A rain of perfectly coordinated attacks came in Arthur's direction at great speed.
He crouched and twisted his torso. The light axe impacted Djinn of War and bounced back. The arm of the Terror that held it modified its momentum, and Arthur used the opportunity to attack.
Godstep activated the next instant, creating a curtain of purple lightning on the battlefield. Yet, the moment it appeared, another new one took its place.
The Terror turned its body toward the first curtain, predicting the attack from that direction, while the Titan with Jesse's face focused on the second.
But a third appeared, blocking the view between the two creatures.
Something Arthur had noticed throughout the battle was that the creatures never stopped looking at each other out of the corner of their dead eyes, always keeping the other in their periphery and acting to cover the other's blind spot.
So, from the moment he noticed it, he began developing the current plan.
The third curtain of purple lightning intensified in color, making it impossible for the creatures to maintain eye contact.
Using the time he gained with that strategy, he began summoning Dawn's Ballad while still using Godstep.
'Come on!'
The sword finally summoned in his hand, but a strange sensation invaded his mind at the same time.
It wasn't a malign sign, in fact, it was information…
Information about Godstep.
The rain of information that invaded Arthur's brain incapacitated him for a second, making the curtain of purple lightning vanish. Giving vision to the two creatures with familiar faces.
The battle seemed to stop at that moment, both sides analyzing each other in detail while the battlefield around them continued in a constant fight.
Creatures of different types passed by their surroundings but completely ignored them—as if they couldn't see them… or couldn't see Arthur.
He didn't know why the Titan opted for this strategy, knowing that if it had drowned him with creatures from the start, it would have been very difficult for him to survive if he didn't use all his cards.
Which he hadn't.
Destruction hadn't been activated on himself or on Djinn of War.
Static Void, King's Presence, and Aether Manipulation had been used, but in different measures. Never at their maximum power.
The only one that had truly helped him at its maximum capacity throughout this fight had been Godstep. But the current of information that settled in his brain indicated the opposite.
Arthur understood immediately that he had deepened his knowledge of the Godrune…
…And that knowledge was slightly terrifying.
Ever since he obtained Godstep with Former King's help, he knew he hadn't obtained the complete knowledge of the rune.
Over these months, he had used the Godrune as a method of teleportation and nothing more. Feeling the Aetheric Pathways to move quickly from point A to point B.
This was a very biased point of view, making his knowledge limited.
Godstep was much more than that, it was an ability of the Edict of Spatium.
Spatium controls space and distance. It allows the manipulation of the physical environment, teleporting or folding space…
Arthur was still far from understanding the latter aspect, but his knowledge of teleportation had been increased.
If the use of Godstep he was exercising was truly teleportation, then… why did purple lightning remain when he used it? Teleportation shouldn't leave traces.
He knew this was actually because he related the rune to lightning, making him travel very fast, but that wasn't the correct use of the Godrune. There, his use was being limited by his knowledge and experience as a human.
'I must stop thinking like a human and see Godstep for what it really is.'
When the Aetheric Pathways opened before him, Arthur could notice how they were vibrating at different frequencies, each pathway having its own.
He always forced himself with his will to navigate these pathways, making his action equal to that of lightning descending from the sky, forcing its way down.
The first lesson Grey taught him was that Aether responds to intention, communion, and perception. Arthur shouldn't force the Aether to move; he should convince it, attune to it, and become part of it.
'Feel the vibrations of each pathway and let it carry me to the desired point through my intention.'
'Change the ethereal frequency of my body so that it vibrates in perfect harmony with the already existing paths. That way my body will simply fall or slide naturally through space, manifesting elsewhere instantly and without resistance…'
At that moment, Arthur stopped seeing himself as a dictator forcing the Aether to obey him. Instead, he became the guide of a river that already knew where to flow…
The Godstep rune activated again on his back, opening all the Aetheric Pathways in front of him… They were vibrating at different frequencies.
Some would take him in the direction of his companions, others would take him away from the battle. Those, Arthur ignored. There were others that would take him in dangerous directions. Those were also ignored.
The only ones he took into account were those that left him in the creatures' blind spots…
They were already using the same strategy as before, always keeping each other in their range of vision, but that wasn't going to save them now.
Arthur didn't take a single step. He didn't even move. The curtain of lightning didn't form at any moment… Yet, when the Terror and Titan realized what had happened, it was already too late.
Godstep carried him through the Aetheric Pathways like a current drags a leaf down a river, without force or resistance, until it deposited him exactly where he needed to be.
That place was on the Titan's back.
The creature with Jesse's face noticed immediately when Arthur appeared there, and using its speed, it managed to avoid a lethal blow… but that didn't prevent its entire right arm from being cut by the edge of Dawn's Ballad.
The Terror reacted slightly later, launching itself to cover its companion. The light axe moving in his direction, but it never reached its destination.
Arthur, using Static Void, froze it in place for a second, leaving it with its arm raised in an awkward position.
What he did next was different from what he had previously performed.
At that moment, Arthur didn't travel through the Aetheric Pathways… it was an Aether sword that did.
The sword that was going to manifest in his hand appeared piercing the Terror's throat…
It was the same process as using the Aetheric Pathways, but instead of sending his body through them, it was sending a sword. The reasoning behind this was very simple.
'If my body can travel through them, why couldn't a sword?'
The sword embedded itself in the Terror's throat, piercing it from side to side. The head didn't detach from the neck but remained attached by a thread of flesh.
Yet not a single drop of blood left the wound.
The Terror had barely left Static Void when it dropped the axe and went to adjust its head. Multiple light shields appeared in the path between them.
Small worms began sprouting from the wound, making the tissue grow as soon as the head was repositioned.
But he was no longer Arthur's target. While he was in an awkward situation for fighting… the previously shown behavior dictated that the Titan would try to protect him, making its attention on its companion and not on him.
Arthur used Godstep again, leaving no trace of his direction, and this time it was on the Titan's back.
The multiple light shields protecting the Terror disappeared and tried to form around itself. Some succeeded, but none withstood the edge of Dawn's Ballad.
The Titan tried anyway…
Multiple more shields appeared while others broke, light swords placed in awkward positions for Arthur.
One embedded itself in his arm as he brought the sword down, another embedded itself in his thigh, and a final one headed toward his forehead.
Arthur ignored the first two, and multiple layers of Aether formed around the helmet of Djinn of War, making both forces cancel each other out.
Dawn's Ballad finished tracing its arc, and when it did—
—The Fallen Titan's body with Jesse's face was divided in two.
Arthur watched with a slight smile as the corpse of a person who had been there since his childhood finally met its end.
Now Jesse could finally rest…
'Your Nightmare is over.'
[You have slain a Fallen Titan, Jesse of Mournwing.]
The Terror finished regenerating its head, but without its companion's protection, it was no match for Arthur. It couldn't summon light swords, and obviously, it couldn't summon Memories because it was already dead.
Arthur turned to face it, but immediately noticed how it tried to escape. The rest of the creatures that had previously ignored him turned in his direction.
Letting out howls and screams, they began running toward him.
Godstep carried him quickly in the direction the Terror was fleeing, and Dawn's Ballad finally brought an end to Randall's body.
'Your Nightmare is over.'
[You have slain a Fallen Terror, Randall of Mournwing.]
The rest of the creatures finally reached his location and didn't hesitate to launch themselves at him with their fangs, claws, and all kinds of ways to do damage.
Arthur met them head-on. Though he later regretted it.
---
Minutes passed, but only one thought repeated in Sunny's mind.
'Hgh, it feels really weird having to kill creatures with human faces.'
Still, there was no other option.
Sunny found himself drowning in a ridiculous number of creatures. Shadow Step granting him a level of mobility on the battlefield that, without it, he would have already received mortal damage.
Yet none of the tools he had could get him out of such a situation.
'Damnation!'
No matter how fast Sunny moved and how many blows he delivered, the number of creatures was simply overwhelming. Not only was the problem the number of them, but their ranks and classes were elevated as well.
Just as in one moment he could be fighting a Fallen Beast, in the next moment a Fallen Titan could appear beside him to attack. This meant he could never correctly measure what force to use.
His essence was draining at a rapid rate, and a bit of jealousy began to form inside him at Arthur's ability to spend fragments.
'Wait… but I can't recover them that quickly!'
The seed of jealousy disappeared from his body as Sin of Solace cut an Awakened creature without complications.
The Sin of Solace laughed.
"I suppose for someone like you, it's normal to be jealous of your friends!"
Uttering a silent curse, Sunny tried to pay the jade sword's whispers no attention and concentrated on preventing the creatures from separating him from the rest.
A few meters from him was Arthur's father, and he was slightly stressed because of that very thing.
Sunny wasn't just fighting while paying attention to the creatures surrounding him, but also to those attacking Reynolds…
It wasn't his task, but even so, he couldn't stop glancing every chance he got to analyze the situation and come to his aid if necessary… Sunny wouldn't know what to do if something happened to Arthur's father while he was by his side.
The thought scared him slightly.
He hadn't known him for that long, but Arthur's family had treated him very well from the beginning. So something bad happening to them was something Sunny was very much against.
Still, his survival came first…
"How heartless… they helped you from the beginning, and yet you wouldn't help them?" The Sin of Solace said between laughs.
Sunny blocked an attack and then used shadow tentacles to pin the creature in place. The jade jian cut off the creature's head.
"I already said I would help him!" he replied through clenched teeth.
The Sin of Solace laughed louder.
"Did you? It must have slipped my mind…"
Sunny's face fell.
"Shut up!"
Soon, Saint's figure appeared on the battlefield. Bringing her indomitable and oppressive battle technique to the battle, her battle style firm and grounded, bringing a flawless defense.
Her presence brought an increase in strength for the Awakened's defense. Yet it wasn't going to be enough against the number of creatures flooding the Saints, Masters, and Awakened present…
Sunny couldn't endure the constant attack of high-rank creatures anymore, even with Saint's presence relieving the pressure on him. No one on the battlefield was. Multiple creatures had already flown past him and reached the wall, drowning the Awakened atop it with their bodies.
Even with two Saints, two Ascended Titans, and a Terror, plus multiple Masters with years of experience, the situation before them was at the edge of what they could endure—even surpassing it.
A few meters ahead of him was Bloodwave.
Wearing dark gray armor sewn of sharkskin and wielding two curved swords, the Saint of House of Night instantly turned into a whirlwind of steel, moving with such speed and force as to resemble an annihilating blur. Countless Nightmare Creatures disappeared into it, the blurry twister instantly turned red from the mass of blood.
More than that, the champion of the House of Night was perfectly aware of his vulnerability on land. For that reason, his soul arsenal included many powerful Memories to account for that weakness… among other things.
As soon as Bloodwave appeared, three Echoes manifested by his side. One was a monstrous crab the size of a house, one resembled a towering golem of wet clay, and the last one was ethereal and elusive, like a creature made of compressed fog.
Even with a Transcendent leading the second line, the situation was at the edge of collapse.
Somewhere behind him, hundreds of Awakened were desperately pushing against the horde of frenzied abominations, killing and dying without holding anything back.
An ear-splitting groan of tearing metal thundered as a section of the wall collapsed, unable to withstand its own weight after suffering severe damage to its inner structure.
He paid it no attention.
Fortunately, he wasn't too worried about his defense. It was the offense that posed an issue.
'I guess I'll just have to manage, somehow…'
After a few more minutes of suffering against the river of Nightmare Creatures, Sunny noticed an important factor…
'None of the creatures are going for the kill…'
With the experience he already possessed, if he hadn't reached that realization after so long fighting, it would be unacceptable for him. But now, with that door of possibilities open, Sunny truly noticed the great difference.
The creatures were never launching lethal blows, nor moving with the same madness as normal Nightmare Creatures. It was as if they wanted to immobilize them somehow and continue with the rest, but ultimately leave them alive.
Sunny really couldn't understand this decision from the Corrupted Titan, and it distracted him quite a bit. Generating small openings that the creatures could have taken advantage of to bring his end—but none did.
Instead, all acted with the intention of incapacitating him.
Multiple tentacles came out in the direction of his limbs to leave him in place, others launched their claws with the intention of tearing them off if possible. Sunny's brain identifying every motive behind the actions.
Sunny cut, dodged by twisting his body, and even used Shadow Step to move away from the tide of attacks heading in his direction.
The worst part was that his essence was dropping like an open faucet at this rate. If something didn't happen soon, he would be left with nothing and die.
'Damn it! If Serpent were here, I could use it to regenerate my essence with each kill…'
Consumed by the fear at the thought of being eaten from the inside, driven to his limits, and desperate to find a way to defeat the river of creatures… at that feverish moment, Sunny suddenly felt something click in his head. Scraps and pieces of previously accumulated experiences connected together, forming a tentative hint of a revelation.
The revelation was strange, unclear, and dubious.
'That… should not be possible, right?'
However, he really could not see why not.
The moment Serpent's name appeared in his mind, the idea that formed in Sunny's head was to imitate it.
But not to imitate [Soul Reaver], the ability that allowed it to absorb the soul essence of those killed by it in its Soul Weapon or Soul Beast form. Instead, the one of [Formless].
The ability allowed Soul Serpent to assume the shape of any shadow contained within its master's soul, as long as it was the shadow of a creature that was of the same or lower Class and Rank.
Once transformed, Serpent would not only look like the creature but also inherit its traits and abilities.
…Sunny, however, was not the Serpent.
While he trained his mind and body to possess some facets of the formlessness of shadows, he was still a human.
He could, however, command the shadows and manifest them into tangible forms.
What did it mean?
His first uses of Shadow Manifestation had been very simple—nothing more than shapeless shadows turned tangible and pushed into motion. Later, Sunny trained for a long time to be able to effortlessly manipulate the shadows into more structured shapes. Chains, blades, walls, and a few more—with those, he had made several incredible achievements.
Besides, currently, Sunny could create hands and even arms… then what was to stop him from shaping shadows into a full creature?
Well… possibly complexity.
Yet he had something in his possession that would help him in such a situation.
His knowledge of Shadow Dance.
Shadow Dance allowed him to observe a person—or a creature—and learn the very essence of their style and physicality, then shadow it. How they moved, how they thought, how they felt, how soul essence flowed through their body. Of course, none of that would be possible if he did not first understand the structure of the body itself.
If Sunny knew how a body was shaped and worked on an instinctual level, the task of forcing shadows into that form would become much, much easier.
Additionally, he did not have to make that form act independently. To translate his own power through it instead of relying solely on the strength of the shadows themselves, he could build it around himself like a shell… he could wrap it around his body like his own shadows wrapped around it.
'It's like a… it's like a suit of exoskeleton armor in the shape of a Nightmare Creature… a shell of shadows, with me powering it instead of the other way around…'
If he succeeded, he would be able to assume the shape of a Nightmare Creature—just like Soul Serpent could. Of course, there would be a vast difference. Unlike his Shadow, Sunny would not inherit the creature's attributes and abilities, but the physical form itself was already enough.
He took a deep breath.
Would he really be able to pull this off?
'There's only one way to find out…'
To attempt something like that, though, Sunny needed two things. First, he had to choose a suitable form, and one that was exceedingly familiar to him.
Secondly… he needed some time, with nothing to distract him from the task. Even if it was just a few seconds, attempting something that crazy for the first time could not be done in the middle of a furious melee.
Sunny could come up with some monster to try turning into, but several seconds of peace were much harder to come by. Mainly because of the risk it meant for the rest if he was absent from the battlefield.
Unless…
Someone or something was going to replace him during that time.
A bizarre idea suddenly popped back into his mind.
Soon… a large alloy chest appeared in front of Sunny, large enough to cover him for a few seconds.
It was the Covetous Coffer.
Sunny commanded the Memory to open its lid and swiftly hid behind it. He also called back the deepest and most ancient shadows unleashed from the Shadow Lantern, hoping to shape them into a monstrous form…
The Nightmare Creatures froze for a few moments but soon began surrounding the coffer to reach his position. The first ones that tried suffered the fate of being bitten by the Covetous Coffer's sharp teeth.
The rest took advantage of the moment to achieve it, but what they saw appear behind the coffer wasn't what was previously there.
It was a fearsome creature that towered at almost three meters in height, with onyx black skin and a bestial, demonic face. Its mouth was full of sharp fangs, and four long horns crowned its head, protruding from dark, coarse hair.
The creature had four hands that ended with sharp claws, and a long twisting tail. Its eyes were entirely black, with no irises, and two vertical, furious pupils.
A terrifying growl escaped from its mouth.
'Success.'
…Of course, Sunny had chosen the shape of a creature he was most familiar with.
The Shadowspawn.
Possessing the power of a Master and augmented by shadows, he exploded with truly terrifying might. At three meters of height, Sunny had suddenly turned into a vicious herald of destruction. He lunged into the mass of creatures, killing those that approached from all directions.
He was holding a sword in each of his four hands, three of them were the Sin of Solace, the Midnight Shard, and Severed Wind, the other one was shaped from shadows. Each moved with staggering speed, weaving a translucent sphere of devastation on the battlefield.
He tore apart and crushed the weakest with his four swords, and even trampled them with his clawed legs; even his tail swept through the swarm. For a few moments, the river of creatures seemed to slow its advance.
Sunny took advantage of those moments to try to massacre even more enemies, thus relieving the pressure on the cohort behind him.
Still, that momentum didn't last long.
The next instant, the current of creatures didn't begin to grow in number, but in strength. A couple of Fallen Devils and Terrors began surrounding his monstrous figure, drowning him with their bodies.
Sunny moved at great speed relative to his enormous body. Sin of Solace cutting bodies and limbs without mercy, preventing the creatures from surpassing his defensive capabilities, which increased brutally the moment he assumed the Shadowspawn's form.
A Fallen Terror launched itself from his right.
The creature had two long but thin legs, then from its back came a tail that was wider than its legs. The creature used it to support its enormous weight. Its torso that was leaning forward, generated a curvature in its back that showed a set of antennae running along its entire spine.
The upper part of the torso was more similar to that of a crocodile…
'Whatever a crocodile is…'
The creature's large jaws tried to close around his upper right arm, but Sunny used the lower one and brought a sword created from shadows toward the creature's head.
It, using its small arms, stopped the attack by sacrificing one. But the next moment, shadow tentacles materialized around its tail. They applied pressure and moved the creature a few centimeters backward.
'Got you.'
Sin of Solace, in the upper right hand, moved leaving afterimages behind its movement. The sword impacted squarely with the creature's thick neck and cut it halfway…
The other half was cut by Severed Wind—the sword he obtained in the Relictombs—separating the head from the body.
[You have slain a Fallen Terror…]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
The rest of the creatures arrived at that moment, making his essence decrease at great speed. Yet, there was no other option but to keep fighting.