A couple of days passed since Arthur's arrival at the Siege Capital.
Sitting on the battlement of the defensive wall, looking at the apocalyptic sight of a giant horde of Nightmare Creatures advancing on the city, Arthur let out a sigh.
There were so many of them that it seemed as though the ground itself was moving, flowing forward as it was seen and churned.
The darkness surrounding the city was chased away by dozens of flare rockets, which slowly drifted down from the black sky like bright falling stars. On the ground, rivers of flame were devouring the carcasses of the abominations that had been slain in the previous assaults.
The incendiary mixture burned long and hot. Pillars of smoke rose into the sky, twisting as they struggled to support its weight. And above it all, obscured by dark clouds, ghostly lights of the aurora swirled with shades of crimson.
The battle still continued in the distance.
Sitting beside him, Sylvie repeated his own action, letting out a sigh.
Both were slightly tired from so much fighting in these last few days. Still, there was no other option but to keep doing it when the time demanded.
Fortunately—and for a bad reason—they were resting and saving their energy for tomorrow. Even so, they decided to help slightly with the current shift.
Everything indicated that tomorrow was going to be a very important one, bringing a before and after to the plan of defending the city for three weeks.
Currently in the middle of the first week of the process, the first threat presented itself before them.
The Devouring Cloud was approaching Falcon Scott.
The estimated time of arrival was tomorrow afternoon, so less than twenty-four hours remained.
The situation was further complicated by the fact that, that morning, the three Saints had left Falcon Scott with the mission to kill Leviathan.
Both missions were of vital importance for the success of evacuating all the civilians…
Arthur thought that with the potential threat of the Devouring Cloud, having a Saint in the Siege Capital would be ideal. But that wasn't going to be the case, due to the threat Leviathan also posed.
The Corrupted Titan had already destroyed one of the ships that left Falcon Scott… luckily, there was no one on that ship, and they had used it as a test. Otherwise, thousands of people would have died at that moment.
This also meant that Leviathan was going to attack anything that moved. Making the need to eliminate it increase dramatically.
For that reason, Bloodwave, Saint of Sorrows, and Saint Cormac had set out to find the creature that same morning. But they weren't going to find it so easily, which was why they surely wouldn't be present tomorrow when the Devouring Cloud approached Falcon Scott.
Even so, they were going to have to do it without the Saints.
Arthur actually had a plan to do it, and it had been discussed at the meeting a few days ago. The rest had even accepted the plan, and all that remained was to wait to execute it.
Even with the plan—and if everything went well—Arthur wasn't going to have a good time…
But that was a problem for tomorrow.
---
A day later.
The Transcendent of the House of Night moved rapidly, generating currents behind him due to the speed with which he navigated the waters in his monstrous killer whale transformation.
Bloodwave was searching for the Corrupted Titan in the depths, while Saint Cormac and Saint of Sorrows did so above the waters.
Currently, the three Saints had been searching for more than a day, and at that moment, all three were seriously considering using someone as bait to draw the Titan out from wherever it was hiding.
At the same moment in Falcon Scott.
Sylvie stood on the alloy wall, looking south.
Jet stood nearby, her icy blue eyes coldly and calculatingly watching the approaching swarm. Beside her, Sunny frowned slightly, possibly without realizing he was doing it.
Winter and Dale were nearby as well. The latter wearing silver armor that covered his entire body except for his head, while the former had the typical smirk on her face and dark glasses covering her eyes.
Reynolds was nearby too. His blue, white, and black armor covering his body while his eyes were completely centered four hundred meters ahead of the wall.
Sylvie heard Jet let out a sigh.
"Something is different." Everyone glanced at her with a silent question, prompting her to shake her head. "The Devouring Cloud is behaving differently from how the reports described it."
Sylvie looked away from her, focusing on the distance.
…Indeed, the swarm was acting a bit differently from how it had been before. It seemed slightly less erratic, slightly more driven. The speed with which the Devouring Cloud consumed distance was greater than what they had expected.
Dale shrugged.
"They probably sense the two hundred million souls behind us. Who wouldn't hurry to get to a feast?"
Winter smiled.
"Well, then… let's show them some hospitality."
She remained motionless for a few moments, then raised her hands and cautiously removed her sunglasses. Her eyes were entirely black, with pupils that resembled two drops of coagulated blood. A deep sigh escaped from her lips.
Without saying anything, a group of Awakened approached and surrounded her. Several Memories started to manifest in the air around the Ascended archer, and at the same time, a few Awakened started to activate their own Abilities.
Her Aspect would play a key role, and so it had to be augmented as much as possible. Still, she wasn't going to be the tip of the spear in today's battle.
Sylvie looked down, and about four hundred meters to the south, two figures could be distinguished in the distance.
One of them was Arthur, wearing his Djinn of War armor.
Sylvie sensed Arthur's state of mind through the bond and noticed that he was completely calm. His predominant emotions were calmness and determination.
About a hundred meters away from him was Regis in his materialized form. He was also calm, with emotions of anticipation for the fight to come.
The Devouring Cloud began to approach at great speed, making the bodies of the Awakened—and even some Masters—on the wall tremble slightly. Still, the two figures standing before such a wave of creatures continued to show no concern.
'Sylvie, give the signal that I'm about to start,' Arthur said through the bond.
She felt a surge of adrenaline rise inside her.
'Take care, Art.'
"Arthur is ready. He says he's going to start soon," Sylvie communicated to the rest of those present.
Winter nodded.
Taking a deep breath, she raised her bow and summoned a single, fiery arrow. Her black eyes seemed to become even darker still, and the crimson blood drops of her pupils shone with an eerie, ominous glow. Still, she didn't fire. The signal hadn't been given.
Watching Arthur take a step and then another, Sylvie felt anxiety run through her body.
Arthur continued walking toward the cloud of creatures that the Devouring Cloud resembled.
Soon… there weren't even a hundred meters between them.
From Sylvie's point of view, it felt like an ant was trying to face a terrifying ocean. The ridiculous size the swarm of creatures represented brought dread to the hearts of the Awakened.
Suddenly, Regis's figure began to grow in size. His height reached about fifteen meters, and the horns on his head reached a meter. His fur had an intense purple tone that moved in the air with unbridled behavior.
When someone looked at him, they felt as if he were the personification of finality.
The next moment, the swarm began to behave slightly strangely—as if they were being drawn toward Arthur's figure.
Before starting, he had asked Sunny for one of his Memories, and it made the creatures be drawn toward him.
Regis opened his jaws wide. A dense cloud of purple energy began to gather within them. It formed rapidly, twisting and churning as it absorbed ever-increasing amounts of destructive energy, until the space between his fangs was filled with a swirling mass of purple darkness.
The accumulated purple energy erupted from his jaws in a violent torrent, tearing through the air as it shot directly toward the mass of the Devouring Cloud.
Arthur was in the middle of the path. Still, the moment the accumulation of Destruction reached his position… his body disappeared.
Sylvie didn't know where he had gone.
The energy fired by Regis met the first creature of the swarm.
The moment it touched it, the purple energy enveloped and consumed the Nightmare Creature's body. Immediately, the one beside it met the same fate.
In a matter of moments, tongues of amethyst fire spread through the mass of abominations, devouring countless beasts of the brood. All were utterly consumed by the flames; the strongest among them continued to burn as they traced chaotic paths across the sky, their flesh disintegrating by Destruction.
Yet they did not perish without first colliding with some of their vile kin.
The amethyst fire spread.
Possessing a will of its own, it continued to leap from one abomination to the next, until it seemed the very sky was ablaze. A furious purple radiance banished the darkness, yet at no point did those present feel anything resembling heat.
Watching the scene without her dark glasses, Winter smiled grimly and commented.
"Finally, someone who speaks my language!"
She raised her bow even higher, with the intention of tracing the arrow toward the middle of the swarm.
The string of the bow rang, and the flaming arrow flashed through the darkness, leaving a blazing trail behind.
A few seconds later, when it hit, a brilliant flash of light blinded everyone for a moment. A vast sphere of flame bloomed in the middle of the swarm, spreading far and wide like a rolling wave. Then, it collapsed on itself and exploded once more.
The same explosion and flames brought by Winter's arrow were consumed by the amethyst flames, feeding them even more and reaching the middle of the swarm.
However, amidst those purple flames... Arthur had not completed his plan.
---
In the deep, frigid waters of the passage to East Antarctica.
Floating in the air in his transformation of a towering gargoyle carved from gray stone, Saint of Sorrows watched the depths with a stoic expression. In the distance, over the coastal highway, Saint Cormac performed the same action with an expressionless face.
Still, they were worried.
Bloodwave was in the depths of the water, acting as bait to draw Leviathan out from wherever it was hiding.
Watching the scene from above, Saint of Sorrows frowned internally.
He had been in the same position for approximately twenty minutes, waiting for the signal from the Transcendent of the House of Night. But it hadn't come, and he didn't like to think about what would happen if the Saint encountered the Corrupted Titan in the depths and couldn't escape.
His task of containing the Winter Beast would become unnecessary, and to such a point that, no matter how much they tried, the correct thing would be to leave all the people of Falcon Scott without protection and flee.
Which went very much against the nature of a Saint.
Until now, they had always felt like gods in the Waking World, and in a matter of three months, that feeling had been completely crushed.
The existences of the Winter Beast and Leviathan were living proof that there is always something stronger than oneself.
Both Saints of the two largest clans remained observing the waters for a while longer without any change in their expressions.
Soon, the wind near them began to rise slightly, making both their black hair move with the cold currents. In the last five hours the air had begun to grow colder with each passing minute.
They were getting closer to the limit and even if they managed to kill Leviathan, if they took too long to do it, the mission would turn out to be a failure.
For no reason could they let the Winter Beast get too close to Falcon Scott.
A bubble could be observed rising to the surface of the cold waters in the next moment.
Both Saints' gazes centered on the bubble immediately… moments later, another bubble could be observed.
Soon, the number of bubbles began to double and triple in the area.
Saint of Sorrows summoned a silver stone trident with gold details in his hand, and Cormac transformed into a ferocious wyvern.
Both stood ready to attack at any moment.
The water's surface seemed to be boiling from the number of bubbles exploding and being born in a matter of seconds. It was as if it were going to erupt the next moment.
Then, a kind of ring began to mark itself, surrounding the area of the bubbles.
In a matter of blinks, the ring became more present, beginning to protrude above the water's surface, creating a barrier around the bubbles.
A feeling of deep terror settled in the hearts of the Saints present. Both clenching their jaws harder at the scene.
A cloud of gray fog began to leave the pile of bubbles, and it began to float a few centimeters above the water's surface.
The gray fog consumed the bubbles the next moment, absorbing them into its body, and it began to compress.
First, a set of legs armed themselves, then the process rose through the creature's body, forming a torso, from which two long arms grew from its sides. Finishing the process, a non-human face appeared on the creature's head.
The creature seemed ethereal, created entirely from compressed gray fog.
The creature looked toward the sky, focusing its inhuman face in the direction of both Saints. And something similar to a smile was drawn with gray fog on its face.
The next instant, the figure disappeared in a shower of silver sparks, and the Saints moved without thinking.
It was the signal they had determined with Bloodwave!
The ring that had surrounded the Echo was Leviathan!
Both Saints attacked immediately.
Saint of Sorrows raised the hand containing the stone trident and threw it with all his strength toward the Corrupted Titan.
The trident created a dry sound in the air as it left his hand, and in a matter of moments, it impacted Leviathan's body.
[Your Memory has been destroyed.]
The Transcendent-rank trident pulverized against the powerful body of the Corrupted Titan.
Cormac plunged downward at great speed.
Before reaching the surface, he shook his powerful wings to create an enormous air current.
The water surrounding the Corrupted Titan's body moved at great speed, making the powerful physique of the creature visible.
Black and green scales ran across its entire body, the latter shining but barely visible due to the speed with which it moved. Its enormous head with multiple eyes was chasing its tail in a circle at great speed.
The moment the water parted to reveal its full figure, a monstrous killer whale could be seen floating in the center of the ring.
Bloodwave, acting as bait until that moment of the situation.
Upon seeing the enormous figure of the Titan in all its size, the hopes of dealing with it from the two flying Saints began to slowly fade.
The fight had just begun, but they already knew that to win… someone was going to end up losing their life.
The Transcendent of the House of Night was in the worst situation of the three but at the same time was the most determined to win.
He had a lot to lose if he didn't.
Saved by his small size, Bloodwave let out a high-pitched whistle that pierced the minds of the other Saints, helping them remain calm.
Due to their experiences, they understood what they had to do next.
Bloodwave in that situation wasn't going to be able to do anything, so they had to devise a plan to get him out of the ring the Titan was creating.
The internal waters of the ring began to sink from the speed with which Leviathan moved, and the killer whale's figure began to be suctioned into its interior.
If they didn't do something fast, Bloodwave was going to be suctioned into the depths of the cold waters and meet the fate of death.
But the other two Saints couldn't do anything.
With the Corrupted Titan acting in such a way, a Transcendent couldn't stop it. Saint of Sorrows' trident was pulverized upon contact, and Cormac's air current didn't move it even a centimeter.
Faced with such a situation, the Saint of Valor and the Saint of Song developed the same thought.
'I need to flee from here.'
But before they could enter into action—
—An enormous shadow fell over them.
Upon looking at the sky, the seed of dread that was slowly growing inside them bloomed with full intensity.
A mighty figure appeared in the skies, bringing an eclipse upon them.
Its body was the same size as a mountain and completely black, large wings of the same color spreading from small silver details on its back.
The interior of each wing had a silver color, in which four figures were perfectly reflected.
Each movement of its wings made the flying figures of both Saints stagger and nearly fall into the cold waters.
Leviathan's figure stopped dead upon noticing the presence of the other creature. Raising its blood-colored eyes, it focused directly on the other Corrupted Titan, completely ignoring its prey.
Taking advantage of the creature's distraction and the momentum, Bloodwave let himself be suctioned by the vortex toward the depths.
With the agility his transformation provided, he abandoned the ring that was disappearing and moved at great speed. In a matter of moments, he was already far from the area.
Saint of Sorrows and Cormac also seized that moment to escape the impending battle between the two Corrupted Titans. They did not go very far, however; if the victorious creature emerged severely weakened, they could use the opportunity to finish it off.
That made them think, why they were going to fight each other and not unite to consume them? Neither of them knows, but they weren't going to stay to find out...
The next instant, the world behind them was consumed in violence…