Shadow Slave

Dozens of black javelins shot into the raging snow, violently tearing a path through the blizzard. Each weighed more than a ton and moved with supersonic speed... the devastation they could visit upon the desolate landscape of the Antarctic Center was immeasurable.

But much more important than the kinetic force they carried was the mystical force of their Transcendent nature. In the world of the Nightmare Spell, there were rules and laws that trampled reason... a Corrupted Titan like the Winter Beast could shrug off a railgun shell, but it couldn't ignore the blade of a Saint.

Sunny had always known about this odd dichotomy, but only now that he was a Transcendent had he gained a hint of understanding regarding it. He had vaguely sensed on many occasions the world pushing against him, and his will pushing back against the world.

The higher one's Rank was, the more they were able to resist the pressure of the mundane and forcefully exert their will upon the world... as well as other living beings populating it, when two transcendent wills clashed.

That was why, perhaps, a powerful abomination could survive a nuclear blast, but not a blow delivered to it by an Awakened such as him. Because an explosion did not carry an Awakened's lethal will.

In any case, the Winter Beast was going to have a problem dealing with the black javelins, both because of the mundane force they carried, and the mystical force infused in them.

That was if Sunny could actually hit the creature, of course.

Blinded by snow, he closed his eyes and concentrated on sensing the shadows. His body was assaulted by unbearable cold, the crushing wind trying to bring him down. The wind was growing more ferocious, and the cold was becoming more calamitous by the second. The waves of heat rolling off the exploding volcano lessened the cruelty of the snowstorm a little, but not by much.

Counting the seconds, Sunny concentrated on the distant place where the cold was the most terrible. Out there, even shadows could not withstand it, becoming frozen and still. There was a vast blind spot in his field of perception... so, even though he could not sense the body of the Winter Beast, he knew where to aim the javelins.

'Come on.’

the target area. Which

"Serpent."

voice, the giant creature turned into a tide of darkness and flowed

the amount of spirit essence he could absorb from the surrounding darkness increase dramatically. He suspected that it was either because

allowed Serpent to help Sunny control his shadow essence better, so who was to say that it couldn't guide the ambient essence of elemental shadows into

the cloud of ash that had mixed with snow, so no light reached the plain. Even the red glow of the erupting Mount Erebus had been swallowed by the raging snowstorm, drowning the buried ruins of the destroyed siege capital in

good thing, considering that he was not holding back and burning through his own

"More!"

the black javelins reached its target, the second salvo flew into the seething veil of snow. The world shook and quaked from the deafening roar of

salvo was sent into the storm not long

ravaged wind. A dark smile appeared on his face, and he basked in the cataclysmic fury that

fight... there were many forms that his Shadow could assume, but none of them would really counter the profane power of the Winter Beast. On the

like that, his best strategy was to consolidate

it's not

the way the battle was

of javelins finally

smile dimmed a

"Curses."

survived more than twenty seconds in the snowstorm. But the force of the wind and the fatal cold were much more dire close to the area where the Winter