The sight was certainly curious. For a moment, the five of them remained cautious of the dragon, but upon seeing that it simply did nothing and its gaze was focused on the skeleton, they relaxed.
"Don't worry, he won't do anything," said Uriel, patting one of the dragon's legs. The dragon simply lay down on the ground with boredom, closing its eyes, losing interest in the corpse of the Saint dragon.
"Even if you say that, it's still strange to see it," said Effie, approaching the dragon to look at it more closely.
"Hey Kai, are you okay? You look a bit pale?" asked Uriel, looking at the handsome former idol who was watching the dragon a bit nervously.
"I don't have a good relationship with dragons."
"You say that as if you've jumped into one's mouth."
"I actually did."
Uriel blinked.
"Oh, and they call me crazy."
"No, you're definitely crazy," said Sunny before frowning. "I said it again," he murmured with disgust.
"Oh, I'm not crazy, Sunny. The world is the one that's crazy." A familiar breeze caressed Uriel's hair along with soft wisps of grass, as if he had uttered the most inspiring phrase of an entire generation.
"I still don't understand how you do that," Sunny murmured. Even Nephis nodded, bewildered by the sudden wind.
"A magician never reveals his—" At that moment, a deep growl became audible, interrupting Uriel, who lowered his head.
"I guess... he might be a bit hungry," he said sheepishly.
"Why don't we go have dinner?" offered Nephis.
"Sounds good, I'm a bit hungry too," said Cassie, and the others nodded.
"Is it safe to leave him here?" asked Nephis, referring to Gunlaug lying on the ground.
"Yes, I doubt he'll move soon. He loves sleeping, besides fighting. He's harmless," he said, following the group inside while curious Fire Keepers approached the dragon lying on the grass, sleeping comfortably.
As they climbed more stairs, Uriel couldn't help but think about what he had seen in the stone basement at the foot of the great pagoda. Although he knew exactly what the Ivory Tower did, he didn't understand it.
It was similar to using a new communicator—you know how it works, but not how it was created. That was the comparison he could make after seeing it with his own eyes.
Until now, he had been in three citadels.
The first was the Crimson Spire, which had been destroyed by all the ravages of battle and the loss of the gate that was destroyed. The second citadel had been the ruined Cursed City, which couldn't be saved due to all the damage it sustained and the Beasts that inhabited it.
Although he had Soul kill most of them, quite a few remained. And now he was anchored at the Ivory Tower, which was much better than the other two citadels, with the added bonus that it was a flying island.
Uriel sighed. Thinking about the fiasco of the floating island still angered him a bit. He undoubtedly wanted a floating city that he could command.
It wasn't as if he wanted to fulfill one of his childhood dreams of commanding an army that would launch into the void toward a battlefield.
'Hey, Uriel, are you still upset about the island thing?' Shade asked mentally.
'Yes, I am. I had hopes, you know? But in the end, they were crushed.'
'Come on, man, cheer up. Maybe someday you'll find a flying citadel,' said Shade, trying to encourage Uriel, who simply continued advancing in silence.
As they advanced, climbing level after level, Uriel observed traces of a village for the Fire Keepers who had followed Nephis. Although the houses were just beginning to take shape.
Arriving at the fifth level of the pagoda, it was divided into numerous halls and chambers, some of which were being remodeled for various purposes. In general, the entire interior seemed like a large mansion, though simpler and less opulent than any other.
They crossed a hallway until they reached a large room with big supply crates brought from the waking world.
"All of you sit down while I prepare the food," said Nephis.
Uriel looked at the wooden dining table, grabbed a seat, and sat down. Although it was inferior in quality to his exquisite and extremely comfortable black chair.
"Hey, Uriel, why don't you tell us about your second Nightmare?" asked Effie, grabbing a can of some sugary drink and passing him one.
Uriel looked at the can for a few moments.
"It's somewhat difficult for me to talk about. But I suppose you deserve to know," he finally said.
Opening the can, he took a sip, feeling the sweet taste slide down his throat.
"Well, I already told you how I left the Dark City and my journey through the two death zones. Although I left out details."
"After leaving the Forgotten Shore, I arrived at the Nightmare Desert. During the day, it's filled with unbearable heat. The climate is hot, the sand was annoying, and not to mention the creatures that inhabit that place. However, day is much better than night. Every night, an immortal army rises to continue an endless war. The things I saw still make me tremble with fear."
Uriel paused, looking at everyone's reactions.
"Each night I had to hide until dawn when the army simply turned to sand. This continued every night for a few months until I arrived at a solitary tree. However, instead of leaves, it possessed skulls—thousands of them—and on its trunk were two living skeletons."
Cassie interrupted him.
"How were they alive if they were skeletons?" she asked.
"From what they told me, they were cursed by the Shadow God," he revealed, provoking surprised looks from everyone.
"The first was arrogant. He called himself Azarax, the King of the Steel Plague, Conqueror of a Hundred Thrones, or something like that. He was of Supreme rank, and the other was a slave of Divine rank."
Everyone's eyes widened upon hearing that.
"Are you sure?" asked Sunny.
"Yes."
"But don't get any ideas. Although they were powerful, their power was non-existent, I think. Anyway, I never saw him fight," said Uriel, remembering how he and Eurys had to change course several times to avoid one Great Beast or another before it noticed them.
"I traveled for a while with one of the skeletons."
"Why one and not both?"
"The first, Azarax, was unbearable. And the second, at least, was better company—calmer."
"Do you know his name?"
"Eurys of the Nine. That's how he introduced himself. Our journey lasted a few months. Eurys could sense Nightmare Seeds, so he guided me to one I could use to Ascend. That's how we arrived at the other death zone with the Great creatures that inhabited it. Fortunately, we reached a city where the Seed was. I said goodbye to the skeleton and challenged it alone."
"And what happened to the skeleton?" asked Effie.
"I don't know. He said he was going to bother his companion for a while before leaving for the Shadow Realm, where the dead go."
"Wait, the Shadow Realm?" asked Sunny.
"Yes. From what he told me, it was beneath the Underworld, where we went to recover the Crown of the Bright Lord," he explained.
Pausing, he let the information sink in. He could smell the aroma of delicious fried rice.
Summoning the Crown of Repose, he held it in his hands, looking at it with somewhat sad eyes.
"My second Nightmare was strange. And in a way... it's not correct to say that I was the one who caused everything," said Uriel, causing confusion.
"You mentioned those words before, but what do they mean?"
"My Nightmare unfolded in the city. The city was prosperous and beautiful; it was called Ydrat. There were many people, as well as creatures. I took on the role of a creature. I was a Stone Saint," he said while standing up. Darkness enveloped him, taking the form of the Stone Saint perfectly before he abandoned the form.
"I was wounded and confused, but I was saved by the princess of that kingdom, who healed me. Her name was Isis. She was undoubtedly quite vivacious. We spent a lot of time together, fighting and going from one place to another. This continued for a full year. However, Isis suffered from an illness that slowly weakened her body. One day, she made me promise something: the promise was to kill her if she ever became Corrupted. I didn't understand it at the time, but later I did. I suppose that's when everything began."
Uriel let out a tired sigh.
"One day, while I was outside eliminating some Corrupted things away from the city, I had a bad feeling and returned as quickly as I could. When I returned, the city was destroyed, and the former people had changed, becoming Nightmare creatures due to the corruption. I quickly headed to the castle, where I saw Isis—or rather, what she had transformed into." Uriel paused, remembering the amorphous, gigantic mass of flesh he had fought arduously and lost against.
"Her appearance was, at best, horrible—the kind that would give you nightmares for the rest of your life. I fought her for a while, but I couldn't win. I tried for a time, but I never succeeded. I was too weak. So I began to investigate.
I remembered a sealed artifact, a divine relic that had been created by a god. It was a time spell that reversed time for a certain period. Once I activated it, I only went back to the day when it all began. Instead of leaving, I stayed in the city. It turned out that the origin of everything was a purification ritual that had gone wrong, allowing the corruption to spread, affecting everyone, especially Isis, who consumed everything in the castle, rapidly evolving into a Corrupted beast.
I fought her, but I couldn't do anything until she evolved again and became a Great Beast, and after that, I was defeated, and the corruption spread, and I reversed time again with the relic." A frown appeared on his face.
"As I said, it's difficult to comprehend."
"Yes. I reversed time again and again, returning to the same day. I tried everything to avoid the outcome: evacuating the population, stopping the ritual, even eliminating the source—but nothing changed. Everything remained the same or got worse when I tried to change it."
"How many times did you relive the same day?" asked Cassie.
"One million, eight hundred ninety-eight thousand times," he revealed, making everyone turn pale.
"What the hell?! That many?!" shouted Effie.
"That's more than five thousand years," said Sunny, doing the math.
"Yes, but in the end, it was useless. No matter how many times I tried or what I did, nothing changed, and everything remained the same. I reversed time so many times that it simply became erratic. One side became night, the other day, and no creature inhabiting one side could cross to the other. If they did, they would suffer a time collapse of thousands of years, killing them instantly."
"If you relived the same day that many times, how are you still sane?" asked Nephis.
"That's easy. I had to destroy my own mind. With Shade's help, I was able to shatter those failed cycles, isolating them in a part of my head," he explained.
"How is that possible?"
"No idea. I think we destroyed that memory," said Shade, appearing beside Uriel.
"Anyway, after so much time trying, I realized that nothing I did would be worthwhile. Besides, I couldn't go back again because the relic simply broke from overuse. So I stayed alone in the city that I myself had cursed through the cycles. I fought one last time with Isis, where I used a fragment of a divine weapon hidden in the castle's vault to put her into a dream. However, doing this required a price: my memories. After doing it, I lost everything good except my name and somehow my goal."
"You also forgot to mention that I went crazy," said Shade.
"Yes, Shade lost his mind, becoming totally hostile, slowly falling into madness whenever the failed cycles were mentioned. This continued for about a hundred years."
Uriel saw Kai turn pale.
"After a century where I only killed Corrupted beings every day, a group of four travelers arrived one day, seeking the fragment I used to seal Isis. With the help of their seer, who had mental powers, she helped me recover the memory of who I was. Once I became myself again, I made one final gamble to end everything once and for all. Whether I won or lost, it didn't matter to me. With the help of the group, they aided me in fighting Isis in an intense battle where, in the end, I finally managed to kill her after so long. I should mention she was a Great Beast. In the end, I was half-dead, but the Nightmare had finally ended, and then the rest was me waking up, confused, with your faces looking at me," he finished recounting.
"I'm so sorry. You had to endure all that," said Kai with pity. Even being burned alive or nearly eaten by a dragon was insignificant compared to the experience his friend had suffered during his Nightmare.
"It's okay, you don't have to apologize." Uriel gave a slight smile, looking at the crown with golden bread-leaf patterns.
"After thinking about it for a while, I realized something. The trial was about whether I had the courage or not to kill someone I cared about, even if it wasn't real. It felt so real that I couldn't muster enough courage until the very end."
Uriel looked at his friends and then said:
"But don't worry about me. The memories of that experience have mostly been destroyed. What I told you were just the parts I decided to keep. So it's not like I went crazy from all that experience."
"That's true," said Effie. "You're still as short as ever."
"Do you want to fight, wolf-bride?"
"Oh, of course. Now that I'm a Master, we'll see who's stronger," said Effie. "Even use your little lizard if you want."
"Hey, no fighting. We're going to have dinner," Cassie reprimanded.
"No, Cass. This time we're going to settle things. Besides, Effie owes me a chair that she stole—I mean, that I took as a reward for exploring a castle."
"Oh, come on, it's not like I took those dresses that were in that closet," she mocked with a wild smile.
Sunny, Kai, Cassie, and Nephis blinked in unison upon hearing what Effie said.
A vein materialized on Uriel's forehead.
"Alright, it's official. I'm going to kill you."
"Try it if you can, Little," Effie smiled, leaving the room.
"Hey, where are you going? You know I can move through the shadows; it's impossible for you to escape me! Effie!"
That was the last they heard as the four watched the duo leave the kitchen.
"Well, it seems he's really okay," said Cassie with relief.
"Yes, but did Uriel really wear a dress?" asked Sunny, a disturbing image appearing in his mind which he immediately discarded, a chill running down his spine.
In the end, everyone ate delicious food, where Uriel said it was undoubtedly better than Sunny's cooking and his own, much to Sunny's annoyance and Nephis's secret happiness.
When night had fallen on the Chained Isles, Uriel was sitting on the marble bench looking at the lake reflecting the moonlight.
The air was cold, caressing his body. He had dismissed his Saint's Mantle some time ago, wearing much more casual clothes instead.
"What are you thinking about?" asked Shade beside Uriel.
"About the future. Oh, that's what I think. Actually, I don't know."
"You know you left many things unsaid, right?"
"Yes, I did, but they won't be that relevant for now," he responded.
Shade didn't respond. He simply stayed looking at the lake alongside Uriel, both in total silence.