We take a night's rest under a rock outcropping. The sea can't reach us here, here at the end of the forgotten shores. Can hell have an ending? Does it matter? Maybe it does..... does hell even actually exist?
The first lord and his cohort couldn't have escaped because then this place would have been known. Maybe a cohort of awakened and maybe even a master would be sent.
There's no reason to relax, they had to have died here. Their lives ended like so many before them and so many after them. They clearly where incredibly powerful, so whatever killed them must be just as dangerous.
In the morning, we get prepared to leave when Nephis speaks
"i know where we are"
I look at her others speak but it doesnt matter
"I know where we are in the dream realm"
she points to the mountains
"we are north of the hollow mountains im sure of it"
i vaguely remember the name but I just cant figure out how.
"The human sphere of influence isn't very large but it's been slowly expanding for the last 30 years. There are 3 great citadels the most prosperous of which, Bastion, is ruled by the noble scions of the Valor clan and numerous lesser ones. For a time, the allies and vassals of Clan Valor used to conquer one lesser Citadel after another, expanding human territory far into the north. But their expansion in that direction stalled because they encountered the Hollow Mountains."
It has to be a death zone and Nephis confirms my assumption. So even now, we can't escape this place. Even if all the sleepers were saints we still wouldn't be able to pass this place.
I stare at the mountain tops, we can't escape like this. We will kill that fallen terror and all of us will escape. That is what will happen nothing more nothing less. I summon my daggers and we get to moving together as it would be too much of a risk to separate.
As we walk I notice Caster looking grim. So I pat him on the shoulder, he looks over with a confused expression. I shrug
"you had a look."
We have to find where the first lord died, we will find it. It grows steep as we all walk on stone. Humanity is just on the other side of these mountains yet we will never escape this way, nobody knows we're even here.
Soon we find the hole, not a hole a quarry, the place where the stone for the statues and the city's walls where gathered. It's a testament to humanity, to have moved all that stone.
Effie points to the middle of the quarry, there is a massive but dead nightmare creature. That's our goal, so I jump.
It takes a bit but it's faster than walking. I land on top of the stone corpse of the long-dead nightmare creature. I look around, we need to speed this up, we need to kill that terror sooner, the more we wait the more who will die.
It takes 10 more minutes before they get down. The group looks at the dead body. That is until Sunny sighs and climbs inside it, a few minutes later he pops out whipping the dust off. We all stare at him
"What?"
Kai is the first to speak
"Sunny ah- do you want to tell us something?"
Sunny grins
"I do actually, this thing was killed by a human."
"How do you know"
Sunny shrugs
"the soul shards are missing"
I can't help but laugh of course Sunny's the one to try and take the soul shards. I walk over patting him on the back, he scrambles away giving me a dirty look
"of course you'd do that"
then Neph calls us over. I'm the first to walk over. She found a grave. On one of them, someone had written
"her nightmare is over."
I nod walking over to a rock and I add another. These are the people who made it possible for the 1000 people in the city to survive. Everyone here has them to thank. I go on hearing stories of these people and I will give them the respect they deserve. Cassie is staring at the mountains.... no at the mist, the mist that's getting closer to us.
"The mist, we must get underground before the mist comes or we will all die"
Nephis yells there's a small tinge of worry in her voice causing Kai and Caster to get moving, to find the entrance to the underground area. It's mist we can't fight mist. Sunny is the one to find the entrance and we all run following Sunny, our lives depend on it. Kai shows us the hidden entrance and we all run in. The mist doesn't enter the tunnel.
Everyone summons their light memories and we get moving. Even if we're attacked, we will kill whoever attacks us. We are stronger I'm sure of it. I walk in front of everyone holding my daggers in front of me.
I'm not the strongest or fastest, but my aspect is the most destructive. Soon I start to see carvings on the walls the origin of this place. I summon my notebook and I start writing.
It starts with a lush land bathed in light, and a star fell to the ground. When people investigate they find a glowing human figure with 3 eyes like that skull. It's the owner of the skull.
The next one is damaged but the one after is of people killing that figure. It didn't have blood but darkness. That darkness consumes all every city everything It's the origin of the dark sea.
The stars themselves are eaten or they fall. No stars and no sun. Horrid creatures eat the humans of the cities, and people rise to protect their cities but are turned into monsters.
7 heroes came together and created a city, the very same city we live in. The 7 heros also created a spire, but it was not crimson yet.
The final one was of that very same spire but now with a sun, the sun that beat the darkness back. When im done writing I desummon my notebook. So thats the reason why it is like it is. There's no stars for a reason it seems.
We keep walking until we get to a hole. Me, Cassie and Sunny jump down using the flying memories we got. We get to the bottom, finding a long dead nightmare creature, killed by the first lord cohort. Its a bone snake.
We find a long abandoned camp site. The camp site of the first lord. We stop here in the same place as the first lord. I draw from memory the stone nightmare creature and this bone worm then I go back to the image of the statue and the sea dwellers earth shattering clash.
I start snapping off bones of the dead creature. I get weird looks but I do weird things all the time so they don't question.
Soon after we're all rested we move out. Not long after that we make it to a flowing mist covered underground river. We cant look when crossing this river and until we get to another.
Neph places wax and a piece of cloth over each of our eyes and sunny leads the way with his shadow sense. We get on the boat, im unable to see so I focus on heat sense. Tied to a rope we walk and walk and walk a few times we stop and I notice sunny almost reach his hand out each time.
I use this opportunity to train my heat sense which I hadn't been really using for a long time. It takes hours, maybe, for us to finally cross the other river and get to the other side.
I follow Neph's gaze to a skeleton, the skeleton of the first lord. We gather around it paying our respects to this fallen hero, no this fallen man. I pick up and rock and write
"your nightmares are over"
and I place it in his lap. For all of his cohort who fell to the mist and for him who fell in this place. Nephis takes a band, no a crown, from the skeleton, it turns to sparks its a memory it seems, and looks down and states
"thank you"
Kai is the next to speak
"thank you we will finish what you started"
I summon my notebook and I sketch the image of the resting place of the first lord.
"Should we- should we bury him?"
Sunny speaks next
"no he wanted to be closer to his friends leave him here."
I keep sketching, this great man deserves to have his final resting place known. Sunny speaks to Neph about the crown, i just keep sketching. She summons the crown back and I notice my armor seem to get stronger.
"The Dawn Shard possesses a single, but also singularly powerful enchantment. It empowers all Memories around it. The area of effect of the enchantment is very large but the enhancement it provides is ever larger"
I look up then i go back to sketching. When im done I look past as the two talk. I desummon my notebook and I summon my combat memories. I hear that Gunlaug's armor is an echo, weird but okay. I already know what's to come, a fight it has to be.
"Theres a fight coming isnt there. This isnt the end."
They all look at me
"we have to kill what killed the first lord, dont we? To finish we he started"
I look at Nephis, she nods and steps foward as I look past the first lord. Sunny explains it to Kai and then Nephis finally speaks, I dont listen all she says is what I already know, we have a fight to finish. Although i do note to not kill the nightmare creature unless I've touched the statue. I nod
"none of us are going to leave, let's just kill the damn thing. Let's finish what he started."
They all look to me, and a few nod nod.
We walk foward together. We find ourselves in a cavern so vast the whole bright castle could fit in here and in the middle a unfinished carving of one of the heros, and a spire messenger.
I get into a fighting stance staring at it. Not like that matters as the spire messenger had already seen us, it let us see it, let it try to kill us.
"Its a spire messenger!"
It then moves in a tornado of claws, wings and feathers. Sunny dives to the side in a roll, it flys past hitting two shields, one Effie, the other the stone saint.
Sunny and Caster attack from the side. It swipes throwing the two back, then it flys to attack Kai who had flown up. Sunny uses a memory to attach himself to its leg and flys, or well get pulled along for the ride, following it, he goes for quite the hit, getting it right in on the wing causing it to fall.
Sunny falls with it closer to the statue, he gets up and runs towards the statue. I run foward now with incredible speed because of the blood drinker. I duck under an attack, freezing its leg.
The divine flame holds it back, it might be of a similar or higher rank but the spire messenger is focused on physical attacks while my ice shard mostly used its heat to kill and it can not use that anymore.
I'm able to cut off half of one of its claws and Neph gets it on the side. Soon Sunny and Caster touch the statue, sunny more like runs into it, and start running back. I get a hit on my arm breaking a bone or two. I use that to get it on its back, i start stabbing between the body and the wing. I notice the stone saint change fighting stance to be more offensive.
I'm thrown off breaking a leg of it as sunny slides under it cutting into it in a massive line. Sunny is left defenseless in his wake.
The messenger tries to run his through with its beak instead nephis blocks it getting hit in the shoulder. Caster almost kills it but sunny uses a memory he has, a throwing knife like thing, to get it in the eye killing it. I look around we're all in a bad shape. I desummon it and I fall back and I pass out.
I wake up to sunny falling onto his face. I laugh at him while pointing at him, thats when I notice that Neph had healed me. Effie walks over and picks the memory shield with ease sunny comes with it. I laugh even harder.
Then Sunny and Nephis make a deal to trade ascended memories. Sunny summons a dagger, it doesnt weave itself from light which is pretty damn cool. I get up while patting myself off.
Soon we get to moving. We pass the rivers and we start walking in the caves yet again. I stay back with sunny this time. I nudge him
"Hey sunless?"
He looks over at me with a confused look, he then rubs his shoulder where i nudged him speaking pretty quietly
"what?"
"Your echo, its of the stone statues. But its different"
he gives me an odd look
"how so?"
"Well its darker and all that. So does your aspect let you change echos too?"
He doesnt say anything for a few seconds
"yeah it does, i can change them to shadows"
oh good maybe i can learn something from him
"can you like, change its strength?"
"I can by having it destroy memories"
I nod a few times
"okay okay"
I speed up
"wait too?"
So memories huh. Ill try that next time, first ill have to test something else. Soul shards, those make normal people stronger and their far far cheaper. I take one out of my satchel, summon my echo and I hand it to the thing. it crushes the soul shard in its hand.
[Your ice shard grows stronger]
Holy shit I was right! Ill be keeping whatever soul shards i hunt and giving them to this freak. I speed up to the middle of the group
"hey so sorry singer but ill be keeping my soul shards for now on, Caster can keep getting half though I guess."
I then slow down, I dont even get any weird looks, I think their used to me being me.
Soon we make it out, quickly leave the area in fear of the mist and go back to our first camp on the hollow mountains watching the waves crash against the stone.