By dawn, Sunny's bones had nded, and his arm was not at risk of dropping off anymore. That said, he could not really use it yet, so it just dangled weakly at his side.
There was also the issue of the missing fingers. Unlike the arm itself, he had never located them — so, the fingers would have to develop on their own, which was not going to be a quick or comfortable process.
Of course, if Sunny managed to escape from Ariel's Ga early, Nephis would cure him in no ti…
The issue was that he had a far greater chance of never exiting this odd place at all.
As the sun revealed itself from beyond the skyline, three new Snow figures did, indeed, move to fill the surrounding peaks.
Both Sunny and Kai felt nervous about scouting their enemies, considering what had occurred the last ti they tried, but they had little option — going into combat blindly was a far worse possibility.
So, Sunny gathered his courage and asked Kai to take a peek.
This ti, his friend stayed quiet for far longer than usual. When he finally turned to Sunny, there was a very odd expression on his face.
Sunny scowled, not liking it one bit.
"What?"
Kai paused for a few monts.
"Listen, Sunny… before I say anything… I feel that I need to ntion that I have nothing…"
Sunny pressed his lips.
"Stop delaying. Out with it!"
Kai cleared his throat, then gestured at the northern peak.
"Well. There is no other way to put it. But there's… there's a dragon on that hill."
Sunny blinked a couple of tis, staring at his friend in shock.
After a few monts, he asked calmly:
"A dragon?"
Kai nodded.
"Yeah… it's a white dragon. It's very gorgeous, actually."
Sunny stared at him so more.
"Are you mocking ?"
Kai laughed nervously.
"No. Why would I joke about sothing like this?"
Sunny raised a shaking hand and tugged on his hair.
"No, seriously? What the hell is this… how co… listen here, you!"
He raised pointed an accusing finger at Kai.
"Let tell you, I've been around the Dream Realm and back! And never — not once! — have I encountered a dragon without you around. What are you, a dragon magnet? How the hell are you drawing all these dragons, bastard?!"
Kai coughed a couple of tis.
"Calm down, please. Well… true, people call the Dragonslayer, and I have an Attribute of that na. But if you think about it, technically, I only ever t one dragon.
The other one was myself, so that doesn't really count. So… you can't bla for this dragon, alright? I have no control over where dragons decide to appear, or why…"
Sunny stared at him with doubt.
It couldn't be a coincidence, could it? Every ti there was a dragon, Kai was sowhere nearby.
Granted, the sa could be said about most mbers of the cohort, since they were usually in the sa place. Still!
'Damn Dragonslayer…'
Sunny let out a long breath, then winced and decided to let it go.
"...What about the other two peaks?"
Kai gestured to the eastern peak.
"That peak… seems to be overrun with rats. I can't count how many of them are there, because there are too many.
The whole mountain is crawling with them, and they seem to be… devouring the mountain."
Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"How in the world… actually, never mind. And the last one?"
Kai hesitated, but chose not to point to the southern peak. In fact, he did not even glance at it again.
"There is soone we've already seen on the mountain to the south. It's the Devil from the tree… the one who looks like a human, or at least human-shaped.
It knows we are watching."
He paused for a mont, then added:
"The dragon seems to be a Devil, too. The rats are a Cursed Beast… the entire horde of them feels like a single entity."
Sunny remained quiet, thinking.
A Cursed Devil to the north, a Cursed Devil to the south, and a Cursed Beast to the east. Things looked quite grim.
He was barely in a condition to fight, and most of his shades could not be summoned yet. Slayer was in a rough state, too… her situation was worse than his, really.
Just like Sunny, she could not move one of her arms, which ant that she could not draw her bow.
There was a day left before the three Cursed nightmare creatures descended upon the Shrine of Truth. The odds would not be any better tomorrow, either.
Kai looked at him anxiously.
"How are we going to repel this assault?"
Sunny lingered for a while, then smiled.
"Well, the answer is simple."
He looked at Kai and shrugged, wincing from the pain of his damaged arm moving up and down.
"We won't."
As Kai looked at him silently, Sunny shook his head.
"I am not battling two Cursed Devils and a Cursed Beast. So, instead of waiting for them to co…"
He looked east.
"We will strike, instead."
He had co to the Shrine of Truth to make his warriors stronger. And he accomplished just that — with the jade figures in his possession, Slayer and Kai would receive the third ash enhancent.
As long as his Will empowered them, that would make them as deadly as any Great Nightmare Creature.
More than that, his army — as long as it was given ti to repair itself — now consisted of two Sacred shades and two groups of Great Shades.
The Snow Tyrant, anwhile, only had two Devils and one Beast left. It was actually at a disadvantage in terms of pure numbers.
What a shocking reversal it was, considering its overwhelming nurical advantage at the start.
More importantly, the Snow Tyrant had to send all of the figures that had been protecting it into battle. Which ant that it was almost defenseless.
So, there was no point in staying in the Shrine of Truth anymore. Sunny had the enemy where he wanted.
Breathing deeply, he summoned the few Obsidian Wasps that had already repaired themselves and sent them off to dig out soul shards from the remains of the dead Cursed Monster.
Then, he turned to Kai.
"Prepare yourself. We'll be battling another god in the evening."
It was ti to do so rat hunting.
'Thank the gods!'
...He would finally have sothing to eat.
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