Two full hours had passed since the death of the Winter Beast. Uriel simply sat on a large rock, staring at the corpse of the abomination.
In his mind, the short but intense battle he had fought against the creature continued to replay.
He sighed and looked again at what remained of the abomination.
The head was completely missing, along with the seven transcendent soul cores and the heart. Vast portions of the innermost ice of the abomination had been extracted. In fact, its hardness was such that the material could withstand blows from a supreme being—confirmed by Skadi herself. That, along with the deadly cold contained within, gave him the idea of practicing forging when he had free time.
Humming softly, he watched what remained of the Winter Beast as it slowly evaporated. Soon, no corpse would remain beyond an enormous chamber of magma frozen for centuries, even millennia.
Using his hands, he leaned on the large rock—which was none other than the head of Goliath, which he had recovered from the bottom of the sea along with its soul cores, as well as the Terror of LO49. Unfortunately, the Terror didn't have a head, so he had settled for taking its fragments.
"Alright, now." Closing his eyes, he entered his Sea of Souls, where he summoned the Echo of the Winter Beast. As he did so, he observed the enormous titan standing with an impassive gaze, exuding no freezing wind.
"Let's see its runes."
Echo: [Winter Beast]
Rank: Transcendent
Class: Titan
Echo Description: In the end, the cold covers everything, and the cold erases everything. In a barren land, there was a priestess who prayed to the gods for help to bring change to a dying land. Receiving no answers from the gods, she prayed to the demons. Of the seven demons, the Demon of Repose answered. Using his powers, he brought change to the dying land. However, all power has a price, and what was once salvation became condemnation. Repose arrived with an endless storm of snow and ice that killed everyone in the dying city. The priestess, on the brink of freezing, looked at Repose with fury and said: "You, Demon of Repose, this is your fault. I wanted a change for my people. I wanted you to save them, not condemn them." The Demon of Repose watched her in silence, as if her words held no weight in that already doomed world. The snow fell with an unnatural calm, covering the remains of what was once life. Then he spoke, with a soft, deep voice... absolutely devoid of emotion: "I granted what you asked for. A change. Your world was dying, slowly consuming itself in suffering, hunger, and despair. What I brought is not destruction... it is rest. Look at them... they no longer feel pain, no longer fear, no longer beg. The cold is not punishment... it is the end of all suffering. You asked for salvation, but the gods did not answer... because saving implies prolonging agony. I answered... because I understood what they truly needed. Repose is neither good nor evil... it is inevitable." The priestess trembled, not only from the cold devouring her body, but from the weight of those words. Her eyes, full of rage and desperation, began to empty slowly as the snow covered her legs, then her torso... until it reached her face. And in that last instant, she understood. In the end, the cold covers everything... and the cold erases everything. And so, with those words, the priestess understood a single truth: in the end, everything is buried under the eternal cold to rest eternally.
Uriel blinked after reading the description. This was the second time he had obtained something related to the Demon of Repose. First, with the Illusory Butterfly, and now the Winter Beast—which was actually the priestess.
He frowned.
"You're not going to turn into a little priestess girl, are you?" he asked, looking at the Echo, but received no response.
Uriel continued examining the Echo's runes.
Attributes: [Curse of the Storm] [Zero Zone] [Flame of Divinity] [Tireless] [Storm]
His attributes are strange. And again, he has Flame of Divinity. Curious.
Echo Abilities: [Frozen Storm] [Eternal Ice] [Ice Control] [Frozen Time] [Weather Alterer]
Uriel blinked several times, surprised by this.
[Frozen Storm] Description: This ability allows the generation of a powerful, unceasing snowstorm that spreads constantly without stopping.
[Eternal Ice] Description: The ice generated possesses terrifying qualities. It does not change, is not altered, and does not melt. It is made to be eternal and perpetual.
[Ice Control] Description: This ability allows control over the summoned ice in a wide variety of forms.
[Frozen Time] Description: When at the center of a storm, time freezes to the point of appearing to have stopped.
[Weather Alterer] Description: Its presence changes the weather around it instantly.
Uriel blinked several times, then simply touched the Echo, feeling its cold surface.
[Do you want to convert this Echo into a Dark Creature?]
"Yes," Uriel replied. Immediately, he felt his Terror Core disappear again, leaving him with only five soul cores.
"Even my lord doesn't understand this anymore," Uriel murmured, watching the Echo change. Its stony ice skin turned a darker shade, like obsidian. The flowers around it became white, as if absorbing pure light. And then nothing more. Uriel waited, but nothing happened. The Winter Beast remained enormous and monstrous.
"Ha. Finally, a normal one. Heavens." Letting it return to its normal form, he watched as a great sphere of darkness surrounded the enormous titan, rising until it disappeared from sight.
Exiting his Sea of Souls, Uriel jumped off Goliath's head and returned it to his dark storage. He still had about twenty hours left, so he could take advantage of the time to begin reaching his sixth core again, and hopefully recover his Titan core.
---
In the end, it took him several hours to return to Falcon Scott. To his disappointment, he had not been able to recover his sixth soul core.
Moving through the darkness at breakneck speed, he covered dozens of kilometers in just a few minutes.
When he arrived at Falcon Scott, he emerged from the darkness above the defensive wall, taking somewhat rapid breaths.
I suppose maintaining that pace for so long leaves me tired, Uriel thought, catching his breath.
Listening to the sound of hundreds of bullets raining down, he observed the chaos below. Thousands of abominations were killing each other while bullets and electromagnetic cannon attacks generated unprecedented destruction.
The noise made him frown. His head was still ringing from being at the center of the explosion inside the great mountain.
Walking at a slow pace, he wondered where he could leave the Winter Beast's head. He thought about dropping it from above but decided to discard the idea.
He didn't want to create mass panic.
Now that the Winter Beast was dead, the ever-present storm had largely dissipated. He calculated that within another day, the storm would end completely, and communications could resume—though it would take time.
Walking along the wall for a while, watching the abominations die, he decided it was time to return to his team.
Disappearing into the darkness, he decided to walk through Falcon Scott first.
Walking through the less traveled streets, he whistled a song while some civilians looked at him with wide eyes, filled with unprecedented emotion and admiration.
Soon, the whispers began.
Uriel stopped, noticing a child approaching with wide eyes.
"Lord of Darkness, is it really you?" the boy asked, excitement in his eyes.
"Yes. That's me," he said with a smile. "What's your name, kid?"
"Patrick. My mom and brother are alive thanks to your efforts in the Erebus Field," the boy said.
"Oh, it was nothing, champ. You'll see that soon you and your family will be in a much nicer and warmer place than this. Here, take this," Uriel said, making a gesture with his hand and handing him a bracelet made of small teeth and plates from abominations.
"What is this?" Patrick asked.
"Oh, a gift. This is special. If you wear it, you'll be safe, and so will those with you."
"Really!"
"Yes." Uriel nodded.
At that moment, a woman approached.
"Patrick, I told you to—" The woman fell silent, eyes wide upon seeing Uriel.
"Lord of Darkness, I'm sorry for my son's behavior."
"Oh, don't worry. Your son is a good kid. Now, why don't we bump fists?" Uriel asked, prompting Patrick to extend his fist and bump it with Uriel's.
"Well, I have to go now." And with that, he disappeared in an instant.
Kids are adorable, Uriel thought, emerging near where his cohort was stationed. When he came out of a hangar where his Rhino was parked, he observed his team talking among themselves.
"Wow. I leave for three days, and you start talking. I feel a bit ignored," he said with fake sadness.
"We're not ignoring you, Captain. Or should I say Major?" Miranda said.
"Nah, keep calling me Captain, as always," he said, summoning his elegant chair and sitting down.
"And where were you? On some ultra-secret mission?"
"Yes," he replied, taking a sip of hot coffee that Tiffany had brought him.
"And what kind of mission was it?"
"One that involved a large amount of large-scale destruction."
Lucien blinked slowly. "Would you happen to know about the explosion from the other day?"
Uriel shrugged. "Who knows? I was trying not to die."
"And what does that mean?"
"No idea," Uriel said, taking another sip of coffee.
"By the way, aside from the explosion, did anything interesting happen?"
"No," said Asher.
"That's good."
"Captain, have you thought about what you'll do after the campaign ends?"
"Uhm... well, I'll take some well-deserved vacation. Maybe visit the Night Garden, go somewhere quiet," he replied. "And you?"
"I want to become a teacher," said Lucien.
"I want to retire. Work quietly and focus on art," said Asher.
"Art?"
"Yes, I've had some pretty unique perspectives, and I'd like to paint them."
"That sounds like something you'd do," said Lily.
"And you?"
"I'm going to challenge my second nightmare," she replied.
"Are you sure?" asked Tiffany.
"Yes."
"And you, Tiff?" asked Miranda.
"I want to create memories and archive them."
"That's a worthy goal."
"Miranda," said Uriel.
"Oh... well, I'll focus on saving whoever I can. That, and getting married and having my own family."
The conversation continued until Asher's communicator began to ring. He picked it up and saw it was Jet.
After exchanging a few words, Asher handed the communicator to Uriel, who looked at Jet.
"Hello, elegant and eloquent Master Jet. What am I good for?"
"Did you do it?"
"Yes, that thing no longer exists," he replied, making Jet's eyes widen before she smiled.
"Excellent," she said, then frowned. "I know you just got back, but you need to go to the South Wall as fast as you can. The swarm is approaching."
"Understood." With that, the call ended. Uriel looked at his cohort.
"Well, you heard them. We have to fight."
They quickly prepared and headed toward their destination, arriving in just a few minutes as the alarm began to sound.
Upon arrival, he joined the other Irregulars and the Awakened, as well as the mundanes, to face the swarm.
As he walked, he summoned the Holy Mantle, the Crown of Repose, and the Wyvern's Fang.
He observed the tense atmosphere and, in the distance, the great swarm approaching rapidly. At most, they had less than three minutes before they arrived.
"Hey, Sunny, you won't believe what I found," Uriel said, causing Sunny's serious expression to crumble.
"Really, Uriel? Is this the time for that?"
"Hey, there's always time. Besides, those things are just a bunch of insects. You worry too much."
"Each of those insects is an awakened beast."
"Yeah, I know. I read the report. Anyway, it seems to have worked."
Sunny blinked. "Worked? What worked?"
"Breaking the ice," he said with a smile, making those who heard this let out small laughs despite the situation, easing everyone's tension.
"You're insufferable sometimes."
"It's part of my natural charm," Uriel said as a figure flew over their heads—a massive bird of prey that was Sky Tide in her transcendent form. Now that the Winter Beast no longer existed, she could join the battle to repel the horde.
"I told you," he said, looking at Sunny, who smiled weakly.
"Well, let's begin," said Winter, amused after watching the interaction between the two young masters.
"Let's give them a warm welcome," she said, removing her dark glasses from her eyes.
Her eyes were completely black, with pupils that looked like two drops of coagulated blood. Looking at them directly generated a feeling of unease.
Several Awakened stepped forward to supply essence to the Ascended, empowering her as much as possible.
Uriel sighed as his body turned into pure black darkness, leaving only two white eyes visible. This was his first ability—Dark Body—which he hadn't used in a long time.
But for this battle, it would be very useful.
He smiled maliciously as he looked at the Devourer swarm.
In the sky, Sky Tide remained in the air. Her mission was to reduce the enormous mass of abominations, keeping them all in one place.
As the swarm drew closer, the weapons activated, releasing a sea of golden projectiles at the speed of sound. The noise made the walls vibrate.
Uriel felt something strange in the approaching swarm, as if something was out of place, though he didn't know what.
"Asher!" he called out above the sea of bullets.
The archer, hearing the shout, looked at his captain, who pointed at the Devourer swarm at least three kilometers away.
Asher narrowed his eyes before opening them wide like saucers.
Before he could respond, Winter made her attack.
Winter fired an arrow that reached the swarm in an instant. Upon impact, everything turned into light for a moment. An enormous sphere of fire bloomed in the middle of the swarm, spreading far and wide like a wave.
Then it imploded upon itself, creating a second, more brutal explosion that consumed part of the massive swarm.
Hundreds of thousands of the swarm died from that single attack. However, for a population of millions, it was merely minor losses.
After the rumble subsided, Uriel looked at Ryan, who simply raised his hand with the number five.
Uriel clicked his tongue.
"So that's what it was about," he murmured. The reason for his bad feeling was that the swarm had a Tyrant, and this time it seemed to be a corrupt one.
Uriel summoned Gunlaug, who took flight, unleashing an incandescent sea of black flames upon the swarm. The swarm began to be consumed rapidly. At the same time, the Irregulars used long-range memories to continue reducing their numbers, while from the sky, Sky Tide brought down lightning bolts that eliminated more abominations.
Uriel joined the massacre, controlling the darkness to create hundreds of arrows that he hurled toward the swarm, piercing hundreds of abominations in the process.
[You have killed...] [You have killed...] [You have killed...]
The spell's voice continued whispering continuously in his mind.
Watching as one of them got close enough to him, he extended his hand. His arm stretched out, becoming sharp like a knife, piercing through the awakened abomination.