After defeating the Stone Saint, Harus drew a deep breath and began to ascend the broken stairs, his heavy steps echoing in the suffocating silence. The Observatory waited above, and the little worms would be up there.
Perhaps one of them was already dead, he thought, judging by the unnatural silence. One of them must have fallen in battle... Unless the cockroach and the trickster had joined hands, lying in wait to spring an ambush.
Well… it didn't matter. Whether they had teamed up or one of them was dead, it made no difference to him.
Stepping into the Observatory, chains slithered loosely at his sides. His gaze swept the damp, cold chamber; steam escaped his mouth as he breathed. Broken shards of statue littered the floor, but what remained of the monument was the face with the beautiful features, almost like a Goddess. Some might have called this a prayer room rather than an observatory… perhaps it was both. After all, the Storm God was also the God of Stars and Guidance. Maybe the ancient people had looked to the sky, drowned in darkness, hoping to see the grace of a goddess once again.
Another thing Harus noticed was a silver mirror with a delicate design, its surface rippling like liquid. Inside it, Sunless writhed. He was trapped, struggling against his own twisted reflection, locked in a brutal fight with himself. The outcome was unclear, but Harus could see that the reflection couldn't adapt mid-fight; its combat style remained stagnant. Sunless, however, was adapting as the battle went on, his style becoming more ruthless and refined while the reflection slowly lost its edge. It seemed destined to fail.
Harus's eyes narrowed.
A dangerous Memory… tricky. But if I were in his place, it would be nothing I couldn't overcome. I would have destroyed it in seconds.
He turned his attention away, chains tightening as his ability remained active. Yet, somehow, the two worms were resisting it. He could steal his opponents' sight… and both Amon and Sunny were indeed blind. But even so, they fought on. That meant they possessed some innate ability or attribute that sharpened their other senses, instinct or intuition, allowing them to counter his power.
While pondering this, Harus's gaze finally settled on a pale young man with curly black hair and dark, mischievous eyes. Bruised and bleeding, his battered body slumped against the wall. Harus tilted his head slightly, a rough chuckle rumbling from his chest.
"What did you hope to accomplish, worm?" His voice was deep and coarse, yet carried a hint of amusement. "Did you truly think you could defeat me? Now... you will die."
Amon grinned, his teeth stained red, his eyes glinting with mischief.
"No shit, Sherlock. That's quite impossible."
He wasn't lying. Defeating Harus in a head-on battle was truly impossible. Even though Amon was a Demon, two classes higher than Harus, he was still inferior, not just in skill, but also in sheer physical strength. Harus was a monster, plain and simple. The only reason Sunny had beaten him in the novel was because of Fate. But now, Amon was here… and he was the Error. And Error and Fate were never known to coexist peacefully. They clashed.
Because of his interference, Sunny's Fated Attribute had failed to protect him. That was how Harus had crushed both Sunny and the Saint. And the Saint… she had been almost as strong as Effie, yet Harus had still annihilated the taciturn shadow. That alone spoke volumes about how monstrous the hunchback truly was.
Harus's mouth stretched into a grim smile, his pale eyes narrowing.
"Good. At least you comprehend that much, worm. Now… let's finish this."
His fist clenched, veins bulging as he prepared to smash the boy's skull and toss the broken body from the Observatory so the beasts below could devour it.
Still… he hesitated for a breath.
The boy was interesting. More than that, he liked him, in a way.
Unlike that petty, envious shadow, this one understood loyalty. Harus remembered Sunny's poisonous words, the way the brat had spat venom, blind to the very meaning of companionship. Then he recalled what he had learned about the boy in front of him from Medici. The red-haired bastard was arrogant, but he seemed proud of the boy, speaking of him in very high regard. (Cap, Medici was just glazing his homie.)
Amon was loyal to Luna and Medici, just as both of them were loyal to him.
Harus's gaze dimmed with memory.
He and Gunlaug had been the same. Harus, to put it simply, had a hideous appearance. But Gunlaug had never cared, and eventually, they became part of the same cohort. Then Gunlaug rose as the Bright Lord, while Harus stood at his side. Gunlaug gave Harus a home, and Harus protected Gunlaug in return.
In the beginning, they had tried... By all the dead gods, they had tried to save the people, to wrest them from this cursed shore. But they had failed.
And despair consumed them.
Slowly, cruelty took root. Their hope rotted. They grew hollow inside, crueler and madder with each passing year. But through it all, they never left each other behind. Even as Gunlaug became a tyrant, Harus remained his shadow. Even as Harus became a monster, Gunlaug never cast him aside.
And perhaps that was why he felt a bit of respect for the battered boy… It was a pity they had ended up on opposite sides.
"…Pathetic," Harus muttered softly, raising his fist. "But worthy."
Amon blinked, his battered face briefly contemplative. Then he sighed and summoned [Endless Spring]. A delicate glass bottle shimmered into existence from white sparks.
He lifted it, took a sip, letting the cold water wash the dryness from his throat. His eyes flicked toward Harus, and with a faint smirk he tilted the bottle in offering.
"Want a sip?"
Harus's grin widened, teeth flashing. Amusement glinted in his vicious eyes.
"What's your name…? Remind me."
Amon tilted his head. Instead of answering, he poured water over his hair, letting it run down his face. The fight had drained him, his body slick with sweat and his breaths ragged like he'd run a marathon. Finally, he pushed his wet hair back and exhaled.
"It's Amon, also known as the strongest coward in history. And in the future, it'll definitely be Duke Amon... Heh heh."
Harus blinked, a bit dumbfounded by the nonsense Amon was spouting with such a confident look. Strongest coward in… Wait a second. This boy… oh, he's not right in the head. That's why he thanked me when I called him a worm and a coward? He thinks those are compliments… Harus almost felt pity for him.
"I see… Time to finish this. If you were wise enough to follow Gunlaug, you would have lived a good life. Such a pity."
For a moment, silence lingered. Then Amon laughed, his body tilting forward slightly as a wide smile spread across his face.
"I guess it would've been, huh? Fine. Let's do this, then."
Harus stepped forward, chains twitching, muscles coiling for the kill.
Amon dismissed [Endless Spring]. White sparks scattered around him, clinging to his frame like fading embers as the Memory sank back into his soul sea.
And then he dashed forward.
Harus's eyes narrowed, every instinct honed on the boy's approach. But as the sparks still clung to Amon's outline, a faint unease twisted in his gut... Hmm, shouldn't sparks disappear after few seconds? Special trait of memory... What is it...?
Amon grinned, he wouldn't give up without using every trick in his arsenal. And right now? He was gambling everything on his last one. It was reckless, suicidal even, the kind of plan that could kill him as surely as it could kill Harus.
Harus felt it before he saw it, that creeping anxiety, sharp and sour, as if something monstrous were slithering just out of sight. His instincts clawed at him to move, but he hesitated for a fraction of a second, trying to understand.
And then the air split open with sparks. White motes shimmered into existence all around Amon, multiplying, gathering, weaving into a massive shape, then disappearing. Harus blinked, a bit disoriented for some reason, and when he opened his eyes again, sparks flickered into existence once more, then vanished. In a single second, they flickered in and out of existence twice.
Hallucinations!? Harus thought, his eyes widening. What the hell is that!?
But before he could move away, the area was drowned in the deafening sound of an explosion.
BOOM!
The Observatory shattered. Stone screamed and iron bent as the ceiling collapsed in on itself. A wave of force tore outward, thunder rolling across the battlefield below. Every warrior froze mid-strike, heads snapping upward as dust and ruin rained down from above.
For a moment, the fight stopped.
Because for the first time in years… they saw something more terrifying than the Crimson Spire.
Everywhere, people froze. Some burst into laughter filled with despair, others collapsed to their knees in surrender, while a few simply turned and ran, their steps echoing in the chaos of the Bright Hall.
Luna, Medici, Nephis, and Gunlaug stood among them, each locked in their own storm of disbelief.
Medici's mouth twitched into a faint, almost resigned smile.
Luna blinked once in confusion, then threw her head back and laughed. Her voice rang out bright and beautiful, yet edged with something manic and deranged, carrying through the crumbling hall like the song of a mad banshee.
Nephis stood rooted, unable to comprehend what her eyes were telling her. She had never imagined such a thing could even be possible, let alone that someone would be insane enough to attempt it.
As for Gunlaug… though his golden armor concealed his face, the weight of fear and disbelief bled from him like heat from a forge.
And then it came.
The battered ship tore down from the heavens, its massive frame illuminated by the eerie light of the artificial sun. With the shriek of rending metal, it smashed through the upper tiers of the Bright Castle, obliterating floor after floor.
For those watching, the moment stretched endlessly.
Then the armored beak of the ship's ram struck the Bright Hall.
There was a blinding flash, a deafening roar, and then everything was engulfed in a cloud of dust.
A shockwave tore across the castle, flinging warriors and Sleepers alike like rag dolls. Pillars crumbled, stone shattered, and the ceiling itself seemed to scream as debris cascaded downward. Screams were cut short as the wreckage buried the helpless beneath.
The ship did not stop. It kept falling, plummeting with relentless momentum, tearing deeper and deeper through the castle's heart. With every floor it struck, it grew more battered, more broken yet it did not slow down, dragging everything along with horrifying speed.
While the Bright Castle was collapsing, Amon and Harus plummeted after the falling ship.
Amon twisted his body midair, desperate, thrusting the Midnight Shard into the wall in a frantic attempt to slow his descent. Sparks screamed as steel scraped against stone, but his momentum was too great, so he kept falling, weightless and helpless.
Harus fared little better. His chain lashed out like a serpent, coiling around a shattered pillar. For one terrible instant, it held.
The force nearly tore him apart.
Normally, instinct would've forced his hand to release the weapon but the chain was more than steel, it was part of him. And so, when the momentum stopped, it wasn't the chain that broke. It was him.
His arm shattered with a wet, splintering crack. White-hot pain surged through his nerves, tearing a bestial scream from his throat. Bone splintered, flesh tore, and every nerve screamed but the chain held, and Harus lived. Yet his arm, shoulder, and collarbones bore the brunt of the impact. The abrupt stop had easily fractured bones and dislocated joints.
Even if Harus was superhuman, his body could not withstand a fall from such a height. The Observatory towered too high, and Harus had been falling for too long, meaning his velocity had grown, and the results were catastrophic. He survived only because of his monstrous physique, but even then, his spine remained vulnerable. Being a hunchback worsened the damage: the sudden stop compressed his vertebrae, fracturing them and damaging the spinal cord.
The injury left his body completely paralyzed, hanging like a marionette, every movement impossible as the weight of his own fall betrayed him.
As darkness swallowed him, the last sound he heard was not the roar of destruction but the demented laughter echoing through the wreckage.
"Rahahaha! It worked! Aaahahahah! How's that!? Who can defeat me? Me!?" Amon's deranged voice rang out as he plummeted. "I'm the fucking Blasphemer! There's nothing I cannot do!"
[You have slain a Dormant human. Name: Louis.]
[You have slain a Dormant human. Name: Ethan.]
[You have slain an dormant human. Name: Lana.]
[You have slain an dormant human. Name: Nik.]
[You have slain an dormant...]
He was probably going to die, yet seeing the sheer effect of his performance thrilled him to no end. Excitement coursed through him, so intense it drove him to the edge of madness. This ecstatic, chaotic elation was as bizarre as it was satisfying.
But then, something slammed into him.
A dark silhouette surged through the collapsing ruins, catching him in midair and twisting so that her body struck the ground first.
They rolled across the fractured floor in a storm of dust and stone. Amon coughed, choking on the dust-filled air, his vision darkening until he, too, lost consciousness.
***
[A/N: So, how was his plan, guys? Hahaha, I knew no one would have imagined this. Honestly, even I'm surprised I managed to think of something this diabolical.
That aside, I'm really hyped for the next chapter as well.
I tried to make it as realistic as I could. I don't exactly know how strong a peak sleeper's physique is, or how great their grip strength and durability might be, but I think I managed to describe Harus's physical condition decently.
Amon really is crazy. I had so much fun writing him. As I've always said, Amon will win most of his battles with cunning, deceit, unpredictability, and sheer madness, and I think he's really living up to that. I'm not sure if I fully captured his personality, but I tried my best.
That's it for now, guys. Enjoy the meal, and thanks so much for your support!]
***