Leon slowly opened his eyes.
He could tell that his body had already been healed by the crown, but his head still ached.
He slowly looked around, and found himself at the same spot they had fought Harus and Caster.
"Are you alright?" Kai's voice hit him like metal scraping against a chalkboard. Leon covered his ears.
He slowly shifted his gaze to Kai, who had a worried look on his face. Sunny stood a few steps behind him.
"Where's Caster?"
Sunny slowly smiled, and took a step to his side. Caster was on the ground behind him, bound in chains. The same chains Harus had used to fight them.
Caster was still unconscious, the chains tightly coiled around his arms and legs.
"What um... what do we do with him?" Kai asked.
Leon sighed, as he slowly picked himself up with Kai's help.
"Let's ship him to Basic Star."
Kai blinked. "Basic Star?"
Then the realization hit him. "Oh...that's..."
Sunny, meanwhile, wrote it down on a piece of paper, and hurriedly shoved it away. "Well then, we're late for our journey."
Leon nodded weakly, but soon grew still as he took a closer look at Sunny.
Near Sunny's chest, were two cores now. The previously dark and imperceptible shadow core, had seemingly multiplied now.
Except it wasn't exactly multiplication — one of his cores was completely filled in by waves of darkness moving around, completely encompassing the sphere, while the other one looked emptier.
'A second...soul core?'
Sunny noticed the direction of his gaze. He turned away and began walking without a word.
Leon said nothing either.
As he followed, he caught a few other things he hadn't noticed at first. He was taller, his hair was longer. There were a few other changes he didn't have the energy to catalogue, given how tired he was.
'Oh. So that was his flaw.'
***
After Birdie finished tossing Caster inside Changing Star's office and had returned, they took off on their journey.
Birdie carried the three of them west, with Kai flying alongside.
Below them, the region where the Lord of the Dead had once existed spread out like a wide scar. It was completely barren, the surrounding coral turned to black spots protruding from the ground.
'Oh right...'
Leon had nuked the Lord of the Dead when he first arrived, so what remained now was simply a vast barren wasteland, where the sea filled it at night.
It almost formed another mini crater, resembling the larger one centering the forgotten shore.
As Sunny and Kai stared at the crater, Birdie soon dropped down nearby the goddess statue — the same one where the tentacle had taken him.
"From here it's on foot." Leon looked at the terrain ahead. "We can't risk sky travel with what might be out there."
Sunny and Kai nodded.
The expedition for the Dawn Shard had begun.
***
"Leon."
Sunny's voice sounded like he was trying not to sound as annoyed as he was.
"Where the hell are we?"
He was sweating profusely, and his breathing was uneven. Kai was sprawled on the ground nearby, bow set aside, staring at the sky.
Sunny grimaced as he narrowed his eyes to the distance.
The crimson labyrinth was simultaneously the same and vastly different from the region of it that he had travelled before.
The maze was pretty identical to how it had been to the east of the gargantuan crater, and yet the creatures populating this area were vastly different.
There were practically no members of the carapace legion around. Instead, the tribe of nightmare creatures in this region consisted of spider-like creatures.
"Trust me guys, I've been here before." Leon pulled his blade free from the creature at his feet and looked up.
"I guess."
Sunny gritted his teeth and frowned.
"We're lost aren't we."
"We're not lost. We're just—" Leon looked around. "—repositioning."
Kai coughed from the ground, as he had just finished absorbing another batch of soul shards. "You guys sure I can have these?"
"We'll explain later," Leon said. "For now, yes."
Kai nodded in understanding, as he crushed the remaining soul shards.
As they ventured deeper into the southern reaches of the crimson labyrinth, the situation slowly turned worse.
The iron spiders, just like Leon had remembered, started adapting to the three Sleepers. The metal wires they weaved became so thin, it was nearly impossible to notice.
The three bled much more because of the spiders. But eventually, they made quick work of them. After a wide variety of terrifying creatures, they made their way through the dense nest.
Leon approached Kai and gave him the blood arrow.
Kai declined the offer at first, but after a while of convincing, Kai promised to give Leon another memory back when he could.
The blood arrow was better off with an archer as good as Kai anyway - he told himself, unable to accept the fact that his archery skills were shit.
***
A week passed. Leon's luck with Memories and Echoes remained, by any objective measure, terrible.
The labyrinth threw creatures at them, then the creatures died.
As they travelled further, they approached a titanic fracture. The canyon was so deep and vast, they could barely see the other side.
"Screw this, we fly."
Summoning Birdie, he got on top of it and gestured for the other two to get on.
Kai, as usual, flew his own way.
As they flew above the grandiose canyon, Leon glanced around.
It was a stormy night, as rain poured down without any rest. Shrugging off the cold, the three remained vigilant, and continued flying forward.
They eventually flew over the dark sea, as it surged up, getting to the top of one of the coral high points.
A brief flash of lightning lit up the world around them.
Sunny and Kai's faces paled. They stared directly behind Leon, unable to move their eyes.
Leon raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong guys?"
Sunny shuddered in fear, while Kai widened his eyes in horror.
Leon slowly turned back.
The storm swallowed everything between the flashes. He couldn't see clearly — just rain, wind, the reflected light of the sea below.
Another lightning struck.
He saw it.
The figure of a colossal creature outlined itself in the storm, a few kilometers away.
More streaks of lightning struck. The creature was... moving right toward them?
Another flash.
Closer.
Another.
Even closer.
"Guys... I think it's a titan." Leon's voice was barely audible in the storm.
"What is that!?" Sunny yelled.
Noah raised his hands in confusion. "Sunny, he just told you that it's probably a titan."
If only Sunny could hear him.
Leon watched the shape emerge and disappear between lightning strikes, each time closer, each time larger.
They moved the next instant, getting on top of Birdie as it took flight.
It was nearly as tall as the Broken Knight statue.
Looking at the colossal creature approaching them, Leon stared at it in awe and admiration. The creature was truly giant, easily towering above the waves even through the depths of the water.
Though he was wary of the Nightmare Creature, he felt his attribute acting up again, making him want to examine the creature closer.
As Birdie flew higher through the storm, Leon noticed the massive size of the creature moving toward them.
'Is that...a statue?'
The statue was moving. At this point, what wasn't possible in this world?
What's next? A lantern that opens a portal to the realm of the dead, that's actually the soul sea of a god?
Leon knew there had to be some form of mechanism moving it, or perhaps it was a nightmare creature brought to life.
'Or maybe there's a soul trapped inside the statue.'
"Brace yourselves! We're getting on top of the statue!" Leon yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Are you crazy?! That thing is NOT a statue!"
Noah chuckled. "It definitely is, go for it. That's your faster ride to the Dawn Shard."
And that was all the confirmation Leon needed.
Birdie moved closer to the statue.
They slowly landed on top of the statue's headless neck.
Kai grabbed onto the cracks below him. Leon summoned his halo into a sword and dug it deep into the statue, as Sunny did the same.
All Leon could hear was wind moving through cracked stone and, far below, the dark sea parting around the colossus's legs with each step.
***
Soon, the storm passed and the weather cleared up.
They sat on the neck of the statue as it walked, while Leon spread the Codex across his knees and studied the map.
"Alright." He looked up. "I think we're actually travelling the same direction as the statue."
Sunny gave him a disapproving look. "You think? And you're sure this thing is actually a statue?"
"I'm confident."
"You said 'I think.'"
"Ehhh, I mean. Objectively speaking—"
Kai had not spoken in several minutes. He was sitting very still, watching the labyrinth pass beneath them — hundreds of kilometers of crimson coral reduced to a slow, moving panorama by the colossus's pace.
They all sat comfortably around on the neck of the statue. If anyone fell down, Birdie would immediately swoop in. Kai did not have to worry about that because he could simply fly.
The stone giant walked across the dark sea, cutting its surface with his wide chest.
Leon took a nap, while Sunny watched through the night.
Kai joined Sunny, reluctant to sleep.
***
He woke up the next morning, at the same time as the sun rose on the Forgotten Shore.
The giant swayed its arms as it walked through the crimson coral, indifferent to it. It crushed mountains of coral under its feet.
Sunny was intently marking down every major landmark he could. This map would be invaluable while returning.
Soon, another storm had descended upon them. This one was much worse than the last.
Leon struggled to keep himself on the statue as it moved indifferently to the storm. Kai had grabbed onto the Stone Saint's leg, hoping not to get thrown off.
Noah weirdly had a small hint of jealousy on his face, watching Kai.
Leon kept one hand on the halo-sword buried in the stone and watched the sea below churn.
A loud screech cut through the loud storm.
He looked down and noticed a giant eel-like creature, crawling up the statue's knee. It was enormous, the length of a city block. It wound itself around one knee.
For a second, he thought the creature would come after them, but then noticed that the eel was actually trying to attack the statue itself.
Leon watched with interest. Kai and Sunny were frozen behind him, which was understandable.
It dug its teeth around the statue, which proved ineffective.
Finally, the eel extended itself across the two legs of the statue, and tightly coiled itself around it.
Leon noted that the creature was of the Corrupted rank.
The statue bent down. It picked up the eel in one of its hands.
The eel like creature was forcefully pried off the statue's legs. The giant raised it in the air, its enormous stone hand trapping it like a cage.
Screeching loudly, the eel moved around frantically, trying to escape.
He took a glance at Kai and Sunny, who were simply frozen in fear. He stared for a moment longer, looking at the expression he could never have.
But because of that glance, Leon failed to notice the eel being lifted even higher, as it shot its tail toward the trio.
Kai sprang into action immediately, summoning his bow and shooting an arrow right at Leon.
Leon froze as the arrow passed by his cheek and hit the approaching tail behind him.
The arrow did practically nothing.
Right before it could hit them, the giant crushed its hand.
The eel stopped, and the tail missed them by a few meters.
Kai slipped, and his grip on the Stone Saint weakened. He nearly fell into the sea around him, before the Stone knight grabbed him by his arm.
Tons of blood, and pieces of the eel's flesh fell into the sea.
The storm soon passed.
"Guys... I don't know how this happened. But I got the kill for the eel."
Leon stared at him.
"And a Memory."
Leon continued staring. "Kai. Are you absorbing all of my luck? Is that what's happening?"
"I don't think that's how luck works."
Everyone but Leon laughed — yes, including Noah, Aurelia, and even his Traces.
"Another arrow," Kai said, slightly apologetically. "This one makes it travel faster the more essence you put into it."
"So it's useless to ordinary Sleepers."
"...Yes."
Our trio, however, was anything but ordinary.
***
By the middle of the third day of their journey atop the ancient colossus, an ominous dark line appeared on the horizon. With every minute, it simply grew closer and closer.
Leon could tell they were heading toward a vast mountain chain. The mountains seemed to serve as a border for the Forgotten Shore. They were tall and jagged, piercing the skies like the fangs of a giant dragon.
This was near the place where the first lord had disappeared.
Right now, they still had a week's journey travelling across the border of the Forgotten Shore, to reach the place where the first lord had disappeared from their journey.
As the stone giant came closer to the mountains, Leon slowly understood how tall and magnificent they were. Even the colossus felt like a mere ant in front of those towering peaks.
Slowly, the terrain of the Labyrinth began to rise. The mounds of coral grew smaller, the distance between them increased, until finally, there was as much black soil and stone visible beneath as there were corals of vivid crimson.
Eventually, the blades of coral became scarce, as though the Labyrinth was reluctant to approach the foothills of the misty mountains.
Leon felt the steps of the colossus slow down. It seemed to struggle against some invisible force that was relentlessly pulling him back toward the Labyrinth.
Finally, the stone giant staggered and stopped.
The trio seized this moment, as they immediately got on top of Birdie and lifted off the stone neck.
Kai could fly by himself though.
Birdie glided over the vast foothills of the mountains, as it slowly descended with each minute. It was as if Birdie could sense some vile abominations in its way.
As night descended and enveloped the world in its familiar veil of absolute darkness, Leon volunteered to keep watch.
He gazed down the sloping surface of the rocky ground. Black water slowly rose from the distant coral labyrinth, crawling up the steep slope of the foothills.
It soon came to a stop a few hundred meters from them, unable to move any further, just like the headless statue had been unable to.
Sunny joined Leon, standing beside him, observing the powerless waves.
"How strange." Sunny muttered.
"What is?" Leon asked curiously.
Sunny exhaled slowly as his gaze stuck to the dark sea.
"I was always aware of the dark sea. Even inside the dark city, its presence felt oppressive."
Smiling slightly, he continued:
"Now it feels like we are safe from it, but not quite."
Leon chuckled. "Let's hope finding the first lord isn't too difficult."
The only reason he had gambled everything so far, was because of Noah.
Noah had told him bits and pieces of whatever he could, with which Leon had pieced everything.
Looking back at the tall mountains, Leon sighed.
He had told the vague shape of the plan to the others.
Find a large hole, or crater near the marked location on the map. Enter a cave there, before the fog eats you. After entering the cave, cross the river and don't look. Cross another small maze where Sunny is important, or even Leon.
Easy. Nothing can go wrong.
***
The next morning, the trio began travelling west. They had about a week's journey on foot to cover.
He had thought of using Birdie to save time, but something told him not to. It was kind of a gut feeling, but he had also felt a small reluctance in Birdie's eyes to be here.
Leon was looking at the mountains and thinking about its name when Noah appeared beside him.
He hadn't been appearing much, since the fight with Nephis. Still present in the Soul Sea, but outside it, his presence had grown sparse — showing up less, saying less when he did.
Leon glanced at Noah who had a nervous look on his face.
'Look who decided to show up.'
He looked back at the mountains.
'Hollow...Mountains...'
He remembered Sera's notes. He remembered her mentioning that there are probably cursed and unholy creatures here, but were there really?
Leon slowly widened his eyes as the realization dawned on him. Memories flooded his mind.
Memories of a Saint crossing the Hollow Mountains. He couldn't remember the specifics of that person, but their journey felt vivid.
He stopped walking.
Sunny and Kai paused behind him.
"What's wrong?"
Leon put a hand over his mouth slowly. Though Leon could feel no fear, his brain felt slower.
"I know where we are...in the Dream Realm"
Sunny widened his eyes. "Wait...really?"
Kai opened his mouth wide.
"That's amazing Leon!"
Leon shook his head slowly.
What he felt right now was not fear, but simply thoughts. Thousands and thousands of thoughts...on how they could die.
After months of not feeling fear, he had developed an unconscious habit.
A habit to calculate the outcome of any sort of event he was in. The process helped him go over the possible outcomes, helping him come up with logical solutions and not be reckless.
But right now, all the thousand thoughts led to death.
Gruesome and horrifying deaths.
"The mountains stretch for thousands of kilometers, forming a region of their own. It's marked as a death zone."
Sunny sighed. "Yeah well, we just came from one too, remember?"
"You don't get it Sunny."
Looking back at the mountains his face turned grim.
"It's marked as a death zone for Saints. Why? Because it's teeming with Great, Cursed and Unholy creatures."
Sunny's face had gone pale.
Kai's knees gave out, as Leon caught him by the arm.
Great, Cursed and Unholy creatures were not a death sentence, they were a pest extermination. And they were the pests right now.
The trio could barely manage to kill a Fallen Creature that was a devil or tyrant.
Great was two whole classes above Fallen. Encountering even a Beast of this class would mean immediate death before they had time to process what the thing looked like.
Leon helped Kai get up on his feet. He inhaled sharply.
"Let's keep moving, I'm sure everything's going to be alri—"
A large boom interrupted him.
The air around them shook violently.
A concussive wave slammed into his body, throwing him down. The ground beneath him shook violently.
Leon looked up.
'What.'
He strained his aspect, but still couldn't make sense of what he was seeing.
It looked like the very space in front of them, or rather... a few meters? No.
Distance was wrong. Several hundred meters? Several kilometers? Both felt true and neither felt accurate.
Somewhere ahead of them, the air itself had cracked. A line where the world's surface had developed a sort of flaw — and through the crack something was visible that wasn't the sky or the mountains.
Wind came through it like multiple hurricanes stacked on top of each other.
Leon dug his sword into the ground and grabbed onto it tightly. Sunny grabbed Kai and got closer to Leon.
Sunny was shouting something at Leon, but it was inaudible to the loud winds.
Although Sunny was definitely shouting at the top of his lungs, Leon couldn't hear him at all. He simply saw his mouth move.
Leon glanced back at the crack ahead of them.
The tremors deepened into a vibration being felt deep in his bones. The edges of the world in his vision blurred, as if it had split itself.
The crack grew wider and wider, as though a hole had been ripped into reality itself.
Something was tearing through the air. Although it was a great time to leave right now, Leon could not move his body even if he tried.
CRACK
The discordant screech of reality tearing was heard. It sounded like a thousand fingernails on a chalkboard. But then it also sounded like a silent scream that echoes only in your mind.
The crack in space grew apart. When that happened, everything froze. Leon felt a deathly oppressive aura all around him.
The winds that had been moving around like a hurricane had stopped entirely. The shaking of the ground had ceased, as if it had feared disturbing whatever came through the rift.
Leon couldn't breathe. Rather, it was as if his body had forgotten to.
Something came out of the crack.
Leon widened his eyes.
A giant, even larger than the stone colossus they travelled on, appeared through the rift. The giant creature fell out, and it landed onto the ground.
When it hit the ground, it didn't make a sound.
'Is it... an illusion?'
He waited for the impact, but nothing came.
Half a second. A full second.
The shockwave arrived after what felt like an eternity, when it had only been a second.
The shockwave from the creature falling down, rolling outward from the landing point was a slow, invisible ring that hit the cliffside and sent all three of them flying in the air.
They were thrown off the cliffside. Leon summoned Birdie, as it caught the trio and flew them upward.
The crater of the landing site receded below the creature, the figure of the thing that had come through the rift grew larger as they gained altitude rather than smaller.
A massive, one-tailed beast made of dark, packed rock. Its body hunched forward, its single tail dragging behind it. Its head was smaller compared to its body, and the creature's arms were huge.
Leon looked at it.
He looked at it for a long time.
Sunny and Kai were frozen. He could feel it without looking — they couldn't breathe, or even move.
The rift moved again.
Something else came through. Another creature.
This one flew — or rather, it existed in the air. It didn't flap its wings, or even make any effort to stay airborne, yet it still remained fixed in the air, staring down at the creature that appeared before it did.
The wings were vast and membranous — the wings disproportionately massive compared to the body. It was almost as large as the stone colossus. Its colors were dark, darker than the storm had been.
He looked at the creature for a long time, which wasn't very long at all.
He saw the soul core.
The wind around them had gone still again.
His voice came out as barely a whisper, but Sunny and Kai could clearly hear it in that quietness.
"Cursed Devil..."