Ash sighed as he observed the vast and extensive territory of the Forgotten Coast. The sun had disappeared, leaving a dark and dead land.
Ash was sitting, observing the remains of the soul-devouring tree. Now it was nothing more than a pile of burnt wood in an enormous mound of ashes.
Hearing the sound of something being torn apart, he watched as his echo was opening the shells of the scavengers.
After having lit a campfire, he calmly ate his own meat.
Ash wondered what to do now.
He could travel to the Nightmare Desert to look for a seed and challenge it to become a master directly, but he dismissed the idea.
He wasn't suicidal. His aspect wasn't focused on combat and was rather utilitarian. His only option was to be an awakened one by using a portal to anchor himself.
The Nightmare Desert was too dangerous to cross alone, even if he had the Black Steel Crow—it was only a devil. If a great abomination appeared, they would be dead.
Not to mention the immortal army that fought among themselves every night.
If he took another route, he would reach the Burnt Forest and beyond, the Frozen Land.
The only option left to him were the Hollow Mountains.
By possessing the Blessing of the Void and Souls, he could resist its influence and cross it. He just needed to be careful not to run into something unholy.
Ash closed his eyes for a moment. Using his sleeper ability, he thought of the Chained Isles and felt them at an enormous distance, crossing the Hollow Mountains.
Biting into the cooked meat, Ash made a decision.
Invoking the Infinite Spring, he quenched his thirst before putting out the fire.
"Hey, stop pecking at that thing's corpse and let's go. We're heading to the Hollow Mountains," he said, looking at the crow, which merely tilted its head before spreading its wings, stirring up ashes.
Climbing onto the devil's back, it began to fly, heading toward the Hollow Mountains.
The journey there took quite some time, time he used to finish recovering mentally and prepare himself to cross the mist of the Void itself.
---
After a while, Ash observed the imposing mountains that resembled enormous fangs of an immense beast.
From the distance he was at, he could feel the cold of the mist seeping into his body.
Ordering his echo to stop, it descended to about a hundred meters from the entrance to the mountains.
Ash patted its back before dismissing the echo, sending it to his sea of souls.
Invoking the Sevenfold Sword, as well as the Pale Needle, he walked toward the mist, entering it.
Once inside the dense thickness, he felt quite comfortable, as if it were something he was very familiar with.
His armor took advantage of the environment covered in such dense mist to fill him with renewing strength.
Ash advanced along the path of black rock, trusting in his sleeper ability to reach the Chained Isles.
Ash felt slightly strange. His footsteps made no sound.
He advanced for several hours, feeling increasingly tired, which forced him to make pauses to rest.
Ash breathed slowly and then calmed his mind. Although he resisted the Void, he felt a deep weight that made him lethargic.
He was only a sleeper. His own soul, although more resistant than any other sleeper, was still weak and small.
If it weren't for his attributes, he was sure he would disappear completely.
During the following days, or what he believed were days, Ash continued advancing carefully, not wanting to attract the attention of any of the horrors that hid in this place.
As he advanced, he had to go down or up complete slopes, having to be careful of the sharp peaks that protruded from the ground.
Ash, as he advanced, felt how the weight installed in his soul slowly disappeared, allowing him to move at an even greater pace. However, he didn't lower his guard, remaining alert.
Ash continued advancing in silence. At first, his mind was full of random and strange thoughts due to the silence and the endless view of the mist.
Then, at some point, he learned not to think. His mind was like the mist, simply a white sea without thoughts beyond continuing forward.
Step by step, meter by meter.
His body had become a machine that only advanced.
---
As he progressed, he felt something strange. The ground was trembling.
Snapping out of his trance, Ash quickly ran until he positioned himself on some high rocks that concealed him.
Ash watched as something of titanic size descended from above, landing with apocalyptic violence, shattering countless fragments of black rock.
Enormous black pillars crashed against the ground, ending in sharp points.
"They're legs," Ash thought, amazed.
A distorted sound occurred for the first time in the mist of the Void.
Ash brought his hands to his ears, trying to block that piercing sound.
Ash watched as the titanic thing rose to its height, matching that of the mountains themselves. A river of a viscous substance like blood flowed, creating an enormous river.
The mist moved, covering the great river of blood until it began to make it faint, until it erased it completely before his eyes.
The enormous creature advanced, moving away from the area.
Ash sighed in relief. Just as he was about to leave, he heard something thunderous crash against the ground.
Ash hesitated for a moment about approaching, but in the end, he decided to do it.
Ash observed a cliff and began to climb it. It took him a long time, but finally he had reached the top.
Being at the top, he finally appreciated the enormous creature. What he saw made him open his eyes in shock.
What stood before him was a...
"Great Titan," he murmured, feeling a chill.
The Great Titan had an amorphous and unsettling appearance, a mix between a spider and an enormous mass of black flesh covered in skin and hair, with enormous wings and short arms.
The abdomen area had been violently torn open. From the wound, a thick black blood filtered out, flowing like a river.
Ash watched as slowly the mist began to envelop the creature's body.
The weakened creature began to be affected by the properties of the Void.
Its unfathomable spirit weakened, its will crumbled like dust.
Ash watched as in a matter of minutes, the Great Titan had completely disappeared, leaving nothing more than a large flat and empty surface where it had once been.
Even the river of blood had vanished as if it had never existed. The Great Titan and everything it had ever been disappeared.
Ash felt a primal terror run through his entire body.
If he didn't leave that place soon, that would be his final fate.
Turning around, he focused on his destination: the Chained Isles. He still had a lot of ground to cover.
Breathing several times, he forced himself to calm down.
His attributes [Blessing of the Void] protected him from being erased from existence. The Void recognized him as one of its inhabitants. Even so, he needed to be careful—there were things that could still kill him instantly.
Blanketing his mind, Ash resumed his path, following his intuition toward the Chained Isles.
---
Ash advanced and continued advancing.
He didn't know how long he advanced or walked. Time was something that didn't exist inside that place.
He forgot everything. He forgot his identity, his memories, his essence that made him who he was, entering a mechanical state.
However, one day he recovered his identity. Then he recovered his memories, then his will, and once again he was complete.
When he came back to himself, he had already left the Hollow Mountains, walking along a long path of black rock.
He could observe immense chains embedded in the earth that rose toward several dozen islands connected to each other.
Ash smiled and cried in silence.
Behind him were the Hollow Mountains. He had become the first sleeper to cross the Void itself without disappearing forever.
Invoking the Infinite Spring, he took long and deep sips, feeling the fresh water run through every part of his body.
Standing at the edge of the rock path, he observed a black void with white dots like stars.
In its depths, Ash could feel a floating construction.
"So that's Nether's workshop," Ash thought with a smile.
Invoking the crow, he climbed onto its back, ordering it to plunge into the abyss.
The crow looked at him as if he were insane, but obeyed anyway, flying into the dark abyss.