Following Artemis's guidance, Alista and his unlikely ally arrived at a vast cavern situated deep within the draconian mountains. The cavern was enormous—large enough to fit a whole monument and the hill it stood upon inside of it.
Alista gazed up at the terrifying scale. 'No wonder. It is a Death Zone,' he thought. He looked at Artemis. "Why are we here again?"
Artemis replied, "In order to go to the Waking World, the Navigation Attribute points me to a moving object. We need to find it."
Alista surveyed the surroundings. The floor was covered by black sand, while the walls glistened like obsidian. In the center stood a giant pillar of dark stone. It was surrounded by massive scaffolds that looked tiny and insignificant against its surface. The silhouette of an unfinished statue was easily discernible, cut from the pillar by an unknown sculptor. Its upper torso was almost finished, while the lower half remained encased in the stone. It looked as though a dark giant was struggling to free himself from the stone pillar that imprisoned him.
Alista's [Instincts] screamed. He immediately dragged Artemis to a hiding spot. "Is that what your Navigation is pointing to?"
Artemis's face expressed clear displeasure as she whispered, "It is a most likely Fallen Beast." The creature was the Spire Messenger, a terrifying entity from the established lore.
They retreated to a safe distance, discussing their next move.
Artemis spoke, her voice strained. "It is a Fallen Creature. What should we do?"
Alista Tudor calculated the odds. "We can't hunt it. It is nearly impossible with two of us. But are you sure we should fight it?"
Artemis's resolve hardened. "But we should fight it, or else, we will be forced to fight it one way or another to reach the moving objective."
Alista thought for a moment, recognizing the fatalistic logic of the Dream Realm. "We can do it, but if we fail to kill it, we run immediately."
Artemis looked at him, her Legacy pride surfacing. "Running is out of the question."
Alista facepalmed. 'Here comes the Legacy's Pride.' Despite the inherent idiocy of facing a Fallen Creature, they began planning the hunt for the Spire Messenger.
*******
The Spire Messenger heard a noise, and saw a Horse Echo running toward it. The Spire Messenger flew toward the Echo. While it was distracted, Artemis and Alista Tudor sneaked to the statue and touched it. Alista immediately summoned[Dawn Shard], and a crown formed above his head. He looked at Artemis, and she immediately de-summoned her Echo. The Spire Messenger, stunned by the Echo's disappearance, turned toward them to see both of the allies.
The air hung thick and sour, tasting of crushed stone and ancient malice. Facing the colossal, winged nightmare—the Spire Messenger—Alista Tudor felt his [Instincts] flare, not as a panicked warning, but as a hyper-focused, detailed battle plan scrolling across his mind's eye. Every sinew in the Messenger's pale, lion-raven body, every drop of dried blood on its black feathers, was cataloged.
The Messenger didn't bother with a threat. It simply launched. A sound like a seismic shift accompanied the rush of its eight massive limbs, aiming to turn the two hunters into paste. Its jagged beak gaped, showcasing needle-like fangs eager for flesh.
"Hold the weight!" Alista roared, already moving to evade.
Artemis, mounted on her summoned again shimmering Horse Echo, didn't need the command. She was already ahead of the curve, her eyes narrowed in fierce concentration.
"Gravity: Decrease!"
A visible ripple of distortion, like heat rising from a road, enveloped the charging Messenger. The effect was immediate and brutal. The half-ton monster suddenly weighed half as much, violently disrupting its center of gravity. Its ferocious lunge became a messy, lurching, overbalanced skip.
Whoosh!
Alista, utilizing his staggering physical stats, was already in the Messenger's blind spot. He dropped low, a blur beneath the churning, clawed limbs that were now impacting the ground awkwardly. His [Hunter's Sword] sang, a wicked whisper in the gloom. It carved a deep, ragged trench across the pale, muscled flank where the black feathers ended, spraying hot, stinking ichor onto the ruins.
The Messenger shrieked—a sound of raw, surprised agony that seemed to shred the very atmosphere. It swung a multi-limbed backhand—a wild, desperate swipe.
Alista anticipated the counter. His high physical stats allowed him to bend and evade the initial impact, but the sheer concussion of the miss still sent him skidding backward across the fragmented stone.
"Too fast, too hard!" he muttered, rolling back onto his feet. 'It's too sturdy. A standard exchange will turn me into mulch. I need the opener.'
He snatched a small, black shard—an insignificant piece of broken stone—from his pouch. It was the key. He targeted the monstrous creature, which was momentarily distracted, snapping its long, jagged beak at the agile Artemis.
"Bribe"
He flicked the shard. It flew true, striking the black feathers of the Messenger's chest and vanishing in a puff of power.
The change was instantaneous and unnerving. The panicked frenzy in the monster's dark eyes evaporated, replaced by a slow, calculating, almost contemptuous gaze. It stopped mid-snap, straightening its posture, muscles rippling in a show of terrifying confidence.
'It believes it has us. Arrogance had taken hold, coupled with a deep, creeping Weakening that began to drag at its massive limbs.'
Alista didn't waste a second. He called forth his [Water Well], a chilling, wide sheet of icy water that crashed directly into the fresh, bleeding wound on the Messenger's flank. The cold shock seized the weakened muscles, forcing the monster to flinch and momentarily lose focus.
This was Artemis's stage.
Artemis didn't run; she vanished. The silent movement charm humming beneath her cloak, she abandoned the Horse Echo and used her incredible agility to scramble up a nearby collapsed spire.
From the spire's height, she pushed off.
"Gravity: Increase!" she whispered, focusing the change on her own launch point.
She plunged like a human missile, falling directly onto the Messenger's back. While the creature was shivering from the cold and preening in its arrogance, Artemis's silver rope sprang from her hand. It wrapped around the monster's neck and the roots of its three primary fore-limbs, constricting with supernatural strength.
The Messenger finally broke free of the Arrogance, roaring in panic and rage as the rope bit deep. It tried to rear up, to rip the rope free, but Artemis was already amplifying her main ability.
"Gravity: Maximum Increase!"
The distortion field crashed down onto the Spire Messenger like a vengeful god. The weakened, arrogantly posturing monster instantly became an object of impossible, crushing density. Its legs buckled with sickening crunches. The muscles that moments ago were steel cables became lead. The Messenger didn't just fall; it was slammed into the ground, its massive head pinned uselessly by the silver rope.
The creature struggled to unleash a desperate counterattack—a black, chilling tide of despair—but Artemis's soul protection armor absorbed the blow, lessening the damage,While Alista flicking the shards he collected to weaken it and increase it arrogance.
Alista was already closing the distance. His [Fire Lamp] shone, not with light, but with the cold certainty of a highlighted target: the fragile joint where the massive, blood-stained wing met the spinal column.
He took a breath, his high physical stats lending every ounce of power to his final lunge.
The [Hunter's Sword], already slick with ichor, drove deep into the juncture. He didn't stab—he twisted. The specialized blade tore through tissue, nerve, and bone, severing the core connection.
The Spire Messenger's final scream was cut short, a rattling, choking gargle that dissolved into silence. The immense weight of its body, still magnified by Artemis's gravity field, settled with a final, shuddering tremor.
The colossal nightmare was defeated.
The silence that followed was broken only by Alista's heavy, ragged breath and the soft ping of the silver rope retracting back into Artemis's hand.
"That was too close," Alista said, leaning heavily on his sword, gazing at the corpse.
Artemis wiped her brow, the movement charm finally powering down. "Your arrogance charm buys us time, Alista. But without the Gravity Field, we'd be flattened."
He heard the familiar voice of the Spell.
[You have slain a Fallen Monster, Cursed Herald.]
[Your Chaos grows Stronger.]
[...You have received a Memory.]
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