The Stone Saint froze, the blade of his sword lightly touching the dragon's neck.
"Noctis, Ananke! Remember, damn it! Aiko, Julius, Beth!"
'Those names.'
His eyes widened.
"Kim, Luster, Quentin, Dorn, Belle, Samara, Obel!"
The dragon did not move either, looking at him with fear and hope in his eyes.
Somewhere far away, the vortex of darkness dissolved, disappearing without a trace. It almost seemed as if it was absorbed into the ebony body of the shadow huntress.
The huntress then spared them a glance, and vanished as well.
The dragon stared at Sunny, and then bellowed.
"How could you forget? Snap out of it, now!"
Sunny stared at him back from his great height.
Then, he lowered his sword and shook his head.
"Is there really a need to shout so loudly? I am not deaf, you know."
Hiding the shiver from his voice, he hurriedly dismissed the form of a Stone Saint and turned into his cozy, familiar human self.
Granted, there was a hole in his chest, and the arm that had just recently regained its mobility was now broken. But being himself still felt wonderful.
Sunny stemmed the bleeding and shuddered, remembering how close he had come to killing Kai.
And to losing himself entirely, forever.
'That... that was too close.'
In the end, it was the memories of the people Kai reminded him about that had brought him back... barely.
Their names, and the fact that even as a Stone Saint, he still possessed the same Flaw.
When Kai asked him how he could have forgotten, Sunny had found no answer, but felt compelled to provide one. And when he went looking for an answer, the persona of the Jade Titan unraveled like a mirage.
He was not sure what would have happened if he had spent more time wearing it, though, and fell into the delusion of a foreign form deeper.
"To answer your question, I did not really forget. I just convinced myself that I was someone else very well. I am a very persuasive person, you know? I am so persuasive, in fact, that I once convinced myself into existence."
That was how he had crossed the Hollow Mountains without becoming nothing.
Kai stared at him in utter disbelief.
Which looked quite strange, considering that he was still in the form of a dragon.
"Convinced yourself... into existence. What?"
Sunny shrugged.
"It's true."
Kai released his transformation and turned into a human once more. There was a flabbergasted expression on his sunken, tired face.
There was also blood running from a deep cut on his shoulder, which made Sunny wince internally.
"Indeed. It's really you!"
All around them, the cocoon of black silk was falling apart.
The corpse of the Puppeteer towered above them like a dark hill.
The Snow Tyrant was dead.
Sunny stared at the enormous severed moments, then sighed.
'Find peace within me, you sinister moth. Your nightmare was long... but now, it is over.'
He had to hurry. His adversary was dead, which meant that Sunny had precious little time to achieve what he had come here to achieve.
"Come on. We need to find the Snow Castle!"
The Death Game was coming to an end.