MTLNOVEL Chapter 24: Shadow and Sun
Chaos reigned.
All around, the battlefield warped under the sheer, crushing presence of the Great Nightmare Creatures. Their grotesque forms twisted reality itself, pressing down on the world with an overwhelming, maddening will. An ordinary Awakened would have lost their sanity within seconds of standing in this hell.
And soon, when the Cursed Creatures emerged... madness would take on an entirely new meaning.
At that point, even Saints—at least, those on the weaker spectrum—would cease to be a boon. They would become liabilities.
Luckily, Cassie had anticipated this. Only the strongest Saints had been permitted to step onto the battlefield.
"This really is the best we could have prepared."
Sunny exhaled as he swung his dark odachi, the blade slicing through the air like a sliver of night. A Great Devil lunged at him, but before it could reach him, the shadows surged forward, swallowing the monstrosity whole.
Beside him, Nephis let out a slow, measured breath.
"I still would have preferred to know about this beforehand."
Her gaze flickered down to her armor, and for a brief moment, a shadow of regret crossed her face.
"We spent so long finding that dress today..."
Sunny blinked.
"Didn't you tell me you had that dress custom-made days ago?"
Nephis effortlessly severed the arm of a charging behemoth, her sword cutting through its grotesque flesh like silk. Then she hesitated.
"About that..."
Before she could finish, the world trembled.
A suffocating pressure descended upon the battlefield, crushing down on them like a great hand.
Above them, the Gate pulsed violently—then split further apart.
A massive, jagged scythe plunged from its depths, tearing through the sky before striking the earth with a deafening roar. The impact shattered the ground, sending a shockwave of force rippling through the battlefield.
Then, another scythe followed.
And another.
A twisted, skeletal abomination began to emerge from the rupture, its broken, gaping skull lined with fractured bone. From within its four cavernous eye sockets, an eerie, white miasma poured out—evaporating into the air as though its very brain matter was being gruesomely boiled away.
Wherever its scythes touched the battlefield, the earth itself withered and calcified, turning into pale, dead bone. As if even the ground had no choice but to submit to its twisted existence.
Sunny exhaled slowly.
"A Cursed Devil..."
His eyes flicked toward the Gate—where more figures loomed in the shadows. One by one, they began to emerge.
Each form was more grotesque than the last. More visceral. More... wrong. Their mere existence seemed to shred the veil of reality, twisting it into something unnatural.
A sudden wave of nausea crashed over the battlefield.
An invisible pressure, like an amalgamation of the vile, deranged wills of all the Cursed Ones, weighed down on the world itself.
But something else made Sunny's stomach turn. Something had gone horribly wrong.
"There are more Cursed Ones than we accounted for."
Cassie's voice suddenly rang in his mind. "Sunny, there's a problem..."
His jaw clenched. He listened carefully as she explained—her usually calm tone laced with tension.
"At this rate, the Cursed Tyrant we were supposed to face..." he murmured, exhaling. "It won't be a Cursed Tyrant anymore."
It would be something far worse.
His grip tightened around his weapon, but before he could say anything else, he caught a glimpse of Nephis.
She wasn't tense. She wasn't worried. She was smiling.
A quiet, almost childlike expression of glee spread across her face, like a kid who had just been given more presents than expected.
Sunny stared at her.
Then, grinning, he asked, "What are you giggling like a little girl for?"
Nephis turned her gaze toward him, her smile widening.
"Now there's enough for the both of us!" she said cheerfully. "I was worried I'd kill the Cursed Tyrant alone and leave you with nothing to pla—" She paused, then corrected herself. "—uh, fight with."
Sunny's grin deepened.
"Did you just call fighting a Cursed Tyrant... playing?"
Sunny laughed, shaking his head.
Nephis only smiled.
"That might be true."
Raising his fist, Sunny summoned the Shadow Lantern. The gates of the lantern creaked open, releasing an endless tide of shadows.
They surged forth like a devouring tide, stretching across the battlefield, swallowing light and space alike. In an instant, the sicking pressure of the numerous Cursed wills calmed down.
Then, white sparks ignited across his knuckles, twisting and coiling into a familiar shape—an odachi, long and slender, its obsidian edge gleaming with devious intent.
Sunny smiled, rolling his shoulders as the monstrous horde pressed forward.
"Especially since we can do this now."
A terrible, harrowing screech tore through the battlefield.
A Cursed Demon—towering thirty meters with four arms and two twisted heads—came rushing toward him. Its jagged, crimson teeth gleamed wet with fresh blood, and the air around it turned thick and putrid, saturated with the overwhelming stench of iron and rot, as if the battlefield itself was tainted by its presence.
Sunny closed his eyes. For a split second, silence.
Then, his black odachi ignited—brilliant red sparks bursting to life across its darkened surface, rippling like veins of molten fire.
In the next moment, he swung his blade.
The world trembled.
A humongous strike streaked across the battlefield, traveling like a slithering shadow, its form flickering like a mirage of death.
The moment it touched the charging Cursed Devil, the creature screamed—a piercing, shrill wail that drowned out every other sound.
Its body split cleanly in two.
Black flames erupted across the halves, devouring flesh and bone alike. They burned too dark, too deep, as if the very surface of the sun had been encroached by consuming darkness, an eerie fusion of shadows and searing heat.
The creature writhed in agony, burning and getting devoured simultaneously, lost to the abyss that had swallowed it whole.
Beneath the falling embers of its half-devoured corpse, Sunny stood still—his odachi resting lazily across his shoulders, a victorious smile tugging at his lips.
Nephis stared at the mesmerizing destruction before her.
Her eyes sparkled.
The attack had been unmistakable. It was a devastating combination of their individual attacks, the very same ones they had each used to slay a Great Devil.
And now, Sunny could wield it alone.
Nephis giggled, her excitement barely contained.
"So you can use parts of my domain now?" she asked, practically bouncing on her feet.
Sunny chuckled. "Not just parts."
His grin widened.
"Your entire domain is mine now."
His voice carried a note of possessiveness, a quiet claim that made her heart skip a beat.
For a split second, Nephis flinched, then, understanding dawned on her.
And her smile only widened.
"I see... so this is what it means for our souls to be part of a single whole."
Nephis looked down at her sword, sensing something—something deep. A familar connection.
It surged and withdrew, a steady, rhythmic pulse. It was the beating of her own heart. At least, that's how it always was.
But now, there was another. A second pulse. Deep. Dark. Brimming with shadows. It thrummed in perfect harmony with her own, as if it had always been there, waiting.
She closed her eyes, reaching for it.
The moment her fingers brushed against that intangible force, a ripple of shadow flickered around her.
For an instant, she hesitated. Then, she grabbed hold of it—firmly, as if afraid it might slip away.
A vast abyss opened before her.
It was deep, ancient, endless, unfathomable. A vast, endless expanse of shadows, ancient and fathomless. It was not simply darkness—it was something more. Something alive.
The dreadful abyss gazed back at her.
An overwhelming pressure bore down on her soul, like the weight of countless lifetimes. A grim reaper's stare—cold, indifferent, absolute. And yet... instead of tearing her apart, the abyss embraced her, as if she was an inseparable part of it.
A warmth, subtle and steady, intertwined with the abyss. It was quiet. Familiar.
'So this is Sunny's domain...' Nephis thought, clutching her chest as awe and an unfamiliar emotion she couldn't quite name swelled inside her.
When she opened her eyes, her sword had changed.
The brilliant radiance that once burned across its blade was now subdued, its edges tinged with a creeping, dark hue—shadows twisting along its surface, dancing at the edges of the flame.
Then, they merged.
The sword burst into radiance—but not the pure, blinding white of before.
This light was black.
A shining sun, casting dark light in place of its usual glow.
Nephis tested its weight in her hands. She smiled.
"I feel stronger. Much stronger."
Then, her voice shifted—turning eager, ravenous.
"I want to kill something right now!"
She immediately turned away, her gaze scanning the battlefield, hungry for prey.
Sunny shook his head in approval.
"That's great," he murmured, shifting his stance.
Because at that moment— A shadow loomed.
A monstrous head watched them from the rupture in the sky, its enormous, grotesque face twisted into a grin—warped, unsightly, and too knowing. Like a child peering into a glass box, watching insects trap themselves inside.
Sunny exhaled, gripping his odachi.
"Because our main target just appeared."