Faced with a losing choice, Sunny could only decide which sacrifice would be the least painful. Among three threats facing them, the abyssal horror was the most perilous — so, helping Nephis hold it back was imperative.

Among the remaining two threats, the detestable colossus took priority. The most obvious solution would have been to send the incarnation augmenting Saint to Nephis, sacrificing the army of shades — they would not be destroyed immediately, at least, buying Sunny some time.

However, that would only extend the battle, not turn its tide.

So, Sunny decided on a riskier, more daring solution — he escaped the detestable colossus, while at the same time summoning Saint to take his place.

Without its commander, the army of shades would be wiped out far faster. However... would that even matter if the defenders of the city lost their commander, as well? Sunny had fought the Jade Titan to a stalemate, and that stalemate showed no signs of being broken any time soon. Saint, however, was an unknown variable. Sunny did not know how she would fare in a battle against the harrowing colossus, but he had a hope that she could perform better than he had alone.

Saint was a Supreme Devil, after all, only one step away from becoming a Tyrant. At the moment, she was enhanced both by the power of shadows and by Neph's flame. Most importantly, she wielded authority over true darkness — just like the Jade Titan — and over nothingness, as well.

And since true darkness was vulnerable to nothingness, Saint was actually better suited to fight the detestable colossus than Sunny was himself.

Granted... no matter how powerful Saint was, the gap between a Devil and a Titan was still vast. There was no guarantee that she would be able to leverage her unique affinity to defeat the colossal Nightmare Creature. It was a gamble.

But Sunny was willing to gamble — he had no other choice, considering that all other options felt like a delayed but assured defeat.

So, he shifted figures on the board, betting it all on Saint.

As Sunny rushed through the shadows to assist Nephis, her shield slammed into the Jade Titan's fractured breastplate, damaging it further and getting lodged in the stone-like metal. At the same time, the influence of the [Shield of Nothing] washed over the crumbling ruins, suppressing the profane powers of the towering colossus. Saint landed on the shield like a bolt of dark lightning, her sword flashing to widen the gap in the Jade Titan's armor. The two impacts followed each other so rapidly that the deafening roar they produced sounded like a single thunderclap.

[Nephis, recall your flame from Saint.]

It seemed like the worst possible moment to rob Saint of the powerful augmentation of Neph's flames, but Sunny had a good reason to do just that. Apart from the fact that Nephis needed all the power she could muster in the battle against the abyssal horror, there was also the issue of compatibility — while her flames were a boon for Saint, they did not empower all of her.

In fact, as far as those of Saint's powers that were rooted in elemental darkness went, they were actually weakened. Considering that she would have to challenge the Jade Titan's authority over true darkness, that was not something she could afford.

With one final blaze, the white flames dancing behind the visor of her helmet were extinguished, and the last feeble light shining in the boundless darkness disappeared without a trace. Darkness fully swallowed the crumbling arena, drowning the world like a tide.

Saint moved in the embrace of that darkness.

Her figure was graceful and towering, more than ten meters tall. However... considering the colossal size of the Jade Titan, Saint looked like a little mouse in front of the immense expanse of his gargantuan body. So, instead of trying to contend against the giant in a melee battle, Saint did something different.

She pushed off the vibrating surface of her shield... and plunged into the wide fracture in the Jade Titan's breastplate.

‘What?'

Even wrapped around Saint and sharing her senses, Sunny was surprised by her rapid action. But he had no time to dwell on that — because almost at the same time, he escaped from the shadows at the northern edge of the city, where Nephis had been fighting the abyssal horror.

As soon as he did, he saw a blinding meteor flash through the air and collide with the slope of the stalagmite behind him, shattering it with a deafening boom. A radiant figure rose from the billowing cloud of dust, its form torn and distorted. Two fierce eyes blazed with incinerating light, peering at something ahead.

Sunny glanced in that direction, as well. There, the immense tendril of flowing darkness rose from the abyss, looming above the world like a twisting spire. Its surface boiled as white flames danced across it, devouring vast swaths of the eerie darkness.

As Sunny watched, the entire upper length of the tendrils, hundreds of meters in length, broke from their base and plummeted down.

However, it did not disappear.

Instead, it struck the cobblestones of a wide plaza below and spread, turning into a perfectly circular pool of darkness.

The severed tendril collapsed back into the great chasm, disappearing in the boundless abyss below.

Here, the roar of the vast waterfall was much louder, chasing away the cold silence of the Underworld. White mist swirled below, higher than in the rest of the city, plunging into the deep chasm. The tendril seemed to be wary of the mist, so it retreated. The remains of the first one, which Nephis had torn apart with a devastating explosion, slithered back into the abyss as well.

But the pool of darkness remained.

Nephis levitated from the field of debris, hovering in the air near Sunny's giant helmet as they both glanced down at the inky-black circle. Her broken form was already restoring itself, her figure regaining its usual grace.

Sunny hesitated for a moment, then asked, his deep voice resounding like the roar of thunder:

"What is the situation?"

Nephis seemed to have frowned.

“I am not sure. That thing has not done this before — but it's immensely powerful. Its vitality is inexhaustible, and it's full of tricks. We should be careful."

Her tone was concerned.

"It's like... that thing is playing with us."

Just then, there was movement under the surface of the black pool. The darkness swelled, rising in two spots — as if two bubbles of air were escaping deep water. However, instead of bursting, they seemed to absorb all of the darkness.

At the same time, their form changed.

In mere seconds, two figures were standing on the shattered stones, looking at Sunny and Nephis with eerie smiles.

Sunny felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

‘Curse it.'

The first figure — the one facing Nephis — looked like a man wearing an intricate suit of plate armor.

The second, facing Sunny, was that of a tall woman with a graceful figure and breathtakingly gorgeous face. She wore a simple tunic, holding a longsword in her hand.

Both were perfectly black — their hair, their skin, their clothes, their weapons... their black eyes glistening like four bottomless oceans of cold darkness.

Sunny did not fail to recognize them, naturally.

The man facing Nephis was a dark copy of Sunny...

The gorgeous visage of darkness facing him was a dark copy of Nephis.

And the pressure they emanated was in no way lesser than that of two powerful Supremes.

“What kind of devilry is this?"

As Sunny spoke, the dark copy of Nephis moved. She unhurriedly raised her sword and pointed it at him, still wearing the eerie, frozen smile.

His eyes widened.

‘Oh, cr...’

In the next moment, a ray of abyssal darkness escaped from the tip of the black sword, reaching him in an instant. It struck his battered breastplate, easily piercing it — a moment later, an annihilating explosion of pure darkness tore the Jade Mantle from within, obliterating the towering colossus. His figure burst into a thousand jagged shards of stone-like metal, shooting in all directions like shrapnel. The world quaked. All surrounding buildings were severely damaged, some collapsing in a cloud of dust and debris. A moment later, the obliterating shockwave reached them, destroying the rest. Neph was pushed away by the shockwave, slamming into the ground a good kilometer away.

If Sunny had not turned into a shadow in time, he would have been utterly destroyed. Thanks to his quick reaction, though, he managed to escape the annihilating explosion while merely sustaining grievous wounds — his soul was torn to shreds and severely damaged, but retained its overall integrity thanks to Soul Weave.

The Jade Mantle was utterly ruined, what little remained of it retreating to hide under his skin.

Blinded by traumatic pain, Sunny rolled out of the shadows hundreds of meters away, hissing as he threw a gaze at the dark copy of Nephis.

The thing was still smiling, slowly turning her head in his direction.

His own copy, meanwhile, stepped into the darkness and instantly appeared near the real Nephis, a black odachi manifesting in his hands. A thousand chains forged of pure darkness exploded from the ground, melting in the light as they attempted to bind her limbs — at the same time, innumerable shapes surrounded her as a dark imitation of the Shadow Legion rose from the ground. Sunny’s heart turned cold.

He gritted his teeth, feeling both wary and indignant.

‘Damnation!’

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