They flew throughout the night and the next day. Finally, at dusk on the second day, they returned to the skies of the Forgotten Shore.
Gunlaug soared through the firmament, slightly adjusting his course toward the floating island. Shade, who was reclined, enjoying the cold wind hitting his face, sensed it immediately.
Ahead, an overwhelming presence manifested with absolute clarity. A powerful creature was advancing toward them at great speed, surrounded by a retinue of countless smaller creatures moving like a dark tide around it.
Shade summoned a Memory. The familiar Wyvern Fang materialized in his hand with a dark flash. After a few minutes, he finally saw the source of that suffocating pressure: a Corrupted Terror.
The creature was strange and repulsive. It had the form of a huge winged slug, with a grotesquely humanoid mouth filled with yellowish, twisted teeth. Two retractable eyes emerged from its slimy flesh, observing everything with a sickening attention. From its body sprouted four sharp legs made of living flesh, and two pairs of thin, membranous wings that kept it suspended in the air.
Shade fixed his gaze within and distinguished six deep knots of vile and repulsive darkness, twisting like open wounds in its essence. There was no doubt: it was a Corrupted Terror.
Around it flew other creatures of the Corrupted rank, simple beasts and monsters that obeyed like servants with no will of their own.
Shade jumped into the air. Darkness enveloped his body, molding and transforming until it adopted a new form: that of a dragon made of pure darkness. His red eyes shone with penetrating intensity, and two huge wings unfolded, beating with force and creating violent gusts of wind. Its size was comparable to Gunlaug's.
Shade opened the maw of his draconic form and let out a powerful roar of challenge. The terrifying slug responded with a distorted and unnatural screech.
At that same instant, Gunlaug released his own roar, filled with fury and battle lust.
Shade felt the effect of the Crown of Repose activate, elevating his power completely, as well as the amount of essence he possessed. The Saint's Mantle had transformed into the black scales of Transcendent armor, and his mind was flooded with the rage of a dragon, but he still remained perfectly in control.
His gaze focused on the Corrupted Terror. The plan he had made was simple.
Since he was unaware of the Terror's powers, any clever plan he made would be useless, so he kept it simple and perfectly adaptable.
He would fight the Terror while Gunlaug dealt with its hundreds and hundreds of followers. Once finished, he would come to help in the battle.
Both the dragon made of darkness from the night and the Corrupted creature didn't move immediately. They were analyzing their enemy cautiously, trying and discarding plans, until finally, after about two seconds, they launched their attacks.
The Corrupted Terror sent a part of its troops toward Shade, who, upon seeing this, invoked the Gale enchantment.
Enormous gusts of wind appeared out of nowhere, crushing, blocking, and shredding the flying monsters.
[You have killed a Corrupted Beast, Follower of the Blasphemy Spirit]
[You have killed a Fallen Demon, Follower of the Blasphemy Spirit]
[You have killed...]
Ignoring the Spell's voice, Shade continued using the wind, spending a part of his essence. After shredding the creatures...
The Terror's mouth opened, beginning a kind of strange speech and hundreds of whispers that invaded Shade's mind.
He felt that if he tried a little harder, he could understand more, know the profane secrets of the world and the gods, just...
Shade shook his head, driving out the innumerable voices. Using the "Anchor" enchantment, he began to create anchors to become immune to the Corrupted Terror's mental attacks.
Remember your name. You are the Lord of Darkness. You will kill the Corrupted Terror and conquer a flying city to make it your Citadel, Shade ordered himself, using the third enchantment to shatter the mental attack that would drive anyone to madness.
The Corrupted Terror let out a deafening roar. Its body tensed like a spring before being shot like a siege ram at a terrifying speed. Air resistance, inertia, and physics were shattered by the malevolent will of the creature.
Shade barely managed to dodge the attack. His left arm was shattered while avoiding the swift attack.
Narrowing his eyes, the darkness rippled, reconstructing the limb, surrounding it with wind to increase his speed, and boosted by the Crown of Repose, Shade lunged at the creature.
Releasing a roar, Shade raised his clawed hand with terrifying force that impacted the creature's head, which resisted the attack, generating a huge shock wave.
Without stopping, the creature turned, using its tail to strike the dragon's chest. Seeing the attack, the dragon lunged forward, impacting its draconic body against the abomination, pushing it back. Then it approached, using its powerful claws and jaws to shred the abomination.
The claws began to leave wounds on the incredibly hard skin of the monster, and its sharp fangs sank into the dense flesh.
The Terror let out a scream of pain. Turning its long neck, it aimed at the dragon's wings.
The abomination opened its mouth wide, revealing darkness. An instant later, a huge, sharp spike emerged from its body, piercing the body of the black dragon, which had to release the abomination.
The Corrupted Terror, now free, swung its tail so fast that the wind was shattered.
The tail impacted the injured dragon's body with such force that a sonic boom was heard almost a kilometer away.
The dragon began to fall toward the ground.
Inside the manifestation of the dragon made of darkness, Shade felt pain—a huge pain that shouldn't be possible.
His creation of darkness acted as a great armor that would keep his body safe while dealing with larger things. However, he had felt the pain of being stabbed and the pain of the tail strike that shattered the sound barrier.
Clenching his teeth, he managed to concentrate enough to regain orientation and regenerate.
The dragon's body was covered by more darkness, while the sharp spike of flesh was removed and dropped to the ground.
Shade looked at the Corrupted Terror, which tensed its body to perform the same ultra-fast attack.
Shade beat his wings, covering half the distance that separated him from the Terror.
With the second wingbeat, his body was surrounded by darkness. The Corrupted Terror launched itself at lightning speed to pierce through its enemy's body. Its mouth was open to devour and consume everything that entered, and so it did.
The dragon's body was opened by a huge hole in its chest. An expression of disbelief was on the dragon's face before its eyes watched the Terror descend. Then it smiled.
The dragon disappeared into darkness, which then reformed into an enormous, titanic Stone Saint 20 meters tall, with a massive 30-meter spear.
The Stone Saint threw the spear with titanic force, turning it into a black projectile.
The Corrupted Terror, sensing the attack, turned its head too late. It felt the black spear made of darkness pierce its stomach, followed by another spear that destroyed one of its wings, and then another.
As he fell, Shade controlled more darkness, creating two massive black wings that he used to fly.
Although the essence expenditure he was using was terrifying, he received new essence thanks to Gunlaug, who was shredding the swarm of Corrupted creatures following the Terror.
Launching himself against the Corrupted Terror, Shade impacted his Stone Saint body against the abomination, both heading toward the ground.
Raising his fist, he brought it down against the creature again and again and again.
With a final punch, Shade jumped, brandishing his wings and invoking the wind, stopping his fall but not the Terror's, which crashed violently against the ground, leaving a large crater.
Knowing that a simple fall like that wouldn't kill a Corrupted Terror, Shade descended to the ground. The earth offered more movement than the air.
Landing with a crash, he discarded the dark wings to conserve his essence.
A one-handed black sword made of darkness formed, then a shield formed.
Raising both hands, he struck his sword against the shield, making a sound of challenge.
The Corrupted Terror advanced like a beast. Two wings on its right side were now nonexistent, preventing it from flying.
But whether in the air or on land, it was a Corrupted Terror, a creature that could kill Transcendents.
Shade ran against the creature, swinging his black sword downward in a vertical slash in less than a second.
The creature moved its tail, causing the impact to open Shade's defense. The creature lunged forward at the speed of sound.
Shade placed the shield in front of his body, resisting the impact, although his body was slid back several dozen meters.
Placing the shield in front of him, the sword in his right hand was over the shield. His scarlet eyes looked at the Corrupted Terror, which opened its mouth again, shooting another incredibly fast spike for its size.
The spike crashed against the shield, bending the material but not piercing through.
The creature was already upon the enormous colossus of the Stone Saint, its mouth ready to devour him.
Shade placed the shield in front, causing the abomination to crash against his defense. An instant later, he swung his sword, leaving a considerable wound on his enemy's body.
The furious creature moved its tail to wrap it around the Stone Saint's leg.
Seeing this, Shade pushed the abomination away with a movement.
The Terror landed on its feet, its four sharp legs leaving a line of destruction in its wake.
The monstrosity's mouth opened, beginning to whisper hundreds of whispers and profane revelations that would corrupt anyone, but again, it didn't work due to the Crown of Repose that Shade was using and his numerous protections against soul and mind attacks.
Before the battle between the two could continue, something else appeared.
From the sky descended a kind of butterfly with black wings bearing symbols of caravels and... and... Shade averted his gaze. It was dangerous to try to describe the creature.
Within, he observed seven deep knots of darkness. It was a Fallen Titan.
Gunlaug, who had finished massacring the Corrupted army, looked at the new challenger in the sky who wanted to interrupt his master's fight.
Furious, he flew against the challenger of the skies, launching a sea of golden flames at his opponent, who dodged the flames by flying toward the black and gold dragon, beginning a titanic clash in the sky.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Shade continued his intense battle against the abomination.
Although for Shade, the battle seemed to occur in a kind of slow motion, he knew this was a product of his combat-sharpened mind.
Their bodies, if seen from another perspective, moved at an enormous speed along with the Corrupted Terror, destroying everything around them, causing huge earthquakes, and terraforming all the surrounding terrain.
Shade controlled the darkness, giving it the form of tentacles that headed toward the Corrupted Terror to restrain it, but the beast shattered the dark creation with its tail, body, and mouth.
Opening its mouth, the abomination shot two sharp spikes that Shade avoided.
Shade threw his shield like a disc of death that cut through everything in its path. The Terror, of course, avoided this, letting the shield continue on its way.
Taking advantage that his enemy no longer had that annoying defense, it began to run, covering the distance separating them in the time it took a person to form a thought.
When the creature tensed its body and lunged forward, Shade extended his hand. An instant later, the same shield returned, sinking deeply into the Terror's body, which let out a heart-rending screech.
Without mercy, Shade raised his sword, swinging it against the hard neck of the abomination, managing to cut the flesh centimeter by centimeter.
With a cry of fury, Shade finally managed to cut the hard neck, separating the creature's head.
The head shot several meters to the ground until it crashed against some gray corals, reducing them to nothing.
Not trusting, Shade used the darkness, giving it the form of chains that surrounded the abomination's body, throwing it far away.
His caution proved right when the monster's body continued moving despite having no head. However, it was slow, clumsy, and directionless.
Discarding the sword, he formed a black bow made from darkness. Grabbing the spike that had impacted his body, he placed it on the bow and drew the string.
Aiming at the abomination, he shot the projectile.
The distance closed instantly, piercing cleanly through the Terror's body. This time, finally, the creature had died.
[You have killed a Corrupted Terror, Blasphemy Spirit]
Shade frowned. He hadn't even gotten a Memory for killing something so powerful.
"What, not even a Memory?" murmured Shade. He was about to dissolve the body of the gigantic Stone Saint. His essence reserves were low. If he had to estimate, he had used four essence cores during the entire combat, leaving only three.
Hearing the sound of the battle in the sky, he saw Gunlaug locked in a fight against the Fallen Titan, and it seemed to be winning. A large part of the butterfly's wing was torn, with parts of its body charred and claw marks all over.
Shade began to create the raven wings on his back but felt the ground tremble.
Jumping backward, he cursed his luck.
"Damn it," murmured Shade through clenched teeth.