Shadow Slave

They did not spend too much time trying to come up with a detailed plan. Firstly, because the Nightmare Creatures could have discovered the Irregulars at any moment. Secondly, because no plan they could come up with would have been reliable.

There was just too little information at their disposal. Without knowing what the Tyrant, the few Devils serving it, and the lesser soldiers of the stone hive were capable of, what was the point of creating rigid strategies?

The battle ahead was going to be decided by raw power, resolve, and ability to swiftly adapt to changing circumstances.

Luckily, the Irregulars had more than enough power at their disposal. With three elite Masters and an actual Saint leading them, there was hardly a more fearsome human force in the Antarctic Center.

Would that power be enough, though?

They were going to find out soon...

'How did I end up here?

Creeping up the slope of the mountain with a morose expression, Sunny bitterly remembered his dreams of becoming a rich, decadent, cowardly shop owner. What was he doing on a continent drowning in Nightmare Gates, preparing to battle a Corrupted Tyrant and its army?

He could have been relaxing in the hot springs of a luxurious spa with a a bunch of beauties right now... that was what rich people did, right?

Instead, Sunny hid behind a tall boulder, shivered in the cold, and glanced at the handful of people pressing against rocks around him. Sure, there were plenty of beauties among them, as well.. ah, but it wasn't the same...

It couldn't be more different, really.

'...Damn!'

There was still a good stretch of the mountain slope remaining until the peak. That high, the air was not devoid of oxygen yet, but it surely tasted different. None of the Awakened would be hindered by the slight hypoxia or suffer from the high-altitude illness, of course, but it still required some adjustment.

Sunny sighed and watched as Saint Tyris calmly walked forward. A swarm of sparks surrounded her hand, and then coalesced into a long javelin. At the same time, Winter summoned a strange silver bow and two arrows. She nocked one on the string of the bow and waited.

A shadow hiding at the peak of the mountain watched as one of the hideous insects wandered to the edge of a protruding rock outcropping and froze, its long antennae twitching in the wind.

Sunny frowned.

"I think... I think we're noticed!"

Before he could warn anyone, however, Sky Tide took one last step, raised her javelin... and silently threw it into the dark sky.

Her throw caused the snow around Saint Tyris to be cleared away by the gale of crushing wind. The rocks beneath her feet cracked.

In the next moment, a thunderous roar of a sonic boom rolled across the mountains as the javelin accelerated toward the peak with terrifying speed. It streaked across the sky like a radiant star, and then collided against the Tyrant's carapace with devastating force.

The milky-white chitin did not shatter, though.

The javelin shattered instead.

As Saint Tyris tilted her head a little, Winter shot an arrow almost straight up. It flew into the sky and then exploded with brilliant radiance, flooding the gloomy slope with bright light.

Illuminated by it, the Nightmare Creatures hiding behind the rocks moved.

They ran forward with surprising agility and then jumped, twisting their bodies into tight spheres. Hundreds of these spheres then rolled down, approaching the hiding Irregulars like with terrible speed.

Sunny felt his heart growing heavy.

Because of how similar the carapaces of the stone hive soldiers were to actual rock, it seemed as if the mountain itself was falling on them.

And that wasn't all.

The Tyrant moved forward and opened its maw, disgorging a cloud of darkness from it. The cloud flowed down like an avalanche of volcanic ash, swallowing the figures of rolling drones as it overtook them.

"Bad!"

Sunny did not know what the black avalanche consisted of, but his intuition was screaming that inhaling, or even being touched by the black ash was deadly to humans.

At that moment, Sky Tide suddenly disappeared, and a massive shape shot forward from their formation. A giant bird of prey with white feathers and talons forged of lustrous steel appeared above the mountain, gaining speed as It flew into the sky. Her body was wreathed in a radiant mantle of dancing lightning bolts.

As Saint Tyris moved her enormous wings, the cloud of black ash was torn apart by the hurricane winds and dissipated long before reaching the Irregulars. She soared high into the dim sky and then plummeted down, aiming to savage the jade beetle with her terrifying beak.

The two monstrous creatures collided, and the Tyrant jumped back with an ear-piercing screech. A beam of darkness escaped from its maw, but Sky Tide was already rising into the sky as she circled to deliver another devastating attack. The bolts of lightning gathered on her body and then shot forward, colliding with the dark beam. It seemed to weaken considerably and missed the swift Saint, disappearing into the somber expanse of cold heavens.

A net of lightning descended from above and bit into the milky-white jade chitin of the Tyrant. A devastating thunderclap battered it like a physical attack. Tyris folded her wings and fell down again, leaving deep grooves on the enemy's armor with her talons. The whole mountain shook from the ferocious force of their clash.

Comparatively uninjured, but hopelessly outmatched by the flying opponent, the jade beetle seemed almost... aggrieved.

Its black eyes stared at the silhouette of the colossal bird with an indescribable. inhuman emotion.

And then, the Tyrant straightened. Its carapace suddenly seemed to split in the middle and move aside like a giant gate.

From beneath it, four long, translucent wings emerged and then blurred, causing the massive creature to rise into the air.

It would have been an eerily beautiful image... if it wasn't so dreadful.

Looking from below, Sunny gritted his teeth.

"Well... crap!