"So this is Verge," Uriel murmured as he stood atop an enormous corpse belonging to a great beast he had recently killed. Beneath him, hidden by water contaminated with corruption, lay several thousand Nightmare Creatures—all obedient and still, some fighting against the abominations, carving a path for Daeron and Cronos to pass.
Uriel sighed.
He knew the journey would be difficult and harrowing, but it was far worse than he had imagined. At first, the trip was calm; however, everything changed midway when a swarm of abominations pursued them relentlessly. That wouldn't have been a problem to eliminate, except for one small detail.
The numbers.
There were hundreds of thousands of abominations, all at least Corrupted rank, all heading toward them, devouring everything in their path like hungry locusts.
Even Daeron, who was a Supreme, found it troublesome to deal with an army of hundreds of thousands—it would take too much time and would only attract the attention of the horrors from the depths.
So they fled at full speed.
But that was only the beginning. They crossed impossible distances where time twisted and turned, fighting great abominations—among them a great Terror that pursued them for days until they managed to kill it. To add more to their plate, they were attacked by a Cursed-rank beast that Daeron had to kill while he and Cronos faced great beasts, keeping thousands of Corrupted at bay.
It was undoubtedly a harrowing hell that no normal Saint could survive. But they were not normal.
Cronos possessed experience in large-scale combat, and his Aspect over time made him a devastating enemy. Daeron was a Supreme with thousands of years of experience in wielding his will.
As for Uriel himself, he had multiple dark creatures of Supreme rank. His will, though not as strong as a Supreme's, was powerful. His current rank in terms of power would be somewhere between a mere Transcendent and a Supreme being.
Combined with his Supreme-rank armor of the seventh tier and his Aspect, he was the most lethal of them all.
But even with all of this, it wasn't enough—they could only flee to distance themselves and reach their destination: the heart of the impious titan used to create the black pyramid.
Uriel sighed.
"I wonder how my Nightmare self is doing... I suppose he's fine."
After murmuring that, he summoned the Winter Beast, which had completed its evolution.
The titan, now Supreme, descended like an implacable judge. Its will spread like a wildfire, freezing hundreds of abominations with each passing second.
The Spell's voice whispered constantly in his head, reporting each death and new memories, which he paid no attention to.
After clearing a massive section, he dismissed his dark creature. Immediately, he transformed into a massive sea serpent about a hundred meters long, moving at a monstrous speed, cutting the distance between him and his traveling companions.
As he followed the trail of destruction left by the Supreme and the Transcendent, Uriel caught up with them at the farthest point from the corrupt swarm, downstream.
After several hours of traveling at breakneck speeds, Uriel slowed down until he finally emerged from the water. Using his will, he commanded the water to support his weight, and it did.
Uriel walked on the water, watching Daeron and Cronos waiting for him.
"I managed to buy us some time. It should be enough to give us at least a few hours' lead."
Daeron nodded upon hearing that.
"Agreed. From this point on, we'll enter a space more dangerous than crossing Verge. At this point, time will cease to exist, and the closer we get to the Estuary, the more perilous it will become."
"How long do you think we'll be out there?" asked Shade, who was small in size and sat on Uriel's shoulder.
"I don't know," said Daeron. "It could be moments, or even years."
"I don't think I have that much time," Uriel murmured.
"Do not worry, Master," said Cronos. "Time in this place is different from the outside—to the point that outside the world from which we came, time would appear frozen."
"So time here moves faster?"
"Exactly."
"That's good to know, at least," Uriel said with a sigh.
"Let's move," said Daeron.
Cronos and Uriel nodded.
Uriel transformed into a figure shrouded in darkness. Cronos opted for his Transcendent form—ethereal, twisted time. And Daeron took the form of a titanic sea serpent.
The three ventured once more into the river, plunging into its dangerous waters.
---
If Uriel had considered the journey to Verge infernal, the journey to the Estuary was like descending into the very depths of the most twisted and imagined hell.
He had witnessed indescribable horrors. He had seen enormous sections of the Great River vanish from one moment to the next.
Massive structures hidden by the deepest darkness watched him with thousands of gleaming eyes.
He had witnessed the battle between two impious creatures whose clash shattered time and space around them, creating enormous, massive waves they had to avoid.
They saw fragments of the Doom War—how a God descended upon an enormous, inconceivable army, cursing them with a terrible malediction.
He saw the vague figure of the Demon of Destiny, enveloped in a tearing fury with a killing intent so concentrated it made him pale.
This and much more was what he had to avoid—or escape from.
---
The further they advanced toward the most distant past, the worse everything became.
It wasn't until they had to fight to move forward that Uriel had to unleash his entire arsenal and use every ounce of his strength and will to survive.
Daeron was the one guiding them forward, fighting against the most powerful abominations that were drawn to their souls.
At some point, Uriel had to drag a Great Terror into his Sea of Souls so that the thing inside his soul could kill it. And then another, and then another—he repeated this several times throughout the endless journey.
At the end of each day, they barely survived the wounds to their bodies and souls.
Finally, after what seemed like an endless eternity, they saw it: small wisps of white mist.
"We're close," declared Daeron, his voice somewhat tense.
Even for a Supreme, reaching this area alone was complicated—and even more so while carrying two Transcendents.
Uriel wondered: if by this time there were terrifying horrors, how terrifying would it have been thousands of years earlier, when the First Seeker sailed to the Estuary? Was there no corruption? Were there no Nightmare Creatures? Or did her Aspect make the journey easier?
As always, he had no answers to those questions.
The three ventured into the mist. Uriel and Cronos stopped using their Transcendent transformations, climbing onto Daeron's head, who used his lineage from the Storm God to guide them toward the Estuary.
They traveled in silence for a while, changing direction occasionally, until finally they saw it.
Two enormous pillars of black rock, like a gateway.
Passing the pillars, the water grew more turbulent for a time, until Daeron finally stopped.
"We've arrived," said the Supreme.
Uriel looked up, seeing only darkness. Squinting, he saw it.
An enormous heart of black stone—as large as a mountain, or even bigger.
Finally, they had reached the heart of Ariel's great tomb—the place that only the Seekers had attempted to reach, and only one had succeeded.
The Estuary.
So... this is the Estuary.
According to his memories, the Estuary was located in a place that existed before time, and therefore before the birth of the gods. So this place should be the Void.
Uriel contemplated the void, feeling a strange sense of familiarity and peace—as if, after a long time, he had returned home.
It must be because I am a creature of the Void, or because of my Prince of the Void attribute, he reflected inwardly.
He felt his wounds, surrounded by darkness, begin to heal rapidly, and his essence began to return at great speed.
The three leaped into the void, landing on the black rocky surface, beginning their ascent into the interior of the Estuary to break the time of the Great River.
They climbed a vast, silent, and empty path. Uriel looked around curiously—there was no trace of the Chain Breaker.
Which was obvious, since they were in the true tomb of Ariel, not a recreation made by the Spell.
"What are you thinking about?" asked Daeron.
"Something strange. My companions are going through their Third Nightmare, and it's in this very tomb. I was just thinking about how curious life is—they are in a trial made by the Spell, and I am in the real version."
"It seems you have faith that your friends will overcome that Nightmare."
"Oh, they will. That I can bet on."
Daeron said nothing, as they had arrived at the entrance.
Before them stretched the entrance to a vast circular tunnel, surrounded by tall columns. Stone steps led to the mouth of the tunnel, clearly made by human hands—or rather, by the hands of a demon.
"Well, this is as far as we go," said Cronos. "The rest depends on you, Master."
"You mean the truth that Ariel buried?"
"Exactly. Only someone immune to corruption can pass through the tunnel. If we try, we will be corrupted by the truth."
Cronos summoned two collars made of ancient bone.
"These are special collars I made. They allow living beings to be stored inside them. Inside, time does not pass for us—it's as if we were only there for a second. Once you pass the tunnel, take us out of the collars."
Uriel took the collars and nodded, activating the enchantment. He watched as the figures of Cronos and Daeron disappeared, leaving behind the two collars, which he took and stored in his Sea of Souls. This gave him an idea to solve one of his problems once the impious one entered Ariel's tomb.
Sighing, Uriel took his first step into the tunnel, and then another. Thanks to his affinity for pure darkness, he could clearly see the tunnel descending even deeper.
Uriel advanced unhurriedly—after all, he had all the time in the world to explore the Estuary. And since time was almost frozen in the outside world of the tower, he could stay for a long time and barely a few days or weeks would pass at most.
He remembered that the original cohort, after returning from Ariel's tomb, had the great titan that emerged in Antarctica being repelled by the leader of the Valor clan. If he calculated things like distance and time, his time outside the waking world was about a few days, at most a week—or maybe they emerged the very instant they entered; he had no way of knowing for sure.
Shaking off his thoughts, he looked at the vast, enormous tunnel created by the Demon of Terror.
Stopping, he felt a crushing sensation in his chest. He observed the entrance to a cracked tunnel, as if inviting him to enter.
Inside that tunnel lay the truth that Ariel had written and preferred to forget rather than carry its burden.
"Shade," Uriel called, awakening the lazy bastard that was his other self.
"What, are we going to fight a Cursed Terror?"
"I don't think so. I'm just waking you up because I'm about to enter that tunnel. If I go mad... well, I trust you'll bring me back to my senses."
"Leave that to me. Oh, and be careful—if the knowledge is too much, I'll ask Soul to seal it."
"Agreed." With that said, Uriel placed one foot inside the tunnel.
Venturing further, he curiously looked at the first rune carved there, which meant Void—and with that, his world went dark.
---
Uriel blinked in confusion, feeling a terrible headache and pain all over his body.
"Shit, you're finally back! You know, I almost feared you'd really get lost in all that," said Shade, his voice sounding tired and relieved.
"W-what the hell happened?"
"You went crazy, that's what happened."
Uriel frowned. He only remembered putting one foot inside the tunnel, and then simply coming out of some kind of trance. A huge chunk of his memory had been completely ripped away.
"Tell me what happened. And where am I?"
"Hey, take it easy, old man," said Shade.
"You were right to worry. The runes carved in that cave were too much for a Transcendent's mind..." Shade's voice sounded exhausted.
"You read the truth that Ariel left about the Void, and it broke your mind, driving you into a terrible madness. Seriously, you were really crazy. Anyway, I had to stop you. We fought for a while—I managed to contain you and asked Soul to block those memories, as well as mine. After that, I dragged us away from that place to the lake and waited for you to regain consciousness. I think it took about... two or three months."
"That long?"
"Yeah. You were like a vegetable."
"I see. Well, thank you for that."
"It's fine. Well, if you'll excuse me, I need to sleep. I'm dead tired," said Shade.
Uriel felt Shade's presence in his mind grow faint until it almost disappeared—a sign that he was asleep.
He stood up. Apparently, the containment of his memories had completely healed his wounds, leaving him intact.
After getting to his feet, he looked around, finding only a vast sea or an enormous river before him.