Almost at the same time, the darkness of the battlefield was suddenly annihilated by a blinding explosion of light. The sound of battle shifted, growing even more intense. The howling of the Nightmare Creature horde became louder, yet slightly muffled, almost… anxious.
Changing Star had finally joined the fight.
An instant later, hundreds of human voices rose in a battle cry, their morale lifted and their determination restored. With Nephis' arrival on the battlefield, the balance of the fight shifted completely. The Nightmare Creatures hurled themselves at the radiant figure, only to be annihilated by her.
They almost seemed to melt beneath the furious assault of her sword, turning into ash.
Neph's arrival brought a moment of relief to the warriors of the Dreamer Army. However, instead of using that moment to catch their breath and regroup, they chose to seize the opportunity and launch a fierce counterattack, making the horde shudder and recoil.
Looking up, she saw the four figures holding the first line and surprisingly, all four were still alive.
Gemma was on the verge of being overwhelmed by the sheer number of Nightmare Creatures. She considered going to help him, but dismissed the idea. There was a better way.
Caster, with his speed, was dodging and attacking simultaneously, impossible to counter. Even so, he looked exhausted. He had been using his Aspect since the battle began and had never stopped.
Effie and Arthur were in situations that were similar and completely different at the same time. The former had her armor completely shattered and destroyed, yet she continued annihilating any creature that stepped in front of her. The latter moved with a precision and lethality she had not seen even in the Masters of her clan who had trained her since childhood.
'How is this guy not a Legacy?' she thought.
Watching his fighting style was hypnotic. Every movement controlled, even under this overwhelming number of monsters. Every action with a single purpose, to take a life… no, not exactly. Every action was meant to destroy whoever stood against him. Even back at the Academy during sparring, she had noticed it: every move Arthur made was meant to destroy his opponent — whether destroying their morale or their body.
Seeing him fight like that, she couldn't help feeling drawn to his style. Without realizing it, she began moving across the battlefield in his direction. Along the way, she annihilated and reduced to ashes any creature that dared block her path.
Three augmentations — two on her body, one healing and one strengthening, and one on her Dream Blade — cleared the way.
Nephis wondered what she might achieve if she had had more time to form her fourth core. And thinking that, using it as proof, she stepped into the perimeter Arthur maintained around himself.
Now, within that two-meter margin stood the two strongest Sleepers in history. The Nightmare Creatures focused on them even more intensely. Effie, Caster, and Gemma felt the shift immediately and followed their example.
Now there were two completely lethal groups occupying the first line of the battle.
Arthur felt the change before he saw it.
His Aether Sense detected a distinct disturbance in the chaotic flow surrounding him. Among the tangle of hostile presences, one blazing, intense, pure signature advanced directly toward his perimeter.
He didn't need to turn to know who it was.
Still, he did.
Nephis stepped into the two-meter margin he kept clear with almost surgical precision. For a fraction of a second, their eyes met. No words. Only understanding.
In her cold gray eyes burned absolute determination.
In his golden eyes, focus… and something else. A spark of approval, perhaps.
That was enough.
Nephis took the lead without hesitation.
Her Dream Blade descended wrapped in white flames, and three Nightmare Creatures literally disintegrated in an explosion of ash and light. The nearest creatures instinctively recoiled, though only for a moment.
Arthur was already moving.
While she advanced like a blazing spear, he rotated around his invisible axis, keeping the perimeter stable. Static Void activated in brief, precise pulses. The weaker creatures trying to lunge from the flanks froze for a fraction of a second, more than enough time for Dawn's Ballad to pierce them without Nephis even having to turn.
At the same time, Arthur extended the pressure of Static Void toward denser presences detected by his Aether Sense. He did not stop them completely — that would waste fragments — but slowed their movements just enough to disrupt the rhythm of their attacks.
It was all Nephis needed.
A carapace demon descended with both pincers toward her. For a millisecond, its movement grew heavier, as if the air had thickened. Nephis stepped aside, barely enough, and her sword traced an upward arc that split the monster's head into two incandescent halves.
Arthur was already behind her, destroying the legs of a centipede trying to coil around his ankles.
They moved without hindering each other.
Without crossing paths.
Without even looking at each other much.
Nephis advanced, opening a corridor of fire and ash. Arthur sealed every gap around her, destroying any threat that tried to exploit a blind spot.
Her flames grew with each movement. Too much.
Arthur felt the heat licking his back as he skewered another frozen scavenger.
"Nephis! You're burning my back!"
She didn't respond, only adjusted the intensity instantly. The flames compressed, becoming denser, more controlled. More lethal.
And they continued.
A centurion charged from the right. Arthur activated Static Void on two scavengers trying to distract him, freezing them just long enough to decapitate both in a single spin. The centurion managed to clamp a pincer on Nephis' shoulder… but its movement suddenly lost strength.
Nephis twisted within the grip, her blade descending like a falling star. The centurion's core exploded in white light.
At that moment, Nephis felt something strange. It was as if they had fought together for years.
Every time she lunged at a stronger creature, she sensed invisible resistance weakening it at the exact right instant. Every time a lesser threat tried to exploit her aggressive advance, it disappeared before she even saw it.
Arthur was everywhere and nowhere.
One step behind. Always covering. Always anticipating.
The two-meter perimeter held as Nightmare Creature bodies fell one after another.
Nephis cut through another creature, ashes swirling around them.
She thought, fleetingly, that she had never felt synchronization like this.
It wasn't trained coordination. It wasn't a spoken strategy. It was a shared instinct.
It made her happy.
As the creatures concentrated even more on the two of them, drawn by the threat they represented, the first line stopped retreating.
Now it was the horde that began to give ground. And at the center of that hell of fire and distorted reality, Nephis and Arthur advanced as if the battlefield belonged to them.
And not only them. At the sight of their King and Changing Star annihilating everything in their path, a grain of hope began to bloom in the hearts of the Sleepers still fighting.
If those two did not give up and kept fighting for salvation, how could they surrender? As long as their light banished the darkness and their Paragon stood as an example, how could they lose hope?
That was why no monster had managed to break through the remnants of the first two lines and reach the archers.
Standing on the slippery crimson coral, Kai gazed at the terrible massacre below, then raised his face to the sky.
Instead of the sky, he saw the dark mass of bleeding corpses carpeting the iron net. His face paled, light fading from his eyes.
Since he and Sylvie were the only officers of the Dreamer Army not fighting below, they were the only ones who could see the bigger picture.
They were the only ones who knew the iron net was about to break.
When it did, the mass of sharp iron wires and the crushing weight of countless dead monsters would fall upon the remnants of the human formation, sealing their doom.
Someone had to do something.
And that someone was them.
Kai blinked and closed his eyes briefly.
Nothing could stop the collapse of the net. But the way it collapsed could be controlled. They only needed to cut it at the right point, allowing the mass of dead Nightmare Creatures to fall without burying the humans fighting beneath it.
And who could cut iron wires except someone capable of flight?
The only problem was that once the net was cut, nothing would stop the five Spire Messengers from entering through the gap.
He would have to draw them away from the battlefield with Sylvie's help.
'Yes. Yes, that's what I have to do.'
Turning his head, he found Sylvie immediately. She was staring at the net as well. Their eyes met, that was enough.
Receiving a nod from her, Kai pushed off the coral and flew straight toward the net.
From below, it looked like a dark sky made of tangled corpses. Drops of cold blood struck his face as he ascended.
He twisted midair and struck a point in the mesh from beneath.
A crack opened, and dozens of bodies began to tear loose and fall. It was not impulsive, Kai had calculated the exact point. The rain of remains crashed into a cleared area between the archers — who still maintained a relatively stable formation — and what remained of the first line locked in brutal combat.
But the structure barely gave; the net still bore too much weight.
Without stopping, Kai accelerated, gained height, and cut again from another angle. This time his blade crossed the first opening, forming an irregular gap.
Four sections gave way at once. The net opened like a funnel, and an avalanche of corpses began to fall. Other bodies rolled toward the new gap, and for the first time in long minutes, sunlight touched the battlefield.
Through the opening, Kai saw the sky.
Most flying creatures had already been shot down by the archers. Only a few remained, crashing uselessly against what was left of the net. But much higher, among the clouds, five dark silhouettes circled in perfect synchronization.
Kai froze for a heartbeat.
A cold sensation ran down his spine.
It wasn't just that he had seen them. They had seen him.
The formation broke, and the Spire Messengers began to dive.
Kai felt the air leave his lungs.
He dropped, canceling his ability and letting gravity drag him down. Landing on a mound of corpses, he searched for arrows embedded in flesh.
He tore one free, then another, until he had five.
There was no time for more.
He summoned his bow and propelled himself upward again. When he looked up, the five Messengers were already above him, black feathers slicing the wind, eyes consumed by hunger and madness.
He drew and fired. One arrow, then another, until all five were loosed. All struck the base of the same Messenger's left wing. The joint gave way. The creature lost stability and fell uncontrollably toward the battlefield.
Kai veered violently to avoid the second, which brushed past him. The third descended straight at him, beak open in anticipation.
Kai fired a sixth time.
But that arrow was not ordinary. It was a Blood Arrow.
It pierced the air like a line of pure darkness and sank into the Messenger's eye almost entirely. The creature convulsed, released an unnatural screech, and fell like a stone.
The Spell's voice echoed in his mind:
[You have slain a Fallen Monster, Cursed…]
He couldn't focus on it.
He used the falling corpse of the slain monster as a shield to absorb the impact of the fourth Messenger. But the fifth…
The fifth appeared before him without warning, blocking any escape angle. Too close. Too fast.
The black beak lunged forward.
But at that moment, the body of a dragon slammed into the Spire Messenger. The impact was immense, sending both the creature and Sylvie flying several meters, her jaws clamped onto the Messenger's neck.
They grappled midair. The creature was stronger, but Sylvie was smarter, guiding the flight downward at maximum speed. They crashed into the coral, creating a crater. The result was the Messenger lying immobile, its neck broken, as the Spell whispered:
[You have slain a Fallen Monster, Cursed…]
Without wasting a second, Sylvie spread her wings and soared upward again, heading straight toward Kai, who still faced the remaining three Messengers in the darkened sky.
***
Inside the Crimson Spire, Sunny only had to find the seals.
It didn't take long.
Beyond a smooth, cleared expanse leading directly to the Spire's walls, seven colossal heads rested in alignment. They did not face him. They faced the doors.
Engraved on the doors was a symbol: seven radiant stars. At the center of each, a dark hollow. Seven locks.
A cold weight settled in Sunny's stomach.
He summoned Saint to his right. Serpent already rested as a tattoo on his skin, circulating a pitiful amount of essence.
He looked at the doors once more and stepped forward. The moment his foot touched the surface, the world changed.
Fragments of coral rose in a spiral, floating and spinning, then converging. Seven silhouettes took form before him, growing, solidifying, arming themselves with coral weapons.
Sunny extended his hand and Midnight Shard appeared in his palm.
When the dust settled, seven guardians stood between him and the seven locks.
Sunny smiled without humor.
"Seven… Of course. Why not?"
Saint struck her shield twice and charged.
The battle exploded.
Sunny found himself facing three at once: the Knight pressed from the front, the Assassin sought his flank, the Priestess kept distance, launching sharp projectiles.
His shadow clung to his body, reinforcing him. With the minimal essence he could produce, he barely managed to keep up.
A missed strike from the Knight cracked the ground. Sunny spun to counterattack, but the Assassin was already behind him. A thin blade opened his back. He retreated, blocked another blow, but each clash numbed his arms.
In the distance, Saint held against three as well. But the Lord did not intervene. He observed from afar.
That made no sense.
After several brutal exchanges, an idea crossed Sunny's mind.
What if the Crimson Terror had created its own equivalent of the Crown of Dawn and was currently feeding the seven golems with power?
He had no proof and no time. So he decided.
He mentally ordered Saint to draw the attention of the six guardians alone and ran toward the seventh.
The Lord.
The figure remained still until the last instant. Then it vanished. Sunny turned instinctively.
The Lord reappeared to his left, out of Midnight Shard's reach, and its spear descended like lightning.
Sunny blocked, but the impact forced him to one knee.
The second thrust pierced his thigh.
He rolled aside as the spear perforated the ground where his head had been. Rising with a limp, he launched a horizontal slash.
The Lord evaded with minimal movement. Its counterattack was brutal: the shaft of the spear struck Sunny's ribs.
Something cracked. Air left his lungs. He tried to retreat, but the Lord was already upon him. A descending blow shattered his guard, and the coral blade opened his shoulder.
Sunny tried to use the momentum to stab the Lord's torso. The blade left only a superficial mark, and the Lord kicked him in the chest.
Sunny fell onto his back, blood filling his mouth.
The Lord raised its spear for the final blow.
***
On the first line, not everything continued as before. Though Nephis' presence had been a positive impulse, it did not last long.
The first row was already on the verge of collapse. Through a series of misfortunes, Effie ended up separated from Caster and Gemma. Those two continued fighting back to back, while ahead Arthur and Nephis remained the primary focus of the creatures.
The moment she separated, Effie began to be overwhelmed. In the rush of adrenaline and effort, she hadn't noticed when she lost her shield, and the absurd number of remaining monsters began tackling her.
In an instant, a hill of Nightmare Creature bodies formed, trying to devour the person beneath.
With malicious pride, she refused to die. Not like this. Not without one last fight.
A muffled sound echoed beneath the mound. A furious growl filled with rage, defiance, and desperate will to survive.
The hill trembled — then exploded. Bodies flew and rolled away.
Tensing her muscles to the brink of bursting, Effie shoved the crushing weight aside and emerged from the mass.
With a bestial snarl, she turned and fought, killing monster after monster with her bare hands. But she couldn't last forever. She staggered and fell to her knees.
She tried to breathe, but something blocked her throat and her lungs failed. She couldn't.
'This is the end, I guess…'
Through her dark, blurred vision, she saw a radiant figure approaching.
Effie sighed and closed her eyes, ready to surrender to oblivion.
Then two cool hands gently touched her face. White, purifying flames flowed through her body, dispelling pain and agony.
***
With Nephis gone, Arthur once again faced the horde alone.
But Arthur did not retreat.
The creatures closed in like a black tide, but within his two-meter perimeter, the world moved differently. Static Void activated and deactivated constantly. Every limb crossing that threshold suffered a fraction of a second of delay, a micro-instant frozen. Imperceptible to anyone not looking… but enough for him.
His Aether Sense extended slightly beyond the perimeter.
In one clean motion, he brought the sword down and a head separated from its neck. Before the body finished collapsing, he sensed a disturbance to his right, pivoted on his heel, and in the same motion severed a leg attempting to pierce his side. The limb fell.
Three more surged in simultaneously. They entered his domain. Slowed just enough.
Arthur advanced instead of retreating.
He thrust forward, ripped the blade free, and used the momentum to open another's abdomen. The third tried to bite his neck, but upon crossing Static Void's limit its jaw hesitated for a breath of time; Arthur tilted his head barely a centimeter and responded with an upward slash that split skull and face.
Now blood covered his arms and face.
They kept coming.
The two-meter radius became a grinder. Every attempt to breach it met minimal desynchronization. Every desynchronization was punished with surgical precision.
At first, Arthur breathed in control. Measured steps. Calculated trajectories.
But pressure mounted. The creatures began pushing each other, building mass to saturate his margin. Static Void could not slow them all. Too many slipped through.
A claw opened his shoulder.
He did not react to pain. He cut the arm from the elbow and continued into another chest. Simultaneously, the wound healed on its own.
His Aether perception vibrated relentlessly. Too many signals. Too many impulses.
His sword moved faster.
He no longer waited for visual confirmation; he struck where aether told him the next blow would come. He spun and decapitated a creature before it completed its leap. Stepping back half a pace, let two enter his radius, and at the instant their movements froze in that fatal microsecond, he split them both in a horizontal slash that left a trail in the air.
The trail was purple.
At first, just a reflection on steel.
Arthur didn't notice.
He kept advancing, pushing against the tide. His domain grew more aggressive. No longer just defense — a trap. He let them enter. Invited them.
Something rammed him hard enough to force a full step back. His margin trembled. Static Void flickered.
Arthur Smiled.
It was not a healthy smile.
He drove his blade into the attacker's neck, ripped it free with a twist, and hurled the corpse into two others. They entered his radius disordered. Their movements snagged. Arthur pierced them both with brutal efficiency.
Dawn's Ballad no longer reflected the same way. A purple aura intensified with every exchange. With every life cut.
The aether's murmur in his mind ceased being clear information. It became noise.
Still, he fought.
A downward cut split a torso. A kick shoved aside a falling body. He plunged the sword to the hilt in another, leaving it a heartbeat too long, watching violet light crawl along the blade.
[You have received an Asp—]
"I don't care."
He said it through clenched teeth, and Static Void expanded slightly, as if forced by will. Creatures trying to circle him found their movements snagging a heartbeat longer.
Arthur charged directly into the densest concentration.
No more conserving energy.
No more preserving motion.
Every entry into his radius was punished with growing violence. He cut deeper. Wider. Faster. The purple glow ceased being a reflection and became a constant, dark, intense radiance wrapping the blade like a silent flame.
Blood ran down his side, but he no longer distinguished his own from others'.
Completely surrounded, with only those two meters as his territory, Arthur advanced step by step, turning the immediate space into a slaughterhouse suspended in frozen microseconds.
And at the center of that distorted domain, while his sword burned deep violet and the world moved in minimal jolts around him, something in his mind began tipping dangerously toward the edge.
He wondered what would happen if he let go completely. In the destruction that would follow if he activated [Former King], part of him wanted it. Wanted to return to that efficiency, that ability to take lives without remorse. Not only wanted it. He needed it.
He needed to see these creatures turn to dust. To see them destroyed on the ground and keep killing, keep killing until none remained and when there were no more, to consume the entire Labyrinth until nothing was left but destruction.
He even wondered if it was worth continuing to fight for these people.
'Wouldn't it be fun to watch them burn too?' he thought with a smile.
***
The Dreamer Army diminished, but still resisted, even slowly pushing the horde back.
As archers ran out of arrows, those without proper Memories summoned melee weapons and joined the vanguard. The Artisans abandoned siege machines and did the same.
Meanwhile, the nightmare horde had exhausted its seemingly endless reserve of fresh bodies. With no more abominations crossing the crimson coral bridges, its mass slowly dwindled.
With Arthur in that state and Nephis as the next pillar, the Dreamer Army began pushing the horde back.
"Come on! Hold the line!"
Just as several shouted, sensing victory near, a gust of wind swept the battlefield, carrying the scent of salt.
The natural light dimmed slightly.
Looking west, they stumbled and froze. Their faces turned white as snow.
Behind the Crimson Spire, a wall of darkness slowly devoured the world, approaching at terrifying speed, lightning illuminating its furious depths.
A storm was coming.
As it neared, the black waters swirling around the island trembled and began to rise.
Slowly at first. Then faster. The vortex grew, advancing, swallowing crimson coral meter by meter as its dark immensity climbed.
Yet the monsters guarding the Spire did not react like normal Nightmare Creatures.
Instead of fleeing, they howled in eerie triumph and crashed against the Dreamer Army with renewed fury.
Terror and despair filled human faces. There was nowhere to retreat. Only to resist and fight.
Even as the ground grew slick beneath their feet, covered by a thin layer of black water.
Even as the water kept rising.
***
Sunny had recovered somewhat and was grappling with the Lord, the abomination's hand trapped between his arm and torso. The golem seemed unconcerned, raising its other fist for the final blow.
Before it could, Sunny's free hand shot forward.
His fingers closed around the shining fragment of crimson coral embedded in the Lord's forehead. He tensed his muscles for a fraction of a second.
And tore it out.
Something cracked within the Lord's body, and it staggered.
Without wasting the chance, Sunny released it, raised Midnight Shard, and delivered a devastating downward slash.
The tachi's blade struck red coral and shattered it, turning the imposing Lord into a rain of fragments.
As the remains hit the ground, Sunny spun and rushed toward the remaining six golems to reinforce Saint.
Saint barely stood. Her armor was shattered, stained red by crimson dust flowing from terrible wounds. Her visor was broken, one side of her face shattered. One ruby eye was gone, replaced by a jagged black hole.
The next instant, a wall of darkness devoured the space before the Crimson Spire, bringing violent rain and hurricane winds.
The storm had arrived.
The six golems stood still for seconds, staring into the raging tempest. Lightning occasionally illuminated the world. The rain was so dense it was nearly impossible to see.
Suddenly, they sensed faint movement to their left and turned, ready to strike.
But no one was there.
An instant later, one shuddered and collapsed, its head flying into darkness. The blade that decapitated it was too fast, too unexpected.
Sunny, hidden in shadow, bared his teeth in a fierce grin.
The rest of the fight had only one direction: Sunny's.
Hidden and using the little essence Serpent provided, the remaining golems fell one by one. Each lightning flash revealed a severed silhouette, a collapsing body, a form disintegrating under precise, brutal cuts. Then darkness swallowed it again.
When water reached nearly his knees, he summoned the first Oath Key. He hesitated then inserted it into the black slit of the lock.
He moved to the second star. Inserted the second key. Nothing happened. He fought the rising water to reach the third.
The third slid in quickly. He ran to the fourth and inserted another.
Water rose higher, forcing effort with every step. A violent gust nearly threw him headfirst into the stone doors.
He placed the fifth key and nearly swam to the sixth.
Inserted the sixth. Submerged to reach the last.
He found the seventh star and drove the seventh key into its center.
Suddenly, the world trembled.
***
The Forgotten Shore shook as if something colossal shifted at its core.
On the battlefield, everything stopped. The wind died. Rain ceased. Thunder fell silent.
The storm simply… ended.
Creatures faltered, confused.
Then the sky parted and a beam of sunlight pierced black clouds.
The water stopped advancing.
And began to recede.
The cursed sea was fleeing.
***
Beyond the deep moat surrounding the island, the remnants of the Dreamer Army were about to change the battle's course.
Minutes ago they had been drowning beneath black water amid an apocalyptic storm and horde. Now the sky was clear, sun blazing, cursed sea retreating.
Bathed in light, creatures moved differently.
Arthur noticed first.
At first, he thought it was his mind, still altered by violence. His breathing remained heavy, his sword still glowing intense purple. But within Static Void's radius, something had changed. It was not only micro-freezing slowing them.
It was them.
Their attacks came late. Charges lost strength. Movements grew heavy. Clumsy.
Arthur blinked.
The savage haze in his mind slowly dissipated. Aether flowed clear again.
He cut another creature almost reflexively and realized it required little effort.
Then he saw it.
A creature stumbled without reason. Another halted mid-leap and fell. Not from injury. Just fell.
A chill ran down his spine.
He looked at the sun. Nothing strange. Only pure light.
When he looked back, the battlefield was changing.
More creatures fell on their own. Some shuddered before going still. Others collapsed as if something invisible had torn life from them.
Horror gripped his chest.
He understood.
It wasn't the light. Not exhaustion. Something else.
He opened his mouth to warn others but a bell rang.
The sound echoed across the Forgotten Shore, deep and ancient, vibrating through air and bone.
Everyone reacted at once. As if a silent command had been given, survivors ran toward the Crimson Spire.
Arthur did too.
As he moved, he searched.
He saw Kai in the sky, flying toward the tower. Behind him, Sylvie carried Cassie and Kido. Below, Effie and Seishan ran together. Further back, Gemma.
Alive. Barely.
He staggered, covered in blood. Arthur changed direction without thinking, grabbed his arm, and helped him forward.
"Come on. Almost there."
Water receded beneath their feet as they crossed the moat.
At the tower's base, Nephis had arrived. The moment Arthur entered, she took Gemma and began healing him immediately.
Arthur paused, breathing hard, staring into the dark interior of the ancient structure.
They had done it.
The battle for the Crimson Spire was over.
Now they only had to find the hidden Gateway somewhere inside the tower… and survive the wrath of its master.