The sky parted, sliced through by a narrow vertical rift. Behind it, the fabric of reality made way for a dark, harrowing abyss of nothingness—both light and darkness seemed to twist and change near the Gate, breaking as they were destroyed.
The rift dwarfed the entire siege capital, stretching for hundreds and hundreds of meters into the sky. The destroyed buildings and the faraway alloy wall looked tiny and insignificant compared to it.
An invisible shockwave rolled outward from the point where the gargantuan rift touched the ground, exerting an almost irresistible force. Arthur braced himself but still staggered as the wave passed through him, barely managing to stay on his feet.
His mind was drowned by the deafening, cacophonous howling of the Call—it was many times louder, more unbearable, and maddeningly demanding than it had ever been before.
At first, Arthur desperately resisted the overwhelming urge to submit, but as time went on, his instincts drove him to do the exact opposite.
It was a sweet call from deep within his soul, urging him to stop fighting that battle.
Sylvie, at his side, staggered back and looked up at it in terror.
Her lips moved.
"Four… it's a Category Four Nightmare Gate…"
Arthur blinked and forced himself to look at his companions. Noticing the desperation in their eyes, he didn't hesitate to react first.
Grabbing Sylvie by the shoulder, he moved quickly toward Sunny and Jet.
The former was still in shock at the massive Gate that had opened less than a hundred meters from them, while Jet, with her experience, didn't resort to panic as much—though she clearly felt it.
Noticing his movement, Jet pulled Sunny out of his current state with a shake of his shoulders while shouting close to his face.
"Summon your horse!"
Sunny blinked, and the magnificent black steed appeared from his shadow seconds later.
The Gate had opened relatively close, but not that close. Besides, there's always a delay between the Gate's appearance and the first creatures emerging from it. So if they hurried, they would all be able to escape in time.
Nightmare appeared, and Sunny prepared him for mounting by placing the Overpriced Saddle on his back. Then, with a jump, he mounted while extending his hand to Jet.
She took it, and in a matter of moments, they were ready to leave…
Looking at them, ready, and already knowing what he was going to do next, Arthur simply smiled at the corner of his lips.
Looking at Sylvie, he was about to speak, but she intercepted him without needing to look at him.
"Sunny, take Jet and return to East Antarctica. If they ask about us, tell them we died against the Winter Beast."
Arthur was taken aback for a second. Recovering, he was about to correct her—to tell her to go too—but he realized a major error…
Valor surely knows about Sylvie's connection to Ellie. If Sylvie returns, his sister could be in danger.
He already knew he wasn't going to be able to return. That meant Valor would know he defeated Madoc—and the next time, instead of sending a Saint, they would send more, or kidnap his family to hurt him somehow.
The way to avoid this would be to move his family to Ravenheart for safety. But even then—would that be living? Having to be locked away for their safety—would that count as a pleasant life?
He didn't think so.
The only option for them to be safe was for both of them to fake their deaths and let themselves be carried by the Nightmare Gate's Call…
Arthur didn't know what awaited him on the other side, but at this point, he didn't care much anymore. The only thing he knew was that there would be difficulties—but once overcome, the reward would be an increase in strength.
And if he ever wanted to make Valor pay for what they did, he was going to need it. He wasn't blind to Song's inaction in the matter either.
If the clan had sent more strong soldiers, many more people would have survived—perhaps even his father…
Sunny and Jet, upon hearing that, looked at her with wide eyes, but it didn't take long for them to reach the same realization.
Jet, looking at them with an expression of helplessness, could only clench her teeth and say:
"I'll take care of protecting Ellie and Alice until you return."
Sunny added, "The first fool who thinks of looking at them wrong will know the edge of my sword."
Sylvie and Arthur chuckled.
"Also remember to protect each other. Now you two carry a secret that both clans would kill to know," Arthur finished, looking at Sunny.
His friend, with his Flaw, was going to have a difficult time—but he didn't doubt in the slightest that he would figure it out.
"We will," both responded almost at the same time.
Sylvie put a bitter smile on her face.
"Now go, before the Gate becomes even more unbearable!"
Nightmare neighed and galloped off at high speed in the direction opposite the Nightmare Gate… leaving Sylvie and Arthur alone in the middle of the ruined siege capital.
They both immediately began to feel their Dream Realm anchor located in Ravenheart—but being in close proximity to a Nightmare Gate disturbed the anchor. So entering the Dream Realm near them meant being pulled by the Call and entering the area surrounding the Seed instead.
The problem was that the process of traveling between worlds wasn't instantaneous. It took time to open the door between the waking world and the Dream Realm, and even more time to step through.
Would they be fast enough to escape?
'…There is only one way to find out.'
About a hundred meters away from them, something vast moved in the abyssal darkness of the Gate.
Giant fingers suddenly pushed from it into the waking world, each as large as a tower. There were dozens of them, all dark and strangely human-like, with black, broken fingernails and torn, calloused skin.
The fingers felt around blindly, then grabbed the edges of the vertical rift and strained, as if trying to pull it wider.
The most horrifying part of it all was…
That they succeeded.
The world trembled, and a net of black cracks seemed to spread through the sky. Then the gaping wound of the Nightmare Gate was torn open, and a seething mass of the same dark flesh flowed out of it like an appalling avalanche.
The flesh expanded, turning into gargantuan black tentacles, which then shot forward with stunning speed.
Sylvie took a step back. Arthur, for his part, simply opened his eyes wide.
A moment later, a black tentacle whipped through the empty air with terrible speed. Its target wasn't specific, but at the same time, the movement managed to destroy everything in its vicinity.
Pieces of destroyed buildings flew through the air in all directions, and the sound was so great that it would have deafened a normal Awakened.
The ground trembled upon contact with the black tentacle, causing the rest of the buildings that had been fortunate enough not to collapse to finally join the rest that already had.
Sylvie and Arthur watched everything in disbelief—and fortunately, moments later…
…He sensed his connection to the Dream Realm.
Strange and distorted, it was still there—in fact, it was much stronger than before. The whispers of the Call grew even more deafening, screaming, demanding for him to make use of it.
Feeling a strange ecstasy and an immense sense of relief flood his mind, he submitted to their will.
Concentrating, he pulled on the connection and felt the border between the two worlds becoming weaker and more ethereal. Before, it had been like an impregnable wall—but now, it was more akin to fog. And he was slowly entering that fog.
It was as though something was pulling him from the other side… Or maybe expelling him from this one.
And that was it. That was all he could do.
Now Arthur just had to hold on to that feeling and hope that he would leave the waking world before the great and terrible being entering it squashed him like one would a bug.
Sylvie and Arthur stood motionless amidst the harrowing destruction. They did not try to run or search for shelter. There was nowhere to run anyway, and no shelter to be found.
Turning away from the black tentacles that were getting closer and closer, they looked at each other.
Arthur felt the ground under his feet quake, the tremors growing stronger and stronger. It was as though something was approaching them, shaking the world with each heavy step.
After a few moments, he opened his mouth—which was suddenly excruciatingly dry—and said:
"…I'll see you on the other side."
Sylvie looked back at him, something grotesque and lumbering reflecting in her golden eyes. She nodded with a smile.
"Yes."
Arthur turned and looked in the direction of his father's corpse. His expression changed to one of deep sadness for a fraction of a second, and his mouth opened to apologize.
"I'm so—"
He never got to complete that sentence before the world disappeared, and he saw—or rather, perceived—a boundless void. It was the familiar, empty void between dream and reality.
A moment later, he was suddenly blinded by bright sunlight and assaulted by unbearable heat.
Falling onto something soft and scorching, Arthur rolled and frantically tried to sense the surrounding space with his Aether Sense.
He sighed.
…He had reached the Nightmare Desert.
It was hot. Lethally hot… a mundane human would not have lasted in this suffocating heat for long. Even as a Master, Arthur was struggling to breathe. His skin was burning.
Sitting on the sand, hunched, he covered his eyes and looked up at the merciless white sun.
The sun was like a small silver coin hanging high in the cloudless azure sky.
White sand, azure sky, and a lot of heat.
The worst part was that Arthur was completely dry of essence, which meant he couldn't use Djinn of War's Runes trait to cool himself down a bit.
Because he had been in Antarctica previously, he had Memories that generated heat—so obviously, he didn't have any with the opposite effect. For that reason, Arthur had no choice but to endure the heat through clenched teeth.
Standing up, he looked around, and fortunately, to his west were the Hollow Mountains…
Judging by the distance, he was less than a day's travel from reaching the refuge of shadows generated by their tall peaks.
Frowning slightly upon not finding Sylvie in sight, he decided to speak to her mentally.
The link they shared only worked when both were in the same realm. With that condition fulfilled, the distance between them didn't matter.
'Sylvie, are you okay?'
There was only silence on the other side for a few moments, until eventually he heard a groan accompanied by a couple of curses…
'Hgh! What damned heat! Is this the Nightmare Desert, Art?'
He chuckled.
'Yeah, it is. We should meet up before nightfall. Where are you?'
Sylvie didn't respond immediately, surely analyzing her location. Then she responded:
'Emm, I have the Hollow Mountains maybe a day's travel to the west.'
'Good. Head there, and we'll meet in front of the largest entrance you can see,' Arthur responded while already starting his path in that direction.
Both had to hurry, not knowing when nightfall would come. Faced with the possibility of finding themselves in the middle of a battle between immortals, they both moved at the maximum speed their exhausted bodies allowed.
Arthur ran and ran. His body beginning to pay the price for all the wear he had subjected it to over the last two days. The muscles in his legs complaining about the use he put them through.
The physique of an Ascended was quite resistant, allowing him to run for hours—but at the same time, he was dead tired.
During the journey, he had to make pauses to rest because his body couldn't take more. The good thing about such pauses was that his essence was gradually regenerating, allowing his pace to increase and the number of pauses to decrease.
Near the end of the journey, Regis finally woke from his long nap, having recovered enough Aether to take his wolf form.
Under the excuse of stretching his legs, both began running side by side until they finally reached the shadows of the Hollow Mountains… but not before the sun had already hidden itself on the horizon and night had fallen over the Nightmare Desert.
The shadows of the Hollow Mountains stopped being shadows and became pure darkness, from which armies of immortal soldiers who had fought in the battle of the Gods against the Daemons emerged to continue their eternal battle.
The final stretch of the journey was… complicated, yet at the same time simple.
The deathless clashed in an infernal battle among themselves, but being in an area far from the deepest part of the desert—where the most intense battles occurred—the skeletons in that area didn't have enough willpower to change targets toward the only individual who wasn't like them.
Arthur was fortunate in that sense, and moving faster than before along his journey, he finally reached the mountains that protected him. There… he finally let himself fall to the ground to rest for the first time.
Though it wasn't for long.
'Art…' Sylvie's voice sounded in his mind, her tone slightly worried.
'What happened? Are you okay?!'
She responded quickly.
'I am. I've reached what we agreed on, but I don't see you.'
He frowned. Hadn't they agreed to meet at the largest entrance they could see?
Arthur extended his Aether Sense, and at that moment he realized something he had done unconsciously.
He wasn't at the largest entrance. In fact, the one he had chosen was quite small.
Still, he didn't panic. It was a surprise, yes—but not something unforeseeable. Due to his exhaustion, he must not have noticed at the time, but now he did.
Arthur, guided by his instincts, headed to the only zone that would help him obtain the strength necessary to take revenge against his father's killers.
While the actual killer had already been dealt with by his own hand, he wasn't going to feel satisfied with just that.
Now more than ever, the number of his enemies had nearly doubled, putting all of Valor against him.
Arthur didn't care if the next one to come for him was the weakest Awakened, Morgan the Princess of Valor, or Anvil himself.
The next time they heard from him would be the moment their ends approached.
Perhaps Arthur was using that as an excuse—or perhaps not. Regardless, the fact that the clans chose to hold back their strongest soldiers to fight a war among themselves, rather than saving millions of civilians, also weighed heavily on his decisions and motivations.
With just one more Saint, the Winter Beast crisis might have been resolved, and all those who froze to death before they could be evacuated could have survived.
Had that been the case, his father might still be alive, and he himself would not be in his current situation.
Forced to fake his own death—inflicting immense pain upon his family—all to gain a better chance of protecting them.
The irony of it all was that the very Saint Arthur had requested was indeed present in Falcon Scott—but with orders to eliminate him, rather than to save the millions of civilians waiting for their turn to escape Falcon Scott...
So, Arthur needed strength.
And the best way to obtain the strength necessary for that… was the Relictombs.
In front of him weren't the entrances of the Hollow Mountains leading into their depths—instead, there was something deeply connected to him.
A portal approximately four meters tall that transmitted no type of energy stood magnificently in the center of the cave he had unconsciously chosen to enter.
Regis had been asleep when they agreed with Sylvie to meet at the largest entrance, so he didn't know they were moving in the wrong direction.
Arthur let out an embarrassed laugh.
'Em… that was my fault.'
After that, Arthur explained what happened to Sylvie, and after receiving a scolding from her, he finally settled down to rest until Sylvie arrived.
It didn't take long for that to happen, so in less than half an hour of waiting, Sylvie found herself entering the cave where he lay on the ground.
Without her needing to ask, Arthur took some food from his storage Memory and prepared it for dinner. Creating a soft fire, he began to cook.
After eating until they were full, both deigned to consider entering the Relictombs. However, before they could do so, Sylvie stopped and looked at the portal with a pale face. Her lips pressed into a straight line.
"Sylv?" he asked upon noticing her reaction.
She swallowed and shook her head.
"I can't enter, Art."
"Why?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Sylvie hesitated for a bit. Her golden eyes looking at the portal had her pupils dilated.
"I don't know." She shook her head. "I feel like if I cross it, I'm going to die or something… maybe corruption?"
Arthur blinked at that moment. His mind failing to understand why she would feel that way.
If Sunny could enter these, why couldn't Sylvie?
The Relictombs were built by the ancient Djinn using Aether to protect their secret knowledge and stop the Empire of War from seizing it…
Maybe they programmed the portals with some kind of defense mechanism?
But why would it activate with Sylvie?
Arthur looked at her in silence for a while.
Eventually, his mind drew a pattern he hadn't noticed before, based on two different pieces of information.
One came from Sylvie herself in her Second Nightmare. There, Sylvie found valuable information about her past and discovered she was a Noble Creature.
The knowledge was that Noble Creatures were created by the gods—they weren't creatures of the Flame of Desire like Gods and humans.
That means some God was the creator of the dragon race… Obviously, there's also the option that different dragon races existed and that these were products of other Gods.
But the main Gods who could have created dragons were two, according to what Sylvie deduced: Storm God and War God.
Arthur didn't have much information about Storm God beyond the fact that the House of Night possessed her lineage.
On the other hand, he was very familiar with War God.
This connects precisely with the second piece of information, which came from Eurys.
The immortal skeleton told him that the Empire of War was founded on the remains of the Empire Azarax commanded, and its founder was none other than War God.
The vessel the Goddess of Life used for that purpose was exactly a dragon.
So there comes the final question…
Could Sylvie have some relation to the Dragon that led the Empire?
He didn't know, but at the same time… what other reason could there be?
The Empire wanted the Djinn's knowledge to use in their incessant battles, and they went so far as to exterminate them before such knowledge could fall into the hands of their rivals.
The surviving Djinn created the Relictombs to protect that knowledge from the Empire, and the way they did it was by preventing warriors related to their leader from entering.
Or perhaps they went a step further and prevented any Noble Creature from being able to enter.
Though this would leave humans able to do so, and the Empire wasn't founded only by Noble Creatures. There were humans too, and surely they were the majority.
Though perhaps they were also the weakest, making it impossible for them to discover the secrets hidden in the depths.
'Now that I think about it…'
Sunny didn't discover anything about the Djinn when he entered the Relictombs… the information he has about them was provided by him.
Maybe more things are needed to be capable of doing so…
Arthur was precisely one of those capable of discovering the secrets hidden in their depths. Perhaps even Grey was too.
In fact, Grey might have been one of those Djinn who created the Relictombs…
'Ugh, this isn't the moment to think about that.'
Arthur pulled his gaze from Sylvie and looked at the portal, staying silent for a few seconds before looking at her again.
"Isn't there anything that can be done?"
Sylvie nodded slowly.
"There is something, but I don't know how it will turn out…" Looking at him, she added, "I can use my Ascended Ability on myself—that way I would return to the moment when I was an egg and was in your Soul Sea."
He froze for a moment.
Shaking his head, he rejected that option.
"No."
"Why?" Sylvie asked, confused.
Raising an eyebrow, he couldn't help but let his voice come out slightly altered—in fact, he didn't want to suppress it.
"Because it would be as if you were dead?"
Sylvie pressed her lips together tightly.
"But I wouldn't be. I would just be in your Soul Sea like I was at the beginning of our adventures in the labyrinth, remember?"
She took a step forward and slowly grabbed his hand. Giving it a squeeze, she said:
"I'll be with you, as I always tried to be."
"But…"
Sylvie intercepted him.
"No buts. I'm doing this whether you want it or not, Arthur. It's my decision."
He clenched his teeth slightly and finally nodded.
"If something unexpected happens while you use your Ability, you stop, and we look for another way. There must be a seed for the Third Nightmare around here somewhere—we could challenge it together."
Sylvie smiled gently at the proposal and, releasing his hand, took a few steps back.
What happened next was difficult to understand.
She closed her eyes, and for a few seconds, there was only peace in the cave illuminated by the fire created previously. Seconds passed, and then more. Finally, after twenty seconds, a change occurred in her.
Her hair began to grow shorter slowly, and at the same time, her body—already relatively small, almost with the same physique as Cassie—also began to shrink slowly.
The process was strangely smooth, as if Sylvie's years were passing in reverse, until at a certain moment she already seemed to be ten years old. Then five.
It was definitely strange to see her that way, since from the beginning Arthur had seen her as an adult woman—but in front of him was Sylvie, already looking three years old, and a second later, much less.
In the blink of an eye, a layer began to form around her. This layer was of pure mana that slowly solidified until it took the form of an egg.
The process lasted less than a minute, but that time was going to mean a lot for both of their futures…
Arthur knew clearly that his current mental state wasn't the most optimal—maybe it was due to his exhaustion or other reasons. But he needed Sylvie. However, right now she wasn't going to accompany him until he left the Relictombs… who knows when that would be.
He didn't even consider Regis for that, because the bastard would surely have laughed in his face and told him he was acting like an edgelord.
Taking a deep breath, he crouched down and took the egg with both hands, very carefully. It was cold to the touch and quite heavy—still, he held it easily.
Closing his eyes, he went to enter his Soul Sea and felt no difficulty in doing so.
Noticing the rays of his five remaining cores in his eyes, he opened them, and the views of his beautiful Soul Sea presented themselves before him. Still, Arthur didn't stay to admire them.
Noticing that Sylvie was still in his grasp, he set her down on the ground carefully.
He didn't know how Sylvie could enter his Soul Sea that way—though surely it was related to their connection as companions.
Looking at the egg that formed Sylvie, he sighed and left his Soul Sea.
Regis watched everything in silence from his core, without trying to interrupt them. At that moment, he finally spoke.
'Everything's going to be fine, princess.'
Arthur frowned slightly.
'Regis… I'm begging you, don't jinx us.'
Then… he took a few steps, and the Relictombs portal received him with views he never would have imagined…