As soon as Audun let out his final hurrah, the Dreamer Army burst forward while surrounded by a hazy aura of platinum energy.
The Swordsmen's Stars burned brightly in the sky as their radiance guided the sleepers forward, lighting their path as they collided with the hordes of the profane.
Standing on a cliff far behind the frontlines, Sunny let out a small sigh as he took in the sight with narrowed eyes.
"Damnation, that's a lot of abominations."
"Yeah."
From his side, Nephis stared down at the battlefield with an impassive expression.
Sunny turned to face her.
"You heading out soon?"
She met his gaze.
"Yeah, there's no more need for the [Dawn Shard]'s enhancement. What about you?"
Sunny nodded.
"It's time."
The two of them summoned their blades as they turned their attention back towards the battlefield.
Nephis hesitated as a dozen words hung on her tongue, but she eventually settled on a meaningful few.
"Stay safe out there, Sunny."
A flicker of surprise flashed across the black haired sleeper's face, but he suppressed it with a wry chuckle.
"Hah~ I could say the same for you. Don't die on me out there, Neph."
"Mm."
Changing Star afforded him a small smile before she jumped off the cliff, wreathed in a blinding cloak of white fire.
Watching her descend onto the battlefield, Sunny let out a small sigh and willed his shadow to elongate, calling forth his two soldiers.
The titanic form of an echo and the not-so-large form of his shadow stepped out of his darkness.
"You guys ready? We got work to do."
The colossal octopus saluted with a few of its many appendages as Saint merely kneeled, awaiting Sunny's next orders.
Summoning the [Midnight Shard] and cradling its familiar handle in his grip, Sunny drew in a deep breath and stared up at the quartet of stars gleaming brightly in the forgotten shore's sky, his expression stilling as he prepared himself mentally.
After a few seconds of silence, Sunny exhaled and turned his attention back towards the battlefield, his gaze lingering on a certain radiant figure cutting through the horde.
"Hah~ Why did I agree to this again?"
Sunny shook his head with quiet resignation as Inky shot Saint an odd look, the shadow unable to do anything more than shrug in response to the Echo's quizzical stare.
********
After parting ways with Sunny, Nephis found herself fighting side by side with Effie, the Hunter barely being able to keep pace with her terrifying prowess.
"Duck."
Changing Star's flat voice cut through the sounds of battle, Effie getting out of the way just in time to avoid the wave of holy fire she released.
Effie quickly recovered from her roll and pivoted on her heel, slamming her shield into the head of the nearest abomination, causing its skull to cave in.
"Fuck, princess! Were you trying to kill me or something?!"
Nephis ignored Effie's cries of protest as she decapitated a nearby Carapace Centurion.
Gritting her teeth, Effie threw the Zenith Shard and skewered a collection of flowery insectoids.
"Fine, be like that!"
Raising her hand to re-summon the spear, Effie was unfortunately caught off guard by a canine-like abomination lunging at her back.
She whipped around to shield herself with the Dusk Shard, but before it could even land a hit, Nephis's blade flashed through the air, reaping the life of her would-be assaulter.
"Thanks for the assist."
"Don't let your guard down."
Changing Star offered Effie a brief nod and quickly shifted her focus as she saw a sleeper on the verge of being devoured by the horde.
She jumped forward the instant she noticed, however, before she could interfere-
"RAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"
The soldier roared and shoved the abominations away, platinum light flaring up around them as they cleaved the beasts apart with their blade.
Nephis blinked.
Turning in another direction, Nephis saw another soldier wreathed in platinum ripping apart a smaller abomination with their bare hands, their expression euphoric with utter satisfaction.
"Uh, princess?"
"..."
Nephis and Effie slowly lowered their weapons as they took a better look at the surroundings they had been too busy to see before, the battlefield around them looking clearer now that the horde had thinned considerably.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!"
"RAAAGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING, FOUL BEAST???!!!!"
"GLORY! GLORY! GLORY! GLORY!!!!!!!"
"KRIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"
Empowered by starlight, the Sleepers of the Dreamer Army darted around like mini comets, quite literally ripping into the wave with fervent gusto.
The thinning horde was due to both the mass casualties the abominations had suffered and the fact that many of the abominations were retreating in fear.
Numerous pained and fearful howls rang into the air as some of the nightmare creatures ran away from the frenzied dreamer army.
"Uh..."
"..."
From the backlines, arrows aplenty, coated in platinum light, rained down on both the retreating and the assailing abominations, whittling their absolutely colossal numbers down to something slightly more platable.
Effie and Nephis exchanged looks before shrugging as they joined the sleepers in chasing the retreating horde of Abominations.
*****
Sunny tore through the horde with Saint and Inky by his side and quickly began approaching the Spire.
He hadn't encountered any trouble on the way, mainly due to Audun jacking up the soldiers to combat the encroaching slew of nightmare creatures, but he wasn't complaining.
After all, the more time and energy he could save, the faster he could get this whole Dark Sea business done with.
Regardless, he made it to the towering monument of despair in record time and was staring at the coral bridge connecting the island where the spire stood to the shore.
Well, what he could see of the bridge at least.
Guarding the only entry into the spire was a giant mass of Nightmare Creatures, each one of their deadly appendages barely visible due to the sheer volume of them crammed into one space.
"Shit."
Sunny's eyes narrowed as the blood-hungry gaze of an ungodly amount of abominations locked on his form, a puddle of what he assumed to be saliva pooling at the base of the nightmarish mass of death.
Silently contemplating for a moment, Sunny dug through his soul and began rifling through his vast store of memories for some way to get out of his current predicament.
Unfortunately, though, it seemed like he wasn't prepared for a scenario like this.
Sunny cursed under his breath as he briefly considered whether or not Inky could throw him across the abyssal chasm the bridge was stretched over, but he dismissed the idea shortly after when he factored in the very important force that was gravity.
"#!@#*)@#*)*%(*&!@#(*!@&#(@&##$(@&#(!@*&#"
The roar of the abominable mass cut through whatever remaining thoughts that he had.
'Looks like there's only one way through...'
Readying the [Midnight Shard], Sunny widened his stance and called over Inky and Saint, the echo and the shadow flanking their master as he prepared for what would be a rather arduous battle.
Letting out a resigned sigh, Sunny dashed forward toward the mass of monsters.
------
(A/N: Still recovering from my concussion, so the chapter is a little shorter than it otherwise would've been, but I digress.
Thanks for waiting, guys!)