The world was crumbling.
As Cocolia rose into the air, the gargantuan creation of ancient steel followed. It towered over Everwinter Hill. It's size was incomparable to the Doomsday Beast he had faced in the Herta Space Station. It's lifeless hands clawed against the hill, bringing even more tremors along with it.
In the distance, Sunny was able to see an avalanche, plumes of snow cascading down mountains as if they were a waterfall of ice and frost. Speaking of frost, the air was becoming colder, stiffer, and unbearable. Each breath felt like thorny roses of ice were sprouting in his lungs.
Despite the fierce chill that was constantly assaulting him, he made sure to summon a few Memories.
The first was the Mantle of the Underworld. He had limited his use of the onyx armor, as he didn't want to be recognized as Mongrel. Up to this point, he had been wearing the Puppeteer's Shroud under Finality's Farewell — he had dismissed the latter whenever a battle was occurring, such as now. After all, the jacket didn't provide any protection, and was only a hindrance if it kept flapping in the wind. Fortunately, the only two people present who might have been aware of Mongrel's existence were preoccupied; Dan Heng and March were too busy fighting off the insidious corruption that had previously been assaulting their minds.
As for how Seele, Bronya, and himself were able to resist it, Sunny wasn't too sure. If Seele and Veliona could be considered to have two seperate minds, then he supposed that she would have a higher mental resistance than others. When it came to Bronya, it was obvious that her mind operated on a higher level than most — although, he didn't know to what extent.
As for Sunny himself… well, the runes of the Puppeteer's Shroud were enough to explain:
Memory Name: [Puppeteer's Shroud].
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Tier: V.
Memory Type: Armor.
Memory Description: [A worm of doubt once found its way into a righteous king's heart. With time, the king was devoured from inside and became its puppet. A lifetime later, the Puppeteer Worm escaped from the king's dead body, leaving behind a cacoon of black silk. No one knows where it went; however, once people dared to approach the silent castle, they found the silk among the mountains of gnawed bones and fashioned it into an armor.]
Memory Enchantments: [Enhanced Durability], [Doubtless].
[Doubtless] Enchantment Description: [Provides the wearer with a small amount of protection against mind attacks.]
Besides the obvious enchantment that made the armor more durable, the Puppeteer's Shroud also gave him a resistance to mind attacks. However, due to how minor it was, it couldn't possibly be enough for him to be able to resist the ravings of a Master who was amped with a Stellaron. Not only that, but Cocolia's Aspect partially fell under the 'mind' category, which may have increased her speech's potency.
Thankfully, Seele's shameless, degrading words were enough to give him a push to snap out of his… unhinged state.
'Still going to get her back for that…'
The Mantle of the Underworld provided him with protection from both mind and soul attacks. It was naturally the best tool he had in a battle against Cocolia. At the same time, he summoned the Everwinter Night, which he attached to his armor in order to enhance the enchantments the charm held — he would gain a resistance to the cold, while also gaining an increase in strength that scaled on how low the temperature was; which was very similar to March's Aspect.
He also summoned the baseball bat that stemmed from the Destruction. Augmenting himself with all three of his shadows, he casually rested it on his shoulder. The bat shared in the effects of his Aspect, which was very important due to the fact that Bronya's Aspect couldn't enhance it.
Speaking of Bronya, she used her Aspect to give Sunny and Bronya an increase in strength.
Opposite to them, under the relentless wrath of the snowstorm, Cocolia rose her icy lance, pointing it towards the heavens; or rather, the cosmos. As she stared down at them with her cold, inhuman gaze, Sunny felt something approaching them through his shadow sense.
Despite the sense of urgency he felt, he simply sighed as he turned to look at Bronya and Seele.
"…It looks like Cocolia's calling Fragmentum monsters over, somehow."
This must have been a blessing of the Stellaron, allowing her to control the creatures that were spawned from it.
Bronya nodded.
"I'll go alone to stall them. As long as none of them are of the Ascended Rank, I should be able to hold them off without a problem. Don't worry — my Aspect will still take effect as long as I'm not too far."
That left Sunny and Seele to go up against Cocolia. After a moment of hesitation, he agreed:
"Alright. Just… don't die."
As Bronya sent him a sweet smile, Sunny continued:
"If you do, we might not be able to last long against that mother of yours."
Her smile faltered. She sighed.
"Right… of course."
Summoning her rifle, she returned to the direction where they came. As there was only one path up Everwinter Hill, the enemies would only arrive through that direction.
After all, the steeper portions of the hill were slick with thin layers of melted snow. If anything wanted to climb up, they would need to spend hours — maybe even days just to find a path that lacked any major hazards.
This was convenient for Bronya, as she would have a smaller area to cover. She only had to make sure that nothing interfered with the battle against Cocolia.
Seeing that Cocolia hadn't made any moves yet, Sunny turned to Seele with a curious expression.
"This might be a weird time to ask this, but should I call you Seele or Veliona? Since, well… you're kind of both at the moment."
There was disbelief on her face, before she shook her head in exasperation.
"Whichever you want. I don't think it really matters right now."
Sunny simply chose to call her Seele, as that had less syllables than Veliona. He had a few other questions about her current state, and some of them involved the crimson claws that imposed a feeling of negative emotions, hanging from the chains that wrapped around her arms.
However, he decided to save them for later.
They had more pressing concerns.
Cocolia was ignoring them as her suspended form began to curl up, putting herself into the fetal position. The air around her began to visibly freeze, turning to ice as it surrounded her. Holding the Lance of Preservation to her chest, a cocoon of ice formed around her.
At the same time, her voice echoed through the air. It brought with it an intangible force, one that targeted their psyches.
"You must break the old to build the new.The supreme guardian commands you..."
An imposing will was forced against their minds, causing Sunny to feel that his brain was going to explode. Of course, he figured out that her words only served to bring mental pressure, not anything else.
"Rise, Engine of Creation!"
As if in response, the Engine of Creation creaked as it began to move it's arms in an aggressive manner. The cocoon that contained Cocolia's body rose higher into the air, above even the disastrous titan of mechanical ingenuity.
'Is she… trying to protect herself?'
Cocolia shouldn't have a need to take preemptive defensive measures against Sunny and Seele. After all, her current strength should have been enough to easily dominate them in combat.
As Sunny warily looked up at the cocoon, he recalled an insect that also had a tendency to enter a cocoon.
'…A metamorphosis?'
He had previously described her as a zealous woman who forced the role of a false god upon herself. However, she might have been attempting to become the real thing — or at least something similar.
'How much power does she need!'
Feeling the air shift, Sunny and Seele moved in tandem. The Engine of Creation was bringing it's monstrous palm down upon them.
They dove out of the way, rolling on the snow as they decisively got back on their feet. The massive hand crashed down, bringing with it plumes of hazy snow while it shook the very world itself. Feeling like ants, the two of them restrained their horror as they rushed in the direction of Cocolia's chrysalis — which was also the direction of the Engine of Creation.
And with how high the chrysalis was… what they had to do was obvious.
With each step they took, an earthquake caused them to stumble over themselves. The two of them kept falling over, but they didn't stop their assault.
It was their only choice. Everything would end if they stopped.
Shadow Essence coursed through Sunny's veins, following the path dictated by the Serpent tattoo that coiled around his skin. Which a major pump, he leaped over the sweeping hand of the Engine of Creation. He harmlessly rolled across the snow as he grew closer with each step.
On the side opposite to him, Seele was moving with much greater speed. She fluttered through the attacks that were aimed at her, the two claws following after her as she dragged them along by the chain. The butterflies that were out of place in Jarilo-VI beautiful flapped their wings in a dance of blue and red.
As the Engine of Creation rose the arm that was caved into Everwinter Hill's surface, Seele landed on it's arm. As she used her Aspect to quickly dash upwards — closer to Cocolia's enshrouded body — she pulled her arm back before flinging it forwards.
The claw that had been attached to that arm flung forward, the chains untangling themselves as the jagged fingers reached for Cocolia's cocoon of ice.
Although she seemed vulnerable, she absolutely was not — an illusion of safety.
As the crimson claw was about to tear her small chrysalis open, ice began to manifest to her side. It's shape was unclear due to the the distance between them.
Suddenly, the ice construct fired at mind-boggling speeds, breaking the sound barrier as the air cracked around it. As the mysterious object got closer, it was easier to describe.
It seemed like a massive arrowhead made of ice, which was large enough to completely erase a human's torso upon impact.
The construct rocketed towards the insidious claw, crashing into it with the force of a railgun. This would have definitely affected Seele, who the claw was connected to, causing her to fall off the Engine of Creation's arm.
However, it did not hit.
Instead, it seemed to phase through the crimson hand, landing in the middle of the snowfield with a sonic boom. Even more avalanches began to appear, large amalgamations of snow tumbling down the spires of stone and ice.
The claw suddenly fizzled, fading away into a flurry of crimson butterflies.
At the same time, the second claw could be seen coiling and twisting through the air as if it had a mind of it's own, reaching around as it attempted to penetrate Cocolia's cocoon from behind.
Despite the distance, Sunny and Seele heard a tongue clicking.
"Conniving brat…"
Another arrowhead of ice was formed, flying towards the claw with disastrous speed. At the same time, the claw magically moved out of the projectile's trajectory, bringing Sunny to believe that it was truly alive.
The ice construct did not change direction, and simply continued on it's path. This revealed that Cocolia only had preliminary control over the constructs she created with her Aspect, which meant that although she could fire them without physically holding them, she was unable to control any subsequent movements.
…Suddenly, multiple glimmering points appeared around the chrysalis of ice. They began to form unclear constructs of ice, becoming something different from what she had created before.
At some point, the different constructs began to connect to eachother. They formed glacial patterns, extending high into the sky.
Sunny's eyes widened.
A large, frigid spear of ice was held up in the sky like an executioner's blade. It was as large as a house, and cast a heavy shadow amidst the tumultuous blizzard. He had expected it to be aimed at the approaching claw, but instead…
It pointed towards Seele.
She seemed to notice as well, as her gaze was completely focused on the spear fit for a giant.
Despite it's larger size, Cocolia did not seem have any more problems controlling it as she did with the torso-sized arrowheads. It was launched with a shockwave following it as it broke the sound barrier. The cyclonic winds almost blew Sunny off his feat, and Seele wasn't fairing much better.
However, despite the fast-approaching executioner's blade, Seele calmly swung her other hand — the one that was attached to the claw that mysteriously faded away to distract Cocolia.
Both claws had been returned to her hands when the construct fired. After all, even if she killed Cocolia, the spear wouldn't stop coming in her direction.
One of the claws flew through the air, slamming into the side of the massive spear that was quickly barreling towards Seele. A split second later, it mysteriously exploded in a sea of ice, it's form crumbling.
Her claw had slid against a line of death. As such, the structure of the crystalline structure crumbled due to the natural fragility of the construct.
Shards of ice rained down from the sky, pelting Everwinter Hill and the surface of the Engine of Creation. At the same time, a stray shard glanced against Seele's cheek, opening a small cut under her eye.
Suddenly, her thoughts began to slow down. She also felt a slight burning sensation in her soul, which was ironic, as it was currently being frozen.
She was fortunate. The impact of the wound barely enough to allow Cocolia's Aspect to take effect, so it wasn't too insidious despite the pain she was feeling.
At the same time, a human-shaped shadow was coiling up the Engine of Creation…