Something broke the dark surface of the shadows and shot into the cold air, moving so fast it looked like a black blur. Before anyone could react, Kim was falling to the ground… and so was Luster, who had shoved her out of the way at the last moment.
There was blood in the air, and something was terribly wrong with the way he was falling…
The black blur didn't stop. A razor-sharp blade instantly lunged toward Dorn, whose face registered surprise. The giant barely had time to twist his torso slightly; the blade missed his heart but pierced his lung...
The blade kept moving without pause, a fraction of a second away from running Belle through the head. Yet it simply passed right through him… The swordsman had no way to dodge, but he managed to activate his Aspect Ability just in time to turn intangible and let the strike go through him.
Leaving Samara completely unprotected.
It all happened too fast. Before Kim even hit the ground, the enemy's blade was already inches from slicing her throat.
…But suddenly, a jade sword intercepted its path, blocking the lethal strike.
"What the hell…?"
Sunny, who had thrown himself into the enemy's trajectory, was sent flying backward by the ferocious force of the impact. The attacker—whoever it was—possessed such strength that Sunny's hands went numb.
He landed on the scorched path and rolled, springing to his feet instantly.
Kim hit the ground. So did Luster… both his legs had been cleanly severed at the knee, and blood was gushing from the gruesome wounds. Dorn pressed a hand to his chest as he began to cough and spit up bright, frothy blood, his lungs deflating in a matter of seconds.
Sylvie and Sunny's eyes widened.
The creature didn't stop moving, appearing in a nearby shadow. Its next target was Sylvie.
She was moving to help Dorn, but with the exhaustion she had... Sylvie failed to react fast enough to avoid the black blade aimed at her neck. Still, she managed to move her body slightly, and the attack impacted the upper part of her clavicle.
The sword generated a deep wound, cutting through the bone while she let out a sharp cry of pain.
Sunny was stupefied for a short moment, watching everything that happened in less than a second.
Recovering quickly, he Shadow Stepped to her side and attacked the creature with the Sin of Solace.
Before the jade sword could strike the creature down, it simply dissipated into the shadows.
'What?'
He spun but was a moment too late. The creature was already behind him, the black blade falling from above.
Sunny gritted his teeth and blocked the strike with his forearm. The Marble Shell turned as hard as stone… and split open, broken by the vicious strength of the blow. The blade only managed to deliver a relatively minor wound, though, most of its power spent to shatter the shell.
Before Sunny could counterattack, the enemy had blinked out of existence once again.
'It's… it's Shadow Step.'
The creature moved again, appearing beside Kim to finish her off—but at that moment, Saint's figure appeared on the scene, deflecting the black blade with her shield.
Inconceivably, the onyx shield actually cracked, and the Shadow staggered back.
The creature did not waste any time and lunged toward Kim again, but then… A black chain suddenly wrapped around its throat.
A dozen meters away, Sunny grasped the shadow chain and jerked it back with all his strength.
The enemy was thrown back, flying through the air and crashing on the road a few meters behind him. The creature slid back, then stopped, kneeling in the middle of the road.
It remained motionless for a moment, and then slowly stood up, glancing at Sunny with cold killing intent.
The creature was about two meters tall, with plates of jet-black bone covering its body like a full suit of armor. Even its face was hidden behind bone, which formed a menacing closed helmet.
Two inhuman eyes burned with resentment and hatred through the cracks. One of them was completely black, while the other had a golden color with purple in it.
The lower part of the helmet was split by a jagged line, and when it split, a maw full of sharp fangs was revealed, opened in a mocking grin.
In one of its hands, the creature was holding a curved sword that seemed to have been crudely carved from a long black tusk, its edge terribly sharp and harder than steel.
…Just as he had thought, the abomination was missing two fingers on the other.
Sunny sighed, lingered for a moment, and then said tiredly:
"I had a feeling that you would show up."
Not letting the Scavenger out of his sight, Sunny briefly glanced at the rest.
Luster seemed to be in shock, weakly trying to sit up. Kim was by his side, hastily applying a tourniquet. Belle and Samara were helping Dorn with what they could.
Sylvie… she had an enormous wound on the side of her neck. Fortunately, the wound was healing, but her condition was so bad that she wasn't going to be able to fight at the moment.
Saint and Nightmare were waiting for his command, ready to attack.
He had already taken a glance at the Scavenger's soul, finding out that the damned waif that Sunny failed to kill twice had somehow managed to become a Corrupted Devil. The goblin… well, the bastard was more of an ogre now… must have devoured a lot of Nightmare Creatures to become that strong.
He must have devoured a lot of people as well, considering how disturbingly human-like the Scavenger now looked. There must have been a lot of bodies left in the ruins of the collapsed cities… and more victims still here in Falcon Scott.
Also, it seemed that swallowing a piece of Sunny's flesh allowed the creature to inherit some of his powers.
Powers related to shadows.
Much worse was the fact that the creature had an faint aura similar to Arthur's, indicating that at some point it had eaten his flesh too…
'Perfect…'
Someone with powers over shadows and Aether…
'How am I supposed to fight that!'
Sunny's expression was dark when he reached that realization.
Additionally, there was the fact that the cohort plus Sylvie were completely exhausted and weren't going to be able to participate in the fight. He couldn't force them to retreat without someone covering them, meaning Saint or Nightmare would have to accompany them… maybe both.
A hundred thoughts flew through Sunny's mind. No matter how he looked at it, the situation did not look good.
They could not remain and fight, and they could not retreat alone.
Did the bastard actually know that everything around them was about to blow up? Or had he just been lucky to catch them at the worst possible moment?
If he had, that was some luck…
The Scavenger tilted his head a little, as though challenging Sunny to come and get him. The tip of his curved saber lowered slightly, ready to lash out.
Sunny glared at him for a moment, then cursed silently and threw an order over his shoulder, his tone calm and steady:
"Kim… take Luster, climb onto my horse, and get the hell out of here. Samara and Belle, help Sylvie and Dorn and retreat on foot. Saint will protect you."
The soldiers and Sylvie understood the situation perfectly. Some weren't strong enough to fight, while others weren't in any state to do so.
Kim began dragging the young man toward Nightmare; her face was pale and filled with desperate determination. The Scavenger cast a fleeting glance at them and then fixed its gaze back on Sunny.
It opened its mouth… and suddenly, a hoarse, grating voice emerged:
"Die… today. You little… wretch."
Then, an unpleasant sound—like a ragged gasp—assaulted Sunny's ears.
The bastard was laughing.
Sunny frowned.
'The bastard already showed that he can use Shadow Step and that he can talk. What other abilities will he have?'
If he got Shadow Step after consuming a part of his body, what would he have gained after consuming one of Arthur's?
Sunny began thinking of all the abilities his friend had and couldn't help but feel real fear run through his body.
If the bastard got the purple flames Arthur can use, he would be in big trouble. If it were any of the others, it would also be complicated, but not exactly impossible—he wanted to believe.
Still, Sunny knows that Aether works differently than usual. The Scavenger is clearly very young; he surely doesn't know how the element works. There is a strong possibility that he hasn't learned to use any of the skills Arthur uses...
Yet, he sighed with resignation.
'Even if he can't, ,y luck is just complete, utter crap.'
Sunny was even wounded, tired, and miserable. The only positive thing was that in front of him was the perfect rival with whom to vent his anger.
The menacing black abomination moved, trying to dissipate into the shadows, but before it could, the shadows around it suddenly surged, shooting forward like sharp spikes.
The spikes shattered against the creature's bone armor but did slow it down for a split second.
And that was all that Sunny needed.
Emerging from the darkness in front of the Scavenger, he kicked him in the chest. With a deafening boom, the creature was sent flying back but managed to land on its feet. The black tusk whistled, tearing through the air, and collided against the white jade of the Sin of Solace.
Sunny felt his hand tremble from the force of the blow and smiled.
The Scavenger didn't stop with formalities and began a barrage of attacks with his curved sword. Sunny, using Shadow Dance, began reading the creature's movements as the fight progressed. He needed time.
One of the reasons for buying time was precisely Shadow Dance, which was going to be wonderful in the fight. Other reasons were to discover what powers the bastard obtained—and finally, the explosives beneath where they were fighting!
Sunny shuddered as he deflected a vicious strike of the mysterious black tusk, felt the impact send a painful jolt through his entire body, and guided the enemy's blade to the side. At the same time, he took a step forward and slammed his elbow into the Scavenger's chest.
The creature was pushed back, releasing the Sin of Solace from the bind. The cursed sword instantly flashed forward, slashing across the abomination's side… The defense, counterattack, and follow-up had been executed flawlessly, flowing into each other like the nimble steps of a graceful dance. Despite being light and swift, they also carried tremendous power and annihilating intent.
And yet, the white jade slid fruitlessly off the black bone armor, barely leaving a scratch on it.
'What the hell are you made of?!' he shouted internally.
The Scavenger… was just too damn overbearing—and the worst part was that it hadn't forced him to use any of its other abilities!
Sunny was sure the bastard had more, but it had only shown Shadow Step so far. Until it showed all its cards, he wasn't going to be able to develop a good plan to defeat it!
At times, fighting him was like fighting water—when the Sin of Solace lashed out at the cracks in the bone armor, the Scavenger would turn into a shadow, allowing the jade blade to harmlessly pass through. Other times, fighting him was like fighting against an indestructible mountain—the plates of black bone seemed utterly impervious, and the creature's blows carried with them crushing weight.
Gritting his teeth, Sunny braced himself and received another blow of the black tusk. Another bloodless wound appeared on his body—none of them were deep enough to be dangerous, but the damage was slowly mounting.
Worst of all, he was completely suppressed.
Sunny's eye burned with cold fury as he released the hilt of the Sin of Solace, switching to a one-hand grip and to a more agile and reserved battle style.
The bastard was supremely devious and surprisingly intelligent, but it was still an abomination, and a young one at that.
Its attacks were smart and powerful but also clumsy and crude. For now, the Scavenger was able to suppress Sunny simply because of its timing and vastly superior physical might.
But it was not nearly as experienced a killer…
As soon as he changed his stance, a new sword appeared in his hand. It was almost silver-white, shaped like a shortsword.
The sword was so light and agile that it seemed as if the wind itself moved it instead of his arm.
In a sense, that was literally what was happening.
[Severed Wind]—the sword he obtained by killing a Fallen Terror in the form of a tornado in the Relictombs—had enchantments that could serve him very well at the moment. The downside was that he didn't believe an Ascended-rank sword was going to have an effect on the bastard…
Still, it was best to try it.
The enchantment that interested Sunny the most was [Invisible Blade].
Enchantment Description: "The weapon can become invisible."
Obviously, he would have to act intelligently for the shortsword—which is a lower rank than the creature—to manage to impact. It also had enchantments like [Static Wake] and [Deflecting Current].
The first left a slight instability in the air, making it more difficult for opponents to predict the direction of the next attack. The latter did something similar but created a current of turbulent air around the wielder, causing attacks launched at him to be affected and their trajectory changed.
These last two enchantments were active, meaning Sunny didn't have to spend any essence to activate them. The first was the opposite.
The Scavenger lunged again upon noticing the change, turning its body incorporeal in the impact zones. Severed Wind passed through the abomination's elbow without meeting any resistance, never even touching its flesh.
Yet, at that moment, the bastard's body moved without it wanting to. Turning slightly into an awkward position—and just when the shadows were about to embrace it to take it out of the place.
Sin of Solace impacted again against the black bone armor. Creating a small groove where the cursed sword's edge struck.
The Scavenger shot backward a couple of meters, and when it went to recover, another blow impacted it from who knows where, sending it another couple of meters back while the groove continued to widen.
Sunny at that moment, using his great speed and the shortsword's enchantments, began playing with the Corrupted Devil, sending it from side to side repetitively without it being able to react in time!
Sin of Solace tracing the same arc in all the attacks, impacting the same zone until it finally broke with a dry sound. The bastard's armor cracked at chest height, and Sunny didn't hesitate to take advantage of the moment.
Severed Wind affected the air around the Devil again while it let out an annoyed roar. Sunny brought Sin of Solace to the only gap where the bastard had no protection.
The sword passed through without meeting any resistance.
Sunny staggered as Sin of Solace escaped from his hands. Then the abomination's curved sword went to strike in his direction, but it changed slightly at the last moment, failing to cut his neck by centimeters.
But Sunny wasn't frustrated or angry.
The moment he staggered, he passed Severed Wind to his right hand, throwing Sin of Solace to the ground. Activating the invisibility enchantment just at that moment.
So, by the time he had recovered, it would appear as if he had no sword in his hands.
The Scavenger grinned upon seeing this and grew careless. Using Shadow Step, it approached Sunny and went to deliver the final blow with its black blade.
Sunny waited until the last moment to dodge the blow thanks to his mastery of Shadow Dance. Crouching and turning to the side, he brought the hand containing the Ascended shortsword toward the only gap in the bastard's armor.
Not noticing the sword, it didn't make that part of its body incorporeal.
The sword embedded itself in the bastard's body, and it let out a cry of pain that made him want to cover his ears. Still, he didn't. Sunny lunged forward and tangled with it, pushing them both to the ground.
As the two hit the ground, he growled and grasped the Scavenger's throat, constricting it with enough force to shatter armored alloy. Sunny's eyes were shining with dark, malicious joy.
He wasn't going to be able to repeat what he did before now that his tricks were revealed—so if he wasn't going to be able to break its armor again, he would just strangle it! Most Nightmare Creatures still had to breathe, after all. Even if the Scavenger didn't, a broken neck was bound to solve something.
Sunny kept trying to strangle the Scavenger. His face was contorted into a bestial snarl, and his eyes were burning with indescribable bloodlust.
The Scavenger, however, was not easily killed. At first, it seemed to have panicked and tried to throw Sunny off itself, but after realizing that getting rid of the small human was all but impossible, the abomination calmed down, stared at him with seething hatred, and tried to stab him in the back with the black tusk.
The tip of the crude saber bit into the silk of the Graceless Dusk and failed to pierce it.
Sunny laughed with savage joy.
"Try harder, bastard!"
The Scavenger obliged.
Dropping the tusk, it grabbed Sunny by the collar… and, instead of trying to push him away, pulled him down. The two of them were suddenly face-to-face.
'Shit…'
The jagged line splitting the abomination's helmet opened, and countless sharp fangs instantly sank into Sunny's cheek.
"Aaaaaargh!"
Realizing that he was moments from having his face bitten off, Sunny let go of the fiend's neck and delivered a vicious punch into its solar plexus. Then he grabbed the creature's jaws, pushed them open by a few millimeters, and tried to stab the Ascended Sword down its throat.
It was already embedded in its chest, so it hadn't been difficult for him to pull it out to use again. What he did fail to prevent was the fact that the Devil identified something was going to happen and closed its jaw quickly.
Just as the tip of the sword had entered its throat, almost touching its tongue, the sharp fangs broke the shortsword…
[Your Memory has been destroyed.]
Sunny staggered back, and the Scavenger once again let out a hoarse, hateful laugh, its teeth painted by Sunny's blood.
Sunny landed awkwardly on his backside and grabbed his cheek. The right side of his face was all torn, but at least he did not lose an eye. Sadly, he already knew that the Scavenger's teeth were poisoned…
'You horrid wretch!'
He gritted his teeth and grabbed the Sin of Solace. Then he lunged forward to strike down the fiend before it stood up. However, the creature simply turned into a shadow instead, trying to flee and then launch a surprise attack from a random direction.
"Not so fast!"
Without ever slowing down, Sunny dove into the shadows too.
Closing in on the fleeing Scavenger, Sunny willed his shapeless body to change. Instantly, it came to possess four long, powerful arms. Then, sharp claws grew out of his fingers.
Knowing that he didn't have a lot of essence left, and thus wouldn't be able to remain a shadow for long, Sunny did not waste any time and tore into the formless abomination. Instantly, it was as though a soundless wail of pain spread through the dark space.
The Scavenger seemed both surprised and aggrieved by the fact that Sunny was able to hurt it in this realm, which it must have considered absolutely safe before. Frightened, it tried to fight back, launching powerful but awkward attacks of its own.
A familiar, sickening pain of having his soul damaged permeated Sunny's senses. He had sustained some damage, too… but not nearly as much as the damned goblin.
The Scavenger realized that its struggles were not having any effect either. Escaping Sunny's cruel claws, it instantly escaped the shadows and emerged into the world above. They rolled through the ruins, exchanging a series of blows.
Infuriated, Sunny grabbed the towering ogre and smashed through the wall of a building, using the creature's body as a ram. Behind the wall, there was a slope of charred rubble. They fell down, ending up in a shallow pit.
At some point, Sunny had lost his swords, and the creature had lost its black saber. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, both full of murderous rage.
…Then, however, the Scavenger's gaze changed slightly.
Sunny's face changed, too.
That was because he felt a slight tremor spreading through the ground beneath them. His eyes widened.
In front of him, the battered fiend suddenly recoiled, trying to escape into the shadows once again—this time, it was going to simply blink away instead of traveling through the dark realm.
But Sunny had other plans.
"Where do you think you're going?!"
Grabbing the abomination by the shin, he dragged it back and then pressed the bastard into the ground. A series of painful blows rained on Sunny's already cut and injured body, but he just held the ogre tighter.
"What, are you afraid to die?! Let's die… let's die together!"
Sunny laughed, then used all but a few drops of his remaining essence to call upon the shadows. They surged forth, encasing the two of them in a sphere. Then more shadows rose, creating a second layer around the black egg, and then the third.
He continued to hold the Scavenger and pummel it with his free hand, feeling the skin on his knuckles splitting despite being reinforced by the Marble Shell. The Scavenger fought back desperately, too.
In the blink of an eye…
…the night turned as bright as day.
Then the roaring thunder of the explosion washed over the world, making the skies themselves shake. A billowing cloud of dust and debris rose high into the air, obscuring the ocean of flames bursting from under the ground.
A second terrifying blast resounded when the munition depots spread across the staging area below the wall detonated under the assault of heat, concussive force, and pressure.
The horde of Nightmare Creatures was consumed by the obliterating havoc. The weakest of them were instantly killed, while the stronger ones were severely wounded and burned. Only the strongest ones managed to survive the initial conflagration unscathed.
In less than a minute, a gigantic area was utterly devastated, turning into an incandescent pit of fire, molten rock, and liquified metal. The furious sight of it all, up until the world had become obscured by dust, was both awe-inspiring and horrifying.
Trapped inside the sphere of shadows, he held the Scavenger down while pummeling it with his fist.
The sphere of darkness around them suddenly shuddered, briefly rising, then plummeting down. A violent tremor ran through its walls, and up suddenly became down—it seemed that the shadow egg was rolling and being thrown around.
Sunny, who had been on top of the fiercely resisting Scavenger, found himself falling for a brief second. He hit the roof of the sphere, and a moment later, the hateful ogre came crashing down as well, landing on him. A massive fist connected with the side of Sunny's head, making him see stars.
'Curse… it…'
At that moment, due to the aggressiveness and madness both demonstrated, neither perceived the figure of a black wisp the size of a large marble, with two small horns jutting out of the side of its head, entering the shadow egg.
The abomination could not press its advantage when it was on top, because the shadow egg was flipped upside down once again a split second later… and then again, and then again, and then again.
The two of them were being tossed inside the sphere, ricocheting off its walls like rubber balls. Sunny almost instantly gave up on trying to comprehend where up and down were, and simply concentrated on holding onto the Scavenger—as soon as he let go, the creature would be able to slip away through Shadow Step.
But as long as he did not let go… he could continue to try and kill the wretch…
Just as he was going to deliver another punch, a sharp pain pierced his shoulder.
The dazed Scavenger had finally given up on trying to free itself from the mad human, and also on trying to meet him blow for blow—instead, it instinctively retreated to what it knew best.
Tearing things apart with its teeth.
Sunny had already had some poison coursing through his veins, but now there was more…
He growled and used both of his hands to grab the Scavenger, afraid to lose the grip. With no free hand to continue hitting the creature, he then proceeded to headbutt the bastard with all his strength.
Finally, Sunny felt something crack under his assault.
However, it might have been his own nose… it was hard to tell…
The world was shaking, burning, and consisted of pain.
After what seemed like an eternity in the air, the egg created by shadows finally hit the ground with a dry thud, shaking them one last time and exposing both Sunny and the Scavenger to terrible heat and blinding light.
The world… was hot. But at least it finally stopped spinning.
Sunny found himself staring into a glowing orange fog.
The fog was pretty and smelled of fire.
'…I think I'm on fire.'
He raised his head and noticed flames licking his legs. Luckily, his elemental resistance was high enough to resist them. The Graceless Dusk, too, was not affected by them at all.
He was hurting all over, and breathing was strangely hard… but he was alive.
With a groan, Sunny slowly sat up, and then stood up with a stagger. He did not feel well. He was dreadfully exhausted, heavily wounded, and poisoned on top of that. As for the Scavenger…
Sunny looked around and gritted his teeth.
'Don't tell me that the bastard escaped again!'
He allowed his shadow sense to spread outward, then smiled.
Limping away, he circled a pile of burning debris and stopped near the edge of a deep impression in the ground.
The impression was about three meters deep and had almost vertical slopes. But what he found there was not what he expected.
The Scavenger was trapped under a giant piece of broken alloy, but in front of it was a black wolf with horns protruding from its head, each twisting like a gnarled branch as they came to a sharp point behind its ears.
Sunny blinked multiple times.
"Regis?"
The black wolf turned to look at him with slightly purple eyes.
"Oh, Shorty. I noticed you needed help and came…" Regis chuckled. "You're in good shape, huh…"
Sunny made his way toward Regis and the Scavenger, limping.
"Shut up and kill it once and for all!"
Regis looked at the Scavenger's figure again.
The creature glanced at them with hatred, then redoubled its efforts to get free from under a giant piece of broken alloy. The creature seemed to be slightly dazed but otherwise unscathed. Its exhaustion was notorious nonetheless.
On top of that, it was severely weakened by having its soul ripped by Sunny's claws. It was going to take it a dozen or so seconds to escape, at least.
Finally, Regis shook his head.
"It's your kill. The most I can do is incapacitate it."
Sunny smiled coldly.
With that, Regis positioned himself over the bastard's body and immobilized it with his own weight, anchoring it to the ground.
Then Sunny summoned the Covetous Coffer and kicked it, throwing the chest on its side with the lid open. At the same time, he Shadow Stepped away while Regis stayed in place.
Regis could become incorporeal at will—not in the Scavenger's way, but he could do it. That was why the insects that left the Covetous Coffer the next instant weren't going to harm him.
A flood of small, black beetles landed on the Scavenger, instantly biting into the bone armor.
The fiend frantically tried to escape, but it was already too late. Its figure became covered by a crawling carpet of beetles, and then it was buried under their mass entirely. At that moment, Regis abandoned the pit and stood beside Sunny.
More and more vermin poured from the Covetous Coffer until the pit was filled almost to the brim. No trace of the Scavenger remained under the seething mass of tiny creatures.
Sunny took a step back and drew in a deep breath. Then he let out a strange, shaky laugh.
'I did it!'
Sunny's laugh turned louder. As he was laughing, the Spell suddenly whispered into his ear:
[You have slain a Corrupted Devil…]
He was so startled that he even missed the latter half.
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
'This is for Luster, Dorn and Sylvie you bastard!'
As his eyes widened by the influx of fragments going into his core, the Spell spoke once more:
[…You have received an Echo.]
Regis beside him looked at him with a strange expression but let him celebrate calmly. He saw the fight when he was inside the egg created with shadows and could predict how difficult it must have been.
He couldn't help at all because there simply wasn't space for him. Once the shadow egg broke, that was when he participated.
In the time Sunny had ended up elsewhere, he materialized in front of the Corrupted Devil and noticed it had a slight affinity for Aether.
Its was less than Jet's—literally, the Scavenger only managed to use that Aether to enhance his senses and nothing more.
There was the fact that Aether isn't a normal element—but perhaps it could have learned to use it given more time, and there the fight with Sunny would have turned out completely different.
He thought about killing it at that moment, but as he said before, the kill belonged to Sunny, so he didn't.
When Sunny stopped laughing like a lunatic, he wiped some tears from his eyes and looked at the pit full of small insects.
"…Now we're going to have to clean this, aren't we?"
Regis turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.
"We?" he asked. "As far as I know, whoever makes the mess cleans it up, Shorty!"
Sunny groaned.
'Damnation.'