly, killing as she went, each motion of her body, no matter how small, reaping lives. Nightmare Creatures broke against her might and fell away without ceremony, their numbers thinning only to be replaced by more.
A Great Beast broke formation suddenly and lunged at her. She slipped aside without effort, the attack passing where she had been a heartbeat earlier, and in that same motion she finally saw it: the gap left behind by the Beast hadn't been filled yet, opening a path, however narrow, toward the Great Terror itself.
It was a trap, most likely. But what was life without some excitement from time to time?
The creatures reacted instantly to her advance and surged to close the distance. A barrier of wings, talons, and shifting bodies formed in her path, but Ki Song did not slow down.
With the weight of her Will behind her, her body blurred forward even faster as she broke through the blockade, leaving broken bodies behind.
The Great Terror loomed ahead, bigger even than some Cursed creatures she had faced, its mere presence distorting the storm around it. Golden and abyssal eyes -too many to bother counting- fixed upon her with a madness beyond words.
And still, she did not think for even a moment that it lacked guile.
It did not screech as she approached, merely observing her quietly. Then its ever-changing shape finally started settling. Flesh contracted, shifted, and redefined itself until its monstrous body collapsed inward into a human-sized form.
Another lightning strike blinded her just as it finished shrinking.
When the storm cleared enough for Ki Song to see again, what remained was a woman. She was breathtakingly beautiful, with pale, corpse-like skin, lustrous black hair, and a pair of eyes that were as mesmerizing as they were eerie.
Ki Song paused mid-flight for the briefest instant, regarding the perfect copy of herself with curiosity.
"Mother would hate what you have become," the creature said.
Ki Song remained silent for a moment, merely hovering in place. Then she laughed.
"Is that the best you could come up with?" she replied mockingly.
Its spawn might have been effective against her adorable little heirs, filled with doubt and regrets as they were. But against someone like her? Someone who had long since come to terms with her personal demons?
Ki Song was almost amused.
If the Great Terror was disappointed by her reaction, it did not show it. Instead, its ruby lips stretched into a wide smile that did not belong on any natural face.
"Bold words," it said with a voice filled with malice, "from a woman cowering under the blanket from the big bad monster beneath the bed."
Ki Song tilted her head slightly, the amusement fading a little. "That was almost clever," she mused aloud. "For your kind, that is."
The creature lunged forward, pale hands morphing into long, serrated claws that sliced through the air with a sharp hiss.
She met it directly, her talons meeting its claws in a clash loud enough to burst the eardrums of lesser Awakened.
"The thing your daughters fear most is you," it whispered softly as it kept slashing at her in a frenzy.
Ki Song wasn't amused anymore. Scratch that, she was starting to feel rather... irritated.
Another claw burst from the Terror's chest right at that moment, so fast she almost didn't have time to dodge. Employing her Will, she solidified the air around them at the same time she started drawing away. The Terror's own tyrannical Will came crashing down, breaking through her hasty barrier, yet not fast enough to catch her.
Of the attack that would have taken the talon whole, only a single clawed finger managed to land and leave a small scratch on the flesh above it. The wound immediately started getting worse, rotting from the inside out as if it had been left unattended for days on end.
Ki Song put some more distance between them, one of her heads spearing through a Corrupted creature foolish enough to think her vulnerable while the other's eyes remained fixed on the Terror. It was already copying her Aspect, far faster than she had expected, even with the rank difference.
She would have to end this quickly.
Behind the creature, the rain wall was broken as three of her Great Beast vessels emerged in near-perfect synchrony. They struck without warning, coordinated and precise, their arrival masked within the chaos of the weather itself.
Even the Terror had failed to see it coming, distracted by her feint and her indulgence of its rather vexing words.
And yet, it did not seem worried. It did not even look back.
Its Will descended fully, a crushing weight that slowed the lesser vessels long enough for them to be unable to react when its back erupted into a harrowing mass of maws filled with sharp teeth. Their end came so swiftly that Ki Song did not waste any more attention on them.
Still, they had provided a sufficient distraction.
The rain answered her Will, stopping mid-fall as countless droplets sharpened in an instant, transforming into a suspended field of fine, lethal needles that hung in the air for a moment before she launched them forward amid a sonic boom.
The Great Terror shifted, evading with infuriating ease the first, second, and third volleys.
It did not matter, for she had already closed the distance once more and struck mid-motion. It could do nothing to stop one of her beaks from piercing its chest.
And still, despite the perilous stakes of the ongoing battle, she couldn't avoid being distracted by the sensation that she was being watched.
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Nephis hung in the air beneath the storm, her sword raised high above her head.
It ignited a moment later, turning into a towering, blazing blade that descended upon the Nightmare Creatures like a guillotine. In its wake, only ashes and the smell of charred flesh remained.
Dozens of them had died, and still, even more always seemed to be close behind.
Nightmare Creatures filled the sky in layered waves, circling, tightening, and reforming whenever a gap appeared so quickly it almost felt as though one had never been opened to begin with. Nightmare's sleep curse was spreading through them, dulling movements and clouding their maddened minds, but it wasn't even close to being enough to open the opportunity she was looking for.
At her side, Sunny tore through the sky with each swing of his gargantuan odachi, having expanded into a towering colossus that raked through the aerial menaces with brutal efficiency. Each movement sent broken bodies plummeting into the waves below, only for more to take their place a moment later.
Behind him, Saint moved with deadly intent, intercepting every attempt to flank him, her shield catching every blow that so much as came close to landing. Her armor was already cracked in many places, and ruby dust was pouring freely from a particularly bad hit she had taken from a Great Beast, but Nephis was sure that it would take far more to put the taciturn woman out of commission.
They were advancing, killing Nightmare Creatures at breakneck speed, and yet, despite all of their efforts, it wasn't enough.
No matter how many fell, the flock refused to break. It matched their assault with endless ferocity and unexpected cunning.
Her current opponent was a great example of that.
It was a Great Beast that acted far wiser than its Class should allow. It did not charge at her, nor did it commit to any attack. Instead, it hovered at the edge of her reach, refusing to engage her directly and focusing solely on avoiding her while its lesser siblings kept harassing her.
Infuriatingly, whenever she tried to slip past it, it was always there to interrupt her, then run away the moment she tried to retaliate. All of her feints had failed so far, too.
Rather than continuing the game of cat and mouse, she had become an unwilling participant in, she changed tactics.
Nephis charged forward as she had done many times before, fending off the attacks coming her way as she did so. Just as she was about to reach the distance at which the creature would run away, she allowed her transformation to unfold fully.
Heat erupted outward in an instant, as though a volcano had erupted in the span of a second. Rain vanished, vaporized into nothingness, and the darkness disappeared beneath the sudden brilliance that spread through the storm.
Nephis stopped being a woman and instead became an ocean of white fire.
The Great Beast had no time to retreat and was swallowed in an instant, along with dozens of surrounding creatures caught too close to escape the expanding inferno.
She did not have time to feel triumph at the successful maneuver before blinding pain assaulted her, heralding the formation of her fifth core. Even in her true form, without flesh to be burned or torn apart, she felt as though her very existence was being unraveled by the horrific sensation.
The world wasn't kind enough to let her recover before more creatures assaulted her, madly diving into the ocean of fire she had become, uncaring for their own well-being or the pain they were in, so long as they could inflict just as much upon her.
Gritting nonexistent teeth, Nephis invoked the names of fire and destruction.
The sea of white flame expanded once more, swallowing the sky and erasing hundreds of them at the same time. For the first time, there was a narrow gap in their formation, one that wasn't replenished instantly.
She did not allow herself to hesitate before taking it. Her form collapsed inward, condensing back into herself as she surged toward it.
Even before the transformation had finished reversing, she could already feel it: Sunny's call through the shadows, teleporting her away just as he was teleporting himself.
And then the sky cracked.
A cyclopean bolt of lightning struck, its mere presence inundating their surroundings with so much radiance that all shadows were erased. They vanished in an instant, and the teleportation was interrupted before it could complete.
Nephis reappeared in the same spot, confusion playing clearly across her face. Sunny looked at her at the same moment, the same confusion reflected on his own.
Then, at the same time, their eyes narrowed. It wasn't the first casualty of that kind, and the incidents were becoming more and more egregious with each passing second.
And yet, left with no other option, they pressed on regardless.
More of the same strange incidents kept happening whenever they managed to open a gap, small as it was, making escape impossible.
At some point, exhaustion began to settle in, followed by their essence reserves starting to run low.
They had already been fighting on a daily basis before this final confrontation had arrived, and it showed. The strain had accumulated slowly, and now it was here to collect its debt.
Nephis met Sunny's gaze amid the din of battle, and without saying a single word, they arrived at the same conclusion.
Saint was dismissed in the same instant Sunny dissolved into a shadow. Nightmare was recalled a heartbeat later.
The flock shifted warily, noticing the change too late to react.
He coiled around her swiftly, merging their power into a single unified whole that almost made her feel invincible.
Nephis did not hesitate for even a second, reaching inward and shattering a core before the flock could respond.
The explosion that followed made all the previous ones feel like ants before a giant, and by the time the light finally began to recede, there was only emptiness left.
All of the Nightmare Creatures around them were gone. So was the rain, as though it did not dare fall in their presence. All that remained was a void stretching for kilometers across the sky.
More pain followed; her fifth core was growing back, followed by the sixth.
She did not wait, no matter how much pain she was in, and neither did Sunny. They launched themselves forward toward freedom, only for their attempt to be thwarted once again.
Flying away failed, blown back by impossibly strong winds. Teleportation failed, interrupted by blinding strikes of lightning. Even trying to dive into the waves below failed, as the same impossibly strong winds kept them airborne.
Eventually, Nephis slowed, and so did Sunny.
For a moment, they simply hovered in the air amid the unfolding disaster, the cage of flesh around them already rebuilding piece by piece.
Nephis met his eyes, her intentions clear.
Sunny sighed tiredly, then nodded in return.
Together, they turned and flew toward the distant clash where Ki Song and the Great Terror were fighting. If they couldn't retreat, then they might as well try to kill that abomination.
"It's just a Great Terror," she said, attempting to sound encouraging.
Sunny shot her a glare and refused to answer.
Her lips twitched upward despite herself.
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Sunny moved through the battlefield swiftly, shadows changing around him into countless shapes as he intercepted a Great Beast mid-lunge and redirected it into a group of its brethren.
It hadn't been long since they joined the fight against the Terror, and he was already feeling the increased pressure. The damn thing and the flock surrounding it were even more savage and tenacious than the ones circling around the edges of the battle.
Even now, he could scarcely allow himself fractions of a second to regain his breath without being attacked by countless, sharp talons.
At the same time he parried the blow of a Corrupted Tyrant, a shadow rampart rose behind him, intercepting the Great Terror -currently wearing Ki Song's face- as it attempted to slip past the Sovereign's vessel and strike at Nephis. The impact reverberated through his construct, breaking it instantly, yet slowing it down enough for Changing Star to get away in time.
His attention was forced elsewhere in the same instant as he was assaulted by even more Nightmare Creatures.
"I really need a vacation after this," he muttered morosely.
The situation, if he was being generous, was deteriorating.
Nightmare Creatures were everywhere, an unbroken tide of wings and talons and shifting forms that left no openings. And at the center of it all, the Great Terror continued to move, desperately avoiding every attack from Ki Song and Nephis.
Worse than that, Sunny could not shake the sensation that something vast was watching them closely, like a hand resting above a board game, waiting to see which pieces would break first.
He had no other option but to push the thought aside when one of the Great ones collided with him in a tangle of limbs and feathers that cracked all of his chest armor.
Sunny managed to disentangle himself from the creature a moment later and, despite the abused screams of his ribs, teleported away to take advantage of the minuscule gap he spotted.
He emerged behind the Great Terror in an instant, odachi already moving in a single decisive strike aimed at the creature's neck.
Everything slowed down.
The blade itself moved as though it were passing through molasses, slowed down to a crawl despite carrying all of his strength. Fury rose in Sunny's eyes as he felt its Will pressing back against his almost nonexistent one and brushing him aside with contemptuous ease.
The Terror turned around smoothly, its clawed hand already sweeping for his neck.
Sunny vanished instantly and reappeared several meters away, but the strike had still reached him in part through the shadows. Pain flared along his arm as the wound opened, shallow at first, tolerable even. Until it started getting worse all on its own, that was.
He hissed in pain, feeling the burn as it began widening.
Ki Song's Aspect combined with the creature's Will. It was a match made in hell.
It felt odd; he hadn't bled in years thanks to [Blood Weave], and now he was finally seeing it happen again. It could almost feel nostalgic if not for how damn much it hurt.
At least there was a silver lining. He had the best healer in the world, two worlds even, on his side.
The white fire surrounding him shone brighter as Nephis started healing him. The wound resisted for a long moment, as if it wanted nothing more than to keep growing until nothing was left of his arm.
A full minute passed before it closed completely, which spoke volumes about how truly harrowing the Terror's power was. And about how dangerous Ki Song herself was.
Finally recovered, Sunny stopped running from the flock and rejoined the fight.
He didn't want to admit it, but they weren't winning. To be fair, they weren't losing either... yet.
Both he and Nephis were starting to run out of essence, not to mention the accumulated exhaustion. Ki Song, by contrast, remained in good shape, but she wasn't without problems of her own, either.
Besides fighting the Terror, she was also contending with the flock through her vessels. Even worse, the Terror had already copied her Awakened ability, and more and more of the creatures they slew were rising to fight against them instead of being brought to their side. She had also taken a few hits and was working hard to keep her main vessel in good condition against the power of her own Aspect.
Sunny grimaced, feeling as though things couldn't get any wo—
He stopped that line of thought immediately.
The universe was always listening and loved nothing more than proving him wrong.
He was still too slow, for immediately after, the Terror started changing.
Half of its hair turned silver. One eye dulled into gray. Its face shifted in a way that was no longer a carbon copy of Ki Song's, but an unsettling blend of Nephis' and Ravensong's.
White flame erupted around it instantly afterward, undoing all the damage it had taken, with even the gaping hole in its chest that had been there from before they joined the fight, filling in dizzyingly fast. The creature screeched in abject pain as it did, Nephis' Flaw never one to let itself remain unknown.
All three of them froze for a split second, taking in the terrible implication that the simple act represented.
Sunny's head hung low as he muttered bitterly, "Damnation."
The flames dimmed the moment its wounds disappeared, but it did not hesitate to call them back whenever an injury, no matter how small, was inflicted upon it.
Just three minutes after manifesting Nephis' Aspect, his worst fears were proven right as the Terror started changing again.
Black spread across its hair, covering two-thirds of it. Its face changed too, mixing all three of them into one. Even before the transformation was complete, the Terror had already started teleporting away to avoid a synchronized strike from Ki Song and himself.
Sunny blinked, feeling oddly cheated.
Not only could the bastard copy the three of them at the same time, but it also seemed to be getting faster at it.
A gigantic blade of white flame tore through the air toward him, and he had no more time to rant inwardly.
He twisted away just in time, the blade passing millimeters away from skewering him. It left him dangerously close to the Terror, whose lips spread into an eerie smile that carried touches of all three of them.
"She will betray you again," it spoke softly, its tone intimate, almost caring.
Sunny froze, the words easily piercing through the din of battle.
From the corner of his eye, he spotted Nephis freeze mid-motion as well, halting her attempt to get him out of danger.
The distraction, brief as it was, was all it took. A Nightmare Creature struck him from behind, its sharp talons raking across his back, digging deep enough to touch bone. The wound worsened instantly under the Terror's influence.
White fire surged again, and the damage started stabilizing, but the pain remained agonizingly sharp.
The Great Terror did not wait before speaking again, its words directed at Nephis this time.
"He's only waiting for the perfect moment to kill you."
Unlike him, Nephis did not freeze, erupting instead into an even more violent charge.
What she did not see, as it was outside her field of vision, was the claw growing from the Terror's back, already beginning to shine with baleful white flame.
He teleported both of them away just in time to avoid the claw strike, which grew tenfold in size just before being unleashed.
They reappeared together between a cluster of Ki Song's vessels.
For a fraction of a second, their eyes met. Something complicated passed through her gaze, just as he assumed it did through his.
Distantly, he noticed Ki Song meeting the Terror head-on, their clash bending the storm itself, though Sunny barely registered the exchange beyond its raw intensity.
The creature was speaking again, and while he couldn't hear it over the rain and thunder, there was no missing the fury in Ki Song's avian features.
He waited a little longer, both for the harrowing wound across his back to heal and to regain his breath. He met Nephis' eyes once more, finding that she was also taking the opportunity to rest.
Sunny's mouth opened, but no words came out before closing again.
Right, this was not the time.
She understood anyway, as she always did.
Fortunately, before things could become any more awkward, one of Ki Song's lesser vessels approached, already close to being destroyed.
"Keep it busy," she ordered. "I have to bring over one of my strongest bodies, and that will take more time and concentration."
Sunny and Nephis shared a look, then nodded.
Her sword flared brighter than ever, bright and hot enough that even the transcendent metal was beginning to melt. Names followed, though Sunny couldn't tell which ones.
His odachi expanded next as the shadows swelled in size and grew in number, adding enough weight that even he felt the strain of wielding it.
A single thought delivered them behind the Terror, their respective blades already mid-swing toward its back.
The creature was already moving before they had completely emerged from the shadows, precisely in the direction they had hoped it would.
And then, just as it was about to get out of the way, the creature froze and screeched in pure, unadulterated pain.
Never in his life had Sunny heard such an agonized cry. The sound alone conveyed a measure of pain that was impossible to quantify or describe. He had personally endured horrendous pain, and yet it felt like nothing in comparison to whatever the Terror was experiencing.
Confusion turned into understanding almost instantly as realization hit.
The Terror had finally started copying their Ascended abilities, and it had chosen terribly.
[Longing]. Nephis' Ascended ability that made her immune to corruption. And the Nightmare Creature before him was easily the third most corrupted being he had ever seen.
The contradiction between the two must have been tearing it apart in an unimaginably painful manner.
Even as he thought all of this, his odachi had never stopped moving, and neither had Nephis'.
Their strike landed on its unguarded back and cut so deeply that its spine was revealed, but they did not stop there.
More slashes followed, cutting through flesh, bone, and the creature's attempts to reassert control over itself. Each strike bit deeper than the last, delivering more agony.
They kept going for what could have been seconds or hours until, at last, the Spell's voice cut through the focused haze his mind had become.
[You have slain a Great Terror, Zephiras the Gilded.]
[You have acquired a memory, Gilded Mirror.]
For a moment, he did not move.
Did not even dare breathe.
It had actually died.
A Great Terror slain, just like that. He could scarcely believe it.
The sheer luck it took was astonishing. Among the three of them, it had chosen to copy the worst ability it could right as they were in the perfect position to profit from it.
Sunny found laughter bubbled up in his chest, exhaustion, relief, and the simple joy of living to see another day compounding into an explosive laugh that tore its way out of him and made his chest hurt from how hard he was doing it.
Beside him, Nephis watched, exhaustion clear in her features. However, there was no missing the faint smile playing on her lips.
Ki Song approached next, still inhabiting her Corrupted vessel. They had killed Zephiras so quickly that she hadn't even had time to start summoning whatever it was she had been planning to bring to the fray.
Sunny did not even have the chance to appreciate the bewilderment in her beady eyes before he heard it.
Screeches rose across the storm as the Nightmare Creatures registered the death of their patriarch. Anger rolled out from them in waves, each screech louder than the last as they drove themselves into an even greater frenzy in preparation to avenge their fallen leader.
And then, the screeches... stopped.
It was so abrupt that he failed to notice for a full two seconds.
The flock hesitated next, their forms growing still and filled with what looked like pure, unmistakable fear.
Not even a second had passed since he realized it before they started retreating en masse, their forms disappearing so swiftly behind the clouds and endless storm that he almost thought they had been an illusion.
Sunny did not have time to wonder about the cause before he felt it.
The sensation had returned, that of being watched, and stronger than ever.
Distantly, he noticed Nephis and Ki Song freezing as well. But he barely registered it, because he was already turning and saw... them.
Lightning struck, turning the world white for a moment.
Hovering before the Ivory Tower, the radiant golden orbs remained, as large as -or larger than- the building itself.
And in that instant, when the lightning flashed, he understood.
They were eyes.
Their owner had been revealed, or rather, it had finally allowed itself to be revealed by the lightning.
A creature of impossible size unfolded in the sky, so vast that his mind began to fracture in its attempt to comprehend it, its golden plumage catching the last echoes of lightning like dying stars. Its eyes were not merely radiant anymore. They were deep, layered, impossible, as though entire galaxies had been pressed into the shape of eyes.
Sunny's sight shifted almost involuntarily. The world changed before him, and the truth revealed itself mercilessly.
Resting on the chest of the impossibly large creature, a single radiant core could be seen.
His breath caught, and his blood froze at the sight.
That creature was a Divine.