Shade watched as the wall of darkness approached with every passing second. The cold wind and the sound of rain, followed by lightning, grew louder. The first drops of water began to impact his body.
The enormous colossus advanced imperturbably toward the storm.
Dismissing the Hunter's Bow and quiver, Shade summoned the black sword, gripping it by the hilt. Then he summoned the Abandoned Knight, which stood in front of him, acting as a windbreak.
Shade watched as Nephis healed Effie, Kai, and Sunny, then approached him, but he shook his head.
"I'm fine," he said, watching as Sunny ordered the Stone Saint to stand in front of him—both having the same idea.
"Hold on as best you can. Things are about to get rough," Shade said, feeling his signature smile spread across his face.
As he spoke, Nephis summoned her sword and drove it forcefully into the rocky ground, while Effie did the same with her lance, plunging it deep.
Cassie approached Shade, who had her hug the Abandoned Knight to keep her safe. Caster drove his sword into the ground, following Nephis's example.
Sunny and Kai clung to the thighs of Sunny's Echo.
Finally, Shade hugged the Abandoned Knight's leg, not caring if it ruined his cool image. For added security, he held onto Cassie to prevent her from slipping.
With everyone ready, the enormous colossus entered the wall of darkness, venturing into the powerful storm within.
As they entered the storm, a powerful flash of lightning illuminated its fury.
The enormous colossus advanced without stopping, massive waves crashing against its body. A huge wave struck the neck, drenching them in salty water.
Shade smiled as his darkness held firm against the ground, not yielding a single centimeter. The Abandoned Knight suddenly leaned forward, bracing itself more firmly against the wind.
Shade looked toward the Dark Sea and frowned upon seeing an enormous shadow heading toward the statue.
Sunny's warning shout died in his throat when a massive tentacle emerged from the Dark Sea. A flash of lightning illuminated its form—a towering, fleshy black spire.
The gigantic tentacle crashed against the statue, coiling around its neck. It exerted pressure, attempting to drag the statue into the depths of the Dark Sea, but the colossus remained unmoved.
A colossal hand emerged from the Dark Sea, grabbing the tentacle and easily tearing it apart, letting several chunks fall into the sea. A moment later, more tentacles emerged—one coiled back around the neck, another around the arm—but the tentacle was swatted away by the stone palm, disappearing into the depths.
From the Dark Sea, six similar tentacles rose over the colossus.
Four tentacles descended, wrapping around the colossus's legs and arms, but the statue paid no attention and continued advancing. The statue pushed one tentacle aside, while another coiled around its wrist.
"Hold on tight!" Shade shouted amidst the roaring storm.
Shade looked below at the Nightmare Creature, watching as several tentacles were wrapped around the colossus's legs, torso, and hammer. Meanwhile, the colossus destroyed another tentacle coiled around its wrist.
After a few seconds, the Nightmare Creature had succeeded—the colossus's steps grew slower and slower with each passing moment.
A few seconds later, the colossus trembled and began to sink. Shade pulled Cassie toward himself, using one arm to hold the trembling girl, who was shaking with fear.
A second later, the colossus leaned forward and submerged.
Shade watched as the colossus struggled against the gigantic Nightmare Creature, tearing tentacles apart one after another. Once sufficiently free, the colossus began rising toward the surface.
After the colossus emerged again, it leaned forward and scooped up the creature that had attacked it.
In the colossus's palm was a gigantic skull, similar to the enormous skull in the Dark City where Uriel had obtained the Moonlight Fragment.
Shade looked at the gigantic skull and frowned. Six enormous patches of darkness were inside the skull—the creature was a Fallen Terror.
The colossus raised one of its hands toward the sky, where a gigantic hammer engraved with countless glowing runes hung.
When the hammer reached its highest point, a bolt of lightning struck it entirely. The stone heated up, taking on a furious orange hue. For a moment, nothing happened.
The next moment, the hammer descended upon the Fallen Titan, shattering the ancient bone and sinking into the flesh of the horror inside the skull.
A strange, incomprehensible moan emerged from the Nightmare Creature. Shade saw a black wave emanating from within the creature.
That was True Darkness—he could feel it with absolute delight.
"Nephis, we need light!" Sunny shouted immediately, evident fear in his voice.
Nephis immediately summoned her flames, channeling them into her sword.
'Shade, send the Echo into the darkness! It's True Darkness—if it absorbs it, we can make it evolve!' Uriel said quickly.
'We can make it evolve,' Shade finished.
Hugging Cassie, he summoned the black sword and drove it into the ground.
Immediately, he gave the order to the Abandoned Knight, which, without hesitation, silently moved away.
The darkness disintegrated upon touching the flame and avoided it, but the Abandoned Knight did something strange—its body turned into a black torrent and, like a black hole, began absorbing the True Darkness.
Shade checked the Abandoned Knight's runes.
[Your darkness grows stronger]
[Your darkness grows stronger]
[Your...]
The dark counter was increasing rapidly as it absorbed the True Darkness. Shade also gained a large portion of Fragments of Darkness—his counter increasing by hundreds with every passing moment.
After almost a minute, the colossus withdrew the hammer and indifferently tossed the Terror's skull into the sea before continuing its advance southward as if nothing had happened.
The storm continued. Shade remained clinging to the sword embedded in the ground, hugging Cassie, who held on tightly.
Shade smiled as the Abandoned Knight reached 400 dark fragments after absorbing large amounts of True Darkness. Uriel dismissed it to evolve into an Ascended Devil.
Finally, he summoned his runes.
...
Name: Uriel
True Name: Lord of Darkness.
Soul Core: Devil
Fragment of Darkness: [3991/4000]
Aspect: Dark Lord
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Ability: [Shaper]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Innate Ability: Dark Body.
Echoes: [Abandoned Knight]
Attributes: [Darkness] [Dark Flame] [Extra Carapace] [Dream Spawn]
Memories: [Night Mantle] [Eclipse Claw] [Dark Vault] [Blue Lance] [Sword of the Night] [Blood Flower] [Hunter's Bow] [Comfortable Chair] [Black Rope] [Aqua Pearl] [Moonlight Fragment] [Lament of the Depths] [Broken Fragment] [Poisonous Mantle] [Captain's Sword]
Flaw: [Dual Mind]
...
Shade smiled. When they first boarded the colossus, he had exactly one thousand dark fragments. After the battle with the locusts and monsters, that number increased to one thousand one hundred. Now, after absorbing True Darkness through his connection with the Abandoned Knight, it had tripled, leaving him just nine fragments short of evolving into a Tyrant.
'Shade, this confirms it,' Uriel said.
'We gain more benefits by absorbing True Darkness or killing beings with these attributes—similar to Mordret with "Nothing" and Sunny with shadows.'
'Yes, undoubtedly, this will be very useful. Though there's still some time before the storm ends.'
'Well, I'm going to sleep in my comfortable, soft bed, so you handle the rest.'
'Hey, Uriel, you bastard! It's your turn!'
Despite Shade's shouts, he received no response. Letting out a sigh, his angry expression changed to a thoughtful one.
After several hours, the storm finally ended, and the nameless sun emerged, taking the Dark Sea with it.
Everyone was exhausted, both physically and mentally—including Shade—so no one had the energy to speak, opting to remain silent instead.
Uriel noticed he had obtained a new memory.
Memory: [Winged Cloak]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Level: I
Memory Type: Garment
Memory Description: [A Dreamer once desired to traverse the wide skies of the world and created this cloak.]
Memory Enchantments: [Flight]
Description: [This cloak can split into two, creating two large wings that allow free flight through the skies.]
Shade smiled broadly. He had finally obtained a new memory, and the best part was that it would allow him to fly through the skies—something that suited him perfectly.
Calming down, Shade checked the runes of his Echo, which was still evolving. He was sure it would take some time to fully evolve.
...
After the second day of traveling through the labyrinth on the colossus, their journey was finally nearing its end. In the distance, a dark line on the horizon grew closer with each passing minute.
Shade looked on bored, seeing parts of the Hollow Mountains. His only remaining fight would be against the Cursed Herald of the Crimson Terror, obtaining the memory, and returning to the Dark City.
Then killing Gunlaug and his subordinates.
Of course, it was easier said than done. His time was running out, and he needed to Awaken soon.
After about 30 minutes, the enormous colossus finally stopped a few hundred meters away from the titanic mountains—its body like an ant in comparison.
Shade used his Dark Body, refusing to reveal his new memory. Changing his form, he slid down the colossus's body until he reached the ground.
Upon reaching the ground, he returned to normal and watched as Nephis, Caster, and Effie climbed down, while Sunny used his new memory to glide to the ground.
Then Kai descended with Cassie.
Once everyone had gathered, the enormous colossus moved and changed direction, heading east parallel to the massive mountains.
After watching the colossus depart, they began climbing the mountains to find a place to spend the night.
"Is this place what I think it is?" Nephis asked, looking at Uriel.
"Yes, the Hollow Mountains—well, part of them, anyway. This is where the first lord died," Shade replied.
"I told you before we came: we're going to a very dangerous place to reach the Underworld, and we'll do it through the Hollow Mountains."
"This place is a death zone," Caster said, slightly bewildered. "Not even Saints survive long in the Hollow Mountains."
"Yep. It's inhabited by large, cursed, and perhaps unholy creatures. But don't worry—there won't be any more fights. Well, we only need to kill one thing, and it's weak."
"And what's 'weak' to you?"
"A Fallen beast."
Everyone blinked.
"It's actually pretty weak," Effie said. "I thought we'd have to fight an Awakened Tyrant or Terror."
"Well, sorry to disappoint. Hey, Sunny," Shade said, looking at the boy.
"I'll need your help from a certain point onward."
"What do you need my help with?"
"You're the only one who can do it. You'll guide us from a certain point onward."
Sunny was confused but said nothing.
The seven climbed the mountain and entered its interior. Thanks to Cassie's guidance, they managed to find the ruins as well as the enormous pit from which the material for the Dark City's walls had been extracted.
At the bottom was a Nightmare Creature—a Tyrant—which Shade informed them was dead.
"Is it really dead?" Effie asked with evident doubt.
"Yes, it is," Shade said as an example, summoning his Blue Lance and throwing it at the creature. It pierced the creature's body, but the creature didn't move an inch.
"If it were alive, wouldn't it have moved to dodge or avoid the lance?" he asked, looking at Effie, who nodded.
The seven sleepers descended along the quarry path until they reached the dead creature, examining it.
Shade looked around, observing the first traces of mist.
He approached Cassie, pulling her away from the group.
"What's wrong?" Cassie asked.
"The mist is approaching," he replied.
Cassie was confused for a moment before her expression changed to one of concern and terror.
"Sunny, Kai," Cassie called to both.
"I need you to find the entrance to the mine. We need to leave here as quickly as possible," she said.
"Did you see something?"
"The mist... we must hide before it arrives, or we'll all die."
Kai didn't need to hear anything else and flew off. Sunny detached his shadow from his feet, which explored the surrounding area in search of the mine.
Meanwhile, everyone looked at the mist, which was still minutes away from reaching them. If not for Cassie's warning, they wouldn't have noticed until it was too late.
As they searched for the mine entrance, Sunny asked, "What is that mist?"
"I don't know, but it's dangerous," Cassie replied.
"Uriel, do you have any idea?"
"Yes, that mist is, so to speak, [Nothing]."
"What do you mean, 'Nothing'?" Effie asked.
"I don't even fully understand it myself. But it's something dangerous—it erases any concept you have of yourself: motivations, emotions, memories, souls... everything. It reduces all things to Nothing. Even a Great Titan would die from that mist."
Everyone's eyes widened, sweating coldly at the explanation.
"How do you know all this?" Nephis asked, somewhat uneasy.
Shade didn't respond immediately, then shrugged.
"I just know," he said, offering nothing more.
"I found it!" Sunny said. "Follow me."
The group advanced, following Sunny. As they moved, they noticed the mist approaching faster and faster, as if eager to swallow them whole.
As they approached, Kai landed near them, pointing to an opening between barely visible steps.
"There! Quickly!"
Everyone entered the opening, stepping into the darkness as the mist completely devoured the world, passing by the tunnel.
As they walked through the darkness, most summoned luminous memories—except Shade, who could see the tunnel perfectly.