441 Ocean of Flame

Sunny almost managed to direct his endless fall toward the tiny gap between the remnant conflagrations of the divine flame, but on that incredible scale, even the smallest mistake was bound to take him many kilometers away from the goal.

…A mistake that he had inevitably made, since there were no lessons on navigating eternal voids, especially without any tools except for his own two eyes.

'Damn it!'

Right below him, swiftly approaching, was an ocean of obliterating light, heat, and fire.

The conflagrations themselves were rather small, no larger than a dozen meters in diameter, and chaotically scattered in the void at a considerable distance from one another. Each looked like a furious, undulant orb of dancing white flames.

The space between them, though, was not safe. It was permeated by immolating heat that nothing could withstand… at least nothing Sunny had at his disposal.

As the adamantine wood of the treasure chest started to slowly catch fire, he hesitated, then glanced at the empty darkness of the distant rift in the ocean of light. Whether by accident or by design, there was a point in the field of false stars where no conflagrations remained. A roughly circular breach was torn through them, promising him safe passage.

But how was he supposed to reach it?

If Sunny jumped off the plummeting chest right now, he would probably be able to glide all the way to the rift… the distance was just right. However, he was pretty sure that the Dark Wing would be instantly turned to ash by the terrible heat of the remnant vestiges of the divine flame.

Not to mention that he himself would probably get thoroughly cooked inside the Mantle of the Underworld if he remained corporeal for that long.

With a mental sigh, Sunny left the comforting embrace of the shadows.

A kneeling figure in an intricate onyx armor appeared on the lid of the smoldering treasure chest.

'Argh…'

Despite the protection of the [Stalwart] enchantment, the air he breathed in was thin and scoldingly hot. It almost felt as if he was inhaling fire. Other than that, however, the Mantle of the Underworld did a good job of keeping the heat at bay... and yet, Sunny could feel it starting to slowly get warmer. He didn't have a lot of time.

Standing up, he raised the dark longbow, nocked an arrow on its string, and gritted his teeth. Then, sending a thin trickle of essence into the muscles of his shoulder and back, he strained his body and drew the mighty bow.

…It felt as though he was lifting a mountain.

'...How the hell does Saint make it look easy?'

Feeling his muscles tremble, Sunny aimed toward the rift and hesitated for a second. After he did this, there would be no going back.

'What is there to go back to, fool? Aren't you sick of that damned chest?!'

Relaxing his hand, he let go of the string.

The black arrow shot into the darkness with incredible speed, instantly becoming illuminated by a blinding radiance. It was strange… the void was full of light now, but with nothing to reflect it, the Sky Below still appeared black and empty. Only when something entered the emptiness did the light become visible.

Sunny felt the chest sway, and struggled to keep his balance.

A couple of moments later, the fletching of the arrow suddenly caught fire and burned away. However, that didn't affect its flight too much. The arrow pierced the darkness and turned into a distant spark, covering almost an entire kilometer in just a few seconds. Then, however, it slowed down considerably, and its wooden shaft began to smolder.

It was time to move.

As Sunny felt flame licking his greaves, he held his breath… and used Shadow Step.

The arrow he had sent flying in the direction of the rift was wrapped into one of his shadows. As the shadow unfurled itself from the igniting shaft, Sunny shot out of it as if launched from a giant slingshot. As soon as he left the shadow, it instantly wrapped itself around his body, and then slid toward the quiver.

'Crap!'

Sunny found himself flying through the darkness with nothing to support or shield him from being directly exposed to the immolating radiance. The Mantle of the Underworld suddenly shone in the torrent of light, instantly growing considerably warmer. It wasn't burning his skin yet, but he suspected that there was not much time left before that happened.

Especially because his momentum was not only horizontal, but also vertical, and was becoming more so with each moment. He was still plummeting toward the ocean of flames, approaching it with terrifying speed.

The closer he got, the more obliterating the heat would become.

Twisting as he fell to orient himself in the void, Sunny nocked another arrow and drew the bow again. This time, it was considerably harder, since he had nothing to stand on and had to rely solely on the strength of his arms and shoulders.

Just in the few seconds it had taken him to draw the bow, the heat became much more destructive.

Another arrow flew into the darkness, and several seconds later, he used Shadow Step again, appearing almost two kilometers closer to the rift.

…It was still decently far away, though.

'Curses!'

Sunny flew through the obliterating darkness and struggled to nock another arrow. The glossy black surface of the Mantle of the Underworld was starting to glow, slowly turning incandescent. He was still fine inside, though. For now. If a little hot…

Another arrow disappeared into the darkness, and Sunny jumped through the shadows again.

This time, the jump devoured pretty much all of his remaining shadow essence. Whatever little there was left would not have been enough to repeat the process the fourth time.

However, maybe… just maybe… he wasn't going to have to.

After using Shadow Step three times in a row, and turning some of his vertical momentum into horizontal one with each jump, Sunny was now plummeting diagonally through the void, seemingly toward the very edge of the rift.

'I am going to make it… am I going to make it?'

Even if he would, it was going to be very, very close.

The string of the bow suddenly caught fire and broke with a loud ring. Dismissing the bow and the quiver, Sunny sent both of his shadows to reinforce the Mantle of the Underworld and threw his hands and legs to the sides. He was trying to create as much surface area as possible to utilize the resistance of the air in his favor.

He was well-versed in all kinds of falling and gliding thanks to using the Dark Wing so often, so this was not something new to him. Granted, he had never done it in a heavy armor.

Speaking of which…

Sunny hesitated, then directed some of his remaining essence into the Mantle of the Underworld to activate the [Feather of Truth] enchantment and make the armor as light as possible.

Then, all he could do was endure the growing heat and wait and watch as both the obliterating ocean of flames and the circle of saving darkness approached him at tremendous speed.

His life now depended solely on which of the two was going to swallow him first.