The Broken Halo

Chapter 1045 - 1044: A Titan’s Gifts (Spacecraft Bonus - )

[A/N: This bonus Chapter is thanks to Azdal!]

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The last crimson light faded from the clouds.

Dust drifted over the ruined platform, settling into cracks that had not been there before Sonya’s awakening. Several slabs were still hot enough to smoke. Around the courtyard, the inscriptions on the black pillars gradually dimmed.

For a few moments, nobody spoke.

Ammor’s mouth remained slightly open. Virella stood close to the barrier, staring at Sonya, while Enigma slowly lowered his raised brows.

On the terrace, Black Mountain was still standing. The other elders watched the new Daemon with expressions ranging from surprise to intense interest.

Sonya seemed more interested in her hands.

She turned them over, examined the golden markings along her wrists, then looked down at her legs.

Simon studied her from the enclosure.

The Kragh who had barely reached his waist was taller now. Her limbs had lengthened, and her shoulders were slightly broader, but she was still petite. Without having watched the transformation, he would hardly have associated her with the word Titan.

The rough patches on her dark-brown skin had disappeared. Beneath the blood and burns, her flesh was smooth and dark bronze. Golden markings followed her arms, throat, and the sides of her face.

Her hair had changed too. The rust-like metallic strands were now longer and smooth, their dark-copper colour catching the returning firelight.

But his gaze kept returning to her eyes.

Clear bronze irises followed every movement around her.

Simon also noticed the cut on her cheek slowly drawing closed. The damaged skin on her shoulder was repairing itself, though nowhere near as quickly as his own regeneration.

At this rate, perhaps thirty minutes to an hour would be enough for her wounds to heal.

And that was impressive to him.

These were injuries from the Bloodline Extinction Tribulation. He knew how destructive that lightning was, and recovering from it was no simple matter.

Once the barrier opened, Simon walked toward her, still holding a Hell Stone.

Sonya looked up at his approach.

”Congratulations. You became a Royal Daemon and survived the tribulation.”

Her eyes moved over his face again.

”And you can finally see,” he added.

Sonya smiled.

Simon paused.

He had seen her grin after landing a punch and smirk while insulting someone. He had never seen her smile quite like this.

Her whole face brightened with joy.

”I can see you, little kitty.”

She laughed softly, as though saying it made it harder to believe.

”I can actually see you.”

Simon found himself smiling back.

Akaza, Virella, and Ammor joined them soon afterward.

”Your hair is different,” Virella said, looking her over. ”And you’ve grown. But your eyes... they’re beautiful.”

Sonya turned toward her with that same smile.

”I keep wanting to look at everything.”

Her attention passed from Virella to Ammor, who was examining her bloodied right hand. Then she noticed Akaza standing quietly beside him.

”So that’s what you look like.”

Akaza met her gaze.

”What were you expecting?”

”Someone uglier. You’re always so serious. I thought you’d look like a grumpy old man.”

A vein popped on Akaza’s temple.

”Well, sorry to disappoint you but I’m not ugly or old.”

”You should be. This Honourable had already imagined you as an ugly old man.”

Akaza shook his head, but a small smile could not help but appear on his face.

”Congratulations, Sonya.”

She nodded grandly.

Then his expression became more attentive.

”What was the Bloodline Origin Path like?”

Sonya glanced at Simon before looking back at him.

”Painful.”

Akaza chuckled.

”That was pretty obvious from your screams. What happened once you entered?”

She rubbed her uninjured shoulder.

”I could still feel the ground. It was different from here, but I could follow it. Then Rockhead got in my way.”

Akaza blinked.

”Rockhead?”

”The first one. Heavy footsteps, hard body. He hit me. I hit him harder. Eventually, he stopped getting up.”

Simon suspected she meant the Dhoran.

”And the next one?” Akaza asked.

”Big Stomper. Every time he moved, the ground shook. He tried to crush me with it, so I did the same to him.”

She shrugged.

”I won.”

Akaza stared at her with an incredulous expression.

”That’s all?”

”Do you want me to demonstrate every punch?”

”A little more detail would help.”

”The last one was strange, though.”

Her tone changed enough to draw Simon’s attention.

”Grandpa was happy to see me.”

”Grandpa?” Simon asked.

”The last one,” she repeated. ”His voice sounded old. And he laughed when I reached him. The others treated me like something they wanted to step on. He asked me to come closer and tell him about myself.”

Simon tilted his head slightly, and Akaza’s frown deepened.

”Before you fought?” Akaza asked.

”Yes. He asked where I came from, who taught me, and how I’d lived without my sight.”

Sonya looked down at her hands again.

”He said I was the first to reach him in a very long time. He wasn’t even sure whether there were still Titans outside.”

Simon listened more closely.

He had experienced the pressure and hostility of his own ancestral bloodlines. Sonya’s final encounter sounded rather different.

”Did he tell you anything else?”

”A little about the Firstborn Titans. He said being larger wasn’t always the same as being stronger. He also showed me how to move my weight without wasting so much strength.”

She flexed her fingers.

”Grandpa knew a lot. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time for him to explain everything. He told me to show him what I could do.”

”And?” Ammor asked.

Sonya raised her chin.

”I impressed him, obviously.”

Akaza released a quiet breath through his nose.

”We fought,” she added. ”He corrected me a few times. Afterward, he touched my face and said my eyes would work when I returned.”

Simon looked at her bronze irises.

So the changes he had witnessed hadn’t happened without help.

”He fixed them?”

Sonya nodded, her smile returning.

”Grandpa was kind. Though, just before he disappeared, he said something about a curse on the Titans.”

Simon’s expression grew serious.

”What curse?”

”I asked. He was already disappearing, and I couldn’t get an answer.”

For a moment, Simon said nothing.

A curse on the Titans.

He would have to ask Lilith what she knew. Right now, Sonya had already told them everything she had heard.

”What abilities did you gain?” he asked.

”I don’t know all of them yet. I barely had time to look at my own hands before the lightning started.”

She glanced at the broken platform.

”I mostly fought the way I already knew. But I can do this.”

The golden markings on her body brightened.

Sonya shrank.

Her head dropped below Simon’s chest, then lower still. Her arms and legs shortened until she stood at the height she had been as a Kragh.

Virella blinked.

”You can become small again?”

”Yes.”

Sonya looked up at Simon with a familiar grin.

”Though looking up at everyone is getting tiresome. Move back a little.”

They stepped away.

The markings shone again.

This time, Sonya grew.

She passed her newly awakened height, then Simon’s. Virella tilted her head farther back as Sonya continued rising above them.

Stone crunched beneath her widening feet.

Her shadow spread across the group. By the time she stopped, she stood as tall as a three-storey building.

Ammor took another step backward.

Sonya looked down at them with her hands on her waist and with a visibly pleased expression.

”Much better.”

Simon stared up at her.

The increase was real. He could feel the strength gathering within that enormous body, along with the considerable demonic energy sustaining it.

”How much bigger can you become?” he asked.

”Bigger than this. But it takes a lot of energy, and I’ve already spent enough today.”

Something else caught his attention.

Her clothes had grown with her.

Even the torn sleeves had expanded, their damaged edges remaining exactly where they had been.

”Your clothes,” he said. ”How are you doing that?”

Sonya pinched a section of her sleeve.

”It’s one of my racial abilities. I can make what I’m wearing change size with me.”

”Any clothes?”

”As far as I know. Don’t ask me how it works yet cause I don’t know too.”

She tugged lightly at the burned edge. A small piece came away between her fingers.

”It doesn’t make them stronger, though. Weak cloth is still weak cloth.”

The golden markings brightened once more, and she gradually returned to her petite Titan form.

Simon watched until her feet settled among the rubble again.

He was beginning to wonder how much strength she had been unable to use during the tribulation.

”And there’s this.”

A polished sheen spread over Sonya’s hands and travelled up her arms.

Her skin took on the appearance of solid bronze. The change passed over her neck and face, then through her hair, turning the dark-copper strands into shining metal.

Virella leaned closer and tapped her forearm with a knuckle.

A clear metallic sound rang out.

Simon examined her with growing interest. She moved her fingers easily, despite their new appearance.

Before he could ask another question, she lifted her hand.

”Watch.”

A pale speck appeared above her palm.

It thickened into a small stone sphere. Beside it, more material gathered, stretching into a spear with a narrow, pointed tip.

An axe formed next, its broad head turning slowly beside the other objects.

Simon’s eyes narrowed.

He had followed the flow of her demonic energy from the moment she raised her hand. The rubble at their feet hadn’t moved. The objects had formed in empty air.

Sonya lowered the sphere into his hand.

Its weight settled against his palm, solid and rough beneath his fingers.

She hadn’t drawn the stone sphere from the ruined platform or rubbles around them.

She had created it.