Two scavengers had climbed up the hill and found the four girls alone and undefended.
It was certain death for any group of sleepers on their level to meet such an adversary, but not all hope was lost.
Luckily, they had a scavenger echo with them too, at least that one could keep one beast busy.
And while slaughtering the rest of the main horde, Sunny and Nephis had noticed the threat too.
They had been keeping an eye on Cassie so they had caught sight of what was transpiring.
It was too far away for Nephis to effectively shoot the scavengers, she couldn't accurately hit her targets a hundred meters away in length and on a very elevated plane without hurting any of the sleepers.
But Sunny could, at least barely.
He shot and arrow in the middle of dancing around the horde— that arrow streaked through the air and landed on the shoulder of the scavenger charging at the girls.
Who knew when Sunny would get another chance to shoot an arrow in the midst of continuous onslaught, so they had to make do with what they got.
June stepped forward trembling, to face the wounded beast.
The scavenger echo engaged the nightmare creature in combat too.
Eventually, as the fighting had been going on— Nephis had acquired a memory called [Provocation].
It was a charm that looked like a bracelet with a skeleton's head in its centre. Upon activation it attracted the nightmare creatures to the weilder.
That was the reason why Sunny and Nephis weren't able to get time to help Cassie, and also why Liam and Caster had far less threats to deal with.
Speaking of whom, Liam had immediately summoned his macuahuitl to ward off the centurion.
The weapon clashed with one of the centurion's scythes and slided away harmlessly, at the same time the scythe kept coming towards him.
But the parry gave Liam just enough time to jump backwards and save himself from certain death.
The centurion charged at Liam again but was stopped when it swayed mid swing. Two of its 8 legs were chopped off by Caster, who had dashed just in time to their position.
Now there were three battles taking place.
The first one was at the hill where Sunny and Nephis had once fought a carapace centurion a lifetime ago.
Now there were four dormant girls and a scavenger echo fighting two scavengers.
The second was two highly skilled sleepers fighting a carapace centurion.
And finally the third, was Sunny and Nephis against around forty scavengers and less than half a dozen centurions.
Sunny's echo was locked in a stalemate with it's adversary while the other beast charged at June with its one unbroken arm.
June held up her makeshift sword— made out of a none protrusion from a corrupted devil. Just as the beast descended upon her, Cassie ran up from behind and activated her shield memory.
Immediately, a translucent forcefield surrounded Cassie and June as the pincer clashed with the barrier.
The pincer of the scavenger as well as Cassie were thrown away due to recoil, and the forcefield itself turned off as a result. But just barely moving her shaking legs, was June.
She took a step and drove the transcendent material into the joint that connected the scavenger to its reeling back arm.
The sharpness of a Transcendent bone could easily cleave through the carapace of an Awakened beast while the strength of a sleeper was barely enough to do anything.
Combined together, June found it similar to cutting paper with a sword.
If she messed up her stance, the carapace wouldn't be cut at all. But if she struck perfectly...
...then the scavenger wouldnt stand a chance.
As the bone protrusion entered the shoulder joint of the scavenger, Mai and Yui channeled their essence into a small ball of fire and lightning.
Then they threw them together, the two spheres shot forward while spiralling around each other.
Eventually they combined into a purple sphere of pure plasma and hit the carapace scavenger on it's head.
The scavenger's head didn't break nor was it destroyed but it did get a concussion.
And that was enough, thrusting her weapon again, June aimed for its head this time.
Unfortunately the scavenger moved instinctively out of pain and slammed her with its body, throwing her away. It then looked at the other three girls standing nearby and growled with unfiltered rage.
As the scavenger charged, Cassie got up again and summoned her stone sword to fight it. At the same time, June too brandished her blade to face the beast.
The beast lunged at her, threatening to bite her head away.
June stepped back, barely avoiding being slain. She would have died right away if the beast hadn't lost both its arms and wasn't in a brutal headache.
And yet with all that, it was taking everything she had to fight it off.
From behind her, the twins were helping too by firing their respective elements at it. Aiming for its legs to break one of them off.
Their aspects were augmenting each other, growing stronger as a result. And yet the gap between an Awakened and a dormant was huge.
The beast lunged at June again, this time she couldn't avoid it completely and was thrown to the sides.
It then dashed towards the twins, about to stomp them both to death when—
June thrust her weapon on the creature's neck. The transcendent bone biting into the carapace. Fetid azure blood poured out but the beast wasn't killed.
Her dormant strength had held the bone back from completely crushing the beast.
It shook her off, and smashed into her sideways.
The centurion had almost fallen off due to its legs being chopped off but it quickly got up again.
Caster took to melee as Liam ran backwards to gain distance.
Caster was fast. Much faster than the centurion. But the centurion was much more powerful.
Carefully dancing around the monster, Caster didn't dare attack it. He simply took on the blows and either avoided them or parried them.
His continuous training with Sunny and Dinadan had helped him grow too.
As much as Caster prided himself on his lineage, he had to thank Sunny for his growth, it was the reason he hadn't been wounded yet.
Finally, his efforts bore fruitation as Liam gained enough distance to fire off arrows now.
Shooting several arrows one after the other, he trapped the centurion in a makeshift cage of barbed steel.
As soon as the centurion was incapable of swinging his arms around wildly, Caster circled him in an instant and drove his sword through its head. Killing it.
As the scavenger clashed with the echo, both of them tore through each other. Almost equally too.
But there was a imbalance in their stalemate. The echo was weaker.
And so, it was going to eventually lose, when it did— the sleepers it was supposed to protect would all die too.
That could not be allowed, and that's why Cassie had been slowly circling around them to get behind the nightmare creature.
Getting closer to it, she activated her seer's shield at such a distance that-
The forcefield formed it's edge at the scavenger's back.
The awakened force of the barrier threatened to crush the scavenger, forcing it to kneel down.
Ofcourse, the carapace held strong. Only a few cracks forming in it. The forcefield was strong yes, but it was made for defence not offence.
Nonetheless it had done it's job, as the kneeling scavenger raised it's head.
It saw two pincers coming crashing at it. At the same time, while the scavenger couldn't see it coming, Cassie's blade also drove into the scavenger's weak spot.
A little far away, as the scavenger had thrown away June, breaking her legs in the process. It walked towards her with the madness of corruption.
It had been hungry for several days now, but no more.
It was going to enjoy it's meal today.
June was in pain, severe agonising pain. Her legs had been broken and she seemed to have a broken rib too.
The pain was intense, making her incapable of moving around. It was nothing like the movies or anime where the character simply walked it off.
It was hell on earth. Then again, maybe she was on one such hell already.
She saw the mad beast walk towards her with amusement, as if mocking her for her weakness.
The beast's face was harrowing and vulgar, utterly inhumane. And yet, she knew that mocking smug face all too well.
Had she not been mocked for literally anything? For being inferior to her brother in everything, for being a bad student, for being bullied, for being left behind on camping trips.
She was one of those the human world seemed to be 'failures'.
People who had never achieved success, people who had been too slow to grasp it.
She had failed to achieve anything in her career until now, and that wasn't going to change ever, it seemed.
And yet, she had also gained a hope not too long ago.
She had been infected by the nightmare spell, and at first while she had decided that her life was over...
..now she wanted to prove everyone wrong and actually survive.
No..not survive, she was going to thrive here.
Forcing herself to sit up straight, she activated her aspect...
..And disappeared.
Before the scavenger could properly be shocked, she teleported right behind it and thrust her blade into it's weak spot. Instantly killing it.
Then, hearing the spell congratulate her, she smiled.
And then feeling her essence exhaust, fell down unconscious.
***
Sunless and Nephis.
Not a more harrowing combination in the world, two world even. But that was revealed to humanity when they had slain dire fang.
Today, that same realisation hit the carapace scavengers as the two sleepers fought forty of them.
As they stood on top of two carapace demon's corpses put together by serpent, the scavengers lunged at them.
Serpent was slithering around the two, throwing the horde into disarray.
Any scavengers that came close were immediately sliced open by Sunny's defiance and those far away were burnt by Nephis.
Forty...
Thirty...
Twenty...
Ten...
Eventually, the number of scavengers left could be counted on one hand.
As serpent devoured one of them alive, Sunny threw defiance at another and dashed to a third one.
Then, he tornado kicked that scavenger in its head, exploding it.
Meanwhile, Nephis coated her Ascended blade flame pillar with her incandescent flames and spun it around the last two scavengers, the heat of the blade literally melting their carapace.
Soon, both were turned into half melted carcasses.
It was done. The cohort had won. But they had a problem now.
The dark sea was already rising.
They had dealt with the horde faster than Sunny had anticipated and yet, it wasn't enough time. They had taken long enough for the dark sea to finally arrive.
Feeling the first waves of it's cold chilling embrace wash upon his feet, Sunny scrambled to run.
Yelling out to let Caster and Liam know it was time to leave, he took Neph's hand and prompted her to run too.
Confused by the sudden gesture, she wanted to pull her hand away— afterall it made more sense to just run normally, holding hands would only have slowed them down.
But seeing the urgency on Sunny's face, she decided not too, something told her that if she did then he would be saddened.
It wasn't that Nephis didn't feel urgency in the moment, it was just that Sunny had seen the dark sea's abominations before. He had seen one of them almost kill Nephis.
He had even lost Nephis in his previous life, to an abomination not one bit less horrifying than the dwellers of the dark sea themselves.
He was not going to lose his Nephis again, and that feeling had gotten him to grab onto her in desperation, without even him realising.
Eventually as they reached the cliff, Sunny realised what he had been doing and awkwardly put his grip away.
Caster had gotten to the cliff first and climbed it up.
Then, Sunny, Nephis and Liam almost simultaneously arrived. Caster and Cassie Helped them climb up with the golden rope once they did.
Eventually, when everyone was on the cliff, they noticed June's broken condition. Cassie had directed them to her.
She was lying next to a boulder, resting her shoulders on it. Her legs had been broken and her ribs were damaged.
She was also unconscious out of essence exhaustion.
Without asking any questions, Nephis used her flames to heal her. The fact that it didn't burn her anymore made her incredibly more powerful.
Soon, June's body had recovered, her mind hadn't returned to consciousness yet, but Nephis couldn't regenerate stamina.
So they had no choice but to wait for her to wake up by herself.
Sunny took watch as Liam and Caster were setting up camp and Nephis was cooking centurion meat with her flames. Cassie was close to June, she could not see her but her senses were now sharp enough to detect any changes in her.
Having a large cohort allowed for very efficient work.
As Sunny kept watch, one of his shadows was also watching the sky.
Soon, it's gaze fell on something terrible. Spire messengers roared as they arrived from the eastern direction.
Everyone instinctively shuddered as Sunny scrambled to calculate their numbers.
'Thirteen spire messengers! Damnation!!'
Sunny thought with fear as the fallen monsters approached him faster than anything he could do.
A single fallen monster would be tough for his cohort, two would certainly call for casualties.
And three were impossible to defeat right now.
'And we are supposed to face 13!? Even for fated that is absurd!'
Sunny could not think of a single strategy that could save them from the spire legion, let alone beat them.
His worries soon turned into confusion as the messengers seemed to move past them.
As they did, something strange happened in the sky, and dozens of small purple looking portals opened up in front of them.
Out of the portals, around forty flying abominations came out.
With a metallic purple - black carapace, these creatures resembled small dragonlings.
They were smaller than the spire messengers too, Sunny assumed that they were fallen beasts.
Soon the two hordes collided. A civil war erupting between the two.
Sunny wanted to sigh in relief, but he didn't get the chance to, as a single spire messenger left the horde and flew downwards towards him.
***
Sunny realised what was happening.
For some reason, the armada of the crimson terror has grown vast, far far more vast than it had ever been.
And yet, even with all that power Cassie had seen the dark city alive. The fact that it had not been yet meant only one thing.
There were competitors of the crimson terror around. And these drakelings that the messengers were fighting...
...they were the spawns of either a tyrant or a terror.
There was a problem though, they were fallen beasts which meant that their leader was a corrupted.
'It could be different too, the crimson terror was a fallen in my past life, and it also had fallen beasts.
They had been spawns that had simply evolved after much combat and killing.
So maybe the tyrant's army simply has similar cases?'
Sunny couldn't be sure, thirteen and forty seemed like too large numbers for them to be born out of long term combat.
Nevertheless, he had to fight like he always did.
And he had to kill like he always did. So he yelled to the others as he brandished defiance.
"Don't come to face it! Save your strength, I will deal with this one myself. And definitely don't ignite a fire!"
Before anyone could reply anything, the messenger descended upon Sunny.
Everyone had faces of horror and terror as they watched Sunny, their strongest member by far, get throwned away like a prop with one hit.
Sunny rolled backwards and stood up again,
The last time he had fought a fallen monster, it had a broken arm, was young and inexperienced and could not fly.
The current threat had none of those weaknessess, and that made it that much harder to kill it.
Sunny wasn't a monster either though, now as a demon he had much more power too.
He also had serpent too...and Nephis.
As Sunny felt his three shadows wrap around him, two flames of Nephis quietly flowed into him too.
Instantly, his strength exploded beyond anything he had ever felt in this life.
Firmly gripping defiance, Sunny took a step forward, his foot causing a small hole to form on the cliff, and slashed downwards at the feral gryphon that had already closed the distance.
The Awakened sword clashed against the fallen beak, causing it to crack but not break.
Then Sunny rolled sideways as two of the messenger's front limbs shit forward.
Avoiding them, he thrust his sword from below, aiming to screw it's neck.
As he partly maimed it, the gryphon like creature twisted, forcing the sword to slide off without much damage, then now slightly floating mid air, it tried biting Sunny's head off.
Sunny shot his free hand forward into the creature's beak as he stepped back, forcing it to not lunge forward.
Then, he summoned an azure Blade inside the fallen's mouth.
Blood spilled on the ground with a disgusting sound as the neck of the spire messenger was cut and it closed it's beak, biting off Sunny's arm.
Not even reacting to the wound as if it didn't matter, Sunny spun as he drove defiance into a zornhau slash, cutting the neck of the fallen monster with brutal strength.
The ground shook as the impact occurred, casuing wind to flow in every direction with a chaotic rhythm.
The neck didn't break off fully, instead it's fallen material held on halfway through.
The now mangled herald raised the front four limbs it had out of six and shoved Sunny into the water.
The armour of the last word held strong, only causing minor internal damage to Sunny. The near death state of the fallen also contributed to the weak blow perhaps.
However, the armour also grew much heavier and at the same time, Sunny realised something terrible.
He was now plunging down into the dark sea below.
The spell's voice rang in his mind as the cacophony of the fallen slaughter occurred above him. Sunny felt the warmth of Nephis's flames healing him in a desperate attempt as he fell.
Mid way, he turned his body to face the waters and...
... immediately regretted that decision as he saw a harrowing abomination waiting for him with rows and rows of tentacles, each capable of ripping him to shreds.
True darkness was emanating from its hideous maw.
A cold shiver ran through Sunny's spine. It was atleast a devil.