As they ventured deeper into the enormous Crimson Spire, Uriel observed a large hole where the dark sea was sealed. The surface was calm, like a mirror with small ripples, as if it was trying to break free from the seal.
Looking beyond the enormous hole, he saw countless golems watching them in the darkness, their expressions empty. The golems had a standard humanoid appearance.
Some remained motionless, while others wandered aimlessly, and some were incredibly hollow.
Uriel looked towards the upper part of the Crimson Spire, seeing the stairs that continuously ascended. Several sections had collapsed over time.
Looking at the tower, he narrowed his eyes before jumping backward, avoiding a beam of light that shot directly where he had been a second before.
"Everyone, back!" shouted Nephis as another beam of annihilating light descended from above, erasing the darkness.
"Everyone, get to the shadows! Don't let the rays touch you!" Uriel yelled.
Quickly, all the Sleepers took refuge in the deep shadows provided by the coral formations and clung to them. Some unfortunate ones stayed exposed to the light for too long and vanished in an instant.
Uriel hid behind a dense coral column and somehow ended up alongside Nephis, Sunny, and Cassie.
The rest of the Sleepers were hidden.
More and more beams of light fell from the sky. Guided by the light, the golems advanced toward the army of hidden Sleepers.
"And now what?" asked Sunny, looking at Uriel and Nephis.
"Someone will have to attack the Crimson Terror directly and divert its attention," said Nephis.
"And who could that be?"
"In essence, someone with high resistance to soul attacks, which, unfortunately, I don't have," said Uriel.
"I'll do it," said Nephis.
This earned her a strange look from Sunny.
"Are you insane?! We're talking about a fallen Terror!"
Nephis smiled slightly.
"I am insane. The world is insane, and besides, it's just a fallen Terror."
'Hey, don't use my lines,' Uriel shouted internally.
Sunny shook his head in disbelief.
Uriel listened to Sunny and Nephis's conversation out of the corner of his eye, watching the annihilating rays that continued to descend.
After their conversation, Nephis shot off at high speed. The beam of light followed her, deciding to focus on her.
Uriel looked at Sunny.
"Everyone, follow me!" Sunny yelled. "Uriel, I need you to clear a path for us."
Uriel nodded. Strangely, their roles had reversed in a very odd way. The person who never wanted to be a leader was now responsible for guiding hundreds of people, and the leader had to act as the force to clear a path for everyone.
Uriel counted three seconds and then leaped toward the advancing army of golems. At his side, Gunlaug's Echo materialized. Because the armor had high protection against soul attacks, it wasn't as damaged as the knight, which had suffered significant damage and would take time to heal.
With the help of his dark Echo, they cleared a path, which the Sleepers used to advance and ascend the Crimson Spire.
After the first wave passed, some Sleepers joined the fight to create a path and ascend, staying behind to buy more time before finally moving forward.
Uriel summoned his Winged Cloak, rising to another gallery. Summoning his Hunter's Bow, he prepared an arrow and fired it, destroying several golems while his hand transformed into a dark tentacle that pushed the rest away. When Sunny arrived, he saw that the gallery where the golems had been had been cleared by Uriel.
Soon, strong tremors began to shake the tower. Uriel stopped and looked at his attributes, noticing a new attribute called Soul Conduit. A sigh escaped his lips as he watched Sunny advance after finding the portal, with hundreds of Sleepers following without stopping.
When Uriel reached the portal, he saw the Sleepers beginning to leave one after another, abandoning the hell of the Forgotten Shore without hesitation.
After recovering sufficiently from the soul damage, Uriel knew he could use his Dark Body for at least a minute.
"Listen! Those who are more injured, use the portal. Those who can still fight, buy time for the others and then leave," Uriel shouted.
Everyone followed his orders. Those in better condition fought and blocked the golems while the more injured or those on the verge of death crossed the portal, saving themselves from death's door.
Uriel watched as Sunny moved away. It was clear his mission was to kill Caster. Uriel continued defending the portal and the Sleepers for a while longer until only about 20 Sleepers remained.
"You all, go," said Uriel, reaching his limit.
"But Lord Uriel—"
"Do it. It's an order. I'll follow soon."
The Sleepers looked at each other before heading to the portal, abandoning the Crimson Spire.
Uriel sighed. He dismissed the black cloak and instead summoned a new Memory he had obtained.
It was a black and yellow tunic with arm braces and metallic projectors. The material was comfortable, flexible, and durable.
This was an Ascended armor of the second level, obtained by killing a fallen demon during the siege. Uriel felt his fatigue and wounds begin to heal quickly, but not fast enough.
Observing the golems, he continued his work.
It only took him two or three minutes to finish off the last golem.
Uriel looked at his black sword, which was incredibly damaged and chipped. The damage was so severe that not even his Sea of Souls could heal it. He checked his runes and saw that Gunlaug was repairing himself in his Sea of Souls due to the damage he had suffered.
In the distance, he could see a section of the tower collapsing into a hole, revealing Nephis flying toward the fallen Terror to kill it mid-evolution. Below, he knew Sunny was fighting Caster.
For a moment, he looked at the portal.
'You know, we can always just leave,' said Shade.
Uriel shook his head.
"No," he responded aloud. "We've already made a decision."
'I know. After all, we're very stubborn and headstrong to the end. Do you want me to do it?'
"No, I'll do it." After that answer, Shade fell silent. Uriel summoned the Infinite Spring and quenched his dry throat.
He walked over to a large pile of rubble and sat down lazily.
Uriel watched as Nephis returned. She looked tired and exhausted, her white flames healing her most mortal wounds. Nephis looked at Uriel with confusion. Clearly, he shouldn't be here, but he was. After all, what Cassie had told her was that she and Sunny were supposed to fight to the death.
"Oh, hi, Neph. What a surprise to see you again. Did you kill the Crimson Terror?" Uriel asked with a smile on his face.
"Yes, it's dead," said Nephis.
"Oh, that's good. And by any chance, do you have an attribute called Soul Conduit?"
Nephis was confused for a moment before narrowing her eyes.
Uriel stood up, letting the black sword rest on his shoulder.
Walking toward Nephis, he began to speak.
"Do you know what day it is today?" Uriel asked. The question disoriented Changing Star for a moment, and she raised an eyebrow.
"Why are you asking that?"
"Just answer the question."
"Friday."
"Correct. A full week has passed, so this time, it'll be my turn." Uriel disappeared, reappearing in front of Nephis, swinging his sword at Changing Star. As weakened as she was, she had enough energy to block the attack, though her body was sent flying away from the portal, directly toward the entrance.
Plunging the silver sword into the ground, Nephis stopped and looked at Uriel with confused eyes. A few seconds later, Sunny arrived, entering the room and seeing the current situation through his two shadows.
"What the hell are you doing here, Uriel?" Sunny asked angrily.
"Oh, Sunny. It's good to see you alive. I suppose you killed Caster."
"Don't change the subject," the boy demanded. "What are you doing here, and why did you attack Neph out of nowhere?"
"Well, this is incredible. Do you know what artificial suns are?" Uriel asked.
"I don't know, and I don't care," said Sunny.
"Well, that sun is the result of a massive sacrifice of human souls. It's an artificial sun created from countless human souls. With that sacrifice, the sun blocked the darkness, bringing peace for a few centuries. However, centuries later, the sun became corrupted and demanded more and more souls. In the end, it became a nightmare creature—a Terror. At the same time, the seals that imprisoned the darkness broke, setting it free. So, a small balance was created, with both holding each other back," Uriel explained, looking toward the hole where the light of the nameless sun continued to consume thousands of beasts throughout the crimson labyrinth.
"What happens when there's an enormous amount of souls traveling to the Crimson Spire?" Uriel asked.
"This place is a gigantic machine. It was created to collect soul essence and channel it to the artificial sun. However, it can't function without a small cog—a conduit for all those souls. And it's curious how this tower found the last three survivors as conduits."
"What's the point of all this explanation?" asked Sunny. "Let's just return to the waking world and leave this hell."
"Don't you understand? This tower is a machine, and the portal is part of it. It can't function without someone acting as a soul conduit, and therefore, the portal can't either. There must be a vessel for the portal to work."
"Which means only two can leave, and one will be trapped here."
"I suppose you'll simply let us go and sacrifice yourself," said Sunny with a smile.
"Oh, I'd love to do that, but I have plans—wonderful plans in the waking world, and I can't afford to be trapped here," Uriel smiled widely. Of course, his words were lies, but he was a very good liar, so much so that for him, truth and lies were one.
"So I thought about it and came to a conclusion. We'll play a game: 'Kill the Dark Lord.'"
Sunny and Nephis looked at him with some perplexity.
"The rules are simple. I am the Dark Lord, and you are the brave and tragic heroes destined to defeat me. But don't worry, I'll take one of you down when I leave you near death."
"Do you think you can beat us?"
"Oh, of course I do. After all, Nephis is a Devil, you, Sunny, are a monster, and I am a Terror. The difference in strength is simply abysmal."
'This is wrong. This isn't how everything should end,' Sunny thought. In the end, he and Nephis were supposed to fight, not fight against Uriel.
Sunny remembered the vision Cassie had told them.
"At first, I saw infinite darkness locked behind seven seals. Something immense stirred in the darkness. I felt that if I looked at it directly, I'd lose my mind. As I watched in terror, the seals broke one after another until only one remained. And then that seal broke."
"I saw the human castle again. Only this time, at night, a bright star in the sky, and under its light, the castle was consumed by flames, with rivers of blood running through its halls. I saw a corpse in golden armor sitting on a throne, a woman with a bronze spear drowning in a sea of monsters, an archer trying to pierce the sky, falling with his arrows."
"A dark shadow annihilating an endless tide of monsters, saving countless lives, and a sea of reddish flames creating hell on earth."
"In the end, I saw a colossal and terrifying crimson spire, at its base seven severed heads guarding seven locks. And at the top, a dying angel consumed by hungry shadows," Uriel said.
"That was the vision Cass told you, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, your destiny originally was to kill each other, but as you can see, sometimes fate is wrong."
"Then why?" Nephis finally spoke.
"I've told you many times. I'm a curious being. Curiosity drives me, and right now, I'm filled with curiosity about something, and that something is fighting against the two of you. But letting you go? Of course, but that would be boring. If you want to leave here, you'll have to defeat me. And I suggest you do it quickly. This place is minutes away from collapsing."
"...Life isn't a story. It only ends when you die," said Nephis, looking at Uriel, who smiled widely.
Sunny looked at Uriel with cold, assassin-like eyes.
"Are you ready to die, Uriel?"
"And you?"