Chapter 2016 Fallen Saints

Chapter 2016 Fallen Saints

As the enormous body of the obsidian giant toppled to the ground, Sunny was already moving away to avoid the retaliation by the remaining six Saints. Still dazed by the agony of receiving a soul wound, he ground his teeth and whispered something to himself quietly.

Just a few words...

'You have slain a Transcendent Beast.'

His shadow grew stronger. ...The words tasted bitter.

Almost at the same time, there was another trickle of subtle power entering his soul. Saint and Serpent had claimed one more life. And just like that, in less than a minute, three human Saints had lost their lives. 'Damn it!'

The fury of the Saints of Song descended upon him like a hurricane. Another arrow found its way into his Shell, shattering its internal structure. A slingshot hit him like a cannonball, exploding with a devastating roar and mangling his entire left side. Still missing an entire arm and reeling from the pain of his soul being cut, Sunny stumbled. He righted himself before the giant wolf and the three-headed hound tore into him with their fangs, though. Moving with uncanny foresight, he dodged their feral, but chillingly precise attacks and dashed back.

His mangled side healed. A new arm emerged from the depths of his towering onyx body...

Only that body was not that towering anymore. In fact, it was barely half as tall as it had been once. Which made aiming for his real incarnation much easier. But that was fine. Because for once, time was on Sunny's side — he just had to survive long enough to rip the benefits. The Saints of Song did not know it... most likely... but he was a Transcendent Terror. Which meant that his reserves of essence were six times deeper than those of his enemies. Of course, his Aspect was also much more potent — so, usually, Sunny drained his essence at a speed that would make most Saints feel appalled, therefore suffering from having to ration it just as much as everyone else, if not more.

However, not in this battle. With his ability to use Shadow Step stifled by the shattering of space, and his ability to use Shadow Manifestation limited by the lacking number of shadows present on the battlefield, Sunny was not burning through nearly as much essence as he usually did. He only had to maintain and move the Shadow Shell.

The stone gargoyle had misjudged his increased speed, missing the attack by a few meters. In and of itself, it was not that lethal of a mistake... however, both Lonesome Howl and Ceres were recovering their balance after performing devastating lunges, while Silent Stalker and Beastmaster were moving to get a better shot at the lightning-fast onyx demon. Even Siord, the gargoyle's partner, was a step behind and too far to do anything instantly. Which gave Sunny a perfect opportunity to catch the Saint of Sorrow in his fist... he had four of those, after all. And once the gargoyle was caught, his stone body could be destroyed in a hundred different ways. But the Saint of Sorrow... was Tamar's father.

Could Sunny really kill the father of his sister's closest friend?

He had already decided to be merciless, after all...

However, he also spent quite some time with Rain's cohort... he had even saved their lives after the winter solstice. These kids weren't strangers to him, either — not by a long shot. He was quite fond of them. And although Sunny did not really know the Saint of Sorrow, the man enjoyed some of that fondness simply for having raised Tamar into who she was — an upright, loyal, and frustratingly serious young woman who had once jumped into a dark abyss to save the life of a simple porter. Most importantly of all, hurting Tamar would hurt Rain. And that weighed on Sunny heavier than the need to preserve the lives of the Saints for the benefit of humanity.

He allowed himself a split second of hesitation...

And then, he lashed out with one of his hands.

Instead of catching the gargoyle in an iron grip, he batted him down.

The blow itself was terrible enough for a net of cracks to appear on the stone body of the Saint of Sorrow, shattering his wings. And a moment later, the gargoyle crashed into the ancient bone with terrible force, causing a small shockwave to roll outward from the point of impact. The enemy would not be rising from the ground any time soon... but although his wounds were severe, he would live.

Sunny did not spare the Saint of Sorrow out of pure sentiment, though. Definitely not.

He just didn't want to bother destroying the tough stone body of the gargoyle completely, and by sparing the enemy Saint, he would not have to deal with another puppet of the Queen of Worms a few seconds later. In any case, it was done. Now, only five enemies remained. And Sunny already knew which one he would target next. He turned slightly and let out a growl...

By then, his gaze had already locked on the bewitching figure of Beastmaster.