The moment Winter's arrow reached the Devouring Cloud, a brilliant flash of light blinded everyone for a moment. A vast sphere of flame bloomed in the middle of the swarm, spreading far and wide like a rolling wave of destruction. Then, it collapsed on itself and exploded once more.
Tongues of flame spread through the mass of abominations, swallowing countless brood beasts. Some were turned to ash, some fell down to the ground like burning stars. Others continued to burn as they streaked chaotically through the sky, their flesh boiling and dissipating.
But they did not die before colliding with some of their vile brethren.
The fire spread.
As if possessing a mind of its own, it continued to spread from one abomination to another, until it seemed as though the sky itself was aflame. The darkness was chased out by the furious orange-white glow, and Sunny felt something that he had never expected to feel in the middle of winter in Antarctica.
Scorching heat caressing his skin.
He sucked in a shaky breath.
'...Damn.'
It seemed that all their preparations were not in vain. Winter's opening was nothing short of breathtaking. It was outright frightening, if he was honest.
But it was just an opening, nevertheless— although the Devouring Cloud had sustained considerable losses and had to slow down, it was in no way stopped. Already, some brood beasts were charging through the wall of fire, lunging toward the city.
Grinning at the sight of the fiery slaughter, Sunny shook off his momentary shock and drew Morgan's Warbow again.
'More, more… I need to kill more…'
Another bolt of lightning slammed into the swarm, reaping a multitude of lives. An arrow of pale gold pierced a brood beast clean through, then continued to fly forward, killing several others. There were so many abominations that Sunny did not even have to aim.
The four cohorts of Irregulars, as well as all the rest of the Awakened defenders, poured all their strength into destroying the descending tide of winged horrors. Even though it seemed as if the sky itself was falling on them, vast swathes of it enveloped in flame, no one's courage broke.
It was natural to fear for one's life, but with two hundred million people depending on their protection, the soldiers of the First Army stubbornly clung to their positions despite the terror of the approaching swarm.
By his side, Soul Reaper waved her hands, dozens of throwing stars appearing between her fingers and shooting forward with terrible speed, shredding a whole swathe of the swarm like a steel rain.
A few steps away, Samara was methodically discharging her rifle, explosions of essence blossoming in the mass of Nightmare Creatures. Pieces of torn flesh and streams of blood rained down without stop.
The rest of the Devils were doing their part.
...Winter was not at all done with her part of the slaughter, either.
One after another, enchanted arrows flew from the string of her bow. With four Awakened elites using their Aspects to augment hers and a number of powerful Memories feeding her their power, the Ascended archer became a source of shocking devastation.
Sunny finally understood why Winter was sometimes called a walking artillery unit. There were a lot of arrows in her arsenal capable of widespread destruction, and augmented as she was, the scope of that destruction only grew. Thanks to her Aspect, the arrows never missed.
…And with Luster continuously feeding her soul essence, she had no reason to stop.
The Devouring Cloud was melting in front of his eyes.
'More!'
Sunny strained his muscles to draw the string, the process of dismissing and summoning the Strike of Thunder back finally finished... just in time. A fierce bolt of lightning pierced the air once again.
[You have slain…]
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
[You have received…]
And yet, even with all that destruction summoned upon the brood swarm, it was still advancing on the city. Half of the vast killing field had already disappeared in its shadow, and the first of the winged horrors were already reaching the wall.
Somewhere to his left, a massive MWP stumbled, the appalling shape of a brood beast disappearing into the breach in the war platform's armor that it had just created with the circular, fleshy maw. The creature crawled into the pilot's cabin — in the next moment, the massive machine jerked erratically and stepped back, plummeting from the battlement into the darkness.
Sunny uttered a silent curse.
At the same time, Dale stepped closer to Winter. A spherical dome of transparent energy enveloped the two of them, as well as all the Awakened standing nearby. Their arrows and bullets easily passed through the dome to hit the enemies, but when a lone brood beast lunged at Winter from above, it collided against the wall of shimmering energy as if against solid stone.
The creature's body bounced away in a rain of blood.
'I guess it's time for…'
"Sunny! Now!"
Jet's voice confirmed his own thoughts. They briefly glanced at each other, then dashed away from the Irregulars. Sunny dismissed his bow, took a deep breath, and summoned the Sin of Solace instead.
Instantly, an insidious voice — his own voice — spoke into his ear:
"Huh. Are you still pretending that you can actually save anyone? You know…"
'Shut the hell up! No one asked!'
Gritting his teeth, Sunny followed Soul Reaper until they reached a relatively empty section of the wall a couple of hundred meters away from the position of the Irregulars. She shouted at the nearby soldiers, commanding them to retreat.
Then, Jet turned to Sunny and flashed him a wicked smile.
"Are you ready?"
He nodded.
"Then activate that charm of yours!"
Sunny sighed, then poured essence into the Dying Wish. At the same time, he wrapped all four shadows around his body and activated the [Underworld Armament] trait of the Marble Shell, enhancing the effect of the charm.
His goals here were rather simple… he needed to give Winter as much time as possible to eradicate the swarm, and at the same time, prevent brood beasts from flying into the city.
What better way was there to achieve both than to present the Devouring Cloud with an irresistibly tasty target?
The plan was bound to work…
Its only downside was that, for a while, Sunny would have to survive the attention of the entire swarm.
Somehow.