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Sunny glanced at his companions, evaluating their state. Everyone was exhausted, dirty, and covered in blood — both their own and that of Nightmare Creatures — but alive.

The only problem now was to somehow extricate themselves, and the two hundred surviving Awakened, from the attacking horde.

At that moment, as if to answer his thoughts, Bloodwave turned to look at the mass of abominations. Then, the enigmatic Saint glanced at Master Jet.

"Take your soldiers and go, Soul Reaper. I will hold the beasts back for a bit... tell your commanders to activate the explosives as soon as you\'re past the defense line."

Sunny stared at him in shock, feeling that these words sounded a bit like... a farewell.

"You... you..."

Bloodwave gave him a strange look.

"Ah... I think you might have misunderstood, Sunless. I am not trying to sacrifice myself. It\'s just that an explosion like that won\'t harm a Transcendent too much. The Awakened, however, or even someone like you... better not risk it."

Sunny slowly nodded. Indeed... Corrupted Nightmare Creatures could survive a nuclear explosion without too much trouble, some Fallen as well. Rampart Protocol was not going to kill a Transcendent like Bloodwave, or even seriously inconvenience him.

Master Jet nodded.

"We\'ll be going, then."

The Saint nodded, then took a deep breath and started summoning several Memories. Sunny did not know what exactly the Memories were, but judging by the fact that Bloodwave had promised to hold back the horde... the whole horde... all by himself, the abominations were in for a nasty surprise.

Jet looked at him, then said quietly:

"Once we start running, don\'t stop until you\'re safely behind the army fortifications. I\'ll stay back a little, to make sure that everyone who is still alive gets safely out of the blast zone before Army Command begins the party. Expect to enjoy fireworks as soon as we see each other again."

Sunny forced out a pale smile.

"...It\'s going to be terribly loud, isn\'t it? Damn. My poor ears."

With that, he spared her one last glance and turned to his cohort.

"Come on! Go!"

Almost as soon as they dashed toward the nearest breach in the wall, Master Jet\'s voice boomed once again, spreading across the whole length of the battlefield.

"...Retreat!"

The surviving Awakened of the First Army did not make her ask twice. Delivering one last attack, they used their remaining strength to momentarily push the enemy back, then turned around and ran.

To call it a retreat was a bit of a stretch. There was no order or strategy to it, just a desperate wish to survive. The defense line instantly collapsed, and the soldiers dove into the ruins of the city wall, their backs to the enemy.

The only saving grace of the whole thing was Bloodwave, who somehow managed to fulfill his promise and stall the enormous horde of Nightmare Creatures all by himself, at least for a few moments.

What happened outside the wall next, Sunny did not know. He thought that he heard the roar of a rushing tide of water, but at that point, there was no time to turn around.

Sunny and his cohort flashed through the abandoned staging area and escaped into the empty streets beyond.

Here, everything was shrouded in darkness. Many buildings had collapsed, creating a complicated labyrinth of snow and broken concrete. Others still stood, but were charred black by the flames. Some streets were strangely untouched and eerily empty, and of course, there were functioning roads that the First Army had maintained to deliver people and supplies to the wall.

Sunny led his people to one of these roads. Luckily, all of them could see in the dark thanks to Kim, so the lack of illumination was not a problem. Their running speed was not much lower than that of a moving PTV, but nevertheless, he felt a pang of regret for a moment.

\'I\'m going to lose the Rhino...\'

His reliable APC was currently parked in a different section of the staging area, near where they had started their shift. Sadly, the battle had taken them far away from the main gate of the city, so there was no time to search for the mighty vehicle.

Once this whole place blew up, the Rhino would undoubtedly be destroyed, as well.

\'Damn it! Damn it!\'

Gritting his teeth, Sunny continued to run. He had to lead his people to safety... that took priority over everything else.

Currently, they were slightly ahead of the rest of the retreating Awakened. The span of the southern section was very long, so no one else was in view. Right now, all that mattered was speed, and each soldier was making their own path to the secondary defense line. Sunny suspected that most would try to reach the maintained roads, but on this one, there was no one but the battered cohort of Irregulars.

Burned and collapsed buildings flew past them one after another. They ran through the darkness, moving as fast as they could, their stamina long spent and their lungs burning. The dark, empty streets... something about them filled Sunny with a feeling of eerie unease.

It took him a couple of minutes to realize why the surroundings felt so strange. It was too quiet... after more than two weeks of the siege, Sunny had grown accustomed to always hearing the wall armaments roaring somewhere in the distance.

But those armaments had grown silent now, destroyed by the fiery gaze of Goliath. At least across the whole southern section of the defensive barrier, not a single turret was firing.

For some reason, the silence filled him with dread.

\'Almost there... just a few more minutes...\'

Sunny spread his shadow sense outward, just to make sure that there were no dangers around. He even sent two of his shadows to scour the path ahead, to be safe, and ordered Saint and Nightmare to stay alert.

But there was nothing there, just abandoned buildings and snow-covered ruins.

Sunny did not see anything that could pose a threat to the cohort.

His shadow did not see anything, either.

Neither did Nightmare and Saint.

...The only one to notice it was Luster, who just happened to turn his head in the direction the attack came from by pure luck.

His eyes widened.

It was a split second later that Sunny sensed it... a swift shadow flying toward the cohort, even though there was nothing there to cast it. But it was already too late for him to react.

In the next moment, Luster suddenly lunged forward and pushed Kim aside, throwing her to the ground. Something flashed through the cold air, and it was instantly filled with hot blood.