Shadow Slave

The moment Winter's arrow reached the Devouring Cloud, a brilliant flash of light blinded everyone for a moment. A vast sphere of flame bloomed in the middle of the swarm, spreading far and wide like a rolling wave of destruction.

Then, it collapsed on itself and exploded once more.

Tongues of flame spread through the mass of abominations, swallowing countless brood beasts. Some were turned to ash, some fell down to the ground like burning stars. Others continued to burn as they streaked chaotically through the sky, their flesh boiling and dissipating.

But they did not die before colliding with some of their vile brethren.

The fire spread.

As if possessing a mind of its own, it continued to spread from one abomination to another, until it seemed as though the sky itself was aflame. The darkness was chased out by the furious orange-white glow, and Sunny felt something that he had never expected to feel in the middle of winter in Antarctica.

Scorching heat caressing his skin.

He sucked in a shaky breath.

'...Damn.'

It seemed that all their preparations were not in vain. Winter's opening was nothing short of breathtaking. It was outright frightening, if he was honest.

But it was just an opening, nevertheless- although the Devouring Cloud had sustained considerable losses and had to slow down, it was in no way stopped. Already, some brood beasts were charging through the wall of fire, lunging toward the city.

Grinning at the sight of the fiery slaughter, Sunny shook off his momentary shock and drew Morgan's Warbow again.

need

brood beast clean through, then continued to fly forward, killing several others. There were so many abominations that Sunny did not even

the descending tide of winged horrors. Even though it seemed as if

fear for one's life, but with two hundred million people depending on their protection, the soldiers of the First Army stubbornly clung to their positions despite the terror of the

side, Soul Reaper waved her hands, dozens of throwing stars appearing between her fingers and shooting forward with terrible speed, shredding a whole swathe of the

in the mass of Nightmare Creatures. Pieces of torn flesh and streams

of the Devils were

not at all done with

to augment hers and a

walking artillery unit. There were a lot of arrows in her arsenal capable of widespread destruction, and augmented as she was, the scope of that destruction only grew. Thanks to her Aspect, the

soul essence, she had

melting

'Morel'

the Strike of Thunder back finally finished... just in

slain...][You have slain...][You have slain...][You

of the vast killing field had already disappeared in its shadow, and the first of the

massive MWP stumbled, the appalling shape of a brood beast disappearing into the breach in the war platform's armor that it had just created with the circular, fleshy maw. The creature crawled into the pilot's cabin - in the next moment, the massive machine jerked erratically and stepped back, plummeting from

uttered a silent

as well as all the Awakened standing nearby. Their arrows and bullets easily passed through the dome to hit the enemies, but when a lone brood beast lunged at Winter from above, it collided against the wall of shimmering energy as if against solid stone.

it's

"Sunny! Now!"

own thoughts. They briefly glanced at each other, then dashed away from the

- his own voice - spoke into