A full week passed. Uriel opened his eyes, noticing two things: first, he was in a soft, comfortable bed; second, he felt a bit dizzy.
Uriel tried to remember what had happened before he passed out.
Finally, after a few moments, he remembered. He had fought and killed Gunlaug with his trump card, but after using it, he had passed out.
'Shade, what happened after I passed out?'
'I don't know. That thing affected me too. But I suppose everything ended, and at least a few days must have passed.'
Uriel blinked several times.
'Several days? Wasn't it supposed to be a few hours?'
'Fool. Using Overdrive mode subjects our body and mind to a great overload of essence. It's a miracle we didn't end up in a vegetative state. That form is very dangerous to use.'
'Yeah, plus I feel like my head is going to explode at any moment.'
'You better relax a bit. Oh, right, I don't want to scare you, but you're only covered by a sheet, and Cassie is sleeping next to you.'
Uriel startled, his head turning so fast he swore he heard his bones creak. Looking to the side, he saw blonde hair and an angelic face resting on the bed, sleeping deeply.
However, due to his sudden movement, the girl was beginning to wake up.
Immediately, Uriel summoned his dark cloak, covering his body.
Cassie slowly sat up, regaining lucidity, then looked at Uriel and smiled.
"Good morning, Uriel."
"Cassie, what the hell are you doing here? Why are you here?"
"First, it's pretty obvious: I was taking care of you while you were unconscious. And second, I'm the only one with free time to do it."
Uriel blinked.
"Don't worry, I didn't see anything, in case you're wondering," she responded quickly.
"Girl, you're blind. And you see more than anyone, so I don't believe you," Uriel squinted his eyes accusatorily. "Pervy Seer."
Cassie's face turned a little red with embarrassment.
Satisfied with his revenge, Uriel noticed he was in a room.
"Where am I?"
"You're inside the castle. In the best room of all; it belonged to Gunlaug," she explained.
"Oh," he said simply, crossing his legs.
"You were unconscious for a full week after you passed out."
"I already know."
"Did Shade tell you?" Cassie asked.
"So, you already know what my Flaw is?"
"Yes, I knew when we reunited in the Dark City, through my visions and all that."
"Well," said Uriel.
"What happened after I passed out?"
"Well, there was all-out war. Tessai gave the signal for the attack, and his 300 Hunters began the battle. In the end, Tessai died by Neph's sword, and Sunny killed Horus. As for Seishan, Kido, and Genma, they joined us," she summarized.
Uriel brought a hand to his chin before nodding.
Then he summoned two apples, giving one to Cassie, who began to eat it.
"Where do you get the apples?"
"A magician never reveals his secrets," Uriel bit into the apple. "Well, everything turned out better than I expected. How many of ours died?"
"About 40, including Tom."
Uriel let out a resigned sigh.
"I see. May they rest in peace; their nightmares have ended." Cassie fell silent for a minute before resuming the topic.
"Neph, in your absence, has been giving orders to start building equipment for the assault on the Crimson Spire, pushing the craftsmen to overexploitation along with everyone else. The Sleepers call her the Tyrant of the White Flame."
Uriel let out a laugh upon hearing Nephis's nickname.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Oh, this is good; it's the second thing that brightens my day."
"The second? What's the first?" the girl asked.
Uriel froze, and Shade laughed hard inside his head. Finally, he let out a sigh.
"Well, the first is you, of course. You're my first friend after all."
Upon hearing those words, Cassie turned her face away, trying to hide the blush on her pale cheeks, but Uriel saw it clearly.
Uriel sat on the edge of the bed before stretching a bit and standing up. He felt his body numb from lying down for so long.
Doing some stretches, he smiled, satisfied to feel his entire body back in perfect condition.
"Uriel, what was that transformation you used against Gunlaug?"
"It's an application of my ability, Dark Body. Do you remember what I did with the spiders?"
Cassie nodded.
"In essence, it's the same, except it's a more powerful version. However, the risk is high. As a Sleeper, using it even for a short time can leave me unconscious for days or outright kill me," he explained, opening the door as Cassie went out first and Uriel followed.
"So, it's an ace up your sleeve."
"Yes, although one I really wouldn't like to use again soon," he expressed.
As their conversation continued, they passed through the hallways and stairs, receiving astonished looks from the Sleepers upon seeing that their lord had finally awakened after a week.
When they reached the great hall that had been a battlefield before, the news of Uriel's awakening had already spread.
Uriel blinked upon seeing around 900 Sleepers gathered in the great hall, chanting his name with fervor, almost fanatical or religious, which made him shudder a little.
Finally, Uriel reached the stairs leading to the throne, where he sat, refusing to sit on the throne itself.
"So, when did you start working with Gunlaug's lieutenants?" asked Sunny, approaching with a smile. With him were Nephis, Kai, Effie, Caster, and Scarlet. Although Caster seemed older and visibly annoyed that his plan to kill Nephis had failed during the war.
"Well, it was after two weeks of arriving in this city. My fame grew a lot, so I received an invitation to a meeting with Seishan, where we formed an alliance."
"What kind of alliance?" asked Sunny.
"I can explain that," said a new voice, startling Sunny since he hadn't seen the person approaching.
Seishan gave a courteous bow.
"I am Song Seishan," she said in the same tone of voice.
Sunny studied the woman with curiosity, wondering if she was truly a Legacy. The woman, as if reading his mind, spoke.
"Ah, no, I am not a true descendant of the Song clan. However, I was raised and cared for by the clan leader herself, like many other girls who were orphaned by the Nightmare Spell. Therefore, my duty and my fervent desire are to return to the real world and repay my debt."
Seishan paused for a few seconds.
"So, although you have no reason to trust my character, you can at least trust that my desires align with yours. I followed Gunlaug because only he could give the people of the Forgotten Shore a chance to survive. And I will follow the Lord of Darkness because only he can give us the chance to escape. This is my conviction, and this is what I will do," said the Legacy.
Without saying anything, everyone looked at Kai.
"Uh... yeah. It's all true. She's very sincere."
Effie raised an eyebrow and said, "Well... welcome to the team, then? I guess."
Everyone then welcomed her, forming a team of eight people in total.
"So, what do we do now?" asked Effie.
Everyone looked at Uriel, who was comically eating an apple, and no one knew when he had taken it out or where he had gotten it from.
Uriel chewed the apple and then swallowed before responding.
"Well, simple: we'll stage a siege. Cassie informed me of everything, so we'll just finish building everything we need before marching to the Crimson Spire."
"Oh, right," Uriel used his dark storage, from which emerged a huge amount of soul fragments, amounting to almost two thousand fragments.
"Use that to saturate the cores of those who don't have them," he said with a yawn.
...
During the following weeks, things progressed at a dizzying pace. Uriel naturally became the new master of the castle and began a massive campaign to eliminate the remaining nightmare creatures in the city to prepare and gather materials. The plan was for everyone in the Dark City to have armor and weapons to fight.
Uriel went with Kai to a fat man named Stev, where he obtained the Underworld Cloak, which he decided to keep for himself. He also took all the Memories to distribute them among the Sleepers who didn't have any, using some to feed his new Echo.
Now that Uriel remembered, he had obtained Gunlaug's Echo, which had fused with his armor, becoming a powerful Echo that he turned into a Darkness Echo.
Something that puzzled Uriel a bit was that there was a small division. Not that they were rebelling, as everyone was loyal to him, but a fan club had formed.
The fan club called Followers of the Darkness, which made him their idol and inspiration.
Then there was the fan club called Followers of the Flame, which obviously belonged to Nephis.
Uriel could only sigh as both fan clubs fought over who was cooler than whom. Of course, he secretly supported his own fan club, and Nephis did the same with her followers.
In the end, both clubs would end up in intense debates now and then.
Aside from that, there were the craftsmen working hard, guided by Cassie, to build the equipment for the siege. And then there was Sunny, who with his ascended shadow, traveled to the Crimson Spire to gather data on what they would soon face.
Uriel was sitting on the edge of his old base, looking at the ruins of the Dark City. Officially—well, almost—he had achieved it.
He had greatly changed the destiny. Almost a thousand survivors, all with saturated cores and powerful weapons. Gunlaug and Tessai were dead, along with their followers. They would kill the Terror, and then he would knock out Sunny and Nephis to get them out of the Dream World, and with that, his job would be done.
Uriel summoned his runes.
Name: Uriel
True Name: Lord of Darkness
Soul Core: Terror
Fragment of Darkness: [122/6000]
Aspect: Dark Lord
Aspect Rank: Divine
Aspect Ability: [Shaper]
Innate Ability: Dark Body
Echoes: [Knight of Darkness] [Gunlaug]
Attributes: [Darkness] [Dark Flame] [Extra Shell] [Spawn of Dreams]
Memories: [Night Cloak] [Eclipse Claw] [Dark Storage] [Blue Spear] [Sword of the Night] [Blood Flower] [Hunter's Bow] [Comfortable Chair] [Black Rope] [Aquatic Pearl] [Fragment of Moonlight] [Lament of the Depths] [Winged Cloak] [Broken Fragment] [Poisonous Cloak] [Captain's Sword] [Simple Mask] [???]
Flaw: [Dual Mind]
Uriel dismissed his runes and then summoned Gunlaug's Echo.
He observed as Gunlaug materialized beside him, wrapped in his armor, except that it was now black.
...
Name: Gunlaug
Dark Rank: Inactive
Class: Beast
Attributes: [Aquatic Breathing] [Loyal]
[Adapted Fighter] [Mark of Darkness]
Abilities: [Weapon Sage] [Wrapped in Power]
...
Uriel summoned the runes, reading the description of the abilities.
Description of the Ability Weapon Sage: [This ability allows Gunlaug to be competent in the use of any weapon-type Memory.]
Description of the Ability Wrapped in Power: [The Transcendent Echo fused with its bearer, giving him its protection and power. Able to create weapons from its flesh.]
...
'I see, so his class is Transcendent, but his rank is Inactive. It's as if he has the power of a Corrupted Beast but lacks the means to reach his full potential,' thought Uriel, dismissing the runes and the Echo.
...
Another week passed, and everything was now ready. After a month since the fall of Gunlaug and his followers, and after countless preparations, Uriel summoned all the Sleepers of the Forgotten City to the main hall.
Nearly a thousand Sleepers were in the enormous great hall, which had been cleaned of the massacre that had occurred.
On the steps leading to an empty stone throne sat a figure in a relaxed position, his eyes a blood-red color that seemed to penetrate the very soul.
Everyone was silent, waiting for the words of their leader.
"Dreamers of the Dark City. Exactly five months ago, I arrived in this place. I witnessed how you lived and what you did to survive. You were weak, useless, and hopeless, waiting for your deaths either at the hands of a nightmare creature or anything else," Shade paused, looking at the faces of each and every one.
"You were weak, cowards without heart or hope that one day you could return to the real world, to your families, your friends, or anyone special to you." Shade made another pause, but this time a wide smile was on his face.
"However, I no longer see that fear and that hopelessness. You have become strong. You survived not because of me, but because of yourselves. You lived through hell but did not give up. You were forged by torment, sharpened your will like a sword, and ignited your hearts with the fire and determination to live." Shade stood up.
"That is why we will survive. We, by our own means, will leave this hell together and victorious. We will no longer fear, we will no longer doubt. We will be the hunters, and our enemies will be mere insects that we will crush under our feet."
With each word Shade spoke, the hearts of the Sleepers ignited. Their hearts beat strongly, and their faces filled with unbreakable determination and fighting spirit.
"A long time ago, I made a promise, and the time has come to fulfill it. My promise was to take all of you to the real world, even if I must sacrifice my life to achieve it." Darkness surrounded Shade, but this time, instead of being a dark humanoid, it changed its form to look more imposing, yet in a way, like a legendary hero.
"Come with me! Follow me, and I will guide you to the final assault to obtain our freedom. I am Uriel, the Lord of Darkness. I govern over darkness and guide those who are lost in it toward the light. I am your comfort and your salvation. And this is the salvation from the darkness that I offer you! Follow me, and you will no longer be slaves of fear, slaves of fate. Come, whether you live or die, you will do so to free yourselves and be humans, not cowardly beasts. Whoever wants to leave can do so now, and no one will judge you." Shade observed all the Sleepers, but no one had moved.
"Then be prepared. Tomorrow, we will march to the Crimson Spire, and tomorrow, you will be free from the claws of the Dream World."