Memory: [Decay's Oath].
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Tier: I.
Memory Type: Charm.
Memory Description: [The story of three children is a cyclical one; always ending in tragedy. There is, however, the sole exception of one world, one that escaped the Honkai plaguing all worlds through different forms. In that world, none were left behind. This is not that world.]
Memory Enchantments: [Exchange of Truth].
Enchantment Description: [Nothing can be gained without loss. This Memory is connected to the souls of four. The wielder of this Memory will gain more strength the less souls remained.]
Living Souls: [2/4].
The runes did not linger for long, yet their presence left a lingering weight in the air, as though reality itself had been forced to acknowledge a truth it would have preferred to ignore. The instant they faded into his shadow, the Nightmare Spell followed with a cold, detached declaration.
[Your Memory has been destroyed.]
The words had barely settled when the world contradicted them.
A flash of golden light erupted from within Sunny's shadow, not explosive, but absolute, and in the next moment, the chain was back around his neck as if it had never left as Gloomy augmented him once more. The silver links remained unchanged, yet the serpent pendant had altered in a subtle but undeniable way. The snowflake resting upon its head now glowed with a faint golden radiance, mirroring the color that had begun to seep into Sunny's eyes.
That glow was not warm.
It did not comfort.
It burned.
There was no trace of humor left in him, no remnants of the quiet cynicism that had once defined his reactions. The exhaustion, the grief, the frustration, all of it had been distilled into something far more dangerous. He no longer needed justification, nor did he seek meaning in what had transpired. The deaths, the suffering, the manipulation of higher beings beyond comprehension, all of it had crossed a threshold where rationalization no longer mattered.
He simply wanted to kill.
To kill Cocolia.
To kill that damned Aeon.
To tear apart the presence that had looked down upon them as if their struggle was nothing more than a passing curiosity.
If entities like that believed the suffering of mortals was insignificant, then he would force significance upon THEM. He would drag them down from whatever unreachable plane they occupied, rip them from the safety of abstraction, and make them bleed in a way that could not be ignored.
Golden sparks began to crackle across his arms.
They did not spread chaotically, nor did they erupt without direction. Instead, they gathered, concentrating along his forearms as the pendant at his neck pulsed in tandem with the growing intensity. The air around him grew heavier, not from pressure, but from presence, as if something had begun to anchor itself more firmly within reality through him.
Then the chains appeared.
They manifested without warning, two shackles of golden energy snapping into existence around his wrists with a sound that echoed like a verdict being passed. From those shackles extended long, radiant chains that coiled outward, slithering across the bloodstained snow with a life of their own. At the same time, the shackles shifted, reshaping themselves into solid forms that encased his hands.
Golden knuckledusters.
They fit perfectly, as though they had always belonged there.
For a brief moment, Sunny remained still, his gaze lowering slightly as he examined the manifestation of this power. It felt different from everything he had wielded before, not because it was stronger, but because it was his. Every ability he had drawn from Destruction prior to this moment had felt like an imitation, a forced alignment with something that did not quite fit him. The baseball bat had always carried that sense of disconnect, as though he had been trying to mold himself around an idea rather than shaping the idea around himself.
This was different.
This was Destruction as he understood it.
Not a blunt instrument.
Not a singular strike.
But a binding.
A chain that forced two existences into opposition, locking them into a confrontation where neither could escape without breaking something fundamental within themselves.
The necklace reinforced that understanding, anchoring the concept deeper into his being while amplifying his strength through the loss it represented. Two of the four souls tied to it had already been extinguished, and their absence was not silent. It resonated, feeding into the power now coursing through him, turning loss into fuel in a way that was as cruel as it was effective.
Sunny clenched his fist slowly, feeling the weight of it settle into his bones.
"Thank you, Bronya."
His voice was quiet, almost subdued, but there was no softness in it.
"I'm sorry, but your mom won't be seeing you anytime soon. But it's alright. May she find peace within my soul..."
He lifted the pendant briefly, pressing it against his lips in a gesture that was neither ritualistic nor emotional, but simply final. When his eyes opened again, the last trace of restraint had vanished, replaced entirely by something far more volatile.
He looked at Cocolia.
The storm in his gaze did not simmer.
It raged.
Shadows spilled outward from the Shadow Lantern, spreading across the battlefield like a tide, yet they did not conceal him. Instead, they contrasted him, emphasizing the golden light that now radiated from his form. The duality did not clash. It coexisted, forming something that felt less like a balance and more like a contradiction forced into harmony.
He drove Hail Sorrow into the snow, the blade sinking deep as he released it without hesitation.
Then he stepped forward.
Cocolia mirrored him, her twin spears rising as the ice along her form cracked and reformed under the influence of Destruction.
Their movements aligned.
A step became a stride.
A stride became a sprint.
The distance between them vanished in an instant.
When they met, it was not subtle.
Fists collided with spears, and the impact sent a violent pulse of energy outward, the force of Destruction rippling through the ground as the snow and ice were blasted away from the epicenter of their clash.
Cocolia's voice tore through the chaos, distorted beyond recognition.
"Memory... of Solace... must die!"
Sunny did not respond immediately.
His body was already in motion.
He pulled his fist back, the golden energy coiling along his arm as he drove it forward with blinding speed. Cocolia reacted, her spear shifting to intercept the blow, the clash sending another shockwave outward.
It was a feint.
Before the impact fully resolved, the chains reacted.
They lashed out.
The golden links shot forward with violent precision, striking Cocolia's side before she could adjust, wrapping around her waist in a tightening coil. The moment they connected, they did not simply bind her physically. They locked onto her presence, anchoring her in a way that denied escape.
Then they pulled.
The chains contracted instantly, dragging her toward him with overwhelming force. The sudden shift in distance disrupted her balance, and in that brief window, Sunny stepped in.
His fist connected.
The golden knuckleduster slammed into her face with devastating force, the impact exploding her skull into a spray of ice and Corruption as he shifted his body just enough to avoid the retaliatory thrust of her remaining spear.
He weaved under it smoothly, his movements sharp and efficient as he repositioned himself.
Cocolia's head reformed almost instantly, the ice reconstructing itself in a grotesque mimicry of regeneration. Sunny watched it happen, his expression unchanged, though something darker flickered beneath the surface.
"Your heart is your weak spot, isn't it?"
He did not need her to answer.
He had already seen enough.
Through repeated exchanges, through the subtle patterns in her defense, he had identified the truth. Just as his true shadow served as the core of his existence, hers was centered in her chest, protected instinctively even when her mind had begun to fracture.
When she hesitated, even for a fraction of a second, his smile sharpened.
"Why not try to run away?"
Her response came fragmented, barely coherent.
"Lord... Nanook... Destroy... Remembrance... before... birth!"
Sunny's brow furrowed slightly.
Again with the Remembrance.
The repetition was not random, nor was it meaningless. Even in her Corrupted state, something was guiding her, something that had implanted that directive deep enough that it persisted through everything else that had been stripped away.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, the realization forming as he processed the implications.
Lord Ravagers.
Agents of Destruction tasked with eliminating entire Paths.
Phantylia had targeted the Hunt.
If Cocolia had been chose, not just as an Emanator, but a Lord Ravager...
Then her target was the Remembrance.
But why?
The connection did not align cleanly. Her known associations did not point toward it, and yet the directive remained consistent. Sunny felt something tug at the edges of his thoughts, a faint sense that there was a missing piece, something he should have remembered but could not access.
That alone was enough to unsettle him.
He did not forget.
Not ever.
And yet, there was a gap.
He paused, just briefly, before asking the question that had been lingering.
"Why did you call me Fuli earlier?"
There was no response.
Cocolia lunged forward, whatever remained of her rationality collapsing entirely as she drove both spears toward him with renewed ferocity.
Sunny moved to meet her.