Shadow Slave

Sunny cut through the crew of the boarding ship, leaving no one alive. His towering figure moved among the enemies with incredible speed and grace, as if performing a macabre dance of death.

His battle style was as shapeless and unpredictable as the devil himself, effortlessly switching from grounded defense to explosive offense, to monstrous ferocity that only a Nightmare Creature could possess. He fought with his four hands, with his fangs and horns, even with his armored tail. As more and more enemies fell, cut down by the burning blades, a scorching haze of evaporating blood surrounded him like a crimson mantle.

Here and there, the two connected ships were already catching on fire, their sails burning in the dim red darkness of the night sky like funeral pyres for the warriors dying by his hand.

…And then, suddenly, there was no one left for him to kill.

Dismissing the Broken Oath, Sunny groaned and leaned heavily on the Cruel Sight. His breath was labored and rugged, and the Mantle of the Underworld was covered by countless scratches. Beneath the onyx armor, his body was bruised and battered, with several shallow wounds seeping with blood where the enemy blades or Aspect Abilities had found their way through the cracks.

Sunny gritted his teeth.

'How many ships did I take out? Three… four? No… five…'

He looked around, trying to ascertain the situation.

The others had done well, too. Together with the gargoyles, the cohort had managed to destroy…

His eyes widened.

…Almost half of the enemy fleet was gone. Dozens of ships were obliterated, thousands of brave warriors killed. A lion's share of that had been done by Cassie and the Sailor Dolls, as well as the gargoyles, but still…

drew in a hoarse

when did we

the big dreadful threat, for once, was refreshing… and

well they had planned

was already shifting, their temporary success waning with

form of other shadows. Saint and Nightmare were faring better than the rest of them, but they, too, seemed to be slowing down, more and more injuries accumulating on the black body of the fearsome steed, its taciturn rider moving with visible

playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with Sun Prince. Guided by Cassie's hand, the vessel was still in one piece, but it was unclear how long she would be able to outrun death. Without her presence on the battlefield, the rate at which the enemy ships were being destroyed diminished

gargoyles… were no

and shattered by the Ascended warriors of the defending fleet. The few that remained were struggling, caught in

radiance, as though the eclipse had no intention of ever ending, and there was no sign of Noctis. There was no sign of Solvane, too,

indication that the two immortal Transcendents were out there, somewhere, locked in a vicious fight, were the loud rattling of the heavenly

pointless. Hoping for anything was pointless… they were here to release Hope from

cohort,

problem. I'll just go and destroy five more ships…

through them, wasting some of his last essence to appear on

have been tired, but the battle went on. The world did not

cared about one

had to fight,

***

broken remains of the runic spear in her hand for a short moment, then let out an infuriated shout and bashed the attacking enemy with what was

Shard was growing heavy in her hand, and she had no essence left to spare to activate the [Indomitable] enchantment and change its weight. Because of that, Effie was a split second too slow, and a sharp blade passed beneath the