With a dull thud, the final monster's head fell to the ground.
Then, its front legs gave way as the massive body plummeted down, its charred flesh still sizzling and boiling.
Ah... it's done.
After three days of work, Changing Star sat down, surrounded by her companions, and braced herself for the inevitable. The smell of smoke and burning flesh were pushed to the back of her mind. She closed her eyes.
The pain of forming a new soul core never really grew old. It was just as terrible as Nephis remembered. Of course, this was her fourth core already — third time her soul was forced to bend over what should have been humanly possible.
Thankfully, the pain didn't take long and there were no accidents during the time she was immobile. The cohort guarded her, and besides, there were hardly any nightmare creatures left in this district anyways. They had taken care of that.
Sunny, Nephis and Cassie had gone scouting in the vicinity of the Bright Castle couple of days ago. Of course, they had not learnt much. The halls and corridors of the castle were blanketed with absolute darkness that even Sunny's eyes could not pierce. Still, they had pretty much confirmed that the creature was a corrupted one above the class of a beast, probably above the class of a monster. As such, Nephis decided that they should take their time to raise herself to the devil-class. The time they'd spent hunting was small compared to the enormous boon that an additional core would bring, and they needed absolutely every trump card possible to win the upcoming battle.
Now, they had no reason to stall anymore.
"Let's set up a camp in that small tower", Nephis said. "Then we'll talk about the final plan."
Although most of the talking had already been done in the days prior. The conclusion was... that they didn't have much of a plan yet.
The creature seemed to be content just sitting in the main hall of the Bright Castle. It was next to impossible to lure it out in order to trap it, but so was setting up a trap inside. Even if they managed to collapse the castle on top of the monster, it probably wouldn't suffer any fatal wounds. They did not have a clear picture of its powers, either — it mostly seemed to rule with its physical might as well as the surrounding darkness, which blinded its enemies and made them fall into despair. Of course, considering its rank, even its mere presence would exert serious mental pressure to a sleeper.
Nephis was an awakened, however. She felt that she might have a chance at taking the thing down. She also had Sunny and Saint with her — in fact, the three of them would be the only ones participating in the battle.
That last point had been debated many times recently, though.
"You are going in tomorrow, then?"
As if on cue, Effie's voice sounded behind her. They had just got into the upper chamber of the small tower and were starting to set up a camp. Nephis grabbed a reasonably large rock and sat down on it, facing the huntress.
"That's the plan."
"Hmph. And I guess we can't be change your mind."
Nephis started to assemble a stack of tinder to make a small campfire in the middle of the room. At the same time, others reached the top of the tower as well and sat in a circle around them.
"I know your strengths very well", Nephis said calmly. "And I also know how strong corrupted nightmare creatures are. There is no way for you to survive in a fight of that level."
"But Doofus can, apparently?"
Sunny smirked at Effie. "Of course. I'm special."
"You're especially annoying, that's for sure."
Nephis watched the two bicker in amusement.
"What Sunny means to say is that he is the only one of you I can directly heal."
Sunny turned to look at her, indignant.
"That was uncalled for!"
"Why is that, by the way?" Kai asked out of curiosity. "It seems really strange."
Sunny shrugged. "It's just something about my Aspect... "
Before the conversation turned into wrong territory, Nephis ignited the firewood. There was still several hours of daylight left, but she was not worried about nightmare creatures smelling the aroma of food. If they wanted to come, she'd let them.
Nowadays, most of the Dark City had turned silent. That was a result of their hard work as well as the fact that many of the monsters had either been killed by the current ruler of the Bright Castle or had perished trying to conquer the Dark Cathedral.
It was peaceful. It was calm before the storm.
*******
In the evening they returned to the cathedral under the scrutinizing gazes of other sleepers. Nephis first washed herself and then headed to her hut. On the way she met Seishan, who was leading a pack of handmaidens.
"We are going in tomorrow", Nephis said. "If we don't win, you'll probably know by the nightfall. In that case, best of luck."
Seishan held her gaze. "Best of luck to you as well. If by some miracle you indeed win, I'll surely follow you to the Crimson Spire." Her lips curled into a smile. "And if you lose, I'll curse your name until some nightmare creature finally drinks my blood."
Nephis frowned. "Isn't that a little melodramatic?"
Seishan just smiled in answer. "You should not be talking about dramatics."
Nephis could just shake her head internally. She turned to leave and immediately pumped into Sunny. Based on his smell, Nephis concluded that Sunny had not bathed yet.
"Are you ready for tomorrow?" she asked.
Sunny shrugged. "As ready as I'll ever be, I guess. Well, if I had the time to awaken as well, I would obviously be much more ready."
Nephis nodded. "I thought about that. The problem is, humans here are already dwindling. By waiting we will be wasting more and more lives and more and more time. That is something that should be avoided, even if it comes with some risk."
Sunny chuckled. "Some risk, you say? Well, I was just thinking and realized I might have an additional trump card — or at least something that will enhance your abilities a bit. As you are our main attacking force, I though it'd be stupid not to give this to you... "
He transferred a memory to Nephis and continued his journey to the washroom, whistling out of tune.
*******
In the next morning, a familiar sight could be seen in the plaza under the gaze of Dark Cathedral. Changing Star's cohort came out from their huts and vanished silently behind the barricade. The other dreamers, especially those on guard duty, were already accustomed to the habits of this hunting team. But little did they know that this day's hunt would be more dangerous than all the previous ones combined.
Nephis walked briskly at the head of the cohort. She didn't really see point in wasting any time — in her point of view, they had already wasted it far too much. She only kept the pace slow enough that they wouldn't accidentally run into anything troublesome — she didn't want to exhaust her essence ahead of the time, and likewise for Sunny, who didn't have much essence to begin with. He could be called a quasi-awakened, Nephis thought, kind of like she had been just a week earlier, too.
She silently checked all her runes, reminding herself of the battle plan. As she did so, she suddenly saw something see hadn't noticed yesterday, being in rush to sleep: one her Attributes had changed.
Again...
Lo and behold, it was the now-familiar Attribute [Fracture of Time.]
First, it had been an error. Then, a fracture. And now...
[A Ripple of Time].
Attribute Description: "You have changed the Tapestry of Fate. Paths twist. Destinies collapse. Your influence ripples through the sea of time."
To Nephis, it sounded really ominous.
But of course, there was nothing to be done about that. They could just make do with what they had and hope for the best, as always.
The streets and paths of the city quickly went by. Before they realized it, they were already nearing the the slums beneath the castle; or rather what was left of them.
The devastation didn't shock Nephis anymore, not after they had been there in the past days, but she still didn't like it.
The houses and little cottages had been crushed, crumbled to dust or collapsed. There were still bodies laying haphazardly here and there, with no one daring to give them a proper burial. Most of them were people Nephis knew well. Bloodstaines and torn members were strewn all across the road leading to the castle. Even the castle's gates had been torn open and thrown down from the hill.
This was where the other cohort members stopped. Sunny and Nephis bid them farewell as quickly as possible, feeling a little awkward. Nephis felt that the atmosphere was unnecessarily gloomy — it was not like they were actually going to die, at least if she had anything to say about that. And yet the hopelessness reflected in the eyes of Effie and Kai made her feel like she was about to walk into her own funeral.
"We should be done in about half an hour at most", Nephis said. "There is no way the battle is going to last more than that. Then we will go back and eat."
"That's something I can get behind", Effie said. "Take care and don't die."
Nephis simply nodded. She and Sunny left, each in their own direction.
Their plan was simple. Nephis was a ploy and Sunny was an assassin. A familiar pattern... the problem was, though, that Sunny had no way to actually kill the enemy. Saint might have a chance, but even that chance was slim. So in actuality, Sunny would be mostly just a distraction. Hopefully he could create a chance for Nephis to finish the job.
I am both the ploy and the killer, as well as the defense, Nephis thought. This will be interesting...
There was an additional, final component to the plan, of course. Nephis was looking quite forward to it.
She wanted to give Sunny time to position himself, so she walked slowly up the flat steps to the castle. The long road gradually rose from the outer settlement to the hill until it reached the giant maw of the first watchtower.
She suddenly remembered the first time she had seen the building. Back then she had let Sunny and Cassie go inside, choosing to stay behind herself. Had she felt bitter or envious then? To be frank, she didn't quite remember. She only remembered seeing the backs of the two as they walked up the road together.
Yes, she had to have been envious. Even though she didn't have feelings... or as much of them towards Sunny at that time.
Now, even that memory felt like a gift.
The situation she was in now strangely mirrored that of a before. Except now it was her bidding farewell to her friends, walking to the castle with Sunny, even though maybe not side by side.
Nephis shook her head to clear her thoughts. Gradually, the familiar stillness of battle clarity returned to her. Alongside it came a few shivers of fear as she walked below the giant gateway, into the thick darkness. This was an instinctual reaction brought by both her Second Nightmare and the fresh memory of the Unholy Gate Guardian.
Her skin began to shone dully as she walked further into farkness, making her able to find her way. The darkness around her didn't retreat as darkness normally would, instead cocooning her inside like a living being.
Before long, she reached the main hall of the castle.
She immediately felt a heavy corrupted presence right ahead. The darkness became absolute, snuffing out her weak flames. All that was left was blackness.
Nephis walked blindly ahead, sensing the distance with her intuition.
She counted on the fact that the corrupted creature wouldn't attack prematurely. Like before, it seemed to be fascinated by her light, unwilling to destroy its source immediately. Nephis had also whispered the Name of Concealment before going through the gate, hoping it would make the monster question her powers and identity, while at same time, making herself appear rather weak and harmless.
Nephis stopped her walk right before the platform where the throne was. She seemed to sense a cold breath around her, but other than that, all she felt was the massive presence of her enemy up ahead.
There was no scent and no sounds.
Nephis slowly raised her head.
Then she summoned the Weaver's Mask.
An attack came immediately. Darkness surged and exploded into motion. Nephis was already expecting it and had dogded in time, but she could feel the wind and the stone floor rupturing beneath her. At the same time, a voice came from the darkness, filled with malice that could freeze an ocean.
"Weaver..."
That was when Nephis truly unleashed her flames.
*******
AN: Finally!