Сүүдрийн Өршөөл

'What the…'

The shards of stone and the dancing flames moved, flying through the air toward the tall woman. Instead of crushing and burning her, however, they somehow assembled around her slender body, the pieces of stone levitating around it to form a strange armor, the fire shrouding her hands like incandescent gloves.

Sunny suddenly felt a deep, dangerous sense of unease.

"How dare you, vile shadow…"

The voice of the War Maiden thundered in the darkness that the Shadow Lantern had created, and then, two furious white eyes ignited in its depths, piercing Sunny with a murderous gaze.

"How dare you challenge War…"

A split second later, the Maiden disappeared from where she stood, the stone slab beneath her feet exploding into a rain of shards. Almost instantly, she was already upon him, a flame-wreathed palm shooting forward to pierce his chest.

'Damnation… what is it with women of War always going straight for my heart? This is already the third time this has happened!'

Sunny awkwardly blocked the devastating blow, and felt himself being thrown back by the terrifying force of the impact. Luckily, the Mantle of the Underworld had withstood the touch of the divine flames that shrouded his enemy's hands, if just barely, the enhanced enchantment of Memory of Fire still coursing through its polished onyx.

'Argh!'

Something wasn't right here… even for a Master, the speed and strength of this woman were way too terrifying. With three cores nearing full saturation and augmented with two shadows, he was supposed to be near the realm of the Ascended, at least, if not more or less on par with some of them. And yet, her might was far greater than his.

That could have been explained by possessing an Aspect that augmented one's physicality, but as Sunny had just seen, the white-haired War Maiden seemed to be some sort of an elemental sorceress.

'Ah… I see how it is…'

Crashing onto the floor in a roll, he instantly threw the Cruel Sight forward to prevent his enemy from chaining the next attack after the first, and then slashed at her with the Midnight Shard.

The blade of the austere tachi scraped fruitlessly across the carapace of levitating stone shards surrounding the War Maiden's body.

It seemed that the effect of her Aspect was broader than just elemental control. Not only was the fearsome leader of the Red Sect capable of manipulating the elements, she also drew power from them. The stone probably enhanced her strength and endurance. The fire… her speed? Attack power?

Whatever it was, it seemed to also allow the white-haired Maiden to perceive her surroundings despite the veil of shadows his lantern was creating around them.

With a ruthless scowl on her beautiful face, the woman easily swatted both the Cruel Sight and the Midnight Shard to the sides.

…However, she failed to defend against the sharp blade of the ghostly stiletto that suddenly appeared in one of Sunny's hands and slid between the chunks of stone protecting her body. The Moonlight Shard bit into the Maiden's body, failing to sink deep, but still drawing blood.

Sunny grinned. There was a benefit to having four arms, after all.

'Not so high and mighty now, are you…'

The Maiden seemed more infuriated than hurt, though. The stone carapace swirled around her, sending the Moonlight Shard flying away from his hand, and then two incandescent fists descended upon him. A spark of flame traveled through the whirlwind of stone shards and licked her body, perfectly cauterizing the wound.

'Bad…'

The white-haired warrior and Sunny clashed, their speed and ferocity causing more destruction to befall the devastated hall of the temple. Since they were shrouded by a rolling cloud of darkness, no one would have been able to see what was happening under the veil of shadows, noticing only flashes of white radiance that tore through it from time to time.

All they would be able to perceive were the furious sounds of a frightening, inhuman battle.

The War Maiden was faster and stronger than Sunny. Her Aspect was fearsome, and her skill was unlike anything he had ever seen. It was different from how humans of the waking world fought, but in no way inferior… in fact, her murderous technique was utterly sublime in its deadly power, stark perfection, and lethal precision.

She was also able to control the flow of essence through her body with such an intricate and ingenious measure of control that it made Sunny realize how crude and clumsy his own, which he had been proud of before, really was. His essence was running low, too, because of how much he had spent on delivering the obliterating shot from Morgan's Warbow.

However, he was not defenseless in that fight. While the War Maiden possessed a sublime technique, Sunny possessed a myriad of them. He was able to shift from one style to another effortlessly, dancing like a shapeless shadow, making it difficult to predict and prevent his next move.

The Cruel Sight danced with him, swiftly changing its form from a somber spear to a mirror sword and jumping between his four hands, Sunny had dismissed the Midnight Shard, knowing that it would not be able to withstand the immolating heat of divine flames shrouding his enemy's arms.

He relied on his versatility and deception to keep himself alive under the ferocious assault of the monstrous Ascended… and through all of it, he was observing how she moved, how her shadow moved, how they fought, how they reacted…

Shadow Dance was slowly absorbing the War Maidens's sublime battle style, thus making her incredible technique more transparent and predictable. The process was helped by the fact that Sunny had recognized the same foundation in it that he had witnessed when Effie attacked him earlier… the two were a master and a pupil, after all.

For now, Sunny was locked into a desperate defense, with no hope of launching an effective attack of his own. It seemed as though his death was only a matter of time… but in reality, he was just biding his time, waiting for the right moment to deliver a single, but singularly inescapable strike.

And soon enough, that moment came.

Sunny was battered and beaten, the onyx surface of the Mantle of the Underworld cracked and glowing orange in several places, as if on the verge of melting. His reserves of essence were almost empty, and his breathing was labored and arduous. One of his horns was broken, or rather cut cleanly, the edges turned glossy and black by the indescribable heat of the War Maiden's fiery palm.

But then, he suddenly saw it. An opportunity…

There was probably not going to be another one of those in this dire fight.

As the white-haired warrior raised her hand to deliver another terrible strike, he suddenly turned the blade of the Cruel Sight slightly, so that it faced the enemy with the flat side.

And then, Sunny activated the [Light Eater] enchantment of the somber spear, turning its blade into a source of bright, radiant sunlight.

The War Maiden had used her Aspect to adjust her eyes to the darkness. And for that reason, a sudden flash of daylight blinded her, while Sunny remained unaffected by it. He was relying on his shadow sense to move around, anyway.

His enemy was only blinded for a second… but in the battle at their level, one second might as well have been an eternity.

Simply losing her sight would not have made the War Maiden defenseless, of course. A warrior like her would have been taught how to fight with her eyes closed. And indeed, she instantly shifted her body and moved her hands, preparing to deflect the most probable attacks.

Unfortunately for her, Sunny had already gained enough insight into her style to know exactly what these movements would be. And so, he knew how to slip through them.

One of his hands suddenly shot forward, the clawed gauntlet shattering a piece of stone protecting the woman's neck. The other followed, passing through the momentary gap in the magical carapace… and ripping her throat apart.

A strange sound escaped from the War Maidens's lips. Her eyes widened, the white radiance burning in them growing dimmer. For some reason, Sunny felt himself be disturbed by that sight.

The whirlwind of stone shards surrounding the Maiden's powerful body rained to the ground.

"C, can't… can't be… a shadow…"

With that, the fearsome leader of the Red Sect fell to her knees, life draining through the terrible wound on her neck.

…All it took to kill her was one calculated, treacherous strike.

Before the Spell spoke, Sunny hesitated for a moment, then reached into a breach in his armor, grasped the emerald amulet, and leaned down, whispering:

"Find peace within me. This... is the mercy of Shadow."