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Sunny found it hard to believe, even though he had been the one who made her Transcendence possible. It was just that Saints held a special place in human culture — they were the epitome of vast and unobtainable power. They were more demigods than people... enigmatic and awe-inspiring, so distant as to almost be ineffable.

He was now a Master himself, and on top of that, one of the strongest there was. But even still, a huge gap separated Sunny from someone like Sky Tide or Bloodwave, which he did not dare test.

To think that a similar existence now served him... it was hard to comprehend. Saint's Transcendence, without a doubt, marked a new chapter in Sunny's rise to power.

Of course, it was unclear where the onyx knight was truly equal to the mighty Saints of the human race.

In terms of purely physical prowess, she was at least on par with them, and most likely far superior. Her skill was outstanding, as was her talent and willpower... after all, Saint had always been outstanding. She often triumphed over adversaries that were much more powerful than her.

But so were human Transcendents. There was no such thing as an average Saint — each and every one of them were the absolute best of the human race, battle-hardened warriors of utmost talent, resolve, and ability, with thousands upon thousands of bloody fights under their belt.

There was also one fundamental difference between humans and creatures such as his Shadow... humans possessed Aspects, while creatures did not.

Saint had just gained her powers, wielding elemental darkness to strengthen her body and her weapons. However, every human Transcendent wielded a powerful Aspect and was armed with several potent Abilities, including the Transformation.

They were also all carriers of the Nightmare Spell.

Simply put, Sunny did not know who would end up victorious if Saint fought a human Transcendent. He had a feeling that, by herself, the onyx knight would lose... however, if she was augmented by his shadows, the result might be very different.

...Luckily, he had no intention of combating Saints any time soon.

Dismissing the Shadow, Sunny sighed and spent some time cleaning up the mess her Transcendence had made of the interior of the Rhino. The APC was in a sorry state, but still functional.

'See, the day is only getting better and better...'

Or was it night?

Here in Antarctica, it was always night, so sticking to the old notion of time was getting harder and harder.

He made himself a late supper — or an early breakfast — and settled in the lounge area for a few minutes. After a while, his communicator made a familiar sound. It seemed that the siege capital's communication array had activated, as it usually did twice a day, sending packets of data to those with a bandwidth quota.

Sunny looked at the new message with some relief. Rain was doing fine, it seemed... her response was shorter than usual, but she was obviously not experiencing any symptoms of being infected by the Spell.

He had always been worried about his sister, and after observing so many mundanes being killed by the First Nightmare here in Antarctica — and having killed many monstrous abominations their bodies had turned into — that worry only grew stronger.

Sunny sighed.

'She's okay. She's safe... there is no reason for her to contract the Spell, to begin with. And even if she does, Serpent is with her.'

Sunny missed his serpentine Shadow. It would have been tremendously useful during the Southern Quadrant campaign, considering how dire his need for essence had been from day one in this cold hell. Not to mention the versatile and powerful nature of Serpent's abilities.

And yet, Sunny had not regretted leaving it with Rain even once. Her safety took precedence... and he 'Over my dead body. Well... obviously, that's kind of a given...'

With that, Sunny forced a pale smile onto his face and picked up his communicator.

had many other ways to protect himself. If anything, experiencing the bitter hardships of the Antarctica campaign without the Serpent had given him an opportunity to learn how to manage his essence with utmost efficiency, as well as vastly improve his control over it.

Thinking of his Shadows, Sunny suddenly felt curious about their relationship to his Class. Even though the Soul Serpent was currently away, each of the Shadows occupied one of his cores. Did it mean that he would only ever be able to control seven of them, at most?

If that were the case, maybe the dismal rate at which he received Echoes was not such a terrible thing. He might have been very upset if someone like Kurt — the Awakened psychopath he had killed in the waking world — prevented him from turning Nightmare into one of his Shadows.

That time, his dislike of the man, and of the idea of owning human Echoes, had prevented Sunny from wasting fragments on the transformation, but he would have caved in if given a better opportunity.

Or, wait... would he have even been able to make Kurt into a Shadow without losing Saint or Serpent? He was just an Awakened Monster back then, possessing only two Shadow Cores...

'I'm rambling.'

Sunny remained motionless for a few moments, staring into the distance.

He was thinking about unnecessary things to distract himself from what was about to come.

Goliath was approaching.

The creature that had almost killed him once.

The Fallen Titan had already destroyed one siege capital, so there was a real chance that Falcon Scott would be destroyed by the abominable giant, as well. Sunny and Jet were determined to slay the gargantuan creature of stone, but anything could happen.

Even if their preparations worked, there was no telling what damage would be done to the city wall before the titan perished... if he perished.

This day might turn out to be the last day for many, many people. Maybe even Sunny himself.

He closed his eyes for a moment.

'Over my dead body. Well... obviously, that's kind of a given...'

With that, Sunny forced a pale smile onto his face and picked up his communicator.

His response to Rain did not contain any of the grave worries that gnawed at him. Even though she was smart enough to read between the lines, Sunny made an effort to hide the ugly truth as well as he could.

That was for his benefit, too.

While writing messages to Rain, Sunny was almost able to believe in his own lies.

Not knowing the truth was a solace...