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He held nothing back, unleashing every wild shadow he had tamed, from mundane and shallow ones to those that were ancient, vast, and unfathomably deep. The night itself seemed to move, as well...

It moved to answer the call of the Master of Shadows.

Two dark tides met with a deafening thunder, and thousands of beetles were instantly broken, crushed, and ground into black dust. Some shadows were vanquished, too — and yet even more persisted. Permeated by Sunny\'s essence, they were as deadly and resilient as an Ascended weapon would be.

With no sun and no moon to illuminate the skies, there was nothing but dim starlight, and a few distant flames, to chase away the darkness. The whole world was shrouded in shadows, and so, Sunny had an almost infinite well of them to call upon. The only limitation was his essence.

However, the number of beetles was even more limitless. Despite thousands of them being destroyed in the initial confrontation, it was no more than a drop in the ocean. Already, even more were surging forward, crashing into the wall of shadows and tunneling into it with their sharp mandibles.

Gritting his teeth, Sunny poured more essence out, strengthening the wall and turning it into a tall dam. Almost instantly, cracks appeared on its surface, and a moment later, the river of dark beetles overflowed, spilling over the top of the dam and spreading wide to encompass it from the sides.

Funneled by the Dying Wish, all of them rushed toward a single point — Sunny himself.

\'...Die!\'

He launched himself forward, moving with enough speed to leave afterimages behind. The Sin of Solace lashed out, slicing through two dozen beetles with a single strike. Almost at the same, a radiant orb of charged essence shot past Sunny and violently exploded in the surging mass of darkness — Samara had joined the fight, using her Aspect Ability directly instead of channeling it through the tungsten rounds of a rifle.

Together, they managed to slow the beetles down a little. Sunny turned into a whirlwind of annihilating jade, delivering half a dozen swift attacks in an instant.

However, even though cutting through the small creatures was not too hard, the effectiveness of these attacks was low. Almost instantly, he switched to using the flat of the jade blade to crush them — with his strength, each blow sent a concussive wave through the mass of dreadful pests, damaging and breaking their tough little bodies.

His mind was split, one part commanding his body, the other controlling the manifested shadows to hold back the dark river.

...And yet, it was not enough.

\'Damnation!\'

No matter how fast Sunny moved and how many blows he delivered, the number of beetles was down as many small creatures as he could. Kim, with her rapier and buckler, was the least suited for 15:13

this battle, but she did her best to lessen the pressure on the two formidable warriors.

simply overwhelming. Already, many had flowed past him — some tried to turn around to attack from behind, but the pressure of the thousands more pushing forward brought them away, forcing Belle, Dorn, and Kim engage the creatures in melee.

Out of the three, Dorn was able to destroy the most with his Aspect Abilities and the heavy sledgehammer. Belle used himself as bait, phasing from place to place and using his sword to cut down as many small creatures as he could. Kim, with her rapier and buckler, was the least suited for this battle, but she did her best to lessen the pressure on the two formidable warriors.

Behind them, Samara continued to charge small beads of alloy with essence and flicking them into the mass of beetles, each streaking through the air like a bullet and exploding into a wave of destructive force. Once her supply of alloy beads and needles was exhausted, she would have to use the crudest form of attack and simply toss out projectiles formed of unrestrained, wild essence.

...They were holding, for now, but the tide of dark beetles was growing more and more overbearing with each moment. Their number endlessly swelled, and the dam of shadows was being continuously destroyed and rebuilt, consuming Sunny\'s essence like a gluttonous beast.

Some distance away to his right, Bloodwave and his Echoes had engaged another tentacle of the Heart of Darkness. To his left, Saint and Nightmare were holding back the third. And further still, behind them, Jet and her cohort were fighting the fourth.

\'This isn\'t working... this is not enough...\'

Sunny knew that, if nothing changed, he and his soldiers would be devoured by the appalling vermin. Already, many of the dark beetles had gotten past his defenses and bitten into his skin. Their sharp mandibles only leaft shallow scratches on it, which almost immediately healed, but still... the memory of one of these vile creatures crawling inside his rib cage made him shudder.

It was only a matter of time before several bites would turn into a dozen, then a hundred, then a thousand... would the Marble Shell be able to withstand countless thousands of mandibles plunging into it? Even if it did, it was only his skin that was so resilient. Once he was buried under a cold, slithering carpet of darkness, the beetles crawling into his mouth, into his nostrils, into his ears, into his eyes... would he be devoured from within?

The Sin of Solace laughed.

"Wouldn\'t that be a sight to behold? Ah, yes... yes, it would... I can\'t wait!"

Uttering a silent curse, Sunny tried to pay the whispers of the jade sword no attention and concentrated on eviscerating as many of the beetles as he could.

\'I... I need to think of something...\'

He could always use Shadow Step to escape... not, not quite. The last time, a few beetles were pulled along with him as he stepped through the shadows. Most likely because the small creatures were not, in fact, alive.

\'...Not alive?\'

A bizarre idea suddenly appeared in his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. Even if it worked, he would only be buying himself a few seconds of respite, at most.

What Sunny really needed was to enhance his offensive ability, to find a way to destroy much, much more beetles every moment. However, he was only human... there was only so much that his small body, no matter how strong, could do.

No, his best hope was Shadow Manifestation. He was already using it to hold the river back and grind many beetles into dust... but that was not enough. Was there anything else he could do?

Summoning a dozen shadow hands to crush and obliterate the beetles would work, for a bit, but it would also burn his reserves of essence with terrible speed. Those hands would not be able to strike with as much strength as he himself could, as well...

\'Damn it! If Serpent was here, I could have ordered it to assume the form of a massive monster, and crush thousands of the damned vermin with each step...\'

Consumed by revulsion and fear at the thought of being eaten from the inside, driven to his limits, and desperate to find a way to defeat the river of darkness... at that feverish moment, Sunny suddenly felt something click in his head. Scraps and pieces of previously accumulated experiences connected together, forming a tentative hint of a revelation.

The revelation was strange, unclear, and dubious.

\'That... should not be possible, right?\'

However, he really could not see why not.

Sunny sensed the endless ocean of formless shadows around him, all malleable and ready to answer his call.

If Soul Serpent was not here to assume the shape of a dreadful monster...

...Why not try to turn into one himself?

One chapter today, three tomorrow.

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