For Shade, the following two weeks had passed like a blur of time, something strange considering he had some kind of temporal curse that affected his flow of time. Due to how busy he was, he had barely paid enough attention to his surroundings.
The deadline for traveling to Antarctica was approaching rapidly. He was under great pressure, but he was used to it, so he could cope and act efficiently.
Shade was alone since Uriel was resting. They had used the same strategy as in the Forgotten Shore: dividing the load. One would take over at certain intervals throughout the evacuation campaign, then the other would switch, and so on, until everything was finished.
After Uriel had introduced himself to his new team, he decided to take a break, leaving Shade to handle the rest. Shade accepted grudgingly, but it wasn't like he had many options. He explained the objective of the Antarctica campaign to them, as well as the suffering they would endure from the continuous attacks and the possibility of dying at any moment.
His words were harsh but served to let them know that at every instant, their lives would be in danger.
After the briefing came the exciting part: getting to know them through battle. So, he simply created a sword of darkness, stating that they would win if they could destroy his weapon, using any strategy or plan they wished.
By doing this, Shade achieved small secondary objectives. The first was to gauge his team's current ability to fight as a group and how their Aspects interacted with each other.
The second objective was to earn their respect. Strength commanded respect; it was easier to trust someone strong who had your back than someone weak who would run at the first sign of danger.
Although forming a bond would require time and effort, this would be the first and most important step.
Over the next forty minutes, Shade crushed what could be considered elite Awakened of the government. He hadn't even fought seriously. And they hadn't even managed to destroy the dark sword he had created.
The only interesting ones were Lucien, Tiffany, and Lily, who possessed good combat skills, but could improve.
As for Asher, Miranda, and Abel, their Aspects weren't focused on direct combat, but they had a decent level of fighting that would need improvement.
After defeating them several times, he began working with them to improve their strength and essence control, indicating which parts of their muscles to channel essence to for the best results at the lowest cost. Slowly, their essence control became more refined.
He also began purchasing equipment that would be useful for the Antarctica campaign.
After the first week of training, he made the six fight among themselves to understand and analyze their opponents and gain a better understanding of their own abilities and limitations.
When the second week arrived, Shade used the Dreamscape, modifying the battlefield. He wouldn't use nightmare creature simulations; instead, he would be the nightmare creature his subordinates had to eliminate.
He chose landscapes that were difficult to navigate, orient themselves in, even dark places that favored them.
In his opinion, it was a fairly simple game: he would be a nightmare creature, and they had to eliminate him. Of course, he transformed into multiple monsters, large and small.
The largest among them was his black serpent form, about 40 meters long. He also used his stone saint form, maintaining a height of twenty meters to cause great devastation.
At first, the six Awakened were confident, having the numbers, the advantage, and the combination of their Aspects and plans. All their plans and strategies proved useless when a fist the size of a house impacted the ground, lifting enormous chunks of rock, or when a great black beast destroyed them before they could plan anything, or even when a simple monster put them through hell.
In the end, they tried to fight against a kind of black ladybug capable of creating dark weapons fired at enormous speeds, which defeated them instantly.
The funniest thing Shade did was transform into a kind of diminutive goblin that loved to bite and was terrifyingly fast and annoying.
...
After everyone came out of the Dreamscape, Shade looked at his subordinates with a jovial smile.
"You managed to last 10 seconds longer than last time. Congratulations, you can take the rest of the day off," expressed Shade with a very cheerful smile as he left the gym.
When Shade left, the six went to the staff kitchen next to the gym.
Lucien looked tired; he didn't even have the strength to smile. He wasn't the only one. Miranda had her head resting on the metal table, muttering about terrifying diminutive demons.
Asher and Abel were tired and a bit on high alert, in case of a surprise attack from a game of cat and mouse. Of course, they were the mice.
Lily and Tiffany were exhausted because their captain focused on them first, even when protected by Abel's barriers, which shattered like glass with a single blow.
"He's a devil... No, he's worse than a devil, straight out of hell itself," said Lucien.
A bit further away, Asher shook his head.
"Even a devil can die... but the captain," the man shuddered slightly. "We can't even know what he's planning, or what his next move will be. When he gave us time and let us choose the most beneficial scenario for us, he completely turned it around, using it against us."
"Don't remind me. He doesn't even have a weakness. Everyone has weaknesses: head, heart, skin, arteries... and so on. Not him. It's like logic breaks before him."
"I told you, he's a devil. He's not even human; he's a nightmare creature disguised as a human."
"Lily, do you know he's possibly somewhere listening to all this, right?" asked Miranda.
Lily looked towards the dark shadows but saw nothing. She didn't know if her captain was really there or not, and she truly hoped he hadn't heard that.
...
Shade yawned. He hadn't slept in the last two days. Although as a Master he could last at least two weeks without sleep, mental fatigue was accumulating. However, he couldn't stop to sleep for a while; he would do so once they were on the battleship.
For now, he focused on improving his subordinates' equipment.
After training with them, killing them various times in the Dreamscape, and testing them in different areas, he knew what would be best for them and which areas to improve.
Intentionally, he attacked them with the same power as a Fallen Devil so they wouldn't have trouble dealing with Fallen Beasts below Tyrant rank. The result was as expected; they had no chance.
Using contribution points, he began purchasing Memories for them.
The first was Asher. His Aspect was based on reconnaissance, being able to sense everything within a large range. That included being able to identify the ranks of nightmare creatures, although he didn't know if Asher could sense that he had seven soul cores instead of one, or if he had, he had remained silent. He would have to watch him.
Since his main method of attack was archery, he got him a first-level Ascended rank bow, which had an enchantment that allowed him to increase damage upon impact. He also managed to get a quiver; according to what he read, one of its enchantments was to replicate the last arrow used. For this, he got him an arrow capable of making things explode and another with a potent poison.
For Lucien, who was a front-line fighter due to his Berserker-like Aspect, he decided to give him the Blood Flower. This would strengthen him the more blood he spilled from nightmare creatures. He also got him a fifth-level Awakened halberd and a second-level light armor.
For Miranda, Shade wasn't sure what to get her. Her Aspect was based on fairly effective healing. If he had to compare it, it would be similar to the Mystic Palm from the Naruto anime. Her main weapon was a kind of morning star made to destroy her enemies. After thinking it over, Shade decided to get a Memory that would help her recover her essence a little faster.
With those three ready, he focused on Tiffany, Lily, and Abel.
For Lily, things got a bit complicated due to her Flaw, which he hadn't taken long to discover. The girl couldn't wear armor. In other words, she was defenseless against a well-placed blow from any nightmare creature.
Undoubtedly, that was a true Flaw that would be difficult to deal with. In a profession like this, fights against nightmare creatures were 100% guaranteed, and having good armor made the difference between life and death.
Shade could only sigh and get her a Memory. It was an amulet with an enchantment that increased her combat prowess.
Next was Tiffany.
She had a powerful and very useful Aspect: intangibility. She could become intangible, adopting a blue hue like a ghost. Not only that, but her attacks went directly to the soul.
For Shade, whose weak point was his soul, she was his natural enemy, so in every combat simulation, he decided to go after her first.
Since Tiffany had a good level of combat and strategy, as well as good essence control, he couldn't do much more than create an enchantment.
From what he observed, Tiffany's Flaw was one that slowly erased her memories, so she always had to write things down with details to know what she was doing. Since she generally had to change notebooks, Shade created an infinite notebook.
Well, not literally, but using runic sorcery, he managed to alter the space within the notebook to make it much larger with more pages. This took him only an hour. When he finished, Shade met with Sunny to have him turn it into a Memory. Thus, he managed to create the Infinite Notebook.
Last but not least was Abel.
He didn't have much to say about him. He possessed a good level of both combat and intelligence, and was able to adapt to different circumstances quite quickly and ingeniously.
His Aspect was generating barriers for his allies. The barriers could withstand the impact of an Awakened monster, even an Awakened Demon, which was quite surprising. However, there was a small detail: his Flaw.
He was a magnet for nightmare creatures, so they would have a lot of work to do. Even when he tried a mask with an enchantment to hide his presence, it was useless.
After acquiring everything he needed, Shade focused on improving the Rhino they had been given. Surprisingly, Miranda was an incredible driver. When Shade asked her why, she simply said: "My ex taught me."
Shade wondered who the girl's ex was but eventually gave up. He suspected he would find out fairly quickly.
Since Miranda knew more about cars than he did, he decided to leave the Rhino modifications to her. Although he felt his wallet getting lighter with each new piece he had to get, which was more expensive than the previous one.
Overall, the modifications included two power sources: one using fuel pellets and the other using soul essence. This way, the Rhino could function for long periods of time.
The engine had also been changed to a more powerful version, capable of withstanding a heavy load across countless kilometers without showing faults.
The next change was the communication system located at the rear of the vehicle, acquiring one of the best setups. With Miranda's guidance and explanations, he noted the advantages this would bring, so he accepted it, spending more points to his dismay.
The next change was the Rhino's central system, ensuring it wouldn't be affected by nightmare gates. So he invested in this last part to avoid being stranded in the middle of nowhere.
After all that, he finally focused on himself.
Unfortunately, he realized a small detail: he couldn't turn the Echoes he bought into dark creatures for some strange reason.
There were still things he didn't know about his Aspect, and apparently, if he hadn't killed or obtained them himself, he couldn't turn them into dark creatures.
So, he simply did something different, acquiring Memories to prepare for what was coming, especially for the Tomb of Ariel.
Shade also acquired instruments for runic sorcery. Since there were few sorcerers, the materials were a bit expensive, but nothing compared to the exorbitant amount of money he had spent.
At the beginning of it all, when he sold almost four thousand Transcendent soul fragments, he had obtained nearly one billion one hundred million credits. And after converting them into contribution points, he simply had about 500 million credits in his personal account.
He still had a Supreme soul fragment left, as well as the Sacred fragments, which he would never sell.
...
A few days later, Shade was sitting in the military bunker's cafeteria, consuming food at a slow pace. His eyes were a bit dull, with barely visible dark circles under them.
He wasn't the only one; Sunny was in the same state, maybe a bit worse.
Shade was simply eating, largely ignoring the conversation happening among the other captains.
"Hey Uriel, what area will you focus on?" asked Winter, an Ascended, making Shade blink.
"Well, combat and reconnaissance," he replied calmly.
"Explain."
"Well, I guess I prefer practicality, stealth, strength, and strategy."
"So you're a bit like Davis," said Jesses.
"In a way," he replied.
The conversation continued, where the gray-haired veteran explained how the nightmare call worked for Awakened, which gave Shade a slight idea for the future.
...
When the night before departure arrived, Shade gathered his subordinates for a small party with drinks and banquets of delicious food that Shade had prepared after taking some cooking classes on various websites. Surprisingly, he was quite good at preparing meals, especially meat.
The seven were sitting in a high place, watching as the containers were loaded onto the ships in preparation.
"Hey, Captain," said Finn, making Shade look at him.
"What's the biggest thing you've encountered in the Dream Realm?" he asked curiously.
"Uhm, I've encountered gigantic things and killed some of them. But if I had to recall something I personally saw, it would be traveling through a desert and coming across a Great Demon," he explained, making everyone's eyes widen.
"A Great Demon? How did you survive that?"
"Oh, don't misunderstand. I didn't literally run into it head-on. I just saw it for a few moments, about fifty kilometers from where I was. It was gigantic; I think it measured about a kilometer or something."
The six Awakened paled a bit trying to imagine a creature of such titanic proportions.
"And you?" asked Shade.
"Well, although I haven't killed creatures of Corrupted rank or done half of what you've done, Captain, the strongest I've fought would be against a Fallen Demon. It roamed the borders of the Citadel where I was staying at the time," said Lucien.
"The demon was big and terrifying. A team formed to kill it. We fought for a while until I was the sole survivor, so I attacked it with everything I had, killing it with my destroyed halberd. But in exchange, I got this," he said, showing a finely detailed silver halberd with blue lines.
"Well, I had to fight a monster as a Sleeper," said Asher. "I landed near Bastion, and a nightmare creature designated me as its dinner. It was agile and intelligent, like a hunter. I devised a trap, luring it towards another nightmare creature, making them fight each other. In the end, when one of them died and the other was badly injured, I killed it with my bow and arrow. After that, it was a race to Bastion."
"I didn't really fight anything truly terrifying," said Miranda. "But I did witness a Valor Saint's fight against a Corrupted monster. It was the coolest and most terrifying thing I had ever seen in my life."
"And you, Tiffany?" asked Lucien.
"Uhm, it was against an army of an Awakened Tyrant. It controlled an army of Awakened beasts. I had to fight a bit and escape. Luckily, a Master appeared at that moment and helped me escape."
"Well, I fought against a Fallen Beast," said Lily, surprising everyone.
"It was an ugly worm. It was during my winter solstice. The worm was one that moved through vibrations, so I had to take refuge on a large rock. I spent two or three days there, enduring hunger and thirst. Gathering all my courage, I used a dagger and fought the nightmare creature but received a serious wound. Fortunately, a team of Awakened treated me and took me to their Citadel to return to the waking world."
"And you, Abel?" asked Tiffany.
"Well, the biggest thing I encountered was a Fallen Devil. It was my winter solstice; I landed in Revenheart. The Fallen Devil immediately focused on me, so I could only run and pray to the gods for my life. Unfortunately or fortunately, I attracted too much attention from nightmare creatures, which started fighting among themselves. Everything happened too fast. I managed to reach the bridge and use the portal to return to the waking world. Those were the longest hours of my life."
...
The next morning, after Shade had rested properly with the Crown of Repose, recovering all his depleted mental stamina, he silently observed the forty ships that would travel to Antarctica.
Shade and the rest of the captains stood in silence, observing the now-dismantled camp and the endless gray mass of the sea.
"Alright," said Jet after a few moments of silence. "It's time to go. Regroup with your cohorts and head to your assigned ships. You know what to do if the convoy suffers a disaster on the way. Do everything you can to survive. If the flagship sinks and I with it, follow the chain of command. Randal will assume leadership of the company in my absence."
Master Randal looked somberly at Jet.
"Hopefully, I won't have to."
Shade looked at the naval convoy. He barely remembered when it was just yesterday that he had woken up in a pile of garbage, confused, and now he was about to participate in an attempt to save a continent from ruin.
He had done everything within his reach. He had trained his cohort intensely, taught them to improve their essence control, and equipped them with powerful and useful Memories.
The rest would depend on their actions, and with his Fated attribute, he was sure something bad would inevitably happen to him.
Shade took a step back and silently walked away, heading to the dock.
It took him a few minutes to reach the place where his team was waiting. His face was calm as he summoned his King's Ring, the necklace, and the Crown of Repose, as well as the Holy Mantle.
"Are you ready?" he asked, looking at everyone.
Asher, Lucien, Miranda, Lily, Tiffany, and Abel nodded with serious faces.
Without saying a word, they all moved towards the ship they had been assigned. The crowd parted, letting them pass and board the ship, which closed behind them.
Stepping onto the wide deck, Shade was first, followed by his cohort, entering the cargo hold.
Once on board, Shade divided the tasks. He sent Miranda, Lucien, and Asher to check the supplies and the Rhino, which had been modified the previous week, to ensure everything was ready.
Then he sent Tiffany, Abel, and Lily to handle logistics, secure the rooms, and familiarize themselves with the ship.
At the same time, Shade headed to the upper deck, watching as the battleships began to move slowly at first and then faster, venturing into deeper waters.
"There's no turning back now. Now it's time to survive," murmured Shade, feeling the salty wind caress his body.
Shade sighed, then felt a slight chill. He remembered what he had been forgetting. He had left Scarlet in charge of Shadow Garden on a mission to acquire an unclaimed Citadel. He was supposed to be there, but with everything happening, he had completely forgotten.
"Well... that's shitty. I hope Scarlet isn't too upset," he muttered to himself, deciding to return and explore the ship.