When the second month arrived, Uriel smiled. He had successfully formed his Demon Core and was halfway to developing his fourth core, though the pain still hadn't become familiar.
"Are we really going to kill the Lord of the Undead?" asked Effie.
"Yes, that's the plan," said Scarlet.
"Relax, I checked earlier, and it's very weakened by the blood vines," Uriel informed.
"Even so, it's still a Fallen Tyrant, so be careful."
Uriel looked back at the fifty sleepers—the best and strongest, equipped with the best memories for this mission.
Everyone knew the mission and the risks.
Once they arrived at the foot of the Priestess statue, they all touched it to secure the Zenith Fragment. The statue's missing arm had fallen into the mud thousands of years ago, revealing a dome that led directly to the Lord of the Undead.
Stopping at the edge of the dome, Uriel observed the abomination. Underneath countless human bones belonging to the ancient inhabitants of the Dark City, there were green vines that Kido had named blood vines.
The Lord of the Undead was weaker and more fragile. Uriel had two objectives: first, to get the Sword Echo for Cassie, and second, to obtain the fragment of the seven.
Uriel looked at the sleepers.
"Let's go," he ordered in a firm voice.
...
Once they descended, the battle began immediately. The sleepers' Aspect abilities activated, starting to tear apart the Tyrant's deer.
Effie swung her lance from side to side, crushing and cutting through Awakened monsters. Scarlet used her innate ability, strengthened by hundreds of soul fragments that had completely saturated her core, just like Caster, who was the fastest of all the sleepers.
And of course, there was Uriel at the front, using his Dark Body to manipulate his form, tearing apart dozens of monsters and gaining more darkness fragments.
Finally, the four reached the Fallen Tyrant to kill it while the sleepers dealt with the army of reanimated skeletons.
The Lord of the Undead controlled enormous bone limbs that they had to avoid.
In cases like Uriel's, he could shatter a limb or two with his Ascended sword, combined with the passive enchantment of his Dark Mantle that protected him from surprise attacks.
Although the Fallen Tyrant was weakened, it was as strong as a Fallen Demon, so even weakened, it was as powerful as the most experienced sleeper.
As the minutes passed, they began to gain ground, inflicting great wounds on the Tyrant.
The Tyrant, weakened and consumed by the vines and constantly damaged from the outside, continued to fight for several minutes until the monster's core was revealed. The core was made of human skulls and coagulated blood—undoubtedly terrifying and abhorrent.
Uriel ran at great speed, dodging the Lord of the Undead's attacks.
Taking a great leap, the Bone Lord created sharp bone tentacles and launched them at Uriel, who used Dark Body.
His partial intangibility let the attacks pass through him without damage. Reaching the core, he used all his strength as a Demon and cut through the Bone Lord completely.
Soon, everything shook and collapsed into a shapeless, harmless pile of bones.
[You have killed a Fallen Tyrant, Lord of the Undead.]
[You have obtained a memory: Starlight Fragment.]
Uriel checked the Bone Lord's corpse and smiled upon finding a key, which he took and stored in his Dark Vault without anyone seeing.
Fortunately, no one died, so everyone collected soul fragments from the dead skeletons until sunset, when they returned to the outer settlement. They used the nearly five thousand soul fragments to saturate the cores of all the sleepers in the outer settlement, with enough fragments left over for Uriel to use to further saturate his core, reaching 2670 fragments.
Since Uriel wasn't the lance type, he gave the memory to Effie, who thanked him for avenging her fallen comrades by killing the Lord of the Undead.
...
When night fell on the Dark City, Uriel met with Seishan, who had informed him of Gunlaug's plans and how more and more sleepers were leaving the castle to join his faction, so he would soon make a move.
After thanking her for the information, he returned to think things over.
'We didn't get the Silent Dancer,' said Shade in Uriel's mind.
'Yes, it's a shame,' thought Shade.
Summoning his runes, he focused on his memories, which were increasing and which he had studied out of boredom.
...
Memory: Armor of the Four Senses.
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Level: II
Type: Armor
Description: [A warrior who lost her sense of sight on a battlefield created her own armor, honing her other senses, making her even deadlier as a warrior.]
Enchantments: [Sensory Field] [Protection] [Physical Reinforcement] [Sightless Enhancement]
[Sensory Field] Description: The user can sense everything around them within a 100-meter radius, providing a mental image.
[Protection] Description: This enchantment provides great physical protection and defense against mental attacks.
[Physical Reinforcement] Description: Physical abilities are passively increased.
[Sightless Enhancement] Description: Enhances the previous abilities for users lacking the sense of sight.
...
'Will you give that armor to her?' asked Shade.
'Yes,' replied Uriel.
'Aren't you spoiling her too much?'
Uriel shrugged.
'I really don't know, and I don't care. We got this armor by diving into the Dark Sea and dealing the final blow to a corrupt monster. So it's not like we fought to the death to get it.'
Shade sighed inside Uriel's mind.
'Fine,' he said with a yawn. 'Two months have passed, so they should arrive here soon.'
Uriel stood up, looking at Effie.
"Hey, Darkness, let's go hunting."
"Effie, didn't we just kill a Fallen Tyrant a few hours ago? You want to fight abominations again?" asked Uriel.
"And they say I'm crazy."
"It's because you are crazy."
"Touché. Well, let's go. I'm also a bit hungry," said Uriel, accompanying Effie on the hunt.
...
A few hours later, both were sitting on a pile of bones, with a large bonfire in the middle and pieces of meat cooking over it.
Uriel blinked in surprise, watching Effie literally devouring the monster bones, crunching them with her teeth.
"It still surprises me that you keep doing that."
"I have strong teeth," said the girl, chewing more bone.
"You seem more like you were raised by wild wolves," said Uriel, grabbing a piece of roasted meat and starting to eat.
"Hey, by the way, Uriel, how do you do the trick where your eyes change color?" asked Effie.
"Oh, that... it's related to my Flaw," replied Uriel, taking another bite before stopping and smiling upon noticing a shadow figure entering the dark room illuminated only by the large bonfire.
'Well, they finally arrived,' thought Uriel amusedly while continuing to eat.
Effie finished the bone and burped loudly without any sign of embarrassment before continuing to eat.
"Honestly, Effie, I really feel sorry for your future partner and their wallet."
"Do you want to die, Little Monster?" asked Effie with a smile.
"N-no," replied Uriel, looking away.
Effie grabbed a bone and threw it into the darkness. Uriel watched as the bone flew past Sunny's cheek, leaving him frozen in shock before he summoned the Midnight Fragment a moment later in a defensive stance.
"Hey, Effie, calm down. They're not terrifying monsters," said Uriel with his mouth full.
"That's what you told me when I met you, and you're the most terrifying monster in this city."
"Is that an insult or a compliment?" asked Uriel.
"Take it as you will," said Effie, having the last word.
'She definitely got you, Uriel. Of course, I wouldn't lose in a battle of words,' said Shade.
Uriel rolled his eyes at Shade's comment.
"Uriel?!" asked a female voice, making Uriel look toward the familiar trio and giving them a smile.
"Well. It's been a while. I didn't expect to run into you guys in this city—Nephis, Cassie, and Sunny."
The gremlin frowned, one of his eyebrows twitching.
"Call me short again, and I'll kill you, Uriel," said the young man.
"Come on, don't get angry. I'm just teasing you about your height... or is it your hair?" he asked.
Effie let out a snort of amusement, while Sunny boiled with rage inside, his good mood evaporating instantly.
"Oh, let me introduce you. Effie, these are my friends from the Academy—Nephis, Cassie, and Sunless," Uriel introduced.
"Guys, this is Effie," Uriel introduced.
"Hello," Effie greeted simply.
"Come on, sit down, and let's catch up over these two months."
Both Effie and Uriel sat down, as did the other three, around the bonfire.
"So, you come from the Labyrinth? It's truly amazing that you managed to survive for two months in that place," said Effie.
"That's quite a feat. Congratulations!"
"Uriel, did you come from the castle? Are there more survivors?" asked Sunny.
Sunny and Nephis noticed how their friend's face darkened for a few moments before returning to normal.
"...Yes, there are indeed people in the shining castle. But I suggest you don't go there."
"Why?" asked Nephis, tilting her head slightly.
"Well, Princess, that's simple. Little Monster here is in a cold war with the castle lord," Effie recounted, making the three look at Uriel with bewildered eyes, wondering what the hell he had done now.
"Wait, before you answer, is there a gate to return to the waking world?" asked Sunny.
"Well, not anywhere in this ruined city," Uriel revealed, making the three open their eyes in shock.
"Effie, can you leave me alone with them to explain the situation?" asked Uriel.
"Alright, I'll return to the settlement now," said Effie.
Uriel felt and watched her walk away.
After a few minutes of tense silence, Cassie decided to break it.
"What do you mean there's no gate?"
Uriel sighed.
"It's exactly that. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there's no gate anywhere in this city that returns us to the waking world. The Forgotten Shore isn't a place where humans survive. It's an unexplored zone of the Dream Realm; no one has ever heard of it because those who arrive never leave," he explained.
Uriel saw Sunny's face change to one of anger as he realized something inside his petty mind.
"You said there's no portal in this city, right?" asked Nephis.
"What about outside?"
Sunny and Cassie looked at Nephis, noticing that small detail they had overlooked due to their initial surprise at the lack of a portal, which Changing Star hadn't missed.
Uriel nodded.
"Yes, there's no portal in this city, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. It exists, but getting to it is very complicated and requires meeting certain conditions."
"What kind of conditions?" asked Sunny.
"Nothing really complicated. Just travel through the Labyrinth to the Hollow Mountains, journey to the Underworld to get two memories, kill a few thousand Awakened, Fallen, and Demon-rank monsters, seal a cursed sea, and kill a Fallen Terror," Uriel explained, leaving Sunny pale along with Cassie, while Nephis was tense.
"And that's not complicated to you?" asked Sunny in a dry, humorous tone.
"Hey, don't look at me like that; I'm in the same boat as you. Anyway, we already have four of the seven memories we need. You have one, so only two are missing."
"Memories?" asked Cassie, confused.
"Yes. They're categorized as fragments. There are seven in total: Dawn Fragment, Solar Fragment, Zenith Fragment, Twilight Fragment, Lunar Fragment, and Midnight Fragment. By gathering these seven memories, seven keys will be created to open the doors inside the Crimson Spire," he explained, making the three fall into thought.
"Seven seals," murmured Cassie quietly. "Even if we gather all the fragments, we'd have to fight an army of thousands of Nightmare Creatures."
Uriel saw Nephis clenching her fists, Sunny taking the information more calmly, and Cassie having the worst of it at this point.
"But don't worry; there's still one more piece of bad news."
"And what would that be?"
"Well, quite simple. A war is coming soon."
Sunny blinked.
"A war? Against what?"
"The worst and vilest of creatures: humans."
"Is this related to what that Effie mentioned?" asked Nephis in a strange voice that puzzled Uriel a bit.
"Yes, and in a way, you could say I have quite a bit to do with it."