"Are the visions from the past or the future?" Nephis asked.
"Both... I think," Cassie said, then paused. "Or that's what I believe."
Nephis looked at Cassie before asking her what she had seen in her vision.
Ash listened to the first vision, and it was the same as expected, so there was nothing he didn't already know.
Once Cassie had finished her first vision of the past, Nephis looked at Ash.
"We'll use your plan," Nephis said.
"Agreed," Ash said with a calm tone.
"And what about the second vision?" Sunny asked.
Cassie wrinkled her face.
"It's confusing," Cassie said.
"The four of us were floating on something big and terrifying and rough. We were all injured and exhausted while the thing we were on carried us west.
I think it's related to you somehow killing the carapace demon and something happening then," Cassie said.
Sunny frowned.
"Something big and terrifying and rough," he murmured, trying to ponder the meaning of it.
"Maybe it's an abomination," Ash suggested.
"That's most likely," Nephis said.
Ash smiled slightly.
"I think... no, I have an idea that will allow us to avoid the carapace demon without having to face it."
"And what would that be?"
"Fog. I'll use my armor's enchantment to create a large fog field. Taking advantage of the demon being confused, we can use it to climb the tree and then burn the abomination when the sun sets."
Cassie opened her eyes.
"That could work," the girl said.
"What's the maximum range of the enchantment?" Nephis asked.
"About a hundred meters when I checked it."
Nephis nodded, then looked at the sea that had practically disappeared.
"Let's make our preparations," Changing Star said.
Once they descended from the titanic corpse, they hunted some enormous centipedes to extract the highly flammable venom.
Since Ash wasn't the best at pottery, it was Sunny's job to create clay vessels to store the venom.
After having three vessels, Ash placed them in a bag made of black seaweed, along with a torch.
In the end, it only took them until the first half of the day, finishing when the sun was at its highest point.
Nephis approached, observing the three objects.
"Will this be enough?" Nephis asked.
"Yes. We just need the venom to spread as much as possible over its body, then turn it into a campfire and let some unknown horror do the rest."
...
After filling their stomachs enough and mentally preparing themselves, the four moved. Using the golden rope, they secured it. Since Ash was the only one who could see through the fog, he would be the one to guide them, avoiding the carapace demon.
When dusk began to end, Ash looked at the golden rope, then at Cassie who held what they needed.
"Alright, I'll do it now." After saying that, he activated the fog field enchantment.
Immediately, a dense fog began to fill an area a hundred meters around. The fog was so thick that it allowed absolutely no visibility and so tall that even the carapace demon was completely engulfed.
Sunny and Nephis couldn't see more than a meter ahead of them. Their senses were blocked by the fog; even Sunny using his shadow's eyes couldn't see through it.
Ash began to walk, his eyes easily seeing through the dense fog as if it didn't exist.
He advanced in silence, the fog following him.
Slowly, the fog approached the foot of the ash hill, erasing the world behind it.
At the top of the ash mound, the carapace demon stirred and rose from the gray sand. Its shiny armor gleamed, reflecting the light of the setting sun. Encased in brilliant metal, with a crown of horns adorning its head, the demon looked fearsome.
The demon looked toward the foot of the hill as the fog slowly approached.
Immediately, two scarlet embers ignited in the depths of its demonic eyes. Instantly, a piercing shriek of fury and rage came from its mouth.
Its scythes clashed, creating powerful sound waves and wind, trying to push away the fog that remained firm and advancing.
Realizing this, the demon lunged forward with devastating fury to fight whatever was inside the fog.
However, despite its overwhelming speed, titanic strength, and unbridled fury, it could do nothing.
Rather, inside the fog, there was absolutely nothing to attack, nothing to satisfy its devastating fury and limitless hatred.
Inside the fog, Ash didn't look back, avoiding the abomination sensing his presence.
They were close to reaching the tree, and the demon was still running back and forth, unleashing shrieks of unbridled fury, searching for its enemy.
"Ash, what's happening?" Cassie asked.
"Nothing, let's keep moving forward. This won't stop it for long," Ash said as he reached the base of the enormous soul tree, immediately discarding the rope.
"Alright, now climb the tree," he ordered, feeling the ground tremble under the weight of the demon still searching in the dense fog.
Ash handed the rope to Nephis, who climbed quickly until she reached the lower branches, then threw the rope down. Sunny tied it to Cassie, who held the seaweed bag.
Once the girl was safely on the branch, Sunny and Ash began to climb quickly until they joined the others, just as the fog began to dissipate—not before a gust of wind sent a large amount of ash flying, catching the demon's attention. It focused on the sudden rising of the gray sand, ignoring the existence of the humans who had fooled it without being noticed.
The four crouched on the branch while the demon let out a roar of fury upon noticing the footprints that hadn't been erased.
The demon ran, beginning to cover the entire space of the ash mound.
A few minutes later, the sun began to slowly set.
"It's still impressive that we fooled an awakened Demon so easily," Sunny said.
"Yes, it was incredible," Cassie said cheerfully.
Ash just lay face down, letting out a sigh he didn't know what contained. His plan had worked, and best of all, he still possessed his echo.
...
Once night had completely fallen, it was time to execute the second half of their plan.
Changing Star stood up.
"Let's begin."
"Agreed."
Ash took the bottles with the venom, placing them side by side, then took out the improvised torch made of bone and seaweed.
In the night, he passed the torch to Sunny, who passed it to Nephis.
Ash watched as Nephis lit the torch with fire, and with it, the demon's attention immediately focused on the light and the three figures.
The furious carapace demon appeared from nowhere, looking at the three insignificant humans on the sacred tree.
The demon approached, trying to cut them with its scythe but couldn't reach them.
Grabbing the three jars, Ash threw them at the abomination.
The creature reacted, cutting the jars without hesitation, causing the contents to spread, falling over a large part of its steel-covered body.
Guided by sound, Nephis threw the torch with all her strength. After a second, it struck the demon's chest squarely. Quickly, the flames spread throughout the monster's body.
Because of the fire, the monster had become a bright flash that would attract the terrors from the depths of the dark sea.
Ash watched in silence as the carapace demon began to writhe on the ground, trying to smother the flames on its body without any success.
Almost a minute passed until Ash felt an incredibly familiar sensation. He observed the dark sea, seeing the white fog from nowhere that began to slowly spread.
Ash could feel its call, its desire to erase everything that existed and leave it in its purest state of absolute non-existence.
The carapace demon stopped trying to put out the fire; instead, it watched the fog slowly approaching the shore. A cold, murderous resolve drew itself on its demonic face.
Ash saw how the fog covered the island's surface and with it heard the beating of wings. His eyes began to search through the fog to see what had emerged, but before he could, a hand covered his eyes.
"Don't open your eyes. No matter what happens, don't... don't open them," Cassie said with a tense voice.
Ash closed his eyes, trusting only his hearing.
"Don't look... don't look... don't look..."
The voice became more distorted and less human, coming from somewhere Ash couldn't locate.
The voice began as a whisper before becoming a scream of fury and unbridled madness.
"DON'T LOOK! DON'T LOOK! DON'T LOOK!"
Then there was total silence until Ash heard something in his ear—it was an unknown voice full of madness, fury, and heartbreaking sadness.
"You... smell of oblivion."
Ash froze. He felt a primal fear settle into his soul, as if something ancient, ancient and devastating, was watching him.
That same sensation of being watched during his transfer to this world and his first nightmare returned with more intensity than ever. An invisible pressure made him tremble, unable to move.
"Oblivion... oblivion... you have its scent... scent... you have it... you..." the voice continued whispering with hundreds of voices at the same time.
"I see... we see... so... it's you... IT'S YOU! IT'S YOU! IT'S YOU! IT'S YOU! OBLIVION!" With that last furious scream, Ash fell to the ground. He felt his terror increase; he was frozen, his heart feeling as if it were about to burst inside him.
"ANSWER ME, SON OF NOTHING!"
"ANSWER!" Ash remained silent.
And then the voice said nothing. A second passed, perhaps an eternity. Ash could only breathe while holding on tightly, his fingers digging into the branches, keeping his eyes forcefully closed, not opening them.
The same voice returned, but this time instead of being hundreds of different voices, it was just one soft and calm voice that made Ash tremble, but not from fear—from calm, as if something had covered him, making his fear and terror vanish as if they had never existed.
"Not yet... you're not ready yet..." was what he heard.
Hearing those words, his heart ached, but he also felt happy and nostalgic.
When the sensation disappeared, a tremor shook the entire island as the carapace demon clashed its scythes in a metallic noise, creating clean air that allowed him to see.
A few moments later, another tremor shook the island as the demon collided with the unknown horror that had emerged from the depths of the dark sea.
Ash could only breathe deeply, calming himself. His armor's enchantment activated, slowly beginning to calm all his emotions.
...
After what seemed an eternity, Ash finally opened his eyes as the sun began to rise, and with it, the dark sea slowly retreated completely.
Ash tried to stand but couldn't; his legs failed him, his body still trembled, and he was pale.
Ash felt helpless—in this state, he would only be a burden rather than a help.
"Ash."
Hearing his name, he observed Nephis and Sunny, who had worried faces seeing his condition.
"What happened?" Nephis asked.
"I-I don't know." His voice stammered with lingering traces of fear from his experience hours ago.
"Are you injured?" Sunny asked.
"No..." he said, moving toward them.
"I think I'll just be a nuisance if I go down. I'll stay up here," he said as Cassie passed him the unlimited water bottle, which he used to quench his thirst.
Nephis nodded in agreement.
Ash looked at Sunny, passing him the Echo.
"Use it," was what he said.
Sunny nodded.
"Alright," he said, approaching Nephis.
After a few moments, the duo began to descend the tree to fight the weakened carapace demon that was crawling back to the ash mound.
"Ash..." Cassie said.
"What happened to you? Why are you so scared?" the blind girl asked, turning her face toward him.
Ash hesitated for a moment; remembering that still made him tremble. He had heard a voice. One so incredibly familiar that it evoked a huge amount of emotions inside him, and yet he couldn't remember. He didn't know the tone of the voice, nor its words. He had forgotten it.
"I think I forgot," Ash said, confused.