The initial several weeks of the Antarctica campaign were the most intense… at least for now. The divisions of the First Army steadily moved south, fighting through the swiftly growing swarms of Nightmare Creatures and establishing strategic encampments along the way. These encampments were going to serve as the transit points of the evacuation networks soon.
Moving through them, all the population of the Antarctic Center was going to be relocated to the siege capitals to await eventual salvation. The same thing, only on a much larger scale, was happening in East Antarctica, where most people of the Southern Quadrant lived.
As days went by, the Chain of Nightmares grew more rampant. New Gates manifested with increased frequency, disgorging more and more abominations into the waking world. Luckily, the burden pressing down on the First Army also grew lighter, since more and more divisions reached their destinations and entrenched themselves inside the cities that would become humanity’s strongholds in the coming months.
Without the need to brave the enemy-infested wilderness, the lives of the soldiers became less perilous. That was not to say that they were not terribly busy — turning a populous city into a wartime fortress was a laborious task, too.
However, no one was as busy as the First Irregular Company.
Just like Master Jet had promised, the Irregulars almost never rested. While other soldiers had specific tasks that sometimes forced them into battle with the Nightmare Creatures, and sometimes did not, the seven cohorts of Irregulars constantly moved between various flashpoints to douse their flames.
Day after day, battle after battle… soon, the novelty of Antarctica’s sobering reality dissipated, and the endless procession of combat engagements blurred into one continuous, bloody ordeal.
They were doing their job, still.
Not all battles were as large-scale or as dire as those in the first two days of the active operation. Some demanded more precision than all-out effort, others simply had to be fought because no one else could be spared to address the situation.
Tempered in this terrible crucible, Sunny and his cohort were becoming accustomed to the trials of the Chain of Nightmares, as well as each other. Their ability to fight as a single cohesive entity increased, finally reaching a satisfactory level. Their personal power grew, too.
Sunny was not the only one who had managed to enhance his arsenal of Memories, for one. With so many Nightmare Creatures that needed to be slaughtered, each member of the cohort acquired new combat tools.
Quentin, for example, had received a beautiful suit of plate armor for killing a Fallen officer of the stone hive. Just like the carapaces of the monstrous insects, it was pure white and incredibly durable. Luster managed to acquire a charm that was supposed to increase his luck, even if no one could really tell whether it actually worked or not. Samara was now wearing a chameleon cape that blended into the environment and masked her position.
Others were using new Memories, too.
Armed with them, the cohort managed to survive these perilous weeks without suffering any casualties. They swiftly racked up kills and contribution points, as well as soul shards and reputation among the soldiers of the First Army.
…However, their fearsome reputation paled in comparison to that of Mongrel, who was slowly turning into somewhat of an urban myth.
Sunny had had no plans of unleashing his weird alter ego again so soon, but the circumstances forced him to make a different decision. There was just too much for him to do. Often, several missions of utmost importance appeared simultaneously, and since he could not be in two places at the same time… he sent Nightmare and Saint to take care of the easier ones instead.
This approach turned out to be surprisingly effective. Armed with the Sin of Solace, which synergized extremely well with both of them, his Shadows had become a real menace on the battlefield. They were also able to traverse the mountainous terrain of the Antarctic Center with great speed, allowing Sunny to dispatch them to complete missions that required speed above all else.
Of course, these missions had to be on the lower spectrum of hardship. A Transcendent weapon or not, Saint and Nightmare could not compare to the power of the cohort itself, especially since he led it personally.
So while Sunny and his soldiers dealt with the most dangerous tasks, Mongrel popped up here and there without any discernible pattern, appearing from nowhere and disappearing without a trace after dealing devastating damage to the Nightmare Creatures and leaving only severed corpses behind.
Suffice it to say, Saint’s popularity among the rank and file of the First Army grew explosively. The Guardian Angel of Antarctica… that title, coined by a random network journalist, was spoken by them more and more often, jokingly at first, but then a bit less so.
Sunny, meanwhile, finally earned his own nickname. Unsurprisingly, he was being called Devil now… or, infuriatingly, Little Devil! The latter one, however, was only used by the other captains of the Irregulars. No one else dared to speak it to his face — or behind his back, really, considering that the rumor that the young Master was always watching and listening quickly spread through the army.
…Of course, not everything went well for the human force.
The First Army experienced several painful setbacks. More soldiers fell, and more were critically wounded. The technical equipment was starting to grow less and less reliable as time went by, even if the most critical pieces worked as intended due to expensive spelltech countermeasures. It was getting harder and harder for the Awakened to find a safe place to sleep without being whisked away by the Call.
Worst of all, however, was the effect that the Chain of Nightmares exerted on mundane humans.
Nephis had once told Sunny that each person infected by the Spell carried a small Seed of Nightmare in their soul… and that those of them who failed to pass the first trial became a Category One Gate themselves.
The Chain of Nightmares increased the rate of Gate manifestations manifold, and that rate, terribly, spread to mundane humans as well. Not only was there an anomalously high amount of young people falling prey to the Spell in Antarctica, but also — for the first time in half a century — people outside the usual age of infestation started to succumb to the First Nightmares en masse, as well.
Which meant that, just like during the emergence of the First Generation, no one was safe. Anyone could become infected, fail the trial of the Spell, and turn into a murderous Nightmare Creature. The people locked inside the siege capitals, those being relocated through the evacuation corridors… even the soldiers themselves.
A tense and fearful atmosphere slowly settled over Antarctica.
