The battle with the remaining sentinel did not last too long, with both groups joining together as one formation the last Awakened Demon finally fell but not without a few injuries, fortunately none of the injured sleepers would die from their injuries but they would not be able to fight for at least a few days if not longer, with the sun setting over head they decided to rest up for the night.
They soon set up the semblance of a camp just on the edge of the gate with at least two sleepers keeping an eye on it at all times in case of any unwanted intruders wandering too close to their operations. The camp was basic and only consisted of the bare essentials as they would be moving on once morning came, they would have liked to move during the night but something about the pale moon moving across the sky gave Warden and the others a strange sense of foreboding, as it was watching their every move like the eye of some long dead god.
They had not felt this presence from their previous encampments yet for some reason nearer the strange Castle on the lake it felt like an eerie mist had settled over their souls, invading their minds and making them want to turn away in fear, it was both haunting and reassuring, at least to Warden it was, it showed him that they were on the right path or so he believed anyway.
Felling the energy flow into his body as he crushed the shard in his grip Warden felt stronger, with every shard he absorbed his body grew more and more distant than the one he had before, with each moment that passed he was not sure if he even recognised the man he once was, it was both frightening and a little bit exciting at the same time, to be given the strength to survive was a blessing in a world gone mad, all he had to do know was learn to wield it well.
Looking at his runes he studied how far he had come in this strange new world, the age of nightmare's, no that wasn't quite right perhaps the age of the Nightmare spell was more appropriate given how it seemed to be the force behind the seeming chaos. Soon his eyes focused on his new memory that he had received from finishing of the Bastion Sentinel,
***
[Memory: Valiant Knight's Longsword]
[Memory Rank: Awakened]
[Memory Tier: III]
[Memory Type: Weapon]
Memory Description:
[Valiant Knight's Longsword: A sword once carried by a valiant knight in the service of War Herself, Failing to protect their lord from the Plague of the Nine the guardians of this once great Bastion were cursed with an unending duty, to protect and serve in the Bastion of imagination for all of time.]
[Memory Enchantments]
[###] [###] [###]
***
Warden had learned from the other sleepers that no others among them could see the tier and enchantments of their memories as it seemed to be connected to the power of his Aspect and or his attributes, which one for sure he did not know and he rumoured that he may never know. Of course it was a bit more complicated than that, the enchantments would not just appear immediately and in order for them to show themselves he had to study the memory as well as use it in battle to gain a deeper understanding of its nature.
For the moment all he knew was that it possessed three enchantments but knew nothing about their nature, one thing he had found curious however was that throughout all the memories he had looked at none had more enchantments than their rank, and a rank was determined by the creatures…what had Damian and Jasper called it…Class?
So all Beasts would provide a tier one memory whilst all Demons would provide tier three memories, this was good to know as it provided more information about the framework the spell worked on, he wondered what humans such as himself counted as, did they possess soul shards just like the monsters they were facing? He already knew the answer even if he had never confirmed it himself it was just he never wanted to see a human soul shard for himself, for their Rank… he wasn't quite sure, they weren't quite Awakened but he didn't feel like they counted as Dormant either, if Damian was to be believed in his suspicions then they were in a strange transitional stage which no other creature they had encountered had undergone as far as they knew.
Warden sat by a fire as a number of different sleepers prepared one last meal before they headed deeper into the Castle, this Bastion of Imagination as the memory called it, to him the name seemed too long for anything but an official title and as such just shortened it to Bastion instead when referencing it in conversation.
He had openly shared what was told to him from the description of his newest memory yet most sleepers didn't seemed to care all too much about the implications of its words on the very nature of the world as they understood it, the only one who seemed to care, a bit too much Warden thought was Damian who seemed keenly interested in the history and the nature of the Spell and this world even more than Warden himself.
The man was almost obsessed with the information, talking about his theories and ideas on what it could mean and how it reshaped or fixed certain areas of his understanding, it was honestly a little surprising, in his time Warden had come to see those of older generations as people who never changed their ways to fit the times, always trying to force their beliefs and ideals onto a world which now rejected them yet the man in front of him was the complete opposite, encapsulated by the idea and changing his approach to the world as the world changed around him.
Jest had once told Warden that he believed him to be "completely insane" yet looking at the man sitting in front of him Warden couldn't help but think about how Damian was the craziest of them all, and that was why Warden trusted in him so much, his knowledge of the battlefield and how to use it were all good qualities sure but all of them paled to the power granted to those who have gone mad yet still seem sane to all others, the craziest man is the one who looks the most normal after all.