Chapter Text
Sunny and his two companions hurriedly ran through the streets of the restricted District.
It had been a while since they had escaped the encirclement of Silvermane Guards. They had been running through the fragmentum-infested district since then.
Sunny's shadows were swiftly divided in two. One half was scouting ahead, deliberately choosing the path with the most monsters, while the other half was a little bit behind them, watching for their pursuers.
The idea was simple: go through the path with the most monsters, dwindle their numbers just enough to not be a deadly threat to the guards, and then enrage the remaining ones before continuing on their path.
Sunny also made sure to leave obvious clues of their path to make sure they fell into those traps.
And for a while now, there had been no pursuers that his shadows could find.
"So, can you explain what is happening now?" March whined.
Sunny breathed in deeply to calm down and decided to explain.
"The Stellaron of Jarilo-VI has... resonated with the one in my chest, I have seen it converse with Cocolia." He revealed.
Dan Heng frowned.
"That is why you decided to ask me about sentient stellarons. So Cocolia is the one holding the Stellaron."
"Either that or she has some sort of connection to it. Maybe she is nothing more than a thrall?"
"That is a possibility. Nevertheless, this means we should go to the Underworld and strategize a way to get it from her. Or at the very least find its exact coordinates, that way, Welt or Himeko can land there exactly and deal with the Stellaron directly."
Sunny stroked his chin.
"That might not be a bad idea." He agreed
"We need to lose them first. Sunless, your shadows, what do they tell you?"
Sunny watched through his shadows and analyzed what had happened.
"I already desummoned Saint, no one is in my shadow's sight, and I don't feel anything through my shadow sense. The shadows I left to augment Saint are coming back, they found nothing out of normal either." He said.
"That's good, then. Should we start going back to enter the Underworld?" March asked.
"Better not." Dan Heng refused.
Sunny nodded, he had to agree.
"We don't know if the reason why I'm not catching anything is that we have lost them or because they lost some time both recovering from Saint's attack and gathering reinforcements."
"Why would they gather reinforcements to deal with us? We are just three! This is awfully close to bullying!" March complained.
"As far as they can tell, we are four if we count Saint. And we just proved to be both resourceful and quite slippery. Knowing Bronya, she won't be half-assed about capturing us, she will try to patch a hole before it is digged up."
With that, they continued to run.
However, they soon discovered that something much worse had happened.
It started when Sunny's shadow sense picked up dozens of shadows on the roofs of a few houses in the direction ahead of them.
"We have people ahead! Changing direction!" He warned and instructed.
However, as they turned around to go the other way, Sunny felt another dozen shadows approaching through the roofs of the various abandoned houses.
Even when they tried to go to the left or to the right, a new group of dozen shadows was felt, it became clear they were once again surrounded.
"How?" March asked, surprised.
"We deliberately followed the path with the most monsters, they went through the ones with fewer monsters to flank us." Dan Heng proposed.
"And they were luckier than they thought, considering they didn't just flank us, they encircled us."
Focusing on the surrounding shadows, Sunny counted the number of approaching shadows in order to figure out which side had the least amount of shadows.
"Keep going forward. That side has less people, we'll breakthrough from there."
Without questioning it further, they followed Sunny in going forward.
Eventually they found themselves in a small plaza that served as an intersection for several streets that descended onto it. The houses were a bit taller than the ground, with a stone brick construct below it that served as the walls of the plaza.
Sunny felt the shadows of the approaching people getting closer and closer.
The first ones to arrive were the ones that had been running through the rooftops. There were about fifty of them all around, they holstered rifles, all of them with vestiges of path energy.
The next ones to arrive came from both the streets and the rooftops, they were all using polearms, specifically alibers. They were more numerous than the gun wielders, Sunny was feeling about a hundred shadows.
Among them, however, were some Silvermane Guards that had different weapons. They seemed heavy in nature, having to be held around the height of their waist, and reminded Sunny of a portable cannon. They were quite rare, for each ten halberd-wielding guards, there was one "cannon" using guard.
The last to arrive was a group of four silvermane guards, all of them ridiculously armored, with tall shields and lances bigger than some of the guards.
The path energy of Preservation was visibly stronger in them when compared to the other guards, but they were hardly the bigger threat.
Each of these armored guards came from a different direction, walking straight towards them as the guards left space for them to pass. The one coming from the front, however, sidestepped to the side as soon as he passed through the other troops, giving himself space for someone else to pass.
Bronya.
She walked with a cold expression, her eyes instantly tracking onto Sunny, who frowned with frustration.
"I will have to say... Your 'lessons' that you were giving me on that bench proved very useful, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have memorized this district's and all the others' layouts as well."
Her eyes remained cold as she entered into a stance, her rifle ready to be aimed at them.
"Not that it was your goal, was it, Sunless? If that's your real name, anyway. You just wanted to fish out information from me, weren't you?"
Sunny kept looking into her eyes, not wavering for a second. His flaw immediately noticed her question and pressed him to answer her.
"Yes."
Her eyes widened slightly, a vestige of hurt flashing across them, only to be replaced by quiet fury.
Beside him, March looked at him with an expression that screamed: "Why would you say that?!"
"No shame whatsoever. Drop your weapons and come with me."
March's frustration seemed to boil over.
"Ugh, you're such a nuisance! Just what crime are we supposed to have committed again? It better be worth you following us all the way out here!"
"My orders are to arrest you. It is for the adjudication panel to present you with the nature and penalty of your alleged crimes."
"But you are aware of them anyway, so why don't you throw a bone?" Dan Heng said, a calm look on his face.
Bronya did not respond for a second.
"The Madam Guardian discovered your identities. You are people of unknown origins and are a threat to Belobog."
"Why?" Sunny said.
Bronya was thrown off guard.
"Why?" She repeated the question.
"Yeah, why are we a threat to Belobog? If our origins are unknown, how does Cocolia know we are aiming to harm Belobog?"
"Do not refer to the Supreme Guardian by name!!" The armored guard beside her exclaimed.
"Perhaps I shouldn't if even her daughter refuses to."
Bronya flinched, the fury behind her eyes becoming fiercer.
"The truth of the matter is. You don't know what we want, and you don't know what we are. Regardless, if you were a bit more cordial, maybe we would tell you, alas, why would we trust someone like you, who behaves like sheep?" Sunny provoked.
Bronya's frown deepened.
"Yes, we have a goal in Belobog, and yes, I used you to get information on what the situation is on the frontline."
"If your goals are truly harmless to Belobog, you shouldn't have run, you should come with me and defend yourself!" Bronya exclaimed, her voice betraying a tone that resembled... pleading?
"Why should we? As far as I can tell, Cocolia is not one to be trusted. After all, why did she decide to confront us with such force?" He said while eyeing the surrounding troops.
Bronya looked around her own troops as well, doubt germinating in her mind.
"Don't you two think so?" Sunny asked his companions.
Dan Heng merely nodded.
"Yeah! She attacked us with no reason! Where does it say we won't be attacked without being listened to if we go with you?" March questioned.
"Commander. Don't let their ramblings go on, it's clear they are trying to play mind tricks on you. They are trying to make you doubt Madam Guardian's decisions." The Guard beside her "whispered" to her.
Bronya breathed in and out slowly, calming herself down.
"The Supreme Guardia has already made her investigation. If you are truly innocent, it's your job to clear the veil of suspicion surrounding you." She reasoned.
Sunny stayed silent for a moment.
Normally, he might've accepted. After all, in normal circumstances, they might be able to clear their suspicions by revealing their goal, however, Cocolia was being influenced by the Stellaron that they were here to find to be sealed.
In other words, she was the one gatekeeping them from their objective and, therefore, the enemy.
Still, this situation was bad. The forces were vast, but not really that powerful. The armored guards and Bronya were the biggest threats, but the number of soldiers here was bound to exhaust them.
Besides that, more enemies might also mean more casualties, depending on the situation.
"We're wasting our words, Sunless. At least one thing is clear: We mustn't be caught."
On that he agreed.
Summoning Saint and stancing himself, Sunny looked towards Bronya.
"Since you gave us a chance to surrender, I'll do the same."
He pointed Serpent, who was in the form of an Odachi, at Bronya.
"Step away, now. Or I will blow a path through all of you."