In the Giant Kings Court.
A grayish-white figure was covered in orange-red light. Countless stairs extended from behind the door all the way to the tallest and most magnificent residence of the Giant King.
Amon was wearing armor made of steel and leather, with a pointed hat on his head and a monocle on his right eye. He entered the path leading to the royal court's entrance and started walking towards the countless stairs.
There were no obstacles on the way. Only Giant statues covered in iron-colored armor stood in front of different buildings, guarding the path that led to the residences of the god.
The palaces and towers on both sides felt heavy and oppressive, but Amon didn't care. He just walked forward as he whistled.
He stopped in front of one of the giant statues covered in iron-colored armor that stood outside the buildings. He touched it to see if it was alive. To his surprise, it was. The statue moved and tried to crush him. Amon rolled to the side to dodge it.
While dusting himself off, he pinched and adjusted his monocle. A chuckle slipped out of him. "Yes! finally I performed the roll. Now I'm an authentic Dark Souls protagonist."
While he was celebrating, the other giant statues on both sides of the divine kingdom's staircase emitted silvery-white beams as they let out shattering sounds.
The silver flowers that bloomed kept spreading upward as if they were welcoming him.
The giant closest to him swung its massive hand, sending a wave of dust and force across a wide area. Amon jumped into the air to dodge it. He used the air as a foothold and accelerated toward the statue in a flash. The Sword of Dawn ability on his sword hilt activated. With one slash, he cut the statue in half, the sword glowing in his hand. Without looking back, he struck a cool pose and slowly retracted the sword's power like he was turning off a lightsaber.
Looking back, he saw the road was completely crowded, with all the statues along the line activating.
Amon grinned and started to cut them down like a storm that was approaching.
Along the way, he fought several more enemies. Most were statues that had come to life, while a few were evil spirits formed from remnant emotions mixed with the power of dusk.
Amon kept walking forward. Eventually, he reached the tallest and grandest building in the court, the Giant King's palace.
Suddenly, a voice came from behind him. Amon looked back. It was seemingly a sane giant.
The giant knight raised his broadsword and pointed at Amon. He said in a thunderous voice, "How dare you barge into the king's court and disturb Lord Sasrir's slumber!"
The giant's bracers had bright patterns on them. On the right was a blood-red color that circled around his arm, and in the same spot on the left, it was adorned with black spots.
When the giant saw Amon's face, the broadsword in his hand shook visibly. His face lost the slight color it had, and his eyes bulged out of their sockets in fear.
The next moment, without saying anything, the tall giant turned around and seemingly ran into one of the giant statues he had merged with to gain immortality.
Amon looked at the hiding giant, frowned, and pinched his monocle. "Rude. We meet after so many years, Murskogan, and you didn't even say hi. Well, I did torment you non-stop when I was little, so I should sincerely apologize… but not now."
He then turned around and looked at the palace, which looked like the end of the day had been turned into a structure. Steeples and spires rose on both sides. The front doors were double doors, over ten meters tall, gray and blue, covered in symbols and patterns. They looked stately and mysterious. On the left side of the door, three to four meters up, there was a pitch-black socket the size of a fist. The keyhole.
Suddenly, Amon's hand whipped to the side and gripped something. It was the neck of 'himself'.
A quick use of decryption told him it was a doppelganger of some kind, made of living shadow.
A chuckle left his mouth.
"Hoh, you're trying to be as handsome as me, huh. Well, bad luck for you. This world can't handle two Amons. Avatars don't count." He said that as he seemingly cracked his doppelganger's neck. As if it were a living creature, it struggled and then stopped moving.
All the shadow spots nearby suddenly bubbled and disappeared.
He had used a loophole against the shadow creatures here. Every shadow creature is a being that lives in the Shadow World. A Beyonder of the Hanged Man pathway can summon them from there and make them their subordinates.
Since a shadow is created from the same substance that appears in the Shadow World, Amon could use it as a loophole to say that killing one of the shadow creatures meant killing all the shadow creatures in the Giant King's Court.
It was a very rudimentary use of his Error authority, but Amon didn't want to waste more spirituality than needed.
Luckily, Amon could clearly tell that these shadow creatures weren't summoned by Sasrir sleeping inside. It was just that Sasrir, as the Lord of Shadows, had an aura that worked as a beacon and a doorway for shadow creatures to arrive in the material world.
Next, Amon stood in front of the door and looked at the keyhole.
He then looked at the sky and opened his mouth. "Hey, asshole, give me the key for the door."
About a minute later, an iron-black key, as long as a heptachord, fell on his head. "Ow…"
He looked at it and sighed. One of his avatars was sent to the treasure room of Edwina, the Vice Admiral Iceberg, and took the key from there. It took about a minute for him to get it.
Using the key, Amon opened the door, and only pitch-black darkness greeted him.
Pinching his monocle, Amon took a step forward. Passing through the open door, he entered into deep darkness.
The place was enveloped by thick corporeal darkness. He couldn't see further than five meters away. The ground was paved with grayish-white bricks that looked like pieces of a frozen sunset. They didn't reveal anything extraordinary.
The door behind him vanished.
The sword in his hand lit up, emitting a golden glow that illuminated the surrounding darkness.
This revealed thick columns with indiscernible tops. Some of them had their silhouettes outlined, while others were hidden deep in the depths, barely visible.
After a few seconds, he noticed that his body had turned black and dull, as though he was being melted by the environment. Amon didn't resist, and the corners of his mouth curled up as he watched with a slightly shaking head.
The darkness was gone. The grayish-white stone bricks, the surrounding walls, and the huge pillars appeared clearly. They were covered in a layer of faint shadows.
Outside the window, there was no sun, no moon, and no stars. However, a faint light shone through the window, making the entire palace appear sinister, dark, and cold.
In the deepest part of the palace stood a very faint shadow, resembling curtains.
Amon moved his head and looked at the person he came to meet.
In the deepest part of the palace, the faint shadow dissipated, revealing a flight of steps meant for giants and an iron-black throne at the top.
Sitting on the throne was a man with black, slightly curly hair that reached his shoulders. His eyes were covered in shadows, and his actual appearance was extremely blurry, preventing others from seeing him clearly. Layers upon layers of black wings fell from behind him, covering most of his body. His robe was black with silver threads embroidered in complicated patterns, and gorgeous accessories hung from it.
At that moment, the man had his left elbow on the armrest, holding up one side of his face with his palm as though he was in a deep sleep.
The armor around his body melted and disappeared into nothingness. His normal robes and top hat appeared. Amon pinched his monocle and started to walk toward the sleeping Sasrir.
"Hello, Sassy."
"How have you been?"
Amon took a few more steps forward, covering several meters.
Cracks suddenly appeared in the shadows that covered the walls, pillars, and tiles, as one brass eye after another grew out.
A figure appeared in front of the countless eyes.
It was a young man with black eyes and curly black hair. He had a broad forehead and a thin face.
"It's rude to pry into someone's past, you know," Amon said, and gray fog appeared around him.
Just as he finished speaking, the brass-colored eyes that had grown from the surrounding shadows and the ground trembled. They emitted an ethereal voice that seemed to come from ancient times:
"The aura of Sefirah Castle..."
Suddenly, Amon stopped walking. His eyes widened as he gave a piercing stare toward the countless brass eyes.
"Father!?" Amon's voice seemed to carry genuine shock.
"Hello, Amon…" the deep, ancient voice replied.
Amon couldn't say anything for a moment. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it again.
The first thing that left his mouth was a question. "Why did you have to die?"
"The Primordial One had awoken in my body…"
"You understand what that means, right?" the remnant voice of the Sun God replied.
Amon turned his eyes toward Sasrir again and sighed. "So Sasrir and you were one person all along, huh."
"That's right.
"Not long after I walked out of the Chaos Sea, I realized the problem. I split a portion of my persona on purpose, fused the authorities of Degeneration with the Hanged Man pathway's Beyonder characteristic, and created another me. Its purpose was to control the Chaos Sea and isolate it from my real body to prevent contamination and corruption.
"But in the end, the Primordial One still awoke in my body…"
"Why didn't you invite us to fight with you? If we were there, we could have fought them off and stopped the Uniqueness from falling into 'Their' hands," Amon asked with genuine sadness in his voice.
"I was worried that inviting both of you would cause an accident."
"You're the True Creator, aren't you? Why didn't you contact us earlier?"
The voice was silent for a moment. "I can only regain my rationality once. I used almost all my remaining strength to keep my madness at bay just to talk to you."
Hearing this, Amon only sighed.
"Tell me, Amon, why are you here?"
Amon sighed again. "I'm here to get help fulfilling your prophecy. For that, I need the First Blasphemy Slate."
Silence filled the palace.
Standing there, Amon opened his heart to the only person he truly respected in this world.
"Was it not you who told me that one day I would be the Destined Messiah?
"The apocalypse is coming soon."
"You have grown…" the voice replied.
Amon looked back at the brass eyes, determination in his gaze.
"Take care of our home for me, son. I'm proud of you."
The next moment, the brass eyes hidden in the shadows disappeared.
The Dark Angel Sasrir, who was sleeping on the black throne, opened his eyes.
Countless silver threads wrapped around Sasrir. In front of the black robe with mysterious patterns, silver bolts of lightning appeared out of thin air. They sizzled and intertwined with each other in a thunderous manner. They rapidly extended forward, transforming into a resplendent lightning sea that attempted to drown the entire shadow palace.
An illusory chime sounded from a distant history as the melodious sound echoed in the shadow palace.
An ancient mottled wall clock appeared in front of Amon. Its face was separated into twelve different segments by grayish-white and bluish-black colors. Each segment had different, mysterious, and asymmetric symbols.
The three fingers, which seemed to be formed by Worms of Time of different lengths, began to tick lightly.
When the chime rang again, the lightning sea that was rapidly spreading in the shadow palace clearly froze.
Using that moment, Amon immediately raised his right hand and adjusted the monocle on his right eye.
The crystal monocle turned dark, as though it was mixed with countless colors in an indescribable manner.
An illusory, terrifying, tumultuous sea appeared in front of Amon.
The Blasphemy Slate that was connected to the body of Sasrir suddenly vibrated and emitted a buzzing sound as though it were alive.
It was located on the black throne, hidden to the right of the Dark Angel, giving off an extremely ancient feeling.
It broke free from Sasrir's control and threw itself at Amon.
Amon had been wandering around the Forsaken Land of the Gods for more than a thousand years. He had hovered at the edge of the Chaos Sea and had stolen some traits from it. Now, he was only using the release of this stolen trait to attract the Blasphemy Slate.
When the crazed body of Sasrir lost partial control over the Chaos Sea, the illusory, layered black wings on Sasrir's back dimmed significantly.
Then, the shadow that covered the walls, stone pillars, and tiles began to disintegrate, revealing inches of orange-red light.
The palace hidden in the residence of the Giant King finally failed to sustain its existence in the real world. It no longer blocked out the influence of the outside world.
Using this opportunity, Amon reached out with his left hand and grabbed the Blasphemy Slate. Then he turned around, teleported and pressed his right hand on the grayish-blue door that was still covered with a small amount of shadows.
The figure wearing a pointed hat and a classic black robe immediately became illusory as he tore through the door and vanished.