The night finally ended.
I blinked awake to a muted gray light. For one precious moment, I thought the blood-stained sky had vanished. But no — the same crimson haze lingered above, only softened now by thick, heavy clouds that rolled endlessly overhead.
Still, the clouds were a blessing. It meant no direct sunlight. It meant I didn't have to suffocate myself inside the Shadow Knight's helmet again. For once, I could breathe.
I stretched my stiff limbs, shadows slipping away from my pale face as I glanced at Effie. She was already sitting cross-legged on the statue's massive palm, fiddling with her spear, eyes scanning the horizon with that restless energy she seemed to always carry.
"Sleep well?" she asked, tone dry.
"About as well as anyone can when lying on a giant stone hand above an ocean of death water," I muttered.
She smirked. "So… fantastic."
Before I could answer, the black water below began to recede, retreating into the ground as silently as it had risen the night before. The world opened up again, crimson coral reefs stretching endlessly in all directions. And beyond them…
I froze.
Massive walls rose in the distance. Not ruins, not crumbling defenses. Walls. Whole, intact, dark as obsidian, impossibly tall. They stretched higher than mountains, cutting into the sky itself.
Effie followed my gaze and let out a low whistle. "Well. Whoever built those definitely wasn't compensating for anything."
"Yeah," I muttered, throat dry. "We're maybe a day's walk away. But that means we have to go down."
Effie sighed, bracing her spear across her shoulders. "Figures. Down first, giant ominous walls later."
We descended carefully once the water had completely drained, climbing down the statue's rough stone like ants. My palms scraped, Effie cursed half the way, but eventually, we reached the blood-soaked coral floor. The silence pressed heavy as we started walking toward the walls.
That's when the ground shifted.
"Alucard!" Effie shouted.
A shape exploded out of the coral. A centipede — no, a nightmare version of one. Its body was thicker than a tree trunk, armored in jagged plates of black chitin. Dozens of legs clattered against the coral as its bulk coiled in the air. Its face — if you could call it that — split open into pincers, snapping wide enough to crush a horse in half.
It lunged straight at me.
I barely had time to react. The thing's sheer weight slammed me to the ground, knocking the air from my lungs. Its pincers scraped down toward my helmetless skull, screeching like blades grinding together.
"Damn it—!"
I drove a fist upward, connecting with the grotesque mess it called a face. The impact jolted up my arm like I'd just punched a wall. The centipede shrieked, the sound so sharp it felt like needles digging into my ears, but it didn't stop. Its pincers kept inching down.
Then, steel flashed.
Effie's spear rammed straight through one of its eyes.
The beast convulsed, shrieking, its massive body thrashing as it reared back in agony.
"Get off him, you ugly bastard!" Effie shouted, twisting the spear and ripping it free in a spray of black ichor.
The weight pinning me down loosened. I shoved upward, rolling to the side, and summoned blood to my palm.
The wound Effie had left dripped freely. I seized it, pulling. The blood rose sluggishly at first, then faster, forming into a trembling sphere in my hand.
Another centipede burst from the coral, rushing straight for Effie.
"Effie, duck!" I barked.
She dropped instantly. I flung the blood bubble into the centipede's gaping maw. With a thought, I expanded it.
The blood ballooned, stretching unnaturally, filling every crevice of the beast's mouth. Its mandibles snapped uselessly as the sphere swelled, crushing its throat, then its skull. With a wet pop, its brain pulped inside its armored shell.
The beast collapsed, legs twitching.
[You have slain an awakened monster]
But my legs wobbled too. My chest heaved. The blood sphere trick had drained me harder than I expected. My vision swam for a moment. "Gods…" I muttered, pressing a hand to my temple. "Feels like I just sprinted a mile."
"Quit whining and move!" Effie's hand grabbed mine, yanking me upright.
Because more were coming.
Dozens of chittering legs clattered against the coral. Shadows writhed as more centipedes slithered out from cracks in the reef, their grotesque bodies glistening with slime.
"Run now, banter later!" Effie barked.
No argument there.
We sprinted, weaving through the blood-red coral as centipedes thundered after us. The ground shook under their weight. My lungs burned, but the sight of the walls looming closer kept me moving.
"Up!" Effie pointed. Coral jutted from the walls like massive roots, twisting upward in thick ridges.
We scrambled onto them, climbing with desperate speed. My fingers dug into grooves, legs burning, while Effie swore every few seconds as another leg slipped. Behind us, the centipedes slammed against the wall, some even starting to climb, their bodies writhing like nightmare ropes.
"Don't look down!" I shouted.
"Then stop describing things that make me want to look down!" Effie shot back.
We climbed higher, breathless, until finally — finally — we pulled ourselves onto the wall's edge.
And then collapsed.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke. Just gasped, clutching the stone beneath us like it was the only solid thing in the universe.
Eventually, Effie groaned. "Well… that was… exercise."
"Yeah," I panted. "Next time, you deal with the bugs."
She smirked faintly, rolling onto her back. "Fine. But you owe me a spear upgrade if mine breaks. Hero discount."
I chuckled weakly. "Sure. I'll put it on your tab."
When our breathing finally steadied, we sat up — and froze.
The view spread before us made every battle, every drop of exhaustion, feel like nothing.
Beyond the wall lay a city. A massive, sprawling corpse of a city. Towers crumbled in half, streets drowned in shadow. Nightmare creatures crawled through the ruins like ants over carrion. And in the center, vast and terrible, rose a castle. Its spires were jagged, reaching like claws toward the blood-red sky.
"Holy…" Effie whispered. "That's… a lot of nope."
I exhaled slowly. "Yeah."
Silence stretched between us, both of us staring at the horror below. Then Effie shook herself and turned to the centipede corpse we'd dragged up. "Alright. If we're camping here, we need food."
She hacked at the armored shell with her spear, prying out chunks of meat. Using scraps of wood and twisted cannon mounts embedded in the wall, she cobbled together a fire pit. The smoke rose faint and dark, swallowed almost instantly by the blood-hued sky.
I drained the corpse of blood once more, shaping the crimson liquid into a smaller sphere and swirling it carefully before drinking. It slid down my throat, metallic and warm, almost comforting in a way I hated to admit.
"Ugh," Effie muttered as she skewered a strip of meat and held it over the fire. "You're disgusting."
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. "Says the one roasting bug meat like it's steak."
She raised an eyebrow. "At least mine's cooked."
"Blood's always fresh."
She made a gagging noise, and I couldn't help but smirk.
For the first time since we'd woken in this realm, laughter — tired, broken, but real — echoed off the walls. Two survivors, sitting side by side, firelight flickering against the endless city of nightmares below.
And for one night, that was enough.