When Uriel regained consciousness, he was in a sea of color. His mind—or what little remained of it—had weakened and become fragile. His soul was damaged and weak, nearly at the point of collapse. Yet it hadn't happened.
He had witnessed the entire battle Shade fought against the Great Devil. He had to admit it was the best fight he had ever witnessed. He had been nervous the whole time, even resigning himself to death, but Shade did it.
He killed a Great Devil alone. Of course, the Great Devil was tremendously weakened, with grave wounds and nearly dead, but he had done it.
He had killed it. That was unheard of and shocking to anyone, yet there was no one to witness the battle—only the surrounding destruction that stretched for several kilometers.
'You did well, Shade,' Uriel thought with a smile before frowning. He was out of essence. Though his body had healed thanks to the enchantment of the Holy Mantle, he needed at least some time before he could move again.
Argh!... Everything hurts.
Uriel waited patiently, feeling the agonizing pain. The Crown of Repose began to restore his essence slowly. When he gathered enough essence, Uriel finally managed to sit up, leaning against a large rock.
His eyes examined his surroundings. Everything was destroyed. There were gigantic craters here and there. The mountains had disappeared or were partially destroyed. Enormous cracks stretched hundreds of meters, while rocks had been melted by the flames of the now-dead Great Devil.
Uriel summoned his runes.
His runes read:
Name: Uriel
True Name: Lord of Darkness
Rank: Ascended
Aspect Rank: Divine
Soul Core: Titan
Dark Shards: [7000/7000]
Aspect Skills: [Dark Body] [Dark Manifestation] [Dark Shaper]
Attributes: [Darkness] [Dark Flame] [Extra Shell] [Dream Spawn] [Fated] [Marble Shell]
Dark Creatures: [Dark Knight] [Gunlaug] [Soul Devourer] [Dark Butterfly] [Skadi]
Memories: [Night Mantle] [Eclipse Claw] [Dark Storage] [Blood Flower] [Hunter's Bow] [Comfortable Chair] [Black Rope] [Water Pearl] [Moonlight Fragment] [Depth's Lament] [Winged Mantle] [Broken Fragment] [Venomous Mantle] [Captain's Sword] [Simple Mask] [Infinite Spring] [Mysterious Armor] [Black Legion Armor] [Wyvern's Fang] [Protection Necklace] [Royal Ring] [Mantle of Guilt] [Crown of Repose] [Holy Mantle] [Silent] [White Flower]
Flaw: [Dual Mind]
...
Uriel sighed, a little disappointed. Apparently, killing a Great Devil wasn't enough to achieve natural Supremacy.
Laughing quietly to himself, Uriel decided to study his new Echo. For that, he closed his eyes and delved into his Soul Sea, taking advantage of the fact that Shade was unconscious.
Once inside his Soul Sea, Uriel sighed and looked around. Nothing had changed. Everything was empty—literally black, with nothing to distinguish. He could feel his seven soul cores, as well as his Memories orbiting around him.
Uriel summoned his newest acquisition.
He waited anxiously as a figure emerged from the limitless darkness. At first, he expected to see an imposing demon about twenty meters tall, straight out of hell.
Instead, Uriel felt disappointment.
Before him was not the imposing devil from before. Instead, there was a woman—a very beautiful one, in fact.
Her hair was a vibrant red that flowed freely down her back. Her eyes were a sky-blue hue. Her face was beautiful as an angel's, not to mention a body that would make any man drool over its exquisite figure.
Her expression was inexpressive and serious, even monotonous.
As an Echo, she was merely a remnant of what she once had been.
Ignoring the figure of the beautiful woman, Uriel summoned his runes.
Echo: [Skadi]
Rank: Supreme
Class: Devil
Description of Dark Creature: [Participating in the war of gods and demons, she guided her powerful empire into a devastating war fueled by nothing more than the fervor of battle. When the battle ended and the gods died, she contemplated the hidden truths within the pyramid of terror. Being corrupted, she wandered and massacred countless beings until she encountered a creature more furious and hungry that put an end to her tyranny.]
'A more furious creature!' Uriel thought.
He was someone perfectly calm, unlike his twin.
Attributes: [War Maiden] [Conqueror] [Blessing of War] [Flame of Divinity] [Blessing of Fire]
Uriel blinked once, twice, three times reading that.
'Well. That's certainly unexpected,' Uriel thought.
Echo Skills: [Burning Heart] [Healing Flame] [Armageddon] [Ruin] [Subjugation]
Skill Description [Burning Heart]: This Echo can greatly empower itself with flames and utilize objects provided by its master.
Skill Description [Healing Flame]: This Echo can create flames capable of healing any wound, even when on the verge of death.
Skill Description [Armageddon]: The more chaos, blood, and destruction it generates in its wake, the stronger it becomes.
Skill Description [Ruin]: This Echo can assimilate damage and transform it into flames that consume everything in its path.
Skill Description [Subjugation]: This Echo is capable, through its will, of subjugating weaker beings under its command, using them as loyal soldiers.
"..."
Uriel was speechless.
"Wow... just... wow."
This was the most absurdly powerful Echo he had ever seen. Seriously, aside from being of Supreme rank, that made it even more valuable.
Uriel felt like crying. He could see his bright future toward Supremacy on a path not too far away.
Uriel touched the Echo's shoulder, and immediately another line of runes appeared.
[Transform the Echo into a Dark Creature?]
Uriel was about to do it when he remembered something that made him sigh. He couldn't do it yet. First, he needed to return to Camp Erebus. He calculated he had already been gone for at least three hours.
Dismissing the Echo, Uriel left his Soul Sea and returned to the outside.
Uriel stood up. He could feel that he had his beast core back, full of essence, and his second core was beginning to fill.
Uriel prepared to leave but stopped. Moving among the remains left by the Great Devil after its death, he found four enormous soul fragments. Without hesitation, he stored them in his Dark Storage.
"Uhm... I'll have to clean out the Dark Storage. I don't even remember how many things I've stored there anymore," he murmured. With that, he transformed into a small crow and flew toward Camp Erebus.
...
It took Uriel only about thirty minutes of fast flight to finally spot the great Soul Tree. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Nightmare Creatures fought among themselves alongside multiple Awakened and soldiers. He also observed a large corpse resembling a giant worm with long spines protruding from its body.
'What the hell happened while I was gone?' he thought as he landed on the wall, returning to normal.
He walked calmly. It only took him a few minutes to reach where his cohort was, which, from what he observed, was in not very good condition.
He noticed that Lucien had his chest bandaged while trying to endure the pain of his Flaw. Tiffany was reading her journal several times with a concentrated expression. Lily was nowhere to be seen; focusing a bit, he sensed her inside the Rhino.
Asher was looking in his direction, having sensed his presence. Abel had some bandages on his head.
Looking elsewhere, he observed how the Dark Knight was eliminating the Fallen abominations that had escaped.
Uriel approached his team with a smile on his face.
"Greetings, my brave subordinates. Why do you look like you've been run over by a truck?"
Lucien was the first to respond.
"Captain, where the hell were you?" he asked, annoyed.
"Yeah, Captain, where the hell were you?" Asher asked.
"Hey, I'm sorry. I had to do an important solo mission, and things got complicated."
Asher sighed.
"What happened to your uniform?"
"Oh, this? It's part of the problems that came up during my mission. I'll compensate you later. Can anyone tell me what happened?" Uriel asked.
"Well, not much, actually," Abel said calmly.
"Just that five Fallen abominations emerged, along with two Corrupted—a Devil and a Demon—with hundreds of Awakened, Fallen, and Corrupted subordinates. We fought for a long time, suffered injuries, then everything shook in the distance, and your Echoes killed the Corrupted, reducing casualties," Abel summarized.
Uriel blinked.
"Oh. Well," he said, not knowing what else to say.
"And where were you?" Lucien repeated.
"Looking for things to help us defend this place. Originally, I was only going to be gone for an hour, but things got very complicated. I almost died, you know?"
"Please, Captain. No offense, but you're like a cockroach—impossible to kill," Tiffany said.
"Hey, I'm not a cockroach. I'm a super cockroach. And where are Miranda and Lily?"
"Lily got injured in the battle, so Miranda is healing her," Asher explained.
Uriel let his shoulders drop.
"This is my fault. I don't deserve to be your captain," he said with a depressing aura around him.
"I'll go... slowly to reflect on my mistakes..."
Uriel didn't finish speaking when a soldier interrupted him.
"Captain Uriel... Captain Dale, Captain Randal, and Colonel Anders are waiting for you for a meeting."
"Alright." Uriel walked toward a dark area and, after using some of his diminished essence, appeared in front of the meeting building.
Without hesitation, he entered the building. After taking the elevator that descended underground, it stopped. Walking down the hallway, he reached the familiar door, opened it, and saw the two Masters, as well as the Awakened Hartwell and Colonel Anders.
"Master Uriel," Anders greeted.
Uriel sat down in the free chair, letting his shoulders drop for a moment before putting on a serious face.
"Colonel, the situation is worse than I imagined," he said in a serious tone.
"Explain."
"Originally, I arrived at the resupply center you indicated in half an hour. After taking everything and starting to return, something happened. A Category Four Gate opened."
Everyone's eyes widened.
"Impossible. The highest is only Category Three. A Category Four Gate means..."
"Yes. Great creatures," Uriel said.
"From the Nightmare Gate emerged a Great Creature that I had to fight."
Randal looked at Uriel, searching for any trace of falsehood in his words but found none.
"Since you're here alive, I assume you managed to escape."
"No... I killed it."
Everyone's expressions shifted from disbelief to astonishment in an instant. Hearing that an Ascended had killed a Great Creature was simply too much.
"You must be joking," Hartwell said.
Uriel extracted one of the Supreme cores from the Devil he had stored.
The enormous soul core materialized beside him, revealing a great shining sphere one meter in diameter.
Faced with irrefutable proof, they didn't know what to say.
"You're insane, kid. You've accomplished the unthinkable," Dale said with amusement.
Uriel returned the fragment back to his Dark Storage.
"It was just a Great Creature; it wasn't that big a deal. Anyway, if a Category Four Gate appeared, it's possible that more will continue to emerge."
Anders nodded.
"I'll have the Awakened send word to the high command so they can prepare for possible Category Four Gates."
Uriel nodded.
"Did you bring all the supplies and weapons?" Dale asked, changing the subject.
"Yes, I need a large area to take them out of my spatial Memory."
"There's a large warehouse where you can do it without problems."
"Alright."
After that meeting, Colonel Anders guided Uriel to a huge underground warehouse about two kilometers in diameter, where Uriel extended his shadow, extracting all the equipment and supplies, fully stocking the warehouse.
An hour later, Colonel Anders, along with a few hundred mundane soldiers, began distributing weapons among the soldiers. Meanwhile, those Sleepers who had survived their first trial of the Spell were given basic training, and their cores were saturated with the thousands of soul fragments gathered from the constant massacre carried out by Soul.