In the lower reaches of Center Antarctica, a blizzard howled. Its ferocity creates a sound not unlike a myriad of tortured screams, low and deep.
The Winter Beast, the most foul creature of the Chain of Nightmares, was resting. Its territory had been reclaimed and it remained content, regaining strength before it searched for more prey.
Despite the power of the blizzard, it was more shallow than it had been when it invaded Falcon Scott.
However, that blizzard suddenly flared. Though the prismatic and fractured form of the beautiful true body of the Winter Beast had no eyes, it seemed to the winds as if the Titan had opened them.
The blizzard started to grow and swirl faster, the cold reaching levels far beyond what should be humanly possible.
This was because it sensed something, not the tyrannical presence it felt a few months ago, the one that had reached its true body, but a few unique entities.
A strange thing was flying above the Winter Beast. It was a Monster, one whose Soul was strange, like a flowing mirror.
Its shape was that of one of the creatures that flew far higher, in the upper atmosphere. Yet those Soul Cores indicated it was something different from those Corrupted Monster.
However the form was impeccably similar, a long shimmering snake-like creature. It's massive maw and golden scales. Though it had no wings, it elegantly danced among the currents of air, flying at high speeds.
Resting atop the strange mirror-creature were two more concerning entities. One was something familiar, a Shadow Creature that had hidden and escaped the Winter Beast before, further atop was something new.
Another creature with those strange mirror-like Soul Cores, but in this case, there was seven, a Titan.
Yet there was something more intimidating about it than the Transcendent Monster it sat atop.
The Winter Beast had no mouth, yet it roared at the intruders, ready to shatter their corpses in its storm.
…
Mordret's brows furrowed as he took in the storm far below them.
A Corrupted Titan was indeed a most harrowing foe. If he managed to kill it, it would be the most powerful creature he had ever felled. The same was surely true for the young man beside him.
Sunless remained bitter, a scowl on his face as he looked down at the Winter Beast.
A rather mundane-looking outfit adorned him, a long tunic and dainty shoes made it look like he wasn't taking this seriously, but Sunless was probably better protected than Mordret himself.
The tunic and associated ensemble was a Transcendent Memory, most likely of a high tier. Furthermore, it appeared that Sunless himself had undergone a transformation, his very skin seemed to be made of porcelain stone, and a faint glow surrounded him.
That of a Supreme Charm.
Neither of them had shared details on their Aspects or current abilities, but Mordret could infer a few things.
It was disturbing, the only way Sunless could have acquired such a Memory was if that madman, Gehrman, had bequeathed it to him.
Yet he knew that this man would not accept such a gift. He had a spiteful, shrewd heart not too like his own. He wouldn't be able to accept such debt from the Red Judge.
Still, Sunless was in possession of the Memory, so he must have curbed his pride. How else could he have come to wield it?
Something odd was going on with that, but Mordret didn't have time to think about it.
They had spent the past three days preparing, discussing with ambiguity how they would kill a Corrupted Titan.
The good news was that Sunless had been preparing for a long while, and due to Mordret's Aspect he was able to catch up instantly.
A unique part of his Reflections was their ability to copy one's Memories if they were to mirror a human. This was almost always incredibly easy to do since the Reflection simply had to reach the level of Transcendent Beasts, and now that he was a master, such a thing was more than possible.
There were some issues with this though when it came to certain individuals. Sunless, for example, was also a wielder of a Divine Aspect. In the 2nd Nightmare he had managed to create 6 Reflections of the man himself, but at that point he was an Awakened Demon and Mordret's Reflections had received more than enough nourishment from the city he had slaughtered to be able to mirror him.
Now though, he was a Fallen Devil, this made things more difficult. Though he had been developing his Reflections since returning, he was less even with their development. Instead of carving out 6 Soul Cores at once to create Six Reflections, he had only done one at a time, constantly reforging that last Core in order to maintain the physicality and power of his Titan body (or at least a Terror until he could regain that 7th Core).
So the power of his Reflections were uneven.
Usually he had them focus on improving on Rank, and then Class. This was what happened to his first Reflection that had reached the level of Transcendent Monster.
He also had two other Transcendent Beasts.
The thing was, though their raw power was technically greater than Sunless, the Class difference meant that they could not mirror him.
So he had the remaining Reflections who had not Transcended (and would thus need more Soul Essence to rise in Class) and forced their Class evolutions until they could reach the level of Devil.
Now that they reached that, Mordret would need to focus hard on getting their Rank Evolution, as he needed all of his Reflections to be Transcended before Valor arrived. Thankfully, Gehrman was a much kinder employer than Song. As a part of his hunting in the man's "Soul Forest" he not only worked toward earning those unique Memories, but also Soul Shards that he could use for his Reflections.
Indeed Soul Essence was needed for Class evolutions, but Rank evolutions were unique, and required experiences and plenty of kills to get stronger that way.
In the end, Mordret had the following at his disposal, A Transcendent Monster, two Transcendent Beasts, and four Ascended Devils.
Of course, there was a reason why Mordret spent so much effort on making sure that his Reflections could mirror Sunless, and that was because no matter the Rank of the Reflection or the Rank of Memory, the full Memory would be recreated by the Reflection if Sunless himself wielded it in front of them.
It was something akin to a bug in a video game.
Simply creating an Ascended Devil gave him access to the Supreme Memory Sunless had so long as that was the shape they took and the man himself had summoned it.
However, that [Memory of Ice] Charm was not the only reason he would mirror Sunless.
At that moment, Mordret focused on his own eye. Accessing his personal Mirror Realm was easier with a life-sized Mirror, but the nature of mirrors was to warp light, and as such he could also manifest the realm and its contents from the small mirrors that always traveled with him.
Shimmering, and then dulling into shadow, the form of Sunless appeared four times over.
The true Sunless shuddered as his copies all came into existence, also glowing with the pale, powerful defense against cold that the Supreme Charm gave them.
"Another thing," Sunless yelled over the wind. "Don't do that unless I tell you it's okay. In fact, don't do that with any humans. It's damn unnerving."
Mordret's smile was thin as he returned his look.
"I'm afraid that limiting myself in such a way would be grossly unacceptable. So I'll have to refuse on that particular point, my friend."
The young man scowled as the four shadows he cast suddenly moved, covering his body. This was something he had seen before, like how Mordret could have 7 Reflections, Sunless could have 7 Shadows (though since he was only a Devil still, he only had 4).
The enhancement it gave him when all four wrapped around him was truly astounding, his physical power seemed to multiply and the pressure he exuded was suddenly oppressive, it even caused Mordret to be wary.
However, his reflections were perfect, and they too suddenly joined Sunless in that enhancement.
Following this, Sunless summoned another Memory.
This time, it was Mordret's turn to feel displeased. If he didn't have such a control over his own emotions, he probably would have scowled as well.
It was a sword, the material clear as a mirror and impossibly sharp.
Then, Mordret frowned.
He frowned because he knew exactly what this Memory was, it was what Sunless had received after slaying Beastie all that time ago.
He knew this because of something that happened when they had first met. At that time Sunless was carrying a mirror shard of his while falling into the Sky Below the Chained Isles. The mirror shard had come from Beastie, but it was not a gift from the Spell.
Indeed, the Memory Sunless had received for that kill was this one.
There was an interesting thing with the Sky Below, far, far underneath those floating islands was an ocean of Divine Flame, a remnant of the wrath of the Sun God, one of the Six main deities of the Dream Realm.
Sunless had brought out this Memory at that point in order to put it in that flame. That was because the weapon could recreate any elemental infusion that it had encountered.
Its mirror-like appearance as well as the fact that Sunless was studying it before utilizing the Memory confirmed to Mordret that this Memory was essentially the last remaining fragment of Beastie, his first friend.
However, that was not the reason Mordret frowned.
Instead, it was because that weapon was Transcendent.
Again, one of this man's Memories was stronger than it should have been. It was impossible, just like his having a Supreme Charm was impossible.
The only conclusion was that he had somehow upgraded the Memories. He had thought that perhaps Gehrman had done that for him, but that guy couldn't transfer Memories.
So this had to be something else.
He didn't have time to consider that though. The Reflections also summoned the Transcendent Weapon.
These ones did not have the Divine Flame "charge" that Sunless's weapon had, but all he had to do was pass the weapon over their own versions, and soon five weapons emanating the flames of the Sun God were burning them.
Even as they were restrained their heat was something else entirely.
Mordret sighed then. "I am certainly not complaining about this strategy since I myself am not truly risking anything, but are you sure you want to go through with this. That madman was a Titan when he did this, and he died in that attempt. You won't be able to hide in the shadows like last time if your body starts to freeze over."
Suddenly, the air around them seemed to turn stale, the few faint shadows deepened and sharpened.
"Because I'm not going to die," Sunless said. "I promised that thing that it would die, and so it will die. I'm not hiding again. Now get in the damn sword, I'm jumping in a few seconds."
…
The golden snake Reflection they were on abruptly twisted, its golden glow suddenly growing piercing.
Then, with a terrifying roar, it released its power, a ray of gold light struck the outer layers of the storm like a meteor, and following that blast were the multiple Sunny's and Mordret hidden in one of his Reflections versions of [Cruel Sight].
The Memory was perhaps his most versatile, though [Sin of Solace] was likely more potent due to its enchantments, the ability for this glass blade to turn from a sword to a spear while also being able to be imbued with a large variety of elements was incredible.
For someone like him, having [Cruel Sight] at the Transcendent Rank was truly a phenomenal boon. It was tough though. He had slaved over it for weeks straight, and it had actually taken up more time than upgrading the [Memory of Ice] due to how simplistic that Charm was.
Still, he had one advantage that allowed him to pass that hurdle: Gehrman.
He was the only other person who could see Weaves, and though he did not have the affinity for the sorcery, he was incredibly clever and picked up the principals (both basic and advanced) in a matter of hours.
Sunny couldn't think too much about Gehrman or his Memory as the frigid embrace of the Winter Beast enveloped him.
The blast from the now retreating Transcendent Monster lasted for a mere second before shattering and joining the swirl of ice and snow.
So it was onto the next stage of the plan, the flames.
Gehrman had done something similar, lighting up his blood into an incredibly hot blaze that countered the cold.
In truth, most of their "plan" was lifted straight from Gehrman. The pair of Masters just found substitutes for each part of Gehrman's descent.
Unfortunately, neither Sunny nor the Reflections had any means of protecting themselves from heat.
Furthermore, the Divine Flame was even hotter than what Gehrman conjured while also holding more mystical properties.
Now that five sources of that flame were being unleashed, each of them were suffering greatly from the damage, yet nothing grew too dangerous because the cold would quickly turn the burn into frostbite.
This turned into a cycle that forced a perpetual rate of damage. However, it was manageable at the moment.
All Sunny had to do was deal with the pain. Of course, he had dealt with his fair share of pain, so this was ultimately not an issue. But it seemed that the nerves in a human body sent out some really powerful jolts when temperatures rapidly fluctuated.
It wasn't so much that his mind was getting overwhelmed, but the brain as an organ struggled with all the jarring stimuli.
The falling Reflections had no such issue, so Sunny was alone in his struggle.
At the same time, Mordret was hidden snugly in his little mirror. It was just like how Sunny had escaped to the shadows when the Winter Beast had first arrived, since it was on a different dimensional plane, the cold could not reach him.
Sunny gritted his teeth, forcing the Divine Flames to burn even brighter to counteract the worsening cold.
Even with all of this, if the [Memory of Ice] was not Supreme, hell, if it was even Transcendent, then he would have died already.
That Charm was also enhanced by the [Underworld Armament] Enchantment. In the past, this was a part of the [Mantle of The Underworld]. However, now that the Memory was now Soulbound, the ability to increase a Charm's potency was just a part of his Attribute that was born from that Memory- [Marble Shell].
It was compounding factors, just like Gehrman always talked about.
It was all those reasons that Sunny knew that he would win today.
He had to win.
Belle, Samara, Dorn, I swear to you…I'll kill this vile bastard!
In the next second he felt it, the eye of the storm. At this point his muscles were getting revealed as most of his skin was shattered and gone.
His Shadow Sense was largely drowned out by the Winter Beast, but he was given half a second before he truly broke through.
He needed that time to summon two Memories.
[Heavenly Burden] was a needle, a mere Awakened Tool of the 3rd Tier that had a single, simple Enchantment: Those pierced by it will rise into the skies.
Sunny had done some testing earlier, and he found out the following. To counteract the velocity downward, the needle would need 1 whole second before it could start raising him, and the Reflections who summoned this Memory now.
At the same time, he switched out his Charm.
This was a dangerous ploy, but the gamble paid off.
From breaking into the center and reaching the ground it took 3 seconds, roughly how long it took to summon a Memory.
With the heads up from his Shadow Sense, Sunny had managed to get these two Memories summoned before he crash landed.
The Charm he summoned to replace [Memory of Ice] was [Dying Wish]. It had proved instrumental in the Antarctica campaign, as it drew the attention of Nightmare Creatures to him while also giving courage to allies who saw him. What was more important than that, however, was a hidden mechanic.
The Death Charge was a counter that had to be filled with the death of enemies, it had been charged at [1,000/1,000] for a while now, but he hadn't needed to use it until now.
He popped the Death Charge, and the power of all those dead enemies fueled him. The Charm was Transcendent, and it had been charging for a long while. The time it took to heal him was less than a second.
By the time he hit the ground and he started to get covered in frostbite again he was already switching back to [Memory of Ice]. In that time he would be damaged, but not to a degree in which his fighting would be truly inhibited.
So long as this fight did not drag on too long, he would not suffer any serious injuries.
That was fine, Sunny was planning to end things in a few seconds.
He did the last of his summoning then. First, he called for Saint. The Shadow that was once Stone Saint was a Transcendent Devil, and even among creatures on that level she was monstrously powerful.
At the same time, she was offered a single weapon, a Memory that Sunny crafted himself.
It was a one-time-use only weapon. The [Siege Souvenir]. Made from the carapace of a Corrupted Tyrant, the spear was more akin to a needle than anything, yet it held devastating power.
Still, Saint and the Memory both needed to finish forming, so to deal with that time in which they would be vulnerable, Mordret picked up the slack.
Sunny tried to make sense of what the guy was doing, but it was pretty damn chaotic.
The Reflections had become an onslaught of Divine Flame, dodging and performing Shadow Step as the crystalline body of the Winter Beast fought back.
It was odd, the conjured storm did not reach this place, but the cold was now a much more precise and deadly weapon.
It was invisible, and if it reached Sunny he would be dead in seconds even with the Charm.
Which was why it was so astounding that Mordret himself was actually manifested. However, he did not stay that way for longer than 0.2 seconds at a time.
It was incredible and dreadful, the man was hopping between the ice-like faces of the Winter Beast. Its whole body was a reflective surface after all, and Mordret could pop in and out on any side.
Traveling through reflections was more restrictive than through shadows, which existed everywhere, on top of that Mordret had much more practice moving through those dimensions. So when he flitted in and out of reality, it happened at a speed far surpassing the Reflections Shadow Step.
Already those Reflections of Sunny were getting destroyed.
One of them shattered, shards of glass turning to ice immediately as the figure fell apart, but Mordret simply used the new glass as a jumping off point, stabbing a simple spear into the Winter Beasts body over and over.
At the same time, the thing silently wailed.
It took a while for Gehrman to realize what was happening
Is that…Corrosion?
It was another exceedingly rare element that could technically be imbibed in [Cruel Sight], and indeed one of the Reflections had tossed their version of the Memory to Mordret after transforming it into a Spear with its [Shapshifter] Enchantment.
However, the weapon could not replicate previous charges, so Mordret must have summoned another Memory, one that belonged to him, that also gave out the effect of Corrosion.
Sunny had used it only once before, taking it from a Nightmare Creature secreting the foul element all the way back on the Chained Isles, it was just before he fell into the Sky Below and replaced the charge with Divine Flame.
It appeared that Mordret had a source of it on hand, however, as dark cracks started to appear on the sublime surface of the Winter Beast. It crept slowly, but it was clearly agonizing for the Titan.
In a moment of terror, Sunny wondered if Mordret could actually use this tactic, stalling by hiding in mirrors and slowly corroding the Winter Beast to kill it all on his own.
But no, he needed one of his Reflections of Sunny to stay alive in order to maintain [Cruel Sight].
And Sunny needed Mordret to hold back the full fury of the Winter Beast while he did what he needed to.
Grimacing, he let the Shadows protecting him, augmenting his strength leave and wrap around Saint.
Suddenly, the Transcendent Devil was even more harrowing, and the deep red embers behind her dark visage flared with infernal power.
The long white needle that was the [Siege Souviner] had two enchantments. One was [Death Dealer], it was the same Enchantment that allowed him to kill Goliath in one shot. By pouring a great amount of Essence into the weapon, the destructive power it dealt was multiplied several times over.
The other Enchantment had no name, that was because he made it himself.
If it were to have a title, it would be along the lines of "One Time Use". Indeed this Transcendent Memory would permanently break after Saint threw it, the seven Transcendent Soul Shards that powered these two Enchantments would overwork the Memory and unleash untold power.
In truth, Sunny didn't know what was about to happen, but now that they had goen this far it was too late.
This was going to be interesting.
"Firing!" Sunny yelled at the top of his lungs, the command reached him, and the instantaneous appearances of Mordret halted as the single remaining Reflection turned to ice before the Winter Beast.
Saint had pulled back, looking like an Olympic athlete. Her form was perfect, and the muscles beneath her stone armor and skin rippled with such astonishing power that a gust of wind was released from the wind up.
Sunny dove into her shadow, disappearing from the material world.
Even still, he could feel it.
The sheer destruction of the [Siege Souviner].
He was not there to witness it, but Mordret did. The Prince of Nothing was within the Mirror Realm, totally removed from what was happening. However, when Saint unleashed the weapon he suddenly felt as if that was not enough.
A dread rose in him as a blast of pure light and energy was unleashed. The air turned to plasma and an explosion so loud it shook half of the Antarctic Center went off.
The Winter Beast was corroded, it was weakened from its fight with Gehrman, and it faced the brunt of Sunny's spiteful planning.
Underneath all that, the crystalline ice structure that was the true body of the Corrupted Titan, the Winter Beast, turned to ash.
The land behind it was utterly decimated, earth broiled and turned to magma as the plasma generated by the [Siege Sourviner] carved a scar across the largest mountain range on the continent. Where the destructive energy of that weapon went, there was simply nothing left.
Mordret found himself displaced, the reflective surface he resided in was simply annihilated. It took him a while to find a reflective surface, but eventually he found a stray shard of the Winter Beast, it had been broken off by one of the Prince of Nothing's earlier attacks, and it had been flung far and in the opposite direction of the blast.
Mordret manifested himself in the physical realm again, the storm was simply gone. Everything was turned to ash.
Sunny removed himself from Saints shadow, the voice of the Spell congratulating his kill. Dazed, he looked out at the calamity he wrought with the days of Weaving and enormous resources it took to build the ultimate weapon.
It was as he looked out at the scene, thinking of the ones he lost, that the Spell whispered once more to Sunny.
[You have received a Memory.]