In the end, several days passed during which Uriel didn't encounter any other great creatures, only corrupted abominations that he added to his expanding domain. From the five thousand he had, he added another six hundred abominations.
After another week and the beginning of his second month in Ariel's Tomb, Uriel sat in a small sailboat floating on the great river. A current of mystical wind pushed him forward at a constant speed.
Sitting on the wooden floor, Uriel wore an expression of deep concentration. His six hands — his original pair plus two extra pairs made of pure darkness — moved with dexterity, weaving small, thin strands of essence so fine they were nearly imperceptible, yet firm enough to lift great weight.
The threads wrapped around his wrists and fingers as they floated, joining at a single point.
"I see..." he murmured, focused.
"So if I intertwine this here... and then this here and here... add this part here and improve..." he muttered, completely absorbed in his work.
Increasing his speed, he interlaced the threads faster while placing runes to create the enchantments.
After a minute of this process, a smile spread across his entire face.
[You have obtained a memory]
Uriel sighed, collapsing onto the wooden floor of the flying boat. His extra arms of darkness dissolved into black particles. Looking at his hands, Uriel saw small cuts that were already healing rapidly.
Summoning the new memory, he watched as black sparks appeared, forming a small black box. The box had a beautiful design, full of ethereal patterns that gave the sensation of always changing each time you looked at it.
He opened it and took out a red apple.
"Success."
Summoning the memory's runes, they read:
Memory: [Trick Box]
Memory Rank: Transcendent
Memory Level: II
Description: "Once upon a time, there was a brave castaway who traveled across a mystical lake of time. The brave, and above all handsome, castaway, in his infinite boredom, created a beautiful box that he used to bring joy to his solitary journey."
Enchantments: [Nursery] [Kamikaze]
[Nursery] Enchantment Description: "This box can store many things inside."
[Kamikaze] Enchantment Description: "This enchantment causes the box to explode when emptied."
Uriel nodded after confirming the runes were the same ones he had placed while weaving the memory.
Although he lacked magical eyes or the parts of a divine entity, Uriel had created his own means of crafting memories. In fact, it wasn't that he technically created it—rather, he reinvented it. He took the sorcery of Weaver and the sorcery of Nether.
Since Nether wove with diamond and ruby threads, and Weaver with essence, he simply used the best of both. He created threads of darkness through his essence and practiced extensively until he mastered it, creating his own sorcery, which he called: "Dark Sorcery." Undoubtedly an incredibly original name, but he couldn't think of anything better.
Either way, he had created a new type of sorcery after several centuries of practice and failure, and after extensive study of runes, runic sorcery, and the use of true names.
An achievement that undoubtedly deserved supremacy for achieving the impossible, yet the supremacy never came, much to his disappointment.
Uriel felt like laughing like a madman. His mind was slowly slipping a little—two months of seeing nothing but water and abominations were taking their toll. It wasn't serious yet, but if it lasted several years, he'd start to worry.
Dismissing his memory, he lay face down as the small floating boat continued its course downstream.
Sensing something at the edge of his perceptions, Uriel lazily lifted his head. At first he felt it, then he noticed it: the water seemed slightly different.
A minute later, it had gotten closer, the size of a coin. Another minute later, he realized they were krill—each one a corrupted beast.
Uriel thought for a few seconds, then summoned the Trick Box and opened it.
After creating two dark wings, he flew toward the enormous mass covering several kilometers, teeming with krill.
Releasing the box, it sank into the water. A moment later, a massive whirlpool began sucking thousands of corrupted beasts into its interior. Since he had used Transcendent fragments, the Nursery enchantment was spacious enough to trap a great quantity of krill inside.
Once the Trick Box was full, he sealed it shut. Still, tens of thousands of krill remained, though not as many as before.
Ordering his minions, they launched themselves at the krill mass to devour them. Among them, the great shark would be the one that ate the most, given its enormous size.
The massacre was one-sided. The krill were eliminated by his minions. He also took the opportunity to add a few thousand more to his domain, along with those in his Trick Box.
---
Two days later, another great creature appeared. This time it was a massive beast with numerous tentacles and bones protruding from its body.
The krill, his corrupted minions, and the great shark were enough to kill the creature. Before it could sink, he extracted two Supreme Soul Fragments. He now had three, and only needed two more.
After that, it was one abomination after another—flying and aquatic.
Among them was a massive swarm of flying corrupted beasts that he controlled using his Domination, just like the corrupted abominations of the ocean.
He killed and obtained memories, which he gave to the Dark Knight. After receiving one last Transcendent memory, the Dark Knight began its evolution toward a Supreme Devil.
With one less, only Soul, the Wyrm Beast, the Illusory Butterfly, Iroh, and Nyx remained to become Supreme.
As the battles continued, the river became stained with blood, and the air carried the stench of death. That, combined with the sheer number of abominations under his control, attracted even more abominations, creating a vicious cycle.
Finally, after killing his fifth great beast, Uriel gathered five Supreme Soul Fragments.
Now he only needed a quiet place and time to turn his Dark Cloak into a Supreme armor.
---
Sitting in his flying boat, Uriel raised his face toward the sky, watching an enormous swarm of thousands of corrupted abominations bound by his Transcendent ability. They were his slaves, providing him with an enormous amount of essence—so much that he didn't know what to do with it other than play, creating enormous kaiju manifestations and making them fight out of boredom.
After two months and three weeks since falling into Ariel's Tomb, Uriel felt a change in the great river. A strong abomination—very strong—had finally arrived where he was.