On a dark desolate highway, a black steed and its bleak rider emerged from the shadows. Adamantine hooves rang on concrete as they flew forward through the falling snow, soon catching up with a small column of battered vehicles.
Overtaking one transport after another, Sunny briefly evaluated their condition. The convoy was roughly halfway to its destination, and none of the vehicles had failed… yet. Each looked as if it had gone through a meat grinder, but whatever the technicians had done to the transports was still keeping them from breaking down on the road.
Hopefully, that would continue to be the case.
His soldiers were doing a good job of warding off the Nightmare Creatures, as well. Nothing had managed to attack the column in his absence. The refugees were all intact.
Glancing at the military vehicles, Sunny sent a short communication to Gere:
"How much ammo do you have left, Sergeant?"
The response came in a crackle of interference:
"Glad… you back, Captain… sufficient… or two… nearly spent…"
Sunny frowned. The worsening quality of the signal could mean only one thing. They seemed to be approaching a powerful Gate.
He concentrated for a moment to sense the Call, and felt that it was gradually growing louder.
'Goddammit…'
With a grimace, Sunny sent Nightmare forward and soon reached the head of the convoy, galloping alongside the Rhino. He caught a glimpse of Luster, who was concentrating on driving the APC, and then looked into the darkness ahead.
At the moment, there were not enough stragglers on the road to make him summon back Morgan's Warbow — Abomination and Blackie were enough to deal with them. However, in the distance, still a few kilometers away, Sunny saw a hint of wrongness hidden in the darkness of the polar night.
There was an ugly rift in the fabric of reality there, one that seemed small and inconsequential from distance, but had to be considerably wide and tall up close, blocking most of the highway.
A Nightmare Gate.
The question was… how long ago had it manifested?
Depending on the answer, the abominations brought into the waking world by it could have long wandered away in search of prey, or were still lingering around.
'There is only one way to find out, I guess.'
Not in a hurry to get back to the roof of the Rhino, Sunny remained in the saddle, wielding the Sin of Solace in one of his hands. He was tensely looking at the swiftly approaching Gate, trying to notice the shapes of Nightmare Creatures that could have been hiding on the highway or the mountain slope nearby… even in the cold waters of the dark ocean.
There were no enemies in the water, and no enemies on the road. However, the mountain slopes made him feel tense, for some reason. Disturbed, Sunny studied the cliffs rising above the highway to understand what he had missed. Their shape was somewhat irregular, but he did not see any movement…
That was until the slope itself moved, unfurling long limbs and turning away from the mountain to face the highway.
Sunny uttered a stifled curse.
At ten meters tall, the creature was gargantuan. Its rough and uneven hide was almost of the same texture as the stone slope of the mountain, and its eight segmented legs resembled wide pillars. It looked like a giant spider with an enormous, bulbous beehive attached to its carapace, and there were hundreds of small crimson eyes burning in the dark holes of that massive hump.
Sunny's mouth turned dry.
'...A tyrant.'
He did not know what Rank the creature was, but it had to be a tyrant… one that carried an army of minions within its body, no less. The towering abomination was a dire threat itself, just from its sheer size alone, and there was no telling how strong and numerous the lesser monsters were.
Worst of all, the convoy had no choice but to rush toward it.
Overtaking the Rhino, Sunny gritted his teeth. His mind was in disarray, and the damned whispers of the cursed sword were not making it any easier for him to think.
'How the hell do I deal with that thing?'
There was still almost a minute left before they would reach the Gate and its Guardian, so that was how long he had to come up with a solution.
Sunny swiftly considered his best options. He could send Nightmare charging forward and attack the tyrant with his most powerful weapon, the Sin of Solace, to either cripple, kill, or lead the creature away from the road.
Depending on the Rank of the giant spider, that could either be a very good or an utterly terrible decision.
Alternatively, he could summon his bow and finally use the wasteful, but devastating [Death Dealer] enchantment, potentially delivering a severe wound or outright killing the tyrant on the spot. The minions could be dealt with if he followed up with the Strike of Thunder, too…
But if that did not work, he would be risking the entire convoy.
'Damnation!'
Sunny almost commanded Nightmare to rush toward the tyrant, but at that moment… something strange happened.
The giant spider, who had been staring at the approaching human vehicles with malevolent intensity, suddenly froze for a moment, and then took a step back.
Then, the creature turned around and rushed toward the mountain, climbing the slope with its long, powerful legs. Just a few seconds later, it was far away from the highway, and continuing to get further, large boulders rolling down from where it had passed.
It was almost as if the tyrant was scurrying away.
Sunny blinked, dumbstruck by the unexpected turn of events. In front of him, the highway was empty, with only the pulsating rift of the Gate obstructing its middle section.
'What… the hell?'
Why did it look as though the tyrant was... running from something?
Before Sunny could digest the new information, a cold shiver suddenly ran down his spine, and his hair almost stood on end. A sense of danger and fear like he had never experienced before suddenly burst into his mind.
Swinging his head to stare at the ocean, his eyes wide, Sunny felt a colossal shadow rising from the depths of the cold water.
The waves retreated a few meters back, and then…
A titanic stone hand suddenly broke the surface and soared into the night sky. The arm of the submerged giant rose above the coastal highway like a dark tower, easily reaching twenty or thirty meters into the air.
...And then careened, starting to fall in the direction of the convoy.