Corpses.
The world was scarred with them. Countless abominations of man and beast covered the snow, staining it with their vile blood. Limbs were displaced, guts and bone scattered… and yet, there was one body that was still whole.
Sunny laid in the snow with his arms spread out, panting underneath the fearsome mask he wore. Saint had returned to his Soul Sea after the gruesome massacre, healing the minor amounts of damage on her armor.
After killing the Tyrant, the battle only became easier. Not only did the horde of Nightmare Creatures lose their coordination, but the amount that spilled out of the Gate lessened drastically. Now, besides Sunny, there was no living creature in the vicinity.
…But that did not mean that no Nightmare Creatures would exit the Gate. It simply meant that the hordes were wiped out. The tear in space still remained.
The Nightmare Gate will eventually close, but until then, a team of Awakened will need to quarantine the area to prevent rogue Nightmare Creatures from escaping and reaching the nearest human settlement.
Shadow Fragments: [1849/3000].
'Huh… not bad.'
Almost two hundred Shadow Fragments…
Groaning as he sat up in the snow, Sunny looked down at himself. The Mantle of the Underworld was littered with dents and scratch marks, and after dismissing it and rolling up his shirt, he found numerous bruises. It was no wonder he was aching so much.
His armor may protect him from directly taking hits, but an impact is still an impact.
Thankfully, he didn't have any broken bones. [Bone Weave] was able to withstand being crushed by a Fallen Tyrant, so it would be strange if the underlings were able to deal that much damage.
It seemed like holding off the Nightmare Creatures took quite a while. The sky had long turned dark since the Gate opened.
"Bastards… trespassing on my property…"
Stretching his limbs, Sunny hopped to his feet. He looked around for a couple moments as he dismissed Weaver's Mask, a perplexed expression on his face.
'If that mountain is that way, and there's nothing this way, then I came from…'
He might have been lost. Maybe.
Resisting the urge to fall asleep — nothing good would come out of doing so next to the Gate — Sunny tried to find his way back.
***
In the silence of Bronya's private office, the newly-appointed Supreme Guardian looked down at the phone on her desk with a furrowed brow. Sunny had sent her an extremely vague text a few hours ago, warning her about a Nightmare Gate that opened to the west of Belobog. She had stationed most of the Awakened forces there… but nothing had happened yet.
'Maybe it's just a false alarm? But… why isn't he responding to my texts?'
There were a long string of messages on Bronya's side, consisting of lengthy paragraphs. As her eyes bore holes into her screen, she picked it up again, deciding to send another message…
Then, her door swung open.
"Hey, Bronya. Just to let you know, I stopped the Gate. With no outside help. Yeah, I know, it's pretty cool that I went out of my way to protect my backya— I mean, a planet that is definitely not my property… legally. No need to thank me…"
Sunny — who had a few visible bruises on his body, along with smeared blood near his lips — trailed off, looking back into her narrowed eyes.
"…Did I miss something?"
Bronya didn't respond, simply pushing her phone forward as she turned it towards him. Curious, Sunny walked over, leaning over to look down at it.
"…Oh, I get it."
He shook his head with a look of pity.
"Try to go easy on him, will you? Not all of us are as attentive as me."
Bronya stared at him in disbelief for a few moments, sighed, then tapped the top of her screen. Sunny's eyes followed, a little confused, before blinking. Pausing for a few seconds, he summoned a… chest with legs? He flipped open it's lid, then dug around until he pulled out a phone. Turning it on, he blanched.
***
'Hey! Come to the Underworld.'
'Or don't. I don't really care.'
'Are you seeing this?'
'Nat said I'm doing it right.'
'Stop ignoring me. Idiot.'
'Do you want me to knock out your teeth?'
Sunny wondered why Seele was texting him so much, as well as why her texts were getting more and more threatening. He brushed it off as her simply getting used to using a phone. He turned his attention to the next set of notifications:
'Where are you? What Category is the Gate? How far is it from Belobog? Will you be able to return before it opens?'
…Sunny wasn't going to read the rest of Bronya's texts. They were quite long.
"I'm… not too sure why you're so annoyed."
She pinched the ridge of her nose.
"Ponder on it. Moving on, you… actually held off the Gate?"
Sunny blinked for a couple moments, before enthusiastically nodding.
"Yep. It's a Category Two Gate, and I killed the Gate Guardian. You should probably keep a camp there to hold the invading Nightmare Creatures off."
Bronya seemed a bit astonished, as if she was hearing something impossible, but had evidence that it wasn't.
'What? It's just a Nightmare Gate.'
"I…uh, that's impressive? Yes, impressive. Although you should answer your texts more often, on behalf of Belobog, I should thank you."
Sunny shrugged.
"It's not a big deal."
'Just defending my profits…'
As his entrepreneur mind began to calculate ways to make abhorrent amounts of revenue through the planet, Bronya stood up with a small smile. She walked around her desk, grabbed Sunny's hand, and sent him a stern glare.
He blinked.
"I'll send a few Awakened later. Until then… you will be coming with me to the healers. Don't even think about resisting."
'I wasn't going to, though?'
Sunny had a dumbfounded expression as he was dragged through Qlipoth Fort.