When Sylas finally came back to his senses, the entire hall was already torn apart by the clash of two overwhelming forces.
Through the blur of their inhuman speed, he managed to catch fragmented glimpses of the battle.
For brief instants, between one shockwave and the next, he could make out the faint silhouette of a demon clad in black armor and the abomination.
The two of them collided like storms, each impact shattering obsidian pillars and sending waves of force ripping through the hall.
It wasn't hard for him to guess who the demon was—he had seen her masked before, but the same couldn't be said about the abomination.
He had no idea who or what it was.
All he knew was the fear it provoked in him. A cold, instinctive terror that clawed up from somewhere he couldn't reach. A fear he couldn't explain, not even to himself. Not when he didn't even know where it came from.
Suddenly, an explosive noise rang through the halls, and something shot in his direction, slamming into the wall behind him and cracking it.
He turned just in time to see Anna slumped against the cracked wall, wounds scattered across her body.
Sylas rushed to her side.
"Hey, are you alright?"
But the demon didn't respond.
"Oh, you woke up."
A deep, instinctive fear crawled into his mind. Slowly, Sylas turned towards the voice.
"I was afraid you'd already died,"
the figure continued, his tone disturbingly casual.
"I'm a curious guy, you know. I thought we could use this chance to get to know each other."
When Sylas's eyes landed on the scarred face of the defiled, a name echoed inside his mind without warning.
'Sunless.'
He didn't know where it came from. He didn't know who Sunless was. And he had no time to think about it.
Because the demon beside him suddenly lunged forwards. Ignoring Sylas completely, she launched herself toward Sunny.
"Already losing your mind?"
the defiled crooned, a twisted laughter spilling from his lips.
"I thought you'd last a little longer."
Anna crashed into Sunny with the force of a hurricane.
Their collision shook the entire hall, sending shards of obsidian raining down from above. The impact threw Sylas flying backwards, crashing into the wall.
Anna didn't give him a second, she was already on him again.
Her strikes ignited with violence and madness. Her movement was savage, reckless, desperate… and that is exactly why she was losing it.
Sunny parried the next blow easily, his jian moving with unreal smoothness and precision. He blasted Anna across the hall, pulverizing the pillar she had hit.
She summoned wings mid-air, then twisted her body and lunged again. Her body moved like a blur of violence and instinct.
Sunny welcomed her with a sick, delighted grin.
He ducked under her strike and drove his elbow into her stomach with a crunch that made Sylas's heart stop. She spat blood mid-flight before she was hurled into the ground, carving a trench across the floor.
Sunny stepped forward, slow and playful, as if savoring every second.
"Come on, Anna," he said in a mocking singsong, "you can do better than that. Shouldn't you be an Ascendant at this point in time?"
Anna launched upward again, her wings beat violently, creating a shockwave that split the floor beneath her. She swung her arm forward, her rapier, that shined in a pale blue light, lacerate towards Sunny.
Sunny dodged her attacks lazily, as if batting aside nothing more significant than an annoying insect, not even using [Sin of Solace]. Then he caught her wrist mid-strike.
Slamming her face-first into the ground, cracking the obsidian. Then again. And again. Each hit sent tremors through the hall.
Somehow, her mask didn't break. In fact, Sylas suspected the ground only broke because of it.
Sylas couldn't breathe. He couldn't run, legs refusing to move. He froze in shock, didn't even notice as Silk slipped into his clothes, trembling with fear.
Eventually, Sunny seemed to grow tired of her. With a bored flick of his arm, he hurled her back toward Sylas.
She shot through the air like a bullet, slamming into the wall behind him once again. The impact rattled the entire hall, cracks spiderwebbing across the obsidian.
Sylas had to duck down, not to be sent flying again because of the shockwave.
Mustering courage, he rushed once again to Anna's side.
She was hurt badly. The small cuts from before were now torn open, and red blood poured from them like cascading streams.
She was dying. And there was nothing he could do to help.
Tears blurred his vision, tears that weren't his. It came from deep within his body, as if another person had taken control over his body, just to shed tears.
As they fell onto the demonic mask, a faint flicker of sanity broke through the madness clouding Anna's mind.
With the little strength she still had, her trembling hand reached up and pulled the mask off.
Sylas saw her face beneath it—saw her smiling at him, soft and fragile. Tears streamed from her eyes, and he couldn't tell if they were hers… or his.
She placed her mask in his hands. And then the light left her eyes.
[You have received—]
Sylas heard a whisper—thin, distant, almost unreal. A voice that didn't belong in the world around him.
Under any other circumstance, he might have paid attention to it. But not now. Not with the madness flooding his mind, drowning everything else.
"So sad. If you want to know, she wasn't in the right state of mind when she died. I'm honestly surprised she didn't kill you herself."
Sunny's voice ignited something in his mind—madness.
"Well, there's nothing to be done now. Be happy. Her nightmare is over."
He said, as he took a step forward.
"You know," Sunny continued, voice almost thoughtful, "I've been thinking for a while now. You're an Aspirant, right?"
His shadow stretched across the shattered floor as he approached, each step slow, deliberate, cruelly patient. The madness he spread infected Sylas's mind, he could think of nothing else, only in a deep wish of killing this… creature.
Sunny tilted his head, studying him the way a hunter studies prey that can't run anymore.
"You must be," he murmured.
His smile stretched impossibly wide as his mad laughter echoed through the entire hall.
"That's perfect."
He grabbed Sylas by the throat.
"Oh, you can't even imagine how much I wanted to leave this damn pyramid. I will finally be able to see Nephis again."
The madness shined in his eyes, as he tightened his grip at his throat, jian in hands, ready to cut his body in half.
From deep inside his fragment mind, a name flourished. And taken by madness himself, Sylas spoke it an instant before Sunny could do something.
"Lost from Light. Die."
Sunny didn't even react, he had no time. Before his brain could process what had happened, his innate ability had already taken action, and his heart stopped.
No notice. No spectacle. Nothing—Just death.
[You have slain an Corrupted Titan, Lost from Light]
[Wake up, Sylas! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal…]
The world spun, then darkness swallowed him.