'Tired… so tired…'
Arthur was on the verge of running out of essence. Yet he pivoted to the side and brought Dawn's Ballad down in a vertical cut. The Transcendent sword sliced a creature's body in half while a drop of sweat ran down his forehead.
The fight had already lasted too long. Countless corpses lay on the ground, now painted with blood. Every step he took generated a wet sound upon contact with the floor. Arthur had already taken measures for this and had been careful not to slip while fighting.
The first line of defenders had been pushed back a few meters, the separation between lines had disappeared.
Which allowed him to see several Awakened and even Masters fall to the ground and be submerged beneath the tide of creatures. The Awakened were killed instantly, while the Masters were incapacitated.
The evidence that the Corrupted Titan wanted to keep them alive to presumably eat them later was more evident than ever.
Arthur even judged that Black Butterfly had gone to fight Leviathan just to consume it and use its soul essence to grow the eggs it had thrown at the beginning of the fight.
Right now, it should be trying to do the same by keeping the strongest alive while eliminating the weak.
This had been a weakness they had noticed in the creatures and hadn't hesitated to exploit by using the Awakened as bait to eliminate the majority.
Cormac and Bloodwave had split, one on each side, to act as defensive pillars while the rest of the Ascended focused on their sides to cover their blind spots.
Arthur was in the same group as Cormac, Sunny, and Jet. A couple of meters north was another group led by the Transcendent of the House of Night, leading his father, Sylvie, and Regis.
But it didn't matter which group they were in, because both were being pushed toward the wall. In fact, multiple creatures had already passed them and started battling the defenders on the wall.
Those on the ground found themselves submerged beneath the tide of creatures, the Awakened being massacred while the Masters were incapacitated on the ground. Eventually dying from their wounds or being crushed by the weight of the rest passing over them.
On the wall, the situation wasn't better.
Almost all the creatures possessed translucent wings on their backs, but not all could fly. Those that could took full advantage, scaling the seventy-meter wall and attacking those atop it.
Many of them were just archers with little efficiency when fighting face-to-face…
'…Winter is up there.'
Arthur would hate it if something happened to her. But right now, his greatest concern was not running out of essence.
Unlike the rest, he could keep fighting if he did, but his offensive capacity would depend solely on his abilities that consumed fragments—but the rest of those present didn't have that opportunity.
Obviously, he would be very weakened, making many of the creatures present that didn't currently represent a danger become a threat.
A horrible creature lunged with its jaw open, showing its multiple rows of fangs with a green substance visible on them.
Arthur moved Dawn's Ballad at great speed. The thin, straight, double-edged teal-toned sword decapitated the creature in the blink of an eye.
Around him, Sunny—who had already abandoned that monstrous form—performed a similar action, and an Awakened's body was split in an instant. At the same time, Jet, raising her War Scythe in a rapid movement and reaped the soul of a Fallen creature.
Cormac, using his own hands, separated another's head from its body.
Everyone around him on the battlefield was on the verge of running out of essence and dying.
Arthur couldn't do much more than what he was doing… Well, maybe he could do more, but that was where the final problem came in…
The Corrupted Titan Black Butterfly—or Mournwing, as the Spell was calling the creatures created by it—hadn't moved even once since the battle began.
After dealing with the creatures that were still numerous, they were going to have to fight a Corrupted Titan… but first, they had to survive to be able to do it.
So the dilemma was… should he use all his cards now and reach the possible fight against Mournwing with nothing in the tank, or hold back and wait to reach it alive without using them?
Arthur didn't know what to decide if he thought about it that way… but if he think about it any other way—the decision was very clear.
Around him were a lot of Awakened, Masters, Saints, and even Echoes giving their lives to defend the millions of people behind the walls.
The number of defenders was decreasing at a slower rate than the creatures, but every time it decreased, it was a person losing their life—not a number. People weren't statistics.
So the decision really didn't exist. Arthur lost count of how many times he had found himself in a similar situation, where the options were never truly in front of him.
Dodging a series of attacks and then making multiple Aether swords appear, piercing the skulls of the attackers, he began to seriously think about all his tools.
Godstep, Static Void, and Realmheart didn't give him a real advantage to make a decisive move. King's Presence and Aether Manipulation didn't either, and they would only drain his essence even more.
Djinn of War wasn't an option at the moment, mainly because after fighting the creatures with Jesse's and Randall's faces, he had to use the Godrunes trait to manifest Destruction around himself…
The moment the name appeared in his mind, he knew there was no other option.
Destruction.
'It's the only option…'
Arthur didn't even consider using Former King at that moment. The Attribute didn't pose a direct threat, but who was to say he wouldn't start viewing everyone with inhuman eyes and decide they weren't worth saving?
His battlefield prowess would certainly increase the moment he used it. Yet, it wasn't his combat ability that was complicating the situation.
The thought of people dying while he could do more weighed in the back of his mind. He slowly took a deep breath, and a step forward accompanied it.
Jet and Sunny beside him frowned slightly upon noticing but said nothing.
If he did nothing, those people were going to die… Arthur took another step and closed his eyes.
'Even if I win this battle, there are chances of losing the war against the Titan.'
He clenched his fists.
'It doesn't matter.'
At that moment, being the farthest from the group, most of the creatures focused on him.
Screams, shrieks, and many disgusting sounds could be heard in his ears, but he paid no attention to any of them.
In moments, he was going to find himself drowned by a tide of bodies that wouldn't even let him move.
When they were already in position to land a hit on him…
The godrune came alive with hunger and power, and the violet flames burst to life in his hands, giving off a bright, jagged, deadly aura.
A spasm of pain came from his back as the runes lit up with an intense purple light.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he considered that the hungry, eager power of Destruction was all he needed.
Arthur lifted his hand.
The movement seemed unnaturally smooth, but every glimmer generated by the energy indicated the opposite.
Destruction lurched forward, wild, uncontrolled flames expanding and devouring as they shed their rageful light across the battlefield. Enveloping all the nearest creatures while Arthur grinned like a maniac.
Every step he took transmitted a feeling of confidence and annihilation that couldn't be compared to anything. The creatures around him froze before such a scene—as did Sunny and Jet in the distance.
They watched as the bodies of the nearest creatures were completely consumed by the already-familiar amethyst flames. Everything around them was nothing more than fuel for the destruction brought by them.
Arthur didn't stop—in reality, he couldn't. The feeling of the flames consuming everything in their path was like a current of euphoria running through his body, making his smile widen a little more with each creature that disappeared among the flames.
He walked with a poorly suppressed sense of giddiness, spreading the wave of Destruction haphazardly in every direction.
The flames were hungry, and there was plenty to feed on.
Each action, every thought was infected with an insatiable hunger for destruction, urging him to keep moving forward and let the flames consume everything in their path.
The amethyst flames were controlling him—or maybe he was controlling the rune. He didn't know. But if there was one certainty, it was that the rune wanted to be used… well, maybe it was Arthur who wanted to use the rune.
"Does it even matter?" he asked the flames. A voice similar to his own answered: "No."
Godstep carried him deeper into the battlefield.
Grabbing the neck of a human-shaped creature, he watched as it disintegrated within the fire. A cloud of gray ashes headed in his direction, but Destruction only ate that as well.
An expanding wave of pure force capable of crushing bones, generated by some creature's ability, threw them both several meters back. Arthur leaned in to resist the explosion's impact while Destruction leaped to wrap his body in an aura of irregular flames; the violet flames twisted between the scales of Djinn of War, devouring it from within.
Instinctively and without consideration, he dismissed it in the moment. He didn't need it anyway. Destruction was better armor than any Memory.
A Corrupted Devil got in his way, using its hard body as a shield—but it accomplished nothing. Destruction ate away the shield, then the Devil—its skin, flesh, and then bones vanishing layer by layer.
Tears or blood—he couldn't tell which—welled up behind his eyes as he watched line after line of Nightmare Creatures vanish within the amethyst fire.
In the distance, he could sense the presence of hundreds of creatures and people watching the scene.
He could burn them all. All the Nightmare Creatures, all the people if he wanted. The entire Siege Capital could be enveloped by Destruction.
He felt his face split into a wide, ferocious, triumphant smile just as the flesh of his hands and arms began to crack and bleed under the force of Destruction.
The thought that there was one more Corrupted Titan to fight only brought amusement to his mind.
'It would be fun to burn it too.'
The purple flames leaving his body began to descend, showing his lack of fragments in his core. Yet the grin on his face didn't descend in the slightest.
Each creature killed regenerated a portion of his fragments.
"Maybe I should go where the Titan is," he said aloud, his voice crackling with fire.
With some amusement, he realized his arms had burned away up to his elbows.
Destruction was spreading backwards now, eating away the distance between him and his companions, searching out more fuel, more, more, reaching for the Awakened, the city where there was so much substance, so much life…
'Art…'
Sylvie's voice sounded distant, hollow.
'Art!'
More insistent, a note of panic filtered through the apathy and glory of Destruction.
It was a voice that would grow silent soon enough. All would be Destruction in the end. Everyone, everything.
He abruptly extended his destroyed arms. Destruction erupted with fury to devour the remaining creatures and people, as well as the ground beneath his feet.
Regis entered his core to stop him, and an image pierced his mind like a crossbow bolt. Sylvie trying to project it into his mind with the strength she had left after fighting for so long. It was his father looking at him with an expression of terror on his face.
The image settled in the back of his mind, growing in power with each moment of lucidity.
Beneath him, the ground broke, revealing a slight current of water that was instantly consumed. As everything would be in the future.
Everyone. Everything.
He fell to his knees, the effort of holding even a simple thought like walking across broken glass.
'Father. I can't… I can't…'
After everything he did to keep him safe…
"But this is victory," a voice uncomfortably like his own replied. This is the end of all creatures and of everything else.
Gritting his teeth, he leaned forward and frantically smashed his head into the ground of the crater he was sinking into, trying to jar loose Destruction's hold over him.
When that failed, he tried to turn off the Godrune, but it didn't pay attention to him. Then he tried to slam shut the gates that controlled the flow of Aether out of his core and cut off the flow of Aether to the Destruction godrune, but he couldn't. Regis tried to help him, but his efforts were in vain.
His arms were gone up to his biceps. Destruction burned in their place. Soon, it would replace him entirely, leaving only emptiness.
Emptiness…
He thought of the feeling he received every time he activated Former King. A feeling of total absence of empathy or care, of humanity—but mainly… of how empty it felt in such a situation.
An intense discharge of adrenaline partially cleared his mind as the idea materialized. He didn't dwell on it, and the Attribute activated.
Former King came to life like a splash of cold water upon waking.
The adrenaline running through his body multiplied instantly. Making him able to feel his own heart in his ears. Then, as it came, it disappeared, and only an existential void remained in its place.
The grin was erased from his face, along with all possible expression. Multiple layers of thought began to form in his mind, one over the other in a flash.
And just as the process began, it ended abruptly… Taking Destruction with it.
Arthur's body fell to the ground with a dry thud, his consciousness on the verge of shutting off.
---
As soon as Arthur's body impacted the ground with a dry thud, raising a curtain of dust around him, Sunny saw Reynolds sprint in his direction. Two seconds later, Jet and Sylvie did the same.
Sunny wanted to follow them, but he froze in place. His eyes wide open.
The ground trembled violently, almost throwing Sunny off his feet. He caught himself from falling and frowned.
The Call of the Nightmare had suddenly grown much louder, assaulting his mind with an onslaught of screaming whispers.
"The Call…"
In the next moment… the world came undone, and the piercing sound of tearing alloy filled Sunny's ears. He turned around and looked toward the alloy wall.
An ugly rift in reality tore through the armored alloy, turning it into nothing. The vertical schism of pure nothingness played strange tricks with both light and darkness, making it appear simultaneously perfectly flat and inconceivably deep.
A litany of inaudible screams thundered out of it in deafening silence, washing over the world like a demented call.
The wall was breached from top to bottom—some of it devoured by the Gate, the rest simply collapsing when the supporting structure suddenly disappeared.
But the worst hadn't arrived yet…
A cold shiver ran down his spine.
Almost at the same time, two more Gates opened on the periphery, assaulting his mind and taking it to a worse state… as if that were possible.
One of the other Gates opened on the wall as well, breaking it in the same way as the previous one… The last one opened past the destroyed wall, inside the Siege Capital.
But that wasn't what brought Sunny the most fear.
Arthur was lying on the ground, in an almost unconscious state. If he succumbed at that moment, he would be taken to the Nightmare—and being three Category Two Nightmare Gates, he would end up corrupted.
That thought instantly entered the minds of the others present.
Master Jet, Sylvie, and Reynolds ran with everything they had. The latter two, being on the verge of running out of essence, were slower than the first.
Soul Reaper was the first to reach Arthur's nearly unconscious body and didn't hesitate to lift him in her arms. Placing him over her shoulder, she continued running in the opposite direction at great speed, taking him away from danger.
Sylvie and Reynolds let out deep breaths upon noticing this, stopping in the place where they ended up.
'…Good.' A breath. 'I hope he held on, otherwise… well, Jet is with him.'
The meaning behind the thought was quite clear… sadly.
Noticing that this was somehow resolved, Sunny focused on the Nightmare Gates… Fortunately, they were only Category Two, but the place where they were located made them uncomfortable.
But even with that, he didn't forget that just kilometers away was a Corrupted Titan watching them…
With both threats in different positions, Sunny didn't know where to look.
Saint Cormac's figure appeared on the battlefield after fighting most of the Corrupted creatures.
His face remained as expressionless as always, but his physique clearly marked his exhaustion.
The current fight had even been complicated for a Saint. Yet the one who had the most impact on the battlefield was Arthur.
'That bastard did it again.'
The Saint of Valor landed a few meters away from him.
"Master Sunless." He began. "Send your Echo to cover one of the Gates." He ordered, his voice heard throughout the battlefield.
Sunny nodded, and Saint went to do just that.
'Surely they're only going to send Echoes to defend the Gates given the potential danger of Black Butterfly.'
Just as he suspected, Cormac continued giving orders to those present to send their Echoes to cover the Gates, though some Masters who survived went to ensure nothing went wrong.
Soon, both Saints present were standing side by side while observing the Corrupted Titan.
Bloodwave and Cormac spoke among themselves, slightly apart from the rest.
Sylvie and Reynolds approached him. Both with completely exhausted faces, similar to his.
"How are you, boy?" Arthur's father asked him.
Reynolds had multiple sealed wounds all over his body, but none were bleeding. His face had marks of blood, wounds, and dust scattered on it. His armor was on the verge of being destroyed.
Sunny took a deep breath and then shrugged.
"Same as everyone, I suppose."
"Fucked then," Sylvie summarized simply.
Sunny nodded while analyzing her.
Sylvie was in a slightly better state than his, though not by much. Obviously, being a Titan helped her quite a bit in that regard, though at the same time her abilities spent more essence than those of a normal Awakened.
Though Sunny wasn't completely sure about this…
Sylvie definitely didn't have a Divine Aspect, but somehow she had multiple cores…
'What the hell?'
That had been Sunny's reaction every time he thought about the subject.
"I'm going to help with the Gates," he said.
Reynolds took a deep breath and began turning his head. "I'm going to go look for Art." And he left. Then he stopped abruptly and added, "Be careful."
Sunny and Sylvie smiled, showing they would. But then the former turned and looked at Sylvie with a raised eyebrow.
"Aren't you going too?"
"I will later," Sylvie replied calmly. "Did you forget I can see his runes?"
He brought his hand to the back of his neck.
"Oh, right."
"Regis is also with him, so I'm calm," she added.
His face changed slightly at the mention of Regis, but he didn't overreact.
"Well… let's go help."
Both moved toward the Gates, absorbing the state of the battlefield with every step they took.
The number of creatures lying on the ground didn't reflect the avalanche they had received less than half an hour ago. The number of corpses was vastly inferior.
The rest of the corpses, belonging to humans, all lay on the ground with dead eyes. Around them, their killers were on the floor, having been killed by the rest of the Awakened.
Sunny looked slightly into the distance and noticed that his entire cohort was miraculously safe. They were cleaning the area where the wall broke but weren't near the Gates.
Multiple crushed corpses could be seen in that area. There were also corpses of other Awakened who had been killed by the creatures that flew.
A negative aspect of what Arthur did was that multiple creatures, upon noticing this, changed their objectives and headed to the wall, drowning those atop it with their bodies.
Sunny knew multiple people who were up there, but he was mainly worried about Winter. Even if she was an Ascended, the number of creatures was significant.
Soon, the sensation of the Call of the Nightmare began to grow, and they were a few meters away.
In front of one of them was only Saint.
His Shadow had simply dove into the mass of enemies. She collided against the Nightmare Creatures with her shield, sending a dozen of them stumbling to the ground, and then turned into a whirlwind of annihilating darkness, her sword slicing through carapace armor, flesh, and bone as if nothing could stop it.
Black blood, severed limbs, and broken bodies covered the ground.
At the other Gates, groups of Awakened with some Ascended were covering them…
"It seems our help isn't necessary…" Sylvie said upon noticing the situation was under control.
Sunny was about to respond, but at that moment, he noticed his cohort approaching his position.
"Is everyone okay?" he asked when they were close enough.
Quentin was the first to speak.
"We are, Captain."
Belle, with his characteristically charismatic face—though not so much currently—asked.
"What do we do now, Captain?"
Sunny thought for a few seconds.
"Let's wait for new orders from the Saints…"
"They must be watching to ensure the Corrupted Titan doesn't move at the moment," Sylvie informed them. "Our presence would only get in the way in a fight of such magnitude, though if it starts, we should be ready to intervene however we can."
The Awakened nodded at both orders. While they were from Sunny's cohort, Sylvie was a superior to them.
Sunny decided to speak again.
"Even if we have to fight again, the best thing you can do is not intervene. So go rest—that's an order."
Dorn was about to speak but decided not to in the end, and all the cohort members headed toward the interior of the Siege Capital to find their Rhino.
Sunny and Sylvie stayed watching the scene for a few more seconds before returning with the Saints to the battlefield.
If the Corrupted Titan that had remained motionless since the beginning of the fight moved, they were going to have to fight with what they had.
---
Minutes and then hours passed, and Mournwing remained motionless on the mountain.
Watching it from the battlefield, those present felt complete terror at the monumental creature's lack of action.
It was as if its mere presence inspired fear in their hearts even without needing to move.
Currently on the battlefield were both Saints along with Sunny, Jet, and Sylvie, a few meters ahead of the rest of the Awakened forming the second line.
"I can't wait much longer," Cormac mentioned dryly.
The main reason for this was that he had to go help the Saint of Sorrows contain the Winter Beast. Every moment that passed meant the Corrupted Titan was getting closer to Falcon Scott.
Bloodwave let out a sigh.
"Most have already recovered some of the essence spent in the previous battle, though we're not in our best state." He looked at those present briefly. "If you want to go check, do it."
Cormac hesitated for a few seconds but nodded. "You already know the plan." Separating slightly from the rest, he began running until he adopted his transformation and shot off in the Titan's direction.
The plan was relatively simple.
If Mournwing was alive but incapacitated, he would take advantage to kill it. If that wasn't the case, and it decided to pursue him, Cormac would act as bait and try to draw it as far away as possible—maybe even toward the Winter Beast.
If it was dead, he would send a signal and continue on his way.
Then there was the option that it was still alive but didn't decide to follow Cormac—in that case, everyone would have to fight the creature.
Sylvie wasn't very confident about this…
Soon, she saw the Saint of Valor's figure carefully approach the Corrupted Titan.
---
Cormac was circling the Titan with the utmost care possible, but it didn't take him long to determine that the creature was still alive…
…But it was completely immobilized.
"Good," he said simply, his voice sounding very deep in his transformation.
If his years of experience had taught him anything, it was not to waste opportunities to land a lethal blow when possible.
Cormac approached slowly and opened his jaw. From it came a slightly dense blue-green substance.
A current of venomous and acidic substance shot out at great speed in the direction of the Titan's skull.
The substance impacted Mournwing's dark skin, making it release a gray vapor upon contact. The skin began to melt slowly, until Cormac began spitting more of that dense substance.
It didn't take long before the Spell sounded in his head, indicating the kill.
[You have slain a Corrupted Titan, Mournwing Queen.]
A smile tried to form on Cormac's monstrous lips, but he quickly suppressed it to send the signal that everything was fine.
Abandoning his transformation in front of the creature, he began summoning a Memory…
Since he was giving it his back, he didn't manage to see how, from the wound he had caused, small insect-like drones began to emerge.
The Memory finished summoning in Cormac's hand while he thought he was surely the first Saint in history to kill a Corrupted Titan.
'Surely with this I get my Citadel back… well, who says they won't give me the White Feather Clan's too?' He grinned internally.
He raised his hand to send the signal, but at that moment, he froze. His danger perception activated at that moment.
Looking up, Cormac felt all the color drain from his face.
But he didn't manage to feel anything else—
—Except for the flood of darkness that entered his body, consuming him instantly.