Punishment was busy. He had already devoured 21 wolves, 8 ants and 2 deer.
The amount of feral beast however did not lower.
Facing the blue moon, the symbol of eminent disaster, many fell in desperation.
An desperation changed them. It brought out their trues desires without any regards for their fate after. It was almost certein they die. And everyone knew it.
Those who had grudges acted on them. Small arguments escalated into battles to the death.
And punishment had to stop them all.
Big bird was following his own mission right now, and that let judgement all alone. He had no help through observation. He couldn't stop the waves of monsters from entering.
An overwhelming amount of monsters entered the forest. It is as if they sensed the chaos, seeking it, desiring it, needing it.
Wraiths of all forms and sizes flew through the air. Sentient chunks of flesh roamed the ground and riggers of pale grey, murky water flooded the earth.
The yellow eyed bird was seeking his subjects, the residents of his forest.
With his overwhelming spleed it took no more than moment to reach one. After all he was a sacred tyrant.
Just steps away from a hedgehog, he opened his mouth and bit.
"Comp"
'Saved the first one.' He thought while chewing on soft keratin spikes and flesh.
In five minutes half the forest was dead. Big bird and punishment bird were responsible for majority of the death. After that came the animals themself. Last place in the Race of death came the creatures of the outside.
But Big bird saw every singe one of those deaths. He did not care for the death of evildoers. But he did care for their victims. And he despised the outsiders. Every death caused by them shattered his heart.
He was desperate.
"I... no, we have to do something." It spoke to the other guardians
And so they came together. They combined. Fused into one.
'It felt natural. It felt right' They thought. Their minds and bodies fused into one.
It felt if they belonged, if they were always ment to be together.
Wile thinking their form melted.
The bandages that clung to judgements body loosened. Four huge arms the size of trees revealed themself.
The mouth of punishment opened. Wider that ever before. So wide his small body disappears.
Big birds feathers, the one he ripped out and burned regrew. A myriad of yellow, demented eyes, ranging in size from that of a golf ball to that of house grew on them. His raven black feathers formed wings, both majestic and beautiful as well as abominable and disgusting at the same time.
The main body, connecting the property's of the birds was indescribable.
It simply looked like an unholy almalgamation of dread and suffering.
The fusion was not yet complete. It was unstable.
But they had no time. They had to save their forest and its residents.
So to stabilize their form they split their soul. Three soul cores, one red, one white and one black escaped their body.
The darkness hiding inside them would be enough to dim the sun.
And then they lost control. Such an abrupt change to both their body and soul temporally shocked them. Taking away their ability to think.
Only a single will resided inside of them.
'Protect.'
Sunny was riding on top of the deer. Wind blowing in his face at an unbearable speed, leaving tiny cuts all across him.
He could feel it. 'Darkness is accumulating behind us.' He thought while being almost blinded by sensation overload.
'The corruption is growing to fast.' He thought inside his heart before speaking to the deer.
"The birds have started fusing. Their souls are growing unfathomably dark."
"How much longer do we have?" It asked while rushing forward.
"I don't know. But no more then ten minutes." Sunny shouted trying to speak over the howling wind.
They had not jet encountered any of those wraiths he saw inside his last vision. At least that gave him hope. It meant he had left in time, or atleast that's what he thought.
The two of them were coming close to the border. The horizon was not completely filled with trees. Somewhere infront of the, there were no trees anymore, it was their gate out of this hell hole.
Then all of a sudden a sound could be hear. At first it was quiet, barely audible. Then it grew louder. The sound of rushing water filled the sorroundings.
A huge tide of water was flowing their way.
In just a few seconds it overtook them, cutting down any tree in its way, revealing the barren, grey lands across it.
The deer continued running, dodging whole trees and branches falling from the sky.
The river was colored a pale, murky grey, the same as the landmass behind it.
"Cogito!" The deer shouted with panic. This time his voice was not the soft voice that appeared in his mind but a rough one that vibrated in the air.
"We age to get away! Fast!" It shouted the same way as before.
"NO!" Sunny shouted. "We have to continue. The river is angled. It doesnt cut us of. We must leave! It was his chance to leave this nightmare, and he won't let it slip away.
"You don't understand!" The deer screamed." We can't. This is the child of imagination, of the daemon-.
Sunny did not know what the daemon of imagination was, and he did not care.
"No! You don't understand. Didn't I already tell you about it. Nothing will harm you as long as you follow me. We have no time. Do you really want to defy fate? Sunny cut him of before he could speak anymore, rage barely contained in his voice. Before breaking out in cold sweat.
Moving piles of flesh were coming out of the river. Each one dwarfing him with ease.
Sunny really hated his luck. He did not even feel fear anymore. Not for the monsters before him, not for the twilight beast somewhere behind him and not even dor death. He just felt pure hate.
He hated the waking world for its injustice, he hated the spell for infecting him, and most of all he hated fate for putting him inside this nightmare.
He thought he already accepted death when infected with the spell. He thought he didn't even care wether he survived or died. But the nightmare showed him true fear, true terror, and so much more.
He decided that he wanted to live. Not to achieve something great. But out of spite and rage. He wanted to show everyone who had wronged him experience the same pain he did.
He wanted breake the world for the outskirts. He wanted to destroy the spell, to make it feel pain, to erease it. So no one would know it once existed.
And he wanted to destroy fate. To make sure something like this would never happen to him again.
"Whatever it takes." He spoke to himself, clarity in his voice he never expected to hear from someone like him.
Wraiths and fleshslugs were closing distance to them.
Multiple wraiths have already attacked them. The deer used it's devil ability and pushed the away. It was the same ability he used to communicate with him but activated in a different way.
But the amount of foes was overwhelming. The deer quickly grew tired. It was one thing to run but another to push away hundreds of awakened and fallen creatures.
One creature pushed them away, throwing them far away from the crowd.
The deer used it's ability to float a few meters away over the ground, insuring no damage inflicted him.
Sunny howevervwas not as lucky. He is floating the same speed a ptv would be whiledrive on a road. The impact on the ground should have been enough for him to splash into bits and pieces, however a bush dimmed his collision, leaving him with only an obliterated side.
His entire right side was shaved away, his arm was missing and there were numerous deep cuts all over him. Every cut would normally be enoigh for an adult to bleed out, but not a single drop escaped him.
He was shaking uncontrollably. Something so terrifying, so appalling it could make an unconscious body shake as if it was experiencing an epileptic attack was near.
Sunny woke up just a moment later. His senses screamed in fear, his body did not follow his command and his mind was disintegrating.
A single black egg was laying next to him. Yellow eyes were covering its surface and the darkest light was shining inside.
'It's the would of the twilight beast.' He thought in panic. Atleast it was part of its soul.
He hugged the egg with as mush force as he could as stood up. He did not even notice his missing arm, or his shaved off right side,
He did not even know what he was doing. Merely being in it's vicinity was killing him.
Not a single thought was left in his mind. He purely acted on instinct.
When he steppt outside he would have been shocked if he could. The swarm of monsters was gone. Atleast almost. A huge crater was where he had been just seconds ago. The deer was nowhere to be seen.
Miles away, outside of ths forest, the foot of a small mountain was colored in shades of red, grey and blue.
Pieces of flesh from both wraiths and monsters as well as from the deer were distributed all across the the environment.
Sunny was walking forward, not knowing why and not understanding how he could still walk.
In the corner of his eye, the one that still worked, an orange color could be seen rushing over to him.
Something was loungi at him. As if possessed by something, Sunny ducked, barely avoiding the attack.
He heard a voice speak but did not understand a single word told.
"What is it you have in your arms, and how are you alive?" It spet with venom.
"Give it to me!"
The fox had been so close to freedom, jet so far away.
'If this river had not cut my way off I would already bee free.' It thought begrudgingly.
He was pressed for time. Half the forest has been destroyed just seconds ago.
'When that creature, that bird fully manifested itself he attacked the heaven.' He complained.
Just the aftershock of this attack, used miles away from Sunny, caused a shockwave that reached the ends of the forest.
'That wretch destroyed sun and moon. If it had not been for my innate ability I would not even be able to see.'
Avarice was building up inside him when he saw the object in the prophet's hands.
'What is it that he is holding? It is keeping the monsters away from him, as if rejecting the very idea of attacking from their mind. And somehow keeping him alive.'
"I have to get it." He said to himself inside his heart.
He lounged at him again, and again, and again.
Not a single attack hit, and he was running out of time . His body was not in the best of conditions, and on top of that there were hundreds of monsters near them, waiting for the moment the stone let them resume their attack.
'How is he dodging? Isn't he supposed to be mundane?'
The very idea of a half dead mundane dodging the attack of an ascended devil was absude.
The fragmented soul of the twilight beast, the bird of apocalypse, could not survive on a pure form. That's why it created a shell around it, but even that was only a temporary measure.
It would only take a matter of time till it would either be reunited with its body or disperse. The shell of the soul was rushed, unstable, and to compensate for it tied to create a physical form. Just then did a human being fly at it. An opportunity appeared.
Right now, the unholy soul of the twilight beast was trying to gently fuse with the mundane vessel, elevating its physical durability to stop its annihilation.
The egg was trying to turn the human into its vessel, to stop it just dispensing for just one moment longer. Until it could be reclaimed.
For just a moment, maybe out of chance, maybe Bacause of the spell, Sunny regained his senses.
He did not know what just happened, how he was alive, or why he was hugging an egg.
All he knew was that an orange maggot was jumping at him.
Out of reflex, or out of hate, he took the egg and trew it at the fox.
"Crack"
A loud crack resounded after impact. The egg was not damaged in the slightest, but the fox was.
His Neck snapped, banding in an un attraktiv angle as he fell limply to the ground.
[you have slain an acendet devil: Shi Ho]
[you have received a memory.]
Sunny did not hear the voice of the spell. He was ro focused on a sensation.
'Darkness is approaching from behind." He thought, resigning to his fate, accepting his incoming death.
The fist of the twilight beast struck just meters away from him. A shockwave pushing him off the ground, sending him flying away.
Just a minuscule moment later did he collide with the grey water. He body touched the water surface and exploded.
Incomparable pain filled him, the only reason he could even feel this was because of the egg, it did not want him to die.
He felt like his entire body was being ripped apart. Like every poor of his body was being injected with acid, dissolving him completely. His body was already gone, jet the pain did not stop. Even his mind felt pain. Everithing, the very idea of Sunny was beginning to get destroyed.
Only his nerve system was somewhat complete. The water didn't seem to dissolve it.
The pain was unbearable, but Sunny didn't really mind it. He didn't even know if he was really experiencing it or just observing someone who is experiencing it.
The nerve system, connected to his brain was binding to the egg. But not even the egg could survive being dipped inside the river. They connected, Sunny was experiencing sensations he didnt even know existed. He witnessed the power of a god, he lived the power of a god.
The rivers flow did not stop during this unprecedented amount of time.
Sunny still conscious remain were drifting down its stream. Moments later, after entering the stream did he leave the forest.
Sunny heard spell speak, he did not care what it said, drunk on power.
He only noticed when he suddenly found himself somewhere else, in a net of starlight, disconnected from the divine power. Reverted to his normal self.
[Final appraisal: Glorious. Your spite truly knows no bound.]
[Dreamer Sunnless, receive your boon.]
[You have been bestowed a true name: Feather of Twilight]