Two years later.
Inside the Dark City, sounds of crunching and chomping filled the inside of one of its abandoned towers. The once gray stone walls of the tower had been stained red over the years. The center of the room had been blackened by the ash left behind by hundreds of fires. Currently, it was ablaze and roasting several skewers of monster meat. Beside it, a pile of monster corpses lay, and on the other side, a mountain of gnawed bones.
Chomp. Chomp. Crunch. Chomp.
Effie devoured the cooked pieces of monster meat one by one, the pile of bones was almost entirely of her making.
Lucien watched in fascination as she ate, even after three years, he had still not gotten used to her inhuman appetite.
He shook his head and opened his runes, if only to pass the time.
Name: Lucien
True Name: Hour of Calamity
Rank: Dreamer
Class: Monster
Storm Cores: [2/7]
Storm Fragments: [1352/2000]
Memories: [Stone Spear], [Storm Blade], [Stone Armorsuit], [Silk Yarn],[Iron Warbow].....[Bone Arrows]
Echoes: - [Crimson Mantis]
Attributes: [Ember of Divinity] [The Tempest] [Stormborn]
Aspect: Storm Herald
Aspect Rank: Divine
Innate Ability: Wild Hunt
Aspect Ability: Thunder Manifestation
Flaw: Sacrificial Will
The first time his Storm Fragments counter hit the maximum, he thought he was going to die. An excruciating pain had flared all over his body, forcing him to his knees. It was easily the worst pain he had endured; it felt as if his soul was being ripped apart.
Thankfully, it hadn't lasted very long. Once the pain disappeared, the changes began. His eyes, which had been hued purple ever since the nightmare, had gotten an ethereal glow to them. His hair had adopted a dark hue of purple and felt wispy to the touch, almost as if it were made out of storm clouds. His blood itself had begun changing color; the red was replaced with dark pink, which got closer and closer to purple every time he awakened a new core.
His reserves of storm had doubled. As such, the boost he received from enhancing his body with his lightning had also increased exponentially.
After awakening his second core, he had learned how his reserves of storm stacked. If he enhanced himself with all of it, he'd get four times stronger.
Just how strong would it be once he became a titan? A hundred and twenty-eight times stronger than he was? Was that the true power of a divine aspect?
His line of thought was interrupted when three beings entered the range of his storm sense. They advanced with caution, unlike any nightmare creature, and stopped right outside the tower they were in.
They were not nightmare creatures; the electricity inside them was still pure and uncorrupted. Over the years, he'd learned how nightmare creatures had different lightning signatures than humans. Their lightning was tainted by something vile, it was slow and sickly. That taint was stronger the higher the creature's rank, the strongest he'd felt was from a fallen abomination. It sickened him.
"There are a couple of humans lingering outside," He leaned in and whispered over the fire.
Effie paused in between her chewing, "Are you sure?"
"I'm certain," he said, and then frowned. "They're a bit late to be from the winter solstice group, though."
A faint growl interrupted him, and Effie threw the piece of bone she was holding towards the new arrivals. As it shattered against the wall, the pale boy raised his sword defensively.
Raising her head, she bared her teeth in a wide grin and murmured:
"Is someone hiding in the shadows? Why don't you come out to play…"
After a moment's hesitation, the three sleepers walked into the light of the bonfire.
Lucien sighed, "Didn't I tell you they were human?"
Effie shrugged with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Then she smiled at them and shook her head.
"Ah, where are my manners?"
With that, she rose to her feet, her chiton ever so teasing.
"Welcome," Lucien greeted as he stood up. He gestured at the bonfire, "Take a seat."
They hesitated for several seconds, and Lucien couldn't blame them. They made for quite the intimidating duo. A giant huntress with meat juices dribbling down her chin, and a human wearing stone armour still stained with monster blood.
As they stood there, Lucien took a good look at the three. The first, a young girl in plate armor with flowing silver hair and striking gray eyes. The lightning inside her was the brightest, tinged with divinity brighter than his own. She was the strongest among them; there was no doubt about it.
Directly behind her was the only boy in their group. If he were to describe the boy in one word, it would be black. His hair was messy and black, his armor too was made from some form of black fabric, even his sword was pitch black. But the most defining trait had to be his eyes, dark and almost lifeless. No light shone off them; it was as if he had pools of pure darkness as his eyes.
Lagging behind the group was a girl with golden hair and aimless cerulean eyes. Unlike the other two, she wore a simple tunic and was only armed with a staff. She was blind, he realized.
While he was observing them, the first girl finally managed to open her mouth to speak.
"Are…are you two human?"
Effie stared at her with a blank expression, then blinked a couple of times.
"What else would I be? A horse?"
With that, she threw her head back and laughed loudly, amused by her own silly joke. Lucien pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Don't mind her terrible jokes. We're human, you can relax."
"Of course we're human! Why are you even asking? Anyway, come sit. My neck is tired from looking down at you."
With that, she sat down by the fire and relaxed.
"You're new here, aren't you?" Lucien asked as they made themselves comfortable on the stone floor.
The leader nodded, "Yes. We have just reached the city."
"You managed to survive the Labyrinth for two months?" He raised an eyebrow; that was an impressive feat. If nothing, he'd have to respect their resolve to survive.
Effie whistled, "That's a real feat. Congratulations."
Even Lucien had only gone to the Labyrinth a handful of times, mostly out of curiosity.
A moment of silence passed before she spoke again. "I'm Nephis, and these are my companions, Cassia and Sunless. We are Sleepers who came here during the winter solstice."
Effie gave them a wide, friendly smile. "Nice to meet you, I'm Effie. And this is Lucy-"
"Lucien," He interrupted, "I'm Lucien. We're also Sleepers like you."
The boy frowned and leaned forward: "Are you from the castle? There are people living there, right?"
"Wouldn't call them 'people' but sure." Lucien scoffed. Just the mention of Gunlaug and his followers made his blood boil.
Sunny and Nephis shared an excited glance. Then Nephis cautiously asked:
"Can you take us there?"
Effie shrugged. "Sure, no problem. Do you guys have shards?"
Nephis fished out two shards from their makeshift rucksack and presented them to Effie.
"We have two."
Effie sighed, "Only two? Well …it's better than nothing, I guess. Keep them. You'll need them later."
Nephis paused for a moment, before saying:
"We were hoping to reach the Citadel and access the Gateway as soon as possible. How long will it take?"
And there it was, that damned question. Lucien couldn't help but feel pity for them; their hopes were about to be shattered. Effie bent over in a fit of hysterical laughter. She laughed so long and hard that tears appeared in her eyes.
The three Sleepers stared at her as if she were insane, and then turned their gaze to Lucien, who smiled bitterly at them. There was no way out of this hell, apart from the crimson spire. He'd spent a major portion of the last two years trying to find another Citadel, but there was nothing.
Effie's laughter stopped as abruptly as it had started. Wiping her tears, she shook her head and said in a strange tone:
"Ah, sorry guys. I just couldn't help myself. Please, forgive my lack of manners."
Then, she straightened her back, looked them heavily into the eyes, and said:
"I can take you to the castle, but there is no Gateway there. In fact, there's no way out of this cursed hell at all. I've been stuck here for three years myself already. So… welcome to the Dark City, I guess. Abandon hope all ye who enter here, and all that…"
Shellshocked by her words, the three of them stared at the young woman with pale faces. He could see the despair settling in their eyes—the faint shimmer of hope dying out.
"What do you mean, there is no Gateway?" Cassie said in a tiny voice.
"Well, there is the Cr-" The wind was suddenly knocked out of his chest as Effie slapped his back rather violently, sending him into a coughing fit.
With that, she turned back to the new sleepers as if nothing had happened.
"It's very simple, really. I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, but deep down inside you must have known already. Didn't you? The Forgotten Shore… it's not really a place where humans are supposed to survive. That's why you have never heard of anything like it in the school of the Academy."
He glared at Effie for a split second before quietly sighing. They'd find out sooner or later.
"Sixteen years ago or so, a group of powerful and desperate Sleepers managed to reach this city and claim the castle for themselves. Not because it had a Gateway, but because it was the only place that could keep them safe. At least for a while. Ever since then, a few lucky or resourceful people would find their way to the castle each solstice, only to get stuck here with the rest of us."
He had been there since the start, but his memories from that time had faded. He did not remember what the first or the second bright lord looked like. They had both perished before he reached adolescence.
"But that's… that is not fair." Nephis whispered, staring into the fire.
Effie looked at her with pity. Then, she chuckled, smiled darkly, and said:
"When was anything ever fair?"
"Don't feel too bad," Lucien said. "You get used to this place after a while."
That was a lie. There was no getting used to this hellhole.
Effie nodded, her grin turning happy once more, "That's right. Besides, you're incredibly lucky to run into us. If you hadn't, you would've been dead a long time ago."
Nephis stared at her and asked in a flat tone:
"Yeah? Why is… that?"
Effie sighed. "The Dark City is simultaneously the safest place to be on the Forgotten Shore, and also the deadliest. It is safe because no sea monster can cross the wall, let alone reach the castle. But at the same time, it is far more dangerous than the Labyrinth because almost every Nightmare Creature here is of the Fallen rank."
That was part of the reason why he had been able to accumulate so many storm fragments. Every time he killed a fallen abomination, he would get anywhere from five to eight fragments. The amount was never set, but it would always be above four. He suspected that he was only supposed to get four upon killing a fallen being, but his innate ability pushed that number up every time.
Effie smiled. "But you guys managed to stumble into me before descending from the wall. Otherwise, the Fallen Ones would have been feasting on your souls already. Lucky, very lucky! There are very few people in the castle who go out hunting in the ruins, let alone venture so far away from it Meeting an experienced hunter like me was probably your only chance to avoid finding out about the true face of the Dark City a second too late."
She shook her head.
"That's, like… one to one thousand? Ten thousand? A million? At any rate, the odds were really not in your favor. Fortune is definitely in love with at least one of you, guys. So… cheer up! Do you want some meat? I had a truly amazing hunt today. It was so amazing that I don't even mind sharing."
Nephis didn't even look at the roasting meat and instead leaned forward, her words filled with intensity:
"If there is no Gateway here, why didn't you try to leave?"
Effie leaned towards the fire and removed the skewers, replacing them with new ones. Then, with a sigh, she turned to Nephis and said, "You've been to the Labyrinth, so you know what it's like. There's nothing else but that damn coral and cursed sea for months of travel in every direction. You can't go on foot, you can't swim. You can't even fly, because there are swarms of dreadful flying abominations hiding in the clouds."
"In the early days, we did try to find another way out. That's how the first and second bright lord died." Lucien said. "I've been trying to find a different way out, but apart from a desert and a burned forest, I've found nothing."
He shuddered, remembering how his blood ran cold and all his instincts screamed at him to run when he had first reached the edge of the forest. He had exhausted all his essence to run back as fast as he could.
"Trust me," He said, a grim look on his face, "You do not want to go there."
Sunny grit his teeth, "So, what? You guys just hide in the castle and wait for death?"
Effie laughed. "Of course not, doofus."
Then she glared at him with grim hazel eyes. "Most of us can't even get into the castle. The king demands his tax, you know? So we just wait for death outside."
The pale boy stared at her, trying to understand the meaning of her words. "What do you mean?"
"It means that the current bright lord, Gunlaug, is demanding payment for staying in the castle. One soul shard a week." Lucien spat out, each word tinged with venom.
"What happens if you can't pay the tribute?" Sunny asked.
Effie glanced at him with confusion. "What do you think? You are not allowed to step anywhere near the gates. There's a small settlement for us unfortunate wretches beneath the castle walls, where we make do with what little we have and tremble in the night, hoping that nothing comes out of the darkness to devour us. That's pretty much it."
He hesitated. "But how are people even supposed to get soul shards in this cursed place?"
Effie gestured to the corpses of the monsters she had slain.
"By hunting. One can find Awakened creatures here and there in the city. The trick is to find and kill them without stumbling into something far more deadly. Gunlaug's people form parties and go out to hunt, with experienced pathfinders leading the way. They bring back food, Memories, materials and shards. Nothing stops people from attempting the same."
She fell silent for a few moments and then said in a darker tone:
"Of course, without good Memories, vast amounts of accumulated soul essence and intricate knowledge of the city, those people usually don't live long. Most of them either die or turn to other ways of earning shards. There's very few independent hunters with more than a couple of successful hunts to their names. Ones that are still alive, I mean."
Sunny glanced at the dead monsters, each of them large enough to give him pause.
"What about you? How many did you survive?"
Effie smiled.
"More than a couple."
With a chuckle, she raised her hand and began folding fingers, a thoughtful expression on her face:
"Let's see… one, two… uh, five…"''
"Around four hundred," Lucien added, "Most of those with me."
Effie snapped her fingers, "Ah yes, that sounds right."
Sunny's eyes widened. Four… Four hundred?
If what they said was true, then they were a force to be reckoned with. Slaying even one Awakened creature was worthy of respect. Slaying hundreds of them, however, was nothing short of remarkable, perhaps even heroic… and a little bit fearsome.
Lucien chuckled, "Don't worry, a few years here and you'll be boasting about such numbers as well."
If he survived that is. Sunny frowned as another thought struck him.
"If this is true, then you should have had no problem paying the tribute to stay in the castle. This doesn't make sense. Why haven't you?"
"Because the moment I see that golden bastard I will throw hands." Lucien snarled with hatred seeping into his voice. In the dim light of the room, his eyes seemed even brighter.
"And you'll die if you do that," Effie shook her head, and looked at the boy as if to say 'See what I have to deal with?'
Before Sunny could say anything, Nephis spoke again, her voice tense.
"You said that there were… other ways of earning soul shards. What are they?"
Lucien scoffed, "You either become his craftsman, his hunters, his soldiers, or his concubines."
Nephis looked disturbed by that and turned to Effie for a better explanation. The huntress sighed, a hint of some dark emotion flashed in her eyes.
"If you have a useful Utility Ability, you can become a craftsman or an artifex in the castle. If your ability is more combat-focused, you can become his hunters. If not, boys can become Gunlaug's soldiers, while girls… can enter his harem. Pretty ones like the two of you especially. No one will force you, of course."
She scowled, her face turning hard and cold. Her fists were clenched so hard that they seemed bloodless.
"So why hasn't anyone… killed him yet?"
"Because everyone who has tried has ended up dead. Their skulls are displayed above the castle gates as a warning." Lucien cut Effie off before she could speak.
Something struck him. These three sleepers had survived the horrors of the coral labyrinth for two months. They were strong; there was no denying that. Perhaps with them, he had a chance at killing Gunlaug.
Effie saw the dangerous glint in his eyes, the manic hunger for vengeance.
"Don't even think about it. No sleeper can kill him; he's practically immortal." She went to grab his shoulder, but he shrugged away from her grip..
Resolute indifference met vengeance-fuelled hunger as he stared at Nephis; she wanted to kill Gunlaug almost as much as he did, he could see that. And so without another moment's hesitation, he spoke.
"Gunlaug must die, but I cannot do it alone." His gaze swept over all three of them. "You are strong. You had to be strong, to be to survive the Labyrinth. You're my best hope at killing that bastard. Will you help me?"
Nephis nodded and opened her mouth to answer, but Sunless cut her off.
"And what about you? What if you're too weak and slow us down?"
The ghost of a smile crept up Lucien's face, "I was born on these shores. I grew up here and learned to survive even as a mundane human. I borrowed the divine lightning of Storm goddess to kill an Awakened Tyrant in my first nightmare and received a Divine Aspect."
As if to prove his point, he summoned a bolt of lightning above his palm. The flickering bolt of violent purple energy bounced harmlessly off his fingers.
"I've spent the past two years mastering my power. I've fought nightmare creatures every day since. But if you're still not convinced, you can fight me yourself and find out."
The smell of ozone was almost suffocating now. And the crackle of lightning grew more violent. Sunny paled. Another divine aspect wielder? He glanced at Nephis and wondered if she, too, had received a divine aspect. That would certainly explain her monstrous strength.
WHACK!
The lightning abruptly died, as Lucien stumbled forward. His hand flew up to his head to massage the new wound he had just received. Effie glared at him, her fist held high.
"Stop scaring them, Lucy."
"Did you have to hit me that hard?" He whined; he could feel a bruise forming already.
"Don't be a wuss."
He shook his head and turned back towards the three sleepers.
"So, will you join me?"
Nephis nodded and simply said, "Gunlaug will die."
Cassie, the blind one, nodded as well. But Sunny remained silent. He stared at the ground, lost in thought.
Effie grimaced, "No, seriously. Trying to go against Gunlaug will only get you killed... if you're lucky. Don't even think about that. Thinking too much is not good for your health here in the Dark City, anyway."
Then she smiled and gestured to the fire.
"Just have some of this delicious meat instead. Life is good when your stomach is full, right? Let me tell you, this is most likely your last chance to eat anything for free. Food is a real rarity in these parts. Can you believe it?"
Sunny sighed, then leaned forward and picked up a sizzling piece of meat.
"Of course I can believe it. I'm from the outskirts, you know. I didn't even know what real meat smells like before entering the Academy!"
With that, he handed the piece of meat to Cassie, took another one, and began devouring it greedily.
Nephis lingered for a bit, but then followed his example.
Effie giggled. "That's the spirit! See, doofus gets it."
Lucien sighed, standing up. "I'll take watch."
With that, he left the tower and began scaling to the top. The false sun was setting, and the familiar buzz of storm clouds was slowly approaching their location. From the top of the tower, he gazed down at the dark city as the darkness of night fell over it. The sound of crashing waves signalled the return of the dark sea. In the distance, the spire loomed eerily.
Calling upon his runes, he looked at his list of memories. Over half of his current memories were useless to him; he'd need to make a trip to the castle soon to sell them.
He spread his storm sense outward. If anything approached, he'd know. And so with nothing else to do, he materialized his spear and began going through the motions Effie had taught him once again.