Back across the whirlpool of black water, the Dreamer Army was still furiously resisting the horde of Nightmare Creatures. By now, all of the monsters had left the coral bridge and descended upon the Sleepers, consumed by the mad desire for human flesh.
There was no distinction between the first and the second line now. All those still alive were engulfed by the bloody chaos of the slaughter, desperately trying to survive in the midst of absolute chaos.
Changing Star was at the center of the terrible bloodshed, shining like a radiant sun. She fought alone, because no one else could survive the devastating pressure that the horde exerted in the zealous attempts to extinguish that light. Any human that tried to approach and help her was immediately torn to pieces.
Indifferent to everything, Nephis moved like a furious deity, eviscerating one abomination after another. All around her, burning corpses littered the ground, their cursed blood boiling and evaporating into the air. Not only was her presence relieving the pressure from the rest of the Sleepers, but they also found strength in it.
There was also a beautiful deer not so far from Changing Star.
Its form was slender and poised, midnight-blue hide flowed across its frame like liquid twilight, split apart by streaks of obsidian that glowed faintly with veins of molten gold.
Its antlers were vast and jagged, rising like twin crescents of sharpened dusk, each adorned with golden leaves and blossoms that shimmered faintly, alive with their own quiet pulse.
Amethyst eyes glowed beneath the arch of its horns, piercing and luminous, holding both gentleness and the weight of unspoken power. Gold traced its body in elegant curves, draping its shoulders like ceremonial armor.
The Deer of Abundance had gathered many sleepers around herself. Fighting with her, and then falling back to heal by touching her elegant body.
The Deer itself did not sit idly. Three pairs of vines had erupted in a circle around herself.
A pair of vines bared golden fruits. These golden fruits enthralled the weaker creatures, the terror immediately forced its will upon those creatures and added them to its army of devils. This army of creatures could be identified by the green flames dancing in their eyes, so the sleepers did not attack them carelessly.
Another pair of vines healed her allies. The sleeper army. The healing was meager and weak, however it did its job.
And finally, another pair of vines strengthened the deer herself. The deer stood idly to stay within the reach of sleepers. However she sometimes swung her head, her antlers shot out strong gusts of winds that pushed the enemies away, and heated lightening attacks that scorched the nightmare creatures.
The Deer herself had become a deity in the eyes of the sleepers.
***
Seraphine
Seraphine gazed at the terrible scene of the massacre below her, Aether and Changing Star had started their advance too. Aether had summoned his echo, and somehow was controlling thirty awakened devils at once. She simply could not comprehend how he was doing this, did he have multiple aspects?
She hook her head and then raised her face to the sky.
Instead of the sky, however, she saw the dark mass of bleeding corpses carpeting the iron net. Her face paled, light disappearing from her eyes.
Out of the most important members of the church, only she had not gotten an important task. Her task was simple, aid Kai.
Back in the real world, Seraphine came from a wealthy family. Unlike the others in her team, she had been spoon-fed everything. She was taught by the best awakened on how to survive from a young age, she was very talented too in many things, or at least she thought she was talented.
Until she came to the academy.
She had always prided herself in being talented and being good at everything she did. However when she saw the rankings, that was when she realized that she was only a little above average when it came to talents. She had ranked in the tens.
That inspired her to work harder. Seraphine did not want to fall back behind her peers, she wouldn't.
And now, there she was. One of the strongest fighters among the forgotten shore, and the most trusted woman of the strongest person in the forgotten shore.
Seraphine wanted to help them. She wanted to have an important part in this siege, she wanted to engage in melee fights too, she wanted to prove herself too.
In the corner of her eyes, she saw Kai flying towards the iron net.
'What the hell is he doing?'
Seraphine immediately loaded her bow, raising it to protect him from the monsters that were approaching.
***
Veynar
"Argh!"
A pincer stabbed into his thigh, which he immediately severed the limb of the creature and pulled the pincer out, dashing backwards. A big chunk of his flesh was torn away from his leg, making him grimace in pain.
Then he unsheathed his katana to unleash a devastating slash that killed the enemy in front of him. Breathing heavily, he put the katana back into the scabbard once again. The blue longsword had broken long ago, but he was not short on weapons.
But the problem was not his arsenal. It was him.
He was tired. So exhausted.
…But there was no end to the nightmarish horde.
'Give me a break already..'
Summoning a familiar cup, he took large sips of bitter alcohol and dismissed the memory.
The adrenaline was wearing down, and the exhaustion was setting in. With the help of the alcohol he had kept it going for a while, but this was how far he could go.
Veynar used several memories to attack the nightmare creatures around himself. Many of his swords broke, many bit themselves into the flesh of the nightmare creatures. His green katana was still picking up his speed, making him even faster than the boy named Caster that died a while back.
How many had he killed? A hundred? Perhaps.
As he finished off another nightmare creature, a searing pain shot through his back. A nightmare creature had slashed against his back. Immediately turning body, Veynar slashed the nightmare creature into pieces in a moment of fury.
'Why is no one covering me?'
Veynar looked around to check on the fellow Sleepers who had been fighting by his side, but failed to see anyone.
All around him, there was nothing but the endless mass of Nightmare Creatures.
Everyone was already dead.
…Except for him.
But, now… they were all around him.
But they were not them.
"Man… why are you so slow?" A familiar youth whose torso hung twisted and broken spoke up. His half-crushed face smiled like it used to, but the voice was wet, bubbling with blood.
Another girl staggered closer, her head hanging by a strip of skin, her eyes still glowing faintly with hope. "You promised, Veynar. You promised we'd go back together."
One by one, they emerged from the horde. People he knew. People he had drunk with, fought beside, laughed with. People who had died under his command.
All of them were pointing at him.
"We are dead because of you."
Veynar stood frozen. The sword in his hand shook uncontrollably. His vision swam, his ears rang. For a moment, he was no longer on the battlefield, he was back in every moment he had failed them, reliving each death.
Everyone thought that his flaw was being an alcoholic. But that was not the truth.
The alcohol was just the bandage.
His flaw was this...
His flaw embodied his guilt and played tricks with his mind when he was feeling tired.
***
Seraphine
Most of the flying Nightmare Creatures had been slain by the archers, with just a few still trying fruitlessly to break through the net. But high above them, five dark dots still circled in the clouds.
A shiver ran down her spine.
Because a moment later, the Messengers broke the perfect symmetry of their circle and plunged down.
'Shit!'
Her pulse spiked. This was it, the kind of moment she always told herself she wanted. To matter. To step out of the background and prove she wasn't just a pampered daughter pretending to belong here. Her hands shook, but she forced them steady as she immediately changed her aim towards the descending monsters and sent many arrows flying to support Night, who was battling them alone in the skies.
She immediately changed her aim towards them and sent many arrows flying to support Night that was battling them alone in the skies.
She was about to send many more arrows to aid the man when she felt a touch on her shoulder. When she turned, she saw Aether.
Her face paled when she saw him.
"What the hell happened to you?" She asked with worry as she put a hand on his bloodied cheek.
His lower face was drenched with blood, thick trails leaking from his ears and streaking down his neck. His skin was ghostly pale, lips nearly blue, and yet, there were no wounds. No cuts, no tears. Just blood, as if it had poured straight out of him.
For a heartbeat, revulsion and pity tangled inside her chest. He looked like a corpse that hadn't realized it was dead.
[You have received an echo.]
"Go, it is a winged creature. Help out Kai." With that he ran towards the battlefield, leaving Seraphine baffled.
'Is this bum for real? You expect me to fight fallen abominations?'
She shook her head and summoned the echo
.In a flare of light, the creature unfurled, an awakened demon, serpentine and winged, its scales shimmering faintly. Power radiated from its lean body, its wings slicing the air with an eagerness that made her chest tighten. Unlike her hesitation, the creature seemed born for the hunt.
And so she took off, rising toward the storm of monsters above.
***
Veynar
He had tried his best. He really did.
Since Veynar arrived in the forgotten shore, he had done nothing but his best to protect both himself and his comrades.
After an eternity of refusing to give up, covered in terrible wounds, he made a mistake. It wasn't a mistake, even.
Just the inevitable failure of a body put through too much pain.
A sword fell to the ground with a clatter. Then a pained scream tore through Veynar's throat, muffled by the fury of the nightmare creatures around him. Several slashes opened across his body as his defense faltered, hot lines of agony tearing across his back, chest, and arms. His knees buckled, and the storm of steel that had once surrounded him broke apart like mist in the wind.
He fell to the ground, the impact jarring his bones, blood pouring freely and pooling beneath him, soaking the coral until it gleamed slick and crimson. His breath came ragged, each inhale sharp and painful, each exhale weaker than the last.
'Hurts.. hurts so much..'
The nightmare creatures closed in, shadows looming over him. Their teeth gleamed, their claws dripping black ichor, their bodies quivering with hunger. And for the first time, Veynar knew he couldn't rise again. His body would not answer. His strength was gone.
And still, with trembling hands, he summoned the cup. It materialized against his palm as though mocking him, the one constant companion he had never been without, one that a little brother had gifted him. His grip was weak, fingers slipping, but he raised it anyway. Slowly, stubbornly.
The rim of the cup brushed his lips, but most of the liquor spilled down his chin, mingling with the blood that already coated his face. A warm trail ran down his throat. He couldn't tell anymore what was alcohol and what was his own lifeblood.
"Cheers," he muttered, voice slurred but steady, as though offering a toast to the corpses of his comrades, to the monsters that would devour him, to the flaw that had always haunted him.
The creatures lunged.
And then-
The world erupted.
A chain of deafening explosions tore through the ranks of the Nightmare Creatures, fire and gore splattering across the battlefield. The shockwave threw their bodies backward, spraying Veynar in blood and burning flesh. For a moment, the monsters recoiled, shrieking, their charge broken.
Veynar lay in the center of it all, drenched in blood and liquor, staring up into the dark sky that he could no longer see clearly. A faint smile ghosted across his lips. He didn't know who had saved him, or if it was salvation at all. But he knew one thing: he had not gone quietly.