Ranobes » Shadow Slave » Chapter 1650: Frozen City.
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Chapter 1650: Frozen City.
Shadow Slave

Sunny did not know what he expected to see in Falcon Scott. He didn't even know why he felt compelled to enter it… and yet, he did enter it, walking along the silent streets with a distant expression on his pale face. He came here precisely because he didn't want to, reluctant see the monument to his failure. He owed to himself, and to those people whom he had failed to protect, to witness their final resting place in all its horrid glory.

Perhaps it was simply because now that no one remembered him, Sunny wanted to at least remember himself. Even the things he would have wanted to forget.

The city was pretty much exactly like he had imagined.

It was a frozen graveyard. The fatal cold of the Winter Beast's blizzard had killed everyone in what seemed like mere moments. The corpses were hidden inside the buildings or buried under snow, so the city seemed utterly empty.

They had not suffered, at least…

Some buildings had collapsed in the past months under the weight of the ice. Others stood like colossal gravestones… or frigid mausoleums, maybe, for those who had perished inside. Strangely enough, no Nightmare Creatures seemed to have entered the city to feast on the corpses. It was as though the Winter Beast had marked this place as its territory.

Sunny passed a few familiar structures… the barracks where the Irregulars had been stationed, the government compound, the dormitory tower where Beth and Professor Obel had lived. His mind was flooded with memories, which only made his mental state deteriorate further.

It was a strange thing, to be alone.

Now that Sunny was alone, erased from existence, he felt no compulsion to control his emotions or maintain the illusion of normalcy. There was no one to witness him fall apart, anyway, and nobody to get the wrong impression of him. There were no tethers connecting him to the world, yes… but, as it turned out, those same tethers had been like supports that held his mind together.

He must have looked quite disturbing from the side.

Only now that Sunny was truly and utterly alone did he realize how much of his habits and behavior had been dictated by the need to blend in with his environment… with human society. Now, he didn't have to bother with maintaining acceptable expressions, keeping improper feelings from his gaze, and saying the right words.

Or saying anything at all, really.

«Maybe I should do all these things, anyway.»

He suspected that giving in to this utter freedom would make him slip into some sort of derangement eventually, but couldn't bother to care.

Finally, he reached the crumbled remains of the city wall and spent some time gazing at the snowy field beyond.

Climbing over the wreckage, Sunny jumped down, turned his body light enough to walk on the snow, and left the ghost of Falcon Scott behind.

This was probably the last time he would ever see It. But that… was fine.

It was for the best, really.

Some time later, he reached the place where the last soldiers of the First Evacuation Army had died, killed by the deathly cold of the unnatural snowstorm. Their frozen figures were still there, those closest laying on the ground, those who had endured longer frozen like ice sculptures.

His motionless face seemed frozen, too.

He spent a while among them, looking at the horizon. The Winter Beast had retreated into the heart of the landmass, but the signs of its passage remained. Today, Antarctica looked much more like it had once, frigid and encased in ice. It was darkly fitting.

Sunny was still consumed by his thoughts when something moved under the snow, and a hideous creature lunged at him from below. He did not move, but shadows around him stirred and shot forward with incredible speed, catching the abomination in the air.

A moment later, It was gruesomely torn apart, a rain of hot blood falling on Sunny like crimson dew.

His expression didn't change, but his eyes gleamed darkly.

«Strange!»

It was still strange, to kill a Nightmare Creature and not here the familiar voice of the Spell announce its Rank, Class, and name.

The snow all around him moved and exploded, dozens of grotesque bodies rushing to rip him to shreds. There was a whole swarm of abominations here… Sunny finally moved, a sinister smile contorting his face.

He was so fast that it almost seemed as if he simply disappeared in one place and appeared in the other. There was no weapon in his hand, and no need for one, either. The gauntlets of the Onyx Mantle were more than enough.

Falling into the savage battle style of the Barrow Wraiths, Sunny crushed the skull of one of the abominations with his bare fist. A split second later, he was near another, piercing its chest with his hand and crushing its heart. In a blink of an eye, he was already somewhere else, brutally tearing a monster's jaws apart.

Sunny fought ruthlessly and methodically, destroying the Nightmare Creatures in the most swift and brutal fashion… no, it couldn't even be called a fight. He wasn't a fighter right now — he was a butcher, or a ruthless executioner at best.

It took him no more than twelve seconds to obliterate the entire swarm. By the time he was done, the blood covering his onyx armor had already turned to ice.

The Nightmare Creatures were dead… but not all of them.

He had left one alive.

Now, the massive beast was writhing on the snow, struggling to burrow into it as shadows held it in place. There was no escape from Sunny, but the abomination was still desperately trying to run away.

Turning his head, Sunny studied the ugly creature and then took a step toward it.

«Where are you going? Who allowed you to leave?»

Approaching the abomination, he crouched beside it and stared into its frenzied eyes with a smile.

The creature's terrifying maw was less than a meter away from his face, but Sunny didn't care.

«You chose a wrong day to exist, wretch. Ah, but it's for the best. It's exactly what I need!»

He outstretched one hand, sensing the Soul Serpent slither forth. Soon, a torrent of darkness flowed from his fingers onto the snow, forming into a massive Shadow.

That Shadow was not a great serpent, however. Instead, it took the form of a towering creature that had two stumpy legs, an emaciated, hunched torso and disproportionately long, multi-jointed hands two of them, each ending with a set of horrifying bone claws, and another two, these ones shorter, ending with almost human-like fingers.

Its body was covered in ragged inky-black fur, and there were five glossy black eyes on its head. Beneath them, a terrible maw crowding with razor-sharp teeth was half-open, as though in anticipation. Viscous drool was running down the creature's chin and dripping into the snow.

The most unnerving part, though, were the strange shapes endlessly moving, worm-like, under the creature's skin.

It was the Mountain King. Or rather, a version of the Mountain King that looked as if it had been dipped into a pool of liquid darkness.

Sunny's cold smile widened a little, his dark eyes gleaming with sinister will.

«Go on. This one will be the first.»

Serpent took a heavy step forward and grabbed the struggling abomination with its powerful hand. Then, one of the worm-like larvae moving under his skin crawled from under his claws and burrowed into the monster's flesh.

The Nightmare Creature froze for a moment, and then let out a chilling wail.

A moment later, its body contorted in a terrible convulsion.

Sunny grinned darkly.

But not the last, No, not at all.»

Shadow Slave
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Comments 28

  1. Offline
    Dadadai Shukosha
    Dadadai Shukosha
    + 2 ⋅ 0 -
    Sunny unleashed all the Edgy lol
    Read more
  2. Offline
    EVOLT
    EVOLT
    + 3 ⋅ 0 -
    MOAR!!!! GIMME MORE OF LUNATIC SUNNY
    Read more
  3. Offline
    keyleur
    keyleur
    + 12 ⋅ 2 -
    1651 New Predator

    The [Formless] Ability allowed Serpent to assume the form of any shadow resting in Sunny's soul, Inheriting its powers and abilities. The shadow had to be of the same or lower Rank and Class, which meant that the most powerful form Serpent could currently assume was that of the Sybil of the Fallen Grace... the Terror of LO49.

    And, in fact, that form was suited for Sunny's goal much better than the Mountain King. However, Serpent had to maintain the transformation with its own essence, and could not sustain such a powerful shape for a long time, let alone constantly.

    Once the Shadow's essence was exhausted, the effects of those powers it had assumed would be gone. In other words, if Sunny had ordered Serpent to turn into the harrowing Sybil and enthrall a swarm of Nightmare Creatures, those abominations would have been released from the mind hex before too long.

    The Mountain King, meanwile, was merely an Awakened Tyrant. As a Transcendent Terror, Serpent could maintain that form almost indefinitely, especially after Sunny augmented it with the shadows. That was exactly what he needed in order to collect a small army of abominable thralls,

    It was funny... the Larvae the Mountain King spawned were Dormant Beasts. Therefore, his first thrall was also a Dormant Beast - but one wearing a Fallen Monster's corpse. What exactly did it make him, Sunny did not know. Nor did he care that much.

    Come to think of it...

    Sunny glanced at the towering figure of the Soul Serpent, then at the hideous creature laying obediently on the snow. He sighed.

    By now, Serpent had to possess at least two new Abilities since it had risen in Class twice while following Rain, and in Rank once. But without the Spell conveniently informing Sunny about what these Abilities did, he had no way of knowing what they were.

    There had not been a lot of time for research and experimentation, either, while he was traversing the toxic wilderness of the Northern Quadrant and fighting his way through the depths of the ocean.

    All he had was a suspicion that one of these Abilities had to do with Serpent's weapon form, while the other one had to do with souls and spirit essence. However, he wasn't sure.

    ‘Well. I'll find out later.’

    Once the Winter Beast was dead, there would be no serious threats left in the Antarctic Center for a while... at least until the powerful abominations in East Antarctica sensed its absence and crossed the half-frozen strait.

    One more reason to kill that cursed thing

    Not that Sunny needed more reasons.

    Looking at the Larva with contempt, he remained motionless for a few moments, and then turned away. The desolate landscape of the Antarctic Center stretched in front of him, tall mountains rising from the snowy plain in the distance,

    The chilling darkness in Sunny's eyes stirred.

    "Time to hunt..."

    ***

    There had been three most powerful Nightmare Creatures in the Antarctic Center during the Chain of Nightmares - the Fallen Titan Goliath, the Corrupted Terror Sybil of the Fallen Grace, and the Corrupted Titan Winter Beast. Sunny had killed the first two, while the last now ruled this land.

    Which was to say that Sunny, now a Transcendent Terror, was the second most terrifying creature in the frigid mountains of the abandoned landmass.

    He remembered vividly the dreadful gauntlet of the Southern Campaign. Back then, the Antarctic Center was like a merciless death trap, with harrowing abominations waiting to ambush him and his soldiers on every turn. He had crossed it once with the First Evacuation Army, and the second time with a convoy of refugees, each time struggling desperately just to survive.

    But things were different now.

    Now, Sunny was the harrowing predator, while the abominations dwelling in the mountains were his prey,

    He slowly moved south, retracing the steps of the army. It was already winter in Antarctica, but the sun had not fallen beyond the horizon yet... there was twilight and darkness dwelling in the deep canyons between the snowy peaks, so he could remain unseen, moving from shadow to shadow like a stalking beast.

    Wherever Sunny passed, the snow was painted crimson with blood. The corpses of the Nightmare Creatures were brutally torn apart, and their carcasses littered the slopes like morbid gardens of mangled flesh. He appeared out of nowhere, surrounded by a tide of shadows, and butchered the abominations with cold, ruthless determination.

    He even started to enjoy the slaughter after a while.

    ...Not all of them died, of course.

    From time to time, he chose a Nightmare Creature to be infected with a Mountain King's Larva. Slowly but surely, his swarm of thralls grew, which made it harder to hide them. Eventually, he had to abandon stealth and advance forward openly. Sunny hoped that a horde of Nightmare Creatures would attack him, but sadly, the number of abominations seemed to have dwindled under the Winter Beast's reign.

    The great hordes of Nightmare Creatures were nowhere to be seen. Some must have migrated south, some had succumbed to cold, and some could have even crossed the strait to East Antarctica. Only the strongest and most resilient abominations remained... and these were the abominations Sunny hunted.

    There were creatures of all kinds following him now. He did not choose the most powerful monstrosities or the most lethal to enthrall, so their combat power was not that impressive. What he pursued was variety... variety of types, shapes, forms, elemental affinities, and resistances.

    These thralls were not meant to kill the Winter Beast, after all. They were only meant to help Sunny find a way to kill the creature himself.

    The further inland he went, the colder it became. There were lesser Nightmare Creatures around, too, since fewer and fewer of them could withstand the dreadful cold. Even Sunny himself was starting to feel uncomfortable, hiding from the cutting wind and wearing Ananke's Mantle to warm himself.

    By the time he reached the ruins of Erebus Field, the cold was almost lethal.

    Here in the vicinity of Mount Erebus, though, Sunny could at least breathe easily. The siege capital that had once stood at the foot of the volcano was destroyed by Goliath. The ruins were mostly drowned in lava - the lava had long turned to stone, of course, which was now buried by snow.

    Still, the heat coming from below the ground made this area a little bit warmer.

    Standing on a cliff above the snowy plain, Sunny took a deep breath and studied it carefully.

    ‘...It will do.’

    There was no better battlefield in the Antarctic Center if he wanted to kill the Winter Beast.
    Read more
    1. Offline
      keyleur
      keyleur
      + 13 ⋅ 2 -
      1652 Terrible Challenger

      Two weeks after Sunny had returned to Antarctica, he stood on a cliff overseeing a vast scene of devastation. In front of him, a great valley was formed from collapsed mountains and stone debris, the ruinous landscape now covered in ice and snow.

      This was the place where Sky Tide, Wake of Ruín, and Dire Fang had battled the three emerged Titans - Whispering Legion, Goliath, and Winter Beast. The Whispering Legion had been slain, while the other two calamitous abominations drove the Saints away. An entire span of the mountain range had been demolished in the process.

      There were Nightmare Gates hidden under the crushed stone, without a doubt, or maybe above it.

      Sunny could not see, because most of the valley was hidden by a raging blizzard. This blizzard was the very same that had once enveloped Falcon Scott, sapping the lives of all its remaining inhabitants.

      It was the manifestation of the Winter Beast's authority,

      The air was so cold that each breath Sunny took felt like he was swallowing a scattering of sharp knives,

      Not paying it any attention, he was gazing down with an expressionless face, his eyes drowning in deep darkness. His gaunt body was encased in fearsome onyx armor, and that armor was shrouded in darkness.

      Out there in the valley, far below, a long line of Nightmare Creatures was advancing into the blizzard. Their movements were still and unnatural, as if they were corpses animated by some unknown force. But, at the same time, none of them showed any fear or hesitation. Neither did they show the demented frenzy inherent to most abominations.

      They just slowly marched into the snow, stretching into a wide line that seemed to encompass the front of the blizzard.

      A few moments later, the first of the Nightmare Creatures collapsed, its corpse swiftly becoming encased in ice.

      Standing on the tall cliff, Sunny pursed his lips in disdain.

      ‘Weak.'

      Not that he needed these useless things to be strong. No, their purpose was different... it was to show him which type of Nightmare Creature was the most resistant to the Winter Beast's cold.

      From what he could tell, the cursed thing was not that powerful physically... at least as far as Titans went. It did not rule a legion of powerful minions, either, What made the Winter Beast so lethal was its uncanny ability to freeze everything around it to death - corporeal or incorporeal, weak or strong, pure or corrupted.

      Close to the heart of the blizzard, even time itself seemed slower, as if the chilling cold could freeze the very laws of existence.

      Sunny might have been burning with murderous hatred, but he had not lost his reason. if he wanted to kill this Corrupted Titan, he needed to understand It first. Only after dismantling the secrets of the Winter Beast's power would he be able to slay it.

      And these thralls were the sacrifice he had prepared to throw into the deathly cold to comprehend it.

      Soon, they disappeared from sight. Sunny could not see his sacrificial pawns anymore, but Soul Serpent still shared a connection with them. Therefore, he could know if the Larvae were still moving or had fallen still.

      There were all kinds of Nightmare Creatures under his command, and by studying which ones lasted longer, he would be able to determine a few things about the lethal cold.

      'Come on. Die for me.’

      And yet, in the end, Sunny was disappointed.

      Because none of them lasted long.

      The small army of thralls he had so laboriously created in the past few weeks was obliterated in mere minutes, none of them making it that far into the snowstorm. The cold did not differentiate between large monsters or small, those with affinity to ice or those without. All of them were drained of warmth or frozen solid, dying a meaningless death in the embrace of the Winter Beast's unholy power.

      Sunny cursed, then sighed with regret.

      'No matter

      The absence of a result was a result in and of itself. The fact that there did not seem to be a kind of resistance effective against the authority of the Winter Beast's profane domain told Sunny a lot, as well.

      He had contemplated several strategies for just that kind of outcome. These strategies were risky, yes... but, actually, he did not feel regretful. Because they were also much more direct and brutal.

      Killing the wretched Titan in such a fashion was bound to be much more satisfying.

      Down in the crumbled valley, the blizzard suddenly expanded, as if coming to life. A terrible wind blew, crushing into Sunny with a chilling force. The wall of swirling snow and ice particles slowly advanced, moving in his direction.

      A dark smile split his face in half.

      "Look at that, Serpent. We seem to have been spotted."

      He had hoped that hiding in the shadows on top of a distant mountain would be enough to throw the Titan off his scent, but he had been wrong. Perhaps the creature had been aware of his presence all along, but did not bother to react until he dared to challenge it directly.

      In any case, the Corrupted Titan, Winter Best, was finally rising to deal with the Transcendent Terror, Sunless.

      Sunny let out a sigh, then moved his shoulders to stretch his stiff muscles.

      "I guess I'll have to finish the preparations faster.”

      With that, he glanced at the towering figure of the Mountain King that stood in the darkness behind him.

      Under his gaze, the tyrant suddenly turned into a torrent of black liquid, which then reformed itself into a different, equally ghastly abomination.

      A Spire Messenger now stood on the edge of the cliff, its terrifying black beak cutting the wind like a dark blade. The creature's pale body was utterly black, and its many powerful limbs pierced the ice with long, sharp talons.

      Throwing one last look at the approaching snowstorm, Sunny jumped onto its back. In the next moment, the mighty wings of the creature raised a hurricane, and it shot into the air, carrying him back in the direction of Erebus Field.

      The snowstorm followed.
      Read more
  4. Offline
    Pro100zver25
    Pro100zver25
    + 24 ⋅ 0 -
    1651: New Predator.

    The [Formless] Ability allowed Serpent to assume the form of any shadow resting in Sunny's soul, Inheriting its powers and abilities. The shadow had to be of the same or lower Rank and Class, which meant that the most powerful form Serpent could currently assume was that of the Sybil of the Fallen Grace… the Terror of LO49.

    And, in fact, that form was suited for Sunny's goal much better than the Mountain King. However, Serpent had to maintain the transformation with its own essence, and could not sustain such a powerful shape for a long time, let alone constantly.

    Once the Shadow's essence was exhausted, the effects of those powers it had assumed would be gone. In other words, if Sunny had ordered Serpent to turn into the harrowing Sybil and enthrall a swarm of Nightmare Creatures, those abominations would have been released from the mind hex before too long.

    The Mountain King, meanwile, was merely an Awakened Tyrant. As a Transcendent Terror, Serpent could maintain that form almost indefinitely, especially after Sunny augmented it with the shadows. That was exactly what he needed in order to collect a small army of abominable thralls.

    It was funny… the Larvae the Mountain King spawned were Dormant Beasts. Therefore, his first thrall was also a Dormant Beast — but one wearing a Fallen Monster's corpse. What exactly did it make him, Sunny did not know. Nor did he care that much.

    Come to think of it…

    Sunny glanced at the towering figure of the Soul Serpent, then at the hideous creature laying obediently on the snow. He sighed.

    By now, Serpent had to possess at least two new Abilities since it had risen in Class twice while following Rain, and in Rank once. But without the Spell conveniently informing Sunny about what these Abilities did, he had no way of knowing what they were.

    There had not been a lot of time for research and experimentation, either, while he was traversing the toxic wilderness of the Northern Quadrant and fighting his way through the depths of the ocean.

    All he had was a suspicion that one of these Abilities had to do with Serpent's weapon form, while the other one had to do with souls and spirit essence. However, he wasn't sure.

    «Well. I'll find out later.»

    Once the Winter Beast was dead, there would be no serious threats left in the Antarctic Center for a while… at least until the powerful abominations in East Antarctica sensed its absence and crossed the half-frozen strait.

    One more reason to kill that cursed thing.

    Not that Sunny needed more reasons.

    Looking at the Larva with contempt, he remained motionless for a few moments, and then turned away. The desolate landscape of the Antarctic Center stretched in front of him, tall mountains rising from the snowy plain in the distance.

    The chilling darkness in Sunny's eyes stirred.

    «Time to hunt…»

    —— —— ——

    There had been three most powerful Nightmare Creatures in the Antarctic Center during the Chain of Nightmares — the Fallen Titan Goliath, the Corrupted Terror Sybil of the Fallen Grace, and the Corrupted Titan Winter Beast. Sunny had killed the first two, while the last now ruled this land.

    Which was to say that Sunny, now a Transcendent Terror, was the second most terrifying creature in the frigid mountains of the abandoned landmass.

    He remembered vividly the dreadful gauntlet of the Southern Campaign. Back then, the Antarctic Center was like a merciless death trap, with harrowing abominations waiting to ambush him and his soldiers on every turn. He had crossed it once with the First Evacuation Army, and the second time with a convoy of refugees, each time struggling desperately just to survive.

    But things were different now.

    Now, Sunny was the harrowing predator, while the abominations dwelling in the mountains were his prey.

    He slowly moved south, retracing the steps of the army. It was already winter in Antarctica, but the sun had not fallen beyond the horizon yet… there was twilight and darkness dwelling in the deep canyons between the snowy peaks, so he could remain unseen, moving from shadow to shadow like a stalking beast.

    Wherever Sunny passed, the snow was painted crimson with blood. The corpses of the Nightmare Creatures were brutally torn apart, and their carcasses littered the slopes like morbid gardens of mangled flesh. He appeared out of nowhere, surrounded by a tide of shadows, and butchered the abominations with cold, ruthless determination.

    He even started to enjoy the slaughter after a while.

    …Not all of them died, of course.

    From time to time, he chose a Nightmare Creature to be infected with a Mountain King's Larva. Slowly but surely, his swarm of thralls grew, which made it harder to hide them. Eventually, he had to abandon stealth and advance forward openly. Sunny hoped that a horde of Nightmare Creatures would attack him, but sadly, the number of abominations seemed to have dwindled under the Winter Beast's reign.

    The great hordes of Nightmare Creatures were nowhere to be seen. Some must have migrated south, some had succumbed to cold, and some could have even crossed the strait to East Antarctica. Only the strongest and most resilient abominations remained… and these were the abominations Sunny hunted.

    There were creatures of all kinds following him now. He did not choose the most powerful monstrosities or the most lethal to enthrall, so their combat power was not that impressive. What he pursued was variety… variety of types, shapes, forms, elemental affinities, and resistances.

    These thralls were not meant to kill the Winter Beast, after all. They were only meant to help Sunny find a way to kill the creature himself.

    The further inland he went, the colder it became. There were lesser Nightmare Creatures around, too, since fewer and fewer of them could withstand the dreadful cold. Even Sunny himself was starting to feel uncomfortable, hiding from the cutting wind and wearing Ananke's Mantle to warm himself.

    By the time he reached the ruins of Erebus Field, the cold was almost lethal.

    Here in the vicinity of Mount Erebus, though, Sunny could at least breathe easily. The siege capital that had once stood at the foot of the volcano was destroyed by Goliath. The ruins were mostly drowned in lava — the lava had long turned to stone, of course, which was now buried by snow.

    Still, the heat coming from below the ground made this area a little bit warmer.

    Standing on a cliff above the snowy plain, Sunny took a deep breath and studied it carefully.

    «…It will do.»

    There was no better battlefield in the Antarctic Center if he wanted to kill the Winter Beast.
    Read more
    1. Offline
      Pro100zver25
      Pro100zver25
      + 23 ⋅ 2 -
      1652: Terrible Challenger.

      Two weeks after Sunny had returned to Antarctica, he stood on a cliff overseeing a vast scene of devastation. In front of him, a great valley was formed from collapsed mountains and stone debris, the ruinous landscape now covered in ice and snow.

      This was the place where Sky Tide, Wake of Ruín, and Dire Fang had battled the three emerged Titans — Whispering Legion, Goliath, and Winter Beast. The Whispering Legion had been slain, while the other two calamitous abominations drove the Saints away. An entire span of the mountain range had been demolished in the process.

      There were Nightmare Gates hidden under the crushed stone, without a doubt, or maybe above it.

      Sunny could not see, because most of the valley was hidden by a raging blizzard. This blizzard was the very same that had once enveloped Falcon Scott, sapping the lives of all its remaining inhabitants.

      It was the manifestation of the Winter Beast's authority.

      The air was so cold that each breath Sunny took felt like he was swallowing a scattering of sharp knives.

      Not paying it any attention, he was gazing down with an expressionless face, his eyes drowning in deep darkness. His gaunt body was encased in fearsome onyx armor, and that armor was shrouded in darkness.

      Out there in the valley, far below, a long line of Nightmare Creatures was advancing into the blizzard. Their movements were still and unnatural, as if they were corpses animated by some unknown force. But, at the same time, none of them showed any fear or hesitation. Neither did they show the demented frenzy inherent to most abominations.

      They just slowly marched into the snow, stretching into a wide line that seemed to encompass the front of the blizzard.

      A few moments later, the first of the Nightmare Creatures collapsed, its corpse swiftly becoming encased in ice.

      Standing on the tall cliff, Sunny pursed his lips in disdain.

      «Weak.»

      Not that he needed these useless things to be strong. No, their purpose was different… it was to show him which type of Nightmare Creature was the most resistant to the Winter Beast's cold.

      From what he could tell, the cursed thing was not that powerful physically… at least as far as Titans went. It did not rule a legion of powerful minions, either, What made the Winter Beast so lethal was its uncanny ability to freeze everything around it to death — corporeal or incorporeal, weak or strong, pure or corrupted.

      Close to the heart of the blizzard, even time itself seemed slower, as if the chilling cold could freeze the very laws of existence.

      Sunny might have been burning with murderous hatred, but he had not lost his reason, if he wanted to kill this Corrupted Titan, he needed to understand It first. Only after dismantling the secrets of the Winter Beast's power would he be able to slay it.

      And these thralls were the sacrifice he had prepared to throw into the deathly cold to comprehend it.

      Soon, they disappeared from sight. Sunny could not see his sacrificial pawns anymore, but Soul Serpent still shared a connection with them. Therefore, he could know if the Larvae were still moving or had fallen still.

      There were all kinds of Nightmare Creatures under his command, and by studying which ones lasted longer, he would be able to determine a few things about the lethal cold.

      «Come on. Die for me.»

      And yet, in the end, Sunny was disappointed.

      Because none of them lasted long.

      The small army of thralls he had so laboriously created in the past few weeks was obliterated in mere minutes, none of them making it that far into the snowstorm. The cold did not differentiate between large monsters or small, those with affinity to ice or those without. All of them were drained of warmth or frozen solid, dying a meaningless death in the embrace of the Winter Beast's unholy power.

      Sunny cursed, then sighed with regret.

      «No matter.»

      The absence of a result was a result in and of itself. The fact that there did not seem to be a kind of resistance effective against the authority of the Winter Beast's profane domain told Sunny a lot, as well.

      He had contemplated several strategies for just that kind of outcome. These strategies were risky, yes… but, actually, he did not feel regretful. Because they were also much more direct and brutal.

      Killing the wretched Titan in such a fashion was bound to be much more satisfying.

      Down in the crumbled valley, the blizzard suddenly expanded, as if coming to life. A terrible wind blew, crushing into Sunny with a chilling force. The wall of swirling snow and ice particles slowly advanced, moving in his direction.

      A dark smile split his face in half.

      «Look at that, Serpent. We seem to have been spotted.»

      He had hoped that hiding in the shadows on top of a distant mountain would be enough to throw the Titan off his scent, but he had been wrong. Perhaps the creature had been aware of his presence all along, but did not bother to react until he dared to challenge it directly.

      In any case, the Corrupted Titan, Winter Beast, was finally rising to deal with the Transcendent Terror, Sunless.

      Sunny let out a sigh, then moved his shoulders to stretch his stiff muscles.

      «I guess I'll have to finish the preparations faster.»

      With that, he glanced at the towering figure of the Mountain King that stood in the darkness behind him.

      Under his gaze, the tyrant suddenly turned into a torrent of black liquid, which then reformed itself into a different, equally ghastly abomination.

      A Spire Messenger now stood on the edge of the cliff, its terrifying black beak cutting the wind like a dark blade. The creature's pale body was utterly black, and its many powerful limbs pierced the ice with long, sharp talons.

      Throwing one last look at the approaching snowstorm, Sunny jumped onto its back. In the next moment, the mighty wings of the creature raised a hurricane, and it shot into the air, carrying him back in the direction of Erebus Field.

      The snowstorm followed.
      Read more
      1. Offline
        Verdant
        Verdant
        + 2 ⋅ 0 -
        Thank you!!
        Read more
      2. Offline
        Uchia-Madara-Pathway
        Uchia-Madara-Pathway
        + 3 ⋅ 0 -
        Thanks Man.

        So this is the memory cassie is seeing
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        BlankDjinn
        BlankDjinn
        + 2 ⋅ 0 -
        Thank you as always :)

        Damn Sunny is getting creative with how he uses his abilities he’s kind of like a pseudo beast master dudes deadly with how much he can mimic 😂
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    Gerhman_Sparrow23
    Gerhman_Sparrow23
    + 5 ⋅ 0 -
    But what I don't understand is sunny is a terror too so why does he not have an ability to create minions?
    Im not gonna consider Shadows as his minions because creating them requires luck rather than ability
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      Xenko
      Xenko
      + 4 ⋅ 0 -
      Because Sunny is a Transcendent Terror, not a corrupted one
      All these thing with minions and whatever comes from corruption
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        rekicchi
        rekicchi
        + 4 ⋅ 1 -
        No, he simply does not have the ability to create minions the way all those other creatures do. However, it can be said that his ability to turn Echoes into Shadows is a type of 'minion-creation' ability.
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          Royalty Ducky
          Royalty Ducky
          + 1 ⋅ 0 -
          Then what's nephises?
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            rekicchi
            rekicchi
            + 2 ⋅ 0 -
            She doesn't have one
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        SilvaSteins
        SilvaSteins
        + 1 ⋅ 0 -
        Also, those corrupted without minions are more terrifying (kinda, IMHO).
        For the Humans though, it depends on Aspects (abilities) . welldone
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        Gerhman_Sparrow23
        Gerhman_Sparrow23
        + 2 ⋅ 0 -
        But really it would've been so cool if sunny and nephis could create minions like mordret does
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          SilvaSteins
          SilvaSteins
          + 0 ⋅ 0 -
          If they both could, and G3 doesn't provide appropriate reasons the wiki could just attribute it to being a divine aspect holder...
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    KingAbused
    KingAbused
    + 1 ⋅ 13 -
    kill cassie
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    truant111
    truant111
    + 3 ⋅ 0 -
    Huh, so we're going to have a volume with flashbacks from the timeskip?
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  8. Offline
    Edrick Sars
    Edrick Sars
    + 2 ⋅ 1 -
    Wait Wait Wait… Hold up!
    Has Sunny killed the “Skin Walker”?
    Has he got another shadow?
    Quit it G3 with the jumping and cutting out scenes. 🤦‍♂️
    Sunny’s got at least 6 point of views now…
    You killing me with each one’s view… hell now I cant even tell who the real sunny is now… is this one even a shadow?
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      Rxjo
      Rxjo
      + 7 ⋅ 0 -
      It's the mountain king from the first nightmare. Soul serpent has the ability to transform into the shadows that sunny has killed, you know like the army in his soul sea. He had soul serpent turn into the mountain king and began to use its tyrant ability to create minions.
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        rekicchi
        rekicchi
        + 1 ⋅ 0 -
        When was it detailed that Mountain King has an ability to create minions? Was it really mentioned? I think I missed it
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          SrgtLock
          SrgtLock
          + 2 ⋅ 0 -
          Yup, mountain king sends little worms into the living ( and dead maybe) and changes them into something similar to it’s self. Him dieing the ruler of them of corse.
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      _Lev
      _Lev
      + 2 ⋅ 0 -
      Isn't this the memory he's showing Cassie? What's the confusion?
      It should be taking place shortly after him becoming Fateless. Relatively, anyway. It might be all of him minus the shadow sent to tutor Rain, but I'm not sure what the timeline is for his various avatars.
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    rjk79
    rjk79
    + 17 ⋅ 0 -
    Very dark, maybe even a little crazy.. but when has sunny ever been really sane in mind and spirit? Reason why I have enjoyed the book so much I think..
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      Dummybaron
      Dummybaron
      + 4 ⋅ 0 -
      Exactly my thoughts
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    Dummybaron
    Dummybaron
    + 9 ⋅ 0 -
    Damn sometimes I forget how frightening Sunless is, with somebody he feel hatred towards
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