Aelon stared ahead. The forest of red trees seemed to go on forever, without halting.
He had walked for two hours now, and on his way he encountered multiple Nightmare Creatures, all of the Awakened Rank.
Luckily his innate ability helped him in most of these encounters, and [Resonance Shift] prevented the beasts from being at their full strength, but it didn't change that all of these abominations were a rank above him.
His last encounter was especially dreadful.
The black haired boy found a spider, who was feasting on on a Carapace Scavenger. It was two meters tall, towering over him, and had hairy legs that seemed disgusting.
When Aelon walked on something squishy, the being immediately turned around.
It was one of it's webs.
'Right! Spiders use their webs to sense their surroundings too!'
Before he knew it the Awakened Devil spun around, and a web connected with his chest, sprouting right out it's mouth.
Covered in injuries from his past battles, Aelon used [Resonance Shift] to weaken the devil. The web it attacked him with immediately grew frailer.
Then the Awakened abomination pulled Aelon in with it's web, causing him to fly towards it, and opened it's vile mouth to swallow him whole.
Fangs were peeking out.
'Same move, come on Aelon.'
Aelon pushed his sword forwards in the last moment to pierce the spider from inside, just as it was about to devour him. A loud shriek erupted, and the soulblade pierced the exoskeleton of the abomination, and entered it's flesh.
Deeper and deeper it dug, but ultimately... it wasn't deep enough.
The short boy, was stuck.
In the spider's mouth.
Not wasting any time, and using the Devil's confusion, Aelon attempted to retrieve his sword. But... it just wouldn't budge.
Recovering from the shock, the spider closed it's jaw.
The fangs dug into Aelon's back.
It seemed like death was greeting him.
Ironically, in that moment, he managed activate the soul mode of the weapon, being able to move it once more, and slicing towards the spider's core.
'Come on!'
He had to kill it before it killed him.
In it's soul state, the sword damaged more and more of the spider, causing it freeze once again in it's shock.
Kill or be killed.
The attack against it's soul seemed to give it the last push it needed to step into the afterlife.
[Congratulations, you have defeated an awakened devil, Hairy Arachnid.]
'Shit. Shit Shit. I cannot move.'
The spider's fangs were still imbedded into the boy's back, deeply at that.
He felt how all the muscles of the spider relaxed, and grew limp. Strength extremely drained, and feeling like he'll loose consciousness at any moment, Aelon forced his sword into it's physical form, and sawed the flesh where the fangs of the spider were sprouting from.
After five minutes of desperate struggle, the thirteen year old finally managed to free himself from the devil's jaw.
'Time to reap the rewards...'
Half-conscious, he walked over to the corpse of the Nightmare Creature the spider was feasting on, and cut out it's soul core.
'Disgusting.'
It truly was a gory sight. Once he managed to get a hold on the soul shard that remained, he crushed it, and then did the same with the one from the spider.
[Soul Shards: 34/1000]
Somewhat strengthened, Aelon managed to continue onwards.
'I need to continue, if I just give up now, I'm dead meat.'
Tears were slipping from his cheeks, the adrenaline had now slowly worn off. Coupled with the fact that he was weakened once again, the imprints the spider and the other Nightmare Creatures had left on him left him looking like a wreck.
Nausea washed over Aelon, but he had to continue.
Pain washed over Aelon, but he had to continue.
Fear washed over Aelon, but he had to continue.
Just by a small thread, he managed to force himself to retain his consciousness- a skill he learned in the colosseum, when he got hit in the head, and was about to collapse.
Collapsing meant certain death in the colosseum, collapsing meant certain death here as well.
Everything blurred around him. Sounds grew hazy, his vision turned black in some moments, but he had to continue.
Continue or die.
...
Aelon did not know how much time had passed.
He was bleeding. A lot.
'If the water rises, my suit should keep me safe, the blood in the water will still attract Nightmare Creatures though.'
Lucky for him, the later in the day it got the less Nightmare Creatures seemed to appear.
'Probably because the water rises at night.'
When he looked up, he saw something unexpected though. A giant statue. With... fire.
'People?'
Glancing up, Aelon forced himself to speed up his walking, and reached the foot of the statue eventually.
It was huge. At least two-hundred meters tall.
The sun was almost about to set. He didn't have much time left.
With his last energy, Aelon forced himself to use Minos' soulblade, and the new memory he got from a carapace scavenger.
[Azure Daggers]
They were pretty straightforward daggers, and when summoned, two azure colored daggers appeared, slightly curved at the end.
Gritting his teeth, Aelon smashed then into the stone, and started climbing.
Climbing up was even harder than descending from the cliff he came from.
Stab after stab he climbed higher.
After thirty minutes, Aelon was utterly exhausted. But when he looked down... he hadn't even cleared an eighth of the way.
His injuries were being more an more of a hindrance.
The previous fight against unconsciousness turned into a full on battle. The exhaustion the short boy felt was unlike anything he felt before.
Only fueled by adrenaline, and pure will to live, Aelon didn't relent.
But before his mind gave out, his body did.
One final stab.
His fingers refused to close around the dagger's hilt.
It was as though every shred of strength had abandoned his body at once. His aching arms gave out, followed by the rest of him.
'Higher...'
The desperate thought never became reality.
His grip slipped.
And Aelon fell.
Fifty meters of empty air waited beneath him.