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Chapter 1822: Miraculous Feat

Actually, Rain already knew what miracle could save her. It wasn't a miracle that could happen to her, but rather a miracle she could make happen.

It was her Awakening.

Just like her teacher had said, it was the only solution to this lethal predicament.

The problem was that the formation of her soul core was far away, while the Tyrant was too close. The abomination was not drawing closer yet, but it would soon.

If Rain could rest with no distraction and concentrate on meditating steadily, there would have been hope of Awakening before the hideous giant caught its prey. But she had to escape from it, dragging Tamar across the wasteland, from dusk till dawn.

She had to rest at night to recover at least some of her strength, so there were only a few short hours for her to circulate her essence while keeping watch.

Those hours were woefully insufficient for the task at hand.

But actually...

Wasn't she looking at it all wrong?

Rain remembered the previous night. The cool sensation of water droplets falling on her face, the joy she felt. Back then, she was circulating her essence. She took Tamar's helmet and moved it from below the overhanging stone ridge to catch the rain, hoping to quench her unbearable thirst.

Which proved something vital.

It was that she could move and control her essence at the same time. As long as her concentration wasn't broken, Rain could do whatever she wanted while forming her core.

Of course, it wasn't easy to keep her essence under control when doing something else. It was already hard enough to maintain the raging whirlpool while in a state of perfect peace, not to mention extremely tiring.

And yet, if she could circulate her essence while traversing the wasteland, then she wouldn't just have a few pitiful hours at night to form her core. Instead, she could keep forming it constantly, for as long as her mental fortitude allowed it.

Rain felt a strange compulsion to laugh and cry at the same time.

'Of course... of course! Why not?'

She was already doing something unprecedented by trying to Awaken without the help of the Nightmare Spell. As far as Rain knew, no other human of the waking world had ever done that.

And yet, she didn't just have to perform that miraculous feat, but also do it while being pursued by an Awakened Tyrant and dying from physical exertion. Lost in the wild reaches of the Dream Realm with no help, hope, or support.

It wasn't fair at all.

But it also made sense, in a strange kind of way. After all, making history was not supposed to be easy.

‘I can do it... I must do it. I have no choice but to do it.'

Rain gritted her teeth.

And then, ignoring her terrible fatigue and suffocating strain, she reached into her soul and tried to move her essence.

The heavy mental and spiritual burden was instantly added to the crushing hardship of pushing her tired body forward.

As soon as she took the next step and felt the wire rope cut into her skin painfully, her concentration was destroyed, and she lost control of her essence.

Rain took a laborious breath, gripped the rope tighter, and tried again.

This time, she managed to keep hold of her essence, but lost control of her abdominal muscles, allowing them to relax. She instantly lost balance, stumbled, and sprawled in the mud.

"Ah..."

Tamar subdued voice resounded from behind, tinged with concern:

"Rani, are you alright?”

Rain exhaled slowly, then pushed herself off the ground and wiped the mud off her face.

Well, with how dirty her gloves were, she might have just added more mud to it.

"I'm... fine."

Pulling up the alloy harness, she gripped it again and pulled the stretcher forward.

She did not make the same mistake the second time.

It was terribly difficult, and ruthlessly hard. But after a while, she managed to take several steps without losing control of her essence.

Then, a dozen steps.

Then, a hundred.

And finally, Rain forced herself to keep walking and circulating her essence at the same time. Her vision had turned blurry, and her mind felt as if it would collapse from strain.

But it did not.

Her body did not crumble, either.

So, she kept walking.

After a while, her hearing seemed to have turned incredibly sharp, She heard the makeshift stretcher scraping against rocks. She also heard the melodious ringing of crystals of essence colliding with each other, She could almost hear the roar of the radiant whirlpool as it revolved within her soul.

Eventually - she did not know how much time had passed - she thought that she could feel her essence with incredible clarity, like she had never felt it before. The sensation of it flowing through her, within her, was almost physical.

And so, it was almost as if her body and soul became one, indistinguishable from each other.

When that happened, she pushed her essence harder, making it revolve even faster. The pressure at the heart of the whirlpool increased, and the speed with which the next grain was being formed increased as well.

Much more importantly...

Rain wasn't limited to meditating a few hours a day anymore. She could keep the process of core formation at all times - while she walked, while she talked, while she rested her weary body on the ground.. As long as her will held, she did not have to stop.

The question was...

What would take longer? For her will to shatter, or for her soul core to be formed?

Rain was going to find the answer, whether she wanted to or not.

***

As night fell, so did she.

Rain collapsed on the ground, unmoving. This time, she remained motionless for far longer than yesterday.

It felt like her body had shut down.

She had never been so utterly beaten before, or exhausted so terribly.

And yet, she still continued to control her essence, never letting its current stop or slow down.

After a while, Tamar awkwardly crawled over to check on her. The Legacy girl helped Rain turn over, supported her to sit up, and shoved a strip of meat into her hands.

"Eat."

Rain smiled weakly and forced herself to take a bite.

The Tyrant had fallen behind in the latter half of the day. Her speed had been greater with the harness, and she had covered much more distance. It was still nowhere near enough to escape the pursuit, but at least they would survive another night.

Probably.

They even had some water left.

After quenching her thirst and consuming enough meat to refuel her depleted body, Rain sprawled on the ground and sighed.

"Ah. I'm going to be terribly skinny by the end of it."

Tamar stared at her with an incredulous expression.

"That's what you're concerned about?"

Rain considered laughing, but found the thought too tiring. In the end, she said:

"Why, of course. I want the Tyrant to be left hungry after it gobbles me up. Skin and bones, that sort of thing..."

The young Legacy remained silent for a few moments, then sighed.

"You have a very morbid sense of humor, don't you, Rani?"

Laying on the ground, Rain grinned.

"What can I say? If you live with wolves, you'll howl like a wolf. Someone has been a bad influence on me."

After a while, she added:

"...I'm sure I'm pretty delicious, though."

Tamar had her usual stoic expression on, but at that moment, it cracked a little.

Looking away, she suppressed a chuckle, and said in a serious tone:

"I'm sure you are."

As she did, Rain felt another radiant crystal being formed deep within her soul.

The melodious ringing was growing louder, and more frequent.

Comments 45

  1. Offline
    Alfametadol
    + 00 -
    Санни, твоя сетра в беде! Если не вмешаешься, у неё будет девушка!!
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  2. Offline
    kollosus_na
    + 71 -
    Oh ho… is Rain getting a girlfriend?
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  3. Offline
    LycanFlood
    + 35 -
    Eeyyyyyy, Tamar wanna find out? thrill
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  4. Offline
    Kenneth
    + 120 -
    Sunny influencing our little rain with his dark sense of humor
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  5. Offline
    Gerhman_Sparrow23
    + 102 -
    Don't tell me there will be gay action too ahaa
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    1. Offline
      Максим Довбняк
      + 200 -
      Yep, Sunny and Kai
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      1. Offline
        Gerhman_Sparrow23
        + 111 -
        No bro I was talking about Rain and Tamar but that also works. I always thought Kai was a better partner than Nephis satisfied
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        1. Offline
          EternalCircle
          + 30 -
          Listening to his voice can make all your worries float away~~
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  6. Offline
    Masfiqur Rahman
    + 50 -
    whenever i see more chapter in comment
    inner peace
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  7. Offline
    Chapter 1823: Mud

    A desolate plain stretched as far as the eye could see under the cloudy sky. The horizon was shrouded by a rustling veil of cold rain, and the ground had turned into an endless expanse of mud.

    A canyon cut the plain like a deep scar, resounding with eerie weeping sounds. It would turn into a raging river soon, but for now, the vertical slopes were drowning in nothing but darkness.

    A young woman was moving across the plain, pulling a makeshift sled behind her. . . although, it would have been hard to recognize her as a human from first sight. Covered in mud from head to toe, she looked like a gaunt golem made from clay. The mud stuck to her skin and clothes, making the woman look like a part of the barren wasteland that had somehow come alive.

    Her face and hair were covered in layers of dirt, as well. Only her dark, sunken eyes could be seen, burning with fierce determination.

    . . . In the end, Rain had lasted more than a day. In fact, she had lasted for six, enduring the inhuman strain and crushing exertion of their desperate flight against all odds.

    She had reached her breaking point a long time ago. But, somehow, she managed to keep going even after becoming broken. Later, she faced some other, much deeper limit. . . Rain wasn't sure what it was, and couldn't clearly remember. All she knew was that she was still standing.

    That was all that mattered.

    The original stretcher had long fallen apart. The enchanted cloak was fine, of course, but the wooden frame had cracked and shattered. Rain had kept repairing it as best she could, but at some point, she could only discard the broken branches and replace them.

    She built the new frame from the bones of the

    Nightmares Creatures that had attacked them in the dead of night.

    The melodious ringing of essence crystals colliding with each other in the depths of her soul was almost deafening now, filling her ears. Her vision had grown vague and narrow. Most of her consciousness was consumed by the sensation of soul essence spinning in a raging whirlpool, permeating every cell of her body. The rest was filled with exhaustion and pain.

    Step. Step. Another step.

    The further south they went, the more bleak the weather became. Chilling rain poured from the grey sky more and more frequently, and grew more and more forceful. She didn't mind. Not only did it mean that they would not suffer from thirst, but pulling the stretcher through the mud was easier than it would have been if the soil was dry.

    Of course, it was a perilous exchange. Rain would have probably been dead if not for her military bodysuit — being wet meant losing heat, and heat was energy. With how much she was exerting herself, energy was a precious resource that she dared not waste.

    Her body had already started consuming itself, so it was a dire commodity.

    Tamar, meanwhile, was not faring much better.

    She did not have to exhaust herself physically, and her wounds were healing. But new ones were added to the old ones after that nighttime attack.

    The young Legacy had lost a lot of blood, and although they slaughtered the abominations in the end, it was not without a cost.

    Rain was concerned about the younger girl.

    They did not have a lot of chances to get to know each other better in the past six days — most of their time was taken by the endless, exhausting march, and when they rested at night, both were too tired to talk.

    And yet, Rain felt like an invisible bond had formed between them. How could it not, after they had gone through so much hardship together? The muddy plain, the weeping sky, the burning desire to survive. . . no one else would know or remember these trials, but they would.

    There was a sound that suddenly distracted her.

    She could barely hear it behind the rustle of rain, the roar of the water rushing through the canyon, the melody of her soul essence, and the silence of her numb thoughts.

    “ni! Rani! Ra. . . "

    She flinched and came to her senses. In the next moment, she saw several swift silhouettes rushing at them through the rain.

    Nightmare Creatures.

    ‘Curse them. . . ’

    Without wasting any time, Rain fell on the ground.

    Behind her, Tamar was already sitting up on the stretcher. She was holding a bow in one hand, nocking an arrow on its string with the other.

    While Rain was feverishly untangling herself from the alloy harness, the young Legacy let the arrow loose. It streaked through the pouring rain and hit one of the abominations in the shoulder. Despite her weakened state, Tamar still managed to maintain admirable accuracy — however, it wasn't quite enough. The creature stumbled and rolled on the ground, but then rose again and continued sprinting.

    Although it had received a deep wound, none of its vital organs were destroyed.

    ‘Damn it.’

    There were three abominations, each the size of a wolf. From the looks of it, they were merely

    Awakened. . . in fact, the two of them had been lucky to not encounter a Fallen Nightmare

    Creature yet. Still, an Awakened abomination was absolutely deadly. Especially in a situation like this one, when the initiative was on their side.

    ‘…So tired. ’

    Rain remained laying on the ground for a few moments, then rose to her knees and unsheathed her hunting knife. She gripped the hilt of the enchanted dagger with her other hand and rose, holding both blades in a defensive stance.

    By that time, Tamar had already sent another arrow flying, finally bringing the wounded abomination down. Her face was pale, and the ugly wound that stretched across her shoulder and chest had opened, seeping with blood. The strain of drawing a powerful enchanted bow was too much for her to endure.

    And yet, she was already pulling the string for the third time.

    The Nightmare Creatures were almost upon them.

    Both lunged forward in a flash of claws, fangs, and frenzied eyes.

    Just then, Tamar's arrow hit one in the head, killing it instantly.

    The other jumped on Rain. She dove under its claws and thrust both of her blades forward. The hunting knife barely penetrated the tough hide of the abomination and slid from her grasp, but the long dagger sunk into its flesh to the hilt.

    The creature fell on Rain and sent her crushing to the ground. She just barely managed to push the abominable beast, sending it flying over her head.

    They fell simultaneously.

    ‘It hurts.’

    Rain fell on her back, but spun and rose to her knees almost immediately. Dashing torward the struggling abomination, she pinned it to the ground with the weight of her body and stabbed it repeatedly. Her strikes were aimed at all the spots where vital organs should have been.

    A while later, the beast stopped moving.

    Rain crawled off its corpse weakly and sprawled in the mud.

    After that violent burst of strength, she felt like she would never be able to stand up.

    And yet. . . throughout all of it, the melodious ringing never grew silent. Even while being lunged at by a snarling abomination, wrestling it to the ground, and sinking her blade into its flesh, Rain had never stopped circulating her essence.

    Somewhere deep within her, another radiant grain of sand was formed.

    She smiled tiredly.

    ‘Soon. . . Soon. . . ’

    Drops of rain were falling heavily on her burning face.
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    1. Offline
      Максим Довбняк
      + 270 -
      Chapter 1824: After Me Comes the Flood

      The Tyrant was still behind them, its towering figure moving slowly in the distance.

      Rain reminded herself that they could not waste any time. And yet, she had no strength left to rise.

      However, that was alright.

      She had felt the same way the previous time she fell, and the time before that, and the time before that...

      Letting out a quiet groan, Rain sat up, then slowly staggered to her feet. Walking over to where she had dropped the hunting knife, she picked it up and sheathed her blades. The crude sheath she had made for the enchanted dagger was coming undone, sliced by its sharp blade. . . but it would hold for a day or two, which was more than she could ask for.

      Finally, she looked at Tamar.

      "How. . . how are you doing? "

      The young Legacy was laying down on the stretcher, breathing heavily. Her breathing did not sound good.

      "I'm alright. I heal fast. The bleeding is already stopping. ”

      Rain nodded.

      Even if the bleeding did not stop, there was little she could do. All she could do was trust in Tamar's incredible resilience.

      Walking over to where the alloy harness lay in the mud, Rain glanced at the corpses of the three

      Nightmare Creatures. Usually, she would have harvested meat and soul shards from them, but the Tyrant was too close.

      There was no time.

      ‘I just need to hold on until nightfall. Then. . . then, I can rest.’

      She put the harness on and pulled the stretcher.

      She just had to keep walking.

      And keep her essence flowing.

      Life had been complicated, but now, it was very simple. The scope of her existence was narrowed down to these two things.

      She dragged Tamar away from the dead abominations,

      They continued their gruesome journey.

      As Rain walked, she could feel her soul changing subtly. There were countless radiant crystals at the heart of the whirlpool now, all being pressed together by the crushing pressure.

      She could feel the pressure growing.

      As it did, the rain was becoming more violent, as well. It slowly grew from a constant downpour to a pelting deluge, as if the sky was slowly splitting open.

      The weather was strange. Tamar had mentioned once that it did not rain that often, or that much, in the southern reaches of the Moonriver Plain. . . her ancestral Citadel was somewhere nearby, so she would know.

      It seemed that the world was either helping them or trying to kill them. Rain wasn't sure which, and didn't care to find out.

      All she cared about was making it to nightfall alive.

      And in the end, she did.

      However, to her despair, the long-awaited reprieve did not come.

      Usually, she was able to create some distance between them and the Tyrant by the time darkness fell. The abominable giant would lumber in the distance in the first half of the day, then slowly disappear beyond the horizon in the latter part.

      However, this time, she could still see its silhouette, following them from far away.

      Perhaps she had grown so weak that she couldn't maintain sufficient speed anymore, or perhaps the

      Tyrant was slowly adapting to being blind. It was even possible that its eyes were gradually regenerating. . . Awakened abominations possessed stunning vitality, after all, just like Awakened humans did.

      What seemed impossible for a mundane person was nothing special to them.

      In any case, the giant was too close.

      Soon, darkness enveloped the world. The three moons and the sea of stars were hidden behind the clouds, so it was even more oppressive than before. The rain fell in a constant stream, reducing the visibility even further.

      Rain lowered herself to the ground, kneeling in the mud.

      "Are we stopping? "

      Tamar couldn't hide the grim feeling of dread from her voice.

      Rain slowly shook her head.

      "We can't stop. Not tonight. "

      The Tyrant was too close, so they had to keep going.

      She took a deep breath, feeling cold air cut her tortured lungs.

      “Summon a luminous Memory. “

      They had avoided using one before, afraid that light would attract uninvited guests, but there wasn't much choice now.

      Soon, a wave of stark light flowed from behind her, illuminating a narrow circle around them. The streams of water falling from the sky seemed to ignite with that light, glistening like precious gems.

      It was pretty.

      Rain sighed.

      Then, she rose from the ground and continued walking.

      South, south. . .

      How far south had they gone, already?

      When would they reach their goal?

      It did not matter.

      Rain continued to walk, arduously pulling the heavy stretcher behind her. She continued to spin her essence and listened to the tremors running through her soul.

      She had reached a state of being beyond exhausted.

      And yet. . . the worst part was that she couldn't see the Tyrant anymore.

      It could have been far away, or only a few hundred meters behind them. It could have even been reaching for them with its countless hands, already.

      ‘I need to keep going’

      And so she did.

      Slowly, all thoughts disappeared from her head.

      All that was left was the ringing of her soul, which was slowly growing louder and louder.

      Rain did not notice that the pelting rain was becoming heavier and heavier, as well. A powerful wind rose, sending water flying almost parallel to the ground. Soon, a blinding flash illuminated the world, and a deafening thunderclap shook the heavens.

      The rain was turning into a furious storm.

      She smiled, feeling the streams of cold water wash the mud off her sunken face.

      Her smile was a little scary.

      Eventually, the lightning grew so frequent that there were almost no breaks between its flashes.

      The thunderclaps had fused into a continuous litany of deafening roars. If it had seemed as if the sky was splitting open before, then it was collapsing entirely now.

      A vast and prodigious storm had descended upon the Moonriver Plain.

      And yet, Rain wasn't aware.

      She could only think about walking forward, one step at a time.

      But then. . .

      She couldn't walk forward anymore.

      Not because her strength had abandoned her, but because there was nowhere for her to go.

      Rain stopped, barely noticing that there was no ground in front of her.

      There was no mud, no stone outcroppings.

      Instead, she was standing in front of an abyssal drop.

      She frowned.

      ‘Have I. . . have I lost direction and swayed toward the canyon? ’

      But that was not it.

      Slowly, she grew cognizant of her surroundings.

      The thundering storm, the blinding flashes of lightning, the impenetrable darkness. . . and a deep, reverberating hum that seemed to penetrate her very bones, resounding from somewhere below.

      Rain looked into the abyss and staggered.

      She might have fallen over the edge if not for the harness that attached her to Tamar's stretcher.

      The young Legacy called from behind, struggling to make her voice heard over the storm:

      "Rani. . . Rani, is it. . . ”

      In front of them, the Moonriver Plain came to an end.

      The great plateau ceased abruptly, creating a vast and head-spinning wall of stone that stretched from east to west, as far as the eye could see.

      Countless canyons merged or opened into the vertical abyss, most of them expelling enormous jets of foaming water.

      The streams of water merged and plummeted down, creating an unimaginable, endless waterfall.

      It was as if the world was crying.

      '… The Weeping Goddess. ’

      They had reached the great waterfall that served as the boundary of the Moonriver Plain.

      The Lake of Tears was somewhere far below. The city governed by Clan Sorrow was situated on its shore, and their Citadel was somewhere close, cut into the cliffs.

      Rain's eyes widened.

      Not from joy, but from horror. ‘We're. . . we're dead:

      Turning around, she waited for lightning to illuminate the world and saw the dreadful shape of the Tyrant.

      The abomination was not too far away.

      There was no time to come up with a way to descend to the bottom of the towering cliffs, There was no time to explore the edge of the plateau, searching for the Citadel of Clan Sorrow.

      The goal of their ghastly journey, which had been supposed to be their salvation, was nothing but a death sentence now.

      Because the Tyrant was too close, pursuing them. . .

      And they had nowhere else to run.


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      1. Offline
        EVOLT
        + 20 -
        Thank you!
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      2. Offline
        Kiber
        + 21 -
        Мне интересно, они смогут сбежать, или появится Учитель и убьёт эту муху constraint
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      3. Offline
        Максим Довбняк
        + 81 -
        These were ten chapters of counting grains... How many are there, has anyone counted them? I really hope this will be important for the future plot puke
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      4. Online Offline
        ropero
        + 30 -
        Okay, I'm starting to seriously question Sunny's moral decisions. I get that the whole idea of quickening Rain's awakening and making some friends with legacies while they escape sounded fine at first, but was it really necessary to make Rain go through this? I mean, you don't even need to kill the basterd, just injure a bunch of his limbs to at least let them eat and sleep properly, jeez...
        I can't even justify it by preparation for war where only the strongest will survive, because there are many awakened like Kai who never experienced such crazy challanges and are still quite capable to stand up for themselves...
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        1. Offline
          EVOLT
          + 80 -
          The cockroach must make his tribe larger welldone

          In all seriousness though, I do agree. Sunny is just being kinda scummy making his sister go through all of this, even if he knows it is a complete dangerous journey. But knowing him, the reason they haven’t encountered any fallen or higher ranks may be bcuz of him too, and he believed Rain is well prepared for this even if it looks like she’ll die at any moment. Sibling genes I guess
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        2. Offline
          Dummybaron
          + 21 -
          because there are many awakened like Kai who never experienced such crazy challanges

          two words: Second Nightmare
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          1. Online Offline
            ropero
            + 10 -
            I'd argue that his second nighmare is less crazy than a week of sleep and food deprivation along with hard mental AND physical labour while being less prepared to face ones cause Rain is still bloody mundane.
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        3. Offline
          Svory
          + 10 -
          Just a reminder. Kai was burned by a dragon in the second nightmare.
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    2. Offline
      ChimaOfTheNine
      + 00 -
      What's the discord? Is it the same guy that does buy them on telegram?
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      1. Offline
        ZEXOS
        + 00 -
        Yeah, he just tried new way to copy the chaps from the webnovel so it's seems like little bit different
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  8. Offline
    Dadadai Shukosha
    + 00 -
    Nooooooooo, I reach 15
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  9. Offline
    Uchia-Madara-Pathway
    + 21 -
    I just feel like without Sunny, its not really interesting.
    Does that make sense or am I trippin constraint
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    1. Offline
      DanielPlay
      + 40 -
      Of course it's not, the novel has always been focused exclusively on Sunny's POV, you can count on one hand the moments where we had a different POV before the current volume, which is why it seems so uninteresting, besides after everything we've seen with Sunny , these problems that Rain is going through don't seem like a big deal, and the fact that an Avatar of Sunny is nearby makes us lose the sense of danger of the situation that Rain is in.
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      1. Offline
        Doksoo
        + 20 -
        I agree with the second part, for example: I liked Neph, Kass, Kai, Jet, and Effie pov
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  10. Offline
    Kiber
    + 41 -
    Я один думаю что Санни в это время строит, какой-нибудь храм, чтобы повторить ситуацию его 1 кошмара? frost
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    1. Offline
      Zrilla
      + 41 -
      Максимум на что сейчас способен санни так это усердно думать как строить свои отношения с Нефис
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