章 6: The one to slay
They were going further, and further, but they still didn't see the titan. At this point the snow was obscuring everything. Shadows now seemed very vague. At this point Sunny understood what he actually sensed as the deep shadow.
The blizzard was so thick it actually blocked light, which means that everything around Sunny was now a one big shadow. It disoriented his senses, but also amplified the rates of essence regeneration.
The ice boulders flying at him were now sharper, and less predictable. Some slammed into his Shadow Shell causing shadows to leak out. The ice they consisted of was more abnormal, probably infused with more soul essence. Normal ice wouldn't leave a scratch on him anymore.
Well, probably, because nothing is absolute.
Then Sunny hit something. He was shocked about what happened, but he instantly recovered, escaping into a different direction as fast as it was possible, and it was just in time, because a moment later he saw a hand slamming into the ground next to him with terrifying force.
Onyx Saint was in a better position since she didn't bump into it so directly.
Winter Beast was a giant looking as if it was made of blue ice. If the cold around it was unbearable, touching it...
"Ouch!"
Parts of his Shadow Shell were frozen. It was only a surface frostbite but it really stung. Hopefully it were only manifested shadows. He could easily fix them with the power of his aspect.
The more concerning thing was what he did see. ...or rather what he didn't see. For a moment he witnessed an arm, well, limb, but it wasn't the whole Winter Beast. View was so obscured by the snow, which now seemed to be more alive as if it was an extension of the Winter Beast. It tried to block his normal sight, and it even succeeded at that. A normal Saint, if there was such a thing, would be blind here.
Sunny still could depend on his abnormal sight, though. As an inheritor of the Weaver's bloodline he could see even vast tapestries that made Memories. His Shadow Dance in little conjunction with Blood Weave, enabled him to look into the way soul essence is used in combat techniques.
He could even see the souls of the Nightmare Creatures albeit it were repulsive to look at them. When he obtained Soul Weave that ability only became more potent.
So at this distance Sunny could already see the Winter Beast's soul. It was vast, wild, violent, and cold with seven corrupted nexuses holding it together.
It gave him some idea which place he should target to hit the actual body. It wasn't just the giant Nightmare Creature. The limbs were actually a sort of a manifestation of its abilities to control ice. The ice behaved like limbs. To some extent the Winter Beast could feel them like limbs. However these were also fake.
Cutting them wouldn't do actual physical damage. It was somewhat similar to Sunny's powers. If his Shadow Shell got damaged, Sunny would feel it, it would affect him on the mental level, but his actual body... would remain unharmed.
'That explains why Saints couldn't take it down. It's a truly harrowing power.'
Sunny continued dodging, now close attacks coming from the Titan's limbs. Sunny. When he dodged, Onyx Saint jumped high, and performed a very wide cut on its ice chest. The Winter Beast screamed in pain, but the chest damage quickly mended. When the Winter Beast was to swing on the graceful knightess Sunny attacked one of its 'arms'. The beast seemed to have four of them.
'Why has it to be four? Why is it so similar to his form of Shadowspawn?'
This time the slash nearly cut off the arm, and the Titan was in an even greater agony.
Sunny, and Saint dealt many hits to it, and they were even somewhat closer to defeating it, but it wasn't that good. The enemy was definitely taking some damage, because even if inside it was fine, its mind was slowly cracking. But it was also more, something beyond that. He wasn't able to tell what.
'Yes, feel the pain...'
Sunny's thought that, but it wasn't just a thirst of blood. He didn't have the reach needed to kill the Winter Beast. If fighting Goliath was like hitting a mountain, Winter Beast was more like a mountain-sized fortress. There were many ice constructs meant to protect whatever is inside, and harm the attacker.
If it didn't drop its guard Sunny could probably kill it, but for a high price. First, he had to bring it to the verge. At least that's what he wanted to do. The enemy had different plans.
He was to make another cut when was met with a bombardment of hundreds of ice spikes at once! The barrage battered his body, punctured his Shell in multiple places. Sunny gritted his teeth.
'Saint Tyris didn't mention that... Of course, she didn't. That's probably the attack that took her down.'
He didn't bleed at all, and even if he could, he felt like his blood would freeze instantly. Sunny was buried under lots of ice. The pressure was great, and he felt stuck. The Shadow Shell was no more. Some his bones were broken. Above all there was a lot of pain, and lack of air to breath.
Funnily he was also tormented by very unnecessary thoughts.
'It's like good old times. It's only sad I don't have any Memory that would just restore me. I overdid it this time.'
But the truth was many things was so abnormal in there. How Sunny was supposed to know the Corrupted Titan has such an attack? He couldn't. There was no mistake. The enemy just found a way to take him by surprise.
'But is this bad luck? Didn't I just rush into a Corrupted Titan like in idiot in the first place?'
The ice strangely prevented him from using Shadow Step. Till now Sunny didn't reflect too deeply on the consequences of his avatar being killed, but from the experience from the Aletheia's Island provided him with good ideas to guess. At very least it would result in losing one of his shadow cores.
In the distance Sunny could hear a roar. A part of his consciousness was getting vague, and misty.
'Right. I cannot let it die here. That bastard has to be killed. It's not like he was going to let it go after such an attack.'
Sunny started to analyze his options. He was slowly freezing to death, and couldn't get the ice spikes out of his body. He can't move because his body is constricted by the ice. He can't use Shadow Step. The ice has a strange power to block it. It seemed hopeless. He was about to die. Even if he managed to get the hell out his state would not let him fight anymore.
But what was dying actually? Him? The original Sunny was in NQSC. It was his avatar dying, a shadow helper turned into a Saint with the power of his transformation ability. That was making him get some funny ideas.
'Oh, you're gonna really regret the thing you did..." Sunny grimaced deviously.
He detached one of his shadow helpers of the Frozen Trio, which accelerated the rate at which the avatar was freezing. It appeared outside the hill of ice, where the avatar was buried.
Then Sunny activated his transformation ability on that shadow helper, and deactivated the avatar buried in the great pile of ice. Without hesitation the new avatar ordered the shadow helpers to wrap around the new avatar, and it resummoned the Frozen Trio.
Just like that, Sunny was as good as new... almost. The shadow helper was actually a part of his soul, and if it was hurt, then so was Sunny. The avatar was hurt badly, so it transpired to Sunny sustaining quite a soul damage. But if he could disregard such damage, he could also say he didn't sustain any damage at all.
He found Onyx Saint, the graceful knightness battered similarly to him. She was freezing while multiple places were leaking ruby dust. Her resolve was unshaked as ever, but Sunny knew she couldn't fight anymore. He could only dismiss her.
There was also something that attracted his attention. The Winter Beast.
Looking around he could spot the real body of the Winter Beast. It was huge, but now its size resembled more something like the size of the Ravenous Fiend doubled or trippled. The skin was perfectly white, it had white It had multiple pairs of hands, and eyes.
While normally such description would imply the Titan was beautiful, it was an incredibly wrong thing to state. Its breath was so cold that the air itself was getting solid. And that wasn't actually the strangest thing about the Titan.
The blizzard wasn't so thick anymore, and Sunny could take time to describe it in his mind. Why?
Because the Corrupted Titan was standing still, and doing nothing! Just as if it wasn't there anymore. Sunny smiled in relief. That was the plan.
The Soul Serpent used Defiled Sybil form to lauch a powerful mind hex at the Winter Beast. The attack activated at the moment, the Corrupted Titan used its ice furry attack, making it think the target is dead.
'It's like when I was in LO49. Things were happening just before my eyes, but I couldn't notice.'
Unfortunately he couldn't afford to think much about the current state of the Winter Beast. Its ice shell was already starting to recover. It's because probably that it's also what Winter Beast would do outside of the battle situation. If it had some time it would turn into that ice giant again. Not that it would happen.
Sunny summoned the Shadow Lantern. Because now the view wasn't so obscured by the snow the sunlight has found its way to this place. The light chased the shadows away. Momentarily the shadows returned. Then he used them to manifest a new Shadow Shell and with it a big heavy sword. Also the Ravenous Fiend caught up with its Shadow Step. Sunny pointed at the Winter Beast.
"Bite it in the place I cut it"
The Fiend nodded.
Both Sunny, and the ogre like creature went over the neck. Sunny performed a cut while the Fiend used its teeth to insert as much heat into the Winter Beast as he could.
Unfortunately the heat was enough for the enemy to come to its senses, and it quickly started trashing around. The Fiend was thrown away.
However the ease also didn't last long. The heat of the Fiend's fangs dealt some serious damage, and the Winter Beast was in shock, probably never experienced such a heat. On top of that before it could recover Sunny slashed twice exposing the spine. He would perform even the third, but he was grabbed. The Nightmare Creature took him, and was about to hold it before its face.
Sunny used his hands to make it as painful for the Winter Beast as possible. Unfortunately he was freezing just by touch of its massive hands that were about to crush him. A minute would kill him for sure, and he was under an impression that it would be even faster if the Titan breathed at him two times.
However he never learned about that. The moment the enemy wasted to play with Sunny was enough for the Fiend to attack the neck again. A new portion of shock, on the other hand, was enough for Sunny to slip out of the hand, and he went for the neck as well. He lost his shadow blade, so he could now only depend on his hands. He used all four hands of his Shadow Shell, and put all his strength into talons.
The Titan was again trashing around. The Shadow Shell was cracking from the supernatural cold. The moment seemed to last forever in an anticipation who would give in first.
In the end the Winter Beast did. Its head was teared off, and flew off landing meters away from the corpse.
The Shadow Shell shattered, and Sunny fell to the ground in exhaustion, and triumph.
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