For a few moments, everyone stood motionless, staring as the cloud of True Darkness that represented the Heart of Darkness escaped from the Corrupted Titan's body, ultimately consuming the Saint completely.
In a matter of seconds, someone who could be considered a demigod by those present was killed without the possibility of doing anything.
Sylvie didn't hesitate to inform Regis of the situation.
Then, a group of Nightmare Creatures emerged from one of the mountains behind the Titan's corpse, their bodies barely visible in the distance but their presences felt by all those present.
"This is bad. This is really bad…" Jet said in a dark tone.
That was an understatement.
Sylvie's eyes alternated between the Corrupted Titan's corpse—from which a cloud of True Darkness was still emerging—the corpse of a Saint being consumed by that cloud, and a wave of Nightmare Creatures drawn toward Falcon Scott.
The faces of those present were somber.
Fighting both threats at the same time, with the little personnel capable of fighting at the moment, was going to be very complicated.
The loses didn't just boil down to the Transcendent who had just died, nor to Arthur in an unconscious state, but to dozens of Masters and hundreds of Awakened who had died in the previous battle.
Sylvie frowned upon noticing the scene.
She was an Ascended Titan—half Noble Creature and half human. Thanks to her dragon nature, she recovered her essence at a higher rate than the rest, meaning the hours that had passed since the previous battle had helped her recover almost her maximum essence.
She knew Jet was in good condition after killing so many creatures. Saint Bloodwave should have recovered much of his as well. Sunny was surely in a similar case, but… the rest?
The number of remaining Ascended and Awakened was very scarce. The previous battle had been very demanding for everyone.
And surely many more were going to die in the next one…
Watching the scene, many of those present let out gasps of surprise at what happened next.
The cloud representing the Heart of Darkness continued to leave the Titan's corpse, but there were so many that they ended up generating wounds and holes throughout the entire corpse…
Some were small, but most were the opposite. Large holes through which the cloud of True Darkness escaped began to form and expand. Making the corpse begin to lose its balance.
Soon, the number of holes caused it to slowly begin tipping backward…
Moments before the massive corpse crashed into the ground, Sylvie's eyes widened.
'I'll be damned!'
The next second, the colossal mass collided against the earth, making the whole world shake. Enormous clouds of snow, dirt, and debris rose into the air, and countless Nightmare Creatures were crushed under the obliterating weight.
A thunderous roar rolled over the killing field, and shards of stone from the mountain shot outward like bullets, decimating even more abominations.
The impact was so great that it generated an earthquake that swept through all of Falcon Scott. Making the tallest buildings collapse under their own weight, crushing their residents and neighbors.
The wall wasn't spared either. One more section of the wall collapsed.
However, that was not what Sylvie was looking at. Her gaze was locked on the massive corpse itself.
When Mournwing's body hit the ground, large portions of it broke like the shell of a rotten egg. And from within…
The rest of the Heart of Darkness flowed, eviscerating the few wounded Nightmare Creatures that still clung to life and stretching toward the broken city wall like black tentacles.
Sunny turned toward the wall, surely thinking the same as her.
With the fall of much of the wall, almost everything they had that could have been used against vast swarms of tiny vermin had been destroyed. The First Army had been prepared to face one overwhelming enemy, not myriads of dangerous but comparatively weak creatures.
Fortunately, with the fall of the Titan's corpse and the Heart of Darkness's actions, many of the creatures that appeared in the distance were eliminated before representing a real threat—though some, the strongest, remained alive.
Sylvie felt her heart accelerate in her chest. The situation didn't look good at all…
Turning around, Sunny asked Jet.
"So… what do we do?"
Jet let out an angry hiss.
"There is no choice but to retreat to the secondary defense perimeter and enact the following protocol. However… even that is impossible right now. If we don't want to lose the city, we need to obliterate the damned bugs!"
"How are we going to achieve that?" Sylvie raised the question everyone was afraid to ask.
Mainly because no one knew the answer…
Bloodwave responded, his voice sounding calm even in such a moment.
"Hold on until we die or until there's time to prepare the Rampart Protocol…"
Jet, at the mention of the protocol, looked at him somberly for a moment. Then she turned around and gave an order to one of the Awakened.
"Inform Army Command to prepare the Rampart Protocol and be ready to activate it as soon as I give the command. If I die… they should act at their discretion."
The man nodded and disappeared, using his Aspect Ability to run at incredible speed.
With that done, Jet glanced at them. She remained silent for a moment, then smiled darkly.
"Are you all ready?"
Bloodwave shrugged, and Sunny shook his head.
"Not even a little bit."
Sylvie, for her part, took a deep breath and decided not to respond. Instead, she communicated with Regis.
'How is Art?'
Moments later, Regis's voice sounded in her mind.
'He's unconscious but in good condition. His cores are healthy, and it's only a matter of time before he wakes up…' A pause, and he added, 'They moved him as far as possible from the Gates, just in case, and they're debating whether to send him to East Antarctica in this state to get him out of the battlefield.'
'Good…' She felt a weight leave her shoulders. 'The government doesn't want to risk something happening to Arthur, knowing he's from Song. If he doesn't wake up soon, they'll take him out of here just in case and then notify the Queen.'
Regis added more information.
'Knowing the situation, he'll have at most three days to wake up before they send him… now with Cormac's death and the Winter Beast threat, it's surely less time…'
Definitely, the situation wasn't the best… Sylvie, on one hand, wanted him to wake up before to confirm he was truly okay—but she knew that if that happened, he would decide to stay until the last moment.
That led her to want him not to wake up in that interval so they would take him out of here and send him to a safe place… Sylvie had already decided to stay until the last person was evacuated, but that decision had begun to crumble slowly in the last few hours…
Still, the important thing now was to survive what was coming in their direction at great speed.
Fortunately, she managed to hear the last thing Jet was saying.
"I'll stop the left swarm with that awesome Echo of yours… you and Sylvie will face the middle one. Bloodwave will handle the last one. With some luck, the Ascended who were supposed to deal with them in the first place will arrive to reinforce us before everyone dies… the couple of them who are still alive…"
Sylvie and Bloodwave nodded while Sunny looked at her with a dubious expression.
"How am I supposed to fight against countless thousands of tiny bugs?"
Jet sighed.
"You're resourceful. Figure something out… and if you do, let me know. I'm asking myself the same question."
With that said, she and the Transcendent moved away from them.
Sunny looked at Sylvie, and Sylvie looked at Sunny.
Both shook their heads at the same time, clearly showing they had no idea…
"Perfect…" Sunny said sarcastically, then turned around and spoke to his cohort. "We are going to sortie with the rest, then push forward and block one of the beetle swarms. I'll take point with Sylvie. Samara, you lost your rifle, so just blast any that get past us with essence. You'll be our secondary slayer. Luster, support Sam.
Belle, Dorn, and Kimmy… you guys will protect Luster and Samara. Don't let the bugs bite through your armor."
His soldiers looked at each other, then silently nodded.
Sylvie took the lead slightly, moving as far from the wall as possible to prevent the insects from reaching the city. Behind her, the rest did the same.
A few moments later, Jet's voice rolled across the battlefield:
"…Attack!"
The first to arrive were the remaining Nightmare Creatures that survived the Titan's fall and the Heart of Darkness.
Sylvie, in her silver armor with gold details, led the group for a few moments until Sunny appeared slightly ahead of her using Shadow Step.
The Jian in Sunny's hand began tracing paths that claimed the lives of the nearest creatures. Moments later, Sylvie's silver sword performed the same patterns.
It took only a few seconds for them to carve a path and create a small island of safety. The cohort members joined them, forming a beachhead. Behind them, more Awakened advanced, with a somber determination shining in their eyes.
Everyone knew that for many—if not most—this would be their last battle. Yet no one tried to flee or turn back.
Sylvie began moving across the battlefield with the skill of thousands of battles—and for her, that number wasn't an exaggeration.
The number of fights for her life she had in the Forgotten Shore. The demanding training the Song Clan gave her with instructors who surpassed her in rank. Then, her Second Nightmare, where she fought constantly in the colosseum… Finally, the last three months of the Antarctic campaign.
All that experience had formed her into what she was at that moment.
Her body slid between the creatures with an almost unnatural elegance. Every movement seemed part of a carefully rehearsed dance. The roar of battle, the growl of the Nightmare Creatures, and the metallic sound of her sword cutting through the air were her music.
A step to the side, followed by a slight twist of her waist.
The silver sword cut a creature's neck, and before the body finished falling, Sylvie had already spun on her own axis, dodging another's claws.
She never remained where the enemy expected to find her.
Her agility allowed her to slide into the most awkward angles, appearing just outside the reach of a claw or beneath the arc of a fang, only to respond from a point where the creature couldn't defend itself.
If there was one thing Arthur taught her from the beginning, it was not to waste movements.
Every step had a purpose. Every turn brought her closer to her next target. Every movement of her sword sought the exact place where a life could end.
From the outside, she would appear to be dancing among the creatures, and each of them received the same gift at the end of the dance.
The gift of death.
Another creature tried to intercept her. Sensing its intention thanks to the ambient Mana, she tilted her torso backward, letting its claws pass within centimeters of her face. Her foot spun on the ground, and using the monster's own momentum, Sylvie slid to its back.
Her sword traced a single movement as it embedded itself in the creature's spine, bringing it to the brink of death. But not for long—a small Mana dagger materialized in the direction the creature was falling.
The Spell sounded in her mind, but she was already moving to the next one.
There was no unnecessary brutality in her actions, but there was no hesitation either. Only a precision refined through years of combat.
Her fighting style was elegant, fluid, and deadly.
Sunny beside her brandished the beautiful Jian and pushed forward, cutting through one abomination after another like a ruthless, eerily graceful butcher.
He was surrounded by a fine haze of blood, but whenever drops of it fell on his black tunic, they rolled off the soft silk without leaving the slightest trace.
A few moments later, the mass of Nightmare Creatures around them diminished, and those who did lunge at the cohort looked more panicked than consumed by bloodlust.
It seemed that the Heart of Darkness cared not about whom it devoured—humans or abominations. And there, behind these last few monsters…
The tide of darkness was rushing toward them.
Sylvie and Sunny thought the same thing, and in a matter of moments, two barriers—one created from pure Mana and the other from shadows—appeared around the entire cohort.
The barriers immediately took another form, with the shadow one strengthening and turning into a tall dam. The silver barrier disappeared but reappeared a couple of meters back.
As soon as the pure ambient Mana solidified, Sylvie commanded the barrier to move toward the dark shadow barrier.
Both barriers impacted each other, crushing thousands of beetles in a matter of a second. Yet, despite thousands of them being destroyed, it was no more than a drop in the ocean. Already, even more were surging forward, crashing into the new wall of shadows and tunneling into it with their sharp mandibles.
Sylvie created a Mana barrier around herself to protect against the insects entering through her armor to eat her from within. She continued doing the same for Sunny while he put more essence into a charm of his to draw attention.
Both were going to be the main ones maintaining order in the middle swarm, so it was best for the creatures to focus on them.
Sunny launched himself forward, moving with enough speed to leave afterimages behind. His sword lashed out, slicing through two dozen beetles with a single strike.
Sylvie performed the same action but, realizing the inefficiency of a sword in such a situation, decided to dismiss it. Instead, she used the ambient Mana to create a hammer.
The hammer moved at great speed, crushing and turning the insects into black dust.
Still, the number of creatures remained ridiculous.
Already, many had flowed past them—some tried to turn around to attack from behind, but the pressure of the thousands more pushing forward carried them away, forcing Belle, Dorn, and Kim to engage the creatures in melee.
Out of the three, Dorn was able to destroy the most with his Aspect Abilities and the heavy sledgehammer. Belle used himself as bait, phasing from place to place and using his sword to cut down as many small creatures as he could.
Kim, with her rapier and buckler, was the least suited for this battle, but she did her best to lessen the pressure on the two formidable warriors.
Behind them, Samara continued to charge small beads of alloy with essence and flicking them into the mass of beetles, each streaking through the air like a bullet and exploding into a wave of destructive force. Once her supply of alloy beads and needles was exhausted, she would have to use the crudest form of attack and simply toss out projectiles formed of unrestrained, wild essence.
…They were holding, for now, but the tide of dark beetles was growing more and more overbearing with each moment. Their number endlessly swelled, and the dam of shadows was being continuously destroyed and rebuilt, consuming Sunny's and Sylvie's essence like a gluttonous beast.
Sunny was the one in charge of maintaining it, but it was Sylvie who kept it firm with her Ascended Ability.
Aspect Ability: [Life Cycle]
Ability Description: [All things move through growth and decline. You may influence that process, restoring objects and living beings toward a stronger state or accelerating their deterioration.]
Affecting the state of things was an incredible ability, but at the same time, very costly. She didn't usually use it much because of this, only opting to activate it when absolutely necessary. Now was one of those moments.
Additionally, a plus was that the essence she spent maintaining the shadow wall in its best state was essence Sunny didn't have to spend strengthening it or creating a new one. Therefore, he had the option of being very influential in the battle.
The number of creatures remained overwhelming after minutes of battle. The small insects had completely surrounded them, drowning those situated at their backs in the cloud of True Darkness.
Sunny and Sylvie continued giving their all, but even that wasn't enough. Soon, the barriers were going to stop working, and their fate—like the cohort's—was going to be to be eaten from within.
She frowned slightly and decided to take the lead within the barriers, acting as the general tip of the fight.
The hammer she created with ambient Mana crushed hundreds of creatures in a matter of moments, her Ascended Ability keeping the shadow barrier firm even after so long—but… her essence was draining at a very high rate.
If nothing changed, in minutes she would suffer from essence depletion and possibly die.
Even with that thought, Sylvie smiled slightly. Anyone would have thought she had descended into madness and had already accepted her death. But that wasn't the case—not in the slightest.
Sylvie looked slightly at the ground.
There, a deep shadow could be seen.
The shadow towered at almost three meters in height, with four long horns crowning its head. It had four hands that ended with sharp claws, and a long twisting tail.
A terrifying growl was heard.
Sylvie took a step back, and such a creature took her place.
Sunny had transformed again and took the lead once more!
With four swords in his four hands, he became a messenger of death. Moving so fast that the mind of a simple Awakened would have trouble perceiving him. Sylvie could… but even so, she didn't.
Even in such a situation, she was still having problems!
Now she had to maintain the barrier and Sunny's form with her Ascended Ability, causing her essence to drop as if the faucet were open.
Still, Sunny in such a form was also spending his large amount of essence, so neither of them was in the best situation.
The fight continued in such a manner for a long time, with Sunny acting at the front, killing as many small insects as possible with his four swords in such a monstrous form. Sylvie, for her part, decided to abandon her hammer to save the essence it cost and summoned her sword again.
The sword was less effective, but its essence cost was much lower. And in such a situation, it was the preferred option.
…The situation had improved, but they were still on a timer. If nothing changed soon, the result would be disastrous.
The fight was so demanding that Sylvie felt as though her physical power was almost uncontrollable now. She pushed and pushed herself, expecting to hit a limit, but that limit never came. Her speed, her strength, her force… all of it had stopped making sense, to the point where her thoughts were starting to fall behind her movements.
Countless thousands of beetles were destroyed in a short time by her actions.
She wasn't improving in the sense of the word—rather, her clarity when fighting was trembling before the performance of her physique. Everything around her stopped making sense to her.
But it didn't have to.
Sylvie just had to kill. And in the current world, what one learns to do most is precisely that…
Her instincts began to dominate her body. Leading her to the pinnacle of her performance.
Her muscles began to swell slightly, demanding the armor to expand. The blood within her body was boiling while circulating through her veins at great speed.
It was so much that Sylvie began to feel a dizziness in her mind. It was as if her entire world began to be seen under a red curtain.
Her senses—which already exceeded those of any Awakened, even matching those of a Saint thanks to [Blessed of Beast God]—began to sharpen even more, to the point where she could perceive everything.
Sylvie could smell the fear the Awakened behind her emitted. She could feel the panic in Sunny's blood. She could see the movement of Jet's veins in the distance, and even hear Bloodwave's hurried breathing.
Everything entered Sylvie's brain simultaneously—a current of information that suffocated her brain, making every thought difficult to formulate. But not a drop of panic sprouted from her being.
She didn't need to think.
At that moment, Sylvie felt as if the entire lineage of Beast God had come alive within her being. Turning her into something closer to a beast than a human.
Which was funny, because she was, in fact, a beast. A Noble one at that, but a beast in the end.
The thought that was difficult to form in such a state only brought amusement to her mind.
A smile settled on her face.
Every muscle in her body seemed to know what to do before she could even think about it. Her body reacted to the creatures' movements, to the changes in the air, to the sound their bodies generated, and to the slightest change in the air.
Sylvie no longer needed to decide where to move—her body knew. She no longer needed to look for a weak point—her instincts found it for her.
She no longer needed to think about how to kill. She just did.
At such a point of concentration, she felt like the only hunter in the world. As if the very concept of it were her.
Beast God had many titles, one of them was the Goddess of Hunting. Yet, at that moment, the title seemed to belong to a simple Ascended.
In such a state, Sylvie immediately realized something had changed within her, but she couldn't identify what. But that wasn't important.
A strange ripple went through the river of darkness, and it suddenly lost cohesion. The purposeful tide of black beetles grew discordant and shapeless, many of them simply growing still.
Some continued to throw themselves at Sunny a bit ahead of her, while others scurried away.
The dark beetles, who had been acting like a single organism before, were now aimless and sluggish. Some grew lethargic or started burrowing into the ground, while others were wandering away.
Soon, Sunny deactivated his charm, and they watched the small creatures dash away in fear.
The swarm ceased its purposeful advance and instead flowed outward, losing the shape of a giant tentacle of darkness. It was as though a tank of water had been broken, water spilling to the sides.
Sylvie frowned.
'Where are they going!'
She wanted more! The dopamine such a state brought to her mind was splendid—she felt as if everything made sense in her mind, as if everything were extremely perfect.
The ecstasy of battle ran through her veins, but at the same time… the knowledge of a hunter dictated knowing when a battle was won and saving her energy for the next.
Soon, the red curtain left her view, letting everything return to its original color. The blood in her veins returned to its normal rhythm, and her senses gradually descended.
The process was so smooth and simple that the impact of going from that to normalcy was barely felt by Sylvie.
Still, exhaustion was always present.
She staggered slightly once the adrenaline left her body, but fortunately, Sunny turned quickly and held her by the shoulder, bringing one of her arms over his neck and holding her firm.
"Hold on a little longer," he said.
Sylvie was so tired that she could barely nod softly.
Sunny, the moment the change happened, abandoned the monster form and began removing the insects that had attached to his body. He was lucky to do it just then—otherwise, Sylvie would have fallen to the ground even as the horde of Nightmare Creatures began to return.
Noticing the absence of one of their threats, the creatures decided to return for the humans…
She didn't even notice when Jet and Saint's figures approached them.
Neither had perished, but they did sustain a lot of damage. The armor over Saint was repairing itself, and her wounds were healing—nevertheless… just not at all fast.
Jet did not look good. Her armor seemed to have been destroyed at some point during the battle, and now she wore only the uniform bodysuit, its smart fabric wet and heavy with blood. Her face was ashen.
In a few heartbeats, the two were beside her.
…In the same span of time, the Nightmare Creatures started to draw closer, madness and hunger burning in their eyes.
Sunny asked with concern in his voice.
"Master Jet? What happened? Why did the bugs suddenly…"
She staggered, forcing Saint to support her. Then took a few raspy breaths and said in a hoarse voice:
"I'm alright. It was Bloodwave… he fought his way to the center of the swarm and killed the thing in charge."
Sunny blinked.
"What? How? And what exactly did he kill?"
She shook her head. "I don't know." Then she pushed herself off of Saint and straightened. "The Ascended that were supposed to reinforce us… are also dead. They couldn't fight their way through the horde. And speaking of the horde, we need to get the hell out of here, fast. We need to reach the secondary defense line really, really soon… otherwise, Army Command is probably going to blow us all up…"
Sylvie, even in a cloud of confusion, managed to understand the reason.
'The Rampart Protocol…'
There were tunnels dug below the killing field, and under the span of abandoned streets between the city wall and the secondary defense line as well. All of them were chock-full of powerful explosives, most of them created with the use of spelltech.
All those explosives were set up to go up in flames together, turning everything outside the secondary barrier into a vast, scorching inferno.
That measure was only supposed to be implemented after every soldier had safely retreated into the safety zone… and most of them already had. Army Command would probably wait for Sunny, Jet, Sylvie, and especially Bloodwave to return before pulling the trigger.
But the situation was extremely chaotic, and communications were down. There was just no telling for sure.
Sunny looked at Sylvie and supported her better on his shoulder, then looked at Jet and grinned.
"Then what the hell are we waiting for? Run!"
The path inward wasn't extremely pleasant, but not complicated either. Bloodwave arrived with them briefly afterward, and everything became simpler.
Their small party had to hurry and fight their way back through the boundless horde of Nightmare Creatures. Five Awakened, three Masters, one Saint… as well as two powerful Echos. They were an exceedingly formidable group.
Granted, all of them were wounded, tired, and low on essence. Still, cutting through the horde while keeping everyone alive was not going to pose a problem.
Saint mounted Nightmare and sent the dark destrier into a gallop, a sword of True Darkness appearing in her hand and a shield weighing on the other. They moved ahead of the party, cutting into the horde as a fierce vanguard.
After what seemed like a thousand years of slaughter, the group finally reached the shattered ruins of the city wall.
In front of it, the Awakened force in charge of the southern section was holding back the ocean of Nightmare Creatures… what was left of it, at least... Of the initial seven hundred Awakened with which the day began, perhaps only two hundred remained.
Minutes after the fight ended, Sylvie—who could not participate in the fight—finally managed to stand on her own and thanked Sunny for helping her, but neither of them stopped.
There was a large distance separating the wall from the secondary defense perimeter that had been established deep within the city. That whole abandoned area was set up to go up in flames as well.
And at such a pace, none of them was going to make it.
At that moment, as if to answer her thoughts, Bloodwave turned to look at the mass of abominations. Then he glanced at Jet.
"Take your soldiers and go, Soul Reaper. I will hold the beasts back for a bit… tell your commanders to activate the explosives as soon as you're past the defense line."
He hadn't finished speaking when the shadow of a wolf appeared on the battlefield in the blink of an eye.
Regis, in his materialized form, made an entrance at the last moment while grinning like a maniac.
"Did you like my entrance?"
The moment that seemed like a farewell from the Saint turned into a joke.
Sylvie facepalmed while Sunny looked at him with an angry face. Jet, for her part, only let out an amused sound.
"Regis, can you withstand the explosions?" the latter asked.
Regis rolled his eyes.
"What kind of question is that? Of course I can!"
Jet nodded.
"Excellent. Good luck with that! We'll be going, then!"
The Saint nodded while Regis looked at her with an expressionless face, finally shaking his head and murmuring something.
The rest turned around at great speed—or what their bodies allowed—and continued running.
Almost as soon as they continued running, Jet's voice could be heard across the whole length of the battlefield.
"…Retreat!"
The surviving Awakened of the First Army did not make her ask twice. Delivering one last attack, they used their remaining strength to momentarily push the enemy back, then turned around and ran. There was no order or strategy to it—just a desperate wish to survive.
Sylvie, Sunny, and their group sped through the abandoned operations zone and escaped into the deserted streets beyond.
Everything there was shrouded in darkness. Many buildings had collapsed, forming an intricate maze of snow and shattered concrete. Others remained standing, though blackened by flames.
Some streets remained eerily intact and desolately empty; and, of course, there were operational tracks maintained by the First Army to transport people and supplies to the wall.
Currently, they were slightly ahead of the rest of the retreating Awakened. The span of the southern section was very long, so no one else was in view. Right now, all that mattered was speed, and each soldier was making their own path to the secondary defense line.
The most normal thing was that most would try to reach the maintained roads, meaning that on this one, there was no one but them.
Running through one of the interiors of such abandoned streets, Sylvie suddenly felt a new smell infect her senses.
It was like the smell of Sunny and Arthur mixed together, as if both were the same person...
Sylvie frowned, and her speed decreased dramatically.
'…What the hell?'
Sunny the next moment seemed to feel something, but neither of them had time to react—a swift shadow flew toward the cohort, even though there was nothing there to cast it.
The next instant, Luster suddenly lunged forward and shoved Kim aside, knocking her to the ground. Something streaked through the cold air like a flash, and instantly, the air was filled with warm blood.