Capítulo 5: Back in the Antarctic Center (Winter Beast)
Since the fall of Falcon Scott Sunny always knew he will return to take revenge. That delinquent killed a half of his cohort, many more soldiers, and almost took down him, and Master Jet. The only reason it didn't get any worse was, because of the nature of such creatures.
They are territorial, and usually don't like to leave their territories just to hunt humans. But when they leave... If it did left to pursue him he wouldn't be even able to run away. It doesn't mean that Sunny could let go. His spite was enormous. The only reason he didn't return for retribution was that he was so unable to do so.
The last time he went against the Winter Beast he was slowly freezing. His body, his mind, his will, his soul, even his shadows. Sunny didn't even come close, and it was the last moment when he left.
He didn't see that Corrupted Titan, but he knew that he's going to kill it someday. He could start preparations now, when he's already a Saint or at least check if he's able to get close to it with what he has. If not, he needs better Memories, probably with better resistances against supernatural cold.
For this particular purpose Sunny summoned a special Memory, he crafted recently. In a sense, it was a copy of Memory of Ice.
Sunny enchanted a necklace with [Bitter Cold], the enchantment that provided a moderate resistance to cold. In the past he mastered that enchantment while sailing to Antarctica, but slightly lowered its power to equip his own cohort with protection against cold that doesn't expend much essence. This time he elevated its power through the use of transcendent soul shards.
The enchantment was slightly stronger, and therefore there was a reasonable chance that his charm enhanced by the power of two or three shadows in combination with his transcendent body would let him make it to the Winter Beast.
The problem is rather what to do after witnessing the Winter Beast. He had to note that Saint Tyris can't kill it. She stalled for three months, and did not find any opportunity to kill it while having an aspect that counters the power of the Titan.
But it's possible that was also the reason why Tyris didn't have any opportunity. Her aspect was about controlling winds, and causing strikes of lightning. Perhaps, neither could do anything against a Titan specialized in blizzards. Lightning only did a minor damage that served as a distraction, while wind was keeping it far from Falcon Scott, and weakening its blizzard. Tyris had to be close enough for her ability to take effect, and that was probably also why she was slowly affected by the blizzard.
However this theory assumes that Saint Tyris just couldn't come close to the Winter Beast or could and was unwilling to try to take the risk. Knowing Tyris Sunny assumed she tried to take the risk at least once.
A different theory would tell that Saint Tyris could come close, but nothing could deliver a meaningful blow. Nor sword nor elemental effect. Regardless of the truth Sunny was still feeling confident in his ability to escape if something went wrong. Even more confident, because, again, he's more resilient now.
With these thoughts he was traveling on the horseback of his insanely fast steed looking for trouble. He traveled many hours without any rest. Transcendents hardly need to sleep. One cannot stall a Nightmare Creature while sleeping.
He remembered all these days when he was traveling with his army, and thousands of people in convoy. The task he decided to bear on his shoulders slowed him down. Now free of such limitations he could arrive near the Falcon Scott just in two days.
'To think it was so hard...'
Living through so many horrors he grew much stronger to the point when the version of him that defended Falcon Scott paled in comparison.
Sunny meanwhile casually slayed some Fallen Nightmare Creatures in hopes of turning them into materials to supply his Memory boutique. He summoned the Covetous Coffer, filled it with some useful parts, and soul shards, and dismissed it.
He was wielding Soul Serpent in odachi form as his sword, which was probably also the most powerful weapon he could have for now. The Shadow also grew much more powerful since he left it with Rain. The Soul Serpent's power was tied both to Sunny's Class, and the level of mastery over Shadow Dance. Because Sunny is now a Terror, Soul Serpent is also a Terror. Because Sunny has reached the fourth level of mastery over Shadow Step, Soul Serpent was a Transcendent, which made it his the most powerful Shadow in possession, a Transcendent Terror.
Sunny could recall some Echoes that came in the forms of armors, and weapons. All of them were very powerful when compared to their Memory counterparts. Cassie's rapier, Quiet Dancer, was useful even after the second Nightmare.
Suddenly Sunny did find the blizzard. It wasn't close to Falcon Scott, but that was to be expected. Winter Beast came to Falcon Scott only because there were humans there. When all of them were killed it lost all interest. He had to scout quite a region to find it. When one of the shadow helpers seemed to be unnaturally shivering. Shadow helpers were incapable of feeling cold so the conclusion could be only the cold was supernatural. Sunny immediately made his way towards
For a few seconds he stopped, and stared as if he wanted to be sure if it's that supernatural blizzard he wanted to face. Then he dismissed his dark steed hiding it in the depths of his soul. Nightmare, his steed, as an Ascended Terror wasn't suitable to challenge the Winter Beast. Its chances against that cold were actually worse than Sunny's, when he first tried.
It would be stupid if he tried the same approach as before, and counted only on his elemental resistances. From the avatar's shadows emerged two Shadows, Onyx Saint, and Ravenous Fiend. Both were Transcendent Devils, which means they had a reasonably high chance of making it through the blizzard.
Also both could be reasonably resilient to the cold. Saint, because she was a stone golem, so she didn't have body fluids that could be frozen, and shared similar resistance that Sunny had... Fiend, because his body has an affinity to fire. He could infuse his claws with annihilating heat. That heat had to come from somewhere, and probably it could also protect the Fiend from the cold.
'I feel stupid... I really should have summoned Saint back then. She had the best chances.'
But deep down Sunny knew that leaving everything to Saint wasn't a bright idea. She might be a Transcendent, yes, but that was a Titan. Without Sunny she wouldn't get the edge necessary to win. Even now summoning her was rather a bad plan. He needed something special. And he indeed had something.
Sunny activated Underworld Armament with his copy of Memory of Ice, a thing that he didn't do the last time. Then he activated all other enchantments of the charm.
In general it wasn't just an elevated version. Sunny actually copied the enchantment three times into one Memory. Something that has never done before.
Just trying to recreate the Memory of Ice would be simply insufficient, while elevating the power of an enchantment while possible it had very limited potential, especially when it comes to power.
To effectively harness the power of a greater core the Memories required better materials, and better enchantments. It was very possible to provide a better material, since Antarctica had many Corrupted Nightmare Creatures, and many of them had adapted to the cold.
In Bastion he could even buy some finished products. The problem lies rather in the quality of enchantments. Memory of Ice was already an ascended Memory. No one will sell him anything better for money. More potent Memories usually are in the Saints' possession.
So instead of quality Sunny bet on quantity! If he couldn't get one good, and potent enchantment, he could do with three weaker. So that's what he did. He weaved [Bitter Cold] three times. He called it, the Memory, 'Frozen Trio' as he had to call it somehow for the enchantments to stick.
He didn't stop here. One shadow helper had to be used to make an avatar, but the remaining three shadows wrapped themselves around the charm. Each shadow was an extension of a Saint, which enhanced the effect of the charm much further. Using them all as avatars would only limit Sunny's ability to endure the cold.
Only then he started his march towards the source of the blizzard.
'I still wonder if that will be enough...'
The original Sunny took his position in the comfortable basement of his house, making sure it's as devoid of the light as possible, and put on the Puppeteer's Shroud. That way he could use his evolved aspect to recover as much shadow essence as possible. The Frozen Trio was a proportionally more demanding Memory, and it was devouring essence at very considerable rates.
Sunny was running into the heart of the blizzard hoping to find the as fast as possible. Onyx Saint, and Fiend were doing fine. At least for now. The cold was very ferocious, and it would start affecting him very soon, but for now he found himself able to endure it lightly.
Onyx Saint took the position in front of him while the Fiend took his side. Both were in positions to shield him from the wind. Fiend infused his teeth with some heat making the surroundings a little bit less cold. The view was mostly obscured by the snow .
While it was growing increasingly difficult, they were moving forward mostly uninhibited. Sunny had plenty essence to spend while the effect of the cold on his soul, was quite low
'It's a shame that's only the easiest part.'
Sunny was really traumatized by the Winter Beast. It killed millions of people just by being near. At times that caused him to be under an impression that surviving being near it is the very purpose of challenging it.
But would he solve anything that way? No, the Winter Beast would still be alive, and Sunny would feed himself with empty pride. He didn't dare to get arrogant.
Suddenly Sunny saw three big pieces of ice flying into him with great speed. He dodged while his Shadows destroyed the pieces of ice. Soon there were more... He summoned the Shadow Lantern, turned himself into Shadow Spawn with Shadow Shell, and started maneuvering to not take the force of the attacks directly. It slightly slowed their progress.
'Damnation. I didn't even see the Titan yet.'
Sunny was mildly distracted with the sudden attacks. Onyx Saint was destroying flying boulders with her sword while the Fiend took them on with his steel body. He knew that the Winter Beast possessed some powers that control wind, ice, and snow, so ice attacks were to be expected.
The scale still was very pressuring.
However it was also a sign the enemy was near. The source of the blizzard was very close, and therefore they fell into the range where the Winter Beast could control greater pieces of ice. It was also a sign it knew they were after it, which from the perspective of a battle plan was really bad.
'Let's see how you're going to take ranged attacks, then.'
Sunny ordered his Soul Serpent to turn into [Beast Form], and ordered it to use [Formless] ability, recalling its description from the time when he still had the access to the Spell:
When in the Soul Beast form, the Serpent can assume the shape of any shadow contained within its master's soul, inheriting all powers and abilities. The shadow must be of the same or lower Rank and Class than the Soul Serpent for the transformation to take place, and won't be consumed in the process.
Sunny never actually used it. In the Second Nightmare Soul Serpent was still a Fallen so even if he could transform it, there weren't many Nightmare Creatures worth doing so. Before the Antarctica Campaign he left it with Rain to protect her from potential harm. He didn't take it to the Third Nightmare. However, Soul Serpent was now a Transcendent Terror, and Sunny had killed some of Corrupted Nightmare Creatures.
In the depths of his soul there were fragments of some Transcendent, and Corrupted souls. He had three Saints: Solvane, Dire Fang, and Wind Flower. He killed some Corrupted krill creatures. Despite the fact he fought Six Plagues, he didn't kill any personally. But among all of these there's one that can give him an advantage, the Terror of LO49, a Corrupted Terror. That's the form that the Soul Serpent assumed.
The summoned Sybil started its assault immediately, while actually it stood still. Its powers were centered around mind manipulation. It could control its minions, put people under a Mind Hex, erase someone's thoughts. Its ability to take over the mind of its target was a bit flexible. It could affect many targets making them slowly succumb to mind hex or just a few of them in a one powerful mind attack.
It could even take the mind of a Saint, and Saints had particularly strong minds. What then about a Corrupted Titan's mind? Probably it could also do something against a Corrupted Titan. Charging the attack surely will take a while, but when it hits... At least they will be able to cause the Winter Beast to ignore them.
For that reason he decided to split up. Fiend, and Soul Serpent were left behind. Their resistances against the cold were worse, especially Soul Serpent would have a problem if it was affected by the supernatural cold, and because its current form didn't have much physical might, one of the Shadows was needed to face ice attacks in the Corrupted Terror's stead. It was a considerable risk to take, but it also promised potentially a good payoff.
And so two figures were about to approach the heart of the blizzard. The visibility was almost nonexistent now. To navigate through it Sunny depended on the direction pointed previously by the Soul Serpent, whose form had an advantage of sensing minds lying in its range, and the shadow sense.
The Winter Beast had a shadow, very deep, vast, an ancient one, and featured by being lively. Also the horrifying ridge of boulders flying their way betrayed the Titan pays some attention.
The attacks has become more precise, and the wind much sharper, making it harder to jump away from what could be named now ice missiles. Sunny started to feel some effects on his mind. He lightly shrugged it.
Sunny's mind wasn't exactly there. The original Sunny was sitting in the NQSC, while wearing the Puppeteer's Shroud with its [Doubtless] enchantment that provided a little protection against mind attacks. Nonetheless he still felt his mind is lightly affected by the cold. Not that it would matter. It was more like a mundane scratching stones with spoons. Before the effect could be meaningful one would realize it's a waste of time.
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