The following days became a continuous descent into the depths of Godgrave.
Shade, Scarlet, and Skadi advanced cautiously, each step measured, each breath controlled. The crimson jungle had been left behind, replaced by an even more hostile landscape: caverns of pale bone stretching like the intestines of a dead colossus, ivory stalactites dripping a black, viscous liquid, and a silence so absolute that the beat of one's own heart sounded like a war drum.
"This isn't a jungle," Scarlet murmured at one point, dodging a carnivorous plant the size of a horse that tried to snare her with its crimson tendrils. "This is the stomach of something."
"Something that died a long time ago," Skadi replied, her voice flat but with a hint of respect. "But death doesn't mean inactivity. A corpse's cells continue functioning for hours. Days. Years, if the corpse is large enough."
Shade said nothing. His dark eyes scanned the environment, always on alert. The Winter Gown floated behind them at a prudent distance, its icy aura keeping most threats at bay. But not all.
The insects were the worst.
Beetles the size of fists with shells reflecting a sickly purple light. Mosquitoes with proboscises as long as daggers that could pierce reinforced armor. Spiders weaving webs from a material as resistant as steel and so adhesive that even Shade's darkness couldn't dissolve them.
On one occasion, a swarm of crimson wasps — each the size of a human finger, but with a stinger capable of killing a mid-rank Awakened — attacked them from a crack in the bone ceiling. Skadi burned them all with a wave of heat that made the walls crack, but not before three of them managed to sting Shade in the arm.
The venom was horrible. His arm swelled to twice its size, turning black as coal. The pain was so intense that Shade saw stars for several minutes. Scarlet had to cut away the infected flesh with her sword while Skadi healed the wound with her flames.
"Is Godgrave always this fun?" Scarlet asked, cleaning her sword on the shell of one of the dead wasps.
Shade, his arm bandaged and his face pale from pain, let out a weak laugh. "Yes. Welcome to my world."
---
The Corrupted abominations were another problem.
They weren't as numerous as on the surface, but the ones they encountered were terrifyingly powerful. They had survived in the depths for centuries, feeding on the residual essence of the dead god, evolving into forms that defied all logic.
The first was a bear-like creature, but with six legs and skin that changed color like a chameleon. It was nearly invisible among the pale bones. They only detected it because Skadi felt its body heat from thirty meters away.
The Corrupted bear charged at them with absurd speed for its size. Shade barely had time to spread his darkness wings and dive aside. Scarlet counterattacked with her sword, opening a deep gash in the beast's side, but the wound closed almost instantly.
"It has regeneration!" Shade shouted.
Scarlet responded with a column of fire that engulfed the bear completely. The beast roared, writhing, but didn't fall. Its charred skin regenerated as fast as the flames consumed it.
Shade frowned. He extended a hand, and the darkness responded. Liquid shadows rose from the ground, enveloping the bear, penetrating through its eyes, mouth, ears. The beast convulsed violently for a few seconds, then collapsed, its body disintegrating into soul fragments.
"Its regeneration needed light," Shade explained, gathering the soul fragments. "Darkness stops it."
The following abominations were easier, now that they knew the terrain. A three-headed lizard that spat acid. A flock of skeletal bats that drained vital essence. An amorphous thing that constantly changed shape, impossible to hit until Shade froze the air around it with the Winter Gown and trapped it in an ice prison.
Each battle left Shade more exhausted. His arm still ached from the wasp venom. The soul fragments kept accumulating in his counter, but it wasn't enough. The seventh core remained out of reach.
Until, finally, at some point on the third day — or perhaps the fourth, it was hard to keep track underground — the pain arrived.
---
Shade stopped abruptly in the middle of a cavern so vast that its walls disappeared into the darkness. His knees buckled. One hand clutched his chest, where his heart beat with a violence that seemed intent on breaking his ribs.
"Shade?" Scarlet approached him, worried. "What's wrong?"
He couldn't answer immediately. The pain was agonizing. A feeling of emptiness in his chest slowly filling, as if something was being born inside him. Something that had been there before, that he had lost, and that was now returning.
The seventh core.
The soul fragments he had accumulated during the days of exploration — hundreds, perhaps thousands — began to burn within him. The essence flowed through his veins like lava, burning, transforming, rebuilding.
Shade fell to his knees. Scarlet tried to hold him up, but Skadi stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Leave him," the Supreme said seriously.
Minutes passed. Shade trembled uncontrollably, his breathing becoming ragged, his skin changing tone, growing paler, more translucent, as if the darkness within him was consuming his flesh.
And then, the pain ceased.
Shade opened his eyes. His black pupils glowed with a golden gleam for an instant, then returned to normal. He stood slowly, feeling the new core beating within his chest like a second heart. Stronger. More stable. Darker.
"Is it done?" Scarlet asked.
Shade nodded. He raised a hand, and the darkness responded immediately, denser than before, more alive. The shadows around him moved as if they had a will of their own.
"Seventh core," he murmured, almost not believing it. "It's back."
Skadi observed him with her gray eyes. "Stronger than before."
"Yes."
---
Aside from the hellish experience inside the enormous skeletal corpse, Shade and Scarlet obtained quite a reward.
Among them, multiple useful memories, weapons, and armor, as well as the echo of a Corrupted Terror that was a wolf — one that Shade had a conversation with.
Three Awakened memories. Two Ascended. Three Transcendent.
Shade reviewed them one by one, evaluating, discarding, choosing.
The first memory was a broken sword that could cut through illusions. Useful, but limited. The second was a ring that slightly increased essence regeneration. The third, a feather that allowed soft landings from great heights.
The two Ascended were more interesting: a pendant that created a shield against mental attacks, and an armor piece with an enchantment for enhancing objects.
But the three Transcendent ones... those were special.
The first was armor made of pale scales that could harden to become nearly indestructible for brief periods. The second, a bracelet that stored additional essence, like a reserve battery.
Finally, the last thing was the wolf echo that Shade summoned.
The beast emerged from the shadows at his feet. Its body was enormous, easily surpassing the size of an adult horse, reaching an impressive twelve meters in height. Its fur was as black as the abyss, its eyes an unsettling, empty yellowish tone.
When Shade converted the wolf into a creature of darkness, it filled with more life and presence. Instead of radiating evil and violence, it radiated a deep calm as well as an unbreakable loyalty.
"This one," Shade said, stroking the wolf's snout. "I'm keeping this one."
Scarlet watched with shining eyes. Transcendent echoes were incredibly rare, and having one was astonishing.
"And the memories?" she asked.
Shade looked at Scarlet, took her hand, and gave her the memories.
"Take them," he said. "They'll help you in your Third Nightmare."
Scarlet blinked, incredulous. "Are you sure? These memories are worth a fortune. You could—"
"I could keep them for myself, yes. But I don't need them." Shade smiled. "You do. Besides, I want you to come back alive from that Nightmare. These echoes increase your chances."
Scarlet stared at him for a long moment. Then she nodded, accepting the echoes. The pale scale armor slid over her body like a second skin. The bracelet adjusted to her wrist. The pendant against mental attacks rested on her chest.
"I don't know what to say," she murmured.
"Don't say anything. Just survive."
---
The exploration continued for another day, but they found nothing more.
The caverns grew deeper, darker, more dangerous. The Winter Gown was reaching the limit of its resistance; the cold it emitted was no longer enough to freeze the larger abominations lurking in the depths. Gunlaug had taken damage from the continuous battles he had fought, so Shade returned him to his Sea of Souls. As for the Dark Knight, he was equally injured and battered, so Shade dismissed him.
"We should go back," Skadi said at one point. It wasn't a suggestion. It was a statement.
Shade nodded. He had gotten what he came for. The seventh core was back. The memories and the new echo he obtained had been a bonus for his efforts.
"Let's go back," he said finally. "Once I become a Transcendent and am better prepared, I'll continue my exploration of Godgrave."
The return journey was faster.
Without needing to explore or search for abominations, they simply followed the path they had opened days earlier. The crimson jungle remained frozen. The ruins of the temples still stood, their unsettling inscriptions glowing in the twilight.
Shade didn't look at the sun's wake with teary eyes again. Something about it still disturbed him, even now that he had his seventh core.
Hours later, they emerged to the surface. The dying light of the sun hidden behind the clouds hit them like a warm slap after days in darkness. Shade summoned Gunlaug after he recovered within his Sea of Souls, and the three climbed onto his back.
The dragon roared and took off, soaring through the skies northward, back to the citadel.
The journey was calm, without many problems or surprise attacks.
Around nightfall, they returned to the citadel, where Shade went to sleep after washing off all the dirt and sweat accumulated over the days.