Guiltythree
well sunny think something like "what would Nephis do in such a situation?"will he try to max his core in one day (releasing Saint and asking her to go farm) ?he should tax all the surviving awakened, tell them each to give a useless memory and feed Nightmare (I am sure they would not refuse to increase their survival chances. he can tell them it's to create a weapon against the beast or just order them as a superior)
So Sunny goes and tries to Ascend to Tyrant. Fails to do so in time but gets close, goes to the dream realm so Neph can give him the five Lights. During the battle Sunny is outclassed but holding. Accidentally kills enough other Nightmare creatures to ascend. Either Jet or Roan die defending him during the Ascension. And Sunny kills the beast afterwards
The way this novel is and the way the author usually do things, I think this is it . This novel there is no convenient miracle or plot armor the reason the chapter are called ( the fall of falcon scott) is probably because that . The city is gonna fall nearly everybody will die and they wonât be able to fight that thing or even try , they are gonna run not just retreat ( my opinion )