The Devouring Cloud posed an existential threat to Falcon Scott, but strangely, Sunny was not too worried, at least for himself. Perhaps it was the Marble Shell that gave him confidence, or perhaps it was the presence of the other Ascended Irregulars. The four of them were a fearsome force by themselves, and there were thousands of other Awakened defending the city, to boot.
Not to mention countless mundane soldiers, impregnable fortifications, and two entire Saints.
Sky Tide had been away, fighting the Winter Beast somewhere in the wilderness. It was unknown whether she would be able to return in time to participate in today’s battle, but Bloodwave was here, protecting the anchored ships. If things went south, he would undoubtedly interfere.
Master Jet studied the approaching brood swarm, her icy blue eyes cold and calculating. Then, she sighed.
“Something is different.”
Sunny glanced at her with a silent question, prompting Soul Reaper to shake her head.
“The Devouring Cloud is behaving differently from how the reports described it.”
He frowned, then glanced at the distant haze.
…Indeed, the swarm was acting a bit differently from how it had been before. It seemed slightly less erratic, slightly more driven. The speed with which the Devouring World consumed distance was greater than Sunny had expected.
Summoning his helmet, Dale shrugged.
“They probably sense the two hundred million souls behind us. Who wouldn’t hurry to get to a feast?”
Winter smiled.
“Well, then… let’s show them some hospitality.”
She remained motionless for a few moments, then raised her hands and cautiously removed her sunglasses. A deep sigh escaped from her lips.
That was the first time Sunny saw Winter’s eyes. They were entirely black, with pupils that resembled two drops of coagulated blood. Looking into them made him deeply, irrationally uncomfortable.
“Begin.”
Several Awakened — three from Soul Reaper’s cohort and one from Dale’s – stepped forward. Following Sunny’s nod, Luster did the same.
In this battle, Winter was going to be the tip of their spear. Her Aspect would play a key role, and so, it had to be augmented as much as possible.
Several Memories started to manifest in the air around the Ascended archer — a beautiful handheld mirror, a small skull with a precious jewel embedded into its forehead, a silver coin with the image of a beautiful woman on one side and that of a hideous monster on the other — and at the same time, the four Awakened activated their own Abilities.
One started to draw a complicated circle around Winter, saturating it with essence as he went. Another concentrated on the Memories, somehow channeling more power into them… Luster simply placed his hand on her shoulder, and then sent Sunny a strangely pleased glance.
‘That fool…’
Sunny rolled his eyes and walked a few steps away. He wrapped one shadow around his body and the other three around Morgan’s Warbow, then evaluated how much essence he had left.
It was not as much as he would have wanted, but enough to summon the Strike of Thunder many times, as well as manifest countless [Soul Arrows] in between the shots. He would be able to activate the Dying Wish, as well, if the abominations managed to get close to the wall.
Today, Sunny had a personal goal — to slaughter as many of the brood beasts as possible. Hundreds of them, or maybe even a thousand. With almost all the vile creatures being Awakened, he would not be getting many fragments, but that was alright. What he wanted were Memories, anyway — the more, the better, no matter how weak.
“What do you think, Sunny? Are we going to win today?”
He glanced at Master Jet, who was calmly spinning a simple shuriken in her hand. The aura of illusory cold radiating from her seemed especially chilling right now.
He shrugged.
“Sure. Why not? It’s just a bunch of ugly flying leeches.”
Soul Reaper grinned and did not say anything else.
A few minutes later, the Devouring Cloud entered the firing range of the rail guns. Once again, the thunderous sound of heaving tungsten rounds shattering the sound barrier made the whole wall vibrate. Even though Sunny knew that the bombardment had to have killed countless creatures, it seemed as though the distant haze simply swallowed them. There was not even the smallest ripple or rift in the uninterrupted veil of flying horrors.
‘…Crap.’
Then, the turrets and the MWPs joined the barrage and unleashed a hail of bullets. Numerous tracer rounds flew from the wall into the rolling cloud of brood beasts. It was strangely beautiful — as though a shining rain was falling from the ground into the sky, struggling to pierce the black veil of extinguishing darkness.
As if utterly untouched by the devastating onslaught, the Devouring Cloud continued forward without ever slowing down. By now, the hum of countless leathery wings had grown loud enough to seep through the clamor of the firing guns, spreading through the air like the murmur of a vast sea.
The creatures were already close enough for the illusion of a hazy veil to fall apart into the harrowing visage of myriads of black dots swarming in the air. Sunny grimaced, then drew his bow and sent the Strike of Thunder into the approaching horde.
Before the furious bolt of lightning reached it, he was already pulling on the string again, an arrow of pale gold appearing on it.
A flash of stark, eclectic light illuminated a tiny portion of the swarm, followed by the whispers of the Spell.
‘Crap!’
At that point, the Devouring Cloud was supposed to slow down. It had just reached the edge of the vast killing field between the city wall and the mountains, coming into view of numerous piles of Nightmare Creature carcasses covering the ground. The brood beasts were supposed to turn their attention to that plentiful source of food before continuing toward Falcon Scott in full force.
However, they did not.
Acting in contradiction to all the analytical reports by Army Command, the swarm ignored the feast of rotting flesh completely, and instead accelerated forward even more.
…That was when Winter finally made her move.
Taking a deep breath, she raised her bow and summoned a single, fiery arrow. Her black eyes seemed to become even darker still, and the crimson blood drops of her pupils shone with an eerie, ominous glow.
The string of the bow rang, and the flaming arrow flashed through the darkness, leaving a blazing trail behind.
When it hit, the darkness of the polar night was suddenly no more.
