Chapter Summary: Rain woke up and chose violence.
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Minutes ago
Like the waves of the ocean, their wills kept crashing against the rocky coast that was the Will of the Nightmare Creature.
It eroded slowly, the creature on the other end resisting them with everything it had. The end result, however, was indisputable. The creature was strong, but against the combined Wills of a Transcendent Terror and Titan, it could do nothing but delay.
And delay it did. Sunny thought himself stubborn, but the thing on the other end was just as stubborn, if not more. However, the final outcome was never in doubt.
With a sound resembling the shattering of glass, reality tore away right before him. The passage that opened looked wrong, like he was seeing it through turbid glasses.
The very instant the passage opened, his connection to the Gloomy shadow was restored, and a deluge of information assaulted his mind.
Just a few seconds later, he had already processed it, and his concern spiked even further.
A Corrupted Titan already made for a perilous opponent, but one that was also a remnant of what sounded like a former Divine? Things were about to get very ugly.
They stepped into the passage and found themselves within a maze made out of what looked like pulsing flesh and bone, beating to the tune of a heart that must have been as big as a mountain. Sunny didn't bother to wait before advancing.
He and Nephis traveled quickly, following their connection to Gloomy. As they did, Sunny couldn't stop thinking back on what he had learned.
A direct connection to the Forgotten God and becoming the Flame of Blasphemy? If he wasn't so busy crossing the maze and fighting for his life through the Gloomy incarnation, he would be freaking out. He was going to, once all of this was over.
However, there was a piece of information that was far more immediately concerning. And he had found out many concerning things in that conversation.
"Stop," he called out.
Before them was a circular ring of pale light, beyond which he could feel Gloomy.
Nephis lingered beside the threshold, one foot already about to cross over to the Other Side. She shot him a questioning look and waited impatiently for him to explain himself.
"Rain is nowhere to be found where my shadow is," he explained quickly.
She narrowed her eyes, gears turning swiftly behind them.
"She's somewhere else in this space." Nephis deduced.
"Most likely," he agreed.
"We should separate," She decided immediately. "One of us looks for Rain, and the other kills -or at least keeps- the creature occupied."
Sunny hesitated only for a moment before sharing the next thing.
"That thing is a Corrupted Titan that was once a Divine, knows both of us, and it thinks that you are dead. "
For once, Nephis failed to keep surprise from showing on her face. If the situation wasn't so tense, he might have even found her expression comical.
She schooled her expression a moment later, but Sunny knew her well enough to tell that she was rattled. Just like how he could tell that she was debating something with herself, or rather, how to tell him about what she had decided.
Never one to linger in doubt, she reached a decision in a matter of seconds.
"Then I should be the one to look for Rain," she said confidently. "It might prove decisive, or it might be useless, but keeping this hidden as long as we can might end up helping us."
Sunny stopped himself just in time from offering a scathing retort.
Who did she think she was?
Rain was his sister.
And Nephis thought he would just step aside and put Rain's life into her hands?
"She is your sister, I know," Nephis said in a steely voice when the silence stretched on too long. "But she is also mine, and I want to see her safe just as much as you do."
Then her tone softened.
"If you want to do it instead, I won't stop you, but I think this is the sounder strategy."
Sunny was about to refuse, if only on principle. He couldn't trust anyone but himself to save Rain.
Then he saw the look in Nephis' eyes.
She was deeply concerned and furious, no matter how hard she tried to hide it behind her mask of indifference. He could tell because his own eyes were just the same.
Images flashed before his eyes. Nephis teaching Rain, sparring, or just spending time together like siblings would usually do. He was -reluctantly- convinced that she hadn't befriended his sister just to use her as a weapon against him, but seeing Nephis like this? It made it undeniable.
Every fiber of his being rebelled against the idea. He had trusted Nephis in the past, and he knew how that had ended.
But...
Gritting his teeth, Sunny nodded and invoked a Memory.
It looked like a coin, with one side depicting the head of a black serpent while the other was bare, polished metal.
Upon arriving in the region and realizing that he couldn't detect the Nightmare Creature easily, he had crafted this Memory. It was based on one of the enchantments described in Weaver's book. A Memory that could be separated into two pieces and whose counterpart could always be sensed by the holder of the other half.
Nephis accepted it with a solemn expression, and when their hands briefly touched, she gave his a reassuring squeeze.
And damn his weak heart, but he was reassured.
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Contrary to popular opinion, Cassie wasn't immune to being surprised.
Quite the opposite, in fact. Her incomparable foresight made her all the more vulnerable to being shocked when something unexpected happened, which lately had been happening more often than she was comfortable with.
"Sid, Gorn, Shim, reinforce the right flank. A Corrupted Demon is about to appear," she ordered in a completely calm voice, despite feeling the opposite.
They nodded, and through her Ascended Ability, she noticed their gazes fill with admiration. To their eyes, she might as well have planned the entire fight in advance and was merely being polite enough to let everyone else catch up.
How she wished she knew even half as much as everyone seemed to think she did.
Cassie tilted her head, listened carefully, and sent her rapier flying toward a seemingly empty spot. The Fallen Devil's camouflage failed a moment later, betrayed by the tip of her weapon protruding from its eye.
The morning had started well enough, which made her current situation -and her failure to predict it- all the more infuriating.
"Shakti, arrow twenty degrees to your right in three, two, one."
The arrow flew, nailing a Corrupted Monster just as it burst from the ground.
It was still alive, but the damage was enough for the squad of Fire Keepers stationed there to finish it off with nothing more than light wounds.
Cassie took a step to the left, just in time to avoid a bone spike launched by an Awakened Devil. It died a moment later, courtesy of her rapier, but it had been far too close.
She cycled quickly through her marks, watching the battle from the eyes of the strongest Master to the weakest Mundane. What she saw wasn't comforting.
The line held for the moment; her timely preparations meant that they were ready when Nightmare Creatures started pouring out of the flesh and bone cage they were trapped inside. The problem was that they kept coming out, slowly but surely grinding the defenders into dust with their relentless assault.
Even worse. If the Nightmare Creature had the ability that she suspected, and was as old as it looked, then it likely had more of them in reserve than grains of sand could be found in the desert.
A pounding headache was already beginning to settle in. With so many people and Nightmare Creatures involved, trying to account for every variable made her brain feel as though it were fighting a blender, and losing badly.
"Seishan!" she called as loudly as she could. "Reinforce the back line in forty-six seconds!"
The monstrous woman, having adopted her transformation during the battle, gave no outward sign of having heard her, but Cassie was certain that she had. Good. If she failed to follow that command, the Nightmare Creatures would be the least of their worries.
Cassie took the half-second of respite she had to check on another pair of marks.
Sunny was still fighting the Lady of the Lake. Things weren't looking good, so she could only hope they would be quick enough to come to his aid.
Nephis, on the other hand, was approaching swiftly. Just a few minutes left, provided Fate didn't decide to throw another curveball at her.
And it loved doing so.
She could only hope they would last that long.
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Sunny descended upon the lake slowly.
The shadows shaped into the form of wings beat lazily on his back, feathers drifting from them at his command in graceful arcs that the Lady of the Lake and her minions followed curiously.
His foot touched the lake softly, his weight not disturbing the bubbling water in the slightest. Curiously, it still glowed with a silver light despite the moon having been destroyed by his arrival.
Sunny cast a leisurely gaze across the surface of the lake, taking in the wounded states of the Nightmare Creatures without hurry. He didn't need to, since he shared senses with Gloomy, but he had an image to sell. Besides, the more he stalled, the better.
"Hello there," he said cheerfully.
Without tearing his gaze away from the Nightmare Creature, he nodded toward Saint and Gloomy, who, after shooting him a supremely annoyed glare, dissolved back into a shadow and joined its siblings in empowering him.
Given how the fight had gone so far, and just how badly his incarnation had been injured, he was going to need all of his strength. Sharing them with Nephis, or vice versa, wasn't an option either, since they wanted to preserve the deception for as long as possible.
The myriad Nightmare Creatures prowling over the surface of the lake shifted uneasily, throwing him murderous glares, while also caught between fear and murderous rage. They didn't attack, likely awaiting permission from the Titan before doing so.
"You broke my moon," the creature said, irritation coloring its voice.
Beside the pale woman, its reflection stared him down, bulging muscles flexing in what he could only interpret as eagerness to rip him apart.
"I would apologize, but I don't feel sorry." He shrugged lightly.
For a brief moment, the bubbling of the water intensified before returning to its previous cadence.
"That was a treasured artifact of incalculable value, gifted to me by a dear friend. And you destroyed it," it continued, as though it hadn't heard him.
Sunny tilted his head, inwardly surprised that Nightmare Creatures could have friends. Here he had thought their only way of relating to people was trying to kill or eat them.
Or maybe that friend was the sort of lunatic who didn't mind being on the receiving end of extreme violence?
"Does it matter?" he asked, a sharp glint appearing in his eyes. "You won't live long enough to regret it."
The pale woman looked him up and down, curiosity written across its beautiful yet eerie face.
"Brave words." It snorted, and then lifted a hand in challenge. "How much longer are you going to hide your true strength, heir of Weaver?"
Sunny quirked an eyebrow and smirked. "As long as I can."
The Lady of the Lake laughed softly.
"Truly the heir of Weaver. Only someone like them would be so arrogant as to fight a Titan like me while limiting themselves to just the might of a Terror."
Without changing his expression, he shrugged lightly. "Guilty."
Inwardly, though, he noted down that tidbit.
Yet another mistake in Weaver's prediction. They had thought he would be a Titan during this encounter, when in reality he had become a Terror after his defeat against Anvil.
Now that he thought of it…
"Since you're in a talkative mood, how about answering some of my questions?"
"Don't worry, child." It smiled, and the monstrous reflection settled back into a combat stance. "All your questions will be answered once we are one."
The bubbling water settled, and in an instant it became as placid as it had been at the beginning.
The lake's surface remained perfectly still for an instant.
Within that instant, absolute silence reigned as he, the Nightmare Creature, and its minions stared at one another. Muscles tensed, postures grew tense, weapons were poised.
Then the instant passed, and violence erupted all at once.
Sunny shadow-stepped and emerged directly behind the horrendous reflection, Serpent already in its odachi form.
He slashed downward.
Although the creature managed to intercept the strike with its bone blades, it hadn't expected him to be so much stronger than before, when he had possessed only a single incarnation. Its efforts were not entirely in vain, however, as it managed to turn what would have been a bisecting blow into one that merely severed its left arm.
He wasn't disappointed, in fact; that was what he was hoping for. Distracted by the pain of its severed arm, the reflection didn't have time to react before the shadows he had pooled at its feet erupted outward, impaling the creature in dozens of places at the same time.
Sunny didn't wait to see the end result before continuing toward the Lady of the Lake, his odachi already singing in a swift arc that would make her a head shorter. The creature tried to defend itself, but reinforced by six shadows, he was far too fast to do so. The blow connected and its head was separated from its shoulders.
More shadows poured out of the [Shadow Lantern], and they shaped themselves into a hand the size of a three-story building before punching at the group of Nightmare Creatures that were attempting to attack his back. They all died amid a cacophony of broken bones.
Saint crashed into those that remained next, single-handedly holding back the tide, and granting him enough time to follow through with his newest plan.
A quick glance told him that neither the reflection nor the Lady had recovered just yet. He could tell that harming them had no effect, or at least, it was so little as to be negligible. Which meant that a change of plan was in order.
The shadow fist returned, already dissolving into a formless mass of shadows that enveloped him like the world's darkest blanket. Sunny swelled in size, quickly turning into a colossus that towered over every other creature present.
Sunny wielded Serpent, who grew to match his size, and slashed downward. It was aimed neither at the Lady, its reflection, nor the other Nightmare Creatures. No, his objective was much lower.
The blackened blade collided against the surface of the lake with enough strength to topple mountains, sending wave after wave of water crashing outward.
For a brief, breathless second, nothing happened.
Then, a horrifying screech of pain echoed all across the lake.
So his hunch had been right. The Lake was the creature's weak point.
After the screech, space itself started quaking so intensely that even in his form as a shadow colossus, he barely managed to keep his footing.
The Nightmare Creatures went crazy, crashing against Saint like a living tide, accepting any wounds she could inflict without flinching as long as they could reach him.
Sunny attempted to strike again at the lake, but the reflection reached him before he could do so, tearing into his shadows with wild abandon. It was, impossible as it sounded, even more savage than before, ripping him apart with bones and teeth alike.
At the same time he tried to get the reflection off, he noticed the Lady of the Lake plunging one dainty hand into the water.
When she withdrew it, she was holding a bleeding, beating heart.
He barely had time to register it before she tossed it into the air, where the heart hung motionless for a heartbeat.
Then came a thunderous thrum that reverberated through his shadow bones. Another followed. Then another, and many more. Each louder than the last.
Saint crashed into the monstrous reflection a moment later, and Sunny disengaged, intending to destroy the heart before it could fulfill whatever purpose it had been made for.
Feeling a presence behind him, Sunny turned just in time to block the pale woman's surprise attack. He realized it had been a mistake the moment he saw its smile.
Altogether, blocking and disengaging had taken only a second.
It was still more than he could afford.
With one final deafening thrum that made his bones feel as though they would shatter into dust, the heart fell silent.
After that, everything happened so quickly that he would have died if not for the strength of all his shadows supporting him.
Countless fleshy tendrils burst from the heart and lunged toward their targets.
Surprisingly, those targets were not him or Saint, but the Corrupted Titan's minions, who offered no resistance as they were impaled.
Then they were simply gone. There one moment, gone the next.
The monstrous reflection was the last to disappear, still clashing swords with Saint until the very end. It threw him one final murderous glare before doing so.
Sunny saw the heart change next.
It swelled by orders of magnitude, becoming grotesque, every vein and artery so engorged they looked ready to burst despite the steady streams of blood leaking from them.
It returned to the pale woman on its own, who took a single small bite before stepping back, a serene smile painted across its bloodstained lips. The heart immediately began to wither, shrinking rapidly as its vivid red color faded to ashen gray before dissolving into dust.
Sunny did not blink.
Even so, he barely managed to react in time.
First came agonizing pain as a hole opened in his torso, exactly where Gloomy had received its injury during the previous fight. The pain was so intense that it distracted him just long enough to miss the creature taking a single step forward.
Then it was suddenly before him, one hand spearing toward his giant chest and straight toward where his real body hid inside it.
Sunny put everything he had into blocking and barely managed to deflect the strike. This time, the one to lose an arm instead of his life was him.
He shadow-stepped away before it could continue its attacks, slipping away just in time from a strike that would have crushed every bone in his body.
The Lady of the Lake did not pursue, choosing to look silently at him instead.
And then, for the first time in the battle, its mouth curved into a smile that did not look serene. Instead, it resembled that of a man realizing that an annoying little bug had just bitten him.
"I never introduced myself, did I?"
The seemingly innocuous question was followed by the creature bringing its fingers, coated with his blood, to its lips and licking them clean. He expected to see the Lady of the Lake writhe in pain, like it had happened to that Fallen Beast so long ago, but wasn't quite surprised when it did not happen.
Sunny gritted his teeth against the pain and watched the gruesome spectacle, still shocked by the staggering difference in speed before and after it had consumed the heart.
"You didn't," he answered.
The despective smile became almost joyful.
"What you see is but a sliver of a sliver, but I was once great." It paused briefly, rejoicing in the moment. "The Goddess known as Amalgamation."
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Rain felt like she was a scratched record.
Block, push back, attack.
Block, push back, attack.
Block, push back, attack.
That was all her world had been reduced to.
A Nightmare Creature with more teeth than she was comfortable with pounced on her, jaws spread wide enough to swallow her whole.
Rain applied Stalwart and barely managed to stop it dead in its tracks. Then she pushed it back with a Heavy-infused kick that sent it back before it could attack another member of the formation while they were occupied with their own Nightmare Creature. Finally, she applied Sharp and slashed with her sword while it was still off balance.
The Awakened creature fell to the ground, writhing in pain, still alive thanks to its absurd vitality. It didn't last much longer before an arrow pierced its eye and buried itself in its brain.
Had she possessed the energy to spare, she would have turned around and nodded proudly in Tamar's direction. Few could claim to have killed an Awakened creature as a Mundane, much less at such a young age, and the girl had already slain dozens of them over the past few minutes, delivering the finishing blow to those Rain had defeated.
Right now, though, she had to dedicate all her strength to staying on her feet.
Barely a second after the previous creature had died, another arrived, tearing through its fellow abomination's corpse to reach her.
Block, push back, attack.
Wave after wave of Nightmare Creatures assaulted their position, pushing them back with every passing second. An idle part of her brain wondered if they would stop if she asked nicely. Another part called her an idiot for thinking that could happen. Then, a final part told them to shut up and focus on what was going on.
She took a step back, blocked, pushed back, and attacked. Another arrow, another life.
Rain felt as if she were being sharpened against a whetstone. With each clash, she became just a little better, a little more skilled, her reflexes just a little sharper than they had been moments before, more confident in how to fight and respond to every situation.
At the same time, however, she also felt as though she barely had anything left to give.
She wasn't sure how long the battle had lasted. It was so intense and so full of danger that she couldn't spare the mental bandwidth to keep track of time. For all she knew, it could have been just a couple of minutes or several hours.
What she did know was that she was dangerously close to running out of essence, not to mention stamina.
She wasn't even dealing with the worst of it all. No, that "privilege" belonged to the Masters, fighting on the front line and allowing the Awakened Nightmare Creatures through so they could focus on the greater threats.
Cassie was somewhere in there, directing the flow of battle like a maestro conducting an orchestra. Breaches in the formation were filled almost as soon as they opened, Nightmare Creatures far stronger than their kin were targeted and eliminated before they could become a problem, and whenever someone grew too exhausted to continue, she rotated them out before they could make a mistake.
If not for her leadership, they would already be dead. Why she hadn't bothered to solve the situation already was beyond her, but she sure hoped she would do it soon.
Rain had, in a way, fantasized about this very scenario: a desperate last stand against the forces of darkness. Fighting side by side with other Awakened to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. Personally witnessing the heroism and bravery she had always loved watching movies about.
Now that she was living it instead of watching safely from home, she realized just how foolish she had been.
A praying mantis-like Nightmare Creature slashed at her, and Rain managed to block with just a little time to spare -for all of a fraction of a second- before the force of the blow tore the sword from her hands.
The creature neither hesitated nor gloated, nor did it stalk slowly toward her as monsters did in the movies. Instead, it lunged so quickly that it became a blur.
As it did, Rain saw her life flashing before her eyes. It was short, far too short, and she regretted many things. Not having made up with big brother and big sister chief among them.
A larger figure crashed into the mantis just a hair's breadth away from her, and Rain barely managed to stop her knees from buckling.
She nearly failed anyway upon seeing the cyclopean creature staring back at her.
It was four times her size, feminine in shape, with sickly gray skin and bulging muscles that looked capable of tearing through steel without effort. A mane of black hair flowed behind it, matted with blood and other fluids she preferred not to identify.
Its face was buried against the mantis' neck, draining its blood through a pair of glistening fangs. And all the while, its eyes remained fixed on her.
A second that seemed to last forever later, it finished feeding and hurled the mantis' corpse into a Nightmare Creature threatening to breach the formation.
"Retreat behind the defensive line," Seishan ordered in a gravelly voice. "I'll hold your position until someone can replace you."
Normally, Rain would have rebelled against such an order. She disliked the idea of hiding behind someone else, especially when she could still fight, even if only barely.
Now? After coming so close to death? She nodded shakily and joined Tamar without a word.
The younger girl shot her a concerned look, but Rain merely shook her head. She was frightened, exhausted beyond belief, but otherwise unharmed.
Even though all she wanted was to lie down and forget the world existed for a few minutes -or, preferably, a few hours- she still summoned her replacement bow and arrows.
"You can never be too safe in the Dream Realm," Sunny had said when she asked why he had crafted her two bows.
Rain was going to give him the tightest hug he had ever received if she got out of this alive. Right after punching him for not saving her already.
Straining against her burning muscles, she drew the bowstring and loosed an arrow into the chaotic mass of Nightmare Creatures, trying to devour them whole.
Minutes -or perhaps hours- passed as she drew her bow again and again, refusing to stop when her muscles begged her to, when her fingers began bleeding, or even when Tamar shook her shoulders and demanded that she stop.
How could she, when she knew salvation was coming?
Deep inside her pocket rested a coin, one side depicting a miniature Sunny winking at her while the other was polished metal without adornments.
Through it, she could feel it. The other coin was close.
So close that any second now—
A thunderous crash followed by a wave of heat swept across the battlefield, bringing the battle to a momentary halt.
Rain looked into the distance through bleary eyes, and sure enough, there she was.
Nephis, Changing Star of the Immortal Flame, walking through the hole she had carved into one of the fleshy walls amid shattered debris and charred Nightmare Creatures.
She surveyed the battlefield with a quick glance around, muttered a name Rain couldn't make out, and suddenly the world turned white.
By the time Rain's vision returned, complete silence had settled over the cavernous chamber. Not a single Nightmare Creature remained alive.
Rain felt her lips twitch.
Big sister certainly knew how to make an entrance.
Now that she was here, Rain was sure nothing could possibly go wron—
She stopped herself.
Everyone -everyone- had warned her, in no uncertain terms, never to say or even think something like that.
Alas, as they had also told her, the universe was always listening.
The fleshy ground began quaking again, though this time it was ten times worse than before. By the time it passed, everyone but Nephis had fallen to the ground, having lost their equilibrium amidst the rumbling.
This time no pustules formed in the cavernous room, but instead, a clear liquid began seeping out, slowly at first, then faster with every passing second.
Strangely, it emerged only where the Nightmare Creatures had died.
It was... Water?
Yes. Pure, crystal-clear water.
Rain refused to relax at the sight. More often than not, Nephis had taught her, the most ordinary-looking things were the most terrifying.
Sure enough, a sizzling sound echoed a moment later.
Turning toward it, Rain noticed the corpse of a Nightmare Creature. It had been charred to the bone, but the flames that had killed it were already gone, making her wonder where the sound was coming from.
Only when she looked at its feet did she understand. Wherever the water touched, the creature was dissolving.
No. There was a more fitting one. It was being digested.
Rain looked around, and everywhere her gaze landed, more Nightmare Creatures were being digested by the clear water.
Terror gripped her heart at the sight.
She couldn't help but wonder whether she was about to become the Nightmare Creature's breakfast as well.
Panic spread through the cavern almost immediately as more and more people noticed what she had, but before it could escalate further, a pillar of white flame descended upon the water and the dissolving abominations, disintegrating them.
Silence followed as everyone stared in awe at the aftermath of Nephis' attack.
Then the ground, walls, and ceiling shook violently again, as though the creature imprisoning them was roaring in agony.
Nephis didn't wait to see what it would do next, and Rain was endlessly grateful for that.
Instead, she ordered everyone to follow her out of the creature, an order that she was more than happy to obey.
Led by Nephis and the Fire Keepers, they quickly organized into teams with different responsibilities -fighting, scouting, carrying the wounded, and more- before setting off toward one of the walls.
It was the very same wall through which Nephis had entered, now already fully regenerated.
Nephis merely glanced at it, pointed, and a beam of white fire tore straight through it as though it weren't there. Neither she nor any of the Masters present had so much as managed to scratch them.
Rain smiled at the sight, and decided she was going to hug her big sister the first chance she got.
Right after punching her for taking so long, of course.
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Nephis advanced quickly through the fleshy halls, keeping a watchful eye on those from which the clear water seeped.
Behind her, a column of Awakened and Mundane people followed, led by Cassie and Seishan. Nephis was incredibly relieved to see that, so far, only a dozen or so had died and, callous as it was, that none of them were her people.
She carefully led them in the direction from which she had come, retracing her steps as quickly as she dared. While there were still some -her Fire Keepers most of all- who were battle-ready, most were too exhausted to do anything but follow her, and her haste to be done with this place and reinforce Sunny wasn't worth leading them into an ambush they couldn't fight their way out of.
With every step she took, the tremors only grew worse. There had already been injuries from particularly bad falls, and though she healed them, it did nothing to calm how rattled everyone was.
They would have to hold on, at least long enough to get out of here.
Nephis could feel them, the desires of each and every person following her. Salvation, safety, home, and countless minor others.
To her senses, they were like candles in the dark, desire distilled in its purest form and made almost physical by its concentration. She couldn't see it, but in her mind's eye, it almost looked like a flame, burning bright with intent. Was this how the Flame of Desire -although on a far bigger scale- was born, perhaps?
Were it any other situation, she would have stopped to study the curious phenomenon. Sadly, she did not have the time for that.
Not when they weren't the only desires she could feel. In fact, they weren't either the most numerous nor the strongest.
All around her, there was desire. The walls, the ceiling, the ground, the water itself.
They all shared one single desire.
Kill me.
She had been confused at first, failing to understand why she sensed such a desire from a Nightmare Creature actively trying to kill them all.
Then she realized the truth. This wasn't a single entity.
Or, more accurately, it wasn't only a single entity.
The gargantuan space she was in -the ground, the walls, and the water itself- was all alive, made up of countless beings, living yet trapped within a cage of flesh and bone.
They were in unimaginable pain, yet lacked the means to end their own suffering.
Fortunately for them, she was going to grant their wish as soon as everyone behind her was safely out of this harrowing place.
Progress was slow. She had to blast open many walls that had already regrown while also evaporating waves of water that threatened to crash over them.
At times, Nephis wondered if this was how Heracles had felt in the myth, swallowed by a sea monster and fighting his way out while slaying the beast in the process. Among the many stories her grandmother had told her, she had to admit that it was the one she least wanted to live through.
Pushing the idle thought away, she focused back on the march. The path seemed to stretch longer than it should, but she knew that it was just her impatience and concern growing.
The quakes kept growing worse, making Nephis think that at any moment the other shoe would drop.
And yet, they reached their destination without a hitch.
To add to her surprise, the passage was still open, though she could feel it threatening to close.
Nephis cast her Will against it, forcibly keeping it open despite the Titan's efforts to close it down. After confirming for herself that it wasn't a trap and truly led outside, she gave the order to evacuate immediately.
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Minutes later, Nephis watched as Shim, the last of her Firekeepers, stepped through the threshold and disappeared shortly after.
Then, just as Rain was going to step through, the Will struggling against hers surged back with greater force than ever before, and the passage slammed shut.
Nephis' Will crashed against it immediately, struggling with all of her might to open it again, but it felt like trying to break down a wall with a hammer made of feathers. The Corrupted Titan's Will had grown that much stronger.
She gripped the hilt of her sword tighter and offered a confident nod to reassure Rain, Cassie, and Seishan. The four of them -plus Sunny- were the only ones who remained trapped in this space.
In a way, it was a relief. Three people to protect, rather than the massive group they had been before. She didn't think it would be easy, but it would, at the very least, be more manageable.
Nephis decided to attempt one final time to rip open the passage, but before she could, another tremor hit them. It only lasted for a second.
She almost wished it had continued instead of revealing the sight before her.
The water seeping from the walls began to gather. At first, only thin streams converged across the fleshy ground, then more and more followed in a steady stream.
Within moments, every rivulet in sight was flowing toward the same place.
Nephis aimed her sword at the stream. Behind her, the others shifted, silently raising their weapons with exhausted limbs.
The water rose into the air and gathered into the shape of a woman who exuded effortless elegance, limbs and features emerging one after another until a familiar pale figure stood before them.
It stared at her for a long moment, curious at first, fond next, and then it blinked, looked at her again, and a strange form of recognition seemed to flash in its eyes.
Slowly, lovingly, it smiled.
"You should be dead, child," it said, its voice filled with disbelief yet utterly and undeniably joyful.
"Why would I be?" Nephis asked, curious despite herself.
Amid the earlier rush, she had forgotten to ask Sunny why it believed she was supposed to be dead.
The creature looked her up and down, as though it still couldn't believe what it was seeing, as though it was afraid she would disappear.
As it did so, its eyes shone with more joy than Nephis had thought possible for a Nightmare Creature.
"The little Blasphemy should have killed you," it replied simply, as though it was an undeniable, universal truth.
"He didn't," she retorted just as simply.
A savage smile stretched across its lips until it became grotesque. "To think that even the Grand Weaver could be wrong..."
Laughter echoed through the halls, filled in equal measure with rapturous joy and utter madness.
"How fortunate I am," the creature muttered. "How fortunate indeed."
"Why?" Rain asked in a shaky voice.
The pale woman turned its maddened eyes toward her, and the younger girl hurried to hide behind Nephis.
"Why?" it echoed before laughing again. "What else could I call myself but fortunate?"
It leaned forward, bowing in reverence. Not at her, Nephis realized, but at something else. Something that went beyond this place.
"Today, I devour the Flame of Blasphemy," it whispered softly, its gaze growing even madder. "And once I have properly savored it..."
Laughter echoed once more, and the creature's desires spiked, so revulsive she almost retched.
"I shall devour the heir to the Flame of Desire as well."