Kaelen looked through the gates and saw the castle and the yard inside of its confines.
The castle was tall and very wide it was made of the same glowing material, but that was not a surprise to him anymore—everything in this place was made of the same material.
It was so odd looking around this place, everything had different structures, but they all had the same color and shine—the trees that lacked leaves, the statues lying here and there, hell, even the fountain was spewing the golden liquid.
The light had been assaulting his eyes for days now and while it was manageable at the church because he could actually close his eyes to rest in safety.
But what about here?
There was no way in hell he was going to sleep unless everything in there was killed—every sense in his body was telling him that danger was in the castle, and to add insult to injury, he couldn't even make use of all his weapons.
Without the safety of the roof of the church and the platform to lay on, the bow was completely useless until he finds a similar situation
'Having one less limb really is annoying as hell...' - Just as that thought formed in his brain, a question followed that made him shiver
Would his hand come back after the nightmare?
He was unsure
Sunny had been beaten and left right next to death's door—but once his blood spilled onto the altar and caused Shadow God to bless him, the nightmare was over. - After that, he was no longer in the body of the temple slave and so he was no longer riddled with wounds and hanging by an inch of his life
But Kaelen's circumstances were vastly different from Sunny's—Kaelen was not transported into the body of some being that died eons ago. He was in his own body—his own body that was mutating after each trial ended and he had become something that could no longer be considered human
Letting out a deep sigh Kaelen pushed open the castle doors
They shone with the same bright light just like everything, but they creaked and groaned like the sound of nails on a chalkboard. What made him stay on guard even more was the fact that when he stepped in, the doors slammed shut.
'Well... i expected that.'
His gaze swept over the castle interior—unlike the outside that seemed to be painted with a glowing yellow paint, the interior had glass structures that reflected the bright lights everywhere. Every nook and cranny of the castle was reflecting the blinding yellow radiance, shifting into something more like a washed-out void of light and gold
"Great," Kaelen muttered, his voice echoing flatly against the glass surroundings. "A palace made of flashbangs. I'm going to be the first aspirant to go blind before I even see the guardian."
Even Cassia only went blind after her nightmare!
It was unfortunate that he didn't have long to complain, though—seemingly attracted by the sounds of the opening doors, the first nightmare creature had appeared.
Even though the lights were blinding and his pupils were narrowed to an insane degree Kaelen was able to make out the appearances of the creatures before him
While the Shining Subjects still maintained a somewhat humanoid form while still having glass-like properties to their skin, these creatures seemed to be made entirely of glass just filled with the bright blood inside that 'body'
Kaelen wsa conflicted
On one hand this made them easier to deal with since flesh was a bit harder to barrel through than glass, but they were also more lethal if he was not careful.
Especially since their limbs were longer, reminding him somewhat of the ash stalkers—the only thing that lessened their horrifying appearance was that they were the same height as him—roughly 6 foot 1 inch
But honestly he would have prepared to deal with another larger monster after the next second
These handful of nightmare creatures didnt scream and grunt like the subjects—they hummed a soft tune that seemed to reverberate through their bodies, making his own skin crawl
It was disturbing—seeing something so human not be one
Letting out a sigh, he willed and allowed the helmet of the Swift Sea to attach itself.
With the armor on, even these guys were not going to be a difficult obstacle—the issue was time
He was on the 5th day right now, meaning that by tomorrow noon he should already know where the Tyrant is
He smiled as the beast started to run in odd motions, its elongated arms swinging behind it along with its speed before it halted and swung the hand at his head
Raising his right arm in defense, the glass arm simply hit it and cracked
Sunny had said it himself—with awakened armor, he would not need to worry about dormants.
That was assuming he was not dealing with more than 50 at a time and wasnt burried in a torrent of nightmare creatures
He immediately used his left dagger hand to stab it into the creature's head, the blood started to leak out through the wound and the creature started to jerk
Kaelen brought his hand down in a slash splitting the creature and ending it for good
[You have slain a dormant monster: Shining Servent.]
'Huh? these ones are servants but are a higher rank than the Subjects?'
Well, it made sense in a way...?
Being a servant in a palace meant that you existed directly in the presence of your lord—they would need to have a level of strength and usefulness compared to the subjects who would simply need to live their lives.
...
The next twenty-four hours flowed exactly as it did here—a violent, rhythmic trance of killing and harvesting.
Kaelen made his way up each floor going higher and higher each time he cleared one of them—each floor had roughly 13 to 15 Shining Servants, and also, each floor had at minimum one of the dormant demons. - Shining Stewards
From what Kaelen was able to understand, the servants were formal staff and that there were the dormant demons—Shining Stewards—were basically butlers
They were similar in structure to the servants, but they were made of thicker glass and were a lot taller so dealing with them took a little more effort than he hoped it would
Kaelen felt his mind had become so free now that he was not taking count of the shards—all he was doing was grabbing them and stuffing them into the satchel and moving to kill the next—that was the only thing on his mind now
Kill
Not a single movement was wasted; every time a monster was in sight, the Claw of Flame was launched with devastating force. That was something Kaelen had learnt his body could do—by taking in large amount of air through his nose or mouth, it would travel the literal air pathways in his body and fuel the flames that were now his organs. In doing so, more water became pressurised and thus gave strength to his body
It took about 3 seconds to use this charged attack but doing so when one of the monsters or demons were a decent distance away, he could eliminate them with essentially no effort
He had eventually reached a floor in which he could see outside
Of course he had no wish to look out there and see more of the light—it was already irritating him. Everywhere that Kaelen looked, he saw that annoying light—it felt like he was thrown into a sensory deprivation room
...
Almost 12 hours into the 6th day, Kaelen's breath was coming out in heaves—'How many more floors till i reach the top?'
It was clear there was some sort of spatial distortion with the palace's structure; it was much larger on the interior than it appeared to be from the outside.
he was on the 16th floor right now and there was still more coming after him
"You guys really... need a hobby," Kaelen growled. He kicked a shining steward through the open window.
[You have slain a dormant demon: Shining Steward.]
Suddenly a realization dawned—'Fuck, that was three shards...'
Kaelen started to feel his mind changing, but he couldn't do anything to change it—in fact, he was not sure he wanted to reel his mind back in. He had killed more than 200 servants and somewhere around 15 stewards in the past 12 hours and this was not from a range
Did it matter if he went a little insane if he could kill the Tyrant and move to the Terror?
Kaelen looked at the stump of his hand again and gritted his teeth
'Let's just end this shit and get my body back.'
...
He was 18 hours into the 6th day now
Kaelen had reached the 19th floor of the palace and had already dealt with several nightmare creatures since the 17th level
But it was a terribly small amount compared to the rest
On the seventeenth floor he faced against the same number of servents and stewards as the other 16 floors but there was something that he noticed
Corpses
There were corpses of dead servents and stewards there and after he reached the 18th floor there was none at all
rather the decrease in quantity was replaced by an increase in quality
That was to say that there were no Servents or Stewards - Just Sentrys, Dormant Devils
Kaelen had been attacked by about 9 Shining Sentrys through the 18th and 19th floors; he was also glad that he found many more corpses lying on the ground here and there that had shards in them.
He had done a few rounds on the nineteenth floor to make sure he had taken care of everything
He came across a single Sentry remaining at the single place he had not checked yet
"Running low on interns?" Kaelen giggled, his voice sounding unnervingly loud in the stillness. "Dont worry though... I plan to leave this palace in a bit so i have no need for you all."
He chuckled to himself
Dodging the ray of light aimed at him, Kaelen rushed at the sentry. The next beam of light was shot but Kaelen jumped over it, locking his legs around the creature's skull—just as it was about to fire another face beam. Kaelen sucked in a breath and flexed his legs
Smash
The sentry's head popped and it died
He fell down with the corpse and lay on the ground for a few seconds with a smile on his face—he was standing in front of a door
It was very large and very well designed and very shiny
Standing up, Kaelen dug his dagger hand into the corpse of the dead centurion, the awakened blade cracking and lodging into the creature's body—he lifted it up with ease and raised it up before bringing it down.
4 nice shards were on the floor for him
Taking them and sitting down, Kaelen sat on the ground in a lotus position—he pulled out some of the bird meat since all the fish meat had been eaten. Cooking it on his dagger hands' flame, he bit into it and swallowed
Right now he had 6 hours before it was the morning of the seventh day—he had been fighting non-stop for now, and he could tell that his mind was more fragmented than when he had begun the light trial.
A bit of rest may help calm it down and so - he slept
He slept before he was going to enter the throne room to fight the awakened Tyrant and its minions
Unfortunately for Kaelen, this would be his most difficult fight yet.