Chapter 34

For Sunny to manipulate the course of events towards his intended outcome, that meant that anything which didn't fit into his calculations had to be removed or accounted for. Slinking from shadow to shadow, Sunny scouted around the barracks of Valor as he ignored the battles that took place entirely.

He was quite confident that Mordret could handle Morgan, and even if he was unable to, Mordret should still be able to last long enough to make an escape. On Nephis part, her losing a direct confrontation with beastie was impossible, after all, he had trained her himself.

With all the fights accounted for, Sunny thought that the plan would operate smoothly from there. But he too knew that not every single plan went as he intended it to, in fact, with his [Fated] attribute, he was sure a harrowing being would arrive and bring the sky down to kill him. It was only a matter of when.

A shift rippled through the air as existence itself was torn open to make way to a nightmare gate. Sunny slapped a hand over his face before summoning his scythe, the Sin of Solace made whispers radiated throughout his mind as he prepared himself to engage in combat with the torrent of creatures that were due to flood out.

But what appeared from the nightmare gate was far more harrowing than any torrent of nightmare creatures. Pulling itself into the waking world, a creature with two horns with sharpened edges, blazing red eyes and a brown carapace emerged from the gate.

Its head bore fangs which couldn't be limited by its horrifying maw as they slid out its face protruding from the side like a mixture between a crocodile and the shadow beast Sunny had once inhabited in his second nightmare. Instead of the four arms Sunny once bore, it had six, each armed with deadly blades and gripped with the experience of a master.

"What…are you?" The question was born out of curiosity more than anything, he hadn't expected an answer from the hellish creature for even a moment, which made it even more alarming when its mouth parted to mimic human speech. "C-connector."

The creature, now self-identifying as Connector couldn't fully imitate human speech. Instead, all it had was a guttural growl mixed with a slight mimicry of Sunny's own voice that created the word. Despite this, no nightmare creature in the thousands Sunny had killed had ever spoken to him in such a direct manner.

"Well, Connector. You see, you're a variable. I don't enjoy dealing with the unpredicted often, so why don't you roll over and die for me?" The request came with a smile, however Connector only responded with a roar as it blitzed towards Sunny. Sunny responded with a maddening smile of his own before roaring. "I don't usually kill nightmare creatures, but I'll make an exception!"

Connector lunged, all six swords slashing in a flurry of death. Sunny darted backward, the scythe in his hands twisting into defensive arcs as he parried a continuous string of blows that seemed to have no end. Jumping backwards, three arcs were carved through the air as Sunny dodged one blow before closing the distance to avoid another three blows from raining upon him.

A guttural sound escaped Connectors throat that shook the ground beneath them. It pressed forward, its swords an endless blur of metal. Sunny ducked under a horizontal slash from the creature, which intended to remove his head from its graceful seat on his neck.

Sunny's scythe snaked outwards, cleaving one of Connector's lower arms as it yelped with pain. Bringing two downwards, it managed to stall Sunny's blow long enough to stop him from removing the arm entirely, however it still left a gash on his arm.

Eyes flashing red, connector howled in fury, the nearly severed limb splattering black ichor across the ground. But it didn't slow. Its swords came down in a deadly wave. Sunny spun, the shadows at his feet erupting into chains to ensnare the creature that attempted to take his life like a spider.

Sunny didn't wait. The shadows around him rippled as he surged forward, his scythe cleaving through the air in a wide arc. His movements were so fluid the swing of his scythe appeared gentle however Connector met him head on. Six swords crashed down against Sunny's body in a relentless string of blows forcing him backwards.

Sparks flew through the air as the metal carapace of Connector met the jade steel of the sin of solace. Despite Sunny's repeated glancing blows, the creature before him seemed immune to all forms of mental damage, shrugging them off before surging forward without losing its step.

Staring downwards with disdain, Sunny glared at the jade scythe. "If you aren't going to deal mental damage, what good are you!?" he roared, but he didn't dare dismiss the jade scythe. A downward slash aimed for Sunny's neck came; Sunny sidestepped, parrying the blade with the haft of his scythe.

Two more swords lashed out from the sides, this time, they caught Sunny. As Connector's free hands pressed down on Sunny from above barring his escape, his two hands slashed at Sunny's side. Leaping to the left, Sunny managed to avoid the blades from driving themselves into his lungs and leapt away.

An open wound was present on his side, yet no blood fell. Hissing in pain, Sunny was forced to continue his retreat at Connector roared, its six arms a blur of movement. The terror's attacks were relentless, each blow came far heavier than the previous one as Sunny barely dodged a thrust aimed for his stomach.

Spinning on his heel, Sunny grabbed Connector by the head before slamming their foreheads against one another. A toothy grin emerged from his face as he stared the creature down. "Six arms aren't effective at this range you fucker." Slamming his knee into the connector's chest with brutal force.

Refusing to let go, he slammed his knee into its chest repeatedly till he felt something begin to crack. Leaping backwards, Sunny shook his head to regain his composure however Connector didn't give him any time to. It lunged, two swords crashing down in unison.

Sunny raised his scythe horizontally to block, the impact sending a shockwave through his arms. Sunny's knees buckled under the crushing force of the fallen terror before his hand lashed out, grabbing the creature by the face and flinging it with all his might in a random direction.

His mind was totally focused, he remembered interrupting Mordret's fight with Morgan, but he didn't care. As they continued their dance of death, Sunny could have sworn he saw Connector's jagged teeth become more visible than usual. It was smiling at him.

"You're one enigmatic fuck, aren't you? It's fine, I like them with personality when they die." Without another word shared, the two were upon each other once more. Sunny had already closed the gap between the two. Without wasting any movement, he focused the five shadows he possessed into his legs, lashing out a monumental kick that crushed the chest of the terror.

His scythe lashed out; blade aimed for one of Connector's arms. The terror twisted but not nearly fast enough to dodge the blow. Sunny's scythe cleaved through one of Connector's lower limbs. It's severed arm falling to the ground with a sickening thud.

Bellowing with rage, black ichor sprayed from the stump as it retaliated with brutal ferocity. It's five remaining swords continued to lash out in a whirlwind of death as Sunny ducked and blocked each blow. Shadow stepping behind the creature, Sunny swung his blade downwards intending to finish the fight in a single blow.

But then, the unexpected happened. The creature descended into the shadows, quickly darting out of Sunny's sight as it crossed the horizon in mere moments. "It ran away! What a bastard!" he grumbled as he kicked a rock in frustration.

Sighing to himself, Sunny fell backwards onto the floor as he stared into the open sky with a wistful smile. It had been a long time since he'd had to expend himself in such a way, and to make it worse Connector despite his lower-class Sunny was sure it could kill a titan of it's rank without much difficulty.

The sounds of combat quickly came to a stop as Sunny sighed to himself once more, a satisfied smile painting itself across his face. "With this, Nephis is now the hero of Valor!" he cheered to himself before shadow stepping to where he had sensed her.

Nephis was bloodied, she and beastie had really left nothing behind. The ground around her was scorched and Sunny almost regretted allowing her to fight such a monster entirely on her own. "Are you ok?" He asked tentatively.

A smug smile was all he received for his efforts. "You should see the other guy." As the words escaped Nephis lips, she staggered before falling into Sunny's arms. All had ended well.