The howling of the wind grew louder. The world suddenly darkened, and a furious gale assaulted the cohort. Lucien's stone armor was drenched in an instant, and rivers of rainwater flowed down its seams.
The storm descended on them with terrifying violence. The corpses of repulsive locusts that were left on the platform suddenly moved. Then, picked up by the wind, they were thrown off the neck of the steadily walking colossus, disappearing into the darkness. Their black blood was washed away by the torrent of rain.
A blinding flash of lightning pierced the veil of clouds, followed by a deafening thunderclap.
To Lucien, the experience was strangely…welcoming. Dare he say, comfortable. Except for the water, that was annoying, especially when it seeped through the openings in his armour.
Apart from that, he was relatively at peace.
Another bolt of lightning tore the skies apart, illuminating the world made of nothing but wind, water, and darkness. A particularly strong gust of wind hit him, moving him a few centimeters back, but he held on.
The water level was increasing; with every flash of lightning, it was getting higher. As the giant walked forward, it was indifferent to the water rising to his knees, then his abdomen, then his chest.
Finally, it reached the titan's shoulders. During the previous night, the dark sea had not risen high enough to reach the stone platform they were sheltering on. However, with how high the waves were, things were bound to change.
Gritting his teeth, Lucien braced himself for the dark sea. As though answering his thoughts, a massive wave crashed into the neck of the colossus, washing over the platform. The members of the cohort were hit by a wall of blackness and instantly drenched from head to toe in salty seawater.
Luckily, no one was washed away… for now.
The howling wind, the constant flashes of lightning, and the violent cacophony of thunderclaps were like music to his ears. What made the situation dreadful for him was the rain and the dark sea.
All around him, the rest of the cohort were struggling to hold on to the stone platform. To them, this must've felt like the end of the world. And yet, they held on.
Although he wasn't really struggling, he couldn't grow too complacent, not with the dark sea lapping at the platform.
Lucien had no idea how much time had passed since the storm began; it could've been minutes, or it could've been an hour. It was impossible to tell.
The storm itself was not a problem for him, but what it brought with it would soon become one. Lucien had heard of the terrors of the Dark Sea; he had seen good hunters go to guide the new sleepers to the Dark City, only for none to return. He had never thought he'd be seeing one of those abominations.
But as things stood, that was subject to change. Something entered the range of his storm sense, an immense presence. Lucien's grip slackened, and his mind went numb. As he tried to peer into the creature, a feeling of immense wrongness suddenly assaulted him. He felt like someone was scratching the inside of his head.
The sensation vanished the moment he turned off his storm sense. A bead of sweat fell down his face. That thing, whatever it was, was not something they could look at, much less see.
Slowly raising his head, Lucien stared into the darkness just as a flash of lightning illuminated the world. A tall, grotesque, black tower pierced the sky, looming over the ancient colossus.
No, not a tower, a tentacle.
As the world returned to darkness, something struck the giant, but it barely acknowledged it. It moved forward unbothered for a moment before its stone joints started to creak.
With his storm sense turned off, Lucien didn't know what was happening. Only when lightning lit up the world could he see anything. He heard something fall into the sea underneath, and a moment of silence passed.
And then the whole surface exploded into the skies.
As lightning rumbled overhead, it illuminated not one, not two, but six of those same tentacles. They rose and loomed above the marching colossus like twisted mountains, blocking the clamor of the storm for a fleeting moment.
Lucien paled; he could not tell what rank the monster was, he could not even focus on it without his mind giving in. But for it to bother the colossus so much, it was at least a Corrupted Terror, if not stronger.
Just how were seven humans supposed to survive the clash between these two titans?
A second later, the tentacles collapsed from the skies to assail the stone giant.
The ancient statue continued to walk south, seemingly unperturbed by the furious assault of the terrifying dweller of the depths.
"Hold fast!"
Lucien could not tell who that was, but he heeded the advice nonetheless. Gripping his sword tightly, he braced himself for whatever was coming.
In the furious roar of thunder and blinding lightning, the stone giant suddenly staggered and slightly careened to the side. One of the tentacles had latched onto the giant's wrist and was trying to pull it down.
The power hiding in its black, oily, bulbous flesh was so harrowing that several cracks appeared on the surface of the ancient stone. It almost looked as though the wrist of the colossus was going to snap and explode into a torrent of shards.
Instead, the giant turned his palm and grasped the tentacle, then squeezed it in an obliterating grip.
Lucien did not know where the other tentacles were, but whatever they were doing seemed to be working. The pace of the walking statue slowed, as if it had to struggle against an unimaginable weight that was dragging it back. The colossus staggered once more, then suddenly lurched forward, and finally stopped.
Through the storm blade embedded in the stone, Lucien could feel the vibrations running through the ancient stone. The giant was trembling, as if straining to move his colossal body with all his strength. The circular platform they were hiding on slowly began to slope to the side, allowing even more waves to wash over it.
The furious storm grew even stronger, as though celebrating the battle between two enormous creatures. The hurricane wind crushed into the cohort, pelting them with rain and seawater. The thunderclaps merged into one continuous, deafening roar, and the flashes of lightning were surrounding them like a net woven from celestial flame.
'A net made of lightning…huh, I'll have to give it a try later…' Lucien thought absentmindedly before quickly coming to his senses. 'What the hell am I doing, now's not the time for that!'
Suddenly, the ancient statue shuddered and changed its angle. It was almost as if… as if the colossus was bending his waist and leaning forward.
'Oh shit-'
Lucien took a deep breath; the giant was about to go underwater. In the next second, the colossus leaned forward and dove under the turbulent surface of the waves.
Then, the cohort was once again in the cold embrace of the cursed sea. Only, unlike the previous day when they had to cross the canyon, this time they were being pulled deep into the void of darkness instead of across it.
As the pressure of the black water grew heavier and the cold of the lightless void seeped into his bones, the circular platform suddenly stopped and swayed lightly. Despite being submerged deep underwater, Lucien could hear a loud, indescribable sound spreading through the vast expanse of the cursed sea.
With the purple lightning enhancing his body, Lucien was somehow able to hold on to the blade and avoid being washed away. But he was still human; he still needed air to breathe.
Just as it was getting unbearable, the colossus swayed and began to rise.
With the same speed that they were pulled into the depths, the cohort was now being lifted from the darkness of the cursed sea back into the furious embrace of the storm.
'Thank the gods.'
Lucien felt relief fill his body as the shoulders of the colossus broke the surface of the water and the circular platform appeared above the waves. But that relief would not last for long.
The ancient giant had not been pulled into the black water by the unseen horror of the depths. Instead, once the gigantic tentacles had proven to be a nuisance, he had simply leaned forward… and scooped the abyssal creature from the bottom of the sea.
And now the colossus was holding it in his hand, raising the leviathan into the raging skies.
Lucien knew he shouldn't have tried looking at the thing, especially when simply sensing it had such an adverse effect on him, but he couldn't help it. He was curious.
And the phrase curiosity killed the cat had never been truer.
Held in the ancient statue's hand was a gargantuan skull that looked almost like that of a human, but simultaneously vastly different.
Disregarding the size, the shape of the skull was wrong on a fundamental level. The vile aura it radiated was almost palpable to the touch.
The feeling of weakness and numbness returned, and so did the scratching. But he couldn't bear to tear his eyes away from it.
The most prominent and obvious difference, though, was that the gargantuan skull had three eye sockets instead of two, the third one situated above the other ones, right in the middle of its forehead. Its canines were also more prominent and heavy than that of a human.
The lower jaw of the skull was missing, and it was from there that the seven gigantic tentacles protruded. Surprisingly, looking at the tentacles themselves did not have the same sickening effect.
With a sense of dark astonishment, he realized that the horror of the depths was using the terrible skull as a shell, hiding inside of it like a weak and vulnerable sea creature would… only, of course, nothing weak or vulnerable would have ever survived the corruption of these ancient bones.
In a flash of lightning, Lucien noticed that the tentacles were moving, coiling themselves around the arm of the stone colossus. Three of them were heavily damaged, but the remaining four were still full of unimaginable power.
Their combined strength was more than enough to shatter the ancient stone.
Despite the fact that his arm was already starting to crack, the colossus seemed indifferent to the devastating embrace of the abyssal creature.
The dark sea suddenly surged and split apart, releasing the stone giant's other arm from its cold depths. With rivers of black water streaming from it, the hand of the colossus slowly rose, reaching all the way into the raging skies.
The hurricane winds broke against it, powerless to move the arm of the colossus even by a centimeter
The hammer gripped in his hand was suddenly enveloped in electricity. In the next moment, a bolt of lightning connected the hammer to the skies. And then another, and another. Dozens of lightning strikes landed on the stone hammer in short succession, the roar of thunder almost shattering the whole world. Enveloped in the raging shroud of electricity, the ancient stone heated and turned incandescently bright, emanating a furious orange glow.
At the same time, bolts of lightning began hailing upon the stone platform, attracted by their metal weapons and armour. The world slowed down as Lucien activated his aspect, behind him the members of the cohort were moments away from being struck by lightning. Well, most of them anyway. Sunny and Kai were the only ones without any metal on them, but the rest wouldn't survive the onslaught of the storm.
Lucien grit his teeth and dismissed his armour. The wind and rain, which had been annoying him before, assaulted his body like a hungry animal. But he couldn't allow himself to be bothered by that now.
Shifting his grip ever so slightly, he twisted the grip on the sword, and a tiny needle pricked his palm. Purple lightning danced on the blade as it activated its property of attracting lightning bolts.
The bolts of lightning headed for the cohort suddenly changed course and struck Lucien. Dozens upon dozens of bolts struck the boy in quick succession, lighting him up like a beacon in the night.
Lucien, meanwhile, was not bothered by it. Unlike his first nightmare, the lightning did not hurt him anymore. It was almost pleasant, if not for the numbness slowly creeping up his limbs. His reserves of storm essence that had been nearly depleted before filled up instantly.
At his command, the essence spread out to his body, wreathing it in a thick layer of lightning. The purple glow overpowering the natural blue lightning. In the middle of the circular platform, the two types of lightning clashed against each other, bathing it in their light.
A grin split Lucien's face; his body was overflowing with strength. He was stronger than ever before. Maybe like this, he could even beat the Fallen Terror.
The constant onslaught of lightning slowed down before disappearing entirely. Lucien finally raised his head up and opened his eyes.
Only to find a wall of darkness blocking his vision.
And then the pain hit.
Sunny's eyes widened as he stared helplessly at his cohort. Bolts of lightning were headed towards everyone except the Stone Saint. He couldn't even raise his voice to warn them; it was already too late. This couldn't be how it ends.
But the bolts never hit their targets. Almost as if by a miracle, they diverted their path towards someone else. Sunny's eyes darted towards Lucien, who was kneeling in front of everyone else. An ethereal purple glow covered his body for a moment before the blue lightning drowned it out.
Sunny tried to yell, but no words came out of his mouth. He would be fine, right? Lucien's aspect was connected to lightning, just like how his was connected to shadows.
Being in the shadows only enhanced his powers. Even Nephis was unaffected by her devastating flames. But he did not know how far that protection stretched. With the amount of lightning falling on Lucien, would he be alright?
But then, a purple glow fought back against the blue, bathing the platform with its light. Then the giant moved, and Sunny's eyes snapped back towards the hammer.
With the same calm indifference, the colossus brought his burning hammer down and delivered a devastating blow to the abhorrent skull. The beak of the hammer easily shattered the ancient bone and sank deep into the flesh of the horror hiding within.
Sunny stared, paralyzed by awe.
But in the next moment, he was thrown back by a terrible, ear-piercing, cacophonous wail. That wail was like nothing that a living being should ever have been able to produce, and much louder than even the deafening thunder tearing the raging skies. It came from the dweller of the depth, whose body was deeply wounded by the stone colossus.
Peering at it, Sunny saw a vast wave of dark blood gush from the terrible wound delivered to the abyssal creature. No… not blood. It was something different.
What flowed from the body of the horror of the depths was nothing but pure darkness.
…And the wall of darknessit was heading right for them.
Suddenly, Sunny was overwhelmed by a sense of mortal danger.
'W—what…'
To the rest of the cohort, the darkness spilling from the Terror's body must have looked no different from the tenebrous mass of storm clouds that surrounded them, the black surface of the sea, or even the fetid blood of the giant locusts that they had slain earlier.
But Sunny, who could see through any shadow, knew instantly that it was not the same. Because his gaze could not penetrate the lightless, undulating surface of it at all.
Somehow, he was certain that if that darkness touched their bodies, all of them would be done for, doomed to a fate a hundred times worse than death.
The kind of fate he couldn't even conceive of, let alone imagine.
Twisting his body, Sunny opened his mouth and screamed as loud as he could:
"Neph! Light!"
There was no more than a second left before the wave of darkness washed over them. If Changing Star was late even by a moment or wasted time thinking over his words and deciding whether she should listen to him…
But she didn't.
As soon as Nephis heard the unreserved panic in Sunny's voice, she instantly summoned her flames and channeled them into her sword.
A blinding white radiance suddenly enveloped the cohort, pushing the blackness of the storm away. When the wave of true darkness that flowed from the abyssal creature's wound touched the pure light, it simply… ceased to exist, disappearing like a vestige of nightmare in the brightness of the day.
Sunny exhaled and fell to the stones, drained of all strength.
But then, the lightning stopped, and Lucien was no longer bathed in its light. That was a problem.
In the chaos of the battle with the locusts and the blood flowers, the cohort had not had much time to enter into formation. As a result, the way they were spread on top of the colossus was random.
And Lucien just so happened to be in front of Nephis.
Wherever there was light, there was bound to be a shadow. And in the way they were positioned, Nephis' light fell on Lucien's back, creating a long, vast shadow in front of him.
Vast enough for a portion of the darkness to escape the light. And that darkness latched onto the closest being to it.
Which just so happened to be Lucien.