Jarilo-VI

"…Wasn't this planet supposed to be cold?"

The three of them had disembarked from the Astral Express, and were currently standing on the frozen planet. Strangely enough, Sunny wasn't feeling like he was being frozen to death, despite the fact that the low temperature should have been dangerous for him.

Dan Heng seemed to have the answer to his confusion.

"Well, the Trailblaze Path grants us faint power. It allows us to better adapt to harsh environments."

Sunny did receive the [Pathstrider] Attribute, and one of the paths he had available was the Trailblaze. He expected to gain some sort of boon from it, but he would have thought that it might have been combat related.

Of course, being able to brave harsh environments was quite convenient as well.

March sighed as she looked around the frozen landscape.

"Snow as far as the eye can see. Which direction should we take?"

In response, Dan Heng answered her question.

"Based on the coordinates, the target should be up ahead."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."

March started to walk ahead, obviously unfettered by the snow. Of course, he Aspect was related to ice, and her Dormant Ability made her more powerful in colder temperatures. She was naturally in her element on this planet.

'Hm… I should probably send out my shadows.'

Using Gloomy to augment himself, he sent out Haughty and Happy to explore the area. Sunny created a mental map of the area as his shadows scoured the landscape for danger and enemies. On a planet like this, there was bound to be entire hordes of Nightmare Creatures that crawled out of Nightmare Gates.

As Gloomy climbed onto him, a dark coating spread across Sunny's body, signifying that he was being augmented. It wasn't visible to anyone else, as it was only something that Sunny could see due to his affinity for shadows. He'd assume that anyone else with such an affinity would be able to see it as well.

Sunny suddenly paused, before continuing as if nothing happened. The other two didn't notice his sudden stop.

'I see…'

As Gloomy augmented Sunny, he was able to locate the source of the Destruction. Removing the shadow from his body, he used his shadow sense to gain more insight. After a moment, he looked at Gloomy with a curious expression.

'…Huh. You have some secrets in there, don't you?'

The shadow simply crossed it's arms at him.

When Sunny had augmented himself with Gloomy, he was able to feel the Destruction. However, when the shadow went back to it's passive state, the Destruction followed it. Essentially, Gloomy was what allowed Sunny to access the Destruction path earlier. All he had to do was mentally pull on the pathway in order to wield it's power.

However, Sunny didn't attempt to do so just yet. From what had happened while fighting the spiders on the Chained Isles, it would seem that his personality would change to that of Gloomy. If that were to happen, he'd end up with an uncontrollable temper, and a violent bloodlust.

'That would only cause problems for myself.'

Sunny decided that it would be better to test it if he were to get into a fight. Not only would he be able to test his power, but he would be using it in a suitable situation. The Destruction shouldn't be used in a peaceful situation.

After all, it was all about destroying things.

Allowing his shadow to augment himself once more, the three of them proceeded forward. March seemed to be humming a tune, which caused Dan Heng to sigh at her behavior.

"Remember, we should stay vigilant. We know very little about this world."

March casually waved his concerns off.

"Calm down. Between the three of us, nothing will stand in our way. mean c'mon, Sunny, you've got your shadow stuff, I have my special ice powers, and Dan Heng... Uhh, he's got that mysterious past thing going for him..."

"So, if people start creating trouble for us, they're gonna regret it!"

Sunny thought about her words for a second, before nodding.

"Yeah, they're going to regret it!"

"...So how long does "copycatitis" last?"

Dan Heng seemed to be lost in thought for a moment.

"I don't think I've ever heard of "copycatitis". Is that a new illness?"

March looked at Dan Heng to figure out whether he was being serious. Once she had ascertained that he was, she groaned.

"Dan Heng… "copycatitis" isn't real! What I meant was that Sunny was copying my lines!"

Sunny blinked.

"Wait, so "copycatitis" isn't real?"

***

"This place still hasn't been corroded, yet Fragmentum monsters have already made it here. I fear the Stellaron may be exerting a significant influence on this world."

Sunny, Dan Heng, and March 7th all stalked the group of roaming Fragmentum monsters from behind a small hill of snow. Haughty had located the enemies, and had notified Sunny immediately.

There was a soldier that seemed to be consumed by glacier-like armor, almost resembling a frozen corpse. All of it's humanoid features were hidden, being completely covered by the encompassing it. Floating around it was a few flying bat-like creatures. They were completely rigid, despite their ability to fly. There were two types of them: crimson ones that emitted heat, and blue ones that seemed to exude frost.

The moment he saw the enemies, he was able to formulate a plan for the best way to subdue them. He turned towards March and nudged her. She summoned her bow, getting ready to shoot them down. After a few moments of silence, she looked back at Sunny.

"So… when do I shoot?"

Sunny shook his head with a confused expression on his face.

"You don't."

March stared at him blankly. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers as if she came to a realization.

"…Oh! So you two are going to handle this yourselves!"

Sunny and Dan Heng looked at each other. The latter rested a hand on March's shoulder as if he was going to tell her something important.

"March. You're going to defeat them yourself."

Her grin was frozen(pun intended) on her face. She shakily raised a hand as she pointed to herself.

"…Me?"

Nodding, Dan Heng explained to her the plan. It took a while, and despite the amount of times she had raised her voice in protest, the Fragmentum creatures didn't notice their presence.

In the end, they were all torn apart in a gruesome manner. Of course, the process will not be described so that it will garner much more attention at a pivotal moment. After all, who reveals their secret techniques in a battle against fodder?

"Wait… I don't think the head is supposed to look like that."

After getting her hands dirty, March returned to the sight of Sunny attempting to draw something in the snow as Dan Heng watched in interest. Naturally, she wasn't very enthused by the fact that the two boys were having a relaxing time while she was fighting to the death with Fragmentum monsters.

She didn't even get any Memories!

Sunny glanced up at her for a second, before making a small sound of surprise. He didn't think she would get done so fast. It seemed that Dan Heng was right about her Aspect being limited by her mind.

Now he realized that he probably should have watched if he wanted to know her full capabilities.

'Eh. It'll probably be fine.'

Looking down at the drawings at his feet, Sunny analyzed them. He had gotten bored, so he decided to just start drawing random things. The first drawing was of his stalwart shadow, Saint. The fine details weren't able to be displayed due to the fact that he was drawing on snow, but he'd say he did a pretty good job.

The second was of himself. He made sure to draw himself to proportion, giving himself long legs and a broad chest to match. The bulging muscles and chiseled jaw were very accurate.

The last drawing was something he had conjured out of his imagination. An imposing mech with a speech bubble right next to it:

"I shall set the seas ablaze!"

For some reason, Sunny thought the drawing was less menacing, and more cute.

'Well, that can't be right.'

Now that March was back, it was about time for them to leave. Kicking up snow to cover up the drawings, the three of them proceeded down the path. The winter wasteland was very empty. The only signs of life being the few Fragmentum monsters that they had encountered earlier.

And that was why Sunny's shadow sense was extremely sensitive to living beings.

Looking at a suspicious pile of snow, Sunny signaled for the other two to stop moving. March seemed to catch on as she stared at the same snow pile. She suddenly gasped.

"Did you see that? I think something's moving..."

Dan Heng looked in the same direction they were, but he didn't seem to understand what was wrong.

"Mm... It's just an ordinary snowdrift. Are you sure you're not seeing things?"

Sunny raised a finger to his lips, catching Dan Heng's attention. He pointed down towards his shadow, which had changed shape to form a string of letters.

'Human.'

Staying eerily silent, Sunny used Shadow Step to become incorporeal. In a couple seconds, he had appeared behind the pile of snow after reassuming his physical form.

Suddenly, Sunny reached into the pile of snow with nothing but brute force. Dan Heng and March heard a scream as a vaguely humanoid figure appeared out of the destroyed pile of snow.

The hiding individual was a tall, lean, fair-skinned man. He has medium length dark blue hair tipped with slate gray at the neck, and long bangs swept over his left eye. His eyes were slightly downturned and mint green with cat-like pupils. He wore a silver cuff on his right ear.

His upper attire includes several layers, the outermost being a magenta suit-like jacket with white and purple accents, short sleeves and long coattails. Under the jacket is an asymmetrical black half-shirt with an open front and tall dress collar. Beneath the shirt is a grey vest with darker grey markings and cut-outs at each hip which expose his skin. Black belts cross both his abdomen and chest. On the right shoulder is a spiked silver pauldron. He wears mismatched black and magenta gloves with silver metal detailing. His pants are dark blue-grey with a black belt and numerous straps on each leg, and he wears brown and black dress shoes topped with silver metal ornaments.

"Yeowch! Wait a sec, we don't really need to get rou-"

The sleazy man was suddenly interrupted by a dagger being pressed to his neck. The Moonlight Shard was summoned instantaneously due to it's [Unseen] enchantment, which left him no room to react. The man paled considerably at the cold feeling of the blade, which was amplified by the freezing weather.

Sunny had the man grabbed from behind, restricting him so that he couldn't perform any sudden moves. Dan Heng and March stared at them in shock for a moment, before she shook her head.

"Uh… isn't that a little dangerous, Sunny? You're not going to… kill him, right?"

The boy in question stared at March while the restrained man sent her a pleading look.

"Of course I'm not going to kill him…"

They all let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm still trying to come up with a plausible reason for doing so. I don't want to be a criminal."

The man being held started to sweat, which was quite a feat considering they were in the cold.

"I… think we have a bit of a misunderstanding here."

Sunny let out a small smile. It wasn't a very kind smile however.

"Well, maybe everyone here would understand if you started to explain."

Seeing a chance, the man spoke out in hope.

"Wha-what do you want to know?"

Suddenly, Sunny's smile disappeared as his eyes narrowed.

"Why don't you tell me why you're pretending to be so weak?"