"You traveled to the future... Wait, so then—"
Uriel nodded with a smile.
"Yes, this isn't my time. In fact, I'm in the future talking to you."
Sunny frowned. All this business with time manipulation, paradoxes, and destiny was starting to give him a headache.
"You must be confused. Well, in this loop—the fourth, I think?—Cronos, Daeron, and I killed the Guardian of the Estuary, a Sacred monster, and we killed the Great River..." Uriel didn't see surprise on Sunny or Nephis's faces.
"Why aren't you surprised?"
"Honestly, Uriel, we've known you for so long that any madness you do seems normal to us now," Nephis said, turning another page of the notebook.
"It's better Kai were here—I wanted to see his reaction." Uriel sighed, disappointed.
"Anyway, after killing the Guardian, I decided to go to the future to see if the plan had succeeded, and apparently it did. The source of corruption was eliminated, the suns disappeared, and the abominations are dead. Anyway, that's all I did in the tomb. And you—what happened in the future?"
"You want to know?"
"That's why I'm asking."
"Well, nothing really interesting that we can tell you, since saying it would accelerate things and all that," Sunny said.
"Boring. Though I have an idea of what might happen in the future, although..."
"Although what?"
"What about Cassie?" Uriel asked curiously.
Sunny smiled—a smile that said: Oh, I'll love saying this, and it's going to hurt.
"Oh, Cassie. Our dear Cassie. Well, how to put this..."
"Cassie is in a relationship with someone," Nephis revealed.
Sunny looked at Nephis with pain.
"Neph, you ruined my moment."
"You took too long to say it."
Sunny made a pained expression.
Uriel ignored their banter, his mind completely blank with a single word:
In a relationship.
Partner.
Boyfriend.
Relationship.
Who?
How?
When?
Who was it?
Uriel felt a mix of intense emotions begin to flood him slowly, like a volcano about to erupt. The darkness responded to his intent, becoming more hostile.
Breathing, Uriel calmed himself before standing up.
"I need a moment. And there might be some noise," he said before simply disappearing.
For a moment, Nephis and Sunny sat in silence—and then a devastating explosion shook the entire Rhino, followed by a rain of blasphemies and curses so atrocious that even Sunny was embarrassed, including curses he had never heard before.
Several moments passed until Uriel returned with a much calmer expression.
"I feel much better," he said with a calm smile.
"My, you have quite an extravagant vocabulary," Nephis commented.
"I come from a place with a rather colorful language. But that's not the point—I'm just a bit shocked to discover that Cassie is dating someone."
"Do you like Cassie?" Sunny asked.
"Yes," he admitted without any shame or embarrassment.
"I think it happened a little after returning from the Second Nightmare, from the time we spent together and all that. Though we never got to clarify our feelings because of everything that happened in Antarctica."
"Do you want to know his name?"
"I'm not interested in knowing. But is she happy?"
"Yes, quite," Sunny said.
Uriel smiled.
"Well, I'm happy for her then."
"You don't seem that affected."
"Well, there's nothing I can do. I'm trapped here with no high chances of getting out alive, so if she's happy, I don't really care."
Although he said those words, the two Supremes noticed their friend was somewhat sad.
Uriel stood up.
"I'm going to take a shower—I reek of blood," he said as he headed to the Rhino's small bathroom to wash up.
Sunny and Nephis were left alone.
About fifteen minutes passed until Uriel came out. His black hair was tied back, and his attire was simple—a black mantle with light armor plates for protection.
"Much better," he murmured contentedly, taking a glass of warm milk.
"So, where are you two headed?" he asked.
"To hunt a repulsive, hateful bird," Sunny replied.
"I see. Well, that sounds fun—I'm in. I've already seen everything I wanted to see in this place anyway."
"Are you sure? You're going to fight a Cursed Terror."
"I fought a Sacred being and I'm still alive, so I can survive a Cursed Terror. Besides, I'm very hard to kill."
Nephis and Sunny looked at each other for a moment before nodding.
---
After leaving the Rhino, Uriel returned it to his dark storage along with his other belongings he had collected over the years since he was a Sleeper.
Uriel transformed into a mass of darkness for a few seconds until becoming an imposing black dragon fifty meters tall.
Uriel looked at them.
"Climb onto my back," he said, looking at both Supremes.
Without hesitation, Nephis jumped, landing on Uriel's back. Shortly after, Sunny joined her.
Uriel beat his wings, beginning to fly at high speed toward the Estuary. The flight was smooth—no accidents or surprise attacks, and above all, no trace of the vile bird.
The flight lasted a few hours until they reached the river's edge, where it gave way to the black void of Ariel's tomb.
Uriel navigated through the darkness with familiarity, so it didn't take him long to spot the Estuary.
Uriel stopped advancing for a moment, carefully observing the Estuary's shape. In the past, he couldn't distinguish its form due to the mist that concealed it, but now that the mist was gone, the magnitude of the Estuary was revealed to him.
It had an irregular form that could barely be called a sphere. It looked more like an inverted pyramid with rounded edges. Several tall mountains of strange shapes jutted from its surface, with peaks representing dark adventures.
"We've arrived," Uriel announced, flying toward the Estuary.
As they approached, Nephis asked a question.
"Uriel... how did you destroy the Great River?"
"By killing the Guardian that protected it. The Guardian was the protector of that place. It killed anything that possessed corruption—I never really knew its purpose. Anyway, at the bottom, there were thousands of runes in a vast and complex spell that formed the time within the tomb and its mystical properties. Cronos dragged the Guardian to the bottom and crashed it against the runes, shattering the enchantment, and like a chain, the Great River would die in time. Although that didn't kill it entirely."
Uriel drew closer to the Estuary, feeling a strange sensation as if the world was spinning. When he looked at the Estuary's surface to land, his four paws were on the hard surface. Behind them stretched the dark expanse of the tomb.
Uriel continued the journey on foot while talking.
"So what killed it?" Nephis asked.
"I did."
Both opened their eyes.
"You killed a spirit? How?" Sunny asked.
"Not technically me specifically. It was something else that did it for me..."
"What do you mean?"
"My soul is strange—there's nothing but an impenetrable darkness that I can't distinguish. But aside from that, there exists—or existed—an entity of darkness, a vast entity of power easily comparable to that of a God. Anything I took into my Sea of Souls that was a threat to me—that thing would emerge and devour it. So I used that to kill the spirit."
"You just threw it at that thing inside your Sea of Souls and it killed it? Just like that?"
"Yes. Do you want to see it for yourself?" he asked, creating a terrifying head.
"Pass," Sunny said.
"Oh, what a terrible pity." Uriel's tone sounded clearly disappointed.
"By the way, where's Shade?" Sunny asked, not seeing the annoying spectral twin of Uriel.
"That guy's been listening to everything—he just doesn't want to come out out of embarrassment."
At that, from his back, the darkness rippled, and Shade emerged with one of his eyebrows twitching.
"Who are you calling embarrassed, you imbecile?"
"Right, you're a tsundere."
"Son of a—"
"Watch your tongue."
The two Supremes watched the interaction between Uriel and his counterpart, which hadn't changed at all in all that time.
"It's been a while, Shade."
"Oh, Sunny—congratulations on Supremacy, and you too Nephis," Shade said cheerfully.
Uriel chose to ignore the conversation between Shade and the two Supremes. Instead, he focused his attention on something else.
In the vast expanse, there were shining things—ruins of enormous and magnificent golden structures, enormous corpses that gleamed in the darkness, massive formations of sparkling crystals, and other things.
Uriel approached the crystal formations, extending his darkness and sending everything into his dark storage. He also took quite a few shiny things for his collection.
After all, the vile bird was a thief, so he would rob the thief in return.
Truly, his greed knew no limits.
---
Finally, they entered the immense tunnel, where Uriel returned to normal to continue on foot.
He grabbed two fragments of black rock.
Creating four hands of darkness, he used one to hold a piece of rock, another to hold a Supreme soul fragment, and the other two to begin weaving a Memory.
"What are you doing?" Nephis asked.
"A Memory," he replied, beginning to weave at high speed and precision. Sunny watched the process with interest, observing how the nexuses began to form along with the enchantments.
He also heard whispers he couldn't understand.
"He's using name sorcery," Nephis said, surprised.
A few moments passed until the Supreme soul fragment he had vanished into sparks.
Uriel smiled.
"Good, that should be enough."
"Before you ask, this Memory I made is special. It allows multiple people to connect through a line to find each other and return to the same place."
"Like a save point in a video game."
"Yes, Sunny—like a game save point," he said with a flat face.
"Touch the stone."
Sunny touched the rocky surface, noticing how a thread of black essence was connected to his wrist, leading to the rock—same as Nephis.
The trio advanced in silence through the immense tunnel.
The main entrance was surrounded by tall columns. Worn stone steps led to the mouth of the tunnel, which had cracks and more pieces of black rock on the ground.
"Sunny, you'd better stop here. You don't have anything to combat corruption."
"You do?" Sunny asked.
"Yes." Sunny and Nephis blinked.
"Really?"
"Yes, it's an attribute I gained upon achieving Transcendence. It gives me immunity to corruption and other things I still don't understand."
"Alright."
Uriel extracted from his Sea of Souls an amulet carved from whitish bone.
"I'll put you inside this amulet. It's an isolated space made by Cronos—time inside is frozen, so to you, it'll be just a moment when you come out."
Sunny shot a glance at the tunnel.
"We don't know what's inside that tunnel, so let me out when we exit. Deal?"
"Deal."
Uriel activated the enchantment, and Sunny disappeared, leaving them alone.
Uriel looked at Nephis.
"Hey Neph... just to be safe—if you go mad, I'll seal the knowledge of Ariel's truth. That stuff messes with your head."
"You say that as if you have experience."
"I do, since I went through that experience once and it didn't end well. Anyway, let's go in."
Uriel and Nephis entered the tunnel. Uriel, upon seeing the first rune of the Void, felt an enormous pressure on his soul—and then, upon seeing the second rune, his vision went black.
Damn it, again! Shade shouted, annoyed. And now there are two of you.
When Uriel opened his eyes, he was confused.