Amon watched the horrifying scene unfold before him in stunned silence. Flames, blood, screams, lifeless bodies, and the guttural roars of beasts tearing each other apart... it was all too much.
Fronti's fleet had crashed upon the shore, and from it, waves of warriors surged onto the land. Meanwhile, cannons thundered, firing relentlessly into enemy lines.
It was overwhelming. Why did his nightmares always have to look like this? Couldn't it have been something simple? And to think, he'd already been stuck here for five months.
Sure, he'd gotten used to it by now. The fighting, surviving in the wilds, the endless scheming, politics, strategies... But that didn't mean he had to like it.
He sighed as he noticed the cavalry charging toward Alerak's warriors, two thousand horsemen with lances lowered, the deadly tips aimed straight at their foes.
In response, Alerak's troops quickly shifted formation. The front lines locked their shields together and slammed them into the ground, bracing for impact, while the spearmen behind raised their weapons in a forest of sharpened steel.
Then, the cavalry hit them.
It was like a tidal wave crashing down, unstoppable and brutal. The horsemen tore through the formation with terrifying momentum, trampling warriors underfoot and scattering them like dust in a storm.
At the same time, Alerak and Kaisarius were locked in a deadly duel.
Alerak parried Kaisarius's sword, then twisted it aside with his hooked blade and drove a boot into his chest, forcing him back. Without hesitation, he snatched a spear from a fallen warrior and hurled it with stunning precision.
Kaisarius rolled aside, narrowly evading the projectile. The spear struck the rock behind him and shattered on impact.
Without wasting a breath, Kaisarius pressed his palms to the ground. At first, nothing happened, then, slowly, the earth beneath them began to shimmer. Gold spread outward like a living tide, devouring the ground in its wake.
Alerak was caught for a moment, his foot sinking into the transmuting terrain until he shed the grafted skin binding him and slipped free, escaping the golden prison just in time.
Kaisarius narrowed his eyes, then raised his hand. The solid gold liquefied, seething like molten metal.
Pillars of liquid gold erupted from the ground, writhing like tentacles as they chased Alerak with relentless hunger.
But Alerak broke free from their range. Though, he no longer looked like the towering warrior from before. His build had shrunk, now leaner, more human. Yet as he ran, he began grafting flesh and skin from the fallen onto himself. Piece by piece, he rebuilt his monstrous frame.
No, he wasn't just restoring it. He was growing.
Two meters. Three. Four... until a five-meter-tall colossus stood towering before Kaisarius.
Alerak seized a boulder and hurled it with monstrous force. But the golden tendrils caught it mid-air, transmuting it into gleaming gold before shattering it into molten shards. It flowed back into the sea of liquid gold, growing stronger and brighter.
At that very moment, Alerak abandoned all thoughts of defense. He charged straight at Kaisarius, even as patches of his grafted skin began to harden, turning into gold. He gambled everything on a single possibility: to kill Kaisarius before his body fully succumbed.
Kaisarius hadn't anticipated such reckless ferocity. Shock flickered across his face, but it quickly hardened into cold determination. With a swift gesture, he raised a swirling wall of molten gold around himself, then solidified it, encasing his body within a golden colossus shaped like an armored warrior.
Wielding a radiant blade, Kaisarius brought it down just as Alerak's massive frame collided with him. Steel met gold in a thunderous clash.
Alerak roared, a beastial scream erupting from his throat as the curse of greed crept faster across his flesh. His body cracked and groaned, turning to gold mid-swing yet still he pressed on.
Kaisarius winced inside the golden shell. The blow had pierced through; his armor split, and ribs shattered from the sheer impact. But he held his ground.
Two giants stood locked in a battle of raw will. One gilded in golden armour, the other held together by stolen flesh and savage resolve.
The giant of flesh crashed against the colossus of gold, and the two titans tumbled to the ground, locked in a brutal struggle. Alerak snarled like a beast, clawing and smashing at the golden armor with frenzied fury. But Kaisarius twisted free, his movements precise despite the weight of his golden form. With a brutal kick, he launched Alerak backward into a shallow river, water splashing high as the monstrous warrior crashed into it.
Without hesitation, Kaisarius charged. His arm morphed into a gleaming sword, the blade bursting forward to impale Alerak's shoulder. Lifting the shrieking giant into the air, Kaisarius slammed him down with such force that the earth itself quaked beneath them.
Meanwhile, Amon sprinted through the war-torn city, clutching the enchanted arrow he had taken from Liparik. He was out of breath, yet never slowed. His Memory, [Hawk's Eye], had not manifested as a bow, as he had hoped, but instead appeared as a spyglasses.
Though initially disappointed, he soon realized it was far more useful than a mere weapon. With it, he could see across vast distances, zoom in and out at will, and study enemy formations in chilling detail.
And what he saw from the ship made his stomach drop.
Alerak had anticipated everything: the cavalry, the fleet, even the reinforcements.
From the western sea, dozens of battleships now approached, their black sails blotting the horizon.
That's why he was rushing up the mountain.
He had managed to slip through the carnage, weaving past the chaos and bloodshed, until he reached the upper edge of the capital. The path that led toward the mountain's peak.
But he was in crisis.
He forced out a shaky smile, more to convince himself than anything else and began to climb.
I have to reach it soon… or we'll lose. I need to destroy it… That's right. I will definitely succeed! There's no way i fail! I will-
Half an hour later...
"Holy shit... stairs? Why the hell are there five kilometers of stairs!?"
He bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath.
"Hah… ha… hah… shit, I'm dying. I think my lungs are gone. They've abandoned me."
He looked up. The stairs stretched endlessly toward the clouds, as if someone had tried to punish mortals for daring to hope.
"…Maybe I should rest. This war's almost lost anyway."
After ten minutes of rest, Amon continued running, though now much slower than before. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice and exhaust himself so easily again.
Glancing back, he saw Kaisarius and Alerak still locked in brutal combat. The roar of cannons shook the air, and explosions bloomed across the battlefield like fiery flowers. Meanwhile, the cavalry had reached the city and reclaimed it. Kaisarius's horse... or whatever that monstrous creature was, had lost its duel against Alerak's hound. But the beast was barely alive as well, lying there torn apart, its breath shallow and ragged.
Amon clenched his fists, wiped the sweat from his face, and pressed on, ascending the long path that led him ever closer to the heavens.
At the same time, Arias fully reclaimed the city with the combined strength of the cavalry and Bernak. Lord Fronti continued his relentless bombardment, his cannons thundering across the field, while his sailors pushed the enemy lines back inch by inch.
But that wasn't all.
For in that very moment, when the outcome of the war still hung in the balance, both Alerak and Kaisarius shed their mortal shells and became something beyond human.
The Defiler and the Oathkeeper… both had achieved the Transcendence.
In Alerak's place rose a sinister white serpent, hissing with malice, its pale scales glistening like bone beneath the moonlight. On the opposite side, a majestic beast emerged, radiant and awe-inspiring. Horned and regal, with pure, beautiful features. It was a Qilin, a creature that symbolize good fortune, prosperity, and harmony.
Now, two Transcendent champions stood once more, ready to tear each other apart.
But just as they were about to clash again, both beings froze.
Qilin's gaze snapped toward the western shore. There, battleships were crashing against the coast. Reinforcements were arriving from the sea, where the river met the open waters. Lord Fronti's fleet guarded the eastern edge, but these new ships had come from the opposite direction.
Enemy warriors poured out like a flood, surging through the shattered western wall.
The cavalry wasn't there to stop them. They had been diverted north to trap and slaughter Alerak's forces. In other words, there was no one left to hold the western flank. The city now lay open, exposed and Kaisarius's army risked being crushed from both sides.
The serpent, however, did not freeze from shock… but from delight.
Sinister and still, he watched his trap spring shut, his plans unfolding perfectly, and Kaisarius's army falling into ruin.
Well… that was supposed to happen.
But Alerak hadn't accounted for the cunning of one insignificant, slippery little thief.
And that was why, in the very next heartbeat, a thunderous explosion ripped through the battlefield.
Every head turned as a distant roar echoed from the mountains. Stones and debris shot into the sky, falling moments later like flaming meteors. Then came the sound that was deep, guttural and ancient. The cracking of something massive giving way.
The dam.
The structure that had long held the river at bay for irrigation… had shattered.
From the western slopes, a tidal wall of water came crashing down, a furious deluge tearing through the valley. It poured into the city with merciless force, toppling buildings, uprooting streets, and drowning all beneath its wrath.
Alerak's reinforcements, those who had entered through the broken western wall, never even had a chance to scream. The flood swept them away, crushing them under its weight. Then, like a beast not yet sated, the water slammed into the enemy ships still unloading at the coast, snapping hulls like twigs and dragging the remains into the deep.
In a single, brilliant move, the entire flank... no, the entire western army was obliterated.
Amon lay sprawled on the cold stone, his chest heaving. Each breath burned in his lungs. His heart pounded like a war drum, wild and erratic. Sweat clung to his skin, dripping down his temples.
But it worked.
The proof was all around him: distant screams, collapsing walls, the coppery scent of blood. And then inside his mind, a voice spoke with mechanical indifference.
[You have slain a Dormant human. Name: Unknown.]
[You have slain a Dormant human. Name: Unknown.]
[You have slain an Awakened human. Name: Unknown.]
[You have slain an Awakened human. Name: Unknown.]
[You have slain an Awakened human. Name: Unknown.]
[You have slain an Awakened human. Name: Unknown.]
[You have slain an Awakened human. Name: Unknown.]
[You have slain an Awakened...]
How many… He didn't know how many people he had killed by destroying the dam. But it was a lot.
The Spell had been announcing deaths for a while now. He wasn't sure how many minutes had passed, but it had been long enough for him to realize: hundreds were dead. Maybe more.
Heh… I really am the protagonist of this era.
Who else could do what he just did? No one. That's right.
Five months in the Nightmare, and over a thousand kills under his belt.
Hmm... does that mean I'm already a Monster?
If he received a Divine Aspect now, his core might already be saturated. A Monster Core could form without even trying…
His exhausted expression twisted; first into wonder, then amusement.
I haven't even fought anyone yet. Heh, how interesting…
Groaning, he rolled onto his side, just enough to see the end of the battle.
From the now-calm river, a majestic Qilin burst forth, its gleaming horn impaling the head of the white serpent with brutal grace. At the same moment, cavalry forces overran the northern flank, while Lord Fronti's sailors, together with the warriors from the capital, trapped the enemy in a crushing formation and slaughtered them without mercy.
Enemy battleships were destroyed by river and survivors were seized.
After long night, the battle was won...
In the distance, Amon watched the first light of dawn creep over the horizon. The sun rose like a promise, and he smiled faintly, closing his eyes just as a voice echoed in his mind:
[Wake up, Amon. Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for Appraisal…]
***
So, guys... I've decided on the name for his flaw. Blasphemous Dare was good, but I wanted something more refined. How about: Blasphemer's Gambit?
I also rewrote the description. The meaning is the same, but it's more cryptic and confusing. It now reads:
[You trace the edges of a truth better left unseen.]
I think this'll throw Amon off, forcing him to explore the flaw himself.
And well… by the looks of it, the Blasphemer won. Tell me what you think about this nightmare and it's end.
So, what should his soul sea look like? Should I make it resemble a spirit world or a Sefirah Castle, or should it be something unique to Amon?
That's it for now. We're ready for appraisal!
***