Gloomy turned it's head away as Sunny sent his shadow a scathing glare. It's younger siblings enjoyed the sight, mocking it with both arrogance and laughter.
'Because of you, my reputation is completely ruined! I'll be remembered as a violent, short-tempered fool who swung at a defeated enemy out of rage!'
Gloomy stared at him for a moment, before it started to move. It almost seemed like it was talking…
Sunny scowled.
'Are you repeating what I just said? That is no way to talk to your master!'
Gloomy simply shrugged, satisfied at having been able to aggravate Sunny.
Sunny sighed in defeat before turning to the deactivated shell of the electrocuted robot. He spotted Seele, who was kneeling on the floor with her face flushed from embarrassment. It seemed that Veliona dealt just as much damage to her name as Gloomy had done to his.
March and Bronya were headed towards her; most likely in order to ask if she was okay. At least, that was probably the case for the former. It was quite unlikely for Bronya to do such a thing — especially due to how clearly Seele had shown that it was impossible for them to get along.
Couldn't they just hug it out? Wasn't that what normal people did to settle their differences?
Turning his attention away from the complexities of the opposite sex, Sunny turned towards Dan Heng, who stood near the fallen automaton. The green-eyed young man was currently panting from exhaustion. Sunny remembered that other Awakened did not have as much Essence as he did, as well as the fact that Soul Serpent had assisted him greatly in efficiently wielding his Shadow Essence.
Sunny tilted his head.
"Dan Heng… would it strange to ask you for a hug?"
The older boy sent him a strange look, pausing as he seemed to ponder his words.
"I… don't think people usually do that. Not out of the blue, at least."
Blinking, Sunny's expression brightened as if he had an epiphany.
"I get it! I have to give you a two-weeks notice!"
Dan Heng fell silent for a few moments, before saying:
"I'm not hugging you."
Sunny made a disgusted face.
"Bleh… who would want to do that? I was just asking out of curiosity."
Redirecting his gaze back to the destroyed, scorched automaton, Sunny asked:
"Did the Spell say anything when you killed it?"
Dan Heng shook his head.
"No. If I had to guess, an outsider that's connected to Svarog used their Aspect to both strengthen the robots, and repair them."
Sunny nodded. He had the same suspicions.
Summoning the Midnight Shard, Sunny crouched down next to the robots husk. Piercing the steel plates — which seemed to have lost their magical durability — Sunny delicately cut open the robot.
By understanding how they had defeated it in the first place, they would be able to save themselves quite a bit of trouble as they moved forward.
***
Sampo calmly walked towards a random house. He looked left and right to make sure that nobody was watching, before twisting the knob on the front door. As it swung open, a cool breeze assaulted him — one that would only be found in the wilderness of Jarilo-VI.
Stepping through the door, Sampo found himself in a cold, desolate snowfield — one that was currently being assaulted by a rain of snow. Despite this, there was something of worth located here.
Sampo looked up at a towering figure, shadowed by the raging snowstorm around it. Walking towards it, a strange expression appeared on his face.
"Now, what should I do about you…"