After Solvane and Sun Prince had been defeated and the light of dawn washed over the shattered remains of the Kingdom of Hope, bringing with it the frenzied fury of the Ivory Dragon, Sunny knew that Sevirax would not be the only obstacle in their way.
Throughout all of it, he had never forgotten about Mordret.
Of course, he was not sure that Mordret would end up as their adversary in this Nightmare. They were allies during this hellish trial, after all… at least in theory.
But he could not discount the possibility.
So, although Sunny and the rest of the gang had not come to an explicit agreement, there was a mutual understanding that Mordret, someone who massacred thousands of people in the north, was likely to become an enemy.
Nobody would have been able to stop the Prince of Nothing, however. Therefore, they couldn't place too much emphasis on him, instead deciding to salvage the most of whatever catastrophe he brought with him.
Not Sunny, however. He wanted Mordret gone. Not only was the self-proclaimed prince a threat to both his physical and mental wellbeing, he was just too unlikable!
Mordret was unfunny, annoying, and didn't even match a fraction of Sunny's coolness. And he had the audacity to stand before Lost From Light?
As the saying went, keep your allies far, and your enemies further.
And what was further than the afterlife?
Of course, there was the other saying of killing two rats with one pipe… well, between March and himself, wouldn't it be two pipes?
And so, from the moment the frail old man appeared in his view, Sunny had pursued a single goal.
He had to keep the attention of Mordret and all five of his Reflections on himself.
Even though there was a small possibility that he could emerge victorious if the two of them clashed in earnest, Sunny did not consider his chances of defeating the Prince of Nothing in battle high… especially not while being put down to the level of a Dormant human, and lacking a large amount of his arsenal. Sure, he had collected his Shadows on the way here, but Mordret didn't need to know that yet.
But he didn't need to clash with him, do he?
All Sunny needed to do was get him killed.
For that reason, Sunny engaged Mordret in a lengthy conversation, created the false perception that he was still in possession of the Glass Knife by asking a few misleading questions, and provoked his opponent into revealing the five Reflections.
Perhaps the Prince of Nothing was poisoned by Hope enough to lose a small part of his cunning, or perhaps he fell for the trap that awaited most habitual liars and failed to account for how warped his impression of people was. During their conversation, Sunny realized that Mordret couldn't see the Flaws of others despite being able to know about their Aspects.
In any case, for once, Mordret ended up as the one being manipulated instead of the one pulling the strings. Sunny might have not been stronger than him, but he did manage to outwit the prince.
Today, he turned out to be the more devious of the two, even if just barely. He won the fight without lifting a finger, using only a wooden chair and his slanderous tongue.
Well… to be precise, he did not even use his tongue. He used a rock instead.
After all the Reflections had revealed themselves, March was starting to get close to the Ivory Lord. It was already too late to stop her.
Almost.
After seeing the many facets of Mordret's Divine Aspect for himself, Sunny guessed that he was somehow specially aware as long as there were reflective surfaces nearby, could distort the image within a reflection, and — this may be a stretch — travel through reflections themselves. He used Dan Heng's story as a basis for this assumption, considering how Mordret can seemingly move from one place to another in an instant.
The Prince of Nothing still could have used his Aspect to move through the reflections and invade March's soul.
Then there were the Reflections, which were currently turned into copies of Sunny and wielded his Divine Aspect. Each had access to the Memories he wore and his Aspect Abilities… including Shadow Step, which Sunny himself couldn't use currently. They could certainly reach March in time to stop her from killing Sevirax.
...Sunny had to stop them at all costs and buy her a few precious seconds.
As a small human figure ran toward the slumped silhouette of the Ivory Dragon, Mordret swiftly turned and narrowed his eyes, instantly realizing that he had been played.
Before he could react, however, a tide of shadows suddenly exploded from the small lantern hanging on Sunny's waist, enveloping everything around them in impenetrable darkness. The light of the sun was swiftly destroying the shadows, but at the same time, it was being devoured by the lantern, creating a strange equilibrium.
The shadows themselves were ancient, deep, and resilient. Sunny had collected them from the dark sides of the islands surrounding the Sanctuary before departing for the war.
With no light remaining around them, there were also no reflections. With no reflections, Mordret was robbed of a large part of his power for a moment.
That did not help at all against the five Reflections, though, since each of them was as comfortable in the shadows as Sunny himself was. They were his perfect copies, after all…
Knowing that, Sunny decided to try a desperate gamble.
Originally, he had thought of using the Broken Oath, but that had been destroyed among many other Memories.
Then, however, he recalled his secret trump card that he had been saving for the immortal Saints — one that he didn't need to hold back anymore, now that the final one could barely move.
Using the Shadow Essence of his dried up Dormant Core, he summoned a Memory into his hand, formed from dancing sparks of white.
The crystalline object shimmered with a faint violet glow, its edges catching the light like fragments of a broken star. Encased within its golden shell, a quiet energy pulsed — restrained, yet yearning to awaken from its long slumber.
…And since the five Reflections were mirroring him, each of them reflected that change, too. Only the Demon hesitated for a moment to consider the consequences, before continuing after finding no real issue. The Beasts and Monsters failed to realize that although their actions weren't harmful, they were completely useless.
Mordret moved, and so did the shadow devils.
But just as they did…
Golden energy of crystalline light radiated from the Memory in Sunny's hands — the same could not be said for the Reflections. There was an aura of foreboding in the air, one that Sunny would make sure Mordret never forgot.
Assuming he lived, of course.
Memory: [Destroyer's Final Road]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: VII
Memory Type: Tool
Memory Description: [The Leviathan's heart has stopped beating, but its mind lives on despite being trapped in a case. As long as the lid is closed, its mind is simultaneously both alive and dead, driving the engine of destruction.
"Doomsday Beast, a blight made in the Warforge using what's left of a Leviathan and the weeping bones of thousands of the dead. It longs for the destruction of the universe and itself."]
Memory Enchantments: [Will of Destruction.]
Enchantment Description: [By slaying enemies, this Memory will accumulate a charge. Once the charge is full, it can be released to inflict devestating damage. However, this Memory will be destroyed immediately after using.]
Charge: [6000/6000].
Sure, the Reflections could pull out a copy of his Memories, but were they able to replicate the thousands of souls slain to charge the Memory up?
Considering that the copies weren't displaying any special effects, Sunny didn't think so.
There was a grimace on Mordret's face as he failed to escape in time, and a mad grin on Sunny's. The heart of the Doomsday Beast shone with greater intensity…
Before suddenly dying down.
Sunny stared at his hand in confusion, shaking the Ascended Memory. Mordret shared a similar expression — as similar as an old man's face could be in comparison to whatever Sunny was, at least.
"…Was that supposed to do something?"
Sunny scowled.
"Yeah! Damn it, I think this piece of junk is jamme—"
A torrential beam of energy carved through everything standing before Sunny without a lick of recoil. His eyes barely even kept track as the Reflections were obliterated, followed with the chime of glass shattering. Then, Mordret's vessel tore apart in an instant, unraveling in a show of skin, flesh, and bones.
Looking under, Sunny even saw Mordret's very soul get completely erased from existence.
[You have Slain an Ascended Reflection…]
[You have Slain an Ascended Reflection…]
[You have slain an Ascended Reflection…]
The announcement repeated twice more.
[You have slain an Awakened human, Sun Priest Gin.]
Must have been the body that Mordret had taken over…
Either way, Sunny had bigger issues.
Like how the beam of Destructive energy wouldn't stop as it tore through the buildings of the Ivory City like paper. In an attempt to redirect the damage, he pulled the Memory upwards, pointing the beam into the sky.
'…Unholy shit!'
Sunny's eyes widened in sheer shock and horror as one of the smaller islands of the Ivory City, slightly higher in elevation than the one he was currently on, was cleanly cleaved in half by the beam.
[You have slain an…]
[You have slain…]
[You have…]
[You…]
The Spell itself couldn't keep up with the amount of people and Nightmare Creatures he must have inadvertently killed, the announcements overlapping over eachother.
With the arm holding the Memory held up into the sky like a blade of Divine proportions, Sunny noticed something in the corner of his eye.
Interestingly enough, the Ability Sunny extracted from Solvane's soul was a passive Dormant Ability, one allowed him to both touch the untouchable and see the invisible. Within his sight, he could see the vague, torn silhouette of a human being, which seemed to be formed of… white fog?
And that white fog was clearly traveling from broken glass to broken glass, quite slowly if he may add.
A glint appeared in Sunny's eyes as he swung the disastrous beam of golden radiance down, carefully cleaving through the city before him, but not the earth below him. Otherwise, he'd fall into the Sky Below… which wasn't very ideal. Been there, done that.
The foggy figure kept leaping away despite the torrent of energy raining down on it. Buildings blasted apart, raining glass and delris like shrapnel as the beam of light tore through the Ivory City.
By the time the six thousand souls ran dry, Sunny couldn't see the white fog anymore.
'Is that motherfucker immortal?!'
[Your Memory has been destroyed.]
The Destroyer's Final Road, which he had been holding in a manner akin to a sword, shattered in his hands, dissipating into shattered light. Sunny snorted.
He supposed six thousand lives carried quite a bit of power. Looking around, it seemed as if he was put into the barren remains of a city. At the very least, he had only destroyed one other island in his haste to kill the remains of Mordret.
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
Now… if only the Nightmare Spell had a silencing option!