Sunny, driven mad by rage, tried to move his broken and battered body, his mind clouded by fury and pain. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get to his feet.
A dark, savage anger consumed his entire aching being.
No, no, no!
Where was the great black bastard? Where had his prey gone? Who had dared to interrupt his battle?
If only he had had more time, if only no one had interfered in his fight... Sunny would have been able to kill the Corrupted Terror with his own hands.
But that was impossible. The crushing weight of the Terror's presence that had covered all of Twilight had completely vanished—a sign of its death—and now he needed a new target.
Kill them, kill them... kill them all... leave nothing and no one behind...
Sunny could make out several figures among the shadows. A disgusting fly that had been getting in his way. A nuisance that only knew how to interfere.
But the one he hated most was a pale young man clad in a nebulous black cloak, who looked at him mockingly with a smile full of disdain.
"Look at yourself, fool. Mad as a goat. How pathetic... how familiar... how repulsive..."
An abomination staggered toward him—a deranged look in its rotting eyes, crystal claws sprouting from a stump, twisted fangs jutting from its bloodied maw.
He smiled.
Good, good...
For the moment, he couldn't stand, so the creature offered itself generously. Sunny was going to enjoy tearing it apart.
But before he could, a slender estoc pierced the abomination's chest, and a radiant hand grasped its head. The creature blazed with incandescent light, being incinerated from within, then shattered like a broken mirror.
No, no!
Another... they had stolen another from him! Thieves, traitors!
He had to kill them, tear them apart, break them, mutilate them, and consume them!
As Sunny snarled and tried to rise, someone approached him and stopped a step away. Lifting his gaze, he saw a dazzling young woman watching him in silence from above, her face expressionless yet concealing a sea of emotions within. Her silver hair swayed slightly in the wind, and radiant sparks danced in her cold eyes.
"I'll... kill you..." he growled, with undisguised rage and hatred.
The young woman looked at him for a few moments, then knelt, placing a hand on his head and stroking his hair.
After a few seconds of this, the young woman said something that filled Sunny with even greater rage and hatred upon hearing it.
"Sunless. Relinquish your crown."
Those simple words were enough for an even more intense rage to invade his mind and soul—a rage so blind that, if his body were not already broken, he would have used it to tear apart the woman before him.
Yet he could do nothing. His body and being ceased to obey him the moment he heard that command.
She... she commanded me.
The Crown of Twilight dissolved into a whirlwind of sparks, and with it, the fury also disappeared.
Leaving behind only horror, confusion, and also pain.
The pain he had ignored during his fury struck him completely, making him tremble and let out a tormented groan.
But before he could feel more of the unbearable pain, the hand still resting on his head glowed with a soft, warm radiance that carried the pain away.
White flames spread across his body, healing his wounds and his shattered soul.
Several seconds passed until confusion and relief washed over him.
As he pondered what had happened after using the enchantment of the Crown of Twilight, he watched several figures approach.
The first was a handsome young man with reddish hair and green eyes. Beside him stood a woman with hair as golden as the sun, her eyes hidden behind a blue blindfold. In the handsome young man's arms was a large bundle wrapped in beautiful black cloth.
From a puddle of water that reflected the sky of eternal twilight, Mordret emerged, in poor condition.
From an amulet Cassie held, both Effie and Jet emerged. Immediately, a black crow flew to Jet's side.
All of Twilight—or what remained of the ancient city—was silent. The Terror was dead, the Soul Thief was dead, and above all, the Abyss Gazer was dead.
The group returned to the Chain Breaker, moving away from Twilight, which was beginning to be dragged into the depths of the great river. It washed away everything that had once been the challengers and inhabitants of the river brought by Daeron.
On the ship's bow, Sunny, Nephis, Kai, Effie, Jet, Mordret, and Cassie were gathered. On the wooden deck lay the corpse of a young man whose face was peaceful—his eyes closed, his hair hanging freely like seaweed, his skin turned gray and cold.
This was the corpse of Uriel.
"Little..." murmured Effie in a low voice. She had met Uriel during the Forgotten Shore, when he recruited her for his crazy plans. At first, she thought he was a mad, arrogant fool, but her opinion quickly changed after spending time with him.
Seeing his corpse now reminded her of her original group, killed by the Lord of the Dead—those she couldn't protect. And now she had lost someone important again.
Kai looked at the lifeless body of his friend, who had pulled him out of that pit that day and changed his life, giving him hope of returning to the waking world. His Flaw, which could tell when someone lied, had never activated with him because he always told the truth—even when he accomplished impossible things that made anyone doubt his sanity, Kai knew they were true.
Nephis looked at the young man wrapped in funeral cloths. She remembered their first meeting at the academy and the fight they had, as well as their training and the bet they made.
She recalled how, at first, she used him to improve her skills and gain information about the Dream Realm and the Sovereigns in order to kill them. However, as she interacted with him more and more, she discovered that Uriel had taken a permanent place within her heart.
Sunny looked at the corpse; he was one of the most affected by it. He had known Uriel since his first day as a Sleeper at the police station—how he saw him as a nuisance, a madman, someone extremely annoying and irritating... but also as an unconditional friend who never hesitated to stand up for everyone and selflessly help anyone he could. Even at the end, at the Crimson Spire, he chose to stay behind, alone, just so everyone else could live.
Damn idiot, Sunny thought, clenching his fists, feeling his nails cut wounds into his palms.
Jet looked at the young man before her. She had seen many Sleepers and Awakened die without being truly affected, but looking at that young man, she felt her heart grow heavy. Uriel was a beacon of light. He had accomplished feats that immortalized him in history, changed the fate of an entire continent, and ensured that millions could live and return to their families.
Jet would make sure that when she returned to the government, that young man would be considered one of the greatest heroes to ever exist.
Mordret, who stood apart, shook his head. He didn't like the heavy atmosphere of the place, nor did he really care about the corpse.
He simply thought: What a pity I couldn't steal the body. That was the only thing on his mind and what he regretted.
Finally, the one in the worst state of all was Cassie, whose emotions were so strong that her brain simply entered an emergency lockdown, preventing her collapse in that moment.
All her memories of Uriel and their time together were pushed to the back of her mind. She couldn't break down now, not in front of everyone. So she decided to simply ignore the pain she felt, using her Aspect to keep those memories from surfacing.
"We should burn him," Cassie finally said, her voice cold and calm, as if she were talking about the weather.
Everyone looked at her in shock.
Effie shook her head in disbelief.
"No," she said. "We should bury him. That's what he would have wanted."
"How do you know?" Cassie asked. "It's just a corpse now. It won't care."
"Cassie, we're being serious," said Sunny.
"We can't burn his body."
"Sunny's right," said Jet.
"Let's leave him in the waking world. At least there, he can find peace."
"That's pointless," said Cassie.
"That thing," she said, pointing at the corpse, "is just a dead Nightmare Creature that must be burned. Are you willing to risk a Nightmare Creature rising from his corpse or his dark essence?" she asked.
Sunny grew angry.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Cassie? Why are you so cold? Did you care so little?"
Cassie looked at Sunny—even through her blindfold, she rolled her eyes.
"Whether I care or not is my problem, not yours, Sunless. Do whatever you want with the corpse. I'll go to the helm to return to Fallen Grace." With those words, Cassie silently walked away.
"What's wrong with her?" Effie asked, bewildered by Cassie's behavior. In fact, everyone was equally confused—especially Sunny and Nephis, who knew of Cassie's strong feelings toward the black-haired man.
"Perhaps..." Nephis murmured.
"Perhaps what?" Kai asked.
"It's her way of avoiding the pain," said Nephis. "Maybe it affected her so much that she refuses to accept it, building a wall to keep from collapsing. It's best to give her some time alone."
"So what do we do with Uriel's body?" Sunny asked.
"Burn it. Cassie has a point. We don't know how bringing him to the waking world might affect him, since he was Corrupted. Although the Corruption leaves with death, we don't know what could happen."
Everyone looked at the corpse one last time before nodding.
"Agreed," said Sunny, looking at Nephis.
Sunny used some essence to create an altar of shadows that lifted the body a meter above the wooden deck. Nephis approached and used her white flames, which began to spread across the entire body, slowly turning it to ashes carried away by the wind.
After the body was reduced to nothing but ashes that scattered with the wind, everyone went to different places to deal with their own thoughts and emotions.