A week later, Sunny appeared randomly at Arthur's doorstep. Asking for any useless memories, Arthur obliged and received 20 shards for the useless memories he had received thus far.
Curious Arthur asked about the strange deal. And so sunny, slightly hesitantly explained that he transformed his echo, and it would grow stronger with memories.
Apparently, it would gain a higher class or rank.
And Arthur's suspicion was heightened, Sunny's aspect was definitely special. Something like his own, however, his was obviously far more combat-oriented. Of course, they were only sleepers still.
And so another month flew by, and he and Sunny became quite good acquaintances; Sunny dropped by every week for memories. And sometimes they went to hunt together.
This day, Arthur was alone; he had set himself a goal to prove his strength to himself.
He wanted to kill a spire messenger.
And so he now stalked the winged creature, as it devoured one of its own. Not looking directly at the creature, Arthur observed the creature's habits for two straight days. And today he would act.
Summoning Dawn's ballad, the blade slowly manifested, the sparks now brighter, the result of his growing strength.
Leaping from the ruined building, Arthur dashed around the buildings, staying out of the creature's sight. Now purely relying on his hatred sense, he went inside the building, climbed the stairs to the second floor silently. If his sense was right, which it always was, the creature should be right above him.
Bending his knees, Arthur raised his blade.
Commanding it to extend slowly, and as it was reaching the ceiling, he augmented it and poured destruction around it. The blade cut through the broken ceiling, straight into one of the creature's wing joints, fully shattering it.
Letting out an exhale, Arthur jumped up on the roof. The messenger was shrieking in hatred and agony, and then their eyes locked with Arthur's.
A sudden chill went through the area, as it went completely rigid and silent.
Arthur's brow raised at the sudden silence, but then his senses screamed inside his head.
Jumping backward, he managed to avoid the creature's massive wing, as it blew past him, ruffling his hair. Arthur summoned a part of his destruction armor; his arms were covered to his shoulders, and his legs were covered as well. As the destruction started slowly burning him.
Avoiding a lunge from the creature, by sidestepping, Arthur punched the creature straight in its head. The pain immediately vanished, and the destruction on his hand moved to the creature, fully covering it.
Aa it started screaming and writhing in pure agony, that no living being can escape.
Arthur released his armor, his flesh now having a slight pink coloring.
He watched as the creature suffered with cold, detached eyes. Finally, having had enough, he grabbed his blade and approached the downed spire messenger. Arthur raised his blade and thrusted it downward, only to get smacked away by the creature's wing.
Smashing into a building, Arthur quickly stood up, barely a scratch on his form. He looked at the creature, which managed to stand up, its head only bone and muscle now, looking like a true nightmare.
The now disfigured creature jumped in the air and then plummeted straight for him, no regard for its own safety. Summoning his destruction armor once again, his full upper body was covered in fire. Just in time as the creature nearly reached him. Arthur took two steps back, and as the creature almost hit the ground, dashing straight into the creature, stabbing one of its eyes with his blade, using the destruction already present, he moved it to the blade, and commanded it to extend. Skewering the creature.
Collecting the soul shards from the corpse and absorbing them, Arthur collapsed inside one of the buildings from sheer exhaustion and madness.
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