The serpent lay decapitated, its black blood smoking on the cracked earth. Uriel had no time to celebrate. The Corrupted Ice Devil was already lunging at him, its jaws open, exhaling a storm of icy crystals that froze the air in its path.
"What a nuisance!" Uriel growled as he raised Wyvern's Fang.
The black blade cut through the freezing blast, splitting it in two. The cold licked the edges of his dark manifestation but failed to penetrate. The Stone Saint roared, its cracks glowing with violet light.
The wounded Corrupted Tyrant—the centipede of bones and skulls—still crawled with half its head caved in. Its jaws creaked, emitting a screech that pierced the mind. Uriel felt the attempt at psychic invasion and crushed it with a thought.
These six don't fight as individuals, he realized. The parasite orchestrates them.
"Then let's cut the orchestra!"
Uriel propelled the Stone Saint forward. With one hand, he held the chains binding the two Corrupted Demons; with the other, he materialized a second spear of darkness.
The Fire Devil spat its incandescent breath. Uriel didn't dodge. Instead, he spun on himself, using his manifestation's darkness cloak as a spinning shield. The flames licked the black surface without consuming it.
"Slow," he whispered.
The spear flew. It pierced the Fire Devil's chest, pinning it to the ground. The creature roared, but the shadow chains already wrapped around its limbs tightened, immobilizing it completely.
The Ice Devil took advantage of the distraction. Its claws, sharp as frost razors, sank into the Stone Saint's shoulder. The manifestation cracked, losing fragments that dissolved into nothing.
"That hurt," Uriel murmured, and he responded with Wyvern's Fang.
The upward slash severed the Ice Devil's arm. The limb fell to the ground, writhing before dissolving into black particles. The devil retreated, but Uriel didn't let it escape. Tendrils of darkness sprouted from the ground, tangling around its hind legs.
Now the Tyrant!
The skull centipede lunged at him, its broken horns still lethal. Uriel dismissed Wyvern's Fang and summoned White Flower again. The sword glowed with pale light, contrasting with the blackness of his manifestation.
The impact was brutal. The Tyrant rammed the Stone Saint, pushing Uriel back several meters. The skulls forming its torso opened their jaws, trying to bite into the darkness.
"Not this time."
Uriel plunged White Flower into the Tyrant's main skull. The sword pierced bone and dark marrow, emerging from the other side. The Tyrant convulsed, its hundred legs scraping the air before collapsing.
[You have killed—]
He ignored the message. The Ice Devil was still struggling, but its movements were erratic. Uriel approached, raised the Stone Saint's foot, and crushed it against its skull.
The ice exploded. The devil shattered into a thousand pieces that dissipated like frost in the sun.
[You have killed—]
The two Corrupted Demons, still bound by the chains, roared helplessly. Uriel walked toward them without hurry. The Stone Saint raised both hands and clapped them together.
The impact pulverized both demons at once.
[You have killed—]
[You have killed—]
The battlefield fell silent. The bodies of the six creatures lay scattered, smoking. Uriel felt momentary relief, the calm before the storm.
Plink.
A drop of black blood.
Plink. Plink.
The bodies began to move.
"What...?" Uriel clenched his jaw.
The fragments of the six Corrupted crawled toward each other. Severed arms, broken jaws, severed tails... all fused into a shapeless mass that pulsed with its own life.
Flesh twisted, stretched, reorganized. Bones cracked as they fit together. Muscles sprouted from nowhere. Eyes opened and closed at random across the surface of that gestating monstrosity.
From the center of that nightmare amalgam, a grotesque and gigantic form emerged.
Uriel, bewildered, took a step back from the thing under construction. Without hesitation, he enveloped it in darkness manifested as spears that embedded themselves in the creature's body. However, instead of damaging it, Uriel noticed how the darkness was assimilated, becoming part of that grotesque body.
"Uriel, you have to call Skadi right now. This thing isn't something we can handle."
"What do you mean?"
"That thing is evolving," Shade said.
Uriel froze.
"Evolving?"
"Yes. Possibly into a Corrupted Titan, or a Great Creature," he explained. "So call Skadi. Now. We can't win against that."
Uriel looked at the great creature. Until now, he thought it was just a Corrupted. No, in fact, it was a Corrupted being, but it was using the other Corrupted beings as batteries to fuel its evolution to a higher rank.
'Shit. Fuck me sideways—' Uriel didn't finish that thought before dismissing Skadi. He knew withdrawing her now would bring a disadvantage to the battle, but it was necessary.
He couldn't kill something beyond a Great Beast, no matter how hard he tried.
Sighing, he called Skadi back, who appeared beside him. Without saying a word, she fixed her gaze on the great creature that was evolving into a Great Terror.
Uriel abandoned his form, returning to normal.
"Hey, I want you to kill it," he asked his Echo.
The Echo stepped forward, raising her hand. Uriel moved through the darkness, retreating as the temperature rose rapidly.
After moving far enough away, he saw how Skadi's flames, previously orange, had turned blue from the intense heat. Skadi released a ray of fire that opened an enormous hole in the abomination's body, which then regenerated.
Without stopping, Skadi extended her hand and then closed it. Around the Nightmare Creature, an enormous pillar of flames enveloped it.
The pillar of fire extended like a massive column of flames that calcined and turned the evolving abomination into charcoal.
When the flames subsided, where what would have been a Great Terror once stood was now nothing more than a pile of ashes.
[You have killed a Corrupted Terror, Prototype]
Uriel sighed.
"Phew, crisis averted," he murmured in relief.
Skadi turned to look at him, waiting for further orders. Uriel nodded and then ordered her to continue using her will to keep the human combat forces united.
Now that the Corrupted had been eliminated, he could focus on eliminating the legion of abominations trying to besiege Camp Erebus.
Uriel moved through the darkness. After a few seconds, he returned to the main battlefield. He watched as the situation had worsened.
There were more abominations. Without the Corrupted guiding them, the abominations became more frenzied, attacking in greater numbers to overwhelm the unbreakable wall.
Everyone could barely hold on due to the immense pressure. Uriel was about to join the battle when he heard something that made him smile.
[You have killed a Corrupted Titan, Mist Devourer]
Uriel looked up, seeing an enormous whale falling in a nosedive. Its body was scorched, covered in countless wounds. Likewise, one of its fins was missing, as were its eyes, while the enormous horn was broken into large fragments.
Dismissing the Illusory Butterfly, Uriel ordered Gunlaug to descend and burn the abominations, which he did.
He watched as his dragon descended with relentless fury, unleashing a sea of golden flames against the abominations, burning hundreds of them instantly.
"Alright, let's try this," Uriel murmured as darkness enveloped him. His body grew taller, becoming darkness itself. Instead of two arms, he created four, covered in large, sharp claws.
On his face, six pairs of pure white eyes appeared, along with a tail ending in spikes and spines protruding from his back.
His appearance was ripped straight from the worst nightmare.
Uriel gave a sinister smile that made the abominations hesitate to approach and attack. But eventually, they moved forward.
Uriel got into a four-limbed stance, exerted pressure, and shot off like lightning, tearing through the sea of abominations in an instant, shattering the tide of monsters.
'Let Armageddon begin!' Shade roared in Uriel's mind.
Uriel launched himself at the first abomination, delivering a claw swipe that destroyed it. Without stopping, he used his tail like a whip, cutting down three others in less than a second.
Two abominations jumped onto his back, but the spines on his back extended, piercing them.
The darkness beneath him spread, creating an enormous field of three-meter-high spikes that killed even more monsters.
Uriel stopped for an instant, letting an avalanche of abominations leap onto him. An instant later, a black wave exploded outward, dragging hundreds of abominations with it before stopping and receding. The sound of the Nightmare Creatures' screams, along with bodies crushing flesh and bones, filled the entire battlefield.
The darkness dissipated, revealing a paste of Nightmare Creatures.
Uriel kept moving at lightning speed. His body was just a black blur; where he passed, abominations died one after another at such speed that those who didn't die instantly perished within seconds.
Uriel continued massacring the abominations that appeared before him. He could feel how the endless wave of abominations had been considerably reduced to a much more manageable number.
Although Uriel hadn't counted the abominations he killed, he estimated that he had killed several thousand creatures throughout the massacre he was carrying out.
Feeling that his manifestation was in poor condition, he decided to dismiss it. Summoning White Flower in his hand, he lunged forward, decapitating an abomination in a single strike, then cut another, kicked another, dodged an attack, and cut again.
Cut, cut, dodge, cut, strike.
Everything became monotonous. At no point did the enormous, battle-crazed smile leave Uriel's face.
Although despite the euphoria, his mind was calm, examining his surroundings with critical eyes.
Moving away just in time, he saw a burst of flames that carbonized a hundred abominations from Gunlaug, who let out a roar while fighting a Corrupted abomination in the sky.
[Hey, Father, we have a problem of a… let's say, mountainous size.]
'What do you mean, Soul?' Uriel asked, cutting down another abomination while the darkness around him generated spikes that embedded themselves in a Fallen abomination.
[Well. A Fallen Titan is approaching from the ocean, and not only that. There are several Corrupted emerging right now with even more abominations.]
Uriel clicked his tongue mentally.
'How long until the Titan arrives?'
'About five minutes, maybe four… wait, oh, there's another problem.'
One of his eyebrows twitched.
[Apparently, a Corrupted Terror is also arriving via the ocean. For now, I'm holding back its mental influence and using the abominations to defend the wounded.]
'Great,' Uriel thought.
'I'll send Gunlaug to deal with the Fallen Terror. Protect him from mental attacks.'
[And what about the Titan?]
'I'll deal with it. But first, I'll take care of the new Corrupted,' he replied as he created two wings of darkness, rising into the sky for a better view.
He quickly found several Corrupted abominations.
Without hesitation, Uriel descended in front of the abominations, creating an enormous dome of darkness that enclosed them to prevent their escape.