The next morning, the group was startled awake by a sudden, piercing scream.
"Cassie?!"
They sprang to their feet, weapons in hand, their senses sharp with alarm. The remnants of sleep were instantly burned away by the horror in Cassie's voice. Eyes darted across their surroundings, searching for an enemy lurking in the shadows, but none revealed itself.
Ares and Sunny were the first to realize that no threat was nearby. Their instincts shifted from searching for danger to searching for Cassie.
Then Ares saw her.
The blind girl lay on the cold ground, convulsing as though seized by an invisible terror. Her breath came in ragged gasps, her fingers clawing at nothing. Ares frowned but said nothing. He simply walked over and sat beside her, his presence steady and grounding. Without hesitation, he placed a firm, reassuring hand on her shoulder. A silent offering of strength.
Nephis approached cautiously, her voice laced with concern. "What happened?"
Sunny, still scanning the surroundings with narrowed eyes, answered grimly. "It's Cassie. I think she had another vision." She glanced down at the trembling girl. "And by the looks of it… not a good one."
## ##### ## # ##
They waited for a while, the tension stretching into silence, until—gradually—Cassie's shaking began to subside. Her breaths evened, though the terror had not yet left her face. Nephis knelt beside her, while Ares remained seated close, still offering quiet support.
"Cassie," Nephis said gently, "tell us. What did you see?"
Ares grasped her hand, his grip firm but not forceful, as if silently encouraging her to speak.
Cassie hesitated. Her lips parted, then closed again. She swallowed, her brows furrowing in doubt. "I… I don't know. Maybe it was just a nightmare."
Ares, Sunny, and Nephis exchanged glances.
They all knew better.
Dreams were nonexistent in the Dream Realm. And Cassie's visions were never just nightmares.
Still, they waited. They gave her the space to process what she had seen, the reassurance that they would not force the words from her.
After a long pause, Cassie took a shaky breath. "I don't remember everything. It's in fragments."
Sunny's gaze softened. "Then just tell us what you do remember. Maybe we can figure it out together."
Cassie hesitated once more. Then, finally, she spoke.
—
"At first… I saw a boundless darkness, locked behind seven seals. Something vast was churning inside, something I could not name. I knew—if I truly saw it, if I laid eyes upon it without those seals, my mind would break."
Her voice trembled slightly. "One by one, the seals shattered. Some crumbled to dust, some burst apart as if something on the other side was pushing against them. And then… only one remained.
"And then that one broke, too."
A heavy silence settled over them.
Cassie's hands clenched into fists. "After that… I don't know. My mind shattered. It was like I had been split into a thousand shards, each one reflecting something different. Some were dark. Some, I have already forgotten. But one…"
She took a breath.
"I saw the human castle again. But this time, it was night. A single, lonely star burned in the black sky. And under its cold light… fire consumed everything. The castle's stone walls cracked, rivers of blood ran through its halls."
Her voice grew quieter. "I saw a corpse in golden armor, sitting upon a throne of ruin. A woman wielding a bronze spear, drowning in a sea of monsters. An archer, standing alone, loosing arrows at a sky that was falling."
She shivered. "And in the end… I saw a crimson spire. A colossal, terrifying thing, rising above the ruin. At its base, seven severed heads guarded seven locks. And at the top…
"…a dying angel was being consumed by hungry shadows."
She exhaled shakily. "When I saw the angel bleed, I suddenly felt as though—" she hesitated, searching for the right words, "—as though something so precious it couldn't be described was being taken from me."
Her voice fell to a whisper. "And then—"
The vision shattered.
A deep, primal roar tore through the dream, shaking the very fabric of what I had seen.
The burning castle, the corpse, the blood—everything—was suddenly consumed. It wasn't just fire. It wasn't just darkness. It was something else entirely. It was as if the world itself had been devoured, erased, rewritten.
Something new had forced its way in. Something wrong.
The flames parted, revealing a colossal beast.
Its body was molten, like it had been forged in the heart of a dying star. Its eyes burned, not with light, but with something deeper—something ancient and endless. Its crown was made of roaring fire, and shadows draped over it like a living cloak, shifting and writhing with hunger.
It lifted its head toward the sky. And then, with a terrible, boundless hunger—
It swallowed the sun.
Cassie's breath hitched, as if even remembering it made her blood freeze.
"As the last of the light was consumed, plunging the dream into absolute darkness… the world collapsed.
Everything—sound, thought, even fear—was devoured. The abyss swallowed me whole, and for one terrifying moment, there was nothing.
No light. No self. No dream.
Only the gaze of the Crimson Beast, lingering in the void."
"...."
The Vision left confusion in its wake, Nephis furrowed her eyebrows, Sunny glancing at Ares and Nephis with a weird look, and Ares gazing at the sea, a lost look on his face.
##############
The group didn't do much that day, judging that It was better to wait for Cassie to fully stabilitize.
Some time later, they were sitting on the western edge of the stone platform, looking at the scavengers below. Sunny's shadow was busy scouting a path to the next high landmark.
"Were there always that many?"
Sunny glanced at Nephis and shook her head.
"No, there were much more. They seem to be almost done with the carcass. I doubt it will last until nightfall."
Which meant that, by tomorrow, all these beasts would be roaming the labyrinth, making it hard for the four Sleepers to make any progress. It would be best to leave today and put some distance between themselves and the horde before the scavengers were done with their feast.
However, without scouting a path in advance, there was a chance of not making it to safety in time. Both options were risky.
Nephis frowned, seemingly thinking the same.
After a while, she said:
"I don't want Cassie to spend another night near this statue. Let's leave now."
"You might want to reconsider." Ares's voice interjected.
Following him, a sudden commotion pulled their attention.
Down at the bottom of the disappearing sea, amidst mounds of broken coral, the carcass of the giant shark-like monster — the remaining half of it, to be precise — was almost stripped of meat. And between its white bones, something was shimmering in the mud.
Two extremely large, luminescent crystals.
Sunny's eyes widened.
"Are those…"
"Yes. Shards of two transcendent soul cores."
Transcendent… two of them…
Ares looked with interest, while Sunny was drooling, before suddenly shuddering, as if suddenly realizing the power of the monster that almost caught her that day.
After all, one corrupted devil, if not stopped by a Saint or a large number of Awakened, could potentially destroy an entire city.
"It's not over." Ares's voice sounded again, pointing at a certain direction.
Nephis too heard the sound, as she stopped Sunny from talking with a sign.
Sunny stared at Nephis and then obediently listened to the distant, barely audible clamor of the scavengers.
"We have guests." Ares looked straight at the direction of the labyrinth.
Suddenly, two massive shadows stepped out of a particularly wide passage.
A second later, the creatures casting those shadows appeared in sight. Sunny audibly gulped.
The monsters looked like the scavengers, but not quite. To start with, they were much larger, towering above the surroundings at more than three meters of height. Their carapace seemed to be thicker. It was colored in deep black and scarlet, like an ancient armor drenched in blood. Here and there, vicious-looking spikes were growing out of the carapace, making their every move much more dangerous.
Additionally, instead of heavy pincers, their upper arms ended with long, curved, terrifying bone scythes.
Sunny felt cold sweat running down her spine.
"What the hell are those things?"
Nephis tilted her head.
"Monsters, I guess."
Nightmare Creatures with one soul core were called "beasts". They were dangerous and strong, but mindless. If they were able to develop or were created with a second core, they became "monsters". Monsters were much more devastating and possessed some rudimentary, warped form of intelligence. They were the next step in a Nightmare Beast's evolution.
And these two seemed to be bigger, deadlier versions of carapace scavengers.
Sunny and Nephis watched as the two monsters approached the carcass. The scavengers were visibly afraid of them, rushing to get out of the way. Those who were two slow were mercilessly thrown to the side or cut apart by the bone scythes. Rivers of azure blood were flowing into the mud.
"What are they doing? Did they come to absorb the soul shards?" Sunny got near Ares and asked in a hushed voice.
"Well it doesn't look like it." He whispered into her ear, making her flinch back from the hot air tickling her ear, she could only stare in embrassement and frustration.
"Pfftt you look constipated." Ares chuckled before glancing back at the ground below.
the monsters reached the carcass. Each of them took one of the shards. However, instead of absorbing them, they simply turned around and carried the precious crystals away. The scavengers made way, following the shards with their little, hungry eyes.
"It seems we can't go now, let's wait for tomorrow."
Changing Star frowned and hesitated. A few moments later, she nodded her head in agreement.
Ares then retreated and knocked on Sunny's head as he passed by her.
"And get your shadow to work and follow those bastards."
###############
The two monsters had been heading west, as confirmed by Sunny, the scout herself. The next day, the group decided to begin their journey toward the castle. It was the farthest they had ever marched, but with their current strength, the path seemed relatively safe—as long as they didn't stumble upon a large pack of monsters or something far worse, like a fallen nightmare.
Yet, as they walked, Ares couldn't shake the unease gnawing at him. The sky was clear, they had avoided danger so far, and everything appeared to be going smoothly. So why did he feel this growing sense of dread? At first, it was faint, just a faint tingle in the back of his mind, easy to dismiss. But it grew steadily, like a distant siren growing louder and louder, until it became impossible to ignore. He stopped abruptly, his expression tense.
"What's wrong?" Sunny asked, frowning as the rest of the group halted behind her.
"Something's off," Ares murmured, his voice low but audible. His eyes flicked upward, scanning the sky.
Cassie, the blind girl, seemed to sense it too. Without a word, she released the reins of their newly acquired echo and gestured for help. "Get me down," she said, her voice tight.
Sunny hesitated, her confusion deepening. "Why? Do you hear something?"
Cassie scowled. "Just help me."
Once they helped her down, Cassie stood still for a moment, her head tilted as if listening intently. Then, cautiously, she knelt and pressed her ear to the ground. The group watched in tense silence.
"What do you hear?" Sunny asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Cassie licked her lips, her expression grim. "It's… murmuring."
Before anyone could respond, a single drop of water landed on Sunny's cheek. She wiped it away, her gaze following Ares's as he stared at the sky. His face had paled, his usual sharp features now etched with concern.
Above them, dark, stormy clouds were gathering with unnatural speed, swirling and churning as if summoned by some unseen force. In moments, they would blot out the sun entirely, plunging the world into shadow.
The group stood frozen, the weight of the impending storm pressing down on them like a warning. Something was coming—something far worse than the monsters they had faced before.
###########
Hello dear readers~
I hope ur all doing well in life.
The following chapters are prolly the best I made while drowning in studies, one will be about fighting, while the other will be emotional, I'll also be Expirementing with povs.
Oh I also happened to find a fight scene I made looooong ago, by long I mean nearly 3 years ago, it was about an original novel that was stuck on my mind at the time, sadly I couldn't bring it to fruitfulness.
Tell me if ya wanna read it xd
Thx for reading, and also, make sure to leave reviews, comments, and any of ur ideas to help me plot further.
See ya! And stay handsome/beautiful xd