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Chapter 1654: Opening Salvo
Shadow Slave

As ash rained from the sky and the ground quaked, Sunny inhaled deeply and extended his shadow sense as far as he could. Soon, his mind was flooded with an avalanche of sensory data, almost making him dizzy.

He was still unaccustomed to how vast his sight was now. Of course, he didn't actually see anything... but after years of perceiving the shapes and movements of the shadows, it was not much different. Sunny had tested his limits while relying on his shadow sense to stay alive in the ocean, but the dark depths were different from land. They were unfathomable and empty, with nothing but the cold currents to see.

Here in the Antarctic Center, though, there was almost too much to sense.

Further, further, and further still... Sunny filtered out the useless data to keep his Transcendent mind from overloading and reached across many kilometers of cracking ice toward the approaching snowstorm.

Soon, he sensed the shadows trembling from the lethal cold. Even they were not spared from the cruel tyranny of the Winter Beast.

'Somewhere between forty and fifty kilometers.... this is as far as I can reach.’

His shadow sense reached further than his actual sight, which was limited due to the curvature of Earth. And yet, it wasn't enough to find the heart of the vast blizzard - at least not until it got closer and enveloped him.

'Still, it is already close enough for the initial greeting.’

Sunny extended a hand. A thin pillar of darkness rose from the ground, growing to stand at almost twice his height. Then, it solidified, turning into a inky-black javelin with a needle-sharp tip. He grasped and weighed it, looking at the towering wall of swirling snow with a cold expression.

He had created the javelin in the image of the Siege Souvenir - a similar weapon he had once fashioned to slay Goliath. The original Souvenir had been made from the quill of a Corrupted abomination, while this one was merely a manifested shadow. However, that shadow had been suffused with his Transcendent essence, and was thus equal to a Transcendent weapon.

A uniquely powerful one at that, due to the fact that his soul had been altered by Soul Weave.

Sadly, the shadow javelin lacked the powerful enchantments that the real Siege Souvenir had possessed. Still... it was not bad for an opening salvo,

Exhaling slowly, Sunny took a step forward. Using the full augmentation of his five shadows, he infused a torrent of essence into his muscles and tendons, pushed against the ground with his feet, and strained his entire body to whip his hand forward and send the javelin into the dark sky.

The moment he threw it, the world quaked again.

A cloud of ashen snow exploded from under his feet, and a thunderous boom tore through the roaring of the eruption. There was an invisible shockwave that pushed the snow and the falling ash away, creating a sphere of clarity around his ominous onyx figure for a few fleeting moments.

The javelin was like a black comet as it shot across the lightless sky, Its speed immeasurable.

However... the actual process was rather dull. It actually took it an entire minute to reach the wall of snow and disappear into it. Twenty or so seconds later, Sunny felt his connection to the infused essence disappear.

At the same time, he sensed the javelin plummet into the snow and shatter into countless shards of ice, which then dissolved into an intangible shadow.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

‘...Not enough.’

With the volcano erupting behind him and the gargantuan wall of snow that connected heavens and earth racing to swallow him from the front, Sunny stared forward with a dark expression and did some mental calculation.

'I am no better than an artillery cannon, distance-wise, Granted, that javelin of mine was about twenty-five times heavier than an average artillery shell, Still, I would need to be inside the storm to reach its eye.’

He grimaced with displeasure. All these mathematics... was not exactly what he had wanted. What he had wanted was to get up close and personal with the Winter Beast, and feel its blood flow down his hands. However, reality was never what one wanted.

Well... maybe not, considering that Sunny had gotten exactly what he wanted. He had gotten his freedom. And everything else that had come with it.

In any case, the distance was not that important. Much more important was the fact that the javelin had been able to survive for more than twenty seconds in the outer reaches of the snowstorm. That... was something Sunny could work with.

Of course, he still did not know how long his missiles would last in the inner hell of the Winter Beast's domain.

He shook his head, let out a resentful sigh, and glanced at his Shadow.

"...War is a boring affair, isn't it, Serpent?"

Serpent raised its gargantuan head into the air and hissed, perhaps expressing its solidarity.

Sunny smiled.

"Let's make it a bit more exciting, then."

As the first torrents of snow swirled around him and plunged the world into unbearable cold, Sunny raised his head to the dark sky and laughed.

A few moments later, his laughter disappeared abruptly, and his face suddenly turned still, Only his eyes gleamed with a strange, dark excitement.

Something stirred in their depths...

And at the same time, the darkness around Sunny stirred, as well.

Dozens of inky-black pillars rose from the ground, followed by dozens more. They rose into the swirling stow like the fangs of a dragon, their needle-sharp points parting the wind with shrill whistles.

Then, just as many tendrils of darkness wrapped around the shadow javelins, turning into inky-black hands. Each hand had seven fingers, ending with sharp claws.

Sunny raised a hand, and at the same time, the shadow hands raised the great javelins.

He stared into the swirling snow with a cold smile.

He was not satisfied with being a Transcendent siege engine. To welcome the Winter Beast, he was prepared to summon forth an entire division's worth of devastating artillery.

"I'm going to drown you, bastard."

Letting out a low growl, he waved his hand forward.

The world seemed to shatter from the thunderous roar when countless black javelins tore the swirling snow apart and shot into the depths of the raging blizzard.

Shadow Slave
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Comments 33

  1. Offline
    Lrb
    Lrb
    1 ⋅ 1
    Dou pelo menos 3 capítulos por essa luta sem contar os detalhes desnecessariamente desnecessários que vimos nesses últimos mesmo capítulos
    Read more
  2. Offline
    Kiber
    Kiber
    5 ⋅ 1
    3 человека скинули главы, спасибо вам всем за это hokage
    Read more
  3. Offline
    keyleur
    keyleur
    10 ⋅ 3
    1655 Rain of Destruction

    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.’

    There were almost fifteen seconds left before his missiles reached the target area. Which did not mean that Sunny would simply wait patiently...

    "Serpent."

    Responding to his voice, the giant creature turned into a tide of darkness and flowed under his armor. A few moments later, it had already turned into a serpentine tattoo.

    As it did, Sunny sensed the amount of spirit essence he could absorb from the surrounding darkness increase dramatically. He suspected that it was either because of Serpent's new Ability or because of its [Shadow Guide] Attribute having undergone an evolution.

    In the past, that Attribute 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 his soul, as well?

    Thankfully, Sunny was currently shrouded in darkness. The twilight sky was obscured by 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 deep shadows. The lightless world was full of spirit essence.

    Which was a good thing, considering that he was not holding back and burning through his own essence recklessly.

    "More!"

    Long before the first salvo of 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 their passing, and from the aftershocks of the continuing eruption, as well.

    The third salvo was sent into the storm not long after that.

    For a while, Sunny was surrounded by a thunderous cacophony of violent shockwaves and the pained howling of the ravaged wind. A dark smile appeared on his face, and he basked in the cataclysmic fury that devoured everything around hìm.

    It was a shame that he could not use Serpent better in this 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 contrary, all of them would be vulnerable to it.

    The same went for his avatars... facing an enemy like that, his best strategy was to consolidate all the power available to him in one source. In himself.

    'Still, it's not too bad.’

    Sunny found the way the battle was developing rather exciting.

    That was until the first wave of javelins finally reached the heart of the snowstorm, though.

    His smile dimmed a little.

    "Curses."

    The very first javelin had 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 Beast was hiding some of the shadow projectiles were thrown off course by the hurricane, falling into the snow with thunderous explosions,

    The rest were swallowed by the cold and sapped of power, turning dead and brittle. Despite how much effort Sunny had poured into them, the speed and power of the black javelins ended up being insufficient. Even if they struck the body of the titan, they would just shatter into ice without leaving a mark on it.

    As the fourth salvo shot into the snowstorm, Sunny dismissed the shadow hands and opened his eyes, looking ahead grimly. There was still hope... the Winter Beast was drawing closer with each second, so the second and third salvos would have spent less time in the blizzard by the time they reached its heart.

    And yet, Sunny felt pessimistic.

    Just as he had expected, the second salvo only managed to devastate a swathe of the plain in front of the titan's intangible fortress of fatal cold. The third one was swallowed without leaving a scar on the storm.

    He grimaced.

    'No, no... it's for the better.’

    Sunny had been afraid that there would be no chance for him to clash with the wretched creature face-to-face. No, it seemed that his worries had been unfounded.

    If he wanted to kill something well, he had to kill it with his own two hands. Was that the saying?

    As he sighed and took a step back, the fourth and final salvo hit.

    However, it did not strike the heart of the snowstorm. Instead, each of the javelins struck a particular spot on the vast field of snow, producing an earth-shattering explosion.

    And in response to that devastating attack, the snow split open across the entire region, unleashing a torrent of angry red glow.
    Read more
    1. Offline
      keyleur
      keyleur
      8 ⋅ 3
      1656 Into the Storm

      The entire region where Erebus Field had once stood suddenly fractured. Vast fissures opened in the snow, widening with each moment. Immense sheets of snow tilted and slid underground, collapsing as they turned into billowing avalanches.

      At the same time, the fissures glowed with angry red light, and torrents of lava shot from them, devouring the plain. The world was enveloped by a raging blizzard, so no one would have been able to see the awesome spectacle of the fiery cataclysm - Sunny himself only saw flowers of orange glow blooming here and there in the howling darkness.

      He swayed, struggling to stay on his feet.

      The chain reaction of chaos and destruction that the fourth salvo of the black javelins had caused was his measure in case a melee clash with the Winter Beast seemed unavoidable. The terrible heat of the molten lava was not going to put a dent into the titanic snowstorm, of course - in fact, the lava was already turning into volcanic glass.

      However, more of it shot from underground. An immeasurable amount of snow had been instantly turned into great clouds of boiling steam, which then swiftly turned into a torrent of hail. The whole world was torn apart by the clash between the incinerating heat and the obliterating cold, becoming consumed by chaos,

      The cold was winning, of course..., but it was also being weakened, even if not by much. Considering that Sunny was about to face the very worst of it, though, every little bit counted.

      As for the sudden collapse of the snow field, that was Saint's doing. Fiend had been responsible for starting the volcanic eruption, but Mount Erebus was at a distance. If Sunny wanted to drown the Winter Beast in lava, he had to make sure that the whole region would crack open.

      That was not that too hard to achieve, considering that the ruins of the siege capital buried under his feet were already unstable. With Saints creating channels for the lava to flow and deepening the already existing caverns, all Sunny had to do to cause a cascading collapse was deliver powerful shocks to shatter the meticulously prepared weak points in the icy crust.

      After that, nature would take its course.

      Of course, it was a bit degrading to use a great warrior like Saint to dig glorified trenches. But that was what made the Winter Beast so vile - its cold countered most of Sunny's powers and made it impossible for his subordinates to fully exert theirs.

      'I'll just have to make sure it pays for that affront, as well.’

      As he felt the very life being slowly sapped from his body by the killing cold, Sunny took a few more steps back and then inhaled deeply, ignoring the feeling of his lungs being cut by icy blades,

      'Not that far, now….’

      The darkness around him surged, shrouding his figure in a vast mantle. He allowed himself to turn Into an intangible shadow and then manifested himself back into the world, building a towering Shell around the dark incarnation.

      This was the safest Shell Sunny could create, one that posed no threat of his mind being pulled into the abyss of formlessness. Because it was created in the image of himself.

      Slowly, a dark giant rose above the quaking plain. It was gaunt, with long hair that billowed in the wind like a sable waterfall. His eyes were like two abyssal wells, and the expression on his inky-black face was both cold and savage.

      The hurricane wind crushed into the immense chest of the Shadow Colossus and was repelled, howling mournfully as it died. Vast plates of stonelike metal encased his gaunt and muscular body, creating a fearsome onyx caгapace.

      As the heart of the snowstorm drew nearer and nearer, the dark giant slowly lowered himself, his knee sending a net of cracks through the thick layer of impenetrable ice. Then, he leaned down and supported his immense weight with both palms.

      Finally, the colossus grew still, his head lowered. His pose... was like that of an athlete preparing to explode into a run,

      "Twenty seconds, huh?"

      Sunny felt darkly fascinated by the immediate future.

      That was how long his javelins had been able to survive in the outer reaches of the snowstorm. Some had made it most of the way into the heart of the profane blizzard before turning into shattered ice. He was much more powerful than a manifested shadow, though. He was a Transcendent Terror, both his body and his onyx carapace augmented five times over by the shadows.

      Sunny was willing to bet that his Shell would survive long enough for him to witness the true appearance of the Winter Beast.

      ...He would probably have mere seconds to live after that, though. So, something had to happen in those seconds to end the battle in his favor.

      'I like it!'

      A strange, sinister, thunderous noise suddenly resounded in the raging blizzard.

      It was the sound of the Shadow Colossus laughing.

      Then, his laughter turned into a chilling growl, and the towering giant exploded forward like a dark tsunami.

      An entire area of the snow field was obliterated by his initial push. A crushing shockwave spread from the point where Sunny's foot dug into the ice, but he was moving faster than it.

      Faster, and faster, and faster still!

      The shadow giant tore through the snowstorm as he ran, effortlessly leaping over the vastest of fissures and sending fountains of incandescent lava into the sky when he stepped in them, as if stepping into puddles. His speed increased more and more, until it was as if a black meteor was flying above the snow, moving parallel to it.

      The bitter cold sank into the towering colossus, trying to shackle him and slow him down. But Sunny simply broke through the cold, even as he felt the outer layers of his Shell turn to ice.

      The heart of the snowstorm was already in front of him. He dove into its terrible embrace, trying to accelerate even more.

      In the end, the cold was just too much.

      With his giant body impacted by its fatal force, Sunny couldn't keep up anymore. He lost his balance and fumbled, almost falling down. There was no time to take the next step.

      And yet, his speed was so great that he was carried forward by pure inertia.

      That inertia...

      Was just enough to bring him into the eye of the storm.

      There, Sunny finally saw the Winter Beast.

      The frozen lips of the Shadow Colossus shattered into pieces as he bared his teeth in a vicious grin.

      'Well, aren't you ugly…’
      Read more
  4. Offline
    Pro100zver25
    Pro100zver25
    27 ⋅ 1
    1655: Rain of Destruction.

    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.»

    There were almost fifteen seconds left before his missiles reached the target area. Which did not mean that Sunny would simply wait patiently…

    «Serpent.»

    Responding to his voice, the giant creature turned into a tide of darkness and flowed under his armor. A few moments later, it had already turned into a serpentine tattoo.

    As it did, Sunny sensed the amount of spirit essence he could absorb from the surrounding darkness increase dramatically. He suspected that it was either because of Serpent's new Ability or because of its [Shadow Guide] Attribute having undergone an evolution.

    In the past, that Attribute 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 his soul, as well?

    Thankfully, Sunny was currently shrouded in darkness. The twilight sky was obscured by 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 deep shadows. The lightless world was full of spirit essence.

    Which was a good thing, considering that he was not holding back and burning through his own essence recklessly.

    «More!»

    Long before the first salvo of 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 their passing, and from the aftershocks of the continuing eruption, as well.

    The third salvo was sent into the storm not long after that.

    For a while, Sunny was surrounded by a thunderous cacophony of violent shockwaves and the pained howling of the ravaged wind. A dark smile appeared on his face, and he basked in the cataclysmic fury that devoured everything around hìm.

    It was a shame that he could not use Serpent better in this 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 contrary, all of them would be vulnerable to it.

    The same went for his avatars… facing an enemy like that, his best strategy was to consolidate all the power available to him in one source. In himself.

    «Still, it's not too bad.»

    Sunny found the way the battle was developing rather exciting.

    That was until the first wave of javelins finally reached the heart of the snowstorm, though.

    His smile dimmed a little.

    «Curses.»

    The very first javelin had 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 Beast was hiding some of the shadow projectiles were thrown off course by the hurricane, falling into the snow with thunderous explosions.

    The rest were swallowed by the cold and sapped of power, turning dead and brittle. Despite how much effort Sunny had poured into them, the speed and power of the black javelins ended up being insufficient. Even if they struck the body of the titan, they would just shatter into ice without leaving a mark on it.

    As the fourth salvo shot into the snowstorm, Sunny dismissed the shadow hands and opened his eyes, looking ahead grimly. There was still hope… the Winter Beast was drawing closer with each second, so the second and third salvos would have spent less time in the blizzard by the time they reached its heart.

    And yet, Sunny felt pessimistic.

    Just as he had expected, the second salvo only managed to devastate a swathe of the plain in front of the titan's intangible fortress of fatal cold. The third one was swallowed without leaving a scar on the storm.

    He grimaced.

    «No, no… it's for the better.»

    Sunny had been afraid that there would be no chance for him to clash with the wretched creature face-to-face. No, it seemed that his worries had been unfounded.

    If he wanted to kill something well, he had to kill it with his own two hands. Was that the saying?

    As he sighed and took a step back, the fourth and final salvo hit.

    However, it did not strike the heart of the snowstorm. Instead, each of the javelins struck a particular spot on the vast field of snow, producing an earth-shattering explosion.

    And in response to that devastating attack, the snow split open across the entire region, unleashing a torrent of angry red glow.
    Read more
    1. Offline
      Pro100zver25
      Pro100zver25
      27 ⋅ 1
      1656: Into the Storm.

      The entire region where Erebus Field had once stood suddenly fractured. Vast fissures opened in the snow, widening with each moment. Immense sheets of snow tilted and slid underground, collapsing as they turned into billowing avalanches.

      At the same time, the fissures glowed with angry red light, and torrents of lava shot from them, devouring the plain. The world was enveloped by a raging blizzard, so no one would have been able to see the awesome spectacle of the fiery cataclysm — Sunny himself only saw flowers of orange glow blooming here and there in the howling darkness.

      He swayed, struggling to stay on his feet.

      The chain reaction of chaos and destruction that the fourth salvo of the black javelins had caused was his measure in case a melee clash with the Winter Beast seemed unavoidable. The terrible heat of the molten lava was not going to put a dent into the titanic snowstorm, of course — in fact, the lava was already turning into volcanic glass.

      However, more of it shot from underground. An immeasurable amount of snow had been instantly turned into great clouds of boiling steam, which then swiftly turned into a torrent of hail. The whole world was torn apart by the clash between the incinerating heat and the obliterating cold, becoming consumed by chaos.

      The cold was winning, of course..., but it was also being weakened, even if not by much. Considering that Sunny was about to face the very worst of it, though, every little bit counted.

      As for the sudden collapse of the snow field, that was Saint's doing. Fiend had been responsible for starting the volcanic eruption, but Mount Erebus was at a distance. If Sunny wanted to drown the Winter Beast in lava, he had to make sure that the whole region would crack open.

      That was not that too hard to achieve, considering that the ruins of the siege capital buried under his feet were already unstable. With Saints creating channels for the lava to flow and deepening the already existing caverns, all Sunny had to do to cause a cascading collapse was deliver powerful shocks to shatter the meticulously prepared weak points in the icy crust.

      After that, nature would take its course.

      Of course, it was a bit degrading to use a great warrior like Saint to dig glorified trenches. But that was what made the Winter Beast so vile — its cold countered most of Sunny's powers and made it impossible for his subordinates to fully exert theirs.

      «I'll just have to make sure it pays for that affront, as well.»

      As he felt the very life being slowly sapped from his body by the killing cold, Sunny took a few more steps back and then inhaled deeply, ignoring the feeling of his lungs being cut by icy blades.

      «Not that far, now…»

      The darkness around him surged, shrouding his figure in a vast mantle. He allowed himself to turn Into an intangible shadow and then manifested himself back into the world, building a towering Shell around the dark incarnation.

      This was the safest Shell Sunny could create, one that posed no threat of his mind being pulled into the abyss of formlessness. Because it was created in the image of himself.

      Slowly, a dark giant rose above the quaking plain. It was gaunt, with long hair that billowed in the wind like a sable waterfall. His eyes were like two abyssal wells, and the expression on his inky-black face was both cold and savage.

      The hurricane wind crushed into the immense chest of the Shadow Colossus and was repelled, howling mournfully as it died. Vast plates of stonelike metal encased his gaunt and muscular body, creating a fearsome onyx caгapace.

      As the heart of the snowstorm drew nearer and nearer, the dark giant slowly lowered himself, his knee sending a net of cracks through the thick layer of impenetrable ice. Then, he leaned down and supported his immense weight with both palms.

      Finally, the colossus grew still, his head lowered. His pose... was like that of an athlete preparing to explode into a run,

      «Twenty seconds, huh?»

      Sunny felt darkly fascinated by the immediate future.

      That was how long his javelins had been able to survive in the outer reaches of the snowstorm. Some had made it most of the way into the heart of the profane blizzard before turning into shattered ice. He was much more powerful than a manifested shadow, though. He was a Transcendent Terror, both his body and his onyx carapace augmented five times over by the shadows.

      Sunny was willing to bet that his Shell would survive long enough for him to witness the true appearance of the Winter Beast.

      ...He would probably have mere seconds to live after that, though. So, something had to happen in those seconds to end the battle in his favor.

      «I like it!»

      A strange, sinister, thunderous noise suddenly resounded in the raging blizzard.

      It was the sound of the Shadow Colossus laughing.

      Then, his laughter turned into a chilling growl, and the towering giant exploded forward like a dark tsunami.

      An entire area of the snow field was obliterated by his initial push. A crushing shockwave spread from the point where Sunny's foot dug into the ice, but he was moving faster than it.

      Faster, and faster, and faster still!

      The shadow giant tore through the snowstorm as he ran, effortlessly leaping over the vastest of fissures and sending fountains of incandescent lava into the sky when he stepped in them, as if stepping into puddles. His speed increased more and more, until it was as if a black meteor was flying above the snow, moving parallel to it.

      The bitter cold sank into the towering colossus, trying to shackle him and slow him down. But Sunny simply broke through the cold, even as he felt the outer layers of his Shell turn to ice.

      The heart of the snowstorm was already in front of him. He dove into its terrible embrace, trying to accelerate even more.

      In the end, the cold was just too much.

      With his giant body impacted by its fatal force, Sunny couldn't keep up anymore. He lost his balance and fumbled, almost falling down. There was no time to take the next step.

      And yet, his speed was so great that he was carried forward by pure inertia.

      That inertia... was just enough to bring him into the eye of the storm.

      There, Sunny finally saw the Winter Beast.

      The frozen lips of the Shadow Colossus shattered into pieces as he bared his teeth in a vicious grin.

      «Well, aren't you ugly…»
      Read more
      1. Offline
        Lrb
        Lrb
        4 ⋅ 1
        Leitores: ACABA, ACABA EU NÃO AGUENTO MAIS ACAAAABA!!!

        G3:Hummm dá pra estender por mais 10 capítulos
        Read more
      2. Offline
        BlankDjinn
        BlankDjinn
        1 ⋅ 0
        Thank you as always :)

        Finally we can see the monster the vile beast that killed Sunny’s friends!!! Death to the winter also this guy would make a very cool memory since Sunny will definitely make his corpse into a fun toy!!!
        Read more
  5. Offline
    ZEXOS
    ZEXOS
    26 ⋅ 1
    1655. Rain of Destruction


    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.’

    There were almost fifteen seconds left before his missiles reached the target area. Which did not mean that Sunny would simply wait patiently...

    "Serpent."

    Responding to his voice, the giant creature turned into a tide of darkness and flowed under his armor. A few moments later, it had already turned into a serpentine tattoo.

    As it did, Sunny sensed the amount of spirit essence he could absorb from the surrounding darkness increase dramatically. He suspected that it was either because of Serpent's new Ability or because of its [Shadow Guide] Attribute having undergone an evolution.

    In the past, that Attribute 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 his soul, as well?

    Thankfully, Sunny was currently shrouded in darkness. The twilight sky was obscured by 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 deep shadows. The lightless world was full of spirit essence.

    Which was a good thing, considering that he was not holding back and burning through his own essence recklessly.

    "More!"

    Long before the first salvo of 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 their passing, and from the aftershocks of the continuing eruption, as well.

    The third salvo was sent into the storm not long after that.

    For a while, Sunny was surrounded by a thunderous cacophony of violent shockwaves and the pained howling of the ravaged wind. A dark smile appeared on his face, and he basked in the cataclysmic fury that devoured everything around hìm.

    It was a shame that he could not use Serpent better in this 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 contrary, all of them would be vulnerable to it.

    The same went for his avatars... facing an enemy like that, his best strategy was to consolidate all the power available to him in one source. In himself.

    'Still, it's not too bad.’

    Sunny found the way the battle was developing rather exciting.

    That was until the first wave of javelins finally reached the heart of the snowstorm, though.

    His smile dimmed a little.

    "Curses."

    The very first javelin had 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 Beast was hiding some of the shadow projectiles were thrown off course by the hurricane, falling into the snow with thunderous explosions,

    The rest were swallowed by the cold and sapped of power, turning dead and brittle. Despite how much effort Sunny had poured into them, the speed and power of the black javelins ended up being insufficient. Even if they struck the body of the titan, they would just shatter into ice without leaving a mark on it.

    As the fourth salvo shot into the snowstorm, Sunny dismissed the shadow hands and opened his eyes, looking ahead grimly. There was still hope... the Winter Beast was drawing closer with each second, so the second and third salvos would have spent less time in the blizzard by the time they reached its heart.

    And yet, Sunny felt pessimistic.

    Just as he had expected, the second salvo only managed to devastate a swathe of the plain in front of the titan's intangible fortress of fatal cold. The third one was swallowed without leaving a scar on the storm.

    He grimaced.

    'No, no... it's for the better.’

    Sunny had been afraid that there would be no chance for him to clash with the wretched creature face-to-face. No, it seemed that his worries had been unfounded.

    If he wanted to kill something well, he had to kill it with his own two hands. Was that the saying?

    As he sighed and took a step back, the fourth and final salvo hit.

    However, it did not strike the heart of the snowstorm. Instead, each of the javelins struck a particular spot on the vast field of snow, producing an earth-shattering explosion.

    And in response to that devastating attack, the snow split open across the entire region, unleashing a torrent of angry red glow.
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      ZEXOS
      ZEXOS
      23 ⋅ 1
      1656. Into the Storm


      The entire region where Erebus Field had once stood suddenly fractured. Vast fissures opened in the snow, widening with each moment. Immense sheets of snow tilted and slid underground, collapsing as they turned into billowing avalanches.

      At the same time, the fissures glowed with angry red light, and torrents of lava shot from them, devouring the plain. The world was enveloped by a raging blizzard, so no one would have been able to see the awesome spectacle of the fiery cataclysm - Sunny himself only saw flowers of orange glow blooming here and there in the howling darkness.

      He swayed, struggling to stay on his feet.

      The chain reaction of chaos and destruction that the fourth salvo of the black javelins had caused was his measure in case a melee clash with the Winter Beast seemed unavoidable. The terrible heat of the molten lava was not going to put a dent into the titanic snowstorm, of course - in fact, the lava was already turning into volcanic glass.

      However, more of it shot from underground. An immeasurable amount of snow had been instantly turned into great clouds of boiling steam, which then swiftly turned into a torrent of hail. The whole world was torn apart by the clash between the incinerating heat and the obliterating cold, becoming consumed by chaos,

      The cold was winning, of course..., but it was also being weakened, even if not by much. Considering that Sunny was about to face the very worst of it, though, every little bit counted.

      As for the sudden collapse of the snow field, that was Saint's doing. Fiend had been responsible for starting the volcanic eruption, but Mount Erebus was at a distance. If Sunny wanted to drown the Winter Beast in lava, he had to make sure that the whole region would crack open.

      That was not that too hard to achieve, considering that the ruins of the siege capital buried under his feet were already unstable. With Saints creating channels for the lava to flow and deepening the already existing caverns, all Sunny had to do to cause a cascading collapse was deliver powerful shocks to shatter the meticulously prepared weak points in the icy crust.

      After that, nature would take its course.

      Of course, it was a bit degrading to use a great warrior like Saint to dig glorified trenches. But that was what made the Winter Beast so vile - its cold countered most of Sunny's powers and made it impossible for his subordinates to fully exert theirs.

      'I'll just have to make sure it pays for that affront, as well.’

      As he felt the very life being slowly sapped from his body by the killing cold, Sunny took a few more steps back and then inhaled deeply, ignoring the feeling of his lungs being cut by icy blades,

      'Not that far, now….’

      The darkness around him surged, shrouding his figure in a vast mantle. He allowed himself to turn Into an intangible shadow and then manifested himself back into the world, building a towering Shell around the dark incarnation.

      This was the safest Shell Sunny could create, one that posed no threat of his mind being pulled into the abyss of formlessness. Because it was created in the image of himself.

      Slowly, a dark giant rose above the quaking plain. It was gaunt, with long hair that billowed in the wind like a sable waterfall. His eyes were like two abyssal wells, and the expression on his inky-black face was both cold and savage.

      The hurricane wind crushed into the immense chest of the Shadow Colossus and was repelled, howling mournfully as it died. Vast plates of stonelike metal encased his gaunt and muscular body, creating a fearsome onyx caгapace.

      As the heart of the snowstorm drew nearer and nearer, the dark giant slowly lowered himself, his knee sending a net of cracks through the thick layer of impenetrable ice. Then, he leaned down and supported his immense weight with both palms.

      Finally, the colossus grew still, his head lowered. His pose... was like that of an athlete preparing to explode into a run,

      "Twenty seconds, huh?"

      Sunny felt darkly fascinated by the immediate future.

      That was how long his javelins had been able to survive in the outer reaches of the snowstorm. Some had made it most of the way into the heart of the profane blizzard before turning into shattered ice. He was much more powerful than a manifested shadow, though. He was a Transcendent Terror, both his body and his onyx carapace augmented five times over by the shadows.

      Sunny was willing to bet that his Shell would survive long enough for him to witness the true appearance of the Winter Beast.

      ...He would probably have mere seconds to live after that, though. So, something had to happen in those seconds to end the battle in his favor.

      'I like it!'

      A strange, sinister, thunderous noise suddenly resounded in the raging blizzard.

      It was the sound of the Shadow Colossus laughing.

      Then, his laughter turned into a chilling growl, and the towering giant exploded forward like a dark tsunami.

      An entire area of the snow field was obliterated by his initial push. A crushing shockwave spread from the point where Sunny's foot dug into the ice, but he was moving faster than it.

      Faster, and faster, and faster still!

      The shadow giant tore through the snowstorm as he ran, effortlessly leaping over the vastest of fissures and sending fountains of incandescent lava into the sky when he stepped in them, as if stepping into puddles. His speed increased more and more, until it was as if a black meteor was flying above the snow, moving parallel to it.

      The bitter cold sank into the towering colossus, trying to shackle him and slow him down. But Sunny simply broke through the cold, even as he felt the outer layers of his Shell turn to ice.

      The heart of the snowstorm was already in front of him. He dove into its terrible embrace, trying to accelerate even more.

      In the end, the cold was just too much.

      With his giant body impacted by its fatal force, Sunny couldn't keep up anymore. He lost his balance and fumbled, almost falling down. There was no time to take the next step.

      And yet, his speed was so great that he was carried forward by pure inertia.

      That inertia...

      Was just enough to bring him into the eye of the storm.

      There, Sunny finally saw the Winter Beast.

      The frozen lips of the Shadow Colossus shattered into pieces as he bared his teeth in a vicious grin.

      'Well, aren't you ugly…’
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      1. Offline
        ZEXOS
        ZEXOS
        5 ⋅ 1
        Yoo, what's going on, why 3 of us posting it?
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        1. Offline
          Kiber
          Kiber
          4 ⋅ 1
          Таков путь hokage
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          ArMiks
          ArMiks
          4 ⋅ 0
          So that ppl reads them thrice
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      2. Offline
        Kiber
        Kiber
        2 ⋅ 1
        Хм, получается зимний зверь был человеком? Если судить о том, что все существа здесь из гробницы, то есть вероятность что это кто-то знакомый constraint
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          ZEXOS
          ZEXOS
          2 ⋅ 1
          Наверное это что-то похожее на сивиллу, потому что мерзости обычно выглядят отвратительно, а тут говорится что тот не уродлив. Но только G3 знает кто тот на самом деле
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            Verdant
            Verdant
            2 ⋅ 1
            "Well, aren't you ugly... " - скорее переводится как "нет, ну что за уродина", чем "не уродлив". IMHO.
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              Dummybaron
              Dummybaron
              1 ⋅ 0
              Скорее "Ну разве ты не отвратителен?" но да
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              ZEXOS
              ZEXOS
              1 ⋅ 0
              Аа, гугл переводчик как всегда
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                Verdant
                Verdant
                1 ⋅ 0
                Это всё объясняет)
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          Verdant
          Verdant
          1 ⋅ 0
          Стоп, а с чего это winter beast человек?
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            Kiber
            Kiber
            1 ⋅ 0
            Я думал что если он не уродлив, то значит он человек, почему я так думал я не знаю
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    Gerhman_Sparrow23
    Gerhman_Sparrow23
    4 ⋅ 0
    When people said Winter Beast is this strong because he might be descending to a Great creature and thus is able to use quasi-domain type skill, I recalled that we really have not seen Sunny fight a Great nightmare creature properly and hence we don't really know whether they can use domain.
    The only instance we saw a Great abomination use something akin to domain was when Daeron was fighting the swarm of corrupted creatures. But we cannot base the assumption that Great creatures can use domains on that since he was a defiled human. We have not seen a nightmare creature possessing a Flaw but defiled humans did, so it might be possible that only defiled humans can use domains but normal nightmare creatures cannot.
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      AlactrusAsmageddon
      AlactrusAsmageddon
      1 ⋅ 0
      Nightmare Creatures do have flaws... Ariel killed the Stone Titan with its own flaw.
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        Gerhman_Sparrow23
        Gerhman_Sparrow23
        0 ⋅ 0
        Whose to say ths Stone Titan was a normal nightmare creature and not a defiled like the ones they faced in their third nightmare? And I doubt a normal unholy titan can injure a daemon in a fight (it was mentioned that Ariel was injured in that fight)
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    Edrick Sars
    Edrick Sars
    3 ⋅ 0
    Quote: DanielPlay
    Since Antarctica I thought Sunny would kill the winter beast and receive a really powerful memory, it's a shame Sunny won't receive more memories.


    What if he got another shadow?
    With the endless possibilities of shadows… I’m kinda disappointed with how the spell only limits sunny to mere ones he’s even got to woo for their compliance. Meh… he can’t get memories anyways… so ‘bout time you figure how to summon those sea of shadow monsters sunny.
    Cos quite honestly… how long on essence can he last without his lost powerful memories?
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    Red_skin001
    Red_skin001
    4 ⋅ 0
    Madness. Craze. Muhahahaha! oru2x let's go Shadow Lord!! evil
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      Red_skin001
      Red_skin001
      3 ⋅ 0
      Yeah I couldn't even pile ten chapters sigh
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    Zolomon2o9
    Zolomon2o9
    4 ⋅ 0
    Cassie's gonna realize that Sunny is the shadow that Neph met, especially cause of serpent that she's seeing now through Sunny's memories.
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      Dummybaron
      Dummybaron
      7 ⋅ 0
      That was Sunny's choise to show it to her, He concetrated on this memmories soooo... All questions to Sunny.
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    Dummybaron
    Dummybaron
    6 ⋅ 0
    Wellcome to new episode of "It's not a theory, but just What If?". What if Winter Beast is corrupted Cronos(or Chronos, I forgot how to spell his name)? Cronos(Chronos) is a teenager Sunny and cohort encountered in the 3rd Nightmare in the city of Fallen Grace. He primarely spend time with Sunny, and was annoying him sometimes because Cronos(Chronos) couldn't shut up, and because of Sunny's flaw he had to answear each Cronos's(Chronos) questions. The only my evidence is the name cause "Time arround Winter Beast feels slower". Time=Time river, Freeze River=Freeze Time, all nightmare creatures in Antarctica are from around Thomb of Ariel or directly from Thomb of Ariel, it could be that real Cronos(Chronos) got corrupted and over years killed so many creatures he become Corrupted Titan.
    But it's just bullshit that my Brain thought was funny, so just remember it is unlikely true and just a thought about "What if...?".
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      Xenko
      Xenko
      5 ⋅ 0
      It's a nice theory actually, through it is really unlikely to be true, but I hope there will be some kind of plot like that with the winter beast

      It'll add another layer of drama to the story, which is always nice. I guess there is some evil irony in ripping apart the boy you aspired to become stronger
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