It was sort of ingenious, actually. By controlling the wind to blow the cloud away from the human formation, Saint Tyris was pushing it into the horde of abominations. It did not matter that the titan had been on their side - the Nightmare Creatures plunged into the miasma were doomed to be destroyed, just like humans would.

The devastation was so thorough that, in this section of the battlefield, the pressure on the defensive line of Awakened had drastically lessened. Nothing would be able to pass through the breach now.

So, that problem was solved.

The problem that remained was that Sunny and Nephis had found themselves within the cloud of miasma. Changing Star could probably burn the poison away with her flames, but he was having a very unpleasant time.

'Argh, damn it. Escape... I need to escape back to where the Fire Keepers had retreated.'

But Sunny was all turned around because of the earthquake from the titan's fall.

Where to go?

He gritted his teeth, then ordered two of the shadows to slip off his body and dash away in two different directions. With some luck, one of them would leave the noxious cloud and show him the way.

Before that happened, however...

'Ah, crap.'

Sunny felt a massive shadow lunging at him from somewhere unseen. He blindly slashed with the Sin of Solace, feeling the jade blade bite into something extremely tough, then sink into something soft. Then, something hard crashed into him, and he was sent flying for a second time in the last minute.

This time, Sunny fell on a pile of abomination corpses. He felt sharp spikes and scales scrape against the silk of the Graceless Dusk and rolled down, tracking the movements of the massive shadow. What the hell was it? It didn't seem to have legs, or arms, simply floating above the ground.

One thing was certain, though... the thing, whatever it was, was not feeling swell. Its movements were chaotic and resembled convulsions. Even without the deathly miasma and the strike delivered by Sunny, the creature was in a sorry state.

He still refused to open his eyes, though.

If he did, however... he would have seen a ghastly head swaying above the ground. It was held up by a long neck that arched up and disappeared into the haze of the miasma. The head was covered by tough scales, and had the hilt of the Sin of Solace protruding from a crack in its skull.

The head swayed madly, opening its maw, and shot forward in a frenzied desire to swallow Sunny. But before it could, the long neck convulsed one last time, and the demented light slowly disappeared from the frenzied eyes of the creature.

The head slammed into the ground a few meters away from him and grew still.

As for Sunny...

He suddenly heard the voice of the Spell whisper into his ears.

The Spell said:

[You have slain a Fallen Titan, Defiled Seeker of Truth.][Your shadow grows stronger.][...You have received a Memory.]

He froze.

'Wha...'

Then, Sunny almost spat out the Essence Pearl.

'What just happened?!'

When did he kill a titan? He did no such thing!

Sunny's shock was so great that he even forgot about the cloud of miasma eating at his skin for a moment.

Slowly, he understood the sequence of what had transpired. The scaled beast had fallen somewhere ahead, inside the horde of abominations. The tremor produced by the impact must have thrown Sunny closer to the titan.

The creature had already been on the verge of death when he accidentally stumbled on its last head. That was the massive shadow that had suddenly lunged at him... and he struck it with the Sin of Solace, delivering the finishing blow through pure chance.

Sunny would have laughed if not for the need to keep his mouth shut. He shook his head in disbelief.

'Ah... this is... a bit awkward, isn't it?'

That was the second kill he had stolen from Saint Tyris. Was it her fate, to deliver Sunny powerful Nightmare Creatures to slaughter? First the Remnant of the Jade Queen, now the Defiled Seeker of Truth...

'Well, I'm sure that Sky Tide is above being petty about such stuff. Plus, she doesn't need to know that it was me... there's a sea of abominations here. Any of them could have delivered that last strike. Nightmare Creatures are known to devour their own, after all!'

Still... that was the second titan Sunny had killed. If not for the fact that both of the kills were somewhat murky, he would be going around demanding that people call him the Titan Slayer.

The sails of the Brilliant Emporium would definitely skyrocket if its proprietor had such an illustrious title.

He shook his head again, then stood up. First, he had to escape the damned miasma.

'I must have hit my head when I fell...'

One of his shadows had just discovered the correct path, but Sunny belatedly realized that he could have just moved in the direction opposite of where the wind was blowing. Saint Tyris was pushing the cloud away from the human formation, after all, so that was where the formation had to be.

As he made the first step, the burning sensation gnawing at his skin suddenly disappeared, replaced by searing, but pleasant heat. Then, Sunny was surrounded by bright light.

He opened his eyes at the same moment as a strong hand gripped his shoulder.

Nephis was standing by his side, both of them surrounded by a whirlwind of flame. The fire burned away the miasma, creating a pocket of clean, if somewhat thin, air.

"Are you alright?"

Sunny lingered for a moment, then nodded and smiled crookedly. © 2024.

"Better than ever."

Hearing her actual voice was unexpectedly nice.

"Good. Then let's get out of here."

Neph threw a glance at the head of the titan that lay on the ground a few meters away from them, the harrowing maw opened in an eternal, silent scream. Then, without saying anything, she pulled Sunny away.

He followed.

'Yes... getting the hell out of here sounds like a great plan...'